Renaming not governor’s idea

SALEM — In an interview Thursday at the State Capitol, Gov. Ted Kulongoski confirmed that renaming Belt Line Road for the late Eugene businessman Randy Papé was not his idea, rather that he was asked by the Oregon Transportation Commission in December to write a letter proposing it.

“I had been approached by members of the commission who wanted to do something to recognize (Papé’s) contributions,” Kulongoski said in his first public comments about the controversial decision to rename the 10-mile highway built in the 1960s. “And I was asked to write a letter and be supportive of them, which I did.”

The letter, to Gail Achterman, chairwoman of the transportation commission, is dated Jan. 15 and asks that the commission “designate the Beltline Highway in Eugene in honor of Randall C. Papé as an appropriate tribute to Randy’s contributions to the State of Oregon.”

On March 11, the commission voted 3-0 with two commissioners absent to approve Kulongoski’s request and rename the highway the Randy Papé Beltway — in honor of Papé, who ran his family’s third-generation Eugene heavy-equipment business, The Papé Group, until his death in 2008 — and install 50 new signs costing $250,000 in taxpayer money.

But after three weeks of public anger centered on the taxpayer cost in harsh economic times and lack of public involvement in the process, Achterman announced Wednesday that the panel plans to vote at its monthly meeting this month in Florence to revise its previous vote and now change the name to Randy Papé Beltline and only initially install two signs, one at each end of Belt Line Road, for a cost of $1,500.

ODOT would replace the remainder of the signs in the coming years, as they normally would, as signs wear out, she said.

The transportation commission’s official state highway naming policy says it generally does not name highway facilities after individuals, unless a requester can show statewide support, the individual “made a lasting contribution with a significant and historic impact on Oregon” and has been deceased for at least a year.

On Thursday, Kulongoski defend-ed the transportation commission’s initial decision, as well as its compromise on Wednesday.

“This is an Oregon family,” Kulongoski said. “They were born and raised here. They have a third-generation business that’s provided opportunities for the people in Lane County and Eugene. (Papé) was more than just a three-term transportation commissioner. He was a member of the Nature Conservancy (of Oregon), the (Oregon Trail) Council of Boy Scouts. … I could give you a whole litany of contributions that he’s made to the Lane County area that has made Lane County a better place for all of us. And in some of the most difficult times for the transportation commission, Randy Papé was a rock, guiding the state at a time when we were having all kinds of problems with bridges over the Willamette River, over the McKenzie River in Eugene. He was the one pushing the agenda to make sure things were taken care of.”

Asked what he thought about Lane County residents not being included in the name-changing process, Kulongoski said he thought that was an “inaccurate” assessment.

“The transportation commission is required by law to notify the public, and they did,” Kulongoski said. “There was nothing that violated (any law.) Now, whether no one showed up or not, I don’t know. They’ve done everything the law requires us to do.”

The Department of Transportation on March 9 notified The Register-Guard of the March 11 commission meeting, and news­paper wrote about the proposal in its March 10 edition. That prompted about a dozen residents to send objections to the commission. The criticism swelled to a flood after the March 11 vote.

The transportation commission posts its monthly meeting agenda on its Web site. Oregon public meetings law requires public bodies to give notice of its meetings “far enough in advance reasonably to give interested persons actual notice and an opportunity to attend.”

Transportation Department rec-ords obtained by The Register-Guard under the state’s public records law show that the process of renaming Belt Line Road began as far back as January 2009 in confidential conversations between the ODOT staff, commission members and the Papé family.

Asked about that, Kulongoski said: “Well, I don’t know that. I know that I wrote a letter, I think it was in December sometime, and that’s when I was asked to be supportive of it and I said, ‘I am.’ ”

Kulongoski said he is not surprised by the public backlash. “It’s democracy,” he said. “It’s the way the system works.”

The revised decision by the commission is a “good solution,” Kulongoski said.

“The family is happy with it, the transportation committee is happy with it, I’m happy with the solution,” he said.

But a main group of critics, who have a Facebook page on the renaming issue, is not happy.

The group issued a statement saying: “What is not addressed is the loss of public trust in the way that the situation has been handled and especially in light of today’s RG article that revealed that back door deals were being made behind the public’s back starting over a year ago. To that end, the group’s official response is “No Deal” and we will not support any kind of compromise that essentially gives the governor and the Papé family what they wanted all along anyway. The governor will have to find some other way to honor his friend and campaign donor, Randy Papé.”