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Monday, March 18, 2024
March 18, 2024

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3 lawmakers hit with ethics complaint over wolf bill

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PORTLAND — An environmental group filed an ethics complaint Monday against three Oregon lawmakers, accusing them of knowingly making false statements to their colleagues about the intent of a bill that has blocked an environmentalists’ lawsuit over the delisting of the gray wolf.

At the center of the complaint is House Bill 4040, which upholds in state law the Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission’s decision last year to remove the gray wolf from the endangered list — a move aimed at managing the species’ growing population in certain parts of Oregon.

The bill was unusual for the Oregon Legislature, but the intent was to ultimately block an ongoing lawsuit by environmentalists, who argued delisting was premature and scientifically flawed and petitioned the court for a judicial review.

But that’s not how the bill was presented when it was first introduced in early February, and some lawmakers repeatedly denied that was the intent at all.

“Does this basically prevent litigation? … The answer that I have come up with, or the answer that I could find was, no it doesn’t,” Republican Rep. Greg Barreto said during a February House floor session when HB 4040 was up for vote. “They can still have their day in court.”

The Oregon Court of Appeals ultimately tossed out the lawsuit last month, citing the new law.

It was those kinds of statements that prompted Eugene-based Cascadia Wildlands to file an ethics complaint against Barreto, his fellow Republican Rep. Sal Esquivel and Democratic Rep. Brad Witt at the Oregon Government Ethics Commission.

The complaint says the lawmakers broke a certain state law that bans public officials from intentionally making false or misleading statements to another public official, or otherwise face up to $5,000 in civil fines and public reprimand.

“Lawmakers undermine the public’s trust when they mislead their colleagues and make false statements,” Nick Cady, legal director for Cascadia Wildlands, said in a statement. “The misrepresentations surrounding HB4040 allowed the bill to pass through Oregon’s Legislature, and gray wolves will ultimately pay the price.”

Witt told The Associated Press on Monday that he stands by his previous public statements that the bill does not preclude judicial review.

“The intent of the bill was to look at the procedural process that the (commission) went through and to determine whether or not that process was adequate and sufficient,” he said. “The judicial review already took place … It is my understanding that they filed for review, and I think, believe, it was dismissed. There were no problems or no laws that were violated, and it was dismissed.”

But in its dismissal decision on April 22, the Appeals Court wrote that the “enactment of HB 4040 renders the judicial review moot and dismisses the judicial review on that ground.”

Barreto and Esquivel did not respond to AP’s requests for comment.

Preston Mann, spokesman for House Republican Caucus, called the ethics complaint an “attention-seeking stunt.”

“It’s disappointing that special interest groups continue to try and undermine our political process through frivolous attacks like this,” Mann said.

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