OFF PAGE ONE
Wednesday, October 23, 2019
East Oregonian
A7
Clarno rejects ballot proposal
on immigrant driver’s licenses
Staff photo by Ben Lonergan
Vehicles pass by a sign advocating the Hermiston School
bond measure along Highway 395 in Hermiston on Tuesday
afternoon.
Bond: Largest portion
of raised dollars went
to PR firm Pac/West
Continued from Page A1
$500 each, as did Ric Sher-
man, chair of the board for
Umatilla County Fire District
1. Hermiston Mayor Dave
Drotzmann, Hermiston High
School Principal Tom Spoo
and the Oregon AFL-CIO
also joined the $500 club.
And a multitude have con-
tributed more than $1,200 in
miscellaneous cash contribu-
tions of $100 or less.
The Umatilla County
Elections Division mailed
44,642 ballots last week for
the Nov. 5 election. Kim Lin-
dell, county elections man-
ager, said 923 — 2% — have
trickled in so far. She expects
this election to have a lower
overall turnout in the county.
Hermiston should have
a higher turnout because of
the school bond, Lindell said,
and other communities with
something at stake could
show up in greater numbers.
Milton-Freewater voters
are considering the forma-
tion of the Milton-Freewater
Valley Ambulance District
with a permanent tax rate of
$1.10 per $1,000 in assessed
value. The Echo Fire District
is asking voters to approve a
$150,000 local tax to support
its operations over five years.
And the Riverside Rural Fire
Protection District seeks a
five-year local option tax of
about 91 cents per $1,000 in
assessed value that would
raise $36,000 a year.
But the two countywide
measures may not spark a lot
of interest.
One measure asks if vot-
ers want to change the lan-
guage in the county char-
ter from “law enforcement
department” to “sheriff’s
office” as set out in Oregon
law. That would have the
practical effect of having the
county’s foundational doc-
ument reflect the name the
county and locals already call
the law enforcement agency.
The measure also aligns the
charter with the functions
of the sheriff under Oregon
law with the exception of tax
collection.
The second measure
amends the election process
for county officials. Under
the proposal, the county
would require a primary
election only if more than
two candidates filed for the
election, and the two with
the most votes would face
off in the November general
election. The change could
end situations where a losing
incumbent remains in office
more than six months.
Whether the ballot is
exciting or not, Lindell said
the election will cost about
$45,000, or around $1 per
registered voter.
Sale: Interested party will
remain confidential until
an official offer is made
Continued from Page A1
yes,” the Herald quoted
Wolfe as saying during his
speech at the grand opening.
For most of its existence,
the center was run by the
Greater Hermiston Area
Chamber of Commerce,
but in 2017 the city council
voted unanimously to end
its contract with the cham-
ber and move the parks and
recreation department into
the building to run it instead.
Residents who showed up to
oppose the move were told
by city staff and city coun-
cilors that the center would
still be available for com-
munity events under the new
management.
During that time the city
conducted a study of avail-
able event space in the area,
noting there were 689 total
events held in the Hermis-
ton Community Center in
2016, including chamber of
commerce meetings. The
city did not have an updated
figure for 2018 immediately
available.
The report listed the
city-owned Eastern Oregon
Trade and Event Center, the
National Guard Armory in
Hermiston and the Pendle-
ton Convention Center as
the other alternatives in the
area for an indoor 300-plus
person event. Alternatives
for smaller events included
the Maxwell Siding Event
Center, the Port of Morrow’s
offices in Boardman and the
Oxford Suites in Hermiston.
Assistant City Manager
Mark Morgan reported to
the council before their 2017
vote on the chamber contract
that it took $198,700 in gross
expenses to run the center,
paid for by rental fees and
transient room tax funds.
He said rental revenue for
the community center had
decreased since EOTEC had
opened its event center in
2016.
The community cen-
ter is in the city’s urban
renewal district, meaning
tax revenue generated from
increases in the property’s
value would go toward the
district for improvements to
the downtown area.
Walgreens: After 6 years
store is coming to an end
Continued from Page A1
to a store that was built and
opened in 2013.
At the time of its open-
ing, Walgreens supported 20
jobs and a corporate spokes-
man expressed confidence
in the store’s success despite
the presence of nearby
competitors.
Pharmacies at Rite Aid,
Safeway and Walmart are all
within close proximity, and
the Bi-Mart pharmacy is less
than a mile away.
The 100 block of South-
west 20th Street has also
struggled to retain the chain
stores that used to anchor the
area.
At the nearby Pendle-
ton Retail Center strip mall,
Pizza Hut, Rent-A-Cen-
ter, GameStop, and Verizon
have either closed up shop or
moved their stores to a dif-
ferent location.
