e-lert No. 13     ¥     May 17, 2013

Edited by Don Loving, Oregon AFSCME Communications Director

 

There was good news Thursday with the release of the state revenue forecast, up some $270 million. Good news, not great news — it doesn't mean the state's budget woes are over. Meanwhile the governor has a new plan to cut into PERS even further. It's received a tepid reception at the capitol thus far, and a very cold reception from PERS Coalition attorney Greg Hartman (pictured right). The session marches on ... welcome to this week's e-lert.

 

*   *   *

 

UPTICK — The long-awaited May revenue forecast was released Thursday, with state economists telling lawmakers there's an anticipated increase of $271 million in state coffers as the state's economy continues to slowly improve. About $115 million of that increase will be seen before the end of the current biennium, and $156 million more in 2013-15.

 

There's one glitch to the news: there's so much improvement the Oregon corporate kicker law may get triggered. That would cost the state $20.3 million. And should the economy get even better in the months ahead, that could trigger the state's personal kicker law, costing another $86 million.

 

For now, AFSCME is part of the ranks just happy to see increasing numbers.

 

"It's great that it's going up," says Council 75 Political Director Joe Baessler. "We all want to see a healthier, more robust Oregon economy. That's good for everyone.

 

"By the same token, this doesn't fix everything," Baessler cautioned. "It doesn't resolve all of the state's revenue issues. We've been cutting public safety, health and human services and K-12 education for 10 years, so there's still a lot of catching up to do. But for now, it's good news, and we'll move forward and see how the agency budget discussions go."

 

*   *   *

 

BEHIND THE SCENES — We are in the latter stages of the session, so things change quickly. But, for those who didn't see it, a Sunday Oregonian article on May 12 provided an excellent analysis of what's been happening behind the scenes at the state capitol, and helps substantiate what we've been saying the last couple of weeks about it being eerily quiet at the Legislature.

 

Granted, the article appeared before this week's news of revenue forecasts, new PERS proposals and such, but Oregonian reporters Harry Esteve and Christian Gaston outline how any potential revenue increase has been tied to further PERS cuts. Sequestered away, figuratively if not literally, have been eight key senators — four constituting a PERS work group, and the other four a revenue work group. The PERS foursome includes Sen. Richard Devlin (D-Tualatin), Sen. Ted Ferriioli (R-John Day), Sen. Tim Knopp (R-Bend) and Sen. Diane Rosenbaum (D-Portland). The revenue four are Sen. Lee Beyer (D-Springfield), Sen. Brian Boquist (R-Dallas), Sen. Ginny Burdick (D-Portlaand) and Sen. Larry George (R-Sherwood).

 

Of course, AFSCME and the PERS Coalition have long warned that the ideas the PERS half of the group is contemplating — changes to Money Match, the 6 percent pick-up and further COLA reductions, to name three — are unconstitutional and will be challenged by the unions in court.

 

Then there's the issue of the Oregon House. Even if the 16-14 Democrat majority Senate brokers a deal amongst itself, there's no guarantee that the House, with its much larger 34-26 D majority, will follow suit. But that's the backdrop under which most everything else at the capitol is revolving around currently.

 

*   *   *

 

GUV'S PROPOSAL — In what he called an effort to break the partisan deadlock and move to agreement on a final state budget, Gov. John Kitzhaber unveiled Wednesday — the day before the revenue forecast was released — a proposal to add $200 million more in revenue in exchange for deeper PERS cuts.

 

Kitzhaber proposed limits on Money Match for inactive members of PERS — people who are vested in the system but are not currently in PERS jobs. In combination with SB 822, already passed and signed, Kitzhaber's proposal would save an estimated $902 million. He said an advisory opinion from the attorney general, released separately, concluded that the changes are defensible against a legal challenge.

 

PERS Coalition attorney Greg Hartman strongly disagrees.

 

"There is no legal definition that separates active and inactive members," said Hartman. "You're a PERS member or you're not. This is an action we would certainly challenge in court."

 

Democratic leaders didn't necessarily embrace Kitzhaber's proposal, though they didn't run from it, either. Republican leaders said once again they want even more drastic cuts to PERS.

 

"It caught people's attention, that's for sure," said longtime Oregon AFSCME PERS lobbyist Mary Botkin. "I've heard from people the last 24 hours I haven't heard from in years — former members, mostly, still with money in PERS. My message to them is that we only know what Greg Hartman tells us: you can't separate inactive and active members under the law. Obviously the governor has heard from someone who feels differently.

 

"What happens next? It's wait-and-see time. Legislators have to digest both this proposal and the new revenue forecast. We are your eyes and ears here, we'll let you know."

 

*   *   *

 

HOSPITAL TAX DEBATE — If there was ever an indication of how entrenched some lawmakers are on the PERS issue, you need look no further than this week's debate on a hospital tax measure. Make no mistake, when you talk about "Big Business," hospitals are very big (and very profitable) businesses. So Tuesday saw the odd political theater of said big businesses lobbying for a hospital tax renewal, and having to fight somewhat to get it.

 

The Oregon House did approve the tax renewal measure May 14, a tax paid by hospitals and long-term care facilities. Why, up to this point in time, has everybody been eager to embrace the tax? Because it brings in a corresponding $1 billion in federal Medicare dollars. It's been the rare bipartisan no-brainer in recent sessions, yet it could face a rocky road in the Oregon Senate.

 

The issue is that some lawmakers want to frame the hospital tax as "raising revenue" and tie it to the debate over further cutting PERS. During floor debate, House Minority Leader Mike McLane (R-Powell Butte) said his caucus would vote to move the bill to the Senate, but only as a bargaining chip in the upper chamber, where the Democrat-to-Republican margin is razor thin.

 

"I'm going to vote yes today," McLane said, "so that [the Senate] can hopefully bring resolution on our budget impasse."

 

The 14 Senate Republicans have indicated they won't approve the hospital tax unless Democrats agree to additional PERS cuts. Rep. Nancy Nathanson (D-Eugene) told the Salem Statesman Journal that senators should not play politics and put more than $1 billion of federal health care funds at risk.

 

"We have hundreds of thousands of Oregonians who rely on services that would be in limbo," said Nathanson.

 

"This is an 'easy' bill that had 54 bipartisan votes in the House," says Baessler. "The Senate should do likewise, and not play politics on this one."

 

*   *   *

 

DELAYED BUT NOT DEAD — On the topic of health care-related issues, last week we told you that one of AFSCME's priority bills for 2013, HB 2279, would have a hearing May 13 before the Joint Ways and Means Human Services Subcommittee. That didn't happen after all.

 

HB 2279 is the measure that would allow local government jurisdictions — cities, counties and special districts — to join the statewide insurance pools of either PEBB, the Public Employees Benefits Board, or OEBB, the Oregon Educators Benefits Board.

 

Baessler says amendments are being constructed for HB 2279, and that a hearing will come once the amendments are completed.

 

"We want to present the committee with a finished product," said Baessler. "There have been a number of technical changes needed to the bill, and we're not quite finished with those. I still feel good about it's chances of passing, we just need to get all of the details hammered out."

 

*   *   *

 

PUBLIC SAFETY BUDGETS — One person closely eyeing the revenue forecast announcement was longtime Oregon AFSCME Public Safety lobbyist Mary Botkin. When viewed from an overall perspective — Corrections, DPSST, State Police, OEM and more — the public safety agencies AFSCME represents are some $85 million underfunded, roughly half being the DOC budget.

 

"The revenue forecast announcement is good news, but it doesn't mean our problem is over," said Botkin. "There's certainly no guarantee we're going to get $85 million of the additional $270 million. But we are diligently working to backfill as much of that money as we can, and an additional $270 million in the revenue forecast doesn't hurt, obviously."

 

Still, Botkin says that "officially," agencies are working under the presumption of a 10 percent cut. For the DOC, a 10 percent cut well exceeds the $40 million budget hole, so it's unlikely that Corrections faces the full brunt of its 10 percent cut list — which would include closing as many as seven prisons.

 

"The DOC cut list is divided into two 5 percent halves, but even the first 5 percent cut includes some prison closures," said Botkin. "Do I think they're going to go there at this point in time? No, but that's what's on the paper and we just have to work hard to get those backfill dollars."

 

Botkin says she can't even get a 10 percent cut list to look at from the Department of Public Safety Standards and Training, adding to her frustration.

 

"I don't even know what they're talking about there," she says, where Local 3955 represents about 100 DPSST employees. "We've cut so much at DPSST over the years they're working with a skeleton staff as is. I don't know how you cut more in that agency and still maintain its mission of properly training Oregon's public safety personnel, I truly don't. At OSP, everybody in the world wants more background checks, and we keep cutting the number of people who do those checks. At some point, something has to give."

 

*   *   *

 

OOPS — Botkin is also working with the Bureau of Labor and Industries (BOLI) to amend HB 2668, a public accommodations bill meant to protect people that was written too broadly.

