Sour Grapes, or How I found myself in an Aesop’s Fable
This last week, there have
been more developments around here than just the new City Administrator. Funny,
the same newspaper that had the Fire Chief’s resignation published prior to the
Mayor (let alone the rest of the council) was informed, hasn’t yet had a story
on the man. It appears leaving the town is more important than who is arriving.
Over half of us have no idea of his name or qualifications. Granted his name
may be on channel 23, you know, the station that over half of households in town
does not receive.
The loss of Chuck Daughtry
was not a surprise after unsuccessfully applying to the Port of Astoria and our
Port hires Gary Rains. Some wondered what there was left for Chuck to do. Some
of us wonder if the lawsuit that has the Nestle project stalled, maybe even
stopped, that Nestle was his last chance to pull jobs into the community soon
enough after the failure of the casino to keep his reputation and job security
intact.
Martha and Barry LaMont’s
house on Mimi’s hill of lost dreams is on the market to be sold. On a personal
note, after spending hours upon hours of my time and energy:
·
Successfully
transitioning the Food Bank from St. Patrick’s to FISH, retaining as much local
autonomy as possible while increasing nutritive value, arranging for a second
freezer and delivery to the bank of eggs, milk and vegetables:
·
Being given 90%
of the work to do and yet inundated with phone calls and emails from Martha
Lamont demanding attention and praise on her fund raising or telling me what
she wanted me to do like I was her assistant rather than the co-manager with a
list of own duties.
·
Watching her turn
a neutral non-political gathering place into a secondary 5-Alarmers workshop with
petitions and exhortations why we had to take the town from the then Council.
·
Dealing with the
fallout of both Lamont’s insulting and frightening the person who brought the
bread donations into town.
·
Getting my chest
grabbed by Barry and then being harassed by comments and gestures by him at
every city gathering we both attended. (No, changing my seat did not help) The
last occurrence was outside the Post Office because I was sitting in a car
there.
Yes, I’m certainly glad to
see them go. I’m sure when they started their “my way or the highway” actions,
they did not think they would be the ones leaving. Was running the town that
important to them? Seems not, now.
And our soon-to-be-ex Mayor,
Lance Master has also gone on the market. There is so much to say about that - none of
it good. Jeff Helfrich is taking his
Portland connections away because he didn’t win and Lance is removing his
pompous presence from us. It’s a win-win for the town. Both of them obviously
share Lance’s warped concept of what constitutes democracy.
Good, take your marbles and
leave the game, because for most of us here in Cascade Locks, it’s not a game,
it’s not placing illegal fees on utility accounts because your favorite city
service wants it and it is at the cost of other services. It’s not something
you give up on and leave; it’s where we live. We don’t need sore losers here.
10 comments:
Democracy trumps Caesar, but there are still 2 of his Lieutenants left, who must go.
There is a fresh breeze blowing through the Heart of the Gorge. As the new year approaches with a new elected council in store, there is a refreshed sense of optimism among the towns folks here in Cascade Locks.
There is a renewed optimism that those we elected will accept that the people decide how their government works and who represents them.
There is hope that our new government leaders will recognize the voter's mandate, "Look after the best interests of us all equally".
During this busy holiday season it's my hope the citizens of Cascade Locks can find a spare minute or two to reflect on what has happened and how people have behaved over the last 4 years and how these events and behaviors have changed our city.
I say this because there is still work to do in order for us to have a responsive representative government.
I don't believe "Tit for Tat" will help us accomplish what needs to be accomplished, but I guarantee the arrogant, ignorant, greedy few are hoping we all quickly forget what they have done.
Fool us once, shame on you. Fool us twice, shame on all of us.
In my opinion, politics in Cascade Locks took a dramatic turn for the worse when Brad Lorang was elected mayor. Instead of taking some time to learn the office, Brad came out for his first meeting in charge with his guns a blazin'. He personally attacked a local volunteer who does more good for this town every week than Brad has done in the entire time he has lived here. Brad followed that up with dissolving any committee that had people he didn't like serving as members. Nothing like setting the tone of your administration right off the bat I guess.
Things pretty much maintained that trajectory for the remainder of Brad's time in office.
Secret commissions of art work from the city administrator.
Red faced gavel slamming screaming rebuttals to any member of the public who dared suggest any alternative to a staff recommendation.
Using our mayor's office to advertise his art gallery.
His famous "Hole in the fence" analogy.
"Private" meetings where decisions like paying off the city administrator were made hidden from public view.
Using Cascade Locks money to travel to visit family, and literally missing the plane that was taking him to the "purpose" of the trip.
I could go on and on, but I think you get my point. Brad's time in office was spent serving Brad.
But if you thought Brad's behavior was poor while he was mayor, how he acted after he lost the election really defies description. When you can't run on your record of accomplishments, what alternative do you have but to manufacture the perception an emergency. In my opinion Brad was out to prove he couldn't not be elected. He was going to change the election results one way or another. And in effect he did, but at what cost to our city?
Sitting here writing this I honestly can't think of one positive accomplishment Brad deserves credit for, not even one good idea.
I'm not trying to say Brad doesn't have any supporters in this town. Every town has its share of "I get mine first" people. I just don't think that attitude reflects the majority of citizens in this town.
