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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 6, 2018)
Page 4A East Oregonian Tuesday, February 6, 2018 KATHRYN B. BROWN Publisher DANIEL WATTENBURGER Managing Editor TIM TRAINOR Opinion Page Editor Founded October 16, 1875 OUR VIEW We can’t keep failing the most vulnerable Oregon’s foster care system needs to enter the 21st century. A scathing audit conducted by the Secretary of State’s Office makes that clear. Caseworkers are overworked and exhausted, foster families are in short supply, and children suffer. The state Audits Division began the audit a year ago. The results, though disturbing, should not come as a surprise. Oregon’s leaders have long known of the problems, and a series of administrators have promised improvement. That turnaround finally might be underway. In releasing the audit report, Secretary of State Dennis Richardson criticized the culture and performance of the Oregon Department of Human Services, but he praised its new leadership. The top administration has been doing such simple but important things as visiting DHS field offices throughout the state, talking firsthand with front- line workers. DHS Director Fariborz Pakseresht, who took over in September, and his top managers regularly hold town hall meetings to update and listen to employees, advocates and the public. The most critical concern is to recruit, train and retain far more caseworkers and foster families. Richardson said the state needs nearly 800 additional caseworkers and related staff. Foster parents deserve higher compensation to cover their costs. And the state’s supposedly state-of-the-art foster care computer system, like other IT projects, is a frustrating mess. Meanwhile, Texas has a real-time system for tracking available placements for foster children, whereas Oregon too often houses children in hotels while caseworkers send emails desperately seeking an available family. Oregon state Rep. Knute Buehler, the Bend Republican who is running for governor, responded to the audit by calling for a special bipartisan commission to recommend specific reforms that could be implemented within 90 days. That is a good idea, even though Pakseresht has accepted the audit report’s recommendations and vowed to follow through. But during the 35-day legislative session that begins Monday, AP Photo/Rick Bowmer A foster parent hold a child in this Oct. 2007 file photo. Oregon lawmakers need not wait — they dare not wait — to add caseworkers and help foster children. This audit report belongs on every legislator’s desk, not on the shelf. If you think you might be willing to help fill the gap in foster care, call 800-331-0503. A foster care specialist will answer initial questions and provide a contact name of a Department of Human Services worker. The foster parent is given a stipend and must provide food, shelter, clothing, a sleeping area and other basic necessities. He or she serves as the primary contact for the child’s school, makes day care arrangements and schedules extracurricular activities, and drives them to their medical, counseling and court appointments. It is a brilliant opportunity to help children in need of compassion and care. OTHER VIEWS Woody Allen meets #MeToo F YOUR VIEWS The future of EOTEC and Pendleton’s Main Street With EOTEC bleeding cash at an alarming rate and swimming in red ink, the Hermiston City Council, Umatilla County commissioners and fair board (the same group that decided EOTEC was the answer that would save the fair, a fair the rest of the county showed no interest in saving) have finally realized it’s time to dissolve their partnership. The rosy picture they painted of the project, driven by emotion rather than sound economic principles, was a sham and the only way out is a taxpayer bailout by the county since no party really wants the liability or has the resources to operate the facility. After giving up the half interest in ownership, it’s proposed that we ante up $100,000 a year forever so the fair board can rent EOTEC for six weeks. That’s the amount of time they had to set up, put on, and clean up at the old fairgrounds. A luxury they could afford when the fairgrounds were county-owned. I get a feeling that we taxpayers have been conned and it’s time for an auction. Perpetuity, that’s how long the Pendleton Downtown Association (PDA) is asking for financial support from the city. That means forever, kinda like the IRS. That organization started as temporary and look at it now. Unlike the funding for the Chamber of Commerce, provided by the members and the transient room tax collected from overnight visitors, the PDA requested funding would come from property taxes. The credit they claim for any improvements downtown, other than Christmas lights, should probably go to Charles Denight, associate director of the Pendleton Development Commission, who did and continues to do most of the groundwork. The mayor gave the new city council a B- rating for the year and that sucks. Though I don’t agree with some of their spending decisions, the council can only set the agenda with the mayor’s guidance. It’s up to the city manager and his staff to carry that out. Economic reality will determine winners and losers downtown, not the city council or the mayor. Look at the number of restaurants that have opened and closed in the past couple of years, while long time businesses such as Zimmerman’s and Dean’s continue to flourish. Rick Rohde Pendleton CONTACT YOUR REPRESENTATIVES U.S. REPRESENTATIVE Greg Walden 185 Rayburn House Office Building Washington, DC 20515 202-225-6730 or 541-624-2400 SENATOR Bill Hansell, District 29 900 Court St. NE, S-423 Salem, OR 97301 503-986-1729 Sen.BillHansell@state.or.us 