Posted inCity of Salem

Salem residents appear to favor a progressive income tax to pay for city services

Thanks to a May 7 story in the Salem Reporter, I learned about the results of a survey that asked 400 Salem residents how they felt about various issues associated with the push to find a way to raise money to pay for City of Salem budget shortfalls.  Here's a PDF file of the survey results.Download City of Salem Funding Survey I scrolled through the results, looking for the issue that seemed most important if city officials are going to succeed in convincing citizens that this (whatever it is) is the best approach to bridge the gap between the services…
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Posted in2024 election Chris Hoy City of Salem

All I know is that a Hoy won the Mayoral Debate

Last Tuesday the Salem Reporter and Salem City Club held a debate between the two candidates for Mayor. One thing is clear: Hoy won. I can say that with complete confidence because the candidates were incumbent Mayor Chris Hoy and his unrelated opponent, Councilor Julie Hoy.  Given Chris' much longer political experience, and his incumbency, I figured that he would dominate the debate. But though I think Chris was sharper and more on point with his answers to questions posed by people from the sponsoring organizations, which earned him a win in my utterly personal opinion, Julie performed better than…
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Posted inChris Hoy Citizen involvement City of Salem

Citizen activism prevents additional Salem Library cuts. For now.

It's great when elected officials do the right thing, even when they're forced into it by citizen activism. But most of the credit for the city's budget committee voting yesterday to prevent additional cuts to the Salem Public Library by using money from the hotel tax goes to Jim Scheppke and Lois Stark, fervent advocates for the library who did a great job organizing citizens to press for No More Cuts. Without Scheppke and Stark doing what they did, almost surely the West Salem branch would have been closed, with staff and hours at the main library severely curtailed from…
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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 of Salem

Salem Library advocates irked at city proposal to cut hours and staffing further

Library lovers may have a reputation for mildness, but actually they're fierce defenders of what they view as a top priority for City of Salem funding: keeping our libraries (main and West Salem) open a decent number of hours, staffed by a decent number of employees. Jim Scheppke, the retired State Librarian, is a tireless advocate for the Salem Public Library. Here's some recent Facebook posts from Jim. And here's a post from Scheppke about decreasing crime in Salem that is relevant to the library funding question, because "public safety" often is cited as deserving to be the top budget…
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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 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 inCity of Salem Police reform

Man awarded $3 million due to excessive force and false arrest by Salem police officer

Not a positive moment for the reputation of the Salem Police Department, to put it mildly. Last week a jury awarded $3,150,000 to Christopher Garza after a Salem police officer, David S. Baker, treated him badly in 2021. Christopher Garza (Oregonian photo) An Oregonian story by Maxine Bernstein tells the tale in "Jury awards $3 million to Salem man falsely arrested by an officer who used excessive force." (The Salem Reporter reprinted this story.) Excerpts: A jury Thursday awarded more than $3 million in damages to a Salem man wrongly accused by a police officer of stealing a car and…
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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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Posted inCity Council City of Salem

Salem city officials playing some games with budget problems

Yeah, I know. The title of this blog post is kind of like a headline saying "Dog seen chasing a squirrel." What's obvious really doesn't need mentioning. But even though we expect government officials to play games when they're talking about their budget, it still makes sense to point out specific instances of this so we don't become overly accustomed to the game-playing. Yesterday the Salem Reporter ran a story about ways officials at the City of Salem want to cut the city general fund budget in light of a potential defeat of a controversial employee payroll tax to be…
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Posted inCity of Salem Police reform

Sleazy behavior by police department after cyclist’s death

Keep this excellent investigative journalism in mind next time City officials want you to lavish more money on the Salem Police Department, which will occur in the November election via a proposed payroll tax.  The Salem Reporter has a great update on the thoroughly sleazy behavior by the department following the death of a cyclist on March 28 at the hands of a federal DEA (Drug Enforcement Agency) employee who drove through a stop sign and killed Marganne Allen, who was riding her bicycle on High Street. After the Salem Reporter obtained cell phone call records, email logs and police…
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Posted inCitizen involvement City Council City of Salem

Councilor Nordyke says city officials have lost public trust

Way to go, City Councilor Vanessa Nordyke. Vanessa Nordyke and furry friend Your responses to questions asked by the Salem Reporter about the payroll tax approved by the City Council on a narrow 5-4 margin without a vote of the people are a great example of speaking truth to power. The Salem Reporter sent questions to the four councilors who wanted Salem citizens to vote on the payroll tax. Only Vanessa Nordyke and Jose Gonzalez responded in time for publication.  Here's two of the questions, along with Nordyke's responses. I've highlighted in red her comments about the City of Salem…
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Posted inCity Council City of Salem

Salem payroll tax faces likely defeat in November vote

Nothing is certain when it comes to voting. So even though the controversial payroll tax passed by the Salem City Council on a narrow 5-4 margin will be on the November ballot, since a referendum petition has gotten more (probably way more) than the required 4,000 signatures, this doesn't mean that the tax will be defeated. It just seems likely, given that conservatives hate new taxes, progressives don't like regressive taxes that hit lower income workers at the same rate as higher income workers, and everybody dislikes it when politicians refuse to allow a vote of the people on an…
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Posted inChris Hoy City Council City of Salem

Payroll tax debacle could hurt progressives on City Council

It looks likely that the effort to gather 4,000 signatures of Salem registered voters in order to force a referendum vote on the employee payroll tax approved by the City Council on a narrow 5-4 vote is going to succeed. A Salem Reporter story says that Let Salem Vote has already gotten 4,000 signatures and is seeking 6,000 since some signatures will be invalid. Throughout Salem, in front of grocery stores and at popular events, people with clipboards have been collecting signatures in an attempt to bring the issue of a Salem payroll tax to a public vote. As of…
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Posted inCitizen involvement City Council City of Salem

Salem mayor and city councilors explain position on allowing payroll tax vote

The Salem Reporter (which I consider a subscription bargain for local news) had a great idea: ask Mayor Hoy and the other eight members of the City Council why they voted the way they did on the employee-paid payroll tax that ended up being approved on a contentious 5-4 vote this month. Journalist Abbey McDonald did a great job with "Salem councilors explain their votes for and against the payroll tax." I was particular interested in a question about why the City Council members either supported or opposed having Salem citizens vote on the payroll tax in the November election,…
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Posted inChris Hoy City Council City of Salem

Let Salem Vote seeking signatures for referendum petition on payroll tax

I believe in the value of voting. Most people do. That's why so many were upset when the Salem City Council approved an employee payroll tax on everyone who works in Salem, resident or not, without putting it on the November ballot, as virtually everybody who testified about the tax urged. Predictably, given the intense widespread outrage over this action, a group was formed to challenge the council's decision. Let Salem Vote has filed a petition for a referendum that would put the payroll tax on the November ballot -- where it should have been from the start. Here's how…
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