The World reporter Gail Elber’s otherwise excellent coverage of the Jordan Cove LNG debate between warring factions defined as CALNG (Citizens Against LNG) which opposes the project and BS Oregon (Boost Southwest Oregon) which is in favor, still leaves unanswered questions about the latter. According to the paper, BS Oregon has “letters of support from 34 businesses, unions and political parties” and “mines a rich vein of frustration among those who have endured decades of disappointment in the Bay Area’s economy”. (Note: Many of the Southwest Oregon Boosters, or SOBs supported past projects that failed to deliver on grandiose promises).
Unlike CALNG, BS Oregon is not listed with the State of Oregon as a corporation, assumed business name or a non profit organization that I can find and its domain was only just created April 3, 2013 under a private registration offering precious few clues as to who is behind the website and paying the bills. BS Oregon is represented by a licensed lobbyist, Ray Bucheger, with offices in Washington, DC. Who pays Bucheger to promote the Jordan Cove LNG project? The website lists a Boost Steering Committee, (yes… a BS committee), that includes county assessor Steve Jansen, North Bend city manager Terrence O’Connor, Brooke Walton, star of the ruby slipper video and retired state senator Ken Messerle amongst others.
While we probably have a pretty good idea who is financing BS Oregon the public deserves confirmation.
Bucheger and his company FBB Federal Relations claim that their local client paying to promote Jordan Cove is the Port of Coos Bay.
Interesting. So is their other paid consultant, Ken Messerle, paid to be on the BS committee also?
not eat. typo…
I remember you writing that your name was being used. The uh-list just might work better than you think. It did compel you to explain why your name was there.
If my name was being used by a group for a purpose I disagreed with, I would be pissed and demand they take my name off that site. If you concede your name to this, your are a supporter in my eyes. If I did not believe you I would eat from your restaurant. If you wear the sign in your window that represents an organization that is working for this BS, I will pass you by. That works for me..
Uh — let’s not be too impressed by long lists of names. For one thing, that’s been a standard tactic with all these boondoggle campaigns. Some people sign on even though they barely know what it’s about. Others (like me) sign up because they want to know what’s going on. In my case it doesn’t seem to have worked, because I have not received any mailings since I signed up.
Have you tried asking Bucheger who is paying him?
Mine and other’s emails have gone unanswered
I see why MarkM thinks its OK for teachers to be involved with selling the kids future to an oil company. He’s not alone, that list of BS boosters is rife with people that claim their credentials come from the education system. Those types use your trust of teachers to exploit for their own gain. This area has an abundance of those types in office or running for office. Don’t be fooled by their ability to disarm others by using The word Educator on their resume. North Bend and Coos Bay both have their administrators at the top of the BS list. I expected more from people who have risen to that level, where they are presumed to be the brightest of the teachers. Somewhere they lost their way to greed, perhaps its the company they keep when they move into the upper layers of society that are available to them with that position. We’re limited here, but there is still a social ladder that these types will always strive to climb even if they have to dumb down to do it.
To the person that gets hired to replace Clark:
Read that list several times. Those are the people your predecessor represented. The first people kissing up to you will be on that list. Then when you get real comfortable with the feeling you will find that you are now the one kissing up, for your survival inside the local power structures. Good Luck.
The inner-click group that represents the most power and danger are the members of the Oregon Coastal Caucus.
That group of past and present elected officials have banded and vowed to vote as “one”. They try to use their influence to make the other state reps believe that they have the complete confidence of the people. The only people they represent are the same promoters that have laid this project at our door. The Oregon Coastal Caucus should be dis-banded. It is a corrupt organization, that is working for these LNG developers. They are kinda like the supreme court, they have to die to leave it, you can’t vote them out.
This group may seem like a large group of people, but most of them know each other and got their spouses and friends to sign-up, and it looks like they are comprised of some of the most ambitious of our local citizens, but they are still a small minority of the people that live in the county and they don’t have the right to act like they are the only ones that should count. The locals have been denied a vote and any choice in the process.Yet this group would now try to make it appear that all who matter are for it. That was a very small base that they took their vote from.
BS Oregon is full throttle LNG support. Nothing less. If these people want to excuse their name being on this list by claiming they only want economic growth for Oregon, then they need to own this, or wise up and ask them to remove your name.. By lending your name to this organization, whose only goal is to bring LNG, you have made yourself and your associates public. Now deal with the consequences.
