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If you live in Salem's Ward 6, vote for City Council candidate Xue Lor. Unless you want to be represented by someone who isn't embarassed that he was arrested for domestic violence.

Which would be Daniel Benjamin, who has been endorsed by the usual gang of special interests: the Salem Chamber of Commerce, Realtors Association, and Statesman Journal editorial page.

They're pretty much one and the same.

The president and publisher of the Statesman Journal is about to join the Chamber board of directors, and the newspaper obediently endorsed each and every city council candidate being backed by the Chamber of Commerce.

Today the Statesman Journal finally got around to reporting Benjamin's assault arrest.
Download 5-13-14 Benjamin and Lor compete for Ward 6 seat on council

But the candidate has a blemish on his record. He was charged with assault in the fourth degree on Jan. 4, 1993, stemming from a New Year's Eve incident in Multnomah County, according to court records.

Court records show that Benjamin was charged with a misdemeanor assault, but he entered into a diversion agreement with prosecutors and wasn't convicted of a crime.

The diversion agreement included Benjamin performing 16 hours of community service. The case was dismissed.

Benjamin said he was drinking and got into "an altercation" with a former girlfriend. A Gresham Police Department crime report, dated Dec. 31, 1992, states that the victim was punched in the back and ribs and suffered a swollen lower lip.

"I have made some mistakes in the past," Benjamin said. "I am so different from what I was back then."

Jennifer Gardiner, a Marion County deputy district attorney, said diversion is sometimes offered to defendants who don't have serious charges on their record. It would be "very rare" for the Marion County DA to offer diversion to a defendant in a domestic violence case, she said.

The newspaper has had this information since April 28. So it took them two freaking weeks to let voters know highly pertinent information about Benjamin's character. Oh, aside from one hour when a corrected story was put online, then quickly taken down.
Download Benjamin and Lor compete for Ward 6 seat on council

On the Statesman Journal candidate questionnaire Benjamin answered "no" to this question: 

"Any skeletons in your closet or other potentially embarrassing information that you want to disclose before it comes up in the campaign?"

Benjamin answered, "None that I can think of." Wow.

Obviously Daniel Benjamin, Ward 6 City Council candidate, doesn't think that being arrested for hitting a former girlfriend in the back, ribs, and mouth is "embarassing information."

Hey, Daniel — you were arrested for domestic violence. Oregon is one of only ten states that allows a judge to order pre-trial diversion for a domestic violence charge. Lucky you. Otherwise you'd have a domestic violence conviction.

And yes, Daniel Benjamin, what you did was indeed domestic violence. Assaulting an ex-girlfriend qualifies for the non-honor of being what used to be termed a "wife abuser." 

Domestic violence is a term used to describe violence and abuse by family members or intimate partners such as a spouse, former spouse, boyfriend or girlfriend, ex-boyfriend or ex-girlfriend, or date.

But Daniel Benjamin isn't embarassed by his arrest for domestic violence. Nothing to see here, he told the Statesman Journal. Everything is cool. I'm so different from who I was back then. 

Well, not so different that you are honest enough to inform voters about your girlfriend-hitting past.

But thank you, Daniel, for letting the Statesman Journal know about your current bankruptcy. For some reason this information didn't make it into either the story about you and Xue Lor or the newspaper's editorial endorsement. 

Also Daniel, congratulations on getting the City of Salem to put you on their budget committee even though you are in bankruptcy and haven't been paying your debts to the City. But don't be too proud of this. This is called "political grooming." 

You know, when special interests collude to pad the resume of potential candidates so they will look more appealing to voters. Like putting someone with a domestic violence past, and present bankruptcy, on the City of Salem Budget Committee.

It's easy to get ahead when the Chamber of Commerce, City politicians, and Statesman Journal are pushing you along with their special interest arms, Daniel Benjamin.

I just hope your ride ends with an election loss to Xue Lor.

[Note: As an extension to this post I'm copying in the comments on the Statesman Journal story about Benjamin and Lor. Soon the story will go into the newspaper archives. I want to make sure that the comments live on as a testimony to how disturbing the behavior of both Benjamin and the Statesman Journal was.]

