Eugene weekly., January 21, 2016, Page 8, Image 8

• OSPIRG Foundation’s new report,
“Oregon’s Multi-Million Dollar Democracy,”
will be released at 10 am Thursday, Jan. 21,
outside Harris Hall, 125 E. 8th Ave. The report
highlights the disparity between large and
small donors in Oregon’s 2014 elections and
recommends steps to level the playing field.
Speakers will include Linda Lynch, president
of Lane County League of Women Voters, and
Amy Laws of OSPIRG.
• Green Party presidential candidate Dr.
Jill Stein will talk about the future of the
climate justice movement and her
participation in the Paris conference at 7 pm
Thursday, Jan. 21, at the Unitarian Universalist
Fellowship, 2945 NW Circle Blvd. in Corvallis.
Her free talk is on “Ecological Economics and
Jill Stein’s Green New Deal.”
• Congressman Peter DeFazio will be the
speaker at City Club of Eugene at noon Friday,
Jan. 22, at the Downtown Athletic Club, 999
Willamette Street. DeFazio is the top Democrat
on the bipartisan Transportation and
Infrastructure Committee in Congress and will
describe his legislative priorities for 2016. $5
for non-members.
• Author and University of Paris professor
Frank Romano will be available to talk about
his book Love and Terror in the Middle East,
4th Ed. from 2 to 4 pm Saturday, Jan. 23, at
Black Sun Books, 2467 Hilyard Street. His
book “dramatically captures the author’s
efforts to promote understanding and
cooperation between Jews, Muslims and
Christians.”
• A “Save Kesey Square” rally has been
planned for 6:30 pm Monday, Jan. 25, at the
Wayne Morse Free Speech Plaza in front of
Harris Hall (125 E. 8th Ave.), where a 7 pm
council meeting is scheduled. Find the event
on Facebook. A different Kesey Square event
is being planned at Kesey Square at 3:30 pm
Friday, Jan. 29.
• UO President Michael Shill will speak on
“Access and Higher Education” at 4 pm
Tuesday, Jan. 26, at the UO Law School Room
175, 1515 Agate Street. Shill will speak on the
Oregon Commitment program that assures
students have the support they need to
graduate in four years.
• “Violence with Guns” is the topic of a
forum from 7 to 9 pm Thursday, Jan. 28, at the
Unitarian Universalist Church, 1685 West
13th Ave. Panelists will include Sen. Floyd
Prozanski, Commissioner Pete Sorenson,
Mayor Kitty Piercy and rabbi Jonathan Seidel.
Email mydiane@q.com for more information.
LANE COUNTY AREA
SPRAY SCHEDULE
Seneca Jones Timber Company LLC, 689-
1011, plans to spray roadsides near Siuslaw
River Road, Crow Creek, Douglas Creek,
Sheffler Road, Doane and Crow Roads,
Simonsen Road, Farman Creek and Camas
Swale Creek near Weiss Road. See ODF
notifications 2016-781-00876, 00877,
00879, 00880, 00881 and 2016-781-00882,
call Brian Peterson or Robin Biesecker at 998-
2283 with questions.
Compiled by Jan Wroncy and Gary Hale, Forestland-
Dwellers.org: 342-8332.
8
January 21, 2016 • eugeneweekly.com
COMMISSIONERS VOTED ON
KICKING PEOPLE OFF COUNTY
PROPERTY
On Dec. 15, the Lane County Board of Commissioners quiet-
ly voted on an ordinance that made an already ambiguous policy
about who has the right to be on county property even more
problematic.
Under Chapter 6 of the Lane County Code, “a duly authorized
officer,” who could be a board member, the county administrator
or “any person delegated the authority to control county proper-
ty” by those people — and the delegation of authority does need
not be in writing — can trespass someone from county property.
Commissioner Pete Sorenson, who was the lone vote against
the change to the ordinance, says the events in the Malheur
have caused him to think even more about the issue of protected
speech versus civil versus criminal disobedience.
He says, “The reason I voted no on adopting this is the board
or administrator or anybody can be delegated to kick some-
body off of property and doesn’t have to be in writing, and it
is not limited to the reasons the county said it needed it for, like
the courthouse or Juvenile Justice Building. It’s on all county-
owned property.”
He calls the code on the issue too big and too broad. “It al-
lows anybody who can claim to have the power of the Board of
Commissioners to kick anybody off the premises.”
Under the ordinance that was already in place, it is assumed
someone is acting unlawfully if they simply refuse to say why
they are there.
County property under the ordinance includes “county roads,
county-owned parks and parking lots, the County Courthouse,
the Juvenile Court Center, the County Fairgrounds and Exten-
sion Building, and Willamalane Park and Recreation District
roads, parks, parking lots and buildings.”
