Salem Political Snark

Great idea to deal with Salem's homeless problem

A few days ago Susannn Kaltwasser asked an excellent question on a Facebook page where Salem City Council issues are discussed. 

Kaltwasser is correct. An October 2019 survey of Salem residents found that after being asked an open-ended question, 41% said that homelessness and poverty were their top concerns. Crime and drugs were mentioned by only 4%. Here's a screenshot from the survey report,

So it's perplexing that City officials want all of a proposed employee-paid payroll tax that will be on the May 2020 ballot to go to public safety. Here's a information sheet about the payroll tax and operations fee (already passed by the City Council). 
Download City Revenue Fact Sheet

Judging by the citizen survey, putting that estimated $9.1 million a year into efforts to reduce the number of homeless people in Salem is a much higher priority than adding to the police and fire departments budget.

Thus Jim Scheppke had a great idea in a comment he left in response to Kaltwasser's question. (The payroll tax also is being called the "Commuter Tax," since it would raise money from the estimated 60,000 people who work in Salem but live elsewhere. It also would be paid by people who live and work in Salem, naturally.)

This idea should be seriously considered by the City Council.

I'm not sure when the deadline is for filing measures to appear on the May 19, 2020 primary ballot, but likely there is time to amend the measure that currently calls for all of the payroll tax money to be dedicated to public safety.

If you agree that helping the homeless is a better use for $9.1 million a year raised by the employee-paid payroll tax than adding police officers and fire department personnel that don't appear to be urgently needed, send an email to the Salem City Council telling them this: [email protected]

Homelessness is a lot like climate change. Local action isn't nearly enough.

Watching how city staff and the City Council are trying to deal with Salem's homeless problem reminds me of a 60 Minutes story I saw recently about Venice's flooding problem.

The periodic floods of Venice have become more threatening and more frequent. This past November, a sudden storm surge overwhelmed nearly 90% of the city. Climate scientists say what happened that night exactly two months ago in Venice is a warning to the world of what's to come – and not just in Venice.

Climate change is raising sea levels. Venice is being inundated with water to a greater extent than ever before. Giant gates that can be closed to keep the ocean out of Venice are under construction, but they were only designed to be used sparingly. Now, they'd have to be used often, because of the effect of climate change, which they weren't engineered to do.

The 60 Minutes piece showed people in Venice dealing with the flooding with pumps, buckets, raised walkways. All they can do is try to lessen the impact of the rising waters, not deal with the core problem: rapidly rising levels of greenhouse gases all over our planet.

Likewise, people in Salem are trying to deal with our city's homeless problem the best they can. Most recently, according to stories in the Salem Reporter, the City Council is considering allowing car camping in designated places and turning the city-owned Pringle Hall into a homeless shelter.

Yet these actions, as necessary as they are, are akin to pumping out water from a flooded Venice building, which has zero effect on global carbon dioxide levels. They do nothing to deal with the root causes of people living on the streets. 

Some residents of Venice have decided to move from their beautiful city, which I was able to spend a few days in back in 1968. But it really isn't possible to turn our backs on the homeless crisis, unless we're willing to turn our backs on fellow human beings who need our help.

Yesterday I walked along downtown's Court Street around 6 pm after my Tai Chi class was over. For the first time in a long time I didn't see any homeless people. Probably they had moved to the covered areas around the Nordstrom Mall and Rite-Aid, following a ban on homeless camps.

I have to be honest. It was more pleasant to not see homeless people and their belongings. That part of downtown seemed like it had returned to normal, at least for that one night.

But as I sipped a latte at Starbucks, I knew that Salem's homeless were still out there, having to cope with cold nights, physical and mental problems, the anxiety of not knowing when they'd be asked to move on by building security or police officers. It was as if I'd chanced upon a dry St. Mark's Square in Venice which, soon enough, would be flooded again.

Just as with climate change, dealing with homelessness requires action both locally and globally. A lack of affordable housing and extreme income inequality seem to be the main causes of homelessness, just as rising carbon dioxide levels are the prime cause of global warming.

So we can't expect much progress to be made on Salem's homeless problem until things change at the state and, especially, national level. Keep this in mind when you vote in the May primary election and November general election. 

It's an undeniable fact that Republicans in Oregon and elsewhere don't support actions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions anywhere near to the extent that Democrats do. Republicans also aren't nearly as committed as Democrats are to increasing the supply of affordable housing and reducing income inequality.

Thus if you claim to care about helping the homeless, and think that all people in Salem need to do is open more shelter beds and give homeless people a safer place to sleep outside, think again.

If you aren't voting for Democrats or progressive independents in local, state, and national elections, you're acting like someone who believes that dumping water out of a flooded Venice building is saving that city from rising sea levels. Yes, dealing with the effects of global warming is necessary, just as dealing with the effects of a lack of affordable housing and income inequality is.

But until citizens in this country elect politicians who are willing and ready to address the root causes of homelessness, Salem and all other cities in the United States will be trying to deal with a rising tide that can't be stopped without drastic action.

Which hopefully, will come to pass after the 2020 election gives us a Democratic president and Congress.

Salem City Club discusses employee-paid payroll tax

Nobody likes paying taxes. (Well, almost nobody.) But everybody likes the services taxes provide. (Well, almost everybody.) That's the perpetual dilemma facing government at all levels, federal, state, local.

