County asks state to back off

The Oregon Transportation Commission should suspend its plan to rename Belt Line Road as Randy Papé Beltline and launch a local public process to find a way to honor the deceased businessman, the Lane County Board of Commissioners said in a unanimous vote Tuesday morning.

Lane County Commissioner Rob Handy wrote the letter to the OTC that the entire board approved. Handy’s draft on Monday had asked the transportation commission to “drop” its renaming plans, but that was toned down in a revision.

“The Oregon Transportation Commission had good intentions to honor Randy Papé, but they jumped the gun by not having a good public process,” Handy said Tuesday. “We are urging them to work with the board, elected officials and the Papé family to honor him. We’re asking the OTC to work with us to find something the community will support.”

Whether the transportation commission, which oversees the state Department of Transportation, will follow the commissioners’ wish is unclear. Commission Chairwoman Gail Achterman did not return a call from The Register-­Guard on Tuesday.

Achterman worked quietly with the Papés on the renaming proposal from shortly after his death in November 2008 through earlier this year, Achterman’s e-mails show.

State Department of Transportation staff members and others privately warned Achterman that the renaming would prompt a public outcry, the e-mails show. But the state proceeded and kept the plan under wraps until just two days before the transportation commission voted on it on March 11.

Handy’s draft letter cited the transportation commission’s “public involvement policy,” which states that the commission and ODOT “will meaningfully involve the public in important decisions by providing for early, open, continuous and effective public participation in and access to key planning and project decision-making processes.” But the county dropped that from the final version of the letter on Tuesday.

“It just might have been a little bit wonky to reference their guidelines,” Handy said. But the letter still asks the transportation commission to engage the public, he said. “We feel that’s clear in the letter still.”

Transportation Department spokesman Patrick Cooney on Tuesday said the transportation commission’s public involvement policy does not apply to administrative matters, only to major projects and planning events.

“We have literally thousands of conversations every day with cities, counties” and other agencies “that we don’t make public,” Cooney said. “I know people are feeling that they were not involved” in the Belt Line renaming, he said. “But that’s not how these things have been handled historically. So I’m afraid we’ve got some unmatched expectations.”

The county letter notes the groundswell of opposition to renaming the 10-mile highway for Papé, the late Eugene businessman and transportation commission member. But the letter also says there is “much support for finding an appropriate way to remember him. It would be a fitting memorial to Mr. Papé to engage the public in finding a way to honor him that enjoys broad support.”

The transportation commission’s vote last month produced a flood of protest, particularly after The Register-Guard reported that the state would spend $250,000 to replace 50 signs with the new name. Hundreds of critics wrote or called the state, and more than 14,000 signed two Facebook pages objecting to the change, arguing that the state’s move was wasteful and carried out surreptiously.

The transportation com- mission then shifted course, saying it would instead rename the highway Randy Papé Beltline, spend just $1,500 upfront to replace one sign at each end of the freeway, and replace the rest of the signs as they wore out. The transportation commission plans to vote on that idea at its meeting later this month in Florence.

Handy not told of proposal

But there’s still opposition by residents who resent the way state officials quietly came up with the renaming idea, proposed it to the Papé family, and proceeded with it after they were cautioned that it would spark local criticism. Transportation Department and transportation commission e-mails obtained by The Register-­Guard show that state officials last year privately conferred with a range of local officials to seek their advice on renaming Belt Line for Papé, but did not talk with Handy, who one Transportation Department official described as being “not aligned” with Papé and who would probably start a “public debate” on the matter.

Opponents last week filed an initiative petition with the Oregon Secretary of State’s Office to gather signatures and put the state’s highway renaming procedures to a statewide vote in November.

The commissioners’ let-ter says Belt Line Road “already has a name that people have grown used to and will continue to use. Many people will not know who Mr. Papé was, and won’t learn by driving past a highway sign. Beltline Highway is the most congested arterial in Lane County, and not something to be proud of nor a fitting memorial to the man. And there are concerns about the cost of renaming Beltline Highway, especially in these tough economic times when people are looking to government to tighten its belt (no pun intended).”

Transportation Department e-mails show that ODOT was leery of privately broaching the renaming idea with Handy and fellow Lane County Commissioner Pete Sorenson during the state’s discreet canvassing of local opinion last year.

“Concern is that if we bring it up to either Handy or Sorenson it will go right on the (county) board agenda which we think would begin the public debate,” Transportation Department Region 2 Manager Jane Lee wrote to ODOT director Matthew Garrett on Jan. 8, 2009.

Handy, who defeated incumbent Commissioner Bobby Green in the November 2008 election, had only been in office a few days when Lee wrote that e-mail. “Expect that as he was not aligned with Randy, that won’t be a positive,” Lee wrote.

The Papé family business, The Papé Group, financially backed Green’s campaign, giving him $3,000, according to state campaign funding reports.

An e-mail from Lee to Garrett eight days later says various local officials, including every county commissioner but Handy, had been told of the proposed name change that month.

“The idea was floated to four of the five county commissioners, Rob Hande (sic) was not available … the four contacted were all supportive although the chair, Pete Sorenson, is out of town and asked that the OTC not go forward without giving him a chance to be part of the conversation.”

“We ought to scrap this”

Sorenson said Tuesday that someone might have sent him an e-mail about the renaming, but “I get 200 e-mails a day” and he does not remember that one.

“I’m not aware that they asked our opinion,” he said. “I think we ought to scrap this and go back to the beginning.”

Commissioner Bill Dwyer said he has been aware of the proposed renaming for more than a year. “I objected to the naming in the first place,” he said.

“ODOT has rules,” he said, referring to the OTC’s guidelines on renaming state highway facilities. “They figure they’re just going to weasel their way through this process and that’s not how it works. They’ve got to stop this backroom crap that will get you in trouble.”

Commissioner Faye Stewart said he remembers learning of the renaming proposal last year and had no objections. Given the amount of public outcry since the transportation commission’s vote last month, Stewart said he now agrees that ODOT “should consider suspending (the renaming) and do some public outreach. I just think we should listen to the people.”

Meanwhile, e-mails be-tween Gov. Ted Kulongoski’s staff and U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., show that Wyden was a big early fan of renaming a state facility for Papé. The e-mails, released Tuesday under state public records law to The Register-­Guard, show that in the weeks immediately after Papé’s death, Wyden’s staff repeatedly asked Kulongoski’s staff whether the state was going to name a facility after Papé and when the dedication would take place. Wyden wanted to attend the dedication and needed to know the date to work it into his schedule, Wyden’s staff wrote.

Randy Papé and his wife, Susie, were financial supporters of Wyden. According to filings with the Federal Elections Commission, from 2001 to 2007, Randy and Susie Papé gave $34,400 to Wyden campaign coffers, plus $100,000 to Democratic campaign groups that were collecting money for a range of congressional candidates, often including Wyden.

Wyden and Randy Papé “were very close personal friends,” Wyden spokesman Tom Towslee said Tuesday. “He wanted to be there for the family. But there’s no advocacy on our part for any specific project.”

Senior editor Christian Wihtol contributed to this report.