A14
State News
wallowa.com
GOP says Brown
playing politics with
public records post
Governor’s plan
moves position
under her
control
By Claire Withycombe
Capital Bureau
SALEM — Oregon Gov.
Kate Brown came under fi re
Monday from the state’s
Republican Party for a pro-
posal to house a proposed
public records advocate at
the Department of Adminis-
trative Services.
In previous proposals,
the position was to be part
of the Secretary of State’s
Offi ce. Republicans claim
Brown, a Democrat, now
wants to move the position
into a department controlled
by the governor now that the
Secretary of State’s Offi ce
is about to be taken over by
Dennis Richardson, a Re-
publican.
“Such maneuvers by
Gov. Brown serve to dam-
age public trust,” ORP
Chairman Bill Currier said
in a statement.
He claimed that the
move would undercut
Richardson’s oversight re-
sponsibilities.
“The secretary of state
in Oregon exists in large
part to restore and maintain
high public confi dence, but
needs all the tools possible
to do this. Voters elected
Dennis Richardson to re-
store balance and be this
watchdog in order to guar-
antee that the rest of the
government run by the gov-
ernor is telling Oregonians
the truth.”
Under the arrangement
proposed in the governor’s
legislative concept, the ad-
vocate would be appointed
to a four-year term by the
governor and be confi rmed
by the Oregon Senate.
The offi ce of the advo-
cate would be located in the
offi ce of the Department of
Administrative Services,
which would also provide
administrative support.
One of the main respon-
sibilities of the advocate
would be mediating dis-
putes between people re-
questing public records and
state agencies.
The Governor’s Offi ce
put the specifi c idea for-
ward at a Dec. 15 meeting
of the Attorney General’s
Public Records Law Re-
form Task Force.
By Claire Withycombe
Capital Bureau
SALEM — An audit re-
leased Thursday by the Sec-
retary of State’s Offi ce calls
on the state’s Water Resourc-
es Department to improve its
long-term planning and man-
agement of Oregon’s water
supply.
The department is respon-
sible for allocating water
rights, enforcing the state’s
water laws and other aspects
of water management. It’s
overseen by a citizen com-
mission.
Noting that the state’s wa-
ter problems are positioned
to worsen, the secretary of
state’s fi ndings say the depart-
ment could do more to “sus-
tain current and future water
needs,” protect groundwater,
and collect and analyze infor-
mation about the state’s water.
The audit comes on the
heels of the governor’s 2015
county drought declarations
and state efforts to prioritize
water issues in their wake.
A legislative drought task
force recently identifi ed gaps
in the state’s systems and re-
sources for preventing and re-
sponding to drought.
While the water resources
department gathers a lot of in-
formation about water supply,
Sean Ellis/EO Media Group
A sugar beet field in Eastern Oregon is irrigated in June. An
audit released Thursday by the Secretary of State’s Office
calls on the state’s Water Resources Department to improve
its long-term planning and management of Oregon’s water
supply.
the department hasn’t been
able to analyze all of it, the
audit found.
For example, the de-
partment’s water availabil-
ity models are based on de-
cades-old data, although the
department has 17 years’
worth of information about
streamfl ow measurement col-
lected after 1987.
In other areas of water
management, such as water
use reporting, the department
lacks data altogether, the audit
found.
“Only about 20 percent
of water rights holders are
required to report how much
water they use to (the water
resources department),” the
audit states.
Oregon House Demo-
crats have developed a menu
of several billion dollars in
new taxes they could consid-
er during the 2017 session,
according to a Legislative
Revenue Offi ce document
obtained by the Portland Tri-
bune.
WALLOWA COUNTY CHIEFTAIN
Wishing you a
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a Happy New Year!
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Agricultural users — who
account for up to 85 percent
of the state’s water use — ar-
en’t required to report how
much they use. As a result,
the department lacks “a clear
understanding of how much
water is actually being used,”
the audit states.
Additionally, the depart-
ment has focused more on
collecting data on surface wa-
ter than groundwater, demand
for which is growing.
The audit also recom-
mended the department adopt
an overarching plan to set
long-term water goals, and
improve communication and
how it manages its workload.
Finally, the audit noted that
planning is key to managing
the state’s water in the long
run.
“There is growing pressure
on Oregon’s water system,”
the audit states. “The state re-
lies on snowpack and rainwa-
ter for its water system, and it
is unclear how climate change
will affect future precipitation
patterns and water availabili-
ty.”
The department’s direc-
tor, Thomas Byler, gener-
ally agreed with the audit’s
fi ndings in a letter to Mary
Wenger, the interim director
of the secretary of state’s au-
dits division.
In many areas, Byler not-
ed, the department had lim-
ited funding to enact all of
the recommended changes,
although they have already
made some strides — such as
using technology to improve
internal communications and
gathering feedback from the
state’s watermasters on how
water use measurement could
be improved.
Byler said that the state’s
2012 Integrated Water Re-
sources Strategy “provides a
long-term blueprint” for help-
ing the state meet its current
and future instream and out-
of-stream water needs, but that
the department intended to
set out more detailed goals to
align with the broader strategy.
House Democrats propose new taxes
Capital Bureau
ENTERPRISE SDA SCHOOL
Wallowa County Chieftain
Audit faults water resources dept.
By Paris Achen
Kenon
Nash
December 21, 2016
CONTEST
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of which requires new reve-
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OFFICE WILL B
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6
This week’s athlete of the
week is Enterprise High
School basketball player
Sarah Aschenbrenner. During
the Outlaws Dec. 17 51-28
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An EHS senior, Aschenbrenner
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regular appearances on the
school’s honor roll.
Sarah
Aschenbrenner
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