A14
STATE
Blue Mountain Eagle
Wednesday, July 1, 2020
Legislature takes an intermission on summer action
By Gary A. Warner
For the Oregon Capital Bureau
One down and one to go.
The
Oregon
Legislature
wrapped-up its “2020 1st Special Ses-
sion” and headed for the exits out of
Salem on Friday, leaving at least as
many questions as answers from the
three days of rapid-fire lawmaking.
While the House and Senate met,
Oregon’s rate of new COVID-19
infections continued to climb, the
state fell deeper into debt and officials
churned through more of a record-set-
ting mountain of unemployment
applications.
Definitive answers on those issues
will linger until Gov. Kate Brown
announces the “2020 2nd Special
Session.”
“I anticipate calling the Legislature
into a second special session to rebal-
ance our state budget,” Brown said on
Saturday.
Oregon has to find a way to plug an
estimated $2.7 billion deficit caused
by the economic hit of the coronavirus
and steps taken in March to slow the
spread that forced many businesses
to shutter. The resulting layoffs led to
425,000 new unemployment appli-
cations, with some Oregonians still
waiting for checks to arrive.
Brown said she wants to give Con-
gress time to come up with a plan to
send aid to state and local govern-
ments. Billions of dollars in aid has
widespread support in the Demo-
cratic-controlled U.S. House, while
its prospects are questionable at best
in the Republican-controlled U.S.
Senate.
Return engagement
Either way, Brown said state law-
makers will have to come back, most
likely at the end of July or early
August. She said her goals included
the full $9 billion in funding for pub-
lic schools, which she said were still
on track for students to return to class-
rooms this fall.
Plans for the largest cuts and possi-
ble tax increases are just now getting
underway.
For the first session, lawmakers
came to Salem to pass 24 policy bills,
highlighted by a package of legisla-
tion limiting chokeholds and the use
of tear gas, and other law enforcement
reforms.
Brown called the session as many
Legislatures across the country met on
the same issue following worldwide
protests of the Memorial Day death of
George Floyd. The Black man from
Minneapolis was killed when a white
police officer kneeled on his neck until
he was unconscious.
In addition to the police reforms,
other bills voted on this past week
included protections for mortgage
holders who can’t pay on time, a cell-
phone tax to pay for rural broadband
and more than a dozen other topics.
Brown said the Legislature
“shined” during the session.
Watching the numbers
The next task, she said, was to see
how Oregonians respond to an alarm-
ing uptick in the rate of COVID-19
infections in the state as the Fourth of
July holiday approaches.
The response will determine
whether the reopening of businesses,
allowing larger gatherings and lifting
of other restrictions that can spur the
economy can safely continue.
Oregon’s overall official COVID-
19 infection rate is among the lowest
in the nation, at less than 5% of the
population. But the rate of infections
has been trending up in recent weeks.
“I am asking Oregonians to take
this very, very seriously,” Brown said.
“The increase in cases is alarming. We
have done a really good job so far.”
If the infections cannot be kept in
check, Brown said she would use all
the “tools in the toolbox” to stop the
virus from getting out of control as it
has in several states in recent days.
“If we continue on this path, we
will have to button down the econ-
omy,” Brown said.
Just before her press conference on
Saturday, the Oregon Health Author-
ity released its latest bad news: a total
of 277 new cases of COVID-19, the
second-highest one-day total this year.
All but one of the highest one-day
totals have occurred in the past two
weeks, coinciding with the reopening
of much of the state.
Oregon Capital Bureau file photo
Senate President Peter Courtney lis-
tens earlier this year as Legislative
Fiscal Officer Ken Rocco explains the
breakdown of $11.5 million in fund-
ing for Umatilla Basin flood relief.
The virus has killed 202 people in
Oregon since March. Officially, there
have been 8,094 positive cases of
COVID-19 in the state through Sat-
urday, though health officials say the
numbers are likely much higher.
Pandemic politics
The coronavirus this week was
rarely far from the minds of lawmak-
ers, most of whom arrived wearing
face masks or clear plastic shields to
avoid spreading infection.
State leaders decided to go ahead
with a session in the Capitol despite
fears that the coming and going could
spread the virus.
