Posted inCity Council City of Salem Steve Powers

With Powers leaving, time for a more dynamic City Manager

After six years on the job, Salem's City Manager, Steve Powers, is returning to Michigan -- where he served as the Ann Arbor City Administrator for four years before coming to Oregon. The most interesting thing about Powers' tenure as the most important City of Salem employee is how uninteresting he has been as City Manager. Sure, the blog posts I've written about Powers include a number of times that I've criticized him or called him a liar. But that comes with the territory at City Hall. All bureaucrats make mistakes and shade the truth now and then. And Powers…
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Posted inCity Council City of Salem Steve Powers

Salem’s City Manager ignores calls for a fireworks ban

Recently city councilor Tom Andersen, along with several other councilors, called on City Manager Steve Powers to issue an emergency order banning the use of fireworks in Salem this Fourth of July. Yesterday Andersen shared a Facebook post where he said, "Other Councilors and I have asked that fireworks be banned in Salem over this weekend. Here is City Manager's response to the general public." I found the response by City Manager Steve Powers so clueless and irritating, I just had to comment on what Powers said in blazing red below. The message from Powers is in regular type.  What I…
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Posted inCity of Salem Steve Powers

City of Salem raises price of my public record request from $302 to $900

I wish laws prohibiting "bait and switch" sales techniques applied to officials at the City of Salem. Because yesterday I was notified that the cost of a public records request I submitted relating to the Proud Boys gun rally at Riverfront Park on May 1 had jumped from $302 to $900 -- after I'd already paid the $302. Here's the message I got. Read it and see if you think it's fair that a citizen activist like me should have to pay $900 to learn why, and how, two changes to a City of Salem parks reservation web page were…
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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 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 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 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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Posted inCity Council City of Salem Steve Powers

City Manager Steve Powers spouts more falsehoods, which I easily demolished

The more I communicate with City Manager Steve Powers about the truth of what happened with the highly controversial selection of a building owned by the Salem Alliance Church to serve as a temporary public library (the church denies basic LGBTQ rights), the more Powers comes across as sort of a Donald Trump wanna-be. Meaning, Powers keeps doubling down on his false statements, even when I present indisputable facts that contradict what Powers is saying. This should bother the Mayor, City Council, and other citizens. A lot.  Why? Because the City Manager is the top non-elected official for the City…
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Posted inCity Council City of Salem Steve Powers

City Manager Steve Powers makes false statements about temporary library location

Well, I've got to give Salem City Manager Steve Powers high marks for one thing: consistency. Meaning, he consistently spouts falsehoods. Steve Powers After he and his staff misled the City Council and other citizens about the church-owned Capital Press building being the only feasible location for a temporary public library, I got an email message from Powers that contained more false statements about this debacle. Because we here at the world headquarters of Salem Political Snark value truth-telling, and consider that not being able to trust City of Salem staff is a big deal, I'm calling out Steve Powers…
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Posted inCity Council City of Salem Steve Powers

What’s wrong with City of Salem officials?

OK, it's a truism that when a headline includes a question mark, the answer usually is "No." But I'm not asking if something is wrong with officials at the City of Salem, Oregon variety. (Not to be confused with the witch'y Salem in Massachusetts.) Rather, it seems clear to me -- based on the evidence below -- that City officials indeed are acting in decidedly screwy ways. But I'm not sure what the cause of that screwy wrongness is. I'll throw out one idea at the end of this post. Feel free to add your own in a comment. For…
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Posted inCity Council Steve Powers

City Manager Powers lying about Climate Action Plan

Infuriating. That's the least profane word I can come up with to describe how Steve Powers, Salem's City Manager, is acting toward a Climate Action Plan that is one of the City Council's priorities, yet Powers is doing his best to kill. Steve Powers In a staff report for Monday's City Council meeting, where the budget for the next fiscal year will be discussed, Powers describes the Climate Action Plan in a way that shows he is either astoundingly clueless about what it is, or he is deliberately lying.Download City of Salem Budget Supplemental Report Given what follows, lying seems…
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Posted inCity Council City of Salem Steve Powers

Progressives rule City Council, but City of Salem has “deep state” problem

I'm not a fan of the whole deep state thing when Trump supporters use the term to denigrate career federal employees who are simply trying to do their job as best they can.  But rightly or wrongly, deep state has become a sort of shorthand for government officials hanging on to past policy positions after the political winds of change have begun blowing in a different direction. So that's how I'm using the term. After quite a few years of progressives being outnumbered by conservatives on the Salem City Council, they now enjoy a 6-3 majority. Tom Andersen, Cara Kaser, Sally…
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Posted inCity Council City of Salem Steve Powers

City Manager’s performance evaluation reflected in Salem water crisis problems

Steve Powers is the Salem City Manager. The City Manager is hired with the approval of the City Council, then he or she is in charge of all other City of Salem employees. Someone sent me a copy of Powers' January 2017 Performance Evaluation, noting that some deficiencies noted in the evaluation seemingly were reflected in how Powers has been handling the toxic algae water crisis.  Before discussing those deficiencies, some background info. News of Powers being hired as Salem's City Manager broke in August 2015, as I wrote about in "Salem has a new City Manager -- Steve Powers."…
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Posted inCity of Salem Peter Fernandez Sabre Ridge Estates

City of Salem favors rich developers over ordinary people

Here's a 3 1/2 minute excerpt from a half-hour interview Greg Fabos and I did with Ken Adams on his Salem CCTV show, "The Valley View." After some remarks by me, Greg speaks about how he's seen Salem change for the worse over the years when it comes to rich developers being able to trample on the rights of ordinary people. He says: There's a real negative feeling about what's happening in Salem, and I've been here a long time. It used to be a nice well-run city with, I felt, good concern for its citizens. Right now, it's at…
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Posted inCity Council Steve Powers

City Manager Steve Powers talks about his job. And Salem.

The Salem City Manager heads up an organization with over 1,100 employees and a $466 million budget. In the private sector, a CEO with these responsibilities likely would earn $1 million a year, or thereabouts.  Steve Powers' annual salary, though, must be in the neighborhood of $176,000. (That's what his predecessor, Linda Norris, was slated to earn in 2015.) So Powers has a big job that pays comparatively little, pretty typical for government work. Yet he's accomplished the goal he set out at age 20: become a City Manager.  That's what Powers said at last Friday's Salem City Club talk, "The…
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