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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (April 26, 2017)
Page 4A OPINION East Oregonian D ays of a T rump p resiDency 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 Wednesday, April 26, 2017 A reminder: On Saturday Donald Trump will have been president for 100 days. To mark the occasion, we asked readers to submit 100 words on the pres- ident’s first 100 days. The response has been excellent, and we want to make sure everyone who wishes to participate gets their submission to us in time. Tell us what you think of the new president’s performance, and if he lived up to the promises he set in the opening months of his term. Keep that response to 100 words so we can run a whole passel of them in the April 29 paper. The deadline for submissions is Friday at noon. Drop off your thoughts at our Pendleton or Hermiston locations, or email them to editor@eastoregonian.com. Please include a phone number and city of residence, so we can verify your identity before publishing. OUR VIEW Control costs before spending This seems like a no-brainer: The Sen. Betsy Johnson, D-Scappoose; Sen. Jackie Winters, R-Salem; Rep. Oregon Legislature should examine the worth of current programs before Nancy Nathanson, D-Eugene; and Rep. Greg Smith, R-Heppner. starting new ones. Legislative leaders, let alone That’s an idea put forth last week by several legislators. public-employee unions and outside interest groups, did not seem keen Don’t public officials do that on some of the ideas. However, already? No, at least not always. Senate President Peter Courtney And that reality shows why the and House Speaker Tina Kotek Legislature has failed to curb its deserve credit for appointing the spending, regardless of whether the cost-containment group and taking Democrats or the Republicans were its ideas seriously. in control. As Sen. The 21st century The Legislature Johnson said in opened with Republican Senate should examine presenting several President Gene current programs recommendations, Derfler sounding “These should the alarm about be considered a before starting out-of-control starting point for new ones. PERS costs and discussion and unsustainable state subject to further budgets. Those refinement, analysis issues still confound legislators. and negotiation.” So it was with a bit of hope that The Legislature, after all, is a five veteran legislators — three political entity. But it also is the Democrats and two Republicans state’s board of directors. It has — unveiled on Friday a long list the fiduciary responsibility to of ways to control future spending. institutionalize the ongoing cost- They included something that, to benefit analyses of existing agencies, most Oregonians, should be routine: programs, laws and proposals. “Review performance and need for As our own Rep. Smith noted, the current programs and services to state budget has grown substantially determine whether new proposals during the past six years, and will be are a higher priority than current even larger during 2017-19. programs and services.” That growth rate not only may That responsibility lies with the be unsustainable but, ironically, it executive branch — the governor’s is insufficient to maintain existing office, which runs the majority of programs. Thus, “unspending” state agencies — as much as with should be as important as spending. the legislative branch, which writes As part of that, the Legislature the state budget. It was disappointing should reach out more to the state that Gov. Kate Brown ordered a workforce — the front-line workers hiring freeze only last week — who see what works and doesn’t after back in December asking work — and seek their ideas for departments to delay hirings for 60 refining government. days — although the magnitude Furthermore, the Legislature of the state budget hole had been should find more self-discipline. known for months. When issues arise, the Legislature But a governor is the CEO of state should undertake a root-cause government, and that role requires as analysis instead of assuming that a much fiscal discipline and diligence potentially expensive new law, task as in any other corporate entity. force or program is the answer. However, as Gov. Ted Kulongoski In fact, the Legislature could once said, there is little political make itself a test case: Refocus its glory to be gained from the behind- priorities to make government more the-scenes, nuts-and-bolts work of cost-effective, and accomplish that streamlining government. work without adding staff. That is why legislative leaders As the late Gov. Vic Atiyeh was on Friday had high praise for the fond of saying, it’s amazing how cost-containment concepts from much you can accomplish when you Sen. Richard Devlin, D-Tualatin; don’t worry who gets the credit. OTHER VIEWS Crime and different punishments L 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. ast week, the state of Arkansas, set of penalties, would necessarily be which had executed exactly more inhumane. nobody since 2005, put to death This is the (deliberately Ledell Lee for the crime of murdering provocative) argument of Peter Salib, Debra Reese in 1993. Why now — 11 a judicial clerk on the 7th Circuit, years after the last execution, 24 years in his new paper, “Why Prison?: after the crime? Because the chemicals An Economic Critique.” Salib’s used for lethal injection were about to claim is radical: “We should not expire. imprison people who commit crimes.” Ross Reasonable people can disagree Douthat Instead we