Testimony on Oregon Senate Iraq Memorials

Salem, Oregon April 23, 2007

Senate Rules Committee

Senator Kate Brown, Chair
Senator Ted Ferrioli, Vice-Chair
Senator Betsy Johnson
Senator Laurie Monnes Anderson
Senator David Nelson

Testimony on SM1, SJM6, SJM9, HJM9, related to the Iraq War
by Sean Cruz
April 23, 2007

Exhibits:

Photograph of Spc Tyler Cruz, unarmored humvee, 2004
Photograph of Spc Tyler Cruz, humvee with welded armor, 2004
Photograph of Spc Aaron Cruz, 2001
Certificate of recognition for Aaron Cruz, 2005
Letter from US Dept. of Veterans Affairs re Aaron’s medical records, 2005

Madame Chair, members of the Committee, for the record my name is Sean Cruz.

I do not intend to read all of my written testimony, which I have provided to the Committee. I would like to provide some foundational information and then stand aside for others to speak.

Mrs. Michele DeFord, a Gold Star Mother, whose son David Johnson was killed in Iraq , could not be here for this hearing, and has requested that I read her testimony into the record on her behalf.

I will do so at the Chair’s convenience, and otherwise will remain available to answer any questions the Committee may have about the legislation before you.

I appear before you today as the father of two Army National Guard soldiers, and as a member of the Northwest chapter of Military Families Speak Out ( MFSO ).

There are several MFSO members present to testify today, and we all speak equally for ourselves and as some of the faces of Military Families Speak Out.

I have been a resident of NE Portland for the past dozen years. For the past five of those years, my boys have been subject to combat deployment to the war in Iraq .

My sons are: Specialist Aaron Cruz, who died in 2005 at the age of 23, largely from medical neglect while he was under military orders, and Specialist Tyler Cruz, who has at this time—at the age of 21—so far—served two year-long deployments in combat in Iraq as a .50 caliber machine gunner on a humvee.

Sgt. David Johnson was killed doing the same job my son Tyler has done through two deployments in combat in Iraq .

I want to note for the record that my sons’ Army National Guard unit was first placed on alert in the Spring of 2002, ordered to pack for deployment to Iraq on 24 hours’ notice, and this April marks my family’s fifth year of continued, open-ended, actual participation in the catastrophe in Iraq .

I have provided five exhibits to the Committee to illustrate several points regarding the Iraq-related legislation before you.

These exhibits are:

(1) This early 2004 photograph of Tyler at the age of 19 shows him manning his .50 on a humvee with no armor or protection whatsoever. He is completely unprotected by even a windscreen.

(2) Later 2004 photographs such as this one showed that his unit, an engineering battalion, welded scrap steel plate for protection as best they could and, during that first deployment, he escorted convoys all over central Iraq and provided security for his unit under those conditions.

Tyler called me from the Baghdad area in 2004 and asked me if I’d heard of the “Highway to Hell.” Of course, I had.

“We paved it,” he told me, with a lot of pride in his voice. That’s my boy.

(3) This is a photograph of my son Aaron at the age of 18.

(4) This is the certificate, signed with George W. Bush, President of the United States ’ very own autopen, which reads:

“The United States of America honors the memory of Aaron A. Cruz. This certificate is awarded by a grateful nation in recognition of devoted and selfless consecration to the service of our country in the Armed Forces of the United States .”

(5) The last exhibit is a copy of the letter from the US Department of Veterans Affairs, dated November 2005, in response to my request for access to Aaron’s medical records. It reads:

“Mr. Cruz’s request will be forwarded to our privacy act officer for processing of his request. He should be advised that we have a large backlog of requests for copies of records and that it may take up to a year before his request is processed. This report of contact will be faxed and serve as a final response to this inquiry.”

For the record, I have heard nothing regarding my son since receiving this letter.

It is common knowledge that the medical system is overburdened and chaotic, and there is little expectation that it will receive either the funding or the commitment it needs in order to properly care for the injured coming back from the war.

I want also to note for the record that from April 21 until April 25, 2005 , I was absent from my job as Senator Avel Gordly ’s Legislative Aide during the 2005 legislative session.

For those five days, I was at my son Aaron’s bedside as he lay comatose in Utah . He was pronounced dead at 4:50 p.m. on April 25, 2005 .

His Utah Army National Guard unit’s entire officer and NCO staff turned out in full dress for Aaron’s memorial service and they presented his mother with a flag in his honor.

They spoke of his commitment to the unit and his despair at being left behind, due to his medical condition, which continued to deteriorate until he died.

His First Sergeant said that of the 200 soldiers he was taking to Iraq , most probably didn’t want to go, but here was one soldier who absolutely did want to go, and he couldn’t.

We buried Aaron on May 3, and 8 hours later, my son Tyler was on his way back to camp in Southern California to prepare for his second deployment to Iraq .

This is how we treat our soldiers and honor their service and their sacrifice in the real world we military families are living in.

Tyler served his second deployment in Ramadi, in Al Anbar province.

During that year, of the 4,000 soldiers and Marines fighting in Ramadi, 75 were killed and more than 1,000 were serious casualties, including many cases of Traumatic Brain Injury, or TBI, the signature injury of this war.

What has been said about the living conditions for those troops is that they lived in squalor, under fire every day and every night.

During that year, no day and no night passed without my being aware that my son—the one son I have left—could be killed or severely injured at any moment.

Aaron did not die as a result of combat in Iraq , as he would have much preferred.

He died from a life-threatening seizure disorder for which he was receiving treatment while he was living with me in our home in Portland , prior to his 2003 Iraq deployment orders.

A few days after Aaron left, a letter from one of his Portland doctors arrived in the mail, warning him that he could suffer a seizure that could put him in a coma from which he would not recover, and that is in fact what happened to my son.

He concealed his medical conditions from his unit as best he could, and he called me to tell me that he had passed the Army medical exam and was going to Fort Carson , Colorado .

But Aaron was held back for at least one of the several serious medical conditions he was suffering from. As near as I can tell, he received no continuing medical treatment after he left my home and reported to his unit.

Two years later, I have no information from anyone about what happened to him medically between leaving my home and suffering the fatal seizure.

Senate Memorial 1, in line 17 page 1, refers to the deaths of 83 military personnel “from Oregon” in connection with the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and I want to note for the record that this number does not include my son, Aaron Cruz, although he was an Oregon resident at the time he reported for deployment.