Robert (Bob) Barron

Today's Salem City Club program on the City of Salem's financial situation featured Bob Barron, who became the city's Chief Financial Officer last June -- a new position created by a reorganization at City Hall that did away with the assistant City Manager, leaving the CFO in charge of financial goings-on.

Barron has an impressive background, as evidenced by his bio above. He came across as a straight-shooter who will tell it like it is, budget-wise, which is exactly what the City of Salem needs from its Chief Financial Officer, because in some other regards city officials have been prone to shade the truth on policy matters.

And Barron gets bonus points for looking the part of a CFO. Plus he and his family have a Goldendoodle, which has to be one of the coolest breed names I've ever seen. (My wife and I have a Husky mix... boring name, by comparison.)

Don't subtract points for Barron living in Keizer. After his talk he told me that was necessary because they haven't sold their home in Connecticut yet, and they couldn't find a suitable place to live in Salem that accepted dogs.

Barron had an interesting observation about his ten years-plus working for FedEx. He said that at FedEx 10% of time was spent getting data, and 90% was spent analyzing the data. But his experience in the public sector was the reverse: 90% of time goes to obtaining information, leaving just 10% to make sense of it.

(He did add that the situation with the public sector is improving somewhat.)

Early on in his talk Barron noted a big difference between Connecticut and Oregon. Oregon limits annual property tax increases, while Connecticut doesn't. So in his previous jobs with Connecticut city governments, a gap between projected revenues and expenses could be met simply: raise the property tax rate.

Here in Salem, though, property taxes can only go up 3% a year, which often isn't enough to meet the demand for services. Which led to the slide below that shows the financial problems facing the City of Salem.

You can see in the top box, if you're able to read small print, that the City of Salem faces a $10.9 million operating deficit in FY 2020.  That's the difference between general fund revenues and expenses. It's reasonable to ask how the city got into this mess, but that's another subject, and it wasn't raised at today's City Club meeting.

The middle box contains a bit of good news. A couple of accounting items -- Unspent Contingency and Personnel Vacancies -- are estimated to bring the $10.9 million deficit down to a "mere" $5.8 million. 

Then, in the right of the bottom box, some magic happens, and the decrease in what amounts to reserve funds drops to just $2.3 million. From my scribbled notes, I'm pretty sure this is the result of the Operations Fee passed by the City Council last year. (See above.)

The fee won't be in effect for the full fiscal year, and a Statesman Journal story said that it would raise roughly $7.1 million in the first year. Since half of $7.1 million is about $3.5 million, and $5.8 million minus $3.5 million is $2.3 million, this shows that, almost certainly, the Operations Fee is the reason the FY 2020 deficit drops to $2.3 million.

An employee-paid payroll tax is the other way city officials hope to deal with the general fund deficit.

The City Council decided to refer this to voters in the May 2020 election. I suspect it will be a close call as to whether the payroll tax is approved. When the election grows closer I'll write more about the pros and cons of the payroll tax.

One fact that is either a pro or a con, depending on a person's perspective, is that an estimated 60,000 people who work in Salem and live somewhere else would pay the tax. But they won't be able to vote on the tax. So we can expect to hear a lot of talk about "no taxation without representation" from aggrieved commuters to Salem.

Bob Barron said that the tax is fair, because those 60,000 people use city services. However, the payroll tax, which is expected to raise about $9.1 million a year, would be dedicated to public safety: police, fire, compliance (not sure what that means), and traffic safety.

The flip side of that supposed fairness, of course, is that thousands of other people live in Salem, but work elsewhere. So even though they use city services, they wouldn't be subject to the payroll tax.

Councilor Tom Andersen spoke briefly after Barron's presentation. He defended the employee-paid payroll tax, though he said that he would have preferred that the City Council had approved it directly, rather than referring it to voters. 

Andersen said that from what he's heard so far, the argument against the payroll tax will be along the lines of... Government always wants more money and they do a bad job of spending what we give them; the new police facility has had massive construction cost overruns, so why should we throw more money at the City of Salem; and so on. (Can't remember a few other reasons Andersen gave).

I got to ask a question during the Q&A period. It went like this:

"The payroll tax is dedicated to public safety. Police and fire make up most of the general fund budget. Crime rates are going down. There are fewer fires now. So are you two confident that inefficiencies have been wrung out of the police and fire budgets, since likely there will be a spotlight on this issue in the run-up to the May vote on the payroll tax?"

Not surprisingly, the responses from Barron and Andersen were general and non-specific. I recall that Councilor Andersen related that the police chief had talked about burn-out among his officers, saying that it was difficult to find someone willing to put in overtime when this was needed.

There's going to be a City Club debate on the payroll tax in April, the month before the election, so I'm confident this and other issues related to the public safety budget will be discussed at that time. 

Honor Mike Swaim by making Salem more progressive

Mike Swaim was a much-admired former mayor of Salem who died on December 17 from a stroke that occurred during heart surgery. 

Other people have praised Swaim for how he worked to improve Salem during his three mayoral terms in office from 1997 to 2002. Below I'm sharing a piece that Bill Smaldone wrote about Swaim that was posted on the Salem City Watch site. 

And both the Salem Reporter and Statesman Journal had stories about Swaim. So since I don't have anything to add about Swaim's exemplary life, I want to talk about how we can honor him in the future.

