A4 BAKER CITY HERALD • SATURDAY, JULY 2, 2022
BAKER CITY
Opinion
WRITE A LETTER
news@bakercityherald.com
Baker City, Oregon
EDITORIAL
Public records
law needs
disclaimer
O
regon’s public records law should come with
a disclaimer. It should be like one of those car
ads on the radio where after you hear about
the deal, the announcer goes rapid fire through all the
conditions that can make you wonder how good a
deal it really is.
That’s because Oregon law discriminates against
people on access to public records.
If you are rich or have a rich backer, the fees for get-
ting access to public records are no problem. If you are
not rich or work for a company that makes slim prof-
its or no profits, Oregon’s law essentially says you are
not worthy of the same level of access to records that
are purportedly public.
Oregon’s Public Records Advisory Council is devel-
oping legislation aimed at improving the equality of
access.
Children get public education in Oregon, no mat-
ter what their socio-economic status. You get to check
books out of the public library, no matter what your
socio-economic status. But access to public records,
that is based on your ability to pay. Of course, a lot of
things are like that. It’s hard for most people to find
the time and money to pay a lot of attention to what’s
going on in local, state or national government and try
to influence it. Being rich helps. Being poor certainly
does not.
A police report. Details about new development in
your neighborhood. Plans for trails along the river.
Those are all things the public has a right to. All those
things are usually pretty easy to get and at low or no
cost.
What if you want records that show the negotia-
tions with big tech company over home much water
it will use in its new plant in Hood River? What if you
want all the records that show how the police inter-
acted leading up to a protest at Pilot Butte? What if
you are worried your government is doing something
it shouldn’t? Do you think getting access to those re-
cords would be easy or cheap? Most likely not. People
with money would be able to at least try. The barrier
of fees would stop some from even trying.
Oregon’s Public Records Advisory Council has been
holding meetings and listening to testimony about
this issue for months. Last week, it talked about what
possible legislation might say.
One big change: Requester tiers. The type of re-
quester would change what could be charged. Com-
mercial interests would have to pay for the actual cost
of any searching, duplication and review of docu-
ments. Media and public interest organizations, edu-
cational and non-commercial scientific organizations
would only have to pay for duplication. Anyone else,
including members of the general public, would have
to pay for search and duplication.
One additional requirement that is being consid-
ered is no fees for a requester’s own files or records.
Another is that fees would be waived or reduced by
at least 25% if the requester is a member of the media
and the request is made in the public interest. There’s
much more to the proposal than we have listed. You
can see a draft in very preliminary form here, tinyurl.
com/PRACchanges.
A clear outcome of such changes is that costs of
public records would shift from individual members
of the public seeking information to government,
which of course, is funded by the public as a whole.
It may also increase demand for records because re-
questers would not have to pay as much. That may in-
crease the burden on government staff with more re-
quests. But if they are public records, shouldn’t the law
ensure all the members of the public has reasonable
access to them?
You can see more about the Public Records Advi-
sory Council here, tinyurl.com/ORprac.
Unsigned editorials are the opinion of the Baker City Herald. Columns,
letters and cartoons on this page express the opinions of the authors and not
necessarily that of the Baker City Herald.
YOUR VIEWS
People should keep their
religious beliefs to themselves
Thank you for rattling my
cage, Richard Fox, you can
now stop with the “my god is
the answer” nonsense, your
“read exodus 20,” your “god’s
laws,” your convoluted “ten
commandments/Constitu-
tion” insane comparison and
your pursuant personal beliefs
because they make no sense
and mean absolutely nothing
to me or anyone. Why is it so
hard for some people to keep
their, and “only” their god, out
of other people’s faces? What
our country needs saving
from is crazy fanatical Chris-
tian zealots. Only thing worse
than someone shoveling their
religious gobbledegook in oth-
er’s faces is possibly insurance
companies or robocalls. I will
now retreat to my cage, Mr.
Fox, with complete confidence
that you will soon be going
door to door with little pam-
phlets.
This brings me to Mr. Dick
Culley who has, to this very
day, failed to realize that no
one is going to take his gun,
no one has ever taken his gun
and no one will, probably,
ever take his gun. Nothing
more than the classic go to
rhetoric of the radical right.
Typically containing con-
spiracies about the deep state
and how they want your au-
tomatic weapon so they can
have total control! Yes sir this
is the year! Give it up please!
