OFF PAGE ONE
Saturday, December 4, 2021
East Oregonian
A7
Santa:
Continued from Page A1
Perkins looks back
Perkins is undergoing chemo-
therapy for the cancer. Late last
month in an interview, he discussed
how he would like to be known by
his community.
Born Sept. 25, 1951, in Pend-
leton, his grandfather, mom and
stepfather raised him in Hermis-
ton. He said he enjoyed small-town
life. Agate collecting was a favorite
pastime, and he called these rocks
“sparkles of hope.” He held to those
sparkles during a childhood that
was not always happy.
An absent father and an abusive
brother, he said, were just part
of his troubles. Also, his family
suffered poverty. He explained,
when he turned 14, his mother no
longer qualifi ed for government
assistance. He dropped out of
school so he could begin work.
He obtained his high school
diploma years later, however, and
walked in cap and gown with the
Hermiston High School Class of
2010, he said.
Building communities
Perkins had, he said, “a star-
vation for life” that pushed him
forward. He accepted agricultural
work, then he was a truck driver
and later a Navy electronics tech-
nician.
His service was difficult, he
said, as exposure to Agent Orange
in the Vietnam War eventually
caused him to lose feeling in his
legs. His service also left him
with post-traumatic stress disor-
der, which continues to affect
him. Still, he described himself
as a happy, optimistic person who
tries to share his positivity with
others.
“I enjoy helping people. To me,
if I can go out and make one person
smile, my work is paid for,” he said.
He credited his wife with
encouraging his pleasant outlook.
From the beginning of their rela-
tionship, he said, she was a steady-
ing infl uence. Together, they had
two children who gave them three
grandchildren.
A member of The Church of
Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints,
he described himself as a religious
man who believes in community.
He served as mayor of Stanfi eld
for a term, winning an election
in 1980. He also has worked as a
volunteer fi reman and has been an
active part of groups. He has, he
said, helped organize a veteran’s
group of motorcycle riders.
Becoming Santa
Perkins, 13 years ago, picked
Marigold:
Continued from Page A1
The suspension went into eff ect
immediately while the revocation
is set to start Dec. 16, pending the
appeal.
Byram declined to say how
the Marigold was complicit in the
crimes, and Patel in an interview
defended the hotel, adding he had
taken several steps to reduce crime
at the business and just needed
support from the city.
The city’s business license ordi-
nance allows business owners who
have had their business licenses
suspended or revoked the option
of appealing the city’s decision to
the city council. Patel exercised that
option and hired some help.
During the appeal process,
Patel will be represented by Jordan
Ramis, a Lake Oswego law fi rm. In
a Nov. 18 letter to the city, attorney
Matthew Lowe provided a timeline
of events and laid the groundwork
for Patel’s defense.
The owner’s timeline
Lowe wrote that Patel and his
family’s company, Mahantam
Hospitality, bought the Marigold in
November 2019, purchasing a hotel
that had been affiliated with the
Knights Inn and Howard Johnson’s
franchises in the past.
After the coronavirus pandemic
began in March 2020, the Mari-
Road:
Continued from Page A1
Robert Pahl, the county’s
fi nancial manager, said the
deal was made possible by
tax incentive agreements the
county made on economic
development projects,
including the Amazon data
centers in the Hermiston and
Umatilla areas. As payments
for those agreements came in,
Pahl said the revenue allowed
the county to have enough
money to invest in the Pend-
leton project.
Ben Lonergan/East Oregonian
Santa Claus, also known as John Perkins, waves to children Thursday, Dec. 2, 2021, as he arrives at Festival Street for the lighting of Hermiston’s down-
town Christmas tree.
up the mantle of Santa to honor
his father-in-law, Roy Otis, a man
who had been Santa but died. His
wife, Jeanne Perkins, made him the
costume he still wears. It is a suit
made with love, he said.
Other trademarks of the role
were his prior to becoming Santa.
The white hairs, he said, started
coming in while he was a high
school student, and the beard was
fully fl ushed out before he ever put
on the Santa outfi t.
Playing Santa through the years,
he has toured the region, appear-
ing in and around Hermiston, even
going to Walla Walla. This was
his fi rst appearance at the Herm-
iston tree lighting. Also, the role
has crept into his daily life, he said,
as children recognize him as Santa
year-round.
He said people have a special
reaction to Santa Claus. The char-
acter, Perkins said, draws people
together in a spirit of love. Santa
makes them think of generosity,
togetherness and the need for unity.
The diagnosis
Ben Lonergan/East Oregonian
Tito Munoz, 3, collects a candy cane from Santa Claus during a tree light-
ing ceremony Thursday, Dec. 2, 2021, on Festival Street in downtown
Hermiston. John Perkins, who plays the role of Santa Claus, has stage four
pancreatic cancer.
He first noticed something
wrong in March, when he saw a
bruise on his belly, he said. It grew,
and so he saw a doctor.
After tests, he learned he had
stage four pancreatic cancer, he said.
He admitted he did not respond
well. He cried, and he initially felt
weak for having done so. It was
only later he recognized there was
gold signed a contract with the
Community Action Program of East
Central Oregon to provide rooms to
the unhoused. The agreement was
meant to be mutually benefi cial:
CAPECO could provide Pendle-
ton’s homeless residents with a place
where they could be socially distant,
and the Marigold would get a source
of revenue at a time when tourism
was cratering.
“The hotel’s contract with
CAPECO ended and shortly there-
after, perhaps due to the population
of guests referred by CAPECO,
problems started occurring,” Lowe
wrote about May 2020.
