Sean C. Morgan
At a somewhat impromptu forum held Saturday evening on the corner of 12th Avenue and Nandina Street, City Council candidates heard and discussed crime, drug use, drug dealers, police response and deteriorating parks with local residents.
Attending were candidates James Goble, Jeff Goodwin, Aaron Pye and incumbent Bruce Hobbs.
Ryan Underwood, incumbent Greg Mahler and Anay Hausner were unable to attend, although Hausner submitted written answers to questions posed by the Northwest Neighborhood Watch.
Meeting at the small park at the intersection of the two streets, one of the locations of concern to the neighborhood group, the candidates heard frustrated and angry complaints about crime north of Main Street in west Sweet Home and about the parks, issues that candidates said also frustrate them. About a dozen attended, including primarily residents of the area and Kellie Kem, a nearby business owner and member of the Sweet Home Economic Development Group Board of Directors.
Hobbs noted that he lived on Nandina Street for about eight years, in the area under discussion.
“I am intimately familiar with the ongoing struggles.”
Among the questions posed, the local Neighborhood Watch group asked whether the candidates would support installing sharps containers in the parks to help cut down on the number of used hypodermic needles thrown away on the ground.
Hausner said she supported the idea, which would benefit those who must use epi pens after a bee sting or diabetics too.
Hobbs said it might be worth it, although “anything that gets put up gets vandalized and destroyed.”
Pye said the city budget is tapped, and it should focus on enforcing the laws that are on the books and getting lawbreakers out of town on no-trespass orders instead.
Goodwin said he does not support the idea.
Goble said the city’s on a tight budget, but the cost of the containers “would be a drop in the bucket” and could help avoid the possibility of a child stepping on a used needle.
The Neighborhood Watch asked the candidates when was the last time they walked areas at Northside and Sankey Parks and what they noticed.
Pye described broken handrails at Northside Park, a memorial picnic table plaque with no table, tables with no benches and benches with no tables. He said the tennis courts looked good, and so probably does the racquetball court.
“When they’re not having sex in it,” someone quipped.
Goodwin said he and his children were at Northside recently, and he thought it was nice there. He didn’t notice if any benches were broken.
Pye said he would get city staff involved.
“I would put it on the parks and recreation department and ask them what’s going on.”
Goble said parks, which have been part of Public Works since last year, should be administered by a separate department. He noted the missing memorial table, and then he offered to donate some of the materials he is using to repair and improve the BMX track at Sankey Park.
Resident Ron Freeman said wood was donated for Northside years ago. He had volunteers ready to go to work, he said, but a city official told him that the city would have its crews do the work. The wood sat for several years, and now he doesn’t know where it went.
The city forgets about Main Street north, said one woman in the crowd. She suggested petitioning Linn County and asking the county to withhold tax funding for areas where the city isn’t getting the job done until the city starts getting the job done, such as parks.
One problem for parks maintenance has been staffing, Hobbs said. Parks staffing has been funded at a half- to 1 full-time equivalent, he said. It has had a budget of $3,000 or $4,000 in the past. Parks received a boost in this year’s budget, but it’s a “pittance.” He called it “a no-win situation.”
Another woman said the Oregon Jamboree is bringing in money, and it’s not going to the parks, although the city takes care of parks like Ashbrook.
“The city absolutely cares for one thing, their paycheck,” said resident Tammy Wade.
Residents complained about homeless and criminal elements who hang out at the park, a former bus stop, at 12th and Nandina “all day long,” urinating and defecating there. One asked if the councilors would support removing the benches where the perpetrators sit, or installing a toilet.
Wade said she has talked to city officials, asked for a toilet and reported a variety of problems. She and others said when they complain to the police about people urinating or other criminal activity in the park, police tell them that an officer needs to see them doing it before police can do anything about it.
Goodwin, an attorney, noted that the police can arrest people based on witness statements, and they do not need to witness a crime before they can make arrests. Relying on a witness, though, can make it more difficult to get a conviction, and police and prosecuting attorneys have to prioritize cases, which makes them focus on cases they can win.
Hobbs added that citizens can also sign citations.
“Yes, let’s do something,” Goodwin said.
Hobbs told the residents that the city will never have enough money to do everything that people want to do, and the solution is for those who want whatever it is to go and do it. That’s how the median strip in Main Street was planted.
Alice Grovom, he said, was tired of seeing it barren and donated her time and money to begin planting it. Some Sweet Home residents didn’t like what was going on economically, and they started SHEDG and the Jamboree.
Residents said they have tried to volunteer and take care of the problems, but the city hasn’t allowed them to. They asked whether the process for volunteering, which can involve a background check, can be streamlined.
Hobbs said he didn’t see why not.
Regarding criminal activity, Goodwin told the group he has been frustrated with the law too as a lawyer. He has worked as a defense attorney for indigent defendants. Sometimes, they need to be in jail but aren’t sentenced to jail while other times a sentence may be too much.
He wants to increase the budget so criminals go to jail rather than being sentenced to more compensatory service they won’t complete or more fines they won’t pay anyway.
Residents thought the new nuisance property ordinance was a good start addressing crime problems in their area. The ordinance allows the city to close a property where police make arrests or hand out criminal citations too often.
Hobbs and Mahler voted for the ordinance. Goble said he thought it should be more strict.
Goodwin said he doesn’t think the ordinance will stand up to constitutional muster.
“You’re trying to attack the people who aren’t causing the problem,” he said. “You’re targeting the wrong person. The answer is budget more money to put people in jail.”
Nandina resident Jay Byers asked the candidates about water and sewer rates, saying he read Phoenix residents pay less than $50 per month on average.
Hobbs said the higher costs of water and sewer services is because the city is taking care of a system that had not been kept up for many years. It’s a problem that will catch up and is catching up to other cities as well.
Bill Davis, who organized the forum, said there is a perception that the council and city do not care about anything north of Main Street, noting as an example that only properties on the south side of Main Street have surveillance cameras installed, while crime occurs daily on Nandina Street. He asked what the candidates would do to change it.
Pye said he supports using cameras anywhere in public.
Hobbs said he isn’t a fan of the “Big Brother” state, but in parks and public spaces he is supportive. Given the cost of such surveillance, the city couldn’t put them everywhere, he said, noting that the camera on Weddle Bridge has had to be replaced three or four times due to theft and vandalism.
Hausner said she would try to convince local media to highlight their struggle and help increase awareness, which would help change the perception over time. She also would try to convince the council to find a way to get other communities in the city to get more involved in changing the perception, possibly through a town meeting to educate the city of the reality of the situation, so they could get a better sense of who actually lives in the area rather than making assumptions.
A resident asked why the candidates are running, what they hope to change.
“I can live anywhere I want,” Goodwin said. “I want it to be a place people want to live. If we can’t, I’m not going to stay here.”
When others do that, only those who don’t care and those who cannot easily move will remain, he said.
“We can reduce the crime problems. Let’s push them out of here by making law enforcement more serious here.”
Goble said he has “a thousand” things he would like to work on. He is on the Planning Commission because he wants change. He wants to get on the council to make the city government “work for us.”
Pye said he is concerned about the city limiting freedom, with ordinances that require leaky roofs to be tarped or the ordinance that prohibits him from keeping a rooster. He wonders why the water bills keep going up.
Hobbs said city government “can be frustrating” and what can be accomplished is limited.
“I had a misconception about what the city could and could not do,” he said, referring to when he joined the council. He had no overarching ax to grind when he ran for council the first time. He tends to believe that “we have to do for us” rather than relying on the “government to do for us.”