In November, Redmond voters will answer two questions on psilocybin in city limits: Whether therapeutic service centers can operate and whether local businesses can manufacture the newly-legal psychedelic.

On Tuesday August 16, Redmond city council moved forward a plan to ask voters to decide whether or not to temporarily ban treatment centers at least until 2024 and put into effect a permanent ban on manufacture of psilocybin.

Psilocybin is a natural, hallucinogenic compound found in some mushrooms.

With the passage of Measure 109 by Oregon voters in 2020, the Oregon Health Authority was ordered to license and regulate the manufacture, transport, delivery, sale and purchase of psilocybin products and services. That law goes into effect Jan. 1.

Measure 110, passed in the same election, reduced criminal penalties for a wide range of drugs, including psilocybin, and has already become the law of the land.

“110 still exists, nothing can be done about that,” Redmond city attorney Keith Leitz told councilors before they started their debate. “Recreational use of drugs, including psilocybin, will still exist regardless of what we do.”

Measure 109, however, did allow for a few opt out provisions for local municipalities. The measure allowed voters in cities and counties to ban service centers, where trained operators can guide users through a therapeutic experience, as well as manufacturing facilities. Both bans can only been enacted with the consent of voters.

Redmond city councilors were united on the fact that they wished to ban therapy centers and manufacturers for at least the next two years, but split on whether to make those bans permanent or temporary.

Councilors Krisanna Clark-Endicott, Jay Patrick and Shannon Wedding voted in favor of the permanent ban on both therapy centers and manufacturing. The three deadlocked with councilors Clifford Evelyn, Ed Fitch and Cat Zwicker, who supported the permanent ban on manufacturing, but only wanted a temporary moratorium on the therapy centers. Mayor George Endicott was absent and Patrick ran the meeting.

Those advocating the temporary ban said they had little information on the treatment centers at this time, and they hoped that in 2024 they — and local voters — would have better information at their hands. In a clinical setting, psilocybin has shown promise on a wide range of issues, including PTSD, anxiety, and numerous mental health, mood and substance abuse disorders.

“I don’t want to force people in Redmond to go somewhere else to seek medical treatment,” said councilor Fitch.

“I think we should send it to the voters for a permanent ban and see what they have to say about that,” argued councilor Clark-Endicott. “They’ve already said they wanted (a ban) once, so we’ll see if they want it again.”

In 2020, when Measures 109 passed in a statewide vote, all four Redmond precincts voted against legalization of psilocybin. Margins of defeat ranged from 51 percent to 60 percent.

After one tie vote, Clark-Endicott, Patrick and Wedding relented. A majority of council then decided to send two questions to voters: Should the city temporarily ban the therapeutic centers through 2024, and should it permanently ban manufacture of psilocybin?

Both those questions will be on the November ballot.

Republic Services talks trash

Joe Dear, general manager for Republic Services in Central Oregon, spoke about issues at the city’s solid waste garbage hauler.

City officials said they have seen higher volume of complaints of delayed or missed garbage and recycling pickups, which residents pay for whether their trash gets picked up or not. Numerous city councilors passed on complaints they received from constituents, which has increased since June, they said..

“We’ve seen some service issues here, we’ll admit that,” Dear responded.

He noted that a lack of staff and high employee turnover has required the company to push some routes “to the next service day.” Sometimes, those “next service days” do not happen until two weeks later, especially on recycling routes.

Dear said that Republic crews are now currently servicing 95 percent of their customers on time each day.

He also noted that they are working hard to fill open positions, and they have new programs to train and certify CDL drivers. He also noted that many employees are working weekends and the highest number of hours allowed by the Department of Transportation. The company has also increased hiring, retention and referral bonuses. He said they have lost numerous employees who moved to areas with a lower cost of living and they are not seeing a lot of new people moving into the area who can afford housing.

“We’re continually looking for other opportunities to try bring more drivers into the business,” said Dear.

Airport projects get okCouncil approved bids on a number of projects at city-owned Redmond Airport.

Council first approved a $92,150 bid to Central Oregon Roofing to replace the roof on the airport’s rescue and firefighting station.

Central Oregon Roofing also got the green light on a $74,800 bid for roof repair on an airport-owned hanger.

A third airport project went forward as well, after Apollo Mechanical Contractors got the go ahead to repair and replace part of the airport’s HVAC system to improve cooling.