NORTHWEST
East Oregonian
Page 2A
Wednesday, April 19, 2017
Senate passes public records deadline bill
disclosing something,” Beyer
said.
Senate Bill 481, a product
of a task force convened by
Attorney General Ellen Rosen-
blum, passed by a 29-to-0 vote.
The bill requires public
bodies to respond to requests
within five days and furnish
public records within at least
10 days, or provide a written
statement explaining when the
request will be fulfilled.
The legislation also charges
the Attorney General’s Office
with cataloguing the state’s
more than 500 exemptions to
the public records law, so it can
be searched by the public.
“During more than a year
of task force meetings and
listening sessions with journal-
ists, advocates, and the public
we heard loud and clear that our
public records laws are in need
of reform. This bill addresses the
issue of lack of timely access to
records and begins to address the
confusion created by 40 years of
piecemeal exemptions to laws
By PARIS ACHEN
Capital Bureau
SALEM — The Oregon
Senate has passed a bill to set
a deadline for public bodies
to respond to public records
requests.
If passed by the House, the
deadline would set a precedent
in Oregon, where government
entities effectively have an
unlimited time to respond to
requests. Oregon is one of the
few states without a deadline.
“This is a transparency and
government accountability bill
that puts a timeframe on how
quickly government agencies
have to respond to public
records requests,” said Sen.
Lee Beyer, D-Springfield. “It
requires a timely response so
that our government records
are open to the public without
unreasonable delays.”
The legislations also can help
prevent “the tactic of sitting on
public records requests for a
long period of time to avoid
BRIEFLY
Woman found dead from
apparent gunshot in woods
law reform met for about 14
months. The task force has
recommended simplifying and
reducing Oregon’s some 500
public records exemptions, but
decided to postpone legislation
on that effort to ensure a public
records deadline could pass
both chambers. House Bill
2101, which is pending in the
House Rules Committee, would
establish a new committee to
start on that work.
Another bill, proposed by
Brown, would create a public
records advocate to educate and
resolve conflicts over records
requests.
Each session, lawmakers
propose new exemptions. This
year, for instance, Secretary of
State Dennis Richardson has
proposed legislation to add
new exemptions for the Office
of Small Business Assistance.
Rep. Phil Barnhart, D-Eugene,
proposed a bill to exempt
lawmakers’ mailing lists from
disclosure to anyone but other
political candidates.
originally intended to promote
transparency,” Rosenblum said
in a statement Tuesday.
Vague language in existing
law puts no enforceable
deadline on public bodies to
disclose records. Under the bill,
if an agency fails to respond by
the deadline, it is considered a
denial, and the requestor may
appeal the denial to the Attorney
General’s Office.
The law states such govern-
ment entities must respond to
requests “as soon as practicable
without unreasonable delay.”
Administrative
changes
ordered by Gov. Kate Brown
require agencies to have a
written protocol for those
seeking to access records. Public
bodies may set a fee for staff
time and materials to furnish
the records. The Department
of Administrative Services,
under the governor’s order, also
has developed a uniform fee
schedule for those documents.
The attorney general’s
task force on public records
CORVALLIS (AP) — Authorities are
investigating the death of a woman whose body
was found in an Oregon forest.
The Benton County Sheriff’s Office says
the unidentified body is that of a woman in her
20s, and it was discovered Monday night by
someone from a timber company outside the
town of Alsea.
Benton County Sheriff Scott Jackson told
the Corvallis Gazette-Times the death appears
to be from a gunshot wound, but an autopsy
will be performed. Investigators have yet to
estimate how long the body had been in the
woods before it was discovered.
Man sentenced for throwing
Molotov cocktail at crowd
PORTLAND (AP) — A man has been
sentenced to three years of probation and anger
management for throwing a Molotov cocktail at
a crowd of Trump protesters in Portland.
The Oregonian/OregonLive reported
Tuesday that 27-year-old Christopher Joseph
Gourneau threw the flaming device toward a
crowd of 30 to 40 people in November.
A witness says the device sailed 5 feet above
Gourneau’s head before landing on the ground
without injuring anybody.
Another witness had told police that
Gourneau had been acting irrationally and hid
the device under his shirt.
Police reports show officers were not in the
area but did see a small group of people chasing
him.
Gourneau pleaded guilty as part of a plea
deal to attempted second-degree assault and
unlawful possession of a destructive device.
Bill would eliminate a dozen obsolete boards, commissions
Committee on General Govern-
ment and Accountability, said
his committee sought to make a
list of commissions and boards
that hadn’t met recently.
