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Mostly cloudy, morning mixed showers High 46, Low 20 Page C8
• April 2, 2011 50¢
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BEND
Shortfall projection based on numbers that will change, budget chief says By Nick Grube The Bulletin
Meaningless is the word Bend Finance Director Sonia Andrews used Friday to describe the city’s projected five-year $17 million to $27 million shortfall in its general fund. She said it during a city budget committee meeting that was intended to give city councilors and other officials an update on the latest revenue and expenditure estimates that will be used to create Bend’s spending plan for the next two years. Andrews said she wasn’t trying to dilute the seriousness of the city’s budget problems; she simply wanted to put the multimillion-dollar figure into the proper context. That shortfall is based on the city hiring a combined 25 additional police officers and firefighters to keep up with current service levels. It also assumes no significant reductions in spending elsewhere in the general fund budget. Given current realities — and the fact that Bend is projecting a 4 percent decrease in general fund revenues next year alone — Andrews said there’s just no way the city can afford either scenario. “We don’t want to be stuck on that number because that number is not realistic,” she said of the shortfall. “That number is kind of meaningless to us.” Instead, the city wants to begin discussing how it will form its budget, starting with how much money it has to spend, which over the next biennium is projected to be about $34 million per year. See Budget / A7
Fired prosecutors sue DA By Nick Budnick The Bulletin
Three former prosecutors on Friday sued District Attorney Patrick Flaherty and Deschutes County in federal court for wrongful discharge. Filed in Eugene, the lawsuit on behalf of former deputy district attorneys Phil Duong, Brentley Foster and Jody Vaughan says Flaherty unlawfully targeted
Inside • Anonymous bar complaint filed against Flaherty, Page A6 the employees for firing when he took office in January because of their active involvement in attempts to form a union. Flaherty, who was out of
the office Friday, could not be reached for comment. However, in the past he has defended the legality of his actions, noting that the fired prosecutors were at-will employees. Mark Pilliod, the Deschutes County counsel, was also out of the office Friday and could not be reached for comment. On March 18, the lawyers for the fired prosecutors sent a letter,
including a copy of a draft version of the lawsuit, to Flaherty and the county. The letter set a deadline for mediation of March 31, or the case would be filed. On Friday, the lawyer for Foster and Vaughn, Andrew Altschul, said that while the county responded that it was interested in mediating, Flaherty’s office did not respond. See Lawsuit / A6
An ‘interesting’ snow year, with much of it at the end
Public to be excluded from contract negotiations By Nick Grube The Bulletin
Bend’s police and firefighter unions have decided to hold private negotiations with the city over possible changes in members’ salaries in the upcoming year. The two employee associations made the decision to keep the negotiations out of public view during initial closed-door meetings with the city this week on Wednesday and Thursday. An attorney representing the Bend Police Association said he could not comment on why that decision was made and declined to say anything other than that the collective bargaining meetings are taking place and progress is being made. The attorney representing the Bend Firefighters Association was unavailable for comment Friday. See Negotiations / A7
Bend preliminary general fund allocations In thousands of dollars General fund allocation
Police Fire/EMS Street maintenance Transit Community development Bulletin land debt Accessibility Bend Municipal Court Transportation planning Rainy day fund Economic development Code enforcement Loans and other TOTAL Reserves
2010-11 projection
$16,909 $9,700 $1,110 $1,000 $888 $840 $747 $533 $400 $291 $584 $109 $585 $33,696 $9,000
2011-12 projection
$17,868 $9,319 $1,100 $1,009 $956 $830 $718 $572 $424 $141 $348 $138 $612 $34,035 $8,000
Source: City of Bend
Rob Kerr / The Bulletin
2012-13 projection
Nicholle Kovach reads the weight of a tube sample of snow on a scale held by Ryan Miebach as the two, both with the Natural Resources Conservation Service, take snow measurements Friday morning west of Bend. “The density is 35 percent,” Miebach said after a quick calculation in his notebook. “That is good.”
$18,149 $9,422 $1,500 $1,021 $820 $600 $716 $566 $432 $141 $307 $133 $412 $34,219 $7,000
And that’s good news for irrigators, with Wickiup full and other reservoirs closing in By Kate Ramsayer The Bulletin
Greg Cross / The Bulletin
TOP NEWS INSIDE
More than a month of snowfall in the mountains has bumped the snowpack up to 122 percent of average for the beginning of April — typically the peak of the snowpack for the year. “We gained a lot of ground back from our low point in the middle of February,” said Kyle Gorman, manager for the Oregon Water Resources Department’s south central region. “Things are looking pretty good to start this irrigation season off.” Friday was the official start to irrigation season, he said, but so far only the Swalley Irrigation District has started to
deliver water to customers. The others pick up in a couple of weeks. Wickiup Reservoir, which stores irrigation water, is full, and other reservoirs are on their way to filling, Gorman said. And with plenty of stored water, irrigators can start making decisions about what kind of crops they can plant this summer. “It’s a confident feeling for them to have, knowing the reservoir’s full,” he said. This year was predicted to be a La Niña year, he said, which generally brings more snow and lower temperatures throughout the winter. See Snowpack / A6
Snowpack Relatively steady snow for more than a month has pushed the Upper Deschutes and Crooked River basin snowpack to above-average levels. 30 inches
KEY KEY
April 1
Water year 2011 Water year 2010 Average 1971 to 2000
20
10
0
O N D J
F M A M J
J
A S
Note: Water years begin in October Source: Natural Resources Conservation Service
Andy Zeigert / The Bulletin
ECONOMY: Good news on the jobs front, Page C3
Nuclear sleuths sift through fallout for clues
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Vol. 108, No. 92, 64 pages, 6 sections
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Editorial
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By Brian Vastag The Washington Post
Three weeks into the crisis in Japan, minute traces of radioactive dust have circled the globe. Fallout from the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant has landed on 30 exquisitely sensitive detectors on desolate Arctic islands,
Inside • Chu assesses damage, Page A3 • A seawall’s failure, Page A7 on the tops of tall buildings and in other windy locales across the
Northern Hemisphere, according to the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty Organization, which maintains those sensors. Sniffing the air like silent sentinels, the 63 shack-like stations (with 17 more planned) are capturing tiny radioactive particles in filters much like those on a home furnace.
Analysis of that dust is a key step in an intricate process of nuclear sleuthing: The dust’s distinctive chemical signature can show scientists whether the particles blew into the air from a bomb, a damaged nuclear reactor or used uranium fuel. See Radioactive / A7