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About Wallowa County chieftain. (Enterprise, Wallowa County, Or.) 1943-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 21, 2016)
Wallowa County Chieftain RENTALS Continued from Page A4 Cannon Beach In Cannon Beach, the council will continue to re- fi ne its proposed amend- ments with the hope of com- pleting the task by the end of the year. The council will likely hold a work session next month to discuss the poten- tial changes and other pro- posals to the short-term rental permitting process. Working out the differences with the Planning Commission should be an obvious priority during upcoming work sessions on short-term rentals. In both cities, the issue has put elected offi cials and resi- dents in motion. Speaking about a possible initiative after all the work Gearhart offi cials have put into the new rules, City Ad- ministrator Chad Sweet hit the nail directly on the head when he told Daily Astorian reporter R.J Marx that, “For me, it’s all just part of the process. It’s democracy in action.” He’s exactly right. In Gearhart, the new rules are going into effect and the homeowners who oppose the ordinance aren’t shut out of the process, they still have the opportunity to seek the ballot initiative. If it gets that far, voters will have the fi nal say next year. In Cannon Beach, the short-term rental revisions are still in the early stages and should entail both the City Council and the Planning Commission working out the details together and not be on opposing sides before any new changes are put in place. That too, is part of the democratic process. WATER Continued from Page A4 Good we found petroleum to replace whale oil, shale oil to replace crude, wind to replace steam and water gen- erated electricity. And, even- tually, we’ll mine the moon, asteroids and distant planets. The Indians bring us back, back to land and water. The Umatilla Natural Resource program has developed a pre- sentation on “First Foods.” They argue that ancient long- house ceremonies served foods in order of importance, and if we do the same we will be healthier and will live in a healthier environment. Clean water, of course, is fi rst, and then salmon — think good spawning grounds, deer, roots, berries, etc. Our Wallowa waters are the envy of many. And while local cattle ranchers argue that “there is no such thing as a bad rain,” and grass grow- ers and ranchers measure the snowpack and gauge hay cut- ting and pasture moves against the year’s weather, most of us not making our living in agri- culture and timber are bliss- fully unaware of local water dynamics. We like the look of snowcapped mountains and the rush of rivers. We fi sh, or ski, snowmobile, hunt, run rivers, or sit on the beach at News wallowa.com September 21, 2016 A5 Oracle settles Cover Oregon lawsuit $100 million deal ends suit over failed website By Nick Budnick and Paris Achen Capital Bureau The state of Oregon and Oracle, the vendor on the $300 million Cover Oregon web- site debacle, have settled their wide-ranging legal dispute for more than $100 million in goods, services and cash. Oracle will supply funds, software and services to the state to settle a case in which Oregon had accused the Red- wood City, Calif., software giant of fraud and racketeering on the state’s one-stop-shop- ping health insurance website project that never worked as planned. The state had been asking for roughly $6 billion. “Today’s settlement agree- ment ends years of turmoil and taxpayer expense related to a troubled health care exchange program I dissolved in March 2015,” Gov. Kate Brown said in a statement. The agreement, announced early Thursday by Brown at OMSI, includes only $35 mil- lion in actual cash. Of that, $25 million will go to legal costs. The other $10 million will go toward science, technology, engineering and math educa- tion in public schools, to be branded as “Oracle STEM Ed- ucation Grants.” The state’s $105 million valuation of the settlement also includes $60 million in free customer service support for yet-to-be-obtained Oracle software. Wallowa Lake and enjoy the sun — and water. A few people work to rec- tify 20th-century technology by putting meander back in rivers, cooling water and in- creasing spawning grounds. Some think about our dam and how sockeye salmon who once fl ooded the lake might be Paris Achen/Pamplin Media Group From left, Deputy General Counsel Misha Isaak, Gov. Kate Brown, and state Chief Information Officer Alex Petitt answer questions at OMSI in Portland Thursday after Brown announced a more than $100 million settlement with Oracle Thursday over the failed Cover Oregon website. State offi cials were expect- ed to notify the federal gov- ernment of the settlement lat- er Thursday morning, Brown said. Brown declined to answer a