“That’s the kind of thing
I’m interested in, making the
government as transparent as
possible, get rid of things that
aren’t needed, or don’t make
any sense,” Riley said in a
phone interview Monday. “And
this was a good place to start.”
The Legislative Policy
and Research Office found
46 boards, commissions and
task forces that “showed no
evidence of activity” in the past
year. The list was whittled down
as officials learned some bodies
were required by federal law,
others only met intermittently
by design, and others still after
legislative counsel found some
needed to be kept to “honor
the formalities of interstate
compact language.”
Lawmakers on the Senate
General Government and
Accountability
Committee
discussed culling the collection
of boards and commissions at a
meeting Dec. 13.
“Honestly, governors have
been trying to whittle down
the list for many years, and
have not done so because the
Legislature hasn’t helped,”
Riley said. “And I wasn’t asked
By CLAIRE WITHYCOMBE
and PARIS ACHEN
Capital Bureau
SALEM — A bill in the
Oregon Legislature would do
away with a dozen obsolete
state boards and commissions,
ranging from the Baseball Advi-
sory Committee to the Task
Force on Military Families.
According to a list compiled
by the Legislative Policy and
Research Office last year, the
state has more than 250 boards
and commissions, some of
which venture deep into bureau-
cratic esoterica, such as the
Board of Denture Technology
and the Board of Electrologists
and Body Art Practitioners.
These entities serve varying
purposes — some regulate
professions and in so doing play
a role in public health; others
make policy recommendations.
There is sometimes no
distinction between a board,
commission, committee or task
force. For instance, a commis-
sion may oversee a state
agency or a particular industry.
Generally, task forces are used
to address a particular issue on a
temporary basis, while boards,
commissions and committees
usually function regularly.
Sen. Chuck Riley, D-Hill-
sboro, chair of the Senate
regulated by the state, Moore
said.
“It is a good way to say
you’re shrinking the size of
government without shrinking
the size of government,” Moore
said.
Illustrating that point, the
eliminations identified will
have no impact on the state
budget.
After an amendment to the
legislation, the following 12
boards and commissions would
be eliminated:
• The Baseball Advisory
Committee;
• The Board of Directors for
the Oregon School for the Deaf;
• The Committee on Perfor-
mance Excellence;
• The Governor’s Council on
Oregon’s Economy;
• The Military Council;
• The Natural Resources
Policy Administrator;
• The Oregon Progress
Board;
• The Outdoor Youth
Program Advisory Board;
• The Public Officials
Compensation Commission;
• The Special Legislative
Committee on Public Education
Appropriation;
• The Task Force on Military
Families;
• The Western States Legis-
lative Forestry Task Force.
by the governor to do this, but I
think she’ll be pleased.”
Sen. Elizabeth Steiner
Hayward, D-Beaverton, said at
the time she felt that the list of
proposed reductions didn’t go
far enough.
“I would certainly be
supportive of starting to take a
hard look at other boards and
commissions about, even the
ones that are meeting, about
what they are actually contrib-
uting and how much the state is
paying for their existence,” she
said.
The list compiled by the
policy and research office did
not include the state’s agricul-
tural commodity commissions.
The trend of using boards
and commission to make policy
dates back to the 1880s in
the United States, when civil
service inspired a desire to
involve the public and those
affected by policies in the
process of policymaking, said
Jim Moore, political science
professor at Pacific University
and director of the Tom McCall
Center for Policy Innovation.
Some of the boards arose out
of a new need for regulations,
such as the creation of the
aeronautics board in response
to the invention of the airplane.
Others stem from requests from
professionals who want to be
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PORTLAND (AP) — A grand jury has
cleared a Marion County sheriff’s sergeant of
wrongdoing after he shot at a man who injured
him during a traffic stop.
The Oregonian/OregonLive reports the
grand jury determined Monday that Sgt. Jason
Hickam was justified in firing his weapon
toward Juan Francisco Martinez on April 7 near
Woodburn.
Martinez was not injured and was arrested
later that day.
Prosecutors say Hickam pulled Martinez
over and told him his Cadillac Escalade would
have to be towed because he didn’t have
insurance.
They say Martinez began to drive away as
Hickam’s arm was caught inside the SUV.
Hickam fired once toward the vehicle before
being thrown to the ground. He was treated at a
hospital and released.
Martinez faces several charges, including
assaulting a public safety officer.
