NORTHWEST
East Oregonian
Page 2A
Cougars euthanized in Silverton, The Dalles
Employers weighing
benefits of PERS
liability payments
By CLAIRE WITHYCOMBE
Capital Bureau
SALEM — It’s not
yet clear how many of the
state’s public employers
will use a new state program
meant to address the state’s
public pension debt.
A little time, and a lot of
math, stand between now
and the answer.
Oregon has an unfunded
public pension liability of
about $25.3 billion. Gov.
Kate Brown has been
seeking ways to pay down
that debt, largely benefits
already earned by retirees
that can’t legally be altered.
A bill requested by
Brown and passed by
lawmakers in the recently
concluded
legislative
session, Senate Bill 1566,
established a special incen-
tive fund. Qualifying public
employers are to receive a
match of 25 percent of a one
time, lump-sum payment
they make toward their
share of the $25.3 billion
liability.
The bill also created a
separate School Districts
Unfunded Liability Fund,
which
will
distribute
money to a new account to
help school districts offset
growing PERS costs.
Both are funded by
one-time revenue sources
expected to generate about
$140 million — $25 million
for the match and $115
million for the school fund.
Rob
Bovett,
legal
counsel for the Association
of Oregon Counties, says
many counties are inter-
ested in the match program,
though he has yet to hear
of any who have decided
whether to use it or not.
Bovett says the 25 percent
match makes a difference
in the face of skyrocketing
percentage of payroll that
public employers devote to
PERS costs.
“With six years of really
Oregon wildlife officials
euthanized two cougars
this week, the first after
sightings in Silverton that
closed The Oregon Garden
and the second in The Dalles
that was found in an under
construction hotel room.
The subadult cougar in
Silverton had been spotted
by a woman walking through
the wetlands of the botanical
garden, Oregon Department
of Fish and Wildlife officials
said. The site was closed
Wednesday, and ODFW
trapped and killed the animal
soon after.
“The
cougar
was
euthanized because it was
considered a public safety
risk,” ODFW spokeswoman
Michelle Dennehy said.
“That
basically
means
they’ve killed livestock, pets
or have been seen repeatedly
in broad daylight. Cougars
are normally afraid of people,
and if they’re not, that indi-
cates something isn’t right.”
Then on Tuesday, a
two-year-old male cougar
was found in a room under
construction at the Oregon
Motor Motel in The Dalles.
SALEM — A backlog of
rape kits in Oregon is a year
away from being eliminated
following the passage of a
state law mandating quicker
testing, officials say.
The kits collect biological
material following reported
sex crimes. In 2015, the
Oregon State Police said it
had a backlog of more than
5,600. In 2016, legislators
passed a measure to speed up
processing, but by 2017 state
labs said their backlog had
actually increased as old kits
poured in from around the
state.
The state patrol and
Multnomah County now say
that kits are being processed
quickly, and that labs are
within a year of completing
testing on thousands of older,
warehoused kits dating to
1983. Less than 2,000 are
estimated to be left statewide.
The backlog in three of the
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East Oregonian (USPS 164-980) is published daily except Sunday, Monday and
postal holidays, by the EO Media Group, 211 S.E. Byers Ave. Pendleton, OR 97801.
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59° 49°
58° 34°
FRIDAY
SATURDAY
Mostly cloudy with
a bit of rain
Chance of a little
p.m. rain
PENDLETON TEMPERATURE FORECAST
50° 32°
50° 31°
50° 31°
HERMISTON TEMPERATURE FORECAST
58° 34°
62° 49°
PENDLETON
through 3 p.m. yesterday
TEMPERATURE
HIGH
LOW
58°
56°
75° (1911)
30°
36°
18° (1913)
PRECIPITATION
24 hours ending 3 p.m.
Month to date
Normal month to date
Year to date
Last year to date
Normal year to date
0.00"
0.94"
0.87"
3.27"
5.10"
3.38"
HERMISTON
through 3 p.m. yesterday
TEMPERATURE
HIGH
Yesterday
Normals
Records
LOW
61°
59°
76° (1947)
26°
35°
19° (1943)
PRECIPITATION
24 hours ending 3 p.m.
Month to date
Normal month to date
Year to date
Last year to date
Normal year to date
0.00"
0.43"
0.61"
2.06"
4.19"
2.85"
SUN AND MOON
Sunrise today
Sunset tonight
Moonrise today
Moonset today
First
Full
Mar 24
Mar 31
Last
Apr 8
54° 32°
55° 34°
Seattle
57/44
ALMANAC
Yesterday
Normals
Records
55° 35°
6:57 a.m.
7:09 p.m.
