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THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 2017
Trump weighs mobilizing National Guard for immigration roundups
By GARANCE BURKE
Associated Press
The Trump administration
is considering a proposal to
mobilize as many as 100,000
National Guard troops to
round up unauthorized immi-
grants, including millions liv-
ing nowhere near the Mex-
ico border, according to a draft
memo obtained by The Associ-
ated Press.
The 11-page document
calls for the unprecedented
militarization of immigration
enforcement as far north as
Portland, Oregon, and as far
east as New Orleans, Louisiana.
Four states that border on
Mexico are included in the pro-
posal — California, Arizona,
New Mexico and Texas —
but it also encompasses seven
states contiguous to those four
— Oregon, Nevada, Utah,
Colorado, Oklahoma, Arkansas
and Louisiana.
White House spokesman
Sean Spicer said the AP report
was “100 percent not sure”
and “irresponsible.” ‘’There
is no effort at all to utilize the
National Guard to round up
unauthorized immigrants,” he
said.
Governors in the 11 states
would have a choice whether to
have their guard troops partic-
ipate, according to the memo,
written by U.S. Homeland
Security Secretary John Kelly,
a retired four-star Marine
general.
While National Guard per-
sonnel have been used to assist
with immigration-related mis-
sions on the U.S.-Mexico bor-
der before, they have never
been used as broadly or as far
north.
The memo is addressed to
the then-acting heads of U.S.
Immigration and Customs
Enforcement and U.S. Cus-
toms and Border Protection.
It would serve as guidance to
implement the wide-ranging
executive order on immigration
and border security that Presi-
dent Donald Trump signed Jan.
25. Such memos are routinely
issued to supplement executive
orders.
Also dated Jan. 25, the draft
memo says participating troops
would be authorized “to per-
form the functions of an immi-
gration officer in relation to
the investigation, apprehen-
sion and detention of aliens in
the United States.” It describes
how the troops would be acti-
vated under a revived state-fed-
eral partnership program, and
states that personnel would be
authorized to conduct searches
and identify and arrest any
unauthorized immigrants.
Requests to the White
House and the Department of
Homeland Security for com-
ment and a status report on the
proposal were not answered.
Rohne: ‘I believe in the future of the Port’ Center: ‘We’re
really stretched thin’
Continued from Page 1A
Rohne, a second-genera-
tion dairy farmer who owns
and operates Brownsmead
Island Farm with his wife
Amanda, was known for his
independence during his two
terms on the Clatsop County
Board of Commissioners. He
decided against running for a
third term last year.
“I believe in the future of
the Port of Astoria,” Rohne
said in a release Thursday
announcing his candidacy. “It
is an important entity which is
an economic asset to its sup-
porting communities.
“It is my hope to bring an
intelligent and independent
approach that will help put the
Port on an even keel. With sta-
bility can come public trust,
and positive working relation-
ships with our community,
local, state and national part-
ners. In that sort of stable envi-
ronment I believe challenges
can be dealt with and progress
can be made. I would like to be
part of creating a bright future
for the Port of Astoria.”
Rohne ran unopposed in
2007 for the Clatsop Commu-
nity College Board of Direc-
tors, replacing Laura Harris.
He defeated Astoria contrac-
tor Cary Johnson and joined
the county Board of Commis-
sioners in 2008, running in
opposition to a proposed lique-
fied natural gas terminal on the
North Coast. Rohne resigned
from the college board in 2014
to focus on the county com-
mission board, where his ten-
ure ended late last year.
“My experience in manag-
ing a small business gives me
hands on experience
for Position 1 in
in balancing a bud-
2013, has filed for
get and investing
re-election.
wisely in projects
Still up in the air
that will pay off in
is who will run to fill
the future,” Rohne
Position 5. Incum-
said. “As a parent
bent John Raichl
I have a keen inter-
who was appointed
est in a robust and
in 2014 to replace
healthy economy
Ric Gerttula after
for our county.”
he resigned, has
James
Fulton, who has
announced he will
Campbell
served on the Port
not seek another
Commission since
term.
2013, could not immediately
“I didn’t really want to
be reached for comment. He step in when I did, but I was
has not yet filed for re-election asked to help out,” Raichl said.
for Position 2.
“I’ve been in public life long
enough.”
Raichl said he has spent
Campbell runs again
James Campbell, an incum- more than 30 years in public
bent who served on the Port office, between stints as sher-
Commission from 1965 to iff, on the county commission
1977 and defeated 12-year and with other boards. “I want
Commissioner Larry Pfund to watch the grass grow.”
Judges: ‘Have tremendous responsibility’
versation in every salary
increase (the department) has
requested in good economic
times and bad.”
“Total compensation for
Oregon judges remains well
below any comparators,” he
added.
Continued from Page 1A
Judges say the pay boosts
are needed to attract quality
young attorneys to serve on
the bench.
But the raises would espe-
cially benefit the ranks of
older judges who are just a
few years away from retire-
ment and from collecting Ore-
gon Public Employee Retire-
ment System pensions. The
end-of-career pay boosts
would sharply increase these
judges’ annual PERS payouts,
calculations by The Regis-
ter-Guard show.
