ADVENTURERS GO IT ‘ALONE’ WITH N
NATURE
TURE weekend break • 1C
144TH YEAR, NO. 246
Gearhart
video poker
to see replay
Port’s Knight
points fi nger
at Hunsinger
for complaint
Council to reconsider
Gearhart Crossing plan
Commissioner denies
that he turned staffer in
By R.J. MARX
The Daily Astorian
GEARHART — The Gearhart City
Council will take another look in July at their
decision to deny a license for video poker at
Gearhart Crossing .
“You’re looking at your code, looking at
the defi nition for a ‘neighborhood cafe’ and
interpreting your code whether it allows for
a separate room for video lottery machines
or not,” City Attorney Peter
Watts said at a meeting
Wednesday.
In
January,
Terry
Lowenberg went before
the Planning Commission
seeking a permit to install
video lottery machines in
Terry
the brew pub, a move, he
Lowenberg
said, is essential for the
pub’s future profi tability.
Lowenberg said the machines — four to
start, with a maximum of six — placed in an
enclosed area next to the deli separated by an
8-foot wall, would help the brew pub survive
economic hardship in winter months.
The Planning Commission denied the
permit and the City C ouncil upheld the
denial, citing concerns about maintaining the
neighborhood character and saying there was
no proven need for the machines at the pub.
Lowenberg and his lawyers believe
the city’s denial ignores state law and that
Lowenberg does not need the city’s approval
to install the machines.
Lowenberg appealed the council’s ruling
to the state Land Use Board of Appeals.
The matter returned to the local level
at a special meeting in May when the city
chose to bring the application back for
reconsideration.
By EDWARD STRATTON
The Daily Astorian
TRANSIT CENTER MAKES
CHANGES IN RESPONSE TO
RISE IN HOMELESSNESS
FRICTION
GROWS
Colin Murphey/The Daily Astorian
Authorities have reported a rise in the population of people in the area temporarily
without shelter or transportation. Some businesses are making changes to cope.
Testimony
The July 5 hearing will include testimony
already on the record, along with additional
requests for information.
Watts said he expected future discussion
to center on whether state law prevented the
city from prohibiting video machines.
Testimony could also turn on whether a
conditional use permit for l ottery machines
is required by state law.
Mayor Matt Brown said he sought infor-
mation as to whether state law trumps the
city’s land use decision.
Councilors will also seek to determine
if a conditional use permit is even neces-
sary at Gearhart Crossing, as that use may be
automatically granted in conjunction with a
liquor license.
Watts said Lowenberg attorney Greg
Hathaway had requested the July date for
discussion, which is within the 90-day time
frame required for the city’s decision.
Anyone who is party to the appeal is free
to testify, Watts said.
ONE DOLLAR
WEEKEND EDITION // FRIDAY, JUNE 9, 2017
By JACK HEFFERNAN
The Daily Astorian
ent Birdeno sat in his offi ce and stared
out at one of the sidewalk garbage cans
that sport drawings of fi sh on the side.
“Hardly a day goes by where I don’t see
people go pick through it, sometimes eat out
of it,” he said.
Birdeno owns Commercial Adjustment
Co. on the corner of Ninth Street and Marine
Drive, directly across the street from the
Sunset Empire Transit Center. He said peo-
ple who appear to be homeless often gather
behind the building and leave their trash,
forcing him to pick up cans and bottles on a
weekly basis.
“They keep leaving their little nest
behind,” he said.
In the near future, Birdeno hopes to install
a surveillance system for some peace of
mind.
K
Others in Astoria have also been making
adjustments as encounters with the home-
less increase. Clatsop Community Action,
a nonprofi t that helps homeless people fi nd
resources such as food and housing , saw a
more than 50 percent surge from 2015 to
2016 . The statistics covered people who
were not living in a residence or home-
less shelter, just those who were out on the
street.
Much of the friction with the homeless
community has stemmed from issues caused
by a small but growing number of people
who stay in the area on a temporary basis
without shelter .
“We have seen a lot of new faces,” Asto-
ria Police Deputy Chief Eric Halverson said.
“We’ve always had a transient population,
but I don’t remember the numbers being this
high.”
See HOMELESSNESS, Page 9A
‘We have seen a lot of new faces.
