A14 • HERMISTONHERALD.COM
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 27, 2016
FROM PAGE A1
Many county races uncontested in May 2016 primary vote
By PHIL WRIGHT
Staff Writer
A former candidate for
Umatilla County commis-
sioner is challenging incum-
bent Bill Elfering.
Thomas Bailor is seeking
to unseat Elfering in the May
17 election. He was one of six
candidates that ran in 2013
for an open seat on the coun-
ty board of commissioners.
George Murdock won that
race.
Bailor has a background
as a culture resource coor-
dinator for the Confederat-
ed Tribes of the Umatilla
Indian Reservation, accord-
ing to his candidate iling.
His entrance also makes
the election something of a
classic in Umatilla County:
Bailor is from Pendleton
and Elfering is from Herm-
iston.
Elfering is seeking his
second term on the board.
He oversees economic devel-
opment for the county and is
the board’s law enforcement
liaison.
Circuit Judge Ron Pahl
did not ile to seek another
term in position 2 for 6th Ju-
dicial District. But the race for
the circuit courts of Umatilla
and Morrow counties will be
contested.
John Ballard of Herm-
iston will compete against
Jon Lieuallen of Pendleton
for the seat currently held by
Pahl. (See related story on
this page).
Circuit Judge Dan Hill
is running unopposed, as is
Umatilla County District At-
torney Dan Primus.
In the race for Umatil-
la County sheriff remains
between incumbent Terry
Rowan and challenger Ryan
Lehnert.
Candidates take differing approaches to the bench
By PHIL WRIGHT
Staff Writer
The two attorneys vying
for the local circuit court have
attitudes on opposite ends of
the judicial spectrum.
Jon Lieuallen of Pendleton
and John Ballard of Hermis-
ton were part of a candidates
forum Thursday in Heppner.
Ballard told the crowd of
about 50 that he would not
coddle criminals.
“There are certain people
who need to die in prison,” he
said. “And I have no qualms
about sending someone to
prison for the rest of their
life.”
Lieuallen said most people
who go to prison also get out.
“Reformation needs to be
something you focus on, be-
cause the person is going to
be back (in the community),”
he said.
Ballard, though, con-
tended rehabilitation doesn’t
work: “It costs just as much to
lock them up, and we’re safe
that way.”
Ballard, 51, has been
practicing law for 19 years
in Hermiston. He is twice di-
vorced and has a 25-year-old
daughter attending Columbia
University, New York City.
Campaign inance ilings
show he put $10,000 of his
own money into the race for
the bench.
Lieuallen turns 48 this
summer and has been an at-
torney since 1999. He and
his wife married in 2001 and
have two boys and two girls.
The family strode down Main
Street in Adams last Saturday
in the town’s annual parade.
He was the lone candidate
VOTE:
continued from Page A1
better, faster response for our
citizens.”
On the ballots in the mail
this week, voters in both areas
will see ballot measure 30-108,
which forms the new Umatilla
County Fire District 1. Vot-
ers in Hermiston will also see
30-109, dissolving the current
Hermiston Fire District, and
voters in Stanield will see
measure 30-110, dissolving the
Stanield Fire District.
All three measures must
pass to create the new district;
if any one fails, then the refor-
mation fails. Stanton said this
could lead to cutting one staff
position in Hermiston, longer
response times, longer delays
between responses and higher
maintenance costs.
“If it doesn’t pass, there’s
some tough decisions to be
made,” Stanton said. “It’s not
a good picture.”
Stanton said the number
of calls Hermiston receives
has continued to climb. From
Jan. 1 through Feb. 29, for
example, Hermiston Fire
and Emergency Services ran
687 total calls — on track
for more than 4,100 calls
this year compared to 3,900
in 2015. Because the ire
districts handle both ire and
emergency medical response,
Stanton said the districts sim-
ply need more personnel.
“In 66 years, the district has
never asked for money, and
we’re at the point now that we
need to take it to the voters,”
Stanton said. “It’s a need.”
