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Blue Mountain Eagle
SPENDING
Continued from Page A1
Next was the business sector,
which spent $30.8 million,
followed by fi nance, insur-
ance and real estate interests
that reported spending a total
of $27.3 million on lobbying
during the same period.
Unlike several other states
including Idaho, Oregon does
not require lobbyists to dis-
close the specifi c bills or exec-
utive branch actions they seek
to infl uence. Oregon lobbyists
are only required to disclose
food, drinks and entertain-
ment purchased for a specifi c
lawmaker or other state offi -
cial if the cost exceeds $50 on
a single occasion, and lobby-
ists do not have to report in-
dividual expenses reimbursed
by their clients .
Until this year, the only
way to know how much lob-
byists and their clients were
spending to entertain Oregon
state offi cials was to request a
copy of the paper reports fi led
with the Oregon Government
Ethics Commission.
The agency launched a
new electronic fi ling system
for lobbyists late last year, but
that system is not displaying
certain spending details due
to technical glitches. Even
if the system were working
correctly, however, it would
likely provide only a small
Lobbying cash spent in Oregon, 2007-15
A wide range of entities, from hospitals and nursing homes to
utilities and the governor’s office, reported spending more than
$251 million on lobbying Oregon lawmakers and other state
officials from 2007 through 2015.
$35.9
(All sectors, millions of dollars)
million
33.9
31.1
29.8
27.2
26.8
25.6
21.2
19.9
Up 31.7%
from 2007
NOTE: Totals not adjusted for inflation.
2007
’09
’11
’13
2015
Source: Oregon Government Ethics Commission
Hillary Borrud and Alan Kenaga/EO Media Group
sample of lobbyists’ activi-
ties. Of the $35.9 million in
reported spending last year,
only $93,189 was explained
in detailed reports.
These minimal reporting
requirements contributed to
Oregon receiving one of the
lowest rankings in the nation
for transparency in lobbying
activity.
Last summer, the Sunlight
Foundation evaluated how all
50 states track spending on
lobbying and created a score-
card ranking the states. The
foundation awarded Oregon
an F grade, meaning lobbyists
and their clients face fewer
disclosure requirements than
in most other states.
Most of Oregon’s neigh-
bors received higher grades,
from an A in California to a C
in Idaho.
Emily Shaw, a senior an-
alyst at the Sunlight Founda-
tion who was involved in the
project, said the goal was to
evaluate how much informa-
tion states collected about
lobbyists’ specifi c activities
and the costs of those actions.
“People should be able
to fi nd out who has come to
infl uence their laws,” Shaw
said. “That’s not to say there
needs to be any particular re-
striction on lobbying in a par-
ticular situation. But for good
Continued from Page A1
and how they can fold, and I’m
excited to see our results.”
Weaver said the group
learned how proteins can mis-
fold and cause diseases.
Their research could point to
ways to help with diseases such
as Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s,
Huntington’s, cystic fi brosis and
many other disorders.
If their fi ndings result in
clues to unlock those myster-
ies, Smith said it’s possible a
research scientist could take
the experiment further.
“I hope to help in some way
Grant County
HEALTH
Department
528 E. Main, St. E,
John Day
Monday - Friday
8am - 5pm
Karen Triplett, FNP
Services Provided:
vocate for the bill. Rae wrote
that she did not spend enough
time working on the issue —
the threshold is 24 hours in a
quarter — to trigger the state’s
requirement to register as a
lobbyist for the group.
Bill Cross, the Legislative
Committee chair for the Cap-
itol Club, said the group still
wants a permanent reporting
exemption for lobbying other
lobbyists, partly because it is
burdensome for lobbyists to
track the information.
“I’m sure we’ll be pursu-
ing some sort of way to adjust
that because the value of that
information just doesn’t seem
apparent to us,” Cross said.
Cross said it would also
create a lot of work for lobby-
ists — with minimal benefi t
to the public — if lobbyists
were required to report all the
bills or executive actions they
work to infl uence, because he
sometimes tracks hundreds of
bills during a legislative ses-
sion. At the moment, no one is
advocating for expanded lob-
bying disclosures in Oregon,
Cross said.
