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THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, OCTOBER 28, 2016
Lawyers who challenged PERS
Oregon weighs whether all kids
reforms awarded $900,000 in fees should get outdoor education
State Supreme
Court sides
with attorneys
By CLAIRE
WITHYCOMBE
Capital Bureau
SALEM — The Oregon
Supreme Court has awarded
nearly $1 million to attorneys
representing public employ-
ees in the court case that chal-
lenged certain legislative
reforms to the state’s P ub-
lic E mployees R etirement
S ystem.
In an opinion released
Thursday, the court awarded
$902,665 in fees and costs to
Bennett, Hartman, Morris &
Kaplan, LLP, a Portland law
fi rm representing several of
the plaintiffs in the lawsuit,
known as Moro v. Oregon.
In Moro, the Supreme
Court reversed many of the
Legislature’s reforms in 2015,
fi nding that lawmakers could
not make changes retroac-
tively to the benefi ts accrued
allocate the fees, according
to PERS. Not all PERS retir-
ees benefi ted from the court’s
fi ndings in the Moro appeal.
The r etirement b oard will
discuss the Supreme Court’s
decision and its execution at a
future meeting.
The award comes as PERS
faces $22 billion in unfunded
liability — essentially, money
it owes retirees that it cannot
pay.
Lawmakers are again
attempting to pass reforms
in the upcoming legislative
session.
A bipartisan work group
led by state Sen. Betsy John-
son, D-Scappoose, and Sen.
Tim Knopp, R-Bend, is con-
vening to consider the options.
In August, legislative
counsel released an analysis
of ten options for changes to
PERS, fi nding seven of them
were likely to fall within the
requirements of the state’s
constitution.
The Capital Bureau is a
collaboration between EO
Media Group and Pamplin
Media Group.
by public employees.
Another $41,127 was
awarded to three people who
represented themselves in the
lawsuit — Michael Reynolds,
George Riemer and Wayne
Stanley Jones.
Reynolds and Riemer are
attorneys. Riemer was previ-
ously general counsel for the
Oregon State Bar, while Reyn-
olds was previously an assis-
tant attorney general .
State and local entities had
argued against awarding the
fees, according to the Supreme
Court’s opinion.
The court directed the
r etirement b oard to decide
how to allocate the fee
award from the Oregon Pub-
lic Employees Retirement
Fund, which contains multi-
ple accounts, including a con-
tingency reserve, according to
the opinion.
The fund is managed by
the Oregon Treasury under
the direction of the Oregon
Investment Council.
PERS is still consulting
with legal counsel and has not
made a decision about how to
Ballot measure
before voters
By GILLIAN FLACCUS
Associated Press
FIVE-DAY FORECAST FOR ASTORIA
TONIGHT
SATURDAY
SUNDAY
60
48
50
Cloudy; a shower early,
then a little rain
ALMANAC
61
52
Cloudy with a bit of rain
Periods of clouds and
sunshine
Tillamook
47/59
First
Salem
47/60
Newport
49/59
Nov 7
Last
Nov 14
Source: Jim Todd, OMSI
TOMORROW'S TIDES
Astoria / Port Docks
Time
7:09 a.m.
7:47 p.m.
Low
1.3 ft.
-0.1 ft.
Ontario
40/60
Burns
37/54
Klamath Falls
41/53
Lakeview
42/55
Ashland
43/57
REGIONAL CITIES
City
Baker City
Bend
Brookings
Eugene
Ilwaco
Klamath Falls
Medford
Newberg
Newport
North Bend
Hi
56
55
60
62
61
55
60
61
60
63
Today
Lo
33
38
50
46
51
41
46
47
49
51
W
c
pc
c
pc
sh
c
c
pc
pc
c
Hi
52
52
59
61
58
53
61
58
59
62
Sat.
Lo
39
37
52
46
50
40
46
45
48
51
W
sh
c
r
sh
sh
c
sh
sh
sh
sh
City
Olympia
Pendleton
Portland
Roseburg
Salem
Seaside
Spokane
Springfi eld
Vancouver
Yakima
Hi
60
59
64
64
62
62
54
63
63
60
Today
Lo
44
41
50
48
47
50
37
47
50
43
W
pc
pc
pc
c
pc
pc
pc
pc
pc
pc
Hi
56
53
60
62
60
59
51
60
59
58
Sat.
