Corrective Legislation Planned ASAP to Curb Alleged OSFM Abuses.

Friday, 7/30/04:   Senate Committee engrossed in one story of abuse after another involving SWAT team raids & confiscations without explanation by the Office of the State Fire Marshal (OSFM) Property was never returned nor compensated.

in May of 2003.

Terri Glocar & others in the OSFM allegedly took SB-667 as further excuse to carry out what amounted to continued intimidation of any competition to Western Fireworks.

A growing number of attorneys have an ever increasing interest in what may be a long list of slam dunk cases against the OSFM and Western.

What the Senate Committee heard was over five hours of alleged incidents that included; SWAT raids, confiscations, coercion, falsification of state records & reports, threats, hired personnel to carry out threats, spying, ignorance of the law, undue delays in notification of approval or disapproval of permits, permit revocations immediately before fireworks shows, punitive measures which included signing away rights and admitting to nonexistent offenses, lying to Western competitor customers about so-called "concerns" the OSFM claimed to have without being specific, and ruining of competitor reputation among customers throughout the state. There were endless legal vagaries and sloppy misapplication of ordinances and laws.

Charges were never leveled to support the justification of raids or confiscations. No property was ever returned. No compensations ever given.

Non-refundable $2500 permit fees had to be paid regardless of permit approval or disapproval.

These testimonies may be just the tip of the iceberg regarding OSFM abuse of power. The offenses allegedly were primarily committed under the auspices of Tari Glocar, past head of the OSFM.

Tanner says the men and women who have shown up for various meetings with legislators are only a small fraction of the people abused by the OSFM administration. He says a lot of people are afraid to come forward because "Glocar will sic the police on them for no reason if they speak against her."

It is suspected that those who feel helpless to afford legal help may still be suffering in silence.

Also, due to limits on time, testimonies were shortened. There is more to tell from these people.

Anita Philips, not a happy camper as she listens to a series of testimonies describing alleged OSFM abuse in which she allegedly took part.

Glocar was present at the very beginning of the hearing, but left before questioning began and left for "personal reasons" according to Nancy Orr who is the new OSFM Director.. In place, of Glocar, to take the heat was her assistant, Anita Philips, and Orr. Orr has been with the OSFM for some time in a lesser capacity and seemed quite familiar with what had gone on.

A guest committee member was Representative Betsy Johnson (D)who had met with Dan Tanner and others several weeks prior to the hearing. She was prepared with pertinent, probing questions and requests for thorough information from the OSFM.

Committee members who heard the stories for the first time were incredulous. Senator Gary George quipped, after hearing one absurd story, that he was sorry to laugh, but the stories he was hearing were so ridiculous that he could see these OSFM people being portrayed in a Saturday Night Live comedy skit.

One witness said he was actually asked to participate in the taking of his own property, by using his own truck, when OSFM people realized they didn't have enough room in their own trucks to accomplish the complete confiscation. He felt forced to oblige.

None of the committee members appeared ready to accept explanations by Philips that the timing of permit revocations were "timely coincidences" when done immediately prior to Fourth of July fireworks displays. This was particularly hard to accept when a permit had been applied for as far back as eleven months before.

Philips testified that someone had brought to their attention that they should inspect some gun magazines to be used in a show. The timing of this reported concern was also supposed to be coincidental. The name of the mysterious reporter of that concern remains unknown thus far. Representative Johnson didn't buy it. She told Philips that it was "more than serendipitous" that this immediately was necessary just before July 4th.

Assistant Attorney General, Herbert Lovejoy, gave testimony in which he explained the intersection between federal and state laws. Federal law, he said, defines explosives broadly. The BATF list of explosive is different from the states. He said that federal statutes were not intended by congress to pre-empt the state as long as there is no direct conflict.

When Senator George asked him, "What's the process for resolution on this? Is it renegotiation with the feds"?

Lovejoy answered that he didn't know of any process to resolve such a conflict.

By the end of the senate session the stories were so unkind and absurd in nature that it prompted Senator Gary George to ask the congregation who was worse, the BATF or the OSFM? Unanimously everyone said they'd rather deal with the BATF.

George said that through the years he'd heard the BATF called Jack Booted Thugs because of their reputation for extensive abuses. The groups response to his question told him just how much they had suffered, he said.

Nancy Orr was emphatic that the OSFM philosophy was to fulfill the intent of the law, not the letter. But, Judson Carusone, Dan Tanners attorney, had little difficulty refuting her claim with horrific examples both from his own client and others.

Carusone told how far from original intent the OSFM had gone in willfully failing to record extremely serious violations by Western. Clackamas County had filed numerous clear violations that the county had said were probably beyond correction. The response from the fire marshal's office was only 'we work to keep people into compliance.'

But, emphasized Carusone, "according to Clackamas County there was no way to bring this facility into compliance. "Why they weren't immediately at least suspended until better legislative approval was passed I don't know", he said. Yet Glocar refrained from taking any action while "others were revoked for the minorest of violations", said Carusone.

Bill Zuber was put through punitive measures not unlike forcing the tobacco companies to print warnings of cancer on their packages. He was forced to pay for, print and disperse fliers telling fair goers of the dangers of pyrotechnics. It amounted to a public alert against what Zuber had come there to do.

