Heat advisory in effect
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HEPPNER
G T
azette
imes
VOL. 139
NO. 31 8 Pages
Wednesday, July 29, 2020
Morrow County, Heppner, Oregon
Morrow County won’t see
any more federal coronavirus
funds
‘It is never going to be properly sent down,’ says
Doherty
Umatilla Electric Co-op General Manager Robert Echenrode (center) gives a presentation to the
Morrow County Commissioners on the proposed new power line construction near Boardman.
By David Sykes
Morrow County and
other local governments
are never going to see their
fair share of the $1.6 billion
in coronavirus relief funds
sent from the federal gov-
ernment to be distributed by
the state, County Commis-
sioner Jim Doherty said last
week. “The state is just not
going to send that money
down,” Doherty said at a
July 22 meeting.
Doherty has been
working diligently the past
several weeks trying to get
Governor Kate Brown to
disburse over $400 million
in federal funds as was in-
tended to the local govern-
ments. “I worked overtime
on this,” said Doherty, who
is president of the Associ-
ation of Oregon Counties
(AOC), one of the groups
who urged the governor
to do the right thing and
distribute the money. “But
it is never going to be prop-
erly sent down and allowed
to be used the way it was
intended,” he says.
The $1.6 billion was
Oregon’s share of the $2
trillion federal CARES
Act approved by congress
to aid local governments
hit by COVID-19 costs. A
federal directive said the
money sent to the states was
supposed to be distributed
to local governments, but
in a June 26 letter to Brown
AOC said the state has only
sent $200 million of the
money. The group asked
the governor to send the
remaining $424.8 million in
“accordance with the U.S.
Department of the treasury
guidance.” The money has
never come and Doherty,
for one, has given up hope
local governments will ever
see any of it.
Under the federal gov-
ernment disbursement for-
mula local governments
with populations above
500,000 received the mon-
ey directly. In Oregon, three
local governments qualify
so Multnomah County re-
ceived $28 million direct-
ly, Portland $114 million
and Washington County
$105. The guidelines say
45 percent of the remain-
ing $1.4 billion or $624
million should go directly
to local governments on
a population basis. So far
local governments have
only been able to get $200
million of their owed funds.
Doherty laid part of
the blame for not getting
the money at the feet of
state representatives and
senators who he says never
“went to bat” for the local
governments. “It’s pretty
discouraging when our state
representatives and sena-
tors grudgingly agree that
those are county dollars,
but then they are happy
to spend them and not get
behind us,” Doherty said.
“Without them behind us
and the federal government
sending the direct funding
to Portland and the two
metro counties and the leg-
islature being made up of
90 percent metro folks, they
are just taking the balance
of the $600 million that is
ours and diverting about
80 percent to metro,” he
added. “It is never going to
be properly sent down and
allowed to be used the way
it was intended,” Doherty
added.
In addition the legis-
lature dipped into the pool
of money when in special
session July 14 it voted to
spend $200 million of the
relief money on several
initiatives including $62
million to aid black owned
businesses and individuals,
$50 million to backfill cul-
tural and arts groups bud-
gets, $35 million in $500
checks to residents waiting
on unemployment claims,
$30 million for workers
infected with the virus who
are quarantined, and 25.6
million for small businesses
having problems because of
the virus.
When asked by other
commissioners if the coun-
ty would ever see any more
of the money Doherty was
not optimistic. “That ship
has sailed,” he said.
Looking at budget
changes
In other business at
the July 22 meeting com-
missioners began discuss-
ing possible adjustment
to the 2020-21 budget to
add funding to the health
department for unforeseen
COVID-19 costs. In ad-
dition to a need for more
health funding the county
expects to see a drop in state
lottery funds, predicted to
be around 23 percent.
The commission wants
to make plans and budget
adjustments now to cover
the unforeseen changes
since the budget was ad-
opted earlier this year. Two
places they are initially
looking to cut is the aid to
cities program where they
distribute $1 million to the
five incorporated cities in
Morrow County. There
is $379,000 budgeted in
the general fund this year
for the cities. Also being
looked at is money to the
Morrow County Tourism
Committee which receives
$15,000, the Extension
Agent at $23,680, Rodeo
$10,000, Museum $11,000,
Willow Creek Valley Eco-
nomic Development Group
$25,000 and Lexington
Airport $30,000. The com-
mission instructed Finance
Director Kate Knop to only
pay one third of the funding
requests from nonprofit
groups who have already
sent in invoices for the
whole upcoming year.
Commissioners want to
see the “big picture” before
they begin making cuts.
“It’s hard to look at just
one piece of the budget in-
stead of the whole budget,”
Commission Chair Melis-
sa Lindsay said. She said
to be fiscally responsible
the commission needs to
have a big picture and that
those affected be consulted
during the process. “I think
everyone needs to be part
of this analysis,” she said
of redoing the budget and
possible cutting department
budgets. The commission-
ers seemed to favor across
the board cuts when ad-
justments are being made.
“Do you give everyone a
little bit of a haircut and
then nobody gets their ears
chopped off?” Commis-
sioner Don Russell asked.
The commission said it
would plan a workshop to
talk about the budget.
County named in law-
suit
In other business, the
commission discussed a
recent class-action lawsuit
filed against Morrow Coun-
ty and all other 35 counties
in Oregon. The lawsuit
challenges how counties
foreclose and sell proper-
ties to collect delinquent
taxes. The lawsuit alleges
Deschutes County made
a profit of $65,827 when
it foreclosed on property
with $4,172 in back taxes
and sold the property for
$84,827. Rather than re-
turn the surplus Deschutes
County “deposited it in
various county funds to be
used for county projects.”
