JULY 20, 2018, KEIZERTIMES, PAGE A5
KeizerOpinion
KEIZERTIMES.COM
Keizer’s most spoiled child
There will be many excuses con-
cocted and deployed for the Keizer
City Council’s actions this week in
letting Keizer Little League (KLL)
off the hook for more than $13,000
it owes the complex at
Keizer Little League
Park. Keizer residents
should be skeptical of
them.
In May, it became
public knowledge that
KLL withheld more
than $12,000 it owed
the complex from con-
cession sales. On Mon-
day, the public learned that the city
manager knew KLL had been with-
holding the payment for at least the
fi ve previous months in hopes of
having its contract for managing the
park retroactively adjusted to per-
mit keeping those revenues.
Attendees at the city coun-
cil meeting Monday, July 16, also
learned that the concession money
wasn’t the only money KLL had
been withholding from the park
complex. KLL owed more than
$15,000 in tournament revenue
and slot fees for fi eld usage by KLL
teams.
In total, KLL owed the complex
more than $28,000 from the 2017
season. In response, the city council
wiped out the amount due from the
concession stand in exchange for
recouping the slightly higher slot
fees and a tepid caution against let-
ting a similar situation arise in the
future. One councilor even offered
to let them off scot-free. Fortu-
nately, slightly-more-sensible minds
prevailed.
In short, KLL blackmailed the
complex (that the city owns) for the
forgiveness of one debt to pay back
another debt to the same entity.
City leaders allowed it to happen.
This should not sit well with any-
one in Keizer.
It would be disingenuous to sug-
gest that Keizer residents got noth-
ing else out of its agreement with
the organization; KLL families and
board members have gone to great
lengths to care for and improve the
facilities in recent years. But the or-
ganization also had a contract with
the city to ensure money generated
at the park was reinvested in the
park. Whether the group violated
that contract through ignorance or
oversight is beside the point. Know-
ing they had a contract with the city
of Keizer, and thereby all of its resi-
dents, should have prompted every
single member of the KLL board of
directors to read and make certain
they were following the agreement
to the letter.
These actions by KLL and city
council are galling, but city coun-
cilors doubled down on it by grant-
ing KLL’s wish to retroac-
tively amend the facility
management contract to
allow the managing or-
ganization to keep half of
the concession revenue
and all tournament rev-
enue going forward.
At the very least, the
council should have kept
the contract – as it was
originally written – in place until
KLL leaders proved that they could
be trusted to act in good faith. In-
stead, the organization will suffer no
true consequence for what amounts
to a successful blackmail scheme.
It’s hard to fathom any other situa-
tion in the public realm when such
tactics would be countenanced. At
a time when faith in government is
diminished at best, decisions such
as this serve to fan the fl ames of
discontent. For Keizer, specifi cally,
it will make residents more skepti-
cal of fees implemented in 2017 to
cover the costs of police and public
safety.
Moreover, last week, a member
of the KLL board told members of
the Keizer Parks Advisory Board last
week that he plans to request an-
other matching grant from the city
to fund more improvements at KLL
Park. The editorial board of this pa-
per strongly suggests members of
the parks board think long and hard
about whether to approve it.
The parks board has approved
$20,000 in matching funds for im-
provements – that came out of the
city’s general fund – during the past
three years. Adding to that sum will
only embolden the bad actors of the
KLL board who are trading on nos-
talgia as much as actual interest in
the services they offer. It should not
be the role of the volunteer parks
board members to dole out reper-
cussions when the city’s elected and
paid offi cials fail to do their job, but
the Parks Advisory Board is now the
only municipal group left with an
opportunity to send a message that
KLL’s actions are not acceptable.
The old adage of sparing the rod
and spoiling the child isn’t one that
this paper’s editors are fond of, but
the success of KLL’s brattish and
brutish ways are prompting us to
reconsider that stance.
—Editorial Board
our
opinion
Legislator’s day jobs
I often use this space to bring to law practices, we are legislators.
Though we are part time legisla-
you information about the legisla-
ture and the process that goes on tors, most of us treat it as a full time
in that body. What is not spoken of job. Summer is the one time when
many legislators take a
very often in Oregon is
break and enjoy time with
what legislators do when
family and friends and try
we are not in legislative
to stay out of the political
session. Considering we
arena and take a breather.
only meet for approxi-
And I think that’s a good
mately six months in the
thing for Oregonians. We
odd numbered years and
do answer phone mes-
35 days or so in the even
sages, emails and letters
numbered years, we truly
to our offi ces and for
are a “part time” legisla-
those of us in the House,
ture with “citizen” legisla-
interim is devoted to
tors.
from tho this
campaigns (the senators
Many legislators are re-
elected to four-year
tired professionals; others
capitol are
terms, the representatives
are doctors, police offi cers,
By BILL POST
to two-year terms). As for
teachers and many are at-
what I do during the in-
torneys who can return to
terim, as stated, I do a lot
their practices during the
of media related jobs and
interim period. For those
of us who work another job, it’s a campaign for reelection, help others
time to go back to our places of in their campaigns yet still fi nd time
employment. I’ve met many people to write potential legislation for the
in House District 25 that actually next full session which comes in
didn’t know this about our legisla- January 2019.