Lo
42
41
46
48
46
48
41
44
47
40
W
sh
sh
sh
pc
sh
sh
sh
sh
sh
sh
TOMORROW'S NATIONAL WEATHER
NATIONAL CITIES
Today
Lo
60
40
62
50
60
51
58
10
72
56
64
63
63
61
77
56
66
43
62
41
64
53
59
48
46
Baker
33/52
Forecasts and graphics provided by AccuWeather, Inc. ©2016
Tonight's Sky: Before sunrise, Jupiter will be below
the waning crescent moon.
Hi
84
53
66
83
80
55
85
18
83
65
81
82
74
84
84
80
86
54
84
57
79
69
68
61
62
La Grande
38/55
Roseburg
48/62
Brookings
50/60
Nov 21
John Day
45/56
Bend
38/52
Medford
46/61
UNDER THE SKY
High
7.7 ft.
8.8 ft.
Prineville
39/55
Lebanon
47/60
Eugene
46/61
Full
Pendleton
41/53
The Dalles
45/59
Portland
50/60
Sunset tonight ........................... 6:07 p.m.
Sunrise Saturday ........................ 7:53 a.m. Coos Bay
Moonrise today ........................... 5:41 a.m. 51/62
Moonset today ........................... 5:35 p.m.
City
Atlanta
Boston
Chicago
Denver
Des Moines
Detroit
El Paso
Fairbanks
Honolulu
Indianapolis
Kansas City
Las Vegas
Los Angeles
Memphis
Miami
Nashville
New Orleans
New York
Oklahoma City
Philadelphia
St. Louis
Salt Lake City
San Francisco
Seattle
Washington, DC
57
49
Shown is tomorrow's weather. Temperatures are tonight's lows and tomorrow's highs.
ASTORIA
50/60
SUN AND MOON
Time
1:14 a.m.
1:14 p.m.
Mostly cloudy with
afternoon rain
TUESDAY
REGIONAL WEATHER
Precipitation
Thursday .......................................... 0.35"
Month to date ................................. 14.84"
Normal month to date ....................... 4.89"
Year to date .................................... 57.81"
Normal year to date ........................ 45.38"
Oct 30
58
50
Mostly cloudy with a
couple of showers
Astoria through Thursday.
Temperatures
High/low ....................................... 62°/53°
Normal high/low ........................... 58°/43°
Record high ............................ 70° in 1944
Record low ............................. 29° in 1971
New
MONDAY
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Hi
86
57
73
75
76
70
87
31
84
77
81
82
75
86
84
86
86
65
84
72
83
71
68
56
76
Sat.
Lo
61
50
49
42
48
52
56
17
72
60
54
65
64
61
78
59
66
56
60
57
64
56
59
45
60
MOUNT
HOOD
NATIONAL FOREST —
Each year, thousands of Ore-
gon parents hug their kids
goodbye and send them tramp-
ing into the wilderness for up
to a week to learn about their
state’s natural wonders.
The Outdoor School pro-
gram was groundbreaking
when it started more than a
half-century ago. Since then,
more than 1 million children
have enjoyed — or endured —
this rite of passage at campsites
scattered from Oregon’s stormy
coast to its towering evergreen
forests to its rugged high desert.
At the program’s heyday, 90
percent of sixth-graders spent
the week testing water sam-
ples, studying fungi and dig-
ging through topsoil. Today,
just half of Oregon’s 11- and
12-year-olds take part, mostly
through a patchwork of grants,
fundraising, parent fees and
charitable donations. Caps on
property taxes, plus the recent
recession, have forced many
school districts to scrap the pro-
gram or whittle it down to just
a few days.
Now, backers of a state-
wide ballot measure want
to use a slice of lottery pro-
ceeds to guarantee a week of
Outdoor School for all chil-
dren. If it passes, the measure
would make Oregon the only
state with dedicated funding
for outdoor education, includ-
ing students in charter, private
and home schools, said Sarah
Bodor, policy director for the
North American Association
for Environmental Education.
Opponents, however, say
its passage would mean deep
cuts to a state agency tasked
with economic development by
siphoning away millions in lot-
tery money critical to expanding
Oregon business. And at least
one outspoken state lawmaker
worries Measure 99 would
impose liberal Portland’s val-
ues on children in rural Oregon
where farming, mining, logging
and fi shing are a way of life.
