Friday, April 13, 2018

The Necessity Defense

When my wife and I first moved to Corvallis, we knew we were lucky. We were leaving a place that was in a beautiful setting, but kept stagnant by deeply, deeply corrupt local politics. By contrast, Corvallis and Benton County seemed a relative oasis of sanity and progressivism, with a high quality of life.

But, when my wife and I first moved to Corvallis, we didn't know just how lucky we were. Through friends, we met another couple who were wanting to move and break their lease at the exact same time that we wanted to move here. The house was relatively affordable, centrally located, and we just slid right in. It wasn't until after we settled in that we realized just how incredibly tight the local rental market is, and how lucky we had been.

When we had to move (due to the outfall from our first landlord's second, on site illegal rental being shut down), we learned a lot. As you doubtlessly already know, the rental market is small, while simultaneously rich with ripoffs. Most places are the worst of both worlds: Outrageously expensive, and painfully rundown. If we're being honest, the unofficial mascots of Corvallis could be black mold and/or illegal wiring, so common are these gruesome twosome.

So, long story short, yes, Corvallis and Benton County are doing alright in some respects, but there's a serious and growing dark underbelly. It was some of the people struggling in that dark that first cried out to me to consider running for County Commissioner. People who got to know me knew I was progressive and serious, and had held public office before. These people urged me to take a look, get involved, and not be lulled into complacency by the local Democratic façade of soft progressivism and gentle greenwashing.

Being a political animal at heart, and having had a much needed and revitalizing break from holding elective office, I took their advice and took a look. Once I did, I realized that they were right. Behind a thin, fragile veneer of mainstream Democratic demagoguery here, I saw a lot that was shocking - especially on the county level. At the County Commissioner level, I saw a small group of leaders who were utterly failing to address the needs of the next generation.

My "gateway drug" was watching the whole process of the commissioners deciding what to do about their position on the stupid timber lawsuit. As you probably know, and as at least one of them clearly stated, the majority of Benton County residents wanted the county to stay out of the timber industry-funded and Republican-driven lawsuit against the state of Oregon. But two out of three of the Democratic commissioners voted to remain in. Their stated "reasoning" was vague at best. They said they wanted "a seat at the table" and that this was "a shot across the bow" of the state. What they wanted to do with that "seat" or what the real message of that "shot" was remains unclear.

Left unaddressed was the fact that this lawsuit, with a price tag of one and a half billion dollars, if successful, could bankrupt the state. Which would, of course, have a devastating effect on our already struggling schools. A successful lawsuit would also result in even more logging in Benton County, which would serve to increase our local contribution to climate change drivers. It was a tone deaf, out of touch and potentially disastrous decision, made for unclear reasons.

Having witnessed all that, I started watching the budgeting process. (Sidebar discussion: At the end of the day, the budget is the key task that County Commissioners are responsible for. All priorities and policies are only brought to life via the budget. But, since Benton County only does their budget every two years, it has reduced flexibility. Meanwhile, the County Commissioners get overpaid the same no matter what, while only having to grapple with their biggest responsibility every other year. I support the structural improvements of A) Having an annual budget, and B) Reducing the yearly pay of the County Commissioners. Currently, Benton County pays out over a quarter of a million dollars every year in salary for the three commissioners. I don't know that we're getting a quarter of a million dollars a year worth of value out of them, though. Also worth noting: I can no longer find the page on the Benton County website that lists the salaries for commissioners. Which is interesting...)

The budgeting process was light on accessibility, and heavy on misplaced priorities. Public input was minimal. There weren't enough public meetings held (in my opinion) and they were all held in Corvallis-centric locations. And, keeping with the theme, organizations like the amazing Old Mill School (where they work with children) who had requested small amounts of the county's discretionary funds got nothing, while at the same time the commissioners gave nearly half a million dollars to a museum that, strictly speaking, didn't need the money. The message sent and received was that they would pay big bucks to lionize the past, but nothing - nothing - for the next generation.

(Another sidebar discussion: Most local politicians and candidates obviously love, love, love to talk about "rural economic development" - which is to say, economic development that takes place outside of Corvallis. But I have yet to hear any of these people talk about how paying to move the museum from Philomath to Corvallis is really a form of stealing economic development from rural Benton County and transferring it to Corvallis. Once again, we see Corvallis getting a lot of public service, while the rest of Benton County gets lip service.)

So, stepping back and looking at the whole picture, things here get a lot less brightly progressive and a whole lot more backwater murky. Our commissioners (on the whole) often vote like Republicans, and crafted a budget that zeroed out county support for children and mental health services. They largely ignore the issue of climate change. They talk the talk of county-wide economic development, while generally favoring Corvallis. And, to bring it back to where I started, they express a lot of "concern" about affordable housing, but haven't taken any sort of concrete steps to do anything about the issue.

All that being the case, and with a lack of major party candidates willing to even talk about so much of this, yet alone do anything about it, I felt I had to step up, sign up, and at least try to make a difference. I love my life, and I love my wife, and, let me be honest, part of me wishes I didn't feel duty-bound to jump in and devote so much of my time and life to this. I wish we had more responsive, responsible and progressive people who were already taking care of the important business of governing locally. But we don't. We just don't. What we've got is a Democratic monoculture that too often seems to believe that feeling bad about bad things makes them good people - and is willing to stop with that.

I feel a moral duty to do more than that. And, for me, many of these aren't just abstract issues. The health of our environment affects my personal health. As a renter (the only renter running, by the way), I am directly affected by the poor housing market here. It's not abstract, it's not a theory. It's my lived reality. That gives me a different perspective, and powers my commitment to make the changes that need to be made locally.

As you may have read, there have been honest to goodness judicial rulings regarding some people accused of crimes related to climate change protests where the judge has acknowledged the validity of the "necessity defense." In other words, climate change is such a threat to our collective wellbeing that the actions of protesters are not necessarily criminal, and are, in fact, defensible. That is real, positive progress. It's also a frame of reference I use personally. When my wife, and friends, complain that we don't have any personal time anymore, I have taken to invoking the necessity defense. My time is not my own, because there is work that needs to be done.

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