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THE ASTORIAN • TuESdAy, MAy 17, 2022
Oregon sued over failure to provide public defenders
By GILLIAN FLACCUS
Associated Press
PORTLAND — Criminal
defendants in Oregon who
have gone without legal rep-
resentation for long periods
of time amid a critical short-
age of public defense attor-
neys filed a lawsuit Monday
that alleges the state violated
their constitutional right to
legal counsel and a speedy
trial.
The complaint, which
seeks class-action status, was
filed as state lawmakers and
the Oregon Office of Public
Defense Services struggle to
address the huge shortage of
public defenders statewide.
The crisis has led to the
dismissal of dozens of cases
and left an estimated 500
defendants statewide —
including several dozen in
custody on serious felonies
— without legal representa-
tion. Crime victims are also
impacted because cases are
taking longer to reach resolu-
tion, a delay that experts say
extends their trauma, weak-
ens evidence and erodes con-
fidence in the justice system,
especially among low-in-
come and minority groups.
“There is a public defense
crisis raging across this coun-
try,” said Jason D. William-
son, executive director of
the Center on Race, Inequal-
ity, and the Law at New York
University School of Law,
who helped prepare the fil-
ing. “But Oregon is among
only a handful of states
that is now entirely depriv-
ing people of their constitu-
tional right to counsel on a
daily basis, leaving countless
indigent defendants with-
out access to an attorney for
months at a time.”
The lawsuit specifically
names Gov. Kate Brown and
Stephen Singer, the recently
appointed executive director
of the state’s public defense
agency, and asks for a court
injunction ordering criminal
defendants to be released if
they can’t be provided with
an attorney in a reasonable
period of time. The lawsuit
doesn’t specify what would
be considered “reasonable.”
Oregon’s system to pro-
vide attorneys for criminal
defendants who can’t afford
them was underfunded and
understaffed before COVID-
19, but a significant slow-
down in court activity during
the pandemic pushed it to a
breaking point. A backlog of
cases is flooding the courts
and defendants routinely are
arraigned and then have their
hearing dates postponed up
to two months in the hopes a
public defender will be avail-
able later.
A report by the Ameri-
can Bar Association released
in January found Oregon has
31% of the public defenders
it needs. Every existing attor-
ney would have to work more
than 26 hours a day during
the work week to cover the
caseload, the authors said.
Similar problems are con-
fronting states from New
England to Wisconsin to
New Mexico as systems
that were already overbur-
dened and underfunded grap-
ple with attorney departures,
low funding and a flood of
pent-up demand as COVID-
19 precautions ease. Missouri
Gillian Flaccus/AP Photo
Public defender Drew Flood with the nonprofit law firm
Metropolitan Public Defender looks at his files for the criminal
cases he is working on in Portland.
PUBLIC DEFENDERS WARNED THAT
THE SYSTEM WAS ON THE BRINK OF
COLLAPSE BEFORE THE PANDEMIC.
eliminated a waiting list for
public defenders after being
sued in 2020 and Idaho is
also in litigation over a pub-
lic defense crisis.
The Oregon complaint
focuses on four plaintiffs
who have been without legal
representation for more than
six weeks, including a man
who can’t afford his bail but
has been jailed for 17 days
without an attorney and can’t
seek a bail hearing without
representation.
In two other cases, the
lawsuit alleges, plaintiffs
were released from custody
after their arrest and told to
call a number to be assigned
a defense attorney. They left
voicemails and called repeat-
edly and have not had any
reply, the complaint says.
They show up for hearings
alone and have their cases
pushed back because no pub-
lic defenders are available.
Jesse Merrithew, an attor-
ney representing the plain-
tiffs, said not having legal
representation right after an
arrest causes a cascade of
problems for criminal defen-
dants that are almost impos-
sible to overcome later on.
One such example, he said,
is the ability to secure any
surveillance video that could
back up the defendant’s case
because looping security vid-
eos are often erased after
days or weeks.
“The time directly after
arrest is the most critical time,
as any criminal defense law-
yer will tell you, in the repre-
sentation of a client,” he said.
“It’s unacceptable to allow
a delay in the employment
of the counsel for weeks or
months on end.”
