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About The Siuslaw news. (Florence, Lane County, Or.) 1960-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 7, 2020)
6A | WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 7, 2020 | SIUSLAW NEWS Committee. Brittany Hor- nung to the Budget Com- mittee. William Prosser to the Community and Eco- nomic Development Com- mittee. Robbie Wright also to the Community and Eco- nomic Committee. On oth- er appointments I have no preferences.” (4) On Jan. 18, Henry wrote Weese and Reynolds. “The attached file con- tains the information sub- mitted to me by the coun- cilors,” Henry wrote. “As you can see it is in varying formats and in some cases is very incomplete. Some of the votes taken were by tele- phone and are reflected on the final handwritten sheet that we finalized earlier.” (5) Henry’s handwritten notes show he contacted Woodbury and Prociw for additional picks, however it wasn’t a full list. For ex- ample, Woodbury’s list now had Sherry Harvey and Katie Prosser for EMAC. Prociw’s list now included Ashmead, who she hadn’t originally named on her list. Only Greene’s picks remain unchanged, but there was a problem with his choices — Greene was blocking people from PAC for what could be seen as political reasons. “An informed appoint- ment decision.” “Inside City Limits: Jo Beaudreau, Greg Carlton, Meredeth Draper,” Greene wrote as his selection for PAC applications, com- paring them to those who already held positions on PAC. “Outside city limits, Annalee Griffis, Margie Kelly. “So the total is 9, 5 from city and 4 from out of city. We leave the door open to add 2 in a few months. On hold would be Patri- cia Briggs, Denise Tarvin, Kristin Owens, till we get a feeling of the nine on the CMTE. Plus we may call upon them to serve on a sub CMTE.” The three applicants he named had various back- grounds in art. Tarvin stated that she was retired but was involved with local arts organiza- tions, loved what the com- mittee was doing to pro- mote art, had government experience and wanted to encourage youth to get in- volved. Owens was a high school student who wanted to make art a career. She was passed over for another stu- dent, Griffis, who simply said she loved the arts and wanted to get involved. She later left her seat after grad- uation. Finally, there was Briggs, who was a member of the Coastal Arts Guild, an artist at Backstreet Gallery and a sub-committee member for the mural selection. There were three names that Greene didn’t mention in his recommendation: Ja- nis Miller, who listed work as a real estate appraiser and said she would love to see more murals in the city; Peggy Meyer, a retired school teacher who wrote that she wanted to preserve the qualities of the city; and Winette Tomeny, who wrote in her application “our public art should en- gage the community.” Tomeny was also the marketing director for SEA- coast Entertainment Asso- ciation, which helps select performers for the Florence Events Center (FEC). At the time, it wasn’t clear what their thoughts on the mural were, and public discussion had been qui- et. That was the problem with the mural, PAC and committees in general — despite multiple efforts by PAC to start a discussion on the mural, the public had remained unengaged. So, appointing mem- bers to the committee who had no formal art back- ground, like Miller, Meyer and Tomeny, could actually provide representation for those other than artists. City regulations are vague in what qualifications are needed, listing residen- cy, business ownership, lo- cal business/non-profit/ government representation, professional background or other pertinent informa- tion to “allow the mayor to make an informed appoint- ment decision.” Requirements for PAC include knowledge of land- scape architecture, outdoor artwork installation and/or grant writing, but it doesn’t specifically say a lack of these skills is disqualifying. The argument against the three listed above was that, while they may bring a different perspective to the conversation, all three held viewpoints shared by the mayor. While one or two such viewpoints could pro- vide diversity of opinion, three could work toward claiming a majority. It doesn’t appear the finer points of the argument were considered by either Henry or Greene. On Jan. 28, 2019, Henry announced his choices for PAC: Miller, Meyer and Tomeny were on, all 11 seats had been filled, and the only applicant that had the support of three coun- cilors — Meredith Draper — was dropped. Henry had not only ig- nored Greene’s recommen- dations, but he went the complete opposite direc- tion. (6) This was a defining mo- ment in the growing rift between Greene and Hen- ry, but the committee ap- pointments in both EMAC and CEDC raised concerns beyond personal disagree- ments. “We have promoted human rights” “For the last several years I have been involved in community organiza- tion in both Deadwood and Florence,” Nora Kent wrote in her application. “I thoroughly enjoy promot- ing fundraising and public education events. I am a member of the education and human rights teams in Florence ORganizes (FOR). We have promoted human rights, local education and housing issues.” Kent, whose political as- pirations were detailed in the last article of this series, applied for two committees, EMAC and CEDC. However, there appears to have been a concerted effort to