REGION
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 2022
THE OBSERVER — A3
Pendleton schools dump longtime bus company
Ohio company wins
bid despite having
higher offer
By ANTONIO SIERRA
East Oregonian
PENDLETON — The
Pendleton School District’s
40-year relationship with
Mid Columbia Bus Co. is
coming to an end.
The Pendleton School
Board on Monday, Feb. 14,
approved a bid from First
Student, a Cincinnati, Ohio,
school bus company, to take
over the district student
transportation services for
the next fi ve years. Midco,
the only other bidder for the
contract, was the runner-up.
Michelle Jones, the dis-
trict’s director of business
services, said this was the
fi rst time Pendleton had
put its school bus contract
up for bid. Districts aren’t
required to solicit bidders
for transportation contracts,
but Jones said school offi -
cials felt it was something
they owed their various
constituencies.
“I think we have a duty
to our stakeholders, to our
parents and our students
to make sure that we are
providing the best service
to our families,” she said.
“And we wanted to go out
to bid to make sure that
what we were off ering was
the best that we could do,
and I think we found that
we couldn’t justify that by
just continuing to renew
contracts and we needed to
see what else was available
for our families.”
The district on Nov. 17
issued a request for pro-
posal for its school bus ser-
vices. Potential bidders
would be evaluated on their
qualifi cations, fi nancial sta-
Ben Lonergan/East Oregonian, File
A school bus is bathed in the early morning sunlight May 12, 2021, at the Mid Columbia Bus Co. bus barn outside Pendleton. Now the sun is
setting on the relation between bus company and Pendleton School District, which on Monday, Feb. 14, 2022, approved a bid for an Ohio
company to provide school bus service.
bility and their service and
performance, among other
factors. Following the Jan.
5 bid deadline, Jones said
a panel composed of her-
self, Superintendent Chris
Fritsch and Matt Yoshioka,
director of curriculum,
instruction and assessment,
evaluated the proposals.
In the cover letter
attached to its bid, First
Student got off to an inaus-
picious start.
Timothy Wulf, First Stu-
dent’s director of business
development, wrote in bold
font that his company was
unlikely to be the lowest
bidder because of the costs
associated with the bus
driver shortage.
But Wulf then pivoted
to what First Student could
off er the district, including
a new bus facility.
“As the district is fully
aware of, a bus facility
is more than challenging
to fi nd in Pendleton,”
he wrote. “However, we
did! We found an excel-
lent facility and would like
to off er it to the district
to control the lease. This
alone, is worth making a
change.”
Wulf went on to sum-
marize First Student’s bid:
28 new buses plus eight
older models, a driver
salary range of $18.71 to
$23.32 per hour with a $500
signing bonus, an “opti-
mization study” meant to
reduce ride times and pos-
sibly reduce routes, and
new technology, including
a school bus tracker app for
parents.
First Student stated it
could provide its services
for $795,831 per year plus
rate-based fees that vary
depending on bus usage.
The Pendleton School
District started contracting
with MidCo in 1982, but
the company’s roots in
Eastern Oregon extend
further than that. MidCo
began its life as Flatt’s
Trucking Service, a mail
and freight transportation
business, before expanding
into the school bus busi-
Haines city councilor running for governor
Peter Hall has lived in
Baker County community
since 2004
By JAYSON JACOBY
jjacoby@bakercityherald.com
BAKER CITY — Peter Hall is a
Democrat running for Oregon gov-
ernor who wants to distinguish him-
self not only from Republicans in the
race, but also from candidates in his
own party.
Hall, 69, has lived in Haines since
2004 and is a member of the Haines
City Council.
A retired chef, Hall is also
chairman of the Baker County Dem-
ocratic Party and a recent member of
the board for the League of Oregon
Cities.
His bid for the Democratic nomi-
nation in the May 22 primary is not
Hall’s fi rst foray into politics. He ran
unsuccessfully to represent Baker
County in the Oregon Legislature in
2006 and in 2014.
Hall said that he
was motivated to enter
the governor’s race in
part because he wants
voters to understand
that not all Democratic
candidates are urban
Hall
residents from the Wil-
lamette Valley who might tend to be
more liberal than he is.
