A5 • Friday, January 25, 2019 | Cannon Beach Gazette | CannonBeachGazette.com
A commitment to the people of Clatsop County
W
e Clatsop County
commissioners are
here as community
leaders, elected by the voters in
our district, with an intention
to do good. How we develop
our definitions of that good is
our individual effort. However
we choose to use our voice, our
vote, and our actions is up to us.
We collaborate with our col-
leagues to define and accom-
plish the work of our collec-
tive body, the board. We act to
further our work by our liaison
assignments.
That much, I think, we can
agree on.
GUEST COLUMN
LIANNE THOMPSON
After that, we have differ-
ences. How we resolve those
differences arising as our inten-
tions are translated into words
and actions determines our
effectiveness and results.
My commitment is to do
good for the benefit of Clat-
sop County, the people and the
place. When I succeed, let us
rejoice together. When I fail,
forgive me, and let’s try to do
better. I’ll do the same for you.
That is the heart of good team-
work, and we are a team.
I thank my predecessors for
their service and hope to honor
them and our common cause,
good representation and good
value to the people and the
place, Clatsop County. Sev-
eral of them are in the audience
tonight. Thanks to them for let-
ting me stand on their shoulders.
I am humbly grateful to the
voters in District 5 for making
me their elected county commis-
sioner again. Looking at the his-
tory of elections since the Home
Rule Charter was enacted, I see
that I am the only commissioner
so far to be elected to more than
one successive term. Only one
other commissioner has had two
terms, but there was a break in
service, so those terms weren’t
successive.
I thank the voters for trusting
me to continue serving them so
we can all benefit from continu-
ity of leadership, here in Clatsop
County and beyond.
I thank everyone I serve with
and for, treasuring the opportu-
nity to make a positive differ-
ence. Let us now join together to
do good by completing the work
begun in 2011 to define the mis-
sion of county government and
the related “ends policies,” so
that we can evaluate ourselves
and our new county manager.
Let us also perform liaisons
assignments to best inform our
actions by including the impact
on our larger world. Most of all,
let us perpetuate our own excel-
lence, fearlessly examining our
strengths and weaknesses so that
we can improve our efforts and
effectiveness.
I pledge to do all that, on
behalf of the voters in District
5, and for everyone in Clatsop
County and beyond.
Try to remember when you could buy a car for under $2,000
T
ry to remember the kind of
September when the median
price for a new home rose
more than 1,200 percent from
$25,600 in 1968 to $309,700 in
2018 as median household income
rose only 800 percent — from
$7,700 to $62,175 during those
same 50 years.
Try to remember when annual
per-capita health expenditures
exploded more than 3,000 percent,
from $355 in 1968 to $10,759 in
2018.
Try to remember when in
1968 tuition, fees, and room and
board for a year at a private four-
year university skyrocketed from
$2,673 to $48,510 in 2018 — an
1,800 percent jump in 50 years.
Those happy with a four-year pub-
lic university saw a year of public
higher education grew more than
1,700 percent from $1,245 in 1968
to $21,370 in 2018.
Try to remember when a Volk-
swagen Bug cost $1,699 in 1968
and between $21,115 and $27,685
in 2018, a 1,600 percent increase.
Try to remember when a gallon
of regular gas that cost 34 cents in
1968 plateaued in 2018 at $3.29,
more than a 960 percent increase.
Try to remember when sending
a fi rst-class letter was a bargain,
rising only 1,000 percent — from
5 to 50 cents — as targets of pro-
test shifted from the war in South-
east Asia, to the crude behaviors of
our current president.
AT THE LIBRARY
JOE BERNT
Try to remember when a
McDonald’s Big Mac was intro-
duced for 49 cents in 1968 and
rose in price to $3.99 in 2018, an
increase of more than 800 per-
cent — stalking median household
income in the United States.
Try to remember when the
top marginal income tax rate was
75.25 percent in 1968 — when
the top 1 percent held 34 percent
of U.S. wealth and received 9 per-
cent of U.S. income — and then
dropped to 37 percent in 2018 —
when the top 1 percent held 38
percent of U.S. wealth and 24 per-
cent of the nation’s income.
