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THURSDAY, MAY 26, 2022
MAY 25–J
146th Year, No. 68
WINNER OF 16 ONPA AWARDS IN 2021
UNE 1, 202
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PA G E 8
EDUCATION
Auditors
sound
the alarm
Oregon risks
wasting money
for schools due to
lack of tracking,
accountability
By HILLARY
BORRUD AND BETSY
HAMMOND
The Oregonian
SALEM — Oregon lead-
ers’ hands-off approach to
public school spending and
results has put the state at risk
of wasting taxpayers’ invest-
ments and failing to improve
student success, state audi-
tors warned in a report issued
Tuesday, May 24.
State auditors in the
Secretary of State’s Office
addressed their “systemic risk
report” to Gov. Kate Brown,
the state Board of Education
and Oregon’s 90 lawmakers.
Those offi cials have sat by for
years as the state education
agency did little to set mean-
ingfully high standards for
schools or districts and did
little to intervene when some
of them vastly underdelivered
for their students, particularly
students of color and those
living in poverty, auditors
found.
The auditors highlighted
fi ve risks and potential solu-
tions and said that, based on
their extensive reviews of
Oregon’s K-12 system over
the past six years, “a lack
of intervention by (Oregon
Department of Education),
despite signifi cant problems
at the school and district level,
has been a larger problem
than infringement on local
control.”
Oregon schools are awash
in cash relative to recent
years. Since the 2020-21
school year, a corporate tax
for education has delivered
roughly $1 billion a year for
new and upgraded programs
and services. In addition,
Oregon has received more
than $1.7 billion in federal
pandemic relief funding for
schools since March 2020.
But policymakers haven’t
insisted that schools show
evidence that money is paying
off for students — something
auditors said is essential to
ensure the money is spent
See Education, Page A6
Setting a new PATH
PA GE 3
PA GE 9
PA GE 12
Area leaders team
up on project to take
on homelessness
By ERICK PETERSON
East Oregonian
U
MATILLA COUNTY — A local tran-
sitional housing project to help address
homelessness could open as soon as
this year.
Local offi cials are working to create
a homeless shelter in Umatilla County.
Hermiston City manager Byron Smith said if the
eff orts are successful, the project would move
forward to its opening “this calendar year.” That
would beat a state deadline to create homeless
shelters by about a year.
The Hermiston City Council, the Umatilla
City Council and the Umatilla County Board
of Commissioners met Monday, May 23, at a
special joint meeting to talk over a plan to take
on the local homelessness problem. Smith said
discussions are centered on 2 acres of county
land at the corner of Lind and Bensel roads,
which the city of Umatilla would annex.
Members of all three bodies, along with
Hermiston’s youth advisors, sat before numer-
ous visitors. Other offi cials from the two cities
and the county also were present.
“We have an exciting conversation,” Hermis-
ton Mayor David Drotzmann said, as he invited
others to speak.
Several participants at the meeting said they
had never before seen a joint meeting of the two
cities with the commissioners. The commis-
sioners have come in the past, they said, but not
together with the Umatilla City Council.
Project PATH
Smith introduced the topic: Project PATH
— Practical Assistance through Transitional
Housing. He credited the acronym to Umatilla
City Manager David Stockdale, who was sitting
next to him at the meeting.
According to Smith, the region has sought
to solve its homeless problem with at least two
“homeless summits” held since 2014.
A September 2018 9th Circuit decision,
Martin v. Boise, made the issue even more
Erick Peterson/East Oregonian
From left, Umatilla City Councilors Corinne Funderburk, Daren Dufl oth and Leslie Smith listen
with Umatilla City Council President Roak TenEyck at a meeting Monday, May 23, 2022, at the
Hermiston Community Center to discuss a project addressing homelessness.
pressing. It requires jurisdictions to provide a
location if homeless people are not allowed to
camp, Smith said.
“If we’re going to move them out of parks,
they’re going to have to have another location
where we allow them to relocate,” Smith said.
The city manager continued, saying eff orts to
place a homeless shelter near the Agape House
in Hermiston fell through. Meanwhile, he said,
the city of Umatilla and Umatilla County have
looked for solutions, too.
