Posted inCity Council City of Salem

Avelo Airlines reduces Salem flights. Only one place to go now: Burbank

Just as skeptics about the newest attempt to bring commercial air service to Salem predicted, in a short time Avelo Airlines has gone from three destinations for outbound flights -- Santa Rosa, Las Vegas, and Burbank -- to only one, Burbank. The best way I've found to describe the recurring fantasy of Salem's Chamber of Commerce and City Council that commercial air service is viable here is an image from the Peanuts comic strip, along with an excerpt from my January 2023 blog post, "City Council approves $2.4 million for airport in dumb move." Here we go again. Monday night…
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Posted inChris Hoy City Council

Thanks to Mayor Hoy and three others who are leaving the Salem City Council

Tonight is the last Salem City Council meeting for the year. So this is a goodbye of sorts for four members of the council who won't be returning after their terms end on December 31, either because they lost a re-election bid or chose not to run again. Mayor Chris Hoy (lost reelection bid) Ward 1 Councilor Virginia Stapleton (chose not to run again)Ward 3 Councilor Trevor Phillips (chose not to run again) Ward 5 Councilor Jose Gonzalez (chose not to run again) I've adapted a "thanks for running" blog post from 2016 and 2020 for this occasion, because it…
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Posted inChris Hoy City Council Julie Hoy

Mayor-elect Julie Hoy faces censure over City Council vote involving campaign donor

It's another battle of Hoy vs. Hoy. Chris Hoy, Salem's current mayor, lost the first battle with his unrelated namesake when he was soundly defeated by City Councilor Julie Hoy in the May primary election that decided the race because she got more than 50% of the votes, so a rematch in the November general election wasn't necessary. Julie Hoy and Chris Hoy Depending on your point of view, the second Hoy vs. Hoy battle either is a sour grapes attempt by Chris Hoy to get back at Julie Hoy for snatching the mayor position out of his hands, or…
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Posted inCity Council City of Salem

Poll shows Salem residents oppose higher property taxes for city services

Not at all what Salem's city officials were hoping for when they commissioned a survey to learn the degree of support for two possible proposals aimed at increasing property tax revenue to fund city services.  A Salem Reporter story lays out the main survey findings. Here's how "In poll, Salem residents say they won't pay more property taxes for public safety, library or parks" starts out.  Salem voters won’t pay more in property taxes to avoid deep cuts to the city’s library, parks or emergency services.That’s according to a new poll commissioned by the city of Salem, which targeted over…
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Posted inCity Council City of Salem Downtown

Looks like paid parking is coming to downtown Salem. Bad idea?

Downtown parking here in Salem used to be free and unlimited, if my memory serves me correctly. Then parking was still free, but limited in hours -- currently three.  In 2013, when downtown parking was free with a two hour limit, city officials planned to install parking meters. That idea was met with strong resistance from downtown businesses and led to a petition drive spearheaded by downtown resident and business owner Carole Smith aimed at stopping paid parking. The City Council ended up implementing the initiative language rather than let it go to a vote of the people. That allowed…
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Posted inCity Council City of Salem

Salem City Council facing tough choices on revenue-raising options

It wouldn't be surprising if Mayor Hoy and the other members of the Salem City Council have a bit of post-traumatic stress as they get serious at next Monday's council meeting about choosing an option to raise revenue for city services, which are heading for a $15 million shortfall in the next fiscal year, which begins July 1, 2025.  That figure is in an informative Salem Reporter story, "Library advocates push for property tax increase to restore Salem library hours." Local library advocates organizing through the group Fund Our Libraries Now are asking the Salem City Council to seek voter…
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Posted inCity Council

