August 18, 2026 · J. Korbes
Monday's Council study session: the police chief credits the vibe for falling crime, a former dispatcher out-prepares the department on its own data, the building division gets the dedicated fund the hospital money can't have, and $4 million sits in a drawer.
August 13, 2026 · J. Korbes
The joint Parks–Council session on the parks fee: the chair discovers what the money is for, a councilor's mental model is executed on live television, no decision is reached — and then everyone stays another ninety minutes for pickleball.
August 6, 2026 · J. Korbes
The Parks Commission takes public comment on a mile of mountain bike trail in Lithia Park: a room at fire-code capacity, applause banned in favor of jazz hands, dueling satirists, and a commission that can't agree on what its own hundred-year plan says.
August 5, 2026 · J. Korbes
Seventeen citizens get one minute each, a committee is un-cut in real time, City Hall discovers it has violated its own window code for twenty years, and a ballot measure most of the dais opposes sails to November anyway.
August 4, 2026 · J. Korbes
The city manager's official term for the $4 million Asante hospital settlement is 'funny money.' Three groups pitch three futures for it and none brings a budget; the SERJ committee's anti-detention proclamation passes by acclamation in a session that cannot vote.
July 22, 2026 · J. Korbes
The Council amends a citizens' petition over its author's objection, on the night the recount found it qualified by eight signatures nobody can lawfully verify. Also: the tenant-protection ordinance passes 6-0, and a resident's EMS allegations sit unanswered.
July 21, 2026 · J. Korbes
The Council pilots night-lawn management with no price and no contract review, redesigns its financial guardrails over staff's objection that a floor is a floor, and governs throughout by nod.
July 9, 2026 · J. Korbes
A 96-year-old offers the Parks Commission $100,000 for a carousel and gets fifteen seconds; a $2 million ice rink pavilion gets 'thrilling'; and the pickleball wars enter their mandate phase.
June 17, 2026 · J. Korbes
Wingspread residents take the podium and win: the manufactured home park zone passes 6-0. Also passed: a video-records resolution adopted without a number, a trash rate the Council legally could not refuse, and a park with no operations plan.
June 16, 2026 · J. Korbes
The Council celebrates its 38th straight financial-transparency award in the same session its forecast goes red by 2030 and its hospital's closure passes in a subordinate clause. Also: the Sarcasm Festival reports record attendance, sincerely.
June 11, 2026 · J. Korbes
The Parks Commission approves a pesticide nobody in the room could name, for trees a commissioner argued are doomed anyway; a pool with two years left on its liner gets a plan for a plan; and the interim director finally gets a contract.
June 4, 2026 · J. Korbes
At the joint parks-fee session, three officials claim paternity of the two-year sunset, staff understates the city's own cushion by a factor of ten, and the herbicide fight produces the mayor's most honest sentence of the year.
June 3, 2026 · J. Korbes
A mural gets nineteen minutes of applause, the hospital coalition gets silence, an ordinance is amended by one apostrophe, and the Council spends half an hour legislating parcel geometry while the emergency manager works a gas leak from the dais.
June 2, 2026 · J. Korbes
The state rewrites Ashland's land-use rules before writing its own, and a bond developer tells the Council that at current pace the city reaches wildfire resilience in 241 years. The audience behind him never got to speak.
May 20, 2026 · J. Korbes
Election night at the Council: a 4-3 fee-book vote decided by a remote mayor, a chair voting against the item he presided over, fuel costs quietly doubled — and the hospital closing in the morning, unmentioned by the dais.
May 19, 2026 · J. Korbes
A study session on the night lawn: the city discovers it doesn't know what its own homeless site costs — one day of police time exceeds a quarter of the official annual figure — everyone disclaims expertise, and the council assigns itself a survey.
May 14, 2026 · J. Korbes
A fishing guide confesses to nine years of unpermitted stream restoration and gets legalized 5-0 — the redds don't lie — while the Parks Commission admits it has no employee of its own.
May 7, 2026 · J. Korbes
The Parks Commission redesigns an ADA ramp live from the podium, debates a vision document its chair wrote alone 24 hours earlier, and discovers it voted for its own summer break.
May 6, 2026 · J. Korbes
Three and a half hours of Council: a $7.6 million loan approved for work already done and paid for, a public forum that wanted the city manager's head and the herbicide truck stopped by morning, and $15,000 for Newport's fight with ICE.
May 5, 2026 · J. Korbes
May the 4th at the Council study session: City Hall has space heaters, asbestos, and a roof three contractors refuse to patch; the civic-campus dream gets a $20 million price tag and a quiet burial; and a 2014 warranty ambushes the facilities man.
