NORTHWEST
East Oregonian
A2
Thursday, August 22, 2019
Sheriff’s investigation of reporter’s inquiries stokes ire
By ANDREW SELSKY
Associated Press
VALE — Journalists in Oregon
and beyond have risen in defense
of a small newspaper after a county
attorney asked the sheriff to inves-
tigate whether its journalists broke
the law for trying to get comments
from government officials after
business hours.
Staffers at the Malheur Enter-
prise, a weekly newspaper in the
remote town of Vale, said they were
just doing their job.
“We’re not going to be bullied,”
said editor Les Zaitz.
Malheur County Sheriff Brian
Wolfe said Wednesday an inquiry
determined no laws had been
broken.
“As an elected sheriff, we will
always respect the constitutional
rights of anybody and every-
body. We do believe in freedom of
the press and free speech that we
believe are our rights given by the
Constitution of the United States,”
Wolfe said.
The newspaper had been investi-
gating why a car wash did not receive
a five-year exemption for local prop-
erty taxes that was allegedly prom-
ised. Bluebird Express Car Wash
built a $4.5 million installation in
the town of Ontario after it under-
stood it received the exemption, rep-
resenting about $335,000.
Greg Smith, the director for eco-
nomic development for Malheur
County, is responsible for determin-
ing and negotiating property tax
exemptions. Malheur Enterprise
Staff photo by E.J. Harris, File
Les Zaitz had planned on retiring from The Oregonian in 2016 to his range outside of John Day before he and his
wife, Scotta Callister, bought the weekly newspaper The Malheur Enterprise in Vale.
reporter Pat Caldwell sought several
times to get comment from Smith,
who is also a Republican member of
the Oregon Legislature.
“This is an effort to get accu-
rate information,” said Zaitz, a for-
mer investigative reporter with The
Oregonian newspaper and a two-
time Pulitzer Prize finalist. “The
public is entitled to that informa-
tion — not only entitled to that
information, it deserves it.”
Smith responded only after
the story was published on Aug.
14 with the headline “Malheur
County lured company to Ontario
with tax break promise, then
doesn’t deliver.”
In a statement that the news-
paper published online, Smith
said no “pre-application” for a
property tax exemption had been
MONDAY
Strike looms on the horizon
Pleasant with
plenty of sun
Members of SEIU
503 bargaining team
say universities not
offering fair contract
Forecast for Pendleton Area
TODAY
FRIDAY
SATURDAY
Beautiful with
clouds and sun
Mostly sunny and
pleasant
81° 51°
86° 61°
SUNDAY
Mostly sunny and
pleasant
Nice with
abundant sunshine
approved or signed.
“Over the last six months, me
and my staff have been subjected to
endless phone calls, hostile emails
at all hours of the day and unwel-
come office visits,” Smith asserted.
Zaitz said Caldwell sent two
emails to Smith during business
hours seeking comment. Zaitz said
he felt it was his duty to email Smith
on Saturday to provide every oppor-
PENDLETON TEMPERATURE FORECAST
86° 58°
83° 53°
83° 56°
HERMISTON TEMPERATURE FORECAST
88° 62°
84° 52°
88° 60°
86° 54°
OREGON FORECAST
87° 56°
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
69/53
76/48
83/51
Longview
Kennewick Walla Walla
82/58
Lewiston
73/51
85/54
Astoria
68/52
Pullman
Yakima 85/54
73/49
83/58
Portland
Hermiston
75/55
The Dalles 84/52
Salem
Corvallis
77/49
Yesterday
Normals
Records
La Grande
77/46
PRECIPITATION
John Day
Eugene
Bend
78/49
77/46
78/49
Ontario
86/56
Caldwell
Burns
88°
69°
87°
56°
101° (1977) 41° (1945)
24 hours ending 3 p.m.
Month to date
Normal month to date
Year to date
Last year to date
Normal year to date
Albany
76/50
Boardman
Pendleton
Medford
86/55
0.00"
0.05"
0.14"
4.61"
5.13"
6.06"
WINDS (in mph)
84/54
80/40
0.00"
0.10"
0.29"
9.71"
6.49"
8.24"
through 3 p.m. yest.
HIGH
LOW
TEMP.
Pendleton 73/44
76/51
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
81/51
80/55
88°
61°
86°
56°
106° (1897) 37° (1904)
PRECIPITATION
Moses
Lake
73/51
Aberdeen
78/55
82/58
Tacoma
Yesterday
Normals
Records
Spokane
Wenatchee
73/56
Today
Fri.
SW 6-12
W 7-14
SW 4-8
W 4-8
SUN AND MOON
Klamath Falls
80/44
Forecasts and graphics provided by AccuWeather, Inc. ©2019
Sunrise today
Sunset tonight
Moonrise today
Moonset today
6:04 a.m.
7:52 p.m.
11:22 p.m.
1:04 p.m.
