Posted in2020 election City Council

Salem, be wary of Citizens for a Livable Community

A few days ago I wrote "Fascinating facts about contributions to Salem City Council candidates." The compilation of contributions that I shared had Citizens for a Livable Community as a major donor to each of the conservative candidates: Jan Kailuweit, Brad Nanke, Jose Gonzalez, and Reid Sund. That got me to wondering, "What the heck is Citizens for a Livable Community?" I'd never heard of the group before. So who are those citizens with such a concern for making our community livable? And why are they only contributing to conservative candidates? Well, the answers to those questions point to why Oregon has…
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Posted in2020 election City Council

Fascinating facts about contributions to Salem City Council candidates

As we approach the May 19, 2020 Oregon primary election, where each of the four Salem City Council races likely will be decided (candidate with more than 50% wins outright), I'm pleased to present a detailed look at the campaign finances of those races as of yesterday, April 15. Salem City Council: Kaser, Andersen, Nanke, Leung, Mayor Bennett, Ausec, Hoy, Nordyke, Lewis The images below, which I converted from a spreadsheet, come from a fellow political junkie who compiled the information from campaign finance reports on the state ORESTAR system. There's a lot to digest in the images. Here's some…
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Posted in2020 election City Council

These Salem City Council candidates deserve your vote

Yes, the coronavirus crisis is consuming our attention. That's understandable. But don't forget something important.Next month, May, there's an election for four City Council seats. And it's clear to me who you should vote for.The candidates who will move Salem forward to a brighter future. I'll have more to say about them as the May 19 election nears.For now, keep these names in mind. Because they're the most progressive candidates.Which is what Salem sorely needs in this trying time. Progress.  Click on a name to visit the candidate's web site. Virginia Stapleton (Ward 1) Trevor Phillips (Ward 3) Hollie Oakes-Miller…
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Posted inChuck Bennett City Council City of Salem

Salem’s city officials need to WAKE UP about COVID-19 danger

I'll be blunt and red flag colorful. People are going to die if Salem's Mayor, City Manager, and City Councilors don't freaking WAKE UP about the danger COVID-19 poses to everybody in our city, but especially to those who are over 60 and those with underlying medical conditions. With St. Patrick's Day coming up, those city officials need to be screaming from the rooftops of social media, Statesman Journal, Salem Reporter, local radio stations, and Portland TV stations that Salem residents need to stay out of bars, restaurants, and other crowded gathering places until the COVID-19 outbreak has stabilized. Which will…
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Posted in2020 election Chamber of Commerce City Council

Salem Chamber of Commerce apparently trying to hide $25,000 in PAC money

In tonight's blog post I planned to focus on the curious case of Brad Nanke suddenly deciding that he wanted to run again to be the Ward 3 city councilor, even though back in September of last year he told the Statesman Journal that he wouldn't seek reelection in 2020.  Salem City Councilor Brad Nanke will not seek reelection in 2020, planning to cap a nearly two-decade run representing southeast Salem after his term concludes. Nanke, in his fifth term on the council, has more than a year left to influence policy: His current term ends Dec. 31, 2020. "Five is enough," he told…
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Posted inCity Council Downtown Homeless

Revised sit-lie ordinance is a laudable compromise, but still flawed

Last night the Salem City Council voted 7-1 to move ahead with considering Cara Kaser's creative attempt to find a middle ground on how to deal with downtown's homeless problem. (Jim Lewis was the only no vote; Tom Andersen was out of town). A Salem Reporter story, "Salem City Council moves ahead with sit-lie -- with some conditions," explains the essence of Kaser's approach. The Salem City Council is moving forward with a plan to ban sitting and lying on public sidewalks — with provisions. Councilor Cara Kaser made a motion to go ahead with the ban on Monday, Feb.…
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Posted inChuck Bennett City Council Downtown

Salem’s proposed sit-lie ordinance rests on a bunch of “can’ts”

Tomorrow there's a good chance the Salem City Council will approve a citywide sit-lie ordinance that prohibits sitting and lying on public sidewalks between the hours of 7 am to 9 pm, subject to certain exceptions.  Aimed at homeless people, obviously, this is the most recent attempt to pass a sit-lie ordinance, which so far has failed to get a majority vote from the City Council. Mayor Chuck Bennett Mayor Bennett really wants to have it passed this time, as a recent Salem Reporter story made clear. Here's an excerpt from "Salem Mayor pushes for 'sit-lie' in the face of…
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Posted in2020 election City Council National politics

Anxiety among progressives is real. Here’s how I’m coping.

Don't get me wrong. It's always a good time to be a progressive leftie. But at the moment I'm not feeling much pleasurable buzz from being on the right, or better put, wisest, way of looking at the political world. Let's count some of the reasons. (1) Trump is emboldened following his impeachment acquittal. He's shown no sign of repentance for trying to get Ukraine to interfere in the 2020 election. Aside from Senator Romney, congressional Republicans are kissing Trump's ass with disgusting relish. (2) The Iowa caucuses were a disaster. The messed-up tally of results makes Democrats look incompetent.…
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Posted inCity Council City of Salem Peter Fernandez

Peter Fernandez, Public Works Director, is failing to enforce Salem’s tree ordinance

Just when I thought the wanton destruction of four valuable street trees by Daniel and Richard Gatti couldn't be more outrageous, it turns out I was wrong. Because Michael Slater reported in a Salem Tree Advocates post on Facebook that the City of Salem's Public Works Director, Peter Fernandez, has admitted that he hasn't been requiring people who improperly remove street trees to pay for the full assessed value of the trees, as is required by a city ordinance, SRC 86.105(c). l heartily agree both with Jim Scheppke's comment above, plus a post that Scheppke wrote on the Facebook page…
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Posted in2020 election City Council Homeless

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…
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Posted in2020 election City Council Homeless

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…
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Posted inCity Council City of Salem Tom Andersen

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…
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Posted inChamber of Commerce City Council Progressive Salem

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…
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Posted inBroadway Commons City Council City of Salem

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 meetingSalem's city officials say "screw you" to supporters of LGBTQ rights…
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Posted in2020 election Cara Kaser City Council

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…
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Posted in2020 election City 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…
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Posted inCity Council City of Salem Homeless

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…
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Posted inCity Council Downtown Homeless

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…
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Posted in2020 election City Council

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…
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Posted in2019 election 2020 election City Council

Good election night for Dems. Now, let’s turn Salem more progressive.

Ah, the sweet smell of Democratic election victories has temporarily banished the stench of Trump's disastrous presidency from my political nostrils. It looks like Kentucky has chosen a Democrat, Andy Beshear, to be the next Governor. Yes, Kentucky, where Trump won by 30 points in 2016, and where Trump campaigned last night for the Republican incumbent, Matt Bevin. Sweet!  Of course, I'm confident Trump will claim that if he hadn't supported Bevin, the race wouldn't have been as close as it was, with Beshear on top by about 5,000 votes. But no matter how Republicans spin the Kentucky outcome, it's…
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