The way this war is compartmentalized, if your soldier doesn’t die from gunfire or in an explosion, he or she isn’t a real casualty of the war, and if the soldier is from another state’s National Guard, no one pays much attention to the loss.

Now the President has announced that troops are being rotated back into Iraq again, for deployments extended to 15 months.

We military families are seeing our loved ones exposed to chlorine gas bombs now, and to shaped-charge IEDs that cut right through armor. We are seeing our troops ordered into neighborhoods, as Representative Brian Boquist described, where the streets are too narrow for the tanks and combat support vehicles they need.

The lifetime medical costs to care for some of the brain-injured soldiers returning from battle can run to $ 8 to $ 14 million dollars. Where is that money going to come from?

Will this legislature back its message to Congress with a commitment to provide the funding level that our troops, our veterans and their families need as a consequence of being a “Nation at War.?”

Is—for example—a nickel per gallon gas tax too much to ask of the Nation to help pay for the war, to finance veterans’ services for the small fraction of Americans who are actually fighting it?

I am not here to advocate for any of these Memorials as the one to support.

I believe that they each contain important concepts that merit consideration and debate by the full Senate, and I hope this Committee will decide to move them all to the floor, including HJM9, so that they can have that debate, and then bring them back to this Committee for further action.

Regarding Senate Memorial 1, I would ask the Committee to remove the platitudes from the bill.

For example, on page 1, lines 13 and 14, which read: “Whereas the Oregon Senate and the residents of the State of Oregon recognize, appreciate and are forever thankful for the sacrifices that all of our Oregon and other American troops and their families have made, especially the troops who have given their lives or been wounded to protect our freedoms.”

This expression of gratitude rings especially hollow on a day in which flags are at half-staff to mark the loss of life of another Oregon soldier, but which received no acknowledgement, no remonstrance, on the Senate floor.

A second example is found on page 2, lines 16 and 17, which read: “The Oregon Senate and the American people will continue to support and protect the members of the United States Armed Forces and the Oregon National Guard….”

I have no idea what that means, neither when that support and protection is going to begin, nor what level of commitment the bill refers to.

With that statement, Madame Chair and Members of the Committee, I will stand aside so that others may speak.

"End the War" sign updated

I went ahead and marked off 2007, even though it's only April.

Waiting until December to close out another year is starting to feel a little too literal.

It's probably not too early to mark off 2008, too.

I just returned from a trip to Washington, D.C., four days entirely spent between the Capitol and the Washington Monument, and you could never tell we were a "Nation at War", as the saying goes. No sign of a war anywhere but at airport security.

People who aren't making any sacrifice are just as disconnected there in D.C. as they are in Portland and in Salem.

Portland's #1 Predatory Towing Horror Story Continues!

Yes! The horror story continues, and I’m claiming the title. Believe it!

I went out of town for a few days last week, and while I was gone, one of Hacienda CDC’s predatory patrol towing contractors trespassed on my private property and stole my car with a tow truck.

For the fourth time! Believe it!

Hacienda CDC owns the two triplexes behind my house. The towing horror story began two years ago when they hired Retriever Towing to patrol their triplexes.

Retriever Towing trespassed on my property three times to steal vehicles, broke the transmission in my Dodge Caravan, and also towed my rental.

To this day, they (meaning Hacienda CDC, their management company, and Retriever Towing) each claim that the other is responsible, but do not dispute the fact that they trespassed on my property in the dead of night and made an illegal, wrongful tow.

Using a different towing contractor, Sergeant’s Towing, they did it again, committing trespass and theft at 5:00 a.m. Sunday morning, April 8.

They demanded $235.00 for the return of my vehicle, which I refused to pay.

Eventually, the next day, Sergeant’s put my Caravan back where it was before this most recent trespassing event took place.

Sergeant’s has sent me two letters of apology.

Meanwhile, Hacienda Community Development’s staff remains silent in their bunker at NE 42nd Avenue and Sumner, where they have absconded with a stretch of public sidewalk—public right of way—to create an illegal, unenforceable towaway zone for their own private parking pleasure (see photos on earlier post).

Last time I spoke to Bertha Ferran, Board member of both Hacienda CDC and the Portland Development Commission, about the wrongful towing they are inflicting on their neighbors, she told me to “Call the police,” if I didn’t like it.

Well, just in case you’re paying attention, Bertha, I definitely called the police this time. You’ll be hearing from them.

And, this time, you’ll be hearing from my lawyer, too.

Believe it!

Jim Pepper honored by Smithsonian, National Museum of the American Indian

Oregon-born Native American musician Jim Pepper (1941-1992) was honored with a series of events at the National Museum of the American Indian, Smithsonian Institution culminating with performances by the Jim Pepper Remembrance Band and Yellowhammer.

Among the items donated to the Museum by the family of Jim Pepper was his silver-plated saxophone.

The Museum also featured the award-winning documentary "Pepper's Powwow" in its cinema, two shows a day for several weeks preceding the April 7 concert.

Photographs of the concert and ceremony are being prepared for posting, will be up soon on www.jimpepperhouse.blogspot.com


At the request of the Pepper family, I made the following remarks during the ceremony:

Remarks for the Jim Pepper Dedication
National Museum of the American Indian
Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.
by Sean Cruz, on behalf of the family of Jim Pepper
April 7, 2007

“You must not forget me when I’m long gone, for I loved you so dearly,” Jim Pepper sang (in his song ‘Remembrance’), and we are gathered here today to proclaim that this unique and remarkable man will indeed never be forgotten.

On behalf of the family of Jim Pepper, Hung-a-che-eda, the Flying Eagle, I am honored and privileged to speak today, and I hope that my words are worthy of the occasion, that they carry honor and respect to all.

Jim Pepper was born in 1941, and he passed from this life in 1992, leaving a legacy of art and personality that bridged cultures and continents.

The gifts with which the Pepper family honors the National Museum of the American Indian today, including the silver saxophone through which Jim spoke his heart, always honoring his Indian heritage, forging new directions in music, preparing the way for future generations of musicians, are emblems of that legacy.

In order to understand the legacy of Jim Pepper, one must first appreciate that Jim’s music originated in the traditions, the language and the culture of Native People, in his absorption of the teachings of his grandfather Ralph Pepper, and of his father Gilbert Pepper and his mother Floy Pepper.

