Bulletin Daily Paper 03/17/12

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Prep baseball opens • D1

Senior brew crew hops to it • B1 MARCH 17, 2012

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Schools must lay out goals to meet state reform effort

2011 VOTING RECORDS: AN ANALYSIS

A council in accord

By Lauren Dake The Bulletin

SALEM — For more than a year, state officials have said “achievement compacts” will play a key role in the state’s education reforms. This week, details emerged on what the compacts between school districts and the state will look like. By the end of June, school disIN tricts will have to sign the agreeSALEM ments, laying out how they will reach key performance measures. Those include graduation rates, the number of third-graders who pass reading and math tests, and the percentage of students who earn college credits while still in high school. “If you are trying to change the way you look at education in the state, we’re starting down that path,” said Bend-La Pine Schools Superintendent Ron Wilkinson, who has been involved in the education reforms at the state level. It’s all part of Gov. John Kitzhaber’s education reform effort, which includes streamlining the state’s education system from early childhood to post-secondary. The goal is to have 100 percent of the state’s students graduate from high school, with 80 percent receiving some type of education after high school by 2025. Those in favor of the compacts also believe they will help the state free itself from the federal No Child Left Behind regulations. “Once we see how different districts are setting their targets for these key measures, we’ll be able to better compare districtto-district and work with districts whose achievements is lagging so others can learn from their successes,” said Tim Nesbitt, who is the lead person on the governor’s staff working on the compacts. See Education / A6

Bin Laden’s plot: Kill Obama so ‘unprepared’ Biden would take over By Greg Miller The Washington Post

WASHINGTON — Osama bin Laden pushed his organization to develop plans to kill President Barack Obama in the belief that the United States would tumble into chaos if an “unprepared” Vice President Joe Biden became commander in chief, according to new details published Friday about the documents recovered from the compound where the al-Qaida leader was killed. The al-Qaida chief’s analysis of presidential succession scenarios appears in a collection of classified records that the Obama administration is planning to release to the public in the coming months. The documents were described by Washington Post columnist David Ignatius in an article that appeared on the newspaper’s website Friday and is scheduled to be published in the paper Sunday. The documents depict bin Laden as a terrorist leader who is fixated on finding a way to assassinate top U.S. officials but who appears to have devoted more thought to the anticipated fallout from such plots than to how they might be carried out. In a message addressed to his top lieutenant, bin Laden urged his network to pursue ways to kill Obama with an attack on the presidential aircraft, Air Force One — a scheme that U.S. intelligence officials said was well beyond the reach of al-Qaida’s decimated ranks. The records also identify thenGen. David Petraeus as a priority target. See Bin Laden / A6

We use recycled newsprint

MON-SAT

Jeff Eager Yes: 154 No: 2 Abstain: 1

Vol. 109, No. 77, 70 pages, 7 sections

Jodie Barram Yes: 150 No: 16 Abstain: 1

Jim Clinton Yes: 148 No: 23 Abstain: 0

Kathie Eckman Yes: 163 No: 4 Abstain: 0

By Nick Grube The Bulletin

How they voted

In 2011, the Bend City Council voted 171 times. The items councilors voted on ranged from the innocuous, such as appointing volunteers to the Arts, Beautification and Culture Commission, to the highly controversial, like deciding to move ahead with the $68.2 million Bridge Creek water project. In some instances councilors didn’t cast a vote on certain items, maybe because they were absent or because they abstained. Above are their records over the past year based on the official meeting minutes kept by the city.

Capell able to vote affirmative by crafting proposals, debating By Nick Grube The Bulletin

According his voting record, Bend City Councilor Mark Capell approved everything that came his way in 2011. He didn’t cast a single “no” vote. This statistic strikes many of his peers as strange. Capell, after all, isn’t one to hide his opinions or hesitate to debate people who disagree with him. But when councilors reflected on the year, they realized Capell isn’t merely someone who likes saying “yes.” Rather, they and Capell agree, he works hard to shape ordinances and other measures that come before the council. His voting record, they say, is largely a reflection of the way he does his job. “I don’t think he’s a rubber-stamp kind of councilor,” said colleague Jim Clinton. “I think he’s just a lot more open about his thought process than maybe the rest of us.” Clinton sits on the other end of the council voting spectrum. He voted “no”

more frequently than any other councilor last year. He said Capell does a lot of work behind the scenes before council meetings, whether it’s talking with staff or engaging citizens, to help him form his opinions ahead of time or suggest changes to proposals that come before council. “He has gotten in the mode where he really feels like he’s part of the city team or a part of the board of the city corporation,” Clinton said. “He is playing the role of an insider and team player, whereas I’m playing the role of an outsider and non-team player. And I think there should be room on the City Council for both approaches.” Councilor Scott Ramsay largely agrees with Clinton’s assessment. Although the two have been on the council together for little more than a year, Ramsay said Capell seems “very supportive” of city staff and is “confident” in how they reach their conclusions. Some councilors are more skeptical, Ramsay said. See Capell / A8

