Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler (D-Portland) sent the following message via email to all City of Portland employees, today:

Colleagues,

As a nation and as a City we continue to grieve the recent loss of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery, and others in the country and in our community. We acknowledge that Black employees are experiencing a collective grief and trauma coming from a culmination of oppression that is over 400 years old.

We hear and understand that many of our employees, especially our BiPOC employees, are deeply impacted by these recent events and are hurting.

I want to give our employees space to grieve and reflect: 40 hours of bereavement leave as allowed under HRAR 6.03.

I am directing managers and supervisors to approve the leave without question.

I am hopeful that other employers in our community will do likewise.

We’re witnessing a dramatic shift in our nation, one that is urgently charting the path forward for restorative justice, inclusion and understanding. I feel tremendous responsibility, as well as tremendous privilege, to be a part of this historic movement. Thank you for walking that path with me as we continue to serve the City of Portland.

Sincerely,

Ted

"BiPOC" as used in this message, stands for "Black, indigenous, People of Color."

Critics of the mayor have pointed out that while he is focused on "oppression that is over 400 years old" that no one alive today has had direct experience of nor been the cause of, he has been less effectively focused on the oppression that is continuing under his watch in his own city.


--Staff Reports

Post Date: 2020-06-08 18:48:03

Last Update: 2020-06-08 18:48:36

It has come to the attention of the Northwest Observer that Oregon Governor Kate Brown's Communications Director is using a .gov domain website to promote what are clearly left-wing views -- and may be doing so at taxpayer's expense. Sarah Wexler posted an article dated June 4 , inspired by the protests in the wake of the death of George Floyd. The article says,”Being a good ally, an effective activist, and supporting Oregon’s Black and African American communities means doing the emotional labor to educate yourself about how to be anti-racist.”

It goes on to supply links to a vox.com article entitled How to be a good white ally, according to activists. This article says, "The biggest calls from organizers around the country right now is to defund the police, and so the things that white people can do with the powers that they hold — that their black counterparts do not — includes pressuring electeds around defunding the police."

Wexler's profile on the MyOregon.gov site lists her as Director of Strategic Communications in the Office of Governor Kate Brown.

Wexler is certainly entitled to her own opinions on matters of policy, including defunding the police, but the use of her official title and the fact that she is posting such an article on a .gov website at least raises eyebrows, and is possibly even illegal.

Websites using the .gov domain suffix are strictly limited to actual governments. According to Wikipedia, "[u]se of the domain gov is restricted to government entities. According to GSA guidelines, this includes U.S. governmental departments, programs, and agencies on the federal level". Ownership of the domain name was not able to be acquired.

The following questions are raised:

• Does Governor Brown support defunding the police?
• Does Governor Brown support the other radical opinions in the article and in the linked articles?
• Who registered the domain, and what methods were used to acquire a .gov domain?
• Who is paying for the hosting on the site?

One lawmaker, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said simply, “In light of what the taxpayers have been through lately, this is in very poor taste.”


--Staff Reports

Post Date: 2020-06-07 18:40:17

Last Update: 2020-06-07 19:58:04

Every night the protesters in Portland march up to the police barricade and insist, beg the police to take a knee. The first night of peaceful protesting both sides took a knee in respect for the dead and each other to demonstrate a mutual agreement that the rioting and damage the night before has no place in honoring George Floyd. Why certain leaders think police should repeat the act every night has little to do with solidarity or peace. Peace is the responsibility of the protesters, not the police. The police are peace keepers.

Protesters then turned to making demands asking for removal of Resource Officers from schools, which the mayor has agreed to. Wait a minute, aren't these the same people that claimed harassment in schools were leading to suicides and they wanted more protections after school shootings? It's good news that suicides aren't an issue anymore and that students and teachers feel safe, but that doesn’t seem to be the case.

Mayor Wheeler claims students have protested from the beginning against having officers in high schools. What teen wants someone watching their behavior? A concern was immediately raised regarding student safety, particularly after a suicide student brought a gun to school.

Democrats nationwide have begun to call for defunding the police. The left has the most destructive platform releasing criminals, protecting criminals in sanctuary cities, opposing the wall, funding abortion, free healthcare for illegals and giving them the right to vote. Destruction of property doesn’t matter because we are their property and they want us to come to them for survival. We are all (liberals and conservatives), being preyed on, black and white and all shades in between.

