Page 8A
OFF PAGE ONE
East Oregonian
Friday, September 21, 2018
CHIEF: Pendleton has
more area to cover, less
people than Kansas City
Continued from 1A
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
Isela Bautista, center, of Sunnyside, Washington, restocks ears of corn at her booth for Bautista Farms on Thurs-
day at the Hermiston Farmers Market.
MARKET: Final day is next Thursday
Continued from 1A
nent shade structure where
developer Mitch Myers had
originally hoped to hold this
year’s market after the city
approached him about tak-
ing the event over.
At the beginning of the
summer Myers announced
he would have to cancel the
market after a dispute with
the city’s building depart-
ment held up permits for the
site and a stop-work order
was issued. But after the city
offered to hold the market on
its new festival street instead,
Myers changed his mind
and said he could make it
work on a property he owned
across the street using a tem-
porary canopy.
The building permit has
since been issued, and work
has begun again on the pavil-
ion, which is expected to be
complete in time for next
year’s market. Brown said
they may be able to talk to
the city about blocking off a
road or doing something else
to create more room for the
market.
In the meantime, this
year’s market drew more
vendors than years past, and
bigger crowds. Offerings
Thursday included fruits,
vegetables, honey, fresh
bread, salads, meat, cheese,
jewelry, soaps, rugs, fresh
flowers and other locally
sourced items.
Jonathan Tallman was
manning a booth for his
parents’ small family farm
Thursday, selling eggs,
watermelon and a variety
of vegetables. He said they
hadn’t participated in the old
Hermiston farmers market
but there was more incentive
with the larger crowds and
the fact that there was no fee
for vendors.
“It didn’t cost anything,”
he said. “That was the num-
ber one factor.”
Kevin Englehart, who
was selling produce from
his garden, said this was also
his first year participating in
a farmers market. He and a
buddy from high school have
a “giant garden” on about
half an acre of land. Usually
Englehart just gives away the
results to family and friends,
but this year he planted extra.
“I needed a place to mar-
ket stuff,” he said, touting
the opportunity to buy local,
organic, vine-ripened, hand-
picked produce.
Teenager Katie Brink was
selling soaps under the busi-
ness name Mercy Bee Soaps.
She said she started mak-
ing and selling scented soap
to raise money for a church
camp. Early in the summer,
when there were still a few
spaces left, she and a friend
saw the market and decided
to stop.
“I thought, ‘Oh my gosh,
this is a perfect way to get my
stuff out there,’” she said.
Her mom Stacey Brink
said she felt that placing
live music, empty tables and
places to buy dinner outside
of the canopy helped draw
people in.
“People can sit and eat
and enjoy the evening,” she
said.
Tamara Warrington said
she was a big fan of farmers
markets and goes to others,
including Echo’s.
“I would rather go to one
of these than go to the gro-
cery store for fresh vegeta-
bles,” she said.
She said she missed the
trees and grass of when it
was at McKenzie Park and
had preferred having the
market on a Saturday, but
she did like the large range
of vendors that the Maxwell
Market had drawn in.
Mallory Bark, buying
nectarines at the market with
her young children, said the
kids loved picking out pro-
duce and sitting and listening
to the music.
“I think our community
needed this,” she said. “I’m
glad it got worked out to do
it.”
———
Contact Jade McDowell
at jmcdowell@eastorego-
nian.com or 541-564-4536.
CANNABIS: Oregon Liquor Control
Commission cracks down, citing abuse
Continued from 1A
The limit dropped from
a pound and a half of mari-
juana to 1 ounce — the same
quantity recreational canna-
bis consumers are allowed
to buy.
“What we saw was abuse,
clear abuse of the stan-
dards,” Steve Marks, exec-
utive director of the Liquor
Control Commission, said
Wednesday.
Over 19 days in August,
for instance, one medi-
cal marijuana cardholder
bought nearly 13 pounds of
cannabis. Another bought
7 pounds over 10 days that
month. Officials said the
questionable
transactions
came from a small percent-
age of cardholders and that
the typical purchase for most
cardholders was 4 grams or
less.
Marks said marijuana
program overseers worried
that the state’s low mari-
juana prices enticed some
cardholders to stock up and
“take it to Iowa or wherever
and sell for a profit.”
“We saw that happening,”
he said, adding it was “a lit-
tle bit of a Ponzi scheme.”
Oregon has been in the
crosshairs of U.S. Justice
Department leaders for not
doing enough to crack down
on the black market. U.S.
Attorney Billy Williams has
repeatedly expressed frus-
tration with the state’s fail-
ure to contain production
and he’s chided top officials
for not devoting enough
resources to oversight and
enforcement.
On Wednesday, patients
and advocates for the med-
ical marijuana program
blasted the new limits at
a contentious meeting of
the state’s rules advisory
committee.
Advocates said medical
marijuana patients some-
times need large quantities
of the drug to make products
they rely on to treat their
conditions and they accused
the state of meddling with
medicine.
The rules committee,
made up of marijuana indus-
try participants and advo-
cates, called on the Liquor
Control Commission to
restore daily purchase limits
to 24 ounces.
The at-times boister-
ous crowd included some
of the same activists who
have long championed Ore-
gon’s 20-year-old medical
marijuana program since its
early days. For many, the
rule reflects the latest change
to a program that has expe-
rienced a steep drop-off in
participation since voters
approved recreational mari-
juana in 2014.
State statistics show Ore-
gon has about 39,000 medi-
cal marijuana patients, down
from 78,000 in 2015. The
number of grow sites serv-
ing three or more patients
has also plummeted from
about 4,000 in 2015 to about
800 today, according to
Anthony Taylor, a longtime
advocate.
Cannabis is tax-free for
medical marijuana patients.