Their influences are at the core of this glorious, transcendental music.

Those teachings inspired Jim throughout his entire life, and we are all the beneficiaries of those lessons.

As a dancer, a singer, a composer, a bandleader, an innovator and as a saxophone player, Jim took those traditional songs, chants, rhythms, sounds—never losing contact with their Native origins, never failing to give honor to his People—and created a new vocabulary of sound and meaning, incorporating American jazz, African and Caribbean rhythms, melody and what he liked to call “sweet har-mo-ny” into a body of work that has yet to be fully appreciated.

The music often categorized as “world music” was to Jim Pepper, simply, “music for the People.”

In 1999, in her acceptance speech on the occasion of her son’s First Americans in the Arts award, Floy Pepper spoke these words:

“Jim Pepper was a member of the Kaw Indian Nation, known as the Wind People, from his father. From me, his mother, he was a member of the Creek Indian Nation, known as the People of the Waters.“It is no wonder his music was so strong and powerful—with the wind to carry his music to the four directions of the earth—and as long as the grass shall grow and the waters flow—which is forever—may his spirit remain alive for time immemorial.”

Assembled here today, from the East, the West, the North and the South, the musicians and singers of the Jim Pepper Remembrance Band and Yellowhammer have come to pay tribute to their musical and spiritual brother, and the tears they shed this afternoon—like the tears that flowed during yesterday’s rehearsal—mark the depth and the breadth of the love they share for this wonderful soul, the man who Muskogee Creek poet Joy Harjo called “The Musician Who Became a Bear”, in her song dedicated to Pepper that is already in the Smithsonian collection.

We do more than remember Jim today; we celebrate him.

In the month that Jim passed, that February of 1992, Caren Knight-Pepper composed a song-poem titled simply, “Jim.”

That poem begins:

“Family Jim
Our son Jim
Brother Jim
Uncle Jim
My Jim
Your Jim
All of ours Jim…”

And the poem concludes:

“B-flat Jim
Alaska Jim
Powwow Jim
Polar Bear Jim
Feather Jim
Gourd rattle Jim
Gentle Jim

“Witchi-Tai-To Jim
Water spirit Jim
Comin’ and Goin’ Jim
Ya-na-ho Jim
Ya-na-ho

“Ya-na-ho”

Jim Pepper, son of the Creek and Kaw Nations, son of Oregon and the United States, son of Gilbert and Floy Pepper, has become a son for the ages.
--Sean Cruz


The family of Jim Pepper donated to the Museum:

[] Jim’s silver-plated Selmer balanced-action saxophone, vintage late 1950s

[] Both of Jim's saxophone cases

[] Beaded ball cap worn by Jim Pepper in concert, with feather attached, “Jim” embroidered

[] Turtle-shell rattle used in concert and the recording studio

[] Original hand-written scores and sheet music, including “Witchi-Tai-To”

[] Original LPs, including Jim Pepper’s 1971 “Pepper’s Powwow”

Predatory Patrol Towing Bills set to move in Senate Committee

Several bills addressing predatory patrol towing practices in Oregon are about to be scheduled for hearings and work sessions in the Senate Commerce Committee.

Senate Bill 116A is about to be printed as amended. The consensus amendments were the result of the discussions covering every section of the bill by the towing workgroup led by Eva Novick of the Office of the Attorney General.

Attorney General Hardy Myers and the Department of Justice have been working on regulating certain practices in the towing industry for the past two legislative sessions, and now have a bill that should sail through the Capitol.

It is likely that every legislator in the building and/or their staff have a personal bad towing experience to identify with, and they are certainly hearing from their constituents.

These may be the most popular bills in the building.

The fact that complaints about patrol towing incidents have come in from so many credible sources, describing thuglike behavior by patrol tow drivers, of being stranded or forced to go to an unsafe place, of getting the hardball treatment from surly patrol tow employees at every level, of outrageous fees more like ransom, and of wasting valuable police and court time at the public expense, that the picture is very clearly drawn.

The fact is that patrol towing is already illegal in many other states, including California and Washington, purely on the issue of safety, and the proponents of patrol towing will have to face these realities should they decide to argue against the legislation in a public hearing.

For example, a young woman who was forced to stand alone under the I-405 freeway at 2:00 in the morning, waiting 30 minutes for the Retriever Towing employee to show up and release her vehicle, which had been wrongfully towed, is looking forward to discussing the issue of safety before the Committee.

She usually appears before House and Senate committees to testify on behalf of the organizations she represents as a lobbyist, but this time it’s personal.

Another witness will be the young woman, a domestic violence caseworker making a home visit to a client at Hacienda CDCs Villa de Clara Vista apartments, who parked in a visitor space and was nevertheless towed within minutes clear across town.

The Retriever yard employee (at the same tow yard under the I-405 freeway) told her she wasn’t allowed to park in the visitor’s section because she was working, not visiting, and shook her down for $230.00.

To their credit, most towing companies do not do patrol towing, and they choose not to do it on principle. Many towers resent being tarred with the same brush as the patrol towers, understandably so, and those feelings have been transferred into the legislation, resulting in the consensus language of Senate Bill 116A.

Representatives of towing companies, insurers, property owners, AAA, and the offices of Senators Avel Gordly and Ryan Deckert, representing their constituents, participated in the SB116 towing workgroup.

In addition to SB116, Senator Gordly and Senator Deckert are working on legislation addressing patrol towing issues jointly, with six bills between them.

Their staff are currently working with Legislative Counsel to combine the bills into one or two vehicles, which will be heard in the Senate Commerce Committee before the April 30 deadline for Senate bills.

If you haven’t already sent in your predatory patrol towing horror story, now is the time to do it. Send it to your state Senator and Representative, and copy to the Members of the Senate Commerce Committee.

All legislator contact information and committee agendas are available online at www.leg.state.or.us

Make your voices heard.

Hacienda CDC uses public funds, creates private towaway zone on public property

Based in NE Portland in the Cully neighborhood, Hacienda Community Development Corporation has provided services to low-income and immigrant populations for years, but under its current leadership has taken a bizarre turn where Predatory Towing and affordable housing and community building intersect.

No apartment landlord in NE Portland is responsible for more towed vehicles than Hacienda, allowing commission-paid tow truck drivers employed by Retriever and Sergeant's to jack-at-will among the tenants of Hacienda's publicly-funded apartment properties.

