OFF PAGE ONE
Thursday, September 5, 2019
East Oregonian
A7
Problems with how state’s universities spend money
By CLAIRE
WITHYCOMBE
Oregon Capital Bureau
SALEM — As thousands
of public university workers
in Oregon prepare to strike
at the end of the month, the
union representing them
claims there are fundamen-
tal problems with how the
universities spend money.
A report released Tues-
day by SEIU Local 503 is
the latest volley ahead of
a looming strike by nearly
5,000 classified workers
at Oregon’s seven public
universities.
In “Misplaced Priorities,”
the report’s author, Daniel
Morris, contends that more
dollars have been flowing
toward high salaries for uni-
versity presidents and top
administrators, sports pro-
grams and construction
financed by borrowing.
The report claims that
the state’s public universi-
ties have boosted spending
in those areas at the expense
of classified workers — those
who clean, cook and other-
wise make the state’s seven
universities function.
Those workers are prepar-
ing to walk off the job in the
midst of an impasse over con-
tract negotiations. The union
argues that the proposed
cost-of-living increases and
pay bumps aren’t enough.
And the union is now pub-
licly questioning whether
universities have their spend-
ing priorities straight.
For example, in recent
years, they claim, univer-
EOU Photo
A report released Tuesday by SEIU Local 503 is the latest volley ahead of a looming strike by nearly 5,000 classified workers
at Oregon’s seven public universities, including Eastern Oregon University in La Grande.
sities have been borrowing
more and more money to
build new facilities.
In the 1999-2001 budget,
3% of state money given to
universities went toward pay-
ing down debt, Morris wrote
in the report. In the 2017-19
biennium, 16% of state funds
allocated toward universities
paid debt.
The cause, Morris argues:
diminished
legislative
oversight.
In 2013, lawmakers dis-
banded the state board of
higher education, allowing
universities to set up their
own independent govern-
ing boards.
“This arrangement came
with less statewide scrutiny
of governance decisions, and
more authority for universi-
ties to borrow money for cap-
ital projects,” Morris wrote.
Capital construction funds
are kept separate from other
types of funding the univer-
sity receives, said Di Saun-
ders, a spokeswoman for the
universities.
There’s a “strict” ranking
system for crucial projects
through the Higher Educa-
tion Coordinating Commis-
sion, and building projects
stay separate from the oper-
ating budget, she said.
And universities received
relatively little capital con-
struction funding in the 2019-
21 biennial budget, Saunders
said.
“I don’t agree that there’s
been such a dramatic change
in university budgeting since
that change did occur,” Saun-
ders said. “There are more
expenses that the universities
are having to bear that they
did not before.”
For example, after the
switch, each university
needed its own legal help and
had to hire internal auditors.
The union also condemns
what it calls “administrative
bloat,” claiming that there are
too many managers.
While Oregon state agen-
cies on average have a man-
agement-to-worker ratio of 1
manager for every 10 work-
ers, at public universities it’s
1-to-5.
Saunders, the university
spokeswoman, questioned
the validity of comparing a
university to a state agency.
Managers at public universi-
ties, she said, have their own
duties apart from supervising
workers.
But lopsided compen-
sation, with some workers
drawing on public benefits,
has provoked the ire of the
union as well.
In 2018, the average public
university president in Ore-
gon made about $513,000,
about 11 times what the aver-
age classified worker made,
according to SEIU’s report.
About half of classified work-
ers make less than $40,000 a
year.
Meanwhile, the univer-
sity system has proposed in
its contract requiring food
service workers to pay $3 for
each meal at work instead of
$1.
That feels petty, said
Melissa Unger, executive
director of SEIU Local 503.
“I don’t know how that
is making sure that (the uni-
versities) meet their bottom
line,” Unger said. “That’s a
continued example of how
this proposal just feels dis-
respectful and like they’re
nickel and diming their
workers.”
The universities say they
pay their presidents and top
administrators a market rate
for high-profile jobs man-
aging the education of thou-
sands of students, and for
recruiting major donors.
“Those people are run-
ning, in some cases, bil-
lion-dollar entities,” Saun-
ders said. “They’re high-risk
entities. You have 30,000 stu-
dents that you have to edu-
cate, protect, make sure that
they’re safe, feed, clothe
sometimes, make sure their
housing is in good order, and
so there is a lot of responsi-
bility for those jobs at the top
levels.”
Settlement talks are ongo-
ing, and the parties plan to
meet again next week.