 

"The premise of the bill is to protect people from the standpoint of race, religion, disabled, sexual orientation — a whole gamut of things in the context of public accommodations that on the surface are fine," said Botkin. "The problem is, the bill's language is so broad, as written it includes people in state prisons."

 

Botkin says amendments will take away legal standing for inmates.

 

"For example, an inmate could claim he has a painful knee and therefore not be able to be housed on the third floor on the west side of EOCI," said Botkin. "They already have avenues to deal with that, so we don't need to give inmates new standing to file frivolous claims that just waste time and money. It was inadvertent, and we'll fix it."

 

*   *   *

 

OSH FLOAT POOL — The much talked about measure to create a permanent float pool of nurse and aides at Oregon State Hospital continues to march forward, if slowly. Oregon AFSCME Political Coordinator Eva Rippeteau reports HB 3131 had a hearing in a Ways and Means subcommittee this week, and the bill appears to enjoy support.

 

"It's looking good," says Rippeteau. "Kudos to Rep. Brian Clem (D-Salem) for his continued support in ushering the bill through the process." OSH is in Clem's House district.

 

Rippeteau said questions from committee members were generally supportive in nature. Rep. Nancy Nathanson (D-Eugene) asked if such a pool already existed, but did so, says Rippeteau, to open the door for discussion of how OSH spends $20,000 per month on temporary workers. HB 3131 would essentially take all the money spent on temps and create permanent "float" or "relief" positions at the hospital, for both the RNs represented by AFSCME Local 3295 as well as the aides and other care staff represented by SEIU Local 503.

 

"There were also questions about fatigue factors and potential liability from so much mandatory overtime, so people are 'getting' it," said Rippeteau. "It's not just about the money. It was a good hearing; hopefully we'll see a work session scheduled soon and they'll move the bill."

 

*   *   *

 

FIRE TAX: DONE DEAL — The measure to increase Oregon's fire insurance premium tax (FIPT) from 1 to 1.15 percent is headed to the governor. HB 2084 passed the Senate this week, but not until after some nervous moments.

 

As detailed in earlier editions of the e-lert, the FIPT helps fund programs at three AFSCME-represented state agencies — Fire Marshal, State Police and DPSST. The small "tax increase" — you pay it when you pay your homeowners insurance — sailed through the House on a 59-1 vote earlier in the session. But in the Senate, veteran Council 75 Political Coordinator Ralph Groener says the bill got caught up in the revenue vs. PERS cuts debate.

 

With Sen. Betsy Johnson (D-Scappoose) still on the mend from her auto accident and absent from Salem, nothing can pass the Senate floor without at least one Republican vote. Groener says Sen. Jackie Winters (R-Salem) was outspoken that she was going to break ranks and vote for HB 2084; in the end Sen. Bruce Starr (R-Hillsboro) joined her, making the final margin 17-12.

 

"It was a session-long battle, but we saved about 90 jobs with this," says Groener. "I'd like to thank Sen. Winters in particular, she was supportive throughout and not afraid to say so."

 

*   *   *

 

QUICK HITS — The AFSCME-supported bill that makes changes to interim bargaining by moving such negotiations to mediation and, ultimately, arbitration, had a long public hearing this week that lasted into the evening. HB 2448 is opposed by many local governments; Baessler says they're not coy about admitting they use the current rules to get things they otherwise can't in regular bargaining. Columbia County, where AFSCME Local 697 represents Road Department employees and Local 1442 Courthouse workers, instigated 70 furlough days in recent years through interim bargaining. School districts have used the process to contract out positions, or change school schedules. "It was very much us (unions) vs. local government in the hearing" before the Senate General Government Committee says Baessler. The clock is now ticking for a work session to move the bill or not. ...

 

Rippeteau says Local 132 child care providers need to hit the phones and e-mails to urge legislators to move on Employment-Related Day Care (ERDC) funding). There is some money available. Providers, says Rippeteau, need to encourage lawmakers to both expand the list of ERDC-eligible families and increase the state subsidy rate, which has been static for several years. "This doesn't have to be either/or; they can do both," says Rippeteau. Remember you can always find a list of current legislators and their e-mail links on the Oregon Legislature tab of the Council 75 website. ...

 

Baessler and Botkin are both watching HB 2418, a measure that would allow "lead workers" in public safety collective bargaining units to come back into the bargaining unit. It appears to be a bill aimed primarily at those designated as sergeants in fire fighters units statewide, and apparently would have no impact on Corrections employees. (Indeed, Corrections sergeants are already in state bargaining units.) But because of the bill's language and relating clause, we are keeping a watchful eye. ...

 

*   *   *

 

Away from the capitol this week ...

 

ON THE RADIO — Coincidentally, two separate Oregon AFSCME campaigns will hit radio airwaves starting next week.

 

The first one has been in the works for some time. It's a three-month campaign to promote the public image of public/AFSCME-represented employees, and is the first fruit, so to speak, of the Council 75 Media Fund that was established at the 2011 Oregon AFSCME Convention.

 

Four ads featuring three AFSCME members per ad will rotate on a variety of radio stations statewide between Monday (May 20) and mid-July. They will soon be available for listening online at a still-being-constructed site within the Council 75 website; we should have more details and a link next week.

 

Oregon AFSCME Communications Director Don Loving coordinated the radio buy with Cappelli Miles, a labor-friendly public relations firm in Portland. The buy also includes sponsorship on Oregon Public Broadcasting's statewide network, which includes 35 OPB-affiliated public stations across the state.

 

The members featured in this round of ads, talking briefly about the work they do, include the following:

 

• Joyce Armstead, Local 191 (Oregon Youth Authority)

 

• Sheila Greer, Local 3997 (Deschutes County Library)

 

• Lisa Grimes, Local 132 (Child Care Providers)

 

• Kevin Hall, Local 1393 (Umatilla County Roads)

 

• Timothy Hall, Local 328 (OHSU)

 

• Debbie Hussey, Local 189 (City of Portland 911)

 

• Dinah Linville, Local 2619 (Southern Oregon Family & Child Council)

 

• Brian Kindred, Local 3512 (Willamalane Park District)

 

• Ana Potter, Local 3581 (Longterm Care Ombudsman)

 

• Rebecca Stricker, Local 3831 (Malheur County Public Health)

 

• Anton Wanous, Local 974 (Two Rivers Correctional Institution)

 

• Karen Williams, Local 3336 (DEQ)

 

In response to the potential of prison closures and other issues surrounding the Department of Corrections budget, Oregon AFSCME is also airing a one-week radio blitz next week (May 20-24) urging lawmakers to properly fund public safety budgets. Those ads will run heavily in the Ontario, Pendleton and Hermiston markets, home of the large state prisons, as well as in the Portland/Salem radio market.

 

"We would have loved to have used some DOC member voices in those ads, but the timing made that impossible from a production standpoint," says Loving. "The Corrections ads therefore feature a professional voice-over script. But they'll be effective."

 

*   *   *

 

ANDROID APP COMETH — An update from the Oregon AFSCME mobile app developers targets the first week of June for the Android version of the app to be available. The app is currently available in its iPhone version. As explained earlier, the apps were originally scheduled to be dually debuted at the 2013 Oregon AFSCME Convention in April, but a medical emergency to the Android developer threw that version off schedule. We'll let you Androiders know — you can also follow along on the Mobile App tab of the Oregon AFSCME website.

 

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e-lert No. 12     ¥     May 10, 2013

Edited by Don Loving, Oregon AFSCME Communications Director

 

Another quiet week as far as official news at the capitol, though it was a week rife with rumors and other rumblings. The May revenue forecast is coming out soon, that should help spur things along. The Senate is also treading water a bit while it waits for Sen. Betsy Johnson to return. Still, we have PERS news, Corrections news and more — including new Oregon AFSCME President Jeff Klatke (pictured right) speaking at a Portland rally. Welcome to this week's e-lert.

 

*   *   *

 

PERS RUMBLINGS — There are way more rumors than facts when it comes to PERS at the capitol right now. The bad news is that virtually every day brings whispers of secret meetings and tacit deals being discussed behind closed doors. There's widespread belief — though no proof — that enough Democratic senators are willing to look at a "second bite" at PERS to make people nervous. With a mere 16-14 count in the Senate, it doesn't take much crossover. The count begins at 34-26 in the House, making that a tougher chamber.

 

The good news is that nothing definitive has been announced, meaning as yet, at least, no one has enough votes to force the issue. Will that change, or will SB 822 — signed into law by Gov. John Kitzhaber this past Monday — be it for "PERS reform?" Only time will tell.

 

On the topic of SB 822, the PERS Coalition met Thursday with attorneys Greg Hartman and Aruna Masih to discuss the legal strategy in contesting SB 822. Obviously we can't report everything discussed in that meeting, though the coalition has made no secret of the fact it will contest SB 822 in court. The coalition has 60 days from the day that Kitzhaber signed the measure to file suit; translated that means by July 5. What we can say is this:

 

• A lawsuit will be filed;

 

• AFSCME will, as always, pay its fair share of the legal costs;

 

• There is a lot to be done to get the legal action properly lined up; so

 

• Don't be concerned if you don't hear about the suit being filed right away.

