In a response to the Citizens' Review Committee which produced a report and recommendations on police behavior on the riots of a year-and-a-half ago, Portland Police Chief Chuck Lovell acknowledged and defended his officers.

I want to acknowledge the impact to our Bureau members. They are human beings who were subjected to almost nighty events where dangerous objects were thrown at them. Every precinct was lit on fire or was damaged. Bureau personnel were injured and many were threatened as they arrived and departed from their shifts.

This is contrasted with descriptions in the report which has descriptions such as, "Some community members described being targeted, suffering injury by this equipment, and being subject to the unjustified use of force as traumatizing."

Chief Lovell's letter describes the severity of the riots:

Following the murder of George Floyd, our city saw more than 170 days of crowd control events. Many events included thousands of people and were peaceful, requiring no police presence. However, unfortunately many others included civil unrest in varying degrees. The events of 2020 are complex and the Bureau was challenged by a number of factors, including the frequency of events, the complexity of tactics used by participants and decreased staffing, which contributed to fatigue and increased call response times. Many roles in the Incident Management Team were filled by the same personnel, due to a shortage of trained personnel. I am proud of the sacrifices made by many of our Bureau members to ensure the very worst didn't occur. Many of these nights could have resulted in a mass casualty event.

The closest Lovell came to promising reform or adoption of any recommendations was near the end of the letter, saying, "Crowd control is always evolving, as new and safer techniques and tools are developed. in addition, there are changes and updates on legal issues. Recently, we asked the City Attorney to seek a higher opinion regarding the ramifications behind HB 2928 in regard to crowd control."


--Staff Reports

Post Date: 2021-10-10 16:00:20

Last Update: 2021-10-10 16:21:56

The Beaverton City Council approved a resolution at the Oct. 5 City Council meeting appointing Ashley Hartmeier-Prigg as an Interim City Councilor. The resolution was approved unanimously and accompanied by a swearing-in ceremony. Hartmeier-Prigg is a registered Democrat.

While the votes from the Sep. 21 Beaverton Special Election have yet to be verified by Washington County, the unofficial results show Ashley Hartmeier-Prigg in the lead to fill Beaverton City Council Position 1. Upon certification of the election results, Ashley Hartmeier-Prigg will assume a permanent role on the Council.

"I am humbled and honored to be elected to the Beaverton City Council," said Ashley Hartmeier-Prigg. "I am grateful for the dedicated public servants who keep showing up for our city, and who have done so throughout this pandemic. Together we will come back stronger from COVID-19, reduce our impact on climate change, tackle the affordable housing crisis, and push our city to be a more equitable place for every person."

Beaverton's City Charter allows the City Council to fill a vacant council position by majority vote. This allows the appointee to serve as an Interim City Councilor until a successor to the vacant position is officially elected.

City Council Position 1 was vacated earlier this year when Mayor Lacey Beaty began her new term as Mayor. The remainder of the existing Beaverton City Council Position 1 term is through Dec. 31, 2022.

The Beaverton City Council was expanded to seven members under the city's new voter-approved Charter that went into effect Jan. 1, 2021. As the city's governing body, the City Council gives policy direction and helps guide the city's long-term goals.


--Staff Reports

Post Date: 2021-10-10 12:49:09

Last Update: 2021-10-10 12:59:27

The annual evacuation exercise for the Portland Aerial Tram is set for Sunday morning, Oct. 10. The exercise will begin at 9 a.m. and should be concluded by noon.

Members of the Portland Fire and Rescue Technical Rescue Team will lead the exercise. They will be assisted by representatives from both the City of Portland, whose Bureau of Transportation owns the tram, and Oregon Health & Science University, which operates the tram in conjunction with Doppelmayr USA.

Using ropes and harnesses, the team will lower four Doppelmayr employees playing the role of passengers 100 feet to the top floor of the OHSU Casey Eye Institute's parking garage.

The training allows crews to practice an aerial rescue in the event the tram is stopped for an extended period of time with passengers on board. If members of the public contact you with questions about the training, please inform them that this is a scheduled training exercise and not a real emergency.