I meet constituents both in dis-
ture. In my case, I am a lifelong ra-
dio/TV broadcaster and I have re- trict and in my offi ce at the Capitol.
turned to that in a limited fashion. I I go on many tours around the state
do voiceover work, write commer- to see what issues are important to
cials and other broadcasting related Oregon and more specifi cally, House
tasks. Still, even though we each go District 25. I utilize our Legislative
back to our regular jobs, retirement, Counsel, who are the attorneys who
work for the legislature, by asking
them for opinions on various topics.
Just recently in Keizer, we had the
issue of the shooting range across
the river in Polk County that is af-
fecting residents on the Keizer side
of the river. I attended a meeting in
Polk County as well as wrote let-
ters to the owners of the property,
the Polk and Marion County Com-
missioners and the Polk and Marion
County Sheriffs. I used opinions
from Legislative Counsel to help
me with that. During the interim I
also spent time studying the press-
ing issues of Oregon and in my case,
the issues that affect this district the
most: agriculture. I intend to again
submit legislation to assist and pro-
tect our valuable farms and dairies
in District 25. I will have more news
on those as we move toward January.
All in all, though it’s a part time
job being a legislator, as you can see
the job never ends when the gavel
falls. As always, I am honored and
privileged to serve you as your State
Representative in Keizer, St. Paul
and Newberg and thank you for the
opportunity.
(Bill Post roprosonts Houso Dis-
trict 25. Ho can bo roachod at 503-
986-1425 or via omail at rop. bil-
post@ orogonlogislaturo.gov.)
Nothing wrong with the middle
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There’s a need in our country for
compromise and mutual consider-
ation by the leaders in Washington,
D.C. and throughout the nation,
to bring about the changes and set
an exemplary example. Such an ef-
fort could calm the storms that rage
across the nation.
Both Democrats and Republicans
in recent years have mutually done
much to rile and upset
those on the opposite
side of the aisle. At the
risk of sounding partisan,
the fi rst look in this piece
is focused on the Repub-
licans as they at present
have a slim majority in
the U.S. Senate with a
somewhat wider margin
in the House. The GOP
holds sway in the White House and
Supreme Court.
Meanwhile, the giant chasm be-
tween the wealthy and those with
limited means has grown wider and
deeper with the near-extinction
of the moderating infl uence of the
middle class. The middle class in the
last century served as a highly fl ex-
ible social organ because the poor,
through education and opportu-
nity, could move into it while those
Americans who greatly succeeded at
their endeavors could move into the
ranks of Americans with consider-
able means but not, as now,
with excessive wealth.
However, with the mid-
dle class diminished and the
1 percent of rich American
numbers enhanced, those
with the money and power
have gone exclusive and
sought more money and
power by eliminating con-
trols on their spending for
like-minded political can-
didate choices while simul-
taneously having succeeded
to elect their people by
denying others of lesser
means their vote. Then,
too, most recently, by a Su-
preme Court decision that
denied organized labor the
ability to fi nancially compete with
them.
It appears likely that reactive con-
servatives will number 5, pro-active
progressives 4. Hence, the Supreme
Court of the United States will be-
come demagogic, partisan and one-
sided. Every decision by the Su-
preme Court will be predictable and
foreordained, and likely to result in
more deep national frac-
tures. Some examples
of what’s about to hap-
pen to cause ever deeper
and wider divides can be
identifi ed already, that
is, women’s rights gone,
environmental controls
abolished, the nation’s
wealth to the few by
taxation law, only Nor-
wegians granted immigration, no
more Muslims, and the Affordable
Care Act dead.
While only 1 percent of the
American population are among the
nation’s multi-millionaires and bil-
lionaires, the remaining 321 million
citizens often fi nding it a struggle to
make ends meet, continue never-
theless to support the tiny wealthy
minority who have become notori-
ous for their self-centeredness and
relentless unwillingness to bring
their fellow citizens to even a wage-
earning level that provides access to
gono
h.
mcintyro
fi nancial security at present and a re-
spectable retirement later.
The logical thing by those who’ve
already been left to pick up crumbs
is to see to it by voting and sending
their representatives to D.C. and Sa-
lem who will work to see to it that
more Americans have the opportu-
nity to achieve wages and benefi ts
that begin once again to establish
and maintain this democratic repub-
lic’s anchor and stabilizer, the middle
class. When a signifi cant percent-
age of the population is unwilling
to fi ght for their future and that of
their children, then consequent gen-
erations will predictably live more
like their ancestors in the Middle
Ages than the former middle class.
One more thought begs con-
sideration. “Make America Great
Again” was the catchy slogan that
appealed to a whole lot of voters
in the 2016 presidential contest.
However, to date, what “America”
in that slogan has meant is that the
vast majority in millions of Ameri-
cans who seek the American Dream
are no better off; rather, those multi-
millionairs before January, 2017, by
the new federal tax law, and other
Trump administration advantages,
have become billionaires.
(Gono H. McIntyro sharos his opin-
ion oach wook in tho Koizortimos.)