OREGON AFSCME
e-lert
#16 ¥ May 1, 2009
Edited by Don Loving, Council 75 Public Affairs
Director
Happy May Day! "May Day" is
actually an interchangeable term for "International Workers' Day" in much of
the world — in other words, it's sort of the rest of the world's Labor
Day, which we of course celebrate in September. (No extra charge for this
tidbit!) Anyway, on to the e-lert
...
* * *
It's actually been pretty
quiet (relatively speaking) at the capitol this week, what with the legislative
"Road Show" continuing. The Legislature is essentially taking the day off
today, in fact. But as always, we have some odds and ends to tell you about ...
MENTAL HEALTH
PRIVATIZATION — AFSCME is
leading a big fight over HB 2989,
which includes language that addresses
community mental health, substance abuse and developmental disabilities
programs, asserting that if the Oregon Department of Human Services determines
that the program operated or contracted for by the county is not satisfactory,
DHS would "contract with another public agency or private corporation to
provide the program ...."
In other words, they want
to privatize county mental health services.
Out of the 36 Oregon
counties, currently half — 18 — are county-based mental health
operations, while the other 18 counties contract those services out to some
type of private, non-profit group. You know the drill in those situations: less
wages, less benefits, usually no union. HB 2989 would make it easier for other
counties to go down this road; Oregon AFSCME represents many county employees
in those 18 counties that maintain their own Mental Health Department.
Council 75 is on the
offensive on this issue. Oregon AFSCME Political Coordinator Ralph Groener is spearheading the effort with lots of help from
members. He recently met with Local 173 members at Polk County to organize a
letter-writing campaign to legislators regarding HB 2989, and to date that
group has already mailed over 200 missives to lawmakers. He has similar
"trainings" scheduled soon for Local 2831 (Lane County), Local 2064 (Benton
County) and Local 88 (Multnomah County), which all have large groups of mental
health employees.
"I show our members how to
reach out to others — friends, relatives, people from their church, etc.
— so that legislators are receiving letters from a wide variety of
constituents, not just from AFSCME members," said Groener.
If you are interested in more
details on this program, you can e-mail
Groener about it.
Groener is working in
conjunction with a new Council 75 sub-group calling itself DAWG — the
Disability Advocates & Workers Group. DAWG has identified several key
issues of concern regarding HB 2989, issues you can mention if you can lend a
hand and contact your legislator.
á
HB 2989 will drive a
race to the bottom, lowering wages and benefits, driving up turnover and
reducing the quality and consistency of services for vulnerable populations. We
have seen this descent many times already when services delivered by government
workers are outsourced to private corporations. Failures in resulting services
are well documented.
á
HB 2989 would water down
oversight, making our vulnerable populations yet more vulnerable. The state
already has the ability under law to audit and/or cite providers and their
contractors to resolve unsatisfactory services.
á
HB 2989 would add new
arbitrary and capricious standards. The bill contains no clear criteria for
what "not satisfactory" conditions could trigger outsourcing.
á
It is extremely
difficult to find interested, qualified and reputable providers. This
is evidenced by what transpired recently with mental health services by
Cascadia BHC, or developmental disabilities in Coos and Josephine Counties with
CLCM.
á
HB 2989 will further
drive down the quality of services and hurt our most vulnerable citizens.
You can access any Oregon
legislator through our Oregon
Legislature website tab. Also included there is a link to a program that
will find your legislators for you based on your home address if you're not
sure who they are.
* * *
DOC TRAINING FIGHT
CONTINUES — The ongoing battle
over SB 257 shows little sign of
letting up. As detailed earlier, SB 257 is a measure that would shift all
Department of Corrections training in-house and away from the Department of
Public Safety Standards and Training.
There was a small victory
this week in that Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Sen. Floyd Prozanski (D-Eugene) could not garner enough votes to move SB
257 to the Senate floor. However, he was able to sway enough "courtesy votes"
from his committee to refer the measure back to the office of Senate President Peter
Courtney (D-Salem) for reassignment.
Courtney will now be sending the bill to the Senate Rules Committee, which is
chaired by Sen. Richard Devlin
(D-Tualatin).
"I'll be meeting with Sen.
Devlin early next week to get a feel for where he's coming from on this bill,"
says Oregon AFSCME Political Coordinator Mary Botkin. "Historically Richard Devlin is a near 100 percent
AFSCME voter, but I don't know where he is on this bill and I have concerns
about the rest of the Senate Rules Committee."
As we noted in the last e-lert, Botkin and the union stymied an earlier attempt this
session to yank the DPSST training with a commitment from state Rep. Jeff
Barker (D-Aloha) not to move any such
bill through the House Judiciary Committee that he chairs. Barker, a retired
Portland Police Officer, understands the importance of outside, certified
training for law enforcement officers.
