Baker City Council to approve Resolution 3984 placing liens for abatement costs

Baker City’s council packet asks the City Council to place liens on ten properties to recover unpaid abatement assessments, directing the City Recorder to use "all legal means necessary, including placing liens upon such properties." The resolution identified as RESOLUTION NO. 3984 lists amounts from $64.38 to $6,984.62 tied to removal work the packet describes as "removing brush, grass, weeds and other nuisances" and related administrative and collection costs.

The ten addresses and dollar amounts in the packet (pages 66–67 of 214) are 2468 Madison, $6,984.62; 2275 19th Street, $341.44; 2850 6th Street, $402.42; 2201 20th Street, $195.50; 2250 Miller Street, $120.71; 2750 Myrtle Street, $516.50; 2750 College Street, $1,071.33; 2750 6th Street, $96.57; 1335 Elm Street, $350.74; and 2747 1st Street, $64.38, for a total of $10,144.21. The resolution text states these amounts are "in the amounts as follows including costs associated with collection."

The staff recommendation, prepared by Jeanie Dexter, is to "Pass Resolution 3984 to place liens upon the properties listed," and the packet provides a recommended motion: "Move to approve Resolution 3984." Council options printed in the packet are clear: "1. Pass this resolution to place liens upon each of the properties listed. 2. Do not pass this resolution and liens will not be filed."

The resolution packet records that the properties "were assessed the cost of removing brush, grass, weeds and other nuisances along with other administrative and collection" and that "none of the assessments have been paid even though they are due and payable." The directive to the City Recorder is explicit in the packet: "The City Recorder is hereby directed to use all legal means necessary, including placing liens upon such properties, to collect such accounts."

The packet materials include a passage and signature block that reads "PASSED by the City Council of the City of Baker City, Oregon this 17th day of November 2025" and "SIGNED by the Mayor of the City of Baker City, Oregon this 17th day of November 2025." The packet header names Mayor Randy Daugherty, councilors Roger Coles, Loran Joseph, Helen Loennig, Doni Bruland and Gratton Miller, and City Manager Barry Murphy. The packet also contains other agenda items dated November 17, 2025, while a separate notice referenced the item as appearing on a Feb. 24 regular session agenda; the packet excerpts do not reconcile those dates.

For county-level context, a Baker City Herald report by Jayson Jacoby on Aug. 26, 2025 noted Baker County filed foreclosure notices for 29 properties in 2025 with about $134,000 owed, but that county tax foreclosures are a separate process from municipal abatement liens. If the council follows the packet's recommended motion, the next administrative step would be filing recorded lien instruments through the City Recorder as directed in Resolution 3984, after which recording dates and instrument numbers will confirm whether the assessments have become liens on the listed parcels.