OPINION
4A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 15, 2016
Founded in 1873
DAVID F. PERO, Publisher & Editor
LAURA SELLERS, Managing Editor
BETTY SMITH, Advertising Manager
CARL EARL, Systems Manager
JOHN D. BRUIJN, Production Manager
DEBRA BLOOM, Business Manager
HEATHER RAMSDELL, Circulation Manager
OUR VIEW
Governor must
make leadership
her strong point
N
ow that the election is over and Oregonians have spoken,
one thing is abundantly clear: the state needs leadership
from those elected to lead.
It all starts at the top with Gov. Kate Brown, whose leadership
hasn’t been a strong point since she ascended into the governor’s
office through succession when Gov. John Kitzhaber resigned
amid an influence peddling scandal in 2015.
Flash forward to the present. Voters elected Brown last week
to fill the remaining two years of Kitzhaber’s term, and head-
ing into the next legislative session Oregon faces a $1.35 bil-
lion deficit in the next biennium. The state faces soaring pub-
lic employee pension costs; a public school system ranked 47th
in the country in graduation rates; a failing foster care system
that is in crisis; an overburdened transportation system that has
urgent needs; and an urban-rural divide that is continuing to
grow rather than shrink. Those problems cry out for leadership.
They have been building for years because past governors and
legislators failed to work together to creatively find solutions.
Complications
Complicating things even more, many of the state’s politi-
cians put all their eggs in one basket in this election, including
the governor, by counting on voters to approve Measure 97, the
highly controversial tax on corporate sales that they believed
would provide $3 billion in annual revenue. That money, they
thought, would alleviate Oregon’s funding woes. Voters saw it
otherwise, and decisively defeated the flawed measure, thereby
demanding accountability from those they elected to solve the
problems. One clear message Brown and others should see is
that across the country voters mandated that legislative gridlock
end. The message is just as applicable in Oregon as anywhere
else.
What that means is our leaders need to lead and not just man-
age the state’s affairs. Managing doesn’t solve problems, it sim-
ply allows them to persist.
Brown and those now in the Legislature need to put
Oregonians’ interests ahead of party platforms, partisan politics
and special interests. They need to fully embrace bipartisanship
and work together. They must be vocal, visible advocates for
solutions that can arise from creative, innovative thinking. They
don’t have much time, either. The next legislative session will
begin in about two months.
Where to begin
A place for Brown to begin is by getting behind a biparti-
san effort led by Democrat state Sen. Betsy Johnson of Clatsop
County and Republican Sen. Tim Knopp of Bend to find fixes
for the bloated Public Employees Retirement System.
The challenges of PERS are well documented. The program’s
unfunded liability exceeds $21 billion and continues to grow. It
is a root cause of the looming deficit. Costs to school districts
and local governments are scheduled to jump by $885 million
next year, forcing massive cuts.
When the two senators formed the work group, Brown chose
not to involve herself. Instead, the governor campaigned and
endorsed Measure 97, which was backed by public employee
unions. Brown touted it as the state’s funding solution with-
out mentioning PERS. Instead of giving up without the gover-
nor’s active support, the PERS group pressed on and developed
reforms its members believe will pass constitutional muster.
They include:
• A $100,000 cap on the final average salary used to calcu-
late retirement benefits, significantly reducing payouts to highly
compensated public employees.
• Move all new public employees to a defined contribution
plan, much like those in the private sector.
• Prevent unused vacation and sick time from inflating final
average salaries to increase benefits.
• The use of market rates, rather than a fixed rate, to calculate
annuities.
As a leader, Brown should embrace change and study the
work group’s conclusions. If the reforms have the success poten-
tial as the work group believes, the governor should be a vocal
advocate for their adoption and should credit those who devel-
oped them.
Doing so would be a beginning, not an end. As the adage
goes, “leadership is an attitude before it is an ability.”
Brown can enhance her leadership stature by initiating polit-
ical momentum that goes far beyond PERS to help Oregon get
past inertia in the state capital. She just needs the attitude to
do it.
SOUTHERN EXPOSURE
Bike lanes in the tsunami zone
By R.J. MARX
The Daily Astorian
Gearhart Transportation Sys-
tem Plan makes a lot of sense.
But in a place that may experi-
ence a 9.0 earthquake and tsunami in
the next 15 years, there are some spe-
cial considerations.
City Planner Carole Connell and
city staff were able to win $100,000
grant about two years ago, Connell
said in October.
Gearhart’s grant proposal had
the usual requests for sidewalks and
bike paths, but “the one that got their
attention was the tsunami evacuation
plan,” Connell said.
After the grant was awarded, the
process of hiring a consultant fol-
lowed. The city
contacted the Port-
land-based consult-
ing firm DKS.
“We’re tell-
ing a story,” Kevin
Chewuk of DKS
said at the Gearhart presentation.
“Each part is a basic part of the
story.”
Consultants present an “aspi-
rational project list” to address all
of the city’s transportation needs,
whether the city can pay to fund
them or not. Analysis is geared to the
next 20 years, to 2040.
They considered state, county
and local rules and identified areas
of “transportation enhancement” and
“transportation improvement.”
Elements of the enhance-
ment project consider traffic-calm-
ing devices on city streets, tsunami
route identification, bike parking,
“way-finding” signage for bicy-
clists and pedestrians and Ridge Path
enhancements.
Chewuk is right: the plans will
tell a story: how the city perceives its
audience and its users.
There are those needing bus trans-
port to Warrenton and Astoria. Hik-
ers and walkers who want to trek
through the city’s magnificent shel-
tered trails. Parents who want to
drive the babysitter home without
making two dangerous left-hand
turns to go one block, from Salminen
to Hillila and home again.
