NE W S
BY CAMILLA MO RTENSEN
PREDATORY
NONPROFIT?
Fight over cougars and finances
I
t seemed so easy to businessman Steven Chapman — an
avid hunter, he wanted to influence the Oregon Legislature
on hunting bills. The deer and elk herds in Oregon are too
small, Chapman said, and he wanted to do something
about it. It takes millions of dollars in California to
influence legislation, according to Chapman, but only
thousands in Oregon.
In only a few years, the lobbying group he helped form in
2011, the Oregon Outdoor Council (OOC), shot from
obscurity to a legislative force, but now Chapman finds
himself pitted against fellow hunters as he alleges misspent
money and ethical wrongdoings by the OOC and its non-
lobbying partner, the Oregon Outdoor Council Foundation, a
501(c)(3) nonprofit. Chapman says he wants to expose OOC
and OOCF because he feels that he created a “haphazard”
group that isn’t targeting the real source of problems for the
animals he hunts.
Together with Pendleton-based media-group owner Jerod
Broadfoot, Wayne Endicott of Springfield’s Bow Rack and
others, Chapman formed OOC with goals that included
repealing Oregon’s Measure 18, which keeps hunters from
chasing cougars with dogs. OOC was also behind a push on
Oregon House Bill 3437, which required that gubernatorial
nominees to the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife
Commission have held some form of fishing or hunting
licenses for 10 consecutive years. This would leave nonhunters
out of wildlife decisions.
Chapman, OOC and the long-established Oregon Hunters
Association (OHA) all share similar goals — to improve the
herds for hunters in Oregon — but Chapman says he is not
certain that targeting predators and pushing bills allowing
hound hunting or bear baiting are the answer. The problem
lies with lands lost to grazing and roads built for logging, he
says, not cougars and wolves. That’s not a popular stance to
take among conservative hunting organizations that have long
blamed predators.
But Chapman’s stance on what’s reducing deer and elk
herds isn’t what has him at odds with the nonprofits he was
once part of. Chapman alleges that the OOC and the OOCF
unethically misspent funds, misrepresented information and
aren’t acting “in the best interests of hunting, angling or
wildlife.”
Chapman says that OOC got $25,000 from the Oregon
Hunters Association to conduct a poll in support of legislative
initiatives and a potential constitutional amendment, and that
part of the reason OOC got the money was because Broadfoot
told the group and the OHA that $500,000 in donations would
be coming from the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation and
Safari Club International. That money never materialized.
Chapman alleges that Broadfoot misrepresented the results of
the poll and this damages OOC’s credibility.
Chapman, who was OOC’s secretary-treasurer, also
worries that the foundation, OOCF, jeopardized its nonprofit
status when out of its $33,000 budget in 2012, it spent
$16,000 on a poll relating to a prospective ballot initiative and
legislative actions. The IRS limits small nonprofits to
spending less than 20 percent of their budget on lobbying.
Chapman alleges that Broadfoot diverted nonprofit funds
for personal use for himself and his wife on a trip to Las Vegas
where they stayed in a luxury hotel. He had an accountant
review the books, and the CPA wrote, “It appears that proper
expense authorization and follow-up procedures are not being
followed carefully, if at all.”
When asked for comment, Broadfoot referred EW to
OOC’s attorney Ross Day. Day is also Chapman’s personal
attorney, and when asked if that was a problem due to a
N
CA
New Media, Race, and
Participatory Politics:
Democracy in the 21st Century
featuring Cathy Cohen
Thursday, May 16, 2013, 4:00 p.m.
110 Knight Law Center
conflict of interest, Day said, “Not that I’m aware of.”
Chapman has contacted the Department of Justice over
the money issue and says that in turn, OOC board members
have sent a state police officer to Chapman’s doorstep.
Day says the OOC board has concluded that Chapman’s
allegations are unfounded and “we have a disagreement here,
whether or not money was spent, I don’t want to say wisely,
but as efficiently as possible. It doesn’t mean anything
untoward has occurred.”
But in a July 2012 email to the OOC board, Day wrote “if
someone goes to a conference, for instance, on OOC’s dime,
and then promotes another organization (say, Oregonians In
Action), there could be problems down the road with the
IRS.”
Later in August, Day wrote, “Steve is right to be concerned
about what is going on, especially in light of the fact that all
of the OOC board members could be held personally liable.”
The July email also detailed a report from former
Republican state senator-turned NRA lobbyist Roger Beyer,
who had been asked to join the OOC board but declined.
Beyer discussed a “breakdown” in the relationship between
OOC and OHA, citing among other things the claims of
funding that didn’t materialize and that OHA was not given
the full poll results. Broadfoot had sent an email to the OOC
board saying, “Do not share. We need to discuss this tonight.”
Day says, “Taken out of context I know what that email
looks like,” but says OOC was under no obligation to release
the results of the poll. Duane Dungannon of the OHA says
that there were “differences of opinions about the results that
were obtained” but that OHA thought it made sense that the
poll results would be held close and not sent out to wind up
in the hands of opponents.
Whether OOC survives and if it works with OHA on
future hunting legislation or not, Chapman says he feels
culpable for having created an organization that by targeting
predators and not the true culprits — grazing and road
building — is doing a disservice to the hunting community. ■
S OUTHERN AND N ORTHERN I NDIAN C UISINE
EW's BEST ALL YOU CAN EAT BUFFET 2008-2009
L UNCH B UFFET
7 Days a Week 11:30am - 2:30pm * Dinner 5–9:30pm * 5 Years in Eugene
E AT & P ARK
L
CE
Cathy J. Cohen is the David and Mary Winton
Green Professor of Political Science at the
University of Chicago, where she also served as
the director of the Center for the Study of Race,
Politics and Culture. She is the author of Democracy
Remixed: Black Youth and the Future of American
Politics and The Boundaries of Blackness: AIDS
and the Breakdown of Black Politics.
F REE P ARKING
FOR
E VENTS
AT
M ATT K NIGHT A RENA
WHEN YOU DINE WITH US
* 1525 Franklin Blvd. Eugene, OR
541-343-7944
* 136 SW Third • Corvallis, OR *
541-754-7944
This event is part of the “Governing a Polarized
Republic: Is This Any Way to Run a Democracy”
speaker series cosponsored by the Department of
Political Science.
#free #opentothepublic
2013-15 Theme
ED
MEDIA AND
DEMOCRACY
If this topic interests you, stay tuned for our next
theme, Media and Democracy, which kicks off in
Fall 2013 with Wayne Morse Chair Terry Fisher.
More info at waynemorsecenter.uoregon.edu.
The University of Oregon is an equal-opportunity, affirmative-action institution committed to
cultural diversity and compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act.
eugeneweekly.com • May 16, 2013
13