THE DAILY ASTORIAN • WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 2019
Oregon fi rst to have statewide rent control
State House passed
the bill Tuesday
By PARIS ACHEN
Oregon Capital Bureau
SALEM – Oregon is
about to institute the fi rst
statewide rent control in the
country.
The state House voted
35- 25 Tuesday to cap annual
rent increases to 7 percent,
plus the change in the con-
sumer price index, and
restrict no-fault evictions.
The legislation, Senate Bill
608, now goes to Gov. Kate
Brown, who has said she
would sign it into law.
“This new law is one of
many actions the L egisla-
ture needs to take to address
the housing crisis in Ore-
gon,” said Lisa Morawski,
a spokeswoman for Brown.
“While it will provide imme-
diate relief, we need to focus
on building supply in order
to address Oregon’s hous-
ing challenges for the long
term.”
House Speaker Tina
Kotek fi nally accomplished
her longstanding goal to
AP Photo/Andrew Selsky
Supporters of a bill to ban most no-cause evictions of home
renters in Oregon demonstrate on the Capitol steps in Salem
in 2017.
protect tenants from abusive
landlords. Kotek crafted the
bill to protect tenants from
steep rent increases and pre-
vent large-scale evictions
that have displaced Orego-
nians, especially in the Port-
land area.
But the rent limits don’t
apply to rental proper-
ties built within the past 15
years, a measure meant to
encourage housing develop-
ment in the state.
The legislation allows
certain no-fault evictions
when a landlord wants to
sell, upgrade or move into a
property, but requires land-
lords with larger holdings —
fi ve units or more — to pay a
tenant a relocation fee equal-
ing one month’s rent.
Tenants may sue the
landlord when there is a vio-
lation and receive damages
equal to three months’ rent.
The legislation passed
mostly along party lines
with Democratic Reps.
David Gomberg of Neotsu,
Caddy McKeown of Coos
Bay and Brad Witt of Clats-
kanie voting against the bill.
Rep. Tiffi ny Mitchell, D-As-
toria, voted for the bill.
The Senate passed the bill
two weeks ago 17-11. Sen.
Betsy Johnson, D-Scap-
poose, voted against the
legislation.
Debate on the bill on the
House fl oor lasted for more
than an hour Tuesday, with
several Republicans oppos-
ing it and Democrats speak-
ing in favor.
Rep. Ron Noble, R-Mc-
Minnville, noted that the
rent cap is higher than the
average rent increase in Ore-
gon between 2016 and 2017.
Between the end of 2016
and the end of 2017, rents
increased statewide by 0.8
percent, and in Portland,
decreased by 1.5 percent.
“What this bill purports to
do is provide a solution for
our problem,” Noble said.
Yet the 7 percent cap
would have little effect on
low-income renters at risk of
becoming homeless, Noble
said. Meanwhile, he said,
the new policy could scare
off investors and prompt
landlords to sell their resi-
dential units to homeowners,
decreasing the rental supply.
Jury will decide if local charter overfi shed
Rep.
Mark
Meek,
D-Gladstone, a landlord and
Realtor, presented the bill on
the House fl oor , saying its
aim is to protect tenants.
“In some cases, some
tenants did not receive rent
increases; in other cases,
tenants received on the level
of 20 percent and 40 per-
cent rent increases,” Meek
said. “While I know that we
can’t protect everybody and
not everybody needs pro-
tecting, the folks we are try-
A3
ing to protect are the people
who would be displaced and
would be homeless.”
Kotek attempted to pass
tenant protections in 2017 .
The legislation would have
lifted a statewide ban on rent
control and required land-
lords to pay tenants relo-
cation fees equal to three
months’ rent when asking
them to move out.
The legislation passed in
the House but couldn’t get
through the Senate.
Consult a
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By NATALIE ST. JOHN
Chinook Observer
Neither of the Gudgell
brothers was on the boat
where the undercover sting
took place. The Depart-
ment of Fish and Wildlife
subsequently served a war-
rant on the charter company
and spent months seeking
statements and conduct-
ing interviews with other
Pacifi c Salmon customers.
The state’s case against the
brothers is based on wit-
ness statements and other
evidence gathered during
the follow-up investiga-
tion. Several Pacifi c Salmon
employees were charged in
separate cases that will be
resolved after the Gudgell
trial.
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Natalie St. John/Chinook Observer
The brothers’ defense
attorney, Nathan Needham,
asked South District Court
Judge Nancy McAllister
to strictly limit discussion
of the sting, saying alleged
activity on another boat had
no bearing on the Gudgells’
case, and would bias the
jury against them. McAllis-
ter agreed.
Last
week,
Pacifi c
County Deputy Prosecutor
Joe Faurholt called numer-
ous witnesses, mostly for-
mer Pacifi c Salmon cus-
tomers. They included
Kenneth and Gary Collen-
borne, brothers from Idaho
who both had long military
careers. Ken Collenborne, a
lifelong outdoorsman, said
he and his relatives con-
tacted the Department of
Fish and Wildlife after wit-
nessing what appeared to
be wasteful, possibly illegal
fi shing practices aboard the
West Wind. Both men testi-
fi ed that a deckhand urged
them to keep fi shing after
they caught their limit. Later,
they allegedly saw the crew
move fi sh tags to the largest
specimens, then throw the
smaller fi sh overboard.
“None of them appeared
alive to me and there were a
few with their throats cut,”
Ken Collenborne said. “I
was glad I caught a halibut,
but it bothered me that fi sh
had been wasted.”
Several witnesses said
they were surprised to be
told to catch more fi sh, but
assumed the crew under-
stood the rules better than
they did.
