REGION
Thursday, November 9, 2017
East Oregonian
Page 3A
PENDLETON
UMATILLA
Council upholds RV land lease
City opts in to
OSU Service
District vote
By ANTONIO SIERRA
East Oregonian
Gale Marshall has lobbied the
Pendleton City Council for years
to cancel a land lease with an
Indiana transport company. But
when the council had a chance to
cancel it, Marshall was greeted
with silence.
When Mayor John Turner
asked the council if they wished
to reverse the lease at a meeting
Tuesday, no councilor made a
motion, effectively putting a halt
to Marshall’s campaign.
The crux of Marshall’s
complaint is that a 12-year land
lease signed by a subsidiary of
Horizon Transport called Queen
B Storage in 2015 is undercutting
his business.
Marshall owns 24 acres of land
adjacent to the city’s property,
both located near Keystone RV
Co.’s Westgate plant. Transport
companies use the properties
to store vehicles ahead of their
transport to RV dealerships across
the country.
Marshall has argued that the
city’s lease rate was lower than
the market rate, causing transport
companies to abandon his prop-
erty for the Queen B lot.
He brought along eight people
from the business community
to support him, but otherwise,
Marshall stuck with his usual
talking points.
EO file photo
The Pendleton City Council upheld its land lease with Queen B
Storage after drawing complaints from Gale Marshall that the
city’s lease rate was undercutting his business.
Marshall said living and
investing in Pendleton was
a dream, but his revenue has
dropped by 300 percent since the
city signed the lease.
“I still love it here, but I don’t
want to be put out of business,” he
said. “And that’s exactly what’s
happening.”
Marshall said the council
should have considered the lease
as “money managers” rather than
business people and not compete
with the private sector.
Councilor Paul Chalmers
BRIEFLY
Former youth supervisor
moves toward plea
in sex crimes case
PENDLETON — Former Oregon
Youth Authority supervisor Gary Charles
Cross has a court date to change his
plea to charges of sexual and official
misconduct.
Umatilla County Circuit Court records
show Cross, 39, of Jefferson, has a change
of plea hearing Dec. 2 in Pendleton.
Cross pleaded not guilty in May to two
counts of first-degree custodial sexual
misconduct, class C felonies, and four
counts of first-degree official misconduct,
class A misdemeanors.
The state has accused Cross of having
a sexual relationship with an 18-year-old
former inmate at Oak Creek Youth
Correctional Facility, Albany, where he
worked as a group life coordinator.
According to court documents, Cross
in 2016 came to Pendleton for Oregon
Youth Authority meetings and had sex
with the girl in his hotel room.
Fire bond subject for
Thursday meeting
PENDLETON — Personnel from the
Pendleton Fire Department will discuss
the fire bond at the National Active and
Retired Federal Employees (NARFE)
meeting today at 11:30 a.m. The meeting
will be held at Shari’s Restaurant, 319
S.E. Nye Ave.
For more information, call Janet
Lambert at 541-980-3268.
———
Briefs are compiled from staff and wire
reports, and press releases. Email press
releases to news@eastoregonian.com
asked Marshall if the city should
abandon the Pendleton Conven-
tion Center because it competes
with the Red Lion Hotel’s event
space.
Marshall didn’t directly answer
the question but said there was a
difference between the city taking
action to bring new industry to
town and signing a lease that
didn’t bring new jobs.
“I’m sitting in an adverse posi-
tion trying to negotiate a sale with
Horizon but they got a sweetheart
lease with city,” he told the
council. “Why would they even
want to buy (from me)?”
In an interview after the
meeting, Marshall said he doesn’t
know what his next step will be.
“It looks like (the council)
didn’t want to give me a break,”
he said.
Despite calling the agreement
between the city and Queen B
illegal at the meeting, a char-
acterization contested by City
Attorney Nancy Kerns, Marshall
didn’t seem inclined to take legal
action.
“What good would it do
me?” he said. “If the community
doesn’t see a problem, that would
only draw more resources from
me.”
Later in the meeting, the
council unanimously approved
new self-contained breathing
apparatuses for the Pendleton Fire
Department.
The department’s current
equipment is set to be decommis-
sioned next year and purchased
them through the $10 million fire
bond voters approved in May. LN
Curtis & sons of Kent, Washing-
ton’s $275,844 bid was $5,844
above budget, but cost savings
from other projects means the
overall bond budget is still on
track.
———
Contact Antonio Sierra at
asierra@eastoregonian.com or
541-966-0836.
Breiling runs for judge of circuit court
By PHIL WRIGHT
East Oregonian
Pendleton attorney Michael Breiling is
running for circuit court judge for Umatilla and
Morrow counties.
Breiling, 47, is seeking the Position 1 seat
on the bench of the Sixth Judicial District. He
filed to run on Oct. 6, according to the state’s
election website. The term for circuit court
judges is six years. Judge
Lynn Hampton serves in
the post and Wednesday
afternoon announced she
is not seeking re-election
and plans to retire.