They also are allowed to buy
more potent edibles and oils
than recreational users, and
until the latest rule change,
they could buy more canna-
bis flower.
It remains a vital program
for those who remain, sup-
porters said.
Brent Kenyon, a licensed
producer, processor and
retailer based in Medford,
accused regulators of scape-
goating medical marijuana
cardholders for black market
diversion when recreational
producers do the same.
“You cannot punish
everybody for the few bad
actors,” he said. “You can’t
do it. It’s not good policy.”
During a particularly
tense
exchange,
Jesse
Sweet, the lawyer who has
helped draft the state’s rules
for Oregon’s legal marijuana
market, asked Dr. Rachel
Knox, a member of the advi-
sory committee, to explain
why one person would need
so much cannabis.
“I need you to explain to
me why a patient needs 6
pounds of flower,” he said.
Knox countered by saying
the state had no proof that
the transactions were linked
to illegal activity and she
wouldn’t rule out that one
person could have a legit-
imate medical need for a
large quantity.
It was a claim that Sweet
found incredulous, using
an expletive to express his
disbelief.
Sweet, the administrative
policy and process director
for the Liquor Control Com-
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mission, then got up and
walked out of the crowded
meeting. He eventually
returned and apologized for
losing his temper.
Marks, after the meeting,
struck a diplomatic note,
saying he was encouraged
by the lively discussion and
some of the advocates’ pro-
posals, including allowing
patients to buy more mar-
ijuana based on a doctor’s
recommendation.
“We are going to look at
it,” he said. “We are listening.”
The city selected the
association to run its fire
chief search, and due to
several fire chief vacancies
across the state, the asso-
ciation advised the city to
pick an interim fire chief
through the end of the year
and then reopen the perma-
nent position on Jan. 1.
Berardi traveled to
Pendleton on Sept. 10,
where he met with city offi-
cials and took in the Profes-
sional Bull Riders event at
the Happy Canyon arena.
If Berardi wants to stay
on past the end of 2018,
Corbett said he could apply
for the longterm job when
the position is posted in
January.
Shawn Penninger, the
current interim fire chief,
said he will revert to his
permanent role as assis-
tant fire chief and fire mar-
shal when Berardi starts on
Oct. 15.
Penninger said he was
invited to apply for a pro-
motion to fire chief, but
he declined due to famil-
ial commitments. He plans
to stay on with the Pend-
leton Fire Department and
met with Berardi during
his trip to Pendleton, call-
ing him an “absolutely stel-
lar candidate.”
One of Berardi’s for-
mer subordinates, Kan-
sas City assistant fire chief
Mark Mauer, also had kind
words to say about him.
Mauer said Berardi was
a hard worker who was
passionate about his job
and put a lot time into it.
“One of his sharpest
assets is his mind,” he said.
He’s been a past presi-
dent of the Missouri Asso-
ciation of Fire Chiefs and
a member of the Interna-
tional Association of Fire
Chiefs in addition to hold-
ing a master’s degree in
public administration from
the University of Missou-
ri-Kansas City.
Working his way up
from a firefighter to fire
chief, Berardi’s five-year
tenure at the helm of the
Kansas City Fire Depart-
ment had its share of highs
and lows.
According to The Kan-
sas City Star, a 2013 nat-
ural gas explosion at a
restaurant that killed one
person led Bereradi to
announce new protocols
on how to respond to gas
leaks.
When a building col-
lapse killed two firefight-
ers, an internal review and
federal report cited mis-
steps by the commanders.
The department has since
instituted a formal collapse
zone policy.
But Berardi was also
leading the department
when Kansas City voters
approved a 20-year exten-
sion of a quarter-cent sales
tax for the fire department.
He told the Star that he was
most proud of an appren-
ticeship program for high
school students and new
trainings that were intro-
duced during his time.
When Berardi arrives in
Pendleton in mid-October,
he will work in a depart-
ment much smaller.
Mauer, the assistant
fire chief in Kansas City,
said the Kansas City Fire
Department employs 1,300
personnel, including 225
emergency medical staffers
and 1,000 firefighters. In
comparison, the Pendleton
Fire Department has about
30 positions.
Pendleton’s
cover-
age area is larger — 1,000
square miles versus 360
square miles for Kansas
City — but the Kansas City
Fire Department is respon-
sible for about 500,000
people as opposed to the
approximately
20,000
people the Pendleton Fire
Department responds to
with its ambulance service.
Despite the size differ-
ential, Berardi said that
whether it’s a rural fire dis-
trict or a metro fire depart-
ment, all agencies deal
with public safety and
preparation.
“We all have the same
issues, just on a different
scale,” he said.
Corbett said the fire
chief position will continue
to be supervised by Police
Chief Stuart Roberts acting
as the public safety direc-
tor, although the set-up
will be re-evaluated when
a permanent hire is made in
2019 based on experience
and qualifications.
The police chief’s
supervision of the depart-
ment was a point of con-
tention between Roberts
and the last full-time chief,
Mike Ciraulo.
Ciraulo abruptly retired
in April, and although both
city officials and Ciraulo
declined to provide a rea-
son, Ciraulo’s evalua-
tions revealed that there
were also disagreements
over budget and personnel
matters.
Ciraulo’s departure was
contentious, with both the
firefighters union and resi-
dents publicly opposing the
move.
While other city depart-
ments have experienced
years of stability under
their leaders, the fire chief
position has been a revolv-
ing door. Including interim
appointments, Pendleton
has had seven different fire
chiefs since 2010.
Corbett said Berardi
will earn $9,647 per month
through the end of the year.
———
Contact Antonio Sierra
at asierra@eastoregonian.
com or 541-966-0836.
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