Hall said he disdains what he
terms “magic wand thinking” among
some Democratic politicians. He
describes this approach as the belief,
and one he considers misguided, that
government regulations can fi x any
societal problem.
“I want to break through the idea
that they can fi x everything with a
regulation or by spending money,”
Hall said.
He said he favors what he con-
siders more pragmatic and fl exible
approaches to issues than what he
calls “one size fi ts all.”
As an example, Hall said he was
a proponent of Oregon’s multi-tiered
minimum wage law, which refl ects
the range in living costs from, say,
Eastern Oregon to the Portland area.
Hall, who was born in Seattle
and earned a bachelor’s degree in
German and political science from
the University of Washington,
believes the state should use the
same approach to determining pov-
erty levels, using as criteria cost of
living as well as income.
Climate change
Hall said he wants to see Oregon
look at new options for dealing
with water shortages for farms and
ranches due to drought.
He points out that although much
of Oregon’s surface water, espe-
cially in arid Eastern Oregon, is
claimed by property owners with
water rights, in many years there
isn’t nearly enough water to sat-
isfy all those owners, which harms
agriculture.
Hall advocates for the govern-
ment potentially buying, from
willing sellers, properties with
water rights and converting the land
to other uses. That, combined with
an emphasis on more effi cient use
of water, would make more water
available to the existing farmers and
ranchers, he said.
“We can’t make water magically
appear,” he said. “We need to focus
on the reality of our water crisis.”
Hall emphasizes that such a pro-
gram would depend on farmers and
ranchers working together to get
the most out of the limited water
supply.
He believes drought is only one
of the eff ects of climate change.
Another that has aff ected all
of Oregon is wildfi re. Hall said in
some places, and in particular east
of the Cascades, some forests are
overcrowded and need to have some
of the fuel removed.
Hall said commercial logging
“could be a component” of that
eff ort.
“There are areas where it’s
perfectly appropriate,” he said,
although he cautions that logging
needs to be done carefully to avoid
leading to even worse environ-
mental problems.
Supporting ‘responsible
Republicans’
Although Hall is a member of the
party that has dominated Oregon
politics for the past four decades
— seven of the state’s members
of Congress are Democrats — he
said he would have no objection to
Republicans fi lling more of those
seats.
But not what he considers
extremist Republicans who support
Donald Trump.
“I want responsible Republicans,
centrist, pragmatist, old-school
Republicans,” Hall said, citing as
examples two of Oregon’s former
U.S. senators, Mark Hatfi eld (who
also served as governor) and Bob
Packwood.
Hall said another factor that
motivated him to fi le as a candi-
date was Baker City Mayor Kerry
McQuisten’s announcement in late
June 2021 that she was seeking the
Republican nomination in the gov-
ernor’s race.
Hall said he wants to show voters
that Republicans, and specifi cally
McQuisten, don’t represent the
beliefs of all of rural Oregonians.
He contends that he would be more
eff ective at bridging what he called
the “east-west divide” in Oregon
than McQuisten would be.
Masks and mandates
Hall said he has been upset
by people who decry Gov. Kate
Brown’s executive orders regarding
face masks as “tyranny and
dictatorial.”
“I fi nd that absolutely insulting
to the people around the world who
actually suff er under real oppres-
sion, tyranny and dictatorships,”
Hall said. “There’s a diff erence.”
Hall said the governor’s mask
mandate was “probably overreach,”
and he’s more concerned about the
lack of enforcement and compliance
than about the basic idea of encour-
aging residents to wear face masks,
in indoor situations where social
distancing isn’t possible, to curb the
spread of COVID-19.
He also believes the governor
and other state offi cials have done
a poor job of explaining the mask
mandate.
Hall said that were the decision
his to make, he would have made it
explicit that the state would support
any business or venue that chose
to strictly enforce a mask require-
ment, but that businesses could also
choose whether, or how, to enforce
it.
He admits that’s essentially the
situation that has prevailed for
many months in parts of Oregon,
including Baker County.
Too much big — government
and business
Hall said he fi nds onerous the
common complaint among Repub-
licans that government regula-
tion is stifl ing businesses, including
agriculture.
“The real regulations you’ve got to
worry about, especially from a farm-
er’s standpoint, is big corporations,
which basically act like a govern-
ment,” Hall said.