Secretary of State
ballot measure
doesn’t comply
with the Oregon
Constitution
By CLAIRE
WITHYCOMBE
Oregon Capital Bureau
SALEM — An attempt to
repeal a new state law allow-
ing undocumented immi-
grants to get Oregon driver’s
licenses has hit a snag.
Oregon Secretary of
State Bev Clarno on Tues-
day halted a proposed bal-
lot initiative to walk back
House Bill 2015, saying it
doesn’t comply with require-
ments stated in the Oregon
Constitution.
The bill, passed earlier
this year, allows Oregonians
to present forms of ID that
don’t prove a person’s legal
immigration status in order
to get a driver’s license. The
licenses will not be available
until Jan. 1, 2021.
Undocumented immi-
grants — or others without
documents proving U.S. cit-
izenship or that they are in
the country legally — have
been barred from getting
driver’s licenses in Oregon
since 2007.
Supporters of the petition
want to prevent people who
are here illegally from get-
ting state driver’s licenses.
The campaign to repeal
the law, which calls itself
“Stop Illegal Drivers,” is
led by Mark Callahan, a fre-
quent candidate for political
office in Oregon.
Callahan, reached for
comment Tuesday, said the
campaign was “definitely
going to fight” the ruling,
and pointed to several pre-
vious cases he believes sup-
port his interpretation that
the petition passes muster.
The Secretary of State’s
Office believes the consti-
tution requires the petition-
ers to present the changes
the petition would make to
state statutes. Instead, the
ballot title just says that a
“Yes” vote on the petition
“‘Demands’ repeal” of the
bill.
In a post on the “Stop
Illegal Drivers” website,
the campaign said the rea-
son Elections Director Steve
Trout gave — the constitu-
tional requirement cited by
Clarno — was “not valid.”
The campaign also posted
on the website a message
from Callahan addressed
to Trout. Callahan called
Oregon Capital Bureau Photo/Claire Withycombe, File
Secretary of State Bev Clarno gives a speech April 3, 2019, at her swearing-in ceremony.
Clarno on Tuesday halted a proposed ballot initiative to walk back House Bill 2015, saying
it doesn’t comply with requirements stated in the Oregon Constitution.
the reason for the rejection
“flawed in logic and reason-
ing.” He maintained the peti-
tion was not trying to pass a
new law.
“How can we submit the
full text of a law that we are
NOT ‘Proposing?’” Calla-
han wrote. “It doesn’t make
any sense. If we are NOT
‘Proposing’ a law, there is no
full text of a law to submit.”
Oregon’s
constitution
includes several ways that
Oregonians can have a
direct say on a policy at the
ballot box.
Lawmakers can refer a
measure to the ballot; cit-
izens can ask for a referen-
dum on a particular law; or
citizens can file an initiative
petition to change state laws.
A referendum, which
simply asks voters to reject
or keep a law state legisla-
tors pass, differs from an ini-
tiative petition.
In the case of House Bill
2015, petitioners could not
submit a referendum. That’s
because of a few words in
the bill that amount to an
“emergency clause.”
That clause says the bill
takes effect as soon as law-
makers pass it. The state
constitution doesn’t allow
bills that go into effect that
soon to get referred.
But citizens can file an
initiative petition in that
case. That’s what the back-
ers of Initiative Petition 43
did.
Since they filed an initia-
tive petition, the Secretary
of State’s Office says, peti-
tioners were supposed to
present an amended form of
the law for voters’ consider-
ation, showing exactly how
the law would be changed if
the provisions of House Bill
2015 were repealed.
But the petition they sub-
mitted just “demanded”
repeal of the law.
House Bill 2015 affected
many parts of state law, said
Deputy Secretary of State
Rich Vial.
“We feel like you need
to put the sections that were
originally affected by the
legislation in to the petition
and show what you would
propose to take back out of
the law or change it back
to what it was before,” Vial
said. “The law, obviously,
was complicated enough
that there was a number of
things in the statute that
were added or changed.”
Moving forward, the
petitioners could rewrite
the petition and re-gather
the sponsorship signatures
in order to get another bal-
lot title drafted, at which
point the Secretary of State’s
Office would review both
again for constitutionality,
Vial said.
But in cases like this,
if petitioners don’t want to
rewrite the measure, some-
times they will bring a
lawsuit.
Supporters of the petition
argue House Bill 2015 con-
tradicted the will of Oregon
voters, who in 2014 rejected
a measure to create a sepa-
rate type of license for peo-
ple who cannot prove they
are in the country legally.
Proponents of House Bill
2015 said that bill would
simply allow Oregonians
to present forms of per-
sonal identification that
don’t prove legal status. It
would also apply to people
who didn’t have access to
vital records, such as peo-
ple who are experiencing
homelessness.
