KATHRYN B. BROWN
Owner
ANDREW CUTLER
Publisher/Editor
ERICK PETERSON
Hermiston Editor/Senior Reporter
TUESdAY, APRIL 26, 2022
A4
Founded October 16, 1875
OUR VIEW
VA should
rethink
service
reduction
A
potential move by the Department
of Veterans Affairs to scale back
services at its medical center in
Walla Walla is a bad idea and should be
reconsidered carefully.
Last month, the VA released a report
from the Asset and Infrastructure Review
Commission that recommended the Walla
Walla VA reduce services to primary care
and mental health.
That move would downgrade the facil-
ity’s services and potentially create prob-
lems for thousands of veterans who live
across the Pacific Northwest’s inland
empire of Eastern Washington and North-
eastern Oregon.
The best, recent news came from
Oregon U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden, who vowed
he would reach out to the VA to get an
explanation for the recommendation.
The commission’s suggestions about
reducing services at the Walla Walla
center appear to be misguided and crafted
through a certain degree of ignorance
regarding the plight of veterans in rural
areas of the Pacific Northwest.
All too often the government seeks to
slash funding for programs that provide
key services with apparently little fore-
thought.
Modifying a funding outlay for an
expensive, nonessential government
program makes good sense and is a
service to taxpayers, but VA facilities and
programs should be off limits.
That’s not because VA programs and
facilities are not expensive. They are.
However, the VA and its programs are part
of a sacred covenant established between
those who give service to our great nation
and the rest of us who vow to take care of
them.
As a nation we tend to get geared up for
a major conflict but forget each war, each
confrontation where our men and women
are deployed, has long-term consequences.
Those consequences are the health and
care of our veterans, and we cannot ignore
our pledge.
When a man or woman dons the
uniform of one of our nation’s service
branches they do so as volunteers and as
part of an unspoken bargain, they know
America will watch out for them after their
service ends. We owe our veterans more
than we can ever repay, but we can ensure
that as they age they have the best medical
care our nation can provide.
Shifting resources to save money and
potentially leaving our veterans out on a
limb runs contrary to our nation’s values.
EDITORIALS
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Oregonian editorial board. Other columns,
letters and cartoons on this page express the
opinions of the authors and not necessarily that
of the East Oregonian.
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211 S.E. Byers Ave., Pendleton, OR 97801
Grading this round of cuts
REGINA
BRAKER
ANOTHER MILE
ast week, I submitted my April
column, a civil discussion regard-
ing the budget cutting underway
at Blue Mountain Community College.
On Saturday, April 23, as I was read-
ing through some old papers to revisit a
fellow columnist’s writing on Ukraine,
I came across an article this newspaper
published on March 19 under the title
“BMCC president orders ‘full institu-
tional review’” on page A3. There was
some detail in it that didn’t square with
the content of the April 23 reporting in
the front-page article “Showdown in the
works over faculty, program cuts.”
The March article reported that
“the review will take a wider look at
the school’s operations and programs
and provide recommendations on how
to improve them.” Presumably such a
review also would inform any budget
adjustments needed ahead.
The article then quoted Browning on
the need for budget cuts. In his words:
“We can make budget adjustments
so that we balance our budget, but we
have to make sure we are making those
adjustments such that we have resources
available to be proactive and grow
versus just hanging on. I’m not inter-
ested in hanging on. I’m interested in
growing and being vital and thriving.”
These are positive sentiments,
neutral in regard to any future direc-
tions, and in the context of an insti-
L
tutional review, to be informed by its
findings.
The next paragraph summarized
what Browning said, and these words
are those written by EO reporter Anto-
nio Sierra, “Although Browning said
the college is planning on moving
forward with the review, it’s still in the
early stages. He said the review will
be conducted by a third party and he’s
already talking with a few potential
companies about taking on the task. He
doesn’t yet have a timeline for when the
review will begin and end, and whether
it will be completed by the time the
college approves a budget for the next
fiscal year.”
Having read this article some time
ago, I was aware that budget cuts were
forthcoming, and I assumed that they
were informed by this promised review.
In rereading this article now, I question
how these decisions were made. This
college president has fiduciary respon-
sibilities to the taxpayers who fund our
community college.