If the reformation passes,
the increased funding will be
used to staff ireighter/med-
ics at station two on Diagonal
Road — 24 hours a day, sev-
en days a week.
The new district will give
everyone within the com-
bined district a tax rate of
$1.75 per $1,000 of assessed
property value.
The rate means:
* Most Hermiston resi-
dents within city limits will
see no change due to com-
pression, where tax rates are
capped.
• Stanield residents will
see a discount of 31 cents per
there and even pulled a red
wagon lying election signs.
Ballard also is working
to drum up votes. His elec-
tion sign towers over Sunset
Elementary School in Herm-
iston. He spoke earlier this
week about the campaign.
Ballard said about 50-60
percent of his practice now
is divorce, most of the rest
is criminal and he throws in
some civil cases to boot. And
for several years he has been
the backup judge in the city
court in Hermiston.
“I think I would probably
be more effective as a judge
in this stage in my life,” he
said.
The work of a trial at-
torney has its rewards and
downsides, he said. Paying
clients expect him to be avail-
able 24/7, every day of the
year, and by his own choice
he has not taken a week’s
vacation since at least 2006.
A judge’s workload is “more
condensed,” he said, but win-
ning would mean a “hefty
pay cut.”
The position pays about
$124,500 a year, and the term
is for six years.
A judge is akin to a base-
ball umpire, Ballard said,
determining if a ball is fair
or foul. Courtrooms are illed
with close calls, he said, and
his experience will help him
to make the right decisions.
“You would be hard
pressed to ind a facts scenar-
io I’ve not run into,” he said.
“And my BS meter is proba-
bly set fairly high.”
Lieuallen was a deputy
district attorney in Prineville,
worked in public defense in
STAFF PHOTO BY GEORGE PLAVEN
John Ballard, left, speaks to the audience as Jon Lieuallen
looks on at the Heppner Chamber of Commerce candidate’s
forum on Thursday in Heppner.
Umatilla County and in 2004
joined the Milton-Freewater
irm of Monahan, Grove &
Tucker, where he made part-
ner three years later. A former
high school champion wres-
tler, he said he is competitive
and aspires to be at the top of
his profession.
Thus the race for the
bench, he said, where the key
to success is exemplifying a
judicial temperament.
“You have to be irm and
fair,” he said, “but you also
have to be willing to listen
and be unbiased. I think some
of his (Ballard’s) stuff can be
sharp.”
So sharp the Oregon State
Bar Disciplinary Board in
2013 put Ballard on trial to
consider if he violated a re-
straining order and broke the
law while representing a cli-
ent in a divorce.
The East Oregonian ob-
tained a copy of the three-per-
son trial panel’s 8-page opin-
ion. The panel consisted of
Bend attorneys Carl W. Hopp
Jr. and Ronald L. Roome,
both of Bend, and retired den-
tist John G. McBee of Pend-
leton.
Ballard’s client owned a
Ford F-150 pickup, which the
client’s wife used. Ballard or-
dered his assistant to take the
pickup at dawn on June 29,
2010 and keep it out of view.
Marylu Lopez, the wife in
the case, reported she iled a
complaint with the Bar.
Ballard said that led to an
inquiry, and the Bar cleared
him. Then came an appeal,
and he prevailed again. But
Lopez and Aaron Guevara,
her attorney in the divorce
case, pushed for the trial pan-
el.
The trial was Oct. 31 and
Nov. 1, 2013, in Hermiston.
Ballard, Guevara and others
testiied, including Hermiston
police Capt. Daryl Johnson.
The panel concluded Ballard
did not violate the restraining
order when he took the pick-
up.
But the opinion also stat-
ed the panel “unanimous-
ly disapproves of Ballard’s
conduct,” found his “actions
were overzealous,” and his
claim he owed no duty to the
wife “rang hollow.”
He left Lopez without a
vehicle for an extended peri-
od of time, according to the
panel, and “caused actual
harm to the wife, to the cou-
ple’s daughter, and to the per-
ception of lawyers held by the
community at large.”