Oregon’s judicial salaries
remain low compared to other
states — they rank around
40th nationally in aggregate,
according to 2017 data from
the National Center for State
Courts.
Oregon Supreme Court
Chief Justice Thomas Balmer
told lawmakers this week that
the new raises would bring
Oregon in line with what
other Western states pay.
He acknowledged that the
request is “a heavy lift” given
that the state faces a $1.8 bil-
lion gap between expenses
and revenues in its upcoming
2017-19 budget.
“We’re not doing this for
the money,” Balmer said.
“But (Oregon) needs to pay
(judges) appropriately for the
kind of work that they do.”
The raises, Balmer said,
would help attract “some of
the best young lawyers, best
young deputy district attor-
neys, and best young defense
lawyers” to Oregon’s bench.
But, at least initially, the
healthy pay raises would a
bigger boon for older judges
nearing retirement — and a
hidden cost to the state. The
state has not calculated the
potential financial impact
on PERS, which is severely
underfunded.
The pay and retirement
boosts would not apply to the
array of other Oregon govern-
ment judges, such as munici-
pal court judges or adminis-
trative law judges.
PERS calculations
Elected state judges in
Oregon accumulate pension
benefits under PERS at a rate
much faster than any other
state employee.
Their first 16 years of ser-
vice are credited at 3.75 per-
cent of salary per year. After
that, the rate is 2 percent per
year.
By contrast, most state
employees hired today receive
1.5 percent of salary in retire-
ment for each year of service.
(As a quirky trade-off for
the higher rate, judges must
work for 35 days a year for
free for their first five years of
retirement).
Few alarm bells
The Daily Astorian/File Photo
Chief Justice Thomas Balmer speaks during a pair of ac-
tual cases involving endangerment of minors and liability
waivers in 2014 at Astoria High School.
Under PERS, the percent-
age of salary is multiplied
by the average of the final
three years of salary. So, big
late-career pay raises can be
pension game changers.
According to Regis-
ter-Guard calculations, a
Supreme Court judge with
25 years on the bench would
receive a base starting annual
pension of $105,330, if she
retired today.
With the proposed pay
increases, a Supreme Court
judge with the same 25-year
service would receive a base
annual pension of $125,803,
if she retired in 4 years’ time,
or of $131,157, if she retired
in 7 years.
For a circuit court judge
with 25 years in office, retir-
ing today would mean a base
pension of $96,513 a year. If
lawmakers pass the raises,
retiring in four years would
mean a base pension of
$114,783 and in seven years,
$119,222.
Over a 10- to 20-year
retirement, those annual
$20,000 to $30,000 differ-
ences mean significant added
PERS costs — particularly
with the compounding effect
of a yearly 2 percent cost-of-
living increase on the bulk of
those pensions.
Bigger benefits
Oregon judges’ pensions
are typically larger than that
formula-produced base ben-
efit as well, records show,
thanks to a variable account
that judges can use to invest
their pension funds in the
stock market.
All 11 judges who retired
between 2013 and 2016 with
at least 20 years’ experience
received a starting annual
pension above 75 percent of
their final salary, according
PERS data, with one as high
as 90 percent.
That’s compared to an
average starting pension ben-
efit of 54 percent of final sal-
ary among all public employ-
ees who retired between 1990
and 2014.
That’s due in part to the
fact that the judges’ PERS
plan wasn’t affected at all
by big reforms passed by the
Legislature in 1996 and 2003,
which have successfully
brought down PERS costs for
other state workers.
And the impact of the
legally upheld 2013 reforms
on judges’ retirement was
minor, reducing their pension
cost-of-living increases for
work done after October 2013
only.
How pensions compare
Balmer acknowledged to
lawmakers that the pay raises
would help keep older judges
on the job longer, although he
didn’t specifically mention
their PERS accounts.
“We need to increase com-
pensation to keep our aging
judges on the bench. ... as we
go through the inevitable tran-
sition of (the) baby boomer
cohort moving on,” Balmer
said.
Although the judges’
PERS plan is more generous
than most other plans for Ore-
gon government workers, it is
in line with judge pensions in
other western states, accord-
ing to a 2013 outside accoun-
tant’s report provided by the
Oregon Judicial Department.
That report ranked the typi-
cal value of an Oregon judge’s
pension 13th out of 14 states,
far behind those pensions in
states like Alaska, Califor-
nia and Nevada, but ahead of
Montana’s plan.
But most judges in those
states have to contribute a
portion of their salary to their
retirements — between 3 per-
cent and 11.6 percent. Oregon
judges do not.
Asked about the potential
increased PERS costs due to
the raises, Judicial Depart-
ment spokesman Phil Lem-
man said, in a prepared state-
ment: “The cost of paying
judges for the value of the
work that they do has been
part of the legislative con-
Once again this year, Ore-
gon lawmakers are consid-
ering cost-curbing PERS
reforms to deal with the sys-
tem’s $22 billion unfunded
liability. Because of court rul-
ings, reforms now have to
overwhelmingly hit younger
public employees.