 

*   *   *

 

DOC BUDGET — So just exactly what are lawmakers doing with the Department of Corrections' budget behind closed doors? That's a multi-million dollar question that has longtime Oregon AFSCME Public Safety lobbyist Mary Botkin more than just a little curious.

 

Things should begin to clear up on all budgets beginning late next week. Next Thursday (May 16) the long-awaited May revenue forecast will be released by state economists. Such forecasts are issued quarterly, so the May forecast is the last one before lawmakers head home, which by constitution they must do by July 13.

 

As far as the DOC budget goes, Botkin is hearing all sorts of things. The most draconian would be requiring the agency to adhere to the published 10 percent cut list, a document that's been bandied about for some time. That document outlines cuts of $156.3 million and closes a half-dozen prisons.

 

The 10 percent cut document calls for Powder River Correctional Facility in Baker City, Warner Creek Correctional Facility in Lakeview and Mill Creek in Salem to be closed for the full 2013-15 biennium, with Shutter Creek Correctional Institution in North Bend to be closed for six months. Such action would eliminate 332 DOC positions and require releasing 1,284 inmates. And's that's only part one of the cut list. Part two would close Shutter Creek for the full biennium, along with Columbia River Correctional Institution in Portland, Santiam Correctional Institution in Salem and the South Fork prison camp near Tillamook. Those closures would ax another 259 jobs and release another 1,237 inmates.

 

The Legislature is not going to close seven prisons and release 2,521 inmates between now and July 1. If nothing else, the logistics would make such action impossible. For one thing, the DOC doesn't have the authority to release inmates early — such action would have to be determined on a case-by-case basis by judges.

 

"But, this list is indicative of what kind of thinking agencies are being forced to do," says Botkin. "Someone from the Oregon Department of Corrections was required to put this plan on paper. Once it's on paper, it's a 'real' document. So we continue to be vigilant and inquisitive as we try to figure out what's going on."

 

*   *   *

 

MORE BUDGET WOES — It's not just the DOC budget that has Botkin cranky. Any public safety budget in general is feeling the heat from a shrinking state General Fund, the pot of dollars that pays for K-12 education and public safety.

 

"This is the fourth session in a row where we've seen significant public safety cuts with very little buy back," says Botkin. "It's frustrating when legislators can't seem to connect the dots."

 

Botkin cites the issue of background checks as an example.

 

"Every session, we add to the long list of people needing a background check, whether it's for buying a gun or working with children somewhere or whatnot," said Botkin. "But we never increase the funding for staff that are doing these background checks, which happen to be our members at Local 896 in the Oregon State Police non-sworn unit.

 

"Background checks are going to take longer and longer to do. I'm not making a political statement here, but gun sales will be down, for example, because those background checks simply won't be timely. We're also damaging our sex offender registry system."

 

Botkin is waiting to see a 10 percent cut list for DPSST, although she notes, "They are operating on a skeleton crew there already. I don't see how they can train anyone there in a timely fashion, either." AFSCME Local 3955 represents DPSST employees.

 

*   *   *

 

BIG MONDAY HEARING — One of AFSCME's priority bills for 2013, HB 2279, will have a hearing May 13 before the Joint Ways and Means Human Services Subcommittee. HB 2279 is the measure that would allow local government jurisdictions — cities, counties and special districts — to join the statewide insurance pools of either PEBB, the Public Employees Benefits Board, or OEBB, the Oregon Educators Benefits Board.

 

Council 75 Political Director Joe Baessler says HB 2279's path through the session has been delayed both by needed amendments and a bit by politics.

 

"There were several technical changes we needed to make to the bill, and I'm not sure all of those are ironed out yet," sad Baessler. "There are also some people who have concerns about OEBB in general, if not about the bill specifically, so we've had to work to smooth some of that over. But I'm still optimistic that the bill will eventually move."

 

Under HB 2279, local government jurisdictions could join PEBB, which currently covers state employees, or OEBB, which is a statewide teachers benefit board. PEBB only offers a couple of plans and they are relatively more expensive; AFSCME-represented local governments may well look more to OEBB, which offers a wider variety of plans and plan costs to various sized school districts statewide.

 

"It's all about making the pools bigger and spreading the risk," said Baessler. "This is a good concept that we've pushed for three sessions now. Hopefully tis is the session we see it pass."

 

*   *   *

 

FIPT MOVES — One of the few "tax increases" you may see out of this session involves the Fire Insurance Premium Tax (FIPT). Three AFSCME-represented state agencies get a piece of FIPT money: Fire Marshal, State Police and Department of Public safety Standards and Training.

 

HB 2084 would increase the FIPT from 1 to 1.15 percent. You pay the FIPT as part of your homeowners fire insurance policy. Oregon AFSCME Political Coordinator Ralph Groener has been shepherding HB 2084 all session. It's already successfully passed the House, and with a testimonial assist from Groener, it passed a Senate committee on Monday. HB 2084 should move to the full Senate floor soon.

 

*   *   *

 

NP EQUALITY — Council 75 is helping the Oregon Nurses Association work HB 2902, one of that organization's priority bills that would also impact some Oregon AFSCME members.

 

HB 2902 calls for nurse practitioners to receive equal pay from insurance companies as doctors do if they perform the same task. Currently, many insurance companies reimburse doctors at a higher rate. Oregon AFSCME represents a smattering of nurse practitioners statewide, most of them in county health departments.

 

"We're not making nurse practitioners doctors, they can't all of a sudden do major surgery on people," says Baessler. "However, in instances where they are doing the exact same job, they should receive equal pay. That's the bill, plain and simple."

 

*   *   *

 

QUICK HITS — One other PERS note. Botkin wants to reassure those with "inactive" PERS accounts that Hartman says state law is clear that legislators cannot treat inactives differently than active members. Inactive members are those who have a vested PERS account, but are not currently working in a PERS position. (A number of AFSCME staff fall into this category, for example.) Hartman says the law is clear that once you're a member, you're a member — inactive vs. active doesn't matter. Amongst the many PERS rumors was an alleged attempt to come after inactives and lower their accounts' return rate.

 

HB 2448, the union's expedited bargaining bill that's been highlighted in the e-lert several times previously, is scheduled for a Senate hearing on May 15.

 

The regular media made a big deal out of SB 565 passing. It allows public safety officers at OHSU to be armed; those officers are Local 328 members. Several media outlets insisted on calling them "guards."

 

Sen. Betsy Johnson (D-Scappoose) continues her recovery from a car accident that resulted in a broken pelvis. She has participated recently via telephone in committee hearings, but there's no word on when she'll be able to rejoin her colleagues (in a wheelchair) on the Senate floor. Oregon's Constitution requires Johnson to be physically present to vote on the floor. Without her, Democrats are one vote shy of the 16 needed to pass legislation in the Senate, so most bills moved in the upper chamber right now are of the less controversial ilk and have some measure of bipartisan support.

 

*   *   *

 

Away from the Capitol ...

 

CORRECTIONS WEEK — Oregon AFSCME was proud to join with many others in saluting May 6-10 as National Corrections Employees Week. Council 75 is the largest union of Corrections employees in Oregon. Nationwide, AFSCME represents 62,000 correctional officers and 23,000 other correctional employees, again making it the largest union of Corrections employees in the U.S.

 

"On behalf of Oregon AFSCME and AFSCME International, I want to congratulate and salute all of our Corrections employees," said Council 75 Executive Director Ken Allen, who also serves as an AFSCME International Vice President. "We are proud to represent you, both Security and Security Plus member, and recognize the difficult jobs you do."

 

Oregon AFSCME Corrections Coordinator Tim Woolery, an 18-year DOC employee himself, and newly elected Council 75 President Jeff Klatke toured state prisons this week to personally meet with the union's members.

 

"This is a great opportunity for me to get out and acknowledge our Corrections members," said Klatke, elected president April 20 at the biennial Oregon AFSCME Convention. "I'm proud that my first 'road trip' as president is to the prisons to greet our DOC members first hand."

 

"Those of us who have worked 'inside the walls' understand there's no letting down, that's it's truly 'Corrections Week' 52 weeks a year," said Woolery. "That said, it is nice to pause and reflect on the important work our members do, so I add my voice in saluting all of our AFSCME-represented DOC employees."

 

From Washington, D.C., AFSCME International President Lee Saunders weighed in as well.

 

"We will never forget the life-and-death struggles that define the vital service you provide," said Saunders. "Because we will never forget, we will continue the fight for the public safety officers on the job today. The courage and commitment shown by our members reflect what is best about our country."

 

National Corrections Employees Week was first designated by President Reagan in 1984.

 

*   *   *

 

SEEKING DAMAGES — Klatke, in his role as the new Oregon AFSCME President, was a featured speaker May 3 at a downtown Portland rally on the topic of big banks causing big losses for State of Oregon investments, notably to PERS and SAIF. The rally was primarily sponsored by the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), but AFSCME and several other organizations chipped in as co-sponsors.

