Page 4A
East Oregonian
Saturday, January 13, 2018
KATHRYN B. BROWN
Publisher
DANIEL WATTENBURGER
Managing Editor
TIM TRAINOR
Opinion Page Editor
Founded October 16, 1875
OUR VIEW
First big issues of 2018
The year is 2018, which has a science
fiction kind of ring to it until you realize
2018 is now. It’s not the future anymore,
it’s the present.
So before this year gets away from
us and we’re staring down the barrel at
2019 (which is almost 2020!) we’ll take
the opportunity to address two of the big
issues that will affect our area.
Dealing pro-actively and positively
with these will benefit the region down
the road.
Eastern Oregon Trade
and Event Center
The city of Hermiston and Umatilla
County, co-owners of the new event
center, will be at the forefront of plenty
of discussion this year. Now that the
building has been constructed, long-
delayed decisions about planning and
cost must be addressed in 2018.
Things have gotten off to a rocky start.
In the last month, the EOTEC board has
been getting guff from all sides — from
the fair and rodeo, from Hermiston and
Umatilla County, from the city planning
commission and growing number of
private citizens, especially neighbors.
The realization has dawned on
many — specifically on Hermiston City
Council and the Umatilla County Board
of Commissioners — that EOTEC is
not a problem that will fix itself. And
possible fixes to strengthen the event
center’s financial footing will take
millions of dollars, protracted oversight
and longterm support.
“This is starting to be real money,”
Hermiston city councilor Jackie Myers
commented last week, when another
round of bills rolled in.
To keep those bills from snowballing,
the city of Hermiston and Umatilla County
must take a more active role in managing
EOTEC, and push the board to agree with
outside management on a longterm plan
for the facility. Perhaps a professional
mediator will be useful as competing
interests try to find a way to compromise.
But however progress is made,
we can’t go into 2019 with as many
unknowns about the future of the
property as there are now.
Taxes
You could probably put taxes on this
list each and every year. But in 2018, they
will become more important thanks to
local, state and federal changes swirling
around pocketbooks and business ledgers.
The feedback on taxes will come
quickly. The federal tax cut pushed by
Congressional Republicans and the
Trump White House went into effect Jan.
1, though many will not see any changes
until they do their 2018 taxes (in April
2019). Some will see changes in their
paychecks come February.
This month voters have their say
on Measure 101, a state issue that will
decide the fate of a health services tax.
The controversial tax, which raises health
care costs to help insure low-income
Oregonians, will be decided Jan. 23. If
it falters, legislators will be sent back to
Staff photo by E.J. Harris, file
Eastern Oregon Trade and Event Center
Salem with plenty more work to do to
balance the budget — and that may take
the form of new taxes along with cuts.
And on a local level, municipalities
will try to balance budgets and keep up
with aging infrastructure.
Milton-Freewater voters will decide
on a local option levy to support its Parks
and Recreation department, everything
from repairing the pool to help run the
golf course. Pendleton and Hermiston
residents are seeing recently passed
bonds and levies on their tax bills now,
including from the Umatilla County
Fire District No. 1, Blue Mountain
Community College, Pendleton School
District and more.
On the heels of a failed bid for a bond,
the Hermiston School District must
revisit the issue and put a question before
voters that they can stomach.
And voters in both Umatilla and
Morrow counties will have the choice
of whether to create an Oregon State
University Service District, which would
collect 33 cents per $1,000 of assessed
value to help support OSU Extension
programs. Because of compression,
taxpayers and municipalities will feel
this differently.
How many dollars voters are willing
to part with — and how higher taxes
impact citizens barely getting by as
is — will be at the heart of nearly all
significant issues facing Eastern Oregon
and its residents this year.
OTHER VIEWS
The Wolff eats its own
uess what? Donald Trump is
self-serving Steve Bannon.
a raving idiot. Every sentient
The book also comes from a
person knows this, and if
writer already accused of playing it
Michael Wolff is to be believed, so
fast and loose with the facts. Wolff
does most everyone in the White
may fancy that he stands alongside
House. So why are we talking about
Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein
Wolff’s book “Fire and Fury” as if
by exposing the hidden intrigues
it’s the news sensation of the decade?
of power. In truth, his book is like
The answer lies in that timeless
a movie “based on real events,”
Bret
definition of the word “gossip”:
Stephens an exercise in the art of pleasingly
Hearing something you like about
plausible storytelling.