But SB 257 is a scheme by
several lawmakers to bypass Barker's committee. It is a "gut-and-stuff" Senate
budget bill, and as such, if passed by the Senate it will go to the Joint Ways
and Means Committee rather than to Barker's committee in the House.
+ Action Alert! — You can help us be proactive in fighting SB 257 by contacting
the members of the Senate Rules Committee. Tell them you're a member of AFSCME
(assuming you are, we have other folks on the e-lert list as well) and that you oppose SB 257 and any
other attempt to eliminate certified, independent training for Corrections
Officers. Here are e-mail links to members of that committee:
Sen.
Richard Devlin (D-Tualatin)
Sen.
Ted Ferrioli (R-John Day)
Sen.
Jason Atkinson (R-Jacksonville)
Sen.
Ginny Burdick (D-Portland)
Sen.
Rick Metsger (D-Welches)
Again, remember, you can
always find e-mail links for all legislators on the Oregon
Legislature tab on our website's Main Menu, as well as capitol phone
numbers.
* * *
OHSU BOARD SEAT BATTLE
CONTINUES — The fight over
legislation to create a designated labor position on the Oregon Health &
Science University's Board of Directors continued all week in the Oregon
Senate. Botkin and Oregon Nurses Association lobbyist Jack Dempsey spent the week visiting state senators in their
offices; the week before, a contingent of Local 328 representatives came to
Salem in an effort to spur the measure forward. AFSCME Local 328 represents over
4,000 members at OHSU.
"I think we have the votes to
get the bill out of its committee, but I'm not 100 percent sure we have the
votes yet on the Senate floor," said Botkin. "So we're still plugging away."
* * *
BALLOT MEASURE REFORM SET
TO MOVE — An omnibus bill we've
detailed earlier in the session, before it had a bill number assigned, appears
ready to go.
HB 2005 is the bill generated by Oregon Secretary of State Kate
Brown that will tighten the rules
regarding initiative petitions, signature gathering, signature sheet turn-in
dates, verification, etc. Oregon AFSCME Political Coordinator Joe Baessler expects it to move from the House Rules Committee
either on Monday (May 4) or Wednesday (May 6).
"Bottom line is that this
bill will make it harder for the 'bad people' to commit fraud," says Baessler.
"The bill includes some amendments we are OK with and it's ready to go. It has
almost universal support; the only opponents are Bill Sizemore and his ilk."
* * *
WELCOME BACK — Oregon AFSCME Political Coordinator Janice
O'Malley is back at the capitol
following maternity leave. And with that new mom perspective, she's jumped back
into the fray over child care.
O'Malley and
Baessler (who covered child care while O'Malley was out) are circling around to
Joint Ways and Means Committee members to discuss the child care budget, an
ongoing process that will continue into next week. And O'Malley says the time
is coming soon for Local 132 (Child Care Providers Together) members to join
the fray.
"We're going to
be calling on all Local 132 members very shortly to be contacting their
legislator and make a really big push for the budget," said O'Malley. "It's
critical that lawmakers begin to hear from the providers themselves."
* * *
CRITICAL 'GREEN' BILLS — Three bills being closely watched by the
"AFSCME Green Caucus" have reached a critical juncture at the Legislature. Here
is an update from Leslie Kochan of
Local 3336 (DEQ), a longtime AFSCME environmental activist and one of the Green
Caucus founding members.
There is an ever-growing body
of scientific evidence on the threat global warming poses to our forest, farms,
salmon, economy and communities. The following two bills will allow Oregon to
begin planning for and implementing measures that will help us achieve climate
goals adopted by the 2007 Legislature and build a clean energy economy that
will create good, family wage jobs and stabilize energy costs.
Senate Bill 80 — SB 80 provides the framework for Oregon to make the necessary
reductions in our global warming pollution. It establishes a Climate Council to
coordinate state efforts and shares planning between state agencies including
the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) whose employees are
represented by AFSCME Local 3336. Implementation of this bill will ensure that
Oregon develops the most effective strategies for reducing greenhouse gases.
Funding to implement this
bill is critical. Emphasize that the Legislature must get creative and find a
way to fund positions for the state agencies that will be responsible for
implementation. These represent a small number of positions and there are
options that will not require use of money from the General Fund. Also let your
legislator know that the agencies must maintain current authorities for
addressing greenhouse gases.
Please contact the members of
the Joint Ways and Means Committee; especially important are the chairs as well
as your representative if she/he is on the Committee. Senate members of Ways
and Means include Co-Chair Sen.
Margaret Carter (D-Portland), Sen.
Betsy Johnson (D-Scappoose), Sen.
Alan Bates (D-Ashland), Sen.
Fred Girod (R-Stayton), Sen. Rod
Monroe (D-Portland), Sen.
David Nelson (R-Pendleton), Sen.
Joanne Verger (D-Coos Bay), Sen.