question about whether the state will be required to give any of the settlement money to the federal government. “We received a very limit- ed amount of cash as you will see; the cash is $35 million,” Brown responded. “These set- tlements are very challenging to resolve, and all of the parties had to do some give and take in order to resolve the matter.” The federal government contributed $305 million for Cover Oregon.. But federal offi cials may fi nd it hard to recoup any part of the settle- ment’s ostensible value. Not a penny of the amount will go to repay the state for the $240 million it paid Oracle in con- nection with the project, or re- imburse the state for any of the brought to it again. Immigrants from California and central Oregon shake the dust off and water lawns and pastures. And Washington irrigators follow the dam condemnation and potential reconstruction thirst- ily — they’ll buy that extra water from us. Indians from diverse cul- related damages cited in the state’s lawsuit against Oracle. Kristen Grainger, a spokes- woman for Brown, said the settlement was “carefully” and “creatively” constructed to let Oregon keep as much of it as possible, hopefully the whole amount. “We are hopeful that (the federal government) will see that the needs of consumers are met,” she said. Sharing the blame Under the agreement, nei- ther side admits liability or wrongdoing. It also calls for a close working relationship be- tween the two sides. Besides the $35 million in cash and $60 million in cus- tomer support, the settlement also includes a six-year li- censing agreement that would allow the state to get free soft- ware to upgrade some of its in- formation technology systems. tures across the country camp- ing in North Dakota remind us that water is not just a com- modity to be bought and sold, but the fundamental principle of all life. Columnist Rich Wand- schneider lives in Joseph. The expansion of the state’s relationship with Oracle rep- resents a major departure from state offi cials’ past representa- tions that the company provid- ed fl awed software, did shoddy work and engaged in unethical, even criminal business practic- es. In fact, the state’s lawsuit had asked a judge to ban Or- acle from ever doing business with the state again. Asked whether the state could entrust its IT systems to Oracle after the Cover Oregon failure, Brown said she was confi dent in the company’s ex- pertise around business enter- prise software. The settlement is “an in- credible opportunity for us to take advantage of that exper- tise,” Brown said. “Oregon had a bad experience with Or- acle in terms of developing the Cover Oregon project.” But the state had no issue with the software services that Oracle provided the state during the past several years, she said. Oregon House Minority Leader Mike McLane, R-Pow- ell Butte, said Thursday that the settlement “marks the end of one of the most embarrass- ing chapters in Oregon’s histo- ry.” “While Oracle clearly made mistakes, there is no escap- ing the fact that the state, too, shares blame for the failure of Cover Oregon,” McLane said. “From the very beginning, the project was mismanaged and wracked by the failures of our bureaucracy. “Despite the state’s obvious culpability, Attorney General Rosenblum put tens of mil- lions of taxpayer dollars on the line for a legal strategy that was motivated by politics and never stood a realistic chance of recovering everything that was lost.” Rosenblum responded that the settlement wouldn’t have happened had she not pursued the litigation. “We now intend to work together again, and I call upon the good representative to let go of the acrimony and polit- ical bashing and join Oregon and Oracle in making positive changes in our IT systems go- ing forward,” the attorney gen- eral said. The state’s lawyers in court said they’d obtained other doc- uments showing that Oracle knew its software products could not provide the services it had promised while trying to win the Oregon contract. Grainger, the Brown spokeswoman, said election considerations or other politics did not play a role in the desire to settle the case. David Friedman, a Willa- mette University College of Law professor who has been sympathetic to Oracle’s argu- ments in the case, said “I really do think this is a win-win. The state is getting a substantial amount of services and value from Oracle ... and Oracle can say ‘Hey look, we’re not rack- eteers, we’re not fraudsters.’” Tough talk is normal in a case like this, but “They’re skipping off holding hands now through the wildfl ow- ers,” he said, “essentially back in business with one another.” NOW AVAILABLE h Commonwealth a new book by Ann Patchett T HE B OOKLOFT KLOF FT Across from the courthouse in Enterprise 107 E. 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