In 2006 alone, Hacienda CDC's Cully neighborhood apartments generated 155 tows for Retreiver and Sergeants, more than all of the other apartment complexes in the area added together.

Meanwhile, Hacienda relocated its staff offices to 5140 NE 42nd Street, where--with Bertha Ferran's juice as Chair of Hacienda's Board and as a member of the Portland Development Commission's Board of Directors--Hacienda solved a parking shortage by claiming a section of public sidewalk as its own private parking area.

They posted signs along the sidewalk stating "Hacienda parking only--Violators will be towed," and claimed the entire section of public right of way for their own.

The signs Hacienda posted are illegal, and no one can be lawfully towed from there.

These signs exist merely to deter the public and the neighbors from parking there, and Hacienda staff and board members surely realize this. No landlord in NE Portland is deeper into towing than Hacienda, after all.

The other thing about these phony Hacienda towaway zone signs is the fact that they provide no information about who has your car if you were to be towed. There is no one to call but the police--and that means your tax dollars at work, baby.

To sum up: Hacienda CDC is the patrol towers' number one cash cow in the NE Cully neighborhood. Hacienda CDC contracts with Retriever and Sergeant's for that business.

But where Hacienda CDC offices on NE 42nd street, where their business and residential neighbors have to live with what parking is available, Hacienda CDC claims public property for its own and has custom-made signs proclaim it so.

So why didn't Hacienda contract with either of its towing predators to keep its NE 42nd sidewalk clear?

You'll have to ask Bertha Ferran and the Hacienda staff about that one.

Here's an excerpt from the Hacienda CDC website:

"Hacienda’s mission work in Oregon takes place at the dynamic interplay of collaboration, imagination, generosity and resourcefulness with our partners at the federal, state, city and private sectors. Together we boast an impressive list of accomplishments, including the development of over 325 units of affordable housing serving over 1,200 predominantly Latino residents in northeast Portland; the start up of a community-based credit union; the development of a primary healthcare clinic serving the un/under-insured; and three other community centers whereby a vast array of culturally-appropriate instruction and social services are provided daily."

Jim Pepper Remembrance Band returning to Portland

The Jim Pepper Remembrance Band returns to the Blue Monk on SE Belmont in Portland for two nights only, Friday and Saturday, March 16 & 17.

Tickets are $ 12 general admission or $ 6 with student ID

Next Remembrance Band performances:

April 7, 2007
National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI), Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.

(On the occasion of the dedication of Jim Pepper's saxophone to the NMAI collection.)

SJM 6 on the National Guard and preventing foreign wars

74th OREGON LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY--2007 Regular Session

Senate Joint Memorial 6

Sponsored by Senator Avel GORDLY
(at the request of Sean Cruz)

SUMMARY

Urges Congress to pass legislation requiring declaration of National Energy Emergency prior to deployment of National Guard troops in foreign war.

JOINT MEMORIAL

To the Senate and the House of Representatives of the United States of America, in Congress assembled:

We, your memorialists, the Seventy-fourth Legislative Assembly of the State of Oregon, in legislative session assembled, respectfully represent as follows:

Whereas the United States has recently developed a policy of extensively using the National Guard to fight foreign wars; and

Whereas this policy has burdened a small number of American citizens who are members of the National Guard and their families with extraordinary, open-ended sacrifice, while the vast majority of American citizens make no sacrifice whatsoever; and

Whereas this policy is unfair and morally repugnant to the ideals under which this nation was founded; and

Whereas the cost of energy is integral to the cost of war, and the nation's dependency on foreign sources of energy is a continuing, contributing cause to the onset and prosecution of foreign wars; and

Whereas should this nation go to war in a foreign land, it should do so with a policy of shared sacrifice and a policy of energy conservation designed to reduce dependency on foreign sources of energy; and

Whereas this nation has often failed to provide adequately for the postwar needs of its veterans and their families, contributing greatly to the insecurity and suffering of those deployed to the current wars in Iraq and Afghanistan; and

Whereas a National Energy Emergency imposing a surtax on foreign sources of energy, wherein said revenues would fund the long-term medical, housing, educational and employment needs of members of the National Guard and their families who are subject to deployment orders, would reduce the insecurity and suffering of said members and their families; and

Whereas a National Energy Emergency imposing a surtax on foreign sources of energy, wherein said revenues would fund the long-term medical, housing, educational and employment needs of members of the National Guard and their families who are subject to deployment orders, while the nation is in the crisis of a foreign war, would reduce the nation's consumption of and dependency on foreign sources of energy and thus would contribute positively to the nation's war effort; and

Whereas the disruption to the normal lives of National Guard members and their families by the extraordinary, open-ended sacrifice demanded of them by the President's policies requires an extraordinary commitment in kind by the nation; now, therefore,

Be It Resolved by the Legislative Assembly of the State of Oregon:

That we, the Seventy-fourth Legislative Assembly, on behalf of the citizens of Oregon, respectfully urge the Congress of the United States to immediately enact legislation declaring a National Energy Emergency, recognizing that many members of the National Guard are already deployed in a foreign war; and be it further

Resolved, That no future deployments of National Guard members to a foreign war should occur without the threshold step of the declaration of a National Energy Emergency and the imposition of a national energy surtax; and be it further

Resolved, That the long-term medical needs of National Guard members and their families will be met regardless of the physical, mental or emotional nature of their conditions; and be it further

Resolved, That a copy of this memorial shall be sent to the Senate Majority Leader, to the Speaker and the Clerk of the House of Representatives and to each member of the Oregon Congressional Delegation.

NE Portland Towing Hotspot Alert #2

Villa de Mariposas (Butterflies)
5020 and 5205 NE Killingsworth
71 units
Serves "working families earning between 30 percent and 60 percent AMI"
Vehicles towed from Mariposas in 2006: 37
Tower: Sergeant's

These photos are of Mariposa South
No parking is permitted in front of the office even when it is closed

Why are tenants and visitors to Hacienda CDC's Cully Neighborhood Apartments in NE Portland so Parking-Stupid?

155 vehicles towed from these apartments in 2006 alone.

Directly across the street from here, in the notorious Town Plaza stripclubs, only 3 tows in the same period of time.