Corrections
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REGIONAL CITIES
Forecast
TODAY
FRIDAY
THURSDAY
Variable clouds
Cooler with spotty
showers
65° 46°
58° 38°
SATURDAY
Partly sunny
Clouds and
sunshine
SUNDAY
Mostly cloudy with
a shower
PENDLETON TEMPERATURE FORECAST
61° 43°
69° 46°
59° 41°
HERMISTON TEMPERATURE FORECAST
65° 40°
70° 50°
PENDLETON
through 3 p.m. yesterday
TEMPERATURE
HIGH
LOW
58°
63°
88° (1910)
43°
39°
23° (1909)
PRECIPITATION
24 hours ending 3 p.m.
Month to date
Normal month to date
Year to date
Last year to date
Normal year to date
0.37"
1.10"
0.73"
7.37"
4.15"
4.69"
HERMISTON
through 3 p.m. yesterday
TEMPERATURE
HIGH
Yesterday
Normals
Records
LOW
64°
65°
87° (1939)
45°
40°
21° (1964)
PRECIPITATION
24 hours ending 3 p.m.
Month to date
Normal month to date
Year to date
Last year to date
Normal year to date
0.01"
0.50"
0.47"
5.43"
2.98"
3.58"
SUN AND MOON
Sunrise today
Sunset tonight
Moonrise today
Moonset today
Last
New
Apr 19
Apr 26
6:02 a.m.
7:47 p.m.
2:24 a.m.
12:14 p.m.
First
Full
May 2
70° 48°
66° 44°
Seattle
58/47
ALMANAC
Yesterday
Normals
Records
66° 43°
May 10
Today
Spokane
Wenatchee
61/42
62/46
Tacoma
Moses
58/45
Lake
Pullman
Aberdeen Olympia
Yakima 67/46
61/43
54/46
56/44
66/45
Longview
Kennewick Walla Walla
58/49
67/46 Lewiston
71/48
Astoria
66/46
55/47
Portland
Enterprise
Hermiston
59/47
Pendleton 57/38
The Dalles 70/50
65/46
64/47
La Grande
Salem
62/43
60/47
Albany
Corvallis 59/44
59/45
John Day
62/41
Ontario
Eugene
Bend
65/46
57/44
57/35
Caldwell
Burns
65/46
60/37
Astoria
Baker City
Bend
Brookings
Burns
Enterprise
Eugene
Heppner
Hermiston
John Day
Klamath Falls
La Grande
Meacham
Medford
Newport
North Bend
Ontario
Pasco
Pendleton
Portland
Redmond
Salem
Spokane
Ukiah
Vancouver
Walla Walla
Yakima
Hi
55
59
57
53
60
57
57
63
70
62
56
62
60
60
55
58
65
70
65
59
59
60
61
60
58
67
66
Lo
47
38
35
46
37
38
44
43
50
41
32
43
41
41
46
48
46
45
46
47
35
47
42
38
47
46
45
W
r
pc
c
r
pc
pc
r
pc
pc
c
c
c
c
r
r
r
pc
pc
c
r
sh
r
pc
pc
r
pc
c
NATIONAL WEATHER TODAY
Thu.
Hi
55
52
50
56
51
46
59
55
65
51
52
52
50
61
54
57
60
66
58
58
54
59
53
50
58
60
66
Lo
42
28
27
43
26
30
38
34
40
34
27
35
32
39
42
43
40
39
38
43
27
40
36
31
42
43
36
Shown are noon positions of weather systems and precipitation. Temperature bands are highs for the day.
W
sh
sh
pc
pc
sh
sh
sh
sh
pc
sh
sh
sh
sh
pc
sh
sh
c
sh
sh
sh
pc
sh
sh
sh
sh
sh
sh
WORLD CITIES
Today
Beijing
Hong Kong
Jerusalem
London
Mexico City
Moscow
Paris
Rome
Seoul
Sydney
Tokyo
Hi
68
85
74
56
70
37
53
63
64
72
72
Lo
45
76
50
41
47
24
31
41
48
63
53
W
c
c
s
pc
t
pc
s
pc
s
pc
s
Thu.
Hi
73
84
75
59
74
38
55
62
61
74
65
Lo
48
75
56
46
48
23
35
41
44
60
55
W
pc
t
s
pc
pc
c
pc
s
pc
pc
pc
WINDS
Medford
60/41
(in mph)
Klamath Falls
56/32
Boardman
Pendleton
REGIONAL FORECAST
Western Washington: Cloudy today with a
little rain starting late morning on. Periods
of rain tonight.
