The Shelter Shell Game

If an argument you cannot win, then spin, spin, spin.

Or perhaps you prefer, "If you can't dazzle them with brilliance, then baffle them with BS."

Whatever cliché about obfuscating and distracting you prefer, it's ever more clear that that is exactly what Rich Carone's "plan" is in terms of the cold weather shelter. He's not looking for a solution; he's looking for a way to obstruct and delay long enough to kill the shelter outright.

Oh, sorry. I may have gotten ahead of myself. I'm talking about how rich guy Rich Carone, who has spent the last couple of weeks obstructing the plans to locate the cold weather shelter downtown by proposing a "northern location" that would be financed by "secret partners" and with "millions of dollars" has now changed his position again, and is suddenly backing the shelter returning to the "problematic" location it was in last year. You can read all about this latest shift here. (Be sure to read all the way to the end, where the GT documents that yet another group - the Corvallis Downtown Advisory Board - voted against having the shelter downtown, but did not have that subject on their meeting agenda.)

This is ridiculous, and actually very transparent. The public hearing on Carone's laughably presented "proposal" for the northern location resulted in just that - laughter. When your publically presented "plan" is based on and includes hastily scrawled Post-It notes with random words written on them, well, it's a little difficult to buy into, and Carone obviously has realized that. Hence the latest shift.

This shift also means that the next County Commissioner's meeting on this subject has already been announced and scheduled - and they've made it clear that public comment will not be taken at that meeting. Perhaps Carone thinks this is to his advantage, and is hoping to slip yet another proposal in but get it by without the public being able to eviscerate it like they did his last one.

But, fair is fair: If the County Commissioners aren't taking any new public comments on this subject, they should also not be entertaining any new proposals. Enough is enough. Right or wrong, they need to make a decision. That is what they are paid close to $100,000 a year to do.

With that in mind, here's a thought - one that comes from someone who thinks the Commissioners are wildly overpaid, and supports cutting that pay way, way down. If the County Commissioners are reluctant to spend public money on the cold weather shelter - which, for whatever reason, they clearly are - why don't they follow their friend Rich Carone's (proposed) example and spend some private money? If each of the three Commissioners were to put up $20,000 apiece, well, problem solved! They'd have funded the shelter, saved the County from having to spend that money, and set themselves up to look like nice, caring people. A triple win!*

* Please do NOT hold your breath while waiting for the described triple win to occur.

Shelter

Just a quick reminder that today (Tuesday, July 10th) is the day of the big meeting to discuss Benton County's funding (or not) for the cold weather shelter. It will be held at the Sunset Building, at 4077 SW Research Way, at the worker-unfriendly time of noon. Even with the awkward time, and the out of the way location, I trust that there will be some sort of audience there. It will be interesting to see how the County Commissioners behave with people watching - it's a situation they don't find themselves in too often, which is part of the problem.

This is a time-sensitive topic, and the scheduling of this meeting probably makes it an event that is time-sensitive for those attending. (Which is to say, a lot of us will need to get back to work at some point.) With all that in mind, it will also be interesting to see if the Commissioners insist on sticking to their time-wasting and pointless habit of having everyone in attendance - and I do mean everyone - introduce themselves.

Also of note...Even with all they've been through in terms of criticism for how they've conducted their business, the County Commissioners continue onward with their bad habits. The problematic "meeting" where they decided to pull the funding was called with a totally vague, deceptive agenda. That was just one of many problems with the way the Commissioners came to their decision.

Well, the agenda for today's meeting isn't as vague as the previous one, but it's also not very clear or informative. You can read it here. It tells you what order things will happen in. It tells you who will be presenting, and in what order. It tells you when the public may make comments. But nowhere does it simply state that what the focus of these presentations and public comments will be about. In other words, this meeting is all about the funding for the cold weather shelter, but the agenda does not include the words "cold" or "weather" or "shelter" or even "homeless." Once again, it is vague to the point of deception.

