Posted inSalem Police Department Salem-Keizer school district

Superintendent calls out Salem-Keizer school board for not being anti-racist

Wow! Last night, for the first time, I watched a Salem-Keizer school board meeting. It was gripping, almost like a soap opera, filled with emotion, inspiration, and, yes, aggravation. It was clear that the school board is dysfunctional under the inept leadership of chair Marty Heyen. There were more than 180 people signed up to testify at the meeting, where the district budget was to be approved, including money for the highly controversial school resource police officers. Yet at the beginning of the meeting Heyen took the time to engage in a pity party for herself, talking about how unjust…
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Posted inPolice reform

City Council caught between passion and prudence on policing reform

After remotely watching most of the discussion at last night's Salem City Council meeting about reforming how the Police Department operates, I was left with a letdown feeling even though I generally agreed with what the council did. Salem City Council Here's how a Statesman Journal story about the meeting summarized the outcome. During a four-hour meeting Monday night, the council eventually approved the $752 million fiscal year budget, which includes $48.8 million for the Salem Police Department. But Councilor Cara Kaser said they can still make changes in the budget at their discretion up to 10%.  ...Councilors authorized work sessions to include discussions…
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Posted inCitizen involvement City Council Salem Police Department

Looks like Salem City Council wants to reimagine the police

l understand why "Defund the Police" has become a rallying cry for Black Lives Matter protesters. But it can be misunderstood as calling for the abolition of police departments, which very few people really want to do.  "Reimagine the Police" strikes me as both more accurate and more politically palatable.  A Washington Post opinion piece, Don't "Defund the Police". Reimagine the Police. makes a case for the latter slogan. “Defund the Police” is candy to the one-liner simpletons. It’s a cry that launched a thousand memes about the lawless anarchy to come. It’s a loping softball to the grumping Trumpers who…
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Posted inCity Council City of Salem Peter Fernandez

Shady stuff associated with Salem City Council agenda item

By and large, I'm no conspiracy theorist. But I'm always ready to believe that when it comes to goings-on with the City of Salem, what appears innocent and boring at first glance may be the tip of a non-innocent non-boring "iceberg" below the surface. So I said "sure" when someone asked if I wanted to learn the backstory behind an appeal of a Systems Development Charge expenditure for the purchase of a house at 298 Taybin Road NW in West Salem. The appeal is on the agenda of the June 22 Salem City Council meeting. Before getting to the backstory,…
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Posted inCoronavirus Donald Trump Humor

Trump is a genius! He just solved every problem on Earth.

Ever since he was elected president of the United States, I've been a vociferous critic of Donald Trump. But now I realize how wrong I've been. A recent statement by Trump points to a solution to not only the COVID-19 crisis, but every conceivable problem that afflicts our planet. Behold the genius of Trump the Almighty: I bow down before the glory of this single marvelous sentence which, in eight carefully crafted words, cuts through the thicket of confusion that has prevented humanity from dealing with so many issues that have bedeviled people for millennia.  Trump, though, did expand upon…
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Posted inCoronavirus Oregon politics

Dumb and dumber: Capitol vandals and Sam Brentano

Saturday's Statesman Journal featured stories about a couple of spectacularly dumb local people. It took me a while to decide who deserves the "dumb" award in this blog post, and who the "dumber," but I'm going with this: Dumb -- whoever spray painted two marble sculptures in front of the state Capitol building during the first weekend of Black Lives Matter protests. Dumber -- Marion County commissioner Sam Brentano, for being so irritated at Governor Brown's pausing of county reopening plans due to a spike in coronavirus cases in Oregon. Sure, it can be argued that these dumb and dumber…
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Posted inCity Council City of Salem

