March 26, 2013 — A bill allowing the Multnomah County Health Department to gather data about bedbug infestations from bug exterminators, and then withhold the details of that information from the public passed the Senate on Monday, over the objections of Sen. Alan Bates, D-Medford that the public has a right to know.
“For me, the light of day is important,” Bates said. “I don’t want to put anyone out of business, but if you have a problem in your restaurant with cleanliness of your food, it’s reported and people know, and it can hurt your business. … It bothers me that we’re not putting something out there that should be in the public.”
House Bill 2131 would enable the Multnomah County Health Department to receive information about bedbug outbreaks at apartment complexes or hotels, without potential tenants or guests ever being able to find out news of the infestations from the county. The bill passed the Senate 20-9 and now heads to the governor.
Last week, the bill cleared the Senate Health and Human Services Committee on a consensus vote after little discussion and no opposition.
Multnomah County Commissioner Deborah Kafoury argued the information about bedbug outbreaks should be kept secret from the public to enable exterminators to volunteer the information. She said bug control companies agreed to provide the information as long as they could shield their clients from public disclosure of their bedbug problems.
“This bill gives an opportunity to collect the data,” Kafoury said. “Inspection records currently public are not covered. It only affects new and voluntary information.”
“Right now, public health doesn’t have any information about where infestations take place,” said Sen. Laurie Monnes Anderson, D-Gresham, arguing for passage of the bill. Broader information drawn from the data can be made public as long as it doesn’t identify the properties inflicted with bedbugs.
Opposition to the measure attracted an unusual group of senators, including Democratic Sen. Mark Hass of Beaverton and Sen. Ginny Burdick of Portland along with some of the Senate’s most conservative members, such as Senate Minority Leader Ted Ferrioli of John Day and Sen. Doug Whitsett of Klamath Falls.
The Lund Report asked Sen. Chip Shields, D-Portland, after the vote why he supported keeping the bedbug information private. He said he hadn’t read the bill closely and he was surprised to learn that he had voted to carve out a new exception to the Oregon Public Records Law.
Shields is generally a staunch supporter of open government and has sponsored a measure to require quasi-public coordinated care organizations to adhere to the Public Meetings Law.
Shields responded Tuesday that he supported HB 2131 at the recommendation of Multnomah County Health, but he was concerned enough about the new public records exception that he said he would ask for a special hearing on that aspect of the bill "to make sure that that exemption meets a very high bar in being in the public interest."
House Bill 2131 had previously passed the House 55-1, with the sole dissent of Rep. Brent Barton, D-Gladstone. The bill now awaits Gov. John Kitzhaber’s signature.
The agreement for confidential voluntary information was the result of a Multnomah County task force which included tenants, landlords, restaurants, exterminators and county health officials.
At the public hearing in the House Health Committee on Feb. 6, exterminator Bruce Head argued that requiring the information to be public or mandatory would cause less ethical exterminators to break the law in order to protect their clients.
“There’s a stigma associated to bedbugs as opposed to ants,” Head told the committee.
Sen. Tim Knopp, R-Bend, carried the bill on the Senate floor and said that Multnomah County needed the information to be able to map where the bugs are concentrated in Portland.
