Saturday, January 20, 2018
OFF PAGE ONE
ENTERPRISE: BMCC’s taxing area Women will march again with
spans throughout both enterprise zones aim to become a political force
Page 12A
East Oregonian
Continued from 1A
Tax breaks have since
expired in Hermiston on
$63.1 million worth of invest-
ments, bringing them onto
the tax rolls. Another $3.5
million project by Shearer’s
foods will come onto the tax
rolls July 1.
Pendleton’s
enterprise
zone goes back much
further. Pendleton Economic
Development Director Steve
Chrisman said he has found
correspondence relating the
city’s enterprise zone going
back to 1997 and has been
around since at least that
time. The zone was expanded
to cover Pilot Rock in 2004
and was renewed in 2008.
Since 2013, enterprise
zone activity has primarily
revolved
around
three
businesses: Hill Meat Co.,
Keystone RV Co. and Rocky
Mountain Colby Pipe. Each
has received several three-
year tax abatements over the
past five years.
The
recipients
are
rounded out by Oregon Grain
Growers Brand Distillery and
Pendleton Woolen Mills. The
woolen mills did not hire any
new employees, but used the
exemption to buy a new loom
that increases productivity.
These companies have
invested $19.6 million since
2013 and reported creating
240 jobs in the process. $2.4
million in investments are
now on the tax rolls as their
abatements expire, but the
rest remain tax-free.
The impact
Morgan said it would be
difficult for him to come up
with even a ballpark number
of how many dollars in prop-
erty taxes had not been paid
due to enterprise zone exemp-
tions. The application lists
the total amount of money
the company is investing in
the expansion, not what the
building or new equipment
will be appraised at. So, for
example, Eastern Oregon
Telecom was recently given
an enterprise zone exemption
on a $2 million investment,
represented by the new
building it broke ground on
in September. But Morgan
said he would guess roughly
$400,000 of that investment
would represent things like
engineering and construction
management, bringing the
actual building’s appraised
value to less than $2 million.
Then there are formulas to
calculate depreciation over
time.
“It’s actually very hard
to estimate how much the
companies have saved on
their tax bills based on the
enterprise zone applications
... these companies always
list what they intend to invest,
but the actual taxable value
may be totally different,” he
wrote in an email.
Morgan said it’s important
to remember that once Herm-
iston got permission from the
state to set up the enterprise
zone, the regular exemp-
tion of three to five years
(depending on jobs created) is
automatic if a company turns
in an application and has
fulfilled all the requirements.
“If a company meets all of
the requirements for a basic
exemption, then it’s simply
an administrative approval to
check that they meet all of the
requirements,” he said.
Proponents
of
the
enterprise zone argue that a
company simply won’t locate
or expand anywhere that they
can’t get a tax break, so a city
that refuses to offer one will
miss out on the jobs and other
growth brought by the invest-
ment. A report compiled by
Morgan at the end of the
2016-2017 fiscal year before
the EOT and Lamb Weston
tax breaks estimated the
enterprise zone had resulted
in “362 new full-time jobs
resulting in more than $9.65
million of new annual payroll
circulating through the
economy of Hermiston and
western Umatilla County as
of 2016.”
Blue Mountain Commu-
nity College’s taxing area
spans throughout Eastern
Oregon and both enterprise
zones.
BMCC President Cam
Preus said staff “haven’t put
pen to paper” as to how much
money enterprise zones
exemptions cost the college,
but the state helps supplement
their general fund to stave off
a loss in tax dollars.
Overall, Preus said the
benefits of an enterprise zone
outweighed the setbacks. She
added that BMCC was invited
to an upcoming meeting with
the Umatilla County Board
of Commissioners on how
Lamb Weston’s $1 million
annual payment will be spent,
which could include funding
for job training.
Chrisman,
Pendleton’s
economic
development
director, is also a proponent
of the enterprise zone.
Although some of these
companies might expand
without a tax break, he said it
was one of the few incentives
communities can use to recruit
or retain major employers.
Without it, Chrisman said,
it would be much harder to
keep companies from going
to Washington or Idaho, the
latter having significantly
cheaper labor costs.
