A8
OFF PAGE ONE
East Oregonian
Thursday, January 6, 2022
Attorneys:
Continued from Page A1
Frolander has had an open
position for three years. She
was the deputy prosecutor
there before she was elected
as district attorney.
“From 2018 up until we
revamped the position in the
fall of 2018, I received two
applications,” Frolander said,
“but before I could even get
them interviewed they took
jobs across the state.”
For a long while after
Frolander became district
attorney in 2012, grants
funded the deputy district
attorney position in Wallowa
County. But it sat vacant for
an extended period, and
that grant money had to be
returned and the job left
vacant.
The paper chase
Data from the Oregon
State Bar during the past
decade show the number of
examinees per year steadily
dropping — approximately
12 less attorneys each year
pass the bar based on a simple
linear regression model. The
exam has not become more
difficult over time, but people
are taking fewer attempts to
pass it.
And in 2020 the pandemic
ushered in a “diploma privi-
lege,” which allowed newly
graduated law students to
bypass the bar entirely and
receive their license — a
first for Oregon. But even
then, only 343 attorneys were
minted in Oregon that year.
It was the lowest admission
numbers since 1972 when
just 310 attorneys passed the
bar exam.
Lower numbers alone
don’t make shortages —
they need to be coupled with
a higher number of lawyers
retiring or leaving the field.
And that is exactly what is
happening. According to
a 2017 economic survey
released by the Oregon State
Bar, nearly 20% of respon-
dents said they had planned
on retiring within the next
five years — or by 2022.
Additionally, the average age
of practicing lawyers was 47
according to the survey.
But perhaps the biggest
reason why lawyers have
given the cold shoulder to
Eastern Oregon attorney
offices is salaries in the rural
wild west have not been
able to compete with the
Schools:
Continued from Page A1
Gill said that includes
schools continuing to
enforce the mitigation efforts
they have already been
using — including wearing
appropriate face coverings,
following physical distanc-
ing guidelines, frequent
hand washing and use of
ventilation systems.
The new advisory encour-
aged schools to implement
free COVID-19 testing
programs.
Seattle Public Schools
closed schools Jan. 3 to offer
voluntary COVID-19 testing
for staff and students amid
a surge of new omicron
cases. ODE said Oregon is
not considering something
similar.
The ODE and OHA
advisory also encouraged
schools to retrain school
staff on safety protocols, as
well as educate employees,
students and families about
COVID-19 symptoms. But
the biggest change suggested
in the advisory has to do
with activities beyond the
school day.
“(W)e have really asked
our schools and other orga-
nizations that serve students
to really be thoughtful about
their extracurricular activi-
ties,” Gill said.
That includes either paus-
ing extracurricular activities
or making sure they use the
same safety protocols that
are in place during the school
day, such as face coverings.
“We know those mitiga-
tion efforts work and they
have been preventing the
spread of COVID-19, but
we don’t often use those in
extracurricular activities
such as sports, and we’re
really worried we’ll see
Ben Lonergan/East Oregonian, File
Umatilla County Deputy District Attorney Daniel Pachico, right, addresses Circuit Judge Jon Lieuallen, center, in March 2020.
The district attorney’s office remains short staffed in 2022, a problem common to prosecutors in Northeastern Oregon.
metropolitan areas.
Ac c o r d i n g t o t h e
economic survey from the
Oregon State Bar, the gap is
significant. Median income
for the 2017 survey shows an
average Oregon lawyer can
expect a salary of $105,000
per year. Eastern Oregon
attorneys will see $84,000.
Portland attorneys, however,
will earn $125,000, or nearly
20% more than the Oregon
average and roughly 50%
more than those working
in Eastern Oregon. That
$41,000 a year difference
means student loans can be
paid off much faster.
But those averages, which
cover all attorneys, not just
prosecutors, still are higher
than the advertised salary
posted for many Eastern
Oregon counties.
Union County, which has
one open position, offers a
starting salary of just more
than $56,000 a year and going
up to $92,000 a year based on
experience. Morrow County,
which has no deputy district
attorney at the moment,
advertises $68,400 per year
with the ability to earn up
to an additional $30,000 per
year by doing county and city
work. Umatilla County pays
up to $77,000 for an entry
level deputy district attorney.
rapid transmission in those
settings unless communi-
ties come together and use
the same kinds of protocols
we use during the school day
after the school day,” Gill
said.