It's been two days since our alternative newspaper, Salem Weekly, embarassed our "real" newspaper, the Statesman Journal, by publishing a disturbing story of political and journalistic malfeasance: City Council candidate lies to Statesman Journal, gets their endorsement anyway. The evening that story went up on the Salem Weekly website, the Statesman Journal edited its original story about Ward 6 candidates Daniel Benjamin and Xue Lor to reflect the fact that Benjamin lied on the SJ candidate questionnaire about not having any criminal convictions. [Note: the Salem Weekly story now includes a mention that Benjamin denies he was ever convicted of…

The LoveSalem blog has a great post today: "The Statesman-Journal's 'Eyes Wide Shut' endorsements." LoveSalem refers to the recent revelation by our alternative paper, Salem Weekly, that Ward 6 city council candidate Daniel Benjamin lied to the Statesman Journal about his criminal convictions and got the paper's endorsement anyway, even after editors were informed of the untruths Benjamin put on his candidate questionnaire. (I blogged about this last night.) Read all of the LoveSalem post. Good writing; sound ideas. Here's some excerpts: The problem for the Chamber [of Commerce], and then for the Statesman-Journal that does it's bidding, is that their…

Read all about it in my Strange Up Salem column that's in the current Salem Weekly issue. We've got to get the word out to everybody in town! The May election has revealed the presence of... mind snatchers!  Salem’s invasion of the mind snatchers The mind control device wasn’t visible.  Not surprising. I figured the Chamber of Commerce surgeons would be too skilled to leave any traces. They’d be the best money could buy. So after an election forum I decided to dive into the belly of the beast.  I looked Sheronne Blasi, a City Council candidate, in the eye.…

Read all about it in the Salem newspaper, Salem Weekly, that prints what you won't read in the Statesman Journal. In this case, facts and opinion about how the Salem Chamber of Commerce and other special interest PACs (political action committees) are spending big money on City Council races that should be all about the public interest. Facts, in a Special Interests Dominate Salem City Campaigns story. Four weeks before ballots will be mailed, notable disparities can be seen between funding amounts and sources for Salem city council candidates.  The totals suggest lopsided special interest funding. Voters concerned about the…

Though I enjoy starting blog post titles with Dude, where's (see here), I'm bothered by the subject matter of this one. Because the City of Salem has disappeared a five-year project aimed at making seismic upgrades and other renovations to the Civic Center, along with building a new police facility. At the March 24 City Council meeting, City Manager Linda Norris said it is unlikely that a bond levy for the project will be on the November ballot.  Unless some other source of funding is found, this means that children and other visitors to the Library will continue to use a…

I love to quote myself. Especially when I'm talking about saving lives and $40 million for Salem, Oregon taxpayers. Here's part of what I said in a recent Strange Up Salem column, "Save lives. Wear a purple sticker."  Give me a chance to explain why you should care about a local issue that, if left on its current course, really could lead to some nasty things happening. Lots of taxpayer money wasted. Downtown riverfront area uglified. Many lives being lost. I’m talking about the City of Salem’s $80 million plan to build a new police headquarters at the Civic Center,…

Kudos to Statesman Journal editorial page editor Dick Hughes for telling it like it is in "Why Salem projects often fail."
Download Why Salem projects often fail (PDF file to read if SJ story is archived)

A common thread runs through Salem, from the old Boise Cascade property across downtown parking spaces and into the city’s seismically unstable civic center.

The thread is that each of those projects — redeveloping the Boise Cascade site, redoing downtown parking and renovating the civic center — suffered from the same flaw: too little public involvement in the front end, which created big public opposition on the back end.

…And though civic leaders may to bill Salem as the City of Collaboration, it too often resembles the City of Contention.

How does this happen? Here is why:

• Oregonians expect to be involved in public decisions. They want to be heard. That is as Oregon-ish as eschewing umbrellas or wearing socks with sandals.

• A lot of Salem residents have time on their hands to pack public hearings with their arguments. Good for them, but others — the parents and others who seemingly do not have time to attend government meetings — should be represented as well.

• It is human nature for people to only pay attention once they recognize the potential impact on them.

• Meeting agendas often are undecipherable, and thus irrelevant, to the layperson.

I've been singing this song ever since I became involved in City of Salem goings-on.

My first exposure to the climate of citizen disinvolvement at City Hall came when my wife and I were shocked at how five beautiful downtown trees adjoining the US Bank building were cut down for no good reason.

After I contacted City officials, including the Mayor and City Manager, about serious problems with how this debacle of a decision was handled — such as people being told the tree removals couldn't be appealed, which isn't legally true — I expected them to respond with "Thanks for letting us know; how can we do better from now on?"

But no.

Without exception, I and others were met with a circle-the-wagons mentality. Citizen involvement was viewed as a distraction, something to be brushed-off, an irritant. Not as an opportunity to improve City of Salem policies or make more informed decisions.

Hughes wrote that this is needed at City Hall:

A commitment to recruiting, not simply encouraging, public involvement. In the spirit of “keep your friends close and your enemies closer,” it also is essential to involve the potential opponents.

This is a major mistake by the current administration — failing to engage citizen activists, and also ordinary citizens who have a gripe about how the City of Salem is handling something.

