On November 30, 2022, the Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) had a public hearing on a proposed business license ordinance for businesses in unincorporated Tillamook County. The meeting room was packed with people from the business community who had concerns about the ordinance as it was written. We heard their concerns, several of which were thoughtful and helpful, and we cancelled the second public hearing on the ordinance. That tabled the issue, as an ordinance cannot be approved without two public hearings.
Some people are asking, what comes next? Let us state clearly that ordinance 88 as written is off the table. If in the future the board moves forward with an alternate proposal, it will not be ordinance 88.
In case you’re wondering what this is all about, here’s the story. The board of county commissioners started to consider initiating a business license for businesses in unincorporated Tillamook County when we had millions of dollars in COVID relief funds to distribute to local businesses, and we did not have a registry or any record of businesses in unincorporated Tillamook County. Some cities have business license programs, so we got their lists; the chambers of commerce have partial lists, which we utilized, but we don’t have and couldn’t create a complete database of Tillamook County businesses.
The Economic Development Council of Tillamook County (EDC) was distributing the COVID relief funds, and they were tasked with communicating with businesses about how to apply. We wanted all businesses in our county to know that the funds were available and have support from the EDC to apply. Sadly, a lot of businesses had no idea that COVID relief was available because we don’t know who they are or how to contact them.
Thus, the idea for a business license in unincorporated Tillamook County took shape. Our intention was that any funds generated from a licensing program would support the work of the EDC, whose sole purpose is to support local businesses and business development. We thought that fees generated from the business community should be reinvested back into the business community via the EDC.
Terre Cooper, EDC director, reached out to multiple businesses to socialize the idea with them, but not to everyone; it’s worth repeating that we need a list of all businesses and contact information to do broad communication to the business community. We heard from business owners at the Nov. 30 public hearing that we should have done more outreach, and we agree. We learned from this process that robust communication prior to a new ordinance hearing is in everyone’s best interest.
County counsel worked with Terre Cooper, at our direction, to come up with the draft ordinance, which was a boilerplate business license ordinance borrowed from the League of Oregon Cities. The ordinance was cumbersome, full of off-putting legal language and in some ways unenforceable. We discussed it in at least two public meetings, shared our concerns, and edits were made. In retrospect, we should have scrapped that draft in favor of something less full of legalese that better fit the needs of our community.
From our perspective, the public hearing worked exactly the way it was supposed to: the BOCC heard from people, and consequently we changed our course. We are grateful to those who came to the public hearing and gave us thoughtful feedback on the ways that the ordinance was objectionable. At
the end of the first public hearing, we decided to cancel the second public hearing, tabling the issue.
The next day we removed ordinance 88 from our website, because we were concerned that if we left it on the website, people would think it was moving forward.
Commissioner Bell suggested convening a workgroup of businesspeople to discuss the issue, thinking that this would be an ideal opportunity to hear from business owners and bring people together to help drive solutions. For example, how should we develop an active database of businesses in Tillamook County? Several people volunteered or agreed to participate in a workgroup to discuss the issue.
Since then, the EDC elected to withdraw from process of developing a business license ordinance.
Rather than proceed with a workgroup at this time, the BOCC will pause and consider the path ahead, including whether we develop an alternate ordinance, when, and what needs it would address.
Commissioner Bell is available to meet with business owners individually who are interested in talking about the subject and sharing their ideas or concerns. We are grateful to the business owners who agreed to be part of a workgroup, and to everyone who shared their comments on the subject.