According to Lowe, the hotel’s
general manager, who goes
unnamed, began renting out rooms
to locals on a weekly basis, many
of whom were considered “disrup-
tive individuals.” The hotel owners
soon ended the practice, but in
September 2020, the Blue Moun-
tain Enforcement Narcotics Team,
an inter-agency group that includes
several local police departments, the
Oregon State Police, FBI and Army
National Guard, conducted a raid on
the Marigold.
At the time, Patel assured Byram
that he would remove all problem
guests from the hotel and would
become more restrictive on who he
employed and provided rooms to.
The timeline then jumps ahead to
s 2021, a time when Patel allowed the
general manager to hire her daugh-
ter as a staff member. Lowe wrote
the daughter was a good employee,
but she was in a relationship with a
“convicted felon” who did unspec-
ifi ed “bad conduct” unbeknownst
to Patel.
In April, the city sent Patel a
letter declaring the Marigold a
chronic nuisance and in May, Patel
emailed Byram to announce he had
fi red the general manager and her
daughter and installed a new secu-
rity camera system in addition to a
policy that would prohibit the hotel
from selling rooms to locals.
Lowe wrote that Patel person-
ally stayed at the hotel for more
than three weeks in June and July
after another incident, and accord-
ing to Lowe, Byram acknowledged
that conditions had improved. Lowe
wrote there were two more incidents
at or near the hotel in late October,
but the Marigold couldn’t confi rm
whether they involved guests
because police never informed
management.
The city already has
started work in planning the
road, signing an agreement
with the private property
owners of the land to identify
where the city should obtain
rights of way to build the road
and accompanying water
lines. But $2 million won’t
be enough to get the project
done, and the city is meet-
ing with other agencies to
continue raising money for it.
Port of Umatilla General
Manager Kim Puzey said
he’s met with Turner and City
Manager Robb Corbett about
the port joining as another
fi nancial partner in the proj-
no reason to feel bad about shed-
ding tears.
His fi rst chemotherapy treat-
ment was “not bad,” he said, espe-
cially because the doctors warned
Ben Lonergan/East Oregonian, File
The shooting
and the hearing
Police stand at The Marigold Hotel
on Nov. 9, 2021, following a shoot-
ing at the hotel in downtown Pend-
leton. The owner of the hotel plans
to appeal the city’s decision to sus-
pend its business license.
The next entry on the timeline
was about the Nov. 9 shooting.
Police allege Steven Moses Enko of
Pendleton was in the vicinity of the
hotel when he shot at a car as it was
driving away, resulting in the injury
of a 17-year-old boy. Enko now faces
attempted murder and several other
charges.
In Patel’s account, the suspect
was visiting someone who was stay-
ing at the hotel rather than a guest.
According to Lowe’s letter, Enko
visited the guest, left the guest’s
room to break into another room
where “he engaged in his unlaw-
ful conduct,” returned to the orig-
inal room to hide the gun and then
attempted to hide in the hotel’s laun-
dry room. According to Lowe, the
manager quickly evacuated the
laundry room and notifi ed police.
ect. Puzey said he anticipates
the port commission will
discuss the prospect at its next
meeting Tuesday, Dec. 7, at
1 p.m. via Zoom (meeting ID
547 598 7432 and Passcode
Port 3224). He added the port
hasn’t committed to making
a fi nancial contribution yet or
on a defi nitive dollar amount.
him about what he could expect. He
was told it could hurt, and he might
experience chills.
“So far, I haven’t felt any of
them,” he said last month.
His biggest worry was that
his treatment would lower his
resistance to germs, he said, and
he would feel sick as a result of
portraying Santa and seeing chil-
dren. Still, he said his doctor
approved of being Santa. Perkins
said he told his doctor he wanted
to “go out and have fun,” and the
doctor said it would be fi ne.
“I made a commitment to the
city of Hermiston, and I will do
everything I can,” he said ahead of
the tree lighting. “I would be happy
if I can do this.”
Perkins on Dec. 2 lived up to
his commitment, as he brought
Santa Claus to Hermiston. Looking
forward, he had a few other things
to say.
“I can’t say I’m ready for every-
thing that is going to happen, but I
can say, through my faith in Jesus
Christ, I believe in everything
that’s going to happen. And it’s not
because my time is ending. That’s
not what it’s about, it’s about me
being able to give the rest of my life
in memory, and do it like a man,”
Perkins said.
“(It) is unfair to allege that these
events were in the control of the
hotel or that the hotel’s management
or operational practices contributed
to these events in any way,” Lowe
wrote. “While all hotels strive to
provide a safe and clean environ-
ment for hotel guests, there are times
when unfortunate events occur
regardless of the practices and poli-
cies in place. At this hotel, while we
do not argue that certain adverse
conditions existed and occurred
at the hotel in 2020 and in the fi rst
part of 2021, the hotel reasonably
addressed those issues. The recent
events that have occurred at or near
the hotel are quite simply unrelated
to those prior events. As such, they
do not warrant suspension of the
hotel’s business license or a deter-
mination that the hotel is a chronic
nuisance.”
City Attorney Nancy Kerns said
the hearing over the business license
will be unlike other council actions,
such as passing ordinances and
approving budgets. Both city staff
and Patel or his counsel will pres-
ent their arguments before coun-
cil members, who will have the
opportunity to ask questions before
making a decision. The general
public will not be able to participate.
The council meeting will be
Tuesday, Dec. 7, at 7 p.m. at the
council chambers in city hall, 500
S.W. Dorion Ave. The meeting also
will be available online live via
Zoom at bit.ly/3iaPLbo.
HIRING MULTIPLE
FOOD SERVICE POSITIONS
at Snake River Corrections
in Ontario, OR
Apply by 12/6 at:
https://bit.ly/3pgtb3C