Stay tuned. More on this topic later...

And now it is later...Just after 6:00 PM on Tuesday evening...

The meeting was standing room only, with people spilling out of the room into the lobby of the Sunset Building. (Yes, standing room only, but I was the only candidate for County Commissioner there.) It went for just shy of three hours. Shawn Collins, representing the HOAC and the cold weather shelter, went first, and he hit all the right notes in a spirited and concise manner. When he finished, the guy I was sitting next to turned to me and whispered, "Shawn really nailed it." I directed his attention to my notebook, where just a moment earlier I had written, in all caps, HE NAILED IT.

But the only thing the opponents of the 2nd Street location nailed was the coffin containing their reputations. Their presentations were emotionally manipulative, extremely light on facts, and very heavy indeed on repeated references to the need for "buffers" around the shelter, to keep anyone from having to see homeless people, or acknowledge them. Their collective approach was both criminally cruel and comically inept. As Rich Carone was winding down his sad little presentation (containing power point slides of, I kid you not, scrawled Post It notes on a wall to represent the "plan" for his building) I once again wrote a summary in all caps. It said simply: MAGIC BEANS. Because that was what he was trying to sell. Too-good-to-be-true plans! Paid for by secret investors! All problems solved! Magic beans for everyone! Reality did not intrude into his presentation - other than the cold, stark reality of some people's desire to see the homeless not served, but banished.

It will be interesting to see how the County Commissioners get themselves out of this mess. They clearly do not want to support the 2nd Street location - for whatever behind the scenes reasons - but just as clearly the majority of the community supports that location. Will we see responsiveness, or more defensiveness? Will we see real leadership, or more weaselship? Time will tell...

Sunset and Little Daylight

After getting caught - literally - doing a dirty deal to scuttle the men's cold weather shelter, the Benton County Commissioners have been furiously - literally - trying to do some sort of damage control. But their efforts have been both halfhearted and ham-handed.

A huge part of the overarching problem is that the Commissioners have clearly gotten very, very used to operating with no public oversight. Hence, the common use of incredibly vague "agendas" for meetings that don't tell the public what, if anything, is going to be discussed. That alone is deceptive, destructive of trust, and possibly illegal.

Then you've got all the County Commissioner meetings being held during the workday, when it is difficult for people to attend.

In the case of the cold weather shelter, those two problems twined together with a third problem, and the most dangerous one: Making decisions on items with no members of the public present on a subject that was not on the meeting agenda. That is clearly meant to shut out public input and oversight, and is illegal.

As part of their "damage control" efforts, Anne Schuster was sent out to represent Benton County at the recent public forum on the shelter decision. Her defensive performance, paired with her very deferential attitude towards a few wealthy business interests, did not go over well with the majority of those in attendance. Rather than shutting down debate, she only raised new questions about how the County operates, and how the Commissioners make their decisions.

Now we have part two of the Commissioners "your call is important to us" efforts coming up: A proper meeting of the County Commissioners to, in public, with an audience, discuss this issue again. They have scheduled this meeting for next Tuesday, July 10th, at the Sunset Building, at 4077 SW Research Way. They've chosen the Sunset Building for this meeting because they're expecting people to, you know, actually attend and their regular meeting room downtown doesn't accommodate many people. (Which raises the question of why you have your regular meetings in a room so small as to literally squeeze the public out...)

Of course, these efforts to show they are open and care are still problematic. The Sunset Building meeting room is indeed bigger - but the Sunset Building is far away from pretty much everything, which is a barrier to people coming. (Especially the homeless.) And compounding the where problem is the when problem: The meeting is set for noon. As in, still right in the middle of the work day. As in, still at a time - and now at a place - that is difficult for most members of the public to make it to.

