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EMU Update: Hagemann kicks UO Matters out of OUS meeting

Update: It appears from the docket that one of the bond sales approved during the public part of this meeting was $2.06 Million to start Robin Holmes’s EMU renovation project:

Which explains why they met while the students were out of town. The Oregon Commentator has stories on the EMU from Ben Schorr and Nick Ekblad – who got Dave Hubin to cough up the Holmes emails.

Live blogging at bottom: 12/21/12: The public meeting of the OUS Finance and Admin Committee starts at 8:30 AM and lasts 30 minutes. The executive session starts at 9:00, and is scheduled for 7 hours. I have no idea what they plan to discuss. The only thing they will tell the public is that

“… they will discuss records that are exempt by law from public inspection.”

The last time OUS did this Paul Kelly called for a secret bathroom break, then they all filed back in and fired Lariviere. And they’re still trying to keep UO Matters editor Bill Harbaugh out of the stall:

Thank you for the message.  The UO Matters blog is not an institutionalized news media organization and you will not be admitted to the executive session portion of tomorrow’s meeting as a “representative of the news media” on that basis.

Sincerely,
RYAN JAMES HAGEMANN
General Counsel
Oregon University System
www.ous.edu

It stinks. I’ve agreed to follow all the normal executive session rules, and I’ll be there at 8:30. Nigel Duara of the Oregon chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists has written a letter endorsing my efforts to be admitted to this session:

While we are astounded that the Attorney General has essentially laid the responsibility for defining who is and who is not “institutionalized” news media in the hands of the very organizations who are the subject of coverage (one is put in mind of teenagers permitted to set their own curfews), we can only assume that, in the spirit of transparency,
openness and goodwill toward all, the Oregon University System will reconsider its troubling and meritless rejection of Harbaugh’s request.

Check back to see if Hagemann kicks me out – in which case I’m really going to start wondering what is going down. Call to meeting and docket:


Abstract:

They kicked me out: Very crowded room, something big is going on in there. 
Free coffee cup to whoever leaves the comments with the most and least accurate description of what fresh hell OUS is up to in there. Something Mayan? 

Who’s in? 10-12 Board people including Pernsteiner, Ciufetti. Kurt Shuler, Gottfredson, Bean, Moffitt, and a swarm of well dressed lobbyist types. n~40. Think I saw Roger Thompson. Mary Spilde. Ed Ray. 

Who’s out? Mullens, Holmes, Espy, Harbaugh

Live Blog:
8:30 AM:
Public meeting starts – bond sales – revenue bonds, they have enough revenue to keep the tax exemption (unlike with Matt Court).

Kirk: Do individually. #1 passes
Moderator?: OSU renovations:
Pernsteiner enters, looking very shaky.
OSU Athletics projects – bonds paid with PAC12 $16M in new revenue.
Schueler: PAC12 – isn’t already allocated? Ed Ray: $30+ million in new cable money coming.
Mod: In the next couple of years Beavs will erase $8 million subsidy over several years. They also have pledges.
Mod: PSU Housing renovations. Self-sustaining.
Motion to sell the bonds, passes unanimously.
#4. Mod: All universities are within 7% ceiling.
#5. New standing resolution to refinance bonds when advantageous, work w/ State Treasurer.
#6. New bonds to fund – plenty of revenue to fund – passes.

That’s it for public meeting – move on to executive session of the committee, all present.

Kirk Schuler now reads language on news media. Two reporters identify themselves. One is allowed to stay – didn’t get his name. Charles Triplett walks over to me and says “I am Charles Triplett, Board Secretary. Ryan Hagemann has determined that you are not a member of the news media and we are asking you to leave.” What would HHDL do? I left. 

As I was in the hall, Jamie Moffitt came walking in for the executive session. President Gottfredson was already in the room, along with the Committee and about 30 well-dressed hangers on. So your guess is as good as mine about what’s going on in there.

9:15: Had a good chat with Hagemann in the hall – tried to scare him with a little lawyer stuff, he doesn’t care, not his money. There may or not be a public meeting to make decisions about what they see in secret today. Think I’ll sit here and drink their coffee for a bit.

9:23: Biker dude in full leathers walks in.

Bean walks out, searches for the elevator, comes back 15 min later.

