Salem Political Snark

Salem Progressive Agenda survey results are an appealing vision

It's easy to get disheartened about the current state of our nation. So much disharmony, discord, and dissatisfaction with how things are going, 

So my spirits were boosted when I saw the results of a Salem Progressive Agenda survey of 103 citizens -- all progressives, not surprisingly, me being one of them. Here's the first question.

Now, likely some people in Salem will look at this and other questions (more accurately, statements) on the survey and think, "Yikes! I sure hope this doesn't happen!"

I could be wrong -- an ever-present possibility -- but my optimism leads me to think that most of the policies in the survey would appeal to a majority of Salem citizens. After all, polling shows that most Americans favor progressive policies even if they don't consider themselves progressives.

Anyway, have a look at the survey results via this PDF file.
Download Salem Progressive Agenda Survey Results

I'm impressed with how comprehensive and well-stated the 26 statements were. I couldn't think of anything to add to this progressive wish list, though other people did. You can read their comments at the end of the survey.

Thanks to Mark Wigg and Jim Scheppke for putting the survey together. It provides a road map for how Salem should improve. If local conservatives have a different vision, and I'm sure they do, it'd be great if they'd do something similar for their end of the political spectrum.

Each of the 26 progressive statements was agreed to by the 103 respondents, downtown parking being the only exception. I guess that isn't surprising, since this subject generates strong feelings on both sides of the free parking vs. parking meters divide.

Trump pushes COVID advice by doctor who warns against sex with demons

Whew. I can relax.

A few days ago I read that Trump was vowing to act more presidential now that the election is less than 100 days away. Since I desperately want him to lose, I was worried that Trump was going to at least sound as if he valued the advice of public health experts when it comes to combatting the COVID crisis, even if he continued to act otherwise.

I should have known that Trump was incapable of pretending to be a science-loving leader of our nation, since that goes against his compulsion to attempt to lie his way out of every problem, including a pandemic that has taken 150,000 American lives.

(Remember when Trump said that at most, COVID would cause 60,000 deaths, and he hoped the final toll would be lower. I sure do.)

Today Trump doubled down on his support of a group that, among other bizarre ideas, is pushing the discredited claim that hydroxychloroquine is a valid way of preventing or treating a COVID-19 infection. Here's an excerpt from a New York Times story. 

In a video posted Monday online, a group of people calling themselves “America’s Frontline Doctors” and wearing white medical coats spoke against the backdrop of the Supreme Court in Washington, sharing misleading claims about the virus, including that hydroxychloroquine was an effective coronavirus treatment and that masks did not slow the spread of the virus.

The video did not appear to be anything special. But within six hours, President Trump and his son Donald Trump Jr. had tweeted versions of it, and the right-wing news site Breitbart had shared it.

It went viral, shared largely through Facebook groups dedicated to anti-vaccination movements and conspiracy theories such as QAnon, racking up tens of millions of views. Multiple versions of the video were uploaded to YouTube, and links were shared through Twitter.

Facebook, YouTube and Twitter worked feverishly to remove it, but by the time they had, the video had already become the latest example of misinformation about the virus that has spread widely.

Today Trump had only good things to say about the woman shown speaking in the photo above, Dr. Stella Immanuel. A Daily Beast story says about her:

But she has refused to provide proof of her claim that she’s cured hundreds of COVID-19 patients with hydroxychloroquine.

That didn’t chasten Trump, however, who praised Immanuel and her fellow Frontline Doctors at a Tuesday afternoon press conference. “I can tell you this, she was on air along with many other doctors,” he said.

“They were big fans of hydroxychloroquine and I thought she was very impressive in the sense that from where she came, I don't know which country she comes from, but she said that she's had tremendous success with hundreds of different patients, and I thought her voice was an important voice, but I know nothing about her.”

Well, the president of the United States, who hopefully soon will be Joe Biden, had better do their homework before standing in front of cameras and telling people that a doctor "was an important voice" about dealing with the COVID crisis.

Here's some of the crazy stuff Stella Immanuel believes, according to David Von Drehle's Washington Post opinion piece, "Americans are suffering. Trump offers them a doctor who warns of sex with demons."

According to the Mayo Clinic, endometriosis is “an often painful disorder in which tissue similar to the tissue that normally lines the inside of [the] uterus — the endometrium — grows outside [the] uterus.”

Not so, says Stella Immanuel, a Houston pediatrician and spiritual leader of Fire Power Ministries, a pronouncedly non-orthodox church. Endometriosis and other potentially dangerous gynecological conditions are the residue of sexual intercourse with demons, Immanuel teaches.

These demons, known as “spirit husbands” and “spirit wives” (you might prefer their pet names: Incubus and Succubus) once walked the Earth in physical form. After they drowned in Noah’s flood, however, they carried on only in non-corporeal form. They visit humans in sexy dreams, which aren’t dreams after all but spirit spouses making a booty call.

The demons are responsible not only for diseases of the female reproductive system but also for male impotence, most financial troubles, marital discord and spiritual malaise.

This is not Immanuel’s only diversion from the medical mainstream. She also maintains that alien DNA is a component of some therapeutic drugs and that government scientists are developing a vaccine to prevent religious faith. You can find these and other teachings of hers on YouTube.

I've got no interest in sharing a video of Stella Immanuel, but I'm pleased to present a video of CNN's Anderson Cooper debunking Immanuel's and Trump's weird COVID notions.

 

List of Salem businesses that got PPP loans is mildly interesting

The title of this blog post won't go down in the annals of provocative headline writing, for sure. But it's accurate. I toyed with other titles, like "If you're too wired to sleep, read this" or "Here's something more interesting that watching paint dry... barely."

Still, I hate to let a good PDF file go to waste, so here's a list someone sent me of the businesses in Salem that got PPP (Paycheck Protection Program) money from the federal government. The highlighted names of businesses in the list are ones that this person felt deserved attention.

Download PPP Loans in Salem

One thing that struck me was how many businesses got PPP money. This is good, by and large, though there is reason to believe that much of the $517 billion handed out by the PPP program wasn't wisely spent. Here's how a recent Slate story, "The Paycheck Protection Program was a flop," starts out.

