3A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, MARCH 16, 2018
Brown fires state librarian
as specifics remain elusive
Dahlgreen
claims she
was not given
feedback
By CLAIRE
WITHYCOMBE
Capital Bureau
SALEM — Gov. Kate
Brown fired state librarian
MaryKay Dahlgreen on Tues-
day, an apparent surprise to the
state’s association of library
professionals, the chairwoman
of the state library board and
Dahlgreen herself.
While the governor’s office
says Dahlgreen failed to meet
lawmakers’ expectations, it did
not provide specifics.
Dahlgreen says the gover-
nor did not provide her with
specific written feedback on
her performance, either.
Dahlgreen had served as
state librarian since 2012,
and had worked for the state
library since 1996.
The state librarian is
appointed by the governor and
subject to confirmation by the
state Senate.
Kate Kondayen, a spokes-
woman for Gov. Brown, said
in an email Wednesday that
Dahlgreen “fell short of clear
and timely expectations from
legislators, and as a result of
these performance issues, did
not have the Senate support
necessary for confirmation.”
Kondayen continued:
“Once qualms about (Dahl-
green’s) confirmation came to
light, and in consideration of
stability for state library staff
and programming, the gov-
ernor’s office offered to pur-
sue a collaborative transition
out of the role. Ms. Dahlgreen
instead chose to be terminated
and leave the state library
under unplanned and immedi-
ate circumstances.”
In response to that state-
ment, Dahlgreen said she
Katie Frankowicz/The Daily Astorian
Dozens of pyrosomes have washed up on beaches.
Pacific heat wave
known as ‘the Blob’
appears to be in retreat
Three years ago, the Leg-
islature changed how the state
librarian is chosen.
It used to be that the state
librarian was appointed by a
group of trustees.
But in 2015, the Legisla-
ture passed a law that “grand-
mothered” Dahlgreen into the
position until July 1, 2017, at
which point she would be sub-
ject to gubernatorial appoint-
ment and Senate confirmation.
That 2015 law also con-
verted the group of trustees
into a board and, advocates say,
made its composition more rep-
resentative of library patrons.
Reappointment process
Dahlgreen says that in July,
she approached the governor’s
office to find out what to do
to apply for reappointment. In
December, she was asked to
provide “materials and a letter
of interest” on the position.
She says her name was on
the list of executive appoint-
ments that the governor’s
office submitted to the Senate
‘We are confused about this
seemingly sudden decision,
made without consultation
with key stakeholders and
despite Dahlgreen’s strong
track record as agency head.’
Buzzy Nielsen,
president of the Oregon Library Association
The state librarian may
not be a particularly high-pro-
file job, but the Oregon State
Library does important work,
advocates say.
The state library helps pub-
lic libraries share resources
and adapt to changing tech-
nologies; provides support for
library patrons who are blind
or have impaired vision; and
assists state agencies with
research.
Rules Committee, and she was
supposed to appear at a hear-
ing before the committee in
February.
The day before that hear-
ing was supposed to happen,
though, she says she was told
there might be a problem.
“I received a call from the
governor’s office telling me
that there appeared to be some
problem with my appointment
with the Senate, and that they
would look into it and get back
to me,” Dahlgreen said.
The governor’s office fol-
lowed up nearly a month
later, she says, and explained
that she did not have support
from the Senate and gave her a
choice: resign or be dismissed.
After giving it some
thought over the weekend,
Dahlgreen chose to be fired.
“I believe that there was no
reason for me to resign,” she
said.
Buzzy Nielsen, president of
the Oregon Library Associa-
tion, penned a letter to the gov-
ernor expressing his concerns
on Tuesday.
“Both the state library and
Dahlgreen have been invalu-
able partners in the Oregon
Library Association’s efforts
to support libraries, library
workers and the patrons they
support statewide,” Nielsen
wrote. “We are confused about
this seemingly sudden deci-
sion, made without consul-
tation with key stakeholders
and despite Dahlgreen’s strong
track record as agency head.”
Dahlgreen’s confirmation
would have required a simple
majority vote — 16 votes.
A spokeswoman for the Sen-
ate Republicans said Wednes-
day that she was not aware of
any opposition to Dahlgreen in
the Republican caucus.