Tram ridership has been limited since March 2020, under safety precautions for the COVID-19 pandemic. For more detail about the current operations, which were adjusted in September, see the PBOT travel advisory.

The exercise has been conducted annually since the Portland Aerial Tram opened on Jan. 27, 2007 and is designed to provide personnel with experience in executing a last resort safety measure. There has never been a real emergency.

Before the pandemic-related limits, more than 9,000 daily commuters and tourists rode the Portland Aerial Tram, one of only two aerial gondolas used for urban public transit in the United States.


--Staff Reports

Post Date: 2021-10-10 06:03:52

Last Update: 2021-10-10 00:19:19

A lawsuit has been filed in US District Court against Oregon Governor Kate Brown by the Freedom Foundation on behalf of several state and school employees who have contracted the COVID-19 virus, have recovered and now presumably have natural immunity.

The suit alleges that Governor Brown's Executive Order requiring vaccinations of all state employees and the subsequent administrative rule that makes a similar requirement for "all individuals who work in schools" does not provide an exemption for those COVID survivors who presumably have natural immunity.

According to the lawsuit,

The State has no compelling interest in coercing Plaintiffs into taking a COVID-19 vaccine, because Oregon has no compelling interest in treating employees with natural immunity any differently from employees who obtained immunity from a vaccine, nor is mandatory vaccination an appropriate least-restrictive means for the State to achieve any compelling interest.

At issue is the lack of an exemption for COVID survivors and the chronic refusal of the OHA to develop any type of policy that recognizes the immunity developed by contracting the disease. The lawsuit makes this point clear:

No exception to these mandates exists for persons who have already achieved immunity to COVID-19 by recovering from the virus. In fact, information provided by OHA indicates “Proof of history of COVID-19 disease as a substitute for vaccination is not allowed under the rule.”

The plaintiffs have moved to have a temporary restraining order against Governor Brown. The hearing on this motion is scheduled for Monday, October 18. The motion asks for a "Temporary Restraining Order prohibiting Defendants Oregon Governor Kate Brown and the Oregon Health Authority, with its Director Patrick Allen and all agents or employees, from enforcing Executive Order No. 21-29 and OAR 333-019-1010, and OAR 333-019-1030 by charging any fee or imposing any penalty for failure to obtain verification or proof of a COVID-19 vaccination."

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State courts have been reluctant to take a stand against executive action restricting freedom with regard to COVID-19 policy. This suit has been filed in federal court which may have a different perspective.


--Staff Reports

Post Date: 2021-10-09 22:06:17

Last Update: 2021-10-10 12:25:16

With just over a week left until the Governor’s deadline for police officers, nurses, and teachers to choose between their livelihoods or the vaccine, the consequences are coming into focus.

In the last few weeks, hospital systems around the state have laid off hundreds of health care workers, causing a lapse in critical services. Oregon State Police and other public safety agencies are facing massive staffing losses. Several rural counties, which have delicate workforces, have declared emergencies because of the impact the Governor’s overreaches are having.

Senate Republican Leader Fred Girod (R-Lyons) and Senator Tim Knopp (R-Bend) are calling on the Governor to roll back her misguided mandates.

“The Governor’s reckless mandates and government overreach are causing a crisis of critical public services,” Girod said. “Her mandates have already ruined the educations for thousands of Oregon students by shutting down schools. Now, she is steering us toward severe staffing shortages in education, health care, and public safety. Every Oregonian has been given the opportunity to get vaccinated and they know how to protect themselves and each other. These mandates have gone on for too long and have gone too far.”

The Oregon Nurses Association recently emphasized the dramatic impact the Governor’s mandates will have on the health care system. The ONA board president said, “Losing even a single nurse from the bedside will result in greater strain on our health care system.”

Yet, the Governor’s overreach is putting Oregon’s health care system on the verge of losing hundreds of nurses. The Aurora Fire Department, and many other public safety departments, could lose up to 50% of their staff in the coming weeks.

“After a year of being called heroes, our frontline workers’ livelihoods are being threatened,” Knopp said. “Our kids are desperate for a real education. Our neighborhoods are being overrun by crime. Our health care workers are overwhelmed. We cannot afford to make these problems worse by what are clearly avoidable self-inflicted wounds. The coming catastrophe is completely on the Governor and the Democratic-controlled legislature who has abdicated all COVID responsibility to her. She must drop these mandates now and allow Oregonians to make free and informed decisions about their safety.”


