OFF PAGE ONE
HOUK: Recruited Turner to succeed him in office
Page 10A
East Oregonian
Continued from 1A
filtration system, the city’s
solarization program, the
Pendleton Aquatic Center,
the Rudy Rada Skate Park,
the Westgate overpass, the
series of bronzes on Main
Street, the Bedford Bridge
and the downtown areas
revitalization, among many
others.
“Every one of these were
hard,” he said. “Every one
of them have a story and
involved a lot of people to
bring them together.”
———
Houk grew up in Enter-
prise, one of eight children
and the son of a single mother.
He moved to Pendleton in
1978 to study at Blue Moun-
tain Community College, a
school that would eventually
mark the start of his political
career when he became a
member of the BMCC Board
of Education.
He met his wife, Kathy,
in 1981 while both were
teaching exercise classes at
BMCC. They married three
weeks later and had two
daughters.
Houk was appointed to the
city council on Jan. 4, 1994 to
fill out a vacated seat, beating
out five other applicants.
“If you look at the history
of Pendleton, economic
development has been pretty
stagnant,” Houk told the
council in his interview at
the time, sounding not unlike
some of the council’s modern
day critics. “We’ve brought
in as much as we lost. And we
are not keeping up with other
areas of Eastern Oregon.”
Houk rarely faced elec-
toral opposition in his two
decades in office, the lone
exception being his first run
for mayor in 2004.
At the end of a contentious
campaign between Houk and
former city councilor Gary
Tague, Tague actually took
home more votes in the May
election.
But a lesser known third
candidate, Jo Ann Thompson,
kept either councilor from
clearing 50 percent of the
vote, forcing a November
runoff that Houk would win
by 71 votes.
Twelve years later, Houk
said he believes the city’s
investments in infrastructure
and industry have put the city
in a better place than when he
started.
Despite these advance-
ments, Pendleton has not
gone without loss in those
years.
Once top employers in
the region, Blue Mountain
Recovery Center and Pend-
leton Grain Growers closed
their doors during his tenure.
The millions spent on Airport
Road have thus far been for
naught.
After voters approved
bonds funding the city hall
renovation and aquatic center
construction in back-to-back
years in the mid-1990s, voter
support for ballot measures
has dried up in recent years.
The same night Houk was
elected mayor in 2004,
voters rejected a capital
improvement bond and when
the council tried to refer the
issue to voters again in 2014,
food workers and other low
wage workers around the
country. “The price of food
has gone up. Rent has gone
up. Everything has gone up.
... This will make a difference
for so many people.”
Voters in Arizona, Maine,
Colorado and Washington
approved increases in this
year’s election. Seven other
states, Alaska, Florida,
Missouri, Montana, New
Jersey, Ohio and South
Dakota, are automatically
raising the wage based
on indexing. The other
states seeing increases are
Arkansas,
Connecticut,
Hawaii,
Michigan
and
Vermont.
Additional increases are
slated for later in the year in
Oregon, Washington, D.C.,
and Maryland.
In Arizona, the state
Chamber of Commerce and
Industry filed a lawsuit chal-
lenging the increase, which
will raise the minimum
wage from $8.05 to $10.
On Thursday, the Arizona
Supreme Court refused to
temporarily block the raise.
Workers and labor advo-
RUSSIA: New sanctions
unlikely to have a major
impact on spy operations
Continued from 1A
Staff photo by Kathy Aney
Outgoing Mayor Phillip Houk stands in the Pendleton City Council chambers where
he spent the last 12 years leading city government.
Contributed photo
Phillip Houk takes the oath of office as his first term
begins as his wife Kathy and daughters Chelcie and
Kacie look on.
it never made it to the ballot
because city staff missed an
advertising deadline.
Although voters supported
temporary gas taxes for the
Westgate overpass and the
Airport Road extension, a
longterm fuel tax for road
maintenance was defeated
twice at the ballot box.
“That’s the tough part
about managing all of this,”
Houk said about getting resi-
dents to approve new taxes.
“Trying to find the balance
where you have the right
amount of tax and figuring
out who should be paying it
so that it benefits everyone.”
Voters are still waiting for
the industrial jobs promised
from the last gas tax that
was approved, with the only
company that’s publicly
stated interest still looking at
energy options.
Houk said there were a
couple of companies on the
verge of locating in Pendleton
because of Airport Road, only
to back off at the last minute.
Despite these setbacks,
Houk is still confident the
Airport Road extension will
be vindicated, pointing to the
land the city bought for devel-
opment and the city’s efforts
to extend utilities there.
