04/09/2008

By JOSEPH B. FRAZIER  / Associated Press

In tiny Elgin, six of the seven City Council members are quitting rather than fill out newly required state ethics forms, and the seventh might.

The entire five-member planning commission quit last week in protest of what members described as a prying state government invading their privacy.

In Enterprise, four planning commission members quit, as did one in Rogue River north of Medford and some in Canyonville. Three city council members in North Powder near Baker City weren't far behind, and a Roseburg city planning commission member says he, too, is out of there.

More may go by Tuesday when the forms are due from elected or appointed public officials in 97 towns and six county governments that opted out of a 1974 Oregon law requiring data that shows where officeholders' interests lie. The Legislature voted in 2007 to end that exemption.

Most resignations are from small towns, often in conservative areas where a mistrust of flatlanders runs as deep as the roots of rights to privacy and minding your own business.

But Ron Bersin, executive director of the Oregon Ethics Commission, says many officials are upset over bad information.

"People have called with different concerns," he said Wednesday. "After we talk to them many are not really pleased, but they are filling out the forms. We are getting hundreds in each day."

Officeholders must list businesses in which they have an interest, sources of income though not the amount, names of relatives over age 18 but no addresses or financial data, and real property held in their jurisdictions, excluding one's principal residence.

The forms do not seek information about mortgages, personal bank accounts, retail credit accounts or details of mutual fund investments.

School board members are exempt, as are some other district board members. Those who are required to file but don't face fines.

Bersin said many callers thought the information is posted online or that financial data and addresses for relatives would be required, which is untrue.

"One man called from Keizer and said he thought he had to list all of his business' customers," Bersin said.

He said he knew of about 30 resignations so far, but more than 5,000 forms will be due.

Drew Foster, city administrator of Adair Village near Corvallis, said two planning commission members and a councilman may leave. He said he fears a chilling effect on the volunteers who govern most Oregon towns.

Scott Winkels of the League of Oregon Cities said some resignations may be for other reasons.

"It is difficult to keep a full-time planning commission in normal times," he said. "You do not earn a lot of friends on a planning commission."

But the forms have left some officeholders fuming.

"Now they want to know what my dog is worth," said council member John Stewart of the Yamhill County town Carlton. "They've gone beyond being a nuisance to being onerous," he told the McMinnville News-Register.

"Big Brother is watching," said Enterprise City Council member Sharon Sherlock.

Elgin City Recorder Joe Garlitz compared departing officials to frogs dropped in boiling water and jumping out. "They have never seen this before and have an instinctive understanding that this is wrong," he said.

"I'm not filling out the forms. This is a violation of my civil rights and an invasion my privacy," Elgin Council member Sue Moore said. "I thought I lived in America, where I had a right to privacy."

"I don't want information about my family spread all over the Internet," said Willie Williams, a council member in the town of 1,700.

Elected and appointed officials in most Oregon towns and counties have been filling out the forms since 1974. The listing of adult relatives is new.

"I feel sick," resigning Elgin Mayor Carmen Gentry told the La Grande Observer newspaper.

She and council member Carmen Garcia said they would fill out the forms and then quit because state and local laws make it easier for the council to be replaced if everyone quits.

Gov. Ted Kulongoski wrote Tuesday to those required to file. He said volunteer officeholders are essential, but Oregonians are entitled to an open government.

Many asked him to suspend parts of the ethics law, he said, but only the Legislature can do that. He asked for patience.

"They're calling you basically dishonest to begin with, and then they say they will audit the reports once a year at our expense," North Powder Councilman Dan Willitts said.

North Powder City Administrator Sue Harris said she actually may have a conflict — her husband works for an engineering firm that does business with the town.

But she said she is leaving over the requirement to list children: "I don't think that's any of (the state's) business."