East Oregonian : E.O., July 29, 2017, WEEKEND EDITION, Image 1

WEEKEND EDITION
CHAMPIONSHIP SWIMMERS
DIVE INTO TOWN REGION/3A
CONNECTING COMMUNITIES
LIFESTYLES/1C
TRUMP WHITE HOUSE CHIEF
OF STAFF RESIGNS NATION/11A
JULY 29-30, 2017
141st Year, No. 205
$1.50
WINNER OF THE 2017 ONPA GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARD
Should hospitals pay property taxes?
Assessors, industry reps debate and defend exemption
By JAYATI RAMAKRISHNAN
East Oregonian
As two of the major
employers in Umatilla County,
Good Shepherd Medical Center
and St. Anthony Hospital are
active partners in many aspects
of the community: providing
life-saving health care, offering
workshops and donating to
many nonprofi ts and events.
But notably absent from that
list is sharing the property tax
burden.
Like many hospitals in the
state of Oregon, the county’s two
medical centers are exempt from
paying property taxes, under an
Oregon statute that allows char-
itable, benevolent and religious
organizations to eschew such
Good Shepherd
Medical Center
and other Ore-
gon hospitals
can apply for
an exemption
under an Oregon
statute that
allows charitable
and benevolent
organizations
to avoid paying
property taxes.
taxes. The total assessed value of
such organizations in Umatilla
County is more than $89 million.
The practice of exempting
hospitals has been scrutinized
recently by some who feel
modern hospitals operate much
differently than their predeces-
sors.
Staff photo by Kathy Aney
See HOSPITALS/12A
A LOT TO BE THANKFUL FOR
PERS
board
lowers
assumed
rate of
return
By CLAIRE WITHYCOMBE
Capital Bureau
session after the meeting to discuss
steps for hiring a general manager,
but took no action.
The board also heard complaints
from a resident of the neighborhood
surrounding the facility in south
Hermiston.
Chris Waine, a resident of
Southeast Airport Road, discussed
issues with dust and water rights in
his neighborhood, some of which
EOTEC board members said was not
related to them.
Waine showed board members a
video taken by one of his neighbors.
“It shows a truck traveling north
to south on Ott Road, and the cloud
of dust that came behind it,” he
said. “It’s hard to understand unless
TIGARD — On Friday, the
governing board of the state’s
public pension system lowered the
rate of assumed earnings on the
state’s pension fund.
The board adopted to assume
a 7.2 percent rate of return on the
state’s investments of the Public
Employees Retirement Fund. The
rate is currently 7.5 percent.
That decision doesn’t affect how
much the state actually earns on its
investments, which are overseen by
the state’s investment council.
But the change is projected to
increase the system’s unfunded
actuarial liability, the amount by
which the system’s obligations
exceed its assets.
Using the new rate, the state’s
actuary will calculate a new
unfunded actuarial liability, a fi gure
that will be revealed later this year.
The new rate is expected to increase
the unfunded liability — at most
recent valuation $21.8 billion — by
about $2 billion.
The decision is also expected to
increase the amount of money that
individual public employers must
dedicate to paying for employees’
pension benefi ts as a share of
payroll.
In a defi ned-benefi t plan such
as the one Oregon provides to its
employees, employers have to
make up the difference between
what employees are guaranteed
and what the state’s investments are
able to return.
Local budget managers are
bracing for the effects of the
change.
While the decision may appear
abstract, for school districts,
where personnel costs can make
up roughly 80 percent of annual
budgets, the effects are real.
Nearly every year since 2008,
Umatilla School District has had
to make cuts, in part because of
increased pension costs, according
to Superintendent Heidi Sipe.
Sipe said the PERS cost
increases have been higher than
additional funds from the state can
cover.
“Over the past 10 years, we’ve
modifi ed our textbook adoption
processes, limited our supply
budgets, enacted energy saving
procedures, limited staff increases,
cut paid days and had pay freezes,”
Sipe wrote in an email last week.
“If we cannot get funding to
See EOTEC/12A
See PERS/14A
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
Teens hang out in the parking lot at Dave’s FoodMart on Wednesday evening in Pendleton.
Problems and fun at Dave’s, a popular teen hangout
By EMILY OLSON
East Oregonian
Kayla Lee was proud to be included
in the student-chosen senior awards at
Pendleton High School. But she didn’t
win best smile or most athletic or most
likely to succeed.
“I was voted ‘Most Likely to be
Seen at Dave’s,’” she said. “It’s funny,
but it’s great.”
The parking lot of Dave’s FoodMart,
located across from Roy Raley Park,
is the site of a nightly hangout for
Pendleton teenagers. It has been an
unsanctioned tradition since the store
opened nearly 20 years ago.
“Ever since Dave’s has been Dave’s
this is the place to be. We just come
here and hang out,” Lee said. “We
talk. We play music. It’s not like we’re
causing issues.”
But Dave’s thinks otherwise. The
store is trying to rein in the rowdiness
as teens reach the peak of summer
boredom.
“It’s not them being there that’s the
problem, it’s the mess,” said manager
Don Darlington.
Because he’s among the fi rst
employees to get to the store each
morning, Darlington frequently has
to clean up litter strewn across the lot.
It can include beer bottles, cigarette
boxes, candy wrappers and condoms.
Dave’s increased the number of trash
cans on the property, but the gas atten-
dants said trash gets tossed near the
cans, not in them.
It got so bad that the store recently
See DAVE’S/14A
“Everyone
who’s here
right now, we
take care of
the place.”
— Kayla Lee,
voted “Most Likely to
be Seen at Dave’s”
HERMISTON
EOTEC holds last meeting before fair
Business manager resigns
to manage SAGE Center
By JAYATI RAMAKRISHNAN
East Oregonian
At its fi nal meeting before hosting
its fi rst fair and rodeo, the Eastern
Oregon Trade and Events Center
board was focused on last-minute
construction at the facility. After all,
the fair is set to begin in less than two
weeks.
But that wasn’t all the board had
to deal with.
Heather Cannell, EOTEC’s busi-
ness manager, resigned and will take
a job as the general manager of the
SAGE Center in Morrow County.
Cannell will stay on through the fair
and rodeo and will start her new role
August 14.
Cannell said she did not apply for
the open EOTEC general manager
position.
“The position wasn’t offered to
me,” she said. “I fi gured they had
me, but if I wasn’t good enough for
the position why bother applying?”
But overall, Cannell said working
with EOTEC had been a good expe-
rience.
“I’m proud to have been a part of
the project and see it grow over the
last couple of years,” she said.
Cannell said she provided infor-
mation on maintenance, scheduling
and client fi les, in order to make the
transition easier for her successor
and the board.
The board met in executive