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About Seaside signal. (Seaside, Or.) 1905-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 29, 2019)
Friday, November 29, 2019 | Seaside Signal | SeasideSignal.com • A3 Timber verdict a dilemma for state Lengthy appeals are possible Clatsop County timber decision under a microscope By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI Capital Press By NICOLE BALES Daily Astorian SALEM — The $1 bil- lion award against the state in a class-action lawsuit over forestry practices will likely be subject to lengthy appeals, but it may also put pressure on the gov- ernment to consider settle- ment talks. A jury in Linn County Circuit Court on Wednes- day found Oregon liable for breaching contracts with western counties by log- ging an insuffi cient amount of timber from state for- ests, thereby costing them money. The plaintiffs include Benton, Clackamas, Colum- bia, Coos, Douglas, Jose- phine, Lane, Lincoln, Linn, Marion, Polk, Tillamook and Washington counties and other taxing districts. Timber suit A jury verdict award- ing counties $1 billion for the state’s alleged breach of contract is expected to raise questions about forest management. Clatsop County opted out of the lawsuit, but numerous taxing districts within the county are part of the legal challenge. The counties originally donated more than 600,000 acres to the state in return for timber revenue, but they Albany Democrat-Herald Attorney John McGrory shows a graph of timber harvest revenues that counties believe should have been harvested by the state. argued the government vio- lated those contracts by pri- oritizing environmental and recreational qualities in a 1998 rule change. While the lawsuit was about the state government’s contractual obligations, the case hinged on whether the “greatest permanent value” from forests came from tim- ber production or whether environmental and recre- ational considerations must also be considered. “While we are disap- pointed in today’s verdict, we believe there are strong arguments to be made on appeal, and we plan to appeal this decision,” said Water district dismisses property owner concerns at Cove Beach By NICOLE BALES The Astorian John DiLorenzo, an attor- ney for the county govern- ments, said the $1 billion award shows that Oregon’s forest managers can’t unilat- erally decide how the forests should be managed without considering the state’s con- tractual obligations to the counties. “I kind of consider this verdict a repudiation of the state’s position that there’s no contract and they don’t need permission from their rural partners when they decide to change our deal,” he said. If the state government decides to challenge the validity of contracts with the counties, or argues that it has sovereign immunity that prohibits such lawsuits, the litigation may continue for years before the Oregon Court of Appeals and the Oregon Supreme Court, he said. In Clatsop County, property taxes creep up By EDWARD STRATTON The Astorian Property tax revenue in Clatsop County has jumped by more than one-third over the past decade and 138% over the last two decades amid burgeoning property values. Nearly $230 million in bonds approved by vot- ers over the past three years have also helped drive tax rates to their highest point in at least a decade. The tax rates still pale in comparison to revenue before statewide property tax reforms passed in the 1990s. Voters within the Seaside School District approved a $100 million bond in 2016 to build a new master cam- pus out of the tsunami inun- dation zone. Astoria voters approved $70 million last year to improve its cam- puses. Warrenton-Hammond voters endorsed $38.5 mil- lion last year to buy a new master campus and build a middle school. County vot- ers signed off on a $20 mil- lion bond last year to relo- cate the Clatsop County Jail from Astoria to a shut- tered state youth prison in Warrenton. Suzanne Johnson, the director of the county’s tax department, has worked there 37 years and said she has never seen so many bonds at once. “For the most part, peo- ple have been positive,” she said of the increased tax rates. “They understood that they voted for it. We hav- en’t had too much negative feedback.” As of Friday, the county had collected nearly 90% of a possible $91 million in property taxes due in the lat- est cycle. The county aver- ages a 96% collection rate. Bond-fi nanced projects Construction of the new Seaside School District mas- Hailey Hoff man/The Astorian Seaside School District’s new campus in the Southeast Hills, fi nanced by a $99.7 million taxpayer bond. ter campus is in the home stretch, with a completed roof and a nearly closed-in building, said Superin- tendent Sheila Roley. The school district has spent more than $58 million of its bond funds. “We anticipate the build- ing being complete by the fi rst of August,” she said. The school district’s large property value base of more than $3 billion, encom- passing numerous hotels and expensive beachfront homes, meant the district was able to keep tax increases to $1.36 per $1,000 of assessed value, the lowest of any of the school bonds. The dis- trict also received a pre- mium of $11 million when selling the bond and $6 mil- lion in grants to help offset cost overruns of about 15% on the campus construction. The school district has received fewer than 10 com- plaints about increased taxes and questions about what the district can do to lower bills, Roley said. “I tell them we can refi - nance, but not until after 10 years,” she said. “But we also got this bond at a his- torically low interest rate, so that might not be fi nancially advantageous.” Astoria School District has so far spent nearly $3 million of its $70 million bond, fi nishing many of the renovations at Lewis and PATTYS WICKER CAFÉ 600 BROADWAY ST Suite 7 • Seaside, OR Down the pier from Five Star Henna Delicious Home cooked meals in a kitchen like Grandma’s! Delicious Homemade Soups Daily New menu / Winter hours 6:00am - 1:30pm Cozy atmosphere with a beautiful view. Clark Elementary School. Major construction on a new academic hall at Asto- ria Middle School and mod- ernizations and security upgrades at all campuses begin in the summer. Lewis and Clark was fi nanced by a $20 million bond passed by voters in 2000. The school district timed the new bond to start as the old one runs out, lim- iting the increase in taxes to $1 per $1,000 of assessed value. Superintendent Craig Hoppes said the school dis- trict has had broad support for the improvements and focuses on regularly updat- ing the community on how their money is being spent. “At this point right now, we’re still