Eric Flowers

The Legislature wrapped up the 2011 session last week with a flurry of activity that included the passage of bills with statewide importance and direct local impact. While there are winners and losers in every session, many, including our own editorial board, have largely deemed the session to be an overall success. Below are of some of the highlights from the past several months in Salem that had particular relevance to Central Oregon.

With a pair of sunglasses on his head, a surf shop T-shirt on his back and sandals on his feet, Brent Goodman arrives at his office in attire that's casual, even by Bend's standards. But then again there's nothing traditional about Goodman's office. A former commercial realtor, Goodman is one of a handful of entrepreneurs hoping to capitalize on Oregon's fast-growing medical marijuana program that has seen its numbers balloon to 50,000 current and pending marijuana cardholders as of April.
It's the first time that Goodman has allowed a member of the media into his business, one of several new marijuana “dispensaries” in Bend, though there is no official term to describe or classify the range of marijuana-related businesses that cropped up in the last year or so. Ironically, these business – which operate in Bend with names like Bend's Best Buds, Central Oregon Alternative Therapy, and in Goodman's case, The Herb Center (THC) – proliferated after voters defeated a law to legalize the retail sale of marijuana under Oregon's Medical Marijuana Program (OMMP).

After months of hearings around the state and several weeks of tense negotiations, Oregon legislators agreed on a redistricting plan that will reapportion the state's 60 House seats and 30 Senate seats. The compromise agreement, which was signed into law on Monday by Gov. John Kitzhaber marks the first time in more than 30 years that the lawmakers have been able to forge a deal on the redistricting map. Redrawing the state's political lines is a task that legislators take up every decade following the release of the latest census numbers. The job, however, usually falls to the secretary of state's office, which is responsible for drawing up the map when legislators cannot, or when the courts find flaws with the plan developed by legislators.
This year, legislators, including Bend's Sen. Chris Telfer, pledged to work across party lines to come up with a plan that would pass.

From potholed and undermaintained streets to the persistently high number of home foreclosures, Bend’s growing pains have extended well beyond the boom. For local Democrats, there’s one more pill swallow—the loss of Bend’s carefully crafted House district seat in the Oregon Legislature.
Thanks to Bend’s meteoric population growth over the past decade, House District 54, aka the Bend House seat, will be carved up before Democrats have a chance to gain a firm hold on the seat that was established during the last round of legislative redistricting in 2001. Based on the most recent census numbers, legislators will have to carve off roughly 18,000 residents from House District 54 to meet statewide population targets for legislative districts.