Since this spring, the federal government has handed out $517 billion through the Paycheck Protection Program, the main lifeline that Congress threw to small and midsize businesses to help them survive the coronavirus crisis. It’s a weighty amount of money, almost two-thirds of what Washington spent on the entire stimulus package it passed in 2009 to combat the Great Recession.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem to have bought us very much.

Hastily crafted as the economy began to collapse earlier this year, PPP was designed to keep businesses alive and Americans attached to their jobs while the country shut down to try and squelch the pandemic. It offers employers with 500 or fewer workers low-interest loans to cover their operating expenses, which the government will forgive if they avoid layoffs. (Somewhat larger companies can qualify if they are in the hospitality industry or meet the government’s previously established small-business size standards.) For most borrowers, it’s essentially free money that they can use to pay their bills and their staff.

This week, a team of economists led by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s David Autor released the most detailed evaluation yet of the program’s results—and their conclusions were not flattering. The researchers found that PPP only boosted overall employment among eligible businesses by between 2 to 4.5 percent and likely saved about 2.31 million jobs, at the cost of $224,000 each.

To put those numbers in perspective, consider that there were 31.8 million Americans on the unemployment rolls at the start of this month, and that 2.4 million people filed for benefits last week alone. The country appears to have spent a half-trillion dollars and put just a small dent in joblessness. What’s more, we only paid for a temporary fix. PPP only provided loans equal to about 10 weeks of payroll expenses; now that the money is running out, some businesses appear ready to start laying off workers again.

Another thing that caught my eye was that getting free money, basically, is popular across the entire ideological spectrum. Salem businesses run by conservatives got lots of PPP money. So did businesses run by progressives. Many churches got PPP money. So did many health care providers.

It's difficult to determine which businesses were most deserving of getting the PPP money without knowing their unique circumstances.

For example, D&O Garbage got money. They do a fine job picking up our trash and recycling, but I wonder how much the pandemic affected their business. Maybe some out-of-work people decided they'd take their trash to the dump themselves. Hard to tell. And I'm sure the Illahe Hills Country Club suffered during stay-at-home orders. However, seeing them on the list was a bit of a surprise.

When it comes to the number of jobs reportedly retained via a PPP grant, the Galt Foundation led with 500 jobs. Their focus is on creating employment opportunities for people with disabilities, so it's hard to quibble with them getting PPP money. Likewise for Garten Services, which claimed 335 jobs retained.

Capitol Racquet Sports, a.k.a. Courthouse Athletic Clubs, said 368 jobs were retained. Since athletic clubs have been hard hit by the pandemic, this seems believable.

The Seaman Restaurant Corporation claimed 364 jobs were retained. It's unclear what restaurants they operate in the Salem area. A Dun & Bradstreet corporate profile says "Seaman Restaurant Corporation has 250 total employees across all of its locations." Hmmmm. The claim of 364 jobs retained would deserve a closer look if anyone was looking into this, but almost certainly nobody will.

Here's another excerpt from the Slate story.

Unless you happen to be a deficit fanatic, there are much worse tragedies than the government frittering away a bit of cash in an attempt to shore up an economy in crisis. The country isn’t facing a fiscal crisis. The feds can still borrow for cheap. It’s OK if a few businesses receive aid they don’t absolutely need, if it also means getting help to those in peril.

What’s most frustrating about PPP is that it wasted money yet still failed to reach all of the mom and pop shops that needed assistance. Its complicated rules, meant to ensure that firms spend most of their loan proceeds paying workers, make it a poor fit for some businesses, especially ones that are entirely shut down and don’t want to recall their staff.

According to the Census Bureau, a quarter of small businesses never even applied for the program, and as of now, $130 billion of PPP’s total funding still remains untouched, even as many firms are shuttering permanently across the country.

Congress could have justifiably spent even more money to build a simpler program providing a backstop to all businesses. Or it could have designed something narrower targeting businesses whose revenues plummeted during the crisis. Instead, it built something that gave a lot of money to the businesses that needed it least while hanging some that needed it most out to dry. 

Why the Portland Black Lives Matter protests are so aggravating

Emotions aren't always a reliable guide to truth, but often they indicate that a deeper truth should be sought. 

Something has been bothering me about the nightly Black Lives Matter protests in Portland, just fifty miles away from where I live in Salem, but light years away in terms of how the community is handling police reform.

To offer up one example, in Salem the City Council has embarked on a  months-long performance audit of the Police Department by an outside consultant. This will be a deliberative, fact-based look at how the department carries out its functions, including whether some of those functions would be better performed by people other than police officers.

By contrast, the reform mood in Portland is much more extreme.

Last night I watched a live Facebook feed of Mayor Ted Wheeler gamely trying to converse with Black Lives Matter protesters, both individually and also from a stage. He was booed, jeered, and talked over, though a protest organizer did have some success in getting the crowd to quiet down and listen to Wheeler, since he had been invited to the protest. 

The clear impression I got was that many protesters -- maybe not a majority, but the most vocal of them -- wouldn't settle for anything short of dismantling the Portland Police Bureau and having Wheeler hand over to someone else the job of overseeing it (in Portland, the city council commissioners and mayor head up city departments, an unusual setup).

The Black Lives Matter protests in Salem, compared to Portland, reflect how different the two cities are. Early on a few protesters damaged some property, discharged fireworks at police, and disrupted the downtown area.

But this didn't continue to happen, seemingly in large part because organizers of the protests made it clear that violent acts by those protesting police violence didn't help the Black Lives Matter cause. My wife and I attended a large protest on June 6. It was peaceful and inspiring. The Salem Police Chief spoke at it with no problem.

As I wrote about recently, I find the "Wall of Moms" who have been appearing at Portland protests to be a breath of fresh air. Which is an apt phrase, because just about every night for the past 50+ days, there's been an aggravating tear gas sameness to the Portland protests.

A large crowd shows up. They chant as they walk to the Justice Center and federal courthouse. All is peaceful for a few hours.

Then late at night troublemakers, who I call anarchists because their actions don't seem aimed at achieving any outcome except stirring things up, shoot fireworks at the buildings, light fires, tear down portable fences, throw things at police, and generally do what they can to provoke a police response, which now means mostly federal agents Trump has sent to guard the courthouse.

There's nothing inspiring about the resulting use of tear gas, flash bang grenades, pepper spray, batons, and such. I watch videos and news reports with a feeling of aggravation at everyone involved: police/federal agents, anarchists, Mayor Wheeler, Black Lives Matter leaders -- everybody who could be deescalating the violence at the protests, but isn't.