Since Mike Swaim was a proud progressive, working to make Salem more progressive than it already is strikes me as a fine way to say Thank you, Mike. We're taking your footsteps further in a direction that would please you.

Which means, in part:

(1) Protecting, and hopefully expanding, the 6-3 progressive majority on the Salem City Council.
(2) Preventing further urban sprawl that Swaim disliked so much.
(3) Reducing greenhouse gases in Salem through a strong Climate Action Plan.
(4) Expanding LGBTQ rights in Salem.
(5) Fighting against conservative efforts to prevent 1-4 above from happening.

Regarding that last point, it seems clear that the Salem Area Chamber of Commerce, the Realtors Association, and other groups on the right wing of the political spectrum are going to go all out to regain control of the reins of power at City Hall, just as they did after Swaim was elected mayor and the City Council had a progressive majority.

Someone sent me a link to a May 2002 Oregonian story about how Janet Taylor, a conservative, had been elected mayor of Salem by beating Bill Isabell, who Swaim had endorsed.
Download TAYLOR_EASILY_WINS__Oregonian_The_Portland_OR___May_23_2002__pD02

Since I like people who tell it like it is, I loved this part of the story.

Swaim told a weekly Eugene publication that Salem has a Chamber of Commerce "with a lot of good people run by a bunch of Neanderthals."

OK, that comment led to demands that Swaim apologize, but I don't think he needed to.

What he meant, I'm pretty sure, was that leaders of the Salem Chamber of Commerce weren't interested in wise, forward-looking, cutting-edge policies that would move Salem forward toward increased equity, quality of life, and economic development that benefits everybody, not just a privileged few.

The same holds true today, by and large. That's why we need to remember that, as Progressive Salem likes to say, people power can beat money power. 

Which doesn't mean you shouldn't donate to progressive candidates and causes. Of course that's needed.

But so is volunteering to help elect people to the mayor's office and city council seats who are committed to following in the progressive footsteps of Mike Swaim, and doing your part in other ways to assure that Salem continues to move forward, not backward.

Here's what Bill Smaldone wrote in his Salem City Watch piece about Swaim.

With the passing of Mike Swaim on December 17 the people of Salem lost a true friend.

Many members of City Watch certainly remember well that few local political figures defended the interests of average people in Salem the way Mike did during his three terms as Mayor. For Mike every issue essentially boiled down to a few basic questions: who got to make the decisions, how were obligations and benefits shared, and how were individuals’ rights protected.

Mike was truly a democrat with a small d.

He believed it was essential to listen to people and for the government to serve all residents as fairly and equitably as possible. Listening takes time and that sometimes made for very long meetings, but Mike thought it was worth it and he was right. Mike led the fight for as much transparency as possible in city government.

He pushed for citizens’ right to vote on annexations, supported ordinances to provide as much information as possible to the public about growth and its costs, and insisted that those who profited from growth pay their fair share of its costs to the community.

For Mike, government was all about improving the quality of life for all, and he worked tenaciously to defend our parks, our library, and our neighborhood services while at the same time providing adequate resources to public safety.

Mike also knew that many in our community faced discrimination and exploitation. He emphasized the importance of the Human Rights Commission in defending the rights of all citizens. He recognized the importance of tolerance and communication in community life, and this was symbolized by his support for the Peace Plaza and for Salem’s sister city projects.

Mike was also much concerned with the environment.

Long before “climate change” became part of the daily discussion, he supported the creation of the City’s Environmental Commission, which later councils, unfortunately, lacked the foresight to continue. He also placed much emphasis on planning ahead and many projects initiated during Mike’s tenure, such as the Riverfront Park, the Convention Center, and the Pedestrian Bridge to Wallace Marine Park, are now core elements of our flourishing downtown.

The list of achievements could go on. What is perhaps more important, though, is to remember Mike as a person.

Mike and his spouse, Kellie, were a team. Not only did they raise a family together, but they also shared the work of the law practice. The decision to engage in city politics was a joint project that Kellie shared with Mike every step of the way and, just as the law practice depended on both of them, so did Mike’s stint as Mayor.

Being Mayor meant a lot of sacrifices. It is financially difficult for anyone with their own business and it demands enormous amounts of time and energy that one might otherwise spend with family and friends. Mike and Kellie dealt with it all with aplomb. They took the work in stride and were always ready for a good laugh and a beer.

Mike will be missed, but his model of civic engagement will remain.

-- Bill Smaldone

Why the City of Salem shouldn't give taxpayer money to a church that discriminates

In 2019 the most disturbing decision of the Salem City Council was to go along with a poorly thought-out plan by city officials to temporarily house the public library in a building owned by an organization that denies LGBTQ rights, the Salem Alliance Church. 

In case you missed out on reading my blog posts about this unethical travesty, type "Salem Alliance Church" in the Google search box in the right sidebar to find what I've written on this subject. For example...

Disturbing wrongness of last Monday's Salem City Council meeting
Salem's city officials say "screw you" to supporters of LGBTQ rights

Scott Rick, the librarian at South Salem High School, drew attention to how the Salem Alliance Church discriminates against gueer people in December 2018, when he wrote a letter to the editor that was published in the Statesman Journal. You can read it in my post, Two reports of how Broadway Coffee House/Commons discriminates against LGBT people. 