Eastern Washington: Turning cloudy near
the mountains today; a shower toward the
Cascades. Cloudy in the north and central
sections.
Cascades: A brief shower or two today, but a
rain or snow shower in spots in the south.
Northern California: Cloudy today. Periods
of rain, but dry in the interior mountains;
cold in central parts.
Thursday
NE 4-8
SSE 6-12
WSW 10-20
WSW 10-20
UV INDEX TODAY
Shown is today’s weather. Temperatures are today’s highs and tonight’s lows.
Coastal Oregon: Rain at times today. Rain
this evening followed by a shower or two
late.
Eastern and Central Oregon: Mostly cloudy
today with a brief shower in the afternoon.
Today
1
3
5
4
3
1
8 a.m. 10 a.m. Noon 2 p.m. 4 p.m. 6 p.m.
0-2, Low
3-5, Moderate 6-7, High;
8-10, Very High;
11+, Extreme
The higher the AccuWeather.com UV Index™ num-
ber, the greater the need for eye and skin protection.
Forecasts and graphics provided by
AccuWeather, Inc. ©2017
-10s
-0s
showers t-storms
0s
10s
rain
20s
flurries
30s
40s
snow
ice
50s
60s
cold front
70s
80s
90s
100s
warm front stationary front
110s
high
low
National Summary: Rain and thunder will extend from parts of the Upper Midwest to the
Southeast states with locally severe storms over the central and southern Plains today. Rain
will roll ashore in the Northwest.
Yesterday’s National Extremes: (for the 48 contiguous states)
High 97° in El Centro, Calif.
Low 14° in Boulder, Wyo.
NATIONAL CITIES
Today
Albuquerque
Atlanta
Atlantic City
Baltimore
Billings
Birmingham
Boise
Boston
Charleston, SC
Charleston, WV
Chicago
Cleveland
Dallas
Denver
Detroit
El Paso
Fairbanks
Fargo
Honolulu
Houston
Indianapolis
Jacksonville
Kansas City
Las Vegas
Little Rock
Los Angeles
Hi
81
81
57
63
61
86
65
52
81
72
67
75
84
74
73
90
37
55
81
82
79
83
82
82
83
74
Lo
51
63
51
54
38
64
45
44
62
59
48
59
68
37
52
61
17
37
73
67
64
58
54
60
65
55
W
s
pc
pc
c
pc
pc
pc
pc
pc
c
t
t
pc
s
t
s
s
c
sh
pc
c
pc
pc
s
pc
s
Thur.
Hi
79
84
67
80
63
88
57
60
84
81
70
79
85
65
74
91
42
58
82
84
79
85
65
84
84
80
Lo
48
65
58
61
43
66
37
46
63
61
42
52
67
39
47
58
18
36
72
67
48
58
48
60
64
58
W
pc
s
c
pc
pc
s
c
c
pc
pc
c
t
c
sh
t
s
s
r
sh
pc
t
s
c
s
pc
s
Today
Louisville
Memphis
Miami
Milwaukee
Minneapolis
Nashville
New Orleans
New York City
Oklahoma City
Omaha
Philadelphia
Phoenix
Portland, ME
Providence
Raleigh
Rapid City
Reno
Sacramento
St. Louis
Salt Lake City
San Diego
San Francisco
Seattle
Tucson
Washington, DC
Wichita
Hi
83
85
82
57
52
84
82
56
81
72
63
92
48
52
71
46
63
69
87
60
71
66
58
91
66
80
Lo
66
65
73
43
42
63
68
49
61
48
52
64
41
45
60
33
41
51
68
44
58
54
47
59
57
56
W
c
pc
sh
c
r
pc
pc
pc
pc
t
pc
s
pc
c
sh
r
pc
pc
pc
pc
pc
c
r
s
c
pc
Thur.
Hi
85
83
83
66
52
87
82
66
74
66
75
93
57
63
83
63
61
70
77
56
72
67
57
90
82
69
Lo
59
65
72
39
38
63
67
56
59
45
61
62
41
47
64
35
37
50
52
41
59
52
44
55
66
50
Weather (W): s-sunny, pc-partly cloudy, c-cloudy, sh-showers, t-thunderstorms, r-rain,
sf-snow flurries, sn-snow, i-ice.
W
c
pc
c
r
r
c
pc
c
c
pc
c
s
c
c
pc
c
pc
pc
t
sh
s
pc
sh
s
pc
c