Criminals with destructive mentalities can’t be reasoned with. Removing the police standing in the divide, won’t cause hardened criminals to be civil. In the 90’s crime was wild in New York City until Mayor Rudy Giuliani implemented “Broken Window.” That program started by stopping the little crimes first. When the small crimes that sucked in juveniles were cleaned up, it stopped the next generation of bigger crimes. But city councils, such as Salem, are discussing defunding police.

We remember the Weather Underground. Their document called Prairie Fire, called for a resistance strategy like we are seeing along with the Black Panthers demanding to get rid of police, mirrors what the Democrat Party is embracing.

Racism is a real thing. We have a troubled history of racism that stains our history. We fight against racism, and individual episodes are becoming fewer over time. But, that’s a problem to those that use racism for power. They are trying to pit us against each other by placing a permanent sense of guilt on us as if we are the problem. All across social media we see people being exploited because they are white forcing them to kneel and confess to being white. Wait until this assumed power shows up in schools and there are no Resource Officers to stop this harassment.

What will you do when unrest happens in your neighborhood? And what will you do when the state legislature vote to confiscate your guns? We are in the majority according to the Breitbart poll, which indicates 16% support defunding police and 65% oppose, and 88% wanted police trained to de-escalate conflicts and the use of force.

What is clear is that the minority protesting is overriding the will of the people. How much are we going to take?


--Donna Bleiler

Post Date: 2020-06-06 08:26:10

Last Update: 2020-06-06 08:26:20

Antifa leader, Luis Marquez, has laid claim to Portland when they closed down ICE headquarters for a few days. Luis Marquez is not only a leader in Antifa but a career criminal, having been arrested for misconduct on a number of occasions, ranging from assault to disorderly conduct and harassment. He has come out in support of the riots that have spread across the country in the wake of George Floyd's death and reminds everyone that Antifa owns Portland. National news has identified Oregon as Antifa’s headquarters.

In an August 2018 riot, James Mathew Mattox, 31, claimed in a lawsuit that he “posed no threat of violence.” However, before his arrest, police had already confiscated numerous weapons from Antifa members that day. When left-wing protesters refused to clear the streets, police used pepper spray, rubber bullets and flash bangs to dispense the crowd. Mattox admits to waving a shield with an anarchist symbol, flipping off police and taunting them shouting profanities until two rubber projectiles were fired hitting him in the thigh and after more taunting he was hit in the arm. The lawsuit claims Mattox “suffered sharp pain, insomnia, and limitations in functioning and movement for weeks,” causing him to miss work. Taking no responsibility, Mattox made a number of profane posts on social media against the Portland police. Still Portland City Council settled the lawsuit paying Antifa militants $23,000.

Does paying a settlement to an identified terrorist organization make Portland city council a supporter of terrorism? Is the brother speaking to protesters inciting rioters when he is calling for the crowd to “rise up and terminate those that put their knee on our brothers?” What message does a settlement send to current rioters? If they can agitate the police to show force, they can claim misconduct and the city will pay to not fight them in court.

Antifa claims to own Portland, so why not send them the bill for all the cleanup, extra police enforcement, and damages their followers have done to public property and businesses? Claiming ownership over the taxpaying residence of Portland does not give rights to destruction. In the long run taxpayers will end up paying and rebuilding into a stronger more secure community. And that will happen when Antifa is eradicated.


--Donna Bleiler

Post Date: 2020-06-04 19:34:42

Last Update: 2020-06-04 19:38:08

The Senate Education Committee met Tuesday to look at the state education system with respect to COVID19 and the upcoming 2020-21 school year. Craig Hawkins, director of the Coalition of Oregon School Aministrators was one of the presenters.

At one point, the committee chair, Senator Hass (D-Beaverton) asked Hawkins, "Given the obvious shortfalls, here, how do you think the Student Success Act should be reconfigured this first year? Should it even start? Should it go with 60%, should money go into the school fund? If it does start underfunded would you reallocate those [allocations] in any different ways? Would you drop one of those or just keep the percentages the same although with lower numbers?"

