Salem Reporter has the scoop!
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| via Twitter and Salem Reporter |
Director of Public Works Peter Fernandez has announced his retirement.
We'll probably come back to this, but he leaves a real mixed legacy.
Most discussions will tout the accomplishment of the bond measures, one in 2008 and the most recent one, and the success on the cyanotoxin and water treatment problem. The Woodmansee Park aquifer project is notable. There might be Willow Lake successes also that should be noted. Probably there are nuts and bolts operational details that deserve to be surfaced also.
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| An opportunity refused in 2013 |
But here it was the stubborn attachment to the Salem River Crossing and the refusals to advocate more forcefully on provisions for non-auto travel and on greenhouse gas emissions that linger in memory. Transportation things too often were oriented to the previous century and to automobile travel.
The City will have a chance to make a new hire, and from outside might be best. A fresh perspective and a stronger commitment to curbing our emissions from transportation would be helpful. The new City Manager also might like some new thinking.
We'll see how it all shakes out, and again there may very well be more to say later in a longer assessment.
Addendum, December 1st
As a pleasant tangent is the news that ODOT has pushed out more control over local speeds.
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| Front page today |
Hopefully that will be a tool embraced by a new Director.
8 comments:
Problems with trees and successes with the Union St and Minto bridges probably should also be in the conversation.
Transportation facilities, drinking water, and poop management are foundational elements for civilization, and it may be difficult to find the right balance in a nuanced assessment, especially as in water and sewer, we hear about problems more than successes.
And added a note on new rules for setting speeds.
Apparently Norm Wright, former Director of the Community Development Department, has also left, so these Director-level positions will be a real opportunity for some new direction.
I would support hiring someone from within the ranks for Public Works Director. We have a few notable people who have a much better knowledge and public relationship already established that I'd like to see moved up.
As for Community Development, I support a new out of city appointment, but definitely should be an Oregonian or someone with a lot of experience with our Statewide Planning Goals and Climate Action Planning. Norm was a nice guy, but he was almost invisible to the process outside of a few comments at Council meetings. We need stronger leadership and a more high profile individual who will set the tone for change.
Though they seem like nice people, neither Chandler nor Becktel have seemed very interested in transportation reform or in climate action. Are there other potential internal candidates for Public Works you had in mind?
As a long time observer, I can assure you that, if Council were to decide to halve the square footage of paved streets in Salem, Peter would have been the fiercist and most convincing advocate that you could imagine.
If only the city could download his memory, fewer of the new desperate attempts to change the transportation system would come with unanticipated negative consequences.
Salem politics has a decided tendency to shift radically. Long time staff who experience the back and forth certainly must become cynical after having to defend and promote policies that are the antithesis of those they defended and promoted in the past.
Staff Reports for tonight's Council meeting say:
"Brian D. Martin, PE, Interim Public Works Director"
Thanks for the update on Martin.
Salem Reporter has a little profile about his retirement, and in it he makes clear how committed he was to the SRC. He didn't have to say this.
"His biggest regret, he said, is that Salem doesn’t have another bridge option over the Willamette. Since the 1960s, he said, people have been hoping to expand what is currently one way to west Salem, and one way back.
'The latest attempt was a few years ago, and millions were spent. I think almost $10 million was spent, and the community didn’t like it,' he said.
The project was a joint effort through the Oregon Department of Transportation and the city. Salem City Council killed the project with a 6-3 vote in 2019.
'It is a shame because we need another way to cross the river. I mean, a third of the community lives in west Salem,” he said. “It’s a failure of the community, a failure of vision that we couldn’t address that issue.'"
Significantly, he didn't say a work on climate. From here the biggest failure by far is the City's refusal to start climate action and to argue for it.
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