>La Grande Observer | Union and Wallowa Counties' News Leader

The Union County Board of Commissioners is scheduled Wednesday to consider passage of a resolution calling for suspension of reporting requirements included in the Oregon Ethics Law.

The resolution finds a host of problems with requirements that were added to the law by the Legislature last year. According to the resolution title, the county board is seeking changes to the law in order to “save local leadership.”

Recently, public officials in Enterprise, Elgin, Summerville, Imbler and North Powder resigned their positions in protest of the reporting requirements, which they say are an invasion of their privacy.

Previously, officials in 97 communities and six counties within the state were exempt from the requirements. But last year, the Legislature revised the law to require everyone to report.

Officials in many of the newly-affected communities, including Enterprise, Elgin, Summerville, Imbler and North Powder, recently resigned their positions in protest.

Among other objections, the county resolution brands the changes in the ethics law as an “unreasonable invasion of privacy” and claims that so-called violations of privacy are without any corresponding benefit to the public.

The resolution states that the new rules will create a vacuum in leadership for Oregon’s rural communities, making it difficult to recruit and retain qualified volunteers for the public positions.

The document calls for suspension of the reporting requirements until the Legislature reviews the law and “takes action to amend the above-described unacceptable requirements.”

The board will consider the resolution during its regular session, which gets under way at the Joseph Annex, 11106 K Avenue at 9 a.m.

The ethics reporting issue takes center stage when the meeting convenes. As a first item on the agenda, the board is  slated to meet with county counsel Brandon Eyre to discuss the county’s responsibilities to cities affected by the protest resignations.

Eyre’s presentation will be made during the “Public Comments and Concerns” portion of the agenda.

After public comments, the board will hear comments from elected officials, department heads and employees.

Items up for consideration during that segment of the meeting include a Medicaid amendment to the Healthy Start Program.

Also, Sheriff Boyd Rasmussen and District Attorney Tim Thompson will brief the board on the “Deadly Physical Force Plan” the county is required to have under Oregon Senate Bill 111.

The plan governs steps the sheriff’s office and district attorney must take in the aftermath of an incident involving deadly physical force.

In still more business Wednesday the board will:

• Meet with Assessor Linda Hill for discussion of an assessment and taxation grant.

• Hear a conditional use appeal from Faye and Rod Swanson.

• Hold a hearing on a road vacation petition from Scott and Kathleen Ludwig.

• Hold a hearing on a vesting determination in the Needles/Varney Measure 49 application.