NORTH COAST
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, DECEMBER 4, 2015
3A
Man cuts himself with saw at bank
State legislator proposes
regional minimum wage rates
The Daily Astorian
By PARIS ACHEN
Capital Bureau
SALEM — Spurred by
two ballot initiatives to raise
Oregon’s minimum wage, a
Portland lawmaker plans to
propose legislation in Febru-
ary that would set different
regional minimum wage rates
based on cost of living and
median income.
State Sen. Michael Dem-
brow, who chairs the Senate
workforce committee, said a
legislative agreement could
help avert an acrimonious and
prolonged battle over mini-
mum wage at the ballot box.
“Our hope is if we can pass it
in February, that the campaigns
will stop collecting signatures,
and they’ll feel comfortable
with it,” Dembrow said.
Since the end of last ses-
sion, when proposals to raise
the minimum wage failed, a
legislative work group has
been looking at some of the
issues to consider in setting a
minimum wage.
“What became clear from
that was we needed to do
something that is not one-size-
¿ts-all,” Dembrow said. “We
needed to take into account
cost of living and economic
vitality in different parts of the
state.”
Three regional rates
Dembrow said he envi-
sions setting three regional
minimum wage rates — with
the highest rate in the Portland
metro area and the lowest in
rural areas.
The rates would be phased
in during a three- to four-year
period, he said.
“Our goal here is to get the
wage where families can make
it without relying on public as-
sistance,” he said.
Senate workforce commit-
tee members have yet to settle
on exact numbers but hope
to have those details ready in
time for a public hearing in
January.
The regionally tiered min-
imum wage would address
the need for higher incomes
in Portland, where housing
costs are skyrocketing, with-
out crippling businesses in
slower economic areas such as
the southern coast, Dembrow
said.
One ballot initiative un-
derway proposes hiking the
state’s minimum wage to $15
per hour by 2019. Another ini-
tiative by a union-led coalition
seeks to boost the minimum
wage to $13.50 and give cities
the authority to hike wages be-
yond that.
Dembrow’s
legislation
would not repeal state preemp-
tion on wage hikes, which pro-
hibits municipalities from in-
creasing the minimum wage.
Giving cities the authority to
independently hike wages can
be problematic, Dembrow said.
“If Portland does raise the
minimum wage, and Beaver-
ton doesn’t, there is a concern
a lot of businesses would re-
locate,” Dembrow said. “We
have had a lot of experience
with the state setting its own
minimum wage but haven’t
had a lot of experience with
cities doing it. That is a rela-
tively new phenomenon.”
In the past two years, Wash-
ington, D.C., Seattle, San Fran-
cisco and Los Angeles have
taken action to gradually raise
minimum wage to $15.
Legislation a priority
House and Senate lead-
ership and Gov. Kate Brown
have indicated passing mini-
mum wage legislation is a pri-
ority for the upcoming session.
Senate President Peter
Courtney, D-Salem, said he
supports increasing the min-
imum wage but has yet to de-
cide on a speci¿c amount. He
said he also agrees with repeal-
ing the preemption on local
wage hikes so that cities such
as Portland could raise wages
beyond the statewide Àoor.
But passing wage legisla-
tion in February will depend
on securing support from key
business leaders, he said.
If the Legislature fails to
reach a consensus, House
Speaker Tina Kotek, D-Port-
land, plans to support the
Raise the Wage ballot proposal
to increase the minimum wage
to $13.50, said House Demo-
crats spokeswoman Lindsey
O’Brien.
So far, Portland Democrats
have been dominating the dis-
cussion about wage increases,
said House Minority Lead-
er Mike McLane, R-Powell
Butte.
W A NTED
Rural Democrats
have concerns
Several minimum wage
proposals stalled last session
partly due to competition with
paid sick leave legislation and
partly due to cautiousness
from rural Democrats.
“The economies in the I-5
corridor and along the Colum-
bia River have really come
back, and on the coast, the econ-
omy has pretty much stayed the
same since the ‘80s and ‘90s,”
said Sen. Arnie Roblan, D-Coos
Bay. “So, it makes it hard see-
ing one minimum wage work
across the state.”
