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THE ASTORIAN • SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 2022
Council: Local elections have attracted more outside money
Continued from Page A1
address riverfront development
and how to respond to a more vis-
ible homeless population.
Jones said housing will likely
be the biggest challenge and pri-
ority for the rest of the year and
for the new council next year.
The City Council is consid-
ering whether to move forward
with a workforce housing project
at Heritage Square. The proposal
would include units for people
undergoing mental health and
substance abuse treatment. While
the idea has drawn support from
the community and city council-
ors, it has also provoked some
strong reaction .
The mayor said the proposal
gives the city an opportunity to
address aff ordable and workforce
housing.
Jones said the city will also be
meeting with leaders in the busi-
ness community to discuss what
can be done to help address hous-
ing shortages for workers earning
higher wages.
In the meantime, he hopes
to see other housing projects,
including developer Cary John-
son’s plan for apartments near
Tongue Point, make progress.
Other priorities include work-
ing with the Port of Astoria on
creating a new waterfront master
plan in Uniontown to spur eco-
nomic development .
Jones said there will also be
focus on getting the city’s Parks
and Recreation Department on a
sustainable path.
The City Council has sup-
ported closing Sprouts Learn-
ing Center, the city-run day care,
at the end of June. Staffi ng has
reached a critical shortage and
the center operates at an unsus-
tainable fi nancial loss.
City Councilor Roger Rocka
and City Councilor Joan Herman
have also indicated they will not
pursue new terms in November .
Herman, the only woman on
the council, was elected in 2018
to represent Ward 3, which cov-
ers most of downtown.
The former reporter at The
Astorian and college instructor
said she made the decision not to
run again about a year ago, citing
her age and health. However, she
said her commitment to serving
the city has not wavered.
“Four years is a good run,”
Herman said. “I think it would be
good for a new person to come
in with fresh eyes and have a
shot at it. I imagine, especially
with the Heritage Square project,
there will be considerable inter-
est in the positions open on the
council.”
Rocka represents Ward 1,
which covers part of the Port of
Astoria, Uniontown and the west-
ern edge of downtown. He was
also elected to the council in 2018
and ran with a plan to only serve
one term. The former executive
director of the Astoria-Warrenton
Area Chamber of Commerce has
a dinner theater in California.
“It’s really time for someone
younger and energetic to step in
and continue the work,” he said.
Astoria: ‘This seems to me like we’re playing from behind’
Continued from Page A1
there is not adequate shel-
ter space , cities can adopt
an ordinance that details
the time, place and manner
someone can sleep on pub-
lic property.
Since there are few shel-
ters on the North Coast, the
city plans to update a camp-
ing ordinance.
Spalding said some cities
have identifi ed areas where
people can sleep between
9 p.m. and 7 a.m. Some
have allowed people to sleep
on sidewalks if they leave at
least 5 feet of space, while
o ther parts of the city are
off -limits. Some cities allow
tents, he said, and some only
allow sleeping bags.
Spalding said the police
department is prepared to
bring a draft ordinance based
on examples from other cit-
ies to the City Council.
“However, the hard part
of this one, of course, is
who is going to make certain
decisions as to what areas
are off -limits, and what areas
would we allow someone to
sleep,” the police chief said.
An expulsion zone ordi-
nance — also referred to as
an exclusion zone — is an
enforcement tool designed
to address people who
repeatedly commit low-
er -level violations in partic-
ular parts of the city.
Under the ordinance,
people who commit a num-
ber of these types of crimes
in the same area would be
temporarily excluded .
Similar ordinances have
been approved in Lin-
coln City, Salem, Bend and
Medford.
Depending on the city, the
expulsion can range from 90
days to six months, Spalding
said. More s erious crimes,
like sex off enses or assault,
would result in immediate
expulsion.
Downtown, Ninth Street
Park and the Astoria River-
walk are examples of places
where people might be
excluded .
“It’s
not
something
that we as a police depart-
ment can arbitrarily pick an
area,” Spalding said. “It will
Lydia Ely/The Astorian
Quality of life issues are a concern in Astoria.
always be based on some
data that seems to indicate
that there is a higher-than-
usual level of negative activ-
ity that’s occurring in a par-
ticular area that we feel we
need to address.”
The police chief said sim-
ply arresting or citing people
doesn’t always alter behav-
ior. If expelled by the court,
people would be subject to
trespass if they return.
The City Council also
supported converting the
police department’s part-
time community service offi -
cer position into a role that
handles quality of life issues
and homelessness.
Astoria police and Clat-
sop Behavioral Healthcare,
Clatsop County’s mental
health and substance abuse
treatment provider, are in the
initial stages of developing a
program that would embed a
clinical staff er in the police
department.
