Eastern Oregon University has a scholarship fund for select people that you won’t read about anywhere on the university’s website.
The Malheur Enterprise discovered this apparently secret fund while investigating the university’s financial links to state Rep. Greg Smith.
To dig deeper, the Enterprise requested public records from EOU so we could track this fund.
Last week, EOU billed us for these public records.
The university wanted $1,500 for access to about 600 records, saying it is billing $75 an hour to “review”public documents related to a scholarship program. There is no assurance any of the documents will all be released or released without large blackened sections. The university has been taking such steps on earlier requests.
I want to be clear with readers like you.
The sum of $1,500 is a staggering amount for a small family-owned news operation such as the Enterprise.
That’s why we are once again launching a “Dollars for Disclosure” campaign, asking readers to chip in to cover this bill.
The invoice comes at a particularly bad time. We have racked up increasing costs to provide nonstop coverage to our community on life-threatening wildfires.
We dug up the coffee can holding our reserves to pay the university’s bill last week. Otherwise, the Enterprise investigation would stall. More importantly, the public’s right to know about possible questionable handling of public funds would be blunted. We couldn’t let the university use a big bill to stop our investigative reporting.
My guess – and it’s just a guess – is that the powers that be figured our small company could never cover such a bill.
The university’s handling of this matter suggests a less-than-robust attitude towards telling the public its business.
Consider these facts.
• The university took five weeks to even provide a bill. Oregon law requires that government documents usually be made public in no more than 15 business days.
• The university didn’t send the bill. Instead, it prepared an invoice and then forwarded that the the university’s private Portland lawyer for delivery to the Enterprise. That lawyer bills EOU $405 an hour for her work.
• The payment link provided on the invoice to pay the bill didn’t work.
• The university took nearly a day to send the right link, sending the working link its Portland lawyer to send to the Enterprise by email.
The university decided not to grant our request to waive the cost, as it is allowed to do by law. And the university didn’t suggest a way to reduce the scope, as the Enterprise invited officials to do six weeks ago. Instead, the university asked if we wanted to change our request but never responded to our request for guidance on how to do that.
Contrast the Enterprise, with a reporting staff of two, to what’s available to university officials:
• Current annual budget: $60.3 million.
• Forecasted net (“profit”): $2,439,805.
• Number of EOU employees: 772.
I invited Kelly Ryan, the university president, to comment on these matters, alerting her we were launching this campaign. She responded Saturday, asking we use her remarks unedited. That’s not how journalism works. But here were her key points:
• “EOU has waived fees for all but two of the 21 public information requests from the Malheur Enterprise, which are very broad and comprehensive and require significant staff time away from our primary mission of supporting our students.”
• “I appreciate and respect the role of the media in educating the public and as a source of information for our community. Our values on that front are not in conflict there.”
• “Our university has a great many responsibilities, which include respecting our employees right to make use of vacation time, particularly in the summer, when Americans enjoy time with their families and reconnecting with loved ones.”
At the Enterprise, we don’t begrudge any worker time off. We never asked the university to yard someone back from the beach to get us records. With a staff of 772 and a Portland attorney getting $405 to manage the process, it’s reasonable that a matter of significant public interest and concern warrants a waiver of the fee.
But that’s not happening and so we turn to you, the readers and fellow Oregonians, for help holding Greg Smith accountable. The Republican state representativeis one of the most powerful people in the Oregon Legislature. Examining his role also includes that of his allies at EOU, who put public money into his pocket.
Your donation of $50, $100 or more would be enormously appreciated. And your support of “Dollars for Disclosure” helps send a clear message to EOU and its big-city lawyers: Share the truth – now and completely.
Contact Editor Les Zaitz: [email protected].