City Council should cut budget of Salem Police Department

Most people, including me, who favor "Defund the police" aren't calling for no police at all. We just believe there is plenty of room to reduce the amount of taxpayer money that is going into the budgets of police departments. The first step toward doing this is getting away from the indefensible notion that police are so special, taking a close look at what they do and how they do it shouldn't happen. Actually, and obviously, police officers are just people. Their job can be difficult. So are almost all jobs. Their job can be dangerous. So are lots of…
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Posted inCarole Smith Downtown Humor

New issue of Salem Cherry Pits takes jabs at city officials

Not surprisingly, we (well, I) here at Salem Political Snark adore snarkishness. That's why I'm eager to share every new issue of Salem Cherry Pits when it hits my email inbox, sent to me by downtown resident and property owner Carole Smith -- the creator, publisher, and distributor of this marvelous mixture of biting satire and solid information about downtown goings-on. Below I've shared screenshots of the first two pages of the Spring 2020 issue, which deal with a novel approach to homelessness and a heretofore unrecognized way the coronavirus can be transmitted: farts. You can read the whole issue…
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Posted inCity of Salem Police facility

Time to take a close look at the Salem Police Department budget

I'm optimistic about the good that is going to come from the nationwide protests against George Floyd's murder by a police officer, since it is long past time that the United States faced up to the injustices people of color have endured at the hands of police for many decades, centuries, really. But there's another aspect to how our nation looks upon police: we throw a huge amount of money into police department budgets, often with little oversight or analysis into whether this spending is really needed. In most cities, Salem included, police and fire consume a third to a…
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Posted in2020 election Donald Trump

Trump’s dictatorial desire was on full display today

Driving home from grocery shopping this afternoon, I listened to CNN reporting on a protest near the White House against George Floyd's murder by a police officer that was happening at the same time Trump was getting ready to give a law-and-order speech in the Rose Garden. When I got home, I turned on the TV to learn what CNN was saying now -- after federal authorities cleared out the peaceful protesters with tear gas, rubber bullets, and flash-bang explosives half an hour before a Washington D.C. curfew was to go into effect. Here's a photo of what CNN was…
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Posted inNational politics

Must-read: Salem protest story by a South High student

High school journalism is alive and well in Salem, judging by this highly professional story by Eddy Binford-Ross in the South Salem High School online newspaper, the Clypian.  It's a first-hand account of the protest in Salem on Saturday night that led to city officials declaring a state of emergency and imposing a curfew. I believe the state of emergency is in effect until Monday, but the curfew has been lifted.  UPDATE: Just saw that Binford-Ross is using Twitter (@Clypian) to report on tonight's, Sunday's, protest in Salem. Here's a screenshot of a recent tweet. Good job! I've got some…
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Posted in2020 election City Council

Negative campaigning didn’t work in Salem City Council races

I found a lot to like in how the four Salem City Council races on the May 19 ballot turned out. Progressives won three of them, and narrowly lost the fourth, even though the conservative candidates had a lot more money to spend -- thanks to contributions from business related PACs (political action committees).  Stapleton, Phillips, Oakes-Miller, and Nordyke were the progressive candidates. The * indicates who won. So the four progressive candidates raised $70,231 as of May 22, while the four conservative candidates raised a whopping $158,350, well over twice as much.  Yet three of the conservatives lost. And…
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Posted in2020 election City Council Progressive Salem

Salem Reporter gets it right: this is a progressive town

It's wrong to think that Salem is a conservative backwater stuck between two cool progressive cities to our north and south, Portland and Eugene. Sure, for a long time some have termed our town So-Lame. But if that moniker ever was deserved, it sure doesn't describe Salem now, either from a cultural or a political perspective. As I noted on May 20 in a post-election post, "Progressives dominate in three of four Salem City Council races," progressives have made a great comeback in Salem. Back in 2015 there was just one progressive on the City Council. Starting in 2018, there have…
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Posted in2020 election City Council

