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East Oregonian
Thursday, March 30, 2017
House passes bill increasing penalties for unequal pay
By PARIS ACHEN
Capital Bureau
SALEM — The Oregon House
of Representatives has passed a bill
that increases potential civil penal-
ties for paying women and minori-
ties less than their counterparts who
perform the same job.
While the state has laws barring
discrimination, the wage gap
between white men and women and
minorities still persists, said Rep.
Ann Lininger, D-Lake Oswego, the
bill’s chief sponsor.
“One of the things we need to
do to make sure that people are not
discriminated against based on pay
is to strengthen the penalties for
discrimination,” Lininger said.
Lawmakers voted 36 to 24 to
pass the bill Tuesday after debating
for two hours on the House floor.
The legislation now proceeds to the
Senate for consideration.
The bill makes exceptions for
higher pay in certain circumstances,
such as when an employee has
seniority or produces demonstrably
higher quality or quantity of work
product.
The legislation bars employers
from screening job applicants based
on their salary history or to seek
salary history from candidates.
The proposal also spells out that an
employee who has been discrim-
inated against as a member of a
protected class has a right to a jury
trial and actual, compensatory and
punitive damages.
Before passing the measure,
legislators first considered a
substitute bill offered on the floor
by House Minority Leader Rep.
Mike McLane, R-Powell Butte.
The GOP-spearheaded minority
report would have removed punitive
penalties, provide a self-evaluation
defense and would have made
veterans one of the protected classes
in the bill. Republicans won support
from some Democrats, including
Reps. Brian Clem of Salem and
Deborah Boone of Cannon Beach.
The self-evaluation defense
would have encouraged more
compliance with the law and spurred
fewer lawsuits, McLane said.
“Do you want lawsuits, or do
you want compliance? Because you
are going to choose today?” he said.
The concept was that businesses
that had made a good faith effort
to address pay disparities by
conducting an evaluation of salaries
could use that as a defense if sued by
an employee.
But Lininger and other
lawmakers asserted the substitute
bill would actually roll back protec-
tions that already exist in the law for
those who are discriminated against,
including for gender, disability or
sexual orientation.
“It actually weakens penalties for
those employers who have discrim-
inated if they demonstrate that they
have done a self-evaluation that
satisfies this affirmative defense
test,” Lininger said.
She said she would encourage the
Senate to consider adding veterans
as a protected class in the bill.
Rep. Julie Parrish, R-West Linn,
voted against Lininger’s bill and for
the substitute bill because she said
both would likely hurt the state’s
budget.
“The fact is for us to send this bill
out and say no fiscal impact is a lie,”
Parrish said.
A report in 2014 by The
Statesman Journal showed Oregon
state government is one of the most
egregious offenders of pay equity,
even in state offices led by Demo-
crats, Parrish noted.
“I would like to have that
discussion, but we are sitting here
in a $1.8 billion shortfall, and we’re
proposing to put forth legislation
that will directly impact state and
local governments in a time when
we don’t have dollars,” she said.
DUMP: Free to dump small items and recyclables at the transfer station
Continued from 1A
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
Phil and Brenda Hector pick up a bundle of wet blan-
kets and other garbage on Wednesday while volunteer-
ing to cleanup a field off of Theater Lane in Hermiston.
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
John Spomer picks up trash as Tom Ditton throws a bag
of garbage into the back of his pickup during a volunteer
cleanup Wednesday off of Theater Lane in Hermiston.
Hendrickson, who lives
in the area, said he tries to
pick up small bits of trash
when he can, and knows
others who do the same. But
he said this is the first large-
scale cleanup he can recall.
Phil and Brenda Hector,
who have lived in Herm-
iston since 1970, were also
helping at the cleanup.
Brenda found some patio
rocks with lights inside them,
and another volunteer found
a pair of cowboy boots.
Phil said he hoped the
cleanup would help, but
many will likely come out
and dump trash again.
“People who dump
illegally are not going to
be concerned about what
anyone thinks,” he said.
“The problem in rural areas
is that people don’t dispose
of (trash) properly, and then
someone else has to come
along and deal with it.”
The Hectors said the
proper area for dumping
trash, the transfer station, is
fairly close to town but some
people are deterred by the
cost.
“People have to pay a few
pennies, which they don’t
like to do,” Brenda said.
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
Kiwanis Club members load a box spring mattress into a dumpster during a clean-
up of property off of Theater Lane on Wednesday in Hermiston.
Cindy Middleton, who
was at the cleanup with her
son Rian, said they found a
broken television and lots of
carpet up on the hill. She said
she was disappointed people
think it’s OK to dump their
trash there. “It’s nice that
Kiwanians are here to do it,
but they shouldn’t have to,”
she said.
It is free to dump small
items and recyclables at
the Hermiston Sanitary
Disposal Station, and costs
a fee to dump larger items.
Next week, during its Spring
Cleanup, most items can be
left there for no charge.
–——
Contact
Jayati
Ramakrishnan at 541-564-
4534 or jramakrishnan@
eastoregonian.com
“The problem in rural
areas is that peo-
ple don’t dispose of
(trash) properly, and
then someone else
has to come along
and deal with it.”
— Phil Hector, volunteer
ENGLE: Earned a degree in business BUFFERS: Bill would likely increase
and marketing at University of Oregon administrative cost of certification program
Continued from 1A
ship, a wagon or any place
that exists in a child’s mind,”
she said.
The squealing children
got off the boat and headed
into a nearby log cabin,
jabbering excitedly. Other
favorite destinations are a
fire station with a sliding
pole, pizza shop, art room,
puzzle table, reading corner,
toddler room, fairy garden
and a construction room full
of tools and faux building
supplies. In the shadow
room, kids can push a button,
assume a pose, wait a few
seconds for a bright flash and
then inspect their shadow on
the wall. Near the back of
the museum sits Thomas the
Tank Engine.
