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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (July 15, 2017)
OPINION East Oregonian Page 4A Saturday, July 15, 2017 OTHER VIEWS 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 EO MEDIA GROUP East Oregonian • The Daily Astorian • Capital Press • Hermiston Herald Blue Mountain Eagle • Wallowa County Chieftain • Chinook Observer • Coast River Business Journal Oregon Coast Today • Coast Weekend • Seaside Signal • Cannon Beach Gazette Eastern Oregon Real Estate Guide • Eastern Oregon Marketplace • Coast Marketplace OnlyAg.com • FarmSeller.com • Seaside-Sun.com • NorthwestOpinions.com • DiscoverOurCoast.com OUR VIEW Legislators left Salem with lots of unfinished business The Legislature closed its standards in the future. Oregon will now also be joining 2017 session a few days ahead of schedule, and there has already been a handful of other states that give judges the power to take guns away plenty of political posturing about the successes, missed opportunities from suicidal or dangerous people. and issues that need to be revisited. The state also became the third Many veteran lawmakers say in the nation to raise the tobacco the session was one of the toughest sales age to 21, although tobacco they’ve participated in and they possession isn’t affected. closed it with a feeling With successes, of unfinished business. though, there were As state Senate President certainly failures. With Peter Courtney, D-Salem, Lawmakers couldn’t successes, agree on revenue reforms said in a statement afterward, “We had included a corporate though, that income taxing structure some satisfying wins. there were that would stabilize At best, our successes provide long-term are tempered by certainly and school funding, and they disappointment.” On the plus side, failures. declined to tackle the elephant of the session, lawmakers were able the spiraling costs of to balance a $21 billion the Public Employees Retirement operating budget that began with a System and instead kicked that $22 $1.4 billion shortfall even though the state experienced record revenue billion problem down the road. Gov. Kate Brown has vowed to leading up to the session. Along the get all parties to the table to work way, they managed to approve: out solutions to both of the major • A long-term, $5.3 issues, but her lack of leadership was billion transportation improvement evident throughout the session, so package. the jury is out on whether she can • A $600 million tax on insurers follow through. and providers that preserves health It also remains to be seen what care for about 350,000 Oregonians the session’s impact will have in who gained Medicaid coverage our region. Lawmakers drastically under the expanded federal cut funding from Measure 98, Affordable Care Act. • Record funding for K-12 public which voters had approved, that would have provided money to schools, up 11 percent from the help schools raise graduation rates current biennium. For most of the and provide more vocational and state’s 200 or so school districts, lawmakers say it’s enough money to technical education, something that would be very helpful in rural areas keep current services going. of Eastern Oregon. Community • A controversial $10 million colleges also didn’t get as much reproductive health bill expanding funding for no-cost abortions, family funding that they need, which can hurt BMCC. planning services and postpartum It’s also uncertain what the taxing care. Oregon’s bill is unique to impacts will be on our region, other states in that patients would especially combined with local city, have access to the procedure for county and school taxes, and what virtually any reason, at any time, including sex-selective and late-term benefits the transportation package will provide our area. abortions. What is certain, though, is • A plan to reduce state spending that there is unfinished business. over the next two years by $200 Democrats and Republicans alike million. should start thinking about how Lawmakers also approved the state becoming REAL ID compliant, to address those issues, and about who among them is up to providing which will allow residents to bipartisan leadership that all upgrade their driver’s licenses Oregonians can look up to. or identification cards to federal 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. OTHER VIEWS State justice system needs balancing The Bend Bulletin W hen somebody has a day in court, it should be a fair fight. But in Oregon, if the accused can’t afford a lawyer, there’s reason to worry. The pay disparity between court- appointed indigent defense lawyers and the people who prosecute is substantial and problematic. The Legislature took up this issue again this year in House Bill 2561, sponsored by Rep. Jennifer Williamson, D-Portland. But again, this year the bill did not pass. The reason is simple: It would cost the state millions to fix. The bill directs Oregon’s Public Defense Services Commission to adopt policies that make appointed-counsel pay commensurate with the equivalent position within the office of district attorneys. That change would cost Oregon nearly $20 million for the 2017-2019 biennium and $26 million in the following biennium. The pay disparity that would be corrected can be substantial. In Deschutes County, a public defender starts out at $63,000 a year. A deputy district attorney starts at about $84,000. And that disparity grows. Thomas Crabtree, executive director of the public defender’s office for Deschutes County, provided a specific example. A decade ago, an attorney left his office and went to become a deputy district attorney in Deschutes County. For just switching jobs, the attorney immediately made $21,000 more a year in salary. That’s enough of a difference to make anyone think about leaving. Crabtree says his office typically has not had the funding from the state to be able to offer cost of living increases or automatic salary increases every year. Deputy DAs frequently get both. So that deputy DA had his salary grow from about $70,000 to $113,000. An attorney hired to replace the deputy DA had his salary grow from $43,000 to $76,000 over the same time period. Money isn’t everything. What matters is the quality of the legal representation. But the problem for Oregon’s justice system is that experienced public defense lawyers tend to leave. Many follow the money that can be made as a deputy district attorney or in private practice. That undermines the experience and quality of the defense. Trials need to be conducted in a way that protects the rights of the accused. It’s essential to a fair trial that the accused have legal counsel. And it’s only fair that the state pays enough to make it a fair fight. The Legislature needs to look for a way to make that happen. Moral vacuum in the House of Trump D normal human instinct for kindness onald Trump’s grandfather and replace it with a law-of-the-jungle Friedrich emigrated to the mentality. United States when he was 16, It took a few generations of the in 1885. He ventured west to seek his House of Trump, in other words, to riches and finally settled in