(The Salem Alliance Church runs the Broadway Commons and Broadway Coffee House.)

One year later, Rick has an excellent opinion piece published in the December 29, 2019 issue of the Statesman Journal, Salem taxpayer money shouldn't go to organization that denies basic human rights. Here's some excerpts from the piece.

When people suggest that President Trump’s statements and policies are racist or homophobic, he vehemently denies it in spite of overwhelming evidence to the contrary.

The same thing happens when you ask Salem Alliance Church officials about their discriminatory policies toward the queer community.

Church leaders insist, for example, that their refusal to marry same-gender couples is not discriminatory. They seem to believe that by couching discrimination within religious freedom it can no longer be considered discrimination.

By this logic, the church would also be justified in refusing to marry a mixed-race couple.

...The Christian and Missionary Alliance denomination (to which Salem Alliance belongs) refers to homosexuality as “detestable” based on Leviticus. Church leaders at Salem Alliance preach against homosexuality and gay marriage.

By sending this message of intolerance into our community they are directly contributing to the self-harm that is so prevalent in the queer community. Queer people are made to feel that there is something wrong with them, that they are detestable and detested, resulting in suicide rates much higher than for the general population. Fortunately, Salem Alliance rejects some parts of Leviticus, such as 25:44-46 which endorses slavery.

...church leaders have repeatedly refused to answer the simple question “would the Broadway Commons hire an openly queer applicant?”

The Broadway Commons also refuses to issue an equal opportunity employer statement. They believe that religious freedom grants them the right to refuse to hire any applicant that does not conform to their standard of “appropriate” sexual orientation.

...Many community members do not feel comfortable using facilities owned by a church that spreads intolerance in our community. For this reason, public and private organizations are encouraged to refrain from renting and using facilities owned by the Salem Alliance Church.

Taxpayer money should not be flowing to an organization that so blatantly denies basic human rights to cherished members of our community. Celebrate diversity.

I'm a big admirer of libraries. But I agree with Rick that those who support LGBTQ rights shouldn't use the Salem Public Library when portions of the collection are moved to a building leased from the Salem Alliance Church, which will open on February 18. 

With so many suitable buildings available in Salem, there was no good reason to house a temporary library in the church-owned building. City officials simply thought that the controversy over paying an organization that discriminates against LGBTQ people would blow over.

Hopefully that won't happen. I won't set foot in any building owned by the Salem Alliance Church, because I support LGBTQ rights. Others, I'm confident, will feel the same way.

Cara Kaser won't seek reelection to her Ward 1 City Council seat

Big breaking local political news today from the Salem Reporter's Troy Brynelson: "Kaser won't seek second term on Salem City Council."

Citing major changes with both her family and her career, Councilor Cara Kaser told Salem Reporter on Saturday morning she won’t seek a second term as one of the city’s nine policymakers. Her term expires Dec. 31, 2020.

“Serving my community these past three years as a city councilor has been both one of the most important duties I have ever taken on and one of the most important honors I have ever been afforded,” she said. “Additionally, it is one of the most demanding and rewarding volunteer positions I have ever encountered.”

Her decision means there will be at least three new councilors elected next year. Brad Nanke, 60, won’t seek re-election after nearly two decades representing southeast Salem. Meanwhile, Vanessa Nordyke represents southwest Salem on an interim basis after Sally Cook resigned in September.

Prospective councilors have until March 10 to collect signatures and file to run for office. The primary is slated for May 19.

...Kaser plans to endorse Virginia Stapleton to replace her. Kaser said Stapleton would help steer the city on issues related to homelessness, fixing sidewalks, planning for a third bridge and planning for climate change.

I suspect that Kaser's decision not to seek a second term will encourage the Chamber of Commerce and others who detest the current 6-3 progressive majority on the City Council to put more effort and money into the races for the three open positions.

(Though Nordyke is currently a council member, she was appointed by the council after Cook resigned, so she hasn't been elected yet.)

Some Googling revealed that Virginia Stapleton, who Kaser is endorsing to replace her, is a member of the Budget Committee for the Salem-Keizer School District. Otherwise, I don't know anything about her background. Almost certainly she shares Kaser's views on key local policies.

Kaser, along with Cook and Nanke, deserve a lot of thanks for their service on the City Council -- especially since the Mayor and eight councilors aren't paid for the large amount of time they put in.

While this would be controversial, it's past time for the council to seriously consider budgeting money for a monthly stipend that would enable more people to run for Mayor or a council seat. Last year Councilor Tom Andersen proposed this, as noted in another Salem Reporter story, "Councilor proposes paying Salem's elected officials monthly stipend."

Many other Oregon cities pay elected officials a stipend, but not Salem. Councilor Tom Andersen believes that could be a problem.

Andersen last week filed a motion to give eight councilors and the mayor a monthly stipend as demands grow for Salem’s elected officials. The amounts and how they would be paid are up for discussion, but the motion does suggest councilors should not be paid more than $2,000 per month, and the mayor $2,500 per month.

...“The only people you have on council are either retired, independently wealthy, working for government agencies … or people who are self-employed, like myself,” said Andersen, noting government agencies offer flexible hours.

Andersen, a self-employed employment lawyer, said the city is hampered in getting a more representative council.

Sleaze warning: Reid Sund hires Chuck Adams in Ward 7 race

Watch out, residents of south Salem's Ward 7.