These statistics show that the
chunks of the U.S. economy have
grown for the wealthiest and
shrunk for the poorest Americans
both in terms of actual dollars and
also in terms of what those dollars
can purchase. The Occupy move-
ment is right; the rich get richer
and the poor poorer with assistance
from D.C lobbyists, swamp critters
and policy makers.
Steven Brill, a meticulous
investigative and business mag-
azine writer, offers context in
“Tailspin: The People and Forces
Behind America’s 50-Year Fall
— and Those Fighting to Reverse
It” that, at least in part, explains
how Vietnam and an international
Cold War waged distracted pol-
icy makers from growing eco-
nomic distress as weakened labor
unions unleashed corporate greed
and a drive toward globalism that
increasingly sent mills, factories
and their middle-class jobs abroad.
Shoved into service economy jobs,
dislocated workers were whacked
by hyper-infl ation, lower earnings,
corporate raiders and something
called the information economy.
As prices accelerated and wages
stagnated, workers, ill-prepared
for the information economy, felt
abandoned by Democratic politi-
cians who ignored workers’ eco-
nomic plight,while drafting civil
rights, poverty and environmen-
tal legislation and drafting young
men into an expensive, divisive
war ten thousand miles away. Dick
Nixon rolled out a Southern strat-
egy to split off traditional Southern
Democrats, George Wallace made
inroads in Northern cities, Ronald
Reagan built on their efforts and
began to undermine both the New
Deal and Great Society programs
to make America great again.
The metaphor of a moat that
protects denizens of Wall Street,
corporate management, lawyers
and information workers trained at
elite universities for the new mer-
itocracy from unprotected citizens
with average incomes is central
to Brill’s analysis of the fi fty-year
decline of the American Dream.
Those who excelled in the mer-
itocracy rewarded themselves by
undermining restrictive regula-
tions, re-engineering the politi-
cal landscape, creating new legal
rights and exploiting digital tech-
nology to create a nation of moats
to protect themselves from politi-
cians and reformers. These over-
achievers ran circles around poli-
ticians and eroded institutions that
provide government services to
average citizens. The protected do
not depend on government to pro-
vide good public schools, health
care, disaster relief, safe work-
places, functioning Social Security
and IRS offi ces and call centers
and fair labor laws and elections.
They hire lawyers.
And the number of lawyers
coming into corporate law fi rms
bloomed. They saw opportunities
to enter corporate banking, where
they assisted in raiding, merging
M U N I C I PA L M E M O
FEBRUARY 2019
MEETINGS
FEBRUARY 2019
5
12
City Council Regular Meeting
City Council Special Work Session
13
Preliminary Budget Committee Meeting 5:30 p.m.
21
Design Review Board
6:00 p.m.
28
Planning Commission
6:00 p.m.
CITY COUNCIL REGULAR MEETING,
December 8, 2019
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Cannon Beach Municipal Court Judge Ron
Woltjer swore in the City’s newly elected
officials: Sam Steidel,Mayor, Mike Benefield, City
Councilor, and Robin Risley, City Councilor;
Elected Mike Benefield to serve as the City
Council President; this position presides when
the Mayor is absent;
Appointed Bob Lundy to serve on the Parks &
Community Services Committee and appointed
Clay Newton and Barb Knop to serve on the
Planning Commission;
Adopted the FY 2017-18 Audit Report, as
presented by Paul Nielson, Isler CPA; City
Auditor;
CITY COUNCIL SPECIAL MEETING - CITY
HALL/POLICE STATION, December 9,
2019
Lisa Petterson of SRG Partners, Inc, and Bruce St.
Denis, City Manager presented an update of the
research and costs associated with building a new
City Hall/Police Station. Council discussion ensued.
Council will discuss this again at a special work
session on January 16, 2019.
