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OPINION
East Oregonian
Saturday, December 17, 2016
Founded October 16, 1875
KATHRYN B. BROWN
Publisher
DANIEL WATTENBURGER
Managing Editor
TIM TRAINOR
Opinion Page Editor
MARISSA WILLIAMS
Regional Advertising Director
MARCY ROSENBERG
Circulation Manager
JANNA HEIMGARTNER
Business Office Manager
MIKE JENSEN
Production Manager
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OUR VIEW
Oregon politics need
a deep cleaning
Richard L. Neuberger famously
reports to the governor’s office. The
said that Oregon politics was so
contract, worth north of $200,000
clean “it squeaks.” The prodigious
over two years, was approved before
writer and Democratic U.S. senator
Leonard joined Brown’s staff, but
from our state may
the conflict wasn’t
have been overly
disclosed.
optimistic in the
Abby Tibbs,
Appearances Brown’s
1940s, when he
deputy
are everything chief of staff, has
uttered that line.
But Neuberger’s
for both
in politics and worked
characterization
the governor and as
certainly doesn’t fit
an OHSU lobbyist
government.
today’s statehouse.
for the past three
Gov. John
months, according
Kitzhaber’s third term was ruined
to the Willamette Week’s reporting.
by his financially compromised
Tibbs has had a hand in crafting the
girlfriend, Cylvia Hayes. She
state budget, which includes a big
ran her own subsidiary business
chunk of funding to the university.
from an office down the hall from
In the simplest words, these
Kitzhaber’s chamber.
Brown lieutenants are working for
the governor and the state while
Kate Brown understood the need
also serving the financial interests
to scrub the governor’s suite when
of other entities. Neither Gov.
she suddenly took the oath of office
Brown nor the employees have
in January 2015, upon Kitzhaber’s
acknowledged this. The full article
resignation. If the new governor
can be found at www.wweek.com.
announced one thing in her hastily
If you are familiar with the
prepared inaugural address, it was
questions being raised about
transparency. She wanted to enact
President-elect Donald Trump’s
rules that would insure against
private holdings, you will get what’s
the kind of conflict of interest and
disquieting about the predicament
self-dealing that Hayes exemplified
that Gov. Brown refuses to see. The
in the Kitzhaber administration.
problem Jaquiss describes is much
Sadly, Gov. Brown doesn’t
smaller than Trump’s, but it is as
seem to get it. Willamette Week last
plainly obvious.
Wednesday published a revealing
Appearances are everything
report by Nigel Jaquiss that
in politics and government. By
describes key Brown subordinates
ignoring the relevance of her
who are clearly compromised.
inaugural proclamation, Gov. Brown
Kristen Leonard, Brown’s chief
seems to be telling the rest of us that
of staff, and her husband own the
she knows she can skirt the rules
company Election Solutions, which
and win reelection simply because
provides software to state agencies
she’s a Democrat and backed by the
through Oregon Department of
public employees unions.
Administrative Services, which
Unsigned editorials are the opinion of the East Oregonian editorial board of publisher
Kathryn Brown, managing editor Daniel Wattenburger, and opinion page editor Tim Trainor.
Other columns, letters and cartoons on this page express the opinions of the authors and not
necessarily that of the East Oregonian.
OTHER VIEWS
Who needs more stuff?
I
t’s almost Christmas, and many
one answer — a sort of cooperative
procrastinators — myself included —
where people pay to rent everything
are still searching for the perfect gift.
from a carpet cleaner to a rake, from a
Perhaps they are window shopping
backpack to a garden hose.
downtown. Perhaps they are working
It helps city residents save money
late nights in their shop or quilting
and save space, and it saves hundreds
chair to finish something beautiful for
or thousands of duplicitous things from
someone special.
being purchased and thrown out and
But here’s some radical advice this
purchased again.
Tim
gift giving season: Don’t do it.
For a world that continues to see
Trainor
Much of the developed world has
human
populations expand, and a steady
Comment
move from rural spaces into cities,
hit “peak stuff.” Many Americans, and
space is a real concern.
many people all over the
Consider that the U.S.
world, have too much of
self storage industry
everything. And our future
generated $27.2 billion
happiness depends on
in revenues in 2014,
realizing that.
according to the Wall Street
This is, relatively,
a good thing. We’re a
Journal. The newspaper
materially sufficient
noted that the industry has
society. And it’s not
been the fastest growing
necessarily doom and
segment of the commercial
gloom for many retail businesses, or the
real estate industry over the last 40 years.
economy of the future. In fact, some of
About 90 percent of the country’s storage units
the world’s biggest makers of “stuff” are
are in use, and about 10 percent of American
embracing the idea that the world doesn’t need households currently rent one.
more of that.