Here’s a great message from Trevor Phillips, departing Ward 3 city councilor

Trevor Phillips, the Ward 3 Salem City Councilor, didn't run for re-election this year. Instead, he endorsed Nathan Soltz, a fellow progressive, who narrowly lost to Shane Matthews in the May election. On June 20 Phillips posted a message on Facebook about Matthews' win and a look back at what Phillips was proud of accomplishing during his time on the City Council, and what he regretted: the decision to impose a employee payroll tax on Salem workers to meet a budget shortfall.  I liked the message a lot. Honest. Nicely written. Substantive. You'll be missed on the City Council, Trevor.…
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Posted inCity Council City of Salem Land use

Bush Park baseball stadium expansion moves forward with Parks Board vote

The Salem Reporter is doing a great job keeping our community informed about plans for improving the Willamette University baseball field at Bush Park, which would host summer games for a new Salem for-profit team that would join the West Coast League. Yesterday a story was published about a Thursday meeting of the Parks Advisory Board where the baseball project moved forward. Here's an excerpt from "City parks board advances plans for Spec Keene Stadium." Members of Salem’s Parks and Recreation Advisory Board on Thursday voted in support of an updated agreement with Willamette University advancing plans to use a…
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Posted inCity Council Land use

Expanded baseball field in Bush Park draws opposition and support

"If you build it they will come." Most people think this was a famous line in the movie Field of Dreams, as regards a baseball field, but actually the line was "If you build it he will come." One person, not lots.  Here in Salem, there's both a lot of anxiety and a lot of excitement over a proposed expansion of the Willamette University baseball field into Bush Park (yeah, its official name is Bush's Pasture Park, but few use it). Opponents worry that if the stadium is built, they will indeed come, causing noise, parking, and other problems for…
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Posted inCity Council International issues

Salem City Council to consider Gaza ceasefire resolution. Hope it passes.

Next Tuesday, May 28, the Salem City Council will consider adoption of a resolution drafted by the city's Human Rights Commission regarding the Israel-Hamas war. It calls for: An immediate and permanent ceasefire, an end to the hostilities, the free flow of humanitarian aid and the release of all civilian hostages. Hard to see how any member of the City Council could object to that, though I bet some will (Mayor-elect Julie Hoy, for one). The only viable argument against the resolution that I can come up with is that Israel should be able to continue going after Hamas fighters…
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Posted in2024 election Chris Hoy City Council

Looks like Chris Hoy has lost to Julie Hoy in Salem Mayor race

The initial results are in for today's primary election in Oregon. Final results will take a while, since mail-in ballots are counted so long as they're postmarked on or before election day. "Primary" doesn't apply to Salem mayor and city council races if a candidate gets 50% of the vote plus one, because then they win outright and are unopposed in the November general election. So it sure looks like Julie Hoy will be the next Mayor of Salem. This is the combined initial result for Marion and Polk counties. Not a huge surprise. Julie Hoy outspent Chris Hoy by…
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Posted inCitizen involvement City Council City of Salem

Help save the Salem Public Library from ruinous budget cuts

"Help. They're threatening me with grievous harm. I need my friends to defend me, because I can't do it myself." That's what the Salem Public Library would be saying, if it could speak. Since it can't, we library lovers have to do the speaking for the library.  The threat is real. City officials are planning to markedly slash the library budget again, after already making deep cuts in staffing, hours, and services.  NO MORE CUTS. That's the message from Jim Scheppke, retired State Librarian, and Lois Stark, a member of the Library Advisory Board, as you can read below. I've…
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Posted inCity Council City of Salem

City officials deny Salem library will be closed, but that was an option from them

I find it amusing when officials at the City of Salem are shocked that the public thinks they're going to do something bad, when that's exactly what was being suggested prior to the public getting outraged about the bad thing happening. Which causes the city officials to go, "No, oh my gosh, how could you ever have thought we'd do that?" Well, in this case the bad thing was completely closing the Salem Public Library. A few days ago the Salem Reporter had a story about the public reaction to this possibility. Salem’s city councilors overwhelmingly said this week they…
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Posted inCity Council

Impossible dream? Truly nonpartisan races for Salem Mayor and City Council

I'm either mellowing out politically in my increasingly old age or have a brain tumor that's preventing me from being my usual fanatically pro-Democrat, pro-progressive self when it comes to local races here in Salem for Mayor and City Council. Heck, let's throw in Salem-Keizer school board elections also. Since I seem to be normal in other regards, leaving aside the difficulty of defining "normal," I'm going to go with the mellowing out option rather than the brain tumor option. What led me to say this? Well, it was looking over the Salem Reporter story by Rachel Alexander and Abbey…
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Posted inCity Council City of Salem

Why is the Salem Public Library so bad? A retired librarian shares the facts.