Comment
someone you don’t. “Fire and Fury”
Wolff’s book does more
is catnip for everyone who detests
than just lend substance to the
this president. Trump gorges on burgers in
administration’s corrosive fake-news
a bed he doesn’t share with his wife! He
allegations. It brings out the worst in
barely reads and constantly repeats himself!
Trump’s critics, admittedly including me.
He has mastered the fine print in the Bill of
Isn’t it vindicating to know that White House
Rights — all the way from the First to the
insiders take the same appalled view of the
Third Amendment!
dim bulb in the Oval Office? Isn’t it just
But gossip isn’t journalism. And Wolff’s
delicious to hear those words — “moron,”
book is Exhibit A in how not to damage
“dope,” “idiot” — whispered about the
Trump’s presidency, much less his chances
president by the grown-ups in the room?
of re-election.
But if the anti-Trump movement has a
So much was apparent in Tuesday’s
crippling defect, it’s smugness, and Wolff’s
televised meeting of the president
book reflects and richly feeds it. We’re the
with congressional leaders to discuss
moral scolds who struggle to acknowledge
immigration. This was not a good
the skeletons in our own closet, the smart
performance by past presidential standards:
people whose forecasts keep proving
Trump seemed unable to grasp what a
wrong. We said Trump couldn’t win. That
“clean” bill meant, or where Republicans
the stock market would never recover
stood on it. Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla.,
from his election. That he would blow up
acknowledged as much when he said the
NATO. That the Middle East would erupt in
meeting got “confusing.”
violence when Jerusalem was recognized as
Yet to a normal person casually tuning
Israel’s capital.
in, the president appeared reasonably affable
The catastrophes haven’t happened, and
and businesslike. He listened. He cracked an maybe that’s just a matter of luck. But by
appropriate joke. He said he was prepared to constantly predicting doom and painting the
defer to the wishes of Congress. Where was
White House in the darkest colors, anti-
the drooling man-child we had been led to
Trumpers have only helped the president.
expect from Wolff’s book and the nonstop
We have set an almost impossibly high bar
coverage of it?
for Trumpian failure. We have increased the
The net result is that “Fire and Fury” has
country’s tolerance for the president’s venial
so thoroughly succeeded in lowering public
sins. And we have turned the “Resistance”
expectations for Trump that it makes it that
into a byword for the hysterical and
much easier for him to exceed them. If the
condescending ninnies of American politics.
White House were smart it would tweet
This is not a winning strategy. One of
photos of Trump reading Dean Acheson’s
Trump’s underappreciated strengths is his
“Present at the Creation” looking deeply
sly command of irony, on display again
engrossed. That should inspire a half-dozen
last week when he tweeted that his two
Washington Times columns on how the press great assets in life were “mental stability
used to think Reagan and Eisenhower were
and being, like, really smart.” Note the
boobs, too.
superfluous “like,” which is stupid when
That’s not all the damage Wolff has
spoken but intended as humor when written.
done. The president often misuses the term
Misunderestimation has already been
“fake news,” typically by treating every
the political stock in trade of one two-term
media mistake as evidence of willful and
Republican president. I believe that Trump
systematic mendacity. This may be enough
is ignorant, incurious, vain, gauche, bigoted,
to bamboozle his ardent supporters, even if
intemperate, bullying, suggestible, reckless
the rest of us understand the distinction.
and morally unfit for his office. But he’s
In “Fire and Fury,” however, Trump
not deficient in cunning, and that cunning
really does have something resembling fake
deserves healthy respect from his political
news. The book is replete with casual errors
opponents. That Michael Wolff fails to
of fact. Invidious stories are unsourced or
appreciate it only shows who’s the biggest
unverifiable or, on close inspection, simply
dope in “Fire and Fury.”
nonsensical. It was written with white-hot
■
venom. The book’s only truly credible voice,
Bret Stephens won a Pulitzer Prize for
if credible is the right word, is the peerlessly
commentary in 2013.
