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About Sandy post. (Sandy, Oregon) 1938-current | View Entire Issue (June 30, 1983)
2 - SANDY (O í» ) FOST Thuf» June 30 19S3 (*«c. I) The S^ndy Post Editorial & Opinion Von Braschler, Publnhor Caroline Duff. O ffic e M a n a g e r Dan Dillon, editor Scott Newton Sports e d ito r SANDY, OREGON. THURSDAY. JUNE 30 1983 Make board meets public More than once in recent weeks, the Welches School Board has skated around possible violation of state open meeting laws. That’s very dangerous ice. At question are unpublicized meetings and hastily rescheduled meetings. For instance, a May 13 ex ecutive session apparently was held without notification of the press. A May 19 regular meeting, originally scheduled for 7:30 p.m. apparently was rescheduled at the last minute for 4:30 that day. The press wasn’t informed, and the head of the teachers’ associa tion was told only 90 minutes prior. A sim ilar thing may have happened in A pril. Other times board members may have met and discussed board matters away from school or in the superintendent’s office a fte r a regular board meeting, w ith no executive session an nounced. What transpires at such im promptu meetings probably’s on the up-and-up. However, i t ’s hard to keep tabs on what our elected school board in Welches is up to, w ith all this confusion. F u rth e r more, it looks bad publicly to hold clandestine m eetings, discuss board matters casually in group settings or otherwise conduct public business in some closet. What’s more, i t ’s sometimes il legal. Oregon Revised Statutes 192.610 through 192.650 are clear on this m a tte r: “ The governing body of a public body shall provide for and give p u b lic n o tic e , re a s o n a b ly calculated to give actual notice to interested persons including news media which have requested notice, of the tim e and place for holding regular meetings If an executive session only w ill be held, the notice shall be given to the members of the governing body, to the general public and to the news media which have re quested n o tic e , s ta tin g the specific provision of law authoriz ing the executive session. No special meeting shall be held without at least 24 hours notice to the members of the governing body and the general public.” (192 640) "The governing body of a public body shall provide for the taking of w ritten minutes of all its m e e tin g s .,..( T ) h e w r itte n minutes must give a true reflec tion of the m atters discussed at the meeting. ..(A)11 minutes shall be available to the public within a reasonable tim e....” <192 650) The Sandy Post reporter assign ed to cover activities of the Welches School Board has direct ly requested n o tific a tio n of m e e tin g s m o re th a n once. However, this local newspaper of record hasn’t always received such necessary notification. Considering key appointment of a new boa rd m em b er and superintendent recently, such veil of doubt over Welches School Board open meetings is serious. At the very least, the charge may be made that such a board who closets itself—w ittin g ly or un consciously—loses touch w ith the public. In the public interest, we urge the Welches School Board to bet ter publicize upcoming meetings and to hold all board member get- togethers where board-related matters are discussed in a public setting. (VB, Roses to Sandy Highway crew! ! F a ir's fair, and we must give credit where i t ’s due. A while back we criticized the s ta te H ig h w a y D iv is io n maintenance shed area by Jim 's Big Apple in the heart of Sandy as untidy. Actually, weeds and trash on the lot made the big lot in the center of town a bit of any eyesore Well, you m ight logically think th a t h ig h w a y m a in te n a n c e workers have better things to do than pick up gum wrappers and mow down weeds where their trucks are stored. These fin e h ig h w a y crew members, however, showed their tru e colors as civic-m in d e d citizens by sprucing up their lot. They worked hard in the hot sun, and their work area now looks great. In fact, it's a big inspiration to other downtown businesses and city residents to spruce up their lots in tim e for Sandy Mountain Days July 3-10. A fter all, Sandy's going to play host to some 50,000 visitors soon, and we all should want to put our best foot forward with pride (VB) Senator's report: Bill halts lemon car daze by KTKVK STARK O VK’H M ate senator. IMst. 14 Imagine that you have just purchased a new 1983 Ford station wagon for *11.Mb You drive it home and park it in the driveway that evening The next morning you get into your ear, start the engine and shift into reverse It doesn't budge Frustrated, you have It towed hack to the dealer, who tries to fix It Rut the problem recur* over and over Finally your war ranty runa out, and you are stuck with a defective car a "lemon " This story la much more common than you might think New car* that have (sc lory defect* are bought and «old every ay across the U S laiat yaor, the National Center for Auto Safety recorded ts.aou complaints about new cara that failed to p erfo rm up to the m a n u fac tu rer*« specification* Even after numerous tripa to the dealer a service renter, many time the problema are not corrected Recently, the Legislature paaaed a Mil that trtaa to remedy thia situation Known as the "teman law,” HR I7 H waa passed unanamoualy by both the House and the Senate and new awaits the signature of the Agialatora agree that thia may f the or 1 The vehicle la out of service for Ja or more business days lloprf utly. thia definition will cover com plaint» about car» tht are defective from the tim e of purchase The law will apply to all ears purchased after Jan I, tant HR rftn ha* received support not only from mruiy consumer groups, but many car dealer* aa well They stated that «nth such a law, "consumers will feel protected and that's got to he good for business * C o nsum era s ta te d th a t m anufacturers have a responsibility good quality c a n . and when they a "lem on," they have the raapon •tbtltty to replace it «nth a car that is free of defect* The lemon law " will help the right of ovary consumer to gat arhat he or she pays far ” If you have any or any Representative’s report: Shiprack opposes sales tax proposal by BOB SHIPRACK State representative. Dist.23 The House of Representatives June 21 on a 31-29 vote, approved a 4 percent sales tax that would be referred to the voters The measure was sent to the Senate where it is not expected