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With all the work in the garden, forgot it was Thursday! But, while working in the garden got an idea. Many of you who can’t make it to the North County Resistance Peaceful Protest have been wondering what you might do to help us. And today, I had one idea, and perhaps some of you have more. If you do, please share them with me or anyone else who might relay them to me.

The idea is many of our protest signs are from 6 months ago and even though they are still relevant it seems there is something new happening every week we need to protest against. Again, most of you know this is a Peaceful Protest. We want our signs to reflect this. We have our signs out in Nehalem every Saturday, with hundreds of cars passing by us. Age and gender wise these people fall into all sorts of categories. We want our signs to reflect our thoughts but we do not want our signs to turn anybody off. Consider the couple with their 7-12 year old’s in their car reading a sign with really nasty comments. We want signs that inspire people, to make them want to protest, not to hide their eyes from negative thoughts.

So this is where I ask you to help us with our signs. What would you like your sign to say if you were at the protest? No limitations here, but remember most of our signs are made with 3″ letters and numbers. A sign could be 24 inches wide and 12 inches tall. The fewer words you have can made a very solid point. So, please send me your thoughts about what you would like your sign to say. This will be your contribution to helping us change the direction the American Government is taking. All the protesters want to thank you!

OK, we will be back in Nehalem, and after this week we need to be in Nehalem, on Saturday, May 23, from noon to 2 PM. We hope you will join us and we also hope you will send us some thoughts on signs you would like to see.

Best,
Patty

www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/may/21/trump-slush-fund-anti-weaponization

It was good to see on this morning’s local news that some Republican politicians are running from this as fast as they can.

Sometimes catching the biggest crooks happens via the lesser of their crimes. I don’t think the supreme court immunity ruling applies to tax evasion, or in this case federal corruption. Still the most expedient way to deal with this is at the ballot box. Given the difficult and worsening financial situation most Americans are experiencing, they will be hopping mad this fall and corruption like this provides clarity.

I’m looking forward to our protest this weekend. – Dave

With a coordinated and strategic effort by The Nehalem Bay Health District and The Nehalem Bay Health Center who are a tenant of the district, it passed overwhelmingly with the promise of ADDITIONAL healthcare for the area.

There’s a lot that can be said on all of this, but I’ll save that for some other time and get to the point of this message. We’re about to LOSE access to some critically important healthcare and we need your help to save it.

With the departure of Dr. Monte Gores in early June the clinic may opt to not continue offering acupuncture. A suitable candidate has been identified, but not hired. Patients are unable to make appointments past Dr. Gores last day at the clinic. And, inquiries about ongoing services are being met with non-answers.

The board will be meeting within a few days to make a decision on whether or not to continue offering acupuncture at the clinic. Considering that it was a 90 day wait just to get a first appointment with Dr. Gores, and his schedule was always full, it seems odd that a decision is even in play. But it is and we need the board to hear the community on this one.

Please email as many of the following as you’re up for:

1. Board of Directors of The Nehalem Bay Health Center at boardofdirectors@nehalembayhealth.org

2. Board of Directors of The Nehalem Bay Health District at info@nehalembayhd.org

3. CEO of Nehalem Bay Health Center Gail Nelson at gnelson@nehalembayhealth.org

Or call the clinic and leave a message for the CEO and the board at 503-368-5182

Or, better yet, write a letter or postcard to the board of the clinic at PO Box, 176 Wheeler, OR 97147.

The message is simple: “Compassionate Community Care” needs to be more than a tagline. They need to deliver on the promise of “HealthCare Yes!” and keep (actually expand) acupuncture services at the clinic.

Thank you!

Practicing Budgetary best practices is the foundation of transparency. City officials constantly remind us of the importance that they place on being transparent in conducting City business. Best practices as described by the Government Finance Officers Association (GFOA), states that a City should have a written policy to explain high unassigned General Fund balances that consistently exceed 30 to the 50% of annual operating expenditures. For the past 5 years, the General Fund beginning fund balance has averaged 108% of annual operating expenditures. 

Apparently in as far as the General Fund UEFB and beginning fund balance, if simple transparency and adhering to best practices becomes inconvenient, you can substitute flexibility for transparency. The City admits it just has not had the time during the past 5 years to develop either a minimum or maximum fund balance policy. Having  written policies that the public can review and comment on may constrain the flexibility that this Council apparently prioritizes over transparency.

I contacted Councilor Hart to have him confirm the total dollar amount of unassigned reserves in this year’s proposed General Fund Budget. He was unable to answer the question but that didn’t prevent him from voting to approve the General Fund Budget submitted by the City Manager. 
  
The City Manager provided a specific example of how this Flexible Transparency works using General Fund UEFB funds for future unknown infrastructure projects. She explained that since 2023 the City has known the 4th Street improvement project needs to be completed at a cost of approximately $600,000.

Sounds like there isn’t much unknown about this project. The City has a known project, the desired year of completion and the project cost. Had the City simply been transferring $200,000 of those unassigned dollars each of the past 3 years to the appropriate City funds in a straightforward and transparent manner describing the purposes of those transfers, the City would be discussing building this project this year rather than having those funds sitting in the General Fund UEFB with City officials highlighting it as an unknown project that they have no plans to move it towards construction. If you’re going to attempt to explain how something works, one should be better prepared to provide a supportive example that doesn’t contradict the point that you are trying to make. 

The Council points out that a benefit of Flexible Transparency is the interest revenue the City  receives from those unused funds sitting in the UEFB. Cities exist to provide its citizens with needed services and supportive infrastructure. The 30-50% threshold is viewed by the GFOA  as excessive, indicating that City officials are over contributing to unassigned reserves rather than providing services. The Council needs to remember that they are elected to run the City of Manzanita, not the Bank of Manzanita.

 Officials claim that General Fund revenue is insufficient and they lack the necessary funding to provide services or build projects. Flexible Transparency is just the vehicle needed to justify raising existing charges and creating new fees while simultaneously sitting on millions of dollars for which the City has no written policy explanations or identified expenditure plans. Highlighting the receipt of interest income as a positive benefit  is a desperate effort to justify a lack of strategic budgeting.

Expect to hear the response from the Council and its supporters about all of the benefits of flexibility in maintaining millions of unused dollars currently in our Budget and how residents will be even more satisfied with City services once the City finds new ways to collect additional revenue from residents.

The Council’s Revenue Confiscation discussions will no doubt be put on hold while the Council searches for a new City Manager. Residents should enjoy the break while they can. 
Randy Kugler