When discussing reforms,
legislators are quick to
bemoan past decisions by the
PERS board and lawmakers
that they believe unsustain-
ably drove up the cost of the
system.
But the judges’ request for
raises doesn’t appear to be
ringing many alarm bells in
Salem.
A whopping 62 Republican
and Democratic lawmakers
— two-thirds of both cham-
bers — have signed a letter of
support for the proposal, con-
tained in both Senate Bill 11
and House Bill 2636.
At twin hearings in the
House and Senate judiciary
committees this week, law-
makers almost universally
blessed the pay increases.
“They are absolutely right
on with what they’re asking of
us,” said Rep. Andy Olson, an
Albany Republican.
In a subsequent interview,
Olson acknowledged that the
potential raise-induced PERS
increases represent “a big
pension package.” But he said
that judges are typically paid
less than the private sector
and high-ranking government
lawyers who argue before
them.
“Judges have tremendous
responsibility in our system,”
Olson added.
Rep. Chris Gorsek, a
Troutdale Democrat, also
spoke in favor of the raises.
“You do important work
and you deserve better com-
pensation,” he told Balmer
and his fellow judges.
Only one legislator voiced
concerns. New state Sen.
Dennis Linthicum, a Klam-
ath Falls Republican, said he
felt the automatic cost-of-liv-
ing raises that the Legislature
approved for judges in 2015
was sufficient.
“Everybody is up in arms
in my constituent district
with regard to the amount of
money we’re spending here in
Salem,” he said.
Both bills were then
approved, on a combined
15-1 vote, and sent to the
Legislature’s budget crafting
committee.
Continued from Page 1A
‘Stretched thin’
The idea to recruit a man-
agement company to run the
district’s day-to-day oper-
ations came from outgo-
ing District CEO Nicole Wil-
liams, who has worked for the
district since 2013 and was
recently hired by Columbia
Memorial Hospital. She said
she plans to leave the district
in early March.
“I think the job has grown
to be too much for one person
to do,” Williams said.
Encompassing all of Clat-
sop County except the cities of
Gearhart, Seaside and Cannon
Beach, the health district over-
sees the health and rehabili-
tation center, Clatsop Retire-
ment Village in Astoria and
— the latest addition — Clat-
sop Memory Care Center in
Warrenton. It also provides
in-home care throughout the
community.
In addition, complex new
Medicare and Medicaid regu-
lations take up more time and
staff members to implement.
“We’re really stretched
thin,” Williams said, “and I
think, in order to be successful
in the future, you have to affil-
iate somehow with a larger
company.”
Danny Miller/The Daily Astorian
Nicole Williams, CEO of
Clatsop Care Health Dis-
trict, is resigning in early
March to work for Colum-
bia Memorial Hospital.
The district’s basic struc-
ture will remain the same, she
said. All employees would
remain district employees. The
district board would remain
an elected board, whose job
would be to oversee the man-
agement company and ensure
it is held accountable, she said.
The board has not yet cho-
sen a company, but is look-
ing at Oregon-based firms that
specialize in managing non-
profit agencies, particularly in
small, rural communities.
Blaze: ‘It’s just been beautiful
the way people want to help’
Continued from Page 1A
Coaster Theatre Execu-
tive Director Patrick Lathrop
was among those who lost his
home.
“I had just left and was
shopping in Seaside and got
a phone call and came back
down,” Lathrop said Wednes-
day. “I witnessed it. I was very
lost — that’s the only thing I
can say. I was just so confused,
I didn’t know what to do.”
Lathrop said in addition to
his own living space, an apart-
ment used by Coaster The-
atre for guests artists, rehears-
als and meetings was also
destroyed in the blaze, which
was ruled accidental.
‘Loving and caring’
“I’ve only seen good,”
church administrator Nancy
Giasson said on behalf of Pas-
tor David Robinson and con-
gregants. “It’s just been beau-
tiful the way people want to
help.”
Giasson said after the fire
“a flood of people, members
and friends of the church”
came to the church with offers
of assistance.
“Extraordinarily loving
and caring — this is the way
this community is,” Gias-
son said. “We care about each
other. We’re just happy to
serve and to be a flow-through
for their gifts.”
The church coordinated
with other efforts to establish
a fire relief fund. Money will
be disbursed equally by those
displaced by the fire.
Whatever people give goes
100 percent to the victims,
Giasson added.
“I’m still a little loss to be
honest,” Lathrop said. “I keep
going back to compared to
what the women above me
lost. I don’t have anything to
complain about.”
To donate, visit www.
gofundme.com/3dmwsfc or
contact Emmas Lindsay at
Dogs Allowed, 503-440-8740.
To donate to the Cannon
Beach Community Church
Fire Fund, go to www.beach-
community.org.
Cannon Beach Fire and Rescue
The interior of the Cannon Beach home after Sunday’s
accidental blaze destroyed the apartments.