NEWS UPDATE FROM STATE REPRESENTATIVE DAVID GOMBERG: Some of the Good News

By Representative David Gomberg, House District 10

10/13/2025

Dear Friends and Neighbors,

Legislative sessions seem to go on forever. The Federal government has shut down. Taxes are going up and revenues are going down. And the President is still trying to occupy Portland.

I’m not going to talk about any of that this week.

With so much difficult news swirling around, I thought it was an appropriate time to look at some of the good things going on across our district. Because everywhere I turn, I see good people striving to make their communities stronger, better, and more interesting.

Here are a few examples.

Last Saturday, on the way home from a lively Town Hall in Corvallis, I stopped in on the Community Repair Fair at Hatfield Marine Science Center. This remarkable event was organized by Oregon Sea Grant (OSG) and the Hatfield Innovation Lab. Community members were encouraged to bring their broken household items to the Repair Fair to see if they could be fixed by a volunteer.

I saw everything from jewelry to vacuums to ripped jeans to bicycles to antique lamps. There were displays on household glues, how to care for kitchen woods, and microfibers in laundry. A wide variety of items were brought to the event. The most popular area visited was fabric repair (handled by six fixers), followed closely by mechanical, electrical, and wood repairs (handled by seven fixers) and blade sharpening (managed by just one expert fixer).

I asked the tech experts about my fast-fading phone battery. Oregon is now the fourth state in the country to enact a “right to repair” law to make it easier for consumers and independent shops to fix electronic gear. With Governor Tina Kotek’s signing of Senate Bill 1596, manufacturers will be required to offer any necessary documentation, parts, tools, or any device needed to repair electronic equipment at a “fair cost” and on “reasonable” terms.

Over the past few days, Oregon participated in National Banned Books Week and celebrated the freedom to read. It seemed an apt time to cut the ribbon on a new mural gracing the back steps of the Newport Library. Each step was painted like the binding of a well-known and popular book that was once banned. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Catch-22, Of Mice and Men, and The Kite Runner are all included.

Newport celebrated Banned Books Week 2025 with a new stair mural at the Newport Public Library created by artist Gary Herd that features covers of banned and challenged books, according to this Facebook post.

I was pleased to speak at the well-attended event. Assaults on the freedom to read continue in Oregon. Parents can certainly manage what materials their own children can access. But the challenge of late has been efforts by some parent groups to challenge what others can read. The issue is often not the content of the book, but rather what kind of person has written it. There have been proposals to remove books with gay, black, Native American, or immigrant authors. The response was the passage of SB 1098, which I was pleased to co-sponsor. The bill prohibits discrimination when selecting or retaining school library materials, textbooks, instructional materials, or a curriculum.

Our libraries are central to the freedom to read, learn, express, and grow. Happy Banned Book Week!

I got my annual flu shot at the Senior Fair. Are you one of those people who watches or looks the other way when the needle goes in? I pretended to grimace but it really didn’t hurt at all! Immunizations were administered by nurse graduates from Oregon Coast Community College.

I also sat down with Roger Robertson for a new podcast on the Double R Show. You can listen, compare, and contrast thoughts from Senator Anderson and me here.

Each month, Lincoln County Mayors gather for breakfast and a chance to compare notes, build relationships, and address common problems.

Toledo, Lincoln City, Yachats, Depoe Bay, and Newport were in attendance this week, along with Walter Chuck from Lincoln County and me.

I always enjoy listening to the mayors. Of growing concern is the evolving definition of a “serial meeting”. Prohibited serial communications occur when the governing body, outside of a public meeting, uses electronic written communications, in-person communications, or an intermediary to communicate among a quorum of the members of the body for the purpose of deliberating or deciding on any matter within the body’s jurisdiction.

That sounds pretty complicated. What it means is that debate and decisions are properly limited to public meetings on the record.

So, if I call up each member of a city council to share my thoughts on an upcoming issue, and I tell one member what another is thinking, has a serial violation occurred? If one of our fire district board members texts another during a public meeting, is that a violation? If someone sends a letter to the paper and all the decision makers read it, is that a violation?

Ethics matter. And I fully support decisions being made transparently and in public. But we also need rules that are easy to understand and follow. One consequence of government becoming more complex is discouraging good people from serving.

Apparently everyone got the memo that it was dark blue clothing day!

I love ribbon cuttings! I like groundbreakings too! A groundbreaking means we’re planning to do something. A ribbon cutting means we got it done!

This past week, we officially opened a 77-unit apartment complex for students, researchers, and faculty at the Hatfield Marine Science Center and Oregon Coast Community College. The facility includes offices and common space, studio apartments with bunks, loft apartments, and two-bedroom units for families.

Former director Bob Cowan and I were honored to cut the beaver-orange ribbon.

Just a year ago, I was present for the groundbreaking. The $16.5 million project is being financed with $10 million in OSU-paid bonds and $6.5 million I helped secure from the Oregon Legislature.

The Marine Studies Center has a big impact on the central Oregon coast. It has a $45 million yearly operating budget, employs more than 400 people, and serves 35-40 more from state and federal agencies. There are 480 students, the majority of them graduate students. Many commute from the Corvallis area or other coastal cities, or – like hundreds of others – search for housing in Newport. This new dorm complex is an important addition.

Democracy is alive and well across our district. I’m thinking of the vibrant Town Hall in Corvallis last week.

Then on Thursday, I had the opportunity to address the Fall Civic Engagement Class at Oregon Coast Community College, which is designed to explore constituent activism, voting, and constitutional rights. During this 90-minute exchange, I was asked to present on Government 101: Understanding Power & Influence. That was a daunting responsibility.

After asking the 40 people present for their own thoughts, I suggested that political influence was the ability to get things done. I spoke about legislation and the dozens of local projects across our district that I’d brought money home for. I talked about the importance of building relationships among legislators with different experiences and from different parts of the state, about bi-partisanship, and about how a county with just one Representative could persevere in a body where other counties might have five, ten, or twenty Representatives. I tried to apply legislative examples to situations in local government, boards and commissions, about the importance of local elections that seldom garner much attention, and how coalitions can affect the outcomes of those elections.

I spoke about process, understanding the rules, and using them to achieve goals. I also gave examples of how not understanding rules could limit your influence or even get you in trouble. Finally, I talked about the influence of money in politics and showed attendees how to navigate the Secretary of State’s web pages that detailed all contributions and expenditures.

It was a good exchange, and I hope the attendees enjoyed and learned as much as I did.

Saturday, I enjoyed a different kind of political engagement. I was the auctioneer for an annual fundraiser and found the room filled with camaraderie, enthusiasm, and optimism. I’ll be the auctioneer for the Newport Chamber of Commerce later this month and hope that the room feels the same.

I was surprised and honored at the end of the evening to receive a special art collage. I’ll be pleased to display it in my Salem office.