The science post-docs have discovered Dr. Pernsteiner’s croissant stash in the atrium. Going fast, George.

Googling open meetings law – Franklin in the Philadelphia Gazzette:

10:22: In France, they wouldn’t serve these croissants to a dog. Graduate students walk off muttering.

10:34 Coming out for a break. Seem happy. I’ve staked out the refreshments table. Moffitt and Gottfredson turn back. Monica Rimai from PSU comes out. Allyn Ford seems like the most popular. No one’s talking to Bean.

10:52 They go back in the room. Lots of complaints that it’s too small. It’s huge.

11:13: OK, I finished off the last of their coffee – I’m outta here. Might check back later.

47 Comments

  1. Anonymous 12/21/2012

    What UO needs is a law school!

    • Anonymous 12/21/2012

      Jack Bogdanski will do.

  2. Anonymous 12/21/2012

    WWMLKD? WWGandhiD? What would Martin Sheen DO?

  3. Anonymous 12/21/2012

    Where is Steve Duin?

  4. Anonymous 12/21/2012

    Sorry, but you display none of the professionalism and objectivity one expects of a news organization (ignoring Fox News). We all enjoy your commentary, but this is a gossip blog, not an arena of academic discourse. If your goal is to influence University policy, you should maintain the standards of an Economics Dept, not Creative Writing.

    • Anonymous 12/21/2012

      Yeah, well my dad can beat up your dad!

    • Anonymous 12/21/2012

      You imply that there might be another source of information? But you can’t point me there, can you?

      You’re also wrong on the “influence University policy,” front, my friend. You can’t point me to another media institution having more influence, can you?

    • UO Matters 12/21/2012

      Actually, lots of people tell me they don’t really enjoy my commentary. But I need to pad things out somehow while waiting for Hubin’s public record’s office to deliver the documents.

    • Anonymous 12/23/2012

      Oh, Aharb! what shall be grand in thee, it must needs be plucked at from the skies, and dived for in the deep, and featured in the unbodied air! – Ishmael

  5. Anonymous 12/21/2012

    Bloggers of the URL, Unite! We ain’t gonna take it! We won’t get fooled again!

  6. Anonymous 12/21/2012

    The Board requires NO SHARIN’.

  7. Anonymous 12/21/2012

    UO Matters seems to confuse name calling, issuing unsubstantiated allegations, rumor mongering, and making public records requests with journalism. Sorry, UO Matters, maybe take a class or two at the J school and get the definition straight. Sure, you’re welcome to your opinions. But a journalist? Get real.

    • Anonymous 12/21/2012

      Journalism school? Do you know how many of them would accept internships at UOMatters?

    • UO Matters 12/21/2012

      UO Matters is now taking internship applications.

    • Anonymous 12/21/2012

      If he went to the J School, maybe he’d learn how to study such ground breaking topics as how people twitter, or learn about how to advertise and market bottled water with vitamins. Stick to Ben Franklin.

    • Anonymous 12/22/2012

      Are you equating your gossip blog with the writings of the founding fathers? Take that tin hat off and give it a quick polish.

    • UO Matters 12/22/2012

      You really ought to read Ben Franklin someday. He is much better at gossip and innuendo than I am though, if that’s the point you’re trying to make.

    • Anonymous 12/23/2012

      “To ensure the greatest efficiency in the dart, the harpooneers of this world must start to their feet out of ideleness, and not from out of toil.” – Ishmael

  8. Anonymous 12/21/2012

    NO MUCKRAKIN’ REPORTERS ALLOWED!

  9. Anonymous 12/21/2012

    Lobbyists mean money and power. The big pie is being cut up.

    • Anonymous 12/21/2012

      Agreed

  10. Anonymous 12/21/2012

    Who is the reporter in the room?

    • Anonymous 12/21/2012

      Let’s all text her.

  11. Anonymous 12/22/2012

    ODE should have had one of their reporters attending the secret session.

    • UO Matters 12/22/2012

      They held it during break to minimize the risk – like Geller did with the drug testing, and Holmes did with the EMU proposal.

    • Anonymous 12/22/2012

      OK. You should get yourself, or one of your cub reporters, credentialed as an ODE reporter to cover for the ODE during the term breaks.

