A2
THE ASTORIAN • THURSDAY, JUNE 6, 2019
IN BRIEF
State allows barbed hooks
in salmon fi shery
State fi shery managers are allowing anglers to use
barbed hooks when fi shing for salmon, steelhead and
trout in the Columbia River.
Fishermen had been required to use barbless hooks
since 2013, but the Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commis-
sion adopted a temporary rule change this year to allow
barbed hooks so that policies and rules would remain
concurrent with Washington state. The two states
jointly manage fi sheries on the river and, in past years,
had diverged on what to allow.
The Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission will con-
sider a permanent rule change at a future meeting. The
temporary rule went into effect Saturday.
Single-point barbless hooks are still required by both
states when fi shing for sturgeon on the Columbia River.
— The Astorian
Cape Disappointment
hosts fi rst ever ‘Orca Day’
Washington State Parks and the Whale Trail are
hosting the fi rst ever “Orca Day” to educate people
about the endangered southern resident orca population.
The free, family-friendly event will be held at Cape
Disappointment State Park on the Long Beach Penin-
sula in Washington on June 15. The event will include
daytime kids’ activities from 1 to 4 p.m. and an evening
presentation at 7 p.m. at the park’s Waikiki Amphithe-
ater, 244 Robert Gray Drive, Ilwaco.
John Calambokidis, of Cascadia Research, and
Donna Sandstrom, of the Whale Trail, an interpretive
trail that spans from California to British Columbia,
will speak at the evening event.
The southern resident orcas comprise just 76 indi-
viduals and are in danger of extinction. Last year,
Gov. Jay Inslee convened a task force to develop long-
term action recommendations for orca recovery and
sustainability.
— The Astorian
Lawmakers move to keep some
inmates from Oregon State Hospital
State lawmakers say they’re going to amend legisla-
tion and make it more diffi cult for judges to send people
to the Oregon State Hospital for psychological evalua-
tion and treatment.
The hope, lawmakers said, is that they can secure
funding to treat people charged with low-level crimes
through community-based mental health programs,
reserving the state hospital for defendants with more
severe crimes and mental illnesses.
The decision comes after a Washington County Cir-
cuit Court judge found the state hospital “willfully vio-
lated” court orders for not transporting people from the
Washington County Jail to the state hospital for treat-
ment within seven days.
— Oregon Public Broadcasting
DEATHS
June 5, 2019
FORNEY, Norman,
90, of Warrenton, died
in Warrenton. Caldwell’s
Luce-Layton Mortuary of
Astoria is in charge of the
arrangements.
June 3, 2019
KOPPEN,
Evelyn
M., 99, of Seaside, died
in Seaside. Caldwell’s
Luce-Layton Mortuary of
Astoria is in charge of the
arrangements.
MEMORIAL
Saturday, June 8
HUDSON, Sigrid Camilla Knudsen — Celebration
of life at 2 p.m., Cannon Beach Community Church,
132 E. Washington St. in Cannon Beach.
CORRECTION
Names incorrect — Jaxson Brim, a sixth-grader at
Astoria Middle School, was incorrectly identifi ed as
Jackson Brown in an A1 story and photo caption on
Tuesday.
ON THE RECORD
Trespass
• Astoria police on Monday trespassed Gail Griffey,
72, a transient in Astoria, from the Astoria Mini Mart
East on Marine Drive at the request of the owner. A
video shared on social media showed Griffey assaulting
the owner after being asked to leave. Griffey was previ-
ously trespassed from Reach Break Brewing on Duane
Street in Astoria for loitering, according to police.
PUBLIC MEETINGS
THURSDAY
Seaside Parks Advisory Committee, 7 p.m., City Hall, 989
Broadway.
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Former Knappa assistant
coach pleads guilty to sex abuse
The Astorian
Nathaniel Truax, the for-
mer volunteer assistant wres-
tling coach at Knappa High
School accused of having sex
with a 15-year-old student,
pleaded guilty last week to
one count of second-degree
sexual abuse.
Circuit Court Judge Paula
Brownhill sentenced Truax to
30 days in jail and three years
of probation. Truax also reg-
istered as a sex offender.
Truax, 21, was charged
in January with second-de-
gree sex abuse, third-degree
rape and third-degree sod-
omy after allegedly having
sex with the girl, a member of
the school’s wrestling team,
during a trip to Redmond,
Washington.
