Author: North Coast BBQ

Submitted By: mkuestner10@gmail.com – Click to email about this post

Thanks Kim for taking so much time to research and publish information and various links where we can all access the facts for ourselves. I appreciate your tenacity and attention to detail. The results of your efforts paint a painful financial picture for Manzanita. We can now put a beginning price to one citizen’s ego. It’s unfortunate that we as Manzanita residents have to pay the price in U.S. dollars. Your article acts as a clarion call to not further enable his reckless and senseless attacks. Our city government and volunteers deserve better. We all deserve better.

Submitted By: dixiegainer@gmail.com – Click to email about this post

By Taxpayers Association of Oregon & Foundation,
We know there is a lot of negativity and bad news in Oregon …
… so we aimed to try focus on the positive.
We asked Taxpayers Association of Oregon supporters which elected officials are doing a great job.
There were 422 responses highlighting 40 elected officials, and we highlighted the top seven and their score based upon being in the top seven.
U.S. Congressman Cliff Bentz came in at #1 with a 28% share. Congressman Bentz is known for being very involved in protecting the rights of farmers and ranchers in rural Oregon at a time when Oregon farmland is shrinking and many federal regulations are harming agriculture. Respondents feel that Congressman Cliff Bentz is a helpful, effective and responsive defining voice for rural Oregon. Respondents noted his support for Oregon veterans.
In fact, within minutes of this article posting, someone commented on Facebook, “Cliff Bentz had been really helpful to me when dealing with the DOE. Had a problem with them for years, he solved it in a couple months. Very responsive… Always dead on in the issues that matter to me.“
U.S. Congresswoman Lori Chavez-DeRemer came in at #2 with a 23% share. Chavez-DeRemer was noted by respondents for her advocacy against the problems with tolling Interstate-5 and Interstate-205 as projects were leaving citizens without a proper chance to be heard or a public vote.
Oregon State Senator Dennis Linchicum came in at #3 with a 17% share. Respondents noted Linthicum work to help protect the rights of parents and the rights of charter schools, at a time when public school enrollment is declining and vulnerable parents are being denied choices to choose better options.
Oregon State Senator Brian Boquist came in at #4 with a 10% share. Respondents noted Boquist’s support for both veterans and current military service members.
Oregon State Senator Tim Knopp came in at #5 with a 9% share. Respondents noted Knopp’s work to kill the carbon tax which would have increased gas tax prices by as much as 72-cents and for Knopp’s work to protect the people’s Kicker Income Tax Refund which has successfully been working as intended since Knoppp helped enshrine the law into the Constitution a few decades ago.
Oregon State Representative Kevin Mannix was the only State Representative to break into the top 7 with a #6 rank and a 7% share. Respondents appreciated Representative’s Mannix work on behalf of crime victims.
Oregon State Senator David Brock Smith came in at #7 with a 6%. Respondents appreciated State Senator David Brock Smith’s work to roll back Measure 100 failed drug experiment and his advocacy for sane timber policies.
Oregon is going through a difficult period and it is important to highlight those who are effective and making a connection with the public.

Submitted By: barbaraandchuck@nehalemtel.net – Click to email about this post

From Senator Jeff Merkley
7/22/24

Yesterday, President Biden decided to step aside from the 2024 presidential campaign.
Let’s all give a wholehearted thank you to President Biden for everything he’s achieved so far. No president in my lifetime has done more than Joe Biden.
Under his leadership, we’ve had historic investments in American manufacturing, renewable energy, and infrastructure, strengthened our security, and repaired relationships around the world.
Throughout decades of public service, President Biden has led with humility and compassion, with a laser focus on making life better for ordinary Americans. I am grateful to have worked with him to serve the people and stand up to the powerful, and I respect his decision that positions us to protect the programs he’s championed.
This election is between democracy and autocracy. And we need the strongest Democratic candidate to take on and beat Donald Trump and his MAGA agenda. That’s why I proudly endorse Vice President Kamala Harris for president.
Kamala Harris shares my mission of taking on the powerful to deliver for the people. She will fight for reproductive rights, American jobs, and security abroad. She will champion housing, education, healthcare, and equal rights.