———
Contact Antonio Sierra at
asierra@eastoregonian.com
or 541-966-0836.
LIFEWAYS: Roberts frustrated about Lifeways’
reluctance to deal with people who are intoxicated
Continued from 1A
consistency in personnel,” he
said, referring to Lifeways’
frequent rotation of leaders
based in the county.
Hermiston Police Chief
Jason Edmiston said he also
felt the meeting was produc-
tive, but noted it was first
step in a long process.
“Today was getting all the
initial players in the room,”
he said. “Now we have to get
down to the nitty gritty. Are
there areas as a group, as a
county, or as a city where we
can step beside Lifeways as a
partner?”
Roberts didn’t disguise
his past frustration with the
organization and the general
state of mental health care in
the county.
He said law enforcement
in Umatilla County once had
the Blue Mountain Recovery
Center in Pendleton as a place
to take people going through
a mental health crisis.
“It used to be if we found
somebody in crisis who was
either a danger to themselves
or others or unable to care
for themselves, we would
transfer them to BMRC,”
Roberts said before Friday’s
meeting. “If they had drugs
or alcohol on board that
prohibited the doc from
making an evaluation, they
went downstairs to detox.”
One of the facility’s three
psychiatrists examined each
person.
“If someone stayed, they
stayed for 48 hours in the
facility, which was staffed
and geared to deal with
people in crisis or to deal
with true mental illness,”
Roberts said.
Roberts
remembers
BMRC closing the doors
to law enforcement in the
mid-1990s. Lifeways was
brought in to fill the gap.
“Lifeways comes in on
a contract and the entire
process just gets set on its
ear,” Roberts said. “Things
have never been what they
should be in terms of serving
an ever-growing population
(of mentally ill in crisis). We
have continually participated
in audits, collaborative meet-
ings, sequential intercept
mapping, this, that and the
other thing and nothing ever
changes.”
Roberts’ officers see
everything from depression to
schizophrenia on the streets.
It often falls to the officer on
the beat to de-escalate mental
(AP) — Activists are
returning to the streets a year
after a million people rallied
worldwide at marches for
female
empowerment,
hoping to create an enduring
political movement that
will elect more women to
government office.
Hundreds of gatherings
are planned Saturday and
Sunday across the U.S. and
in places such as Beijing,
Buenos Aires, Argentina,
and Nairobi, Kenya.
A rally Sunday in Las
Vegas will launch an effort
to register 1 million voters
and target swing states in the
midterm elections.
The 2017 rally in Wash-
ington, D.C., and hundreds of
similar marches created soli-
darity for those denouncing
President Donald Trump’s
views on abortion, immigra-
tion, LGBT rights and more.
Afterward, a wave of
women decided to run
for elected office and the
#MeToo movement against
sexual misconduct became a
cultural phenomenon.
“We made a lot of
noise,” said Elaine Wynn,
an organizer. “But now how
do we translate that noise
into something concrete or
fulfilling?”
Linda Sarsour, one of the
four organizers of last year’s
Washington march, said Las
Vegas was slotted for a major
rally because it’s a strategic
swing state that gave Hillary
Clinton a narrow win in the
presidential election and
will have one of the most
competitive Senate races in
2018.
Democrats believe they
have a good chance of
winning the seat held by
embattled Republican Sen.
Dean Heller and weakening
the GOP’s hold on the
chamber.
Organizers say Nevada is
also a microcosm of larger
national issues such as
immigration and gun control
after Las Vegas became the
scene of the deadliest mass
shooting in modern history.
Following the October
AP Photo/John Locher
In this Jan. 17 photo, Minnie Wood, center, makes
signs with her daughters Buckley, right, and Zoey in
preparation for a rally in Las Vegas.
Women’s March on Pendleton
PENDLETON — For the second straight year, the
Women’s March on Pendleton will take it to the streets.
“This is a peaceful march to show that we will not
accept intolerance or injustice,” the march’s Facebook
page states. “Please bring you family, friends, neighbors
for an epic day of solidarity.”
The march will be much like the original event in 2017.