Vicki Walker (D-Eugene), Sen.
Doug Whitsett (R-Klamath Falls) and Sen. Jackie Winters (R-Salem).
House members include Co-Chair Rep.
Peter Buckley (D-Ashland), Rep.
Nancy Nathanson (D-Eugene), Rep.
David Edwards (D-Hillsboro), Rep.
Larry Galizio (D-Tigard), Rep.
Bill Garrard (R-Klamath Falls), Rep. George Gilman (R-Medford), Rep. Bob Jenson (R-Pendleton), Rep. Betty Komp (D-Woodburn), Rep. Tina Kotek (D-Portland), Rep. Dennis Richardson
(R-Central Point), Rep. Chip
Shields (D-Portland and Rep.
Greg Smith (R-Heppner).
House Bill 2186 — HB
2186 is key to Oregon's strategy for making targeted, common sense reductions in
greenhouse gas emissions. The bill provides authority to reduce green house gas
emissions from transportation and to reduce the use of high potency greenhouse
gases in consumer and commercial products. It will allow the DEQ to develop
reduction strategies including a low carbon fuel standard and restrictions on
the unnecessary idling of trucks and commercial vehicles.
Business lobbyists argue that
the legislature is providing too much authority to DEQ to implement this bill.
Actually, the bill provides only very narrow, clearly defined authority to
implement a small number of very specific programs — the bill is
consistent with how the legislature has determined policy and agencies have
worked out details in the past.
The third bill the AFSCME
Green Caucus is keeping a close eye on right now is HB 2184, which institutes changes to the original Oregon
Bottle Bill.
The bottle bill was expanded
to include water bottles in the 2007 Legislature with an agreement to expand it
further this session. HB 2184 will add sports drinks, juices and similar
non-carbonated drinks beginning in 2013 and change the container refund value
from 5 cents to 10 cents beginning in 2017 if an 80 percent return rate goal is
not met.
Please emphasize to your
legislator that we do not want to wait another two years to expand the Oregon
Bottle Bill. Implementation takes several years as it is and we already have a
good system for addressing additional containers.
Please contact your House
representative and ask for her/his support on SB 2186 and 2184. Once again, you
can refer to the Council 75 website's Oregon
Legislature page for those e-mail links. Groener, incidentally, is the lead
lobbyist on any environmental-related bills for AFSCME.
* * *
CERTIFICATION
REQUIRED — O'Malley
also reports that HB 3780 was filed on the last day lawmakers could file a bill. It comes
from state Rep. Deborah Boone (D-Cannon Beach) and Rep. Carolyn Tomei (D-Milwaukie) and would require licensed
exempt pre-schools that watch pre-school aged children less than four hours at
a time to become certified. The concern, says O'Malley, is that such
pre-schools are not currently required to have background or health and safety
checks and are able to watch an unlimited number of children.
"You could be a
registered sex offender with a sex offender sticker on your door and underneath
it, have a sign that says, 'open for pre-school' the way the law is now," said
Boone.
Tom Olsen from the Oregon Child Care Division says
there are 500 to 1,000 of these pre-schools that the CCD knows of. Since there are a large number of
these schools, there is potential for a hefty fiscal impact due to inadequate
staffing levels at CCD to compensate the 500 to 1,000 more caseloads. As a
result, this bill might not even get out of committee. It does, however, have a
potential of bringing new members to Local 132.
* * *
Last two notes for this week
...
VOTE FOR CHUCK — Ballots began arriving today for the May 19
special election. If you are a registered voter in Multnomah County, we want to
call your attention to one key race — the at-large position on the
Multnomah ESD Board of Directors.
We have just the candidate
for you in that race: Chuck Moffit,
longtime Local 189 (City of Portland) activist, recently retired Council 75
Treasurer and now active member of AFSCME Retirees Local 155. Moffit is running
with the endorsement of AFSCME Local 1995, which represents employees at MESD;
the Oregon Education Association, which represents MESD teachers; and of course
Council 75.
You will recall that Local
1995 staged a nasty two-week strike at MESD in December 2007, so it's aboard
that definitely needs some new perspective when it comes to employee-employer
relations. So vote for Chuck!
* * *
Finally,
NEW ON OUR WEBSITE — There are two new features we'd like to draw
your attention to on the Council 75
website. The first one is hard to miss. It's our new "We Are Oregon
AFSCME" video, which debuted at the
Council 75 Convention last weekend. It's in "splash mode" right now, which
means you don't have to do anything — once you go to the website, it
starts playing in the upper right corner. So go check that out, and we'd love
to hear back from you what you think of the video. There is a stop button on
it, by the way, and it does quit once you click anywhere else on the site.
State employees take note, we have added a Central
Table Update tab to the Main Menu of the website. We will post information
on the ongoing bargaining with the state on the new contract for AFSCME-represented
state workers on that tab.
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