A tsunami of sleaze could be coming your way as the City Council race between Vanessa Nordyke and Reid Sund heats up between now and the May 2020 primary election.

Chuck Adams

I say this because Sund's campaign finance reporting indicates that Chuck Adams' firm, New Media Northwest, is working for the Friends of Reid Sund committee.

As you can see in this screenshot, there's a cozy (and rather incestuous) relationship between New Media Northwest and Friends of Reid Sund. In the sample of transactions below, New Media Northwest made $1,135 worth of cash and in-kind contributions to the Sund campaign. Then the Sund campaign paid $1,300 to New Media Northwest.

Chuck Adams works almost entirely for conservative/Republican candidates (I said "almost" because while I didn't recognize any liberal/Democratic names among the 51 successful first-time candidates on the home page of the New Media web site, it's possible Adams has worked for a Dem.)

Adams came to my attention in 2010, when I wrote a piece for Blue Oregon, "GOP flack Chuck Adams sleazes up Marion County charter change campaign." Excerpt:

The Salem Chamber of Commerce is leading the opposition to the Measure. This is to be expected, given the extreme pro-development and anti-environment leanings of two current commissioners, Sam Brentano and Patti Milne. The Measure is threatening to those in the Marion County power structure, because it would make the commissioners more accountable to ordinary citizens rather than special interests.

Even so, I've been wondering why the "No on 24-292" campaign has been so especially sleazy. Opponents have been way over the top with their untruths and fabrications. Today I learned the likely reason: Chuck Adams is the consultant supporting the Salem Chamber of Commerce's political action committee.

Adams is a long-time strategist for right-wing causes who fell on hard times back in 2007 when he was booted by the Republican leadership. He's been involved in some nasty "Swiftboating" campaigns, and has been called a "hit man," "pit bull," and "flack."

I can believe it, given the nasty deceptions in a letter opposing the Measure from Walt Beglau, the Marion County District Attorney, that arrived in voters' mailboxes last Saturday, May 1.

Now, hopefully Reid Sund will tell Adams that he wants to run a clean campaign against Vanessa Nordyke. But the fact that the Sund campaign is working with New Media Northwest, which is based in Salem, is a disturbing sign that Sund is prepared to go low when Nordyke goes high. 

If this happens, I think the tactic could backfire against Sund.

People are fed up with the never-ending rancor and divisiveness in Washington, D.C. and don't want to see this at the local level here in Salem. It's fine that Sund is a conservative and Nordyke is a progressive. This should make for an engaging battle of ideas and policy positions that Ward 7 voters would appreciate.

However, Chuck Adams has a lengthy history of stretching the truth beyond acceptable political bounds. Here's some excerpts from stories in the Portland Oregonian that indicate how Adams has slung mud at opponents of candidates he's been hired to work for. I've boldfaced parts for emphasis.

SELECTED ARTICLE EXCERPTS ABOUT CHUCK ADAMS FROM THE OREGONIAN

EDITORIAL - Mud that will stick to Oregon's shoes
October 31, 2006
SUMMARY: A dirty, disgusting race in east Multnomah County will leave lingering stains on the state and its Legislature

That's not just mud supporters of Republican Karen Minnis and Democrat Rob Brading are flinging around east Multnomah County. It's poison.

It's the very stuff that makes voters thoroughly sick of politics and politicians. It's the toxic substance that lawmakers have tracked into the Oregon Capitol and the United States Congress, leading to sweeping paralysis in both places.

Now this poison is billowing out of House District 49. The first blast was a flier produced by Minnis' longtime political hatchet man, Chuck Adams, claiming Brading has "a history of supporting pornography" because, as a library board member, he opposed placing filters on library computers. Then Adams produced a mailer accusing Brading of "unethical and immoral" behavior --wink, wink, nudge, nudge -- when Brading, who is heterosexual, briefly served as an executive director of a gay-rights group 16 years ago.

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

EDITORIAL - An expensive race, and a cheap shot
August 31, 2006
SUMMARY: A flier saying Rob Brading has a "history" of pornography is ugly, and Karen Minnis should tell her allies to halt it

Mud is hard to throw. It sticks to your hands, flies off in unexpected directions and even, sometimes, winds up splattering the last person you'd want to dirty. Like, say, House Speaker Karen Minnis, R-Wood Village.

Minnis has found flecks of dirt sticking to her campaign ever since her longtime political consultant, Chuck Adams, and others began hurling gobs of mud at Rob Brading, her Democratic opponent in the Nov. 7 election. Minnis' supporters have produced a nasty campaign flier that features a photograph of Brading under the headline, "This man is responsible for children viewing Internet porn in our county library." It claims Brading has a "history of supporting pornography."

In fact, that "history" amounts to nothing more than serving on the 15-member Multnomah County Library Advisory Board and joining in the board's opposition to filters to block access to sex-related Web sites on library computers --even those routinely available to children.

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Oregon Legislature Oregon's next election might be decided by a man you've never met
July 26, 2005
SUMMARY: GOP strategist Chuck Adams has quietly become a key player with a refuse-to-lose attitude that's won him fans and critics

...Some Republicans frown on Adams' approach, however, saying it is divisive and focuses too much on personal attacks. "The politics of personal attack are his specialty," says Rob Patridge, a former three-session House Republican from Medford who has known Adams since 1989.

