East Oregonian : E.O., August 15, 2019, Image 1

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143rd Year, No. 215
REGONIAN
THURSDAY, AUGUST 15, 2019
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State public
records
survey shows
mixed bag
It’s only
rock
roll
The survey found a
wide variety in how
government bodies
follow public records law
By AUBREY WIEBER
Oregon Capital Bureau
SALEM — A fi rst-ever survey
of Oregon public bodies sheds light
on how well government of all sizes
complies with pub-
lic records law.
The results are
a mixed bag, said
Ginger
McCall,
the state’s public
records advocate.
The survey was
McCall
sent to 132 bod-
ies, a mix of state
agencies, counties,
cities, school dis-
tricts, boards and
special services dis-
tricts. Ninety-seven
responded and 35
Fox
did not.
“I was very pleased with the rate
of response,” McCall said. “I was
pleased to see that broadly agencies
are taking this seriously.”
Public records law works to
ensure the public has access to docu-
ments and information produced by
public agencies, employees and offi -
cials. It can be anything from emails
between the governor and her staff
to police reports to documentation
showing sexual abuse by a public
school teacher. Journalists rely on
public documents for their report-
ing, but the public has the same right
to that information. The point of the
survey is to see how well public bod-
ies are following the law.
The survey asked government
bodies how many records requests
they received in 2018, how many
they completed within the 15-day
deadline, how many were com-
pleted within 60 days of the original
request, how many fee waivers they
granted and how much money they
collected in fees for fulfi lling the
requests.
The results were all over the
board. Some, like the Oregon Med-
ical Board, completed all 1,414
requests within the 15 days. Ore-
gon State Police completed 800 of its
4,764 requests within the 15-day stat-
utory deadline. OSP and the Depart-
ment of Environmental Quality each
received more than 4,000 requests
— far more than any other agency.
Wendy Landers leads OSP’s
records division, which is a team of
fi ve, though she said most work is
done by two people.
“Our requests are so large,” she
said. “We have to, of course, review
them for exemptions and all of that.”
OSP has several divisions, and
'N'
Staff photo by Ben Lonergan
Ashley Sidars is silhouetted at a practice session on Wednesday with her band Pure Love during the 2019 Pendleton Rock & Roll
Camp at the Pendleton Center for the Arts
For the 14th year in a row,
the Pendleton Rock & Roll
Camp is helping teenagers
hone their musical abilities
By JESSICA POLLARD
East Oregonian
P
ENDLETON — When the Pendleton
Center for the Arts is crammed with
over 70 teenagers playing rock music
in every nook and cranny, it must be
time for Rock & Roll Camp.
Open to teens ages 13 to 18, this
week’s camp runs through Friday. Camp-
ers spend the week learning instruments,
forming bands, and eventually writing
original songs that will be performed live
Friday night.
This year is Addison Schulberg’s sec-
ond time directing the camp. But his leg-
acy with it goes all the way back to its
creation, when he attended the fi rst-ever
Rock Camp in 2005 at age 13.
“It was the most magical thing,” Schul-
berg said of his time as a camper. “It
changed the course of my life.”
When he aged out of camp, he asked to
be a volunteer and was eventually offered
a position as a paid counselor. Three years
ago, when then-director Peter Walters
offered him the position, he was in awe.
“I knew I couldn’t say no, but it did ter-
rify me,” Schulberg said.
Today, he spends time recording other
artists and playing in a few bands, includ-
ing Pendleton locals 200e and Misty
Mouth.
And it seems that some will follow
similar paths. This year’s camp is the
fi nal one for members of the local band
Staff photo by Julianah Matamoros
See Rock ’n’ Roll, Page A7
Samuel Surged, 17, sings during band practice at the 2019 Pendleton Rock & Roll Camp
at the Pendleton Center for the Arts Wednesday afternoon.
See Records, Page A7
New Oregon death penalty rules affect old cases, DOJ fi nds
Senate Bill
1013 limited
use of capital
punishment
By DIRK VANDERHART
Oregon Public Broadcasting
SALEM — A new law
curbing use of the death pen-
alty in Oregon now appears to
go further than its supporters
intended, after a recent rul-
ing that a former death row
inmate cannot be sentenced to
death upon retrial.
Now the Oregon Depart-
ment of Justice is warning
of unintended consequences
from the law, and the state’s
Nelson
Primus
prosecutors are working to
determine how many murder
cases could be affected.
“We are scrambling,”
said Tim Colahan, executive
director of the Oregon District
Attorneys Association. “DAs
around the state, particularly
those that have pending cases,
are scrambling to try to deci-
pher and see what exactly this
means.”
Morrow County District
Attorney Justin Nelson said
Senate Bill 1013 does not
affect his county’s cases, but
district attorneys tried to tell
lawmakers in committee in
the recent legislative session
the bill could apply to past
cases.
“That was disregarded,”
Nelson said. “I think a lot of
testimony and comments
from district attorneys was
disregard this session.”
The ramifi cations of SB
1013 are likely to be a major
discussion at this week’s Ore-
gon District Attorneys Asso-
ciation Summer Conference
in Bend. About 300 prosecu-
tors from across Oregon are
attending, including Nelson
and Umatilla County District
Attorney Dan Primus and
team.
“I talk to our prosecutors
about it all the time,” Primus
said. “We can’t impact what
the law is — all we can do
is stay within the bounds of
what the law provides.”
While the law does not
affect Umatilla County cases,
Primus emphasized what he
and his staff do is for the vic-
tims and the families of vic-
tims, and a case coming back
on appeal for resentencing
under the new law would mat-
ter greatly to the victims.
“I think that gets lost in all
of it,” Primus said.
Lawmakers behind the
new law said Tuesday they
were surprised by the snafu
and would seek a fi x as soon
as possible — even asking
the governor to call a one-day
special session next month.
In passing Senate Bill
1013, lawmakers limited the
use of capital punishment
to a narrow set of circum-
stances, including terrorist
acts and murders of children
or law enforcement offi cers.
But offi cials also appeared
to take pains to ensure those
changes would apply to sen-
tences moving forward —
not cases where a sentence
was pending or those where a
punishment had already been
handed down, but which were
returned to a lower court.
They didn’t succeed,
according to a memo sent to
state prosecutors Aug. 9 by
DOJ Solicitor General Ben
Gutman.
See DOJ, Page A7