April 22, 2026 · J. Korbes
The Council reverses its week-old night lawn hours 5-0 after the chief says the city's own property is 'flirting with' chronic-nuisance status; every vote of the night is unanimous; and the sewers will smell like strawberries.
April 21, 2026 · J. Korbes
Mount Ashland has essentially zero snowpack, the reservoir is filling at half speed, and the Council spends its remaining time celebrating a survey and declining a fee increase.
April 14, 2026 · J. Korbes
A special meeting on the night lawn's future is hijacked by the police chief's demand to reverse hours that had been in effect, by one councilor's count, for thirty-eight minutes.
April 9, 2026 · J. Korbes
The Hunter Park vote lands 5-0 for tennis, honoring a years-old handshake; the room empties instantly; and the night's only pro-pickleball action passes unanimously in front of nobody.
April 8, 2026 · J. Korbes
Two speakers call the government fascist over a commenter's arrest and get a lecture on hand signals; a ten-year gas franchise passes 4-2 over the mayor's objection; and a heritage-tree motion doubles as a time extension.
April 7, 2026 · J. Korbes
The 1,974-acre Madrone Ridge acquisition gets its airing — with the budget slide deliberately removed from the public deck, a $1.85 million match unraised, and a gap parcel through which all the trails funnel.
April 2, 2026 · J. Korbes
The tennis-pickleball hearing fills the chamber past fire code: nineteen speakers at a minute each, a commissioner's proposal mysteriously kept out of the packet, and nobody on either side willing to defend a double-striped court.
March 28, 2026 · J. Korbes
A special Friday meeting reclaims the community center from city staff, 5-1 — held while the city manager, the recorder, and the fire marshal were all out of town, with the motion visibly drafted in advance.
March 18, 2026 · J. Korbes
The transit district asks for its levy while admitting it surveyed only the riders who survived the cuts; a governor-ordered half-staff flag goes unexplained; and the hospital's inpatient services have two weeks to live.
March 17, 2026 · J. Korbes
A councilor says staffing, not population, is driving the rate increases — and the response is 'we're just a little past six thirty.' Plus: pipes not being upsized for the climate everyone describes.
March 12, 2026 · J. Korbes
The ice rink autopsy finally surfaces — a fire permit's clock ran out and nobody says who was watching — while the department's books show it profited from the failure.
March 4, 2026 · J. Korbes
A 250-year-old cottonwood eats forty minutes of Council, the sale passes with no tree protection at all, electric rates rise 5-1, and the city manager quietly telegraphs mid-budget staffing cuts.
March 3, 2026 · J. Korbes
ODFW's official count says four deer safety reports all year; the mayor discloses she walks her neighborhood armed with rebar; and the police chief mentions, in passing, a standing shoot authorization on one specific deer.
February 12, 2026 · J. Korbes
City administration recommends the Parks Commission leave its director's chair empty; the chair and the mayor tell them to stay in their lane; and zero of 454 assistance customers have done their required audits.
February 5, 2026 · J. Korbes
Thirteen thousand volunteer hours, a fountain 'restoration' that is actually a full replacement with one original pedestal, and an ice rink failure that surfaces once — as a volunteer-statistics footnote.
February 4, 2026 · J. Korbes
OSF's interim chief delivers the most honest institutional autopsy this chamber has heard in years; half the public forum begs for the hospital and gets silence; and thirteen ordinances race an 8 p.m. clock.
February 3, 2026 · J. Korbes
A sleepy session on charter cleanup detonates when staff says, on the record, that a past appointment proceeded over legal's objection — 'we caved to political pressure' — and nobody names the appointment.
January 21, 2026 · J. Korbes
A packed house begs the Council to save the hospital and gets a pre-emptive disclaimer; the mayor breaks a 3-3 tie to pay a railroad $1.19 million for a crossing nobody can confirm will carry trains.
January 15, 2026 · J. Korbes
The Parks Commission confirms the ice rink season's death only because a commissioner forces the question 'for the public,' and the golf course quietly posts a 28% year.
January 15, 2026 · J. Korbes
The facilities study arrives with numbers everyone agrees are wrong, a councilor calls a tenfold error on the spot, and the city manager mentions — mid-paragraph — that City Hall's wiring is giving an employee seizures.
January 8, 2026 · J. Korbes
The Parks Commission learns the ice rink season is dead — in a subordinate clause — while a Rotarian asks politely whether the thing his club built is still ours.
