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East Oregonian
Wednesday, November 9, 2016
MARIJUANA: Current Pendleton business license
rules prohibit businesses from violating federal law
UMATILLA
Continued from 1A
EO file photo
Umatilla voters passed a $10.5 million bond measure that will fund improvements
at every school in the district.
Voters approve school bond
Will improve all
schools in district
East Oregonian
Umatilla voters passed a
$10.5 million bond measure
by an unofficial vote of 661
to 572.
Schools superintendent
Heidi Sipe reacted Tuesday
night to the news with elation.
“I’m very appreciative to
the Umatilla voters,” Sipe
said. “I’m excited to see the
improvements their support
brings to Umatilla students.”
The green light by voters
means the district can access
not only the $10.5 million
in bond funds, but also $4
million from the Oregon
School Capital Improvement
Matching Program.
Bond proceeds will fund
improvements at every
school in the district –
McNary Heights Elementary
School, Clara Brownell
Middle School and Umatilla
High School. All three will
receive new roofs, updated
heating and cooling systems
and security upgrades with
cameras and electronic
alarms.
The aging middle school,
where Sipe started her
teaching career, will receive
the most attention. The 1947
structure still has its original
boiler, a cantankerous beast
that malfunctions frequently.
In addition, the 70-year-old
school has single-pane
windows and antiquated
wall-mounted air condi-
tioners that are noisy and
ineffective. Old plumbing,
that requires students to use
a foot-pump in the bath-
rooms, will be upgraded.
The Wenaha Group gave the
school a grade of 38 out of
100 during an evaluation of
the facility earlier this year.
The high school will
receive a new cooling tower.
The elementary school will
get added multi-purpose and
learning space areas.
“Construction will begin
very quickly,” Sipe said.
“It will take two years to
complete everything, but
people will see significant
changes within the next
year.”
Approval of the bond
won’t raise residents’ tax
bills. The same tax rate for
an existing bond set to expire
in 2023 would continue until
the year 2035. The rate is an
estimated $3.133 per $1,000
of assessed value.
It was 1998 since voters
last approved a Umatilla
school bond.
———
Contact Kathy Aney at
kaney@eastoregonian.com
or call 541-966-0810.
HERMISTON
Four sitting councilors leading
By JADE MCDOWELL
East Oregonian
Hermiston voters appeared
content Tuesday to stick with
their current crop of city
councilors.
In a five-way race for four
city council seats, incumbents
Rod Hardin, Manuel Guti-
errez, John Kirwan and Doug
Primmer were leading in a bid
to hold onto their seats despite
a strong challenge from
newcomer Mark Gomolski.
The race for the fourth council
seat was too close to call at
presstime Tuesday night.
In the first round of
unofficial results released
after voting closed at 8 p.m.
Gomolski had the lowest tally
with 17.91 percent of the vote.
Primmer had 22.5 percent,
Hardin 22.03 percent, Kirwan
18.5 percent and Gutierrez
18.27 percent.
Primmer said he was
grateful that the citizens of
Hermiston were happy with
the job he was doing and
had decided to trust him with
another four years.
“I’m just looking forward
to meeting the city’s
needs and facing all
the challenges that
come,” he said.
Primmer
was
elected to the council
for the first time four
years ago, as was
Kirwan.
Gutierrez
was elected at the
Kirwan
same time, although Primmer
he had served a
partial term during a
past cycle.
Hardin is the
longest-serving
member of Herm-
iston’s current city
council, with 24 years
under his belt. He said
serving on the council
has been a pleasure. Gutierrez
Hardin
“I’m
looking
Gomolski threw his hat
forward to the next
into the ring after retiring
four years,” he said.
Hardin said he is excited from a career in Chicago’s
to be able to see several major municipal government and
projects through, including moving to Hermiston more
construction of the new senior than a year ago. If elected
center, implementation of a he said he planned to push
free public bus system and the city council to be more
completion of the Eastern transparent and increase
Oregon Trade and Event its communication with
citizens.
Center.
Parks wins seat on irrigation district board
By GEORGE PLAVEN
East Oregonian
One of the landowners
involved in a $2.9 million
lawsuit against the Westland
Irrigation District in Umatilla
County appears to have won
a seat on the district’s board
of directors.
Unofficial results show
Cindy Parks, who lives in
Echo and ranches in Herm-
iston, has defeated incumbent
Phil Sharkey by a vote of
119-79.
Parks and her husband,
Craig, are among the patrons
suing the district for allegedly
cheating them out of irriga-
tion water. The filings accuse
Westland of engaging in a
“massive misappropriation”
of senior water rights to
benefit
several
larger farms with
junior rights.
In a previous
interview,
Parks
said there are some
“trust issues” within
the district, and she
wants to help mend
the
relationship
between the board Parks
and members.
Voting was done Tuesday
at the district offices in Echo.
Per Oregon law, only district
patrons were allowed to
vote. For irrigation districts,
voting is weighted by land
ownership, meaning anyone
with up to 40 acres receives
one vote; anyone with at least
40 acres, but not more than
160 acres, gets two votes;
and anyone with more than
160 acres gets three
votes.
Even
though
Parks is suing the
district, there is
nothing that would
legally prevent her
from running for the
board, according to
Westland manager
Mike Wick.
Terms on the
five-member board run for
three years. Another new
face, Jordan Bennett, will
also be taking over for Mike
Taylor, who decided not to
run for reelection. Bennett
is related to Doug and Don
Bennett, who are both listed
as plaintiffs in the lawsuit,
though Jordan is not specifi-
cally mentioned in the court
filings.
SHERIFF: ‘I wish Terry well over the next four years’
Continued from 1A
agreeing on a payment struc-
ture. And a view emerged
of Rowan as not aware of
significant events and discon-
nected from the day-to-day
operations in the sheriff’s
office.
