NORTHWEST
Saturday, April 30, 2016
East Oregonian
Page 9A
Despite Intel cuts, high-tech surging Sodomy case
dismissed in
legal fallout after
oficer’s death
By MIKE ROGOWAY
The Oregonian
PORTLAND — Oregon
tech employment grew at its
fastest rate in a decade last
year, according to a new state
report that inds those jobs
pay unusually well and have
an outsized impact on the
economy.
“High tech is certainly an
important and growing sector
in our economy,” said Josh
Lehner of the Oregon Ofice
of Economic Analysis, author
of the new report. “It drives
a lot of growth and vitality,
certainly in the Portland
metropolitan area.”
Oregon had just over
95,000 tech workers in
2015, according to state jobs
data, up 4 percent from the
prior year. Tech jobs paid an
average of nearly $104,000
a year, more than twice the
state average.
Casting a shadow over
that growth are layoffs at
Intel this week, putting
784 Oregon employees out
of work as the chipmaker
begins to remake itself for
the post-PC era. Intel plans
to eliminate hundreds more
jobs through buyouts, early
retirement packages and
project cancellations.
Intel says it plans to reduce
its work force by 12,000 jobs
throughout the company by
the middle of 2017. If those
cutbacks are applied evenly
across the business, that
would cost Oregon — Intel’s
largest site — more than
2,000 jobs of the 19,500 the
company currently employs
in Washington County.
“If we are going to get
to that 2,000,” Lehner said,
“then we’re talking about
something that’s no doubt a
setback.”
The Silicon Forest, rooted
in electronics manufacturing,
is undergoing a broad tran-
sition toward software. One
embodiment of the change is
the arrival of New Relic, a San
Francisco software analytics
company that employs 300
people in the U.S. Bancorp
Tower (“Big Pink”) in down-
town Portland. It opened its
Portland outpost during the
Great Recession, when the
By KYLE SPURR
The Daily Astorian
Doug Beghtel/The Oregonian via AP
New Relic lobbied hard to become the irst business in the Portland U.S. Bank tower
to bring their bicycles to their ofice space. New Relic is an extremely well funded
San Francisco startup that’s decided to put its engineering team in Portland.
regional tech economy was
faltering and before the city
had become a destination for
software developers.
“There were pockets of
talent in and around town.
When we started, the oppor-
tunities in Portland were a
little more limited than what
they are today,” said Jim
Gochee, New Relic’s chief
product oficer.
Gradually,
though,
software developers began
to coalesce at a handful
of well-funded startups
and at outposts like New
Relic’s. Portland’s emerging
reputation as a relatively
affordable city overlowing
with microbrews, food carts
and bike routes is helping
draw workers and companies
to Portland from other states.
And Gochee said the
growth in Portland tech is
feeding on itself as technolo-
gists and executives in other
regions — Seattle and the
Bay Area, especially — view
Oregon as offering a range of
possibilities for coders and
executives who want to build
a career here.
“That opens up to a whole
new category of person who
maybe wouldn’t have moved
here six or seven years ago,”
Gochee said. “Now it seems
like there’s plenty of oppor-
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Bid request for decked logs removed
from OR Highway 245 in Baker County
he Oregon Department of Transportation is accepting bids
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Douglas-ir timber in Baker County. Log decks are located
on USFS property, on the west side of OR245, of USFS Road
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tunity in Portland.”
Portland still doesn’t have
a single large tech company
of its own. The city is
dominated by satellite ofices
like New Relic’s, which
outnumber homegrown tech
employers. That’s a “risk
to the future,” in Lehner’s
view, because tech outposts
have historically proven
less durable than corporate
headquarters during tough
economic times.
Venture dollars invested
in Oregon companies have
been steadily rising for
several years, though, as
investors warm to startups
like Zapproved, a legal
services company that moved
last year from Hillsboro to
the Pearl District. Zapproved
raised $15 million last year as
Oregon venture activity grew
20 percent to $226 million.
Zapproved chief execu-
tive Monica Enand said the
rise of cloud computing has
unseated large corporations
like Oracle and IBM, giving
young companies like hers a
chance to jump in with newer
products.
“That means startups have
a huge opportunity and level
playing ield that they’ve
never had before,” Enand
said. For a state like Oregon,
with no big tech companies
of its own, she said that’s a
big plus.
The growth in Portland
tech has come with strains,
however.
Nearly all the tech expan-
sion has been in Multnomah
County, according to the state
data, leaving out rural areas
and even some of Portland’s
suburbs. That concentration
of highly paid tech workers
is one factor pushing up
housing costs in the city,
though the effect isn’t nearly
so profound as in San Fran-
cisco or Seattle.
Indeed,
Enand
said
Oregon’s
affordability
remains one of its key advan-
tages. She said investors get
a bigger return on their dollar
in Portland, and employees’
know their money goes
further here.
“This is the most afford-
able city on the West Coast,”
Enand said. “I get calls all
the time saying they want to
move.”
A Seaside man accused
of sodomizing and sexu-
ally abusing a young girl
had the charges dropped
Thursday, the latest legal
fallout from the death of
Seaside Police Sgt. Jason
Goodding.
The entire case against
Ronald F. Flores had to
be re-evaluated because
Goodding, who was shot
and killed in the line of
duty in February, was the
lead investigator.
Chief Deputy District
Attorney Ron Brown
said any time someone is
unavailable to appear in
court — whether it is a
witness skipping town or a
murdered police oficer —
their testimony and reports
become hearsay, which is
inadmissible as evidence.
“It’s a tragic result
because of a tragedy that
happened,” Brown said.
The District Attorney’s
Ofice has been doing
damage control over the
past few months, Brown
said, trying to prosecute
cases where Goodding
was the lead or only
oficer. Felony cases down
to drunken-driving arrests
have been inluenced.
In the case against
Flores, the prosecution was
able to get a harassment
conviction.
However,
two counts of irst-degree
sodomy and two counts
of irst-degree sex abuse
were dismissed.
Flores, 50, pleaded
no contest to harassment
Thursday in Clatsop
County Circuit Court
and was sentenced to one
year in jail. With credit
for a year served while
in custody, Flores was
released.
Brown said the harass-
ment conviction was
not the result he or the
victim wanted. Without
Goodding’s testimony or
any physical evidence, he
said, it is the best possible
outcome.
“She is not happy with
this case,” Brown said.
“We, frankly, believe
everything she said.”
Flores was indicted
in April 2015 after the
girl reported multiple sex
abuse incidents between
2008 and 2010. The girl,
who was in the ifth grade
at the time, was a friend of
Flores’ daughter.
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