The Blue Mountain eagle. (John Day, Or.) 1972-current, August 07, 2019, Image 4

The Blue Mountain eagle., August 07, 2019, Page A4, Image 4

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Newspaper Page TextA4 OPINION Blue Mountain Eagle Wednesday, August 7, 2019 Judge’s decision should be reconsidered A Clackamas County judge has opened a gaping loophole in Oregon’s Public Records Law, and the state Court of Appeals needs to slam it shut, posthaste. That seems the likely result, fortunately, because Judge Henry C. Breit- haupt’s recent oral ruling — he hasn’t submitted a writ- ten version — contradicts not only the spirit of that 1973 law but also decades of all-but-universal interpreta- tions of it, including by pub- lic ofﬁ cials who are required to comply with the law. The gist of Breithaupt’s ruling is that records cre- ated by local government ofﬁ cials — city councilors, county commissioners and school board members, for instance — are not subject to public disclosure under the law unless the records are “owned, used or retained” by a public body such as a city, county or school district. If Breithaupt’s interpreta- tion were allowed to become legal precedent, it could potentially allow public ofﬁ - cials from cities, counties, school districts and other entities across the state to deprive citizens of access to all manner of documents that the law clearly intends for them to be able to see. For example, if a city councilor writes something related to city business but doesn’t make a copy avail- able to the city itself, under Breithaupt’s concept that document would not be a public record. This is such an obvi- ous perversion of the Pub- lic Records Law’s purpose — the law deﬁ nes a public record as “any writing that contains information relating to the conduct of the public’s business” — that it seems unlikely a higher court would agree with Breithaupt. The problem, as it were, seems to lie with a clause in the law that deﬁ nes public bodies, which are subject to the law, as “every state ofﬁ - cer” but then lists “every county and city governing body (and) school district” but does not, as in the case of state government, speciﬁ - cally list every public ofﬁ cer at the city, county and school district level. This is the sort of minor oversight that can be easily remedied by the Legislature tweaking the language. But it hardly justiﬁ es reversing decades of prec- edent that makes it abun- dantly clear that records cre- ated by elected or appointed public ofﬁ cials, whether they work for the state or a city, county or school district, are indeed public records wher- ever the records happen to be kept. Duane Bosworth, an attor- ney who has represented media organizations across the state on public records and meetings issue and has advised other EO Media Group papers in the past, told The Oregonian that Bre- ithaupt’s ruling should be appealed “because it is a bad precedent.” Oregon’s public records advocate, Ginger McCall, agrees. She told The Orego- nian that Breithaupt’s opin- ion differs from how she interprets the law, an inter- pretation she said she shares with the state archivist, attor- ney general’s ofﬁ ce and oth- ers. “Everybody,” in fact, is how McCall put it. Except, it seems, one judge. FARMER’S FATE Ice cubes instead of Tide Pods? ou’ve been doing your freezer also — but freezing your laundry all wrong!” my dirty jeans? mom gushed. When I got home that night “I know!” I readily agreed, (in between loads of laundry), I thinking about the stacks of laun- turned to that bastion of knowl- dry still on the couch from edge we refer to as the yesterday. I’d taken the internet to see if people opportunity of a broken really do freeze jeans. Sure skid plate on my swather enough, there are articles to sneak home and wash out there instructing people some laundry. It had to the proper way to freeze made it to the folded stage their jeans to clean them before I got the green light and keep them from smell- Brianna to return to my swather. ing. One article reported Walker Which basically meant my that our denim starts to couch was still covered in smell because there is bac- stacks of laundry. teria