Posted inCity of Salem Steve Powers

City of Salem raises price of my public record request from $302 to $900

I wish laws prohibiting "bait and switch" sales techniques applied to officials at the City of Salem. Because yesterday I was notified that the cost of a public records request I submitted relating to the Proud Boys gun rally at Riverfront Park on May 1 had jumped from $302 to $900 -- after I'd already paid the $302. Here's the message I got. Read it and see if you think it's fair that a citizen activist like me should have to pay $900 to learn why, and how, two changes to a City of Salem parks reservation web page were…
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Posted inNational politics

Democrats need to get serious about saving our democracy

This wasn't a good day for American democracy. In fact, the past four-plus years -- ever since Trump was elected -- have all been bad days for our democracy. Today Senate Republicans filibustered a bipartisan commission that would have looked into the January 6 insurrection at the Capitol, making recommendations to prevent something similar from ever happening again. The commission was carefully modeled on the 9/11 commission. Equal number of Democrats and Republicans. Subpoenas would require at least one Republican vote. Everything that Republicans had asked for, they got.  But Trump didn't want anyone looking into the insurrection, because he…
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Posted inCity Council City of Salem Homeless

Salem’s homeless need Biden’s infrastructure plan

Whenever I read about Salem's homeless problem, I feel way more sympathetic toward city officials and the City Council than I usually do. There's simply no easy answers. They're damned if they do and damned if they don't. Today's excellent story by Whitney Woodworth in the Statesman Journal lays out the "Mission Impossible" facing city leaders.  After more than a year, Salem officials are poised to end sanctioned camping for those living in Wallace Marine and Cascades Gateway parks starting June 1. But the problem that has plagued the city for years persists — there are not enough shelter beds, transitional…
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Posted inSalem-Keizer school district

Cottingham and Ortiz likely to win school board races

After Ashley Carson Cottingham and Karina Guzman Ortiz had comfortable leads over their Salem-Keizer school board opponents on election night, their margins have shrunk considerably after additional votes were tallied. Currently Cottingham has a slim 86 vote lead over Linda Farrington in the Zone 3 race, while Ortiz has a 279 vote lead over Mike Slagle in the Zone 5 race. Cottingham and Ortiz are part of the progressive slate that competed against a conservative slate. The other two progressives have insurmountable leads. Osvaldo Avila is up by 1,807 votes over Kari Zohner in the Zone 1 race. Maria Hinojos…
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Posted inCity of Salem Steve Powers

To get public records, city officials want me to know what I seek to learn

Just when I think I've seen all the weirdness Salem city officials are capable of, they surprise me with a fresh dose of absurdity. On May 12, I submitted a public records request to the City of Salem. You can read it via this PDF file.Download Public records request PDF I wanted to learn who authorized changes to the "Reserve a City Facility or Park" web page on or around March 27, 2021, and also who made the actual edits to that web page. Likewise, I asked for the same information regarding changes to the web page on or around…
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Posted inSalem-Keizer school district

It’s extremists vs. moderates in school board races

Today the Statesman Journal has an illuminating story by Natalie Pate about the Salem-Keizer school board races that will be decided on next Tuesday's election day, May 18.  There's two slates competing for votes on opposite sides of the political spectrum. These are the moderate candidates that I urge you to cast your ballot for if you haven't voted already. (Take your ballot to a drop box, since it is too late to put it in the mail.) The Statesman Journal story says about them: Osvaldo Avila (Zone 1), Ashley Carson Cottingham (Zone 3), Karina Gúzman Ortiz (Zone 5) and…
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Posted inCity Council City of Salem Steve Powers

City Manager gives poor excuse for permitless Proud Boys rally

Ten days after the May 1 gun rally at Riverfront Park where gun-toting Proud Boys threatened citizens and journalists with expulsion from the park, city officials keep changing their story about why a permit wasn't required for the rally. As I said in "Typogate" adds a twist to Proud Boys rally, at first City Councilor Tom Andersen was told that a typo on the city web site caused a page to say that May 1 was the date permits would be required for events in city parks, since a missing "3" would have made the date May 31. But I pointed out…
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Posted inCity of Salem Salem Police Department

Proud Boys debacle shows how Salem Police need to change

The Salem Police Department has a new chief, Trevor Womack. But it doesn't have a new way of going about policing. That's a big problem. Hopefully Chief Womack is up to the task of carrying out needed reforms, restoring confidence in the department, and altering the mission of the department in light of a national movement to shift policing from a militaristic warrior model to a peacekeeper guardian model. This is a complex job. It will take a lot of wisdom to carry out.  Womack, along with other police chiefs, has to deal with a lengthy history of policing in…
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Posted inChuck Bennett City of Salem Salem Police Department

Proud Boys return to Salem, threatening reporters again

Well, that didn't take long. Just six days after the Salem Police Department did absolutely nothing to prevent the Proud Boys extremist militia group from threatening a journalist and other citizens observing a gun rally in a public park, today a couple of Proud Boys banned media from taking photos or video in front of a public building in downtown Salem. And why wouldn't they? The Salem Police Department and other city officials have coddled the Proud Boys, seemingly because they're afraid of these armed right-wingers. The Proud Boys now know that Salem is a place these white supremacists are…
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Posted inCity of Salem Salem Police Department

“Typogate” adds a twist to Proud Boys gun rally

If there's one thing I've learned from quite a few years of delving into goings-on at the City of Salem, it is that often what city officials claim to be true, actually isn't.  Sure, sometimes that discrepancy can be attributed to a honest mistake. However, I know for a fact that sometimes City of Salem staff purposely shade the truth in a CYA (Cover Your Ass) fashion.  Lying is a blunter term than "shade the truth," of course. As I've written about in two previous blog posts (here and here), how the Salem Police Department handled a May 1 gun…
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Posted inCity of Salem Salem Police Department

Salem Police Department misleads about Proud Boys rally

I was already deeply irritated at the Salem Police Department, after learning that they stood by and did nothing on May 1 while armed members of the Proud Boys right-wing militia group forced people they didn't like to leave the public Riverfront Park, harassed journalists, and reportedly beat up someone who was taking a photo of them. (See my previous post, "Salem police sit by as Proud Boys take over Riverfront Park.")Now I've even more irritated at the Police Department after reading their attempt to make it seem like they did everything right and nothing wrong as the Proud Boys…
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Posted inCity of Salem Salem Police Department

Salem police sit by as Proud Boys take over Riverfront Park

Today the Proud Boys, a violent right-wing militia group, provided "security" for a gun rights rally at Riverfront Park here in Salem. The City of Salem allowed the rally to go on without a permit, as I reported a few days ago. So members of the public had just as much of a right to be at the park as the Proud Boys and other people attending the rally. But as you'll see below, the Proud Boys forced people to leave the park if they objected to someone being there. Meanwhile, apparently there was nobody from the Salem Police Department…
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