A2 The BulleTin • Wednesday, July 6, 2022
The
Bulletin
LOCAL, STATE & REGION
how to reach us
CIRCULATION
didn’t receive your paper?
start or stop subscription?
541-385-5800
PHONE HOURS
8 a.m.-4 p.m. Monday-Friday
7 a.m.-11 a.m. saturday-sunday
and holidays
GENERAL
INFORMATION
541-382-1811
8 a.m.-5 p.m. Mon.-Fri.
ONLINE
www.bendbulletin.com
EMAIL
news@bendbulletin.com
AFTER HOURS
Newsroom ................................541-383-0348
Circulation ................................541-385-5800
NEWSROOM EMAIL
Business ........business@bendbulletin.com
City Desk .............news@bendbulletin.com
Features..................................................................
communitylife@bendbulletin.com
Sports ................. sports@bendbulletin.com
NEWSROOM FAX
541-385-5804
OUR ADDRESS
Street .............. 320 sW upper Terrace drive
suite 200
Bend, OR 97702
Mailing ........... P.O. Box 6020
Bend, OR 97708
B
ADMINISTRATION
Publisher
heidi Wright ..............................541-383-0341
Editor
Gerry O’Brien .............................541-633-2166
DEPARTMENT HEADS
Advertising
Brian naplachowski .................541-383-0370
Circulation/Operations
Maria Johnson ..........................541-617-7830
Finance Wendy dougherty ...541-383-0324
Human Resources ................541-383-0340
TALK TO AN EDITOR
City Julie Johnson ...................541-383-0367
Business, Features, GO! Magazine
Jody lawrence-Turner ............541-383-0308
Editorials Richard Coe ...........541-383-0353
News Tim doran .......................541-383-0360
Photos .........................................541-383-0366
Sports Mark Morical ...............541-383-0318
Multnomah County
A bear that wandered
into Baker City released noncitizens could
be granted the vote
in the Wallowas
BY MAX EGENER
Oregon Capital Bureau
BY JAYSON JACOBY
Baker City herald
Baker City’s most famous
black bear — or at least the
most photographed — is
likely roaming today some-
where in the southern Wal-
lowa Mountains.
That is better bear habi-
tat than a birch tree between
two apartment buildings in a
Baker City neighborhood.
The bear, which ran
through part of a golf course
on Sunday morning then
crossed a street and climbed
the tree, ended up tranquil-
ized and in a cage later that
morning.
Brian Ratliff, district wild-
life biologist at the Oregon
Department of Fish and
Wildlife’s Baker City office,
fired the tranquilizer dart that
gave the yearling male bear a
temporary nap.
A crowd of about 20 peo-
ple who had watched the in-
cident clapped and cheered,
with yells of “good job” and
“thank you” resounding as
the episode concluded with
no injuries.
Ratliff said with a chuckle
that it was his first standing
ovation.
The biologist released the
bear in the Eagle Creek area
northeast of Baker City.
He suspects the bear,
which weighed about 150
pounds, had separated from
its mother, as bears tend to do
after their first birthday.
“I think it just wandered
into town and got caught after
daylight where it didn’t want
to be,” Ratliff said.
He said there were no re-
ports of the bear nosing into
garbage cans or other be-
havior that could suggest the
This yearling male bear recov-
ered quickly from its ordeal in
Baker City on Sunday and was
released later in the day in the
Wallowa Mountains.
A Baker City Police officer
stands beneath a birch tree in
case the bear in the tree came
down or fell, on Sunday.
Jayson Jacoby photos/Baker City herald
bear was comfortable around
people.
In those cases, ODFW offi-
cials are likely to kill the bear
rather than trap it and release
it in the wild.
TALK TO A REPORTER
Bend/Deschutes Government
........................................................541-633-2160
Business
suzanne Roig ............................541-633-2117
Calendar .....................................541-383-0304
Education
Bryce dole .....................................541-617-7854
Fine Arts/Features
david Jasper .................................541-383-0349
Health
suzanne Roig ............................541-633-2117
La Pine ........................................541-383-0367
Public Lands/Environment
Michael Kohn ............................541-617-7818
Public Safety
Garrett andrews ......................541-383-0325
Redmond
Joe siess..........................................541-617-7820
Salem/State Government .. 541-383-0367
Sisters .........................................541-383-0367
Sunriver .....................................541-383-0367
REDMOND BUREAU
Mailing address ..................P.O. Box 6020
Bend, OR 97708
Phone ......................................... 541-617-7829
CORRECTIONS
The Bulletin’s primary concern is that all
stories are accurate. if you know of an
error in a story, call us at 541-383-0367.
TO SUBSCRIBE
Call us ......................541-385-5800
• Home delivery
and E-Edition ..........................$7 per week
• By mail .................................$9.50 per week
• E-Edition only ...................$4.50 per week
To sign up for our e-editions, visit
www.bendbulletin.com to register.
