Recently city councilor Tom Andersen, along with several other councilors, called on City Manager Steve Powers to issue an emergency order banning the use of fireworks in Salem this Fourth of July.
Yesterday Andersen shared a Facebook post where he said, "Other Councilors and I have asked that fireworks be banned in Salem over this weekend. Here is City Manager's response to the general public."
I found the response by City Manager Steve Powers so clueless and irritating, I just had to comment on what Powers said in blazing red below. The message from Powers is in regular type.
What I said is pretty damn blunt and caustic. One reason is that for 31 years my wife and I have lived on ten wooded acres in rural south Salem. Every year we and our neighbors live in fear that some careless person will set off fireworks, legal or illegal, that start a wildfire.
We've tried to make our house wildfire safe, but there's only so much that can be done. Everybody out here is anxious about this Fourth of July, given the drought and extreme recent heat. So having Powers give his "fireworks are fine" response below was really disturbing.
Thank you for contacting the City and sharing your concerns regarding fire danger. Fire Chief Niblock is closely monitoring the weather and fire conditions in Salem. If either forecasted or actual conditions in Salem justify an emergency order, one will be issued.
City Manager Powers and Fire Chief Niblock are clueless about other reasons for a fireworks ban besides the current weather. Our part of Marion County is in a Severe Drought condition after several years of below average rainfall. We just had record-breaking high temperatures, further drying out vegetation markedly. So actual conditions in Salem do justify an emergency order banning fireworks.
Currently, Salem has typical-for-July heat and high humidity. The fire conditions in Salem are not extreme. Forecasted temperatures are in the 80s to 90s through July 4.
Not true. Powers should invest in a smartphone weather app to prevent him making uninformed statements. AccuWeather says July 3 is forecasted to have a high of 89; normal is 79. July 4 is forecasted to have a high of 88; normal is 79. July 5 is forecasted to have a high of 88; normal is 80. So around July 4 Salem will have temperatures 8 to 10 degrees above normal. That isn't typical-for-July heat no matter the City Manager's false assertion that it is.
Comparisons to other cities and counties should consider the weather and fire-risk levels in those areas.
OK. These are the Oregon cities and counties that have banned fireworks: Portland (and bans sales), Multnomah County (and bans sales), Milwaukie (and bans sales), Tigard, Tualatin, Gresham, West Linn, Hood River, The Dalles, Newberg, unincorporated Clackamas County, Bend. Most of these places, like Salem, are in northwest Oregon. They have almost exactly the same weather and fire risk level.
Newberg is forecasted to have a high of 84 on July 4; 80 is normal. Tualatin is forecasted to have a high of 86 on July 4; normal is 79. The July 4 forecast for both cities is lower than the Salem forecast and their expected temperature isn't as much above normal as Salem's is. Yet those cities are banning fireworks while Salem isn't.
Bend, for example, is in an extreme heat warning. Bend’s city/forest fringe is much different than Salem’s geography of agricultural land as a buffer. The two-county agricultural burn ban is in place to control woody debris slash burning.
Powers speaks just like a bureaucrat who values spin over truth. He ignore all the cities and counties in northwest Oregon that are banning fireworks and singles out a central Oregon city. By the way, Mr. City Manager, the forecasted high temperature for Bend on July 4 is 93, just five degrees above Salem's 88.
Police and Fire will both have full staffing over the weekend, with additional resources to respond as necessary.
Wonderful to know. Too bad they won't be responding to reports of illegal fireworks, because you have refused to ban these notorious fire-starters.
City Council has delegated considerable authority to the City Manager for emergency situations.
The City Council needs to rethink this, since our current City Manager is incompetent to decide when an emergency arises. Like, when fireworks are being sold all over Salem in a severe drought condition exacerbated by recent record high temperatures that topped out at 117 degrees just a few days ago.
In careful consultation with the Fire Chief on current and forecasted conditions, consideration of the practical impacts of a ban, and respect for the emergency power City Council has entrusted to me, an emergency order has not been issued.
Sad, but true. You shouldn't be so proud of such a bad decision.
