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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (April 23, 2018)
4A THE DAILY ASTORIAN • MONDAY, APRIL 23, 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 State lacks political will on PERS O $2,362 regon has become the national poster child for public pensions gone awry. A recent New York Times story cast a spotlight on Joseph Robertson, an eye surgeon who retired as head of the Oregon Health & Science University last fall and gets a whopping $76,111 per month. More than 2,000 other state retirees get pensions exceeding $100,000 a year. Although that number is eye-pop- tion some Oregonians might raise their ping, the largess of the Oregon Public eyebrows about). Employees Retirement System has been PERS has an unfunded actuarial lia- bility of about $22 billion. That’s how well-documented for years, with a seem- ingly endless succession of news stories short the system is of being able to cover and the resulting editorial outrage. its projected pension outlays. Fortunately, that number is also an Neither the current PERS board and outlier. The average starting monthly management, nor most of the current pension for state employees who retired politicians, are to blame for the long-ago in 2015 is $2,362, according to PERS decisions that led to this fiasco. But Gov. figures. The thrust of the Times story is Kate Brown and the 2018 Legislature that money that could go for teachers, must bear the responsibility for taking police officers, firefighters, child-welfare only tepid steps to reduce PERS’ burden caseworkers and other public employ- on more than 900 local governments and ees instead must be used to prop up the school districts, as well as state agencies. bloated PERS system. Oregon’s “expe- The Legislature did approve Brown’s rience shows how faulty financial deci- proposed matching funds to help schools sions by states can eventually swamp and other governments pay down their local communities,” the story said. PERS liabilities. But unless far more is Some other states are in worse shape. done, PERS will gobble increasingly Oregon stands out because our PERS larger shares of state, school and local problems contradict the state’s national government budgets. reputation for fiscal discipline (a reputa- Much harm already has been done. PERS BY THE NUMBERS Average starting monthly pension for employees who retired in 2015 24 Average years of public employment 44% For 2015 retirees, average percentage of salary replaced by PERS at retirement 54% For all PERS retirees during 1990-2015, average percentage of salary replaced at retirement 134,323 Number of PERS recipients in 2015 213,455 Active, inactive members of PERS in 2015 Source: Oregon Public Employees Retirement System (bit.ly/PERS-2015) Consider the public workers whose jobs became casualties of employers’ needs to put more into PERS. Think about those employees who didn’t take vacation or sick days — whose use would have contributed to overall pro- ductivity — in order to beef up their final pensions. Remember Oregon’s abys- mally short school year and large class sizes. And on and on. As the New York Times reported, “Oregon now has fewer police officers than in 1970, is losing foster-care work- ers at an alarming rate and has allowed earthquake and tsunami preparations to lapse.” Solutions exist. Tri-Met, the Portland area’s regional transit system, righted its pension system by eventually switch- ing to defined contributions instead of defined benefits. The progressive Portland City Club and other groups also have put forth reasonable ideas. The courts have closed off some ave- nues but not all. What Oregon lacks is political will among Gov. Brown and the Legislature’s Democratic leadership. They pride themselves on the state’s progressive reputation. Maybe Oregon’s tarnished national reputation will cause them to act. SOUTHERN EXPOSURE Lady Gaga slept here! Who knew? I Tammy Harris of Moscow, Idaho, died Feb. 28 at age 55. A found- ing member of her local Habitat For Humanity, a certified nurse practitioner whose family was “of utmost impor- tance,” she and her husband married in Cannon Beach in 2007. Larry and Kathy Morehouse of Yakima celebrated their 50th wed- ding anniversary this month in Cannon Beach — a place they have been visiting for 45 years, according to the Yakima Herald-Republic. ’ve added “Cannon Beach” to my list of news alert search terms, delivering local, national and international links to my email inbox. Completely random, often barely relevant, real news, fake or otherwise, they nevertheless represent a mirror on our world we may not immediately recognize. The bad and the beautiful When eight members of the Hart family were presumed dead after an SUV hurtled off the side of the moun- tain in California, a news tie to Can- non Beach seemed far-fetched, even unlikely. Both the Oregonian and Bend Bulletin looped Cannon Beach into their stories on