To offer up such vague plans for an
institutional review, to have little idea
of its contours or timeline, strikes me, a
former college administrator, as malfea-
sance. That someone with a graduate
degree in public administration can
state a month before presenting budget
cuts that he is not sure of the review’s
completion prior to the cuts is either a
signal of ignorance or dishonesty, in my
opinion.
In the April 26 EO article, Brown-
ing continued with vague statements,
“I think what’s lost is about where
we’re heading. We’re losing sight of
where we’re going.”
If he has a vision of what and where
that is, he has not communicated it.
Rather it is about what he is letting go by
the wayside.
Continued reporting by Phil Wright
mentions Browning’s sense that “the
days of the two-year transfer degree
being the heart of the teaching at the
college are passed” and “employers
need courses that deliver job-specific
basic skills and education in just a few
weeks.”
The latter may be true for some
employers throughout our region. Yet
even law enforcement academy and
lineman college programs, as two
random examples, offer programs of 16-
and 13-week duration. School districts
and health-care entities continue to
report dire needs for trained staff, whose
education often begins in the two-year
transfer programs at our community
colleges. As for the mental health care
gaps in rural Oregon, they are as vast
as the empty miles between far-flung
communities, but real nevertheless.
After reading again the vague
pronouncements made by Browning, I
question the process that informed these
proposed cuts. As a taxpayer, I wonder
to what extent this process followed
Oregon Administrative Rules. We all
have a stake in this, whether or not we
have children planning their educational
futures. As a former educator, the best
grade I can give at this time is an incom-
plete, and encourage more work ahead.
———
Regina Braker, of Pendleton, is a
retired educator with journeys through
many places and experiences who enjoys
getting to know people along the way.
Oregon Health Authority and Federal
Emergency Management Agency
resources across Morrow County to
get and keep in-person learning in our
schools. She actively brought testing
and vaccination drive-thrus to clinics in
Boardman and Irrigon.
As a member of the Regional Solu-
tions Team, Melissa brought a working
group together to look at solutions for
the Ione waste water system.
As a member of the Community
Counseling Solutions Advisory Board,
Melissa was an active part in bringing a
mental health court to Morrow County
for those suffering mental health issues
that cross over into the judicial system.
As a chair, and currently vice chair
to the county wide Local Public Safety
Coordinating Council, Melissa solidi-
fied funding to help our county be one
of the most active in the state dealing
with mental health court, housing issues,
public safety issues, a juvenile diversion
program, etc.
Melissa has worked with Umatilla
County to deal with many issues and
opportunities where a dual county
approach is best. She is a member of
the Lower Umatilla Basin Groundwa-
ter Management Area Committee that is
working to assist the groundwater nitrate
issues plaguing parts of our county plus
individual wells.
Melissa has chaired and is a member
of the Military Economic Agriculture
Committee where she works with the
Navy, a large landowner in Morrow
County.
Melissa is working currently with
Willow Creek Valley Economic devel-
opment Board and the Port of Morrow
to change the Heppner Mill Site FEMA
flood map.
Melissa convened and chairs the
Morrow County Broadband Team to
gain equitable access and education for
high speed internet.
Melissa has been elected by state
commissioners to serve as Treasurer
for the Association of Oregon Counties.
She is admired and respected around
the state as a positive force for Morrow
County.
Join us in electing Melissa Lindsay.
Thank you for your time.
Jim and Monica Swanson
Ione
YOUR VIEWS
Melissa Lindsay a positive
force for Morrow County
We wholeheartedly support Melissa
Lindsay for commissioner of Morrow
County, and here are just a few reasons
why.
Melissa already has put in six years
of very accomplished service to all resi-
dents of Morrow County as a commis-
sioner. Her energy and dedication to
information gathering is top notch. She
attends many local meetings and travels
frequently out of the county to involve
herself with issues that can improve
Morrow County.
She doesn’t just attend meetings, she
is often the guiding force in making
things happen. She is interested in all
parts of the county. If you have listened
to her speak at any meeting, you will
agree that she is informed, listens and
gets things done.
Melissa is a leader with the Morrow
County Emergency Response Govern-
ment Command Team and worked
tirelessly during the pandemic to keep
Morrow County businesses open, wrote
testing and vaccine plans, brought