Despite the distraction of naked women, alcohol and whatever else goes on in those seedy dens of iniquity, people who park on the north side of NE Killingsworth score perfect 10s with every parking experience.

Yet, upon turning into Hacienda's properties on the south side of Killingsworth, people cannot figure out how to park successfully in front of their own homes.

Time after time, they need to be towed at their own expense, and they still don't learn.

There is enough red paint in Hacienda's parking lots, marking fire lanes and other prohibited areas, that you would think it would be visible from space.

It almost looks festive, like the circus is coming to town, except the tickets are reeeeeaaallly expensive.

In fact, if there ever is a contest in the City for the apartment site with the greatest investment in red paint, parking lot stripes, lettering painted on the asphalt and signage, this is where my money will be, oh yeah.

But I digress....

The issue is parking-stupidity, which leads to instant towability, which results in the transfer of hard-earned cash, which no one paying these bills can be happy about, and yet they cannot figure how to park once they enter Hacienda's lots.

I forgot to count how many legal parking spots for residents there are over there, when I was making my debut as a photojournalist on self-assignment.

I'll have to go back, count the legal slots, compare to the number of apartments, see what those numbers look like.

155 tows in 2006 alone. And they are still getting towed out of there, day after day. Why won't these people learn?

There could be a mysterious force field, undetectable, affects some people more than others maybe, makes them parking-stupid.

Or it could be a case of mass amnesia, somehow connected to Hacienda's properties (because it isn't happening like this anywhere else in the Cully neighborhood), that causes people to forget that their friend or their sister or their neighbor just had to shell out another $ 300 to get their own car back yesterday, and they can't remember that for the life of them and the next thing you know they're parking-stupid again themselves and four minutes later Sergeant's or Retriever's snagged their car and its on its way to the other side of town at five bucks a mile plus more other charges piled on then you get from a week's stay in the hospital.

And still they will not learn.

So Hacienda and Retriever and Sergeant's will continue to try to teach them the hard way. I wonder if they are betting 2007 will be over or under 155? I wonder who the King of Cully Towers is over there at Retriever?

Talk about a plum assignment for a tow truck driver working on commission, you can imagine the lucky driver saying "Sweet!" aloud every time he gets a shot at the Hacienda account.

"Yeah, baby! We're goin' to Baja again!"

The poor guy assigned to the strip clubs must have had to take a second job or starve to death.

Did you notice the disabled sign lying on its side in one of the pictures? I did, too. I've never seen one lying on its side like that before. Usually, they're bolted into the ground so people can read what the sign says without turning their heads sideways. Had to get a picture of that, might not ever see one lying on its side like that again.

And I loved the "We Care About Your Safety" sign, that says "NO skateboarding, bicycle riding, roller skating, roller blading, scooter riding." Had to shoot that, too.

What's there left for the kids to do? Join a gang? Somebody sure is. That's what the graffiti is all about.

If they want to do something about the gang breeding ground over there, you'd think they'd let the kids do what kids like to do--ride their bikes, their skateboards, their skates and blades--encourage that even, but Hacienda won't even let them ride their scooters.

No scooters?

How can a word that funny, as inherently funny as scooter, be a nuisance?

Gotta keep that asphalt clear.

Tow trucks need a little extra room to maneuver in those cramped, tiny Hacienda parking lots, and there is no greater nuisance to a man in the act of taking a car without the owner's permission than a bunch of kids, particularly poor, immigrant kids.

Well, next time I'm in the neighborhood I'm going to count parking spaces.

The parking-stupidity zone may be due to a mysterious force field, or it could be mass amnesia, but it would be smart to check the availability of actual parking in the properties and in the immediate neighborhood.

155 tows in 2006

Who wants to bet on the 2007 number?

Permit Parking Only--at Villa de Clara Vista

Permit Parking only! The signs are posted everywhere. The curbs are all painted red. The parking spaces are striped AND stenciled.

So, what is it that makes people suddenly parking-stupid when they pull into one of Hacienda CDC's NE Cully neighborhood apartment complexes?

How can people be so parking-stupid that: despite the fact that 155 cars were towed out of here in 2006 alone, despite the fact that the residents and employees occupying these complexes warn every visitor about the towing danger, people simply cannot get parking right at the Villa de Clara Vista and the other Hacienda properties.

These people simply won't learn! Some of them have to get their cars jacked before they wake up to the fact that parking is serious business here!

At least, that's the way the tow companies explain it.

Hacienda CDC staff have no explanation. They say the tow companies ought to be careful.

155 vehicles towed in 2006. Let's say the average cost of those tows, including the value of the cars lost because the owners couldn't come up with the ransom, was $ 250.

$ 250 times 155 is $ 38,750, and does not include the cost of lost wages, lost jobs, missed classes, etc. due to the loss of your vehicle.

This patrol towing operation transferred nearly $ 40,000 from 155 pockets and concentrated them into the pockets of a few.

When will these people learn to park their cars right?

What lengths are Hacienda and Hacienda's towing contractors willing to go to to help these people figure out how to park their cars without being towed?

Find out soon, stay tuned.

Portland Towing Horror Show Hotspot Alert #1

Park in certain areas in NE Portland and you are virtually certain to be towed.

Park just across the street and your vehicle becomes invisible to tow truck drivers--there is no other explanation.

Here are the properties in the NE Cully/Killingsworth area to beware of:

Villa de Clara Vista Apartments (including weekend mercado events)
Clara Vista Town Homes
Villa de Suenos Apartments
Jardines de la Paz Apartments
Clinica de Buena Salud (including mobile clinics)
Point West Credit Union
Villa de Mariposas (north)
Villa de Mariposas (south)

These properties are all owned by Hacienda Community Development Corporation (CDC), the largest apartment owner in the NE Cully Neighborhood, and the Heavyweight Champ of Towing.

Hacienda CDC authorized 155 tows in 2006 alone.

They are in a class all by themselves.

Here is where it appears to be safe to park in the vicinity of Hacienda’s properties:

Aero Manor Apartments (Handy Andy’s Towing)
The Town Plaza complex of strip clubs, including:
The Sugar Shack strip club (juice bar and dancers) (minors now welcome)
The Pink Marlin (strip bar and restaurant)
Video Visions (toys—movies—models—chantilly lace—peekaboo)
The Viewpoint strip club
These businesses and the Aero Manor all together accounted for just 6 tows in all of 2006.

It is a wonderment.

