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Local politics, the county, and the world, as viewed by Tammy Maygra Tammy’s views are her own, and do not necessarily reflect the views of Bill Eagle, his pastor, Tammy’s neighbors, Wayne Mayo, Betsy Johnson, Joe Corsiglia, President Trump, Henry Heimuller, VP Pence, Pat Robertson, Debi Corsiglia’s dog, or Claudia Eagle’s Cats. This Tammy’s Take (with the exception of this disclaimer) is not paid for or written by, or even reviewed by anyone but Tammy and she refuses to be bullied by anyone. See Standard Disclaimer.
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Oregon Public Meetings Law. 192.610 Definitions for ORS 192.610 to 192.690. ... (1) “Decision” means any determination, action, vote or final disposition upon a motion, proposal, resolution, order, ordinance or measure on which a vote of a governing body is required, at any meeting at which a quorum is present.
Open Government?
Has the city of St. Helens come unhinged with Stonehenge? Come on folks and downtown business’s you like the styrofoam blocks which are painted a lovely shade of black when they were bringing dollars into the community via Halloween Town events. Personally I hate Halloween Town and would not spend one minute or one dime participating in this event. But that does not mean other people do not enjoy these festivities. Some of the non-profits made a lot of money off Halloween Town for their fund raisers so the event does do a lot for the community in that way and people do have fun there. What is the problem that the unfriendly environment Styrofoam blocks are parked downtown between the fence and the river for a month and then again for a month while the Halloween town event are going on. What I would be concerned about is when those Styrofoam blocks start breaking apart in a hundred billion individual pieces blowing around and making their way to the river and what they will be doing to the environment. Or how about a careless smoker which we have a lot of those folks running around someone flips a cigarette on the blocks and they catch fire, or one of our youth sets it ablaze for fun and it expels black toxic smoke for the unfortunate innocent victims to breathe. Or simply, why would anyone make a prop out of such toxic and detrimental substances yet the city has talked about doing things to protect the environment. Moving on to a serious issue regarding the blatant disregard of “Public Meeting Law” by the city of St. Helens. Since when does a quorum of city councilors and the mayor not institute a public meeting, since when does a public body not advertise properly by a notice for a public meeting. Since when does our government have the right to refuse a reporter from a newspaper to attend such meetings? No to all of the above, firstly these councilors know better than to try and dismiss that a quorum is not a public meeting, even if they happened to all show up at a meeting, why try and deny that the meeting became a public meeting, that just makes them look guilty and no overly bright. Then to tell a reporter that she needed to get out because she did not have an invitation is ludicrous! A reporter never needs an invitation for anything they can attend any and all meetings. Personally I would not have left if I were she. I would have stayed and I would have forced the issue and made them call 911 if they had wanted me gone. And for these people to pull such a nasty deed needs to be addressed. If the mayor and the councilors do not understand basic meeting law I suggest that they hold a public learning seminar on meeting law. I am sure the Attorney General’s Office would be glad to accommodate them. In fact if they are able to read the city could purchase a publication called the Attorney General’s Public Records and Meeting Manuel, the cost for a paperback book is $25.00, or down load the PDF for free. The City of St. Helens seems to believe that they do not need to or have to follow the rules and regulations which govern our government and society. They blatantly disregard the Fire Code, all they get there is a talking to, but they put people’s lives in danger in an over- crowded room, they certainly should know basic meeting law, and if they don’t maybe they should not be the ones who are making million dollar decisions which affect the community’s livability and their pocketbooks. Then to deny that they did nothing wrong again shows the integrity of said government officials, it is not like they have never been in a public meeting before. Maybe the attorney for the city needs to step up and discuss the issue so these people get it. What transpired this past week in St. Helens should have never happened in the first place and should not ever happen again. If I was the reporter I would file a complaint, or my employer should file a complaint against the city of St. Helens for breaking Public Meeting Law. Some people may not think it is important to hold people to task when something like this happens, but if you let it go and do nothing -- pretty soon meetings and business will be done behind closed doors and the public will be left out completely just like in Russia, or China, and North Korea. There are reasons why we have certain laws and we need to follow them.
Tammy
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