From Jim Hightower
On Joe, Kamala, and the Coming Fight
JUL 23

My instant feeling upon hearing that President Biden was stepping down was not political anxiety (aw jeez, another earthquake!), and certainly not any joy in seeing Joe deposed—but pure relief. Suddenly, the deck was shuffled, and now (not a moment too soon), we have a good hand, allowing us to focus squarely on Donald’s dangerous dementia, Project 2025, and the assault on America’s democracy by the combined forces of authoritarian elites and Christian nationalist theocrats.
Kamala Harris is our logical political choice to head up job number one: Discombobulate and defeat Trumpism. An accomplished woman, a woman of color, and a child of immigrants, she’s an experienced and forceful former prosecutor with the smarts to nail the convicted criminal opposing her… and us. Sure, her policies are not as progressive as I want them to be, but neither were Biden’s, and her views are something we can continue to work on. If Trump wins in November, we won’t have even a slight chance to shape the future of an America that stands for, and with, everyone.
While the urgent need in the next 104 (!) days is to focus on the November election, I can’t stress enough that we are in this for the long haul. Campaigns end, movements don’t. We must continue to invest in the local, grassroots organizing that actually bends that long arc of justice, building the capacity to have policies and people that represent the real values of America: fairness, equity and opportunity for all.

www.huffpost.com/entry/joe-biden-policy-record-legacy_n_669986b2e4b086df0a294ab3
How History Might Remember Joe Biden’s Presidency
By Jonathan Cohn

Submitted By: ben.killen.rosenberg@gmail.com – Click to email about this post

Manzanita’s Legal Bills

Posting on behalf of Kim Rosenberg
loretta.kim.rosenberg@gmail.com

I don’t usually use private citizen’s names in what I write unless the person is identified in public documents or identifies themselves as an expert in the community because of their former professional role.
Randy Kugler was the City Manager in Manzanita from 1988-1996 and in Philomath, Oregon from 1996 until he retired in 2014.
Mr. Kugler filed a referendum about monthly versus quarterly water billing, which will be on the ballot in November. Of the four initiatives he has filed, none meets all the criteria to go on the ballot, but he can resubmit any of the ones that were denied or submit new ones.
Each initiative requires legal time and staff time every time it is submitted. We pay for both. This month’s bill from Miller Nash is about $11,000.
In addition to legal fees for the initiatives, Randy Kugler, Will Stone and Laura Swanson, the editor of the Pioneer, are now suing the City of Manzanita to release the results of the investigation into the employee complaint against the former mayor.
There was a total of four requests to release those results and the Tillamook County DA denied all four.
I made a public records request to see if there were other legal costs associated with requests Mr. Kugler has made in the past two years. Most requests don’t necessitate the City Lawyer’s time, but from July of 2022 to June 28, 2024, the City has paid $15,112.50 in legal fees associated with Mr. Kugler’s requests. That doesn’t count staff time just legal fees.
In his July 10 email included in the July Council Meeting Packet, Mr. Kugler wrote, “One of the outcomes of my social media posts has been citizens taking opportunities to talk to me and sending me their comments and email addresses requesting to be kept informed of City activities.”
There are several ways a citizen can learn about the City’s activities from firsthand sources like attending meetings, asking questions of City Staff and Council, reading documents on the City’s website, and doing research to learn more about how local Oregon government works on any of a number of websites. You can do your own homework and form your own opinions. I’ve included links to the source material for this post.
After reading his post, some citizens who own homes and vote here asked to be added to Mr. Kugler’s email update listserv but weren’t.
Links to sources used:
Water billing post: www.northcoastbbq.com/?s=kim+rosenberg+splish+splash
July Council Packet (scroll past agenda to page 12 for Miller Nash legal fees and pages 32-35 for emails): ci.manzanita.or.us/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/July-10-Regular-Packet.pdf
July Council Meeting (discussion of bills and lawsuit in first part of the meeting):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQ_beFRy1F8
Lawsuit document (cut and paste into your browser): drive.google.com/file/d/1UU1s_gk_fw5oyM05fK9Y-S0QXohcdGVa/view
loretta.kim.rosenberg@gmail.com