TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 23, 2021
Baker City, Oregon
A4
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EDITORIAL
Partial
solution to
homeless
challenge
Baker City Police Chief Ty Duby’s plan to bring to
the City Council a proposed ordinance limiting where
and when people can camp on public property is a
good one.
It’s also a topic that the City Council has previously
discussed and is interested in pursuing.
The city has no such ordinance now.
And without one, the city has little if any author-
ity to restrict homeless camps of the sort that have
become common sights in metropolitan areas such as
Portland and Seattle.
Baker City, as was the case last week in a situa-
tion on Fifth Street where a woman had accumulated
shopping carts, a mattress and other items, can
enforce existing state laws that prohibit people from
blocking sidewalks or streets with their possessions.
But based on a 2018 federal court ruling in a
Boise case, and on a law that the Oregon Legislature
approved and Gov. Kate Brown signed earlier this
year, the city’s ability, without an ordinance, to restrict
camping on public property is severely limited.
Even with an ordinance, the city’s authority is not
absolute.
The new state law reads, in part: “A person experi-
encing homelessness may bring suit for injunctive or
declaratory relief to challenge the objective reasonable-
ness of a city or county law.”
The law goes on to state that “reasonableness shall
be determined based on the totality of the circum-
stances, including, but not limited to, the impact of the
law on persons experiencing homelessness.”
That language notwithstanding, it’s certainly rea-
sonable for the city — for any city — to set parameters
to ensure that, for instance, parks, which are built and
maintained by tax dollars, remain inviting places for
people to gather.
Duby said he plans to model the ordinance on one
that the Coos Bay City Council approved in August.
The Coos Bay ordinance allows camping on some
public property, but only between 8 p.m. and 6 a.m.
The ordinance bans camping in city parks and on
public property in high-density, medium-density and
small-lot residential areas.
Although a well-conceived ordinance could help
prevent major problems with homeless camps in
Baker City, no ordinance can deal with the underly-
ing issues, such as mental health and addiction, that
often contribute to a person being without permanent
shelter.
There’s no doubt that the government — mainly
at the state and federal level, given the limited local
resources — can and should do more to provide such
services as counseling and temporary housing.
But no amount of money can compel adults who
aren’t breaking the law to change their lifestyle if they
choose, at least at times, to live outside.
Enacting limits on where, and when, they can
legally camp, however, is both reasonable, to borrow an
adjective from the state law, and necessary to preserve
the quality of life in Baker City.
— Jayson Jacoby, Baker City Herald editor
Letters to the editor
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Your views
I’ll keep expressing opinions about
what people do, say
It is so cute that one of our citizens
saw my recent letter to the editor
about my heavenly vacation to Hawaii
and the absence therein of political
ridiculousness as a personal attack.
My opinion on the overall state of the
nation seems to have hit a nerve.
This citizen, for some reason,
thought I was talking directly to him?
Then, in a clever veiled sort of way,
invited me to move if I wasn’t going
to accept his politics or culture. He
mistakenly believes his personal ideals
are magically extended outward into
the community?
No, I am sorry, it isn’t all about
you or where you live ... there is not a
signifi cant amount of ultraconservative
people in this tiny town to ever make
me move. I happily live in a peren-
nial blue state with a little faction of
disgruntled (you may now add that to
your list of soul searching attributes)
and would never think of moving
from beautiful Baker City, having no
problem fi tting right in. I choose to
not accept anything about a culture
and politics I disagree with, I choose to
live where I want, I choose to voice my
opinion and strive for change. Please
don’t misinterpret your grandmother’s
sage advice “live and let live” with
“keep your opinions to yourself” cause
that ain’t never gonna happen. I will,
as always, continue to judge my fellow
man by their actions and words, just as
you have judged me.
The fact that you are embarrassed
and humiliated for thinking Donald
Trump had the best interest of our
country at heart shows that even your
culture and politics is always in fl ux.
Don’t despair as more and more left
thinkers infi ltrate your little island
of red. Don’t move to Hawaii just yet.
Idaho will soon envelop and save you.
Mike Meyer
Baker City
Christians need to come together,
not break apart
I wrote a devotions column a few
years ago titled “What’s wrong with
Christianity today?” I still have this
running through my mind when I see
as Christians that we have let this God-
founded country become infested with
demonic anti-Christ spirits that their
only aim is to see this country and its
foundation destroyed. I also remember
what was said by a minister from Afri-
ca in our church in California. The fi rst
words out of his mouth were: “What are
YOU doing with YOUR Christian life?”
This is a very strong question.