The session required calling 60
House members, 30 senators and
scores of staff, security and press to
travel from around the state to Salem.
After working together for three days,
they would then fan out to return to
their homes and offices.
Tension and traffic control
House Speaker Tina Kotek,
D-Portland, wrestled with a limit of
25 members on the floor at any time.
Over the first two days, most shuttled
between their offices and the floor. But
on Friday, as the session ended, many
members chose to sit at their desks.
Bumping up against the maximum,
Kotek tread lightly but firmly in sug-
gesting that some Republicans might
move to the aisles, galleries or back to
their offices to make way for the sev-
eral Democrats who had to come to
the floor to introduce — “carry” —
bills coming up for a vote.
“Carriers are in one caucus, that is
just the way it is,” Kotek said.
Republicans expressed their frus-
tration at special session rules that
allowed only the House Speaker and
President of the Senate — both Dem-
ocrats — to submit bills.
Sen. Dallas Heard, R-Rose-
burg, said the session had resulted
in some “good, worthy” legislation,
but increased the animosity between
the majority and minority parties. He
acknowledged his own role in the
tension.
“It is quite obvious that we have all
grown to have quite a bit of contempt
for each other,” he said.
Heard said more respect was
needed in Salem, otherwise the par-
tisan divide would be “the cause of
freedom dying and a lot of good will
squandered.”
Senate Minority Leader Fred
Girod, R-Stayton, said the decision to
not allow the public into the Capitol
for the session — while allowing for
live video feeds — was not in keeping
with what the building stood for.
“It’s not ours, it’s not the Legisla-
ture’s, it is the people’s,” he said.
Mask-less men
Politics and personal space and
expected privileges clashed at times
under the pandemic rules.
The 60-member House made masks
or faceguards mandatory when in the
chamber. Senate President Peter Court-
ney, D-Salem, made it a strong request.
Sen. Brian Boquist, R-Dallas, came
to the Senate floor with no face cover-
ing twice during the session.
On June 24, Boquist and Sen. Den-
nis Linthicum, R-Klamath Falls, went
without face coverings. Courtney
asked Girod to ask the recalcitrant duo
to cover up.
When the Senate next met on Fri-
day, Linthicum had asked to be excused
from the session, which was granted.
But a defiant Boquist once again
took his seat without a mask.
“The flu is now the virus … com-
pletely political — lacking zero sci-
ence,” Boquist said in an email.
“Everything is the coronavirus. Every
state that did not lock down is doing as
good as or better than Oregon.”
Boquist said lawmakers never
should have been called to Salem for
the agenda they were dealing with.
“Nothing about the special session
is good — nothing,” he wrote.
Hustle and flow in the House
In the House, the main problem was
herding lawmakers whose total num-
bers were double the 25-person limit
set for the chamber floor.
That meant much coming and going
from offices to desks, with gaggles of
lawmakers sometimes passing close to
one another in opposite directions.
Kotek admonished House mem-
bers on Friday about getting lax on
social distancing minimums of six
feet, at one point saying if nothing
else to think about one member who
is pregnant.
House members often watched the
proceedings on a live feed from their
offices, then took the short walk to the
House chamber to debate or vote.
The House normally uses an elec-
tronic voting system, much faster than
the Senate’s historic but sometimes
tedious roll call. But the virus forced
even voting in the House to be done in
shifts.
In a nod to the COVID-19 reality,
the House rules were changed so that
members could go to the aisle or bal-
conies of the chamber and signal their
votes with a thumbs up or thumbs
down.
Kotek frequently reminded law-
makers watching elsewhere in the
building that if they wanted to get into
the queue for debating a bill that they
should text caucus leaders. Virtual
committee meetings and video press
conferences often were hung up by
mute buttons and video feed issues.
But over 100 people testified
remotely on bills, and 600 documents
and letters were entered electronically
into the record. Staff dealt with multiple
drafts of 24 bills and 90 amendments.
The police reforms were over-
whelmingly approved by the Legisla-
ture on Friday — June 26, 2020.
