PENDLETON — The Pendleton City Council won’t make a decision on changing the law that led to the preservation of Confederate sidewalk stamps until after the holidays, but the text of law is already publicly available.

All ordinances passed or amended by the council must have first reading, usually held the meeting before the council votes. The council has scheduled the first reading for its Tuesday, Dec. 15, meeting, which means a public hearing and vote is on track for Jan. 5.

The Pendleton Historic Preservation Commission originally voted to preserve several sidewalk stamps — concrete etchings that denoted the original name of streets before the city changed its naming conventions in the 1940s — that commemorated Confederate figures like Jefferson Davis and Robert E. Lee.

The decision garnered opposition from some residents in the community, with a Pendleton man intentionally breaking one of the sidewalk stamps and nailing a pro-Black Lives Matter sign to it.

After initially saying that the council didn’t intend to get involved in the matter, Mayor John Turner reversed course by ordering the city halt its efforts to reinstall or restamp the sidewalks along Southeast Byers Avenue where the stamps had been displayed. He also announced that the city would change its preservation policy going forward.

In a staff report from City Attorney Nancy Kerns, she acknowledged the role some residents played in changing the city’s approach to stamp preservation.

“There has been expression of public objection to the preservation, in this project and generally, of street stamps which contain the names of national and historical figures who are affiliated with racism,” she wrote. “Those opponents of use of these names have requested the City Council to consider change of its policy, which involves the attached amendment of the current ordinance.”

The amendment to the city’s historic preservation ordinance is fairly narrow in scope. Besides cleaning up some of the ordinance’s older language, it specifically targets sidewalk stamps as an exception to historic preservation.

“Street stamps of street and contractor names and dates will not be preserved or restamped in new sidewalk construction,” the draft ordinance states.

Members of the public will get one more chance to comment on the proposed ordinance at the council’s Jan. 5, 2021, meeting, where people both for and against the ordinance will be given a chance to speak before the council makes its decision. At the council’s Dec. 1 meeting, several activists attended to ensure the council stuck to its decision.

Before the Dec. 15 council meeting, council members will meet as the Pendleton Development Commission to decide on allocating money for street repairs.

Staff is asking the commission to approve $6.3 million in street reconstruction projects in and around the downtown area.