Hawkins replied, "We are now looking at that. Under the governor's authority, it only allows across the board even reductions so we can not prioritize one program over another. If the legislature comes back into session, it can look at those various adjustments. I believe our districts will be very challenged if they cannot maintain that $9 billion dollar state school fund amount".

Senator Hass asked a follow up question "If the legislature then does have -- assume there is a special session -- assume the next forecast does not show that revenues are back up, would you then advocate to put all of the student success act funds into the state school support fund?"

Hawkins responded, "Frankley I do not know I am there yet with planning that far into the future. I'll work closely with the governor's office and the legislature to help design what it could look like."

Senator Rob Wagner (D-Lake Oswego), who is also a school board member and chair of the Lake Oswego School district, then asked "I know from the school board perspective, that part of the legal budget process that school districts just recently went through, they are planning for the worst case scenario as it related to the allotment cuts and many are suspending the SIA anticipated revenues coming in". What at a district level folks are planning on in these different scenarios.

Jim Green with Oregon School Boards Association answered, "What we have directed school districts to do -- obviously without the legislature coming into a special session -- without the governor awarding an allotment, we aksed our school districts to budget at their current level and continue forward, but also look at the potential reductions the governor has in her allotment process not knowing what the legislature's policy decisions might be around that, obviously, knowing there could be reductions in their budgets. They are required under state law to have budgets adopted, so it is a process by which we may have districts entering into supplemental budget processes.

The Student Success Act, HB3427, was passed in the 2019 session and funded by the Corporate Activities Tax. The legislation and those advocating for the bill were very clear that the CAT was additional school program funding and not to be used to backfill school budgets, leaving more money in the State general fund. Now those same lawmakers are backpedaling.

Schools will in some way shape or form start back up in September and somehow they need to be paid for, though the COVID-19 outbrak created some savings based on school not being in session. Some observers have pointed out that there will be large scale reductions in several areas of state spending. Schools, who get much of their funding through property taxes, have been largely insulated from revenue reductions, at least as compared to other state funded causes. Additionally, they've pointed out that schools ought to take at least part of a hit in general fund money, which comes from income taxes and in Student Investment Account spending, which comes from the newly passed CAT tax, which is expected to generate less revenue than hoped for.

It will be interesting to see how the public school system, with it's seemingly insatiable appetite for money, weathers the decline in revenue, and whether they try to use CAT tax money to backfill their budget.


--Staff Reports

Post Date: 2020-06-03 21:36:25

Last Update: 2020-06-03 21:36:33

Oregon Governor Kate Brown's request for the resignation of Employment Agency Director Kay Erickson may be cover for her years of lack of oversight, in multiple capacities. The agency has had multiple failures to issues unemployement checks to increasingly needy people, during the uptick in demand as people lost employment during the COVID-19 outbreak. Erickson, the director of the embattled agency, resigned on May 31.

The Oregon Employment Department computer system that issues checks to unemployed Oregonians is called the Oregon Benefit Information System, and it was subject to a state audit by then Secretary of State Kate Brown in August of 2012. The primary purpose of this audit was to review and evaluate the effectiveness of key general and application controls over the computing environment at the department.

In addition to other things, the audit found that, [T]he department did not always update the system to keep pace with some of the more complicated benefit program rule changes enacted by state and federal governments during the recent economic downturn. For example, staff had to manually perform important tasks such as examining previous claims and performing manual calculations in order to determine the correct benefit program to be charged.

The audit also described the scope of the problem. "During fiscal year 2011, department staff identified overpayments totaling approximately $32.6 million that were not the result of fraud." For instance, the audit continues, "[T]he department sometimes paid claimants twice for the same benefit week. For example, one claimant was paid an average of $501 per week for 12 weeks. When staff discovered these weeks should have been paid using a different benefit program the department paid these same weeks at the correct rate of $179 per week, bringing the total weekly amount paid to $680. Since the original payment was $322 greater than it should have been, making the additional payment to correct the error only compounded the problem."

To summarize, this audit -- which occurred under then Secretary of State Brown's watch -- revealed systemic problems with manually intensive solutions, further exposed by a smaller financial crisis.