 

At issue are the 16 largest world banks and LIBOR — the London Inter-Bank Offered Rate. To oversimplify, LIBOR is an internal rate set every day by the British Bankers' Association based on an average of the interest rates that each LIBOR-member bank reports it "could" borrow money from other LIBOR banks. It is not based on actual interest rates, but is self-certified by the LIBOR banks. The end result is that the rates banks charge each other are manipulated, to the detriment of states, cities, school districts and public pension funds that have billions of financial securities, loans and derivatives tied to the LIBOR banks.

 

An analysis by SEIU researchers say losses from LIBOR manipulations cost the State of Oregon's accounts over $110 million. In part, the rally was to ask people to sign petitions asking Kitzhaber to sue in an attempt to recover that money. Three U.S. banks — Bank of America, Citibank and JP Morgan Chase — are involved in LIBOR. The rally was held outside a downtown Portland B of A branch.

 

"AFSCME calls upon the governor to coordinate an effort with local governments to research how much taxpayer money was stolen by these banks, like Bank of America, because of their unconscionable and illegal manipulation of the global investment market," said Klatke at the rally. "We also urge the state to try to bring a unified legal action, by all levels of government, against the banks who participated in this manipulation of the world's investment market."

 

SEIU has set up an online petition that we encourage AFSCME members to sign.

 

*   *   *

 

CHANGING OF THE GUARD — Veteran Council 75 Staff Representative Stacy Chamberlain is Oregon AFSCME's new representative on the PEBB Board of Directors. PEBB, the Public Employee Benefits Board, administers health care coverage for all state employees. Chamberlain replaces longtime AFSCME staff rep Diane Lovell as Council 75's representative on PEBB; Lovell served in that capacity for many years.

 

Chamberlain was recently appointed to the PEBB Board by Kitzhaber. She is excited about the opportunity to serve on the board.

 

"It's an extremely important position, to be representing our members in this role," said Chamberlain. "I have represented members on a number of labor/management health benefit review committees at the city and county levels. My focus on these committees has been on representing the members' interests to maintain quality health care for them and their families."

 

You can catch the rest of the Chamberlain article on the Council 75 website.

 

*   *   *

 

SPECIAL ELECTION — We close this edition of the e-lert with a reminder that we are in the midst of a quiet statewide special election on Tuesday, May 21. As with all Oregon elections, it's vote-by-mail. You should have received your ballot by now, and that ballot is due back no later than 8 p.m. on Election Day. (If you have not yet received a ballot, you should contact your county elections office immediately.)

 

Please remember that postmarks don't count, so mail ballots no later than May 17. After May 17, you should drop them in officially designated ballot drop boxes. Each county's elections website will list such locations for that county.

 

Due to timing issues regarding the Oregon AFSCME Convention, the pending appointment of a new Council 75 Political Action Committee and other factors, we did not make any formal endorsements in this special election cycle. However, we do want to let you know that there are four Oregon AFSCME members (that we know of) running for various offices. They include:

 

• Jackson County Fire District Board, Position 3 — Ralph Browning of Local 2621 (City of Medford).

 

• Lane Education Service District, Position 3 — Cj Mann of Local 3267 (Lane County Housing & Community Services Agency)

 

• Southwestern Oregon Community College Board, Position 4 — Renee Menkens of Local 328 (Oregon Health & Science University)

 

• Southwestern Oregon Community College Board, Position 5 — Julie Kremers of Local 2892 (City of Coos Bay)

 

Portland area voters take note: while, again, AFSCME did not issue any endorsements for the May 21 election, our brothers and sisters at the Portland Association of Teachers did in both the Portland Public Schools and Multnomah ESD board races. AFSCME Local 1995 represents a variety of teacher aides and other employees at MESD. We have agreed to pass along the PAT's endorsement list for your consideration:

 

• MESD, Position 2 — Nels Johnson

 

• MESD, Position 4 — Francisco Acosta, Jr.

 

• Portland Public Schools, Zone 4 — Steve Buel

 

• Portland Public Schools, Zone 5 — Pam Knowles

 

• Portland Public Schools, Zone 6 — Tom Koehler

 

 

e-lert No. 11     ¥     May 3, 2013

Edited by Don Loving, Oregon AFSCME Communications Director

 

So, we have to tell you, it has been eerily quiet at the capitol this past week. Too quiet, in fact. That means you're getting a very abbreviated e-lert, as there simply wasn't much to report this week. Indeed, the most buzz in the building came Thursday when representatives of the Portland-based TV show "Grimm" and others from the Oregon film industry set up shop near the capitol kiosk, leading to this week's photo op with Mary Botkin and a miscellaneous werewolf (right). No word on whether he was an R or a D, but he and Mary seemed to hit it off. Anyway, welcome to this week's e-lert.

 

*   *   *

 

UP TO NO GOOD? — It was, as mentioned, a strangely quiet state capitol building this past week.

 

"There's nobody here, at least relatively speaking," says veteran Oregon AFSCME Political Coordinator Ralph Groener. "There are Ways and Means subcommittees doing budget work here and there, but most of the other committees are shut down. It worries you a little bit, because you don't know what kinds of deals are going on behind closed doors."

 

Council 75 Political Coordinator Mary Botkin agrees.

 

"I'm hearing that the Department of Corrections budget, for example, may be facing anywhere from a 10 to 20 percent cut, but we just can't seem to pin anything down," she said. "It's a very unusual session in that regard."

 

Traditionally, state budgets really start to take shape after lawmakers receive the May revenue forecast, the last big forecast they see before adjournment. That document will be released May 16, so expect the pace to pick up quickly after that date.

 

*   *   *

 

BE POISED FOR PERS ACTION — Both Botkin and Oregon AFSCME Political Director Joe Baessler are hearing persistent rumors that some legislators from both parties are pushing hard for a "second bite at the PERS apple" following the passage of SB 822, a measure many detractors derided as "PERS Lite." 

 

SB 822 included two components AFSCME opposed. One was scaling back retirees' annual cost-of-living adjustments on a pro-rated basis, depending on the amount of a retirees' annual benefit. SB 822 also ended the tax offset for out-of-state retirees.

 

But, as reported in last week's e-lert, a deal for more state revenue that was tied to SB 822 blew up at the last minute, and now some lawmakers want deeper PERS cuts in trade for revenue votes.

 

"We're talking about the final average salary formula, the 6 percent pick-up, anything you can think of," said Baessler. "They seem willing to take a 'shotgun' approach, tinkering a little bit with as many PERS issues as they can, waiting to see what the courts say. We're then concerned they'll come back even harder in the 2013 and/or 2014 sessions if the courts give them a little wiggle room on certain issues."

 

With a slim 16-14 Democrat majority in the Senate — and with Sen. Betsy Johnson (D-Scappoose) still out of commission due to an auto accident — the upper chamber only needs one or two senators to cross the lines to move more PERS "reform." It'll be a tougher go in the House.

 

"We need members to be prepared and poised for action on PERS," said Baessler. "It's not quite time yet — we need to see something solid. But my suspicion is that we are going to see something soon, and we're going to need member engagement — letters, e-mails and phone calls. It's relatively lae in the session, so when that call comes, please respond ASAP."

 

*   *   *

 

THE 'GOOD' TAX CREDIT — One bill that will be apparently moving soon is HB 2407, which would extend Oregon's one-of-a-kind political tax credit. Since 2009, all tax credits are up for periodic review before the Legislature. AFSCME welcomes this review and feels strongly the state gives away too much money in unwarranted tax breaks. The political tax credit, however, is one that should stay on the books.

 

Oregon allows a $50 state credit for single filers, and $100 for couples. That's a tax credit, not a deduction — it comes right off of your taxes owed at the end of your tax form. It's also one of the reasons the union's PEOPLE program is so popular among Oregon AFSCME members.

 

"It's not the sole reason, but it's a motivator to be sure," says Baessler. "The law does not allow us to spend dues money on federal candidates, so voluntary PEOPLE contributions allow us to help in U.S. congressional races, for example. And in Oregon, PEOPLE contributors get the $50 or $100 tax credit, so in many instances they are simply 'loaning' the money. So it works for us, and it works for many causes all over the political spectrum in our state. It helps people be engaged, which is a good thing and we support that."

 

*   *   *

 

GUT 'N STUFF — This is the time of the year at the Legislature when you start hearing the phrase "gut and stuff." It's a process lawmakers use to take a bill with a correct relating clause (all bills have such a clause in their preamble; "related to PERS," for example) and strip all other language out and amend it with language of their own on that topic. It happens as sessions wind down because the deadline has passed to initiate new legislation, so the only other option is to find an existing bill with the right relating clause and "gut and stuff" it.