Sen. Joanne Verger, D-Coos Bay, agrees. She has run for office every two years since 1990, but she says last year's campaign by Republican opponent Al Pearn was the dirtiest she's ever seen. She says the person described in Pearn's campaign, which Adams worked on, "had no similarity to me or my record."

Verger, who narrowly won, says her favorite example was a Pearn flier that claimed she had voted for $24 billion worth of tax increases. Adams says the number was an honest mistake. The flier was supposed to say $2.4 billion, but a decimal point was mistakenly left out, and the campaign acknowledged the error in a news release.

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CROSSFIRE OF COMPLAINTS HITS TOP GOP CONSULTANT June 9, 2000

...Adams has run afoul of elections law before. In 1995, he pleaded guilty to failing to properly verify signatures on initiative petitions he submitted, a felony for which he was fined $1,000 and given two years' probation.

Adams also is at the center of a complaint lodged with the Elections Division involving the rancorous race for Salem mayor between incumbent Mike Swaim, who won the nonpartisan election, and challenger Glenn Wheeler.

Adams produced a controversial ad attacking Swaim, a lawyer, for representing a convicted murderer on appeal. The ad was paid for by Gordon Miller, a Salem dentist who is active in Republican politics, and was listed on campaign finance disclosure reports as part of an "independent expenditure" campaign against Swaim.

State law forbids coordination between someone who produces an independent ad and the candidate the ad is designed to help. But Adams also was Wheeler's campaign manager. In a complaint filed with the Elections Division, Vern Golay of Salem contends the independently produced ad violated state elections law because of Adams' dual role in the campaign: producer of the independent ad and Wheeler's campaign manager.

Fred Neal, state elections manager, said his division is investigating the claim. Swaim, who was angered by the ad Adams produced, said political consultants are too anonymous and should be held accountable for their work. "Adams ought to be appropriately spotlighted as the creator of this sort of gutter politics," he said."

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POLITICAL MACHINE HUMS BEHIND LEGISLATIVE RACES
November 1, 1998
Summary: Paid professionals, party leaders, lobbyists and rich contributors almost invisibly coordinate the resources and direction of the most competitive campaigns

If you live in a town with a hard-fought Oregon legislative race, there's a good chance the campaign fliers jamming your mailbox came from one of the desks of two people you've never heard of -- Chuck Adams or Mark Wiener.

Neither are on Tuesday's ballot, but as two of the top mail consultants in this year's legislative campaigns, they could have more effect on what voters decide than the candidates do. It's their job to get your attention.

...Adams also produced a mailer for Gianella and Rep. Jane Lokan, R-Milwaukie, that featured what looked like a young black gang member pointing a pistol at the reader over the headline: "Welcome to the neighborhood." Adams insisted he didn't think about race when he chose the image from a national photo archive to vividly illustrate the issue of juvenile crime. But after critics, particularly African Americans, objected and said it unfairly stereotyped, Adams conceded that he might have made a mistake.

Adams and Wiener say that although voters might profess to dislike hard-hitting attacks, they respond to them.

"It's almost never just about what a person stands for," Adams said. "It's always about a mix. The point of that is that negative information is powerful. . . . People thrive on negativity."

Salem City Council allows homeless to camp on public property. But where?

At last night's City Council meeting a big change was made to the homeless ordinance that passed at the previous meeting, and required a "second reading" to become law.

Instead of banning camping on public property entirely, the council decided to allow homeless people to camp on approved city-owned property. Here's some excerpts from a Salem Reporter story by Troy Brynelson, "Salem bans open camping and now seeks a place to host it."

(Kudos to Brynelson for using "eighty-sixing" in his story. I haven't seen this term used in a long time, and I'm old.)

Tents and other dwellings will soon have to disappear from sidewalks and boulevards after the Salem City Council on Monday night banned camping on public property.

But city officials aren’t eighty-sixing campers altogether. The city is taking two weeks to designate a spot for them to camp.

Councilors Tom Andersen and Vanessa Nordyke orchestrated the idea, separately pitching that city staff needed to find public property for campers to move when the ban goes into effect on Monday, Dec. 16.

As a result, city employees are expected to report to the council next Monday and what city-owned property could be used as an impromptu campground. Andersen said without such a space, it’s unclear where the camping populace would go.

Well, it's also unclear where homeless campers are going to end up under the new policy. Maybe the City of Salem owns vacant property that would make a fine place for an organized homeless camp. I'm just clueless as to where that property might be.

Parks seemingly would be ruled out. So would right of ways adjacent to busy streets. A downtown homeless camp would be too controversial. But a camp far distant from social services wouldn't make sense either.

Nordyke and Andersen, along with the rest of the City Council, did seem to make a wise decision. A Statesman Journal story by Jonathan Bach, "Salem council may set aside city property as designated camping sites for the homeless," says:

People experiencing homelessness have a shrinking list of places to go as cold weather sets in. They have been barred from camping in city parks, spurned from private land and rousted from beneath public bridges.

City officials have attempted to connect the homeless with social services, but that doesn't change the fact that area shelters do not have the capacity to give everyone a place to rest at night. Advocates estimate the homeless population to be approximately 1,800 people strong at a given time within the urban growth boundary, while the area only has about 300 emergency shelter beds. Warming shelters opened recently to bolster that number temporarily.