The sex abuse charge was
based on Truax being her
coach and the underage vic-
tim being unable to consent.
The incident led to the res-
ignation of Dan Owings, the
longtime wrestling coach,
and two of his assistants.
Audit fi nds foster kids still at risk
State system is
dysfunctional
By CLAIRE
WITHYCOMBE
Oregon Capital Bureau
SALEM — A year and a
half ago, state watchdogs said
the system overseeing care
for foster kids was in dire
need of improvement.
They urged immediate
improvements, but a new
report released by state audi-
tors Wednesday said the
state is still risking children’s
safety in a system so dysfunc-
tional it will take years to fi x.
On any given day, the state
is responsible for about 7,600
kids, from babies to teens,
most of whom have been
removed from their homes
because they were abused or
neglected.
But the workers assigned
to manage the state’s treat-
ment of foster kids still have
too much on their plates,
according to an audit report
released by Secretary of State
Bev Clarno.
Progress will take time
because of the extensive
work needed to improve the
system.
“In our view, it will take
several years of consis-
tent focus by DHS leader-
ship, likely combined with
increased staffi ng and legisla-
tive and community support,
to lock in improvements,”
auditors wrote.
Less than a month before
state lawmakers must pass a
budget, management at the
state Department of Human
Services hasn’t even clearly
told legislators how many
workers it needs to make
things better for the thou-
sands of kids in its care, audi-
tors said.
And it’s far from clear at
this point that legislators will
set aside money for more
workers.
Meanwhile, there still
aren’t enough foster homes
or other safe places for high-
needs kids and youth. The
total number of foster homes
hasn’t changed since auditors
released their report last year.
The agency isn’t collect-
ing what auditors say is crit-
ical information on staffi ng
and placements. And a new
statewide hotline for report-
ing child abuse — which was
supposed to centralize the
process — has had signifi cant
problems getting started.
In their earlier report
in January 2018, audi-
tors said that shortages of
foster parents, casework-
for children in its
ers and safe place-
custody.
ments posed a threat
Citing state bud-
to kids’ well-be-
get offi cials, auditors
ing and that the way
said Wednesday that
the agency had been
the agency still has
managed was deeply
“signifi cant vacan-
problematic.
Bev Clarno
cies and high turn-
Managers allowed
over,” so even if the
a “work culture of
blame and distrust” to foment. L egislature provided money
The agency’s leaders didn’t to add workers, there’s a
plan enough for expensive signifi cant risk they could
initiatives, target the cause of remain empty.
The agency has cut down
problems, or push long-term
on overtime by lowering
changes.
Over the past year and a the amount of time that fos-
half, the child welfare pro- ter kids spend in hotels —
gram’s management has seen which prompted a public out-
signifi cant turnover. New cry several years ago — but
managers have boosted train- the agency hasn’t clearly told
ing and help for workers, and the L egislature what it lacks,
“is making stronger efforts to isn’t keeping track of turn-
identify and address the con- over or worker use of family
‘IN OUR VIEW, IT WILL TAKE
SEVERAL YEARS OF CONSISTENT
FOCUS BY DHS LEADERSHIP,
LIKELY COMBINED WITH
INCREASED STAFFING AND
LEGISLATIVE AND COMMUNITY
SUPPORT, TO LOCK
IN IMPROVEMENTS.’
an excerpt from a report
released by state auditors
cerns” of workers in the fi eld,
the new audit said.
Red fl ags
The 2018 audit, sought
by the late Secretary of State
Dennis Richardson — him-
self a foster parent — was
hardly the fi rst report on con-
ditions in the long-troubled
foster care system.
Auditors have looked at
overarching
bureaucratic
problems, such as fl agging
morale over resources and
compensation at the Depart-
ment of Human Services in
2016, and two years before
that, at a technical system for
processing payments.
In 2012, in a report on bar-
riers to reunifying foster kids
with their biological parents,
auditors raised red fl ags about
caseworkers’ high workloads.
In turn, they pointed to
issues that had already been
brought up four years before
that, in a study of workloads.
That report found that the
state had about 24% to 37%
fewer caseworkers than it
needed for high-quality work.
And more than a decade
later, it appears that the
agency still doesn’t have
enough workers to care
leave, and doesn’t have staff
to send multiple people out to
calls that could be dangerous,
the audit said.
Previous efforts to imple-
ment changes to the system
have fallen short.
