A8
STATE
Blue Mountain Eagle
Wednesday, October 20, 2021
Baker City man claims defamation
By JAYSON JACOBY
jjacoby@bakercityherald.com
Jason
Bland
Kerry
McQuisten
back, none of this would have
happened. I really just wanted
to talk to her about the party.”
Bland means the Baker
County Republican Party, for
which McQuisten is an elected
precinct committee person.
Bland has also sought to
talk to McQuisten about her
decision to not support Randy
Daugherty’s application to fi ll
a vacancy on the City Council.
In an Oct. 5 email to Bland,
McQuisten wrote: “I have cer-
tainly not defamed you by
attempting to follow the proper
City process ... I think we are
clear now that gathering my pri-
vate information online, pub-
lishing the source in the paper
so others could obtain my pri-
vate information, or repeat-
edly calling on my personal cell
phone at home are not appropri-
ate. Thanks in advance for hon-
oring that.”
In the Oct. 5 email, McQuis-
ten explained why she men-
tioned Bland’s voice mails to
Cannon.
“It is my job to bring con-
cerns about any of our board
or committee members to the
Limits lifted at Malheur Reservoir
Baker City Herald
BAKER CITY — Due to
low water levels, the Oregon
Department of Fish and Wild-
life has canceled all size lim-
its and daily limits for anglers
at Malheur Reservoir south of
Baker City through Dec. 31.
The reservoir has very
limited water due to low win-
ter and spring precipitation
and exceptionally warm tem-
peratures. ODFW staff have
observed fi sh kills during pre-
vious winters when such con-
ditions exist. Based on the
developing La Nina and asso-
ciated projections for a cooler
winter, ODFW believes there
is a high likelihood that con-
ditions in the reservoir will
become lethal for fi sh this
winter.
“I’m not one to take lightly
the liberalization of limits and
gear restrictions but given the
current water levels and past
experience we expect fi sh
will die during the winter due
to low oxygen levels,” said
media smear campaign” against
city councilor Lynette Perry,
who resigned in August due to
health issues, and that McQuis-
ten “believed him (Bland) to be
drunk at the launch of that cam-
paign as well.”
Bland denies that allegation.
Cannon’s email continues:
“The Mayor expressed con-
cerns about Mr. Bland serving
on the Budget Board if he does
have a drinking problem and is
taking action against councilors
and calling her personal phone
while impaired.”
Cannon’s email lists fi ve
potential options for councilors
“in no particular order.”
• Take no action.
• Discuss the issue in a
Council meeting
• Replace Mr. Bland on the
Budget Board
• Instruct staff to research
additional information
• Individually meet with Mr.
Bland to discuss the situation.
Later that day — Sept. 24
— Bland phoned Cannon to
explain his medical condi-
tion and to refute McQuisten’s
claims.
Cannon then sent a second
email to councilors, about two
and a half hours after the fi rst,
noting what Bland had said in
the phone call.
“He informed me that he
suff ers from a medical condi-
tion that slurs his speech,” Can-
non wrote in the second email.
“He indicated that he does not
drink but sometimes when he
speaks his speech slurs. His
condition became apparent as
we were having a conversation
on the phone.
“He wanted it to be very
clear to City Council that he is
interested in serving the city and
considers himself an upright
and respectable citizen here in
Baker City,” Cannon wrote in
the second email, referring to
Bland. “He intently shared his
desire to assist and do what’s
right on the budget board and
for the city.
“He indicated that he is try-
ing to reach the mayor to dis-
cuss the applicant Randy
Daughtry (Daugherty) for City
Council. He indicated he found
her phone numbers on truepeo-
ple.com”
McQuisten responded to
Cannon’s second Sept. 24
email, following his phone con-
versation with Bland, writing:
“Thank you for letting us know.
The cyberstalking and bizarre
calls at my home were creepy
at best.”
Bland said he hand-de-
livered a letter to McQuisten
during the Council’s Sept. 28
meeting, in which he accuses
the mayor of defaming him.
“I demand that you imme-
diately cease and desist from
making any and all false and
defamatory statements against
me,” Bland wrote in the letter
to McQuisten. “I also demand
that you publish a retraction of
all these false statements in the
form of an email to me, Mr.
Cannon and all City Council
Members by October 6, 2021.
If you do not cease and desist
immediately, and if you do not
provide a retraction by October
6, 2021, I may be forced to take
appropriate legal action against
you and seek all available dam-
ages and remedies.”
Bland said in a phone inter-
view Tuesday afternoon that
he was upset that McQuisten,
after receiving Cannon’s second
email, explaining the source
of Bland’s slurred speech,
failed to concede that she was
wrong in assuming Bland was
intoxicated.
Instead, Bland noted,
McQuisten repeated her accusa-
tion that Bland had engaged in
cyberstalking and described his
actions as “bizarre” and “creepy
at best.”
In his letter to McQuisten,
Bland addressed those claims.
“I do not know what you
mean by ‘cyberstalking,’ but I
do not engage in any stalking
behaviors,” Bland wrote. “That
you fi nd phone calls from con-
stituents asking for information
‘bizarre’ and ‘creepy at best’
is unacceptable. As an elected
offi cial, a County Republican
Precinct Committee Person, and
a candidate for governor, please
respond to a constituent’s inqui-
ries rather than defame them —
especially after their disability is
revealed.”
‘Food trail’ showcases farms
Dave Banks, ODFW’s dis-
trict fi sh biologist. “My goal
with the removal of limits and
gear restrictions is to provide
opportunities for anglers to
use these fi sh.”
