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Bend accessibility advisory committee approves letter urging stronger off-leash dog enforcement
Summary
The City of Bend Accessibility Advisory Committee voted to send a letter asking Parks & Rec and police to increase enforcement of off-leash dog rules, attaching FOIA police data that members say shows a steep decline in citations over the past five years.
The City of Bend Accessibility Advisory Committee voted Feb. 26 to approve a letter asking city and parks officials to step up enforcement of off‑leash dog rules and to attach an appendix of police data documenting recent enforcement levels.
Committee Chair John Halem led the motion to approve the letter with edits and an appendix of records from an Aaron Rivers FOIA request. The letter asks that enforcement focus on occurrences outside designated off‑leash areas and requests clearer documentation to demonstrate enforcement levels.
The vote followed members’ review of a proposed factual sentence and an attached appendix. Aaron Rivers told the committee he obtained an Excel file via a FOIA request that shows a drop in citations: “it goes back from beginning in 2020 and goes until 2025,” and that 2025 data show about 33 citations and five warnings, which he said understates the number of complaints. Chair John Halem recommended language that characterizes enforcement as having declined and refers readers to an appendix for supporting figures: “enforcement of off leash laws has gone downhill over the last 5 years — please see appendix A attached to this letter,” he said.
Committee members tightened wording for accuracy (for example, using “Recreation District” rather than “department,” and specifying encounters "outside of designated off‑leash areas") and agreed to attach Aaron Rivers’s police records as Appendix A. Members discussed whether the data should be caveated because 2020 pandemic-era numbers may not be comparable; Cassandra Keough, Accessibility & Equity Manager, urged a short explanatory sentence to introduce what the appendix data represent.
The committee passed the letter with the requested grammatical clarifications and the appendix attached. Cassandra Keough said the finalized letter will be carried forward to a joint meeting between the city council and the parks district and could be raised at the March 17 joint meeting or by individual members at city council public comment.
The committee did not specify a timetable for further staff action in the meeting minutes; the letter itself and the attached appendix are the formal outputs voted on by COBAC at the Feb. 26 meeting.
