Eugene weekly., July 10, 2003, Page 8, Image 8

COUNTY PASSES UPA
RESOLUTION
CATHRYN CHUDY
The
Lane
County
Board
of
Commissioners voted 4 to 1 on July 2 in
favor of passing a county-wide resolution re-
jecting the USA PATRIOT Act (UPA).
Commissioners Dwyer, Green, Lininger and
Sorenson voted for the resolution.
Commissioner Morrison voted against it,
saying the UPA was a matter that should be
handled at the federal level.
In a Lane County Bill of Rights Defense
Committee (LCBORDC) e-mail announce-
ment following the vote, member and organizer
Hope Marston wrote, “There are teeth in this
resolution. … the Board of Commissioners
took a strong stand keeping our county tax dol-
lars from supporting the UPA [and] post-9/11
Executive and Department of Justice orders
that violate our Constitutional guarantees. … I
think it may be one of the strongest resolutions
passed to date by a county government.” This
decision makes for 132 city and county resolu-
tions nationwide and three state resolutions
against the UPA. — Bobbie Willis
UNLAWFUL ARREST
On July 4, the day Americans celebrate
things like free speech, the Clackamas
County Sheriff arrested Lloyd K. Marbet,
Oregon’s long-time campaign finance reform
and public power advocate, in the City of
Estacada’s Timber Park for trying to collect
signatures on a measure to create a People’s
Utility District (PUD) in Clackamas County
in order to get Enron out of Oregon.
The officers on the scene refused to read
or comply with the recent decision of the fed-
eral court for Oregon that cities cannot halt
lawful activities in public parks supposedly
booked by private groups. Marbet handed
them the court decision, but they would not
read it.
Timber Park is a a public park of the City
of Estacada located on land owned by
Portland General Electric (PGE) but under
long-term lease to the city. A security guard
told Marbet that PGE did not want him to col-
lect signatures there. The park at the time was
being used for the annual 4th of July celebra-
tion, open to the public, sponsored by the
Estacada Chamber of Commerce.
Marbet paid to enter the park but security
guards would not allow him to do so. Instead,
they physically grabbed and held him. The
guards also stopped people from approaching
Marbet. The Clackamas County Sheriff sent
two squad cars with several officers, who
handcuffed Marbet, arresting him for crimi-
nal trespass, and transported him to the
county jail in Oregon City.
All of the events at the park were video-
taped, as the security guards tried to block the
view of the person doing the taping.
“People have the right to collect signa-
tures on public property,” says attorney Dan
Meek. “Forbidding someone from entering a
public park, simply because he is carrying a
petition and openly admits his intention to
collect signatures, is a pure content-based re-
striction on speech and is clearly in direct vi-
olation of Article I, Section 8, of the Oregon
Constitution and the First Amendment of the
U.S. Constitution.”
In April, U.S. District Court Judge Ancer
Haggerty issued a decision forbidding the
City of Portland from excluding Edward
Gathright from Waterfront Park during
events sponsored by private organizations.
BY PAUL NEEVEL
George Braddock
After spending three years at UNLV
on a football scholarship, and doing
summer work as a union carpenter, in
1974 Pittsburgh native George
Braddock moved to Oregon.
“I worked in the woods a couple of
years, then went back to carpentry,” he
notes. “I helped build Autzen Stadium
and remodel Mac Court.”
When the bottom fell out of con-
struction in 1980, Braddock got li-
censed and went into business for him-
self. A client, UO psychology professor
Dan Close, got him interested in spe-
cialized construction to meet the needs
of developmentally disabled adults.
“Dan envisioned the closure of
Fairview,” he says. “He saw potential
for the physical environment to em-
power people in the community.” Since
1986, Braddock Construction has com-
pleted more than 1500 projects for people with disabilities, from wheelcair ramps
to entire houses. Since 1999, Braddock has been asked to consult with regional
centers in California on housing projects that integrate the disabled. “It’s fascinat-
ing stuff,” he says. “People can become citizens in the full meaning of the term.”
But Braddock has brought comfort to others, as well. This weekend’s Oregon
Country Fair will be the 27th in succession for Braddock’s popular booth, the Ritz
Sauna.
8 JULY 10, 2003
The court concluded that the City could not
exclude or arrest anyone “unless there is
probable cause to believe they have violated
a valid statute, City ordinance, or park regu-
lation.” He ruled that exercising First
Amendment rights in the park cannot violate
a park regulation and that event sponsors can-
not stop people from expressing views they
disagree with.
“A city cannot ‘lease’ a public park to the
Chamber of Commerce or to any other pri-
vate group for a day or a week or a year and
then claim that the park is somehow ‘private
property,’” says Meek. “That would be like
renting a city park to the Ku Klux Klan and
then claiming that only white people are al-
lowed to enter the park, because it is sud-
denly no longer a public park.”
Marbet, who says he had no intention of
interfering with park events, says, “How
ironic that I was arrested on the 4th of July for
exercising the freedoms that this day is sup-
posed to represent.”
Marbet was released on personal recog-
nizance after being held for four hours. His
arraignment is scheduled for Aug. 4.
“It’s mindboggling to realize how bad it’s
becoming — this encroachment upon our
civil liberties,” says Marbet. “It’s bad enough
that the Supreme Court reversed themselves
on allowing people to petition in shopping
centers.” Now, Marbet says people are being
arrested for petitioning near post offices.
“That’s public property. What is going on
here?” — Aria Seligmann
tinue their struggle to rescue the elderly and
disabled trapped under a collapsing state
budget. — Alan Pittman
HOMELAND INSECURITY
FRINGE FESTIVAL
CANCELED
Concerned that terrorists may crash an
airliner into the Eugene Hilton? Don’t you
worry. The city of Eugene has been awarded
a $100,000 grant from the new U.S.
Department of Homeland Security, Office for
Domestic Preparedness.
The Eugene Fire
Department says it
will use the money
to buy a new vehi-
cle to tow around
rescue equipment
for structural and
trench collapses.
Meanwhile state and
local governments con-
APARTMENT RECYCLING
The City of Eugene has been getting com-
plaints from apartment dwellers who want to
recycle but their apartment manager refuses.
Eugene has an estimated 23,000 apart-
ments, according to a memo from Eugene
Planning and Development Director Tom
Coyle. But, unlike other cities in the
Northwest, Eugene has no law requiring that
apartment managers provide recycling ser-
vice.
Apartment managers often refuse recy-
cling service because of perceived space lim-
itations and mess. But the city’s recent move
to commingled recycling may alleviate some
of those problems.
The city plans to study how many apart-
ments don’t have recycling and look at op-
tions to promote waste reduction, including
requiring that managers allow their tenants to
recycle. —AP
BODY COUNTS
As of June 30, at least 248 American and
British forces have been killed in Operation
Iraqi Freedom. About 70 have died since the
war officially ended May 1. Estimates of
Iraqi civilians killed grows daily and cur-
rently ranges from 6,011 to 7,653. Source:
www.pigstye.net/iraq/
The Fringe Festival, originally scheduled
for this weekend to keep the party going at
Secret House Vineyards Winery long after
the Country Fair closed its gates, isn’t hap-
pening. Promoter Dave Ammon pulled the
plug on the event after agreements he made
with Secret House Vineyards weren’t
working out.
Initially, the festival, which is not re-
lated at all to the Oregon Country Fair as
has erroneously been reported in the R-G,
was meant to bring in Country Fairgoers
who get “swept out” at 7 pm. Acts were
booked long into the night, with the midnight
show being the main attraction. The event