Two meetings: College board should take comments

The first, before Hood River City Council, pertains to Walmart, a long-standing issue that appears finally to be coming to a decision point. It’s a hearing with very narrow scope, which is as it should be.

The second, with the Columbia Gorge Community Gorge College board, is a special meeting on the new question of how to fix the college’s budget deficit. It’s a special meeting with no scheduled opportunity for public comment, which is not how it should be.

A long list of issues go into both, but grocery lists don’t apply. The scope of the Walmart hearing will be extremely limited, according to a notice released by the city earlier this week. Council will essentially have to decide if the city’s municipal code on non-conforming uses is applicable to Walmart’s claimed vested right and whether that vested right to expand the store has expired. Walmart proponents are being urged to share their concern about affordable groceries with city officials, but — taking no sides on the cost-of-groceries debate — it’s a topic that had been thoroughly aired before council and Tuesday’s agenda does not allow for testimony about that.

Comments from the other side of the proposed Walmart are also not allowed (except by people with official standing concerning the record; no testimony on new evidence or new issues is allowed).

In the case of CGCC, the board agenda states that while the meeting is open to the public, they will not take comments. Agendas are not sacrosanct; it is standard procedure for bodies to amend them. If people want to speak, it should be granted. After all, what is not listed on the official agenda for the December meeting — and should have been — is the plan to hold an executive session, which is closed to the public outside of the media.

The college has fumbled what pass for communications on this, and the community now has the right to be heard.