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YOUR LOCAL NEWSPAPER
HERMISTONHERALD.COM
Few attend meeting about Hermiston charter
Schools
across region Discussion centers
on appointing,
victims of
rather than electing,
cyberattack municipal judge
Internet now back
up and running
BY MAEGAN MURRAY
HERMISTON HERALD
Schools across the re-
gion found themselves
without Internet for about
30 minutes this week after
they experienced a sweep-
ing cyberattack that ran
county-wide.
In a press release, the
InterMountain Education
Service District reported
that the attack, known as
a Distributed Denial of
Service attack, targeted
area schools’ networks by
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The attack used such a
large amount of band-
width that it shut down the
Internet signal, according
to the press release.
The attack originally
only affected the Umatil-
la School District. Super-
intendent Heidi Sipe said
the district has had issues
with attacks to its service
since September 2014.
“Every so often, the
Internet would go down,”
summary of the changes
City Council members pro-
posed to the city’s founding
document Thursday, but
only four people attend-
ed, including Mayor Dave
Drotzmann and Municipal
Judge Thomas Creasing.
To take effect, the char-
ter must be approved by
BY SEAN HART
Hermiston voters, and the
HERMISTON HERALD
City Council plans to place
Few people attended the it on the ballot in May.
¿UVW FRPPXQLW\ PHHWLQJ Council members worked
to learn about or provide through the current charter
feedback on proposed revi- line by line for months last
sions to the city of Hermis- year using a model charter
ton charter.
created by the League of
City Manager Byron Oregon Cities as a basis.
Smith presented a brief
Smith said most of the
changes focused on mod-
ernizing the document,
such as removing a $500
purchase limit for certain
items that is out of date
and removing a provision
stating that the mayor and
councilors must be proper-
ty owners.
“Most of the changes
are just language, just re-
ally cleaning up things that
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said. “The council wanted
to get a feel for the public,
how they felt about this
proposed charter, and then
see if there was any chang-
es that might be made be-
fore it gets placed on the
ballot.”
Smith said he believed
there were four major
changes. The new char-
ter draft stipulates the city
manager must reside with-
in city limits, he said, and
there are changes to the
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cilor and mayor vacancies,
which state the positions
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ment if less than two years
remain on the original term
and by special election if
more than two years re-
main.
The term for the mayor
position was also changed
from two years to four
years in the draft.
“We don’t want the
mayor to have to spend
all that time campaigning
every two years and (want
to) give some more conti-
nuity,” Smith said. “If the
mayor were to change ev-
ery two years, that would
cause some problems in
continuity within the gov-
ernment structure.”
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sion Smith presented was
changing the municipal
judge from an elected po-
sition to a person appoint-
ed by the City Council.
SEE CHARTER/A16
CUTTING A RUG FOR A CAUSE
SEE HACKED/A2
TODAY’S WEATHER
Mostly Cloudy
High: 39º Low: 32º
OUTLOOK
• SUNDAY
Mostly cloudy
High: 40º Low: 32º
• MONDAY
Partly cloudy
High: 42º Low: 30º
MAEGAN MURRAY PHOTO
Dancing with the Hermiston Stars contestants learn their ballroom dances Monday night on stage in the Hermiston High School auditorium.
Local standouts
to dance in
competition tonight
A complete weather forecast is
featured on page A2.
Find the Hermiston Herald on
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and join the conversation.
BY MAEGAN MURRAY
HERMISTON HERALD
As the last few days
of practice have wrapped
up, competitive spirits
have only gotten more in-
tense among the six con-
testants for this year’s
Dancing with the Herm-
iston Stars.
The six community
members will take the
stage tonight in an effort
to slide, jive, spin and fly
during the third annual
FOR LOCAL
BREAKING NEWS
www.HermistonHerald.com
Dancing with the Herm-
iston Stars competition.
The group has spent the
last week in hour-a-day
practices with profes-
sional ballroom danc-
ers from Utah Ballroom
Dance Company, where
they each learned a spe-
cific type of ballroom
dance.
During their perfor-
mance, which begins at
7 p.m. at Hermiston High
School, each pair will
compete for the high-
est scores and audience
votes and donations,
which will allow them to
raise money for a charity
of their choice. Ultimate-
ly, only one star can take
the title, however.
MAEGAN MURRAY PHOTO
Dave Smith prepares to dip
his dancing partner, Dani
Dunmire, Monday night
during their Dancing with the
Hermiston Stars practice at
Hermiston High School.
Some of the stars took
on personal rivalries
with one another to see
who will take home the
trophy for Hermiston’s
best dancer. No rivalry
is greater than that be-
tween Eric Reise and Er-
ica Sandoval, who have
taken their similar names
as a sign their face off is
meant to be.
During their first prac-
tice Monday night, Reise
joked how Sandoval, a
Hermiston police offi-
cer, was still wearing her
police boots to protect
against the harsh condi-
tions of the competition.
“Tonight, you can see
it. She’s in her orthope-
dic shoes,” he said with a
laugh Monday.
Reise also made jabs
that he was sure Sando-
val would wear some of
the protective pads she
uses while participating
in roller derby as a sort
of comfort and security.
“She’ll have to bring
her shoulder pads to the
competition,” he said.
Sandoval was quick to
respond with a few jabs
of her own. She said she
was wearing her police
shoes to give Reise a
false sense of security.
“When the heels come
out, the fire comes out,”
she said.
Reise will perform
the pasodoble to a song
from “Pirates of the Ca-
ribbean,” while Sando-
SEE DANCING/A7
Down the chain
Edmiston describes his
role as HPD chief
Editor’s Note: This is the last
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BY SEAN HART
HERMISTON HERALD
Hermiston Herald $1.00
SEAN HART PHOTO
© 2014 EO Media Group
Chief Jason Edmiston works at his desk at the Hermiston Police Department.
As chief, Edmiston is the head of the department, overseeing both captains,
setting overall departmental goals and making personnel decisions.
With gun-carrying employees
who have the authority to arrest
people, police departments require
structure and accountability.
Chief Jason Edmiston said the
Hermiston Police Department is
“a paramilitary-structured entity”
with a chain of command, and,
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makes decisions about the struc-
ture of the department.
“Nobody likes bureaucracy,
and nobody likes red tape, but
with what we do, there has to be
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are my responsibilities?’ and each
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those expectations or responsi-
bilities,” Edmiston said. “If it’s
something they can handle, we ex-
pect them to handle it themselves.
That’s why we put a gun on their
hip. That’s why we give them the
training we do. We expect them
SEE EDMISTON/A16