The push to fund Outdoor
School dovetails with a national
trend toward outdoor learn-
ing, Bodor said. More than two
dozen states have developed
environmental literacy plans
Weather (W): s-sunny, pc-partly cloudy, c-cloudy,
sh-showers, t-thunderstorms, r-rain, sf-snow fl urries,
sn-snow, i-ice.
AP Photo/Don Ryan
Outdoor School students
walk through the dense for-
est on their way to a lesson
at Camp Howard in Mount
Hood National Forest near
Corbett.
as educators realize the impor-
tance of outdoor time for devel-
oping critical thinking and lead-
ership skills, she said. “But these
are really unfunded mandates
and … the outdoor component
is the piece that very often gets
left behind,” Bodor said.
Measure 99 would cover
that unfunded cost by taking
up to $22 million — or 4 per-
cent a quarter — from the state
lottery’s economic develop-
ment fund to send 50,000 fi fth-
or sixth-graders to Outdoor
School each year. The Oregon
State University Extension Ser-
vice would dole out the money
to school districts using a pro-
cess that will be determined if
the measure passes.
Applying for the lottery
funds would be voluntary, and
schools, educational districts
and nonprofi ts that already run
Outdoor Schools around the
state could continue to do so.
To get the state funding, pro-
grams would have to meet cer-
tain criteria, including a curric-
ulum that includes the study of
plants, animals, soil and water;
discussion of the role of natu-
ral resources in the state econ-
omy; and lessons on the rela-
tionship between economic
growth, natural resources and
conservation.
“This is not a mandate —
it’s an offer. And we wanted
to make sure it was a real one,
which means providing suffi -
cient funding to cover the cost
of a good, high-quality pro-
gram,” said Rex Burkholder,
chairman of the Measure 99
campaign committee.
With less than two weeks to
go before the election, Measure
99 has no organized opposition,
and polls indicate it will pass —
but not everyone is buying it.
State Sen. Betsy Johnson,
a Democrat who represents a
rural district northwest of Port-
land, says lottery proceeds are
for economic development, not
camp. She worries Oregonians
who remember their own Out-
door School experience will
vote for the measure out of nos-
talgia without understanding it
could hurt other programs.
Economic
Development
for Central Oregon, a nonprofi t
that promotes job growth, says
the money for Outdoor School
would be equivalent to 70 per-
cent of the budget for the state’s
economic development agency,
which relies on lottery money.
Efforts to bring television pro-
ductions like “Grimm,” “Lever-
age” and “Portlandia” to Oregon
could suffer as a result, it said.
Play on tap at Astoria High School
Shown are noon positions of weather systems and precipitation. Temperature bands are highs for the day.
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AP Photo/Don Ryan
Outdoor School students work at terraforming a moun-
tain to withstand erosion at Camp Howard in Mount Hood
National Forest near Corbett in October. The outdoor ed-
ucation is unique to Oregon and is a rite-of-passage for
public school students that’s meant to instill a respect for
nature in each generation — studies show it improves at-
tendance and boosts test scores.
The Daily Astorian
Astoria High School is pre-
senting “And Then There Were
None,” based on an Agatha
Christie novel, at 7 p.m. today
and Saturday, and at 2 p.m.
Sunday and Nov. 6, in the AHS
Auditorium.
The cost is $7 for adults,
and $4 for a student or child.
Today, get $2 off the ticket
price with the donation of a
canned good. On Sunday, Buy
One Get One (BOGO) half
price for wearing a costume, and
on Nov. 6, tickets are half price
for Clatsop County athletes.
LOTTERIES
DEATH
Oct. 23, 2016
PEDERSEN, David Raymond, 62, of Puyallup, Washington,
died in Astoria. Caldwell’s Luce-Layton Mortuary in Astoria is in
charge of the arrangements.
PUBLIC MEETINGS
TUESDAY
Seaside Community Center Commission, 10 a.m., 1225 Avenue
A.
Miles Crossing Sanitary Sewer District Board, 6 p.m., 34583 U.S.
Highway 101 Business.
Seaside Planning Commission, 7 p.m., City Hall, 989 Broadway.
OREGON
Thursday’s Pick 4:
1 p.m.: 8-6-0-4
4 p.m.: 8-9-4-2
7 p.m.: 9-4-8-2
10 p.m.: 9-2-6-0
WASHINGTON
Thursday’s Daily Game: 5-1-4
Thursday’s Keno: 05-06-08-
10-15-21-22-32-34-36-58-
59-62-68-70-74-76-77-78-79
Thursday’s Match 4: 03-12-
20-22
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