The group will meet at 1 p.m. at the fountain in
front of Pendleton City Hall, 500 S.W. Dorion Ave.
The one-mile march will make a stop at the Umatilla
County Courthouse and end in the parking lot at
Heritage Station Museum.
Last year’s event attracted an estimated 400 people.
massacre, the Sunday rally
is being held at the Univer-
sity of Nevada, Las Vegas’
stadium 10 miles southeast
of the famous Strip where
a gunman opened fire on a
concert, killing 58 people.
Authorities have kept
details confidential about
security for the Sunday rally
at the 40,000-seat stadium.
Ahead of the Las Vegas
rally, Planned Parenthood
Rocky Mountains will hold
a huge voter registration
training effort on Saturday as
part of a nationwide effort to
register over a million voters
in 2018.
Minnie Wood, a nurse
practitioner who participated
in the 2017 gathering in
Las Vegas, said she was left
with a sense of solidarity
and “this feeling of almost
a quickening, this resistance
brewing.”
It also laid the ground-
work for the recent
movement that brought a
reckoning for powerful men
accused of sexual miscon-
duct, Sarsour said.
“I think when women see
visible women’s leadership,
bold and fierce, going up
against a very racist, sexist,
misogynist administration,
it gives you a different level
of courage that you may not
have felt you had,” she said.
Many women inspired by
last year’s massive marches
went on to seek higher office,
such as Mindi Messmer, a
54-year-old environmental
scientist from Rye, New
Hampshire.
Messmer was a state
legislator when she attended
the 2017 march in her state
capital of Portsmouth. She’s
now a candidate for the seat
held by retiring U.S. Rep.
Carol Shea-Porter, a fellow
Democrat.
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Lifeways said they hope to hire an outside consultant
within the next couple weeks.
“Things have never been what
they should be in terms of serving
an ever-growing population (of
mentally ill in crisis).”
— Stuart Roberts, Pendleton Police Chief
crises, he said. Often, with
no other options, people with
mental illness end up at the
emergency room or in jail.
And then soon back on the
street, problems unsolved.
Roberts said he had been
especially frustrated about
Lifeways’ reluctance to
deal with people who are
intoxicated. Mental illness
and substance use, he said,
are often woven together
and tough to tease apart. Yet,
Lifeways has created too
many rules for eligibility,
hamstringing the organiza-
tion.
“Eligibility should not
even be a part of the conver-
sation. If we look at the
demographic we deal with
on a regular basis, it is not
unusual for folks suffering
with mental illness to
self-medicate with drugs and
alcohol,” Roberts said. “If
they are under the influence,
(Lifeways) won’t even talk to
them.”
But he acknowledged
Lifeways’ openness at the
meeting.
“I’m appreciative they
came to the table with a level
of humility,” he said.
Hoekstra
had
most
recently
worked
in
Wenatchee,
Washington
as the Behavioral Health
Director at Columbia Valley
Community Health. Hoek-
stra said his background
as a therapist and drug and
alcohol counselor helped
him develop an interest in
dealing with broader health
care issues.
He said he visited Umatilla
County before accepting the
job, and was impressed with
the people he met.
“Lifeways,
and
the
systems of care in Umatilla
County, are not unlike other
areas with their challenges,”
he said at a meet-and-greet
on Thursday. “There [is] no
way to understand the total-
ities of those challenges, but
you hit the ground running.”
He said he was looking
forward to meeting with
the local law enforcement
groups on Friday to look at
the community’s health care
needs.
Hoekstra said he was
not informed of GOBHI’s
announcement before it was
released.
He said he had identified
several goals as Lifeways’
new CEO.
“Creating a collaborative,
effective partnership with a
community,” Hoekstra said.
“Continually
improving
[systems]
over
time,
improving outcomes for
patients, and controlling
costs.”
Roberts said he was eager
to move forward.
“It’s easy to make a
commitment. The tough part
is delivering,” he said. “I
would say it’s as good as I
could have hoped for.”
———
Contact
Jayati
Ramakrishnan
at
jramakrishnan@eastorego-
nian.com or 541-564-4534
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