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FEDERAL INVESTIGATION TARGETS PAMPLIN: The three-alarm fire that sent smoke billowing from Ross Island on July 20 may be the least of Robert Pamplin Jr.’s problems. An email WW obtained under a public records request shows federal Department of Labor investigators are probing the tangled finances of the shrinking Pamplin empire. (Pamplin Communications sold its 24 Oregon newspapers last month.) As WW previously reported, Robert Pamplin sold Ross Island from Ross Island Sand & Gravel to the Pamplin pension fund for $10.8 million in an unusual 2022 transaction that left the fund holding an asset Pamplin previously argued in court had no value and which is still subject to an expensive, unfinished reclamation plan. (The Department of Labor regulates pension funds.) On May 2, David Wehr, a DOL investigator in Seattle, wrote to the state seeking information about Ross Island Sand & Gravel’s obligation to post a $6 million bond to ensure completion of the reclamation project. “We would like to know if the bond has been provided, how the amount of the bond was determined and what liabilities exist if the bond is not established,” Wehr wrote. (The company has failed to post the bond and faces a $2.9 million state penalty for that failure.) DOL and Pamplin representatives did not respond to requests for comment. Bob Sallinger, executive director of Willamette Riverkeeper, has said for years Pamplin should turn over Ross Island to a responsible custodian. “This fire just speaks to the neglect that’s occurring,” Sallinger says. “Dr. Pamplin made a lot of money mining Ross Island. He owes it to the public to resolve these issues and make the community whole.”
WATER TIGER SPENDING REACHED $60,000: City spending of taxpayer dollars on water tiger art at two Portland festivals climbed to $60,000 over eight months, according to records newly obtained by WW. As the newspaper reported last week, Mayor Ted Wheeler’s chief of staff, Bobby Lee, first shepherded $30,000 in taxpayer dollars to a water tiger mural (and other related pieces) created by a former girlfriend’s teenage niece last summer. The water tiger is a symbol of power and courage in Chinese culture. Additional records produced by Prosper Portland, the city agency that released the money for the mural to the Waterfront Blues Festival in 2023, show it also sent $30,000 to another event—the Portland Winter Light Festival—to display water tiger art by the same teenage artist, once again at the direction of Lee. In a proposal that Prosper says the light festival sent to Lee in December 2023, who then transmitted it to Prosper, the festival writes that its event “embodies the ethos of the Water Tiger.” Four art installations were displayed during the February festival, bringing total taxpayer dollars spent on creating water tiger art to $60,000 over the course of two events. Neither Lee nor the mayor’s office responded to a request for comment.
DEFLECTION VOTE COMING THIS WEEK: The Multnomah County Board of Commissioners is scheduled to vote July 25 whether to retrofit a vacant building on Southeast Sandy Boulevard into a deflection center where people arrested for drug possession can go if they agree to pursue treatment. Construction is expected to cost up to $2 million. The vote is a rare chance for commissioners to decide the fate of the deflection center, plans for which are being worked out in closed-door meetings of County Chair Jessica Vega Pederson, District Attorney Mike Schmidt, DA-elect Nathan Vasquez, and others. That secrecy rankles at least two county commissioners: Sharon Meieran and Julia Brim-Edwards. In a board meeting Tuesday, Brim-Edwards said she remained skeptical the board could approve a plan by Thursday because details remain scarce who will be eligible for deflection and how many people will ultimately get treatment, even after months of work. “We need a lot more specificity by Thursday,” Brim-Edwards said at the board meeting. The Oregon Legislature introduced the term “deflection” in House Bill 4002, which recriminalized possession of small amounts of hard drugs, overturning a central plank of Measure 110, passed in 2020. As a condition, the Legislature asked counties to take steps to keep drug users out of the criminal justice system. Brim-Edwards criticized the county health department for not distributing a presentation on the deflection center in a timely manner on Tuesday. “We got it just before the meeting and not well in advance,” Brim-Edwards noted. One detail has been nailed down: The deflection center will be run by Tuerk House, a Baltimore-based drug treatment organization.
FOUR MEGAFIRES RAGE ACROSS OREGON: More than 800,000 acres of Oregon land are currently burning in what is shaping up as a particularly destructive wildfire season. Nationwide, the number of burned acres is 133% above average and the Pacific Northwest is currently being hit hardest. As of July 23, the Durkee Fire in Baker County is the biggest in Oregon, covering 200,000 acres. It’s entirely uncontained, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency has authorized funds to help fight it. (State transportation officials have closed much of Interstate 84 between Pendleton and Ontario because of the Durkee Fire.) On July 22, the U.S. Forest Service closed Malheur National Forest, citing several “large, complex wildland incidents, which have the potential to exhaust national wildland firefighting resources.” On July 23, state officials banned campfires at all state parks east of the Cascades. “We understand campfires are an important part of the experience at Oregon State Parks,” said JR Collier, deputy of statewide operations for the Oregon Parks and Recreation Department. “We don’t make the decision lightly to restrict the use of fire, but unfortunately conditions require that response.” Part of the problem is “moderate to severe levels of drought” in the Pacific Northwest, according to the Northwest Interagency Coordination Center. The closest blaze to Portland is the Whisky Creek Fire burning 6 miles southeast of Cascade Locks.