G
YOUR VIEWS
CTUIR tribal members
have hiring preference
The letter and spirit of tribal self-
governance, self-determination, and
self-sufficiency are synonymous and easy to
understand: Tribes and tribal people assume
the responsibility for the management of
all tribal affairs. In the context of tribal
government, filling employment positions
with qualified tribal members is probably
the most visible demonstration of tribal
self-determination. Our Umatilla tribal
government has duly adopted employment
policies and procedures that implements tribal
self-determination and self-sufficiency.
It is the role and responsibility of the
tribal administration to comply with these
policies. With much fanfare, Chuck Sams was
recently appointed by the Board of Trustees
to the position of interim executive director,
the top administrative position in our tribal
government.
One of Sams’ first actions as interim
executive director was to make a non-Indian
employee (Jane Hill) the publisher of the
Confederated Umatilla Journal, our tribal
newspaper. Thus, non-Indians now have
complete control of one of our important
tribal institutions as the long-time editor
of the CUJ is also non-Indian. This clearly
contradicts and undermines our tribal
self-governance and self-determination goals
and policies.
Our tribal hiring preference policy states
that qualified Umatilla tribal members shall
be hired, and promoted, before non-members.
The courts have consistently ruled that such
policies are not based on race, but are based
on political affiliation, i.e., enrolled members
of a federally recognized tribe. Therefore,
such policies are not racially discriminatory.
The BOT, as a whole, are the supervisors
of Sams and it is their responsibility to
hold him accountable for compliance with
applicable policies, including tribal preference
policies. The BOT must also ensure that Sams
supports our tribal goals of self-determination.
However, by their silent consent in this
situation, the BOT is giving the green light
Unsigned editorials are the opinion of the
East Oregonian editorial board. Other
columns, letters and cartoons on this page
express the opinions of the authors and
not necessarily that of the East Oregonian.
for Sams to ignore applicable tribal policies,
and our self-determination goals as well. I see
this situation as setting a precedent for future
similar actions by our new interim executive
director.
Bob Shippentower, Pendleton
Marijuana money for pot
holes not private business
The Pendleton Downtown Association is
now asking for permanent funding, I suspect
eyeballing that unexpected windfall pot tax
revenue. We already spend a considerable
amount funding the Chamber of Commerce,
nearly $300,000 annually. According to the
PDA, the chamber is just not getting the
job done, a pretty serious assertion. Despite
the claims of the PDA administrator, it’s
the associate director of the Pendleton
Development Commission, a part-time city
employee, that has been calling the shots
downtown these days with high praise from
the mayor, city council, and of course the city
manager, awarding him an increase in both
his salary and budget. There is now a major
concern that funding his many projects will
continue to limit our ability to maintain those
approved by previous administrations.
Take a close look at the Riverfront Plaza
Park, for instance. Nearly half the trees have
died and the banners on two of three light
poles are missing, with the lone survivor
hanging upside down. Many of the wall lights
have been burned out for some time. Park
maintenance is labor-intensive, much like that
in the intersection in front of the Dairy Queen,
a hands and knees weeding job. The River
Walkway asphalt is cracking and crumbling,
and though funding was appropriated two
years ago the repairs, directed at the highest
level of city government, were never done.
Hopefully the pot tax revenue will be used
to fix public streets and buildings rather than
fund private businesses. It sounds like the
“movers and shakers” are going to get their
committee to study the issue, and remind city
officials of their responsibility to fund that
moving and shaking.
Rick Rohde, Pendleton
The East Oregonian welcomes original letters of 400 words or less on public issues and public policies for publication in the
newspaper and on our website. The newspaper reserves the right to withhold letters that address concerns about individual
services and products or letters that infringe on the rights of private citizens. Letters must be signed by the author and include the
city of residence and a daytime phone number. The phone number will not be published. Unsigned letters will not be published.
Send letters to managing editor Daniel Wattenburger, 211 S.E. Byers Ave. Pendleton, OR 97801 or email editor@eastoregonian.com.