Emergency orders should be limited to actual emergencies that require access to state or federal resources, such as with the ice storm, or to expedite regulatory actions in response to a crisis, such as the emergency order to assist our unhoused residents that allowed the siting of the Safe Sleep shelter. No similar circumstances of justifications exist currently for fireworks.
A lot of people in Salem don't agree with you. You should read the many caustic comments on Facebook about your "let the fireworks burn" decision, written by people who know who dangerously dry their neighborhoods are, and how careless many fireworks users are.
An emergency order banning fireworks would have no practical impact on this Fourth of July. The fireworks that are most likely to cause fires are already illegal in Oregon. An emergency order would not mobilize or provide access to additional resources.
Wow. So wrong. City Manager Powers, you wrongly think that you're many times smarter than city officials in the other Oregon cities who have decided to ban the use of fireworks this year, with some locales banning the sale of fireworks also. Somehow they consider that their actions will have a practical impact -- probably because they're more competent at administration and enforcement than you are.
An emergency order banning the use of fireworks in Salem would be widely publicized. It'd grab peoples' attention, causing most to think twice about setting off fireworks in such dangerous conditions. Sure, some people would ignore the ban, just as some people ignored Governor Brown's order to wear masks during the pandemic. But most people did wear masks. Governor Brown had the guts to be a leader. By contrast, you, City Manager Powers, are a gutless follower of what is easy to do, not what is right to do.
We continue to monitor weather conditions and will inform you if an emergency order is issued.
I'm confident Council Andersen won't be holding his breath for the emergency order that almost certainly won't be issued, but should have been.
CM Powers comment that he wouldn't issue an emergency order unless the situation was so grave that the Federal government had to come to our rescue is without question the dumbest utterance ever made by a municipal official in the history of Western Civilization. Think about it: no attempt to control fireworks unless the damage, either potential or actual, is so extreme that only the Feds can save us! Also, our fellow citizens should note that he deliberately avoids discussing the grief caused by fireworks to a large number of people and their pets. He just doesn't seem to give a rip! Finally, and unbelievably, he says such an order would have NO effect on fireworks usage. Its hard to imagine a public official arguing that he's not going to do the needful because everyone will ignore him.
Posted by: Les Margosian | July 03, 2021 at 03:12 PM
An interview of former City Manager Bob Wells, conducted in 2012 by ELGL, a professional organization dedicated to improving local government, provides a deeper understanding of the challenges inherent in being a city manager within a city manager style of government such as we have in Salem, where political operatives compete for opportunities to further their agendas.
In it, Mr. Wells states that: "I think most city managers would say that managing the politics is the most difficult part of the job." He goes on to describe his formative experiences as an assistant to Larry Wacker, a Salem City Manager from the 90's: "I sat in the office next to his and I remember some of the elected officials would literally start screaming at him to try and influence his staff recommendations because they carried a lot of weight. The angrier they got, the quieter Larry got, which of course only made them angrier. But he never backed down and he never succumbed to political pressure. He was a staunch defender of the charter and of the Council-Manager form of government. He made the difficult recommendations and decisions that he felt were in the best interest of the community even if they were not politically popular. He created an environment where he took all the heat so that the staff could do their jobs."
Staff recommendations are options created by staff for Council consideration of issues that are presented to them for decisions. Ideally, they are informational and provide a sufficiently broad array of choices within a short list of best alternatives. While Council often defines what they want in the way of recommendations, it is still the duty of and challenge to an effective city manager to provide recommendations that are relatively apolitical. Therein lies the rub.
Posted by: Ken | July 04, 2021 at 01:36 AM
So you're dumping on the City Manager for not invoking some subjective emergency powers? Frankly, the City Councilors should ban the sale or use of fireworks within the city's limits except by permit/license (to allow for a controlled show downtown, should that be desired). But to blame the City Manager in this case is to ignore the role our Councilors should be taking. I know Councilor Andersen means well, but this issue is not going away and should be codified by the Council.
Posted by: Jeff | July 06, 2021 at 11:33 AM