CITY COUNCIL SPECIAL WORK SESSION
& SPECIAL MEETING, December 15,
2019
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Is published monthly by the City of Cannon Beach
163 E. Gower Street • P.O. Box 368 • Cannon Beach, OR 97110
(503) 436-1581 • Fax: (503) 436-2050 • TTY (503) 436-8097
Cannon Beach Code Enforcement Officer, Jenny
Thompson-Kiefer was introduced to Council;
Cannon Beach Farmers Market (CBFM) Manager,
Philomena Lloyd presented the 2018 CBFM
annual report;
Clatsop County Public Health Director, Mike
McNickle gave a presentation and led a
discussion of the new county ordinance
regarding licensing retail sales of tobacco
products;
Discussed lighting in the City Parks;
Discussed the 12 Days of Earth event and its
relationship to the City;
Discussed the funding agreement for the
Promotions Program between the City and the
Chamber of Commerce. The contract will be
presented for consideration at the February 5,
2019 meeting.
7:00 p.m.
5:30 p.m.
CITY COUNCIL WORK SESSION, January
16, 2019
Bruce St. Denis presented an update of the
research and costs associated with building a
new City Hall/Police Station. Lisa Petterson of SRG
Partnership, Inc. participated by phone. Council will
hold a question and answer meeting Wednesday,
January 23rd at 5:30pm in lieu of another work
session.
CITY COUNCIL WORK SESSION AND
SPECIAL MEETING, January 23, 2019
Lisa Petterson of SRG Partners, Inc, and Bruce St.
Denis, City Manager were available to answer
questions in this public Q&A meeting.
DESIGN REVIEW BOARD
The Design Review Board met JAN. 17, 2019 &
discussed:
DRB 18-08, SR Lodging, request for modifications
to the exterior of an existing commercial building
at 632 S. Hemlock. Roof replacement approved
as minor. Continued to February 21, 2019
meeting.
DRB 18-09, Vito Cerelli request for major
modifications to the exterior of a commercial
building at 3115 S. Hemlock. Tentatively Denied
for architectural reasons. Findings for denial will
be presented at the February 21, 2019 meeting.
PLANNING COMMISSION -
The Planning Commission met December 27, 2018
and discussed:
ZO 18-03, City of Cannon Beach request for
Zoning Ordinance text amendments to Chapter
17.70 Tree Removal. The proposed amendments
address the protection of trees from unintended
damage during construction. Continued to
January 24th meeting.
and piecing out companies, always
emphasizing short term prof-
its. They developed new fi nancial
instruments that would later crash
the housing mortgage industry.
They also created bigness as a
new protective moat for bank man-
agement. Bank CEOs were not
jailed following the 2008 reces-
sion because their lawyers argued
they could not be held personally
responsible for corporate actions.
The bank was too large and com-
plex for a single person to manage.
Banks were fi ned because it was
more effi cient than prosecuting.
So, this moat of “too-big-to-man-
age” was added to the “too-big-to-
fail” and “too-big-to-jail” moats.
Brill basically argues that
the reason government no lon-
ger functions can be blamed on
the unintended consequences of
merit-based hiring, providing inad-
equate training for government
employees, developing the concept
of corporate free speech, institut-
ing fair treatment of government
employees and insisting on scrupu-
lous due process in developing reg-
ulations. The result: government
agencies become overwhelmed by
lobbyists, corporate lawyers and
government employee unions.
The library has a copy of “Tail-
spin” awaiting anyone question-
ing why so many politicians are
leaving their offi ces, as well as
what drives partisan deadlock in
Washington.
FOR YOUR INFORMATION
MAYOR: Sam Steidel
COUNCILORS: Mike Benefield,
Nancy McCarthy, Brandon
Ogilvie and Robin Risley
CITY MANAGER: Bruce St. Denis
Of Interest…
City Hall will be Closed:
Monday February 18, 2019 in
observance of Presidents’ Day
Beach Volunteers Wanted!
Do you enjoy being outside and sharing
your love of Haystack Rock? No experience
necessary – we train! Families welcome.
Please contact:
Lisa Habecker
Education & Volunteer Coordinator
503.436.8064
habecker@ci.cannon-beach.or.us