Doughnuts and coffee at a city employee’s retirement party, a slice of pizza during an open house event and meals provided during work sessions can now be legally enjoyed by members of the Philomath City Council.
Well, most of them anyway — three councilors still need to avoid the snack tray for now.
The action was in response to the Oregon Government Ethics Commission’s recent advisory opinion that public entities, such as a city council, cannot provide food or beverages to elected officials unless included as part of the individual’s official compensation package.
Addressing the unusual situation with some levity, Mayor Christopher McMorran opened the council’s discussion of the issue on Aug. 25 with the comment, “As you all will recall, it’s illegal to have a slice of pizza now.”
State law now prohibits officials, including not only those elected but also city staff, from accepting anything of value unless it’s part of an official compensation package.
“We are all not compensated right now, so we are not able to accept any sort of food or a name badge or a mug without it being listed in a compensation package,” McMorran explained before the voting.
Ashleigh Dougill, city attorney, encouraged the council to adopt policies that will take care of any possible violations.
The council had to complete a three-step process to approve the compensation packages. Since individual councilors were prohibited from voting on their own benefits, three separate motions were required so each councilor could vote on packages for the others.
Diane Crocker’s absence from the meeting complicated the process, since a quorum of four councilors was needed to vote on each policy. As such, packages for councilors Brent Kaseman, Teresa Nielson and Rich Saalsaa could not be approved at the meeting and those four must hold off for now on any food and beverage opportunities.
With the minimum four councilors present, the council approved compensation packages for Jessica Andrade, Spencer Irwin and Crocker. McMorran’s package was approved separately in a 5-0 vote. Packages for Kaseman, Nielson and Saalsaa were tabled until Crocker can attend a future meeting.
McMorran clarified that the compensation package only applies to food, beverages and other miscellaneous items, such as cups or pens with the city logo on them.
“No one is going to Hawaii, no one’s getting a car, no one’s getting a stipend,” McMorran said. “It’s just everything that the councilors and the mayor have gotten for years and years.”
The city’s Finance and Administration Committee reviewed the draft policies at a meeting in July.
