Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Wallowa County chieftain. (Enterprise, Wallowa County, Or.) 1943-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 8, 2017)
A4 Opinion wallowa.com November 8, 2017 Wallowa County Chieftain Looking for leadership, not more excuses Bad news keeps rolling out from the Oregon Health Authority. But instead of taking responsibility, Gov. Kate Brown not only ducked it but also tried to spin it as positive news. The issue is that OHA paid too much to regional health-care organizations, collected too much money from the feds as a result, and might have to repay all of it. Brown announced the Voice of the Chieftain issue in a roundabout way last week, issuing a press release headlined, “New OHA Leadership Takes Action to Resolve Overpayments Made in Wake of Cover Oregon Failure.” It praised new OHA director Patrick Allen “and his team for acting quickly to bring stability and transparency to OHA’s work on behalf of Oregonians. After just two months leading OHA, Allen has directed staff to resolve yet another consequence of the Cover Oregon technology failure. Governor Brown appreciates that Allen is making the resolution of these issues the top priority and looks forward to monthly updates on his team’s progress in resolving them.” The overpayments were made to coordinated care organizations for patients who were eligible for both Medicaid and Medicare. This occurred from 2014 through mid-2016. Brown is the state’s CEO. She is responsible what happens on her watch after becoming governor in February 2015. Mistakes happen. Still, it is disappointing that OHA apparently overpaid $74 million to 16 coordinated care organizations. It is disconcerting that, according to the governor’s office, Brown only learned of the problem when Allen took over as OHA director. It is disturbing that Brown, through her press release, tried to spin the snafu instead of accepting her share of the responsibility. Indeed, this does sound like Cover Oregon, but not in the way Brown suggested. The Cover Oregon fiasco stemmed from Gov. John Kitzhaber appointing the wrong people to key jobs, not keeping close tabs on the project and accepting dubious progress reports. That also sounds like this new OHA fiasco. As governor, Brown is CEO of a multi-billion-dollar organization with tens of thousands of employees. A good CEO develops a solid record of hiring the right people, giving them freedom to do their jobs while also staying on top of their work. In that regard, Brown has a decidedly mixed record, although she did eventually oust Lynne Saxton as OHA director and bring in the well- regarded Allen. It’s notable that Saxton was forced to resign in the wake of another failure of leadership at OHA, as the department sought to undermine the credibility of a Portland health care provider that was questioning the state’s rate-making process. Saxton denied any active role in the plan, but stepped down anyway. No one, especially a politician, likes to look bad. But a good CEO builds confidence, trust and respect by taking responsibility when things go awry. EDITORIAL USPS No. 665-100 P.O. Box 338 • Enterprise, OR 97828 Office: 209 NW First St., Enterprise, Ore. Phone: 541-426-4567 • Fax: 541-426-3921 Wallowa County’s Newspaper Since 1884 Enterprise, Oregon M eMber O regOn n ewspaper p ublishers a ssOciatiOn Publisher Editor Reporter Reporter Newsroom assistant Ad sales consultant Office manager Marissa Williams, marissa@bmeagle.com Paul Wahl, editor@wallowa.com Stephen Tool, stool@wallowa.com Kathleen Ellyn, kellyn@wallowa.com editor@wallowa.com Jennifer Powell, jpowell@wallowa.com Cheryl Jenkins, cjenkins@wallowa.com p ublished every w ednesday by : EO Media Group Periodical Postage Paid at Enterprise and additional mailing offices Subscription rates (includes online access) Wallowa County Out-of-County Subscriptions must be paid prior to delivery See the Wallowa County Chieftain on the Internet 1 Year $40.00 $57.00 Traveling is great, and often coming home is even better I attended an editor’s gathering in Portland on Oct. 26 and spent some time at the newspaper’s corporate headquar- ters in Salem the following day. My wife came along, and we finished our journey with a visit to my sister and her family in Lincoln City. No matter how you slice it, it’s a long slog to the coast and back, a couple dozen or so miles short of a complete trek across Oregon. It dawned on both of us that seven months in Wallowa County had changed our attitude a bit about the hustle and bus- tle and the traffic of places like Portland in particular. Thursday evening, we drove from Port- land to Salem, 60 miles so we estimated it would take an hour. Well over two hours later, and driving through indescribable traffic congestion, we arrived. Sunday morning coming back through Portland was also nightmarish with many slowdowns and more than a few episodes of sitting at a standstill. On a Sunday morning. I could only imagine what those WAHL TO WALL Paul Wahl roads are like on a weekday morning. Now we’ve been hearing forever how sophisticated Portland residents are, they bike everywhere they go, they take pub- lic transportation in large numbers and they’re just overall green folks. Pish-posh. They’re out there in gas-eat- ing automobiles at rates as high or higher than most urban areas by our recollection. Portland is a long way from abandoning the automobile culture that prevails in the West. On top of that, there are an inordinate number of nasty drivers who use their horn and middle finger at the slightest provoca- tion. We were so not impressed. The coast, of course, is beautiful ... even when the fog is so thick you can only hear the ocean waves. We drove through the Columbia Gorge in the dark Wednesday night but had a chance to see the fire damage in the daylight on Sunday. Several roads lead- ing off the freeway remain closed. It’s difficult to imagine what it must have been like to travel through the area when the fires were at their peak. We made a quick stop in The Dalles area to see if we could find fresh apples and pears since it was so late in the sea- son. We found one orchard still in opera- tion –– all the apples and pears you could handle for 50 cents a pound. Needless to say, we were in hog heaven. The fruit was amazing. While both of us enjoy getting away on occasion, we’re beginning to reach that age and stage in life when the thought of being in our own home, in our own beds is inviting. That doesn’t mean we will stop