Bahamians begin rescues as Dorian moves on toward U.S.
By RAMON ESPINOSA,
DÁNICA COTO
AND MICHAEL
WEISSENSTEIN
Associated Press
FREEPORT, Bahamas —
Bahamians rescued victims
of Hurricane Dorian with jet
skis and a bulldozer as the
U.S. Coast Guard, Britain’s
Royal Navy and a handful of
aid groups tried to get food
and medicine to survivors
and take the most desperate
people to safety.
Airports were flooded
and roads impassable after
the most powerful storm to
hit the Bahamas in recorded
history parked over Abaco
and Grand Bahama islands,
pounding them with winds
up to 185 mph and torrential
rain before finally moving
into open waters Tuesday on
a course toward Florida.
People on the U.S. coast
made final preparations
for a storm with winds at
a still-dangerous 110 mph,
making it a Category 2
storm.
At least seven deaths were
reported in the Bahamas,
with the full scope of the
disaster still unknown.
The storm’s punishing
winds and muddy brown
floodwaters destroyed or
severely damaged thousands
of homes, crippled hospitals
and trapped people in attics.
“It’s total devastation. It’s
decimated.
Apocalyptic,”
said Lia Head-Rigby, who
helps run a local hurricane
relief group and flew over
the Bahamas’ hard-hit Abaco
Islands. “It’s not rebuilding
something that was there; we
have to start again.”
She said her representative
on Abaco told her there were
“a lot more dead,” though she
had no numbers as bodies
were being gathered.
The Bahamas’ prime
minister also expected more
deaths and predicted that
rebuilding would require “a
massive, coordinated effort.”
“We are in the midst of
one of the greatest national
crises in our country’s his-
tory,” Prime Minister Hubert
Minnis said at a news confer-
ence. “No effort or resources
will be held back.”
Five Coast Guard helicop-
ters ran near-hourly flights
to the stricken Abaco, flying
more than 20 injured people
to the capital’s main hospi-
tal. British sailors were also
rushing in aid. A few private
aid groups also tried to reach
the battered islands in the
northern Bahamas.
“We don’t want peo-
ple thinking we’ve forgot-
ten them. ... We know what
AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa
Volunteers rescue several families that arrived on small
boats, from the rising waters of Hurricane Dorian, near the
Causarina bridge in Freeport, Grand Bahama, Bahamas, on
Tuesday. The storm’s punishing winds and muddy brown
floodwaters devastated thousands of homes, crippled hos-
pitals and trapped people in attics.
your conditions are,” Tammy
Mitchell of the Bahamas’
National Emergency Man-
agement Agency told ZNS
Bahamas radio station.
With their heads bowed
against heavy wind and rain,
rescuers began evacuat-
ing people from the storm’s
aftermath across Grand
Bahama island late Tuesday,
using jet skis, boats and even
a huge bulldozer that cradled
children and adults in its
digger as it churned through
deep waters and carried
them to safety.
One
rescuer
gently
scooped up an elderly man in
his arms and walked toward a
pickup truck waiting to evac-
uate him and others to higher
ground.
Over 2 million people
along the coast in Florida,
Georgia and North and South
Carolina were warned to
evacuate. While the threat of
a direct hit on Florida had all
but evaporated, Dorian was
expected to pass dangerously
close to Georgia and South
Carolina — and perhaps
strike North Carolina — on
Thursday or Friday.
Even if landfall does not
occur, the system is likely to
cause storm surge and severe
flooding, the U.S. National
Hurricane Center said.
“Don’t tough it out. Get
out,” said U.S. Federal Emer-
gency Management Agency
official Carlos Castillo.
In the Bahamas, Red
Cross spokesman Matthew
Cochrane said more than
13,000 houses, or about
45% of the homes on Grand
Bahama and Abaco, were
believed to be severely dam-
aged or destroyed. U.N. offi-
cials said more than 60,000
people on the hard-hit islands
will need food, and the Red
Cross said some 62,000 will
need clean drinking water.
“What we are hearing
lends credence to the fact that
this has been a catastrophic
storm and a catastrophic
impact,” Cochrane said.
Lawson Bates, a staffer
for Arkansas-based Medic-
Corps, flew over Abaco and
said: “It looks completely
flattened. There’s boats way
inland that are flipped over.
It’s total devastation.”