Philosophical question: Are elected officials representatives of the public that elected them, or just publically-empowered free agents? Personally, I believe you're elected to be a public servant, public property really. You're elected to serve the public - full-stop. And when that's case, and especially when you're getting paid $84,000 a year, or more, I don't think it's unreasonable to bite the bullet and give up an evening or two to have a public meeting that actually accommodates the public.

I mean, that is your job in that role, right? Public service. I don't know that we're getting that now, but if I'm elected, you'll sure have someone in there who will work every day to instill that attitude in all levels of Benton County government. We won't just have a Sunset Building - we'll also have a lot more daylight.

The 4th of July and a 2nd Try

Today is the 4th of July. yes, that's a national holiday and all that, it's true, but today the date stands out to me for a different reason. It was exactly two months ago that I posted my piece (see it here) promoting the idea of following Portland's lead and passing some protections for renters locally. In addition to writing about it here, I also sent the same information in to the Gazette-Times as a letter to the editor, and sent e-mail messages about it to our local (city and county) elected representatives.

As a quick refresher, Portland passed a set of rules to help protect renters. They extended the minimum notice for a no cause eviction or a raise in rent from 30 days to 90 days. These rules were challenged in court, and Portland won, so these are 100% legal approaches to take in Oregon. And, best of all, at least from the government's position, these rules won't cost them a thing.

So, again, these policies protect renters, and don't cost a thing. Why aren't we doing that here?

That was the basic thrust of my message on this topic. In two months time, our local governing bodies could have given public notice, taken public comment, and voted to put these protections in place.

But, in those two months they have done no such thing. They have ignored this issue, and, in the case of Benton County, aggressively gone the other way by pulling funds and support from the winter men's homeless shelter. (A move that was also done in a classic backroom-deal-with-no-public-oversight fashion.) Renters here continue to suffer in a market that is expensive, exploitative and often dehumanizing.

We can do better than that. We owe it to our fellow citizens to do better than that. I am at a total loss as to explain why our local "leaders" refuse to take such simple, cost-free actions to protect the people they are supposedly representing. Such reluctance to do the right and just thing will only make me work that much harder to win this election, and, if need be, push to get these things accomplished myself from the inside. It will be the first item on my to-do list when elected, because it's so obvious, and so simple.

It's just a shame that it continues to look like the renters of Benton County will have to continue to wait for their needs to be addressed. The current crop of elected officials could take this issue off the table by simply acting on it themselves. I wish they would do that. I really do.

Doubtlessly so do thousands of other renters, or, to use another name to describe them, voters.

 

YouCAN But CAAB Can't

Last night was the monthly meeting of the City of Corvallis Climate Action Advisory Board (CAAB)...And after viewing them in "action" last night, well, let's just say that I could easily have titled this piece "Is THIS Leadership? Chapter 3."

As you might imagine from their name, the CAAB exists, it is said, to "advise" the Corvallis City Council on how best to address climate change. That's the theory anyway.

Last night's meeting started at 5:30 PM, and was supposed to last 90 minutes. It was an ominous sign that they put the opportunity for public comments dead last on their agenda - which is generally a sure sign that a group does not, in fact, want to hear from members of the public. The group is "facilitated" by Annette Mills, and the meeting was run, such as it was, by City Council member Charlyn Ellis.

Jumping to the end...The meeting went just shy of a half-hour over their scheduled time. Ah, but how they got there, now that's the story...I'll get to that in a minute. But the first real "action" item on the agenda was "Discussion with Representatives of YouCAN (15 mins.)." That's exactly how it was listed on the agenda. YouCAN, for those who don't know, is a group of local youth who are working with great energy, focus and passion on addressing climate change. About 10 members of the group came last night. They filled the front row of the seating, and stayed for the whole meeting.

It's just a shame that what they saw was so disheartening. Even more of a shame is that the members of CAAB didn't seem to really see them at all. They were sitting there, but seemingly not there for most of the CAAB members. YouCAN has been tirelessly advocating for the city to pass an ordinance regarding climate change. The city, and the CAAB, have been strongly opposed to passing any sort of ordinance dealing with climate change. The kids want something with teeth and measurable goals; the city and CAAB do not.

