A2 THE BULLETIN • SATURDAY, JULY 30, 2022
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PUBLIC DEFENDERS
Plan to get more lawyers: pay
them more than contract rate
BY ZAEEM SHAIKH
The Oregonian
Officials with the Oregon
Office of Public Defense Ser-
vices have a proposal to ease
the shortage of court-ap-
pointed attorneys to represent
low-income criminal defen-
dants.
Entice lawyers to temporar-
ily join the ranks of public de-
fenders by paying them more
than those already under con-
tract.
The need is acute, but the
money is not yet there, advo-
cates for the plan have said.
As of Friday, 189 people
accused of crimes in Oregon
lacked attorneys, and 86 of
those are felony cases, accord-
ing to the office. In March,
four people facing criminal
charges filed a class-action
lawsuit against the state over
its failure to appoint them de-
fense lawyers. To address the
shortage, the office wants to
match the $158 hourly rate
that federal public defend-
ers receive to lure lawyers not
under contract to represent
adults and juveniles in custody
in the state.
The office typically pays
$105 per hour for murder
cases or those involving juve-
niles and $75 per hour for all
other cases.
But bringing on additional
lawyers and paying them
more would require approval
and additional funding from
state lawmakers, on top of the
nearly $13 million the Legisla-
ture already allocated in Feb-
ruary. The agency has a two-
year budget of $355.9 million
and contracts with nonprofit
law firms and independent
lawyers who take on public
defense cases.
Funding the $158-hourly
rate increase until July of next
year comes with a projected
price tag of about $2 million,
according to the office.
Any changes won’t hap-
pen quickly, some members
of the 10-person commission
that oversees the office said
in a July 22 meeting. “More
money will help us get there; I
did not see any magic bullet to
get lawyers for unrepresented
people tomorrow,” said Steven
T. Wax, Oregon’s former top
federal defender and a com-
mission member.
In letters to the commis-
sion, Oregon Supreme Court
Chief Justice Martha Walters
has recommended that de-
fense lawyers be able to nego-
tiate hourly rates higher than
$158 for complicated cases
and for the new rates to be ex-
tended to out-of-custody cli-
ents as well.
Stephen Singer, the office’s
executive director, said that
would cost millions more.
Walters has also suggested
recruiting retired judges to
help resolve cases and conduct
trainings. An additional idea
would be to recruit volunteers
who are not yet qualified to
represent clients to work un-
der the supervision of lawyers.
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B
PORTLAND TO OPEN LATEST CAR-FREE BRIDGE
BY KRISTINE DE LEON
The Oregonian
ADMINISTRATION
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Sean Meagher/The Oregonian
Portland will open its latest car-free bridge on Sunday with a day of activities. The Congressman Earl Blu-
menauer Bicycle and Pedestrian Bridge, which only allows pedestrians and bicycle riders, crosses Inter-
state 84 at NE Seventh Avenue. The Blumenauer Bridge joins several other bridges that do not allow cars:
Tilikum Crossing and Ned Flanders Crossing.
REDMOND BUREAU
Mailing address ..................P.O. Box 6020
Bend, OR 97708
Phone ......................................... 541-617-7829
CORRECTIONS
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stories are accurate. If you know of an
error in a story, call us at 541-383-0367.
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Stash Tea Co., founded in 1972, is preparing to move its
headquarters and retail store from a Tigard business park to
downtown Portland.
The company will occupy a 7,000-square-foot space at SW
Yamhill Street and Ninth Avenue. The space will house the
company’s offices and a retail store with a tea bar. Stash has
35 employees in Portland.
The move comes after the company’s lease of its office space
near the Bridgeport Village shopping center comes to an end,
said Daniel Kerbel, vice president of global marketing at Stash
Tea. He said the decision to move to downtown Portland is part
of the company’s rebranding efforts to get back to its roots.
“For us, it’s important to be connected to the pulse of Port-
land,” Kerbel said. “We are proudly a Portland brand. We
love the type of talent we can hire out here, and ultimately, it’s
our roots. So we want to be very true to our roots.”
LOCAL BRIEFING
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Stash Tea to move
headquarters to
downtown Portland
Sheriff’s office seeks help
to identify suspected thieves
before the victim even realized their
vehicle was broken into.
The Deschutes County Sheriff’s Of-
fice is asking the public to help identify
a man and a woman believed to be
involved in numerous thefts from ve-
hicles parked at trailheads throughout
the county.
After stealing from the vehicles, the
two individuals are alleged to have
gone to Walmart in Bend to purchase
gift cards using stolen credit and debit
cards, the sheriff’s office said Friday in
a news release. The man has a tattoo
on each forearm and a large tattoo on
the right side of his neck. The woman
has a thin build and a large tattoo on
her left forearm.
Anyone with knowledge on the mat-
ter is encouraged to contact the sher-
iff’s office at 541-693-6911. The refer-
ence case number is 22-38722.
The sheriff’s office added that it
wanted to remind people not to leave
valuables unattended in vehicles, and
in some cases, the duo have been able
to use the stolen credit or debit cards
Bend sets open house
for home energy score program
Bend’s home energy score program
will be the focus of an open house and
question and answer session Monday
at city hall.
The proposed program rates how
efficiently a home uses energy. It gives
each home a numerical score based on
physical properties like types of win-
dows and insulation and the amount of
greenhouse gases a home emits.
Homeowners in Bend who wish to
sell their properties would be required
by the program to obtain home energy
scores before they can list their homes
on the market. They are then required
to share their home energy scores with
potential buyers
The program was set forth by the
Bend Community Climate Action
Plan to encourage energy efficiency
and transparency when it comes to
home energy costs.
Implementation would effectively
create a new step in the home selling
and buying process. Hillsboro, Mil-
waukie and Portland have already
implemented home energy score pro-
grams. Based on these established pro-
grams, the estimated cost of a home
energy assessor to perform an audit
would be between $150 and $300.
In 2016, Bend conducted a sec-
tor-based inventory of the largest
sources of greenhouse gas emissions in
the city. Residential energy accounted
for 29% of emissions while transporta-
tion made up 36%.
The Climate Action Plan’s goal is to
decrease fossil fuel emissions by 40%
by 2030.
The home energy score open house
will be held in hybrid format Monday
at 3 p.m. Attendance is permitted on-
line and at the council chambers at city
hall, 710 NW Wall St. in Bend.
COVID-19 community levels
for Central Oregon
and Prevention monitors levels of
COVID-19 to help communities de-
cide what prevention steps to take
based on the latest data. Levels can be
low, medium or high and are deter-
mined by looking at hospital beds be-
ing used, hospital admissions and the
total number of new COVID-19 cases
in an area.
On Thursday, the CDC ranked 11
Oregon counties at high levels of com-
munity spread, 20 at medium and five
at low.
The agency listed the following lev-
els for Central Oregon:
Deschutes County: Medium
Crook County: Medium
Jefferson County: Medium
Precautions the CDC recommends
for communities with medium levels:
• If you are at high risk for severe ill-
ness, talk to your health care provider
about whether you need to wear a
mask and take other precautions.
• Stay up to date with COVID-19
vaccines
• Get tested if you have symptoms
The Centers for Disease Control
— Bulletin staff reports
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