 

That happened this week to HB 2480, originally an AFSCME bill that would have asked for all options for local governments to raise their own revenue to be reviewed periodically, much like tax credits are currently. Baessler says that idea is gone now, and HB 2480 has been amended to allow counties to review and instigate options on local property tax discounts.

 

"Currently all counties operate under the same rules, said Baessler. "If you pay your full amount due up front, you get a 3 percent discount. The percentage goes down the longer you wait to pay. But we have different counties with drastically different financial needs, so the 'new' HB 2480 would change that."

 

The new language would allow each county to set its own discount parameters. A cash-strapped county like Josephine, for example, could decide the early payment discount is only 2 percent, thereby putting a few more shekels in the county coffers.

 

"It's about local control, and understanding what works for one county doesn't necessarily work best for another," said Baessler. "If the discount goes down, will people still be motivated to pay early? We think so, it's still a discount. But this would allow each of our 36 counties to review the bonus system and make local decisions. And understand, those taxes are divvied up down the line, so it's also possibly more income for cities, schools and local special districts.

 

"Generally speaking, you're usually not happy when one of your bills gets 'gut and stuffed.' In this case, I think we're OK."

 

*   *   *

 

A GRIMM DAY AT THE CAPITOL — As mentioned in the lead in, a whole bunch of different folks from Oregon's film and TV industries were at the capitol Thursday to support HB 2267, which would extend the state's tax credits for such in-state endeavors. The folks from "Grimm" were the most popular, though none of the show's stars were on hand — mostly technicians, videographers, extras and reportedly one director.

 

"I don't think we (AFSCME) have a formal position on HB 2267," said Botkin with a laugh as she received her werewolf hug, "but I personally support it because my former next-door neighbor has a small recurring role on 'Grimm.' It was pretty cool the first time I saw him."

 

*   *   *

 

Away from the capitol ...

 

LIBOR AND LABOR — New Oregon AFSCME President Jeff Klatke spoke this morning (Friday) at a downtown Portland rally on the topic of big banks causing losses for State of Oregon investments, notably to PERS and SAIF. The rally was sponsored by the Service Employees International Union against the 16 largest world banks known as LIBOR — the London Inter-Bank Offered Rate.

 

An analysis by SEIU researchers say losses from LIBOR manipulations cost the state's accounts over $110 million. In part, the rally was to ask people to sign petitions asking Gov. John Kitzhaber to sue in an attempt to recover that money. Three U.S. banks — Bank of America, Citibank and JP Morgan Chase — are involved in LIBOR. The rally was held outside a downtown Portland B of A branch.

 

"AFSCME calls upon the governor to coordinate an effort with local governments to research how much taxpayer money was stolen by these banks, like Bank of America, because of their unconscionable and illegal manipulation of the global investment market," said Klatke at the rally. "We also urge the state to try to bring a unified legal action, by all levels of government, against the banks who participated in this manipulation of the world's investment market."

 

*   *   *

 

NEW AFSCME PEBB PERSON — Veteran Council 75 staff rep Stacy Chamberlain is Oregon AFSCME's new representative on the PEBB Board of Directors. PEBB, the Public Employee Benefits Board, administers health care coverage for all state employees.

 

Chamberlain was recently appointed to the PEBB Board by Gov. Kitzhaber. She is excited about the opportunity to serve on the board.

 

"It's an extremely important position, to be representing our members in this role," said Chamberlain. "I have represented members on a number of labor/management health benefit review committees at the city and county levels.  My focus on these committees has been on representing the members' interests to maintain quality health care for them and their families.

 

"I'm looking forward to bringing a fresh set of eyes to this process — a fresh perspective," Chamberlain continued. "The issue of health care is very fluid and rapidly changing. You've got the national debate over President Obama's plan, then here in Oregon we have PEBB, we have legislative proposals to allow local governments into PEBB, we have the Oregon Health Plan and the relatively new health care exchange — there's a lot going on and a lot to keep up with. But I pledge to do the best possible job for our members — that will be my top priority on the board."

 

Chamberlain has been an AFSCME staff representative for eight years. Her prior experience includes time as a legislative assistant for Randy Leonard when he was in the Oregon Senate, so she understands how the state capitol works. In law school she worked as the Lead Law Clerk at the Oregon U.S. Attorney's Office. As an attorney she practiced labor law before coming to work for Council 75 and is still licensed attorney. Her father is Oregon AFL-CIO President Tom Chamberlain, himself a former lobbyist for the Oregon State Fire Fighters Council, so she has deep labor and political roots.

 

Chamberlain replaces longtime AFSCME staff rep Diane Lovell as Council 75's representative on PEBB; Lovell served in that capacity for many years.

 

 

e-lert No. 10     ¥     April 26, 2013

Edited by Don Loving, Oregon AFSCME Communications Director

 

We are back from our one-week sabbatical due to the Oregon AFSCME Convention (see below) and there are lots of things we could talk about. But, everything at the capitol has been overshadowed in the past few days by the dual debate on PERS and revenue, which at this point in the session are hopelessly intertwined. So, that's where we'll begin ... plus other odds and ends, including notice of member Kevin Turner (pictured right) winning a prestigious Oregon award. Welcome to this week's e-lert.

 

*   *   *

 

PERS & REVENUE, THE PERS PIECE — We've been talking for several weeks about SB 822, the "PERS reform" legislation conjured up by Joint Ways and Means Committee Co-Chairs Sen. Richard Devlin (D-Tualatin) and Rep. Peter Buckley (D-Ashland). It passed the Senate earlier on a strict party line vote, with much the same outcome April 24 in the House.

 

As a quick reminder, SB 822 includes two components AFSCME opposes. One is scaling back retirees' annual cost-of-living adjustments on a pro-rated basis, depending on the amount of a retirees' annual benefit. SB 822 also ends the tax offset for out-of-state retirees.

 

(Most) Republicans have dubbed SB 822 as "PERS Lite" and refused to vote for it, calling for a "more stout" measure — yes, lawmakers seem to have beer on their minds. The GOP is calling for passage of SB 754, a measure brought forward by the Oregon School Boards Association that makes much deeper cuts into PERS. We articulated this vote-counting conundrum in an earlier e-lert: AFSCME is opposed to SB 822, the Democrats are all voting the "wrong" way and most Republicans are voting the "right" way — but for all the wrong reasons.

 

Following more than an hour of floor debate April 24, SB 822 passed on a 33-27 vote. One legislator to publicly vote "No" for the right reasons was veteran Rep. Bob Jenson (R-Pendleton), who termed the bill "fundamentally unfair." Jenson taught high school and community college and is an Oregon PERS retiree himself, and he makes no apologies for that fact.

 

"One of the things that kept me in Oregon was the contract I thought I had with the state of Oregon, a contract I thought was sacred," Jenson told his colleagues on the House floor.

 

The PERS Coalition, of which AFSCME is a founding member, has vowed to take SB 822 to court immediately after it is signed by Gov. John Kitzhaber. Between now and the end of session, Council 75 Political Director Joe Baessler says the union's goal to block any attempt at a second bite at the PERS apple.

 

"We were opposed to any illegal attempt 'reform' PERS, but it was an unstoppable train," said Baessler. "We'll address it in court with our PERS Coalition partners. Our job now is to protect our members from anything else regarding PERS this session."

 

*   *   *

 

PERS & REVENUE, THE REVENUE PIECE — Joined at the hip with all talk about PERS and SB 822 at the capitol was HB 2456, the Democrats' measure to raise $275 million in additional state General Fund revenue. The core of HB 2456 included raising taxes on the 2.4 percent wealthiest Oregonians and on a small percentage of very large corporations.

 

But tax increase packages need a three-fifths majority in the House, not a simple majority, meaning the 34 Democrats needed two Republicans to get to 36 votes. But the D's did not get those two GOP votes, and an amended, very watered-down version of HB 2456 that only raises some $16 million eventually passed.

 

"Yesterday afternoon I had the votes," a frustrated House Speaker Tina Kotek (D-Portland) told the media. "This morning I didn't." She did not elaborate on which Republican members changed their minds.

 

"Obviously, the package fell apart at the last second," said Oregon AFSCME Political Director Joe Baessler. "It's disappointing that lawmakers could not pass a bill based on overall tax fairness and the need to address the funding problems of our state. However, it is good to know the majority of lawmakers did support a fair revenue package that would have supported school public safety and heath care. They were blocked by a minority that cares more about corporations and the rich than regular Oregonians."

 

Baessler says union members need to band together for action in the coming days.

 

"The House chose to only grab at some very easy, low-hanging fruit," Baessler said of the amended HB 2456, which simply tightened some tax loopholes for out-of-country accounts. "The $16 million gained doesn't even pay for issues that need to be addressed at the Oregon State Hospital, let alone anything else on the plate."

 

HB 2456 heads to the Senate, and legislators from all over the spectrum expect the upper chamber to address the tax situation again via the bill, rather than simply voting it up or down. But Senate Republicans have been adamant that they'll refuse to add revenue unless there are further cuts to PERS, something AFSCME just as adamantly opposes. 