CAAB's "discussion" with YouCAN consisted of inviting two representatives from that group to come and sit in front of the board. One of the YouCAN reps spoke briefly, then the rest of the 15 minutes were eaten up (literally) by CAAB members, one by one, trying to convince "those meddling kids" to focus on anything and everything except an ordinance. One or two CAAB members actually told these kids, filled with passion and energy and worried about their own futures, to come back and check in with the CAAB in a couple of years, to see how they're doing!

Climate change is an existential threat to all life on this planet. It is happening now and there is an urgent need for us to respond to it immediately. But the members of the CAAB showed no sense of urgency. They looked at these kids, and essentially told them to get lost, stop bothering us, leave this business to the adults in the room. Left unsaid was that it was, collectively, the adults in the room that got the planet into this mess in the first place. The response from the CAAB was as meaningful as a recording saying, "Your call is important to us - please stay on the line." It was shameful and sad.

Charlyn Ellis had set her timer and when the 15 minutes were up - Wham! - that was it. She shut down the "discussion" and moved right along. Thanks, kids, now go away.

But they didn't go away. As I said, they stayed for the whole sad spectacle. Ellis was a real clock watcher when it came to dealing with the YouCAN kids, but she was notably more lax with, well, everything else.

The meeting actually began with a time-wasting "Check-in question." That was supposed to take "3 mins." per the agenda. Needless to say, since it gave the adult members of the CAAB an opportunity to pontificate, it took a lot longer. Everything but the YouCAN kids took a lot longer. It was an amazing and bizarre thing to behold.

Here was a group that is supposed to be dealing with the life-or-death, happening right now issue of climate change, and they wasted so much time. A great deal of the meeting was literally spent debating things like: "Should these items be numbered or have bullet points?" "Should this item be number two or three on our (numbered or bullet pointed) list?" "Would it be better for us to be called a board or a subcommittee?" The amount of time spent - sorry, wasted - talking about ephemeral things was astonishing. At one point, they even spent time discussing the fonts used on a couple of documents.

So, the takeaway was that fonts are worthy of discussion and debate. The future, the kids sitting right in front of you? Not so much. It's no wonder that a couple of the kids I talked with brought up the word "cynical" after viewing this sad display.

As I said at the beginning, this piece could easily be called "Is THIS Leadership? Chapter 3." On climate issues, and many others, our local leadership is totally checked out. I urge you to not believe the hype, and don't be lulled into thinking that groups with the word "Action" in their name are actually taking action. Do some reading, and see for yourself. Or, in this case, you could contact the kids involved with YouCAN and see what they have to say. They'll doubtlessly be at the next CAAB meeting (on July 30th), and so will I.

Is THIS Leadership? Chapter 2

There's a saying in politics: If you're explaining, you're losing. Well, all three of our County Cmmissioners sure have been explaining a lot this week. It was bad enough that they made a highly questionable decision to pull the funding they had committed for the men's homeless shelter in Corvallis. That had them on the defensive all by itself.

Now, in today's paper, we find several new articles revolving around that same decision, and raising the questions about how our Commissioners operate, and whether or not they violated either the spirit of the law, or the actual law itself regarding public meetings in arriving at that decision.

To be honest, none of this comes as a surprise to me, as the issues involved are ones I have been concerned about and speaking out about for many months now. As I see it, there are three problems with our current situation.

One: Meeting times and/or meeting notices. The County Commissioners hold their meetings during the work day, when it is difficult if not impossible for working citizens to attend. And the agendas for these meetings, as noted in the Gazette-Times, are often incredibly vague, essentially stating "We're having a meeting and will discuss, like, you know, the issues facing Benton County." If you're concerned about or interested in a particular issue, it's generally difficult to know when, exactly, that issue might be being discussed. More problematically, this can also lead to discussions and decisions on issues that, if not given proper public notice, are illegal. (And per the current controversy, let's be clear: If all three Commissioners "come to consensus" on an issue, functionally, that's the same as voting on an issue, no matter how many semantic word games you play.)

