Posted inCity of Salem Steve Powers

To get public records, city officials want me to know what I seek to learn

Just when I think I've seen all the weirdness Salem city officials are capable of, they surprise me with a fresh dose of absurdity. On May 12, I submitted a public records request to the City of Salem. You can read it via this PDF file.Download Public records request PDF I wanted to learn who authorized changes to the "Reserve a City Facility or Park" web page on or around March 27, 2021, and also who made the actual edits to that web page. Likewise, I asked for the same information regarding changes to the web page on or around…
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Posted inCity Council City of Salem Steve Powers

City Manager gives poor excuse for permitless Proud Boys rally

Ten days after the May 1 gun rally at Riverfront Park where gun-toting Proud Boys threatened citizens and journalists with expulsion from the park, city officials keep changing their story about why a permit wasn't required for the rally. As I said in "Typogate" adds a twist to Proud Boys rally, at first City Councilor Tom Andersen was told that a typo on the city web site caused a page to say that May 1 was the date permits would be required for events in city parks, since a missing "3" would have made the date May 31. But I pointed out…
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Posted inCity of Salem Salem Police Department

Proud Boys debacle shows how Salem Police need to change

The Salem Police Department has a new chief, Trevor Womack. But it doesn't have a new way of going about policing. That's a big problem. Hopefully Chief Womack is up to the task of carrying out needed reforms, restoring confidence in the department, and altering the mission of the department in light of a national movement to shift policing from a militaristic warrior model to a peacekeeper guardian model. This is a complex job. It will take a lot of wisdom to carry out.  Womack, along with other police chiefs, has to deal with a lengthy history of policing in…
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Posted inChuck Bennett City of Salem Salem Police Department

Proud Boys return to Salem, threatening reporters again

Well, that didn't take long. Just six days after the Salem Police Department did absolutely nothing to prevent the Proud Boys extremist militia group from threatening a journalist and other citizens observing a gun rally in a public park, today a couple of Proud Boys banned media from taking photos or video in front of a public building in downtown Salem. And why wouldn't they? The Salem Police Department and other city officials have coddled the Proud Boys, seemingly because they're afraid of these armed right-wingers. The Proud Boys now know that Salem is a place these white supremacists are…
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Posted inCity of Salem Salem Police Department

“Typogate” adds a twist to Proud Boys gun rally

If there's one thing I've learned from quite a few years of delving into goings-on at the City of Salem, it is that often what city officials claim to be true, actually isn't.  Sure, sometimes that discrepancy can be attributed to a honest mistake. However, I know for a fact that sometimes City of Salem staff purposely shade the truth in a CYA (Cover Your Ass) fashion.  Lying is a blunter term than "shade the truth," of course. As I've written about in two previous blog posts (here and here), how the Salem Police Department handled a May 1 gun…
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Posted inCity of Salem Salem Police Department

Salem Police Department misleads about Proud Boys rally

I was already deeply irritated at the Salem Police Department, after learning that they stood by and did nothing on May 1 while armed members of the Proud Boys right-wing militia group forced people they didn't like to leave the public Riverfront Park, harassed journalists, and reportedly beat up someone who was taking a photo of them. (See my previous post, "Salem police sit by as Proud Boys take over Riverfront Park.")Now I've even more irritated at the Police Department after reading their attempt to make it seem like they did everything right and nothing wrong as the Proud Boys…
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Posted inCity of Salem Salem Police Department

Salem police sit by as Proud Boys take over Riverfront Park

Today the Proud Boys, a violent right-wing militia group, provided "security" for a gun rights rally at Riverfront Park here in Salem. The City of Salem allowed the rally to go on without a permit, as I reported a few days ago. So members of the public had just as much of a right to be at the park as the Proud Boys and other people attending the rally. But as you'll see below, the Proud Boys forced people to leave the park if they objected to someone being there. Meanwhile, apparently there was nobody from the Salem Police Department…
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Posted inCity of Salem Salem Police Department