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. REPRESENTATIVES Greg Barreto, District 58 900 Court St. NE, H-38 Salem, OR 97301 503-986-1458 Rep.GregBarreto@state.or.us Greg Smith, District 57 900 Court St. NE, H-482 Salem, OR 97301 503-986-1457 Rep.GregSmith@state.or.us our years ago, when Woody nobody has explained where Dylan Allen was given a lifetime and Allen went when they both achievement award by the disappeared as the baby sitter was Golden Globes, Dylan Farrow searching for them — except Dylan, curled up in a ball on her bed, who says that that’s when the assault crying hysterically. Then she wrote happened. an open letter for my blog (nobody Meanwhile, it turns out that else seemed to want to publish it) Allen’s private notes over the decades describing how, when she was 7 Nicholas are “filled with misogynist and years old, Allen allegedly sexually Kristof lecherous musings,” showing “an assaulted her. insistent, vivid obsession with young Comment “That he got away with what he women and girls,” according to did to me haunted me as I grew up,” Richard Morgan, who sifted through she wrote. “I was terrified of being touched Allen’s 56-box archive and recounted his by men. I developed an eating disorder. I findings in The Washington Post. began cutting myself. That torment was There is always a risk that meticulous made worse by Hollywood.” scrutiny of a long career leads to cherry- We now know that Hollywood was hiding picking and finding whatever we’re looking many such secrets, and was quite uninterested for, especially for somebody trying to be in accountability for powerful bullies. After creative and funny. I reached out to Allen she bared her soul, Dylan was met with much through his publicist but did not receive “vitriol and disbelief,” as she put it. a response. He has consistently denied “There were days when I thought, ‘I’ve the allegations of abuse, and in October made a terrible mistake, I should never he warned against allowing “a witch hunt have opened my mouth,’” Dylan told me atmosphere, a Salem atmosphere.” the other day. Indeed, the certainty of the Dylan Farrow But in the last few months, the #MeToo case is that there has been a gross injustice: movement has changed that. “I am so sorry, Either an innocent man’s career is being Dylan,” Mira Sorvino wrote. Ellen Page destroyed, or a victim has been unfairly declared, “I did a Woody Allen movie and doubted since she confided in her pediatrician it is the biggest regret of my career.” Actors about an assault when she was 7 years old. are donating earnings from Woody Allen I asked Dylan whether there was any movies to sexual assault organizations, and chance that this was a false memory, that Amazon is said to be considering canceling she had been brainwashed. its distribution of his movies. “No,” she said flatly. “I think it’s more All this has been “incredibly healing,” logical almost that the people who accuse Dylan said. me of being brainwashed are brainwashed Frank Maco, the Connecticut prosecutor themselves by the celebrity, the glamour, who oversaw the case in the 1990s, told me the fantasy, the pull they have to Woody that he watched Dylan recently on “CBS Allen, their hero on a pedestal.” This Morning” and was impressed by how The larger point, she said, is not her the little girl had grown up to be “strong and own suffering over the years, but the need determined.” He reiterated what he had said to listen to victims. at the time: that he had probable cause to That’s where we have systematically bring a criminal case against Allen (who was failed — with gymnasts, with Harvey Dylan’s adoptive father) but couldn’t justify Weinstein’s victims, with the Catholic putting a fragile child through a brutal trial. Church and with innumerable girls and Maco added that both Dylan and her boys suffering anonymously at the hands of mother, Mia Farrow, had appeared to be abusive coaches, relatives, family friends or honorable and truthful. “Mia Farrow acted bosses. One demographer’s new estimate as nothing more than a concerned mother,” is that at least three-fourths of women he said. “There was no indication that this worldwide have been sexually harassed. was a fabricated story.” Yes, false accusations happen, and we I’m a friend of Dylan and her family, so must struggle to balance rights of victims against those of the accused — but it should I’m not an unbiased observer. But over the be obvious now that we haven’t gotten that years, I have reviewed the evidence, and on balance it persuades me. The most important balance nearly right. Too often, we have deferred to the powerful and doubted the contrary point is that an evaluation team weak, creating impunity and injustice. from Yale New Haven Hospital concluded The problem is not only abusers that Allen had not sexually abused Dylan, but more broadly a society that often but it was sharply criticized by other disbelieves or scorns those crying for help, experts. Meanwhile, the New York judge in like that young woman curled up on her the Mia Farrow-Woody Allen child custody bed crying during the Golden Globes. I’ll case ruled that although he couldn’t be leave her with the last word: sure whether the sexual assault itself had “What needs to change,” she said, with a occurred, “Mr. Allen’s behavior toward teary firmness that comes from 25 years of Dylan was grossly inappropriate.” That judge, Elliott Wilk, noted that on the pain, “is our response.” ■ day of the alleged assault, a baby sitter saw Nicholas Kristof grew up on a sheep and Allen with his head on Dylan’s lap, facing cherry farm in Yamhill. Kristof, a columnist her body. A tutor soon afterward found that for The New York Times since 2001. Dylan wasn’t wearing her underwear. And 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.