In December of 2015, after Brown had become Governor, her newly hand-picked successor, current Secretary of State Bev Clarno performed another audit on the same computer systems, concluding, "These computer programs are inflexible, poorly documented, and difficult to maintain. Considering these factors, Employment should take steps to replace them with more robust and maintainable computer code.

Again, the benefits system was cited as deficient. "OBIS is not flexible enough to efficiently handle additional requirements, such as those that occurred during the latest economic downturn." Both audits additionally pointed to disaster recovery and security as weaknesses in the Employement Agency computer systems.

It's hard to imagine how Governor Brown escapes responsibility for the recent failures at the Employment Agency, and the support that they give to very needy citizens.

The Employment Agency has embarked on a lengthy Software Modernization program, started in 2015 and scheduled to conclude in 2025. It is mostly funded with federal money. Legislators have questioned the lengthy schedule of the project.




--Staff Reports

Post Date: 2020-06-03 18:03:30

Last Update: 2020-06-03 18:04:39

The Oregon Republican Party announced today, the launch of the “Stop The Abuse - Recall Kate Brown” campaign to gather signatures to place the recall of Governor Kate Brown on the ballot this fall and end “her disastrous, unaccountable, and abusive tenure as the chief executive of our state,” stated Chairman Bill Currier.

During the summer of 2019, the “Stop The Abuse - Recall Kate Brown” campaign pursued an all-volunteer, grassroots signature-gathering effort and fell short of the 280,050 signatures required. Nearly 33% of the signatures came from non-Republicans.

“In 2019, there was clearly buyer’s remorse about Kate Brown’s leadership that led hundreds of thousands of voters to seek to hold her accountable,” said Currier. “The conduct of the Governor during the events of 2020 has only served to reveal just how devastating Brown’s abuse of power could truly be upon Oregon. A year ago, citizens were angry, but now Oregonians are fighting for their livelihoods and their freedoms. Governor Brown’s unlawful executive orders stand in the way of restoring both.”

“Why keep a Governor that cannot deal with what she dismissed as "small groups" of rioters around the state and can't deliver desperately needed unemployment benefits for 50% of Oregon's 400K unemployed who have now been waiting over two months? No one seriously believes that this Governor is going to somehow do a great job turning the economy around when the only thing she seems to be good at is shutting the economy down and killing off more employers with taxes and suffocating regulation.”

“Today, Kate Brown acts as if the Office of the Governor is all-powerful and unaccountable, and for an unlimited period of time. That kind of power is too much for any officeholder, but especially for this Governor who is trampling on the Constitutionally guaranteed rights of her citizens. The only positive way forward for our state is to remove Kate Brown from office.”

“Oregon’s citizens have suffered enough as a result of the fallout of Brown’s handling of COVID-19. The curve has been flattened, but now the Governor seems to be more interested in controlling and fleecing Oregonians for every penny, than keeping us safe. We can’t afford two more years of Kate Brown. Through her failed and abusive leadership, Kate Brown is effectively recalling herself. The campaign to end her disastrous tenure and bring new hope to our state starts today.”

You can go here for more information or to obtain petitions to sign.


--Staff Reports

Post Date: 2020-06-01 17:35:11

Last Update: 2020-06-01 17:35:30

--Isaac Helland

Post Date: 2020-05-30 20:27:02

It appears that a recall effort directed at Oregon State Senator Chuck Thomsen (R-Hood River) will not gather the required 9,025 signatures to put a recall of the Senator on the ballot. The required signatures are due June 2 and the Chief Petitioner, Lara Dunn is saying that she will be unable to gather that many signatures by the deadline, despite having raised more that $130,000.

A vast majority of the cash and in-kind contributions to the campaign -- over $110,000 -- came from Our Oregon, the political arm of Oregon's public employee unions, with the American Federation of Teachers contributing a large, but smaller amount.

This recall campaign highlights what many believe is a great deal of fiscal irresponsibility within left-leaning campaign circles, especially Our Oregon. Public employee unions are feeling the sting from the June 2018 US Supreme Court decision Janus v. AFSCME which recognized government employee union members’ right to leave their union and not pay dues.