The offi cer position could
work directly with that clini-
cian and handle some crisis
calls together in an eff ort to
be more proactive than reac-
tive, Spalding said.
“Right now, there’s not
the capacity within the police
department to be able to fully
engage with the social ser-
vice agencies,” City Man-
ager Brett Estes said . “And
when the social service agen-
cies are stepping up and add-
ing more positions to part-
ner with us, we’re needing
someone on our receiving
end to be able to move for-
ward with that.”
Other options supported
by the council included
ordinances to handle RVs,
aggressive panhandling and
abandoned grocery carts.
The City C ouncil also
supported the police depart-
ment’s work in creating a
program where people who
commit lower -level off enses
would be diverted from the
court to a support group
where they can do commu-
nity service in lieu of paying
fi nes .
Mayor Bruce Jones said
it is critical to identify parts
of the city where people can-
not camp, like the Garden
of Surging Waves near City
Hall and the Astoria Nor-
dic Heritage Park under con-
struction off Marine Drive.
“It’s great to fi nd that
if you search far and wide
there are some cities that
have been able to fi nd some
workarounds and some ways
to at least regain some of
their public spaces and some
quality of life for their com-
munity despite what the state
L egislature has done and
despite what the courts have
ruled,” he said.
City Councilor Joan Her-
man supported the prioriti-
zation of options, but also
shared a sense of frustration.
“I feel small communi-
ties, cities, are pretty much
being left to fi t the bill for
these huge societal prob-
lems, both literally and fi gu-
ratively,” she said.
While City Councilor
Roger Rocka supported
some of the ideas, he ques-
Fitzpatrick: Hopes to hear input, concerns from people
Continued from Page A1
“I love Astoria,” Fitzpat-
rick said. “My heart is here.”
He said he started attend-
ing City Council meetings
regularly in 2003. From
then, his involvement in
the city grew, leading to his
appointment to the P lanning
C ommission in 2013. H e has
served as the commission’s
president and vice president.
Fitzpatrick is a found-
ing member of the Friends
of the Astoria Armory and
the founding president of the
Kiwanis Club of Warrenton.
He sees his years of civic
engagement as training for
being mayor.
“I had thought about run-
ning for City Council, if that
came fi rst, but the people that
ran, I supported,” he said. “I
didn’t feel like I needed to
run against these people.”
Instead, he threw his sup-
port behind them. Fitzpatrick
said he also supported for-
mer Mayor Arline LaMear
and Jones during their may-
oral campaigns .
After hearing about
Jones’ decision — and being
urged by several people to
run — Fitzpatrick decided it
was time to pursue the role .
If elected, he said he wants
to make progress on issues
such as housing and child
care.
One of the biggest ques-
tions before the City Council
is a workforce housing pro-
posal at Heritage Square that
would include units for peo-
ple undergoing mental health
and substance abuse treat-
ment. The project has drawn
support in the community
and on the City Council, but
also a lot of criticism.
While Fitzpatrick has
publicly raised questions
about the proposal, he said
he does not plan to base his
campaign on the issue.
“That is not why I’m
running,” Fitzpatrick said,
pointing toward Heritage
Square .
However, he said his
over 40 years working in the
housing industry gives him
perspective. He has owned
over 100 rentals in Astoria
and has rented to more than
1,000 people, he said.
“And I have provided
housing to people with men-
tal health and addiction
issues since 1983,” he added.
“So, I am familiar with the
unique situation that provid-
ing housing to these people
creates.”
While Fitzpatrick does
not know child care like he
knows housing, he is eager
to get a better handle on
the barriers many providers
have faced .
He said the issue is close
to his heart, and one he strug-
gled with as a single father
for several years.
The city has opted to close
Sprouts Learning Center, the
city-run day care, at the end
of June because of staffi ng
and fi nancial challenges. The
closure is a signifi cant blow
to parents because child care
options remain scarce.
By announcing his intent
to run early, Fitzpatrick said
he hopes to hear input and
concerns from people in the
community so he is better
informed on city issues by
the November election .
tioned whether they were the
best step forward.
“This seems to me like
we’re playing from behind,”
he said. “It just seems to
me that if we can focus
our eff orts on establishing
a place where people can
camp and can park — where
we would have sanitary
facilities, restrooms, staffi ng
with the help of our social
service agencies so that it
would be safe for the women
that are escaping from abu-
sive relationships and so on
— then that would eliminate
so many of the problems
we’re trying to deal with on
an individual basis.”
‘Survive or thrive’
Social services a dvocates
echoed Rocka’s comments.