First, even a blind person can see that is a Jordan Cove web site not boost anything but. The only thing missing from the web site is anything about BS. Second, most of those people truly believe they support boosting Oregon, not just boosting Jordan Cove. Third, in the state of Oregon the Justice Department monitors organizations for the IRS to assure that they are properly tax exempt. The department within DOJ that monitors tax exempt organizations is the Charitable group. Within that group is a lady name of Rhonda (I last spoke to her about six months ago, she may be gone). She is most knowledgeable and helpful. Ask her if she knows BS. Telephone 503.378.6002 for media; 877.877.9392 for consumers; 971.673.1880 for every day folks. Let us know.
Here’s the cast:
Boost Steering Committee
Steve Jansen (Coos County)
Terrence O’Conner (City of North Bend)
BJ Hollensteiner (North Bend Schools)
Mark Wall (Roseburg Forest Products)
Brooke Walton (Bay Area Chamber of Commerce)
Brianna Hanson (Oregon Resource Corp.)
Dawn Granger (Coos Bay Schools)
Amber Burnette (Home Builders Association)
Dick Leshley (Yellow Cab)
Ken Messerle (State Senator – Retired)
George Wales (Coos Bay Pilots)
Bob Westerman (IBEW Local Union 932)
Jennifer Groth
Todd Goergen (Box Car Hill Campground)
Local Governments, Organizations, and Companies
2nd Street Cottages
Arctic Ice Company
Bandon Concrete
Bay Area Chamber of Commerce
Black Swan Inn
Blazer Industries
Billeter Marine
Brock Construction
Box Car Hill Campground
City of North Bend
Coos Bay Pilots
Coos County Republican Central Committee
Coos-Curry Electric Cooperative, Inc.
Home Builders Association of Southwestern Oregon
IBEW Local Union 932
Ironworkers Local 29
John Gibson Insurance Agency
Knife River Materials
Knutson Towboat Company
Koos Transportation LLC
Laborers’ Local 121
Lloyd Electric, LLC
Maslow Project of Coos County
Menasha Forest Products Corporation
Millicoma Logging LLC
Ocean Grove Development
Operating Engineers Local 701
Oregon Home Builders Association
Oregon Pacific Cascade Chapter NECA
Oregon Resources Corporation
Oregon State Building and Construction Trades Council
Pacific Northwest Regional Council of Carpenters
Paradise Lodge
Port of Bandon
Port of Brookings Harbor
Port of Coos Bay
Port of Siuslaw
Port of Toledo
Port of Umpqua
Portland bagel Company
Richard Turi Architect
Roseburg Area Chamber of Commerce
Roseburg Forest Products
Sause Brothers
Scott Partney Construction
Sheet Metal Workers’ Local 16
Silver Spring Farm
South Coast Business Employment Council
South Coast Development Council
The Partnership for Economic Development in Douglas County
UA 290
Yellow Cab Taxi
Elected Officials
Mayor Keith Tymchuck, Reedsport
Senator Jeff Kruse, Chair, Oregon Coastal Caucus
Senator Ken Messerle
Senator Arnie Roblan
Senator Doug Whitsett
Senator Joanne Verger
Representative Deborah Boone, Vice Chair, Oregon Coastal Caucus
Representative David Gomberg
Representative Wayne Krieger
Representative Caddy McKeown
Community Members
Sheri Aasen
R. Scott Banks
Jon Barton
Melissa Bates
Ned Beman
Pete Billeter
Jon A.R. Bohanan
Gordon Bridgham
Cecelia Brinke
Greg Brock
Amber Burnette
Rudy Butler
Marvin Caldera
Jeremy Carnahan
Shannon Canady
Jon Chandler
Mike Chavez
Derek Claiborne
Nicole Claiborne
Don Cook
Patrick Cook
Patty Cook
Brandie Cooksey
Jonathan Cutlip
Kyle Daniels
Donna Davis
Josh Deere
Jim Donnelly
Ralph Dunham
Lloyd J Eck
Walter Ell
Denny Emerson
Eric Farm
Brad Finch
Mike Flewelling
Adam H. Foxworthy
Joel Frasieur
Larry R. Garboden
Gordon Gates
Patti Gates
Sandra Geiser-Messerle
John Gibson
Dick Goergen
Matt Goergen
Todd Goergen
Dennis Goude
Dawn Granger
Grant Gulseth
Shelly Gulseth
Jeffrey Harms
Theresa Haga
Brianna Hanson
Joann Hansen
Barry Hayes
Guy Hawthorne
Shelley Heusser