At least, not effectively. 

I haven't been able to understand why this is happening until I read a great piece by Nick Budnick today, "Rough Justice: Portland police and protesters are locked in a vicious circle. How did we get here?" Budnick cites protesters, police, criminal justice professors, Mayor Wheeler, and others in an informative analysis of what's been going wrong in Portland.

You should read the whole piece. Below are some excerpts to whet your appetite for the full journalistic meal.

My take on the piece basically is this: Everybody is partly right, and everybody is partly wrong. The problem is that the people who are most wrong won't listen to the people who are most right, because they wrongly believe they're completely right. And if that confuses you, read the entire piece and Budnick will clear things up.

For nearly two months, a small portion of downtown Portland has smelled like tear gas. Nights are filled with the sounds of explosions and drums, police warnings to clear the area, and the shouts of protesters. Outside the Multnomah County Justice Center — now blanketed with graffiti calling for the abolition of the police or death to cops — riot-control police square off against citizens wearing gas masks and homemade armor.

...The chaotic situation in Portland, although contained to a tiny area of the city, has already led to more than 400 arrests and cost the local government millions of dollars. And now the arrival of federal officers has made a bad situation worse, galvanizing protesters and reportedly drawing reinforcements from places like Washington state, Texas, and Arizona. It has also led to second-guessing among the local protest community and the Portland Police Bureau alike: How did we get here? Could it have been avoided, and are there any lessons to be learned?

...On May 29, the second night of protests over Floyd’s killing and, more generally, police brutality, a vigil in North Portland was followed by a march downtown. A small group of protesters broke into the Justice Center, setting a fire inside the ground-floor lobby. Looters also ransacked downtown businesses, and dozens of people were arrested.

Since then, protest gatherings have continued at the Justice Center almost every evening, often culminating in nightly violence. At the same time, the large peaceful protests that took place on the east side of the Willamette River have mostly faded away.

Even before federal law-enforcement agents arrived, the PPB’s [Portland Police Bureau's] reliance on conventional crowd-control tactics — namely tear gas, riot munitions, and intimidating bull rushes down city streets — simply wasn’t working. For every city block cleared, protesters dug their heels in further, while video footage of police tactics only served to reinforce the conflict.

...According to experts on mass demonstration and crowd control, central to the PPB’s failed approach is a focus on crowd, instead of individual, behavior. When police use force on an entire group of protesters, many of whom haven’t been committing crimes, “you’re essentially radicalizing the crowd,” said Edward Maguire, professor in criminology and criminal justice at Arizona State University. “There is a psychological change that occurs [among more moderate protesters]: Their views get more extreme. Their perception that violence and disruptive behavior is warranted tends to increase.”

Instead of focusing on tactics of overwhelming force that only serve to anger people, Maguire said police departments like Portland’s need to step back and think about the longer view. “We need to rethink our strategies,” Maguire said, “and that’s not happening.”

...Two Portland police officers, speaking under condition of anonymity, say the sheer intensity of the protests, in combination with protesters’ late-night tactics specifically, created a seemingly untenable situation. “They’ve challenged the traditional method of crowd management, and that’s the unique factor here,” one longtime officer said. “This is very different than all the other demonstrations that we’ve seen over the years because of its sustained level of aggression.”

The officers say a small, organized group of anarchist-identifying agitators have set more than a hundred fires downtown. This subgroup of protestors is also setting off large fireworks and using slingshots to launch ball bearings, bottles of frozen water, and containers of urine and feces — all deliberate and repeated attempts to injure officers.

...The result is an ongoing quagmire in which police use the same controversial tactics night after night — clearing masses of protesters in response to provocations by a few. This strategy has generated a cascade of negative publicity, while failing to stop the vandalism, arson, and attacks on police carried out by a small fraction of protest participants.

“They’re losing the PR battle,” said Jim Moore, a Pacific University government professor who serves as political outreach director of the Tom McCall Center for Civic Engagement. “Regardless of the reforms that [elected leaders] are talking about, when you fire tear gas and flash-bangs, it looks like an occupying army.”

"Wall of Moms" should replace anarchists in Portland protests

Last night I was spellbound while watching a live Facebook feed of Monday's Black Lives Matter protest in downtown Portland, which also is a protest against the federal agents Trump has sent to supposedly protect the federal courthouse, but really is a desperate attempt to boost his fading reelection chances.

I also followed the excellent on-scene reporting of Eddy Binford-Ross, editor of the South Salem High School newspaper, the Clypian -- where she shares photos, Twitter tweets, and stories about the Portland protests. 

The most inspiring part of the protest was another appearance by the "Wall of Moms," mostly yellow-clad mothers who had come out to provide a much-needed female emphasis to the protests that have been happening daily, or almost daily, since late May.

There's something deeply moving about thousands of people peacefully marching along, being led by mothers linking arms in protest against injustice.

But later in the evening, I was hugely irritated by male protesters, better termed anarchists, who Binford-Ross documented tearing down plywood that covered the windows and doors of the federal courthouse, then using what looked like baseball bats to break the glass. 

Dudes, what's the fucking point of doing that?!

It's exactly what Trump wants, to be able to point to protestors/anarchists doing damage to a federal building so he can justify not only keeping federal agents in Portland, but also sending them to other large cities run by Democratic mayors. You're doing Trump's bidding, which is at odds with what the Black Lives Matter movement needs.

The fence in front of the federal courthouse had been removed. At previous protests, fencing had been taken down by protesters and used in a futile attempt to block the areas where federal agents were watching and where they would fire munitions at protesters, then come out to disperse the crowd.

At first I thought, great, the Wall of Moms should face the courthouse in a peaceful stand against the presence of federal agents, and to prevent the anarchists from doing damage to the courthouse that would provoke the agents to use tear gas, flash bangs, and pepper spray against the protesters.

But that didn't happen, maybe because moms have to go home at a halfway reasonable hour to do their mother duties while violent anarchists are free to do their stupid stuff whenever they feel like it.

On the nightly news in Portland I've seen Black leaders pleading to protesters to stop damaging property in downtown Portland because this isn't helping the Black Lives Matter cause. However, I deeply doubt that the anarchists are going to accept the request to engage in dialogue with those leaders.