SHERIDAN
Inmates at federal prison denied
showers amid strike, lawyer states
associated Press
Prison officials at the Fed-
eral Correctional Institution
in Sheridan denied showers
last month to those held in a
unit where people were en-
gaged in a hunger strike, ac-
cording to a court filing.
A court filing last week by
a federal public defender says
about 80 people housed in the
detention center’s “J2 Unit”
were protesting conditions
inside the facility’s detention
center. According to the Bu-
reau of Prisons, on June 23
some of the men in custody
at the prison southwest of
Portland “did not accept their
meals.”
The following day, doc-
uments say, prison Warden
DeWayne Hendrix issued a
memo to people in that unit
saying showers were post-
poned, Oregon Public Broad-
casting reported.
“The purpose of this mem-
orandum is to inform each
of you that showers are post-
poned due to continued
threats of assault to staff,”
Hendrix wrote. “Enhanced
security procedures due to
ongoing disruptive behav-
ior will continue through the
weekend and will be reeval-
uated on Monday. All issues
brought to our attention are
being reviewed.”
Oregon Public Defender
Lisa Hay noted in the court
filing that temperatures in
Sheridan reached 90 degrees
when showers were withheld.
The Bureau of Prisons didn’t
answer questions from OPB
about the memo or whether
the water was cut off in an ef-
fort to end the hunger strike.
U.S. Department of Justice
attorneys, who represent the
federal prison, said in a court
filing of their own last week
“that no inmates are currently
on a hunger strike.”
Conditions inside the fed-
eral prison have been the sub-
ject of concern since the pan-
demic took hold in 2020. Hay
has in court filings detailed
lockdowns that have lasted
for days. In other filings, her
office has documented poor
medical and dental care that
has left many suffering.
Since the pandemic began,
seven people have died at the
facility.
TO PLACE AN AD
Classified ......................................541-385-5809
Other information ....................541-382-1811
OBITUARIES
no death notices or obituaries are
published Mondays. When submitting,
please include your name, address
and contact number. Call to ask about
deadlines, Monday-Friday, 10 a.m.-3 p.m.
Phone ..........................................541-385-5809
email .......................obits@bendbulletin.com
LEGAL NOTICES
email .....................legals@bendbulletin.com
OTHER SERVICES
Back issues ..................................541-385-5800
Photo reprints ............................541-383-0366
apply for a job ..........................541-383-0340
all Bulletin payments are accepted at the
drop box at City hall or at The Bulletin,
P.O. Box 6020, Bend, OR 97708. Check
payments may be converted to an
electronic funds transfer. The Bulletin,
usPs #552-520, is published daily by
Central Oregon Media Group, 320 sW
upper Terrace drive, Bend, OR 97702.
Periodicals postage paid at Bend, OR.
Postmaster: send address changes to The
Bulletin circulation department, P.O. Box
6020, Bend, OR 97708. The Bulletin retains
ownership and copyright protection of
all staff-prepared news copy, advertising
copy and news or ad illustrations. They
may not be reproduced without explicit
prior approval.
LOCAL BRIEFING
COVID-19 community
levels for Central Oregon
The Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention mon-
itors community levels of
COVID-19 to help commu-
nities decide what prevention
steps to take based on the
latest data. Levels can be low,
medium or high and are de-
termined by looking at hos-
pital beds being used, hospi-
tal admissions and the total
number of new COVID-19
cases in an area.
As of Thursday, 24 Oregon
counties had reached high
levels of community spread.
The CDC listed the follow-
ing levels for Central Oregon:
Deschutes County: High
Crook County: High
Jefferson County: High
Precautions the CDC rec-
The Centers for
Disease Control
and Preven-
tion on Thurs-
day raised the
COVID-19 com-
munity levels to
high in Crook, De-
schutes, Jefferson
and 12 other Ore-
gon counties. Or-
ange equals high
levels and yellow
equals medium.
CdC
ommends for communities
with high levels:
• Wear a mask indoors in
public
• Stay up to date with
COVID-19 vaccines.
• Get tested if you have
symptoms.
• Additional precautions
may be needed for people at
high risk for severe illness.
• Stay up to date with
COVID-19 vaccines.
— Bulletin staff report
Voters in Multnomah
County will see a ballot mea-
sure this November that
would expand voting rights
to residents who are not U.S.
citizens.
Last month, a group re-
viewing Multnomah Coun-
ty’s charter — effectively a
local constitution — unani-
mously recommended add-
ing language that would ex-
tend voting rights to more
groups, including people who
are not citizens.
If voters pass the measure,
Multnomah County would
be the first jurisdiction in Or-
egon to grant the right to vote
in local elections to “noncit-
izens.”
The county would be
one of only a handful of ju-
risdictions in the United
States that allow noncitizens
to vote in local elections.
Eleven cities in Maryland,
two in Vermont and San
Francisco currently allow
voting by noncitizens.