should force criminals on the death penalty, but everyone to work, under monitoring, in the Comment should recognize the dark absurdity highest-value available jobs in order of an execution timetable set by a to make financial restitution, while drug’s expiration date. And that absurdity adding additional deterrence in the form provides a useful opening for this week’s of “nonmonetary sanctions.” Writes Salib, entry in my ongoing series of implausible “this paper does not endorse any particular proposals: Our modern way of punishment nonmonetary sanction,” but he notes that should be reconsidered, and punishments long “history presents a startling array of options, dismissed as inhumane should be pondered including: flogging, pillory, running the as alternatives to medicalized executions and gauntlope, tarring and feathering, branding, “civilized” incarceration. and many more.” That phrasing sounds too reasonable for the The idea that a combination of financial spirit of this series, so here’s sanctions and corporal the more outrageous version: punishment could replace Bring back the stocks and the imprisonment seems insane, firing squad. even to a columnist floating The tendency in modern slightly crazy ideas. There criminal justice has been will always be a group to remove two specific of offenders sufficiently elements from the state’s justice: spectacle dangerous to require long-term separation and pain. During the 19th and early 20th from society. And most of our prisoners, centuries, pillories and stocks and whipping contrary to certain convenient myths, are posts became museum pieces, the hangman not nonviolent offenders; they have been and the firing squad were supplanted by more convicted of robbery, assault, rape and murder. technical methods, and punishment became But not every violent offender is equally something that happened elsewhere — in dangerous — a fact already reflected in distant prisons and execution chambers, under sentencing, which releases many prisoners professional supervision, far from the baying relatively swiftly. So there would be room crowd. to experiment with Salib’s proposal, to offer All of this made a certain moral sense. But some of the convicted the stocks followed the civilizing process did not do away with by supervised labor, without leaping to the cruelty and in some ways it could exacerbate abolish-prison stage. it. With executions, the science was often I recognize (and Salib acknowledges) a inexact and the application difficult, and when strong historical reason not to conduct such it went wrong the electric chair or the gas an experiment: because of the memory of chamber could easily become a distinctive slavery, the role that public violence played in kind of torture. During the last century lethal maintaining racial hierarchy, and the fear of injection, now the execution method of resurrecting that violence in a country whose choice, had a higher “botch rate” by far than prison population is still disproportionately every other means of killing the condemned. black. Meanwhile, the lowest rate of failure (albeit This argument is powerful, but I still out of a small sample size) belonged to that wonder if it is not a little self-deceiving. I old standby: the firing squad. would rather face the firing squad than be Few prisoners face execution, and anti- strapped down and get injected into eternity, death penalty activists may yet reduce that and I would choose a strong dose of pain and number to zero. But botched injections are shame over years under the thumb of guards not the only ways in which we pile cruelties and inmates and the state. on the condemned. Our prison system, which We tell ourselves that we have prisoners’ officially only punishes by restraint, actually good in mind, and the higher standards of our subjects millions of Americans to waves of civilization, because we do not offer them this informal physical abuse — mistreatment by choice. But those standards may be less about guards, violence from inmates, the tortures of preventing ourselves from becoming like our solitary confinement, the trauma of rape — on sinful ancestors, and more about maintaining top of their formal yearslong sentences. the illusion of clean hands — while harsh It is not clear that this method of dealing punishment is still imposed, but out of sight, with crime succeeds at avoiding cruel and on souls and bodies not our own. unusual punishment so much as it avoids ■ making anyone outside the prison system see Ross Douthat, a New York Times Op-Ed it. Nor is it clear that a different system, with columnist, writes about politics, religion, a different and sometimes more old-fashioned moral values and higher education. Bring back the firing squad. YOUR VIEWS Pendleton needs new station, but bond builds wrong one For reasons mentioned in previous letters to the editor, I believe a new fire station is needed in Pendleton. However, the proposed station is not the answer. The size of the proposed station is excessive. Per the Mackenzie report prepared on behalf of the city (see city website), the main floor office for a typical day-shift staff of three totals 3,350 square feet. This is larger than the vast majority of homes in Pendleton. The meeting room contributes another 2,600 square feet. This exceeds the public space included in any of the seven analyzed facilities in the report by 1,000 square feet. The building costs also seem high. Per the probable cost estimates in the report, consulting fees are estimated at nearly $800,000, contingencies as high as $969,000, and as much as $440,000 is budgeted for inflation. Counter tops are estimated to cost $51,000, interior doors $100,000, decorative street lamps $80,000, and a staggering $64,800 for trees ($1,500 each). Fire stations appear to consist of three basic segments: office, living quarters and storage bays. Does the wheel need to be re-invented each time a station is designed? Is the Eastgate site so unique that it necessitates spending over $600,000 on architectural and engineering fees? Has the city explored the possibility of purchasing an existing plan from another municipality or architect? To be fair, the station has been designed for growth and the cited costs include both labor and material. The city must also pay prevailing wage. Still, it is difficult to ignore the significant amount of fat in this project. Look to the two stations of similar size referenced in the Mackenzie report. The Buckley, Washington and Hood River stations each are very similar in size to Pendleton’s proposed 21,000-square-foot station. The total construction cost of these stations per the actual bids at the time of construction were approximately $160 and $140 per square foot of building area respectively. The Pendleton station is estimated to cost $209 per square foot (excluding consulting fees and owner costs). Granted, construction costs likely have increased since these stations were built, but this is a sizable difference — approaching 50 percent versus Hood River. This doesn’t even account for the likelihood of building costs being higher in Seattle and Hood River. I encourage the city to rein in the size and cost of the station and return to the voters with a more reasonable request. Steve Richards Pendleton Fire station is a clear need for the city of Pendleton The ballot you receive in the special election this May is for one issue only: Are we to build a new lire station or not? Much has already been written in support of replacing the old and obsolete fire station with a new up-to-date facility. After 57 years of use it is well past the time for replacement of the present structure. Do we really need a new facility? The simple answer is yes. I commend Mike Ciraulo, John Turner, Robb Corbett and others who have worked diligently to explain to the fullest the shortcomings of the existing facility. The reasons are well documented — why the present site cannot and should not be considered, the reasons the old theater site is not the best place for a new facility, and the problems with the Pendleton Grain Growers site. The public has been invited, on many occasions, to view the present fire station and to attend any number of information meetings with regard to its shortcomings. There is a great deal of responsibility that comes with this ballot as the new fire station use, based on past fire station history, will go well into the future. And here, as any property owner knows, if you delay construction to some later date the cost will have increased dramatically. All that is needed now is your well thought out yes vote on the ballot. Ron Gavette Pendleton Hermiston schools need bond to remain a top district On May 16, voters will be asked to consider a $104 million bond for the Hermiston School District. The bond will address three challenges that the district is facing while trying to provide a premier education for our students. The issues are enrollment growth, safety and security and an aging infrastructure. The current predicted growth trends indicate that the district’s population will increase 24 percent in the next seven years. If new construction and renovation does not happen, by 2023, one fifth of the students would be served in temporary, modular classrooms. The funding for these would have to come out of the general fund, taking away the ability to hire additional staff, cutting current programs and putting pressure on a very limited maintenance budget. The safety concerns at Rocky Heights and Highland Hills are realities that need to be addressed. In 2015, the Hermiston Police Department’s independent safety audit found these two schools to be inadequate to meet current safety standards due to their design, age and lack of life-safety alert systems. Replacing both of these schools would be the most prudent and cost effective measure. The third challenge has to do with aging infrastructure at the two elementary schools and at Sandstone Middle School. Roofs, mechanical units and utility mechanisms need to be replaced. The projects to be completed if the bond passes would be: replace Rocky Heights and Highland Hills at their present sites, build a new elementary school on district-owned property on Theater Lane, expand Hermiston High School, make improvements on the district owned fairground property and address deferred maintenance and obsolete, failing heating and cooling systems. The board is very much aware that the bond amount seems quite large. The estimated cost being 90 cents per $1,000 of taxable value. After much study, discussion and consideration, the board unanimously voted to place the bond on the May ballot. Hermiston has always been a community that strongly supports its young people and by voting for the bond this support will continue for students in the future. Your consideration to vote in favor of the bond is greatly appreciated. Karen J. Sherman, chair Hermiston School District Board LETTERS POLICY The East Oregonian welcomes original letters of 400 words or less for publica- tion. Send letters to 211 S.E. Byers Ave. Pendleton, OR 97801 or email editor@ eastoregonian.com.