It is important, too, to note that there are
NPR reported earlier this year about hitting
plenty of people out there, in this country and in
peak production, peak supply, and peak
others, who are in real need. They lack the stuff
demand. Beef and sugar sales, for instance,
that make a life complete.
cannot conceivably go any higher. We’re
The Christmas season is perhaps the best
also — as a species — coming up against peak time to think of them, and donate and give of
population, a hazy number that scientists and
ourselves and our dollars. A toy can brighten
philosophers have been debating for centuries. a child’s day, but food can give more deeper
Still, there has to be a limit somewhere
pleasure and a scholarship can brighten a
—whether it’s humans or candle holders.
lifetime. An hour of your time, a long-term
“The use of stuff is plateauing out,” IKEA
mentorship and sustained neighborly care,
executive Steve Howard told NPR last year.
can deeply and powerfully impact a person’s
IKEA, of course, is a company that sells
life. Teaching your child a family recipe or
nothing but stuff — often cheap, easily
taking a friend to your favorite secret, snowy
replaceable stuff.
trail can fire new synapses in the brain. They
It reminds me of George Orwell’s classic
can nourish the soul and open a new route
dystopian novel “1984.” The government-
to happiness. Giving the gift of time, even to
controlled world of the future is in a perpetual
yourself, can cure many ails.
state of war as a psychological control, but
Christmas is a spiritual holiday. And while
also as a means to destroy things. Because
everyone who wakes up Christmas morning to
destroying things eventually requires
a BMW with a bow on it is sure to feel some
rebuilding, and that requires the making and
real happiness, a longer and deeper peace can
buying of stuff. An endless cycle.
be found in having less stuff. And besides,
Yet perhaps it is a cycle we can break.
renting a BMW means you don’t have to
Those weirdo Europeans, who have a lot
change the oil in the middle of winter.
more old stuff than us, are thinking about ways
■
to deal with the glut.
Tim Trainor is opinion page editor of the
The “Library of Things” in London is
East Oregonian.
Here’s some
radical advice this
gift giving season:
Don’t do it.
OTHER VIEWS
As times and tech change,
so should meeting laws
The Oregonian, Dec. 7
E
LETTERS POLICY
The East Oregonian welcomes original letters of 400 words or less on public
issues and public policies for publication in the newspaper and on our website.
The newspaper reserves the right to withhold letters that address concerns
about individual services and products or letters that infringe on the rights of
private citizens. Submitted letters must be signed by the author and include
the city of residence and a daytime phone number. The phone number will not
be published. Unsigned letters will not be published. Send letters to managing
editor Daniel Wattenburger, 211 S.E. Byers Ave. Pendleton, OR 97801 or email
editor@eastoregonian.com.
mails and texts speed communication,
helping numerous people who may be
miles away come together quickly for a
conversation.
In almost real time, numerous people can
simultaneously share information, answer
questions and in some cases, make decisions.
Sounds an awful lot like a meeting, doesn’t
it? That’s because it is. And though Oregon’s
public meeting laws currently don’t define it
that way, it’s long-past time that legislators
update the definition of “meet,” “meeting,”
and “deliberation” in a 43-year-old law
created when our most advanced level of
public communication was the fax machine.
Many city and county counsels had hoped
a recent Oregon Supreme Court decision
would provide that clarity for their elected
officials once and for all. Yet the court avoided
the issue of whether digital conversations
count as actual meetings when it ruled last
month on a convoluted case out of Lane
County.
The original lawsuit contended, among a
number of issues, that a series of group and
one-on-one emails among three Lane County
commissioners and administrators constituted
a public meeting with a quorum of the board.
Former Lane County Commissioner Rob
Handy had filed the suit against Lane County
and three other commissioners. He’d argued
that the other commissioners violated the law
as they deliberated through emails and phone
calls whether to release a letter accusing him
of ethical and campaign finance violations.
His argument was that the group, including
three of the five commissioners, had worked
together in private to discuss releasing a
public record.
When the suit ultimately ended up in the
Oregon’s Court of Appeals last year, that
three-judge panel ruled that in fact, a series
of emails among a quorum of those subject to
public meeting laws can achieve the same end
as a more traditional, face-to-face gathering.
Judge Chris Garrett, who wrote the
opinion, noted the Legislature’s explicit
language of the law was “that decisions of
governing bodies be arrived at openly.”
The Lane County case has since been
remanded back to circuit court and could
eventually end up back in appeals court —
potentially providing clarity again. However,
what’s simplest would be for lawmakers to
address the definition this coming session and
protecting the public’s right to transparency
in world with increasing options for
communication.
Public officials need the guidance. While
some city and county attorneys have said they
warn their council and commission members
against hitting “reply all” to emails — and
some ban so-called “serial meetings” —
others say a meeting can only take place
contemporaneously.
Intent is a slippery issue. It’s true many
well-meaning public officials could get
themselves in trouble when they shoot out
group emails or texts regarding their work. No
better reason than to make this rule clear and
a regular part of municipalities’ training on
public records law.
Of the many fixes needed to our statute,
this one update — attempted but failed once
before — is necessary and overdue. That’s
especially true considering lawmakers’ current
battle cries for accountability.
If lawmakers ignore this common sense
catch-up of our meetings law, they ignore the
issue of transparency.