Oregon weekly seeks donations to fund investigation after local officials won't waive fees for copies of public records

The Malheur Enterprise, an award-winning weekly in rural eastern Oregon, is trying to raise money so it can get to the bottom of an industrial development that local officials don't want to talk about. (Click here to donate.)

Malheur County officials want to create one or two industrial parks; developing that farmland will require streets, water lines and sewers. "The county has indicated in its documents – that we obtained from the state – that developing this project could require as much as $14 million beyond $2 million it has already borrowed," writes Editor-Publisher Les Zaitz. "Where’s the county going to get that money? We’ve been trying to find out for you for more than two months."

Officials are refusing to talk with the Enterprise, which isn't the county's only paper. That's their right, Zaitz acknowledges, but he is still pursuing the story because locals want to know about the deals. 

Thus far, what information the paper has obtained has come from records obtained under the state open-records law, but officials made the Enterprise pay $1,018 before releasing the copies. "As a veteran of public records fights, we see this as Malheur County’s attempt to blunt our reporting by making it too costly to seek government records," Zaitz writes. "The law allows government agencies to reduce or entirely waive the cost of providing documents when releasing them serves the public interest. We have asked Smith [the county economic development director] for that waiver with every request. He has ignored the request and the law in each instance. We paid. If Smith thought he would price us out of the business of finding the truth, he miscalculated."

But the Enterprise says it doesn't have the money to keep paying so much, so, Zaitz is announcing a fundraising drive called "Dollars for Disclosure" and says the money will go toward a fund that will pay for public-record fees and perhaps legal help. It isn't a charitable donation, but it's a worthy cause, Zaitz writes: "Even $10 would help, and a lot of small donations would be another message to county officials: the public wants the truth. The more we raise, the more we can do."

If you'd like to help out, click here to donate online or you can mail a check to PO Box 310, Vale OR 97918. Checks should be made to the Malheur Enterprise and designated for the disclosure fund.