Apr 212013
May 172013
By Peter Toll
NEW TROUBLES FOR SHERRY HALL AND OTHER ELECTION TIDBITS — Election controversy, appearances, and activities are attracting our attention this weekend in Clackamas County. Once again, County Clerk Sherry Hall is in trouble for a shoddy elections job. Some 800 Clackamas County voters in the Aurora Fire District, which spans the border between Marion and Clackamas Counties, didn’t get any information in their voters’ pamphlet on their district’s race this month. The Marion County voters’ pamphlet had the material, but not Clackamas. At least one candidate is scratching his head over this.
Voters in the River Grove area of Lake Oswego, that portion closest to I-5, are sometimes confused as to where to cast their ballot — on the Lake Oswego municipal bond measure or for directors of the River Grove Water District. Democratic volunteers working door-to-door for write-in candidate Larry Kitchen found several homeowners who said they were Lake Oswego customers and had never voted on a Lake Oswego water measure. One gentleman waved his bill in the face of the canvasser and said, “I’ve been paying these guys for 40 years and haven’t seen a ballot yet!” Volunteers contacted both Lake Oswego city and County Elections staff and brought this, ahem, oversight to their attention. Continue reading »
May 162013
By Peter Toll
Photo by Christopher Michel
How refreshing it can be to hear voices you don’t hear very often. In this case, it was the Dalai Lama, David Suzuki, John Kitzhaber and Andrea Durbin at Portland’s Veterans Memorial Coliseum last week. How far away they seemed with their strongly held views on the environment, the job situation, education and mutual responsibility for one another. John Ludlow and Tootie Smith wouldn’t have enjoyed it at all.
“Universal Responsibility and the Global Environment” was the theme of the free-wheeling, unscripted exchange and discussion emceed by Oregon Public Broadcasting’s Dave Miller. It covered the merging of spiritual values in turning ideas into action with positive impacts on the environment.
The 14th Dalai Lama emphasized education and the ability to adjust. How is it possible, he was asked, for him to change his position on a topic, even when it is a full contradiction to a personal view he once held? “New information,” he responded, “makes you look at it differently.” Education was a common theme for him. “And not just facts and knowledge, but examination and understanding.” By knowing more, you are in a better position to rethink, reanalyze, and thus change your position without conflict or dissension.
May 132013
What is more important in the political arena, perception or reality? In the eyes of Clackamas County chair John Ludlow, it is perception. He wants to see all county employees at their desks every day of the week. No more of this four days, 10 hours a day stuff, something Ludlow obviously sees as a utopian dream. (You know, just like all those other One World fantasies Ludlow fears so much.) In this case, though, Commissioner Jim Bernard favors reality in the form of actual dollar savings to the county and increased efficiency. Fortunately, Bernard prevailed, but Ludlow gave notice that he’s not giving up with his own agenda.
Does the term penny wise and pound foolish make you think of John Ludlow and the tea party? Perhaps it should, as the mantle of fiscal responsibility is not falling on Republican shoulders.
May 122013
by Jim Martin
The OTP Mailer
Why is Washington County-based Stimson Lumber dumping money into political races in Clackamas County, most recently the campaign to re-elect anti-everything Oak Lodge Water District board member Jim Knapp?
We can ask the Oregon Transformation Project, a creation of Stimson Lumber and its CEO Andrew Miller, a Portland resident. These are the same folks who brought John Ludlow and Tootie Smith to the Clackamas Board of County Commissioners last fall. Why would they do that for a modest little special district?
Recent official filings with the Oregon Secretary of State show that on May 6, 2013, the Oregon Transformation Project paid thousands of dollars for a mailing to all households in that water district in the unincorporated areas of the county stretching from Oak Grove southeast to Jennings Lodge. Continue reading »
May 112013
by Peter Toll
Sen. Richard Devlin
Rep. Julie Parrish
You know a politician is starting to feel frisky when the idea of advancing in the political arena starts to be floated about. The latest on the Clackamas County front — and the most nonsensical — is the thought of State Rep. Julie Parrish, a two-termer representing West Linn and Tualatin, taking on veteran State Senator Richard Devlin, of Tualatin. The differences in these two legislators are massive. Continue reading »
May 082013
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- Kenneth Humberston
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- Hugh Kalani
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- Larry Sowa
You think you’ve got problems? Put yourself on this Clackamas County special district board of directors for just one crazy moment:
- Your colleagues are unhappy with you, so they call the police and file a complaint. (No charges result.)
- Your colleagues are unhappy with the manager, so they fire him and bring in a crony to replace him.
- Your colleagues don’t like the district lawyer, so they fire him and bring in — yep — another crony to replace him.
- Your inability to get along invites so many lawsuits and such hassle that your insurance carrier refuses to renew your liability insurance.
- You’re ill for a day, so your colleagues convene a meeting without a quorum (just two of them) and have you replaced. Continue reading »