 

"We need our members to contact their legislators — both representatives and senators — and tell them to fix the budget, but not on the backs of public employees and retirees," said Baessler. "Why are we capping the COLAs of fixed-income retirees making maybe $30,000 but not addressing tax breaks for the wealthiest Oregonians or ultra-big corporations? That's the question they need to answer."

 

On the Oregon Legislature tab or the Council 75 website you'll find direct e-mail links to all current legislators, as well as a "find your legislator" link if you don't know who your elected officials are.

 

*   *   *

 

MAJOR VICTORY — Here's something that hasn't happened a lot during this frequently fractured session: a unanimous vote. And it came on an AFSCME-sponsored Corrections bill, carried on the House floor by Rep. John Huffman R-The Dalles).

 

The measure is HB 3245, which we've detailed in previous editions of the e-lert. The bill, pushed by Local 2376 (Corrections Security Plus) President Ron Thompson is designed to keep inmates in the building trades apprenticeship program toeing the straight and narrow line.

 

Longtime AFSCME Corrections lobbyist Mary Botkin notes that many inmates participate in apprenticeship programs while serving their sentences — electricians, plumbers, etc. Depending on the length of their incarceration, they can reach journeyman status while in prison, giving them a foot up in securing honest employment when they're released. But ... sometimes there can be issues.

 

Most inmates follow the rules, but as Thompson points out, "these are inmates — by definition, they're not always trustworthy." In an effort to save money, the DOC will sometimes use journeyman-level inmates to fix things. Those inmates are supervised from a security standpoint — sometimes by a Security member, but frequently by members from Thompson's Security Plus bargaining unit. But such supervision doesn't mean the process is free from occasional mischief.

 

"Our members doing the supervision aren't necessarily electricians or plumbers or whatnot," said Botkin. "So while they 'supervise' the work from a security standpoint, they don't know if the inmate is doing the work correctly. There are times the work is done wrong inadvertently, and sometimes the inmate may be doing something on purpose — cross-wiring a light switch so it blows later, for example."

 

HB 3245 requires such work to be overseen by a trades person from that particular discipline — people that are already on the DOC payroll. It passed 60-0 on April 25 and is headed to the Senate.

 

*   *   *

 

FORWARD PROGRESS? — We've been following the sojourn of HB 2024 all session long. It's the measure that would expand assault on staff charges at Oregon State Hospital the to the third degree level, an action the AFSCME-represented RNs of Local 3295 have been seeking for many years. But last week House Judiciary Chair Rep. Jeff Barker (D-Aloha) opened his committee by announcing HB 2024 was not going to be heard "because it's no longer needed." The reason? Sen. Jackie Winters (R-Salem), said Barker, had found money to cover the cost of an additional Deputy District Attorney for Marion County to prosecute cases under current law.

While Oregon AFSCME Political Coordinator Eva Rippeteau says the OSH nurses had hoped for the increased penalty, they still see funding for the DA position as a win.

 

"Without funding for the prosecutor, crimes at any level would still go unpunished and they would be right back in the same place," said Rippeteau.

 

Local 3295 President Frank Warner is hopeful the work on HB 2024 has helped the issue turn a corner.

"The staff at the state hospital have been working for years on getting the DA to prosecute through legislation and have hit dead ends because of lack of funds and general unease over prosecuting patients of the state hospital," said Warner. "Having Sen. Winters get funding for a DA position to even begin prosecuting assaults is a first step in this long process.

 

"Too many of those who knowingly cause harm to other patients and staff at the state hospital do so because they know they can get away with it," Warner continued. "Now we will have a DA dedicated to work on these cases and hopefully the cycle of violence will end." Read more ...

 

Even with HB 2024 now off the table, Rippeteau termed the situation "a big win." She notes that when HB 2024 was originally heard back in February, several groups questioned both the bill's necessity and the DA piece, saying that more funding was needed to prosecute the crimes. Rippeteau credits Local 3295 members Deb Morse-Little and Mary Lou San Blise, in particular, for helping change people's minds after meeting with Marion County District Attorney Walt Beglau and other measure opponents.

 

Underscoring the need for something to happen, AFSCME and SEIU-represented staff have even started an Oregon State Hospital Staff Injuries Facebook page. But again, even without passage of HB 2024, Rippeteau says members feel good about what's happened.

"Those who had originally been opposed got to a place of yes and two options came open," she said. "We could have amended HB 2024 to allow the Marion County DA to charge the county where the patient charged with assault resides for the cost of prosecution, or we could go with what was then a rumored plan to fund a local DA position. Rep. Barker agreed to keep HB 2024 on the table until we were able to confirm with Sen. Winters that funding a local DA position for the prosecutions was indeed in the works.

 

"That happened, and we're good."

 

Rippeteau cautions that as with all things in the legislature, things are not officially a done deal until the governor signs it into law. But that does not seem to be an issue for the new DA position.

 

*   *   *

 

PRO-ORGANIZING BILL PASSES — A measure that will help public employees form unions (!) has passed the Oregon House. HB 3342 prohibits public employers from assisting, promoting or deterring union organizing and from using public property to hold meetings with employees or supervisors if the purpose of the meeting is to assist, promote or deter union organizing. It was carried on the House floor by Rep. Michael Dembrow (D-Portland).

 

"It's a 'neutrality' bill, but in essence it helps us," says Baessler. "I really want to note all of the work that Oregon AFL-CIO Legislative and Communications Director Elana Guiney did to move this bill. Its passage is a credit to her."

 

The measure further prohibits public employers from discharging, demoting, harassing or otherwise taking adverse action against individuals seeking to enforce provisions of the bill, and also requires the Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries to enforce the measure. Baessler notes the bill also allows existing unions to process unit clarifications via card check — that is, if a majority sign a petition to be included no election needs to be held. The bill now moves on to the Senate.

 

*   *   *

 

DEQ VIP ISSUES — Longtime readers of the e-lert will remember the days when the Oregon DEQ's Vehicle Inspection Program (VIP) was a major battle every session. For years, privateers tried to contract out the agency's vehicle emission testing program. On behalf of its DEQ members at Local 3336, AFSCME successfully fought off numerous attempts to privatize VIP throughout the 1990s and into this century.

 

While he's been primarily focused on revenue issues the past fortnight, veteran Council 75 Political Coordinator Ralph Groener has worked on VIP-related issues as well.

 

"There have been three issues, and I believe they're all pretty well put to bed now," says Groener. "One, Rep. Kevin Cameron (R-Salem) did introduce a bill that would privatize VIP, just like the attempts from previous sessions. That got nowhere, as there was testimony that the VIP program is more efficient than the private one and pays for itself entirely — including PERS costs. That last piece was important.

 

"Second, there have been a couple of bills that would simply eliminate testing, a move Washington state made a few years ago. There was ample testimony that vehicle emission testing still serves a vital purpose, so that bill isn't moving, either. One bill that might move is a measure that would exclude any cars that are six years old or newer. Current law is four years. New cars are extremely emission effective, so that one may pass. I think we can live with that."

 

*   *   *

 

OSH FLOAT POOL — Rippeteau reports that HB 3131, which would create a permanent "float pool" of nurses at Oregon State Hospital, is now in the Ways and Means Committee. Currently, float pool staff are made up of temporary workers that are limited by law as to how long the can work. Having a permanent float pool would help cover open shifts at the hospital or cover units that may have an increased need for staffing.

 

"Right now, the state hospital is budgeted for 20,000 hours of overtime each month," says Rippeteau. "And while the use of mandated overtime has decreased, it still happens frequently. Having dedicated staff to cover shortages would hopefully cut back on that budgeted overtime."

 

HB 3131 passed out of the House Human Services and Housing Committee on April 17 with a "do-pass" recommendation, but was necessarily diverted to Ways and Means, as are all bills that cost the state money. Committee Chair Rep. Carolyn Tomei (D-Milwaukie) noted that while mandated overtime has gone down at OSH, she hopes that Ways and Means puts more money into staffing so that people aren't required to work so much mandated overtime.

 

*   *   *

 

QUICK HITS — The previously described "on again, off again" SB 643 not only went on again, it passed the Senate. Oregon AFSCME Political Coordinator Mary Botkin says the key was stripping down the measure so it clearly and simply granted the state's current Public Employee Transfer Act rights to cover ESD employees and teachers, such as those represented by AFSCME Local 1995 at the Multnomah ESD.

 

• State Sen. Betsy Johnson (D-Scappoose) was injured in a car accident shortly after leaving her home for Salem on April 22. She is reported to have pelvis and hip injuries, and could be out of commission for some time. We wish the senator a quick recovery. Her absence also drastically changes the dynamics of any Senate floor vote. It takes a majority of the chamber's 30 members to pass any bill, which means 16. Senate Democrats hold the slimmest possible 16-14 majority, and there's no allowance made for Johnson's absence — legislation still needs 16 votes to pass. In other words, Senate Republicans can lock up and defeat any measure while Johnson is away. There's no word on a possible return date.