9:29 a.m.
none
New
Apr 15
Today
SUNDAY
Spokane
Wenatchee
50/43
52/40
Tacoma
Moses
56/41
Lake
Pullman
Aberdeen Olympia
Yakima 57/45
53/44
54/43
56/40
60/44
Longview
Kennewick Walla Walla
54/42
60/51 Lewiston
61/47
Astoria
59/47
51/40
Portland
Enterprise
Hermiston
56/46
Pendleton 52/43
The Dalles 62/49
59/49
59/43
La Grande
Salem
54/47
55/43
Albany
Corvallis 54/41
54/40
John Day
56/48
Ontario
Eugene
Bend
62/48
55/38
54/40
Caldwell
Burns
62/49
55/40
Astoria
Baker City
Bend
Brookings
Burns
Enterprise
Eugene
Heppner
Hermiston
John Day
Klamath Falls
La Grande
Meacham
Medford
Newport
North Bend
Ontario
Pasco
Pendleton
Portland
Redmond
Salem
Spokane
Ukiah
Vancouver
Walla Walla
Yakima
Hi
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NATIONAL WEATHER TODAY
Thu.
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Shown are noon positions of weather systems and precipitation. Temperature bands are highs for the day.
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WORLD CITIES
Today
Beijing
Hong Kong
Jerusalem
London
Mexico City
Moscow
Paris
Rome
Seoul
Sydney
Tokyo
Hi
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WINDS
Medford
60/42
(in mph)
Klamath Falls
52/39
Boardman
Pendleton
REGIONAL FORECAST
Coastal Oregon: Heavy rain today; a down-
pour in the morning, then rain in the south.
Eastern and Central Oregon: Mainly cloudy
today with a passing shower, except dry
across the north.
Western Washington: Cloudy today;
periods of rain across the south. Occasional
rain tonight.
Eastern Washington: Mostly cloudy today.
Rain and drizzle in the north; a shower near
the Idaho border and in the mountains.
Cascades: Periods of rain today. Plenty of
clouds tonight with a couple of showers.
Northern California: Cloudy today; rain,
some heavy; however, snow showers in the
interior mountains.
Today
Thursday
NE 4-8
SW 6-12
W 10-20
SW 10-20
UV INDEX TODAY
Shown is today’s weather. Temperatures are today’s highs and tonight’s lows.
0
2
3
called
Melissa’s
Law,
required police to pass kits
to state authorities within 14
days. The law was named for
Melissa Bittler, a 14 year-old
Portland girl killed by a rapist
on her way to school in 2001.
In that case, DNA evidence
linking the murder and other
rapes went untested for five
years.
Since the passage of the
law, Jacqueline Swanson, a
Portland attorney who has
represented rape victims,
said she has had calls from
women asking what to do
about investigations that seem
to have stalled, and reporting
that police had told them
they were waiting for rape kit
results.
Some kits are also attached
to crimes for which the
statute of limitations has
expired. While Oregon has
no statute of limitations for
first-degree sex crimes linked
to newly-discovered DNA
evidence, evidence of lesser
crimes does have a time limit.
COMMERCIAL PRINTING
Production Manager: Mike Jensen
541-215-0824 • mjensen@eastoregonian.com
REGIONAL CITIES
Forecast
A bit of rain and
snow
forwarded to Gardner’s lab.
But the tally of local
departments included some
that had been processed
before the count was finished.
Because of that overlap,
Gardner wrote in an email, he
estimates the total statewide
backlog is less. Statewide, he
estimates less than 2,000 kits
remain.
Despite progress on the
backlog, advocates say some
victims still face barriers to
having their reports taken
seriously. In February the
Portland Police Bureau
announced it had used a SAFE
kit to solve a 2006 crime, but
a report later surfaced that the
victim had given police the
name of the suspect immedi-
ately following the attack.
The case mirrored a 2017
report that the agency had
left a kit untested and made
no arrest in a 2011 assault,
despite also having the
suspect’s name and address.
The 2016 law that spurred
testing of the kits, officially
Circulation Manager:
Marcy Rosenberg • 541-966-0828 • mrosenberg@eastoregonian.com
Copyright © 2018, EO Media Group
Breezy with rain,
then cooler
the late winter.
“But a cougar coming
this far into downtown, into
the business district and
deep into a hotel complex,
and not showing fear of
people or wariness of urban
environments? That’s just
extremely odd,” said Jeremy
Thompson, ODFW district
wildlife biologist, in a press
release. “This may have been
a cougar that was unable to
establish its own home range
in its natural habitat.”
The Dalles cougar was
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Mostly cloudy
state’s most populous coun-
ties, Multnomah, Marion, and
Lane - including the cities
of Portland, Eugene, and
Salem - should be eliminated
next month, when results are
expected back from a private
lab, said Multnomah County
Deputy District Attorney Tara
Gardner.
“We’re waiting for approx-
imately 150 kits,” she said.
The statewide backlog is
also dropping, with state labs
logging 1,172 waiting kits in
February, the first decline in
their backlog since 2015. Lab
head Capt. Alex Gardner said
that with new staff he expects
to process the last by the end
of the year.