We’ve always had a transient
population, but I don’t remember
the numbers being this high.’
Eric Halverson
Astoria Police deputy chief
R.J. Marx/The Daily Astorian
In the latest example of the acrimony
between the Port of Astoria staff and certain
commissioners, Port Executive Director Jim
Knight has accused Port Commissioner Bill
Hunsinger of making an anonymous com-
plaint against a Port staffer to the Oregon
State Bar.
Port Property and Con-
tracts Director Shane Jen-
sen, who is studying to be
an attorney, is being inves-
tigated by the state bar’s
u nlawful p ractice of l aw
c ommittee after an anon-
ymous complaint late
Bill
last year. The complaint
Hunsinger
stemmed from a Novem-
ber memo written by Jen-
sen about the legality of
electing alternate mem-
bers to the Port’s B udget
C ommittee.
Pressed by Port Com-
mission President Rob-
ert Mushen in February,
Jim
Hunsinger and the other
Knight
commissioners denied any
involvement in the complaint. But in an
email to the Port Commission last month,
Knight said the identity of the person behind
the complaint was no longer in question.
Knight said a letter from the state bar to
Jensen has “comments from Commissioner
Hunsinger that accuse Shane of providing
false and misleading legal advice.”
In a letter to Hunsinger, state bar inves-
tigator Morad Noury thanked Hunsinger for
contacting him in February and expressing
his willingness to contribute to the investi-
gation. In a letter to Noury, Hunsinger talked
about his concerns over Jensen presenting
himself as a source of legal advice for the
Port in several matters. Nothing in the letters,
however, identifi es Hunsinger as the source
of the original complaint against Jensen.
In a response to Noury, Jensen said he
prepared the memo under the supervision of
and review by attorney Eileen Eakins, hired
earlier this year as the Port’s general counsel.
“I truly believe that at all times, I con-
ducted myself appropriately as an employee
of a local government entity in the State of
Oregon,” Jensen wrote Noury about the var-
ious allegations against him. “Sometimes,
being an employee of a local government
means using words that are also used by
lawyers. There is a big difference, however,
between using words sometimes used by
lawyers in the context of commercial busi-
ness decisions on the one hand and what can
fairly or reasonably be called the unautho-
rized practice of law on the other.”
The investigation has since been assigned
to a state bar committee member, who is
expected to produce a report early next
month.
Paying for defense
Knight said Jensen is hiring an attorney
in response to the investigation, and that
the Port will cover his legal expenses
because the complaint came from a
commissioner.
The new look at the Gearhart Crossing
Pub & Deli.
See PORT, Page 9A
Tenant protections bill in peril in Oregon Senate
By PARIS ACHEN
Capital Bureau
stripped away some of the most controversial provisions of
the bill — including lifting a ban on local rent control ordi-
nances — in an attempt to garner support for the legislation.
The bill still calls for outlawing no-cause evictions and
requiring landlords with more than fi ve units to pay a month’s
rent to a tenant when the tenant is forced to move out because
the landlord is changing the proper-
ty’s use, renovating, demolishing or
moving in.
SALEM — A tenant protections bill that would outlaw
no-cause evictions may be in peril in the Senate.
Despite several changes to address the most controver-
sial aspects of the bill, the legislation
lacks enough votes in the Senate to
pass, according to several people
familiar with the issue.
Reasons vary
“We are still working on it. We are
Senate Majority Leader Ginny
meeting with the no votes and seeing
Burdick, D-Portland, has been
what can be changed in the bill to get
spearheading negotiations on the
it off the fl oor,” said state Sen. Lau-
Ginny
Laurie
Tina
bill, which is in front of the Senate
rie Monnes Anderson, D-Gresham, a
Burdick
Monnes
Kotek
Rules Committee.
chief sponsor of the bill.
Anderson
“This is an important issue in
The bill, championed by House
Portland. At this point, I believe there still is a path-
Speaker Tina Kotek, D-Portland, passed the House
of Representatives 31 -27 April 4, with no votes from all way to get a bill to protect tenants,” Burdick said.
Republicans and a handful of Democrats.
See BILL, Page 9A
The Senate Committee on Human Services last month
Capital Bureau
The Senate lacks votes to pass the
tenant protection bill, but the Sen-
ate Rules Committee is working
on changes to try to garner more
“yes” votes.