Cinco de Mayo
queen crowned
HERMISTON COACH
HODGES RETIRES
REGION/3A
SPORTS/1B
70/42
THURSDAY, APRIL 30, 2015
139th Year, No. 140
WINNER OF THE 2013 ONPA GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARD
UMATILLA
Tighter rein on strip clubs, pot shops
Planning commission unveils new commercial zone rules
By JADE MCDOWELL
East Oregonian
What started as a complaint
about strip clubs has turned into
a complete rewriting of Umatil-
la’s commercial zoning rules that
will change the look of the town.
The city’s planning commis-
sion voted Tuesday to turn the
90-page rulebook over to the city
FRXQFLOIRU¿QDODGRSWLRQZUDS
ping up a saga that started in July
2014 with residents voicing their
opposition to a third strip club
opening in town.
The new rules restrict adult
entertainment businesses and
marijuana dispensaries to the
general commercial zones and
a newly designated highway
commercial zone along Highway
395, both of which are east of
Interstate 84 and away from
downtown.
Current strip clubs Riverside
Sports Bar & Lounge and
Honey Bunnz Hideout would be
grandfathered in as long as they
do not change ownership, but
the rules would keep new clubs
and dispensaries from opening
downtown or in McNary.
Commission chair Boyd
Sharp said even though the
project was spurred by concerns
about the proliferation of
18-and-older businesses in
town, the commission “began
to dream” and the result was
something that will improve the
overall look and feel of Umatilla.
“Adult entertainment became
very secondary,” he said.
The new rules outline stan-
dards for six types of commercial
zones, starting with a description
of the “purpose and intent” of the
zone and then outlining which
See UMATILLA/12A
One dollar
Supreme
Court to
rule on
PERS
Will decide on changes to
cost-of-living increases
for 128,000 retirees
By PETER WONG
Capital Bureau
association of growers founded in Hermiston
by Fred Ziari, who donate a portion of their
harvest every year.
John Burt, executive director of Farmers
Ending Hunger, said their goal is to increase
the supply of high-quality, healthy produce
available to Oregonians in need. Partnering
with the prison is one way to get more of
their product packaged and moved around the
state.
SALEM — The Oregon Supreme
Court is scheduled Thursday to
announce its decision in a pair of cases
challenging whether Oregon lawmakers
can pare cost-of-living increases for
public retirees.
The court also will decide a pair of
challenges to whether lawmakers can
take away extra payments for out-of-
state retirees not subject to state taxes.
The court’s decision, should it over-
turn the changes passed in a 2013 special
session, will not change the contribution
rates that public agencies will be charged
by the Public Employees Retirement
System in the 2015-17 budget cycle.
PERS spokesman David Crosley said
the board set the rates last year.
But the decision could affect future
rates.
Six justices will participate in the
decision. Justice Jack Landau recused
himself from the cases.
At issue are two changes made by
the Legislature in 2013 to the Public
Employees Retirement System, which
was created in 1945 and now pays about
128,000 retirees. The system has 925
government employers and covers about
95 percent of all public employees.
One change affects cost-of-living
LQFUHDVHV ZKLFK ¿UVW FDPH LQWR HIIHFW
in 1971, and which were capped at 2
percent annually in 1973.
Starting on July 1, 2014, the 2013
ODZDSSOLHVWKHIXOOSHUFHQWWRWKH¿UVW
$20,000 of a pension, then 1.5 percent to
the next $20,000, 1 percent to the next
$20,000, and .25 percent above $60,000.
7KHUDWHIRUZDVD¿[HG
percent.
The other change affects the extra
payment lawmakers granted to retirees
in 1991, after the state taxed public
pensions in line with a decision by the
U.S. Supreme Court. The change denies
the extra payment to out-of-state retirees
who do not pay Oregon taxes.
The changes are projected to pare the
system’s future liability by $5.3 billion
over the next few decades. In the current
two-year budget cycle, governments are
expected to save $800 million, and in
2015-17, $1 billion — unless the court
reverses them.
