7A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, JULY 27, 2018
Senators spar on
access to Kavanaugh’s
staff secretary work
By JESSICA GRESKO
Associated Press
WASHINGTON — More
than a decade after he served
as what’s been called the
president’s “inbox and out-
box,” Brett Kavanaugh’s role
as White House staff secre-
tary to President George W.
Bush has become a flash-
point as Republicans push his
confirmation to the Supreme
Court.
Democrats want to see
records from the time, por-
traying the potentially mil-
lions of documents as vital to
understanding his approach
to the law. Republicans dis-
agree and have accused Dem-
ocrats of using the issue to
try to delay Kavanaugh’s
confirmation.
The debate could inter-
fere with Republicans’ goal
of swiftly confirming Presi-
dent Donald Trump’s pick for
the court in time for the start
of the new term Oct. 1. With
the Senate control slimly held
by Republicans 51-49, Dem-
ocrats can’t block Kavana-
ugh’s nomination outright if
Republicans hold together.
Instead, Democrats are trying
to delay the proceedings in
hopes that time spent review-
ing the judge’s record could
unearth fresh concerns to
sway senators’ opinions and
upend voting.
Sen. Chuck Grassley,
R-Iowa, the chairman of the
Judiciary Committee tasked
with holding hearings on
Kavanaugh’s
nomination,
said this week that Demo-
crats’ “bloated demands are
an obvious attempt to obstruct
the confirmation process.”
But Senate Minority
Leader Chuck Schumer,
D-N.Y., said Thursday that
Kavanaugh himself has por-
trayed his three years as
Bush’s staff secretary as
“the most interesting and, in
many ways, among the most
instructive” to his work as a
Colin Murphey/The Daily Astorian
Seaside City Councilor Tom Horning points toward evidence of an ancient tsunami embedded in a wetland near Seaside.
Bridges: ‘We can’t afford to wait’
Continued from Page 1A
Raising the lodging tax to
pay for infrastructure improve-
ments has been contested
by hoteliers and the Oregon
Restaurant & Lodging Asso-
ciation. The lodging associa-
tion, for example, sued Bend
over the city’s use of tourism
tax money for road repairs,
and a judge sided with the
association.
But proposing lodging tax
dollars for a project intended
to protect both residents and
tourists in an emergency could
be a first.
“If we have challenges from
the lodging industry, I would
say this is about saving the
lives of their clients,” Horn-
ing said. “And I’m prepared to
hammer on that point.”
Building bridges
Making Seaside’s aging
bridges more earthquake-resis-
tant has long been on the city’s
agenda. In the past 15 years,
bridges at East Broadway,
First Avenue and two on 12th
Avenue have been replaced to
withstand a major earthquake,
City Manager Mark Winstan-
ley said.
The city has applications
out for grants and Oregon
Department of Transporta-
tion funding to rebuild bridges
at Avenues S, U and G, all of
which were originally built
to the standards of the early
1960s.
But Seaside often falls
through the cracks when apply-
ing for grant money, Winstan-
ley said. The city is either too
small to compete for projects
or has too healthy of a bud-
get to qualify for need-based
grants intended for smaller,
rural communities.
“Our bridges rate low
enough to qualify for appli-
cation, but there’s a lot of
communities out there with
bridges that are a whole lot
worse,” Winstanley said. “And
when they look at us, and see
we’ve been able to build four
bridges in 15 years, they think
‘it doesn’t look like you need
money.’”
That’s part of the appeal for
Horning’s call for a lodging tax
hike. It would be a way for the
city to raise money and com-
plete projects more quickly
than traditional funding mech-
anisms would allow. Winstan-
ley says it’s not uncommon for
it to take eight or nine years to
complete a bridge from begin-
ning to end.
“We can be put on lists, but
we can’t afford to wait,” Horn-
ing said.
Tourism promotion
State law requires 70 per-
cent of all lodging tax revenue
be used for tourism promotion
or property. Horning argues
Seaside’s bridges should be
considered a tourism facility,
which in the statute is defined
as “property that has a useful
life of 10 or more years” and
has a substantial purpose of
supporting tourism.
Jason Brandt, CEO of the
state’s lodging association,
said anything beyond an access
road — like to a specific camp-
ground or a park — would fall
short of the state attorney gen-
eral’s definition of support-
ing a tourism facility, and that
repairs for roads, streets and
bridges are still expected to
be paid for from general fund
resources.
“I think it’s far-fetched to
believe (rebuilding bridges) is
a legal use of restricted tour-
ism tax dollars,” Brandt said.
But Horning disagrees,
arguing that in Seaside, the
only way to access the beach
— the town’s main tourist
attraction — almost always
includes crossing a bridge.
Horning said he wants to hear
the thoughts and concerns of
local lodging operators.
“If you took out our bridges,
I think you would hear shrieks
from the lodging industry
about people not being able to
get to their hotels,” Horning
said. “If you can’t get to the
beach, then you aren’t accom-
modating tourist activities.”
Oregon’s Largest
Hotel: Hearing date not yet set
free
Enjoy the COMFORT of
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A developer is interested in building a new hotel on the
Astoria waterfront.
grown with weeds.
City Manager Brett Estes
assured the committees he
would talk with Hollander
Hospitality about taking care
of the weeds. The city later
sent Hollander Hospitality a
code enforcement letter. Mul-
len told Estes Thursday that
the work would be done soon.
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In their reports to the city
boards, city staff had not rec-
ommended either approving or
denying the hotel project, but
each report came with a list
of recommendations, linger-
ing questions and issues that
needed to be addressed.
The developer was also
criticized by members of both
city boards for the state of the
property where The Ship Inn
and another former restau-
rant, Stephanie’s Cabin, are
located. Since Hollander Hos-
pitality purchased the lots, the
landscaping has become over-
8
federal appeals court judge.
Schumer said if Kavana-
ugh sees it that way, “why
shouldn’t the American peo-
ple see what instructed him?”
Kavanaugh spent nearly
three years, from July 2003
to May 2006, as staff secre-
tary, the person who controls
the flow of documents to and
from the president, including
ensuring relevant people have
weighed in and channeling
the president’s questions and
comments on that material to
the right people. As staff sec-
retary, Kavanaugh was also
a key part of the president’s
speechwriting process, helped
put together legislation and
worked on drafting and revis-
ing executive orders, he has
said. He also traveled with
the president, at points sitting
in on meetings between the
president and foreign leaders.
While Kavanaugh was
staff secretary, Bush made a
range of controversial deci-
sions including signing into
law a partial-birth abortion
ban and backing a constitu-
tional amendment banning
gay marriage. Democrats say
that time is relevant to Kava-
naugh’s views and philoso-
phy as a judge.
But Republicans argue
the staff secretary documents
aren’t useful because Kava-
naugh’s job wasn’t to provide
his own advice but to ensure
others’ views were presented
to the president. They say the
papers contain the most sensi-
tive White House documents,
advice sent directly to the
president. Republicans say
they support, as Democrats
do, making public documents
related to Kavanaugh’s time
in the White House counsel’s
office, which immediately
preceded his staff secretary
job. And they say the up to 1
million pages of records they
expect to release will be the
largest number of documents
produced in connection with
a Supreme Court nomination.
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Deputies: Sheriff Bergin challenged the
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