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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 16, 2021)
A3 THE ASTORIAN • THuRSdAy, dEcEmbER 16, 2021 Warrenton: Newton’s behavior called out continued from Page A1 Cardinaletti, had planned to build housing units, a proj- ect the couple has since scrapped, they said. ‘Stop-work orders’ City staff sent Newton stop-work orders in mid-Au- gust and early September but did not hear from him. In early November, the Plan- ning Commission decided that Newton’s unpermit- ted infill violated the city’s development code. They gave Newton 60 days — until Jan. 4 — to remedy the violation. But with the recent rains, the pile of fill began to cause flooding on adjacent lands, according to Planning Direc- tor Scott Hazelton. On Tues- day, Hazelton asked the commission to give Newton a shorter time frame — three days — to fix the problem. Newton claimed the city was also partially responsi- ble for the flooding because it removed a drainage ditch near his property, but he did not challenge the city’s facts on the illegality of the fill. Russell Cox, Newton’s neighbor, whose property has been inundated, said Newton has pumped water off the property. “In my opin- ion, here, living in the North- west, we all know that’s just going to be a losing battle, no matter what anybody does,” he said. Newton said, “I’ve been doing my best to make it right.” City staff gave Newton the option of allowing city crews to correct the issue before the weekend, then send him a bill. Newton declined, saying he would not accept the city’s help unless he knew in advance what it would cost him. The fill material came from road reconstruction work that Big River Con- struction was doing for the city on S.W. Alder Avenue. With Newton’s blessing, the company placed the mate- rial on his property. This action — a city commis- sioner accepting a gift of free fill from a city project — could be viewed as an ethi- cal breach. During Tuesday’s hear- ing, Newton accused the city’s building official, Van Wilfinger, of lying to him. Newton said Wilfin- ger had told him in an email exchange that the commis- sioner did not need a permit to lay the fill. City Manager Linda Eng- bretson, who read the emails, said she did not see evidence of lying. Rather, Wilfin- ger told Newton that a per- mit wasn’t needed to lay 250 cubic yards of waste rock, which is different than the estimated 500-plus cubic yards of sand, silt and mud that sit on Newton’s property. Baldwin apologized for Newton’s statements. “I don’t condone the behavior over this whole issue — personal attacks on staff members, calling them liars when there’s been email threads to prove otherwise,” Baldwin said. “An illegal fill is an illegal fill. It doesn’t matter if it’s 500 yards, 700 yards, 900 yards, 1,000 yards. We all make mistakes; how we’re remembered is how we deal with them. And pointing fingers and blaming others — I don’t like it.” He called Newton’s actions “a huge time drain on an already overworked staff. I don’t believe it should have happened, and I hope it would never happen again. So, again, I’m asking for Commissioner Newton to step down.” “Ain’t gonna happen,” Newton replied. ‘No confidence’ Saying he has “no con- fidence” in Newton, Poe said, “Commissioner New- ton’s actions and decisions that have been made over the past few months, and even before that, have been affect- ing the commission in a way that’s somewhat negative and somewhat embarrassing — pretty hard to stomach sometimes.” Balensifer pointed to New- ton’s efforts to contact two commissioners — Poe and Tom Dyer — and bring up the infill matter. The mayor said this was inappropriate and that Newton, a longtime member of the City Commis- sion, should know better. In addition, Balensifer was troubled by testimony from Cox, who said New- ton had started showing up at Cox’s workplace and dis- cussing the city’s involve- ment in the infill. “I told Mr. Newton I couldn’t speak to him any- more because I felt like I was starting to get harassed,” Cox said. Newton apologized to him during the meeting. Balensifer said, “I know that, Commissioner New- ton, you have expressed that you’ve had some stuff that you’re dealing with, and I think that it would be best if you dealt with those out of the public domain. And I would hope that you can manage those personally instead of publicly.” The mayor then joined Baldwin and Poe in asking Newton to step aside. Over the past several months, commissioners have been concerned about New- ton’s interactions and public comments about city busi- ness, which have led to pub- lic and private clashes over his behavior. Salem: Rent, drought relief OK’d in one-day session continued from Page A1 We came together to send relief — hope — to Orego- nians in crisis.” Minority Republicans had resisted a special session, though not the rental assis- tance, which they said could have been approved by the state’s Emergency Board. Majority Democrats said only the full Legisla- ture could extend the grace period for evictions. The Emergency Board cannot pass legislation. Impetus for session Although