  12. Anonymous 12/22/2012

    Dear UO Matters – I could debate about what “is” journalism and whether what you do qualifies. I could speculate about the internet and why some people think their opinion should count for everything in the Twitterverse; but instead, I challenge you, Mr. UO Matter, if you want to attend the damn board meetings so much why don’t you volunteer to be on the Board? Maybe you don’t work and play well with others? Maybe you’d rather bitch from your cushy tenured collectively bargained PERS pensioned position than actually be accountable to the general public (honestly I don’t know if these all apply to you but I’m not a journalist so I don’t have to check my facts). So I dare you….no I double dog dare you…Call Kitzhaber today and volunteer to join the Board. What have you got to lose? If he says “no” its fodder for your propagandist forum and if he says “yes” then you get to go to all the secret bathroom stall meetings even if they are inconvenient to your holiday schedule. Its a win/win for you. Do you have it in you to be a true public servant or are you really just a mouthy lackey that likes to bite at the hand that that feeds it?

    • Anonymous 12/22/2012

      You really don’t understand the role of a free press, do you? You don’t get the difference between serving the public interest and serving the State, either, do you?

    • Anonymous 12/22/2012

      Dog to UOMatters

      1) I ordered a shitstorm deflector from amazon for you for Xmas – hope Santa brings it on time.

      2) Dude, keep drinking and keep blogging. In the end, no matter the means, exposure of information is a public service. Ask Benjamin …

    • UO Matters 12/22/2012

      Thanks Dog! You can get one from my Amazon link, and I’ll get 4%, which I’ll for fuck sure put to a good cause!

    • Peter Keyes 12/22/2012

      Wow, amazing comment. Were you perhaps looking for the Oregonian’s website and were directed here by mistake?

      But I agree with your proposition – let’s get Mr. UOMatters on the state board! I think a phone call to the Governor would take care of that pretty easily. Why didn’t we think of that?

    • Anonymous 12/22/2012

      I put $5 on Mr. Anonymous being a UO administrator.

    • Anonymous 12/23/2012

      Did you seriously just use “tenured” as a put down? On a university-focussed blog? Really?

    • Anonymous 12/23/2012

      Did someone just use the term “UO Administrator” as a put down? On a UO focused blog? Really?

    • Anonymous 12/23/2012

      “I laugh and hoot at ye, ye cricket-players, ye pugilists, ye deaf Burkes and blinded Bendigoes! I wll not say as schoolboys do to bullies, – Take some one of your own size: don’t pommel me! No, ye’ve knocked me down, and I am up again; but ye have run and hidden. Come forth from behind your cotton bags! I have no long gun to reach ye. Come, Aharb’s compliments to ye; come and see if ye can swerve me. Swerve me? ye cannot swerve me, else ye swerve yourselves! man has ye there. Swerve me? The path to my fixed purpose is laad with iron rails, whereon my soul is grooved to run. Over unsounded gorges, through the rifled hearts of mountains, under torrents’ beds, unerringly I rush! Naught’s an obstacle, naught’s an angle to the iron way!”

  13. Anonymous 12/22/2012

    So did you ever find out what happened in the Executive Session?

    • UO Matters 12/22/2012

      Nope.

      They win! I will go away, never again try to attend an executive session, never again try to get OUS records and never again use this blog to try and provide the public with information about the OUS board or staff, or to publicly embarrass them or the Croissant Chancellor for ripping us off with Treetops, or giving his chief of staff Bridget Burns a big raise under-the-table raise and promotion.

      Just kidding. The intention of this law is to make the subject of the meeting public, while allowing privacy for exempt documents. Hagemann and Triplett are subverting the law with their coy call to meeting.

      As Robocop said, “There will be …. trouble.”

    • Anonymous 12/23/2012

      “Then be called ten times a donkey, and a mule, and an ass, and begone, or I’ll clear the world of thee!” – Aharb

    • Anonymous 12/23/2012

      “Thus, I give up the spear.” -Abarb

    • UO Matters 12/23/2012

      I’m no English Lit prof, so I’m not sure if you are praising me or mocking me – which I guess means the latter!

    • Anonymous 12/23/2012

      Niether. I am merely recognizing.

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