Even with a signal at Highway
101 and Pacific Way, “You’re stand-
ing in that little space waiting for the
light,” Connell said. “So far, the east-
side people are frustrated by those
constraints. We know that’s where
the problems are.”
A
More than 50
Fifty-two improvement projects
are listed in the consultant’s Septem-
ber document. They connect walk-
ing and biking facilities and address
the need to cross the highway. “A
lot of the projects we identified are
trail projects that could facilitate tsu-
nami evacuation, but also act as rec-
reational facilities through the year,”
Chewuk said.
R.J. Marx/The Daily Astorian
Gearhart Planner Carole Connell and consultant Kevin Chewuk dis-
cuss the city’s proposed Transportation System Plan.
About 10 people a day use Sunset
Empire Transportation District buses
in Gearhart, according to the memo.
Improvements to bus stops near Wild
Rose or Cottonwood lanes could
make the prospect more appealing,
featuring “new sheltered stops” to
keep riders out of the rain while they
wait.
Another proposal suggests a traf-
fic signal being considered at High-
way 101 and Gearhart Loop Road,
what the state identifies as a high-col-
lision location.
“Biking and walking on the high-
way are dangerous,” Connell said in
October. “Crossings don’t exist.”
The highway — innocuously
called “Park Avenue” on maps —
gets the bulk of consideration as the
city seeks to make it easier for bikes
and walkers to cross the 80-foot
roadway. Options include narrowing
portions to three lanes, buffered bike
lanes and widening for sidewalks.
The most costly approach would
widen the highway to five lanes with
a sidewalk and bike lanes.
The least expensive alternative?
Do nothing.
The memorandum now goes
before the Planning Commission,
where they’ll be presented with the
first draft, consider options and nar-
row down the list. Their findings
will be refined to maximize funds,
minimize impacts to environment,
and “balance investments across
all modes of travel,” according to
Chewuk.
“They’re going to finish the plan
and hopefully get it adopted,” Con-
nell said.
Once adopted, Gearhart is eligible
for additional state funding. If grant
funds are acquired, the city can start
prioritizing them by importance.
Future what-ifs
While analyzing options, city
and residents should consider not
only the memo at hand, but future
what-ifs.
Will the Gearhart fire hall be
replaced, and if so, where?
When Gearhart Elementary
School relocates, what will replace
it?
Where will residents find the
greatest access to cache sites in case
of a long-term need for emergency
supplies?
Could new construction east of
the highway call for additional, pre-
viously unconsidered roads and
crossings?
Most towns don’t need it, but for
Gearhart, which lies almost entirely
within the tsunami zone, the emer-
gency component should be an
opportunity to meet multiple goals
— emergency evacuation, pedestrian
safety and improved roads for bicy-
clists and drivers.
City Administrator Chad Sweet
said last month the state responded
to the city’s ideas about planning for
tsunami and quake hazards, “which
was part of the reason we were
selected for the grant.”
The other reason, he added, was
that the city didn’t have a transporta-
tion systems plan.
We think, as the state did award-
ing the grant, the first reason — the
threat of hazard in the Cascadia Sub-
duction Zone — is the most compel-
ling. The tsunami safety aspect of the
program drew the state to funding
this grant. A bike lane is terrific, but
in a tsunami, drivers may swerve.
Here’s my plan: Put money into
scooters and motorbikes for emer-
gency getaways. Install large, read-
able maps. Test loudspeakers to
make sure they are clear and can be
heard throughout the city. Give each
residence an individualized evacu-
ation plan. Establish an emergency
database accessible by registered
users. Construct pedestrian bridges
over every waterway. Inform every
resident about tsunamis, landslides
and quakes.
And while we’re at it, put a cov-
ered shelter on that bus stop.
R.J. Marx is The Daily Astori-
an’s South County reporter and edi-
tor of the Seaside Signal and Cannon
Beach Gazette.
LETTER TO THE EDITOR
Long overdue
I
’m thankful this election is over.
I’m thankful that a road block has
finally been set up to stop the hard-
left wing element in Washington,
D.C. Thankful that today the Clin-
tons at long last have been perma-
nently retired from public life.
Thankful that the adults finally
won a presidential election. Thank-
ful adults learned how to use social
media to get news from other sources
to be better informed about the
issues. I’m so thankful the people
rejected all the polls, the denials and
the lies perpetrated by Hillary and
most of the main stream media.
Thankful that Obama’s so-called
legacy is going to come crashing to
the ground in January, and that we
will return to a nation of laws not of
men.
I don’t expect Trump will turn
Washington upside down overnight,
or convince all the establishment
RINOs (Republicans In Name Only)
to just suddenly roll over the first
day. The Democrats will fight him
every step of the way, because the
hard left still controls the leadership
positions in D.C.
The moderates in the Demo-
cratic party have all but been pushed
out of government, so any compro-
mise will be hard fought. If nothing
else, maybe the Democrats will take
a new tack and move to the center; it
may take a few election cycles to get
there, but they have to.
In the end, Obama has done more
for the GOP in the last eight years
across the nation than any Democrat
or Republican in American history. It
was a hellish eight years, but maybe
some sanity will return to the govern-
ment and American life.
I want to believe that Trump is
sincere about rolling back all of the
nonsense that’s been forced down
our throats the last eight years. Hope-
fully, Republicans in D.C. learned
a lesson that the old establishment
party has been wiped clean, and a
new attitude and agenda must turn
the country back to the right.
God bless America, it’s a new
day, and it was a long overdue, and
right on time.
JEFF JACQUES
Astoria