The Multnomah County
Charter Review Committee
was expected to vote on spe-
cific charter language for the
recommendation during its
meeting Tuesday. The county
convenes a charter review
committee, comprising 16
appointed residents, every six
years.
Expecting controversy,
committee members chose
broad language for the char-
ter amendment to maximize
who could gain voting rights
as well as to avoid potential
legal troubles.
“If we were to pursue one
narrow declaration of who we
would like to expand the vote
to, if a court were to say, ‘No,
you can’t do it that way,’ then
there’s not as much recourse
to really move this idea for-
ward,” said Samantha Gladu,
who helped draft the charter
change and co-chairs the sub-
committee that started dis-
cussions about it.
The language under con-
sideration says the county
shall extend the right to vote
for county officers and mea-
sures “to the fullest extent al-
lowed by law.”
At least one jurisdiction
that tried to extend voting
rights to noncitizens — New
York City — saw the effort
quashed by a court ruling.
On June 27, a New York State
Supreme Court justice struck
down the measure approved
by the City Council in De-
cember, saying it violated the
state’s constitution.
Many states, including
Oregon, allowed nonciti-
zens to vote when they were
founded. Racism and sexism
were very explicit in the laws,
said Juliet Stumpf, a professor
at Lewis & Clark Law School
who studies immigration and
criminal law.
Early Western states al-
lowed noncitizens to vote as
a way to encourage settling
specifically by white Euro-
pean immigrants. In Ore-
gon, white men who had
resided in the state for six
months prior to an election
and declared an intent to
become U.S. citizens could
vote.
People have long applied
measures of groups’ contribu-
tions to society as a means to
decide whether they should
be able to vote, Stumpf said.
Literacy tests and proxies of
taxation such as property
ownership or residency were
common qualifiers histori-
cally.
Charter review commit-
tee members cited multiple
reasons for expanding voting
rights, including reducing
taxation without represen-
tation.
Undocumented people in
Multnomah County pay an
estimated $19 million in state
and local taxes annually, ac-
cording to a report by the Or-
egon Center for Public Pol-
icy. About half of those taxes
are property taxes and the
other half are income taxes
and excise taxes on goods like
gas and alcohol, the report
shows.
Undocumented people ar-
en’t eligible to access many of
the social services to which
they contribute, however.
They can’t access Social Se-
curity, Medicare, the Ore-
gon Health Plan after age 18,
federal food assistance pro-
grams, and state and federal
earned income tax credits,
among others, the report
states.
Legal challenges
Granting voting rights to
noncitizens likely will face
substantial legal barriers,
Katherine Thomas, assistant
Multnomah County attorney,
told committee members in
March.
First, Oregon’s Constitu-
tion requires citizenship for
voting. State statutes related
to voting refer to citizenship
requirements, including one
that says state voter registra-
tion cards must indicate a
person is a U.S. citizen.
“Ultimately, it’s untested,”
Thomas said. “I’m not aware
that there is a local jurisdic-
tion that has expanded vot-
ing to noncitizens. We don’t
know how a court would
necessarily treat that kind of
proposal if it was challenged
in court.”
The committee will pres-
ent by Aug, 4 all of its recom-
mended charter changes to
the county board, which files
the ballot title and other in-
formation with the elections
division. Any ballot title chal-
lenges must be resolved by
Sept. 8 to appear on the ballot
for the Nov. 8 election.
If the measure passes,
county staff would consult
with the board about how
to implement an expansion
of voting rights, said Ryan
Yambra, spokesperson for the
county.
The committee also re-
searched whether people un-
der 18 and people currently
prohibited from voting be-
cause they’re serving a sen-
tence for a felony conviction
could gain voting rights.
“The committee expects
that the county will explore
every possible avenue to ex-
pand local voting access,”
Yambra said. “The details of
implementation would de-
pend on a variety of factors,
and so we can’t say at this
time whether or what board
action might be required.”
Noncitizen residents in-
clude multiple groups, such
as temporary residents with
certain visas, permanent res-
idents who hold green cards
and undocumented immi-
grants.
Tens of thousands of peo-
ple in Multnomah County
could be granted the right to
vote if the measure passes.
Seven percent of the county’s
population — or more than
56,000 people — are non-
citizen residents, according
to data from the U.S. Cen-
sus Bureau’s 2021 American
Community Survey. An es-
timated 25,000 residents are
undocumented, according to
the nonpartisan Migration
Policy Institute.
The recommendation has
received support from the
Portland-based nonprofit
Coalition of Communities of
Color.
“The decisions of elected
representatives impact ev-
ery resident, regardless of
whether they are eligible to
vote,” Sol Mora, community
engagement manager for the
nonprofit, wrote in a letter
to the committee. “This re-
form to expand our democ-
racy will have a meaningful
and lasting impact on com-
munities across Multnomah
County to feel that they be-
long and have a seat at the de-
cision-making table.”