some cities and counties are still accepting them, the Oregon Depart- ment of Housing and Com- munity Services stopped new applications for rental assistance after Dec. 1. Agency officials said that pending applications were likely to consume the rest of the $289 million available from federal funds — $180 million has been paid out to landlords as of Dec. 11 — and the state still would not have enough to cover all pending requests. House Speaker Tina Kotek, D-Portland, called for a special session months ago. “Today, we kept our prom- ise and protected thousands from losing their homes this winter,” she said, along with other priority items. The $200 million that lawmakers drew from the state budget a year ago for rental assistance has been spent. Oregon has applied for $200 million more in federal aid from the U.S. Treasury, but that money is unlikely to come until spring — and even if it comes, it will be the last installment. Meanwhile, more than 10,000 applications, many of them in the three Port- land metro counties, are past the grace periods established by state law and county actions. State law allows 60 days from when a tenant has informed a landlord about an application being filed; in Multnomah and Washington counties and the city of Bea- verton, it is 90 days. “During wintertime, we want to make sure Orego- nians are kept whole,” said Sen. Kayse Jama, D-Port- land, who leads the Sen- ate housing panel. “We also want to make sure that land- lords who are struggling get the resources they need.” Senate Republican Leader Tim Knopp, of Bend, helped broker the deal after Republicans resisted the ini- tial call for a special session. “We do have people with the possibility of being evicted,” he said. “We do have landlords who still have to be made whole. There have been several hundred million dollars already spent. “In order to protect them and protect landlords, the only option we have today in this emergency session is to provide these funds and that certainty to tenants in a defined period.” Dissent is voiced A companion bill extends the grace period for tenants against evictions for non- payment of rent from Feb. 28 to June 30. The grace period goes back to April 1, 2020, at the start of the pan- demic. The grace period for tenants who have shown landlords proof of applica- tion for assistance is now set at Sept. 30, or whenever the landlord receives the assis- tance payment. That bill passed the Sen- ate, 22 to 6, and the House, 37 to 18. Rep. Suzanne Weber, R-Tillamook, was among the “no” votes. At least 10 House Republi- cans spoke against that bill and called on Brown to replace Margaret Salazar as leader of the state housing agency. “House Republicans urge significant changes to these agencies under Dem- ocrat control,” GOP House Leader Vikki Breese-Iver- son, of Prineville, said. “We call on the governor to dra- matically increase oversight to ensure this money gets to real people in need.” Brown said she is aware that the agency, plus com- munity action agencies in the counties, must reduce the huge backlog of applications. “While we have made sig- nificant progress in improv- ing the delivery of rental assistance in the last several weeks, we know that rent- ers and their landlords are counting on these additional state resources and that we must move quickly,” the governor said in a statement. The rental assistance money was contained in a larger budget bill that included these items: • Resettlement of up to 1,200 Afghan refugees who will start arriving in Ore- gon early next year — $18 million. A task force led by Jama and Rep. Khanh Pham, D-Portland, recommended the request, which was not controversial. • Aid to farmers and ranchers affected by the con- tinuing drought, mostly in southern and Eastern Ore- gon — $100 million. The amount is drawn from $150 million that lawmakers already set aside in the two- year state budget for natural disasters. About $40 million is in the form of forgivable loans and $10 million is for specified irrigation districts. • Efforts against large-scale illegal cannabis growing, mostly in southern Oregon — $25 million. Most of it — $20 million — will be made avail- able in grants by the Oregon Criminal Justice Commis- sion to local police agencies; $5 million goes to the Oregon Water Resources Department for more staff to deal with ille- gal water use that interferes with water rights. • A project by the Port of Portland to develop a pro- totype of modular housing units made from mass tim- ber — $5 million. It also will assess economic and envi- ronmental effects, and the efficiency of creating these housing units to deal with the housing crisis. • Among the smaller items are $19 million, already in the state bud- get, for the Oregon Health Authority to increase reim- bursement rates that it cut for dental care under the Oregon Health Plan; $10 million for the Oregon Tour- ism Commission to give outfitters whose business suffered during the pandem- ic-induced downturn; and $2 million for a program for gun violence prevention in east Multnomah County. 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