Sheriff in conservative county defends free press

Associated Press

SALEM, Ore.

Journalists are defending a small newspaper after a county attorney asked the sheriff to investigate whether a reporter broke the law by trying repeatedly to get comments from an official for a story.

Staffers at the Malheur Enterprise, a weekly newspaper in the remote town of Vale, said they were just doing their job. “We’re not going to be bullied,” said editor Les Zaitz.

Brian Wolfe, the sheriff of deeply conservative Malheur County, said Wednesday an inquiry determined no laws had been broken.

“As an elected sheriff, we will always respect the constitutional rights of anybody and everybody. We do believe in freedom of the press and free speech that we believe are our rights given by the Constitution of the United States,” Wolfe said.

The newspaper had been investigating why a car wash did not receive a five-year exemption from local property taxes that was allegedly promised.

Bluebird Express Car Wash built a $4.5 million installation in the town of Ontario after it understood it received the exemption, representing about $335,000, the newspaper reported.

Greg Smith, the director for economic development for Malheur County, is responsible for determining and negotiating property tax exemptions. Malheur Enterprise reporter Pat Caldwell sought several times to get comment from Smith, who is also a Republican member of the state Legislature.

“This is an effort to get accurate information,” said Zaitz, a former investigative reporter with the Oregonian newspaper and a two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist. “The public is entitled to that information – not only entitled to that information, it deserves it.”

Smith responded only after the story was published Aug. 14 with the headline “Malheur County lured company to Ontario with tax break promise, then doesn’t deliver.”

In a statement that the newspaper published online, Smith said no “pre-application” for a property tax exemption had been approved or signed.