It's one thing if a homeless person chooses to camp out because they prefer this to being in a shelter. However, it's another thing if there aren't enough shelter beds available for every person who wants one -- which appears to be the case currently.

Last Sunday's Sixty Minutes program had an interesting segment on Seattle's homeless population. You can watch it via the Sixty Minutes web site. It featured an interview with a homeless family who has been living in a tent in a camp on public property, very much like what Salem is planning.

A transcript says:

In the shadow of Interstate 5 in Seattle, on a vacant strip of public land, this is Tent City 3. There are about 50 people living here, without heat or running water.

Ethan Wood is celebrating his third birthday. He's lived in a tent for the past year and a half. 

His parents, Tricia and Josiah, told us Ethan has an enlarged heart and suffers from bouts of asthma and croup so severe, they've had to take him to the emergency room several times. Last winter, one of Seattle's coldest in recent memory, Ethan was sleeping in a tent, covered with blankets, sandwiched between his parents for warmth.

Anderson Cooper: Did you ever think, "Well, this is not the place, we should have our child"?

Josiah Wood: We don't want our son here. We don't want to be here. But as of right now, this is the safest place for us.

Tricia Wood: Absolutely. 

Josiah Wood: Because we know the people, we know the rules, and--

Tricia Wood: Our family gets to stay together.

Josiah Wood: And our family stays together.

This was an eye-opener for me. I hadn't realized that many homeless people have full-time jobs that pay considerably more than minimum wage.

Tricia Wood: I used to be one of those people that thought that if anyone was homeless they just needed to go get a job. That would solve their homeless problems.

Anderson Cooper: How would you answer that question now? Why can't they just get a job?

Tricia Wood: Oh my goodness. Maybe they have a job. 

Josiah Wood has a full-time job. He gets up before dawn and takes mass transit to work as a maintenance supervisor at the Hard Rock Café downtown. Though he makes $19.50 an hour, the rent for an average one-bedroom apartment in Seattle would eat up half his salary. He and Tricia say they've been saving up money so they can afford a security deposit and monthly rent.

Now, rents in Seattle must be a lot higher than rents in Salem. But there must be quite a few homeless people in Salem who also are working, yet can't afford a market-rate apartment.

It'd be great if our local journalists could do what Sixty Minutes did: interview homeless people who don't fit the stereotype of mentally ill, drug abuser, unable to work. Several others featured in the Sixty Minutes segment had full-time jobs, including a postal worker woman who lives in an old RV, and a man who worked at DEQ, I recall.

The more we can recognize the diversity of homeless people and appreciate that they are just like the rest of us, apart from not having a home, the easier it will be for those worried about having a homeless camp near them to accept the camp as a temporary solution.

The Sixty Minutes piece did note that there's a time limit in Seattle on how long a camp can be in one place. Salem probably needs to have the same policy, to make the camp on public property more acceptable to near-by businesses and residences.

This is one of several makeshift encampments in Seattle that are allowed by the city. Decisions are made by camp residents, who are also required to do chores and take turns guarding the tents. But about every three months, all the residents in Tent City Three agree to pack up and move to a new location. It's an arrangement they make with the landowners who let them pitch their tents. No one wants a camp of homeless people in their neighborhood for very long.

When we visited Ethan and his parents in September, they had just packed up their tent near the highway and were setting up in a church pastor's backyard. It was the eighth time they've had to move in the past year and a half.

Salem City Council's "sit-lie" decision seems well-balanced

Democracy in action.

At last night's City Council meeting there was spirited debate about a proposed ordinance aimed at reducing perceived problems caused by homeless people, the most controversial part being a ban on sitting or lying on a sidewalk during daytime hours. 

I watched much of the meeting via a CCTV feed. Citizens testifying against the ordinance far outnumbered those in favor of it, who mostly were from the downtown business community and Chamber of Commerce.

Both sides had reasonable points to make. Homeless people do cause problems, both in downtown Salem and elsewhere. But the sit-lie portion of the proposed ordinance (which had the strong support of the police department) was open to criticism for both constitutional and compassion reasons.

When the City Council started debate on this issue following the public testimony, Councilor Chris Hoy proposed several amendments to the ordinance.

The voting and discussion was rather hard to follow, even for members of the City Council, who had to ask questions about what was being voted on, and what its effect would be. The first amendment, to remove the sit-lie part of the ordinance, was approved on a 5-4 vote.

Interestingly, Councilor Hoy voted against the amendment, as did Mayor Chuck Bennett and Councilors Jim Lewis and Brad Nanke. Councilors Andersen, Leung, Nordyke, Kaser, and Ausec provided the five votes that eliminated the sit-lie provision. 

In the end, a stripped-down version of the ordinance was approved on a 8-1 vote that includes a ban on homeless shelters on public property (tents, cardboard structures, etc.) and a ban on leaving belongings unattended for a period of time (24 hours, I believe).

This seems like a reasonable compromise, though I'm sure it won't please many people, including some downtown business owners. Councilor Andersen shared a good summary of last night's proceedings in a Facebook post. See below.

I agree with Andersen that shelters and unattended property are especially bothersome. When I see a homeless person sitting/lying on a bench or a sidewalk, I see a human being who deserves care and compassion.