The Salem Public Library sucks. Sure, I could come up with synonyms for "sucks," which I did in the title of this blog post: bad, horrible, disappointing. But sucks conveys the anger and sorrow library lovers should feel about a recent decision by the City of Salem to cut library hours a lot. Retired state librarian Jim Scheppke has been sharing Facebook posts that provide solid facts to back up the inescapable conclusion that while the Salem Public Library sucked in comparison to other public libraries in Oregon before those cuts, the Suck Factor is now much worse. Below are…
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Posted inCitizen involvement City Council City of Salem

Resounding defeat of payroll tax should spur City officials to explore fresh ideas

In elections, usually even the most unqualified and unknown candidate gets 30 to 40% of the vote. So when the payroll tax got a "Yes" from only 18% of Salem voters in yesterday's election, they weren't just sending a message. They were screaming it from the rooftops. Both in the Marion County part of Salem and the Polk County part in west Salem (where just 16% said "Yes"). With the election over, and the certainty that remaining ballots to be counted won't appreciably change the outcome, we enter the what now? phase.  A Salem Reporter story about the payroll tax…
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Posted in2024 election City Council City of Salem

Salem payroll tax like blood in water to conservative sharks

As a progressive who was happy when liberals wrested control of the Salem City Council from conservatives in 2017, now I'm worried that the payroll tax debacle could be a harbinger of a right-wing renaissance in local politics. What's disturbing is that this is a self-inflicted wound by five of the six progressive members of the City Council who provided the votes to pass a new payroll tax on everyone who works in Salem on a narrow 5-4 vote. Now that wound is like blood in the water to energized conservative "sharks." (The five were Mayor Chris Hoy and councilors…
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Posted inCitizen involvement City Council City of Salem

Watch the video of Salem Reporter’s town hall meeting on the payroll tax

Everybody should applaud the Salem Reporter, our city's online alternative to the Statesman Journal, for holding a town hall on the proposed payroll tax at the Elsinore Theatre this evening. For whether you oppose or favor the payroll tax, or don't have an opinion on it, it's great that a public debate on the tax happened prior to voters casting their ballot on it in the upcoming November election. I didn't attend the town hall. But I've watched some of the You Tube video of it, which I'll share below. (The screenshot above is just to show the debaters, Oregon…
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Posted inCity Council City of Salem

Salem payroll tax looks like it’s headed for defeat

While I won't be surprised if the controversial payroll tax is passed by Salem voters this November, since nothing in politics is absolutely certain, it appears more likely that it will be defeated. I'm guessing by a 60-40 margin or thereabouts. I'm not aware of any publicly available polling on the payroll tax. But the Salem Reporter and Statesman Journal have each conducted unscientific surveys about how people feel about the tax, which would be levied on anyone who works in Salem even if they don't live here. Each survey found the payroll tax to be unpopular. Here's an excerpt…
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Posted inCity Council City of Salem

Story of Salem firefighter’s widow being denied benefits is more nuanced than outrageous

Look, I never pass up an opportunity to become outraged at something officials at the City of Salem have done. That's why I called this blog Salem Political Snark rather than Salem Political Praise. So when I saw a story on KGW News a few days ago about how the widow of a Salem firefighter, Maurice "Mo" Stadeli, was being denied workers compensation benefits after her husband died of tonsil cancer because the city was asking the state Supreme Court to reverse a Court of Appeals ruling that approved the benefits, my outrage meter was prepared to rise into the…
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