Posted in2026 election City Council

In November 3 city council election, write in Mai Vang and vote for Micki Varney

Salem voters, soon you'll be getting your ballot for the November 3 election. Two city council races remain to be decided. If you live in Ward 6, be sure to write-in Mai Vang to be your councilor. If you live in Ward 8, be sure to vote for Micki Varney to be your councilor. Mai Vang is the incumbent Ward 6 councilor (East Salem). She's done a great job representing her ward. Vang's web site explains why it is necessary to write-in her name on the ballot. I'm launching my write-in campaign for the November general election to retain my…
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Posted in2026 election City Council

Support Mai Vang’s write-in campaign for Ward 6 city councilor

Mai Vang was treated badly by city officials when they made a screwy decision that despite Betsy Vega failing to meet the residency requirement to be a Ward 6 city councilor, Vega's narrow victory in the May election over incumbent Mai Vang should stand. I described why this decision was so unfair to Vang in "City officials ignored Salem charter in wrongly qualifying Betsy Vega as Ward 6 city councilor." Basically, the city charter says "a councilor shall have resided in the ward the councilor represents during the 12 months immediately before being elected or appointed to the office." But…
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Posted inCity Council City of Salem Data centers

With public opinion mostly against a Salem data center, it’s time to shed more light and less heat on the project

My approach to politics, and to life itself, is reflected in a basic principle of Tai Chi -- which I've practiced for about twenty years. Yang follows yin; yin follows yang. So two yang moves in succession is a Tai Chi no-no. Expressed in plain English, the notion is that when strength meets strength, a battle ensues. Which doesn't mean that conflict should be avoided. It means that a forceful attack shouldn't be met with an equally forceful counterattack, but with a redirecting of the opponent's energy, a softness that deflects hardness, allowing for a more favorable outcome than, as…
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Posted inCity Council City of Salem Data centers

Who’s to blame for Salem data center debacle? Time to point fingers.

Last Thursday I spoke with a KATU reporter about the news that Governor Kotek had blocked the sale of property owned by the state that was going to be used by a data center proposed to be built in south Salem's Mill Creek Corporate Center. Referring to the massive turnout at last Monday's City Council meeting of people who were almost entirely opposed to the data center, I said: This is democracy in action. People came out. Loud, angry, sometimes impolite. It got the city’s attention. And it looks like it got Governor Kotek’s attention. When I heard that Kotek…
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Posted inCity Council City of Salem Data centers

Here’s some of what I told the KATU reporter about the Salem data center that didn’t make it into her story

Having done quite a few interviews with local television news reporters over the years, I've learned that I should feel fortunate if a few seconds of my much longer brilliant observations on some subject make it into the televised story. After all, they only have a few minutes to tell the entire story, and I'm just a small part of that much bigger picture. So one of the last things I said to Jennifer Singh, the KATU (Portland) reporter who interviewed me yesterday about a major new development in the Salem data center saga, was something like, I really enjoyed…
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Posted inCity Council City of Salem Data centers

Salem data center’s three-year property tax abatement seems suspicious

Verrus, the corporation wanting to build a 75 acre, $5.1 billion data center at the Mill Creek Corporate Center in Salem, has already received a three-year property tax abatement. Meaning, if the data center is built, for three years neither the City of Salem nor other taxing districts would receive any property tax revenue from the project. However, there's a special meeting of the Salem City Council next Monday, August 3, where a moratorium on data centers will be discussed. If this applies to the Verrus project, the property tax abatement may be a moot point. Still, I want to…
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Posted inCity Council City of Salem Data centers

Opposition to Salem data center is justified, but shouldn’t be wild-eyed crazy

Kudos to the Salem Reporter for providing live updates on the City Council meeting underway at the moment (9;30 pm), having started at 6 pm with a packed house, drawn by an agenda item about the five billion dollar Verrus data center planned for the Mill Creek Corporate Center. The council president, Linda Nishioka, said they expected five hours of public testimony. Most of it will be in opposition to the data center. Which is to be expected, since nationally about 70% of Americans are against them, with Republicans, Democrats, and independents all on the same page on this issue.…
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Posted inCity Council City of Salem Data centers