But a fully enclosed sidewalk shelter, such as one that sits near the corner of Court and Commercial streets, strikes me as an ugly incursion onto public property that shouldn't be allowed. And won't be, if the City Council passes the ordinance after a second reading in December. 

Seemingly there should be places on private property where homeless people can be allowed to put up shelters, as is being done on the Arches property just north of downtown. Hopefully affordable housing eventually can be found for homeless people, which naturally is far superior to living in a tent or other temporary shelter. 

Here's Councilor Andersen's Facebook report. I've added some paragraph breaks to make it easier to read.

SIT/LIE BAN -NO, CAMPING BAN -YES
Last night the City council, in a long meeting, wrestled with the proposed sit/lie/camping/exclusion/abandoned property ordinance. Very powerful testimony from everyone, on all sides, who spoke.

There was an amendment put forth which removed the downtown ban from the ordinance, which I supported, consistent with my views (see below). The amendment passed on a 5-4 vote. Those voting to remove the ban were Councilors Kaser, Nordyke, Leung, Ausec and I. The other four councilors (Mayor, Hoy, Lewis, and Nanke) voted to retain the ban.

We then voted on another amendment, to ban camping city wide (previously there had not been a ban on camping in the city limits). That ban passed unanimously.

Then, we did not expand the downtown area exclusionary ban. (There already is a procedure to ban from downtown folks who, while in the downtown area, break other laws already on the books.) Finally, we voted on the remaining parts of the ordinance – a city wide camping ban and a provision about what to do with abandoned property downtown [if abandoned for 24 hours, property would be stored for a period of time – 30 days (I think) with notice provision, then destroyed].

All along I have said we need to balance the need for a vibrant downtown and the needs and concerns of those who live, work, shop and own businesses there with the needs of and concern for those whose unfortunate life circumstances have brought them to the downtown are. This is a difficult balance and I believe we achieved the best possible result last night.

I have always felt that one of the main problems is a visual one, tents, shopping carts and the like in the downtown area. This is understandable from both sides – if all your worldly possessions could be fit into one or two shopping carts, you would never want them out of your sight; with the result being visual “pollution” downtown, with attendant issues.

However, the sit/lie ordinance may not pass legal muster and would most likely not be effective. Instead it would just suck up limited city resources which could be better used (downtown toilets, storage areas and the like). Now we can move forward together to continue to improve the life of downtown and the lives of all who live in Salem.

City Council candidate Reid Sund is too right-wing for Ward 7

Residents of Ward 7 in south Salem will have a clear choice in the May 2020 primary election, when they'll vote on who should be their city councilor following the resignation of Sally Cook. 

Vanessa Nordyke, a progressive like Cook, was appointed recently by the City Council to serve as the Ward 7 councilor for the rest of Cook's term, which runs until December 31, 2020. She will be on the May 2020 ballot.

Reid Sund, a conservative, has announced that he also is running to be the Ward 7 councilor. 

Since Ward 7 went for Hillary Clinton over Donald Trump by a 50 to 36 margin in the 2016 presidential election, Sund is facing an uphill battle to win hearts and minds in this progressive-leaning part of town.

Here's some information gleaned from Sund's Facebook feed and other sources that shows how right-wing and voting-apathetic he is.

Sund doesn't vote regularly.
Since 2016, Reid Sund has only bothered to vote four times. He did not vote in the Ward 7 City Councilor race in May, 2016, the position he now wants to hold.

He did not bother to vote on Ballot Measure 101 in January 2018 that funded Medicaid expansion even though he worked at Salem Health. He did not bother to vote in the bond election to fund a seismic upgrade of the Salem Public Library. He did not bother to vote in the most recent Salem-Keizer School Board election.

He voted in these elections:

November 6, 2016 General Election (President, Congress, State)
May 6, 2017 District Election (School Board, Police Station Bond)
May 15, 2018 Primary Election (County Commissioner, School Bond)
November 6, 2018 General Election (Governor, State, County Commissioner, Measures)

He did not vote in these elections:

May 17, 2016 Primary Election (City Council, County Commissioner, Primary)
November 7, 2017 Special Election (Library Bond Measure)
January 23, 2018 Statewide Election (Assessment to Fund Health Care)
May 21, 2019 Special District Election (School Board)

Sund doesn't want Salem to reduce carbon poilution via a Climate Action Plan.

The context for the following Facebook post is that the City Budget Committee Sund served on debated funding for a Climate Action Plan (it ultimately was funded for $50,000 thanks to Councilor Tom Andersen).

There was never a suggestion that the funding be taken from the Salem Police Department, so Sund talked nonsense when he claimed the choice was between funding police or climate action. 

Sund favored the unsuccessful 2019 effort to recall Governor Kate Brown. The recall attempt was based on Brown's support of legislation that Republicans didn't like, not on any wrongdoing by Brown.


Sund supported the 2019 walkout of Republicans in the state Senate. The Republicans staged the walkout to block passage of legislation aimed at increasing clean energy jobs in Oregon, and reducing carbon pollution.

Sund was against more money for Oregon schools.

Sund supported the controversial relocation of Costco. The Costco development was opposed by the South Gateway Neighborhood Association and most members of the City Council.

On a lighter note... Reid Sund does take his Facebook middle name seriously. Or at least, seriously enough to wear a way-cool halfway-husked corn outfit.