Opinion
A4
Thursday, March 3, 2022
OUR VIEW
Ensuring public
meetings are
always public
regon’s Public Meetings Law, which has
been in place since 1973, is pretty straight-
forward as laws go.
And its purpose could hardly be more clear.
Groups of elected or appointed offi cials who con-
duct the public’s business, and spend the public’s
money, should do so in venues that are open to the
public. The law applies to meetings when a quorum
of the body is present.
Public bodies subject to the law include those
most people would probably expect — city coun-
cils, county commissions, school boards. But the law
also applies to many that don’t generally get as much
attention, or publicity, such as the various boards and
commissions, some elected and some appointed, that
most cities and counties have.
The law, as laws so often are, is littered with
exceptions.
Public bodies can legally meet in private (although
journalists, in most instances, can attend) to discuss
certain topics such as real estate negotiations or to
consult with an attorney.
But during these “executive sessions,” public
bodies are not allowed to make fi nal decisions.
For instance, a city council could meet in an
executive session to discuss buying property. But
councilors couldn’t actually decide to purchase the
parcel until they reconvene in a public session that
has been announced so that people who wish to
attend can do so.
To reiterate — the law isn’t complicated.
Most discussions by a quorum of a public body —
and all fi nal decisions — must take place in public.
But inevitably, some public bodies violate the law,
some intentionally, some inadvertently.
The problem is that people who believe such vio-
lations have happened are on their own in most cases
— in terms of money as well as time — in fi ling a
legal challenge. Citizens’ main recourse is to fi le a
complaint in circuit court. The exception is in the
case of a public offi cial who might have violated the
executive session provisions of the public meetings
law. In that case a resident can fi le a complaint with
the Oregon Government Ethics Commission, the
agency that enforces ethics laws that, among other
things, deal with confl icts of interest and instances of
public offi cials using their offi ce for personal gain.
House Bill 4140 would make it much easier for the
public to enforce the public meetings law, and create
a much more eff ective deterrent for offi cials who
might violate it.
The bill, which appears unlikely to pass during
the current legislative session, would allow the Gov-
ernment Ethics Commission to investigate alleged
violations of the law, and to fi ne each public offi cial
involved in a violation up to $1,000. Importantly, the
law would prohibit offi cials from passing off fi nes to
the agency — a city or school board, for instance —
that the offi cials represent.
The fi nes are the stick in the law. Its carrot is a
requirement that the Government Ethics Commis-
sion off er training to public bodies aff ected by the
public meetings law. This training need not be com-
plex, given how easy it is to understand the require-
ments of the public meetings law, and how easy it is
to comply with them.
If House Bill 4140 doesn’t make it out of the cur-
rent session, legislators need to bring it back in 2023.
It’s vital that the public’s business be conducted,
and its money spent, transparently. That’s why
Oregon has had a law defi ning public meetings for
almost half a century. But without a reasonable
method for ensuring that the law is enforced, its
well-intentioned provisions ring hollow.
O
Bill could reduce assaults on health care workers
DR. ALEX
SKOG
OTHER VIEWS
mong the many ripple eff ects
of the pandemic, in the last
two years health care workers
have reported a disturbingly prolifi c
increase in assaults while they are
providing care. According to surveys
by the American College of Emer-
gency Physicians and the Emergency
Nurses Association, almost half of
emergency physicians and 70% of
emergency nurses reported being
physically assaulted on the job. This
phenomenon is not simply something
that is showing up in esoteric statis-
tical data but it is playing out every
day in Oregon’s hospitals.
Several weeks ago, I was toward
the end of one of a string of 5 p.m. to
1 a.m. emergency department shifts
that had prevented me from seeing
my two young children for four days
straight. A COVID test on an older
patient I was taking care of came
back positive. The patient had a low
oxygen level necessitating admission
to the hospital. As I started to discuss
the unfortunate result with the patient
and family, the patient’s son stood
up from his chair and walked up to
me screaming that he wouldn’t’t let
me admit his father to the hospital so
that I could put his father on a ven-
tilator and kill him. I explained that
my only goal was to do everything
possible to make his father get better
and that a ventilator was only a last
resort. He pushed his jacket back to
reveal a gun holster strapped to his
hip and said, “If anything happens
to my father, I will kill you and your
family. It will be World War III.”
A
Fortunately, I was able to get out
of the room and call security and
subsequently police. Police offi -
cers escorted the patient’s son out
to his car in the parking lot where
he undoubtedly left the fi rearm that
he carried in the holster he was
wearing. I was in the emergency
department unarmed and virtually
defenseless.
Acts like this don’t just eff ect the
health care provider personally but
send shock waves that reverberate
long after the incident’s immediate
aftermath.
For the remainder of my shift I
caught myself regularly looking at
the security camera video screen,
hoping not to see the doors sliding
open to reveal this person returning.
I listened for any commotion in the
waiting room, instead of focusing
on a nurse asking me to confi rm
the correct medication for another
patient. While trying to see the
remaining patients who had over-
whelmed us during the latest COVID
surge, I found my mind regularly
drifting to my two sons whom I
hadn’t seen in four days. This person
had my name and, therefore, would
be able to fi nd my address where my
children were sleeping.
Unfortunately, this type of expe-
rience is far from unique, and
numerous Oregon hospital workers
have stories where threats have pro-
gressed to actual assault. An emer-
gency department technician was
tackled, causing ligaments in his
knee to tear, requiring surgery. A
pregnant nurse was kicked in the
abdomen and went into premature
labor. A provider was strangled with
the stethoscope that hung around
her neck. The eff ect of these assaults
goes far beyond the immediate phys-
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ical and emotional trauma they cause
by fueling the never-before-seen
exodus of health care workers and
leaving the most vulnerable Orego-
nians sicker and further marginal-
ized with substandard care.
Oregon has an opportunity
to make a major stride toward
addressing this by passing House
Bill 4142. In doing so, Oregon would
join 34 other states with similar
laws that make it a felony to assault
a hospital employee while specifi -
cally shielding vulnerable Orego-
nians in mental health crises from
being charged. Currently, it is only
a misdemeanor to assault a hos-
pital employee. Victims of assault
have been told by police that it is not
worth the paperwork to charge the
assailant. It is past time for this to
change.
House Bill 4142’s greatest impact
will be its eff ect on the numerous
patients I see daily who have red
fl ags on their chart for previous
history of assaulting health care
workers. Currently, these repeat
off enders know that there are vir-
tually no legal repercussions from
past assaults and, therefore, are com-
pletely uninhibited and emboldened
to do it again. Having actual conse-
quences will change this calculation.
The Oregon Legislature is
debating House Bill 4142 and I
implore you to join me in urging our
legislators to enact this bill so that
my colleagues and I can continue to
provide care for our community and
worry less about whether we will get
home safely to see our families.
———
Dr. Alex Skog is an emergency
physician and president-elect of the
Oregon Chapter of the American
College of Emergency Physicians.
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