Patriot Prayer holding May 1 rally in Salem’s Riverfront Park

The right-wing wackos are coming back to Salem!   Well, judging from this notice, most never left our area, they've just been silently cooking up fresh conspiracy theories to keep their reality-denying minds firmly at home in Crazy Town. Newsweek had a story about the rally yesterday, "Far-Right Patriot Prayer Plans Oregon Return Alongside GOP Rep. Mike Nearman."  The far-right group Patriot Prayer is planning a return to Salem, Oregon, in May to hold a gun rights event. The rally is being promoted online by the group's leader Joey Gibson and is scheduled to take place on May 1 at…
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Posted inCity Council City of Salem Police reform

Police budget should be cut to pay for crisis response team

City Councilor Vanessa Nordyke is pushing for Salem to have a crisis response team similar to the CAHOOTS program that has been successfully used in Eugene since 1989.  Here's a description of CAHOOTS, courtesy of the White Bird Clinic. 31 years ago the City of Eugene, Oregon developed an innovative community-based public safety system to provide mental health first response for crises involving mental illness, homelessness, and addiction. White Bird Clinic launched CAHOOTS (Crisis Assistance Helping Out On The Streets) as a community policing initiative in 1989. The CAHOOTS model has been in the spotlight recently as our nation struggles…
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Posted inCity of Salem Trees

No-notice tree removals make Salem resident angry

It hurts to see a tree company truck pull up in front of your house, then watch workers remove a beloved street tree -- all with no communication from the City of Salem about why the tree needed to be destroyed. This happened to Heather, a resident of the Morningside neighborhood. The tree that was removed is the middle one in the photo below.  Heather told me in an email, "Survived the wild fires, survived the ice storm, didn't survive the City of Salem." Here's an email that Heather sent to Mayor Chuck Bennett on April 13. Yesterday the city…
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Posted inCarole Smith City of Salem Downtown

Almost 3/4 of downtown Salem trash receptacles to be removed

Sheri Wahrgren, the Downtown Revitalization manager for the City of Salem, wants to get rid of most trash receptacles in the downtown area -- 44 of the 61 currently in use. See: Download Downtown Trash Receptacle Staff Report Before we dive deeper into this messy move, let's agree on this: the current trash receptacles are ugly, hard to use, and deserve to be featured in The Museum of Dysfunctional Trash Receptacles -- which I dearly hope exists. Carole Smith, a downtown resident and property owner, brought my attention to what Smith considers a trash travesty. Never one to mince words,…
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Posted inCity of Salem Steve Powers

Salem City Manager to Proud Boys: “No permit, no problem.”

ln case you're wondering why the Proud Boys hate group is planning to come to Salem five times, one reason is that City officials have been welcoming them with open arms.  Below is an email interchange citizen activist Jim Scheppke had with Salem's City Manager, Steve Powers, who oversees all City of Salem employees, including those in the Police Department. You'll see that Powers makes some clearly false statements about previous Proud Boys marches on city streets without a permit. Steve Powers, Salem City Manager First, here's Scheppke's message to Powers. I highlighted Scheppke's "fact check" remarks in red. Mr.…
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Posted inCity Council City of Salem

Salem Climate Action Plan is going in wrong direction

Very disappointing. But not surprising. City of Salem staff have a long history of ignoring what the City Council and citizens want, instead substituting their own bad ideas for good ones. So here we go again... The City Council wants a Salem Climate Action Plan to specify how we're doing to do our part in reducing global greenhouse gas emissions that are literally cooking our planet. Recently these goals were approved by the council. By 2035, Salem’s greenhouse gas emissions shall be reduced to 50% of the citywide greenhouse gas emissions for the baseline year of 2016, and by 2050,…
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Posted inCity of Salem Salem Police Department

