News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
The epidemic of resignations by public servants that came this spring in the wake of new ethics disclosure rules has hit Sisters.
Dave Marlow, Chairman of the Sisters Urban Area Planning Commission, has announced his resignation in a letter to the Oregon Government Ethics Commission (OGEC). Marlow cited requirements that volunteer public servants disclose information about his relatives as being particularly onerous.
"This new law requires that I provide information about my adult children that happen to live in different states and for information about my parents, my wife's parents and our brothers and Sisters that live in various states and counties," Marlow wrote. "I am going to respect their right to privacy and submit my resignation effective immediately."
Marlow isn't alone. People in similar positions across Oregon have made the same decision. In Elgin, the entire planning commission and city council, along with the mayor, resigned en masse rather than comply with the new rules.
The resignations have made national news.
For more than three decades many public officials have had to make similar disclosure statements, but 97 communities were exempt. Last year, the Oregon legislature decided to end those exemptions, exposing many small town volunteers to unaccustomed scrutiny.
The rules are designed to make government transparent, but, as is noted in the Los Angeles Times, Oregon's rules go further than other states.
The LA Times reported that, "No other state's disclosure laws sweep as broadly, (according to) Peggy Kerns, director of the National Conference of State Legislatures' Ethics Center in Denver.
"The purpose of these financial disclosure laws is so the public knows where a lawmaker's income comes from," Kerns said. "Every locale has to decide how deep it goes into a family. Some states require just the lawmaker. Others require the lawmaker and spouse. In comparison to what other states do, (Oregon's) is broader.'"
Too broad for Marlow.
"If I had done anything wrong, I would expect the OGEC to conduct a confidential investigation and then give a confidential report on the results of that investigation," he wrote. "To collect this information beforehand is an unwarranted invasion of privacy."
Marlow is, so far, the only official in Sisters to resign over the new disclosure requirements, according to Eileen Stein. The city has not made any formal expression of concern over the requirements.
"It hasn't affected us significantly yet, like it has other communities," Stein said.
The effects can be profound. Without quorums, city councils and planning commissions in some communities can't function at all, not even to approve bills and sign checks.
"I think in Maupin all that's left is the mayor," Stein said. "I don't know what they're doing operationally."
Stein said she fears that the turmoil is all for naught.
"I wonder whether or not there's staff in Salem to even do anything with the information on the form," she said.
Jim Cornelius is editor in chief of The Nugget and author of “Warriors of the Wildlands: True Tales of the Frontier Partisans.” A history buff, he explores frontier history across three centuries and several continents on his podcast, The Frontier Partisans. For more information visit www.frontierpartisans.com.
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