It’s asking, do you or I really believe
that the words of the Bible are true,
absolutely true, and do you also act on
them? The column I wrote made some
pastors unhappy with me at the time
and it should have, if the shoe fi t. It
wasn’t written to upset anyone but to
remind some that God changes not,
and Jesus is still the same yesterday,
today and forever. The gifts of divine
healing, deliverance from demon
power, and oh yes, speaking in tongues,
is as much for today as it was in the
early church. These are power gifts.
An unlearned language, also a prayer
language.
It’s talked about in Mark 16; I Cor-
inthians 12-14. These were given to the
Church, not taken away as some teach.
Sorry! But there’s not even ONE Scrip-
ture in the whole Bible that does away
with any of the gifts given to the church
(the body of Christ). These were given
to help people, and defeat the enemy.
The difference is today, we fi ght
among ourselves instead of the Word
being the only judge that can bring us
together to defeat the enemy instead
of being defeated. It’s time to raise up
against the anti-Christ spirit in this
country and stop listening to those
who say, “it’s going to happen anyway,
so why bother?” This is the worse cop
out and plays right into Satan’s hands.
Satan is the one who wants you, me, to
believe we can’t change the world!
The Rev. Richard Fox
Baker City
OTHER VIEWS
Pharmacy closures causing
troubling ripple effect
Rural Oregonians have long counted
on local pharmacies deeply rooted in
their communities for quality service.
But those community mainstays now
face a growing threat from an unfair
practice by big insurance companies
and pharmaceutical benefi t managers
(PBMs) that’s threatening the pharma-
cies’ ability to stay open.
And that threat, in turn, undermines
rural Oregonians’ access to prescription
drugs, patient education, management
of chronic disease, preventive care and
lifesaving vaccines.
In recent weeks, the fallout from
the announcement by Bi-Mart that it’s
begun closing 37 pharmacies in our state
— in part because of that unfair practice
— has cast troubling ripples throughout
Eastern and Central Oregon.
News reports have detailed how
Umatilla County Public Health has
raised concerns about diminished capac-
ity to offer COVID-19 vaccination clinics
with fewer local pharmacies; Baker
County health offi cials referred to a local
“pharmacy health crisis” with longer
wait times to get prescriptions fi lled at
remaining pharmacies and a lack of
critical infrastructure for people seeking
fl u shots and COVID-19 boosters; and
there are longer wait times as well in
Central Oregon with Bi-Mart closing
its pharmacy services in Sisters. And I
heard similar problems fi rsthand last
week from pharmacies in Ashland and
Corvallis.
to starve independent pharmacies of
revenue. When these stores close, large
RON
chain pharmacies owned by the same
WYDEN
plans and PBMs that forced them to
pay up, reap the benefi ts. These fees are
This is not a minor inconvenience in unfair and they’re anti-free enterprise.
rural Oregon when families and seniors
I’ve asked the Center for Medicare
must drive longer distances for prescrip- and Medicaid Services (CMS) to use its
tions and other pharmacy services, espe- existing legal authority to propose and
cially over snow- and ice-covered roads in fi nalize rules that make it impossible for
the upcoming winter months.
PBMs to use DIR fees to force commu-
Here’s what’s going on, and what I’m nity pharmacies to close their doors.
doing as chair of the Senate Finance
In my recent letter to CMS Adminis-
Committee to get relief for rural Orego- trator Chiquita Brooks-Lasure, I noted
nians who deserve reliable and acces-
that Bi-Mart’s announcement of the 37
sible pharmacies in their communities.
pharmacy closures in Oregon and 19
Goliaths like Big Insurance and the
others in the Northwest cited “increas-
PBMs put the squeeze on small pharma- ing costs and ongoing reimbursement
cies by charging them something called pressure.”
a DIR fee. That stands for direct and
I wrote, “These fees do nothing to
indirect remuneration fees, and PBMs
lower the amount Medicare benefi ciaries
demand that pharmacies pay up, or
must pay for their drugs each time they
they’ll take their business elsewhere.
fi ll a prescription and seemingly serve
To be sure, DIR fees are not likely
only to pad plan and PBM profi ts.”
to come up in conversation around too
Bottom line: The use of DIR fees is
many dinner tables this Thanksgiv-
unfair and unjustly enriches big insurers
ing. But they’re a big deal because they
and PBMs.
skyrocketed 91,500% from 2010 to 2019,
For the benefi t of Oregonians in small
and doubled from 2018 to 2020. They
communities throughout our state, I’m
contributed to the permanent closure of all in to preserve their lifelines to local
2,200 pharmacies nationwide between
Oregon pharmacies and knock these
December 2017 and December 2020.
“Goliaths” down a peg or two so that
Why do PBMs charge these fees? In
local rural pharmacies can continue to
short, because they can. This disturb-
stay open.
ing development should sound loud
alarm bells, because PBMs can use
Ron Wyden, D-Ore., is one of Oregon’s
mechanisms like DIR fees deliberately,
two U.S. senators.