Wednesday, December 6, 2017
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MONUMENT: Commercial logging within the national monument is banned
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East Oregonian
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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
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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
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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.