NO OREGON COUNTY ASKED GOVERNOR KATE BROWN TO DECLARE A COVID-19 EMERGENCY

Governor's office released no records of any county having asked in March 2020 for an emergency to be declared by the governor.

The governor had no unilateral power, had no sole power to close down the whole state and the Pacific Ocean. 

The unintended consequences from March 2020 to March 2022 included more and more Oregonians self-educated on the law. Not the rules. Not the mandates. Not the requirements. Not the suggestions. Not the guidance. Not the recommendations. Not Governor Brown saying, “…because I said so.”  Not Governor Brown telling OHA to say so. Not Governor Brown telling OSHA to say so.

Counties are the ones to request the governor to declare an emergency under ORS 401.165(1)(2)(5). Brown wrote in her March 8, 2020 executive order (EO) that two counties made a request for her call an emergency in their counties because of COVID-19. 

But since February 27, 2022 the governor’s office has not and looks like they do not have such a record, because no counties asked Brown to declare a COVID-19 emergency. Brown in her EO brought the emergency based on “…14 presumptive…” cases of COVID-19. There were no deaths on March 8, 2020. The order does not say where the 14 presumptive cases were in the state.

Thus, the question became, and a public records request was made for which two counties allegedly wrote to Brown, and asked her to declare an emergency over the whole state, including the Pacific Ocean?

The answer appears that no county asked for her to do what she did? If such a request had been made, it would have had to have been in writing and would be filed in Brown’s March 8, 2020 emergency file upon which she declared an emergency, and would have been easy for the governor’s office to have pulled that record, made a copy, and email attached by February 28, 2022.

The president of the United States declaring a “national” emergency cannot dictate to the states, the reason President Trump could not send in the National Guard to quell the violence in downtown Portland. Oregon has sovereignty thus Governor Brown’s actions were solely her own. She illegally caused trauma and destruction to Oregon.

The emergency Brown didn’t call, was the violence in downtown Portland. Even when Mayor Ted Wheeler wanted the governor to call an emergency and bring in the National Guard, Brown did not.

The question remains as to why only one legislator, Senator Dallas Heard, called out the illegality of masking up Oregonians. How does an elected body of 90 legislators not know how to read, decipher and discern law? 

Did none of the 90 legislators make a request of Attorney General (AG) Rosenblum to issue a written AG opinion on the ORS 401.165(1)(2)(5)? Rosenblum’s husband, Mark Sussman owns the Willamette Week newspaper. Why wasn’t the Willamette Week curious about the legality of Kate Brown’s executive order?

Truth in the Pacific Northwest also made a public records request February 28, 2022 to all 90 members of the legislature whether or not Governor Kate Brown notified any of them under the US and Oregon Constitutions and Oregon law as to the legality of telling them to wear a mask?

No copies of such emails were forwarded per the request, and the staff attorney, Cameron D. Miles, sent an email to confuse the issue to a requestor or to any requestor by giving a request an “internal number” instead of identifying the request itself. This tactic is a long time tactic of all state governments, it is for the benefit of the attorneys for the state to muddle up the communication to then hide records. It is not for the benefit of the citizen. 

The process to which the attorney alludes is the same process anyone uses on their email accounts to find something in their email accounts. Which would take less than five seconds to do, on each of their government email accounts. It is now thirteen days since the request and no responsive records have been released. 

No matter what party or none, President Ronald Reagan's words may be appropriate to this time in history in Oregon.

   

As more and more Oregonians self-educate they see the games. 

 

 March 13, 2022