NORTHWEST
East Oregonian
A2
Oregon considers changing the way
mentally ill people are committed
that he’s a danger to him-
self and others — that’s the
legal standard in Oregon.
But during those proceed-
ings, his son understood
enough to appear rational
and calm — convincing the
judge not to commit him.
Civil commitment is a
delicate issue for families
and authorities. The way
it works now is that when
someone threatens a fam-
ily member or runs through
traffic screaming at cars,
police can place a hold on
them. A county judge then
decides whether they’re “a
danger to self or others.”
But that legal standard
has not been defined by the
courts.
The process is justifiably
difficult. But many think
it’s become so difficult that
people only end up get-
ting help after they break
the law and are criminally
committed. So Oregon is
thinking about changing
the way people with men-
tal illnesses are civilly
committed.
Chris Bouneff lives with
a mental illness and heads
the Oregon branch of the
National Alliance on Men-
tal Illness. He understands
the reluctance to civil
commitment.
“Just because we have
a mental illness and we’re
Oregon Public
Broadcasting
Last year, Don Baglien’s
19-year-old son experi-
enced a psychotic break. It
was a Sunday afternoon.
He picked up the family
picnic and threw it over the
fence. Then he started turn-
ing on every faucet in the
house, dragging furniture
outside and howling.
It got so bad Baglien
called the Roseburg police
and had him arrested for
menacing. Baglien worked
with the local behavioral
health provider to get him
help. But since his son is
an
adult,
he couldn’t
i nter vene
and things
got worse.
“There
were
at
least six or
Bouneff
seven times
when things
were so out of hand that it
was clear that he needed to
get a bed somewhere where
someone could keep an eye
on him,” Baglien said.
Although the 19-year-
old has been diagnosed with
schizophrenia, he does not
accept that he’s ill. Baglien
has tried to get him civilly
committed by having peo-
ple argue in front of a judge
Oregon Public Broadcasting Photo/Kristian Foden-Vencil
Don Baglien worked with the local behavioral health pro-
vider to get his 19-year-old son help. But since he’s now
an adult, Baglien wasn’t privy to his medical history. That
meant he couldn’t intervene and things got worse.
symptomatic doesn’t mean
we’re stupid or drooling on
ourselves. I mean we have
a sense of reality. We’re
able to understand, if we’re
before a judge, that I may
lose my liberty,” Bouneff
said.
Civil commitments have
been appealed so many
times that the legal stan-
dard has become harder and
harder to meet. For exam-
ple, one threat of suicide is
no longer enough to prove
a danger, according to the
courts. And any perceived
danger has to be “highly
probable,” not just likely.
“We’ve reached a point
where the bar is so high,
that really the only way
to enter the Oregon State
Forecast for Pendleton Area
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Hospital, for example, is
to be arrested. And we find
that to be unacceptable,”
Bouneff said.
He said Senate Bill 763
aims to decriminalize men-
tal illness and is a minimal
fix. The bill would define
“dangerous to self or oth-
ers” as “likely” to inflict
serious harm within the
next 30 days. The bill also
dictates that one threat of
suicide can now be consid-
ered by a judge.
“We certainly don’t
want to open the floodgates.
We don’t want to make it
so easy that we’re overus-
ing civil commitment. But
the bar has to come down a
tiny bit because we are los-
ing people,” Bouneff said.
Clouds and sun, a
shower; warmer
Partly sunny and
delightful
A couple of
showers
Periods of clouds
and sun
PENDLETON TEMPERATURE FORECAST
61° 47°
71° 45°
75° 53°
68° 42°
71° 48°
HERMISTON TEMPERATURE FORECAST
67° 49°
78° 50°
82° 57°
74° 49°
77° 51°
OREGON FORECAST
ALMANAC
Shown is today’s weather. Temperatures are today’s highs and tonight’s lows.
PENDLETON
through 3 p.m. yest.
HIGH
LOW
TEMP.
Seattle
Olympia
63/49
59/43
65/48
Longview
Kennewick Walla Walla
63/48
Lewiston
64/48
66/48
Astoria
63/51
Pullman
Yakima 69/52
65/44
64/47
Portland
Hermiston
68/52
The Dalles 67/49
Salem
Corvallis
65/48
Yesterday
Normals
Records
La Grande
56/45
PRECIPITATION
John Day
Eugene
Bend
65/48
57/41
55/46
Ontario
63/51
Caldwell
Burns
71°
47°
74°
48°
94° (1928) 35° (2003)
24 hours ending 3 p.m.
Month to date
Normal month to date
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Albany
64/47
Trace
0.29"
0.73"
4.17"
4.96"
4.72"
Today
Boardman
Pendleton
Medford
59/47
SALEM — Oregon’s car-
bon cap and trade proposal
passed out of its legislative
committee on a party-line
vote Friday, setting it up
as the next landmark piece
of legislation to pass in the
2019 session.
It’s now one step closer
to the desk of Gov. Kate
Brown, who this week
signed the Student Suc-
cess Act into law. If cap and
trade were to pass as well,
it would give her two land-
mark wins within months of
her re-election.