“I’m not aware of any
issues, I guess, that have
evolved in the last four or fi ve
years where other organiza-
tions have said, ‘Wait a min-
ute, we really need to reform
our lobbying disclosure laws
because of problems with cor-
ruption or something,’” Cross
said.
The Eagle/Angel Carpenter
Grant Union sophomores, working on a space
experiment, check out the results under a black
light. From left, Dante Valentine, Duane Stokes and
Elijah Humbird.
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is a major reason the public
cannot fi nd out how lobbyists
use much of the money their
clients report spending. Still,
Meek said he remains more
concerned that Oregon has no
campaign contribution limits
because political donations
do not have to be reported as
gifts, even if they are connect-
ed to lobbying efforts.
“Lobbying regulation in
Oregon is really of secondary
importance because it can be
so easily evaded,” Meek said.
The extension of the lob-
bying reporting exemption
last year provided another ex-
ample of how lobbyists avoid
revealing their impact on Ore-
gon’s laws.
Lobbyist Marla Rae, who
previously served on the Or-
egon Fish and Wildlife Com-
mission and worked for the
Oregon Department of Justice
and former Gov. Ted Kulon-
goski, advocated for the bill
during legislative hearings on
behalf of the Capitol Club of
Oregon, a professional orga-
nizations for lobbyists. How-
ever, the Capitol Club did not
report spending any money
on lobbying last year and Rae
does not appear to have reg-
istered to lobby on behalf of
the group.
In an email, Rae explained
the Capitol Club did not have
to report spending any mon-
ey on lobbying because she
volunteered her time to ad-
Memorial Day
SCIENCE
She said they’re hopeful ini-
tial tests they work on this week
will quantify their results.
The students and teach-
er gained the unique research
opportunity through a Student
Spacefl ight Experiments Pro-
gram (SSEP) contest, entering
and winning their freshman
year at Grant Union in the fall
of 2014.
Aboard the SpaceX CRS-7,
their project reached the Inter-
national Space Station on April
11 this year.
Astronauts there worked on
19 SSEP Mission 7 students’
experiments and sent them
back May 9. The Grant Union
project was the only experiment
from Oregon on the mission.
Unfortunately, the local stu-
dents’ experiment was opened
earlier than planned in space,
but they and Smith believe the
outcome will still produce valu-
able results.
“I’m happy that it made it
to space and back,” said Val-
entine. “There may be a happy
accident.”
The fi rst two launches of the
space-bound projects exploded
shortly after take off, and this is
why the results have taken a year
and half to reach a conclusion.
“I was pretty happy that it
didn’t explode,” said Hum-
bird. “It’s been a lot of fun.
We’ve learned about proteins
public awareness of what’s
happening in these process-
es, we need good information
about what lobbyists are do-
ing, and when.”
Pete Quist, research direc-
tor at the National Institute
on Money in State Politics
in Montana, agreed that it is
important for states to require
lobbyists to disclose more
about how they infl uence
lawmaking. The institute is
collecting information about
state-level spending on lobby-
ing across the nation.
“The lobbying piece isn’t
analyzed as much in the me-
dia as it should be,” Quist
said. “What we see a lot of
public discussion about is the
campaign contributions.”
Oregon lobbyists have
resisted efforts to require
them to disclose more de-
tails of their work, most
recently in 2015 when they
won passage of a bill that
allows them to avoid re-
porting spending to lobby
other lobbyists, for example
to build a coalition for or
against an issue. The 2015
bill — which easily passed
both chambers of the Leg-
islature and was signed into
law by Gov. Kate Brown —
extended the disclosure ex-
emption through mid-2017.
Dan Meek, a public in-
terest attorney and co-chair
of the Independent Party of
Oregon, said this exemption
Wednesday, June 1, 2016
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Grant County Health Department does not discriminate against any person on the basis of race, color, national origin,
disability, or age in admission, treatment, or participation in its programs, services and activitie s, or in employment.
fi gure out if this is a problem
with astronauts or not,” Stokes
said.