The thing that really puts the icing on this whole story is Brad's unwillingness to stand for election this last November.
Why?
Why wouldn't Brad give the voters the opportunity to ELECT him to council?
My guess is he was afraid. Afraid of a repeat performance.
Governments that block the aspirations of their people, that steal or are corrupt, that oppress and torture or that deny freedom of expression and human rights should bear in mind that they will find it increasingly hard to escape the judgment of their own people.
William Hauge.
It is not our reputations that have been so badly tarnished from such disregard and lack of respect for the citizens and the voters. As public opinion coming from comments from our society from the young adults to the elderly throughout the city, on not only Brad but Mark is not very pretty.
Long after they are removed from office, the people here will never forget what they have done. Nor will our history.
But I guess they should have thought about doing such despicable acts against man, woman and child, in such a small town with nowhere to hide.
Cody
Brad has been pulling his strings the whole time, now. That, coupled with the smirks Brad directs at other Council members tells me everything. Voters should attend a meeting once in a great while to see what happens when Betty does not point her camera at them. I'm sure they had the we need to stand together and not run talk a long time ago.
Mark is only Brad's sock puppet from the hill. Best we get them both out of there and soon.
Oh I agree that both need to go. That has been my point all along.
I would love to give my true opinion on this blog at this time but I cannot.
Soon and I mean soon, that war will begin.
If you think you are mad now just wait. As real soon I am going to show you some things that will put a new light on this entire ordeal.
Enough said for now.
Cody
In my opinion, what we need is for people to recognize bad behavior is bad behavior. It shouldn't make any difference who is doing it.
Why would anyone support people who behave like Brad Lorang, Lance Masters, Jeff Helfrich, Randy Holmstrom, Mark Storm and their friends ?
Are we really going to accept their behavior as the new normal for politics in Cascade Locks?
No we are not going to put up with them, the community spoke loud and clear. We need to make sure our city leaders honor our Charter and our votes. The people have also said they want to vote on fee increases. The first act of business for the new council should be to abolish the illegal fee increases that the current council put to the tax payers. Let us all remember the campaign promises of our newly elected council and mayor. Fiscal responsibility and living within our budget!
Happy Holidays!
Darlene Sullenger
I think the citizens as a whole were sick and tired of it.
Supporters I know they used to have. Have an entirely different opinion of them now.
The election results are proof of that.
As far as the unlawful taxes and those abuses of power in the past. I have to be realistic here.
This new council has to be very careful. As the city as a whole, has been left in such a sad state. That anything they do could be a risk that collapses the whole thing.
The council before them entered into contracts and hired new city employees with that money just as they planned.
But that council even after budgeting it has already spent it and blew their budget.
In the first quarter they had funds over budget and on the border of being over budget and all funds in trouble.
So this new council is going to come into office and right at the time that the 2nd quarter figures are released.
Well after seeing the 1st quarter that cannot be good.
But something has to be done about these unlawful taxes, as it is double edged swords.
So let’s break down the unlawful taxes and look at them.
Fire suppression fee.
One side of the sword is we already pay taxes for fire service and suppression and this is just another tax.
The other side of the sword is; the idiots made EMS service a priority in the legislative language, so they could hire an EMT. So now because we pay for the service in advance to the city. Even people like me who already have ambulance coverage insurance no longer need to use it. Because it is already paid for in advance, by these taxes.
So how long can the city afford to give away its EMS services inside the city limits to all citizens and I think those in Dodson/ Warrendale and maybe Wyeth as well?
The Percentage tax of the citizen owned utilities.
One side of the sword is; although we have not been financially harmed yet, the previous council hired consultants to factor this into new rates for the utilities.
The other side of the sword is cutting deep. The utilities are running out of money to operate and for the city to maintain them.
So let’s talk about that and what this new council needs to do.
What cuts should they make just to make it to the next budget year and repeal these unlawful and not good for OUR UTILITY taxes.
The new council has options; cut expenses, propose tax/fee increases to the voters. It aint rocket science folks.
The days of "We'll just ram it down the ratepayers throats illegal or not" are over. We are entitled to decide what happens to OUR money.
The illegal tax/fee increases instituted by Brad Lorang and Mark Storm are just more examples of their distain for the will of the citizens.
The citizens of Cascade Locks CLEARLY expressed their will in the initiative adopted by a MAJORITY of the voters.
There has never been any dispute that the initiative was legally adopted (other than illegal actions by city staff attempting to trick the voters into not approving it).
The citizens reaffirmed their support of our current charter when they overwhelmingly rejected any changes at the last election.
There has never been a dispute over what our charter now requires. Remember the great "We wouldn't even be allowed to raise the price of copies" argument? What changed Brad and Mark?
It's not difficult, just put the increase on the ballot and let voters decide. That's pretty much the American way isn't it? Why are these guys so terrified of the ballot and the will of the people?
There is no doubt that Brad Lorang and Mark Storm know what the charter requires, they just have a character flaw that allows them to choose to ignore their oath to uphold the charter.
It's the same character flaw that caused Brad to ignore the will of the voters when he was voted out of office.
It's the same character flaw that led Brad and Mark to break the established policy and tradition of standing for election to remain in office.
How many more examples of Brad and Mark's distain for the citizens of Cascade Locks and our charter are we going to be forced to endure?
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