So that means the protesters themselves, and the Wall of Moms in particular, have to stop the anarchists from doing their destructive thing. 

Look: I'm deeply progressive and highly supportive of the protests. But it is absolutely wrong to destroy property, federal, state, or private. The federal agents are using excessive force, for sure. Yet they are justified in acting to stop the anarchists from damaging the courthouse.

Hopefully tonight's protest, if there is one, will feature a larger Wall of Moms and zero anarchists. Or at least no destructive behavior from the anarchists. 

Oh, almost forgot to mention another super-irritating thing the anarchists did last night, light a fire at the base of a tree in front of the federal courthouse. It's now charred and might not survive. 

Here's some screenshots of Eddy Binford-Ross's tremendous reporting on Twitter via the Clypian account. These are from the end of the protest. Most of the protest was entirely peaceful until the people I'm calling anarchists started destroying property.

I realize some would prefer to simply call them protesters, but there's a long history of "anarchists" in Portland, so I think that word is justified. Heck, there's a Portland Anarchist General Assembly Facebook page (albeit no longer active) and an Anarchist Student Union page with the most recent post being:"We are non-violent with people who are non-violent with us. But we are NOT nonviolent with anyone who is violent with us." - Malcolm X

Here's a definition. I'd say it applies to the jerks who destroy property during otherwise peaceful protests. And not to steal anything, usually. Just to cause conflict.

Salem Police Department job summary points to danger of militarization

Should police officers see themselves as warriors or as peacemakers? Most experts I've seen who have weighed in on this question argue for peacemakers, not this sort of officer.

After all, most of what police officers do has nothing to do with violence. Here's one of the images in a blog post called "Policing Explained in a Few Graphs" by Jerry Ratcliffe, a professor in the Department of Criminal Justice at Temple University. Ratcliffe says:

1. Policing is overwhelmingly a social service

Graph no. 1. This is from the second edition of my book “Intelligence-Led Policing“. The area of each box represents the volume of incidents in 2015 in the City of Philadelphia (about 1.5m in total). These incidents can come from verified calls for service from the public (something really took place as confirmed by a police officer), or from officer-initiated events (such as drug incidents). 

What is clear from the graphic is that violent crime plays such a small part in the day-to-day demands on police departments, even in Philadelphia, one of the more troubled cities in the U.S. While the media frets over homicide, it can be seen in the lower right as one of the least noticeable boxes in the graph. The majority of the police department’s workload is the day-to-day minutiae of life in a big city.

However, I strongly doubt that most would-be police officers would be motivated by a pitch to "do your part to manage the day-to-day minutiae of life in a big city." Or, a medium sized city like Salem.

Here's part of a job summary for entry level officers in the Salem Police Department that someone sent me. I've boldfaced parts that relate to the very small part of a police officer job that involves violence or the need to have a warrior mentality.

As a law enforcement leader in the Pacific Northwest, the Salem Police Department is searching for outstanding candidates for the position of entry level police officer. Our agency has a full complement of special teams and units to include: SWAT, Bomb Squad, Riot Team, Tactical Negotiations Team, Narcotics Unit, DEA Task Force, Detectives, Motorcycle Unit, Mountain Bike Unit, School Resource Officers, Crash Reconstructionist, Computer Forensics, Mental Health Unit, Training Division, Peer Support Team, Civil Investigations Team, and Patrol.

We are the second largest municipality in the state of Oregon whose responsibilities include providing public safety services and peace of mind to the nearly 175,000 residents in the capital city. In September of 2020 the Salem Police Department will move into the largest, stand-alone police facility in the state. This will provide you the opportunity to serve in a state-of-the-art public safety facility.

The Salem Police Department is the recognized leader in our region for technology and training to better serve our community and neighboring agencies. We have a fleet of state-of-the-art patrol cars with the latest computer technology, cameras, automated license plate reader systems, and weapons platforms. As a Salem Police Officer, you will be issued your needed equipment to include: uniforms, weapons (handgun and rifle), boots, duty gear, iPhone, and more.

Officers will use their city-provided iPhone hugely more than their handgun and rifle. But when people think of what police do, talking on a iPhone probably doesn't come to mind.

For some reason the Salem Police Department used its SWAT team during the recent Black Lives Matter protests in Salem, maybe because the SWAT team has so little to do. Regardless, it is painfully clear that when police treat citizens who are protesting injustice as if they were an enemy force, the result usually doesn't turn out well.

Case in point: the nightly protests in Portland. Yes, some of those involved do appear to be anarchists who aren't so much interested in peacefully protesting as in provoking the police to respond with force. 

But when the police react to a tossed water bottle or firework with tear gas, flash bangs, and non-lethal (supposedly) rounds, the counter-reaction is entirely predictable -- additional protests fueled by the police actions. And so it goes, like two elementary school children arguing on a playground. (Do children still say doofus? I could be showing my age.)

"You're a doofus!" 
"No, you are!"
"Takes one to know one, doofus!"
"I may be a little doofus but you're a GIANT doofus!"

After Trump sent federal agents into Portland in a desperate attempt to rekindle his fading reelection chances, the situation got worse in the city. Nightly protests were winding down before Trump unleashed untrained federal personnel wearing camouflage gear and carrying assault rifles on the protesters.

Now we're in what could be called Theater of the Absurd, if the absurdity hadn't already almost cost a protester his life after he was struck in the head by a "non-lethal" round that nonetheless left him with fractures that required facial reconstruction surgery.

Trump's escalation of the situation by further militarizing it has led to a standoff with no apparent end in sight.

This is the danger of police, or pretend police in this case, buying into a warrior rather than peacekeeper mentality. Likely Trump won't allow the federal agents to be withdrawn so long as the protests are continuing, because that would make him look weak given his pseudo-masculine sense of self.

And the protesters probably feel that they can't stop what they're doing and thereby give Trump a win, which would encourage him to try the same stunt of sending federal agents into other liberal cities just to show... I don't know, that he can?

Is this how we want police to behave? The guy being hit in the video below with a baton, and barely flinching, is a Navy veteran who went to a Portland protest because he was upset with the federal agents abducting people off the street and taking them away in unmarked cars, an obvious violation of their constitutional rights.

