Bend city councilors listen in on a tribal prayer, a DA’s ‘horrifying’ rash of homicides, and a grieving father’s message

(Update: Adding video)

BEND, Ore. (KTVZ) – A Bend City Council meeting that began with a bit of history and a Warm Springs tribal prayer had other emotional moments, from the district attorney’s unnerving recollection of a “horrifying” rash of homicide cases to a letter read aloud from a Bend father who lost his teen son in an e-bike-car collision this summer, voicing support for planned safer cross-town bikeways.

Heads were bowed as the tribal song began a first-ever joint meeting of the Bend City Council and the Warm Springs Tribal Council. For some time now, the Bend council has begun each of its meetings with a spoken land recognition that Bend and much of Central Oregon came to be on what were tribal lands – 10 million acres the Tribes ceded to the U.S. in an 1855 treaty, as tribal Secretary-Treasurer & CEO Bobby Brunoe noted.

The Warm Springs Reservation is large – 640,000 acres, 1,000 square miles, and to the surprise of some, mostly forested, not all rangeland.

A Tribal Council member who recently visited downtown Bend for the first time since he was a little boy said he didn’t recognize it, noting: “We have as many acres as you have people.”

And amid all the talk of working together on common issues, from land use to water, a council member simply asked that Bend’s leaders “keep us in mind. We’re not asking you to cater to us, but keep us in mind.”

Mayor Melanie Kebler said the council plans to do just that, and is committing to a meeting at least annually, “and we’d come to meet you next time.”

Councilor Anthony Broadman promised, “This isn’t a ‘photo meeting,’” though photos of course were taken – instead, he said, it’s a “firm commitment to work with the Tribal Council on issues of deep concern.”

'Stunning ... shocking' stats - and an 'astonishing' surge in murder cases

The second work session of the night was on public safety, with a top trio weighing in: Police Chief Mike Krantz Deschutes County District Attorney Steve Gunnels and Circuit Judge Beth Bagley. There were stats and timelines, questions and answers, while Krantz noted that police work is changing, and “law enforcement isn’t everything we do” anymore.

Gunnels said his office has 70 employees – “more than folks might expect” in what was seen by many not all that long ago as a “sleepy little river town.”

“I grew up here in Deschutes County,” Gunnels said, and when he was young, “I’d have been shocked to hear 5,000 cases were filed a year. That should be stunning to people.”

And of course, Measure 110, and its much-debated decriminalization of drugs, has led to a big drop in drug possession cases, but they still file over 1,000 DUII cases “almost every year,” a statistic he said is “kind of embarrassing” and “should be shocking.”

Then there are the murder cases, which for most of his decades in the DA’s office were at zero, one or two a year, but jumped to four in 2020 and again in 2021 – and eight last year, “which was astonishing for me – going out to those scenes every other weekend, from march until August, it was really kind of amazing and horrifying, seeing what happened.”

This year, a welcome drop – just three, so far.

“I hope and pray that’s the end of it this year,” Gunnels said. “We can all use the rest.” (Though of course, many of the cases are still, slowly, making their way through the court system.

Bagley said the county’s nine judges, up from seven, dealt with 14,000 cases last year, held 52 criminal trials, 19 of them on felony charges. And the mental and behavioral health crisis is hitting the courts with a “fairly significant spike” in the caseload of “aid and assist” cases – to determine if someone is mentally able to aid and assist in their own defense – which have more than doubled since 2021.

“We try to remain mindful about people facing the challenges of homelessness and other difficult conditions,” Bagley said, and “try not to impose conditions of probation that are unrealistic.”

Broadman asked about the recent end to the successful drug treatment court, and if it could return, helping those it touched get their lives back in order.

“Not a promise – there’s a hope of resurrecting it,” said Gunnels, who was drug court prosecutor for 20 years.

“It was a very successful program,” he said. “We had a lot of people get their lives turned around” -- finding jobs, “staying clean, raising children to adulthood, which for some participants who turned their lives around, it’s a little miracle.”

Gunnels said the main problem that led to the halt was the same “workforce problem everyone is experiencing.” When the court coordinator took another job in the Valley, no applicant was able to fill the role. Then there’s the challenge in “finding a provider to meet the very high standards.” Another, lesser factor: Measure 110, and its resulting sharp drop in drug possession cases in the system.

“I really hope that before I retire, it’s up and running again,” the DA said.

Krantz also spoke to the controversial camping code and those who say the city/police aren’t enforcing laws. “Just because there’s an ORS (state statute) doesn’t mean we can enforce it,” the police chief said, as court rulings also have an impact.

Speaking to one line of critics’ frequent misunderstanding, Krantz said, “With all due respect, the city council doesn’t have the authority to tell us how to enforce the law.”

 And he said sometimes, enforcement involves “leniency, compassion, which doesn’t always meet the expectation of the community,” many of whom just “want to see the problem go away” and will say “’police didn’t do anything’ – ‘you (the council) are telling officers not to take action.’ That’s just not accurate.”

Another common complaint is that more people aren’t locked up, and too many are released.

Bagley said, “We are constitutionally prohibited from using pre-trial detention,” except for when it’s deemed necessary to secure a future court appearance or due to “some identifiable threat.”

Then there’s the county jail’s capacity, and as Gunnels noted, “There were capacity issues before Covid. We had to limit the pipeline of people going into the jail, triage and prioritize. … We have kind of worked through the bubble of cases that backed up, and are pretty much back to where we were before COVID.” To which Councilor Barb Campbell offered congratulations.

Gunnels said with a backup at one point of 1,000 warrants, many lower-level “back burner” cases didn’t even get put into the law enforcement system for a time, so police didn’t have access to enforce them. “If they had all been issued, it would have overwhelmed the jail,” the DA said.

“We have a lot of FTAs (failures to appear for court dates), even in the healthiest of times,” the prosecutor said. “Police love to arrest on a warrant – they are not shy about enforcing” them.

A father mourning loss of 'kind, loving soul' urges safer bikeways

Later, as councilors discussed details and approved the next steps for pedestrian and bike improvements on Olney Avenue and a design contract for the two (north-south, east-west) Crosstown Bikeways project, Broadman read aloud an email he received, and shared it with NewsChannel 21:

"Dear Councilor Broadman,  

"I wanted to share with you about my family's experience. We lost Trenton Burger, my 15 year old son who was riding a e-bike, hit by a car and killed in June of this year in Bend. He was a kind, loving soul, a friend, a brother, an uncle, and a grandson to those that knew him. We will never get to see, talk to or even hug him ever again. I want to help and support e-bike safety and infrastructure to keep other families from going through this tragic experience!! 

"Please build the infrastructure we need to ensure that our children are safe. The Bend Bikeway before you tonight is part of ensuring that kids can get around our community independently and safely.  It's good for our climate, our kids' development, and our transportation system. But we need to hold ourselves to a higher standard as a community to ensure our kids are safe. 

"I commend the efforts to legislate more around e-bike safety and clarify the rules.  I plan to support those efforts.  This issue has many facets, and we need to address it from all aspects.  Building the Bend Bikeway and designing it so that it works, so that it is used by all kinds of people, and is maintained well, will make kids in our community safer. This is one thing the City can do to honor Trenton and the lives we have lost in our community.  

"Thank you for your time. 
"David W Burger"