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.
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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
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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.
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