I love the talk of the sanctity
of our Constitution as the
beloved Retrumplican party
destroys that very document
piece by piece. It is very easy
to see who’s wreaking havoc
on our democracy, rights
and freedoms. ... get your
head out of the sand, away
from the Fox “entertainment”
channel and embrace some
truth and facts.
In other news, anyone
avoiding or ignoring the Jan-
uary 6th Committee hearings
and its importance to the
protection of our democracy
is either politically embar-
rassed, embraces totalitarian-
ism or is completely blinded
by hate and misconceptions.
And oh yes. ... you have the
right to move to Idaho. ...
please.
Mike Meyer
Baker City
Thank you to staff for
maintaining Mount Hope
cemetery, park
This letter is to thank the
wonderful staff (Eric) and com-
pany for all the help they pro-
vided our family for Memorial
Day and also for a recent burial
at Mount Hope Cemetery. The
cemetery looked as good as we
have ever seen it. The grounds
were very beautiful. From the
first time we contacted Eric he
was so attentive to all of our
needs. We have 28 graves we
decorate every year. Having
water available at so many loca-
tions was also a huge plus.
We also used the Lions Club
covered area at the beautiful
Geiser-Pollman Park for a fam-
ily reunion and there was Mr.
Eric, again making sure we had
electricity, water and tables.
Thanks to all of you on the
Baker City staff very much.
Jean Hayes
Baker City
Sue Conklin
Preston, Idaho
Republicans forcing women to
decide between bad options
Well, Republicans have once
again reaffirmed to whom
their loyalties lie. This time
they have ignored the happy,
healthy lives of future genera-
tions, and given in to the deep
pockets of the oil and coal gi-
ants. Young women will have
to live under the umbrella of
bad choices or no choice at
all, about their lives, deciding
if life without choice is really
worth living. I have never be-
fore in my life seen more hy-
pocrisy than displayed by so
called evangelical Christians,
who believe the only freedoms
we should have are the ones
they think we should have.
Liars in the Supreme Court. I
usually don’t like to point fin-
gers, but it is apparent now
that they have only one goal in
mind, and that is to make the
entire country believe their
way is the right way. It is time
to stand up and say NO, not
today.
I am not an overly religious
person, but I believe if there is
a God, he meant for us all to
choose the way of life we live,
right or wrong, follow your
own feelings, and suffer the
consequences, good or bad.
Don Worley
Baker City
COLUMN
Verbal warning has desired effect on my driving
I
watched in my rear-view mirror as
the steel gray Oregon State Police car
pulled a U-turn on Auburn Avenue
and started heading toward me.
The lights on the patrol car’s roof began
to flash.
My pulse kicked into a higher gear even
as my right hand shifted the transmission
in my Mazda to a lower one.
I turned onto Ninth Street just west of
the railroad tracks, pulled to the side of
the gravel road, turned off the engine and
awaited my fate.
My luck in such situations has been uni-
versally bad.
(So has my discretion, it scarcely needs
to be said, given that there’s rarely any valid
defense against a minor traffic infraction.)
Every time I’ve been detained by an of-
ficer, I’ve driven away not with a warn-
ing, either of the verbal or written variety,
but rather with a ticket on which a dollar
amount had been scrawled.
I expected this encounter would end in
the same ignominious way.
I knew I had been driving faster than
25 mph, which is the posted limit on the
stretch of Auburn west of the tracks.
I could hardly plead ignorance (a tac-
tic which in any case has never spared me
a summons in the past) since I drive the
street at least four times most days, and
half a dozen or more relatively often.
The speed limit sign is quite conspicu-
ous, with nary a stray tree branch to con-
ceal it.
I was driving back to work after lunch.
It occurred to me, as I sat there waiting for
the trooper to arrive, that I had been stuck
in that mental stupor peculiar to the im-
mediate post-lunch period — hunger sa-
tiated, and fixated on the tasks that would
occupy my afternoon.
It’s not that I was distracted, per se — I’m
confident that I was quite capable of taking
evasive action had a pedestrian sprinted
the Obama administration.
Yet I still worry, the perpetual plague of
parenthood.
In that horrific mental cinema that plays
occasionally for every parent, in terrible
onto the street from a side street or a
Technicolor and organ-rearranging Dolby
pickup truck wandered into my lane.
surround sound, I imagine a car careening
I had, rather, succumbed to the insidious around the curve where Auburn gives onto
sensation that masks speed, that makes 35 17th Street at the moment that one of my
feel identical to 25.
kids is uniquely vulnerable.