———
Houk’s tenure also marked
the end of the road for Larry
Lehman, who served as
Pendleton city manager for
18 years.
After disputes between
the city’s union and Lehman
went public in 2007, Houk
and Lehman’s relationship
became strained when Houk
told the East Oregonian that
the problems would go away
if Lehman left his position.
Although Houk and the
council eventually expressed
confidence
in
Lehman
and kept him on for years,
the council unexpectedly
declined to renew his contract
in 2009.
Houk said he was surprised
by the council’s decision and
would have voted to retain
him if the council had a split
vote.
Houk said Lehman did a
lot of good for the city during
his time as city manager, but
he saved many of his plaudits
for Lehman’s replacement,
Robb Corbett, who still holds
the position.
Houk met Corbett before
he was hired as Pendleton’s
chief executive, while they
were both in Central Oregon
for a League of Oregon Cities
conference.
Corbett was escorting him
to an event and the two hit it
off enough that Corbett asked
Houk to keep him in mind
if a job ever opened up in
Pendleton.
When Corbett applied for
the city manager position in
2009, Houk said he strongly
advocated for him during the
deliberations process.
At a Nov 5 retirement
party, Corbett said that he was
strong advocate for Houk as
well.
———
Complete
with
a
commemorative
coin
handed out to attendees as
they entered Hamley Steak-
house, the same place Houk
launched his last two re-elec-
tion campaigns, the farewell
party featured mayors, coun-
cilors and local dignitaries a
celebrating Houk’s career.
The emcee, Redmond
Mayor George Endicott,
offered an open mic for
anyone willing to say a few
words about the outgoing
mayor.
“When we get to heaven,
I believe that everything is
revealed,” Corbett said when
he stepped to the micro-
phone. “And everything
that’s due to you will come
to fruition.”
Houk later told the audi-
ence that he also personally
recruited John Turner, the
former BMCC president, to
take over as mayor.
Houk said he asked
Turner three times before he
agreed to run.
“The first time, it was
not only no, it was hell no,”
Houk said.
Houk said he has
supported Turner ever since
the BMCC board voted to
promote him to president and
thinks he’ll help bring some
of Pendleton’s long term
goals to fruition.
Houk decided to retire
from political life because of
the increasing demands from
his day job as a risk manager
for the Union Pacific Rail-
road Co.
Even with those demands,
Houk said he would have
sought another term if he
couldn’t convince Turner to
run.
Instead, Houk will turn
over his mayor’s gavel at the
next city council meeting,
officially marking the end of
Houk’s time in city politics.
While Houk’s name
has been floated before for
higher office, he isn’t sure if
he will ever re-enter politics.
In the meantime, Houk
could play an unfamiliar role
— the outside observer.
“It might be nice to enjoy
the fruits while someone else
does the work,” he said.
———
Contact Antonio Sierra at
asierra@eastoregonian.com
or 541-966-0836.
WAGE: Will also increase this weekend in 22 cities, counties
Continued from 1A
Friday, December 30, 2016
cates argue the increases will
help low-wage workers now
barely making ends meet
and boost the economy by
giving some consumers more
money to spend. But many
business owners opposed the
higher wages, saying they
would lead to higher prices
and greater automation.
Some restaurant owners
may consider reducing
portion sizes or charging for
side dishes that were once
included in the price of a
meal to absorb the increase,
according
to
Melissa
Fleischut, president of the
New York State Restaurant
Association.
“I’m sure prices will go up
where they can, but restau-
rants want to avoid sticker
shock,” she said. “They’re
going to have to get creative.”
The adjustments in New
York, California and several
other states are part of a series
of gradual increases to a $12
or $15 hourly wage.
The minimum wage will
also go up this weekend in 22
cities and counties, including
San Diego, San Jose and
Seattle.
The high number of states
and localities raising the
wage this year reflects the
successful work of fast-food
workers and organized labor,
according to Tsedeye Gebre-
selassie, senior staff attorney
at the National Employment
Law Project, as well as
federal inaction on the wage.
The national minimum was
last raised, to $7.25, in 2009.
“These aren’t only teens
trying to make some pocket
money,” she said. “Increas-
ingly it’s adults who are
using this money to support
their families.”
included the cyberattacks
on the Democratic National
Committee and Hillary Clin-
ton’s campaign chairman.
