COAST WEEKEND: IT’S ‘ALL IN THE TIMING’ FOR THIS PLAY INSIDE
DailyAstorian.com // THURSDAY, JANUARY 12, 2017
144TH YEAR, NO. 140
ONE DOLLAR
Clatsop County opts out of timber suit
Commissioners heard ‘overwhelming message’ from public
By JACK HEFFERNAN
The Daily Astorian
A $1.4 billion lawsuit pitting Ore-
gon timber counties against the state
will no longer include Clatsop County.
The Clatsop County Board of
Commissioners voted 3-2 Wednesday
night to opt out of the class-action suit
that included 15 counties through-
out Oregon. The suit claims the state
Department of Forestry has not max-
imized revenue from timber har-
vests on land the counties turned over
to the state to manage.
Hundreds of people, both in person
and in writing, have offered opinions
to the county since it was included
in the suit filed by Linn County last
year. Out of the 19 people who spoke
during the comment session Wednes-
day night, 11 voiced their support for
opting out.
“The overwhelming message from
public testimony has been in favor
of balanced forest management and
against the Linn County lawsuit,”
Scott Lee, the board’s chairman, said.
Commissioners Sarah Nebeker
and Kathleen Sullivan joined Lee in
voting to opt out of the lawsuit. One
WINTER’S ICY WONDERLAND
of the most common issues both com-
missioners and opponents of the suit
raised was that, should the state lose
in court, county residents could be
affected by higher state taxes.
The fear of higher taxes stems from
how the state could pay the counties
back for the lost timber revenue.
See TIMBER SUIT, Page 7A
Two pitches
take aim
at PERS
liabilities
By CLAIRE WITHYCOMBE
Capital Bureau
Photos by Susan Rhoads/For The Daily Astorian
Ryan Carpenter explores the frozen plant life with his grandmother, Susan Rhoads, at Youngs River Falls Saturday.
A trek to Youngs River Falls finds frozen delights
The Daily Astorian
storian Susan Rhoads and grandson Ryan Carpenter decided to go to Youngs River Falls Saturday after see-
ing pictures of the frozen plants. This is what they found. ¶ After Wednesday’s snow, today will be cold and
sunny. Rain is predicted to start up again Monday. ¶ Brent Gilland, the fueler at the Astoria Regional Airport,
estimated the airport received between a quarter and a half-inch of snow on Wednesday.
A
SALEM — As lawmakers head into the
2017 legislative session, at least two pro-
posed bills plan to address oft-tread terri-
tory: the state’s pension system.
In 2013, the Legislature approved a
slew of changes to the system, referred
to as PERS, only to have many of them
rejected by the Ore-
gon Supreme Court in
2015.
This time around,
those
legislators
who have called for
reforms to PERS
— including mem-
bers of an informal
work group — say the
Legislature needs to
address the system’s
Betsy Johnson
$22 billion unfunded
liability while meeting
legal requirements.
Two proposals that
have emerged thus far
have co-opted some
ideas floated at that
work group, which
is led by Sens. Betsy
Johnson,
D-Scap-
poose,
and
Tim
Knopp, R-Bend.
Tim Knopp
SB 559 would
increase the number of years used in calcu-
lating final average salary of public employ-
ees to prevent end-of-career spikes; and SB
560 would redirect employee contributions
from an individual account program to the
pension fund and cap the final salary used in
the benefits calculation at $100,000 starting
Jan. 1, 2018.
Both bills’ chief sponsors are Knopp and
Sen. Jeff Kruse, R-Roseburg, who said that
the two bills might not be the only propos-
als to expect from Senate Republicans this
session.
“We’re still kind of dancing around a few
things,” Kruse said Wednesday.
Tier 1
Currently, PERS beneficiaries who were
hired prior to Jan. 1, 1996 — known as Tier
1 employees — are promised an assumed
7.5 percent rate of return on investment,
credited to their regular accounts every year.
Kruse said changing that 7.5 percent rate,
which the market has failed to match, could
be legally permissible but that it and other
ideas were still being vetted.
Ice surrounds the plant life at Youngs River Falls Saturday.
Plants at Youngs River Falls were mostly encased in ice.
See PERS, Page 7A
Former fire chief gets $55,000 in settlement
Balzer was
fired for ‘poor
leadership’
By R.J. MARX
The Daily Astorian
CANNON BEACH — For-
mer Cannon Beach Fire Chief
Mike Balzer will receive a one-
time payout of $55,000 from
the Cannon Beach Rural Fire
Protection District and the dis-
trict’s board of directors.
Details of the settle-
ment, prepared by attorneys
for Balzer, the fire district and
the board of directors, were
released Wednesday.
According to the agreement,
Balzer will not receive attor-
neys’ fees or any additional
compensation from the fire dis-
trict. Balzer agrees he will not
apply or accept employment
from the fire department again,
and agrees not to pursue future
litigation against the fire district
or board of directors.
The settlement was dated
Dec. 13. Balzer’s civil rights
lawsuit against the fire district
was dismissed by U.S. Magis-
trate Judge Paul Papak in Port-
land on Jan. 4.
“My only comment would
be to express that the settlement
is not an admission of fault to
either side, but more a business
decision based on the costs
of litigation moving forward,
not just for the district but for
Mr. Balzer, as well,” said Ron
Downs, an attorney with the
Special Districts Association
of Oregon who represented the
fire district and members of the
board of directors.
Earlier this week, Balzer’s
attorney Judy Snyder said the
former chief was “pleased with
the resolution.”
“He’s pleased he’s engaged
in this process and that it
resulted in a satisfactory out-
come for him,” Snyder said.
EO Media Group/File Photo
See BALZER, Page 7A
Mike Balzer, center, served as fire chief from 2012 to Oc-
tober 2015. His lawsuit was dismissed earlier this month.