Last
New
First
Full
Aug 23
Aug 30
Sep 5
Sep 13
NATIONAL EXTREMES
Yesterday’s National Extremes: (for the 48 contiguous states)
High 116° in Thermal, Calif. Low 31° in Bridgeport, Calif.
tunity to comment before the news-
paper went to press. Located in a
small Old West-style building, the
weekly publishes 1,400 copies, with
additional paid online subscribers.
County Counsel Stephanie Wil-
liams asked the sheriff to determine
if emails and calls to county eco-
nomic development officials consti-
tuted a crime.
“We looked at harassment, tele-
phonic harassment — really neither
one comes close in this situation,”
Wolfe said.
The reactions to the investigation
varied widely.
One person told Wolfe that if
he jailed the journalists, he would
deserve to be voted out of office.
Another person left a voicemail say-
ing the press reports fake news and
the sheriff should do whatever he
wants with the journalists.
The Oregon chapter of the Soci-
ety of Professional Journalists
issued a statement rebuking county
officials for asking the sheriff to
investigate.
“Journalists doggedly pursue the
stories they’re working on to inform
the public and their readership of
what is important to their commu-
nities,” said Amanda Waldroupe,
president of Oregon SPJ.
Journalists from elsewhere
voiced their support.
“The Fort Bragg Advo-
cate-News and Mendocino Beacon
here in California stand with you,
Malheur Enterprise. Your public
servants ought to grow a hide and
get used to those weekend emails,”
the newspapers tweeted.
NATIONAL WEATHER TODAY
By ELIZABETH
MILLER
Oregon Public Broadcasting
PORTLAND — The
bargaining team represent-
ing thousands of classified
staff at Oregon’s seven pub-
lic university employees,
including Eastern Oregon
University, has declared an
impasse in contract negoti-
ations, inching closer to a
strike.
Declaring an impasse
means management has
until Friday to submit a final
offer to workers. After that,
there’s a 30-day cooling off
period. During that period,
workers can give notice of a
strike.
SEIU 503 represents
thousands of university
staff, including library tech-
nicians, office workers and
custodial staff.
Members of the SEIU
503 bargaining team say the
universities are not offer-
ing a fair contract. Union
concerns range from sal-
ary increases to proposals
related to layoffs and work-
place bullying.
As part of negotiations,
the union is asking for a
3.5% cost of living adjust-
ment for 2020. The uni-
versities propose a 1% cost
of living increase for next
year.
SEIU 503 is also con-
testing salary increases and
the maximum salary a uni-
versity employee can earn.
According to SEIU, the
median salary for classi-
fied university employees is
$36,136.
“What I’m looking at
right now are proposals I
can’t live with,” said Dar-
row Omar, office coordi-
nator for Portland State’s
women, sexuality, and gen-
der studies department.
Omar is on leave from
the job to work as a SEIU
member organizer, telling
colleagues what’s going on
at the bargaining table.
Omar feels nervous
about a possible strike, but
there are also positive feel-
ings out of the tense con-
tract process. Omar said
colleagues are support-
ive of each other amid the
disrespect they feel from
management.
“There’s
excitement
about it but the excitement
comes from the extreme
frustration that we are feel-
ing,” Omar said.
It’s been 24 years since
SEIU 503 members went
on strike.
The bargaining news
comes at a time when Ore-
gon’s public universities are
dealing with new funding
from the state and tuition
increases.
Oregon legislators gave
$100 million more to the
state’s public universities
in a budget bill effective
Aug. 9. Three universities
received approval from the
state’s Higher Education
Coordinating Commission
to raise tuition above 5%.
“Universities are offer-
ing their lowest-paid work-
ers wage adjustments that
don’t come close to match-
ing inflation and students
increases in tuition,” said
PSU IT specialist Rob Full-
mer in a SEIU 503 release.
The bargaining team said
it will not agree to salary
increases for specific jobs
until management raises the
total compensation package
for all workers.
As Omar continues their
second year at PSU, they
say management’s pro-
posal shows a disinterest in
investing in employees.
“We’re very much the
people that grinds the gears
on campus so that universi-
ties run so that our students
can get service,” said Omar.
“What’s happening at the
bargaining table is saying
we’re not worth what we
need to live.”
BRIEFLY
Brown signs law expanding
National Guard tuition
assistance for higher education
SALEM — Gov. Kate Brown has signed
into law a measure allowing members of the
Oregon National Guard to receive tuition assis-
tance at Oregon Health and Science University
and private institutions in addition to com-
munity colleges and public higher education
institutions.
KATU-TV reported House Bill 2817 was
passed by the Oregon Legislature and signed
into law Tuesday.
The benefit will be available for the 2020-21
academic year.
The bill expands on a 2018 law that estab-
lished tuition assistance to members of the
Oregon National Guard to attend public uni-
versities and community college. That assis-
tance began during the 2018-19 academic year.
Both laws require a student to be in “good
standing” with a cumulative grade point aver-
age of 2.0 or higher.
— Associated Press
Shown are noon positions of weather systems and precipitation. Temperature bands are highs for the day.
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