Lehnert, a Pendleton
police corporal, built on
that theme and a couple of
weeks ago tried to use county
records to show Rowan did
not routinely log into the
sheriff’s computer system
to view law enforcement
activity, which some local
police administrators do
daily.
Rowan, though, survived
the darts. He said voters saw
he was true to his word.
Lehnert said he got into
the race to effect a change in
the sheriff’s office, regardless
of the outcome.
“If it forces Terry to step
up and do his job, then, hey,
mission accomplished,” said
Lehnert. “I wish Terry well
over the next four years and
will pray for him.”
when Measure 91 passed in
2014, legalizing recreational
marijuana consumption and
sales.
The Oregon Legislature
subsequently passed a law
that allowed local govern-
ments in counties that voted
against Measure 91 to ban
marijuana sales with a vote
from the city council or
county commission, which
applied to Umatilla County.
At one time, the Pend-
leton City Council had the
five votes needed to pass a
permanent ban, but public
pressure and a change of
heart from councilor Chuck
Wood caused a deadlock
that eventually caused the
council to refer the issue to
voters.
City manager Robb
Corbett said he would have
to talk with city attorney
Nancy Kerns to determine
how and when the city
EO file photo
Pendleton residents voted to lift a ban on both med-
ical and recreational marijuana sales on Tuesday.
Hermiston and Milton-Freewater voters opted to
keep their bans.
would begin allowing
marijuana businesses in city
limits.
Although the council has
already passed zoning codes
for marijuana businesses,
Corbett said he will ask
the city council to look
at making changes to its
business license rules, which
currently prohibit businesses
from violating federal law.
Despite a significant shift
in public opinion over the
past two years, Corbett said
he wasn’t shocked by the
results after a long career as
a city manager.
“I’m never surprised by
what the voters do,” he said.
TAX: Opponents raised $26.5M to defeat measure
Continued from 1A
In Eastern Oregon, local
educators, businessmen and
politicians reacted largely
as expected to the defeat of
Measure 97. Mark Mulvi-
hill, superintendent of the
InterMountain Education
Service District, said he was
not surprised by the result
and admitted the measure
had its flaws.
Still, the outcome leaves
school districts to fight over
limited budget resources
during the 2017 Legislature,
Mulvihill said.
“Every district is in a
different position,” he said.
“The cloud that hangs over
everything is PERS.”
Morrow
County
Commissioner Don Russell,
who used to own his own oil
company, said Oregon does
have pressing issues to work
out in Salem, but Measure
97 would not have been a
fair system.
“I think the legislature
has just not done their job
and addressed the issue,”
Russell said.
As a county commis-
sioner, Russell said Measure
97 could have also halted
expansion of big data
centers, which have contrib-
uted billions of dollars in
assets for Morrow County.
State Sen. Bill Hansell,
who was reelected Tuesday,
said defeating Measure
97 was great news for
Oregonians.
Lawmakers
must now come together, he
said, to make some difficult
budget decisions and set the
state on a sustainable path.
“I think everybody
was waiting for what the
outcome of the measure
would be, first,” Hansell
said. “It was just ill-con-
ceived and ill-thought of.”
State Rep. Greg Smith,
R-Heppner, serves as vice
co-chair of the legislature’s
joint committee on ways
and means, as well as the
House Republican budget
chairman. He said the defeat
of the measure means the
legislature is going to have
to tighten its belt and prior-
itize spending.
Education, Smith said,
should be the highest
priority moving forward.
“Other programs and
services are going to have
to deal with less, so we
can make sure our children
have a little more,” Smith
said. “We’re going to have
to take a hard look at the
social programs Oregon has
created, pare them back and
put those dollars where the
priorities lie.”
Proponents of Measure
97 vowed to lobby
lawmakers
to
make
large corporations pay a
larger share of Oregon’s
tax revenue and protect
investments in education
and health care, which the
measure was intended to
support.
“We are going to keep
fighting,” said Ben Unger,
campaign manager for Yes
on 97.
The campaign was
scheduled to release details
of its next steps at a news
conference
Wednesday,
Nov. 9. Unger declined
to
comment
Tuesday
on whether the public
employee
union-backed
Our Oregon would attempt
another ballot measure in
2018.
Measure
97
failed
Tuesday 58 percent to 41
percent. The measure would
have levied a 2.5 percent
tax on certain corporations’
Oregon sales exceeding $25
million per year.
A coalition of businesses
raised a record-breaking
$26.5 million to thwart
the measure. Proponents
raised about $17.7 million.
The ballot measure was the
most expensive in the state’s
history.
“Voters didn’t buy claims
that the $6 billion tax, based
on business sales instead of
profits, would not increase
consumer costs,” Tweed
said. “And they understood
that the money raised could
have been used any way
legislators wanted to spend
it.”
The opposition’s blast of
advertising on television,
radio and social media
drove home projections
by the nonpartisan Legis-
lative Revenue Office that
consumers ultimately would
pay for much of the measure
in the form of higher prices.
The office estimated that the
typical family would pay
about $600 more per year
under Measure 97.
Unger said Tuesday
his only regret during the
campaign was that Yes on
97 failed to raise as much
money as the opposition.
He said he believed his
campaign’s message reso-
nated with voters.
“We didn’t win this
election this time, but we
did win the debate,” Unger
said. “Because of the work
we did, no one is going to
accept a proposed school cut
or more expensive health
care before asking instead of
cuts, why not make corpora-
tions pay their fair share?”
———
Reporter George Plaven
contributed to this story.
Contact him at 541-966-
0825 or gplaven@eastore-
gonian.com.