The video infuriates me. And it adds fuel to the flame of the protests. All because police in general, and the federal agents in particular, view themselves more as soldiers fighting an enemy than as peacemakers keeping people safe.

City officials encouraging COVID free-for-all in Salem parks

What a difference between Salem and Eugene when it comes to making sure that city parks are available, safe, and welcoming to all in an equitable fashion in these COVID-19 days.

The City of Salem is operating its parks quite differently from Eugene, with no reservation permit system at all anymore. This allows Salem Awakening 2020, a religious group, to continue appropriating the Riverfront Park amphitheater every evening from 6 to 8 pm for many weeks or months, using a sound system and also, I’ve heard, city electricity. 

UPDATE: Councilor Leung forwarded me a message from a city employee saying Salem Awakening isn't using city electricity. OK, I'll accept that. I just wonder how batteries could power large speakers and electrified musical instruments. See:

Councilor Leung, while we are no longer taking reservations for park spaces, we are allowing drop in use of our park facilities, which could be considered first come first serve.

Without a reservation process in place I realize that some conflicts could occur between groups and hopefully everyone will remain civil and courteous as we work through this pandemic together. 

The church group does not have access to our electrical, apparently they are using battery power to amplify the program. No city assets are being used per Public Works. 

Thanks Mike Niblock 

Of course, this prevents anyone else from using the amphitheater from 6 to 8 pm unless they want to argue with Salem Awakening about who got there first. After the permit for Salem Awakening was revoked, and the religious group vowed to keep on meeting in the park, the City of Salem did away with permits entirely.

This is unfair to everyone in Salem who wants to schedule a group meeting in a park. If you agree, tell the City Manager (Steve Powers) and the City Council how you feel about this:

[email protected]
[email protected]

By contrast, this morning I learned from a Eugene Parks and Open Spaces Division employee about how that city, which is about the same size as Salem, is handling park reservation permits. I've boldfaced an especially pertinent requirement. In Eugene:

— Groups over 100 can’t get a permit to meet.

— Groups under 20 don’t need a permit to meet.

— A group with a size between 20 and 100 has to meet the state’s Covid guidelines/requirements. Eugene requires a Covid plan for groups of this size. 

— A group without a reservation permit can’t use electricity or water in a Eugene park. 

— Prior to July 7 all permits were cancelled. On July 7 permits began to be issued for groups between 20 and 100. All big events with attendance over 100 have been cancelled.

 

Yesterday someone sent me a photo of last night’s Salem Awakening meeting.

 

On Wednesday Governor Brown’s order to wear a mask outside if a six foot physical distancing isn’t possible went into effect. People sure seem to be sitting closer than six feet from each other. I don’t see anyone wearing a mask. Hard to believe all the people in close proximity to each other are family members. 

 

At the start of a video of what appears to be the Wednesday Salem Awakening event, the organizers say they are encouraging six feet of social distancing and are making masks available. But that's different from requiring social distancing and that masks be worn by those sitting closer than six feet from a non-family member.

 

So there's a lot not to like about how Salem city officials have decided to abandon the reservation/permit system for large groups wanting to meet in city parks. Unlike in Eugene, Salem Awakening is being allowed to plug in their sound system to electricity at the Riverfront Park amphitheater. And since no permits are being required, there is no leverage for the City of Salem to demand that social distancing and mask-wearing requirements be followed in public parks.

 

This "who cares?" attitude toward COVID is occurring while Oregon just registered the highest daily infection count ever, 437 new cases. That Statesman Journal story also reports:

Salem halts in-person city services

Due to the increasing number of new COVID-19 cases in the region, the city of Salem will close the recently reopened in-person services at city hall starting Friday.

The change effectively closes the limited services, including in-person bill payment, parks reservations and development permit service center, that the city began offering on July 6.

City officials said the decision to close in-person services was made after receiving additional guidance from public health agencies about limiting indoor gatherings to no more than ten people.

The first COVID cases in Oregon were reported on March 2. It's now July 16. So City officials have had over four a half months to prepare their operations for life during a pandemic.

Yet even with all that time available, now they aren't able to do something as simple as having people who want to reserve a park for a group activity, and pay for the reservation, do this online.

Gosh, I recently saw an ad in the free West Salem Newspaper from a realtor who is able to have a prospective house buyer look at a property, make an offer on it, transact all of the purchase details, and receive the closing documents -- all without any person-to-person contact.

Meanwhile, Salem city officials have given up on reservations and are allowing a free-for-all when it comes to groups using city parks. 

It may well be that at some point a group other than Salem Awakening is going to want to use the Riverfront Park amphitheater during the same time as the religious group has taken it over without a permit. Not just once, but day after day, week upon week, until September 8, I've heard.

They probably think Jesus will protect their nightly takeover of the amphitheater. They sure seem to think that Jesus is protecting them from COVID, given the fervent laying on of hands a few days ago.

Quite a few people have shared their concern about the hands-off attitude City Manager Steve Powers and other city officials are displaying about the permit-free takeover of the Riverfront Park amphitheater by Salem Awakening. I've seen creative suggestions for what could happen at the amphitheater during, say, a few hours before and after the 6 pm start time of the religious event.

Like a heavy metal concert, recorded or otherwise. Even more appealing, a Satanic Temple event. (Sadly, there is no longer a chapter in Oregon.)

Additional update: Councilor Leung also shared this July 10 message from City Manager Steve Powers. It confirms my view that the City of Salem basically has thrown up its hands and decided not to try to make groups that use city parks without a permit conform to COVID public health guidelines and requirements. Very disappointing.

City staff are adjusting to Oregon Health Authority and State of Oregon guidance and requirements regarding social distancing, mask, and contact tracing.  At the same time, we are responding to Salem residents and others who are unhappy with specific events and the inconsistency between street uses and park uses.

We do not have clear guidance  from OHA or the State  for use of streets.  

We continue to presume that demonstrations will occur regardless of whether the City issues a permit or closes a street.

Restaurants and retail have guidance and requirements for operating safely – indoors or out of doors.

For parks and other City facilities, we are not issuing permits or reservations.  We are evaluating our staff availability.  At this time, we are not staffed to ensure the groups can meet public health requirements.  When the City charges someone to reserve a park facility, the state reopening guidelines place responsibility on the City for monitoring for social distancing, mask use, and contact tracing. 

