Letters to the Editor: Aug. 5, 2016

Pool hardly a success

This is my response to Pat Swanick’s July 29 Viewspoints commentary, “A community success story.” Just to be clear this is Andrew Davis, the non-winemaker.

How can Pat claim that passing a pool bond was a success story? It has never been a “success story” when he claims it was an “eyesore for all to see.” It has been a complete disaster from the beginning three years ago when I started my fight against it. 

How can something be a success when it was losing in the range of $39,000 to $50,000 in taxpayer funds a year in the three short months it was opened? That’s success? I know. Dump $1.4 million taxpayer funds into something that will lose more and never pencil out. I never disagreed with the poolhouse needing repairs or an eventual replacement. My concern has always been priorities and the lack of funds being spent to maintain roads, water infrastructure and do basic preventive maintenance on the old poolhouse until the city was financially stable. They were sued years ago and lost a $2-million dollar lawsuit. Putting the city in more debt is not a good idea.

As it was stated in Pat’s opinion “it was a eyesore” and “no longer compliant with ADA requirments.” This was, from the beginning, an agenda-driven item to make the downtown area look “beautiful for the tourist.” 

I am asking for the resignation of City Mananger Chad Olsen. He has lost confidence in my eyes and the eyes of many other citizens. Also asking for Mayor Kathie Oriet not to seek re-election because of the failed leadership she has shown and bad path she has laid forward.

Andrew Davis
Carlton

Thanks for caring

My name is Dianne Moscarelli. I am 71 years old with health problems. I live on the third floor at Orchards Plaza and am one of the people who had to have an air conditioner removed. Thanks to the articles in the News-Register, Yamhill Community Action Partnership rallied for donations to purchase air conditioners from Lowe’s. 

I gave YCAP information from my doctor on my health and financial status, also an interview. They saved my life when on Monday July 25 the executive director of YCAP and Lowe’s installed a portable air conditioner (at no cost to me) in my apartment.

Thank you, News-Register and Lowe’s, a big shout out to YCAP. It’s in the 90s this week!

Dianne Moscarelli
McMinnville

Gold Star father disgraceful

Referring to the 22 July Readers Forum letter “Clinton proves dangerous,” this thesis was exemplified last week at Hillary Clinton’s coronation.
In particular, one of the speakers was Khizr Khan, a smooth-talking anti-Trump lawyer. When Trump defended himself, Khan and other Clinton supporters disgracefully hid behind Khan’s dead son, who was killed in 2004 while serving in the United States Army in Iraq.

Perhaps the most dangerous notion in Khan’s speech was the conflation of equal rights for Americans under the United States Constitution with an inherent right of people in other countries to immigrate into the United States. Khan complained that if it were up to Trump, he and his family might not have been allowed into this country. I agree — and would that were so. Khan deserves a fair hearing, but the appearance is that, at a minimum, he should be disbarred. Perhaps he would prefer stoning.

As a side benefit, this brouhaha helped flush out fakes like John McCain and Chris Christie. I hope Trump remembers never to trust them.
As Americans, we understand that to preserve the republic endowed to us by our Founding Fathers and be good stewards of our land, we must avoid being numerically destroyed by colonization from the Third World and enforce law and order everywhere within our own borders.

Dan Katz
McMinnville

Sneaky Pete

Republicans have relentlessly accused President Obama of being a dishonest sneak out to impose his way on America.

It’s beyond ironic that Republicans have partnered with Obama on the most dishonest, most sneaky action of his presidency. They are solid allies in his no-holds-barred fight to impose the Trans-Pacific Partnership on America.

For all their talk about Obama acting against America’s interests, they are with him all the way on putting American interests at the mercy of the Investor State Dispute Resolution panels. These three-member committees answer to no court, operate only in the interest of foreign corporations and weaken America’s sovereignty to the point of nullifying it.

From the start, Obama pushed this terrible treaty forward in complete secrecy, carefully hiding the details from American voters while giving complete access to corporate big shots.

Now Obama and his Republican accomplices plan to sneak the treaty through the lame-duck session of Congress. They’ll probably win. When the interests of working Americans collide with those of powerful corporations and the ultra-wealthy, working Americans lose. Obama will be long gone from office by the time the damage to paychecks, labor laws and the environment are being fully felt.

His Republican allies will cross their fingers and say it was all Obama’s fault. The rest of us will be living in the world’s largest Third World nation — victims of a Republican Congress that finally found a way to support Obama.

Fred Fawcett
Lafayette

Flim-flam man

I recently found this definition of a phrase in my dictionary. “One who engages in deception, as in a swindle.” The phrase? “Flim-flam man.” Hello, Donald Trump.

Carole Ackerson
McMinnville

Double standard?

Concerning Yamhill County Public Works Director John Phelan and his misuse of a management position to obtain repairs of his personal vehicle at a county facility, I strongly disagree with those who want to justify his illicit conduct.

The fact that he admitted it after it became public is not a virtue but an attempt to defend his decision and minimize the consequences. Now Phelan would like everyone to believe that, due to the circumstances, he made a minor mistake. Like us, he had many legal options, inculding scheduling service prior to the family reunion, switching vehicles with family, traveling at night when it’s cool, going without air conditioning or simply not going.
I contend that Phelan got caught using his position inappropriately. Are there other situations that the employees have not revealed for fear of retaliation? Had this occurred involving other employees (not friends) under Phelan’s authority, they would have been discharged. Management is supposed to seek compliance with laws and regulations, not break them. Phelan’s conduct violates numerous policies and ethics laws. 

Yamhill County policy specifically prohibits the use of county property for personal use or gain. Oregon’s ethics laws have also been violated. The fact that this involves a manager in charge of enforcing employee conduct makes the situation all the more serious.

Public offcials and management should be held accountable to the same laws that they are supposed to enforce. It is time for elected and appointed officials to stop exempting themselves and circumventing the laws. I believe Phelan’s effectiveness to lead has been compromised. If the county minimizes this incident, it will also be invoking a double standard of accountability. 

A.D. Gentry
Dayton

Letters miss the mark

Wow! My July 22 letter stirred up a hornet’s nest. Fortunately for me, their stings missed the mark, leaving my critique standing unscathed.

Their sting was aimed at the existing landfill. My letter was focused tightly on the proposed expansion. Therefore, comments about the existing landfill’s location in a flood plain only 345 feet from the river and about not meeting seismic standards do not touch my critique. Indeed, Ilsa Perse uses my letter as a launching pad for yet another screed aimed at the existence of the landfill. Perse’s closing comment that the Land Use Board of Appeal has twice overturned the county commissioners’ approval of the expansion is disingenuous for two reasons: First, the board did not “overturn,” but referred the decision back to the commissioners with guidance for further review. Second, the issue before the board was not any of the concerns that I raised in my July 22 letter — yet another terminological inexactitude.

Confusion abounds. How much has Waste Management reduced the size of the proposed expansion — from 100 to 37 acres (my letter) or from 99 to 37 (Susan Watkins’ letter) or from 37 to 29 (Susan Meredith’s letter)? The letters of my critics are full of misdirection and obfuscation.

Robert E. Mason
McMinnville