Retriever Towing patrols the Town Plaza parking area and shares the Hacienda CDC properties with Sergeants. Sergeants also patrols The Viewpoint, another low-down strip club a few blocks to the East on Killingsworth.

Now that you are acquainted with all of the players, here are the 2006 numbers:

Hacienda CDC Tows (Retriever and Sergeants): 155 vehicles towed
Aero Manor Apartments (Handy Andy’s): 1
Town Plaza assorted strip clubs (Retriever): 0
Video Vision adult shop (Retriever): 3
Viewpoint strip club (Retriever and Sergeants): 2

Here’s the secret: The safest place to park in the Cully neighborhood is at the strip clubs—and you don’t need no stinking parking passes!

Hacienda contracts with Retriever and Sergeants to patrol-tow its residential properties, but has a very different arrangement for its own staff and board of directors’ parking needs—no patrol towing there at all on 42nd Avenue.

Embedded among the Hacienda CDC properties, adjacent to the Villa de Clara Vista are the Aero Manor apartments, one of the ugliest places to live in America, also patrol-towed. The towing service provider here is Handy Andy’s Towing.

Here's what got me interested into looking deeper into the Cully Towing Horror Show, a flyer circulating in cyberspace:

(the flyer formatting went away)



Towed Vehicles

These vehicles were owned or operated by Multnomah County employees, Portland Police, Clinica de Buena Salud employees, School representatives and other providers, and were towed from the Villa de Clara Vista back parking lot by Retriever Towing Company, under contract to Hacienda Community Development Corporation:

Carla Radcliffe, M.D. Medical Doctor at La Clinica de Buena Salud towed on 4-27-01

10-2004 Mary Lou Kerns, Senior OA at La Clinica de Buena Salud towed in October of 2004
Parked in the Management Parking Lot with a Parking Permit attached to the dash board

7-05 Ruben Martinez almost had his vehicle towed in the month of July 2005 in the back parking lot. He was parked in the lot facing North of Villa de Suenas. The Tow truck was hooking it up to Ruben's car ready to tow but Ruben walked out in time.

2003 Raquel Aguillon, County employee, whose office is in the Ortiz center, car was towed.

6-14-05 Francisco Sanchez of NW Family Works, one of La Clinica de Buena Salud providers. He was providing services to youth kids as his vehicle was towed at Mariposas.

8-5-05 Christine Taylor with the Juntos program had her car towed during the Mercado. She was here to provide outreach to residents.

8-5-05 Ricardo Acuna's vehicle also towed during Mercado. Here to provide outreach to residents.

8-5-05 Jill Keeney an advocate for a blind man was here to get food from Mercado and her vehicle was towed. She was crying badly as she had no money in which to get her vehicle.

8-15-06 Joanne Buck, Community Health Nurse with Multnomah County, came unannounced to
visit a Somali family as she provides many periodic home visits and her vehicle was towed from the back parking lot of the Ortiz Center.

06 Portland Police Officer Jose Gonzalez had his personal vehicle towed from the back lot as he came to the Ortiz Center on police business.

8-8-06 John Li, an MPH Intern for the State of Oregon with acute and Communicable Disease Program Public Health Prevention was here to provide a presentation at one of the women’s groups. He saw his vehicle being towed from the window and made a mad dash out the door. His colleague Teresa Rios with the Health Department invited him to come speak to this group and she felt helpless as she had invited him to park here.

2-2-07 A new volunteer dentist with Northwest Medical Teams vehicle was towed from the back parking lot. She comes to volunteer a service to low income families who are in great need of dental work. She had her purse and coat in the vehicle when it was towed.

=====================

That's the end of the flyer. I don't know how long its been going around, but there it is. In Part 2, I'll publish the entire list of tows, so you can see for yourself.

What is it that makes people parking-stupid when they drive onto Hacienda properties, but makes their vehicles invisible when they park at the strip clubs across the street?

It looks like Retreiver and Sargeants towed everybody's cars except Hacienda's staff and board of directors' cars.

I'm starting to feel a little better about things now. Over the past two years since Hacienda's tow company trespassed on my property, stole my van and broke the transmission, since Hacienda's Board Chair Bertha Ferran and her sidekick Tonya Wolfersperger stonewalled me over the damage, I thought it was personal.

But now I see that these two treat everybody that way, too.

Did I mention how Bertha Ferran told me to either call the police or wait until two days until Monday regarding Retriever's theft of my vehicle, and that about three hours of that officer's time was paid for by your tax money?

End of Part 1

Part 2 Coming Soon

City of Portland--Predatory Patrol Towing--Citizen's Rights

If you have been shaken down by a tow truck driver out patrolling, one of those snag-and-drag operations, you need to read this… because THESE ARE THE RIGHTS YOU DIDN’T KNOW YOU HAD!

If you have returned to your vehicle and found a tow truck driver in the process of snagging your vehicle, demanding cash from you on the spot, you need to read this… because THESE ARE THE RIGHTS YOU DIDN’T KNOW YOU HAD!

If your car has been towed—or almost towed—from private property in Portland without either your knowledge or permission, you need to read this, because THESE ARE THE RIGHTS YOU DIDN’T KNOW YOU HAD!

These really, really are your rights. I’m not making this up. I have enlarged and added emphasis to Citizen Right #8, because this is where they begin to steal your money :

These rights currently apply in Portland, Oregon only! And only if you know about them, which you don't.

The Oregon Legislature is about to change all that!

The following is published by the City of Portland:

=============================================

CITIZENS’ RIGHTS
WHEN TOWED FROM PRIVATE PROPERTY

If your vehicle has been towed from a private parking facility, you are entitled to the following:

1. Assistance in obtaining transportation to pick up your vehicle, such as a telephone call to a taxi service or information about bus service.
2. To receive information about the applicable rates when calling for release information.
3. To wait no more than 30 minutes for an attendant to arrive to release your vehicle outside of regular business hours which are 8:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., Monday – Friday, excluding official City holidays.
4. To receive a clear, itemized receipt for all charges.
5. To pay for the tow by cash or a valid credit or debit card bearing the VISA logo and issued in the name of the vehicle owner or owner’s agent.
6. To receive correct change for your cash payment.
7. Assistance in retrieving ownership documents from the towed vehicle.
8. Release of your vehicle at no cost, if the hookup is not complete and the truck rolling forward when you return to your vehicle.
9. Information about how and where to file a complaint with the City of Portland.

