DailyAstorian.com // TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 2017
144TH YEAR, NO. 163
ASTORIA POLICE FULLY STAFFED BUT OVERSTRETCHED
THINNER BLUE LINE
ONE DOLLAR
PERS
plan gets
public
pushback
Bills would change
way benefits calculated
By CLAIRE WITHYCOMBE
Capital Bureau
New recruit
took two
years to
hire, train
By ERICK BENGEL
The Daily Astorian
he Astoria Police Department has a
full team of officers once again but
still struggles to operate.
Last month, the department added
Officer Kevin Berry, filling a vacancy
that lasted more than two years. It marks
the first time since Brad Johnston became
police chief that the department has 16
deployable officers — the department’s
authorized limit.
The process of finding Berry, which
began in the winter of 2015, was long and
lurching.
The first attempt yielded no acceptable
candidates; the top choices washed out
during background checks and psycholog-
ical evaluations. On the second attempt,
they hired Berry in January 2016 — and,
T
Photos by Danny Miller/The Daily Astorian
ABOVE: Astoria Police Officer Kevin Berry communicates back to dispatch while
on patrol. TOP: Officer Berry makes a routine traffic stop while on patrol in Febru-
ary. Berry is the Astoria Police Department’s newest hire.
BY THE NUMBERS
500
400
1,000+
approximate amount of
positions open at police
agencies in Oregon as of
January 2016
number of new officers
trained last year at the state
Department of Public Safety
and Training
number of officers in Oregon
eligible for retirement over
the next two years
SALEM — In a demonstration of the
fraught political territory lawmakers enter
when they scrutinize the state’s public pen-
sion system, firefighters, nurses and teach-
ers Monday testified against two state Sen-
ate bills aimed at reducing the costs of that
system.
The bills, both sponsored by Sen. Tim
Knopp, R-Bend, are the latest round in the
Legislature’s seem-
ingly perennial bat-
tle with the costs of
the Public Employees
Retirement System,
the unfunded liabil-
ity of which has been
estimated to be at least
$21.8 billion.
Senate Bill 559
would require that
retirement benefits be
Tim
calculated using the
Knopp
average salary from
the final five years of employment, instead
of the current three years.
Senate Bill 560 would take the 6 per-
cent of salary employees contribute, or have
contributed on their behalf, to a defined
contribution plan called the Individual
Account Program and redirect it to their
retirement benefits. The bill also caps the
amount of salary used in benefits calcula-
tions at $100,000.
In 2015, the state Supreme Court scut-
tled most of a package of PERS reforms the
Legislature passed in 2013. That decision,
in a case called Moro v. Oregon, essentially
said that the Legislature could not make
cuts to benefits already accrued. Therefore,
lawmakers can only alter benefits not yet
earned.
Balancing act
The Legislature faces a complicated bal-
ancing act, one that attorney William Gary,
who represented the Oregon School Boards
Association in the Moro case, compares to a
game of three-dimensional chess.
Gary told lawmakers last week that
they’ll have to balance sound public policy,
political demands and the requirements of
the law.
See POLICE, Page 7A
See PERS, Page 7A
Bill would ban union, contractor campaign contributions
Companion bill
would require
more disclosure
By PARIS ACHEN
Capital Bureau
Knute
Buehler
SALEM — A state legislator
wants to prohibit state contrac-
tors and public unions from con-
tributing to political campaigns.
The legislation has a compan-
ion bill that would require bid-
ders on state contracts to disclose
their five biggest campaign con-
tributions in the state.
“Oregon is a small place with
good people, but sometimes these
relationships between elected
officials and state contractors get
way too cozy,” said state Rep.
Knute Buehler, R-Bend. “We
need to find a way to make it
more professional and have more
transparency. I think it’s import-
ant that people have confidence
in their government.”
Buehler was scheduled to drop
the legislation Monday, the same
day an opinion piece in Forbes
Magazine by Illinois-based con-
servative activist Adam Andrze-
jewski claimed that Gov. Kate
Brown and Attorney General
Ellen Rosenblum have received
more than $800,000 combined
in campaign contributions from
more than 200 state contractors.
Buehler, who is a rumored
candidate for governor in 2018,
tweeted out a link to the opin-
ion piece Monday when he
announced he had introduced the
legislation. In an interview with
the EO Media Group/Pamplin
Media Group Capital Bureau,
Buehler cited Illinois as a state
that had passed laws similar to
his proposals.
The Bend Republican had
been looking into campaign
finance reforms well before
Andrzejewski penned his opin-
ion. In 2015, Buehler’s office
obtained advice from Legisla-
tive Counsel indicating that a
See BILL, Page 7A
Cannon Beach City Hall confronts a shaky outlook
New building
could cost at
least $3 million
By R.J. MARX
The Daily Astorian
CANNON BEACH —
Cannon Beach councilors
await a Plan B after bids for a
proposed City Hall renovation
exceeded the budget.
After design, updates and
review, Public Works Director
Dan Grassick opened sealed
bids in mid-January to find the
two construction bids had both
surpassed the city’s $150,000
cap.
R.J. Marx/The Daily Astorian
A new City Hall building,
Dan Grassick said, could
cost upward of $3 million.
At last week’s City Council
meeting, Grassick said the bids
exceeded “well above $200 a
square foot.”
In a competitive construc-
tion environment, the scope of
the job was well below what
contractors could make on a
standard residence.
“What we realized from the
feedback from the construc-
tion community, was timing’s
everything,” Grassick said.
“Everybody’s busy. Money has
come in suddenly in the last
15 months and we’ve seen the
building pace pick up at a pace
we haven’t seen since 2007.”
A new city hall build-
ing would have cost at least
$3 million, but modifications
were expected to come in at a
fraction of that cost.
R.J. Marx/The Daily Astorian
See CITY HALL, Page 7A
This area of City Hall was among those slated for remodel.