There are slightly fewer than 120,000 registered voters in Senate District 26. Having raised more than $130,000, it seems that at a dollar a piece, a mail piece containing a signature sheet could have been sent to each registered voter in the district, making the recall a success. Given that they needed only 9,025 signatures, they could have spent more than $14 per signature to get the recall to the ballot.

The spending includes over $98,000 for petition circulators, who certainly were affected by Governor Kate Brown’s shutdown order – which is somewhat ironic, considering that this recall was in the interest of the Governor and her party.


--Staff Reports

Post Date: 2020-05-29 21:49:26

Last Update: 2020-05-30 14:49:03

The House Business and Labor Committee met this week to hear testimony from Leadership at the beleaguered Employment Agency. The agency is still badly behind in processing unemployment claims caused by Governor Kate Brown's response to the COVID-19 outbreak.

The committee took more than an hour of testimony from Employment Department Leadership but Committee Chair, Paul Holvey refused to allow lawmakers to ask any live questions of the agency’s leaders.

Committee Member, Representative Shelly Boshart Davis (R-Albany), said, after the committee hearing, “I’ve heard from countless Oregonians over the last few months regarding their frustration accessing the unemployment benefits they are rightfully due. Many of them are rightfully furious over spending hours upon hours trying to get through to someone in the department who could assist them. The horror stories are endless and have been well documented by the press. I am incredibly frustrated that lawmakers were not given an opportunity to ask questions of the Department’s leadership, including how we ended up in this mess, when the agency realized they had a problem, were they given notification of the Governor's Executive Orders which essentially put tens of thousands of Oregonians out of work overnight, what took them so long to respond and when, exactly, can unemployed Oregonians expect to receive the benefits they have earned."

Some observers are puzzled by the heavy-handed tactics wielded by a Democrat party that has Legislative super-majorities and controls the governorship, yet refuses to let the opposing party have even a symbolic chance to participate. Certainly, the seriousness of the troubles at the Employment Agency call for a bi-partisan conversation.

Boshart-Davis concluded, "This is just the latest glaring example of lack of accountability under our state’s leadership. This is a deeply human crisis and the state has failed miserably. Oregonians deserve answers.”

The House Committee on Business and Labor is expected to meet again on Saturday.


--Staff Reports

Post Date: 2020-05-28 19:33:11

Last Update: 2020-05-28 19:33:39

Today, the National Hockey League announced that it is returning to play with the Stanley Cup Playoffs that will include 24 teams.

The NHL paused the regular season March 12 due to concerns surrounding COVID-19 and its remaining 189 games will not be completed. The 12 qualifying teams from the Eastern and Western conferences were determined by points percentage as of that date. Seven teams did not qualify.

League Commissioner Gary Bettman said in announcing the Return to Play Plan, "While nothing is without risk, ensuring health and safety has been central to all of our planning so far and will remain so.

"Let me assure you that the reason we are doing this is because our fans have told us in overwhelming numbers that they want to complete the season if at all possible. And our players and our teams are clear that they want to play and bring the season to its rightful conclusion."

The Qualifying Round and Seeding Round Robin will be held at two hub cities to be identified -- one for the 12 participating Eastern Conference teams and one for the 12 Western Conference teams - and begin at a date to be determined. Candidates for the hub cities include Chicago, Columbus, Dallas, Edmonton, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Minneapolis/St. Paul, Pittsburgh, Toronto and Vancouver.

The Commissioner said the decision on the hub cities and when the Stanley Cup Playoffs will begin will depend on COVID-19 conditions, testing ability and government regulations. A comprehensive system for testing will be in place in each hub city. Each team will be permitted to travel a maximum of 50 personnel, including players, coaches and staff, to its hub city.

"Obviously, we anticipate playing over the summer and into the early fall," Commissioner Bettman said. "At this time, we are not fixing dates because the schedule of our return to play will be determined both by developing circumstances and the needs of the players."

This action marks a great moment in creativity and courage and stands in stark contrast to the actions of many state and local governments and their failure to be responsive to the people and to properly assess the facts.


--Staff Reports

Post Date: 2020-05-26 17:14:20

Last Update: 2020-05-26 17:14:28

--Isaac Helland

Post Date: 2020-05-22 17:22:13

Last Update: 2020-05-22 17:22:26