Please join us for a panel discussion about preemption at 7 pm on Thursday, October 23 in room 110 of the Knight Law Center on the University of Oregon campus. Preemption is a growing topic here in Oregon and across the country as local governments struggle to innovate and come up with creative solutions to pressing topics of our time including inequality and environmental degradation.

This discussion will focus on an immediate concern involving Lane County’s attempt to preempt Eugene’s sick leave ordinance. Preemption was also a prominent issue in Oregon last fall with the state’s preemption of County attempts to regulate the use of genetically modified seeds.

Our speakers include:

Paul Diller, expert on Home Rule, teaches in the Law department at Willamette University

Jim Edmunson, Eugene attorney, former legislator in office when the state preempted local anti-gay ordinances

Ken Tollenaar, elderly civil servant known around Eugene as the eminence grise behind civil law; helped write the Home Rule referendum passed in 1954, former president of the Association of Oregon Counties

Pete Sorenson, county commissioner, former legislator and legislative assistant in the U.S. House of Representatives

Melissa Wischerath, Eugene attorney, will be the moderator

Reference Materials of interest include:

Eugene Weekly article quoting Melissa Wischerath:
http://www.eugeneweekly.com/20140807/news-briefs/county-commission%E2%80%99s-anti-sick-leave-ordinances-questioned

National article of country-wide preemption and sick leave laws: http://www.prwatch.org/news/2014/07/12551/paid-sick-days-gain-momentum-as-alec-allies-push-back

Paul Diller on home rule (40 pages): http://law.uoregon.edu/org/olrold/archives/87/Diller.pdf

League of Oregon Cities 2006 publicationon home rule (25 pages): http://www.orcities.org/Portals/17/Premium/HomeRule06newcover2012.pdf

County Home Rule in Oregon, prepared by Ken Tollenaar for the Association of Oregon Counties (129 pages): http://www.aocweb.org/aoc/Portals/0/Policy%20Center/County%20Home%20Rule%20Paper.pdf

Text of one of the county ordinances preempting Eugene’s sick leave ordinance:
http://www.lanecounty.org/Departments/BCC/Documents/ORDINANCES/2014/14-04.pdf

Ken Tollenaar’s letter to Register Guard regarding the Lane County/city of Eugene conflict:
http://registerguard.com/rg/opinion/31900496-78/county-government-rule-counties-eugene.html.csp

National Association of Counties article 2004 article about Dillon’s Rule – posted at CELDF: http://www.celdf.org/downloads/Home%20Rule%20State%20or%20Dillons%20Rule%20State.pdf