traveling whenever possible. It’s still healthy to get out and see how other folks live on occasion. Library facilities details a work in progress In the Oct. 25 edition, the Chieftain reported on a City of Enterprise Council meeting about the proposed library dis- trict. This letter addresses the reference to the proposed use of the city’s library facilities by the library district. One of the main goals of library foundation in recent months has been to determine what the lowest possible tax rate would be in order to pro- vide library services through- out Wallowa County. The recommended tax rate of 65 cents per thousand dol- lars of evaluation is possi- ble only if the cities and the county agree to allow the dis- trict to use their library build- ings without charge. The library district would pay for annual operations: per- sonnel, library materials and other operational expenses, including janitorial and telecommunications. This type of shared respon- sibility for funding librar- ies is not unusual. Tillamook County in Oregon and Timber- land Library District in Wash- ington have such arrange- ments. The specifics of these arrangements are stated in intergovernmental agreements between the library district and the local governments that own their facilities. The agreements could be updated annually as the dis- trict board and the cities and county gain experience with district revenues, operations and expenditures. An intergovernmental agreement cannot be made before the district exists. However, knowledge and understanding can be gained as a pathway to laying out an arrangement that jurisdictions LETTERS to the EDITOR could support and that the dis- trict budget and tax rate would also support. This month, the foundation will be organizing a facilities committee, inviting represen- tatives from the city councils of Enterprise, Joseph and Wal- lowa and the Wallowa County Commission to sort out the facilities issues. The Foundation appreci- ates that all of these partners are taking a leap of faith in creating the district, all have a vested interest in its success, and all stand to be able to pro- vide efficient, effective and sustainable library services to our communities. Mike Crawford Troy Crawford is a member of the Library Foundation Board and chairman of the founda- tion’s facilities committee. what if city dwellers left keys in their ignitions, their houses unlocked or watched their big screen TV from their front yard, and they woke up to find those possessions gone. Most likely most folks might say, “What did you expect?” If city dwellers took an approach similar to what some folks do in response to wolf predation, we’d be working to rid our community of its “undesirables.” Maybe that strategy might feel like the only right response to some folks. Aside from obvious ethical issues, it most likely wouldn’t prove to be a very successful way of dealing with the problem. What happens instead is we lock doors, remove keys from cars, install alarm systems and take other similar measures. In other words, we take steps to secure what we consider valuable. We all have something to learn from each other. Bob Procter Portland A different sort of analogy suggested Kudos to stars in I’ve heard it said that city ‘Murder’ play dwellers would think dif- ferently about cougars and wolves if they roamed in their area. What is more often left unsaid is that city dwellers wouldn’t like those predators anymore than some rural folks do. I think the analogy is different. City dwellers deal with threats that folks in rural areas typically don’t. Or, not to the same extent. Like, shootings, robbery, theft, muggings and the like. Which got me to thinking, Wallowa County resi- dents would be missing a great opportunity to experience a wonderful night of entertain- ment if they missed the Mid- Valley Theatre’s performance of the Agatha Christy play, “A murder is announced”. This who-dunnit is impec- cably played by local peo- ple who are the actors and actresses. The play itself is crafted to keep challenging the audience as they try to deduce which character is the guilty person. I changed my mind several times and never really figured out who it was until the end. Under the brilliant direction of Kate Loftus, a real genius at bringing out the best in the players, you will be mesmer- ized by the entire production. Jennifer Hobbs, Gwen Men- ton, and Stuart Vencill can- not be surpassed, even by the actors my wife Jean and I saw in performances in New York City two weeks ago. Sebastian Hobbs, Carol Vencill, Jeff Fields, Ame Leg- gett, Paige Lattin, Andy Mar- tin, Steve Kliewer, Bryce Leg- gett and Anna Moholt also did outstanding jobs. David Cook and Bill Kost deserve credit for building a clean and efficient set. Ingrid Cook and Eleanor Terry earned a round of applause for resetting the stage between scenes; this is one of Kate’s trademarks. Clem Falbo Joseph Remembering the stalwart ladies Great article about the Soroptimist Thrift Store in the Nov. 1 edition, but you neglected to mention the elderly ladies who ran the store when I first arrived: Alice Lessman, Marjorie Martin and Mable Osborn. According to The History of Wallowa County, the name “thrift store” was suggested by Rowena Adey. When these ladies were not working at their regular jobs, they were found at the thrift shop. These are names that are disappearing. I just thought they needed to be mentioned. Cathryn Paterson Enterprise Wallowa.com facebook.com/Wallowa | twitter.com/wcchieftain POSTMASTER — Send address changes to Wallowa County Chieftain P.O. Box 338 Enterprise, OR 97828 Contents copyright © 2017. All rights reserved. Reproduction without permission is prohibited. Volume 134 L etters to the Editor are subject to editing and should be limited to 275 words. Writers should also include a phone number with their signature so we can call to verify identity. The Chieftain does not run anonymous letters. In terms of content, writers should refrain from personal attacks. It’s acceptable, however, to attack (or support) another party’s ideas. We do not routinely run thank-you letters, a policy we’ll consider waiving only in unusual situations where reason compels the exception. You can submit a letter to the Wallowa County Chieftain in person; by mail to P.O. Box 338, Enterprise, OR 97828; by email to editor@wallowa.com; or via the submission form at the newspaper’s website, located at wallowa.com. (Drop down the “Opinion” menu on the navigation bar to see the rel- evant link).