How to comment on the Salem data center proposal (and make your comment count)

We all want to be heard, listened to, taken seriously. But when it comes to commenting on a development project that falls under land use, zoning, and similar sorts of rules, some usual tendencies should be kept in check. Like getting too emotional. And being too general. Both of which I'm prone to, as most of us are. I understand why so many people oppose the Oakline at Mill Creek data center planned to be built in the Mill Creek Corporate Center. Often this stems from a hatred of AI, artificial intelligence, and from horror stories regarding data centers elsewhere…
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Posted inCity Council City of Salem Data centers

Salem data center encountering same resistance as data centers elsewhere

It's a tough time for a corporation seeking to build an AI data center anywhere in the United States. Resistance is stiffening. So it's no wonder that Oakline at Mill Creek, the data center Verrus is proposing to build here in Salem, is trying to project a warm and fuzzy image. This is a tongue-in-cheek editing (by an AI, naturally)  someone sent me of the Verrus mockup of what the data center would look like. The deer peacefully grazing on the grass in front of the building is a nice touch. How noisy could the data center be if deer…
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Posted inCity Council City of Salem

I urge Salem City Council to rule on Betsy Vega’s qualification to be a Ward 6 city councilor

Here's my open letter, which will become an open email, to the nine members of Salem's City Council. My subject is whether Betsy Vega meets the requirements in the city charter to be a city councilor. *************************************************************** Dear Mayor Hoy and councilors Paul Tigan, Linda Nishioka, Shane Matthews, Deanna Gwyn, Irvin Brown, Mai Vang, Vanessa Nordyke, and Micki Varney: As you're aware, the City of Salem has issued a statement regarding Betsy Vega's eligibility to be on the November 2026 General Election ballot after she was certified as the winner of the Ward 6 city council race in the May…
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Posted inCity Council City of Salem

Here’s what ChatGPT says about whether Betsy Vega is qualified to be a Salem city councilor

In my previous post I criticized the legal opinion by Eugene attorney Truman Stone of whether Betsy Vega meets the qualifications to be a Salem city councilor following her victory over Ward 6 incumbent Mai Vang in the May 19 primary election. My main concern was that Stone downplayed the language in Section 25 of the city charter that says: A councilor shall have resided in the ward the councilor represents during the 12 months immediately before being elected or appointed to the office. Stone considered that domicile was the correct term for judging whether Vega met that residency requirement,…
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Posted inCity Council City of Salem

City officials ignored Salem charter in wrongly qualifying Betsy Vega as Ward 6 city councilor

When I learned today that the City of Salem had issued a public statement about a decision that Betsy Vega was qualified to serve as the Ward 6 city councilor despite a challenge by Paige Barton, the campaign manager for incumbent councilor Mai Vang, who Vega defeated, I was surprised. After all, Barton had presented evidence that Vega (photo above)  hadn't lived in Ward 6 for the twelve months prior to the election -- regardless of whether "election" means the May 19, 2026 primary election at which Vega got over 50% of the votes, or the November 3, 2026 general…
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Posted in2026 election City Council

City of Salem hiring Eugene attorney to help with investigation of Betsy Vega’s eligibility to be city councilor

Initially the City of Salem announced that the City Recorder and City Attorney would investigate an allegation that Betsy Vega is ineligible to be a city councilor even though she beat incumbent Mai Vang in the May election. That investigation was expected to be completed by June 22. But yesterday the City of Salem said that the investigation deadline now is July 7 because a Eugene attorney, Truman Stone, has been hired to help the City Recorder. Here's a screenshot of part of an email from the Salem Reporter (I'm a subscriber). This seems like a wise decision. If the…
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Posted in2026 election City Council City of Salem

Betsy Vega’s election as Ward 6 city councilor may hinge on definition of “qualified elector”