“It was a fun learning experi-
ence,” Deiter added. “I’m happy
it’s back to be able to fi nish it.”
The students will continue
testing the protein this week
and said the next test will show
if the proteins fold better in mi-
cro-gravity. Testing could con-
tinue after the school year ends.
The boys may have grown
a foot since the experimenting
fi rst began. They’ve also gained
knowledge, Smith said.
“You can’t get more real
than this,” she said. “The de-
lays — these are the type of
things that happen in research.
It’s kept these fi ve gentleman
really interested in science.”
The Eagle/Cheryl Hoefler
A wreath of paper poppies rests at the base of the veterans memorial in
Prairie City Cemetery, honoring those who died in battles on land.
Small flags mark veterans’
gravesites at Prairie City
Cemetery.
A TTENTION G RANT
C OUNTY
V ETERANS :
Appointments
available
Did you know a service-connected
disabled veteran is entitled to
FREE use of Oregon State Parks?
Call and schedule your
appointment today!
See your Grant County Veteran Services
Officer today for more information,
located at Grant County Courthouse.
TOLL FREE
888-443-9104
or 541-575-0429
John Day
Fire Station
O PEN H OUSE
Saturday, June 4, 2016
4 p.m. - 6 p.m.
316 S Canyon Blvd., John Day
Tours - Free Food - Beverages
In addition to large American flags encircling
Canyon City Cemetery, hundreds of smaller
ones wave at the gravesites of military
personnel who died in wars from the Civil
War to the present day. The flags are placed
each year by Ellis Tracy American Legion and
Auxiliary No. 77 of John Day.
Open Mon, Wed, & Fri, 10 am - 4 pm,
by appointment. Call 541-575-1631
A MAN
WAKES
UP in the
morning
after sleeping on...
an advertised bed, in advertised
pajamas.
He will bathe in an ADVERTISED TUB, shave with an ADVERTISED RAZOR,
have a breakfast of ADVERTISED JUICE, cereal and toast, toasted in an
ADVERTISED TOASTER, put on ADVERTISED CLOTHES and glance at his
ADVERTISED WATCH. He’ll ride to work in his ADVERTISED CAR, sit at an
ADVERTISED DESK and write with an ADVERTISED PEN. Yet this person
hesitates to advertise, saying that advertising doesn’t pay. Finally, when his
non-advertised business is going under, HE’LL ADVERTISE IT FOR SALE.
Then it’s too late.
AND THEY SAY ADVERTISING DOESN’T WORK?
DON’T MAKE THIS SAME MISTAKE
Advertising is an investment, not an expense. Think about it!
Blue Mountain Eagle
MyEagleNews.com
Don’t get left behind, call today! Kim Kell 541-575-0710
Contributed photo
Nick Green was selected by John Day City Council
as the first choice for city manager. His wife,
Morgan, is from John Day. The couple has two
children, Kaden, 10, and Penelope, 2.
GREEN
Continued from Page A1
degree in microbiology from
Brigham Young University in
2003. He specialized in rural
economic development and lo-
cal government for his master’s.
“I will defi nitely be focused
in this role on helping to grow
the economy and continuing
the legacy of responsible city
management,” he said. “Peggy
has done a good job of man-
aging through a turbulent time
in our nation’s history, so I’m
hoping to build on her founda-
tion, and I’m very excited for
the opportunity to get engaged
and look at where we might
have opportunities for new job
creation, especially when I look
for opportunities in advanced
industries — with my technical
background, that’s certainly my
strength — and then help look
for new opportunities, like rec-
reational tourism.”
Council President Steve
Schuette said Green has “great
connections with people who
can get things done.”
“He’s very enthusiastic, en-
ergetic, very adept in electronic
communication,” Schuette said.
“I think he will bring us into the
21st century.”
Schuette said the city had
many qualifi ed applicants,
which made the decision diffi -
cult.
The city received 20 appli-
cations and interviewed fi ve fi -
nalists.
Gray said, if an employment
agreement is reached, Green
could start June 20.