We have refunded the reservation for the church group that had reserved the Riverfront Park amphitheater every night through Labor Day (73 dates). We are also going to refund the permit for a yoga group that had another three days remaining on their reservation.  We are encouraging groups to use park facilities on a drop-in basis.   

Managing public goals (right to assemble, protecting public health, recreation) without conflict is becoming increasingly difficult.

Steve Powers
City Manager
City of Salem

Five takeaways from a disturbingly strange Salem City Council hearing

First off, let me assure you that by and large I think strange is good. That's why I had a Strange Up Salem column in Salem Weekly for three years and continue to maintain a Facebook page by that name. 

But watching a Salem City Council hearing last night on an appeal of the use of $400,000 worth of SDC (System Development Charge) funds to buy a property at 298 Taybin Road in West Salem left me with a decidedly uneasy sense of strangeness.

Something didn't feel right. 

This is my attempt to describe what bothered me about the hearing on E.M. Easterly's appeal of the city's decision. (See here and here for previous posts on this subject.)

As you can read below, there's something wrong with how the City Council interacts with concerned citizens and city staff. I've noticed this for a long time, but it became crystal clear last night how bad the problems are -- foremost among which is the fact that most members of the City Council don't seem concerned about this. 

With three new councilors joining the council in January, hopefully things will change for the better. Here's five takeaways from the hearing.

(1) City staff stonewalled Easterly's efforts to get information he needed for his appeal. Easterly started off with a brilliant summation of the basis for his appeal.
Download SW Oral Testimony Narrative Document #7

Let me be as blunt as possible I am charging the Public Works staff with a level of hubris fostered by decades of well-intended recommendations that, whether intentional or not, skated around adopted City policies and the City's legal obligations. The defendants in this appeal are those City staff members who disregarded their responsibilities to Council and inappropriately recommended the use of Stormwater SDC funds to purchase the Taybin property.

The relationship between staff and Council must be one of trust. Council relies upon accurate and legally correct information from staff. The staff recommendation which council adopted last November to purchase a parcel of land in West Salem was an inappropriate application of staff's discretionary responsibility.

...Transparency is missing; the decision-making body (City Council) has not been fully advised. This pattern of ignoring inconvenient City policies and procedures and not following the rule of law is not new; indeed, it has been acknowledged by City legal staff.

Therefore, my appeal this evening focuses upon the City staff's abuse of discretion when applying Council adopted policies and procedures and staff's failing to provide full and transparent disclosure of the information and reasoning which support its recommended action.

Easterly listed 25 questions he submitted to City staff that were ignored over a four-month period. Yet the slogan of the City of Salem is "At Your Service."

That's untrue. Glenn Davis, Peter Fernandez, and other City staff did a marked disservice to Easterly by stonewalling his requests for information.
Download SW Unanswered questions II

(2) Concerned citizens should be viewed as heroes, not villains. People like Easterly who spend months trying to hold city staff and the City Council accountable for their actions should be applauded. Yet it is clear that staff, and to a lesser extent the council also, viewed Easterly as an annoyance to be brushed away.

This is wrong.

Easterly is akin to an explorer who ventures deep into the jungle of the City of Salem bureaucracy and returned with tales of what he found there. His report should have been met with concern by city councilors and the City Manager.

They could have said, "Mr. Easterly, I'm sorry you had such a problem getting information you needed for your appeal. We want to meet with you and figure out ways we can do things better."

But, no. There was none of that. This is the sign of an organization that hunkers down in a defensive crouch when critics point out flaws in city operations rather than viewing criticism as an opportunity to improve.

(3) The City Council has way too much trust in city staff. There is no ombudsperson at the City of Salem, no equivalent of the Inspectors General who look into misdeeds by federal agencies. The City Council is who citizens look to for oversight of city operations. 

But last night I heard councilors glibly say, "I guess we have to trust city staff." Huh? The same city staff who stonewalled Easterly's efforts to get information about the Taybin Road purchase for supposed stormwater purposes is to be trusted when they provide information to city councilors? 

What leads them to believe that?

There was plenty of opportunity to ask probing questions of staff. Easterly provided 25 of them. Yet as described below, the most basic questions about the Taybin Road purchase went either unanswered, or unremarked on when disturbing answers were provided last night.

(4) A stormwater purchase should relate to a stormwater project, right? Not at City Hall. Easterly did his best to get city staff to answer questions about why, exactly, $400,000 in stormwater SDC funds were spent to buy the Taybin Road property and have a house on it demolished.

After all, an issue at the heart of his appeal was whether state law was followed in the purchase. Easterly told the council:

By law Stormwater SDC funds must be used for stormwater infrastructure improvements. The November staff report recommended the land purchase claiming the purchase supported “Reliable and Efficient Infrastructure” without describing that stormwater infrastructure and without explaining how or why Stormwater SDC funds may be utilized to facilitate “Natural Environment Stewardship”.

At the hearing Councilor Kaser, I think it was, asked Fernandez if anything had been done with the property in the four months since it supposedly was an "immediate need" for stormwater management. He answered that nothing had been done with it, other than demolishing the house that used to be on it.

Further, Fernandez didn't describe any specific future stormwater project planned for the property either. He said that sometime in the future, they might do something with the property, stormwater-wise. Or, maybe not. Ditto for its use as right of way for Marine Drive. That might happen. Or it might not. 

If someone's spouse came home and said, "Honey, I just spent $400,000 on a lot," then couldn't provide any specific reason why the purchase was a good idea, likely there would be an intense discussion, to put it mildly. But the City Council, with the exception of Jackie Leung, who was the sole vote in favor of the appeal, just shrugged off the non-answer from Fernandez.

Like I said above, the council trusts city staff to do the right thing. Which is a really dangerous attitude for a City Council to take, because it makes staff think they can do anything and won't be held to account for it.

(5) An executive session to discuss the property purchase was a sham. Glenn Davis and Peter Fernandez repeatedly talked about a November 2019 executive session where, I assume, the terms of the purchase were discussed, followed by City Council approval of the purchase. Easterly writes:

The November 2019 council authorization to purchase the Taybin parcel reflects Council reliance upon and trust in staff recommendations. The staff recommendation appears to be a continuation of staff abuse of discretion that has occurred over a number of years regarding the application of the Salem Area Comprehensive Plan policies and subordinate master plan policies.

