By Pendletonian Times
PENDLETON, Ore. – City Attorney Nancy Kerns thinks she has the authority to regulate media access in Pendleton. Pendletonian Times has filed a complaint with the state ethics commission after one of their reporters was barred entry into a City Council executive session on January 21.
The complaint was filed with the Oregon Government Ethics Commission after City Manager Robb Corbett blocked Pendletonian Times publisher James Hehn from entering the chambers where executive sessions are held on January 21, 2025, at the regularly scheduled Pendleton City Council Meeting. An executive session regarding real property and litigation was on the agenda.
According to Hehn, the City Manager seemed angry: “Robb had a crazy, angry look in his eyes when he informed me that I would not be permitted to attend the executive session. When I told him that he’d probably like to discuss this matter with his attorney before we went any further, he informed me that he already had spoke with [City Attorney] Nancy [Kerns]. He referenced a written communication that I had delivered at the beginning of the month as the reason to why I could not attend.”
Oregon Revised Statute 192.660 permits public bodies in the State of Oregon to hold executive sessions, but requires that the media be allowed to attend. According to a legal opinion published by the Oregon Department of Justice in 2016, even High School newspapers are allowed to attend executive sessions of public bodies in the State of Oregon, provided that the publication in question regularly reports on the public body in question. Oregon DOJ opinions are known to set the standard for how the law is interpreted in Oregon.