--Staff Reports

Post Date: 2021-10-09 10:24:00

Last Update: 2021-10-09 10:50:38

In a letter addressed to Governor Brown State Senator Kayse Jama (D-Portland) and State Representative Julie Fahey (D-Eugene) are asking for an extension to the eviction moratorium.

The original Oregon eviction moratorium was in the form of Executive Order 20-13

“...a temporary moratorium on terminations of residential and non- residential rental agreements and evictions on the basis of nonpayment is necessary during this emergency, to protect the public health, safety and welfare of all Oregonians. The moratorium set forth in this Executive Order is temporary, with a limited scone and duration.”

It was codified into law during the third 2020 special session of the legislature in HB 4401

The request for the extension of the Eviction Moratorium presents a heartfelt plea to protect various aspects of families.

When a family is evicted, it negatively impacts their physical health, their mental health, their children’s education, their ability to keep a job, and their long-term well-being. Even a short period of becoming unhoused or housing instability can do long-term, generational harm to families and communities. This harm will be concentrated among the Black, Indigenous, communities of color and low-income Oregonians who have been most vulnerable over the course of the entire pandemic. In addition, evictions have been shown to contribute to the spread of COVID-19 -- a serious consideration in the context of a Delta surge that has hit many parts of our state hard.

Surprisingly, the letter makes no mention of the impact on housing providers. In fact, the document goes as far as recognizing those who work for the government providing benefits, but does not recognize the impact of an eviction moratorium on Oregon's many housing providers, many of whom are "mom and pop" operations. Further, there is no recognition of the damage done to the housing market through the sustained intervention of an eviction moratorium.

We understand that the past 18 months have been extremely taxing to the people and organizations that make up our social safety net, and that Oregon has been relatively successful at getting money out the door in comparison to other states across the country. But those considerations do not help those families who are currently at risk of eviction. The executive branch must take additional action to protect Oregonians.

For industry experts, the market impacts of effectively directing a single sector of the economy to shoulder nearly the entire burden of a multi-billion dollar, 18-month-long -- and continuing -- welfare program. According to Multifamily NW, an organization which describes itself as committed to promoting a high degree of professionalism for rental housing providers, owners and partners, “The collective burden will be put on housing providers and will land a devastating blow to Oregon’s naturally affordable housing supply.”

Insiders have speculated that the unfair burden on housing providers may be the subject of litigation, as providers attempt to recover some of their lost revenue. According to some, relief money has had a hard time trickling down to housing providers.


--Staff Reports

Post Date: 2021-10-08 06:42:28

Last Update: 2021-10-07 18:46:37

On September 29, 2021, Kate Brown’s administrative state agency went a bridge too far with the Oregon Appeals Court.

According to a former state government regulator and CPS investigator source the majority of the ever-growing enlarging administrative state power over the citizen is because citizens bent to it beginning in modern history in 1970 when the child welfare bureaucracies were put in place and parents believed they had to open their doors to Child Protective Services, answer any of their questions and let them have unsupervised access to their children to interview them without parents being present, then increasingly under President Bill Clinton’s 1997 law when the CPS door got opened to child sex trafficking more children were taken. President Trump’s law to begin closing that door was enacted on October 1, 2019.

According to some observers, Kate Brown and Jay Inslee started using that CPS model of obedience to authority with COVID shutdowns of businesses, the public schools, the hospitals, and the Pacific Ocean with the help of corporate media -- including the Portland mainstream media -- feeding citizens, businesses and parents fear to gain unfettered compliance by simply speaking on TV and writing words on pieces of paper by OHA -- “non-mandatory recommendations” as the Appeals Court wrote on September 29, 2021.

Court of Appeals of the State of Oregon told OHA and Director Pat Allen in Chester Mooney v. State of Oregon that their guidance was not an "administrative rule" in the case before the court. The case was only dismissed for being “moot”. Moot is not a win for the governor or her administrative state.