Engle comes to this chil-
dren’s oasis with a diverse
resume. She grew up in La
Grande and spent the early
part of her adulthood as a
stay-at-home mom raising
two daughters in Roseburg
and Redmond. After her
divorce, she went back to
school, earning a degree in
business and marketing at
the University of Oregon.
In the mid-90s, she
worked for Holt Interna-
tional Children’s Services, an
organization that facilitates
international adoptions. The
company’s founders, Harry
and Bertha Holt, had adopted
eight Korean children in the
50s after hearing about the
plight of Amerasian children
living in orphanages. Later
they started an organiza-
tion to help other parents
adopt overseas. Engle, the
company’s adoption services
coordinator, once accompa-
nied 90-something Bertha to
China on business. Bertha,
known as “Grandma Holt,”
was beloved in China and
elsewhere.
“People treated her as a
rock star,” Engle said. “In
China, I carried her gifts and
got her to where she was
supposed to be.”
After a fascinating four
years with Holt, Engle
changed gears. Over the
next decade, she did stra-
tegic planning for the Rural
Development
Initiative,
raised foundation funds
for Kidsports in Eugene
and became director of the
CASA program in Benton
County. Later, she and
another woman formed a
partnership that would help
fledgling non-profit organi-
zations get off the ground,
providing strategic planning,
leadership and marketing
during the critical early days.
Most recently, she worked as
interim director at the Gilbert
House Children’s Museum
in Salem.
She said her approaching
60th birthday and the fact
that many of her friends
were retiring caused her to
seek out a change.
“I didn’t feel the need
to retire, but I felt a need
to settle down,” she said.
“I looked for interesting
work in a community I
could connect with and an
organization I could believe
in. This came open and I
thought, ‘This is it.’”
CMEO board member
Chris Garrigues, who helped
select the new director, was
initially concerned with the
number of jobs on Engle’s
résumé and a “pattern of
jumping around,” but said he
quickly realized why.
“Everywhere she went,
she turned the ship around,”
he said. “She had the skill
set to turn things around and
then she would move on.”
“She’s incredibly quali-
fied,” said board president
Lydia Conley. “She has a
history of taking a non-profit
and making it into an
amazing place to work.
She’s knowledgeable and
she has the drive.”
Engle told the board she
was pulled to come back
to the area where she was
raised and she expects this to
be her last post.
Now that she’s in, Engle
loves coming to work.
“There’s a good energy
here,” she said.
She said her mind is
blown regularly by the
children and how they
interact with the museum.
The exhibits evolve as the
children arrange the pieces
differently.
Props
and
costumes, which are every-
where, travel to far corners
of the place. Engle and her
employees walk around with
baskets at the end of the day,
picking items up and taking
them back to their assigned
spots.
The kids, Engle said,
exercise their imaginations,
develop skills and learn how
to get along with others at
the CMEO. But, they do it
painlessly.
“They think they’re
playing,” she said.
As she settles in, Engle
thinks back to her career
getting non-profits up and
running.
“I would hand the organi-
zation over with a big bow to
the people who would take it
to the next level,” she said.
“Now I feel like I’ve been
given the box with the big
bow.”
———
Contact Kathy Aney at
kaney@eastoregonian.com
or call 541-966-0810.
Continued from 1A
will help better prepare
our communities for future
disasters,” Ferrioli said in a
statement before Wednes-
day’s hearing. “By passing
this bill, we can save money
and increase defensible
buffers, but most impor-
tantly, we can help Orego-
nians better avoid grief and
suffering associated with
property loss.”
Lawmakers adopted the
Oregon Forestland-Urban
Interface Fire Protection
Program in 1997, which
has since been implemented
across 17 counties. The
program encourages wild-
fire protection buffers of
between 30 and 100 feet —
depending on the location
— which property owners
self-certify every five years.
The bill would increase
the buffer space to a
minimum of 300 feet in
order to qualify for a tax
credit, with some exceptions
based on the terrain.
Doug Grafe, fire protec-
tion division chief for the
Oregon Department of
Forestry, said roughly 40
percent of 151,000 property
owners have been certified
through
the
program.
Certification may protect
landowners from liability
up to $100,000 should a
fire spread through the area,
though Grafe admits that is a
difficult standard to enforce.
By providing tax credits,
SB 1017 aims to grow
interest in the program
using a carrot, rather than a
stick. ODF does not have a
position on the bill, though
Grafe said he imagines
more people would be inter-
ested in engaging with the
program if there was some
kind of incentive.
However, Grafe said the
bill would likely increase
the administrative cost of the
program since ODF would
be doing annual certifications
for the tax credit, instead
of certifications every five
years. The program currently
costs $60,000 per year to
administer, not including
personnel.
“With Senate Bill 1017’s
proposal of an annual tax
credit tied to certification,
ODF would expect a
substantial increase in
program
administration
costs and personnel costs as
we move from a five-year
certification to an annual
certification,” Grafe stated
in his written testimony.
Members of the Senate
Environment and Natural
Resources
Committee
added the appetite for tax
credits is “going to be
tough,” considering the
state’s budget shortfall.
Sen.
Bill
Hansell
(R-Athena) was not as
familiar with Ferrioli’s
proposal, but said their
districts share the Blue
Mountains and some of the
same forests. At first glance,
Hansell said he would
support the bill moving
forward.
“I trust (Ferrioli’s) judg-
ment,” Hansell said. “We’re
both trying to find solutions
to the same problem.”
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