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About Wallowa County chieftain. (Enterprise, Wallowa County, Or.) 1943-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 21, 2020)
Wednesday, October 21, 2020 A4 OPINION VOICE of the CHIEFTAIN Harassment investigations are ineffective I n 2019, the Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries released an investigation finding many instances of sexual harassment in the state Capitol. It was made worse by ineffective investigation of complaints. House Speaker Tina Kotek and Sen- ate President Peter Courtney, both Democrats, did not seem to have done enough or reacted properly when con- fronted with alleged harassment. A law- suit against the Oregon Legislature was settled in 2019 for $1.32 million. Kotek and Courtney both vowed to do better and have worked to change the Capi- tol’s workplace culture. And now we find they need to do more to provide oversight for state agencies. A new state audit finds agencies can make things worse by ineffectively investigating complaints of harassment and discrimination. The state agency responsible for supervising statewide human resources, the Department of Administrative Services, called DAS, fails to provide oversight and track data. And there is no formal training for the staff who perform investigations of allegations. It should be noted that DAS agreed with all the recommendations in the audit for changes to correct the prob- lems. That’s encouraging. Some of it will require funding from the Legislature. But state auditors also reported obstacles in getting access to inves- tigation files when they were prepar- ing this audit. For instance, they wrote the Department of Justice was not will- ing to provide electronic access to their files. That certainly seems odd. EO Media Group asked the DOJ why. Deputy Attorney General Fred Boss wrote back saying the DOJ offered to let the auditors view the files in a DOJ office. Auditors declined because of COVID-19 concerns. The auditors asked for them electronically. Boss said before DOJ could respond “we were advised that the audit would proceed without them.” He said there were delays on DOJ’s part because of concerns about the security of the files. Despite what Boss said, it’s import- ant to note DOJ was the only state agency that was singled out in the audit report for such difficulty in comply- ing with a legal records request from auditors. The objective of this new state audit was to “determine if DAS ensures effective management over workplace discrimination and harassment com- plaints.” The short answer is no. The beginning of a brand new chapter FROM THE EDITOR’S DESK Ronald Bond ello, Wallowa County. If I learned anything when I wrapped up my last job and I wrote my outro column as the sports editor of The Observer, it’s that I’m not good at goodbyes. I’m finding I’m not the best at hellos, either, as I search for the best words for this intro. So I’ll start with “hello” and see where this goes. My name is Ronald Bond, and I am the new editor of the Wallowa County Chief- tain — a role that, even a month ago, never seemed remotely like one I would be in. I do have a sense of Wallowa County, most notably in the sports scene, as I have had opportunities to cover several thrilling Wallowa County sporting events in my time at The Observer. None, though, stand out more than the Joseph girls track and field team winning back-to-back state titles in 2016 and 2017, or the Enterprise girls half- point victory at the 2019 state track meet. Because of that, I know a few of you. Chieftain General Manager Jennifer Cooney has said, though, that I’m already known by people in the county through my coverage of the sports during my time at H The Observer. That may give me an advan- tage stepping into this role as opposed to someone coming into the region blindly. But this is a step into an unknown for me. Sports writing is what I have viewed as my strength, and is what originally inter- ested me in journalism close to 15 years ago. News coverage is a move into an area of uncomfortability, of vulnerability and of uncertainty. That also goes for leading a newsroom. This is in spite of the fact that I do have some experience in both. With sports put on the sideline during COVID- 19, I have spent more time covering news in the past six months. And I served as The Observer’s interim editor for about six or seven months in 2019, including during the tail end of the paper’s time in bank- ruptcy before we were bought by EO Media Group. I’ll be upfront that adjusting to this new role is going to be a time of learning and growing for me. While I have a basis to start from, I am also starting from scratch. Yes, I may be known by some readers and know some people (particularly coaches and athletes) but these are not laurels I can rest on. Being known means expectations likely will be a lot higher than if I was com- ing in completelyv unknown by the peo- ple here. When this move was presented to me about three weeks ago and I took a week- end to consider and pray it over, I came to realize that the opportunity placed before me was granted to me by the Lord. That gives me a sense that stepping into some- thing new will be OK, even if it won’t be Elections take on different look through the years MAIN STREET Rich Wandschneider he first election I remember is Eisen- hower in 1952. I was 10, and because my parents were Republicans — although politics was never much of a sub- ject in our house — I wore an “I Like Ike” button. Our fifth-grade class trooped to Mrs. Drummond’s house to watch the inauguration. Through high school and much of college, my interests were sports, social life, find- ing a major and then finding good books and thinkers. I was more interested in the history of political thought than I was in politics. Jack Kennedy started to change that — and then he was gone, and we all hung on and wondered what we had lost. In 1964, as I was graduating college, there was a new presidential election: Lyndon Johnson vs. Barry Goldwater. Johnson said we would be in danger of initiating a nuclear war if we elected Barry Goldwater. I remember soberly and seriously calling my father to tell him that. I voted for Johnson — by mail, because I was at college and at that time college stu- dents were required to register at “perma- nent” addresses. Johnson won, of course, and, ironically, let us slide further into the quicksand of Vietnam. I went into JFK’s Peace Corps (voting by mail from Turkey) and came home to march against the war. Vietnam erased any ideas I had of a Foreign Service career. T EDITORIALS: Unsigned