Some kits are also held
by local police, but the exact
number is always changing as
departments send their kits to
the state for testing, Gardner
said. A tally late last year and
including approximately 157
of the state’s more than 170
local departments, showed
about 1,100 kits waiting to be
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— Founded Oct. 16, 1875 —
THURSDAY
ODFW responded after
a call from city police and
found the animal trapped
in the small room. They
determined the cougar was a
public safety risk and sedated
it with a dart gun through a
vent in the wall, then took it
off-site and killed it.
Cougars are becoming a
more common sight in towns
such as Silverton, which are
close to a forested area and
food, Dennehy said, and
have long been part of life on
the outskirts of The Dalles in
By TOM JAMES
Associated Press
Corrections
TODAY
EO Media Group file
Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife has
euthanized two cougars in Oregon this week, one in
Silverton and the other in The Dalles.
Officials report steady progress on rape kit backlog
The East Oregonian works hard to be accurate and
sincerely regrets any errors. If you notice a mistake
in the paper, please call 541-966-0818.
www.eastoregonian.com
the sixth euthanized by the
state agency in 2018 because
of public safety concerns,
according to a press release.
Oregon’s cougar popula-
tion has rebounded from a
low of around 200 animals
in the late 1960s to more than
6,000 today, The Statesman
Journal reported.
Encounters
between
people and cougars are
rare. There has never been
a confirmed attack by a
wild cougar on a person in
Oregon, Dennehy said.
“Seeing more cougars is
part of a larger trend, espe-
cially in northwest Oregon,
but people don’t need to be
alarmed,” Dennehy said.
“Just consider keeping pets
indoors at night. If you do
encounter a cougar, make
yourself look big and don’t
run away from it.”
Cougars were hunted to
almost extinction in Oregon
until 1957, when they
were reclassified as a game
animal. Hunting cougars is
still allowed, but it’s more
restricted and there’s a
closely monitored bag limit.
In 1994, Oregon voters
outlawed hunting cougars
with dogs.
Associated Press
dramatic employer rate
increases, there is going
to be a significant loss of
public services, and this
is a way to stem the tide,”
Bovett said.
It will also take some
time for school districts
to figure out whether the
matching program will
work for them, says Jim
Green, executive director of
the Oregon School Boards
Association.
For a small or medi-
um-sized
district,
the
program could help to
temper those dramatic rate
increases from year to year
— say, instead of leaping
from 26 percent of payroll
to 33 percent, they might go
from 26 to 30 percent.
“It’s not just pure math,”
Green said. “It’s also, what
could we do in our district if
we had that money that goes
to that PERS increase?”
Under the new bill,
public employers that want
to get the matching funds
would have to contribute a
minimum of $25,000.
That will mean that
employers will also have
to evaluate whether making
the contribution to the
matching fund is worth the
cost of the contribution,
Green said.
Green rattled off a list
of potential needs that
$25,000 could help pay for,
especially in a small school
district: a new part-time
special education aide,
career and technical educa-
tion programming, a new
school bus or roof.
“At each and every turn
we need to do what will
have a bigger impact on
students,” Green said.
Public employers will
know more about whether
the program suits them once
PERS rates are set later
this year, and more still in
mid-2019, when the state’s
next two-year budget will
be finalized.
211 S.E. Byers Ave., Pendleton 541-276-2211
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Wednesday, March 21, 2018
1
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8 a.m. 10 a.m. Noon 2 p.m. 4 p.m. 6 p.m.
0-2, Low
3-5, Moderate 6-7, High;
8-10, Very High;
11+, Extreme
The higher the AccuWeather.com UV Index™ num-
ber, the greater the need for eye and skin protection.
Forecasts and graphics provided by
AccuWeather, Inc. ©2018
-10s
-0s
showers t-storms
0s
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rain
20s
flurries
30s
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snow
ice
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cold front
70s
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warm front stationary front
110s
high
low
National Summary: As snow winds down over the Ohio Valley and central Appalachians,
snow will ramp up in the coastal Northeast today. Heavy rain, flooding and mudslides are in
store for portions of California and Oregon.
Yesterday’s National Extremes: (for the 48 contiguous states)
High 90° in Pompano Beach, Fla.
Low -15° in Saranac Lake, N.Y.
NATIONAL CITIES
Today
Albuquerque
Atlanta
Atlantic City
Baltimore
Billings
Birmingham
Boise
Boston
Charleston, SC
Charleston, WV
Chicago
Cleveland
Dallas
Denver
Detroit
El Paso
Fairbanks
Fargo
Honolulu
Houston
Indianapolis
Jacksonville
Kansas City
Las Vegas
Little Rock
Los Angeles
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Today
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New York City
Oklahoma City
Omaha
Philadelphia
Phoenix
Portland, ME
Providence
Raleigh
Rapid City
Reno
Sacramento
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Weather (W): s-sunny, pc-partly cloudy, c-cloudy, sh-showers, t-thunderstorms, r-rain,
sf-snow flurries, sn-snow, i-ice.
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