TO: Mayor and City Council
FROM: Legislative Committee
SUBJECT:
title
Interim status briefing on Salem priorities from 2021 Legislative Session.
Ward(s): All Wards
Councilor(s): All Councilors
Neighborhood(s): All Neighborhoods
end
ISSUE:
The Legislative Committee update on Salem’s 2021 Legislative Session.
RECOMMENDATION:
recommendation
Information only.
body
SUMMARY AND BACKGROUND:
The Legislative Committee received an update on the 2021 Legislative Session at their June 11, 2021 meeting. Staff and the City’s lobby firm continue to watch priority bills for the City of Salem and track how the State of Oregon is allocating American Rescue Plan Act funding.
FACTS AND FINDINGS:
At the outset of the 2021 session, the City Council identified six priorities for funding support and legislative advocacy, including:
• Navigation Center. In late May, the City received a two-year operating grant from the Oregon legislature for a navigation center. A navigation center is a low-barrier shelter with intensive case management to connect people to public benefits, health services, and permanent housing through a Housing First philosophy. The navigation center can also reduce pressure on the existing warming network and provide expanded duration capacity throughout winter months. The navigation center also provides access to basic services such as toilets and potable water. The navigation center will include up to 50 shelter beds.
• Yaquina Hall (affordable housing). The City received financial support to cover a multi-year delay and required parking lot improvements to convert Yaquina Hall into a 51-unit apartment community for residents with serious mental illness, including a community room, conference room, laundry facility, storage lockers, and offices for support services.
• Community mental health impacts. Funding for local government to reduce hardships that lead to homelessness and chronic homelessness such as support for mental health impacts in our community.
o House Bill 2417 allows for local governments to establish a new mobile crisis response system to meet those in mental health crisis where they are. House Bill 2417 also allows local governments to establish a new (or support an existing) sobering center. The Budget Committee included a 25 percent match for a mobile crisis response, required by House Bill 2417, in the recommended budget for FY 22.
o Sobering Center. The City is pursuing funding for a sobering facility in Salem. The purpose of the facility is to provide a safe, clean, and supervised environment for acutely intoxicated individuals to become sober and eligible for further treatment and other services, 24 hours each day, seven days a week.
• Secure COVID-19 recovery resources. The City of Salem was able to secure CARES Act resources for local businesses and residents. Specifically, the City was trying to:
o Support the equitable distribution of recovery resources to ensure recovery of our community, its residents, and its businesses; and
o Oppose re-allocation of State funding, including state-shared revenues, that may further jeopardize existing municipal programs and services, hindering our recovery.
• Protect drinking water source with wildfire clean up. Ensure Salem’s drinking water source, the North Santiam River watershed, remains protected as our neighboring Canyon communities recover from wildfire devastation. Staff are engaged with the planning efforts for the North Santiam Sewer Authority, a new special district to support sewer construction for Mill City, Gates, Idanha, and Detroit.
Status of Priority Bills
Staff will prepare a complete report on all bills tracked through the 2021 Legislative Session for an upcoming City Council meeting. During the June 11, 2021, Legislative Committee meeting, staff reported on two specific areas of legislative action:
• Housing and Shelter
o House Bill 3115 <https://olis.oregonlegislature.gov/liz/2021R1/Measures/Overview/HB3115> provides that local law regulating sitting, lying, sleeping or keeping warm and dry outdoors on public property that is open to public must be objectively reasonable as to time, place and manner with regards to persons experiencing homelessness. The City has until 2023 to ensure existing ordinances comply.
o Senate Bill 458 <https://olis.oregonlegislature.gov/liz/2021R1/Measures/Overview/SB458> is a follow on to 2019’s House Bill 2001 and requires cities to approve land divisions for middle housing (like triplexes and cottage clusters) The Bill requires cities to approve these land divisions without the resulting lots meeting local lot size, frontage, vehicle access, and other standards; and the approvals must occur in a shortened time frame.
o Senate Bill 8 <https://olis.oregonlegislature.gov/liz/2021R1/Measures/Overview/SB8> requires local governments to allow development of certain affordable housing on lands not zoned for residential uses such as commercial zones, on publicly-owned properties, and property owned by religious organizations. The Bill also allows for increased densities and heights for affordable housing in zones where it is already allowed (e.g., residential and mixed-use zones).
• Law Enforcement Reform. In general, most of the bills pertaining to law enforcement reform are building in requirements for things the City is already doing or has plans to do. There is one new training component, regarding anatomy and physiology that is easily adapted into the existing CPR and First Aid training officers receive.
Next Steps
A full report on the 2021 Legislative Session will be presented to the City Council at an August meeting. Staff expect a special session will focus on redistricting. Staff will be working with the Legislative Committee to draft priorities for the upcoming 2022 short session and regular session in 2023.
Courtney Knox Busch
Strategic Initiatives Manager
Attachments: