A6
THE ASTORIAN • TUESDAY, MAY 24, 2022
RV park: ‘Half the people that came to this park come from
broken homes, being evicted, cost of living going up too much’
what would happen to tenants.
“If you have a rental house, do you discuss
what’s going to happen with the tenants when
you sell your rental house? You might,” he
said. “I mean, I just assumed they were run-
ning an RV park and mobile home parks and
they would keep all the tenants because it was
a steady income.”
Like Smith, Cassinelli believes the Wer-
ners are “starting to come around.”
But, he added, “I don’t own the thing, I
don’t have anything to do with it anymore and
I try to stay out of it.”
Continued from Page A1
The letter, signed “management,” stated
that the new owners wanted to make improve-
ments to the RV park and that some tenants
might be able to return in September. In the
meantime, tenants were invited to move to
properties operated by RV Inn Style Resorts,
another company owned by the Werners, with
the caveat that space was limited.
Pacifi c County health workers forwarded
the vacate notice to the Northwest Justice
Project, which brought in Thurston County
Volunteer Legal Services. The state a ttorney
g eneral’s o ffi ce then met with Cassinelli, who
said the notice to tenants had come from the
Werners. He was told to rescind the notice.
But signs went up around the RV park
later claiming that, due to unsafe conditions,
the park would close for business in mid-
April. Utilities would be turned off and people
needed to leave. Again, the a ttorney g eneral’s
o ffi ce intervened.
Just after the sale was fi nalized, Long
Beach p olice were called to the RV park. Rep-
resentatives of the Werners had shown up to
begin removing trailers. One of the men car-
ried a gun. Long Beach Police Chief Flint
Wright said the man didn’t threaten anyone
and was carrying the gun legally, but to ten-
ants, it felt like another intimidation tactic.
Police told the men they could not remove
anyone’s property without a court order.
The Werners appear to have backed away
from eff orts to forcibly remove people and
have instead begun off ering to buy people out.
Some tenants have taken the $2,000 off ered,
but others say it’s not enough money for them
to start over somewhere else, especially on a
tight timeline.
Consumer complaints and accusations
of wrongful eviction proceedings, steep rent
increases and harassment of tenants have fol-
lowed the Werners at multiple properties they
operate throughout the Pacifi c Northwest.
The Chinook Observer reported that 10 com-
plaints have been fi led with the state regarding
operations at Beacon since the Werners took
ownership.
KMUN reached out to the Werners several
times while reporting this story, but received
no response.
‘The public’s interest’
Today, tenants at the Beacon Charters and
RV Park do not have regular garbage service.
Instead, they have a commercial-sized dump-
ster placed at one end of the park. Many resi-
dents struggle to hoist garbage over the dump-
ster’s high sides. For a while, each morning,
park resident Dallas Busse opened a side door
to make access easier, but the dumpster is now
fi lled to overfl owing and he’s stopped open-
ing the door.
The dumpster is set right across from Susan
Gill’s trailer. She says it has started to attract
rats, raccoons and scavenging birds.
Meanwhile, a communal bathroom and
showers facility is down to a single working
shower on the women’s side. Busse recently
found a way to get one shower on the men’s
side to work, but the water is barely lukewarm.
At a p ort commission meeting on May 17 ,
RV park tenants and other residents told com-
missioners the Werners are not maintaining
the RV park as required under their lease.
Conklin, the tenants’ attorney, also main-
tains that the Werners have violated several
conditions of their lease with the port. He has
asked city leaders to call a meeting with the
‘Scares us’
Katie Frankowicz/KMUN
Dallas Busse has taken on the role of advocate and groundskeeper at Beacon Charters and RV Park
in Ilwaco as new owners have tried several times to get longtime tenants to move.
port and urge port commissioners to end the
lease with the Werners.
To Conklin, the port’s ownership of the
land is one of the more “alarming” aspects of
the whole situation.
“There are other parks around the state that
are privately held,” he said. “But this one is
actually on tax payer-owned properties … and
should be managed, I believe, in the public’s
interest.”
Conklin said, “All around the state, local-
ities are struggling with the issue of how do
we provide houses — homes — for low-in-
come people . And here the port is going in
absolutely the wrong direction in mass evic-
tion of folks who have been living quite stable
and paying their own way.”
Butch Smith, the chairman of the Port of
Ilwaco Commission, said Beacon was never
intended for long-term stays.
Under the port’s lease agreement and city
rules, the RV park was meant for short-term
stays. But for years, both the city and the port
looked the other way as Cassinellli allowed
tenants to stay year-round and, in some cases,
for many years.
Historically, Ilwaco struggles during the
quieter winter months when tourists and rec-
reational fi shermen are gone. Allowing what
was technically a violation at Cassinelli’s RV
park was one way the business was able to
survive, Smith said.
But after Cassinelli informed the port com-
mission last year that he was preparing to
sell, the discrepancy needed to be resolved.
When Cassinelli returned later with a poten-
tial buyer, then-Port Manager Guy Glenn Jr.
negotiated the lease, making it clear the RV
park was intended for short-term stays.
However, Smith and the other port com-
missioners say they knew what the change
could mean for longtime residents.
In the new version of the lease, the com-
missioners included a stipulation: The new
owners needed to give tenants time to fi nd
somewhere else to live before shifting back to
a short-term stay model. The lease provided
six months, but Smith told the Werners state
law might require more time.
“We thought when we left that meeting we
had a game plan with the new owners,” Smith
said.
He was surprised by what happened at the
RV park next. Still, he isn’t sure what the port
can do even as tenants increasingly look to the
port’s role as leaseholder as an answer to their
troubles.
Smith is not aware of violations of the
lease. At the port commission meeting last
week , he asked tenants to bring any evidence
or statements to the port offi ce.
Margarita Cullimore, an Ilwaco City Coun-
cil member who attended the meeting , criti-
cized this approach.
She pointed to the letter from Conklin that
outlined potential lease violations. She urged
port offi cials to look into the matter them-
selves as the property owners and not put the
burden on the RV park tenants.
Limited role
Smith maintains that the port has a limited
role to play. He said most of the issues he has
heard about appear to be matters best handled
by the state and the county. He added that it
seems like the Werners are now interested in
working with people to help them relocate.
“We want this to work for everybody
involved,” Smith told KMUN, adding, “The
new owners of the RV park, we certainly want
them to be successful. And we certainly want
the people that have lived at Beacon to fi nd
suitable places to live and move to and be very
successful, too.”
On the city side of things, Cassinelli echoed
Smith.
“There’s only so much the city can do and
until all that’s completely defi ned, the city’s
going to be spinning our wheels,” he said.
However, Cassinelli said the city is looking
to see where it can be involved.
He told KMUN he does have some second
thoughts about selling the RV park given how
things unfolded with the new owners.
“I like most of those people,” he said of
his former tenants. “I, you know, went out of
my way for them. They didn’t deserve to be
treated the way they were.”
Cassinelli said he did not have conversa-
tions with the Werners ahead of the sale about
That is what tenants like Busse have a hard
time understanding.
Busse has lived at the RV park with his dad
on and off since 2011. He has been attending
port commission and C ity C ouncil meetings,
advocating for his neighbors and himself.
Cassinelli was a good landlord, in Busse’s
opinion; the mayor even gave him the trailer
he lives in now. But he feels betrayed by the
sale to the Werners. Cassinelli’s status as an
elected offi cial again as of January is a factor.
“Most of our votes are what put the coun-
cilmen in their seats,” Busse said, “so the way
we were looking at it is: We voted you guys
to be here and you’re supposed to be helping
the people.
“So tell us: How can you help us right
now? Because us, your people, need help.
We’re your neighbors and it just feels like you
guys are sitting and watching as we just get
ripped down by these people.”
Like many who live at Beacon , Busse
relies on S ocial S ecurity and isn’t sure where
he would go if suddenly forced to move. B ut
he is also worried about the elderly people at
the park who face other diffi culties besides
lack of money.
One woman who lives near Busse’s dad is
in her 80s and not well. She was mentioned
often in interviews with the RV park tenants.
The early vacate notices and then the visits
by the Werners’ representatives so unnerved
her that she now refuses to open the door to
almost anyone. Other people only leave their
trailers late at night, afraid their possessions
will be seized if they leave during the day.
“Half the people that came to this park
come from broken homes, being evicted,
cost of living going up too much, just having
everything go downhill,” Busse said.
“The fact that these people can’t under-
stand where us as citizens come from when
they come and tell us that they’re kicking us
out of our homes and we only have so long
to do that. Yeah, that scares us because we’re
already here trying to survive.”
Gill, the woman whose trailer is now near
the dumpster, has lived in the RV park for 14
years.
She was very frightened when the Werners
threatened to shut off utilities since she relies
on an oxygen tank at night and, with the recent
stress, increasingly during the day . Still, she
has another place lined up and doesn’t have to
worry about where she will go next.
But she feels a duty to stay at the RV park
for as long as she can for the sake of her
neighbors.
“The more people that work together, the
better the situation can be,” Gill said. “And I
don’t have enough problems that I have to be
the person that runs out of desperation. I think
that would be a really bad cop-out to do that.”
This story is part of a collaboration between
The Astorian and Coast Community Radio.
Johnson: Won’t revise her politics to try to siphon more votes away from Kotek, Drazan
Continued from Page A1
Last week , she added for-
mer Gov. Ted Kulongoski, a
Democrat, and former U.S.
Sen. Gordon Smith, a Repub-
lican . She’s backed by for-
mer Rep. Knute Buehler, a
Bend Republican who was
the GOP nominee for gov-
ernor in 2018, losing to Gov.
Kate Brown .
Johnson has straddled the
political divide for much of
her life. Born in Bend and
raised in Redmond, her father,
Sam Johnson, was a promi-
nent timber industry business
owner. He served seven terms
in the state House as a Repub-
lican. He was mayor of Red-
mond at the time of his death
in 1984.