Betsy Vega has been certified by Marion County Elections as the winner of the May 19 election for the Ward 6 city council seat, as she got 44 more votes than Mai Vang, the incumbent. But Paige Barton, Vang's campaign manager, has filed a complaint with the City of Salem that asserts Vega may not be qualified to be a city councilor, according to the City Charter. Section 25. Qualifications. (1) An elective city officer shall be a qualified elector under the state constitution and shall have resided in the city during the 12 months immediately before being elected or…
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Posted inCity Council City of Salem

City of Salem agrees to investigate Betsy Vega’s qualification to be a city councilor

Excellent news. Today the City of Salem issued a statement (copied in below) saying that city staff will investigate a complaint challenging Betsy Vega's qualification to be a candidate for the Ward 6 city council seat. Though the statement doesn't mention Vega by name, it's clear that she is the subject of the complaint. It's pleasing that City Manager Namburi reversed the ill-considered decision by City Attorney Dan Atchison to not investigate the complaint. As I said in "Salem city officials are refusing to enforce the city's own requirement to be a city councilor," that was a screwy move by…
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Posted in2026 election City Council

Salem city officials are refusing to enforce the city’s own requirement to be a city councilor

We're all familiar with bureaucracies behaving badly. But I expected more from officials at the City of Salem when it comes to enforcing their own requirement for serving as a city councilor, because they're refusing to make sure that Betsy Vega meets the residency requirement for serving as the Ward 6 city councilor. There it is, on the City of Salem web site, on a page titled Elections - Run for Elected City Office. I'll attach a screenshot. The residence requirement for becoming a city councilor is "Live within the city ward candidate seeks to represent 12 months prior to…
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Posted in2026 election City Council

If Betsy Vega didn’t live in Ward 6 for a year before the May 19 election, she is ineligible to be a city councilor

Currently Betsy Vega has a 40 vote lead over incumbent Mai Vang in the Ward 6 Salem City Council race. Since it looks virtually certain that Vega will have gotten more than 50% of the vote when this race is certified by Marion County Elections, seemingly Vega will replace Vang as the Ward 6 councilor next January when her term begins. Seemingly. Not certainly. Because the Salem Reporter has a May 28 story by Joe Siess with the provocative title, "Vega's Ward 6 residency questioned as Salem city council race remains unsettled." Excerpt: State elections officials are reviewing allegations that…
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Posted in2026 election City Council

Looks like progressives have gained one seat on the Salem City Council

Today was the end of the seven-day deadline for mail-in ballots to be returned to the Marion County Elections Office after the May 19 primary election where the races for Salem mayor and four city council seats would be decided if a candidate got over 50% of the votes. As I wrote about on May 20 in "Election for Salem mayor and city council turned out well for progressives, but not perfectly," from the initial results of these five races it seemed virtually certain that Vanessa Nordyke would defeat incumbent Julie Hoy in the mayor race, incumbent Linda Nishioka would…
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Posted in2026 election City Council Vanessa Nordyke

Election for Salem mayor and city council turned out well for progressives, but not perfectly

The races for Salem mayor and city council are nominally nonpartisan, but in reality almost always there are conservative and progressive slates for these offices. So given the extent to which even local politics has become nationalized, every two years control of the city council hinges on whether the election winners tilt more toward the right or left of the political spectrum. Since Oregon's vote by mail allows for ballots to be counted if they are postmarked on or before election day, May 19, there's an unknown number of ballots remaining to be counted. What I've shared below are screenshots…
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Posted in2026 election City Council Julie Hoy

This is important to know about candidates for mayor and city council

I'm a political junkie. I'm addicted to following politics closely. But many people here in Salem aren't. They believe in voting, including in the May 19, 2026 election that likely will decide the races for mayor and four seats on the city council. (While this is a primary election, a candidate that gets more than 50% of the vote in those races wins outright; such will probably happen, given that there are two candidates in each race.) But those people don't have an inclination to dig deep into the qualifications and policy positions of the candidates vying to be mayor…
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