The court’s analysis included OHA has had so many “changes” for over a year this particular lawsuit used a former guidance which no longer existed. Thus, there was nothing for the Appeals Court to rule on under law thus the case was “moot”, that’s the reason for the dismissal not that Kate Brown had won anything that day in court. By the court’s words of “non-mandatory requirements” no person in Oregon is under any law to obey them.

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It is similar to a lawsuit in Washington State in 2020 against Governor Jay Inslee that when it got to court the governor said he could not “enforce” his suggestions.

Many see with the AAG asserting Kate Brown's executive orders are “unreviewable" by the courts that Governor Brown is now so desperate her attorney general’s office of the state of Oregon would make such an argument, such a blunder with such disrespect and such hubris to the judicial system in Oregon that the Wizard of Oz curtain is now fully pulled open.

The appeals court noted as well in the petitioners' lawsuit in Chester Mooney v. State of Oregon from the court's comments, that the petitioners did not submit evidence of damages sustained by the petitioners about the "prior guidance" to assess that the “guidance” had any effect on "their rights."

A former state government regulator source noted that “Rules cannot violate law.” The governors of both states appear to hope that no citizen or business would actually look up the law, but instead, simply believe “rules”, “suggestions”, “guidance”, “mandates”, “requirements” were “law”. If rules violate law, rules are “moot”.

One of many Oregon businesses who have kept OSHA at bay by simply asking OSHA in writing that the business needed in hard copy form the US Constitution, the Oregon Constitution, Federal Civil Rights laws, and Oregon law, and to have OSHA’s attorney highlight in yellow which laws and subsections of those laws that their business being “open” was in violation of which law?

OSHA has not responded and has left those businesses alone. The businesses are open, flourishing and mask free.

State government employees are not trained on the U.S. Constitution, the Oregon Constitution, Washington State Constitution, Bill of Rights, Oregon state law and Washington State law. Source documentation emails show state agencies telling their own AAGs that “no” they will not obey a law passed by the state legislature because the managers didn’t agree with that law.

As seen in the complete decision written by Court of Appeals Presiding Justice Erin Lagesen on September 29, 2021 and as an expert in regulatory government opined, most laws passed by the legislature are moot in that they violate Article IV Section 21 of the Oregon Constitution which is a “shall”, a “shall” that laws must be plainly worded, in other words so that anyone can read them.

Laws have gone too far Beyond the Pale that reading them is more an exercise like in the book of Find Waldo. There will be link after link to this “rule” then this “law” that to follow any of them you’d need to print out, cut them out and get a big white board to assemble them onto that board in chronological order then refer back to the original document, and as the Appeals Court’s references in their decision that Kate Brown and OHA have had so many recommendation changes this case was simply dismissed for being “moot”. A court can’t rule on something that isn’t a law.

Courts rule on law. Courts listen, review then rule on a case when a petitioner has been damaged under the law. Obeying a suggestion by the governor that is not law, where a business or citizen hasn’t been damaged isn’t what courts of law do.


--Margo Logan

Post Date: 2021-10-08 06:06:09

Last Update: 2022-01-01 18:06:53

During the recent redistricting seven seats changed locations as populations across the country fluctuated.

State	Seats Gained or Lost
Texas	+2
Colorado	+1
Florida	+1
Montana	+1
North Carolina	+1
Oregon	+1
California	-1
Illinois	-1
Michigan	-1
New York	-1
Ohio	-1
Pennsylvania	-1
West Virginia	-1

Seats were gained by red states in Texas (2 seats) and Montana and by blue states Oregon and Colorado. Swing states Florida and North Carolina also gained seats.

Large blue states took a beating in the loss column. Blue California, Illinois, New York and Michigan all lost seats, perhaps showing the flight from failed, liberal, union-run, rust-belt states. The swing states of Ohio, West Virginia and Pennsylvania also each lost a seat. No red state lost a seat.

The national impact? In a Congress separated by a razor-thin eight seat margin in a 435 seat body, the redistricting results alone could tip the balance of power toward Republicans -- and that's before any political factors are taken into consideration.