that sloughs off of our skin “Yes, I am doing it all wrong. I as we wear the jeans — that bac- need to add a housekeeper to the teria is then what is causing the payroll.” odor. She laughed, “Don’t we all? I looked at my basket of jeans But I just ﬁ nished reading an arti- I was carrying to the washing cle entitled ‘Don’t make these machine. A very odorous bas- laundry mistakes,’ and I had to ket of jeans, I might add. I pulled call so you can stop making them the top pair off and gave it a once too!” over before tossing it into the “OK?” I bit, “What am I doing empty drum. Dark spots marred wrong?” the denim on both thighs. We “Well, for starters, you need had sheared sheep, and the smell to stop putting your jeans in the of lanolin was still potent. Even freezer.” darker spots crusted down the “Um... say what?” I said, sure outside leg. I laughed aloud as I the tractor cab must be causing repeated the article’s cause of the interference. odor from our jeans, “bacteria that “Yep, this article says that sloughs off our skin ... causing our freezing jeans doesn’t actually kill jeans to smell.” I am pretty sure the bacteria and that you should those odors were from bacteria — go back to washing. I just wanted but not from my skin. I couldn’t to save you some space in your imagine putting that smell into my freezer!” freezer next to the Häagen-Dazs. We both laughed. I couldn’t The article encouraged put- imagine putting my jeans in the ting our jeans in a canvas bag freezer. I know refrigerators as “a way to protect your jeans and freezers store some unusual from whatever else is in your things at times. A friend and I freezer while still allowing oxy- were recently joking about look- gen so your jeans can breathe, as ing twice before you grab a snack opposed to a Ziploc plastic bag.” from our respective fridges. I grabbed out a small toddler Shelves of plant hormones, lab- pair of jeans and started the neces- oratory grade auxins and cytoki- sary yet often gross task of pocket nins, shrimp food, frozen crickets, checking. A washer, pieces of as well as antibiotics and bot- snake grass, the remnants of what tles of frozen colostrum. I used to appeared to have been a ﬂ ower, always store my extra ﬁ lm in the lots of hay leaves and a hand- ‘Y ful of cat food. The outside was covered in — well I’m not really sure, and I don’t know if I even want to know. I throw the pair in and wiped my hands down the front of my own jeans. I can’t imagine putting those jeans in the freezer and being worried about protecting them from the freezer — pretty sure the contamination would work in reverse. The article concluded with “I am a huge proponent of the no wash, stick in the freezer method. But one other trick is that you can give jeans this really beauti- ful sheen if you put baby oil on your legs ﬁ rst before putting them on. The oil will be absorbed by the denim, and create a beautiful sheen.” I picked up a pair of my hus- band’s jeans from the basket. I emptied the pockets, and looked at a big stain down one whole leg from when a hydraulic line had blown, and both knees were dis- colored from kneeling in dirt and hay. The author was deﬁ nitely correct there, the oil does absorb into the denim — which will probably create a beautiful sheen when it mixes with the lanolin and cat food crumbs from the rest of the jeans as they agitate together in the wash. I will never be as “cool” as people who toss their jeans in the freezer. My jeans may fade and shrink over the years because of my insistence on washing them — sometimes even in hot water to help remove the day’s often- stinky traces — but in the cold winter months, while the “cool” people are wearing non-faded, non-shrunk, freezer-burned denim, I will relish slipping into my favorite, faded, hot, fresh- from-the-dryer jeans. Brianna Walker occasionally writes about the Farmer’s Fate for the Blue Mountain Eagle. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Prairie City plagued by ‘accumulating junk and debris’ To the Editor: Prairie City is plagued by resi- dents who disrespect their neigh- bors, neighboring property val- ues and the town in general by strewing their property with accu- mulating junk and debris, made worse by outright contemptuous neglect in managing vegetation overgrowth. As a behavior model it has socially degenerative conse- quences not different from that of urban grafﬁ ti — scientiﬁ cally shown to worsen exponentially the longer it goes un-countered. “Un-countered” is the current sta- tus, argued on the basis that reg- ulatory enforcement is proce- durally costly with a net loss to our town. Prairie City Ordinance 8.05, drafted to correspond with state and county equivalents, does authorize (even mandate) remedial action against the offenders. Yet, the burden of enforcement is rele- gated to the city. I’m anxious to have opinions of others on how might be coun- tered such pathologically anti-so- cial behavior that is costing the responsible citizenry ﬁ nancially and in livability. Storie Mooser Prairie City WHERE TO WRITE GRANT COUNTY • Grant County Courthouse — 201 S. Humbolt St., Suite 280, Canyon City 97820. Phone: 541-575-0059. Fax: 541- 575-2248. • Canyon City — P.O. Box 276, Canyon City 97820. Phone: 541-575-0509. Fax: 541-575-0515. Email: tocc1862@ centurylink.net. • Dayville — P.O. Box 321, Dayville 97825. Blue Mountain EAGLE Published every Wednesday by Phone: 541-987-2188. Fax: 541-987-2187. Email:dville@ortelco.net • John Day — 450 E. Main St, John Day, 97845. Phone: 541-575-0028. Fax: 541- 575-1721. Email: cityjd@centurytel.net. • Long Creek — P.O. Box 489, Long Creek 97856. Phone: 541-421-3601. Fax: 541- 421-3075. Email: info@cityoﬂ ongcreek. com. • Monument — P.O. Box 426, Monument 97864. Phone and fax: 541-934-2025. Email: cityofmonument@centurytel.net. • Mt. Vernon — P.O. Box 647, Mt. Vernon 97865. Phone: 541-932-4688. Fax: 541- 932-4222. Email: cmtv@ortelco.net. • Prairie City — P.O. Box 370, Prairie City 97869. Phone: 541-820-3605. Fax: 820- 3566. Email: pchall@ortelco.net. • Seneca — P.O. Box 208, Seneca 97873. Phone and fax: 541-542-2161. Email: Grant County’s Weekly Newspaper Publisher............ ......................................Chris Rush, crush@eomediagroup.com Editor & General Manager ...............Sean Hart, editor@bmeagle.com Reporter ...................................................Richard Hanners, rick@bmeagle.com Community News .................................Angel Carpenter, angel@bmeagle.com Sports ........................................................Angel Carpenter, angel@bmeagle.com Marketing Rep .......................................Kim Kell, ads@bmeagle.com Administrative Assistant ..................Makenna Adair, oﬃ ce@bmeagle.com Oﬃ ce Assistant .....................................Alixandra Hand, oﬃ ce@bmeagle.com MEMBER OREGON NEWSPAPER PUBLISHERS ASSOCIATION Online: MyEagleNews.com senecaoregon@gmail.com. SALEM • Gov. Kate Brown, D — 254 State Capitol, Salem 97310. Phone: 503- 378-3111. Fax: 503-378-6827. Website: governor.state.or.us/governor.html. • Oregon Legislature — State Capitol, Salem, 97310. Phone: (503) 986-1180. Website: leg.state.or.us (includes Oregon Constitution and Oregon Revised 1 YEAR SUBSCRIPTION RATES (including online access) Grant County .........................................$45 Everywhere else in U.S. .......................$57 Outside Continental U.S. ....................$60 Subscriptions must be paid prior to delivery Periodicals Postage Paid at John Day and additional mailing oﬃ ces. POSTMASTER send address changes to: Blue Mountain Eagle 195 N. Canyon Blvd. John Day, OR 97845-1187 USPS 226-340 Phone: 541-575-0710 Statutes). • Oregon Legislative Information — (For updates on bills, services, capitol or messages for legislators) — 800-332- 2313. • Sen. Cliﬀ Bentz, R-Ontario – 900 Court St. NE, S-301, Salem 97301. Phone: 503-986-1730. Website: oregonlegislature. gov/Bentz. Email: Sen.Cliﬀ Bentz@ oregonlegislature.gov. Copyright © 2019 Blue Mountain Eagle All rights reserved. No part of this publication covered by the copyright hereon may be reproduced or copied in any form or by any means — graphic, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, taping or information storage and retrieval systems — without written permission of the publisher. facebook.com/MyEagleNews @MyEagleNews