Breaking down the voting record • Rarely was this council divided. Councilors voted unanimously 81 percent of the time (138 of 171). Of the 33 votes that were not unanimous, more than half (17) involved a single councilor voting “no.” • On 12 occasions, only two councilors opposed a particular action. In every instance, those two votes were cast by councilors Jodie Barram and Jim Clinton. • Only once did the council vote “no.” It was 34 decision involving an ordinance clarifying how the city should charge hoteliers for transient room taxes. The four councilors who voted no are Jeff Eager, Kathie Eckman, Tom Greene and Scott Ramsay. • On only two occasions did councilors split 4-3. One involved the debate about the establishment of an elected mayor. The other concerned rules for transient room tax collections. Eager, who opposed an initial transient room tax proposal, was the swing vote while Eckman, Greene and Ramsay remained opposed. • Clinton voted “no” more than any other councilor, 23 times. He also was the only councilor with perfect attendance in 2011. No councilors missed more than two meetings. • Councilor Mark Capell didn’t cast a single “no” vote in 2011. But for his peers the idea that he rubber-stamps everything is laughable (see sidebar). • Four councilors abstained from votes. Capell didn’t vote on a $3.7 million contract for HDR Engineering, Inc. because his brother works for the company. Barram had a bad experience with Bend’s parking enforcement company, Diamond Parking, after getting a ticket and didn’t feel that she could set that aside to approve a contract renewal. Ramsay and Eager didn’t vote on a proposed legal settlement because they both knew the person involved in the action. — Nick Grube, The Bulletin

If Bend City Councilor Jim Clinton is a “no” man, Mark Capell is a “yes” man. Based on their 2011 voting records, Clinton voted “no” more than any other city councilor. Capell, on the other hand, didn’t cast a single “no” vote, the only councilor to enjoy that distinction. While this might indicate a large divide between them, that’s not the case. They vote together almost 90 percent of the time. In fact, this is true for much of the council. Of the 171 votes taken in 2011, more than 80 percent were unanimous. Only three votes were split 4-3 or 3-4. Councilors say they aren’t surprised by this, mainly because most of their votes aren’t on controversial issues. They say there are many other factors to consider, with perhaps one trumping all others: They get along. “I don’t think we do everything perfectly, and I’m not saying we’re flawless, but I think we’re in a good place,” Councilor Jodie Barram said. “And that’s what I believe Bend residents want for their council, is for the people to keep the conversations civil, to have respect for each other and to try to find more benefits for your community by working together.”

4 seats up for election This hasn’t always been the case, and the camaraderie might not last much longer. Four council seats are up for election in November. See Council / A8

The computer’s next conquest: crossword puzzles By Steve Lohr

Matthew Ginsberg, chief executive of Eugenebased On Time Systems, created Dr. Fill, a crosswordsolving program.

New York Times News Service

What is a 10-letter word for smarty pants? This weekend the world may find out when computer technology again tries to best human brains, this time at the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament in Brooklyn, N.Y. Computers can make mincemeat of chess masters and vanquish the champions of “Jeopardy!” The question is: Can the trophy go to a crossword-solving program, Dr.

Chris Pietsch New York Times News Service

The Bulletin An Independent Newspaper

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Tom Greene Yes: 162 No: 2 Abstain: 0

Mark Capell Yes: 161 No: 0 Abstain: 1

Scott Ramsay Yes: 160 No: 5 Abstain: 1

• With a lack of hot-button issues, camaraderie rules at Bend City Hall: more than 80% of all council votes were unanimous

TODAY’S WEATHER

INDEX Business Classified Comics

C3-5 F1-4 B4-5

Crosswords B5, F2 Dear Abby B3 Editorials C6

Horoscope Movies Obituaries

Fill — a wordplay on filling in a crossword (get it?) and the screen name of the talk show host Dr. Phil McGraw — when it tests its algorithms against the wits of 600 of the nation’s top crossword solvers? DOCTOR FILL was created by Matthew Ginsberg, 56, chief executive of On Time Systems in Eugene. He holds a Ph.D. from Oxford, taught at Stanford and wrote a book on artificial intelligence. As a hobby, he also constructs crossword puzzles, includ-

B3 B2 C7

Sports D1-6 Stocks C4-5 TV B2, ‘TV’ mag

Snow showers; breezy and chilly High 40, Low 19 Page C8

ing more than two dozen published in The New York Times. The program has already excelled in most simulations of 15 past tournaments, finishing on top three times. Dr. Fill is a speed demon. It can successfully complete easier puzzles in a minute; even lightning-fast human solvers take about three minutes. Hard puzzles may take three minutes, about half as long as human whizzes. See Crossword / A6

TOP NEWS AFGHANISTAN: Soldier accused in rampage is identified, A8


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