The bill now goes to the
Ways and Means Commit-
tee, where it can continue
to be tweaked, though the
committee will look at the
financial aspects of the bill,
not the policy.
WINDS (in mph)
59/48
55/40
0.16"
0.89"
0.80"
8.65"
6.07"
5.91"
through 3 p.m. yest.
HIGH
LOW
TEMP.
Pendleton 51/42
66/47
24 hours ending 3 p.m.
Month to date
Normal month to date
Year to date
Last year to date
Normal year to date
HERMISTON
Enterprise
61/47
68/49
65°
44°
72°
48°
93° (1928) 33° (1910)
PRECIPITATION
Moses
Lake
64/46
Aberdeen
68/49
69/53
Tacoma
Yesterday
Normals
Records
Spokane
Wenatchee
66/51
Wed.
W 6-12
WSW 6-12
OREGON IN BRIEF
Small earthquake
hits Oregon coast
ROSE LODGE — The
U.S. Geological Survey says
a magnitude 3.7 earthquake
hit along Oregon’s Pacific
coast. The earthquake struck
a spot 1.3 miles southwest of
Rose Lodge, a town of about
1,900 people, at 9:23 a.m.
Sunday. The earthquake had
a depth of 29 miles.
The
Oregonian/Ore-
gonLive.com reported that
minor shaking was reported
along the coast from Wald-
port to Cloverdale, with
scattered reports further
inland. No damage was
reported.
Woman stops to
check skid marks,
finds injured man
PORTLAND — An Ore-
gon woman likely saved a
man’s life when she stopped
to investigate skid marks on
a mountain road and spot-
ted an SUV crashed below,
emergency responders said.
Laurie Bowers, of Happy
Camp, on Saturday morn-
ing stopped to look over a
cliff on Grayback Road in
the Siskiyou Mountains of
southwest Oregon. Bowers
spotted a red Jeep about 50
feet below, The Oregonian/
OregonLive reported.
A single tree held the
SUV from sliding down a
40-degree slope.
Emergency responders
found the driver suffering
from hypothermia, a frac-
tured leg and internal bleed-
ing. He was airlifted to a
hospital in Medford. His
name has not been released.
Portland to crack
down on short-
term rentals
PORTLAND — Port-
land’s mayor is planning to
introduce an ordinance that
would force online short-
term rental companies like
Airbnb to take down unper-
mitted rentals.
Oregon Public Broad-
casting reports the proposed
crackdown follows a fed-
eral court ruling in March
that dealt a legal blow to
Airbnb’s long-held position
that it is not responsible for
policing unpermitted list-
ings on its site.
Portland’s revenue divi-
sion has been trying to reach
a voluntary agreement with
the company for more than
a year. The city says Airb-
nb’s latest offer represented
a step backward, so it is pre-
paring to try a tougher tac-
tic: an ordinance that goes
after Airbnb’s profits.
The draft ordinance
would prevent Airbnb from
collecting booking fees
on unpermitted rentals in
Portland.
Carbon pricing proposal takes
significant step toward reality
By AUBREY WIEBER
Oregon Capital Bureau
Mostly cloudy with
a little rain
Tuesday, May 21, 2019
NNE 6-12
N 6-12
House Bill 2020 would
set a 52 million metric ton
cap on greenhouse gas
emissions. Companies that
produce at least 25,000 met-
ric tons of emissions per
year would have to pay for
every ton they emit by buy-
ing allowances through an
auction. The proceeds from
those sales would go to a
highway projects, climate
mitigation projects, rural
and minority communities,
and other programs.
The passage would join
Oregon with California
as the only U.S. states to
implement cap-and-trade
systems. It’s a journey Ore-
gon lawmakers have been
on for about a decade.
The bill’s passage out of
committee was expected.
While similar proposals
failed in past years, Demo-
cratic leadership has been
adamant that it’s time to
move forward with an
answer to climate change.
The
proposal
has
received strong criticism
from Republicans and the
business community, but
with Democratic superma-
jorities in both the House
and Senate, it was always
expected to have the votes to
pass. It was also something
Brown campaigned on.
However, there was a
hiccup earlier this week
when a deal over an educa-
tion package was reached.
In order to pass a $1 bil-
lion-per-year business tax
to fund education reforms,
Democrats agreed to kill a
couple bills and do a “reset”
on cap-and-trade.
For several days, it wasn’t
clear what that meant. That’s
because the specifics were
never hammered out.
CORRECTIONS: 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.
SUN AND MOON
Klamath Falls
50/37
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Sunrise today
Sunset tonight
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Moonset today
5:18 a.m.
8:26 p.m.
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Full
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I am Banner Bank.
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Stacy is a veteran banker with
25 years experience. Raised in
Boardman, she’s proud to call
Eastern Oregon home. As an active
member of our local community,
you’ll find her volunteering with
the Hermiston Sports Boosters, the
Blue Mountain Golf Tournament
and the King and Queen’s Golf
Tournament. Find out how Stacy
can support your success.
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Commercial Lending - Hermiston
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