Given my history with traffic laws, I was
All of which is to say that among all
resigned to accepting my ticket.
drivers, few have more compelling reasons
I figured I deserved it — but not only be- than I do to go light on the gas pedal on
cause I was exceeding the limit.
that section of Auburn.
I live along that section of Auburn and I
The trooper suggested, pleasant but
frequently mutter expletives to myself — or firm, that I seemed to be in a bit of a hurry.
whoever is unfortunate to be within range
I allowed as how that was true.
of my wrath — when a vehicle rolls by my
I was humble and contrite. I threw in
house at an obviously extralegal speed.
what I thought was a dollop of convinc-
Sometimes I can tell this because I’m in ing sheepishness — convincing because it
the yard or the driveway and I actually see wasn’t at all contrived.
the offending car race by. I don’t have any
Then, shockingly, he admonished me to
special skill at estimated vehicle speeds, to be more careful and walked away.
be sure. But 25 mph is a modest velocity,
No crisp sheet of paper exchanged
and if a car is whizzing by at, say, 40, you
hands.
Lacking any documentation of the event
don’t need keen senses to gauge the dis-
I can’t say exactly when it happened. But it’s
crepancy.
been at least a couple months.
Other times I’m indoors and it’s the
Yet the episode still seems to me fresh.
sound that betrays the speeder.
And more important, its main effect
(I acknowledge that irresponsible muf-
persists. Whenever I pull onto Auburn, but
fler maintenance can, through sheer vol-
ume, mislead the listener about how fast a especially so when I’m driving to work af-
ter lunch, I watch my speedometer more
car is going. But the Doppler effect is aw-
fully convincing no matter how obnoxious intently than usual. When the white nee-
dle nears the line halfway between those
an exhaust system happens to be.)
denoting 20 and 30, my foot eases off the
I have a personal stake in the traffic on
accelerator.
Auburn, to be sure.
I’m glad the trooper didn’t give me a
My wife’s parents live directly across the
ticket, of course.
street from our house, and my daughter,
But I’m even more grateful that he
Olivia, and son, Max, have walked across
stopped me, and obliterated my compla-
the street hundreds of times, from their
first tentative steps, grasping the hand of a cency more effectively than anything short
parent or grandparent, to now, when they of an actual collision could have done.
In this case, at least, a warning worked.
both get across the pavement with an alac-
rity and smoothness that my decrepit joints
have been unable to manage at least since Jayson Jacoby is editor of the Baker City Herald.
Jayson
Jacoby
CONTACT YOUR PUBLIC OFFICIALS
President Joe Biden: The White House, 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., Washington, D.C.
20500; 202-456-1111; to send comments, go to www.whitehouse.gov.
Grande, OR 97850; 541-962-7691; fax, 541-963-0885; wyden.senate.gov.
U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley: D.C. office: 313 Hart Senate Office Building, U.S. Senate,
Washington, D.C., 20510; 202-224-3753; fax 202-228-3997. Portland office: One
World Trade Center, 121 S.W. Salmon St. Suite 1250, Portland, OR 97204; 503-326-
3386; fax 503-326-2900. Baker City office, 1705 Main St., Suite 504, 541-278-1129;
merkley.senate.gov.
U.S. Rep. Cliff Bentz (2nd District): D.C. office: 1239 Longworth House Office
Building, Washington, D.C., 20515, 202-225-6730; fax 202-225-5774. Medford office:
14 N. Central Avenue Suite 112, Medford, OR 97850; Phone: 541-776-4646; fax: 541-
779-0204; Ontario office: 2430 S.W. Fourth Ave., No. 2, Ontario, OR 97914; Phone:
541-709-2040. bentz.house.gov.
U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden: D.C. office: 221 Dirksen Senate Office Building, Washington,
D.C., 20510; 202-224-5244; fax 202-228-2717. La Grande office: 105 Fir St., No. 210, La
Oregon Gov. Kate Brown: 254 State Capitol, Salem, OR 97310; 503-378-3111; www.
governor.oregon.gov.
Oregon State Treasurer Tobias Read: oregon.treasurer@ost.state.or.us; 350 Winter
St. NE, Suite 100, Salem OR 97301-3896; 503-378-4000.
Oregon Attorney General Ellen F. Rosenblum: Justice Building, Salem, OR 97301-
4096; 503-378-4400.
Oregon Legislature: Legislative documents and information are available online at
www.leg.state.or.us.
State Sen. Lynn Findley (R-Ontario): Salem office: 900 Court St. N.E., S-403, Salem,
OR 97301; 503-986-1730. Email: Sen.LynnFindley@oregonlegislature.gov