I kept waiting for a city councilor to say something like, "Oh, now I remember. In the executive session staff explained that the reason for buying the property was to make these stormwater improvements to the area."

But no, there was nothing like that. Apparently city staff just said something like, "We want to buy the property with stormwater SDC funds" and the City Council obliged with few if any probing questions.

This is no way for a City Council to behave, as a lackey of staff rather than as an overseer of staff decisions and recommendations.

That gets me to a message I sent E.M. Easterly last night as a first attempt to digest what happened at the hearing. I'll include it as a continuation to this post.

My basic point is that the council is unduly intertwined with city staff. For example, at last night's hearing, city staff were defending their actions while also providing information to the council, an obvious conflict of interest. They got to interact with the council to a much greater degree than Easterly did.

City officials allow religious group to use sound system in Riverfront Park even after permit revoked

Here's another example of how officials at the City of Salem engage in selective enforcement of municipal requirements, another recent example being the notorious instance of the Police Department telling armed "militia" members how to avoid a curfew while enforcing the curfew against Black Lives Matter protesters.

This morning I asked the City Manager, Steve Powers, questions about how it is that Salem Awakening, a religious group with political overtones, has been able to keep holding meetings in Riverfront Park, complete with a sound system, even though a city permit that allows them to do this has been revoked.

It's now 5:20 pm. I haven't gotten a response to my questions.

--------------------------

Mr. Powers, I’m going to write a blog post today about the religious group that's been meeting in Riverfront Park and using a sound system there even though it has been reported that the City of Salem revoked their permit. See this KTPV story, "Salem churches say permit for nightly outdoor services revoked."

The KPTV story says that the group plans to keep meeting at the park, and as you can see below that’s what has been happening. 

Salem Awakening 2020 says it will continue to meet in the park every night through Sept. 7. It says the city has told them it can’t stop people from meeting outside, but that they can’t use their sound equipment without the permit. Organizers say they will not be adhering to that rule, because it causes people to group closer to be able to hear.

So my questions are:

 

(1) is it now the policy of the City of Salem to allow groups to use sound systems in city parks without a permit?

 

(2) If the answer to the above question is “No,” then why is Salem Awakening being allowed to do this?

 

(3) If the answer to the above question is “Yes,” who authorized this change to city policies, and is it currently being applied fairly to all groups, not just religious ones?

(4) My wife, Laurel, is the organizer of an atheist discussion group that, after meeting via Zoom for several weeks, now gets together on Sunday at Bush Park, where they (obviously) sit outside. Sometimes it is difficult for members of the group to hear what others are saying. Since the City of Salem is allowing the Salem Awakening group to use a sound system in a city park without a permit, is it also OK for my wife’s group to use a sound system at Bush Park for their group without a permit? 

 

I look forward to your response ASAP, since as noted above I will be writing about this today. This issue is being discussed on Facebook, as shown by the screenshots below. 

 

It doesn’t put the City of Salem in a good light to have what appears to be another instance of selective enforcement where certain groups are given a free pass on city requirements. (This controversy also came up in the recent Black Lives Matter protests.) 

 

    — Brian

 

 

 

 

City staff appear to be undermining Salem City Council policies

A seemingly insignificant item on the July 13 City Council meeting agenda is a window into a really important question: are City of Salem staff undermining City Council priorities through shadowy, if not sleazy, administrative schemes? It sure seems so.

Best undermining cartoon I could find.
Substitute city staff for tunnel digger and City Council for people standing on top.

On June 18 I wrote a blog post called "Shady stuff associated with Salem City Council agenda item." The agenda item was postponed, and a hearing on the appeal by E.M. Easterly of the city's purchase of a house at 298 Taybin Road NW was scheduled for next Monday's council meeting.

Easterly is one of those unsung heroes who cast light on dubious actions by government officials that otherwise would go unnoticed. He has dug deep into the geeky details of the Taybin Road purchase, forcing city staff to defend what may turn out to be indefensible.

With the passage of three weeks, the shadiness of the house purchase has gotten even darker. Here's four perspectives on this issue that provide a good overview of the various levels of concern the City Council should have about what city staff have done.

First, I got these thoughts today from a fellow citizen activist who prefers to remain anonymous. This is the highest level of concern -- whether city staff are deliberately undermining City Council policies regarding the construction of Marine Drive in West Salem.

A Race Between the City Council and the City Administration -- Operate in a Parallel Universe

 

Institutional resistance is common when new leadership takes over an organization, but what the Salem City Council faces with the current City management could be characterized as indifference or complete disregard. It is one thing for the Council to set policy, but it is another thing for management to interpret that policy as it sees fit.

 

Unless there is accountability, future City Council votes may be meaningless.

 

Since June 10, 2019 when the City Council voted to use $3.6 million to route a future City street called Marine Drive through one of two alignments, the City management has made more progress on the alignment that was not approved by the City Council. Here is the status update on each route.

 

Percent Surveyed --  The City has recently surveyed part of the alignment that the City Council voted against.

Percent Appraised -- The City has paid for appraisal reports on property the City voted against buying.

Percent Purchased -- The only property actually purchased so far is for the "wrong" alignment and is the subject of the appeal hearing on Monday. The City Council has approved three agreements to buy right-of-way, but none have closed other than along the 'wrong" alignment.

Houses Displaced -- City Administration 1 of 6 and Council zero of two.

Cost per SF -- City Council has approved spending no more than $5.10 per square foot on the Council alignment and City Administration paid over $8 (I will confirm exact amount) per square foot on their alignment.

 

It is a race between the unelected City administration and the elected City Council to purchase their own version of Marine Drive. As of the middle of July 2020 and 13 months into the race, the City administration is winning.

 

But how can the City bureaucrats be buying property for a street that is not supported by a majority of the City Council, when the City Council has the "power of the purse"?  The answer so far is that City management use another source of money and justify the purchase for a yet-to-be-identified other purpose related to stormwater.

 

The reason this is all coming to a head in front of the City Council on Monday, July 13, is because the City administration had to be "creative" in finding a source of money and a citizen activist, E.M. Easterly, is using state law to get the attention of the City Council in an appeal hearing to stop the City from using a dedicated funding source that might be inappropriate.  

 

Second, here's public testimony submitted by Mark Wigg on the Taybin Road house purchase appeal.