Larry Hink
Dan Holmen
Mark Hoye
Tim Huntley
Jim Innes
Jeff Jacobson
Fred Jacquot
Erin Johnson
Garth Johnson
Pam de Jong
Karl Kennedy
Julie Kephart
Randy Kephart
Lisa Keys
John Knutson
Konrad Kuchlbauer
Henry Duane LaFavers
Michele Laird
Kyle Latta
Haley Leshley
Dick Leshley
Louis Liberante
Kathy Main-Gorda
Jeffrey L. Marineau
Mike McCumiskey
Mark McKelvey
Jeff McKeown
Paul McKiddy
Wayne Medford
Roy Metzger
Renee Middleton
Cameron Mitchell
Rishia Mitchell
Jill Mitchell
Bob Mitchell
Bruce Moore
Kelly Morgan
Andy Nasburg
Bill Ohlsen
Rick Osborn
Kim Payne
Jason Payne
Scott Partney
Chris Peach
Lloyd E. Pedro
Stephanie Peters
Lindi Quinn
Glenda Ramer
Randy Rema
Gary Rifkin
Steve Riggs
Ron Robbins
Bill Sack
Steve Sanden
Patty Sanden
Stephanie Sweet Saxton
Dennis Schmidt
Mike Shott
Richard Skinner
Tracie Skinner
Eugene A. Skoglund
Timm Slater
Randy Smith
John Sperry
Scott Starkey
Pete Stingley
Danny Stoddard
Darcie Stone c/o MP Auto & Rigging LLC
Ronald Stuntzner
Ron Tavenner
Tim Truax
Russ Tschetter
Jim Tucker
Richard Turi
Keith Tymchuk
Candis Wade
Mark Wall
Brooke Walton
Jayson Wartnik
Mike White
Sue Wirth
Ronald Wiggins
Carolyn Williams
Doyle Williams
Frank Williams
Patti Williamson
Barry Winters
Troy Woody
Jim Vick
Wim de Vriend
My old broken,cracked NO-LNG sign needs replacing and we need a lot of people to hold them in front of all these businesses that BS wants to claim as supporters, all on the same day. We take lots of pictures of us holding signs in front of their shops. We post them online so others may see who supports this BS. We can call this reporter from the world to document this special event.
These special business owners that want to support BS can use the same event to promote their business to pro-LNG people. Its time to divide the camps.
Yeah, you have to wonder if the name was a sort of Freudian slip, an accidental moment of truth. Avoiding these businesses is good strategy but not just because they have a different viewpoint but because they are either deceitful enough or gullible enough to repeat the industry talking points without doing their own research.
They couldnt have picked a better combination of letters to represent themselves. This is the same cast of characters we’ve been trying to expose for years. They are just trying to sound important and new. BS is just what they are.
The good thing about this for the public is that they are starting to expose themselves by joining this BS. These people you listed are already deeply involved in running parts of our local government structure and they should have kept their support and involvement secret. Now I know who to vote against. Please expose the list of supporters for this BS ASAP. We need to know where to spend our money locally. I want to make sure that not one more dime of mine is used by this group to help poison the future.
We must hit them in the pocket book. Don’t do business with any business that supports this crap. Find out who they are and then tell us here at this site so we can spread the word and expose these insiders. It won’t be that hard to shop online where necessary to avoid giving these business owners what they deserve.
We need to boycott the ones that are running a public business and campaign to vote out those that have embedded themselves like ticks in our government. We can only start locally, that’s why I will not eat at Bennetti’s or buy even a washer for a harley locally. If you business owners want to join this group spreading BS, then sign-up, tell us who you are and we can say good-bye to supporting your business.. If you are a chamber member you are already suspect by osmosis, so make sure to look for the chamber member signs in the windows of the stores and businesses they own and then walk-on by.