Pundits have blasted the legislatively passed maps in Oregon as biased and gerrymandered -- and born out of the broken word of Oregon House Speaker Tina Kotek (D-Portland) -- and they still have to endure the scrutiny of the Oregon Supreme Court, but there may be hope for Republicans.

Insiders say that despite Oregon's deep blue shade, the Congressional map in Oregon may be spread so thin, as to allow Republicans to elect two or even three Congressional Representatives.


--Staff Reports

Post Date: 2021-10-07 11:02:37

Last Update: 2021-10-07 12:49:09

Oregon Representative Andrea Salinas (D-Lake Oswego) is rumored to be considering a run for the newly-created Oregon Sixth Congressional District. During the recently completed redistricting process, Oregon's population gains earned it a sixth congressional district. The district comprises Yamhill and Polk Counties, the western part of Marion County, including Salem and the I-5 corridor and reaches up into the Southwest Portland area in order to -- in the words of many insiders, ensure Democratic dominance.

Raising more than a few eyebrows is the fact that Salinas was the Chair of the hastily-formed House Special Committee On Congressional Redistricting which drew the lines for the new district which is not only vacant -- it's the only Congressional district in Oregon that does not have an incumbent member of Congress residing in it -- but it includes Salinas' own residence -- a happy coincidence, if she intends to run.

This committee, as well as the House Special Committee On State Legislative Redistricting, which Salinas also chaired were both the product of the deal-breaking move by House Speaker Tina Kotek (D-Portland) in which she reneged on a deal to share power with Republicans on these committees. Kotek is running for Governor, and insiders have noted that this kind of corruption does not put her in a good light as she runs for the first time for statewide office.

Prior to serving in the legislature, Salinas worked as a lobbyist for the government employee union SEIU Local 503 where she says that she worked to "help provide Oregon families with a fair shot by increasing the minimum wage, fighting climate change, and providing comprehensive reproductive health care coverage to all Oregon women." She has a BA in psychology from the University of California, Berkeley.

Salinas has about $40,000 in her campaign account from her legislative runs, but campaign finance laws may restrict her use of that money for her Congressional run.


--Staff Reports

Post Date: 2021-10-07 10:26:49

Last Update: 2021-10-07 11:02:37

Mere days after SB 554 went into effect, Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum (D-Portland) has filed lawsuits against Yamhill County and Harney County, asking Circuit Court judges in those counties to order that state gun safety laws remain fully in force -- and fully enforceable. According the the Oregon Department of Justice -- headed by Rosenblum -- the lawsuits are in response to the adoption of sanctuary ordinances in these counties that seek to nullify new statewide gun safety laws. The ordinances also provide that responsible officials who enforce the state’s duly-enacted laws can be prosecuted or subjected to private lawsuits.

“Gun safety laws exist to help keep guns out of dangerous hands and keep people safe. A county commission simply doesn’t get to override state law in this way,” said Attorney General Rosenblum. “The laws of Oregon remain fully in force -- and fully enforceable -- notwithstanding these invalid ordinances. No officials should be frightened out of properly doing their job by the threat of illegitimate criminal charges or bogus lawsuits. Although today’s lawsuits are addressed to only these two Oregon counties, other counties have enacted similar illegal ordinances. These actions will hopefully send the message that we are prepared to preserve the rule of law across our state.”

Kevin Starrett, Director of Oregon Firearms Federation said, "This will be an interesting battle given Oregon’s forceful efforts to thwart immigration law and its legalization of hard drugs. Once again, the state will be using your tax dollars to attack the rights of Oregonians while they work overtime to protect criminals."

According to the lawsuit, a local county ordinance is

...expressly preempted in its entirety by ORS 166.170, which bars local firearm ordinances and provides that a county lacks authority to regulate in the area of firearms absent express authorization. State law expressly preempts local civil law where the “text, context, and legislative history of the statute ‘unambiguously expresses an intention to preclude local governments from regulating’ in the same area as that governed by the statute.”

Ellen Rosenblum is rumored to be considering a run for Oregon Governor.


