Jessica Cejnar Andrews / Friday, Sept. 6 @ 3:06 p.m. / Community, Local Government
Brookings City Council To Consider $400,000 Settlement Agreement With St. Timothy Episcopal Church
In this 2023 file photo, Jay Lindsay receives a meal from Smith River United Methodist Church volunteers at St. Timothy Episcopal Church. | Jessica C. Andrews
Previously:
• St. Timothy's, Brookings Get Their Day In Court; Both Sides, Plus U.S. DOJ, Present Oral Arguments
Brookings city councilors on Monday will consider approving a $400,000 settlement agreement with St. Timothy Episcopal Church.
The agreement comes nearly six months after a federal judge ruled that city restrictions on when organizations can feed the hungry imposed a substantial burden on the exercise of the church’s religious beliefs.
If approved, the agreement would result in the repeal of Brookings’ benevolent meal service ordinance, according to the city’s staff report. The city would also agree to withdraw an April 2023 abatement notice the city levied against St. Timothy for its other social services, including its legal aid ministry.
In exchange, St. Timothy Episcopal Church would agree to withdraw its appeal of the abatement notice to the Oregon Land Use Board of Appeals, according to a Brookings staff report.
Though U.S. Magistrate Mark D. Clarke ruled in St. Timothy’s favor on March 27, stating that Brookings’ ordinance violated the Religious Land Use & Institutionalized Persons Act of 2000 (RLUIPA), the church’s pastor, Reverend Bernie Lindley, said he was disappointed to see the settlement agreement spelled out in the agenda packet prior to Monday’s meeting.
Lindley said he hopes the City Council will approve the agreement without much comment or opposition from the public.
“I’d hate to have Isaac [Hodges] reconsider the settlement and, if there’s a public outcry, be like, ‘Oh my goodness we have to pay the church $400,000 and let them do these ministries?’” Lindley told the Wild Rivers Outpost on Friday, referring to Brookings Mayor Isaac Hodges. “Then there we are starting over again on our settlement. And, granted, we’ll prevail, we got the judgment, but it just makes everything drag out that much longer.”
Since the judge’s ruling, representatives with the city and St. Timothy have been in negotiations over attorneys fees and “several other outstanding issues related to the lawsuit,” according to the staff report.
Under the proposed agreement, the city will pay $357,000 to Stoel Rives LLP and $43,000 to the Oregon Justice Resource Center.
The Brookings City Council adopted the city’s benevolent meal service ordinance in October 2021 and amended it in November 2023. The amended ordinance stated that organizations could serve meals to the public up to three days per week between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. and that meal services could last no more than two hours per day.
Organizations offering those meals in residential neighborhoods were also required to obtain a conditional use permit.
The church, which had been offering free lunchtime meal services at its Fir Street property since 2009, filed its federal lawsuit on Jan. 28, 2022. In its lawsuit, the church stated that the ordinance’s adoption “impinge on plaintiffs’ rights to practice central tenets of their faith, harming plaintiffs and causing members of the Brookings community to go hungry.”
In his March 27, 2024 ruling, Clarke agreed that St. Timothy’s feeding ministry is a sincerely held religious belief.
“[The city’s ordinance] is a zoning law that on its face and in its application limits the plaintiff’s use of the land at 401 Fir Street, including the church affixed to that property,” Clarke wrote.
The Brookings City Council will meet at 7 p.m. in City Council Chambers at 898 Elk Drive in Brookings. Agendas and a meeting livestream are available at www.brookings.or.us.
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