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he best thing to happen to the Mirror Pond debate could be Tumalo Irrigation District. The district is looking into taking over the operation of the dam. It w ould makerepairs,create passage for fish and boaters,continue to generate power and keep water levels about the same. If it can be done, it's a great solu- velopment authority. There are contion to the issue created because Pa- cerns about any new development cific Power wants to rid itself of the along the river. It's much simpler if dam. It keeps Mirror Pond as Mir- t h atcanbeavoided. ror Pond. Tumalo Irrigation District would The district taking over the dam also benefit. It would get a source of could also resolve a tricky water r evenue in the electricity generation right issue. The permit for the dam that would be used to pay off the reis issued to Pacific Power, in part p a irs to the dam and then could go becauseofhydroelectricpowerpro- t o canal piping and other district duction. The state may have autho- projects. rized a Permit for the dam without peo p l e who want the dam and hydro, but it's more Problematic. the pond to go wiii not be satis And what makes this solution all of course. But they may be pleased the sweeter is that it may be accom- that at least under the district's proplished without a complicated devel- posal, the district would remove its opment scheme to use waterfront Steidl Dam further downstream. Propertytopayforfixingthedam. We urge the city, the park disThat could work. It's very com- t r ict, the irrigation district and Paplicated. There are timing issues. It cific Power to work together to see if might require the creation of a de- it all adds up.
Veters sheuld renew Black Butte Ranchlevy t's hard to say which group benefits more from the 24/7 police coverageatBlack Butte Ranch, owners of the roughly 1,100 homes there that sit vacant much of the time, or owners of the 150 homes that are occupied year round. Both groups do benefit, clearly, and both have astake in seeing that the Black Butte Ranch Service District local option levy is renewed for another five years in the May 19 election. The district operates the resort's police department. It costs about $1 million per year to do so, and the district's tax base provides about two-thirds of that. The remaining amount, slightly more than $300,000, is raised with the local option levy. About 72 percent of the total is spent on personnel costs for the 7.5-member staff. The levy amount, 55 cents per $1,000 of taxable property value, would remain unchanged from the current levy, which expires June 30. Thus, the owner of a home with a taxable value of $450,000 pays $720 annually to support the district, and about $247 of that
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amount would continue to come from the levy. In exchange the owner would continue to get that valuable 24/7 police coverage. The office handles more than 3,000 callsper year, about half of which come from within the ranch itself. The median age of ranch residents is over 67, or nearly twice the state average, and medical calls from residents and summer guests are an important part of the office workload. The balance generally are calls to assist Deschutes County Sheriff's deputies at accidents and the like. In addition, Black Butte Ranch officers frequently patrol U.S. Highway 20 in front of the ranch to slow traffic there. No community that grows from just over 300 residents during the winter to as many as 5,000 in the summer can m a nage w ithout good police coverage, and Black Butte Ranch is no exception. The local option levy on the May ballot will ensure that today's good coverage will remain in place for the next five years.
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uni er enot oo o tion or n ew cam us IN MY VIEW
By Allan Bruckner t was enlightening to read the
contribute greatly to sprawl. This is
counter to city and state policy and years since these restrictions were especially egregious when an alput in place. By comparison, the ternative site within the developed a nd misrepresentations by t h e OSU-Cascades budget to build out community is available. Mileage Truth In Site committee regarding the 10 acres, serving up to 900 stu- driven by OSU-Cascades faculty, the OSU-Cascades campus loca- dents, including the land cost and students and employees for daily tion. Debate is healthy but inten- academic building, is budgeted for commuting would be several times tionally presenting and, emphasiz- less than $30 million. Which is the that of a west-side location. The dising nontruths is not. better investment and better site'? tance from COCC would be much Truth In Site's emphasis on the A far cry from the Truth In Site's longer with a greater burden on possibility t h a t OS U - Cascades false and outrageous claim of $93 more local streets. Bicycling to and could get free land at Juniper Ridge million. After ballyhooing this num- from COCC and residential and is not only false but totally irrele- ber, it is no longer on its website. business neighborhoods would be vant. Apparently it was just an efBut wait, there's more. Juniper practically eliminated, forcing even fort to mislead the public. Regard- Ridge currently has three busi- more trips into automobiles. This less, the cost to develop Juniper nesses, which located there before heavy use on streets would likely Ridge, even if the land was free, is the major road improvements were cause congestion and major costly prohibitive for the university. required. Now there is almost no improvements, especially in northFor starters, it i s w ell k n own additional capacity for sewer. Just east Bend. Maybe a new NIMBY that the access to Juniper Ridge is adding the absolutely necessary group could spring up. off Cooley Road close to Highway northeast interceptor is estimated The above are just some of the 97. It is also well known that the to cost $15 million. Water service reasonsno business has located in statefor at least the past half doz- is estimated to add another million. Juniper Ridge in the past five or six en years has consistently said that How would this be a wise expendi- years. Why then would the fiasco major highway improvements will ture when water and sewer service of Juniper Ridge be a viable site for be required before substantial addi- to the west side campus is at the OSU-Cascades? tional development can occur in the site? The chosen site is the best posarea. The costs have been estimatBut wait, there's more. Truth In sible location for OSU-Cascades. It ed to exceed $50 million, of which Site claims traffic is a primary con- is also a much more desirable use $30 million are a local responsibil- cern. Considerhowever that Juni- of the site than many commercial ity. This cost alone is so great that per Ridge is on the very fringe of uses permitted there. no business has been attracted the community. Developing there, — Allan Bruckner is a former mayor of to Juniper Ridge in the five or six even if it were affordable, would Bend. He lives in Bend.