Mayor Anna Peterson, City Manager Linda Norris, and other top officials should watch House of Cards and see how (fictional politician) Frank Underwood does his wily business.

Now, I'm not suggesting they should be as underhanded as Underwood is. But they would benefit from realizing that ignoring your opponents, rather than working with them, is a recipe for political disaster. The City's attempt to foist downtown parking meters on Salemians is a prime example.

Hughes said:

In the case of Salem’s proposed downtown parking meters, the city task force recommendation came across to the public as a done deal, regardless of what officials said.

In addition, task force members implied that their recommendation obviously represented the best-possible solution because they had spent so much time studying the issue. But that is a fallacy of logic. If you travel the wrong road, you won’t arrive at the right destination regardless of how long you spend on that road.

Amazingly, City officials never asked downtown small businessses what they thought about the parking meter proposal, nor was the public allowed to speak at task force meetings. Unsurprisingly, this non-collaborative "our way or the highway" approach was met with a major stop sign: 9,000 signatures on a citizen petition to ban downtown parking meters.

Even more amazingly, Carole Smith and other organizers of the successful petition drive never were contacted by the Mayor or City Manager. They were totally ignored. More proof that Anna Peterson and Linda Norris are dedicated to making this a City of Contention, not Collaboration.

I figured that Smith and her fellow downtown activists would be invited to sit down with City officials and discuss the best way of moving forward on parking policies. This would have been the right thing to do, both politically and ethically. 

But the current City Hall attitude is Changing direction is a no-no. Unless you're completely blocked.

Same thing is happening with the City's $80 million proposal for a new police facility and Civic Center renovations. Citizens have pointed out ways to save taxpayers $40 million, which would vastly increase the chance that a bond measure could be passed.

Yet City officials continue to plow ahead on their vastly over-priced $80 million project, which was planned in near-secrecy with very little public involvement.

So unless something changes, it will be blocked. The bond measure will fail.

Salem will be left with an inadequate police headquarters and Civic Center buildings that are seismically unsafe. Again, collaboration would be much better. But this would require City officials to be open-minded and flexible, which aren't qualities often on display these days at City Hall.

I enjoyed the comments on Hughes' piece, which included one from me. I'll share some of them in a continuation to this post. Here's a sample, a comment from Loreen:

This is an excellent opinion piece. It is all true. I have lived in Salem for decades. i cannot remember a time when Salem public processes and decisions have been so secret and decisions made with so little respect for the public's input as with our current City Council. We need some new blood on the Council. 

Read all about it! How the City of Salem wants taxpayers to pay $128 million for a project that should cost only $64 million. Sound familiar? It should. Salem public officials are notoriously poor at using common sense when it comes to spending other people's money. This is the crew that is pushing an unneeded $400 million Third Bridge to solve seismic and traffic flow problems which can be fixed for hundreds of millions less. Salem Community Vision is working to bring some fiscal sanity to the City's way over-priced proposal for a new police facility and Civic Center renovations. …

Yesterday Salem's Mayor, Anna Peterson, gave a State of the City address. I didn't go. I purposely planned my StreetStrider (outdoor elliptical bike) ride at Riverfront and Wallace Marine parks to coincide with Peterson's talk, figuring that it would be much healthier for me to exercise in nature than listen to some political posturing. Great decision, after reading Mayor Peterson's prepared remarks. There are so many untruths and half-truths in her speech, if I'd been there in person I would have felt like standing up and screaming bullshit! Download Text of the Salem State of the City speech Repeatedly. It'll…

Here's another great example why the Republican Party, and right-wing conservatism is general, is fading away as a cultural force. The conservative-led Marion County (Oregon) Board of Commissioners and Salem City Council are talking up bans -- or severe restrictions -- on medical marijuana clinics.  Download Marion County takes stances against marijuana clinics Download Salem City Council hears about medical marijuana dispensary plan Wow.  Medical marijuana is legal in Oregon. So are clinics where people with a medical marijuana prescription can buy their medicine without going onto the black market or growing their own (tough to do if you're a…

Today I heard from someone who had some disagreements with a Statesman Journal preview of Salem (Oregon) Mayor Anna Peterson's upcoming State of the City address. Download Salem's spending future You can read what this person said below. I share his/her skepticism. Especially regarding Mayor Peterson's attempt at a "united" spin. Actually, no way has she presided over a collaborative, consensus-building, citizen involvement-based administration. Instead, Mayor Peterson, City Manager Linda Norris, Public Works Director Peter Fernandez, and most city councillors have done their best to ignore public input, facts, and expert advice in favor of top-down bureaucratic policy-making. Five notable examples: …