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East Oregonian
BROWN: Prohibits use
of state resources on any
registry targeting religion
Continued from 1A
Deputy Attorney General
Fred Boss said the state
justice department has not
yet filed any lawsuits related
to the president’s executive
order.
“We
are
carefully
reviewing legal cases around
the country and assessing
how we can best advance our
effort,” Boss said.
The Attorney General’s
Office plans to announce
the next steps in the legal
process next week, he said.
Brown sent a two-page letter
to the office asking that a
lawsuit challenge the presi-
dent’s order.
The governor’s executive
order expands a 1987 law
that prohibits the use of state
and local law enforcement
resources in federal immi-
gration enforcement.
“Oregon’s unique law has
succeeded in keeping the
deportation of immigrants
by the federal government
separate and distinct from
the enforcement of our
state criminal laws by our
local police,” said Kimberly
McCullough,
ACLU
of Oregon’s legislative
director. “We are pleased the
governor has extended this
important state disentangle-
ment to all state agencies and
employees.”
It’s unclear how many
people headed to Oregon
were affected by Trump’s
executive order, according to
the ACLU of Oregon, which
has provided legal support to
airport detainees.
A 5-month-old Iranian
girl who was scheduled
to have surgery at Oregon
Health & Science University
for a heart condition was one
of those not allowed to enter
the country because of the
president’s executive order,
according to a report by
KATU News.
“I find it deplorable that
an infant who was supposed
to come to Oregon to receive
much needed live-saving
care was not able to access
that care at Oregon Health &
Science University,” Brown
said Thursday.
The governor’s executive
order does the following:
• Bars state employees
from discriminating against
residents for their immigra-
tion status.
• Prohibits the use of
state moneys, equipment or
personnel for detecting or
apprehending people solely
on the basis of their immi-
gration status.
• Prohibits the use of state
resources to assist or facili-
tate the creation of a Muslim
registry, or any other registry
targeting a religious group.
Weakened corruption law ignites
anger and protests in Romania
BUCHAREST, Romania
(AP) — Romania’s new
decree diluting the country’s
corruption law ignited a
furor Thursday, prompting
strong criticism from home
and abroad and a declaration
from the president that he
would ask judges to declare
it unconstitutional.
Tens
of
thousands
protested for the third night
in Bucharest, the capital,
and thousands more in some
20 other Romanian cities,
calling for the government
to resign after issuing the
watered-down emergency
degree a day earlier.
But Prime Minister Sorin
Grindeanu said the govern-
ment would not repeal the
decree, deepening the polit-
ical crisis.
President Klaus Iohannis
announced he will take the
decree to the Constitutional
Court, the last legal resort
to stop the law by the ruling
center-left Social Demo-
crats, whose leader, Liviu
Dragnea, is among those
with a corruption conviction.
Protester Florin Varlan,
42, said Thursday evening
Continued from 1A
calls — about 9,150 calls per
dispatcher.
At a meeting Tuesday in
Pendleton with representa-
tives from several partner
agencies, Rowan and his staff
pitched a plan to increase the
number of dispatchers to 18.
“At the end of the day, the
desire is not to pad the sher-
iff’s office in any way, but to
improve the service we rely
on,” Rowan told the group.
An 18th dispatcher,
Lieuallen said, would relieve
a litany of problems for the
center and its employees.
That includes making sick
time easier to cover and
letting someone take a break,
particularly during peak
call hours on weekends.
Lieuallen said overtime for
the first half of the fiscal year
cost the center $64,000, and
the average annual salary
and benefits for a county
dispatcher is $78,118.
The sheriff’s office last
year had cities and agencies
increase their payments to
the dispatch center, a move
that fell hard on small towns
such as Pilot Rock and Stan-
field. The latest ask would
mean Pendleton would pay
about $330,260 next fiscal
year, almost $22,000 more
than what it pays now.
Hermiston would jump up
about $21,500 to $324,978.
Umatilla would pay an
additional $4,500 more,
Stanfield about $2,400 more,
and Pilot Rock about $1,400.
Blair Larsen, Stanfield city
manager, said no one was
under the illusion the cost
of dispatch would stay
the same, but “to have an
increase already is kind of
disheartening.”
Darla Huxel, Umatilla
police chief, said all local
emergency agencies could
use more staff, but there is
another issue with sending
more money to the dispatch
center.
“There are some agencies
not satisfied with the level of
service they are receiving,”
she said. “So this is a hard
pill to swallow.”
Huxel and a few others
said they have yet to have
a say in how dispatch
operates. The complaint
fired up undersheriff Jim
Littlefield, who stated the
sheriff’s office implemented
a program for dispatch
administrators to deal with
systemic problems, but so
far only Pendleton police
and Umatilla County Fire
District 1 have opted in. The
invitation, he said, stands.
Some members also asked
for an assurance that if they
pay more in the upcoming
fiscal year, they would not
have another increase for a
few years. Rowan said he
could not make that promise.
Hiring another dispatcher
would require approval
from the county board of
commissioners, which told
department heads in the fall
there would be no money
for more staff due to the
increase in cost of the Public
Employees
Retirement
System and insurance.
Rowan said that’s not stop-
ping him from pushing for a
new dispatcher.
———
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AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda
A man waves a large Romanian flag during a protest
joined by tens of thousands against a government
decree that dilutes what qualifies as corruption, in
Bucharest, Romania, Thursday.
that he would continue to
protest, after Dragnea “came
out today and showed he
understood nothing.”
The ordinance decrimi-
nalizes official misconduct
if the funds involved are less
than 200,000 lei ($47,800).
Critics say the measure helps
government allies and other
officials facing corruption
charges get out of prison
or clear their records and
claim it will encourage more
officials to steal on the job.
