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About Keizertimes. (Salem, Or.) 1979-current | View Entire Issue (May 1, 2020)
MAY 1, 2020, KEIZERTIMES, PAGE A3 CDC updates symptom list for COVID-19 The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has added several new symptoms to its existing list for COVID-19. Fever, cough and shortness of breath are indications that someone might have the disease caused by the novel coronavirus. On Monday, April 27, the CDC added six more conditions that may come with the disease: chills, repeated shaking with chills, muscle pain, headache, sore throat and new loss of taste or smell. Children have similar symptoms to adults and gener- ally have mild illness. Even with the updates, the list is not all inclusive. Those experiencing symptoms associated with the vi- rus should consult their medical provider for any other symptoms that are severe or concerning. If you have any of these emergency warning signs for COVID-19 get medical attention immediately: trouble breathing, persistent pain or pressure in the chest, new confusion or inability to arouse, bluish lips or face. Charter task force opts for status quo on major change By ERIC A. HOWALD Of the Keizertimes Recommendations for alter- ing the Keizer city charter will be relatively minor except for the removal of language that marginalized LGBTQ+ resi- dents. A task force that reviewed the entire document is ex- pected to vote on its fi nal draft Tuesday, May 5, at 6 p.m. In a limited public forum held Tuesday, April 21, the task force received testimony on four outstanding questions: whether to continue voting for city council candidates at large or by ward; continuing to re- quire head-to-head contests for specifi c seats or switch to a ranked choice voting system; changing the terms of council- ors to two years instead of four; and what to do when a vacan- cy occurs (either have the sit- ting councilors appoint a new person or move toward having special elections in some cir- cumstances). The group opted to main- tain the status quo on all four counts, but wants the city council to encourage addition- that the same councilors who al public input when it takes up were asking not to change it the recommendation – hoping had benefi ted from the system that, by then, some of the mea- in the past. De Blasi prepared maps sures to contain COVID-19 showing where all city council- will be eased. The question of ward- ors for the past 30 years lived and the results of based voting the contests. The prompted the data is striking. most discus- Since 1990, sion, including only fi ve coun- a Facebook dis- cil candidates cussion thread emerged from the in which six area south of Che- current or for- mawa Road North mer city coun- and east of River cilors chimed Road North. Only in against the one candidate won change. Cur- their race. rently, all city By contrast, in council mem- southwest Keizer – bers are vot- south of Chemawa ed on at large meaning candi- — Mike De Blasi and west of River Road – 20 of 25 dates can arise candidates won a from anywhere in the city and are expected to seat on the council. The Gubser neighborhood fared similarly represent all sectors equally. The lone proponent of the well, it produced 27 candidates idea, as far as public testimo- and 20 of them won. “The people saying don’t ny went, was Mike De Blasi a longtime volunteer on city change are the same ones who committees. De Blasi noted have benefi ted from the system to swamp those from the un- derrepresented areas. The re- sults also show in how funding and resources are distributed,” De Blasi said. He didn’t present direct ev- idence as to how funding was distributed unevenly between different zones in Keizer. Another Keizer resident, Carol Doerfl er, submitted writ- ten testimony against a shift to wards saying it had not received enough discussion. Pat Fisher, a member of the “The people saying don’t change are the same ones who have benefi t- ed from the system.” task force, said it was a diffi cult call to make “because we still don’t know what the general public perception is. The at- tempt is to get broader partici- pation on the council.” When a vote was called for, however, all members of the task force in attendance via video conference recommend- ed keeping at large voting in place. The only other topic where differing views were on display was when it came to making a switch to ranked choice voting rather than head-to-head con- tests for specifi c seats. In ranked choice voting, voters would rank the candidates according to their preference and the top candidates would fi ll whichever seats were available. Fisher and Kathy Lincoln advocated for the change. “In the current system, you could have two good candi- dates running for one seat and two bad candidates running for another. One good candi- date is going to lose and one bad one is going to win,” Lin- coln said, implying that both of the “good” candidates stood a chance of serving on the coun- cil with a ranked choice system. The task force members wanted to have more chances to discuss the changes at commu- nity meetings during the past 60 days, but those plans were sidelined by the pandemic. The task force is forging ahead be- cause the city is trying to meet deadlines to put the changes on the November ballot. Voters will have to approve all changes before they take effect. SUPPORT LOCAL BUSINESS These Salem and Keizer businesses are off ering special services during the COVID-19 shutdown. 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