The panel also found it
“offensive” for Ballard, an
attorney and oficer of the
court, to “surreptitiously” pull
off the scheme.
“An attorney snatching
and holding the opposing par-
ty’s sole means of transporta-
tion relects poorly on all law-
yers,” the panel stated. “What
if there had been a breach of
the peace and someone was
hurt? What if wife’s attorney,
following Ballard’s example,
took the vehicle back? Where
do personal, self-help style,
snatch and grab activities by
attorneys end?”
McBee as “representative
of the conscience and norms
of the community,” found
Ballard was wrong and broke
the law.
Ballard said he anticipated
this would come up during
the campaign. He said he hits
hard as an attorney, and the
trial panel “didn’t like me one
bit,” but he was protecting his
client in that situation.
Ballard said his client
owned the pickup and had
a report of people drinking
and driving in it. If someone
crashed it while drunk, Bal-
lard said, his client would
have been liable.
“I made a judgment call
to have the truck picked up
at dawn,” he said, and as-
serted there was a receipt in
the pickup for “$70 or $80”
worth of alcohol and “beer
bottles all over it.”
He also said he called
Hermiston police and said he
took the pickup so they would
know it was not stolen.
Good, bad or otherwise,
he said that’s what happened.
But it was by the book, and
that is how he would be as
judge.
“I’m fairly balanced and
very procedural,” he said, and
he suspected his rulings “will
be a little stronger than my
opponent’s.”
Lieuallen said he knew of
the trial panel but he would
not make it a campaign issue.
He said he was talking about
his experience and communi-
ty involvement, including as
a member of the Milton-Free-
water Rotary Club and pres-
ident of the Pendleton youth
wrestling club. He said he
plans to spend about $5,000
on mailings to voters in Mor-
row County and the west side
of Umatilla County.
Lieuallen campaigned in
2012 against sitting Circuit
Judge Lynn Hampton and
lost by about 55 percent to 45
percent.
And this week the Bar re-
leased the results of its judi-
cial preference poll, in which
local lawyers cast their votes
for judge candidates. Lieual-
len won with 30 votes while
Ballard received 18.
But the real verdict in the
May election rests with the
voters of Umatilla and Mor-
row counties.
George Plaven contribut-
ed to this story.
What’s on the Ballot
Hermiston
• 30-108 - Forming the Umatilla Fire District 1
• 30-109 — Dissolving the current Hermiston Fire District
• Nominees for the fire board for the new district, consisting of three current
Hermiston Fire Board members and two current Stanfield Fire Board members.
Stanfield
• 30-108 - Forming the Umatilla Fire District 1
• 30-110 — Dissolving the current Stanfield Fire District
• Nominees for the fire board for the new district, consisting of three current
Hermiston Fire Board members and two current Stanfield Fire Board members.
Note: All three measures must pass in order to create the combined fire district.
thousand as the current Stan-
ield rate is $2.06 per thou-
sand.
* Rural residents around
Hermiston, such as in the
Hat Rock area, will see an in-
crease of 55 cents per $1,000
of property value.
The reformation is ex-
pected to generate about
$900,000. In addition to
adding staff, the funding will
also go toward replacement
of deteriorating vehicles and
preventing the need to go out
for a bond.
This is the second time the
ire districts have sent the ref-
ormation to the voters.
Eighteen months ago, the
measure failed, but Stan-
ton has high hopes for next
month’s election. The ire
departments have had more
time to talk to the communi-
ty, to clear up misconceptions
and to explain the purpose be-
hind the reformation in text,
video and “coffee with the
chiefs” discussion formats.
“I think people understand
it better now,” Stanton said.
“More people understand the
process now, and I think they
do understand why we need it.”
Voters in both cities and
rural areas will also see
names on the ballot for nom-
inees for the ire board for
the new district, consisting
of three current Hermiston
Fire Board members and two
current Stanield Fire Board
members.
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