The agencies also are
asking families and commu-
nity members to do their part
in helping ensure schools can
continue in-person teaching
and learning. Namely, ODE
and OHA are urging parents
to keep students home if
they have COVID-19 symp-
toms. The agencies also are
encouraging families and
children to get vaccinated
and get COVID-19 booster
shots, and to limit non-es-
sential activities and gath-
erings.
“Spread in the commu-
nity is what may cause a
school eventually to close to
in-person instruction and go
back to online learning for
a short period of time,” Gill
said. “The more communi-
ties can do to make sure indi-
viduals are vaccinated and
boosted so there’s less like-
lihood that they’re spreading
COVID-19 from one person
to another, or less likely that
they may need the services of
a hospital and really tax that
system — that will help keep
our school staff safe and our
students safe and keep them
in in-person instruction.”
ODE Communications
Director Marc Siegel said
the agency is not plan-
ning a statewide return to
distance learning, like what
happened at the beginning
of the pandemic in March
2020. But, individual school
districts will be able to make
that call themselves if neces-
sary.
“For each school district,
that’s a local school district
decision, made in coordina-
tion with local health author-
ity,” Siegel told OPB.
Alex Wittwer/EO Media Group, File
Reed West, Union County deputy district attorney, sits in the
Union County Courthouse during arraignments on July 20,
2021.
Wallowa County’s open
position advertises a yearly
salary of just over $52,000
for a newly minted lawyer.
Frolander said the salary
for a prosecutor was raised
recently, but has yet to attract
any prosecutors to join the
team in Wallowa County.
While the district attorney’s
office waits for applicants,
the lack of qualified staff to
prosecute cases means cases
sometimes don’t receive the
attention they deserve.
“There are cases that I
have resolved for less than I
wanted to,” Frolander said,
“and there have been cases
I’ve declined to prosecute
due to resources.”
Frolander also said the
coronavirus pandemic had
created a traffic jam of cases
that has yet to clear, further
impacting the office’s ability
to prosecute crimes.
“Prosecutors should be
able to make decisions on
whether to pursue a criminal
action, based on the merits of
the case, rather than on the
resources available,” Carpen-
ter wrote. “However, that is
exactly the position many
prosecutors in Northeastern
Oregon are in at the moment.
The lack of available deputy
prosecutors and the lack of
funding to attract the quali-
fied applicants leave us in the
position of making resource
based decisions every day.”
Umatilla County District
Attorney Dan Primus said
his office was able to increase
the salary, but he mused that
money isn’t the sole cause
of hiring woes in Eastern
Oregon.
“I think that regionally,
it plays a role in what we’re
doing. I think it’s also less
desirable to be a prosecutor,”
Primus said.
Soldiering on
Morrow County District
Attorney Justin Nelson is
used to working on holidays
or late into the evening. His
phone and laptop are never
too far out of reach, just in
case the sheriff’s office or the
police need a search warrant
reviewed or a suspect
charged.
However, he’s not used to
doing it alone.
“When it’s only two,
when you have one gone you
definitely feel it,” Nelson
said.
The Morrow County
District Attorney’s Office
held on to a full staff through
most of the pandemic, unlike
Nelson’s colleagues in
Umatilla, Wallowa and Grant
counties. That meant the roll-
ing backlog of cases caused
by the court shutdowns in
2020 never had a chance to
metastasize into growing
problems, like those felt in
Wallowa County.
“I’m now experiencing
what Mr. Primus has been
experiencing for quite a bit,”
Nelson said, referring to the
Umatilla County district
attorney. “That’s a unique
thing for me to experience
now. We really went through
the COVID-19 thing fully
staffed, so I do think we were
in a better position than any
of the other counties, because
while COVID affected every-
body, we weren’t also dealing
with a staffing shortage at the
same time.”
But Nelson, like district
attorneys across Northeast-
ern Oregon, is used to the
challenges and the duty that
is asked of them. Nelson
noted that despite working
through every holiday —
especially now with his office
short staffed — his troubles
are eclipsed by the officials
and public he serves.