 

• Over the course of the last two weeks (there was no e-lert last week because of the Council 75 Convention), a significant deadline passed in the Legislature. Any bills that had not yet moved out of committee are now officially almost dead. "Almost" because the Speaker of the House and the President of the Senate still have the ability to move any bill they wish through their respective Rules Committee. Short of that, however, any measures stalled in other committees will not see the light of day again this session.

 

• Speaking of stalled measures, Botkin says she and Rep. Barker remain vigilant in looking to amend any gun bill passed by the Senate with the language from HB 2910, which did not move out of Barker's House Judiciary Committee. HB 2910 is the measure allowing Corrections employees with concealed weapons permits the ability to have weapons in locked vehicle gun boxes on state prison property. The House chose to not hear any gun bills of any kind this session, but the Senate is working a handful of them, and should one pass that's amendable, Botkin and Barker will seize that opportunity. Short of that, the measure will be reintroduced at the February 2014 short session.

 

*   *   *

 

Away from the capitol this week ...

 

NEW AFSCME PRESIDENT — Over 200 delegates and alternates, along with Council 75 staff, guests and others, packed the Riverhouse Convention Center in Bend April 19-21 for the biennial Oregon AFSCME Convention.

 

The biggest news coming out of the convention was the election of a new president. As 12-year Council 75 President Gary Gillespie of Local 1724 (City of Eugene) had previously announced he would not seek re-election to a seventh term, delegates knew going in that a new leader would emerge. That person is Jeff Klatke of Local 3135 (Home Forward); Home Forward is the relatively new moniker for the Housing Authority of Portland. Klatke defeated Tina Turner-Morfitt of Local 2376 (Corrections Security Plus) to claim the Council's top leadership position.

 

There were no changes in the next two spots in the Council's membership-based chain of command. Michael Hanna of Local 88 (Multnomah County) ran unopposed as First Vice President; ditto Bryan Branstetter of Local 3361 (Eastern Oregon Correctional Institution) as Second Vice President. The Second VP also holds the title of Council 75 Political Action Chair.

 

Annette Skillman of Local 2376 is the new Council 75 Secretary. She ran unopposed when current Secretary Marci Jo Carlton of Local 328 (OHSU) chose not to run again. There was a contested Treasurer's race, which saw Marc Abrams of Local 1085 (Oregon Justice Attorneys) defeat Debbie Hussey of Local 189 (City of Portland) in a close contest.

 

Those five statewide officers are joined on the Council's Executive Committee by six sector vice presidents and five congressional district vice presidents. The current retirees chapter president also sits on the E-Committee. The Executive Committee meets monthly. Delegate also elected the full Council 75 Executive Board at the convention, which numbers over 80. E-Board seats are divided by sector and local; no one local can have ore than two E-Board members in addition to representatives on the E-Committee. Delegates did entertain a resolution that would have allowed local unions to have as many as two representatives elected to the Executive Committee; that motion was defeated handily on the floor.

 

Here is the rest of the newly elected Executive Committee:

 

• City Sector Vice President — Joe McGonigle, Local 2451 (City of Klamath Falls)

 

• County Sector Vice President — Fred Yungbluth, Local 350 (Clackamas County)

 

• Independent Sector Vice President — Enid Farr, Local 132 (Child Care Providers)

 

• NLRB Sector Vice President — Dave Rickard, Local 3670 (Virginia Garcia Clinic)

 

• Special Sector Vice President — Chinetta Montgomery, Local 328 (OHSU)

 

• State Sector Vice President — Steve Sander, Local 2505 (OLCC)

 

• Congressional District 1 Vice President — Karen Williams, Local 3336 (DEQ)

 

• Congressional District 2 Vice President — Bob Hubbard, Local 3940 (Snake River Correctional Institution)

 

• Congressional District 3 Vice President — Mark Gipson, Local 189 (City of Portland)

 

• Congressional District 4 Vice President — Gary Gillespie, Local 1724 (City of Eugene)

 

• Congressional District 5 Vice President — Brian Lewis, Local 1246 (State-Operated Group Homes)

 

While there were a variety of speakers at the convention, one might have thought they shared the same speechwriter. That's because the themes were common: unions are under attack, unions must react differently with new models and new energy, "they" are out to get "us" and unions must reach out to each other and other organizations to fend off attacks and successfully send our messages.

 

Those citing some or all of the above included U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Oregon AFL-CIO President Tom Chamberlain, AFSCME International President Lee Saunders, AFSCME District 36 (Southern California) President Alice Goff and Oregon AFSCME Executive Director Ken Allen.

 

Saunders, in delivering the convention's keynote address, said unions are under attack in ways not seen since the Great Depression.

 

"Last year, public sector union membership dropped for the first time ever since those statistics started being kept," Saunders warned. "We are done with 'fair weather friends.' This is not about party, this is about standing with us. If you don't, we don't care if there is a D or an R after your name, we're through. We stand together, or you don't stay with us."

 

In his biennial "State of Our Union" address, Allen told delegates the time is now for greater cooperation between unions.

 

"I helped craft a unity document between the 'Big Three' unions back in Washington, D.C.," said Allen. "There will be peace between AFSCME, SEIU (Service Employees International Union) and NEA (National Education Association). We will cooperate on everything from politics to organizing. This may take some getting used to for some of us, but we can't be fighting each other any more — we have big enemies on the outside and we need to band together."

 

You can view a photo gallery of the convention. Once there, make sure you are in the "Details View" (the link should take you there). It's then easiest to click on the first picture on the upper right and, once that picture opens, use the arrow buttons to navigate through the rest of the photo gallery.

 

*   *   *

 

THE PREZ SEZ — Klatke, incidentally, has committed to writing a bi-weekly blog. You can find it on a new President's Blog tab on the Oregon AFSCME website.

 

*   *   *

 

SPEAKING OF CONVENTIONS — Although with less fanfare than the full Council 75 Convention recently completed in Bend, the Oregon AFSCME Retirees Chapter 75 staged their biennial convention April 23 in the Salem AFSCME office.

 

Retirees Chapter 75 elected a new president that's not really new. Michael Arken is once again the Retirees' leader; Arken was the group's first president when the association was initially formed several years ago. He takes over for Chuck Moffit. Arken and Moffit are both coincidentally former Local 189 (City of Portland) members.

 

The group of about 20 heard from Oregon AFSCME Executive Director Ken Allen, Political Coordinator Mary Botkin and Communications Director Don Loving. Each spoke about current PERS legislation and other topics.

 

Other officers elected were as follows:

 

• Vice President — Pat Riggs-Henson

 

• Secretary — Janice Larkin

 

• Treasurer — Robin Mariani-Moffit

 

• District 1 Vice President — Bev Swanson

 

• District 2 Vice President — Vacant

 

• District 3 Vice President — Lou Sinniger

 

• Trustees — Linda Bachman, Jim Gearhardt and Barbara Limrick

 

Any retired public employee, whether represented by AFSCME or another union when they worked, is eligible for the Chapter 75 Retirees Association. Dues are only $3 per month. You can e-mail Arken for more information.

 

*   *   *

 

DOING US PROUD — Kevin Turner, former President of Local 1442-2 (City of Scappoose), has been honored as the "Wastewater Treatment Operator of the Year" by the Oregon Association of Water Utilities (OAWU). The OAWU is a statewide association that lends support to wastewater treatment facilities.

 

Oregon AFSCME represents wastewater treatment operators in a number of cities across the state. Council 75 Staff Representative Evan Wickersham, whose assignment includes Local 1442, says Turner was an excellent union president and well deserving of the work award.

 

The South County Spotlight, the Scappoose area's local newspaper, recently featured Turner and his award. You can jump to that article here.

 

*   *   *

 

COUNCIL 75? THERE'S AN APP FOR THAT! — We end this week's e-lert with the announcement that we have officially launched the Oregon AFSCME mobile device app. The app was debuted at the Council 75 Convention by Loving and Local 88 President Michael Hanna, who works in IT services for Multnomah County. Currently, only the iPhone version is available. We're not discriminating, the Android developer working on the project had a medical emergency that kept him off work for three weeks, so that version will be available soon. More details are available in the new Mobile App tab of the Council 75 website.

 

#   #   #

 

e-lert No. 9     ¥     April 12, 2013

Edited by Don Loving, Oregon AFSCME Communications Director

 

The train known as SB 822 barreled through the Senate Thursday, passing on a 16-13 vote that saw every senator vote "Wrong" (huh?) ... Council 75 Executive Director Ken Allen made a special trip to Salem to help the Portland Police Bureau ... It looks like the only 'Dog The Bounty Hunter' appearances in Oregon will be on TV after all ... And why is Oregon Secretary of State Kate Brown (pictured right) holding an AFSCME Local 132 button and teddy bear? All this and more ... Welcome to this week's e-lert.