It was the strongest action
the Obama administration
has taken to date to retaliate
for a cyberattack, and more
comprehensive than last
year’s sanctions on North
Korea after it hacked Sony
Pictures Entertainment. The
new penalties add to existing
U.S. sanctions over Russia’s
actions in Ukraine, which
have impaired Russia’s
economy but had limited
impact on President Vlad-
imir Putin’s behavior.
Russia, which denied the
hacking allegations, called
the penalties a clumsy yet
aggressive attempt to “harm
Russian-American
ties.”
Putin spokesman Dmitry
Peskov said Russia would
take into account the fact
that Trump will soon replace
Obama as it drafts retaliatory
measures.
The day marked a low
point for U.S. relations with
Russia, which have suffered
during Obama’s years as
he and Putin tussled over
Ukraine, Edward Snowden
and Russia’s support for
Syrian President Bashar
Assad. Maria Zakharova,
a Russian foreign ministry
spokeswoman, took to
Facebook to call the Obama
administration “a group of
foreign policy losers, angry
and ignorant.”
It was unlikely the new
sanctions, while symboli-
cally significant, would have
a major impact on Russian
spy operations. The sanc-
tions freeze any U.S. assets
and block Americans from
doing business with them.
But Russian law bars the
spy agencies from having
assets in the U.S., and any
activities they undertake
would likely be covert and
hard to identify.
“On its face, this is more
than a slap on the wrists,
but hardly an appropriate
response to an unprece-
dented attack on our electoral
system,” said Stewart Baker,
a cybersecurity lawyer and
former National Security
Agency and Homeland
Security Agency official.
Indeed, senior Obama
administration officials said
that even with the penal-
ties, the U.S. had reason
to believe Russia would
keep hacking other nations’
elections and might well try
to hack American elections
again in 2018 or 2020. The
officials briefed reporters on
a conference call on condi-
tion of anonymity.
Though the FBI and
Homeland Security Depart-
ment issued a joint report
on “Russian malicious
cyber activity” — replete
with examples of malware
code used by the Russians
— it still has not released a
broader report Obama has
promised detailing Russia’s
efforts to interfere with U.S.
elections.
The report has been
eagerly anticipated by those
hoping to make it politi-
cally untenable for Trump
to continue questioning
whether Russia was really
involved. But U.S. officials
said those seeking more
detail about who the U.S. has
determined did the hacking
need look only to the list
of sanctions targets, which
includes the GRU head,
his three deputies, and two
Russian nationals wanted by
the FBI for cybercrimes.
The move puts Trump
in the position of having to
decide whether to roll back
the measures once in office,
and U.S. officials acknowl-
edged that Trump could use
his executive authorities to
do so. Still, they suggested
that building the case against
Russia now would make it
harder for Trump to justify
easing up.
U.S. allegations of
hacking have ignited a
heated debate over Trump’s
approach to Russia and
his refusal to accept
the assessment of U.S.
intelligence agencies that
Russia’s government was
responsible and wanted to
help him win. Though U.S.
lawmakers have long called
for Obama to be tougher on
Russia, some Republicans
have found that position
less tenable now that Trump
is floating the possibility of
closer ties to Moscow.
“While today’s action
by the administration is
overdue, it is an appropriate
way to end eight years of
failed policy with Russia,”
said House Speaker Paul
Ryan, R-Wis.
U.S. intelligence agen-
cies concluded that Russia
was trying to help Trump
win when hackers connected
to the government breached
Democratic Party computers
and stole tens of thousands
of emails that were then
posted on WikiLeaks, some
containing
embarrassing
information for Democrats.
Clinton aide John Podesta’s
emails were also stolen and
released publicly in the final
weeks of the campaign.
CHEN: Family plans to open
another restaurant in Walla Walla
Continued from 1A
serving tables and Kevin
making sushi behind the
counter. “The restaurant
belongs to everyone in the
family.”
Chen said while he
didn’t have any family
already in Hermiston, he
had visited the community
before and liked the area.
“I looked, and they
didn’t have any sushi
restaurants at all, so I
decided to bring something
new to try,” he said.
Chen said he misses
Portland a little — but
never for very long.
“I go back a lot — once
a week,” he said. “They
don’t deliver fresh fish
here, so I go pick it up
myself.”
Chen said his family
plans to open another
restaurant in Walla Walla
in the future, but they’re
enjoying being in Herm-
iston, too.
“We love it. The people
are so nice,” he said. He
added that customers have
been patient with them, too.
“One night, our credit
card machine was having
issues, but people went
next door and got cash to
pay for their food,” he said.
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