Campaign finance facts about Salem City Council races in 2020

If you're interested in how much is being contributed to City Council races here in Salem, you're going to love the reports that Jim Scheppke sent me -- which I've shared below in the form of screenshots.  A post-election story in the Statesman Journal said that Councilor Tom Andersen is looking into the possibility of limiting spending on the races, which points to the relevance of these reports. For five positions that pay absolutely nothing to have more than $200,000 for political campaigns is alarming, said Salem City Councilor Tom Andersen.  "I think that's way too much of an influence of big money," he…
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Posted in2020 election City Council

Progressives dominate in three of four Salem City Council races

Last night progressives were heartened by the results of four Salem City Council races -- even one in which the liberal candidate is narrowly behind. Spending on these races set a record, about $220,000, with most of the money coming from individuals and groups aligned with business interests. The Chamber of Commerce and builder/realtor PACs went all out to change the left-leaning political landscape of the City Council. And in the end, they ended up with at best, the same balance of power. As the image below that a friend sent me shows, the election started with a 6-3 progressive…
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Posted in2020 election City Council

Thank you, Salem Mayor and City Council candidates

I've dusted off a blog post from May 2016. Changed the election day to what it is in 2020, May 19. Updated the names of the candidates. Otherwise, left it the same, because what I said back then on election day eve is what I also want to say today, with the election tomorrow. Thank you, candidates.  I offer a heartfelt Namas'cray to all of the Salem people running for Mayor and City Council seats in tomorrow's 2020 primary election. Thank you for being crazy enough to put in so much time, effort, and money seeking an office that pays…
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Posted in2020 election City Council

Oregon Right to Life inserts itself in Salem City Council election

Oregon Right to Life has a nasty habit of sending out last-minute mailers in local elections that have nothing to do with abortion. Here they go again, with the mailer below urging a vote for Brad Nanke in the Ward 3 election for a Salem City Council seat. Supporters of Nanke claim that he is a "non-partisan" member of the council. Not true. Nanke is deeply conservative. Oregon Right to Life says he is "an advocate for the unborn."  Since I'm not aware that abortion has ever been discussed at a Salem City Council meeting, it's pretty damn clear that…
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Posted inCoronavirus

Marion County not allowed to reopen. Who’s to blame?

Frustrating. Not good. Irritating. There's a lot of words I could use to describe my feeling about Marion and Polk being the only counties in Oregon whose applications to start reopening were rejected by Governor Brown and the Oregon Health Authority.  Of Oregon's 36 counties, 31 were given the OK to reopen. Three haven't applied yet (Multnomah, Clackamas, Washington). And two, Marion and Polk, have the dubious distinction of not passing the re-opening criteria, apparently mostly because of continued high numbers of new COVID-19 cases. On the sort-of bright side, today's OHA Coronavirus Update said, "The applications for Marion and…
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Posted in2020 election City Council

Three takeaways from SJ story about record City Council campaign spending

Here's what came to mind after I read today's excellent Statesman Journal story by Whitney Woodworth, "City Council campaign spending breaks records, $200K in contributions." (1) We need local newspapers. I'm a frequent critic of the Statesman Journal. In-depth reporting on local issues has been lacking for a number of years. But Woodworth's story made me feel better about Salem's daily print newspaper. Temporarily, at least.  Sure, five days ago I'd written about this same subject. Being a part-time unpaid blogger, though, limits what I can do compared to a full-time professional journalist. It was great to see the quotes…
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Posted inCoronavirus

With so many COVID-19 cases, Marion County shouldn’t reopen soon

I'm as eager as anyone to have Marion County get back to a semblance of normality in these coronavirus times. i miss my Tai Chi classes. I miss going to the Courthouse Athletic Club. I miss having my hair cut (though I'm looking more like Willy Nelson every day, which can't be a bad thing). But I'm also an avid reader of the daily Oregon Coronavirus Update that gets emailed to me by the Oregon Health Authority (OHA). Disturbingly often, Marion County has an outsized number of new cases, frequently outpacing Multnomah County which has a much larger population. According…
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