Dear Mayor and City Council,

The purchase of this property raises many questions that are not addressed in the staff report of June 2, 2020.

Staff learned of a development planned for this property in 2017 when it was owned by Charlotte Wilson, who was 74 years old at the time. Did Ms. Wilson submit plans for development to the city? The City hears many rumors of developments that do not proceed beyond rumor. What record does the City have that a development was imminent?

(1) In March of 2019, Ms. Wilson died. If the City was worried about a development on the property, why didn’t the City negotiate with the executor of the estate to obtain the property? The property sold in May of 2019 for $199,500. 

(2) The City agreed to purchase the property in October, 2019 for $401,765. Where is the City’s appraisal for the property? Did the City consider using condemnation to acquire the property for less than this amount? The City agreed to pay twice the purchase price of the property less than six months after it was purchased by JDV Investments.  Some people may think this deal smells a little fishy.

(3) The Staff Report states that the purchase was needed for immediate use for stormwater detention and stream bank conservation. Where are the City’s plans for making this a stormwater detention facility? How does the City know that this is the best property for a stormwater detention facility if no plans for the facility have been developed? The city could have required any development of the property to protect the streambank and slough?

(4) Who specifically at the City negotiated the price and determined the need to purchase this property?

(5) When purchasing right of way for Marine Drive north of Cameo, how often did the City pay over 200% of appraised or recent sales price? If 200% over appraisal is the new standard for property acquisition, the City should let everyone know.

The City should not be spending money foolishly. This purchase was not needed. The City Manager needs to follow up on this serious error in judgment by making the property acquisition process based less on whim and rumor and more on facts. This type of transaction makes people think that the City favors some people over others and may be corrupt.

Mark Wigg

UPDATE: It looks even more like City of Salem staff, in the person of Glenn Davis, the city's chief development engineer, are stonewalling attempts to find out what happened with the highly suspicious Taybin Road house purchase. Here's screenshots of an email exchange between E.M. Easterly and Glenn Davis. Easterly wants answers to pertinent questions. Davis says, in effect, get lost.

Third, here's public testimony on the appeal submitted by Linda Bierly. "SDC" refers to System Development Charges.

Mayor Bennett and Councilors:

Thank you for the opportunity to comment on Agenda Item 4.a, the Public Hearing on Appeal of System Development Charge Expenditure.

I support Mr. Easterly's appeal of the use of Stormwater System Development Charge (SDC) funds for the purchase of real property at 298 Taybin Road NW.

Public works staff makes the argument that this property was purchased for stormwater detention and streambank conservation. If this is true, project details have yet to be provided. This purchase is not identified in the 309 list of stormwater projects and the $400,000 price tag exceeds the 5% contingency allowance for small projects in the West Bank. 

The staff report also states "possible future use for Marine Drive NW construction."  

It is my understanding that City Council has rejected routing the future Marine Drive from Glen Creek Road NW to Cameo Street NW. Rather, Council has supported a more direct (and much more cost effective) route for the future Marine Drive utilizing the existing 5th Avenue NW to connect to Marine Drive at the Cameo St. NW / 5th Street NW intersection, thereby sparing Wallace Marine Park, Pioneer Village, and Willamette Slough the environmental, noise, and safety impacts that road construction and the road itself would inevitably bring.

I hope you will also look at the context of this transaction that appears to have cost the City far more money that it should have, was justified by vague and undefined stormwater plans and, inexplicably, includes the possibility of funding a defunct transportation project with Stormwater SDC monies. If the construction of Marine Drive through this property somehow materialized, the Stormwater SDC fund was to have been reimbursed with Transportation SDCs. 

Please support Mr. Easterly's appeal. It is to the public's advantage that transactions of this nature receive far greater public scrutiny than staff provided. It is to the public's advantage that the entire Stormwater SDC process and use of this fund is more transparent.  

Currently, it appears to be far too easy to hide motive and cost in bureaucratic legalese and without folks like Mr. Easterly calling attention to process, to simply slip an extra $400,000.00 into budgetary business as usual.  

Linda Bierly
Ward 8

Fourth, and lastly, here's a summary of E.M. Easterly's appeal sent to me by Easterly.

Executive Summary of Salem Stormwater SDC  Expenditure Appeal

• This appeal addresses the inaccurate policy assumptions and fuzzy procedural practices of Salem City staff seeking to use “unspecified” Stormwater SDC moneys to purchase land without actually affirming that the purchase complied with the Salem Stormwater Master Plan and State statutes. The recommendation and initial generalizations are described by Easterly as an abuse of staff discretion. See Easterly Document #7.
• November 2019: City of Salem staff recommended the purchase of land along the edge of Wallace Marine Park in West Salem with Salem Stormwater SDC funds.
• The Salem City Council authorized the land purchase.
• March 2020: E.M. Easterly reviewed the above staff purchase recommendation against the 2000 Salem Stormwater Master Plan. Easterly learned:
• (a) the recommended land purchase was not included in the stormwater project list for the West Bank basin,
• (b) the land purchase was not included in the 2019-2020 Stormwater SDC expenditure budget, and
• (c) staff claimed mid fiscal year Stormwater SDC “unspecified” moneys were an eligible expenditure resources and expendable without Council budget modification. 
• Easterly challenged the staff claim and asked for historical evidence of prior Council authorizations of  mid-year expenditure of Stormwater SDC funds on non-budgeted projects.
• May 2020: City Attorney Atchison identified the 2000 Salem Stormwater Master Plan 5% pipes and ditches conveyance allowance as the actual source of the SDC funds.  
• Easterly challenged the Atchison claim on multiple levels. 
• (a) The total West Bank Basin 5% conveyance allowance allocation was less than the land purchase price. 
• (b) The pipes and ditches project description in the 2000 Salem Stormwater Master Plan provided no evidence that a land purchase and dwelling removal qualified.
• (c) Questions were raised seeking evidence to support whether the Stormwater SDC expenditure met the requirements of the Stormwater Master Plan and State statutes. 
• June 2020: Staff issued a report to Council declaring the Stormwater SDC expenditure “... is consistent with the allowance for small projects …” by declaring the 5% allowance for small projects was system wide rather than a basin by basin allocation.  The Easterly Document #4 disputes that interpretation and raises additional questions staff has never answered.