Two: Problem One above leads directly to Problem Two, which is that, not surprisingly, not many members of the public ever attend a meeting of the Benton County Commissioners. In all the meetings I have ever been to, I have only seen one or two members of the public in attendance. (I have also never seen another candidate for County Commissioner at any of these meetings, by the way.) Go to any Corvallis City Council meeting - in the evening - and you'll find at least a few interested citizens there. But if you go to any given County Commissioner meeting - during the middle of the day - don't be surprised if you're the only one there.

Three: And that leads us directly to Problem Three, which is that our County Commissioners seem increasingly out of touch with the people they represent. They certainly make decisions regarding those people without actually hearing from them in any meaningful way. The public comment period at a City Council meeting can take up a lot of time, and there's always someone there to express there views on something. That's a good thing. So far as I can see, there is no corresponding public input the County Commissioners receive, at least not on anything resembling a regular basis.

And that leads to bad decisions. And bad decisions lead to lots of explaining. And, as stated above, if you're explaining, you're losing. Only, in this case, we're all losing.

We can do better than this in Benton County. If I'm elected, I will push for meaningful changes in the basic ways the Benton County Commissioners conduct their business, to help increase public input and oversight, and lessen the chances of confusion, disruption and community upset.

***I'm adding this note the next day, June 21st. The reason for doing so is because I wanted to provide a link to an editorial in today's Gazette-Times on this topic that is right on the money. Simply put, they call the County Commissioners out for all the problems with their handling of this: Anne Schuster's inflammatory Facebook comments; the "agenda" put out for this meeting that offered no details about what would be discussed; the fact that the discussion of this issue took place after everyone had left the meeting except for the three Commissioners and Joe Kerby, County Administrator; the Commissioners lame attempts to say no vote was taken, but that they "only" reached "consensus" on this funding issue; and Vance Croney's defense of it all as being legal - when it might not have been, and was, at the very least, underhanded and unethical.

Good call, GT.

Is THIS Leadership?

As you may have read, Benton County has pulled the $60,000 they had promised for the homeless shelter, citing (no pun intended) the reason that they "don't like the location."

Now, let's just take the specific issue (dealing with homelessness) out of this discussion, and look at how our current County Commissioners have behaved in all this. They've made a deal, committed funds, then reneged on it, throwing plans that affect the whole county and involve many groups therein into turmoil. They did so at the last minute.

They also did so as a follow up to Commissioner Anne Schuster's telling inflammatory lies via Facebook. Do I need to say that that sort of behavior is never helpful, and, in this case, seems especially insensitive? We've already got a lunatic in chief who is addicted to tweeting out mistruths - do we really want to emulate that sort of behavior locally?

Taken as a whole, is this the kind of informed, compassionate and professional leadership you'll accept here in Benton County? Last minute, kneejerk panic attack responses to issues? A total lack of compassion, if not for the homeless, for all the other groups involved in this effort whose work may now have been completely torpedoed?

And, speaking of empathy, this is also a revealing follow-up to the recent revelations about the troubles in Benton County's mental health department, with allegations of abusive managers and bigoted behavior being widespread.

Leadership means standing up and doing what is right, even when it is difficult. It also means having the courage to stand up and say when you're wrong, and working to make amends. But, under its current leadership, Benton County seems more focused on deflecting blame, assigning it to others, and shirking their responsibilities.

We can do better than this, and if I am elected, I will work tirelessly to see that we absolutely do better than this. I will foster cooperation, not confrontation. I will not abide unethical or abusive behavior. And I will recognize that, buyer's remorse or not, a deal is a deal, and we must uphold our end of it - especially when it comes to dealing with life or death social issues.