Three years ago, in the
wake of a scandal at a Port-
land foster care provider, law-
makers created a special child
foster care advisory commis-
sion designed to turn the many
reports on how to improve the
system into policies.
But as previous reporting
by the Oregon Capital Bureau
has shown, the commission
struggled to get off the ground
and has not had any discern-
ible effect on the state’s fos-
ter kids.
Gov. Kate Brown is under
pressure to make changes.
She took offi ce in Febru-
ary 2015, and her tenure has
been punctuated by problems
in the child welfare system.
They seem to come to a head
every few months — whether
it has been the state’s prac-
tice of shipping kids to out-
of-state facilities, the state’s
handling of problematic pro-
viders, or housing foster chil-
dren in hotels and state offi ces
because there are so few fos-
ter homes available.
In mid-April, Brown
established her own over-
sight board for child welfare,
including high-profi le state
executives and experts in var-
ious fi elds, to try to turn the
system around. Since then,
the board has met three times.
In an effort to address pub-
lic concerns about access to
its information, the board
approved a new public
records process and has been
directing a crisis management
team brought on to spearhead
changes at the agency, accord-
ing to the governor’s offi ce.
“The governor is pleased
with progress of the board and
the crisis management team,”
spokeswoman Lisa Morawski
said in an email .
The budget for the Depart-
ment of Human Services has
not been fi nalized, so it’s not
clear how much money leg-
islators will approve for the
state’s largest agency.
Last year, Brown pro-
posed a $56 million increase
in funding for the child wel-
fare program for the next two
years, auditors said in their
Wednesday report.
Auditors said that to serve
kids better, the agency should
get more workers and support.
“Additional staff and pro-
gram support, while costly,
would likely reduce staff
workloads and improve child
safety and family stability,”
auditors wrote.
Boost funding
The governor’s offi ce is
urging lawmakers to boost
funding for the child welfare
system through two bills .
The governor’s offi ce said
in an email that those propos-
als would improve services
for kids with special needs
and provide the agency more
money for staff to help lower
caseloads and improve staff
culture and child safety.
Other factors have compli-
cated reforms over the years.
While agency leaders have
struggled to implement poli-
cies, the L egislature and fed-
eral government passed new
laws and regulations in a
seeming constant stream.
Some advocates, mean-
while, stress the state should
be looking at the underlying
causes that lead children to
enter foster care in the fi rst
place, such as addiction, pov-
erty and lack of access to
mental and behavioral health
services.
The Oregon Capital
Bureau is a collaboration
between EO Media Group,
Pamplin Media Group and
Salem Reporter.
Legislature endorses Oregon’s move to national popular vote
By AUBREY WIEBER
Oregon Capital Bureau
Oregon is on its way
to joining a movement to
ignore the Electoral College
in favor of the popular vote
in presidential elections.
Senate Bill 870 passed
the House 37-22 on Wednes-
day after passing the Senate
nearly two months ago. The
bill joins Oregon in a group
of 15 states supporting the
effort to have the popular
vote refl ected in ballots cast
‘IT IS TRULY DISENFRANCHISING
TO KNOW THAT YOUR VOTE WON’T
MEAN ANYTHING ON A NATIONAL STAGE.’
Rep. Tiffi ny Mitchell, D-Astoria
in the Electoral College. The
bill now goes to Gov. Kate
Brown, who has supported
the popular vote since her
time as secretary of state.
She will sign it, a spokes-
woman said.
The compact would only
N ew & G eNtly U sed s ale
June 7 th and 8 th
9 am to 4 pm
Clatsop Care Center
646 16th Street, Astoria
Proceeds from the sale will be used to
support a variety of resident activities.
go into effect if enough
states joined to reach the
270 electoral college votes
needed to decide an election.
Opponents of the popular
vote movement say the cur-
rent system has worked well
for more than 200 years and
ensures rural parts of the
country aren’t ignored in
deciding the president. But
the Electoral College has
become a target after Don-
ald Trump and George W.
Bush were elected without
winning the popular vote.
The bill was carried on
the fl oor Wednesday by Rep.
Tiffi ny Mitchell, D-Asto-
ria . She said she fi rst voted
in a presidential election in
2004 as a Utah Democrat,
knowing her vote wouldn’t
matter.
“It is truly disenfranchis-
ing to know that your vote
won’t mean anything on a
national stage,” she said.
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