Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 6, 2017)
Wednesday, December 6, 2017 OFF PAGE ONE MONUMENT: Commercial logging within the national monument is banned Page 8A East Oregonian Continued from 1A Resource Council hopes the presi- dent takes executive action scaling back the monument before that date, said Travis Joseph, the group’s executive director. However, AFRC won’t be easily satisfied: Unless the monument’s boundaries are revised to entirely exclude so-called O&C Lands, which are dedicated to timber production, the group won’t drop its lawsuit, he said. Congress enacted the O&C Act to make those federal lands permanently available to logging, so the president’s authority to create national monuments under the Antiquities Act doesn’t override that statute, Joseph said. “The O&C Act applies to all of the acres by the plain meaning of the law,” he said. “It’s not about the specifics of the designation. It’s about the law.” If a president were allowed to wipe out such decisions made by Congress, it would have “extraordi- nary implications for land manage- ment in the Western U.S.,” Joseph said. The prolonged interruption of the litigation has been frustrating because the plaintiffs want to delve into the merits of the case as soon as possible, said Rocky McVay, executive director of the Associa- tion of O&C Counties. “Timber sales that were in the works in the expanded area have been canceled,” McVay said. While commercial logging within the national monument is banned, the expanded designation is also troublesome for ranchers who fear grazing curtailments within its boundaries. It’s unclear what the Trump administration’s drastic reduction of two Utah national monuments — Bears Ears and Grand Stair- case-Escalante — may foreshadow for the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument, McVay said. Environmental groups are already lining up to file lawsuits against over that action, he said. “There will be a lot of fallout from this decision.” The circumstances surrounding each national monument under review by the Trump administra- tion are unique, said Joseph. That’s particularly true for the Cascade-Siskiyou, which is the only monument containing lands devoted to timber harvest by statute, he said. “That legal conflict doesn’t exist anywhere else in the country.” On Dec. 5, Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke released recommendations for revising the Cascade-Siskiyou’s borders to “address issues” related to O&C Lands and commercial logging. However, the recommendations did not specify the number or location of the acres involved. NORCOR: Does not document how long youth remain in isolation Continued from 1A behavior, and some for mental health-related behavior.” Offenders as young as 12 faced discipline for talking in line or not looking forward, according to the report, and most youth reported spending three to six hours per day locked in their cells. Youth could spend weeks “on disciplinary status,” according to Radcliffe, in which they cannot participate in any group activities, have to eat alone, receive solitary education in their housing unit and cannot have phone calls or visits from family. Radcliffe called NORCOR’s disciplinary process “regressive and aggressive.” NORCOR also does not document how long youth remain in isolation, a viola- tion of Oregon law. Dr. Ajit Jetmalani is the director of child and adolescent psychiatry at Oregon Health and Science University and a member of the statewide juvenile justice mental health task force. He said in the report the NORCOR juvenile deten- tion facility “appears to be unaware of the neuroscience of adolescent development” that shows “the critical importance of attachment and sustained positive rela- tionships” for juveniles. “The key to recovery for these kids is not enforcing strict compliance with rules, but rather in forming healthy relationships that help to foster an intrinsic desire to engage positively with the world,” he said. NORCOR Director Bryan Brandenburg said that is what NORCOR is trying to achieve, and he disputed much of Radcliffe’s report. “The kids are not treated inhumanely,” he said, “they are treated appropriately.” The facility provides programs such as self-esteem classes and drug treatment. NORCOR even offers yoga. “We really are about teaching kids better behavior,” he said. “We certainly don’t punish, as she said in her report, nor do we treat them inhumanely.” Staff do place youth who are disruptive or who break the rules in disciplinary segregation, he said, which means isolation in their cell. But staff and mental health workers regularly check on youth in segregation, he said, “so they are not deprived of Photo contributed by The Dalles Chronicle The Northern Oregon Regional Corrections Facility houses juvenile detainees for all of northeastern Oregon. “We really are about teaching kids better behavior. We certainly don’t punish, as she said in her report, nor do we treat them inhumanely.” — Bryan Brandenburg, NORCOR Director Photo contributed by Disabilty Rights Oregon The juvenile jail at the Northern Oregon Regional Correctional Facility, The Dalles, allows youth to have one book in addition to the Bible, according to a report from Disability Rights Oregon. If they are in trouble, they can only have the Bible. human contact.” But he admitted NORCOR had “silly” rules for enforcing behavior and it was time to replace or change them, including prohibitions against looking around or looking out of windows during class. In the wake of Radcliffe’s report, he said, those rules are gone. And NORCOR is installing clocks in easy-to-see places so youth don’t have to ask staff for the time of day. NORCOR also will do a better job of documenting how long youth are in isolation, Brandenburg said, and he and Jeff Justesen, NORCOR’s detention manager, are crafting griev- ance and appeals processes for youth who get into trouble. Oregon law requires juvenile jails to offer a hearing prior to imposing “roomlock” in excess of 12 hours or denial of any privilege in excess of one day. Inmates in Oregon’s state prisons can file complaints against staff and file appeals for discipline, Brandenburg said, and youth in NORCOR should have those same rights. And youth in isolation now can have journals and safety flex pens in cells, as well as phone calls and visits. Brandenburg was at a business trip and not in his office Tuesday, so he said his numbers were from memory, but two years ago NORCOR averaged 19 youth offenders a month and that has dropped to 15 a month. There were a total of 276 youths booked into the jail between January and October and six are in the facility now. NORCOR does keep youth longer than other sites, he said, but that is due to the programs it offers. “We are one of two detention centers in Oregon that have those programs, so they are sent to NORCOR to complete those programs — 30-day and 90-day programs,” he said. Umatilla and Morrow counties are among 17 Oregon counties that send detainees to the juvenile facility, along with the Warm Springs Indian Reservation and counties in southeastern