Here's another example, among many, of how elected and appointed City of Salem officials give citizen involvement the finger, to put it bluntly.
Previously I've blogged about how the City of Salem planned a new poiice facility in (1) a backwards way, and (2) a secretive way.
Now I want to share what I've learned about how City officials planned where the police facility should be located in a top-down way without any community input.
Back in January of this year I had a conversation with the lead City staff person for the $80.5 million ($128 million, with financing costs) proposal to build a new Police Facility at the Civic Center and renovate the current buildings there.
Courtney Knox Busch told me that she'd read my blog post, "How City of Salem planned police facility in secretive manner," and wanted to let me know that I was wrong about the City Council not approving the Civic Center location -- just a Council subcommitee.
Well, below is my reply to Ms. Busch concerning what sure seems to be the well-documented truth: the Mayor back in 2010 (Janet Taylor) and City staff decided to start planning for a new police facility at the Civic Center.
What I found, and Ms. Busch didn't disagree with this, is that the Salem City Council didn't explicitly discuss or agree on a Civic Center location for a new police facility. Much less anyone in the broader Salem community.
Yes, on May 24, 2010 the City Council approved an agreement with the University of Oregon to have students engage in some Civic Center planning.
Download May 24, 2010 Agreement
But the staff memo describing the agreement says, "It is anticipated the existing Civic Center may be re-used to accommodate City functions that now reside in leased space if the Police Department is located in a separate facility either on the City-owned Civic Center campus or in another location."
Or in another location. It didn't take long for the Mayor and City Manager to forget those words, and tilt the student project solely toward a Civic Center location.
At the end of this post I explain how this pertains to current efforts to foist a $128 million bond measure on Salem taxpayers who never had an opportunity to be involved in deciding where a new police facility should be located.
Here's the message that went to Courtney Knox Busch:
Courtney, thanks for telling me last night [January 28], before the SCV forum, that my blog post about a city council subcommittee deciding on a Civic Center site was inaccurate. That got me to searching the City web site today for historical information on this subject.
Not the most pleasant experience, I have to say. The web site is difficult to navigate — even for someone like me who is pretty cyberspace savvy.
Here’s what I’ve concluded from my search. Let me know if I’ve gotten anything wrong.
(1) The first 2009-era reference I could find on this subject is this document. The Council Finance Committee recommended moving ahead with a funding request for a new police facility. But there is no mention of where the police facility should be located. In fact, it talks about engaging in a 6 month process of considering alternative sites.
(2) I also found this document. Following consideration of the Budget Committee recommendation in (1), this staff report recommends that the City Council fund an effort to determine the level of support for a new police facility and parks bond measures. But I don’t see any sign of a preferred location, or even that the Council voted in favor of moving ahead with a new police facility.
However, I couldn’t find the 2009 Council goals on the City web site, or via a Google search. If you have any documents that show when/how there was full Council approval of moving ahead with planning for a new police facility, other than the Sustainable Cities Initiative go-ahead mentioned below, please forward them to me (actual documents or links).
Download 2009 - 2 Memo re. police facility PDF
(3) I found this extensive document that describes what the public opinion research firm found after interviews with focus groups and telephone surveys. A quick perusal shows there was disagreement about whether a new police facility was needed, and where one should be located if it were to be built. No mention, I recall, that a Civic Center site was the preferred or decided-upon location.
(4) Jumping to the
City web page about this project, I looked at the earliest document that is on the Timeline of Council Actions tab. I gather that this relates to what you talked to me about last night: that City staff recommended to the City Council that a subcommittee be formed.
But this was a subcommittee to guide the entire U of O Sustainable Cities Initiative. In a memo, Mayor Janet Taylor said one focus of the student project would be on planning for a new police facility at the Civic Center.
So — and this is important — it sure looks to me like the City staff/Mayor/City Manager decided that a new police facility should be at the Civic Center, and asked the Council to approve a subcommittee that would work with the students on planning for such a facility.
My point — and, repeat, this is important — is that nowhere in the previous documents above (1) - (3) is there any mention of a preferred location for the police facility. The first mention of a Civic Center location pops into existence with the memo from Taylor.
So my conclusion, and correct me if I’m wrong, is that the City focus on a Civic Center location for a new police facility occurred without any public hearings or public discussion. Further, the Council decision that enabled this focus was tucked inside a staff recommendation by the Mayor that a subcommittee be formed to work with the U of O students.
Which, to my mind, makes the process even more closed-door than I had first thought.
Based on a Statesman Journal story, I had assumed that a council subcommittee had recommended that the police facility be built at the Civic Center. But seemingly this was a staff recommendation from the Mayor, which was rubber-stamped by the Council in the process of approving the subcommittee to oversee the Sustainable Cities Initiative, and then carried forward by the subcommittee.
As noted above, please correct me if I'm wrong about this.
-- Brian
I never was corrected by Courtney Knox Busch. In fact, I never heard anything back from her about this message. So I have to assume that what I discovered via my research is correct.
The City of Salem decided to build a new police facility at the Civic Center without any public hearings or public discussion. City staff and the Mayor made this decision.
All the more reason to rectify this lack of public involvement now. Before moving ahead with further planning for a new police facility at the Civic Center, City of Salem officials should form a broad-based task force to evaluate alternative potential locations.
Those advocating for a lower-cost site away from the Civic Center should be an integral part of this task force. It is time -- no, way past time -- to involve the Salem community in a decision that will markedly affect their pocketbooks.
As the
Salem Community Vision FAQs on this subject say, the choice is between a $128 million project or a $64 million project. Saving $64 million is well worth looking into.
That is some beautiful research that you have done. It must have taken hours and hours of persistence to accomplish such a well written story. Congrats for cutting thru the fog barrier to get to the truth.
Posted by: James Ramsey | March 12, 2014 at 11:57 PM
Ah, so true, James. It was indeed beautiful research. Which involved a system.
My search for the City of Salem truth led me through lots and lots of City Council agendas on its web site. I'd open up a lengthy agenda; search via Safari for the word "police"; then see what the agenda item with that word referred to.
If it had something to do with a new police facility, I saved that document. And so it went. Since the Council meets every two weeks, each year of searching meant going through about 26 agenda files.
But it was satisfying, in a geeky sort of way. I don't like it when public officials abuse their power and ignore the citizens they supposedly serve. So discovering how poorly the City of Salem made its decision to site a new police facility at the Civic Center struck me as important.
Posted by: Brian Hines | March 13, 2014 at 12:10 AM