Oregon Legislature reaches consensus on police reform bills
By Peter Wong
Oregon Capital Bureau
Oregon legislators reached a
swift consensus Friday on half
a dozen bills that one of their
chief advocates says will move
toward improving police prac-
tices and accountability.
The bills were one of the
chief aims of the special ses-
sion, which Gov. Kate Brown
called a month after the death
of George Floyd in Minne-
apolis prompted nationwide
demonstrations against police
misconduct.
The bills restrict — but do
not ban — police use of choke-
holds on suspects and tear gas
on crowds. Instead of transfer-
ring investigations of officer-in-
volved shootings from county
district attorneys to the state
attorney general, a bill sets up a
legislative committee to look at
police use of force, citizen com-
plaints about police and inde-
pendent review of officer-in-
volved shootings.
But Sen. Lew Frederick, a
Democrat from Portland, said
they’re a start. Frederick, one of
two Black members of the Ore-
gon Senate, has worked on such
legislation during his 11-year
legislative tenure.
“This is another import-
ant step in reforming our law
enforcement to become one
that all Oregonians can trust,”
he said.
“While there may be a few
bad apples (among police), one
TOM CHRISTENSEN
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has the power to take a human
life — and one is too many.”
He has been stopped by
police in his own neighborhood
in Portland.
Senate Republican Leader
Fred Girod of Lyons said his
concern was not about reform
— he favors it — but about
police unions he asserts are a
barrier to reform.
“All people are created
equal, and we still struggle with
that,” Girod said. “It is time that
it ends. It’s been going on for far
too long.”
Rep. Rick Lewis is a Repub-
lican from Silverton, where he
was mayor and police chief, and
also chairman of the state Public
Safety Standards and Training
Board. He said most police live
up to their professional stan-
dards — and welcome steps to
weed out bad officers.
“They are the ones who run
toward danger, not away from
it,” he said. “Police work is one
of the few professions where
good people undergo ridicule
and criticism when there are a
few bad cops in the profession,
no matter where in the country
they are.”
Rep. Janelle Bynum, a Dem-
ocrat from Clackamas who leads
the House Judiciary Committee,
said she welcomed Lewis’ help
in shaping the package.
“It is important not to pick
on people, but to dismantle the
system that is generating out-
comes that none of us is happy
with,” Bynum said. The Black
lawmaker was the focus of an
incident in 2018, when she
was canvassing her district and
someone called the Clackamas
County sheriff to check on her.
Here’s a summary of the
police accountability bills as
amended by the 14-member
special session committee:
Arbitration: Senate Bill 1604
bars a labor arbitrator from less-
ening the discipline against a
police officer if the arbitrator
concludes that misconduct is
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Officer duty to intervene
and report: House Bill 4205,
as amended, requires officers
to intervene when they witness
misconduct, which includes
“unjustified or excessive force,”
unless they cannot do it safely
— and to report such miscon-
duct to a supervisor. The original
bill would have required a state
agency to adopt such rules.
Database: House Bill 4207
directs the Department of Pub-
lic Safety Standards and Train-
ing to create a statewide data-
base of disciplinary records of
officers, and certifications, sus-
pensions and revocations.
Use of tear gas: House Bill
4208, as amended, restricts
police from using tear gas
except to quell a riot. It also
requires police to announce
the use of tear gas, allow time
for the crowd to disperse and
repeat the announcement before
its use. The original bill would
have banned the use of tear gas
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consistent with the finding of
the agency that employed the
officer. This bill passed the Sen-
ate in 2019 and 2020, but died
without a vote in the House.
Deadly force investigations:
House Bill 4201, as amended,
creates a joint legislative com-
mittee to review how com-
plaints about police use of force
are investigated, how investiga-
tions into use of deadly force are
conducted and how independent
reviews of police use of force
should be done. The amendment
substitutes for the original bill,
which would have transferred
responsibility for use-of-force
investigations from district attor-
neys in Oregon’s 36 counties to
the state attorney general.
Chokeholds: House Bill
4203, as amended, bans choke-
holds or similar techniques
unless an officer is faced with
using deadly force as defined
by a 1971 law. The original bill
would have banned such tech-
niques outright.
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