looking at the same scope we told voters we were going to do,” he said. Warrenton-Hammond School District has spent more than $8 million of its $38.5 million bond, primar- ily on 70 acres of land off Dolphin Avenue where it plans to relocate all school campuses. The district has nearly completed work on a new career-technical build- ing next to Warrenton High School that will host auto- motive, welding and tech- nology courses. DINING on the NORTH COAST Great Restaurants in: GEARHART • SEASIDE CANNON BEACH WANT TO KNOW WHERE THE LOCALS GO? • Breakfast • Lunch • Dinner • Junior Menu RESTAURANT & LOUNGE • Lighter appetite menu R I L EY’ S The Falcon Cove Beach Water District on Nov. 16 dismissed ongoing con- cerns property owners have raised about a lack of transparency. The water district’s operator, Charles Dice, referred to those raising the concerns as a “very small group of what I call, ‘disgruntled property own- ers.’” He said the group has been propagating misinfor- mation and false narratives about the water district. About 15 people attended the board meet- ing, which was hosted at Dice’s residence in Cove Beach. The board sat around the kitchen table with Dice at the head of the table. Home and property owners sat in chairs circled around the kitchen table. The board discussed the immediate plan for a mor- atorium as well as their progress on a long-range plan to determine how many homes the water dis- trict can support. Last December, the board voted for a six- month moratorium after reporting water produc- tion had been at record low levels for the past several years during the late sum- mer months. They extended the moratorium for another six months in June so the board could continue to look at long-term options to protect the water supply. The water district plans to vote to extend the morato- rium again in December. However, some resi- dents and property owners believe the moratorium is being used to limit devel- opment. While the mor- atorium is in effect prop- erty owners have to come up with another water source to obtain a develop- ment permit from Clatsop County. Each home is required to document a water source that will provide 250 gal- lons a day. The county accepts sev- eral types of alternate water supply systems, includ- ing rain catchment. But the alternatives can increase building costs, leaving some property owners in limbo as they are unclear how long the moratorium will be in place. “The water moratorium is absolutely to stop the progress of development,” said Sharyl Magnuson, a property owner and local physician. Magnuson grew up in North Tillamook County, but upon returning to the coast she said she has felt unwelcomed in the neigh- borhood. She said there has been a lot of rancor between the board, some long-time homeowners and lot owners seeking to build homes. Magnuson said she tried to obtain a building per- mit several months before the moratorium went into effect, but said she was told by the water district they were about to declare a moratorium so they would not give her access to water. She and her husband decided to pay an addi- tional $50,000 for a rain catchment system so they could obtain a build- ing permit and build their home. “What he was saying was a lot of misdirection and subtle falsehoods,” Magnuson said about Dice after the meeting. “They tapped into a major aqui- fer with that fi rst well, it should take care of a com- munity 10 times this size. There’s no need to keep the water moratorium going.” Guido Paparoni, a lot owner with a Ph.D. in eco- nomic geology, fi led a public records request to access the data the water district used to come to their conclusion. He and his wife, Mar- garet Rozendaal, who has a Ph.D. in climate science, decided to use their exper- tise to examine the data themselves. They concluded there is no water shortage. David Livermore, a hydrogeologist and long- time homeowner came to the same conclusion as Paparoni. The report was dis- cussed at the October meeting. Dice said Pap- aroni’s report was not accurate, valid or pertinent. Dice said the board’s decisions are data-driven and transparent. Fred Boss, deputy attorney general with the Oregon Department of Justice. The Oregon Department of Forestry believes the best long-term outcome for the state’s residents, including the counties and taxing dis- tricts, is achieved with “bal- anced and science-based public forest management,” said Liz Dent, chief of the state forests division. “We are disappointed that the jury did not agree, but we respect their time com- mitment and the disruption to their daily lives as they analyzed complex informa- tion and diffi cult legal ques- tions,” Dent said. In January 2017, Clat- sop County commission- ers voted 3-2 to opt out of the $1 billion class-action timber lawsuit against the state because it did not align with their val- ues of balanced forest management. Clatsop forests make up nearly one-quarter of the state-run forestlands involved in the lawsuit, and Clatsop was nota- bly the only county eli- gible not to join the legal challenge. Clatsop County opted out of a timber lawsuit against the state. Other taxing districts in the county that stayed in the lawsuit stand to receive $176 million for past damages and $109 million for future dam- ages after a Linn County jury found in favor of the counties. While Clatsop County leaders have so far declined to comment on the verdict, the deci- sion to opt out is under scrutiny. At the time, commis- sioners said they “sup- port integrated and bal- anced management of state forests as found in the ‘greatest permanent value’ rule adopted by the Board of Forestry in 1998.” The rule defi ned “greatest permanent value” as a balance between timber harvest- ing and preserving clean drinking water, recreation and wildlife habitat. However, jurors found that the state’s rule vio- lated an 80-year-old agreement with the coun- ties by limiting logging in state forests, thus limiting their revenue. The state intends to appeal. “The state has adopted an administrative rule that defi nes ‘greatest per- manent value’ that priori- tizes other uses with tim- ber and timber harvesting and they did that unilat- erally without the coun- ties’ input,” said Blair Henningsgaard, an Asto- ria attorney who rep- resents the Port of Asto- ria and the Seaside and Jewell school districts on the issue. BEST BREAKFAST IN TOWN! Fish ‘n Chips • Burgers • Seafood & Steak Friday & Saturday - Prime Rib Lounge Open Daily 9-Midnight All Oregon Lottery products available 1104 S Holladay • 503-738-9701 • Open Daily at 8am Call Sarah Silver 503.325.3211 ext 1222 YOUR RESTAURANT AD HERE. Find Your Next Regular Customers!