The shortage of public
defenders also dispropor-
tionately affects Black defen-
dants, the lawsuit alleges.
Studies in the Portland area
in 2014 and 2019 showed
that 98% and 97% of Black
defendants had court-ap-
pointed lawyers in those
years, whereas 91% of white
defendants had them.
In the current crisis, 23%
of people waiting for an attor-
ney were Black statewide
on a recent day, despite the
fact that Black people over-
all make up 3% of Oregon’s
population.
The
Oregon
Justice
Resource Center, a legal non-
profit representing the plain-
tiffs, said repairs to the sys-
tem shouldn’t just focus on
hiring more public defenders.
Rethinking criminal defense
should also mean reduc-
ing penalties and jail time
for lower-level offenses and
offering more alternative res-
olutions for crimes.
“The state’s failure in this
regard requires urgent action.
But the problem cannot be
solved with more attorneys,”
said Ben Haile, an attor-
ney with the Oregon Jus-
tice Resource Center who is
representing the plaintiffs.
“There are effective alterna-
tives to prosecution of many
of the people caught up in
the criminal justice system
that would make the pub-
lic far safer at lower cost and
with less collateral damage to
the families of people facing
prosecution.”
Public defenders warned
that the system was on the
brink of collapse before the
pandemic.
In 2019, some attor-
neys even picketed outside
the state Capitol for higher
pay and reduced caseloads.
But lawmakers didn’t act
and months later, COVID-
19 crippled the courts. There
were no felony or misde-
meanor jury trials in April
2020 and access to the court
system was greatly curtailed
for months, with only limited
in-person proceedings and
remote services provided.
The situation is more
complicated than in other
states because Oregon’s pub-
lic defender system is the
only one in the nation that
relies entirely on contractors.
Cases are doled out to either
large nonprofit defense firms,
smaller cooperating groups
of private defense attorneys
that contract for cases or
independent attorneys who
can take cases at will.
Now, some of those large
nonprofit firms are period-
ically refusing to take new
cases because of the over-
load. Private attorneys —
they normally serve as a
relief valve where there are
conflicts of interest — are
increasingly also rejecting
new clients because of the
workload, poor pay rates and
late payments from the state.
Vacation rentals: Rise
in prices, the study says,
is largely due to demand
outstripping supply
Continued from Page A1
Lydia Ely/The Astorian
Astoria said staffing issues have improved at the 911 dispatch center.
Dispatch: ‘This is a major project
that will take significant time’
Continued from Page A1
Conversations about con-
solidating Astoria and Sea-
side’s dispatch centers are
ongoing.
Sheriff Matt Phillips, who
has advocated for consolida-
tion, has said that the tempo-
rary merger demonstrated the
model can work. He believes
a single countywide 911 dis-
patch center would be in the
best interests of the public
and emergency responders.
Over the years, sepa-
rate studies that analyzed
emergency dispatch in the
county encouraged consoli-
dation. The studies suggested
a single center could maxi-
mize staffing and resources,
improve call times and
enhance coordination.
Phillips said a team has
been assembled that rep-
resents the police and fire
agencies from around Clatsop
County to determine what
consolidated dispatch could
look like.
The group meets twice a
month, and are working on
what the governance struc-
ture might look like, the sher-
iff said. Most of the consoli-
dated dispatch centers formed
under
intergovernmental
agreements have two boards
and an executive director,
Phillips said, adding that the
group is drilling down on the
roles and authorities.
“This is a major proj-
ect that will take significant
time,” the sheriff said. “Once
the process is complete we
will be able to determine if
consolidation provides better
service to the citizens and the
public safety users than our
current system.”
Bjaranson: Saw firsthand the impacts COVID
Continued from Page A1
Throughout the pan-
demic, Bjaranson saw first-
hand the impacts COVID-
19 had on seniors.
“The concern for our
seniors in isolation was
huge in making sure they
got the care they needed,
because a lot of people were
fearful of going in and out
and seeing people or caring
for people, or seniors being
concerned of people coming
into their homes,” she said.
“Some of the stuff had to
halt and we had to take a lot
more precautions — right-
fully so.”