Complaints should be directed to:
Towing Coordinator
City of Portland
Bureau of Licenses
(503)823-5146
111 SW Columbia Street, Room 600
Portland OR 97201
FAX: (503)823-9068
e-mail: mgaylord@ci.portland.or.us

=============================================

This document is for real, but the only place you can find it is posted in the towing company’s offices, and they sure won’t give you a copy.

The important thing to understand about Citizen Right #8 is this:

These patrollers have a contract with the owner or manager of the private property that places the decision-making for the tow entirely into the hands of the driver, who is working on a commission/bonus system. He only gets paid if he hooks you.

For example, the largest apartment property owner in the Cully neighborhood in NE Portland is the Hacienda Community Development Corporation (CDC).

The patrollers provide this “service” to the property owners/managers for free.

Hacienda CDC contracts with Retriever Towing to patrol its Cully apartment lots, and Sergeant’s to patrol its two Plaza de Los Cedros triplexes.

The patrol towing business model relies completely on snagging and dragging vehicles before Citizen Right # 8 forces them to give the vehicle back for free.

That’s why they have to snag it quick and drag it quick. Citizen Right #8 means an empty pocket.

It’s either your pocket or theirs, and they have your vehicle in mid-snag or maybe even in pre-snag.

Somebody is going to drive away with an empty pocket, and you are standing there wasting this driver’s time.

He will take either your cash and your vehicle, or just your cash.

The thing is, the driver sees payday with absolute certainty if he can snag your vehicle and drag it to the lot, and he avoids having to deal with you at all.

Snag and drag is the secret to success, and success means being able to get two weeks of fishing for marlin down Baja way every now and then.

Snag and drag. Snag and drag. Speed is the name of the game.

My guess is this is how Retriever broke my transmission while patrolling a Hacienda CDC property next to my house at 5:30 on a Saturday morning. Ruined my whole weekend, I’ll tell you. But I digress….

The City of Portland says the patrol towers can’t demand payment from you if they haven’t towed you. This is the essence of Citizen Right # 8.

I’m going to repeat that for clarity: “The City of Portland says they can’t demand payment from you if they haven’t towed you.”

If you are there to remove the vehicle, and they haven’t actually towed you yet, they get nothing. They get paid to tow. Not to watch you drive away. Nobody pays them for that, they have to get the money from you.

Their job is to move the vehicle and, since you are there to move it yourself—there is no need for their “service.”

And they have no right to demand cash from you.

Speed being the answer, and with Citizen Right # 8 and the Patrol Towing Business Model at odds in the balance, the drivers often jerk the vehicle around the corner a block or two to buy themselves a little extra time to attach the safety equipment.

The cleanest, least troublesome tow for the patrol driver is the one where he’s gone before you know it.

Like I said earlier, my guess is that the Need for Speed and Citizen's Right #8 collided, and that this is how Retriever broke my transmission while patrolling a Hacienda CDC property next to my house at 5:30 on a Saturday morning nearly two years ago.

But I digress….



What You Can Do About Patrol Towing


The Oregon Senate Commerce Committee is considering legislation to regulate the Private Property Impound (PPI) towing statutes.

This legislation has wide popular support, even among the towing industry itself. Most towing companies operating in Oregon provide legitimate business services, and these companies are understandably angry about being tarred with the same brush.

Now is the time to get your predatory towing complaints heard. Write, email, show up to testify.

Change is coming to Oregon in the PPI patrol towing rackets, and many people in the Capitol itself are rooting for this legislation.

The critical bills to watch and support are:

SB 116
SB 388
SB 389
SB 390
SB 431

If you have a towing experience you want placed on the record, before the Committee votes on the bill, now is the time to act.


You can look up the bills at www.leg.state.or.us by bill number

Send your towing horror story to your state representative and your state senator (look up the addresses at www.leg.state.or.us

Also to the members of the Senate Commerce Committee, addresses also at www.leg.state.or.us

And to the offices of Senator Avel Gordly and Senator Ryan Deckert, who are both working on the legislation, at www.leg.state.or.us

And to the Consumer Fraud section of the Department of Justice www.doj.state.or.us

Don’t forget the newspapers and local television. They are all interested in these stories.

Did I remember to tell you? That my guess is that the Need for Speed and Citizen's Right #8 collided, and that this is how Retriever broke my transmission while patrolling a Hacienda CDC property next to my house at 5:30 on a Saturday morning nearly two years ago?

Well, in case I didn’t, my guess is that the Need for Speed and Citizen's Right #8 collided, and that this is how Retriever broke my transmission while patrolling a Hacienda CDC property next to my house at 5:30 on a Saturday morning nearly two years ago.

Did I remember to mention that Retriever’s tow drivers trespassed on my property on three separate occasions and stole the cars right out of my driveway? That they did so while patrolling Hacienda CDC's apartment lots?

Retriever claimed that Hacienda CDC’s off-site manager ordered the tows.

Hacienda CDC’s off-site manager claimed that they told Retriever expressly not to tow from my property.

Hacienda claims that they don’t know anything about towing. Hoo boy, I just got a look at the numbers, at the numbers of Retriever and Sergeant's tows off of Hacienda CDC properties per the patrol towing contract Hacienda CDC is inflicting on the NE Cully neighborhood.

The patrollers are feasting over there in that low-income neighborhood, snagging and dragging. Thinking about how those marlin are biting down there off Baja.

Lots of immigrants over there in Cully, too. Snag and drag. Speed is the key.

Even better when the vehicle owner has never heard of Citizen Right # 8 and doesn't speak English.

Wait'll the reporters get ahold of those numbers....

My Dad's career-ending injury

That’s my Dad, taking off his gun belt, leaning against his busted-up patrol car, standing on a leg with a shattered kneecap. Underneath his shirt, his chest and upper arms were a massive, deep bruise, the steering wheel imprinted square in the middle of his chest. The seat belt saved his life.

The scene is five miles outside of Fairfield, California, where Dad was a Solano County Deputy Sheriff, in the 1960’s.

On his way into town at the end of his shift, an oncoming motorist had suddenly crossed into Dad’s lane sideways and he went from 65 to 0 in about 100 feet.

Smack into a giant Pontiac Bonneville station wagon, he managed to turn the patrol car sideways a little to spread out the impact.

