--

Turtle powerReptiles invade Forest Grove Library with helping hand

— See A3

Lady Viking all-starsTwo players from Forest Grove head to senior all-star series.

— See SPORTS, B1

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 27, 2012 • MAKING A DIFFERENCE IN WESTERN WASHINGTON COUNTY SINCE 1886 • WWW.FGNEWSTIMES.COM • VOL. 128, NO. 24 • 5O CENTS

INSIDECommentary ................... A4Education........................ A5Calendar ......................... A6

A&E ................................. A7Obituaries ..................... A10Home & Garden .............. A8

Sports ............................. B1Classifi eds ...................... B4Weather .......................... A6

CANVASSING A RANGE OF STYLESTwo friends exhibit divergent visual art at Valley Art in July. — A7

In 2012, the centennial of women’s suffrage in Ore-gon, it’s still a case of two steps forward, one step back for women seeking elective offi ce.

Sometimes it’s one step forward, two steps back.Portland judge Ellen Rosenblum makes history June 29

when she’s sworn in as Oregon’s fi rst woman attorney gen-eral. In January, voters in Oregon’s 1st Congressional Dis-trict sent Suzanne Bonamici to Washington, D.C., where she joined the state’s otherwise all-male delegation representing the state in Congress. In the May primary, Nena Cook was the top vote-getter for an open Oregon Supreme Court seat. If she wins a November runoff, the state’s highest court will feature three women out of seven justices, the most ever.

But women’s electoral gains are still spotty here, leaving women far behind men in political power.

The same week that Rosenblum takes offi ce, Susan Cas-tillo — the fi rst Latina elected to statewide offi ce in Oregon

■ A century after suffrage, politics still

an ol’ boys’ club

KATE BROWNELLEN ROSENBLUM

WOMEN HAVE COME A LONG WAY,

MAYBE?

— will step down as state school superintendent. Portland mayoral candidate Eileen Brady tanked in the May pri-mary, after amassing the largest campaign treasury and a commanding lead in the polls, leaving two men to battle for the job of mayor in Oregon’s largest city.

In Forest Grove, three of seven members of the city council are women. But the Washington County Board of Commissioniors is made up of fi ve men. So is the Cornelius City Council.

In Salem, the state senate is likely to lose two of its nine women after the general election in November. Sen. Joanne Verger, D-Coos Bay, is stepping down, and both candidates to succeed her are male. Sen. Chris Telfer, R-Bend, was defeated by Tim Knopp in last month’s GOP primary.

“We are seen as a bellwether for progressive issues, but this is one area where we don’t quite make it.”

— Laura Coyle, executive director of Emerge

Oregon

See WOMEN / Page 12

STORY BY

STEVE LAW

Suzanne Bonamici (above) became the sixth woman ever elected to represent Oregon in Congress in January, on the centennial of women’s suffrage here.

She joined six men in the state delegation in Washington, D.C.

TRIBUNE PHOTO: CHRISTOPHER ONSTOTT

Oregon grant pushes electric delivery trucks

By JIM REDDENPamplin Media Group

Oregon government wants trucking companies to re-place their aging diesel-pow-ered vehicles with clean run-ning electric ones — even though they can initially cost a lot more.

State offi cials argue that elec-tric-powered trucks actually cost less in the long run because they do not require diesel fuel and have lower maintenance costs. They are also better for the environment because they do not emit any pollution, in-cluding greenhouse gases.

To help offset the higher pur-

See TRUCK / Page 13

■ Program announced at electric vehicle conference

By NANCY TOWNSLEYThe News-Times

In the last four hours of his ten-ure with the Forest Grove School District, Dave Willard scored a big victory: he told the school board he’d brokered labor contract deals with both of the district’s major employee groups.

“We are going to approve these two contracts before the current one is over,” said Willard, who retired Monday after 11 years with the dis-trict, most recently as assistant su-perintendent and human resources director.

A one-year extension of a prior la-bor pact with the district’s 306 teach-ers and 200 classifi ed employees was set to expire Saturday.

But three months of negotiations

between the district and its unions — the Forest Grove Education Asso-ciation and the local chapter of the Oregon School Employees Associa-tion — bore fruit during the last week of school in mid-June, when each group’s members voted in favor of the agreements.

Board chair Alisa Hampton said she was “thrilled” at the resolutions, which come at a time when the dis-trict is once again cutting days from the calendar and positions from its employee rolls in order to balance a $49.1 million budget in 2012-13.

“I think it’s monumental that you are bringing this to us tonight,” Hampton said to Willard, moments before the board voted unanimous-ly to ratify the agreements. “With so much in the news about employ-ee strikes, this is a fantastic out-

come for us.”Teachers and classifi ed workers

accepted six unpaid furlough days and a pay freeze in the fi rst year of their new, three-year contracts. A

half-percent cost of living raise is built into the second year.

Some teachers will get a partial

School board ratifi es union contractsForest Grove’s teachers, classifi ed workers agree to pay freeze, calendar cuts to ink three-year labor agreements

See CONTRACTS / Page 5

PHOTO BY CHASE ALLGOOD

Forest Grove School Board chair Alisa Hampton and vice-chair Fred Marble voted with their colleagues Monday to ratify new labor contracts with the district’s two employee unions.

Another crying mom complaint

By LAURA FRAZIERThe News-Times

Less than a year after Tri-Met was in the national spot-light because of a bus driv-er’s attitude toward a moth-er and her crying child, the agency is investigating an-other incident of a mother and crying children alleged-ly forced off the Line 57 bus late at night on June 7.

Three passengers who were on the bus at the time say it is the same driver who was in-volved in the incident last year.

In September, TriMet driver Claudeen Hendren served a 10-day suspension after she be-rated a young Forest Grove mother about her crying child. The young mother got off the bus in Hillsboro and several riders left in protest about what they viewed as Hendren’s unprofessional behavior.

Now TriMet is investigating the latest incident in Forest Grove that has striking simi-larities to the case last fall. In the new incident, a woman and her four children (ages 2, 6, 11 and 13) were told to leave the bus at about 11 p.m. after an argument about a fare with a Line 57 bus driver. The mother and her children were in tears during the incident.

TriMet won’t disclose the name of the driver until its in-vestigation is complete. And officials with Amalgamated Transit Union Local 757, which represents TriMet drivers, also

See TRIMET / Page 11

NEWS-TIMES FILE PHOTO: CHASE ALLGOOD

The 57 bus line connects Forest Grove to Beaverton. Last year another mother complained about being kicked off the bus.

TriMet passengers claim same driver involved as last time

rGrove and

S A3 See A3

2012 • MAKING A DIFFERENCE IN WESTERN WASHINGTON C