"Protect your Family from pyro" the flyer said to all public who dared to come to the fireworks display. Like others, Zuber had been made to jump through hoops at the last minute or loose money and/or cancel a show.

Senator George remarked, "I'd like to see the authority for that mandate."

All the testimony had an interesting effect upon Senator Fisher. It jogged his memory. He told the congregation that 10 years before there had been a similar problem in his district he'd almost forgotten.

A constituent had, he said "wished to be involved with fireworks, who had been been previously, and wanted to continue. "But, Fisher said, he "was being fouled up by the same individual in this process. And also there was a mention of Western Display Fireworks and problems were being created by that individual so they [Western] would be the only group available for doing fireworks when there were some who wished to do it cheaper..., but they could not come into the state with their permits..."

He said, "I guess because it hadn't come up again, what we decided -- I guess, out of sight out of mind. I don't remember exactly what all was done..."

Fisher concluded, "Apparently it hasn't been out of mind or out of sight at all in the actual industry. So this is not something that just cropped up. It's been going on for some time."

Eugene's Register Guard newspaper reported in May 2003 that Tanner predicted the legislation, SB-667 would have the devastating effect it has. Tanner was already very familiar with how the OSFM misused ordinances and statues against any Western Fireworks competition.

The Record Searchlight reported, "Tanner and others in the fireworks business said they face a Catch-22 when it comes to securing land where they can store fireworks in Oregon. Sparsely developed acreage, such as farmland and quarries, represent the most sensible and affordable places to store fireworks. But such land is not zoned for industrial use, and counties, including Lane, have refused to grant exemptions for fireworks storage on land designated for mining or farming.

Senate Bill 667 would fix that. But it's narrowly written to allow only Western Display to benefit. That's because the bill creates a loophole in state land use law so that any aerial fireworks display business operating on land zoned exclusively for farm use since Dec. 31, 1986, can continue - an exemption that only Western Display qualifies for."

Unfortunately, Tanner's warning went unheeded. This meant that Tanner himself would become another victim of a confiscation in late June of 2004. The OSFM confiscated materials in transit from the delivery truck.

The Senate Committee agreed to do their part in bringing such abuses to an end by immediately working on new legislation. Representative Betsy Johnson (D) is ready to pave the way, in the House for corrective legislation to undo what SB-667 has done.

Johnson and George both gave profuse apologies to the congregation of witnesses. Johnson assured them that had she known what was going to happen she never would have approved the bill. George apologized for not providing a forum for them to air their problems much sooner. He explained he simply would never have believed the situation was so urgent or that the OSFM has been so outrageously abusive.

The group members couldn't thank the legislators enough. Throughout the hearing there were audible whispers thanking God, thanking Senators George & Fisher and Rep. Johnson. One husband and wife held hands tightly with arms around each other. They kept thanking Christ that someone was listening at last. Some clearly had to hold back tears when the legislators gave them public & verbals feedback that what had happened was so painful and outrageous. They had waited a long time for this day.

Originally the hearing was not expected to take as long as it did. George canceled another item on the docket to allow going on with the OSFM case as the gravity of the case quickly became obvious.

At another meeting, a month earlier with Rep. Betsy Johnson, other stories were told that the Senate Committee has yet to hear. All permit requests were always channeled through Tari Glocar which everyone knew was going to be a dead end. Excessive fees were charged when pyrotechnics asked to see any records. The cost of fees was raised the second time records were requested.

One file requested was known to be only one page long. Yet the charge to obtain it was $1700. It was hardly a voluminous file. However, it was learned that Western was never charged such fees, not even for a three inch stack of files. It was always easy for Western to get info from the Fire Marshal's office witnesses say.

Committee members will want to know why Glocar allowed Western to violate zoning laws for ten years without ever being sited. They will also want to know why some "after-show" incident reports were never filed against Western or Western's Bob Gobay.

It was learned, witnesses say, that an extremely serious injury Gobay suffered, was due to mishandling of an explosion. It is believed that Glocar knew full well about it and helped in covering up the transgression. A story was made up that in light of the type of injuries to Gobay would appear silly. There is curiosity as to what emergency room medical records recorded.

The hearing ended with Senator George extracting a vow from M's Orr that there would be no retaliation against those witnesses who had come forward. Responses from the audience let George know that, in spite of the promise, they felt insecure. Senator George let them know that if anything happened to anyone he wanted to know about it immediately.

Orr reiterated the OSFM philosophy was to follow intent of the law. There was deadpan response.

(Lt to rt) Tanner's attn'y Judson Carusone, Dan Tanner, & David Allen. Both Tanner & Allen were raided. Allen was raided by a SWAT team, state police & OSFM officials all at one time. There were more officials than he could count. Neither Tanner or Allen was ever charged with a crime, ever had property returned or compensated. They and others are asking that they be compensated or have property returned. Tanner was even forced to do an environmental impact report on the effects of fireworks on spotted owls. Meanwhile he was also required to do a separate study on effects of fireworks on fish. While he was trying to obtain this information, Western stepped in and got the contract and then completed the 4th of July display without obtaining any EPA studies. Tanner says the quickest fix to the OSFM abuse would be to put display fireworks issues in the hands of the BATF & local authorities and remove authority from the OSFM. He says the state should only be in charge of record keeping that addresses public display fireworks.