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CITY TO METRO: GIVE US PAVEMENT OR NOTHING: Portland city officials tell WW that plans for a safe car camping site at the Expo Center are dead, unless regional planning agency Metro offers up a paved lot. The site in North Portland was a leading candidate in the city’s vision for a parking lot where people could live in their cars. For months, Metro offered a gravel lot that the city estimated in October would cost $1.5 million to make usable. “We haven’t been talking to them for several weeks, given they were not able to offer us any of the acres of paved parking for this use,” says Bryan Aptekar, communications liaison for the safe rest villages. “Instead, we were offered a grassy ditch that would cost $1.5 million to develop for our Safe Park needs. If Metro were to come back with an offer of use of a paved parking lot, we’d be happy to talk to them further.” Metro spokesman Nick Christensen tells WW that Metro is open to discussions, but “any solution must work with our existing clients at the recently reopened Expo.” So far, City Commissioner Dan Ryan’s office has only selected two of six planned safe rest village locations; however, those leases aren’t yet inked. None of the 70 sites first identified by the city are still under consideration.
ENVIRONMENTAL COMMISSION NOMINEE FACES INDUSTRY BLOWBACK: A prominent business group is objecting to a nominee for the Oregon Environmental Quality Commission. Gov. Kate Brown nominated Amy Schlusser, a staff attorney with the Green Energy Institute, to replace a more industry-friendly commissioner, Wade Mosby, a retired forest products executive. “There is no question she would frequently be in the position of being asked to make decisions as a commissioner that are directly related to the advocacy work she currently engages in,” says Preston Mann of Oregon Manufacturers and Commerce. “Ultimately, that level of conflict would undermine public trust in the EQC as a whole.” Brown’s office defended the nomination. “Amy Schlusser brings experience in energy and climate policy, regulatory processes, and community engagement to the commission,” says Brown spokesman Charles Boyle. “She has also served on DEQ’s rulemaking advisory committee for Oregon’s Climate Protection Program. Having deep experience in climate policy and a history of effective public service is not a conflict of interest.”
FEDS SENTENCE MAN WITH QANON TIES TO FIVE YEARS’ PROBATION: U.S. District Judge Karin Immergut sentenced 40-year-old Cody Melby on Monday to five years of probation for firing a gun at the façade of the Mark O. Hatfield federal courthouse in downtown Portland on Jan. 8. The reason Melby—who served in Kosovo followed by three tours in Iraq for the U.S. Army—fired the weapon: “He wanted to get in front of the court for political and patriotic reasons,” says Melby’s attorney Bryan Francesconi. “He is an intensely patriotic person.” As WW reported in January, federal prosecutors alleged Melby fired several rounds from a 9 mm handgun into the courthouse’s exterior on the evening of Jan. 8. Two days prior, on Jan. 6, police cited Melby for criminal trespass while in possession of a firearm after he allegedly sought entry into the Oregon State Capitol during a far-right rally. Federal prosecutor Paul Maloney said during sentencing that Melby fired at the courthouse to get the attention of a federal judge because he felt compelled to express his political views. “He became fixated on the civil discourse surrounding the 2020 protests, as well as the presidential election,” Maloney said. Melby still faces charges in Marion County for the Jan. 6 incident, as well as in Multnomah County for the federal courthouse shooting. He is currently being held in the county’s Inverness Jail.
UNHEALTHY CARE PROVIDER CAN’T EXPAND: The Oregon Health Authority has slapped the hands of Trillium Community Health Plan, a Eugene-based for-profit coordinated care organization that’s fought hard to break into the metro-area market for the Oregon Health Plan. Trillium won a hard-fought, four-year contract with OHA to serve the local market last year, over the objections of powerful Portland-area hospital systems. But shortfalls in Trillium’s network of hospitals, home care, mental health services and foreign language services prompted OHA to issue a notice of noncompliance last September. On Nov. 1, OHA told Trillium it hadn’t fixed the shortcomings and banned the company from adding to its 57,000 customers in the metro area until it does. OHA chief Pat Allen gave Trillium three months to fix the problems. In a statement, Trillium promised to comply.