While seniors adjusted
their day-to-day lives to
protect their health, Bjaran-
son and NorthWest Senior
and Disability Services had
to make adjustments of their
own, shifting programs
away from in-person and
offering classes via Zoom.
As face-to-face interac-
tions became limited, Bja-
ranson said, older genera-
tions have embraced remote
communication and in turn,
the organization’s outreach
has extended and reached
wider audiences.
“A lot of the people that I
have dealt with are ready to
be out and about again,” she
said. “We do run into some
people that are apprehen-
sive but … people are really
eager to see one another
again and get the help they
need.”
When Bjaranson came
to the North Coast a decade
ago, she did marketing for
an assisted living facil-
ity and saw the many chal-
lenges that seniors face on
a daily basis with health,
access and transportation.
As a self-described peo-
ple person, Bjaranson devel-
oped a passion for working
with seniors and hearing a
lifetime of stories.
“It’s so fun working with
seniors because they love
to talk to people,” she said.
“ ... People need help and
they don’t know where to
turn to, so I am more than
happy to do the research and
find out.
“It just became really
rewarding to help people
and connect the dots so they
can visually see it and plan
for their future and life.”
While North Coast prop-
erty owners have long
rented their homes to out-
of-towners, the activity —
eased by online platforms
— has increased in popular-
ity. The county began reg-
ulating vacation rentals for
health and safety reasons in
2018.
In April, the board
amended the operating stan-
dards to address occupancy
and the behavior of vaca-
tioners — how they interact
with neighborhoods and the
natural environment.
Poised to vote on which
zones should allow vacation
rentals, some commission-
ers said they wanted more
information on how rent-
als affect housing prices and
availability in the region.
The board also extended
a moratorium on new vaca-
tion rental permits until late
August. The freeze was
approved last summer and
extended in December.
Residents hoping that the
board will ban and phase out
vacation rentals in residen-
tial zones have claimed the
rentals contribute to hous-
ing price spikes. The coun-
ty’s report says that no rela-
tionship exists between the
issuance of short-term rental
permits and home values.
“The data illustrates that
the increased housing prices
have occurred and continue
to occur for both short-term
rental properties and non-
short-term rental proper-
ties,” the report said. “Com-
munities such as Cannon
Beach, which has severely
curtailed short-term rent-
als, saw the largest real mar-
ket value increase between
2018 and 2021 for proper-
ties holding an STR per-
mit. This is likely due to
the value placed on what is
perceived as a limited and
scarce ownership oppor-
tunity, thus commanding a
higher price.”
The rise in prices, the
study says, is largely due to
demand outstripping supply.
“This trend, which is
occurring nationwide, has
been fueled by a combi-
nation of factors includ-
ing low interest rates and
increased opportunities for
remote work during the
pandemic,” the report said.
“The data does not demon-
strate that short-term rent-
als have driven up hous-
ing prices or that houses
are being purchased to be
converted to short-term
rentals.”
The report points out
that short-term rental units
in Clatsop’s unincorpo-
rated areas compose 0.07%
— 177 of 23,017 — of all
housing units in both incor-
porated and unincorporated
areas, according to the 2020
census.
The county has held
more than two dozen meet-
ings on the vacation rental
issue since late 2019, when
residents in South County’s
Cove Beach neighborhood
began raising concerns
about the industry’s impact
on their quality of life.
Next steps
In the coming months,
the board will consider two
recommendations.
County staff, based on
board direction, recom-
mends that vacation rentals
become a recognized use
in all residential and com-
mercial zones — essen-
tially maintaining the sta-
tus quo but under the
newly amended operating
standards.
The Planning Commis-
sion’s recommendation is
more restrictive: that rent-
als be allowed only in com-
mercial and multifamily
residential zones, plus Arch
Cape.
Planning commission-
ers who favored this option
said that most residen-
tial zones were not meant
to support the commercial
ventures. The development
code, they argue, should
respect the character of the
neighborhoods as zoned.
This recommendation
would lead to the elimi-
nation of vacation rentals
in other residential zones,
including Cove Beach’s
Coastal Residential Zone,
where rentals make up
roughly a third of homes.
It would also remove about
$500,000 in annual lodging
taxes from county coffers,
according to Assessment
and Taxation.