--Staff Reports

Post Date: 2021-10-07 09:18:43

Last Update: 2021-10-07 12:26:51

Last week, Yamhill County Commissioner Lindsay Berschauer was exonerated on claims of creating a hostile work environment, harassment, bullying and defamation of character related to an internal Human Resources complaint filed by county grants manager Carrie Martin. Martin filed the complaint on April 26, 2021 in response to scrutiny she received from Commissioner Berschauer regarding her role in the failed Yamhelas-Westsider Trail project and its associated grant funding.

Yamhill County hired Christine Slattery of Miller Nash LLP to conduct a thorough investigation of Martin’s complaint and spent several months interviewing Berschauer, Martin, county staff and others. On September 27, 2021, the investigative attorney issued a statement that all allegations against Berschauer were unfounded.

The complaint alleged that Commissioner Berschauer began questioning Martin about the status of the Yamhelas-Westsider Trail project as a commissioner-elect, actions that Martin found inappropriate. Martin also objected to the questioning she received by Berschauer during a January 28th board meeting, when the trail project came before the Board of Commissioners, as “unwelcome verbal contact”. During that meeting, Berschauer exposed that Martin’s reporting of the status of the completion of the Stag Hollow Creek Bridge, a critical component of the trail project, was inaccurate.

Martin continued to allege Berschauer was working to get Martin fired by asking that complaints from members of the public regarding Martin’s behavior over the course of the trail project be added to her personnel file. Several county residents had complained to Berschauer about Martin’s behavior during public meetings, noting that Martin would “roll her eyes” at people testifying against the trail and even flipped off farmer John VanDyke during a trail site visit.

Attorney Slattery found that while Martin may have characterized Berschauer’s scrutiny of her work on the trail as “unwelcome verbal contact”, it did not violate the county’s harassment and sexual misconduct policy. Further, the investigator found no evidence to suggest that Berschauer was attempting to get Martin fired from her job.

The demise of the Yamhelas-Westsider Trail project has spurred a recall effort against Berschauer by trail proponents and special interest groups. Martin leaked the content of her complaint to the recall group in order for it to be used against Berschauer in the recall petition. The petition states Berschauer is “the subject of at least one hostile workforce complaint”. There appears to be a closely-coordinated effort between county staff and pro-trail groups to recall Berschauer by using falsehoods and specious complaints, simply because the commissioner is demanding accountability for the failed Yamhelas-Westsider Trail project.


--Staff Reports

Post Date: 2021-10-06 16:12:32

Last Update: 2021-10-06 18:07:17

Oregon OSHA Administrator Michael Wood will leave his post at the end of this month to take a job with the State of Washington, the Oregon Department of Consumer and Business Services announced today.

The department expects soon to name an interim administrator of the workplace health and safety division, with a national recruitment for the position planned.

“Michael has dedicated his career to public service, has skillfully steered Oregon OSHA through many challenges, and is leaving behind a strong team of highly skilled professionals who are ready to address new challenges,” said Andrew Stolfi, director of the Department of Consumer and Business Services. “We will miss him and wish him well as he moves into a new phase of his impressive career in public service.” Oregon OSHA operates within DCBS.

Wood was controversial as the spearhead for COVID-19 enforcement, which some say has been excessively heavy-handed. In the past, he has promised fines for businesses that failed to enforce vaccine requirements on their customers, as well as imposing maximum fines on businesses who failed to enforce mask mandates on their customers. Observers are waiting to see if Governor Brown will appoint a new administrator who has the will to continue what some say is a heavy-handed level of enforcement.

Wood’s last day with Oregon OSHA is Oct. 22. He has accepted a position as deputy director of operations for the Washington State Office of the Insurance Commissioner. Wood has served as administrator of Oregon OSHA for 16 years. Before joining the State of Oregon in his current position, he worked for the Washington State Department of Labor and Industries for more than two decades.

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According to OSHA, "Even as it has quickly responded to the COVID-19 emergency -- including adopting requirements to protect workers -- Oregon OSHA has continued to advance its long-running work addressing high-hazard industries and various emphasis safety programs. For decades, the division’s efforts – part of a larger system in Oregon focused on safe and healthy workplaces – have helped drive down injury, illness, and fatality rates in Oregon workplaces."


--Staff Reports

Post Date: 2021-10-06 09:55:46

Last Update: 2021-10-06 10:14:40