Teresa Barnes, the exec-
utive director of the Astoria
Warming Center, and Billie
Delaney, the warming cen-
ter’s coordinator, took issue
with the tone of the work ses-
sion and ideas like an expul-
sion zone ordinance.
“They talk about people
not feeling safe, and it wasn’t
the people who are living in
their cars, it wasn’t the peo-
ple who are actively fl eeing
domestic violence, and don’t
have anywhere to be to be
safe,” Barnes told The Asto-
rian. “It was the people who
have to witness people’s bro-
ken down RVs or walk by
people who are living on the
sidewalk not feeling safe.”
Barnes and Delaney said
they felt like the tone was a
departure from eff orts of the
city’s homelessness solu-
tions task force, which they
say has acknowledged that
criminalizing homelessness
is ineff ective and that there
is a need for more shelter
space.
“When the problem that
they’re trying to address is
visibility of unhoused peo-
ple instead of the fact that
people are without hous-
ing, then you are focus-
ing on criminalizing home-
lessness and not solving it,”
Delaney said. “Because the
focus is to make those people
less visible, not get them the
resources they might need to
survive or thrive.”
But Rocka said he may con-
sider a second term if he sees the
race take a negative turn.
L ocal elections, he said, have
attracted more outside money
and negative campaigning in
recent years. He pointed to races
for the county Board of Com-
missioners in 2020 and the Clat-
sop Community College B oard in
2021 as examples.
“If I saw that happening in the
council race, that might move me
to run again because I wouldn’t
want our council worked in
that way,” Rocka said. “I just
don’t think that serves anyone
in the city or the county to have
that kind of election campaign
again.
“It just breaks my heart that
that’s happening here.”
Child care: ‘This
really saddens me
that it’s come to this’
Continued from Page A1
“I’ve always emphasized
that this is a top priority for
me to maintain the service.
And it pains me to say this
now, but I think we’re at that
point where it’s unsustain-
able for the city to continue
to provide the service. Espe-
cially when this import-
ant service is coming at the
expense of other equally, or
more important, commu-
nity health programs, espe-
cially those for our youth
that would benefi t so many
more people.
“I hate having to make
that choice. It’s a terrible
choice to have to make, but I
don’t see any way out of it.”
The city opened the day
care a decade ago because of
the need for child care in the
community, and it remains
one of the few of its size that
provides care for infants.
The center, formerly
known as Lil’ Sprouts Acad-
emy , relies heavily on low-
er-paid, part-time labor,
which has been especially
challenging to hire and
retain during the coronavi-
rus pandemic. It has also
continued to pull resources
away from other services
the parks department off ers.
In an attempt to make
operations more sustain-
able, the city requested pro-
posals in October from par-
ties interested in forming a
public-private partnership.
There were no responses
by the December deadline,
but in the days following, an
interested group approached
the city and formed into the
nonprofi t Clatsop Promise.
Trudy
Van
Dusen
Citovic, a co-owner of
Van Dusen Beverages who
serves on the Clatsop Com-
munity College Board, was
one of the people behind the
nonprofi t. She had hoped
that through a partnership,
the nonprofi t could focus
on raising funds to oper-
ate while the city contin-
ued to own and maintain the
facility.
However, the nonprofi t
stepped back after realiz-
ing the plan was not fi nan-
cially viable. Citovic told
The Astorian in January that
even with the assistance the
city was willing to provide
on rent, the nonprofi t esti-
mated the child care pro-
gram would need an addi-
tional $300,000 to $400,000
per year.
Since October, Jonah
Dart-McLean, the city’s
parks director, said the
parks department lost more
staff , which forced the city
to close a prekindergarten
classroom that served the
day care’s oldest children in
November.
Dart-McLean told the
City Council on Wednes-
day that the parks depart-
ment’s operations manager,
recreation coordinator and
administrative assistant all
work to provide support to
child care as needed.
“We are really down to
a critical threshold as far
as our staffi ng is concerned
where it’s an hour-by-hour
question of how we’ll need
to move staff members or
the children from diff erent
rooms in order to have suf-
fi cient care and oversight
during the day,” Dart-Mc-
Lean said.
While the city plans to
move away from directly
providing child care, it will
continue to focus on ways
to provide support to other
potential providers.
City Councilor Tom
Brownson said that during
his time on the City Coun-
cil he has watched the parks
department struggle to fi nd
new ways to fund all of its
activities.
“I think there has to be
a bigger solution for this.
We’re just too small to con-
tinue to take this on,” he
said. “It’s always been a
struggle, and it’s just not
going to get any easier.
“This really saddens me
that it’s come to this.”
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