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recent extensive article in The Bulletin pointing out the errors
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Supreme Court is worried about excessive policing By Noah Feldman
2005 case called Illinois v. Caballes,
Bloomberg News
the court had held that police could
conduct a canine drug sniff of the racially charged police abus- exterior of your car when you were s from Ferguson to Staten stopped for speeding. In that case, Island to North Charleston affecting the drug sniff didn't extend the the Supreme Court? In a subtle way, length of the stop. The decision was the answer may well be yes. 7-2, with then-Justice John Paul SteIn the first evidence of an effect, vens, a leading liberal, writing the the Supreme Court held Tuesday opinion. Justices Ruth Bader Ginsthat a traffic stop can't be prolonged burg and David Souter dissented. beyond the time that the police need Ginsburg argued thatthe search to perform their basic functions. should have a reasonable relation to re thepast year's examples of
In a 6-3 opinion, the court said that the police can't perform a canine
the stop.
Lower courts interpreting the Sudrug-sniff after a ticket has been is- preme Court's precedent then split sued — even though, a decade ago, on the question that wasn't fully anit held that a drug sniff that occurs swered in the Caballes case: Could during a lawful stop is perfectly police extend an already legitimate constitutional. police stop to conduct a drug sniff, On the surface, the court's disabsent "reasonable suspicion" of tinction between the two scenarios drugs? depends on whether the dog sniff The court took the case Rodriguez extends the length of the traffic stop. v. United States to answer that quesUnderneath, however, it's possible tion and resolve the circuit split. to discern a subtly changing atti- This time, however, Ginsburg got tude on stop-and-frisk policing, the to write the majority opinion. She centerpiece of the broken-windows didn't overturn the 2005 Caballes approach. Where once the court saw case, in which she had dissentedthe practice as unproblematic, today doubtless she didn't have the votes the court seems more willing to po- to do so. Instead, she noted that Stelice the policing process — and make vens, writing in Caballes, had said sureitdoesn'tbecome abusive. that a traffic stop could become unLegally speaking, Tuesday's case lawful "if it is prolonged beyond the had nothing to do with race. In a time reasonably required to com-
IN MY VIEW
ly to flip, or at least to adopt a more restrictive stance regarding traffic
plete the mission of issuing a warn- stops? ing ticket." The most powerful answer is that Ginsburg was this time prepared the court is well aware of a more to concede that an officer could complex p ublic a t t itude t o w ard perform "certain unrelated checks" stop-and-frisk policing, the cornerduring a traffic stop. But, she said, stone of the broken-windows stratethe officer could not perform unre- gy that is generally given some porlated checks "in a way that prolongs tion of the credit for declining crime the stop." rates in urban spaces over past two In purely technical legal terms, decades. this was a clever move by Ginsburg. After all, the basic rationale for Unable to convince her colleagues having a dog sniff the car of a perthat searches conducted during a son stopped for an unrelated traffic stop must be reasonably related to violation is exactly the broken-winthe stop itself, she managed to con- dows rationale, namely that people vince them that searches extending the length of the time of the stop
ac-
the "Black Lives Matter" and "We
Can't Breathe" marches. Not long ago, Iasked Justice Stephen Breyer in a public interview whether he
who have committed a minor in-
fraction of one kind may be found
sonally subject to broken-windows
committing a more serious violation b e cause of another kind, one that would lead
they are not "part of the officer's traffic mission." In other words,
T he justices prefer not t o
knowledge that they are affected by national social movements such as
thought the justices might be affected by this movement. He gracefully dodged the question. But the justices follow the news, and are affected by changing social attitudes like anybody else. Today, a reasonable observer who isn't per-
must be justified by independent reasonable suspicion —
ed warrant for failing to pay child support — again, a classic instance of the broken-windows rationale in action.
to arrest. The drug sniff pursuant to
policing — someone like the justices, in other words — must be more conscious of the risks of excessive police
engagement in the lives of citizens, example of the policy — and a per- especially racial minorities. fect test case for changing attitudes. The justices can't change policed time. Now unrelated searches It can't have escaped the court's ing practices single-handedly, nor can only be performed if they won't a ttention that several of the k i l l - would they choose to if they could. extend the length of the stop. ings of black men by police came in But Tuesday's decision suggests that Ginsburg's doctrinal sleight of the wake of broken-windows-style the judicial pendulum may be beginhand underscores the idea that there stops. Most recently, Officer Mi- ning to move. The first movement is an important, even fundamental, chael Slager's fatal encounter with may seem small. But the pendulum difference between the pro-police Walter Scott in North Charleston, tends to have momentum. result in the 2005 case and the result South Carolina, began with a traffic — Noah Feldman, a Bloomberg reached Tuesday. What explains the stop. Scott's family says he proba- columnist, is a professor of constitutional other justices' willingness essential- bly fled because he had an unrelatand international law at Harvard she got some of what she wanted in 2005 by using the notion of extend-
a traffic stop is therefore a perfect