City Manager Blows Whistle on Outside Pressure as North Plains Tries to Plan Its Future
Updated: Jun 8
By Russ Sheldon
North Plains has spent years arguing about growth. But a new memo from City Manager Bill Reid suggests the city’s most serious problem may no longer be the Urban Growth Boundary itself.
It may be whether North Plains can still make practical decisions without being pulled into endless conflict.
In a memo included in the June 1 City Council packet, Reid detailed the results of an investigation into claims made last August by Linda Galas-Merten on behalf of Strong Towns North Plains. Galas-Merten told the Council that Reid was “not bonded" (as required by the terms of his employment), that Western Surety would not pay a claim under his bond, and that no payment had been received.
According to Reid’s memo, CNA Surety/Western Surety later said those statements were incorrect. The company confirmed Reid’s public official bond remained in effect and said it had not discussed any hypothetical claim payment with the caller.
That matters because the comments were made the same night the Council was scheduled to evaluate Reid’s performance.
But the broader concern is bigger than one bond. Reid described what he characterized as a pattern of outside intervention by Strong Towns North Plains and its members, including contacts with the EPA, Oregon Department of Revenue, ODOT, the City of Tigard, and others regarding city business.
For a small town trying to complete a serious long-range planning process, that should concern everyone.
North Plains is not debating growth in theory. The city is trying to meet state planning requirements, prepare for future housing and employment needs, and decide where roads, parks, utilities, commercial services, and neighborhoods should go. That work requires trust, patience, and a functioning City Council.
Instead, North Plains has endured years of UGB conflict, repeated council resignations, political suspicion, and meeting after meeting dominated by the same anti-expansion arguments. Public involvement is essential. But there is a difference between local accountability and a pressure campaign that consumes staff time, confuses partner agencies, and makes every decision harder than it needs to be.
North Plains residents and taxpayers are the ones who pay the price when City Hall is forced to chase down misinformation. They are also the ones who lose when planning gets delayed, infrastructure decisions stall, and the city becomes reactive instead of forward-looking.
A responsible UGB plan does not mean abandoning small-town North Plains. Done right, it is how the city protects its future before growth happens to us instead of through us.
The question now is whether North Plains will let a small group of highly active opponents define the city’s future by obstruction, or whether the community will insist on a practical plan that protects livability, supports housing and jobs, and lets the city move forward.
At some point, North Plains has to stop relitigating whether it should plan for the future.
It has to start doing it.
Read Bill Reid's full memo here:
