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THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 2, 2018
editor@dailyastorian.com
KARI BORGEN
Publisher
JIM VAN NOSTRAND
Editor
Founded in 1873
JEREMY FELDMAN
Circulation Manager
DEBRA BLOOM
Business Manager
JOHN D. BRUIJN
Production Manager
CARL EARL
Systems Manager
OUR VIEW
More foster families, child caseworkers needed
O
regon’s foster-care system needs
to enter the 21st century.
A scathing audit conducted
by the Secretary of State’s Office makes
that clear. Caseworkers are overworked
and exhausted, foster families are in
short supply, and children suffer.
The state Audits Division began the
audit a year ago. The results, though dis-
turbing, should not come as a surprise.
Oregon’s leaders have long known of
the problems, and a series of administra-
tors have promised improvement.
That turnaround finally might be
underway. In releasing the audit report,
Secretary of State Dennis Richardson
criticized the culture and perfor-
mance of the Oregon Department of
Human Services, but he praised its new
leadership.
The top administration has been
doing such simple but important things
as visiting DHS field offices through-
out the state, talking firsthand with
front-line workers. DHS Director
Fariborz Pakseresht, who took over in
September, and his top managers regu-
larly hold town hall meetings to update
and listen to employees, advocates and
the public.
The most critical concern is to
recruit, train and retain far more case-
workers and foster families. Richardson
said the state needs nearly 800 addi-
tional caseworkers and related staff.
AP Photo/Rick Bowmer
A foster parent holds a child in 2007 in Portland.
Foster parents deserve higher com-
pensation to cover their costs. And the
state’s supposedly state-of-the-art fos-
ter care computer system, like other IT
projects, is a frustrating mess.
Here on the North Coast, there is a
perennial shortage of foster care fami-
lies. In recent years, The Daily Astorian
has reported “it is increasingly difficult
to find a foster home in Clatsop County,
keep the children in their school district
and prevent siblings from getting sep-
arated. In some cases, the local Child
Welfare District office has had to place
foster children in neighboring counties.”
Meanwhile, Texas has a real-time
system for tracking available place-
ments for foster children, whereas
Oregon too often houses children in
hotels while caseworkers send emails
desperately seeking an available family.
Oregon state Rep. Knute Buehler,
the Bend Republican who is running
for governor, responded to the audit by
calling for a special bipartisan commis-
sion to recommend specific reforms that
could be implemented within 90 days.
That is a good idea, even though
Pakseresht has accepted the audit
report’s recommendations and vowed to
follow through. But during the 35-day
legislative session that begins Monday,
Oregon lawmakers need not wait —
they dare not wait — to add casework-
ers and help foster children.
This audit report belongs on every
legislator’s desk, not on the shelf.
If you think you might be willing
to help fill the gap in foster care, call
800-331-0503. A foster care special-
ist will answer initial questions and pro-
vide a contact name of a Department of
Human Services worker.
The foster parent is given a stipend
and must provide food, shelter, clothing,
a sleeping area and other basic neces-
sities. He or she serves as the primary
contact for the child’s school, makes day
care arrangements and schedules extra-
curricular activities, and drives them
to their medical, counseling and court
appointments.
It is a brilliant opportunity to help
children in need of compassion and
care.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Blame game
continues to divide us
A
s long as we, as one nation, continue to
play the blame game and point fingers,
we will continue to be divided.
I am reminded of the scripture when the
Lord appeared to Solomon at night and said
to him “If my people, who are called by my
name, will humble themselves and pray and
seek my face and turn from their wicked
ways, then will I hear from heaven and will
forgive their sins and will heal their land.” —
2 Chronicles 7:14
Only then.
This is my hope.
KATHY OLSON
Astoria
National parks need money
to stay safe and accessible
W
e were pleased to see that Clatsop
County, Astoria, and Warrenton all have
publicly supported our National Park Service
(NPS), and have encouraged Congress to find
a permanent source of funding to address the
deferred maintenance backlog that poses a
threat to the future of these amazing places.
We are fortunate to have a draw like Fort
Clatsop in our region. In 2016, nearly 300,000
visitors came to Lewis and Clark National
Historical Park. Those folks shopped in our
stores, ate in our restaurants and slept in our
lodgings.
All told, they spent over $16.5 million in
our communities, which in turn supported
260 local jobs. The park is more than just an
important part of our history; it is a vital eco-
nomic engine for Clatsop County, and one
that we have a shared interest in maintaining.