He said corporations have too
much control over the marketplace,
including prices paid to the people
who produce our food.
“The problem isn’t big govern-
ment or big business — it’s just big,”
Hall said. “Big business is controlling
big government. But (Republicans)
don’t talk about that part.”
Hall’s website — www.peterh-
allgovforall.com — has more of his
policy positions.
ness when it bid on a con-
tract for the Condon School
District in 1956. MidCo
eventually expanded its
operations to include dis-
tricts all over rural Oregon,
including districts in Union
County, and Idaho. In 2015,
the Flatt family sold MidCo
to Landmark Student
Transportation, a Canadian
school bus company.
But recent years hav-
en’t always gone smoothly
for MidCo. Pendleton par-
ents frequently complained
of late buses, long routes
and unchecked bullying on
the buses. Some of those
complaints fi ltered up to
the school board level,
where MidCo representa-
tives attributed the short-
comings to a nationwide
bus driver shortage. Last
summer, MidCo attempted
to revamp its recruitment
strategy by upping bus
driver wages.
Chuck Moore, Mid-
Co’s region vice president,
leaned on Pendleton and
MidCo’s shared history in
the company’s bid cover
letter.
“We are confi dent that
as an Oregon based com-
pany with local knowl-
edge, we have the ability to
be more effi cient, respon-
sive and will swiftly be
able to identify and make
any changes or adjustments
needed,” he wrote. “Our
enthusiastic staff is thrilled
to continue to work closely
with administration per-
sonnel and is committed to
continue to build relation-
ships with each Principal,
Secretary and Teacher.”
MidCo’s bid was
$645,721 per year plus rate-
based fees.
Several MidCo
employees and commu-
nity members used the
public comment section
of a meeting to defend the
company, highlighting how
much they enjoyed working
with the district and ques-
tioning why the district
didn’t consult with drivers
or parents before making
the decision. MidCo
administrators struck a bit-
tersweet note, thanking the
district for working with
them and expressing hope
that they will work together
again in the future.
Ultimately, the public
comments didn’t deter the
school board from unani-
mously approving the First
Student bid. First Student
will take over bus services
on July 1, ahead of the
2022-23 school year.
Man sues Pendleton
Rite Aid over delay
fi lling prescription
By ANTONIO SIERRA
East Oregonian
PENDLETON — A law-
suit fi led Feb. 9 in Umatilla
County Circuit Court alleges
a late prescription from a
Pendleton pharmacy caused
a man’s hospitalization.
Richard Morris, of Pend-
leton, is suing Rite Aid for
$5 million for noneconomic
damages plus an unspecifi ed
sum for economic damages
“according to proof at trial”
in addition to attorney fees,
according to the complaint.
La Grande attorney Wade
Bettis fi led the pleading,
which claims Morris was
prescribed Brilinta, a blood
thinner, by a doctor at Prov-
idence St. Mary Medical
Center in Walla Walla on
April 22, 2021, two days
after he had stents installed
following a heart attack.
The prescription was sent
to the Rite Aid in Pendleton,
the lawsuit states, and Morris
arrived that afternoon to pick
up the drug. According to
Morris, pharmacy staff told
him they would need another
hour to fi ll the prescrip-
tion. He returned nearly two
hours later, but staff told him
the medication was unavail-
able and he would need to
return the next day.
The complaint states that
Morris returned to the phar-
macy again on the morning
of April 23, but staff told him
the prescription still was not
ready because, although the
pharmacy had received a
shipment of the medication,
it was in its box. Morris ulti-
mately received his Brilinta
prescription later that day,
at 4:16 p.m. By that time, he
had missed three doses.
The lawsuit states Morris
spent the following two
days experiencing “a lack
of energy” and small pains
in his chest. On April 26,
he awoke to “severe pain in
his chest and arm” before
he was taken to St. Anthony
Hospital, Pendleton, and
then back to Providence St.
Mary. Morris went under the
knife again to address blood
clots that formed around
his stents, a development
his doctor attributed to the
missed blood thinner doses.
“Had plaintiff received
his medication in a timely
manner,” the lawsuit states,
“plaintiff would not have suf-
fered a second heart attack
less than a week after his
fi rst heart attack.”
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