Steep increases such as $15
were “a hard pill to take when
you are trying to get the econ-
omy moving again,” Roblan
said.
The Coos Bay senator said
many of his constituents are
seniors on a ¿xed income.
Even though many of those
constituents support some
kind of increase, he said he
worries that hiking the mini-
mum wage to $15 could make
things like going out to dinner
once a week unaffordable.
The Capital Bureau is a
collaboration between EO
Media Group and Pamplin
Media Group.
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Corrective action
The letters are a “due process
step” the state must complete
before revoking the licenses,
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these issues very seriously,”
Mills wrote. “Our No. 1 goal
always is to provide the very
best care for young people.
DHS has asked us to hold off
on admissions to our residen-
tial campus program for the
time being. They have some
questions about this program
and we are actively address-
ing those while we work with
DHS on a corrective action
plan.”
Mills wrote that this will in-
clude “enhancing supervision of
youth by signi¿cantly increas-
ing highly skilled and trained
staf¿ng, as well as conducting
additional trainings and evaluat-
ing other areas in which we can
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SALEM — Two programs
that care for foster children and
troubled teens could lose their
state licenses following a recent
review, the Oregon Department
of Human Services announced
Thursday.
The agency is working
with the Oregon Department
of Justice to draft “intent to re-
voke” letters to Scotts Valley
School, a therapeutic boarding
program south of Eugene, and
the Youth Villages foster care
agency which operates facilities
in Lake Oswego and Oregon
City. As a result of the review,
the state also stopped placing
foster children at Youth Villages
programs and moved the chil-
dren who were already there to
other placements, Department
of Human Services spokesman
Gene Evans wrote in an email
Thursday.
Top of¿cials at the agency
knew there was trouble at Scotts
Valley School, because they had
Àagged it on an internal list of
problematic service providers
known as the “radar list.” Yet the
agency had not revoked or even
denied the renewal of licenses
for any organizations on the list
since it was created 36 months
ago, according to department
testimony at a legislative hear-
ing last month.
and they will lay out corrective
actions Scotts Valley School and
Youth Villages must complete in
order to continue operating, ac-
cording to the department. The
agency did not release any infor-
mation Thursday about the type
of problems that led of¿cials to
start the license revocation pro-
cess.
Connie Mills, manager of
public relations for Youth Vil-
lages, said in a statement that
the organization takes the state’s
concerns seriously and is mak-
ing improvements to the pro-
gram.
“While we disagree with
some of DHS’s conclusions,
we are extremely concerned
about this and are taking
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By HILLARY BORRUD
Capital Bureau
th
M O RE
and gave him care before re-
sponders arrived. Police do
not know why he decided to
enter the bank.
“Bank personnel and pa-
trons should be commended
for immediately providing
medical aid to the man while
responders were en route,”
Astoria Deputy Police Chief
Eric Halverson said. “We
just hope the man receives
both the physical and mental
help he needs.”
State moves to revoke foster care licenses
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FO R
Fine Dining
Casual, yet elegant
A 34-year-old man walked
into U.S. Bank Thursday
morning with a circular saw,
plugged it in and intentional-
ly cut himself on the wrist.
The man, who is believed
to be suffering from mental
health issues, stopped before
amputating his hand.
His injuries were not
life-threatening and no one
else was harmed.
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McLane said he has seen
none of the proposals but
opposes any that take a one-
size-¿ts-all approach to the
minimum wage because of
the state’s geographic and eco-
nomic diversity.
McLane said he is con-
cerned higher wage mandates
might hurt small businesses,
especially in rural areas. He
said inÀation from hiking
wages also could price out
retirees on a ¿xed income
and dash job opportunities for
young, entry-level workers.
“I understand when you
are in Portland that the world
is different than Prineville, but
I certainly hope Gov. Brown
and House Speaker Kotek will
show concern for all of the Or-
egonians who don’t live in the
city of Portland,” McLane said.
Astoria Police, Astoria
Fire Department and Medix
Ambulance responded to the
incident just after 10 a.m.
The man was sent to a
medical facility for treat-
ment, but because of the
nature of the incident, his
name is not being released.
No criminal charges are ex-
pected.
When the man cut his
wrist, people in the bank
immediately went to his aid
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