Overall, national parks have seen an
increase in visitation in recent years. At the
same time, their infrastructure continues to
age and there is inadequate funding for NPS
to keep up with necessary maintenance. If our
national parks are going to continue to serve
as economic drivers for local communities,
we need to give them the funds they need to
stay safe and accessible.
We join our local governments in a call to
action on the issue of deferred maintenance
in our national parks. We are proud that Rep.
Suzanne Bonamici has co-sponsored a bill to
tackle this issue, and we hope the rest of the
Oregon delegation will do the same.
SKIP HAUKE
Executive director, Astoria-Warrenton
Area Chamber of Commerce
Eliminate the IRS,
go to national sales tax
F
or years The Wall Street Journal sent a
hypothetical taxpayer circumstance to
10 different CPA firms. Year after year, they
would receive back 10 different tax liabilities.
Taxpayers’ unease with the IRS continues
to grow, as once again the agency is shown
to create its own laws, priorities, and rules.
LETTERS WELCOME
Letters should be exclusive to The Daily Astorian.
Letters should be fewer than 250 words and must include the writer’s name,
address and phone number. You will be contacted to confirm authorship.
All letters are subject to editing for space, grammar, and, on occasion, factual
accuracy. Only two letters per writer are allowed each month.
Letters written in response to other letter writers should address the issue at hand
and, rather than mentioning the writer by name, should refer to the headline and date
the letter was published. Discourse should be civil and people should be referred to
in a respectful manner. Letters in poor taste will not be printed.
Send via email to editor@dailyastorian.com, online at dailyastorian.com/sub-
mit_letters, in person at 949 Exchange St. in Astoria or 1555 North Roosevelt in
Seaside, or mail to Letters to the Editor, P.O. Box 210, Astoria, OR 97103.
(“The IRS Evades Accountability and Its
Excuse is Ridiculous,” The Wall Street Jour-
nal, Jan. 10).
Compounding the worry is the five years it
took to prove the IRS guilty of slow-walking
Tea Party/patriot groups on applications for
exempt status in the run-up to the 2012 elec-
tion. The $3.5 million fine paid out of tax-
payer funds was another slap in the face of
attentive Americans.
Add that former IRS chief Lois Lerner
who, after successfully covering up agency
wrongdoing before Congress for two years,
was allowed to retire with full benefits, and
you’re leading taxpayers to conclude the IRS
rules the Congress, not the other way around.
The only way to de-weaponize the IRS,
which obviously intimidates lawmakers, is to
go to a national sales tax. This would simplify
rules, stop the threat of nefarious audits and
end the IRS as a tool against enemies of the
bureaucratic state. In addition, it would take
the governor off the engines of personal moti-
vation in each of us.
The uniquely American ideal regarding
the “pursuit of happiness” never included the
muscular arm of your authoritative govern-
ment tattooed with the letters “IRS.”
WAYNE MAYO
Scappoose
Congress doesn’t
understand Amtrak issues
T
he otherwise well-written Daily Astorian
Dec. 26 editorial regarding Amtrak’s Dec.
18 derailment erred regarding why Eastern
Oregon Amtrak service ceased in 1997 (“Rail-
road companies have dragged their feet on
safety improvements”).
That service was eliminated by a vote of
U.S. Congress members, a majority of whom
appear unencumbered by comprehension of
the issues involved:
1. No national intercity rail passenger ser-
vice systems earn a profit.
2. Amtrak exists because most U.S. private
railroads could not earn a profit from passen-
ger service.
3. Amtrak’s cost accounting does not iden-
tify the actual cost of individual trains or
routes, nor are such costs calculated in the
same way for trains operated on the Bos-
ton-Washington Northeast Corridor (NEC,
where Amtrak owns the tracks) as for trains
Amtrak operates elsewhere, such as Eastern
Oregon.
4. Eliminating one or more train routes has
invariably reduced system operating revenues
more than system operating costs.
5. Increasing frequency of service invari-
ably increases ridership and direct operat-
ing revenues faster than direct operating costs
rise.
6. Amtrak recovers 94 percent of its sys-
tem-wide direct operating costs from its direct
operating revenues, but its capital invest-
ment funding perpetually fails to meet its
capital investments needs, such as: rebuild-
ing the NEC to permit recently ordered new
high speed trains to operate at their 176 mph
design speed; expanding the non-NEC fleet to
operate at least two daily round trips on each
route; resuming operation of many previously
discontinued trains; and adding new routes
crossing existing routes to vastly expand the
number of city-pairs served by our nation’s
national rail passenger train service.
HOWARD HARDING
Akron, Ohio