Lawmakers in 2013 allowed for legal
challenges to go directly to the Supreme
Court, bypassing the circuit court and
Court of Appeals.
Public employee unions, and two
out-of-state retirees, challenged both
See POTATOES/7A
See PERS/12A
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
Inmates bag up loose potatoes at the Eastern Oregon Correctional Institution on Monday in Pendleton. The potatoes will be
distributed to food pantries via CAPECO throughout Umatilla, Morrow, Gilliam and Wheeler counties.
Inmates sort homegrown donation
EOCI packs potatoes
for local food bank
By GEORGE PLAVEN
East Oregonian
Umatilla and Morrow county farmers rank
¿UVWDQGWKLUGUHVSHFWLYHO\LQJURZLQJIUHVK
vegetables statewide.
With a little help from prison labor, more
of that food could be kept locally to feed
hungry families.
Inmates at Pendleton’s Eastern Oregon
&RUUHFWLRQDO ,QVWLWXWLRQ ¿QLVKHG 0RQGD\
bagging 20,000 pounds of potatoes donated
by Hale Farms in Echo, which will be distrib-
uted to food pantries served by CAPECO as
the regional food bank for Umatilla, Morrow,
Agriculture Today
From the unmanned aircraft taking temperature readings in the skies
above Hermiston to a deadly fungus threatening Florida’s avocado crop,
agriculture touches everyone’s lives. In today’s edition, beginning with this
front page story and continuing on pages 7A-10A, we explore the current
state of crops and livestock both domestic and abroad.
Gilliam and Wheeler counties.
Workers on the EOCI crew spent several
GD\V VRUWLQJ VSXGV DQG ¿OOLQJ XS SRXQG
sacks, said Jackie Peck, assistant to the prison
superintendent. From there, the bags were
loaded onto trucks and delivered to CAPECO
for the 2015 annual Governor’s Food Drive.
Though the prison has long supported
the Governor’s Food Drive, Peck said they
felt they could take on a greater supply of
bulk goods for the Oregon Food Bank. They
reached out to Farmers Ending Hunger, an
Powwow jingle dancer wins world title
By KATHY ANEY
East Oregonian
Photo courtesy of Acosia Red Elk
Acosia Red Elk competes at the Gather-
ing of Nations powwow in Albequerque,
New Mexico. Red Elk won the Jingle
Dancing division for the eighth time.
A Pendleton powwow dancer
has won her eighth world jingle
dancing title.
Acosia Red Elk, a registered
member of the Confederated
Tribes of the Umatilla Indian
Reservation, didn’t decide to
compete at the world’s largest
powwow until two days before
she started driving to the Gath-
ering of Nations in New Mexico.
The event began last Friday in
Albuquerque.
On the previous Monday, Red
Elk decided she simply had to
dance. The problem was, she only
had one of two dresses for the
jingle dancing competition. She
retreated to her studio and began
“It’s expressive — a
lot like an Irish river
dancer. It’s all
footwork. You keep
your upper body
fi rm. You glide all
over the ground.”
— Acosia Red Elk
sewing.
“I laid out the material and
started cutting,” Red Elk said.
“Twelve hours later, I had a
dress.”
Last Wednesday, Red Elk got
into a friend’s Jeep and headed to
Albuquerque.
Red Elk is something of a
rock star in the powwow world.
6KHZRQ¿YHEDFNWREDFNZRUOG
championships at Gathering
of Nations from 2004 to 2008.
She prevailed again in 2011 and
2014. Three years (2010, 2012
and 2013), she didn’t compete. In
2009, she took fourth.
This year, the 35-year-old
arrived at University of New
Mexico’s massive Wisepies
Arena, known as “The Pit,” and
prepared to dance. Her chosen
style, jingle dancing, has changed
over the decades. The dance
started as a prayer of healing
that originated with the Ojibwe
Tribe in the Great Lakes area.
Traditional jingle dancers do a
See RED ELK/12A