to emerge, as the Senate leaders have voiced extreme opposition to it. That morning before the vote. House members not on the revenue or sales tax committees got to review the plan My doubts about this new tax were confirm ed at that tim e Since this pro bably was the major vote of the session thus far. I want to explain my "no" voe on the sales tax The tax. if approved by the voters, will raised I t 08 billion in the remainder of the biennium Of that. 1126 A million would be used for administration, retailer discount, low income credit and renter relief Approximately 300 persons would have to be hired for administration The *953 4 million left over would fund an across-the board 45 percent reduction on all pro perties on property taxes One can separate the property tax r e li e f in to tw o c a te g o rie s —h om eo w n er and business Extensive research was done on homeowners, which concluded that people with tax rates above *21 per thousand generally would do better than those under *21 District 23, on this basts would be a net loser The greater the value of the home and the amount spent on con sumer goods become varibles that must be consider It was my perception that middle-income people would be adversely a f fected The business impact is much harder to predict No figures were ever developed to show the impact, however assumptions can be made Large property owners would gain the most, since the relief would be the same percentage of current property tax liability. Materials used in the manufacture of goods are ex e m p t. so the r e ta ile r and wholesaler of ftnishd goods would py a disproportionate amount I felt that small businesses would lose under this plan In the final analysis, there were several negatives aspets to the sales tax plan First it was not tax reform, with little guarantee that property taxes wouldn't raise in a short time. Consumers would end up paying for the whole plan with little regard to ability to pay. A new expensive b ureau cracy would be set up. There are ex amples that show a sales tax is not “elastic” to economic reces sions. Look at Washington and California Some 5 percent would come from government—that is, the taxpayer. Finally, I believe a sales tax isn't at all what the m a jority want for property tax relief and would be badly defeated at the polls, since it is another tax I will he working with others to bring about real tax reform and property tax relief If you have any questions or suggestions on any issue contact me by writing Bob Shiprack, Room H292, State Capitol. Salem. OR 97310 or call ing 378-8784 The Post gratefully acknowledges essays and w ritten opinions from readers to appear on this page—separate from the unbiased news reports on other pages of this newspaper. Your opinions generally w ill be printed as letters to the editor, while ours generally w ill appear as editorials. Occasionally, we are able to print guest editorials. We attempt to print all signed letters of good taste, legible form and reasonable length. Our deadline is noon on Tuesdays. Personally speaking: Stop answering machines T ire d of those silly little answering machines’’ You know the ones That's the robot who shuck» and jives you when your car breaks down and you call for professional help Or it's the un sympathlc voice you reach when you try to call your doctor, lawyer or spiritual advisor d u r ing crisis Answering machines couldn't care leas They aren't program med lor sympathy or any other emotions needed for interper sonal relations or interfacing, to use th e lin g o of b ro th e r machines I can never teU when to start talking Do you wait for the beep or try to fit in everything in a few seconds without breath before you hear that beep’ I dunno Part of the trick is being able to understand the person who made the recording And then you must believe there's enough room on your segment of the recording to hold your entire message I some people take the between their last word on the recording and the Masted little b eep -yo u r signal I suspect some people don’t their machines for And if they do. the - are probably too old to have meaning in the work-eat sleep liv es of people T he m essages h a v e eq u al non- la the .aft ofi worse So please, reco rd -a- message owners Return my quarters for all those calls that went nowhere and said nothing to no one who heard or cared It's time to get even with those blasted answering machines I have a plan, and everyone can join my fun I propose we all ban together as some sort of club like "Humans ag ain st M achin es Speaking (H A M S i and zap them right back Here's all we need: Find some bright young kid in an eighth grade science fair who c o u ld b u ild us a ‘ ‘ R e p ly Machine to talk back to those answering machines Then simp ly put a taped message on the machine The machine would in terface with your phone receiver by V O N B R A S C H L E R Hal *000. the sneaky computer who took charge of a space ship in the movie. "3001." told ti smooth talking machines are coming from Eventually, he took over the ship and the astronauts inside He apologized, of course for having to take things in his own hands But he was better equipped to cope Oh. his voice sounded so smooth and prac ticed- like those nice telephone voices you hear when no real are left in charge to chat with you Wo people communicate without let UP When your reply m achine detects another machine on the line, it plays a previously record ed message for the answering machine Of course, it sounds like your voice In fact, you may use your own voice to cut down costs At the end of your reply, YOUR beeper hits some wild notes that totally fry the circuits of the answering machine at the other end It's sort of like a radar detec tor. only you get to stop the cops O K, young space-age whiz kids—wherever you are Let’s build an Intruder Alert computer game the whole world can use And after the robot phones are destroyed, maybe we all can get down to serious one-on-one talk once again Letter answers charge: Deer, elk sighted at Alderwood Park Concerning the article of the I Alderwood Mobile Park in last week's edition. I would like to take exception to the remark by Paul Rice that no deer or elk have been in the area since the highway was buiR D u r in g th e p ast th r e e 1 and two of my children have observed deer grazing between the highway and Die treeline near his prcel on two Yes. the Department of Fish and Wildlife does know what it Is talking about Dennis Cox Brightwood
