[LCSD] Board hires two administrators

Looks like Josh make a smart move:

Three members of the Lebanon School Board gathered for a special meeting Thursday before the regular meeting of the school district's budget committee to revisit the district's recommendation to hire the two. Vice Chairman Josh Wineteer made the motion to hire both and Chairwoman Sherrie Sprenger and board member Chris Fisher joined him in voting yes.

This is a much quicker turnaround on one of their mistakes than usual, thought it's interesting that neither Rick nor Debi showed up. Rick I can see - he seems to avoid admitting to mistakes. Debi... well, my guess is that she didn't want to take the heat for a bad decision and is laying low for the moment.

As written on the back of a Horizon Air comment card as I was trying not to laugh

We took off a few minutes after the sun dropped below the mountains. One minute it was there, and the next it was gone. The two young, white men behind me in seats behind me kept quoting Friday. While the engines were spinning up, they argued over the best part of the flight, take-off or landing. Landing, apparently, was better, because "you're there." As the brakes were tripped and the plane began to move, the one directly behind me started saying "nail it" over and over, apparently in reference to the engine's RPMs reaching a certain point. When we had accelerated enough to where we were pressed back into our seats, he breathed a single word: "Fuck." It sounded like a very erotic experience.

Woo Hoo!

Requisite airport post.

I wonder how long before someone discovers the wireless cloud gives us cancer.

The Man from Hope

Nope, not Bill Clinton - Barack Obama.

I don't have the time or brain capacity to really think about this, but as I read another asinine comment about how Obama must be a bad candidate (or false idol, depending on your preferred level of histrionics) because he talks about hope and change, I realized something:

The subtext of attacking a candidate because they talk about the values of hope and change is pretty monstrous.

Specifically, by attacking Obama's platform in such a way, people are implicitly suggesting that we can't hope for a better future, that we don't have the capacity to work together to solve problems.

It's a near-genius and completely FUBARed (and Orwellian!) tactic, because it suggests the opposite: That the good life can only be achieved by hate and war.

Herbert Marcuse is laughing his ass of somewhere right now.

[LCSD] Both Barrels

The editorial in the Lebanon Express this week, is, by normal Express standards, full of piss and vinegar incredibly strong language:

It's mind-boggling that Wineteer would scratch out amendments to a multi-million dollar contract on his kitchen table, bypass legal analysis and present it for approval without any chance for public input. That board members Rick Alexander and Debi Shimmin would approve such a contract can only lead to one of two conclusions - that they violated public meeting laws and discussed it amongst themselves beforehand, or they don't understand the legal and financial implications of what they did.

Go read - and note that despite the condemnations, the editorial does not explicitly call for a recall anywhere but in the headline.

Of Puppies, Kittens, Babies and Presidential Candidates

After that last post, I need something happy.

How about this:



Yes, that's the newborn daughter of a friend of mine in the arms of Barack Obama - he was in Albany, Oregon at the time.

Go Avery!

...

It's somehow hard for me to believe that people are willing to do this to each other:

Some Detainees Are Drugged For Deportation

Any comments attempting to justify this practice will be ignored.

From a reader

An interesting take on Mary Northern, who I know nothing about:

Just a thought. How about a class action lawsuit , by the tax payers in this community, against the 3 stooges that have wasted our money and time. I think it's a great idea. They should personally pay for their stupidity! And, by the way, I wonder why there hasn't been a recall on at least 2 of the 3? It isn't a complicated process. I wonder if they were recalled, if thier actions (re: the whole absurd sand ridge/pie matter & nonhiring of new administrative staff) could be recalled as well? I'm sure the culprit behind most of the evil doing here is Hurricane Mary Northern (her name should be Katrina for the amount of devastation she's caused in this community). I'm sure she's plenty proud of herself too. She was able to not only stack the PIE board, but the LCSD board as well. It's all just a shame, or should I say sham!

He's baaaaaack!

Of course I'm talking about Hering. How could I not comment on this?

Among the few people in Oregon who care about justice in land use matters, there had been an argument before the last general election about the effect of Measure 49. The proponents said the measure would “modify” Measure 37, the previous law on land use restrictions after someone had acquired a property. The opponents said that Measure 49 in effect canceled Measure 37.

Oh. Wait. He's mostly right, except for that part where he confuses "justice" with his (and only his) point of view on the issue. Never mind.

On the other hand, this part pretty much negates the fact that he took the high road in the rest of the editorial:

Neither the courts nor the lawyers in state government, including candidates now running for office, told voters ahead of time that with that measure, a bunch of people’s rights to divide or build a house on their own rural property were going to go up in smoke.

As the first commenter notes, this is total bullshit. Measure 49 does not completely eliminate that right, and Hering should know better than to confuse restricting and completely removing one's ability to build houses on agricultural land. In fact, he does know better, which means this is intentionally deceptive and dishonest, and better suited to a Heritage Foundation memo than a newspaper.

The other thing Hering's stance on this indicates is that he prioritizes individual choice over the collective good to a dangerous degree. I'd ask whether or not he's heard of the Tragedy of the Commons, but that's probably a little too highbrow for his taste.

Walk Score

Ran across this today. I think it's neat, and it makes me feel really guilty for not walking more.

I am a little wary of all the things it lists as businesses near my house. Many of them I've never heard of.

(My most common rationale for driving: Walking takes too long. Yes, I know.)

[LCSD] PIE Charter Amendments etc.

I'm too tired to wrap my head around the implications of all this (IANAL, after all), but I wanted to get them text of Wineteer's charter contract amendments out there, among other things.

Link to Mr. Wineteer's amendments (as written before they were themselves amended during the board meeting, I believe).

Link to the entire Sand Ridge Renewal Packet as presented at a school board meeting several months ago.

Link to current PIE/LCSD contract.

(Blogger doesn't host files, just pictures; links are to a free online file hosting service where I parked the files. I don't know much about it, so the links may not last. Let me know if they don't work or come with annoying popups or something. I tested them, but that doesn't guarantee anything.)

Interestingly, Mr. Wineteer's amendments are not simply a list of changes to the text. Some of them (at least 1, 2, 9 & 10) are simply instructions regarding what to change. In those cases, what is the process by which the changes will be included in the actual contract? Who will write the new language? Who has to sign off on it? Where in the contract will the new pieces of language be located? Does passage of the motion mean that Robinson is now obligated to negotiate the terms laid out by Wineteer, or is there some other process that will be used to include the new material? Does passage of the motion mean that negotiations are over? (Not having been at the meeting and heard the exact wording of the motion, I have to ask - though I suspect even knowing the wording won't make it clear.)

Veterans of bureaucracy and/or contracts will understand that these are not trivial questions. The fact that they are being asked is one more piece of evidence that the process used by the board in this case is incredibly unprofessional.

There might be more on the amendments later, but I doubt it. LT did a good job dissecting some of them already, and like I said, I'm exhausted.

Minor Navel-Gazing

Blog traffic here the week of the LCSD board meeting (and yes, my traffic has dropped off considerably in the last few months since I've posted less and less frequently).

I'm definitely amused.