A8 The BulleTin • Tuesday, May 4, 2021
EDITORIALS & OPINIONS
Heidi Wright
Gerry O’Brien
Richard Coe
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Bend’s vote about
downtown’s future
T
hese are the pandemic times and they have been tough.
Downtown Bend is far from the only place that has
suffered, but going downtown has been downright
spooky over the past year.
All the things that made it a mag-
nificent downtown are not back, yet.
It’s been coming back even with the
latest COVID-19 restrictions.
Downtown could still decline. It
takes investment to keep it appeal-
ing. Most of that comes from the
businesses and property owners
downtown and also from the Down-
town Bend Business Association.
The Bend City Council this week
is scheduled to make an import-
ant decision about downtown. It
will vote on whether to take an-
other formal step in approving an
economic improvement district.
There’s basically been a downtown
improvement district since 2006.
It did briefly dissolve at one point
because of a mistake in how it was
adopted.
It’s an unusual tax zone. Only
property owners in downtown get
to vote. It’s essentially the property
owners downtown deciding if they
want to tax themselves to help im-
prove the look of downtown.
It would be a three-year tax. The
tax would be 25 cents per square
foot in the first year and that would
increase by 1 cent in each of the next
two years. The estimate is it would
raise about $269,000 in the first year.
Almost all of the money — 95% —
goes to the downtown business asso-
ciation. The city keeps the remaining
5% for administrative costs.
The money goes to ensuring
downtown keeps looking good —
tree lighting and other decorations,
banners, graffiti removal and more
basic upkeep. The DBBA is also
a strong advocate for downtown
businesses.
The odd thing about it is when the
election is held it isn’t really major-
ity rule. If owners of more than one-
third of the property in the district
submit written objections to the dis-
trict, it fails.
Business owners have been trying
every idea imaginable to stay open
during the pandemic. They can’t
do it alone. They need your help by
shopping local.
We do think that the business
owners downtown could bene-
fit again from what the downtown
business association does. The
Downtown Bend Business Associ-
ation gives people more reason to
come downtown, which is good for
property values, businesses, the city
and the people of Bend.
COVID-19 transparency
bill should be passed
O
regon state Sen. Mike Dem-
brow, D-Portland, has been
noisy about the need for
the Oregon Health Authority to be
transparent about the COVID-19
data it releases.
His bill, Senate Bill 719, would
ensure that transparency. And
though the bill should have long
since passed the Legislature, it would
seem to be in good hands. It’s in the
committee Dembrow chairs, joint
ways and means.
The central premise of Oregon’s
public records law is that the public
has a right to know what its govern-
ment is doing. Meetings are open to
the public. Government documents
and the data behind them should be
open to the public if requested.
As good as Oregon’s law is, it
teems with exceptions. One is for
public health investigations, Oregon
Revised Statutes 433.008. It reads in
part: “information obtained by the
Oregon Health Authority or a local
public health administrator in the
course of an investigation of a re-
portable disease or disease outbreak
is confidential and is exempt from
disclosure.” So when journalists and
others have requested information
about testing rates by ZIP code for
instance, the request was denied.
ORS 433.008 doesn’t mean that
the information must be denied to
the public. It means it can be denied.
And when government can deny the
public information, it often does.
Dembrow’s bill simply requires
the Oregon Health Authority or lo-
cal public health administrator to
release aggregate information about
reportable disease investigations that
does not identify individual cases or
sources of information after receiv-
ing a public records request. This
would not only apply to COVID-19.
It would also apply to salmonella
and E. coli outbreaks.
State officials are trying to encour-
age Oregonians to get vaccinated
and continue to obey COVID re-
strictions and guidelines. It would
send the wrong signal for the Legis-
lature to now tell Oregonians: “Let’s
keep the secrecy” and not pass this
bill.
Editorials reflect the views of The Bulletin’s editorial board, Publisher Heidi Wright, Editor
Gerry O’Brien and Editorial Page Editor Richard Coe. They are written by Richard Coe.
Anne Ness for Deschutes library board
GUEST COLUMN
BY ANNE NESS
M
y name is Anne Ness, and
I am a candidate for the li-
brary board in Zone 3 repre-
senting southern Deschutes County.
I am running because I firmly believe
in the value of building strong and
supportive communities. Not only
was I a teacher for over 30 years, but
I have served on a school board, vol-
unteered for various literacy organi-
zations and am currently an
advocate for children in fos-
ter care. It is through these
experiences that I see first
hand the critical role acces-
sible local libraries play in
growing and supporting our
communities. People come
Ness
to the library looking for
information, but they find
each other. The best place to make
these important connections is at the
local level.
The library raised over $200 million
dollars from the bond passed in No-
vember. The library’s proposed expan-
sion plan will spend 60% of those dol-
lars to build one new library located in
north Bend. At the same time the plan
budgets just 1% for each of the branch
libraries in our district to make reno-
vations and upgrades. I am concerned
that the emphasis on building the new
library, both in terms of dollars and
programming, overshadows the need
to grow and support our community
branch libraries.
In talking with neighbors and
community members I hear many of
these same concerns. I find that many
people did not vote in support of the
bond, not because they don’t value
libraries, but because they value and
use the library in their com-
munity and want to see their
tax dollars put to use at the
local level.