Senate Majority Leader
Ginny Burdick, D-Portland,
confirmed through a spokes-
man that the statement from the
governor’s office was accurate,
but declined to comment further
because it was a “personnel/per-
formance related matter.”
Ann Malkin, the chair-
woman of the State Library
Board, said she thought Dahl-
green did a good job responding
to the Legislature’s requests.
“I think she was very
attuned to what Legislature
was asking for, as was the
board, and there was not resis-
tance on anybody’s part to
implementing those changes,”
Malkin said.
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Jim Stewart • Brain Ratty
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Ocean conditions off the
Pacific Northwest seem to
be returning to normal after
a three-year spike in water
temperature.
It’s promising long-term
news for fishermen who are
looking ahead in the short
term to yet another year of
low salmon returns.
A report from the
National Oceanic and Atmo-
spheric Administration out-
lined the latest ocean obser-
vations for the organization
that sets salmon catch lim-
its off the West Coast. The
Pacific Fishery Management
Council will set those limits
in early April.
The extended marine
heatwave of the past few
years has been nicknamed
“the Blob.”
“The high pressure sys-
tem over the North Pacific
basically got stalled out and
stuck there. And so the ocean
warmed up about 6 degrees
Fahrenheit,” NOAA’s Toby
Garfield said.
Then a strong El Niño
came through that reinforced
these conditions.
“There have been a num-
ber of these events, these
marine heat waves, that have
occurred in the North Pacific.
But the one we had in ’13,
’14, ’15 was the by far the
largest in the record going
back 45 years,” Garfield said.
And the effect on sea life
was serious. Whales, sea
lions and seabirds starved
because the warm water
didn’t support tiny nutri-
tion-rich plankton called
copepods at the base of the
food chain.
Within the past year, the
El Niño effect has dissipated,
and other longer-term cli-
mate cycles are shifting back
toward a more average level.
“We finally saw some
of those northern, fat cope-
pods off the coast of Ore-
gon, which was a very good
signal,” said Jennifer Fisher,
a researcher with NOAA
and Oregon State Univer-
sity. “But the caveat to that is
that we saw that transition for
only a couple months.”
Fisher says they will test
again this coming summer to
see if the trend holds.
Fisher’s tempered opti-
mism is not unique. Else-
where scientists are still find-
ing lingering effects of the
Blob.
“If you look in the North
Pacific, the deep water is still
very warm,” Garfield said.
“Which means there’s still a
lot of heat being stored.”
In addition, last summer,
there was a major low-oxy-
gen event that caused crab
die-offs. Warm water spe-
cies, like the gelatinous pyro-
somes, continue to linger off
the Northwest coast. And the
number of reported cases of
whales entangled in near-
shore fishing gear remained
high — an indication they
are being forced to find food
outside their normal hunting
grounds.
Overall, the cooler water
temperatures federal scien-
tists began seeing in 2017
should mean some improve-
ment in Northwest fish-
eries in the coming years
— including salmon. But
NOAA says it will take a
few years for the salmon to
respond to the decline of the
Blob.
The return to more nor-
mal conditions is promising,
but the West Coast fishing
industry is still cautious.
“The problem is that
normal itself appears to be
changing because of long-
term climate change. We
have a lot of problems in the
ocean and a lot of changes
in the ocean, and those are
very worrisome,” said Glen
Spain with the Pacific Coast
Federation of Fishermen’s
Associations.
The NOAA report flags
Oregon’s Port Orford and
Washington’s
Tokeland
as the Pacific Northwest’s
most socially and econom-
ically vulnerable to down-
turns in the commercial fish-
ing industry.
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By JES BURNS
Oregon Public
Broadcasting
was “very
proud” of
the work she
did during
her tenure.
“ T h e
work I’ve
done at the
state library
MaryKay
is the best
Dahlgreen
work I’ve
ever done,”
Dahlgreen said Wednesday.
“I don’t regret a minute of it,
and I would also like to point
out that I was never provided
with written concerns about
my performance.”
Dahlgreen said that during
some budget hearings, there
were some times when she
“was questioned very closely.”
“And when I was asked
to provide further informa-
tion, I did that,” Dahlgreen
said. “I always followed up.
There were some very pointed
questions about my perfor-
mance and my feeling is that I
addressed every single one of
those concerns.”
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