With the Oregon Legislature making Martin
v. Boise provisions state law, the homeless prob-
lem became even more urgent. Local govern-
ments, Smith said, would have until July 1, 2023,
to create shelters.
As the Legislature requested pilot projects
from local governments and off ered $1 million
grants. Western Umatilla County — the region
of Umatilla County, Hermiston, Umatilla, Echo
and Stanfi eld — was included in a bill.
Two days after the joint meeting, Umatilla
County Commissioner John Shafer said Echo
and Stanfi eld are going to participate in PATH,
but how and when remains a question.
“It’s going to aff ect everybody on the west
end of the county,” he said.
And taking action now, he added, means
local governments get in front of the 2023 dead-
line.
The next step coming up is to seek bids from
third parties to operate PATH.
Contracting out
The grant money is to be given to the region
to pay for a fi ve-year strategic plan. If there is
a remainder, it should help pay for the site and
operations, Smith said at the meeting.
See Help, Page A6
PORT OF MORROW
Looking the other way: Part 3
By ALEX
BAUMHARDT, COLE
SINANIAN AND JAEL
CALLOWAY
Oregon Capital Chronicle
Editor’s note: This is the
conclusion of a series that
follows the article “Don’t
Drink the Water,” which ran
in the May 10 East Orego-
nian. Other parts ran in
preceding editions of the EO.
Permit restrictions
alarm port, others
By the fall of 2021, Oregon
Department of Environmen-
tal Quality was consider-
ing an unprecedented action
and what Duane Smith,
DEQ water quality specialist
assigned to Eastern Oregon,
now retired, had proposed for
years but was told was impos-
sible. DEQ was considering
banning the Port of Morrow
from dumping wastewa-
ter during the winter unless
nitrogen levels are low
enough to meet federal drink-
ing water standards.
Before acting, DEQ Direc-
tor Richard Whitman reached
out to brief the state legislator
representing the Boardman
area — Rep. Greg Smith,
R-Heppner, who once worked
for the Port of Morrow.
EO Media Group, File
The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality issued a $1.3 million fi ne against the
Port of Morrow for applying excessive amounts of nitrate-containing water to some area
farmland. The port has appealed the fi ne.
Smith has a seat on the
Legislature’s powerful
budget committee, oversee-
ing DEQ’s budget. He has
used his committee position
to win millions in special
state funding for the port. But
he had personal fi nancial ties
as well.
He is paid $144,812 by
the Columbia Development
Authority, which is rede-
veloping a former chemical
munitions depot near Board-
man. The port is a partner
in that entity. The port also
helped establish an economic
nonprofi t that pays Smith’s
private company $100,000 a
year.
In a recent interview,
Smith said he was unaware
of DEQ’s restrictive new
conditions for the port until
earlier this year. DEQ records
contradict that.
Emails show Smith
stepped in to stall DEQ’s new
conditions for the port.
“It is my understanding
the Port of Morrow is in antic-
ipation of a letter from your
office,” Smith wrote in an
email to Whitman on Nov. 8.
“I would respectfully request
that you hold off on this until
our meeting tomorrow morn-
ing.”
This was the day the port
would be receiving its permit
modifi cations from DEQ.
The paperwork was
sent Nov. 8 despite Smith’s
request, and the agenda
for Smith’s meeting with
the DEQ boss was set for
the following day. Topics
included “POM permitting”
and “drinking water issues.”
The same day as that
meeting, Smith’s staff pressed
Shannon Davis, DEQ’s
regional administrator in
Pendleton, to separately meet
with the legislator.
“Rep. Smith has a very
diffi cult schedule for the next
week and a half. However, he
was hoping you could meet in
person with himself and the
Port of Morrow” the next day
– at the port’s offi ces.
Davis wrote back she
couldn’t meet but assured
Smith’s staff the port could
immediately request an
extension of its November
deadline to address the new
permit conditions.
Extensions were granted
twice while the DEQ put the
fi nishing touches on the fi nal
enforcement notice.
Whitman and Smith
would meet at least once more
in person and once more over
Zoom before Jan. 10, when
DEQ levied a fi ne of nearly
$1.3 million to the port for
years of violating environ-
mental restrictions.
“I would really like to
See Water, Page A6