Salem police stand by as Proud Boys march without a permit

In a presidential debate Donald Trump famously said about the Proud Boys, "stand back and stand by," when asked to denounce white supremacist groups such as the Proud Boys. It looks like the Salem Police Department heard those words and decided it applies to them when it comes to enforcing city ordinances during Proud Boy marches in our city.  KATU News photo of November 14 Proud Boys rally in Salem Salem police officers have been standing back and standing by when the Proud Boys come to town, openly carrying firearms and marching through streets without a permit. Here's a letter…
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Posted inCity of Salem Environment

Hazardous waste from Santiam Canyon fire may have polluted Salem

A few days ago the Statesman Journal ran a story about clean-up efforts after hundreds of houses were destroyed in the Beachie Creek fire that ravaged the Santiam Canyon in early September.  KATU News photo Here's some excerpts from "EPA hauls hazardous waste from homes burned in Beachie Creek fire." Static from Geiger counters and creaks from metal echoed as crews in hazmat suits carefully inspected and sorted rubble where a house once stood off E. Central Road in Gates.  The property, devastated by the Beachie Creek Fire in early September, is one of many sites across the state being cleared of hazardous waste by…
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Posted inCitizen involvement City of Salem Peter Fernandez

Flooding in Battle Creek area needs to be taken seriously

Here's another tale of how staff in the City of Salem Public Works Department are failing to be open, honest, and transparent with citizens. Earlier this year I reported that documents received from a public records request proved that Peter Fernandez, the Public Works Director, and other staff lied about why a property on Taybin Road in West Salem was slated for purchase. Fernandez, et. al, claimed it was for stormwater management. Actually, it was to buy right of way for Marine Drive in an area that the City Council had declared off-limits for ROW purchases. So the credibility of…
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Posted inCity of Salem Police reform Salem Police Department

One Salem Police Chief candidate seems better than the other

The City of Salem has narrowed the search for a Police Chief to replace retiring Jerry Moore to two candidates, Malik Aziz and Trevor Womack. (That link allows you to submit a question to be asked of Aziz and Womack during their October 30 interviews in Salem.) I spent some time today Googling Aziz and Womack. Obviously this is a very rough way of coming to a conclusion about which man would be best suited to lead Salem's Police Department.  But, hey, us bloggers are opinionated, and I came up with an opinion: Malik Aziz. First, and most obviously, Aziz…
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Posted inCitizen involvement City Council City of Salem

“Our Salem” plan needs a top-priority: reducing greenhouse gases

If you care about how livable Salem is, check out a recently-released draft report from the City of Salem, Our Salem Vision. There's a lot to like in that vision, but also a lot not to like. So let city officials know what you think of the report. Even though the document says that the next step in the Comprehensive Planning process is public comment on the draft, I didn't see any indication in the report about how comments are to be submitted. A City of Salem Facebook post about Our Salem Vision also lacks any mention of how citizen…
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Posted inCity of Salem Micki Varney Peter Fernandez

As forests burn, Salem parks board OK’s cutting trees without a permit

It was quite a juxtaposition last night. While wildfires burn forests across Oregon, I watched the Salem Parks and Recreation Advisory Board (SPRAB) say "no problem" to a developer cutting down two large White Oak trees without a permit, after which Peter Fernandez, the Public Works Director, granted an after-the-fact tree removal permit 105 days after those trees, and three others, were removed. This was a horrible decision for reasons I'll describe below. The only good news is that the vote to deny an appeal by the Southwest Association of Neighbors (SWAN)  of the after-the-fact permit being issued was close,…
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Posted inCity Council City of Salem Peter Fernandez

City Manager is OK with a developer illegally removing trees

I'm no fan of Donald Trump's re-election campaign themes, but I do believe in law and order -- along with almost every other American. Unfortunately, the City Manager for the City of Salem, Steve Powers, has said that he is OK with the Public Works Director (Peter Fernandez) bestowing a tree removal permit on a developer (Thomas Kay) 105 days after the trees were cut down without a permit. Michael Slater, a strong advocate for trees in Salem, sent the following letter to Powers. Slater shared the letter on Facebook. You'll see that he made some strong arguments about why…
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