Benton County will be moving forward with a plan for community outreach efforts to better understand why the bond measure aimed at funding the Justice System Improvement Program failed back in May.
At their July 5 Benton County Board of Commissioners meeting, the commissioners directed county staff to continue community engagement to determine why the bond measure failed.
“A need has been identified for a communications strategy to gather information and analyze voter sentiments leading to the defeat of Bond Measure 2-140. This is an essential County effort in support of JISP with the objectives of understanding voter sentiment, improving public trust, and strengthening support for future,” said Suzanne Hoffman, Interim County Administrator.
Outreach Costs So Far: County officials spent $451,000 on various polling, marketing and communications efforts on the runup to May’s election result according to Rick Crager, Chief Financial Officer for Benton County. That was on April 19, 2023, when Crager appeared at our Cityspeak forum on the bond measure.
New Outreach Costs: Now, seeking to assess what happened in May and plot a path forward, Benton County will work with Brenda Downum of Downum Consulting for help with further community outreach.
“The County contracted with Downum Consulting in April 2022 for communications services for a total not to exceed $145,700. The contract expires December 31, 2023. These services have provided additional communications capacity for the Justice System Improvement Program initiative and will conclude with post-election information gathering,” said Cory Grogan, Public Information Officer for Benton County. “Brenda Downum will be the project manager and will work collaboratively with County staff on community engagement activities to gather voter sentiment on measure 2-140.”
According to Hoffman, the current contract will only cover community outreach activities through October.
“Activities beyond October will require additional funds. Depending on how the Board of Commissioners prefers to proceed, an estimate of future costs will be provided for the Commissioners’ consideration,” said Hoffman.
At this time the county has not established a deadline for when the bond measure might go back to the voters.
Bikeway Public Forum: The Corvallis Sustainability Coalition’s Transportation Action Team (TAT) will be hosting an online public forum on July 11 on the next phase of the neighborhood bikeway network.
In a release from the City of Corvallis, the 50-minute forum will begin with Public Works staff presenting an overview of the “11th Street South Neighborhood Bikeway” project, followed by a moderated Q&A.
During the Q&A there will be an opportunity for city staff to get feedback from residents interested in the neighborhood bikeway program and this specific project.
This forum will be through a Zoom webinar. For those that cannot attend, the forum will be recorded and made available for public viewing on the Corvallis Sustainability Coalition’s website.
To register for the forum visit, https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_39gZngfXTyK2XOgUISdzRg
For more information on the bikeway projects visit https://www.corvallisoregon.gov/publicworks/page/neighborhood-bikeways
By Jennifer Warner
Do you have a story for The Advocate? Email editor@corvallisadvocate.com