block her from both, along with other vocal members of activist groups like FOR. EMAC was chaired by 2018 council candidate Maureen Miltenberger, who had just come out of a bruis- ing race against Prociw. While there was politici- zation of EMAC occurring outside of EMAC’s control, there is no evidence that Miltenberger was involved with that — and city staff told Siuslaw News the same. But Miltenberger was an advocate for addressing cli- mate change, a position that was mostly held by EMAC committee members — as was Kent. EMAC applicant Frank Smith was also clear about his support in his ap- plication. On the other end of the spectrum, Sherry Harvey and Katie Prosser, both fi- nancial donors and core campaign volunteers for Prociw’s campaign, often made posts on their Face- book page, Florence Liber- ty Alliance, espousing an- ti-climate science groups, such as the Galileo Move- ment. (7, 8) The fifth applicant was Elizabeth Hatcher, a former Hewlett Packard execu- tive who simply wrote “the stewardship of the environ- ment was a fundamental re- sponsibility,” and listed no government experience. Preisler, who would be- come the ex-officio for EMAC after Susy Lacer re- tired from the committee, welcomed all five members; it could have been a chance to establish a diverse set of ideas on the board. But Henry changed the applicant pool. Michael Tit- mus, who enthusiastically reapplied for his position on the Planning Commis- sion (PC), was moved to EMAC for unknown rea- sons. Instead, Andrew Mill- er got the PC position over five other applicants. By moving Titmus, EMAC now had six appli- cants. One now had to be nixed. But Henry denied two applicants instead: Kent and Smith, the only vocal climate activists. The choices favored right wing applicants — several who supported Prociw — and denied liberal appli- cants who had supported Miltenberger. Kent was again blocked from the CEDC, though it was much more explicit. “You folks are not wel- come here” In his first round of picks, Henry culled the majority of vocal liberals from the pool, including Kent and Sandy Todd, who sat on the city’s HEOP committee and had valuable input. Margy Parker, who had actually been asked by the city to re- apply, was also denied. In their place were con- servative political leaders, such as Bill Prosser, who listed no government expe- rience and worked for Peace Harbor (which he has since left). Bill and Katie Prosser were also close friends of Henry. Ashmead who, along with Harvey, had expressed intentions in a 2017 email to have people apply for committees and run for of- fices in order to swing the region more conservative, has a history of inserting politics into housing issues. (9) In 2011, he worked to block a faith-based non- profit that wanted to build 139 low-income housing units in Prosser, Wash., to house the city’s migrant population, an important workforce for the agri- cultural community. But some felt that the housing wouldn’t fit “a certain life- style” that they wanted to maintain in the town. According to an article in the Tri-City Herald pub- lished Feb. 16, 2011, when the Prosser City Council was deciding on the project, Ashmead presented them with 160 signed protest cards, turned to the Catho- lic Charities representatives and said, “You folks are not welcome here.” David Montes listed two qualifications on his appli- cation — Executive Direc- tor of Florence Food Share (By February 2018, he was no longer employed there) and a board member at Pregnancy and Parenting Center. His name often ap- peared in support of Henry politically, and he was the first person to post on the Facebook page Florence, Oregon criticisms of the mural (as described earlier in the series). (10, 11) There was also Claire Waggoner, a former intern for the city. Waggoner’s family had deep conservative politi- cal ties to the community, donating money to various groups and advocating for logging rights statewide. (12, 13) Waggoner also didn’t live in Florence full time, as she was a political science major at Oregon State University, though she wrote “My residency is still Florence.” There were former busi- ness partners, such as can- didate Vanessa Buss, who formerly owned a water- sports company with Hen- ry. They worked on a proj- ect to build a dive park and were helped by then Hon- eyman State Park Manager Shirley Stentz, who was also chosen by Henry. (14) There were Robbie Wright and Russ Pierson, who worked with Henry on the previous iteration of the CEDC, as described in the previous installment of this series. And then there were friends and acquaintances like Kurt Vander Bogart, who was specifically asked by Henry to apply, as well as Graham Ross. See COMMITTEE page 7A Buying or Selling? I can help. Jan Jagoe Broker 541 999-0879 91 Windleaf Way – This is a great opportu- nity to build your home close to the beach, in a great community of very nice homes. The seller is willing to carry so bring us an offer and start planning your future in Florence. $68,000. #2797- 18615048 EQUAL HOUSING OPPORTUNITY 1749 Highway 101 • 541-997-1200 NAME BRAND TIRES FOR LESS OCTOBER TIRE SALE! ALL TIRES UP TO Select brands also have rebates. 15% OFF FREE ALIGNMENT WITH A SET OF 4 OR MORE TIRES. WE ALSO OFFER ROAD HAZARD $30 FOR A SET OF 4 TIRES . A GREAT WARRANTY COVERAGE FOR THOSE WHO TRAVEL OUTSIDE OF FLORENCE. 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