In the small-ish burg of Baker City, way out in Eastern Oregon, far away from the capital city, a proposal among business leaders has ignited a movement. Now, the mayor says other towns across Oregon are looking to her city as a model to fight back against an out-of-control governor.
In an interview with PJ Media, Baker City Mayor Kerry McQuisten says the proposal began as an attempt to make their town a Common Sense Sanctuary. Serving in her first term, business leaders approached her the day after her swearing-in took place in January. “It was quite a process,” she says. “After we were all sworn in back on January 12th, local businesses brought forth to [city] council an idea of a Common Sense Sanctuary City. The idea was pretty funny, actually. It was a good idea. They were asking for local businesses to be able to adhere, or not adhere to the mask mandates, the OSHA [Oregon Occupational Safety and Health Division] restrictions, as they saw fit individually.”
McQuisten says the city council conducted a town hall meeting over the issue. “Business owners poured in to give testimony. Some questioned whether the city could protect them from state OSHA regulations and targeting by these agencies.”
The town hall led to a workgroup to study the idea further. McQuisten says they chose a deliberate course of action that included a letter from the city to Governor Kate Brown telling her that business leaders and the Baker City community had been left out of the pandemic decision-making process. After that, they decided a resolution wasn’t strong enough to convey their message.
“After we got no response from the governor,” McQuisten says, “we brought forth the Emergency Declaration, and batted the language back and forth for a couple of weeks.”- READ MORE
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