House Bill 2015 also says
licenses granted to those
who don’t present proof of
citizenship do not meet fed-
eral “Real ID” standards.
The new IDs, a post-
9/11 policy intended to
strengthen security, will be
required for Oregonians to
enter certain federal build-
ings and to board commer-
cial flights starting Oct. 1,
2020.
Members of the pub-
lic had complained the bal-
lot title was misleading. The
ballot title said the effect of
the “demand” stated in the
petition was unclear.
Several
commenters,
in response, provided the
dictionary definition of
“demand.”
One member of the pub-
lic, Kaila Calkins, wrote
an email to the Secretary
of State’ Office saying that
“this is nothing more than
another political ploy to
effectively silence the Ore-
gon voter.”
Clarno said in a state-
ment she hoped the petition-
ers would “take (her) ruling
as an opportunity to improve
their proposal.”
“The initiative petition
process is very important in
giving Oregonians an oppor-
tunity to directly participate
in our government,” Clarno
said in a statement. “It is my
sincere hope that the propo-
nents of this ballot measure
will take my ruling as an
opportunity to improve their
proposal. I will always sup-
port the presentation of bal-
lot measures that meet con-
stitutional requirements.”
Californians brace for possible outage
By JOCELYN GECKER
AND CHRISTOPHER
WEBER
Associated Press
SAN FRANCISCO —
Hundreds of thousands of
Northern California res-
idents braced for another
possible power outage as the
state’s largest utility warned
that a return of dangerous
fire weather could prompt
shut-offs across 16 counties.
The warning from
Pacific Gas & Electric about
a possible blackout Wednes-
day prompted a feeling of
resignation among residents
and business owners and
renewed rushes to stock up
on emergency supplies.
“I think it’s not panic per
se, just ‘Eh, we gotta do this
again?’” said Kim Schefer,
manager of Village True
Value Hardware in Santa
Rosa.
Schefer was busy Tues-
day directing customers
to gas cans and batteries
as they prepared for what
many see as a costly, frus-
trating new routine.
It would be the second
blackout in two weeks for
much of the state.
PG&E cut power to
more than 2 million people
across the San Francisco
Bay Area in rolling black-
outs from Oct. 9-12, para-
AP Photo/Christian Monterrosa
Firefighters watch as a helicopter drops water in a wildfire
in the Pacific Palisades area of Los Angeles on Monday.
lyzing parts of the region
in what was the largest
deliberate blackout in state
history. Schools and uni-
versities canceled classes
and many businesses were
forced to close.
Earlier this week, PG&E
notified 200,000 customers,
or roughly a half-million
people, that it could begin
a new round of precaution-
ary shut-offs mostly in the
Sierra foothills and north of
the San Francisco Bay Area.
Blackouts would last at least
48 hours, the utility said.
PG&E says it’s con-
cerned that winds forecast
to hit 60 mph could throw
branches and debris into
power lines or topple them,
sparking wildfires.
At Murphy’s Irish Pub
in Sonoma, co-owner Der-
mot Coll groaned at the
thought of another power
outage. The watering hole
kept its doors open during
the last 48-hour shut-off, but
it wasn’t easy because gen-
erator power to the walk-in
coolers kept failing.
“We made it work, but it
was a headache,” Coll said.
“We kept saying, ‘Is this
even worth it?’”
Coll said he fears that
precautionary blackouts will
become a regular occur-
rence now that fire season
in California is a year-round
phenomenon.
“It’s going to be an
annual event, I’m afraid. I
hate to say it, but I believe
it’s probably true,” he said.
PG&E has cast the black-
outs as a matter of public
safety to prevent the kind
of blazes that have killed
scores of people in Cali-
fornia over the past several
years, destroyed thousands
of homes, and ran up tens of
billions of dollars in claims
that drove the company into
bankruptcy.
California Gov. Gavin
sent a sharply worded let-
ter Tuesday to Bill Johnson,
CEO of the utility, blam-
ing the unprecedented mass
outage earlier this month
on the company’s failure to
maintain and upgrade its
equipment.
“I believe the unaccept-
able scope and duration
of the previous outage —
deliberately forcing 735,000
customers to endure power
outages — was the direct
result of decades of PG&E
prioritizing profit over pub-
lic safety,” Newsom wrote,
referring to the number of
businesses and households
affected, not the total num-
ber of people.
PG&E says the shut-
downs are not about money.
“The sole intent is to pre-
vent a catastrophic wild-
fire,” Johnson said in a
Monday briefing.
A huge portion of Cali-
fornia is under high fire risk
amid unpredictable gusts
and soaring temperatures.