“They told everybody
the same: ‘Pick your big-
gest one. Pick the biggest
fi sh.’ Everybody did it,”
said Alvaro Torres, a young
Tri-Cities truck driver and
soda salesman who took his
father fi shing for Father’s
Day. According to Tor-
res, the crew dumped the
unwanted fi sh shortly before
returning to Ilwaco.
“I was like, ‘That’s a
waste,’ but I didn’t know if
you could do that or not,”
Torres recalled. “You could
see them spinning in the
ocean. They were dead.”
Longview resident John
Gerrard went fi shing on a
day when the water was so
rough that his Midwest-
ern relative was afraid they
would die. Gerrard spent
much of the trip comfort-
ing the landlubbing relation,
but remembered being told,
“We’re gonna go another
round and if we catch any-
thing bigger, we can get rid
of the smaller ones.” The
ones they ended up keep-
ing weren’t signifi cantly
larger than the fi rst fi sh they
caught, he said.
Death in the livewell
“I think we caught about
three apiece, me and my
buddy,” said Kelly Smith,
a retired welder from
Kennewick.
Heinrich Luyt, a South
African immigrant who now
lives in Longview, said he
booked the trip so he could
learn the rules and tech-
niques of halibut fi shing
from experts. He said he
was surprised when the crew
packed a so-called “live-
well” so full the lid wouldn’t
close.
“There were so many I
don’t think the gills were
opening and closing any-
more. It was like having
someone stepping on your
chest,” Luyt said. He, too,
testifi ed the crew over fi shed.
“The 12 or 13 we were
gonna keep went back into
the box. The other fi sh that
were already sized out got
slid under the railing over
the side back into the water
and they just fl oated down
like a leaf.”
P rosecutors called for-
mer deckhand Kendra Kos-
kiniemi, who worked for
the Gudgells while saving
money for school. As she
testifi ed, Koskiniemi faced
her former bosses, who sat a
few feet away at the defen-
dant’s table.
Koskiniemi said she
didn’t recall any specif-
ics, but acknowledged it
was possible she’d thrown
fi sh back while working
for David Gudgell. She
was among the crewmem-
bers Department of Fish and
Wildlife Offi cer Todd Diel-
man interviewed on the day
of the undercover operation.
According to police state-
ments, she allegedly gave
evasive answers at fi rst, but
decided to cooperate after
realizing charges against her
could potentially affect her
career prospects.
Koskiniemi said she
remembered very little
of her conversations with
investigators after the trip.
“I was very upset and
didn’t know what was going
on, and just very scared for
my future as a nursing stu-
dent,” she said.
Needham, the defense
attorney, zeroed in on the
implication that fear infl u-
enced her decision to talk
with Dielman.
“I bet this was probably
the last thing you expected
from an offi cer — for them
to come in and say they
were going to take every-
thing from you,” Needham
said. Faurholt said Needham
had mischaracterized the
encounter.
The trial will likely go to
jury on Thursday or Friday.
Before they go into deliber-
ation, the jury will be given
a set of rules, provided by
the attorneys and approved
by the judge, that will help
them decide whether the
Gudgells clearly violated
the law.
that a licensed Embalmer performs
to “restore” a deceased human
body that exhibits physical
trauma due to the manner of
death or to repair a body that
has undergone a full or partial
post mortem (autopsy). While
it’s not required, embalming is
strongly recommended to be
done simultaneously during most
restorations in order to achieve the
most aesthetic results.
can I set my
Q: How
Windows 10 computer to
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Lt. Greg Bush and Washington Department
of Fish and Wildlife Sgt. Tony Leonetti reviewed records at Pacifi c Salmon Charters in the Port
of Ilwaco last year.
give me reminders?
LEO FINZI
A: Click on the time and date
found in the corner of your
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Focus on Gudgell
brothers
Q: What is
ASTORIA
TRANSIT CENTER
LONG BEACH, Wash.
— What do two military
men from Idaho, a soda
salesman from the Tri-Cit-
ies, a retired South Afri-
can, a game warden and a
local nursing student have
in common? They all testi-
fi ed during the fi rst week of
fi shermen Robert and David
Gudgell’s lengthy poaching
trial.
In all, the brothers, who
operate Pacifi c Salmon
Charters, stand accused of
more than two dozen counts
of second-degree unlawful
recreational fi shing, a mis-
demeanor, and waste of fi sh
and wildlife, a gross misde-
meanor. With a long list of
potential witnesses, attor-
neys estimate the trial will
continue at least through
today .
The
charges,
fi led
last spring, stem from a
months long investigation of
alleged halibut “high-grad-
ing” aboard boats in the
Pacifi c Salmon fl eet. The
investigation led to almost
40 charges for six men. In
June 2017, an undercover
Washington Department of
Fish and Wildlife enforce-
ment offi cer booked a hali-
but-fi shing trip with Pacifi c
Salmon after getting a tip
from a customer who said
he witnessed so-called
“high-grading” during his
trip.
Afterward, the offi -
cer said he saw crewmem-
bers encourage passen-
gers to catch more than the
strict one-halibut-per-per-
son limit. He also said crew-
members culled the larg-
est fi sh and threw smaller
fi sh back into the ocean.
Some of the rejected fi sh
were allegedly stored in
unsatisfactory conditions,
and some allegedly died or
were killed before they were
dumped. Under Washington
law, halibut fi sherme n can
catch one fi sh. They must
keep the fi rst fi sh they catch.
event. Click on the “+” sign. Enter
an Event Name, and Start and
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ASTORIA
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