April 20, 2023
City Club of Central Oregon hosted its Annual Regional City Managers Forum at Tetherow Resort on Thursday, April 20th. Tammy Baney, Executive Director of the Central Oregon Intergovernmental Council, hosted the Forum which included: Eric King, City Manager-Bend; Geoff Wullschlager, City Manager-La Pine; Steve Forrester, City Manager-Prineville; Keith Witcosky, City Manager-Redmond; Joe O’Neil, Interim City Manager-Sisters; and Christy Wurster, Interim City Manager-Madras.
City Managers are responsible for taking policy direction and implementing daily operations for their respective areas, with some variation depending on how the role is defined by each city’s charter. With a bit of banter and a great deal of respect, these six City Managers addressed some of the most pressing issues for Central Oregonians, including: housing, water and energy supply, transportation, and homelessness. Building consensus to tackle these multifaceted issues is a crucial function of the role.
Members of the panel weighed in on how they are working to balance urban sprawl versus density while tackling the need for more housing in Oregon’s fastest growing region. Across Central Oregon, city staff are working to alleviate red tape and invest in infrastructure for continued growth.
The City of La Pine has invested millions towards municipal water and wastewater improvements and has 300 acres of shovel-ready residential land. Christy Wurster highlighted Madras’ expedited permitting which allows subdivisions with under 50 lots to be approved by city staff without review by a planning commission. Sisters and Prineville have each added a variety of multi-family and single-family housing. Bend has 3,600 housing units on track to be built over the next 2 years and Keith Witcosky talked about The City of Redmond’s 450-unit Northpoint Vista housing project.
Steve Forrester spoke about his role in leading infrastructure investment in Prineville. “Our county had about 22% unemployment around the recession. We had lost about 1,500 residents and took a step back during that time and focused on what we needed to do to promote growth and that meant investing in infrastructure. We take a very proactive approach to building out the basic infrastructure needs ahead of time.” The investment has paid off, as evidenced by Crook County’s wage growth and being the fastest county in the state to recover post-Pandemic.
Increasing the supply of housing was discussed in tandem with solutions to protect public safety and social services across the region. Tammy Banay pointed to the newly released Point in Time Count data that shows more than 1,600 people are homeless in the region on a given night, up from 1,286 in 2022 – a 24.4% increase year-over-year.
Eric King emphasized the need for collaboration between cities and counties. He said, “All the cities are working together to try to solve these problems and all options are on the table.”
Ending the event with a sign of optimism, Keith Witcosky offered hope for a returned flight to Portland towards the end of 2023 and alluded to an announcement of a new flight destination from the Redmond Airport, which may be as early as next week.
Eric King emphasized the need for collaboration between cities and counties. He said, “All the cities are working together to try to solve these problems and all options are on the table.”
Ending the event with a sign of optimism, Keith Witcosky offered hope for a returned flight to Portland towards the end of 2023 and alluded to an announcement of a new flight destination from the Redmond Airport, which may be as early as next week.
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