In looking at the Novem-
ber election data I found that
of the 11 precincts in Zone 3,
only four voted in support of
the library bond — seven pre-
cincts did not. I think this is
saying residents in the south county
are looking at libraries from a local
community perspective. For people
living in the Sunriver and La Pine ar-
eas it would be a 50- to 60-mile round
trip to use the new central library. I
wonder how often people would be
willing and able to do so.
Libraries, being the center of our
communities, are great equalizers.
They have the ability to lessen the
growing divide between the fortunate
and those with different life circum-
stance. Libraries bridge this gap by
providing needed technology, inter-
net and resources for all community
members — especially our children,
older adults, the disabled and disad-
vantaged. In order to bridge this di-
vide, libraries need to be easily acces-
sible and well equipped.
South county is growing and will
continue to grow in the years to come.
The bond gives the library the oppor-
tunity to make a real investment in all
libraries and not in just one central
location.
The focus of the library’s expansion
plans needs to change. I support re-
vising the library’s plan to ensure we
do more for our branch libraries. This
would include allocating sufficient
funds to provide our libraries with the
innovations, resources, technology
and space required to equitably meet
the needs of our growing county in
the years to come.
I care about our communities. I
want our community branch libraries
to have the ability to provide the tech-
nology and resources needed to grow
the communities in the south county.
Your vote and support for a position on
the library board will give me the op-
portunity to champion equitably grow-
ing our community branch libraries.
More information is available at
www.anneness4library.com.
e e
Anne Ness is a candidate for the Deschutes Public
Library Board, representing Zone 3, which is
southern Deschutes County.
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Businesses could sorely use guidance — so where is the CDC?
BY SHANTANU NUNDY AND MARTY MAKARY
Special to The Washington Post
T
he Centers for Disease Control and Pre-
vention finally released guidance last week
allowing vaccinated people to remove
masks while outside, nearly five months after
vaccines started to become available nationwide.
This comes weeks after the CDC said vaccinated
Americans can board an airplane. But noticeably
absent from these piecemeal recommendations
is any guidance on the big question facing busi-
nesses: When and how should they bring em-
ployees back to the office? It’s a question with big
implications for the livelihoods of many Ameri-
cans and the economy.
In the absence of CDC leadership, compa-
nies are scrambling to figure it out on their
own. It’s the Wild West. Salesforce announced
in mid-April a phased plan in which fully vac-
cinated employees can voluntarily return to the
office subject to safety protocols, including twice
weekly on-site coronavirus testing. JP Morgan
also recently announced it will open its U.S. of-
fices to all employees in May and apply a 50%
occupancy cap. But why is every business being
forced to invent the wheel on its own?
Large companies are hiring high-paid med-
ical consultants, but companies without the
resources to seek such advice are stuck trying
to sense the direction of the wind. The hardest
123RF
When should businesses bring workers back to the
office? Why isn’t the CDC providing guidance?
blows are to small businesses, especially mi-
nority- or woman-owned companies. These are
also the businesses at greatest risk of bankruptcy
if they get the timing wrong.
Public health officials should not only quickly
address this need, but also tailor their guid-
ance to the type of employee. Utility workers or
groundskeepers should not have to wear a mask
when working alone outside on a hot summer
day even if they chose not to get vaccinated.
Having such a mask requirement is incompati-
ble with science, ethically wrong and potentially
harmful to the worker. Conversely, a nonim-
mune office worker should wear a mask indoors
until the local infection rate drops below a preset
threshold. The country is looking to the CDC
for guidance; its delay in providing it is slowing
down America’s economic engine.
Without medical answers, business lead-
ers will be forced to use public opinion as their
compass. But this approach makes businesses
dependent on a distorted perception of infec-
tion risk that fluctuates based on media head-
lines about new strains of the virus and political
rhetoric rather than best medical practices. In
fact, business plans to bring back workers thus
far sometimes resort to over-testing for those al-
ready immune, which is not grounded in data or
clinical wisdom.
The lack of CDC guidance also transfers legal
risk to businesses. Clear guidance would con-
sider criteria such as the percent of residents
vaccinated and local rates of infection and es-
tablish clear thresholds. It would also answer
questions that employers ask us time and again:
Should they return to in-person working in
phases? Should phasing depend on immune
status? How should daily symptom checks, tem-
perature checks, contact tracing and measures
change for employees who are immune?
The problem is not a lack of scientific evi-
dence; it’s a problem of timeliness. More than a
month ago, a paper in NEJM Catalyst demon-
strated the benefits of COVID-19 back-to-work
programs. Partnering with a large manufactur-
ing company, the authors demonstrated how a
large multistate company can create a safe work
environment with high employee engagement
and a nearly 3-to-1 return on investment. Guid-
ance such as this needs to be coming from the
top.
Part of the challenge has been structural.
The COVID-19 task force that President Biden
launched during the transition did not include
business leaders. The announcement by the ad-
ministration of a new partnership with business
leaders was a step in the right direction, but it has
yet been unclear what its mandate is and whether
and what new guidance will come from it.
America’s businesses have long demonstrated
remarkable ingenuity. But figuring out when
and how to safely open their offices shouldn’t be
entirely on them. What they need is clear leader-
ship from the CDC. Americans are ready to get
back into the office. Let’s help them do it safely
and without unnecessary delays.
e e
Shantanu Nundy is chief medical officer of Accolade. Marty
Makary, a professor at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine,
Bloomberg School of Public Health and Carey Business School,
is chief medical adviser to Sesame Care.