editorials are the opinion of the Wallowa County Chieftain editorial board. Other columns, letters and cartoons on this page express the opinions of the authors and not necessarily that of the Wallowa County Chieftain. LETTERS: The Wallowa County Chieftain welcomes original letters of 400 words or less on public issues and public policies for publication in the newspaper and on our website. The newspaper reserves the right to withhold letters that address concerns about individual services and products or letters that infringe on the rights of private citizens. Letters must be signed by the author and include the city of residence and a daytime phone number. The phone number will not be published. Unsigned letters will not be published. SEND LETTERS TO: editor@wallowa.com, or via mail to Wallowa County Chieftain, 209 NW 1st St. Enterprise, OR 97828 All these years later, I’ve come to see Johnson differently. Yes, he was an arm-twisting SOB who lived on the edges of proper conduct, but he was also the president who killed his own Democratic Party in the South in order to pass the Civil Rights Act. He gave us more Civil and Voting Rights legislation, Medicare and Medicaid, Work Study, Head Start and more. And we now know that the gruff Texan who held his beagle by the ears, showed his gut scars in public and pulled out of a run for a full second term, was a hard-nosed pol- itician on race and poverty. And we know that his Civil Rights legislation and work to address poverty came from personal experi- ence teaching poor Mexican kids right out of college during the Depression. “Somehow you never forget what poverty and hatred can do when you see its scars on the hopeful face of a young child,” he said. He wrapped the plight of the Negro with that of his old students, and although he never thought he’d have the chance to help them, he did: “And I’ll let you in on a secret: I mean to use it.” LBJ twisted arms, and Con- gress passed the Voting Rights Act in 1965. ——— When I landed in Wallowa County in 1971, registered Democrats outnumbered Republicans by a wide margin. All county offices were partisan, and mostly held by Democrats. Long-time Clerk Marjorie Mar- tin and Treasurer Nora Anderson were Dem- ocrats. U.S. Congressman Al Ullman from Baker was a Democrat, and chairman of the powerful House Ways and Means Commit- tee. Hard-nosed realtor Pearl Engle ran the local Democrats and hosted fundraisers for Ullman. Things were changing however, and the old coalition of Roosevelt New Dealers — big-city labor, rural farmers and small-town Wallowa County’s Newspaper Since 1884 M eMber O regOn n ewspaper p ublishers a ssOciatiOn Published every Wednesday by: EO Media Group VOLUME 134 easy at first. It’ll be an opportunity to grow, to change, to develop. I’m also looking forward to getting to know many of you in the county, of getting to work with you, and of getting to tell your stories — whatever those stories may be. As noted above, I already have a bit of a jump- start with a handful of you from the last few years. And those I already worked with last week as I began to get integrated have been great. I hope it’s the start of a good season at the Chieftain. The readers are who make a paper go. Without you, we have nothing. I want to build a great working relationship with the readership up here. And that means, I want to hear from you at rbond@wallowa.com. If you have a story idea for myself or for one of our report- ers or freelancers, please send it along. If you have feedback — positive or negative (please be gracious if sharing negative feed- back) — I want to hear that as well. If you have input on what could make the Chief- tain better, send it my way. I can’t guaran- tee it’ll be included, but it can be taken into consideration. I know I am joining a paper that recently won an ONPA general excellence award. I want to do what I can to not only maintain what was good that led to that award being earned, but to see what can be added to, hopefully, make it even better. I’m looking forward to what is ahead, and am ready to get started. ——— Ronald Bond is the editor of the Wallowa County Chieftain. 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 Contents copyright © 2020. All rights reserved. Reproduction without permission is prohibited. General manager, Jennifer Cooney, jcooney@wallowa.com Editor, Ronald Bond, rbond@wallowa.com Reporter, Bill Bradshaw, bbradshaw@wallowa.com Advertising Assistant, Cheryl Jenkins, cjenkins@wallowa.com Designer, Andy Nicolais, anicolais@eomediagroup.com • • • To submit news tips and press releases, call 541-426-4567 or email editor@wallowa.com voters who’d benefited from commodity and electrification programs — was breaking down. In Wallowa County and across rural America, the new environmental movement promoted unpopular regulations, but more than that, brought a kind of urban smug- ness about natural resources to people who worked on the land. And then President Reagan came into office with the cry that government isn’t the answer, but the problem. That pretty well turned the switch on party registrations in Wallowa County. ——— I ran for county commissioner in the late ‘70s and didn’t make it through the Dem- ocratic primary. A rancher friend asked me how old I was. “Thirty-six,” I said, and he told me to wait 10 years and they’d elect me. By 46, I was deep into kid raising and ran for the Enterprise School Board instead. I beat back a write-in campaign that said I was going to spread abortions and other bad things through our school like topsy. I won that and another election. School boards are hard work — I think we should all take our turns at them or at other local offices. It’s where rubber meets road and party affiliations don’t make a damn. County commissioner and other county offices are no longer partisan, and I think that’s right. I voted for Mike Hayward when he was a Republican and when it was nonpartisan. I’d vote for him again — even if he ran for Congress. And I’d vote for him by mail, as I’ll vote this year. Seems “Rs,” “Ds” and “Is” in Ore- gon can agree on that one part of elections. ——— Rich Wandschneider is the director of the Josephy Library of Western History and Culture. Periodical Postage Paid at Enterprise and additional mailing offices Subscription rates (includes online access) Wallowa County Out-of-County 1 Year $45.00 $57.00 Subscriptions must be paid prior to delivery See the Wallowa County Chieftain on the Internet Wallowa.com facebook.com/Wallowa twitter.com/wcchieftain POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Wallowa County Chieftain P.O. Box 338 Enterprise, OR 97828
