GRANTS PASS, Ore. —Leaders in the city of Grants Pass are clashing over the city’s priorities in their strategic plan. Last week, the mayor exercised her veto powers. Essentially throwing out the council’s decision just moments earlier.
The source of the tension now the city should prioritize taking care of the homeless. The council was supposed to adopt a list of priorities for the city last week. But they couldn’t come to a clear resolution on homelessness.
The Grants Pass City Council discussed its strategic plan last week. The plan helps shape the council’s priorities for 2023 and plays a role in how the budget is managed. But one area they couldn’t seem to agree on was homelessness.
“This community really needs to do something to address the homeless issue, we have homeless people overtaking our parks its been getting worse the past two years,” said Grants Pass Mayor Sara Bristol.
Bristol says she’s typically involved in helping craft the city’s strategic plan. But she says the council went against her when it voted 5 to 3 to remove several items related to homelessness.
“The reason for eliminating my input from the strategic plan I believe is related to the city council not liking the items that I voted on,” said Bristol.
City Council President Valerie Lovelace doesn’t seem to dispute that.
“In this case, if you take a look at the charts you see that three counselors and the mayor voted to put something on the agenda that five counselors don’t agree with,” said Lovelace.
Councilor Lovelace says the majority of the council prefers other items to homelessness.
“Some of us felt, the goal most of us supported was to bolster mental health,” said Lovelace.
She says just because homelessness isn’t on the majority of the council’s plan doesn’t mean it won’t be addressed.
“I can guarantee that continuing to help the homeless is on our strategic plan whether it’s printed or not it’s there,” said Lovelace.
But that’s not enough for Mayor Bristol. She vetoed the majority decision sending the group back to the drawing board to find a resolution.
The strategic plan will come up again at the next council meeting on March 1st. The council can override the mayor’s veto but it will take at least six of the eight councilors to do so.
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