After earning a law degree
and commercial pilot’s
licenses for both fi xed-wing
aircraft and helicopters, John-
son ran an aviation company
that included fi refi ghting
aircraft.
Like her father, she ran for
the House, winning election
in 2000.
Unlike her father, she was
a Democrat.
She moved to the state
Senate in 2005, where she
represented the North Coast
and served until resigning last
year to run for governor.
In Salem, Johnson was
often at odds with Kotek, most
recently on cap-and-trade leg-
islation that led to Republican
walkouts in 2019 and 2020.
Passage of the bill was a pri-
ority for Kotek in the House.
While its fate was uncertain in
the Senate, Johnson was seen
as a likely opponent.
Over the years, Kotek
and leaders of the progres-
sive wing of the Legislature’s
Democrats have seen John-
son as a roadblock to leg-
islation on gun control, the
environment and the expan-
sion of collective bargaining
rights further up the ranks of
fi re, police and other public
employees.
Johnson already has a
soundbite-ready line when
asked about Kotek, playing
off polls that show Brown
with low job approval ratings.
“Tina Kotek is more Kate
Brown than Kate Brown,”
she said.
On the Republican side,
Drazan won a fragmented
primary with about 22%
of the vote among 19 can-
didates. Fervent followers
of former President Don-
ald Trump were unable to
rally around a single stan-
dard-bearer, instead splitting
their votes into substantial
chunks spread among several
candidates. That helped Dra-
zan win .
Johnson said it will be
impossible for Drazan to
appeal to moderate swing
voters who are the key to win-
ning the governorship while
not alienating the conserva-
tive GOP base.
“I don’t think she’s going
‘RURAL OR ANYONE WHO FEELS
DISRESPECTED AND IGNORED.
MY LOYALTY WILL ONLY BE TO
THE PEOPLE OF OREGON.’
Betsy Johnson | independent candidate for governor
to be able to speak her mind,”
Johnson said.
‘Let Betsy be Betsy’
Democrats have been plan-
ning a counterattack on John-
son since well before Kotek’s
primary victory .
Oregonians for Ethics,
a political action commit-
tee , has raised more than
$195,000 to highlight John-
son’s votes against Demo-
cratic initiatives. The larg-
est contributor has been the
Democratic Governor s Asso-
ciation , with $65,000.
Drazan has chafed at sug-
gestions that if Johnson
makes the ballot, the Repub-
lican candidate could be noth-
ing better than a spoiler for a
Johnson victory over Kotek.
In April, Drazan told Wil-
lamette Week that Johnson’s
break with the Democratic
Party was an opportunistic
move to take advantage of the
fi rst election in which a gover-
nor or ex-governor wasn’t on
the ballot since 2002.
“She could have been help-
ing recruit and elect moderate
Democrats all these years,”
Drazan said.
Johnson says she won’t
revise her politics to try to
siphon more votes away from
Kotek or Drazan.
“Let Betsy be Betsy,”
Johnson said. “Let me get out
and connect with regular peo-
ple who are sick and tired of
the status quo.”
The abortion issue could
loom large due to an expected
U.S. Supreme Court deci-
sion that c ould strike down
the landmark Roe vs. Wade,
the 1973 ruling that legalized
abortion nationwide.
Drazan is against abortion
rights. Kotek and Johnson
are strongly in favor of pro-
tecting abortion rights. That
could cap Johnson’s appeal to
a large swath of Republicans.
Johnson said her position
is “not negotiable.”
“I am unapologetically
pro-choice,” she said. “I dis-
agree with everything that
Tina Kotek stands for except
when it comes to a woman’s
right to choose.”
Johnson said that the much
discussed urban-rural divide
is a problem for Democrats,
whose center of political
power is Portland.
Johnson is critical of Port-
land Mayor Ted Wheeler and
what she sees as local offi cials
allowing sometimes violent
demonstrations and sprawling
homeless populations to chase
away businesses and visitors.
But she sees the popu-
lar Republican route of cam-
paigning against Portland as
misguided.
As the state’s largest city
and business hub, the city
automatically has a huge —
at times overwhelming —
impact on state politics.
“You can’t have Oregon
without Portland,” Johnson
said. “It’s our metropolitan
area.”
While Democrats domi-
nate in Portland — Kotek’s
home — and much of the
Willamette Valley, Repub-
lican political leaders have
often been drawn from e ast-
ern, c entral and southwestern
Oregon. Drazan, from Canby
in Clackamas County, was an
exception.
Johnson noted she grew up
in c entral Oregon and has rep-
resented districts fi rst in the
southern coast around Ban-
don, then one on the far north-
west of the state. Her aviation
business took her to all cor-
ners of Oregon, with frequent
stops in Portland.
Johnson said that makes
her a unique candidate — not
bound by one spot on the state
map for political support. She
hopes her campaign appeals
to voters in between the polit-
ical norms in Salem — which
she sees as extremes.
“Rural or anyone who feels
disrespected and ignored,”
Johnson said. “My loyalty
will only be to the people of
Oregon.”
The Oregon Capital
Bureau is a collaboration
between EO Media Group
and Pamplin Media Group.
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