ODFW plans to restock the
reservoir next spring to begin
rebuilding the fi shery. Mal-
heur Reservoir is a produc-
tive waterbody that will grow
fi ngerling rainbow trout, three
to four inches long, stocked
in the spring into eight- to11-
inch fi sh by the fall. Those
same fi sh will be 14 to 16
inches by their second fall in
the reservoir.
Low water levels during the
fall and ice in winter creates a
low oxygen level situation that
could be lethal for fi sh. When
the reservoir surface freezes,
it will trap any remaining oxy-
gen under the ice.
“This would give the fi sh
a very low oxygen supply to
persist throughout the winter
and normally results in fi sh
dying under the ice,” Banks
said.
By KYLE SPURR
The Bulletin
BEND — A new self-guided
tour through the farmlands of
Central Oregon will allow par-
ticipants to enjoy the food pro-
duced in the region. The High
Desert Food Trail, which
launched Friday, takes people
on a tour of 45 diff erent stops
through Deschutes, Jeff erson
and Crook counties.
The stops include farms and
ranches, craft beverage pro-
ducers, cooking schools and
vineyards.
“We are really excited to
collaborate with other farms in
Central Oregon to share our rich
agricultural lands with our com-
munity and visitors,’’ said Sar-
ahlee Lawrence, owner of Rain-
shadow Organics, a 200-acre
farm outside of Sisters.
Lawrence, 39, was born
at the farm, which her family
started in 1970. She and her hus-
band, Ashanti Samuels, opened
A MAN
WAKES
UP in the
morning
after sleeping on...
an advertised bed, in advertised
pajamas.
Dean Guernsey/The Bulletin
Melody Luloff organizes produce in the farm store at Rainshad-
ow Organics.
a farm store on the property in
2015. At the store, Lawrence
off ers meats, grains and veg-
etables all raised on her farm.
Participants on the food trail
are encouraged to visit Friday
and Saturday each week, when
the store is open and meals are
served, she said.
“We call it farm-driven cui-
sine,” Lawrence said. “We
really are cooking what we
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grow, and it changes every
week, every season.”
Lawrence is familiar with
other food trails in Oregon,
including one in Hood River
called the Fruit Loop.
She is thrilled her farm is on
the new trail. It helps people fi nd
her farm, which like many other
farms is off the beaten path, she
said.
The High Desert Food Trail
was created by the High Des-
ert Food and Farm Alliance and
Travel Oregon, which runs the
Oregon Food Trails. The new
trail joins eight other Oregon
Food Trails throughout the state,
and is the second east of the Cas-
cades Mountains.
A map of the trail is available
on the food and farm alliance
website.
Annie Nichols, who orga-
nized the trail for the food and
farm alliance, said brochures
with the map will be available
at Travel Oregon visitor cen-
ters across the state and the Red-
mond Airport.
The goal is to promote the
agriculture of Central Oregon to
visitors and locals who may not
be aware how many food pro-
ducers are in the region, Nich-
ols said.
“Central Oregon has this
vibrant food scene that I think a
lot of people, especially in West-
ern Oregon, are not quite aware
of,” Nichols said. “We have this
really cool scene out here that we
are trying to highlight and pack-
age in a more exciting manner.”
Jeff Fox owns Sun Life Farm
outside of Prineville, one of four
Crook County farms on the food
trail.
Fox bought the 160-acre
farm two years ago. He grows
7,000 lavender plants on the
property. His farm also features 5
miles of hiking trails and an area
with 19 beehives where he pro-
duces honey.
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BAKER CITY — Jason
Bland, a member of Baker
City’s budget committee who
sometimes speaks with slurred
speech due to multiple scle-
rosis, contends Mayor Kerry
McQuisten defamed him by
suggesting that he was drunk
when he left voice mails on her
cellphone recently.
Bland has given McQuis-
ten a letter demanding that she
write an email retracting her
statements. Bland also wrote
that he would consider tak-
ing “appropriate legal action
against” McQuisten if she does
not retract her statements.
Bland also attended the City
Council meeting on Tuesday
evening, Oct. 12 and repeated
his request to McQuisten.
McQuisten didn’t respond to
Bland during the meeting.
In a phone interview Tues-
day afternoon, Bland said he
wants McQuisten to acknowl-
edge that she was wrong in
assuming he was intoxicated
when he left the voice mails,
and to apologize.
“She’s defamed me, and
she’s done it on purpose,” Bland
said. “I don’t want somebody
like that being my mayor.”
Bland said McQuisten could
have avoided the confl ict by
returning his phone calls.
“I just wanted a call,” he
said. “If she had just called me
council as a body to handle
properly; however, as I men-
tioned multiple times (as was
the reason for my not once men-
tioning your name or the issue
specifi cs publicly) my desire
was the quickest, most discrete
resolution during which you
would have been involved.”
McQuisten mentioned the
voice mails during a Council
work session Sept. 23, but she
didn’t refer to Bland by name.
McQuisten also brought the
issue to City Manager Jon Can-
non, who listened to Bland’s
voice mails. Cannon subse-
quently sent an email on Sept.
24 to the fi ve other City Council
members in which he outlined
what the mayor had told him.
In the email, Cannon wrote
that McQuisten had told him
Bland had called her on her
city-issued phone and on her
personal cellphone, although
she had asked him not to use her
personal number.
“She expressed concerns
because the phone messages
sound as though Mr. Bland
has slurred speech and may be
drunk or impaired,” Cannon
wrote in the email to councilors.
“I have heard three of the mes-
sages and can confi rm in two
of them the speech is slurred
and certainly sounds as though
some sort of impairment is
apparent.”
Cannon also referred in the
email to McQuisten’s allegation
that Bland instigated a “social
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