The Red Cross authorized
$500,000 for the first wave
of disaster relief, Cochrane
said. U.N. humanitarian
teams stood ready to go into
the stricken areas to help
assess damage and the coun-
try’s needs, U.N. spokesman
Stéphane Dujarric said. The
U.S. government also sent a
disaster response team.
Abaco and Grand Bahama
islands, with a combined
population of about 70,000,
are known for their mari-
nas, golf courses and all-in-
clusive resorts. To the south,
the Bahamas’ most popu-
lous island, New Providence,
which includes the capital
city of Nassau and has over
a quarter-million people, had
little damage.
The U.S. Coast Guard
airlifted at least 21 people
injured on Abaco. Choppy,
coffee-colored floodwaters
reached roofs and the tops of
palm trees.
“We will confirm what
the real situation is on the
ground,” Health Minister
Duane Sands said. “We are
hoping and praying that the
loss of life is limited.”
Sands said Dorian ren-
dered the main hospital on
Grand Bahama unusable,
while the hospital at Marsh
Harbor on Abaco was in
need of food, water, medi-
cine and surgical supplies.
He said crews were trying
to fly out five to seven kid-
ney failure patients from
Abaco who had not received
dialysis since Friday.
Winter: Colder and snowier than usual Plea: Shermantine
Continued from Page A1
er’s Almanac warns that East-
ern Oregon and the rest of the
Intermountain region should
expect two big snowstorms as
late as April next year.
Per NWS data, the most
recorded snowfall in Pend-
leton during April was 2.2
inches in 1975.
Another snow- and rain-
heavy winter would continue
a streak for the city. From
the start of December 2018
through March of this year,
NWS data shows Pendleton
received 36.3 inches of snow
and 7.7 inches of rain. That
data also shows the city’s
winter average as 13.7 inches
and 5.29 inches, respectively.
If the Old Farmer’s Alma-
nac is right, it’d be a winter
trend not expected to last.
The Wallowa County
Chieftain reported last week
that a University of Idaho
study found that “consec-
utive low snow years may
become six times more com-
mon across the Western
United States over the latter
Staff photo by E.J. Harris, File
Motorists negotiate a snow-covered stretch of Southwest Isaac
Avenue in February 2019 in Pendleton. For the 2019-20 winter,
the Intermountain region, which includes Eastern Oregon, will
reportedly be characterized by “low temps, deep powder.”
half of this century.”
The question is, will the
Old Farmer’s Almanac be
right?
Founded in 1792 by Rob-
ert B. Thomas, the Old Farm-
er’s Almanac provides infor-
mation on weather forecasts,
planting cycles, astronomical
data, recipes and more. Using
a secret formula derived from
weather patterns, astronomi-
cal cycles, and sun spots, the
almanac has published long-
term winter forecasts for
over two centuries.
Though these long range
predictions are made up to
18 months in advance, the
publication has long boasted
an accuracy rate of 80% or
above.
George Perry, general
forecaster at the NWS’s
Pendleton office, said he
doesn’t pay much attention
to the almanac’s predictions
and can’t say anything about
its accuracy without know-
ing its method.
However, when it comes
to the forecasts the NWS
develops for weather 7-14
days in advance — the
NWS’s Climate Prediction
Center produces forecasts
as much as three months
out — Perry said they use
models to analyze and make
predictions.
But still, forecasts one to
two weeks ahead of time are
“highly variable.”
“You can get small
changes in two days that
may not do much at the time
but could influence signif-
icant changes in 10 days,”
Perry said.
no longer faces a
murder charge for
the 2018 killing
Continued from Page A1
torium on executions.
Umatilla County has not
had an aggravated mur-
der case since 2015.
Jaclyn Jenkins, chief
deputy district attorney,
filed a notice on Aug. 3
the state will not seek the
death penalty for Som-
merville. The filing does
provide an explanation.
The next hearing in
the case is Tuesday, and
the court set Nov. 5 for a
settlement conference.
Pending that outcome,
the case has an all-day
hearing June 9, 2020, to
consider motions about
a month before the trial.
Defense attorney Benja-
min Kim asked for that
hearing this past June
when he notified the
court he planned on fil-
ing a hefty demurrer or
objection.
“I anticipate that
the
Demurrer
filed
will exceed 500 pages
and will require sig-
nificant time for the
State to file a written
response,”
according
to the notice. “While I
believe the arguments
set forth in the Demur-
rer are well founded in
law, and without conced-
ing the legal arguments
contained therein, the
Demurrer also preserves
a series of arguments
and objections in order
to litigate the issues on a
possible appeal.”