the crash — through Jessica Smith, the woman who drowned her toddler in a Can- non Beach hotel in 2015. “Family annihi- R.J. MARX lators,” they are called by criminologists. Does this mean Cannon Beach will be for- ever entwined with this clinical subset of horrors? Fortunately for the Chamber of Com- merce and local lodging enterprises, the good outweighs the bad when receiv- ing updates from around the country and around the world. This headline from the L.A. Times is resplendent: “Cannon Beach captures the best of the Oregon Coast.” San Diego Magazine sent a reporter to Cannon Beach in 2017, describing it as “arguably the single most-Insta- grammed location in Oregon.” “With boulders rising out of the waves, tree-covered mountains and jag- ged cliffs cascading right into the ocean, this is the Northern Pacific at its finest,” they enthuse. No wonder so many Californians want to move here. Links pop up for listicles, like one from Forbes touting “the world’s 50 best beaches.” Cannon Beach is hanging in there by a thread at No. 50, but never- theless it’s on the list, just behind No. 48, Ageeba Beach, Egypt, and No. 49, Diani Beach, Kenya. “The Pacific Northwest’s most majestic creation is Cannon Beach, in Oregon,” Forbes declared in November. “Majestic rocks soar far above the pic- turesque coastline while the watercolor sky paints the sea in vibrant shades of blues and teals throughout the day.” The most beautiful beach in the world? Whitehaven Beach, Whitsunday Islands, Australia, says Forbes. The Thrillist, an online food and life- style guide, selects Cannon Beach as “the best small town to visit in Oregon,” ahead of McMinnville and Carlton. (Astoria comes in as No. 4). One day my alerts reported Trip Advisor’s “16th annual Traveler’s Choice Awards for the best hotels in News of the weird Lady Gaga Lady Gaga and friend as posed on Twitter. Twitter You’re as likely to hear about what’s going on in your own back yard from Twit- ter as you are from your next-door neighbor. the U.S. for 2018,” bringing our city into some lofty company. I must say I do feel some pride to know the Steph- anie Inn is No. 5, sandwiched between the Hotel Emma in San Antonio, Texas, and the Santa Maria Suites in Key West, Florida. Family memories A whole population who have never lived here consider Cannon Beach part of their life story, impactful enough to be included in an obituary or a wedding announcement. Consider John Butler Brassfield, who died March 8, at the age of 95. Accord- ing to his memorial announcement in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, he spent his early years in Oregon, moving back to Seattle in 1939. He served as president of the West Seattle Monogram Club. He was a golf- ing member at Meridian Valley Golf and Country Club, where he shot his age in his 80s. He and his wife Barbara trav- eled around the world. And they cel- ebrated wedding anniversaries at the Stephanie Inn at Cannon Beach. On the coast, we’ve read of the fish- ing boats washed ashore from Japan subsequent to the 2011 tsunami. One remains beached at an end of Hug Point. We received an alert in December with a new story twist. “Although the wreck clearly showed the signs of wear and tear you’d expect, it was also teem- ing with life, including gooseneck bar- nacles, which can sell for £90 a plate,” wrote The Mirror, Britain’s “intelligent tabloid.” That would be British pounds sterling or about $128. I was left shak- ing my head at the innovation of the writer, who had discovered a completely new angle to a five-year-old story. Who would ever think of eating the 7-year- old barnacles off a boat that had quite possibly been exposed to radiation after the meltdown of the Fukushima nuclear reactor? Those Brits have their finger on the pulse of Cannon Beach, for sure. It took this alert from another Brit tabloid, The Sun, to inform us that we just missed a visit from Lady Gaga in our own backyard. “Lady Gaga is back in the record- ing studio after health problems made her axe her latest tour,” wrote The Sun in early March. “She has teamed up again with Born This Way and Artpop producer DJ White Shadow in Cannon Beach, Oregon — an area with ‘healing properties.’” Lady Gaga canceled her last tour due to fibromyalgia, and the inference is that Cannon Beach is the Lourdes of the North Coast. “Back in Malibu after hav- ing spent some time in Oregon,” Gaga tweeted. Links to her Instagram account con- firm what appears to be the visit, with pictures of the iconic sea stacks. If her bassist Jonny Good hadn’t shared the story with the tabloids, we would have never known. I continue to check my alerts, not only for Cannon Beach and Seaside, which I cover, but Saugatuck, Michigan, where my dad lives, and Katonah, New York, where I lived and worked for a newspaper for 20-some years. It’s almost like being there. R.J. Marx is The Daily Astorian’s South County reporter and editor of the Seaside Signal and Cannon Beach Gazette.
