Terre Cooper, EDC director, reached out to multiple businesses to socialize the idea with them, but not to everyone; it’s worth repeating that we need a list of all businesses and contact info to do broad communication to the business community. We heard from business owners at the Nov. 30 public hearing that we should have done more outreach, and we agree. We learned from this process that robust communication prior to a new ordinance hearing is in everyone’s best interest.
County counsel worked with Terre Cooper, at our direction, to come up with the draft ordinance, which was a boilerplate business license ordinance borrowed from the League of Oregon Cities. The ordinance was cumbersome, full of off-putting legal language and in some ways unenforceable. We discussed it in at least two public meetings, shared our concerns, and edits were made. In retrospect, we should have…