Seattle, produce Donald Jr. where he opened a restaurant that, The Donald Trump Jr. we see according to family historian Gwenda Blair, likely included a section for a through the Russia scandal story is not bordello. malevolent: He seems to be simply David Gold fever hit the Pacific Brooks oblivious to the idea that ethical Northwest, and Grandfather Trump concerns could possibly play a role Comment moved up to Bennett, British in everyday life. When the Russian Columbia. It was a fast, raucous, government offer came across his money-grabbing atmosphere, and Trump email, there doesn’t seem to have been a opened the Arctic Hotel, which had a bar, a flicker of concern. Instead, he replied with restaurant and, according to an advertisement that tone of simple bro glee that we remember in the Dec. 9, 1899, edition of The Bennett from other scandals. Sun newspaper, “private boxes for ladies and “Can you smell money?!?!?!?!” Jack parties.” Each box apparently came equipped Abramoff emailed a co-conspirator during his with a bed and a scale to lobbying and casino fraud weigh the gold dust that was shenanigans. That’s the same used to pay for the services tone as Don Jr.’s “I love it” offered in it. when offered a chance to Friedrich returned to conspire with a hostile power. Germany, married and was A person capable of this sent back to the United States instant joy and enthusiasm by German authorities (he isn’t overcoming any internal hadn’t fulfilled his military ethical hurdles. It’s just a service requirement) and greedy boy grabbing sweets. amassed a modest fortune. Once the scandal broke Frederick, Donald’s father, you would think Don Jr. began building middle-class would have some awareness housing. Profiles describe that there were ethical stakes an intense, success-obsessed involved. You’d think there man who worked seven would be some sense of days a week and encouraged those around embarrassment at having been caught lying so him to be killers in their field. “He didn’t like blatantly. wimps,” his nephew told Philip Weiss of The But in his interview with Sean Hannity Times. “He thought competition made you he appeared incapable of even entertaining sharper.” any moral consideration. “That’s what we He cared deeply about appearances. do in business,” the younger Trump said. “If “Freddy was always very neat, a Beau there’s information out there, you want it.” As Brummell,” Sam LeFrak told Weiss. “He had William Saletan pointed out in Slate, Don Jr. a mustache, and that mustache was always doesn’t seem to possess the internal qualities right, perfect.” He was also remorseless. In an necessary to consider the possibility that he interview with Michael D’Antonio, Donald could have done anything wrong. Trump described his father as “very tough” That to me is the central takeaway of this and “very difficult” and someone who “would week’s revelations. It’s not that the Russia never let anything go.” scandal may bring down the administration. Biographies describe a man intent on It’s that over the past few generations the making his fortune and not afraid of skating Trump family has built an enveloping culture near the edge to do so. At one point, according that is beyond good and evil. to Politico, federal investigators found that The Trumps have an ethic of loyalty to Frederick used various accounting measures one another. “They can’t stand that we are to collect an extra $15 million in rent (in extremely close and will ALWAYS support today’s dollars) from a government housing each other,” Eric Trump tweeted this week. program, on top of paying himself a large But beyond that there is no attachment to any “architect’s fee.” He was hauled before external moral truth or ethical code. There is investigating committees on at least two just naked capitalism. occasions, apparently was arrested at a KKK Successful business people, like successful rally in Queens (though it’s not clear he was a politicians, are very ambitious, but they member), got involved in a slush fund scandal generally have some complementary moral with Robert Wagner and faced discrimination code that checks their greed and channels their allegations. drive. The House of Trump has sprayed an I repeat this history because I don’t think insecticide on any possible complementary moral obliviousness is built in a day. It takes code, and so they are continually trampling generations to hammer ethical considerations basic decency. Their scandals may not build out of a person’s mind and to replace them to anything impeachable, but the scandals will entirely with the ruthless logic of winning and never end. losing; to take the normal human yearning to ■ be good and replace it with a single-minded David Brooks became a New York Times desire for material conquest; to take the Op-Ed columnist in September 2003. Don Jr. appeared incapable of even entertaining any moral consideration. YOUR VIEWS Barreto’s impact minimal in Salem, negative in District 58 In response to Rep. Greg Barreto’s letter of July 12, in my opinion Mr. Barreto showed a lack of political savvy in his decision to vote “no” on the transportation bill. It was a very well known fact, prior to this legislative session, that passing a transportation bill was a very high priority for the Democratic majority in both houses of the legislature. With that knowledge it appears as though Representative Greg Smith and Senator Bill Hansell knew that a transportation bill was going to pass, so they got on board. Their constituents were rewarded with $32,000,000 to be used for transportation projects in District 57. Mr. Barreto chose not to get on board and his constituents in District 58 were punished for that decision. In politics, as in life, sometimes you have to just hold your nose and do something for the people who are counting on you, even when is something you don’t agree with. It appears as though he couldn’t get past his ideological views in this instance. I did do some investigation into his letter and it is true that the East Oregonian was in error when they reported that he had been lobbied by the mayor of Pendleton. (Editor’s note: Mayor John Turner clarified to an East Oregonian reporter that he lobbied legislators, but did not directly lobby Barreto.) He was, however, incorrect in his statement concerning Nancy Pelosi’s statement about the Affordable Care Act. He quoted her as saying, “We have to vote for the bill to see what’s in it.” He is wrong about what she actually said. Although I am not a Pelosi fan, I am a fan of the truth. Her statement was actually, “But we have to pass the bill so YOU can find out what is in it — away from the fog of controversy.” Mr. Barreto’s version is one that has been used by the “far right” folks for about seven years now. For those of you that want to check it out for yourself, you can find it on YouTube. If I remember correctly, Mr. Barreto stated several years ago that if he couldn’t make a difference or have an impact in Salem that he would get out. I sincerely hope that he will carefully consider his statement since his impact has been minimal in Salem and somewhat negative to District 58. Ed Taber Pendleton