The suit also includes a
person in Lane County
who had their property
foreclosed for $2,033 in
The forecast for Heppner shows the temperature could reach 108 degrees on Thursday.
A heat advisory for
Heppner and the surround-
ing areas will be in effect
from noon Wednesday, July
29 through 8 p.m. on Thurs-
day. The National Weather
Service in Pendleton report-
ed expected temperatures
from 99 to 106 degrees,
with the possibility of 110
degrees.
According to the weath-
er service, the areas affected
in Oregon include the John
Day Basin, foothills of the
Southern Blue Mountains,
North Central Oregon and
Central Oregon. According
to the report, overnight low
temperatures may struggle
to drop below 70 degrees
in some areas.
Residents are advised
to take precautionary/pre-
paredness actions as pro-
longed exposure to the heat
will cause heat illnesses
to occur. Residents should
drink plenty of fluids, stay
in an air-conditioned room,
stay out of the sun and
check up on relatives and
neighbors. Young children
and pets should never be
left unattended in vehicles
under any circumstances.
People should take
extra precautions if they
work or spend time outside.
When possible, reschedule
strenuous activities to early
morning or evening. Know
the signs and symptoms of
heat exhaustion and heat
stroke. Wear lightweight
and loose-fitting clothing
when possible. To reduce
risk during outdoor work,
delinquent taxes and the
county sold that parcel
for $58,000 resulting in a
profit of $56,000 which it
also kept. The plaintiff as-
serts that Oregon’s counties
keeping the excess funds
beyond the amount of tax-
es and fees owed, violates
the prohibitions on “the
taking of private property
for public use without just
compensation.” Morrow
County was not named
in the lawsuit for actually
doing this practice but was
named along with all 36
counties in the state as part
of the class action suit.
At its July 22 meeting
the commission agreed to
commit up to $10,000 in
legal fees to the joint de-
fense of the lawsuit. County
Counsel Richard Tovey re-
ported that several counties
are taking the lead heading
up the defense and they are
currently interviewing two
law firms to represent the
counties in the suit. Each
county was asked to commit
up to $10,000 each. Tovey
admitted $360,000 could be
“eaten up real quick” with
the specialized legal fees
the firm needed to fight the
lawsuit will charge. He said
once the initial legal money
pot, where each county puts
in the same amount, is gone
the counties will move to
a tiered system of paying
ongoing legal fees based
more on population. “My
hope it will never get to the
$10,000, but after looking
at the fees they do charge
more (than regular council)
Tovey said of the special-
ized law firms.
Hears report from
UEC Manager
The commissioners
also heard from Umatil-
la Electric Co-op (UEC)
General Manager Robert
Echenrode who gave a re-
port on the proposed new
power line construction
project near Boardman. The
project became controver-
sial after UEC filed with the
Public Utility Commission
(PUC) to allow for possible
property condemnation to
construct the line. The elec-
tric co-op says the new line
is needed to service a surge
in customer growth in the
area, however critics say the
line is mainly to service one
customer, Vadata, a subsid-
iary of Amazon which is
building a new data facility
in the area and needs the
additional power. The co-op
is currently in negotiations
with affected property own-
ers about easements to put
in the line. A public hearing
with the PUC has already
been held on the project and
talks are on-going.
Echenrode gave a pre-
sentation to the commis-
sioners using Google Earth
to show the various alterna-
tive routes considered that
would not have required
condemnation, and he went
over the major technical
difficulties with each one
coming back to the same
conclusion that the pro-
posed route is the best.
The county also owns
property in the area of the
powerline construction but
is not in line to have proper-
ty condemned to construct
the new line. The PUC is
still considering UEC’s
application for ability to
condemn property for the
project, however in the
meantime Morrow County
has requested the PUC that
it be added as a legal party
to the action.
New OSHA agricul-
ture rules a concern
In other business the
commissioners discussed
new temporary rules im-
posed by Oregon’s Occu-
pational Safety and Health
Administration (OSHA)
that agricultural counties,
especially those with mi-
grant farm workers and
food processing plants, are
M o n d a y ’s t e m p e r a t u r e
reached 100 degrees accord-
ing to the display at Bank of
Eastern Oregon..
the Occupational Safety
and Health Administration
recommends scheduling
frequent rest breaks in shad-
ed or air-conditioned en-
vironments. Anyone over-
come by heat should be
moved to a cool and shaded
location. Heat stroke is an
emergency. Call 911.
finding particularly oner-
ous.
North Morrow County
has a large number of mi-
grant and food processing
plant workers and commis-
sioners feel that the county
health department has been
working hard to make these
workers COVID-19 safe,
but still keep people work-
ing. “We have challenges
that we have been facing to
keep our necessary workers
that have to get together
to make this state work,
to make this state move,”
Commissioner Doherty
said. We are getting beat
up on social media for be-
ing less than intelligent for
our response. We are also
getting beat up by the state,’
Doherty said.
Commissioners were
especially concerned that
in the name of emergen-
cy OSHA has sidestepped
the normal rule making
process, to implement in-
flexible emergency rules
without consulting either
the workers or industry
members. In a letter to
OSHA the Association of
Oregon Counties (AOC)
said industries are suffering
under the new rules and the
organization asked OSHA
to “engage in a transparent,
public rulemaking pro-
cess to allow those being
impacted by the proposed
rules to have the ability to
voice their concerns.”
Especially at issue are
what are considered ex-
treme COVID-19 rules
and punishment, when the
county is currently working
to protect its workers now.
Commissioner Russell said
the county is doing lots of
testing and other sanitary
measurers. “The counties
are capable of protecting
their workers and doing it
very effectively,” he said.
It was brought out that one
-See NO FUNDS FOR
COUNTY/PAGE EIGHT
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