“We’re going to need a
new judge,” Breiling said.
“It is important that the
judge be well versed in
different areas of the law, Breiling
and have deep experience
in the areas of law the court is most likely to
consider.
“I think I’m the best person for the job.”
Breiling began his legal career 22 years ago
in the Portland area and has been in Pendleton
18 years. He and his wife, Heidi Van Kirk, have
their own law firm in Pendleton and have raised
a son and daughter. Breiling is an aggressive
defense lawyer but said his legal background
covers more.
“I’ve done every kind of criminal case, from
murder to barking dogs, and every kind of family
case you can imagine,” he said. “I’ve handled
every kind of case the circuit court handles.”
He said most people have one interaction
with the justice system, which probably means
some kind of crisis brought them to court. The
experience should be as positive as it can be,
he said. Those murder and barking dog cases
of years before, he recalled, came back-to-back
and taught him a valuable lesson.
“I’ve done every kind of
criminal case, from murder to
barking dogs, and every kind of
family case you can imagine.”
— Michael Breiling, Pendleton attorney
“Every person who shows up to the court,
their case is the most important case there is,”
Breiling said. “I think that’s something a judge
really needs to remember.”
Hampton has not announced a retirement
date, according to a written statement from
the district court, but she made her intention
to retire “generally known to the other judges
and to members of the local Bar Association.”
The statement also reported she looks forward
to continuing her assignment as the family law,
juvenile dependency and juvenile delinquency
chief judge for Morrow and Umatilla counties
into 2018.
March 6 is the last day for a candidate to file
with the state elections division to make it on the
ballot for the May 15 primary. Breiling said he
expects someone else to file, and would be ready
for the challenge.
“I think it’s important that the people of
Umatilla and Morrow counties get the best
judge they can,” he said.
Winning would mean leaving the firm of
Breiling & Van Kirk and the job he loves, he
said, for a new challenge. If he wins, the firm
would continue with another lawyer taking over
his end of the practice. He said he and his wife
are considering who that might be.
Judges Eva Temple and Christopher Brauer
filed to run again for their seats on the circuit
court. Temple works in Hermiston and seeks
reelection to Position 4, and Brauer works in
Pendleton and seeks Position 5. No one has
challenged either judge.
Voters in Umatilla, Morrow
counties will have say
By GEORGE PLAVEN
East Oregonian
Voters in the city of Umatilla will have
a chance to weigh in on the proposed
Oregon State University Extension
Service District after all.
The Umatilla City Council decided
Tuesday to reconsider a resolution
putting the formation of a new taxing
district on the May 2018 ballot. The reso-
lution, which was previously rejected by
the council, this time passed by a slim 3-2
margin with councilors Roak TenEyck,
Selene Torres-Medrano and Mel Ray in
favor and Michael Roxbury and Mark
Keith opposed. Councilor Mark Ribich
was not present at Tuesday’s meeting.
The reversal means that every city in
Umatilla and Morrow counties will now
be able to vote on whether the new tax
district moves forward. If created, the
district would collect 33 cents per $1,000
of assessed value to help support OSU
Extension programs, such as 4-H, Master
Gardeners and both agricultural research
stations in Hermiston and Pendleton.
It was Ray who ultimately proved to
be the swing vote Tuesday, changing his
position after he said he was contacted
personally by two residents wondering
why they would not be allowed to have a
say in the matter.
“I was on the fence to start with,” Ray
said. “It was a very tough decision.”
No other councilor changed their
opinion. TenEyck said the formation of
a new OSU Extension Service District
is best left to the voters, adding that the
importance of agriculture in the region
cannot be underestimated.
Roxbury, however, said the city
needs to focus its tax dollars on other
major utility and infrastructure projects
coming down the pike. He also raised
the concern of bumping against the tax
compression cap.
“Thirty-three cents is not a modest
tax,” Roxbury said.
Roxbury added that OSU does not
necessarily need the city of Umatilla
to create its district, and if the measure
passes local residents would be saddled
with an additional county-wide tax
whether or not they voted yes or no.
But if the district passes and the city
was not included within the district
boundary, OSU Extension would be left
to charge an additional fee for its services.
Heidi Sipe, Umatilla School District
superintendent, said 4-H and supple-
mental child nutrition programs provided
by OSU Extension are an essential part
of the school system, and schools would
have to find a way to cover the added cost.
As an aspiring physician, Torres-Me-
drano said she understands the impor-
tance of after-school nutrition and
college-readiness programs provided by
OSU Extension.
“I know the impact these programs
are going to have on our kids,” she said.
“I believe that we can make a successful
future for our residents.”
Umatilla County commissioners
recently voted to start the process of
forming the OSU Extension Service
District ahead of the vote next May. A
separate district is also being proposed
in Morrow County, where all five incor-
porated cities have passed resolutions
putting the proposal on the ballot.
The
East Oregonian
will not publish
on Saturday,
Nov. 11 due to the
postal holiday
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• Special section profi ling local veterans
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Days Gone By and This Day in History
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