At the moment that the photo was taken, he had been standing on that kneecap for thirty minutes. He had called it in, climbed out of the car, blood streaming down his face and out of his scalp, and walked over to the other car and made sure that the driver and her children were ok.

Then he stood out on the two-lane highway and directed traffic until help came, standing on the leg.

Although the other driver and her children were uninjured, Dad ordered them into the first ambulance that arrived and waited for the next.

By the time the second ambulance arrived, units from Solano County, the California Highway Patrol, and the cities of Fairfield and Suisun were out there.

John Cruz had a lot of friends, and they came out. Four jurisdictions on the scene.

The loss of the kneecap meant the end of a 14-year career as a patrol officer, covering hundreds of square miles of Solano County, and serving as a court interpreter in both Spanish and French.

Dad loved his job. He was a fine peace officer, personifying the concept of “community policing” long before the term was invented. He was a problem solver and a communicator. A multi-lingual communicator.

He was my hero and my brother Dana’s hero.

There was never a time in our lives that Dad wasn’t there for us.

Except for when he was on duty, he took Dana and I with him everywhere. We met just about everybody in town and out on the ranches and farms in the county. Growing up, we met them all.

Dad not only spoke with everybody, he spoke with many in their own languages.

The steering wheel put this massive bruise on his chest and arms. That bruise took a long, long time to heal.

What we couldn’t see was how damaged his heart was, and several years later he began suffering heart attacks. He passed away in 1975, at an otherwise very youthful 52 years of age.

No day passes in which Dana and I do not remember him, and fondly, proud to have had him in our lives.

Oregon State Senator Avel Gordly Speaks Out on the Iraq War

Several Resolutions regarding the War in Iraq are circulating around the Oregon State Capitol, but at a pace virtually certain to guarantee that they will come up for floor debate after--I say again--AFTER!!!--the United States Congress takes up the issue and votes, rendering the Resolutions both late and moot.

This is the equivalent, on this Super Bowl Sunday, of waving pom poms after the game is done, the teams have left the field and the popcorn sweepers are at work.

Where the analogy is false is in comparing the catastrophic tragedy of Iraq to the phony, bloated importance of what is nothing more than the last professional football game of the season.

But there is no question of where the attention of the nation is focused.

Kickoff time is hours away.

In Iraq, the US military has just acknowledged that insurgents have learned how to shoot US helicopters down, and released the information that they did so four times in January.

The nation shakes its pom poms today.



Senator Avel Gordly took the direct route on Friday, posting the following Open Letter on her legislative website at www.leg.state.or.us/gordly




Open Letter on the War in Iraq
February 2, 2007

Dear Mr. President, the United States Congress, the Oregon Delegation:

This morning, the funeral procession for Private First Class Ryan Hill, only 20 years old, began at the front steps of the Oregon State Capitol.

Private First Class Hill was a member of the United States Army and he resided in Keizer, Oregon. He died Saturday, January 20 in Baghdad, Iraq.

Once again, flags will are flown at half staff. Once again, our Governor will stand with a military family at a gravesite.

Once again, Governor Kulongoski will pray that this funeral service will be the last, as he has done more than seventy times since the beginning of the Iraq catastrophe.

Once again, a bereaved family sheds tears that will have no end.

Private First Class Hill was at the front, on the leading edge of the “surge” into Baghdad that you, Mr. President, have ordered our troops to perform.

A few days ago, I met Steve and Karen Weiss, whose son is currently one of the youngest Marines west of the Mississippi. The Weiss’s are very proud of their son, but they worry because he and his unit are part of your “surge” into Baghdad, and in order to make that surge happen, the training these Marines should be receiving before deployment has been cut short.

Here in my office, as Mrs. Weiss wept, we held hands and prayed together for her son’s safety.

If we value the lives of these young men and women, then we owe it to them to see that they receive the equipment and the training they need before we put them in harm’s way, but that is not being done. I say again, before we put them in harm’s way.

If we value them, we need to give them more than words, more than yellow decals…and more than moments of silence.

You, Mr. President, hold the office of Commander in Chief, and you have the power to order men and women to die, but you are—sadly and tragically--using that power poorly and for the wrong reasons.

For more than three years, you have characterized our role in the Iraq War as that the United States is a part of “Coalition Forces.”

You have stated many times that this is a war with Coalition Forces on one side and insurgents and terrorists on the other.

Yet, it is not Coalition Forces that are being ordered into harm’s way, Mr. President, it is the troops under your control—like our fine Oregon National Guard soldiers—and them alone that are being sent to fight and die in Iraq.

Nowhere in your new strategy is there a role for “Coalition Forces.”

The fact is that these “Coalition Forces” will not enter the battle as long as our troops are there.

Other nations with security interests equal to ours in the Middle East will not enter the battle against the insurgents and terrorists while it is our men and women doing the fighting and dying.

And less than one half of one percent of the nation is actually fighting the war.

The rest of us are risking nothing and sacrificing nothing. We are not even paying for the war. That burden has been levied on our children and grandchildren.

We are a nation in crisis, Mr. President, yet there is no sense of shared sacrifice among us.

On the same day that Private First Class Hill was laid to rest, Exxon Mobile announced that it had—for the second year in a row—the most profitable year in American history, and that it did so despite a decline in earnings in the last quarter of 2006.

Your war strategy has depended upon using and re-using the same military personnel and the same military families over and over again, and the nation says “Enough.”

This is still a democracy, Mr. President, and the voters have spoken. The nation has spoken.

Mr. President, it was the people—functioning as a true democracy—who brought the Viet Nam War to an end.

It was the people who—tired of empty promises and false rhetoric and grandiose dreams of spreading American-style democracy to the far corners of the globe—forced the Administration to alter its course and bring our troops home.

But not before 60,000 American soldiers lay dead in their graves.

The Nation has spoken, Mr. President, and this time we will not wait. We are speaking to you directly, as directly as is possible in this democracy.

We are speaking with our votes. We are speaking with our voices. We are speaking through our elected representatives. Some few of us are speaking through shed blood, sacrifice and loss.

We speak for them.

The nation calls on you to leave behind the empty promises, the false rhetoric and the grandiose promises of this war, this war that you began on your own authority.

We call on you to bring our brothers and sisters home.

Avel Louise Gordly
Senate District 23
Multnomah County
Oregon