“Anytime law enforce-
ment is working, I have to
be working too,” Nelson
said. “If there’s a single offi-
cer out there that might need
to have a search warrant
reviewed, I need to be avail-
able. If it’s a weekend and
someone gets picked up on
a warrant, I need to be avail-
able. But I’m going home at
night. I’m with my family at
night. You know, there’s law
enforcement officers out on
the street, and they have it
harder than me. At the end
of the day, I’m a lucky guy.”
And while other coun-
ties have their own version
of a deputy district attorney
shortage, and some noted the
lack of attorneys may make
cases take longer and require
more attention, none of them
have said the lack of lawyers
will affect their ability to
prosecute crimes and defend
victims’ rights.
“Our office has worked
with a shortage of attorneys
before and likely will again,”
Union County District Attor-
ney Kelsie McDaniel said.
“We strive to make sure
that the citizens don’t see
any difference in the work
coming out of our office on
behalf of Union County.”
Housing:
Continued from Page A1
almost immediately, there
is a 200-unit manufactured
home park actively develop-
ing in it, and there continues
to be significant interest in
developing the remainder of
that land.”
The city also built a
1-million-gallon water
tower and nearly 2 miles of
new water lines in north-
east Hermiston through a
partnership with Umatilla
County to reinvest enter-
prise zone funding, Morgan
said.
“There are active subdi-
visions under construction
right now off of Punkin
Center (Road), and off of
Theater Lane that are a
direct result of that invest-
ment,” he said. “So far, those
developments have started
construction on nearly 100
new homes since 2019.”
Calls for more
housing, market-rate
rentals
Mike Boylan, principal
broker and owner of Boylan
Realty, said Hermiston
needs more housing.
“We have a shortage,
for sure,” he said. “It’s been
short for quite a while now.”
He added there has been
some improvement lately,
as a trickle of houses have
entered the market. Still,
when they are listed, they
sell quickly. For example, he
said, he recently put a house
on the market and within
three weeks there was a cash
offer for it.
Boylan said the speed at
which houses sell shows the
demand for homes and the
need for new construction.
Morgan agreed with the
need, and he said there also
Ben Lonergan/East Oregonian
A sold sign adorns a home’s lot Wednesday, Jan. 5, 2022, in a new development off East
Punkin Center Road in Hermiston. The city in 2021 approved building permits for 129 site-
built homes and 10 manufactured homes.
is a need to maintain afford-
ability, which has been the
city council’s policy since
2017.
“We know that our region
continues to add employ-
ment, and so we feel that
the best way to ensure hous-
ing remains affordable is to
continue providing adequate
supply,” he said.
Hermiston does not need
to focus too much on tradi-
tional “affordable housing,”
Morgan said. Developers in
Hermiston can build single
family homes all day long
because the market demand
is there and the prices allow
for the turn of a profit. Herm-
iston’s greatest housing need
is market-rate rentals.
That need “serves a very
critical role in communi-
ty-building,” he said, but it
is not being filled.
“Specifically, I think
about the folks who we are
attracting to the community
to fill new jobs being created
here,” he said. “I’m thinking
about nurses, teachers, etc.,
who are in their 20s, straight
out of college. On paper,
the single most important
metric that most affordable
housing programs look at for
eligibility is income, and on
paper these folks in their 20s
have incomes that disqualify
them for ‘affordable hous-
ing,’ but meanwhile they’re
drowning in student loan
debt and have negative net
worth.”
These people, Morgan
said, have incomes that
would “otherwise qualify
them to make a mortgage
payment.” Still, they are a
stage of life wherein they
cannot buy a home. With
only site-built homes for
sale and income-restricted
rental housing — for which
they do not qualify — avail-
able, people with new jobs in
Hermiston have to live else-
where. Often, Morgan said,
they will move to Kenne-
wick and endure a daily
commute.
“Inevitably, that person
making the commute will
find a significant other in
Kennewick, decide that they
don’t really like commut-
ing an hour every day, take
the first job they can get in
Tri-Cities and then make
all of their significant life
investments there,” Morgan
said.
They will buy a home,
vehicles and other goods in
the Tri-Cities. This means
that Hermiston is missing
out, Morgan said, on what
new people could mean to
the town’s economy and to
its community.