County spokesperson Devon Ashbridge says of the changes:
“This ordinance simply aligns written policy with current prac-
tice by defining a ‘duly authorized officer’ for the purpose of
determining who has authority under Oregon law to order an
individual to leave property or make a request to law enforce-
ment to do so.”
The issue of changing the code arose in early December, and
Sorenson called for time to give the public a chance to weigh in
on the code. Ten days later, Eugene attorney Brian Michaels was
one of two people to come to the Dec. 15 board meeting to give
public comment on the ordinance.
Michaels says that the amendment being considered was
“ridiculous but the ordinance already in place for decades was
ridiculous in itself.”
Michaels attended the meeting because his client, former Eu-
gene activist Alley Valkyrie, had been involved in an incident
in which County Counsel Stephen Dingle attempted to ban her
from the Lane County Public Services Building, which is also
the location of Eugene City Council meetings and offices.
Valkyrie had been part of a protest in 2012 and 2013 in which
homeless residents and homeless advocates set up a camp in the
Wayne Morse Free Speech Plaza. Then-county administrator Li-
ane (Richardson) Inkster ordered the plaza to be closed, causing
an outcry from protesters who use the plaza.
Dingle and Inkster tried to exclude Valkyrie from the county
building after she was charged, but not convicted, of trespass-
ing in the protest events. They threatened to have her arrested if
she came to the county courthouse, Michaels says, but “Dingle
didn’t have the authority.” Despite Dingle’s threats of arrest,
Valkyrie repeatedly entered the building for public meetings.
Michaels says that Dingle essentially tried to ban Valkyrie
from the building because of her political speech.
Michaels says that at the December meeting, while pushing
for the change in the ordinance, Dingle made repeated refer-
ences to a “release agreement” with Valkyrie as the pretext for
the threats to arrest her. Release agreements give conditions for
someone’s activities after they have been released from jail.
Valkyrie says, “I was never at any time prohibited by any
court agreement from being on the courthouse property.”
Dingle “never said anything to me or Alley about a release
agreement,” Michaels adds, calling it a “complete lie.”
He says of Dingle, “Seems to me that they have a legal coun-
sel that’s willing to lie to them.”
Dingle did not wish to respond to Michaels’ allegations that
he fabricated his statements.
In an email to the commissioners, Michaels
writes, “Ask yourselves this: If Ms. Valkyrie was
not threatened with arrest because of some release agreement,
then because of what?”
Valkyrie tells EW that the ordinance is being used to
deny people in Lane County their constitutional rights.
— Camilla Mortensen
KLCC DROPS POPULAR
ALTERNATIVE RADIO
KLCC public radio in Eugene is no longer running Alter-
native Radio, a weekly program that has run for 30 years. The
hour-long program slot at 7 pm Tuesday has been filled by Re-
veal, investigative reports from the Center for Public Integrity,
Public Radio Exchange and partner public radio stations around
the country. KLCC is now a partner station with opportunities
to give Eugene-area stories national exposure. Reveal is free for
KLCC, as was Alternative Radio.
“We are excited to be able to bring long-form, in-depth in-
vestigative journalism to our audience in a weekly program,”
says Don Hein, KLCC’s program director, “and we are talking
with KWVA about the possibility of their picking up the local
broadcast of the show. It also airs on many of the low-power
FM stations on the coast and around the region, and is available
online.” Hein says Alternative Radio podcasts might continue
through the KLCC app for smart phones, but he’s not sure.
Not everyone is happy to see Alternative Radio depart from
the largest public radio listening audience in the region. “Alter-
native Radio is the last radio progressive show airing there,” says
David Zupan, a longtime advocate for public affairs broadcast-
ing. “It’s a real loss to our communities that shouldn’t go down
without a fight or at least folks knowing how very far KLCC has
gone away from its mission to be a community radio station and
why we need alternatives like KEPW and KOCF.”
Zupan notes that KLCC runs national programs, such as Wait
Wait … Don’t Tell Me! and Radiolab, that are repeated each
week. He wonders why one of those repeat program slots can’t
be replaced with Alternative Radio.
Hein says Wait Wait is “one of public radio’s, and KLCC’s,
most popular programs. Our audience benefits from having mul-
tiple opportunities to catch it each week.”
David Barsamian is founder and host of Alternative Radio
and lectures in Eugene every year or two. He says in an email
exchange with Zupan that the “duplication of three other pro-
grams and the dropping of AR is most disturbing. By the way,
AR is free of charge to all stations so the move can’t be financial.
Is Eugene going to lose the only progressive one-hour from the
airwaves? Say it ain’t so.”
Ralph Nader has called Alternative Radio “a ray of light in
the media darkness.”— Ted Taylor