Recently, a member of the Cannon Beach Together political action committee filed an injunction with the Clatsop County Circuit Court to prohibit a city of Cannon Beach bond sale.

The proposed $33.6 million revenue bond is disguised as a “financial agreement” at a cost of approximately $60 million over the next 30 years with principal and interest. This could be catastrophic to our community. Our hope is to bring this to a public vote of the Cannon Beach electorate.

We believe we need a new City Hall and a police station, but not at the cost being discussed. Manzanita’s new city hall will cost half as much as the city of Cannon Beach proposal.

The city has manipulated this process to keep it out of the hands of the voters. They created the prepared meals tax, stating the revenues were going to support the development of a new City Hall and police station, and then they increased the transient lodging tax, declaring the increase will be used to service the debt of a new City Hall, police station and development of an event center.

After they established these new revenue streams, they passed off the revenue bonds as a financial agreement, not a “bond” to avoid a public process.

As a friend of mine recently stated, “If it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it’s a duck” (or a bond, in this case).

PATRICK NOFIELD

Cannon Beach