Washington. The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement sends youth there from throughout the country. Dale Primmer is the director of Umatilla County Community Justice, which oversees services for juvenile offenders. He said the county rents two beds as needed per day from the facility and the county has no one there now. Those beds are for often used for longer stays, he explained, such as youth undergoing treatment in one of the facility’s programs or a defendant facing serious Measure 11 crimes. Primmer said he glanced through the Disability Rights report and could not comment on whether it was factual or not. County officers transport youth at NORCOR to court hearings, doctors and other appointments, but Primmer said he has not heard if any inmates complained about their treatment. He also said if NORCOR’s treatment of youth is inhu- mane, he would confer with county commissioners and law enforcement partners to determine options for incar- cerating or monitoring youth. County Juvenile Depart- ment Director Tom Meier didn’t immediately return a call seeking comment, but Morrow County District Attorney Justin Nelson said youth defendants or their attorneys have not told him or his deputy about concerns at NORCOR. He added that does not mean the report is inaccurate. The Pew Charitable Trust reported juvenile confinement dropped by half nationwide, but Oregon is moving the opposite direc- tion. According to Radcliffe, only Wyoming incarcerates a higher percentage of its youth than Oregon. Disability Rights Oregon made several recommenda- tions, including guarantees from the Oregon’s Depart- ment of Education that youth in NORCOR receive an appropriate education to ending solitary confinement. Radcliffe’s No. 1 recom- mendation is the creation of “comprehensive rules governing treatment and conditions at juvenile deten- tion facilities.” Primmer said the lack of a consistent method of evaluating youth detention sites for best practices was a significant takeaway. Brandenburg maintained Radcliffe “exaggerated for impact to dramatize a situa- tion that is not as dire as she wants to portray it,” but her report also shows NORCOR can do better. “We are in the service business,” he said, “so we will look at those recommen- dations we see as legitimate and valid and make an effort to address them.” ——— Contact Phil Wright at pwright@eastoregonian.com or 541-966-0833. TUITION: Average tuition and fees increased by about 38 percent over ten years Continued from 1A pay more money to help the state meet its obligations to employees. A certain percentage increase in retirement costs doesn’t mean an equivalent increase in tuition, but offi- cials say retirement costs and health benefits are factors that can drive up undergraduate tuition. “Combined our cost drivers create a situation where universities have to balance the realities of our state appropriations, increased costs and cuts in services to students in deter- mining tuition,” Dana Rich- ardson, executive director of the Oregon Council of Presidents, wrote in an email to the EO/Pamplin Capital Bureau. Undergraduate tuition at Oregon’s public universities has increased, on average, 6 percent, in the past year, according to the council. That increase is the merely the most recent. Adjusted for inflation, average tuition and fees increased by about 38 percent for in-state residents between the 2005-06 and 2015-16 school years, according to the state’s Higher Education Coordinating Commission. And tuition is among the limited funding sources for universities. “Community colleges and K-12 get local property taxes,” says Brian Fox, vice president of finance and administration at the Oregon Institute of Technology. “For us, it really is state appropria- tions and tuition dollars.” There’s not quick solution. Much of the $25.3 billion unfunded liability is taken up by benefits already earned, which the Oregon Supreme Court has said cannot be rescinded or reduced. That will continue to put financial pressure on public employers, including univer- sities, in the next several biennia — longer if there is a recession, Fox said. “It gets really hard to balance the books when you have really massive cost increases,” Fox said. “And you see those coming, for, you know, we probably have eight years of this.” Courtesy Oregon State University Oregon’s public pension unfunded liability is putting pressure on tuition at the state’s public universities. University pension costs account for nearly 10 percent of their budgets. University administrators say that they are also cutting costs elsewhere in their budgets. Higher education funding and rising tuition costs were highlighted in the most recent legislative session. In April, Gov. Kate Brown urged the Higher Education Coordinating Commission — which needs to approve tuition increases exceeding 5 percent — not to increase tuition above 5 percent without “clear and substantial justification.” But Brown had also proposed a biennial budget that the universities said wasn’t enough to stave off tuition increases. By the end of the session, though, public universities ended up receiving about $736.9 million in general fund money for the two-year budget cycle — an amount about 10 percent higher than what the governor had recom- mended in December 2016. “Higher education’s always gotten squeezed when the budget’s tight,” said Jeremy Rogers, vice president of the Oregon Business Council. “And the budget’s often tight.” Rob Fullmer, an IT specialist at Portland State University who served on the Higher Education Coor- dinating Commission from 2013 to 2016, contends that the squeeze on both univer- sities and students results from structural deficiencies in the state’s budget — what he characterizes as decades of inadequate revenues for higher education. In 1990, voters shifted most funding responsibility for K-12 schools from local property taxes to the state through Ballot Measure 5. Fullmer argues that put considerable pressure on state resources to support more with less money. Oregon gets most of its general fund revenues from income taxes. In late May, as the Legis- lature was working on the state’s budget, the university presidents echoed concerns about revenue stability in a letter to the legislature and the governor. “We have hobbled along through boom and bust cycles making investments and levying cuts as income tax revenues rise and fall,” the university presidents wrote. “These dramatic swings have taken a toll on our institutions, shifting the responsibility of paying for a public university away from the state and toward students and families.” Fullmer, a PERS member who has worked at PSU since 2005, also said that the slimmer benefit packages for those hired after 2003 — the result of legislative reforms — have already been tough on public universities. He said public universities face additional pressure to provide good retirement and health care benefits — another cost driver — in today’s tight labor market, where employers are competing for skilled employees. “These are professional, white-collar jobs,” Fullmer said.