Dragnea defended the
decree, which did not go
through parliament, saying
it would not “free corrupt
people.” Dragnea also
called Iohannis “the moral
author” of the sporadic
violence that broke out late
Wednesday between police
and protesters.
Dragnea, who has a
two-year suspended prison
sentence for vote rigging,
says he wants a retrial. The
conviction bars him from
serving as prime minister,
which he says is unfair.
In a statement, the U.S.,
Germany, Canada, Finland,
the Netherlands and France
said Romania’s government
had undermined “progress
on rule of law and the fight
against corruption over the
past ten years.”
European Commission
vice
president
Frank
Timmermans urged the
Romanian
government
on Thursday to “urgently
reconsider” the decree,
warning that if it is adopted,
it could affect the EU funds
that Romania gets.
U.S. State Department
spokesman Mark Toner said
Romania’s
international
credibility and attractiveness
for foreign investment were
at stake.
“The United States is
deeply concerned about the
Government of Romania’s
recent measures that under-
mine rule of law and weaken
accountability for financial
and
corruption-related
crimes,” Toner said.
SCHOOL: Four out of the seven board members
juggle full-time jobs along with school board duties
Continued from 1A
DISPATCH: Average salary
for a dispatcher is $78,118
Friday, February 3, 2017
a school board member and
what challenges they could
face.
Debbie McBee, the chair
of the Pendleton school board
and eight-year member,
is featured prominently in
some of campaign’s material.
“One of the things I love
about being on the school
board is using policy and
being able to influence
people — whether it’s
teachers, parents or the chil-
dren themselves,” she says in
a testimonial.
In an interview, McBee
said her position on the board
has helped make a difference
in the Pendleton School
District, but others might be
more squeamish about some
of the other aspects of being
an elected official.
McBee said being a Pend-
leton School Board member
requires an average of 10
hours in time commitment
each month, which includes
bimonthly
meetings,
committee assignments and
visits to school sites.
Four out of the seven
school board members juggle
full-time jobs along with
school board duties, McBee
said, while the rest either do
not work or work part-time.
McBee said some are
turned off to the idea because
it would force them into the
spotlight where their stances
would be scrutinized by the
public.
McBee referenced the
school board’s upcoming
decision on how to make up
instructional hours lost to
snow as a stance that draws
attention and, inevitability,
disagreement.
Other recent issues
that have garnered public
interest include the district
redrawing elementary school
boundaries and changing the
school calendar to move the
first day of school ahead of
Round-Up.
The Pendleton School
Board hasn’t had a contested
race since 2005, but McBee
is hopeful that recent trends
will change.
“No one has a right to be
on the school board, it’s an
earned privilege that comes
from the citizens,” she said.
McBee pointed to a
recent vacancy on the board
that could indicate a new
wave of people interested in
governing the school system.
When former board member
Bob Rosselle resigned
because he couldn’t continue
to make the time commit-
ment, 10 people applied to
fill the rest of his term.
The board ultimately
appointed Gary George,
the board’s only American
Indian member in a school
district that serves the
Confederated Tribes of the
Umatilla Indian Reservation.
Recruiting
board
members of color is one of
the emphases of the “Get on
Board” campaign.
“Our demographics are
changing and Oregon’s
school boards haven’t,”
Pulaski said.
Karen Sherman, chair of
Hermiston School District’s
seven-member board, said
she doesn’t remember a
contested race since she ran
in 2001. The district is the
largest in Eastern Oregon
with more than 5,600
students.
However, Sherman said
in times where a position has
to be filled mid-term due to
a resignation, the board has
often had multiple people
interested — possibly, she
said, because of the shorter
service time and not having
to compete in an election.
Sherman said she thinks
two things contribute to the
low turnout for board elec-
tions: time commitment, and
contentment with the board’s
operations.
“I think part of it is that
everybody’s busy, and
people have to prioritize
where to spend their time,”
she said. “And for the most
part, people are happy with
the way the district works.
It’s not a lack of interest,
but people are in a position
where they’re confident
with what’s happening in the
school district.”
Sherman said as chair,
she probably spends about 7
hours a week on board busi-
ness outside of meetings, but
other candidates probably
average about two or three.
Delbert Gehrke, chair
of the Echo School Board,
also couldn’t remember the
last contested race — and
that it sometimes takes some
“arm-twisting” to get people
to volunteer to assume
positions that are vacated
mid-term.
“It takes time,” Gehrke
said. “We have a lot of good
people, but not a lot of people
wanting to serve.”
Both
Gehrke
and
Sherman said the majority
of their board members have
full-time jobs, while a few
are retired.
Sherman — a retired
educator herself — said that
while not many people run
for school board, the return
rate is pretty high. Once
people are on the board, they
tend to stay on for several
years.
Gehrke said he doesn’t
think there will be a big rush
of people running for the
board any time soon.
“I think it’s healthy
if there’s interest in the
community, so I’d like to see
more people,” he said. “But I
don’t know if it’s realistic in
this small town.”
Sherman said she would
like to see more board candi-
dates — especially those
who represent the Hispanic
populations in the district.
School boards aren’t
the only Umatilla County
governing bodies that have
struggled to attract candi-
dates.
During the May 2015
election, only eight out of
the 136 seats up for grabs on
local boards and commis-
sions were contested and
27 were decided by write-in
because there were no
declared candidates.
The filing period for
school board seats opens
Saturday and runs through
March 16. Three Pendleton
School Board seats are up
for election in 2017, which
are currently held by George,
McBee, and Steve Umbarger.
School board elections
across the state will be held
May 16.
———
Reporters
Jayati
Ramakrishnan and Antonio
Sierra contributed to this
story.
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