Ballot Measure 15-189 - My thoughts on Ashland's form of government

Several people have asked for my opinion regarding ballot measure 15-189, so I’m writing this post to share my thoughts.

In short, the arrival of COVID-19 has changed so much in our community, and that includes our capacity to have this important discussion this year. I encourage Ashland voters to vote no on this very important question so that it can be taken up in the future when we have the capacity to have the discussion an important decision like this deserves.

Some additional thoughts:

The form of government in a community influences two issues: How the municipality is managed and the degree to which citizens can translate their voice into changes in local government. In Ashland, we have an engaged, passionate citizenry and people who care passionately about our community, so this decision about our form of government – how our democracy actually works at the local level – is a very important one.

I could argue both sides of this issue for different reasons because there are tradeoffs on both sides. No matter the form of government, voters need to take the task of selecting a mayor seriously so an individual with high integrity continues to serve in that position. Choosing one form of government over another doesn’t relieve voters of the task of choosing well at the polls.

But right now, Ashland has bigger things to figure out and we should not embark on shifting its form of government during a declared emergency. If our community decides to make this change, it should do so at some time in the future after we have had the opportunity for  a robust public conversation and we understand the tradeoffs we will be making in moving to a different form of government.

Charter changes are important with long-term ramifications, so they must be carefully considered. In this case, this decision is not time sensitive. We can take this up again in November or next May. After all of these years with our current form, a bit more time isn’t a problem. But making a decision this big without adequate community discussion is likely to be a big problem.  

When we make this decision, it should be because we are clear as a community about the tradeoffs between these two forms of government and are comfortable with what we are prioritizing in the decision. Given how many people have reached out to me in confusion over what this measure would do, we just aren’t ready to make this decision.

I voted to bring this forward to the voters so that we could have an in-depth community conversation about our democratic system and how we run our City – not because I was convinced that changing our form of government was the right choice. I’m still not convinced. .

However, when the decision was made to place this before the community, we did not anticipate a pandemic disabling opportunities for public forums and discussion. Let’s delay this decision until we can study this issue from both sides more thoroughly after our current emergency has passed.

If you have questions, feel free to send them to me at my Council address: tonya@council.ashland.or.us