 

*   *   *

 

MOVIN' ON — The Legislature has been dominated the past couple of weeks by SB 822, the so-called PERS reform bill offered up by Joint Ways and Means Co-Chairs Sen. Richard Devlin (D-Tualatin) and Rep. Peter Buckley (D-Ashland). We've detailed the specifics of SB 822 in the past two e-lerts — the two big negative factors are a change in retirees' COLA calculations and elimination of the out-of-state tax payment offset.

 

The political theater that is SB 822 moved to the full Senate floor April 11 as the upper chamber spent over an hour debating the bill. As Sen. Tim Knopp (R-Bend) correctly noted as he was pontificating — and he was far from the only guilty party on that score — "This is going to be a party line vote." Which was true, but that didn't stop most senators from rising to get their comments on the record for constituents at home.

 

The conundrum is that AFSCME and the entire PERS Coalition unanimously opposed SB 822. When the words finally ended, the vote was 16-13 in favor. All 16 Senate Democrats voted for the bill. The 13 Republican senators present voted no. [Sen. Larry George (R-Hillsboro) was home ill but certainly would have been against the bill.] So technically the Democrats voted "wrong" and the Republicans voted "right" — but it's not anywhere near that simple.

 

"There wasn't a single Republican senator that voted 'No' because they supported us," says longtime AFSCME PERS lobbyist Mary Botkin. "They all voiced opposition to SB 822 because in their view, it didn't go far enough. Devlin and Buckley have pledged this will be the only 'PERS reform' bill to move this session, so the Republicans are opposed because they want to do us more harm."

 

Botkin did note that the floor debate was "respectful and civil." Again, every senator on the floor and most observers in the Senate gallery knew exactly what the final vote count would be. The measure now moves on to the House, where it is expected to have enough muster to get to the House floor as well. That's where things could get really interesting.

 

"I don't think we'll see a party line vote in the House," says Botkin. "There will be Democrats that oppose the bill for the 'right' reasons. There will be Republicans that oppose the bill as did their Senate counterparts — they want more reforms. But there will also be House Republicans that are with us and will vote 'No' for the right reasons. So that is going to be a very interesting day."

 

The vote counts will also cause havoc when AFSCME tallies its end-of-session report card. Essentially, all 29 senators voted against the unions today, even though the floor letter from the PERS Coalition asked for a "No" vote and that's how the GOP members voted. Then there is the impending House vote that likely will include Republicans voting "No" for entirely different reasons.

 

"We're going to have to be a little creative when we reach the vote count stage," says Council 75 Political Director Joe Baessler. "We'll know why people voted the way they did. We'll figure it out."

 

In the meantime, before Devlin and Buckley dropped SB 822, 59 other PERS-related measures had been dropped, and a handful of others have been introduced since then. Will those 60-plus bills all die a quiet death?

 

"That's what Devlin and Buckley intend," said Botkin. "That's their selling point to us, even though we disagree — that SB 822 will be the PERS bill this session. We still believe the COLA change, in particular, is unconstitutional, so we'll cross that bridge when we come to it."

 

Indeed, PERS Coalition attorney Greg Hartman says his staff is already busy on preliminary research to challenge SB 822 should it pass the House and gain the governor's signature.

 

"We're not unaware of what's playing out in Salem," says Hartman. "We'll be ready if need be."

 

*   *   *

 

LABOR RADIO — Speaking of PERS, Council 75 PERS lobbyist Mary Botkin, PERS Coalition attorney Greg Hartman and Local 2238 (Department of State Lands) member Agatha Brown will all be guests Monday night (April 15) on KBOO radio's "Labor Radio" program, beginning at 6 p.m. If the guest list sounds suspicious, know that Oregon AFSCME Staff Representative Jaimie Sorenson is Monday night's host. KBOO community radio doesn't have the greatest signal ever, but you can try to reel it in around Portland at 90.7 on the FM dial. It's also broadcast at 100.7 in Corvallis and 91.9 in Hood River. We are hoping to eventually get an MP3 recording of the program that we can post on the AFSCME website.

 

*   *   *

 

ALLEN LENDS SUPPORT TO PPA — Oregon AFSCME Executive Director Ken Allen was at the capitol on April 10 to lend his support to the Portland Police Association (PPA) in defeating SB 747. The measure would remove arbitration from the City of Portland's contract with its police officers union. It was introduced by state Sen. Chip Shields (D-Portland) on behalf of Greg Kafoury, a Portland attorney who practices employment law amongst other legal interests.

 

"I believe this may be the first time I've ever made a special trip to the Legislature to testify on a bill that did not directly impact our own members," said Allen. "However, SB 747 would be a horrible precedent and I was pleased to join the fight against it."

 

Allen noted that interestingly enough, the City of Portland was not at the public hearing held before the Senate General Government Committee, which is chaired by Shields. There was no action taken after the hearing. Following is the text of Allen's testimony.

 

"Chair Shields, members of the committee. I am Ken Allen, Executive Director of Oregon AFSCME Council 75. We represent 25,000 workers throughout Oregon. About 3,500 are public safety workers. One thousand of them work for the City of Portland, including a few hundred non-sworn in the Police Bureau and at BOEC. I am also a Vice President of the Oregon AFL-CIO and today speak for them also. In my job I have dealt with the City of Portland for over 18 years in labor relations work.

 

"The Portland Police Association did not ask me to come today. I came because I feel so strongly about this bill. It is now a high priority bill for AFSCME. AFSCME and the Oregon AFL-CIO strongly oppose this bill.

 

"This bill attacks two of the most important items that are in 99 percent of collective bargaining agreements. For over 60 years, both management and labor have agreed binding arbitration is the best dispute resolution method for all grievances including discipline. Discipline in almost every collective bargaining agreement is given for just cause. It must be given for good reason based on facts and evidence and the punishment must fit the crime.

 

"This bill removes fundamental protections from one group of employees, City of Portland police officers.

 

"The advocates of this bill have stated that the City of Portland needs this because the police union is too successful in arbitration. Well guess what? AFSCME Local 189 is very successful, too, in cases with the City of Portland. We, like the PPA, have a process to weed out cases we don't think we can win. The city doesn't do the best job on these cases.

 

"Does that mean we are next to lose our rights?

 

"This bill would make firings and discipline political decisions. Really, is that what we want? Are we going to have mayors, future mayors or city council members making decisions based on no public safety experience or polling the public? Our Portland police officers have to make tough decisions everyday. Many are split second decisions. They need to base those decisions on good training, on the job experience and coaching from fellow officers.

 

"Every officer is faced with a daily reality. They work in an occupation wherein they put the uniform on and don't know that they will finish the shift and go home to their family. In Portland, and nationally, the frequency of dealing with mentally ill citizens that have planned a premeditated suicide through drawing a weapon on an officer is on the rise. If you work in Portland, you will deal with mentally ill citizens frequently. Line-of-duty deaths for public safety officers are all too common. Nationally, just in the last two years, 296 officers have died in the line of duty.

 

"We should not be taking rights away from police officers. This is a tough profession that is more complex every day. We should be offering our support and encouragement to the people that choose to make police work their career. Please oppose this bill. Thank you."

 

*   *   *

DOC GUN BILL UPDATE — The Oregon AFSCME-sponsored bill that would allow Department of Corrections employees the right to securely keep firearms in their vehicles on state prison property has, along with every other gun-related bill in the Oregon House, hit a roadblock.

 

State Rep. Greg Smith (R-Heppner) introduced HB 2910 for AFSCME early in the session. HB 2910 would allow DOC employees with concealed weapons permits and locked in-vehicle gun boxes the opportunity to have those weapons in prison parking lots. The issue is an important one in Eastern Oregon, in particular, where many Corrections employees live many miles from the prison they work at and simply want to feel safe on their commute to and from work.

 

But given the overall national political climate regarding gun control, the Oregon House is reluctant to hear any gun bills, period.

 

"We have argued, unsuccessfully, that our bill isn't really a 'gun bill' per se, it's more of a working conditions bill," said veteran Oregon AFSCME Public Safety lobbyist Mary Botkin. "But basically, if the word 'gun' is in a bill, it's not being heard at this point by the House. That's for anybody's bill, not just us."

 

But Botkin says the fight is far from over.

 

"We're certainly not giving up," she says. "Rep. Jeff Barker (D-Aloha), a retired Portland police officer and Chair of the House Judiciary Committee, would like to give us a hearing. Unfortunately, that decision is not entirely his to make. But he's still working to help us."

 

In the meantime, Botkin says Barker will draft the critical language of HB 2910 into amendment form, and that she will diligently watch the small handful of gun bills being heard in the Oregon Senate.

 

"If any one of those Senate gun bills passes the Senate and comes to the House, we will amend it to include our HB 2910 language," says Botkin. "My eyes will be peeled the rest of the session for any bill we can legally amend.

 

"Additionally," Botkin continued, "we are looking for other avenues in the Senate to get our language in a bill. We are diligently working every possible angle."

 

*   *   *

 

LOCAL GOV'T POOLING — A work session is scheduled for HB 2279 on Monday (April 15), Council 75's priority bill that would allow local government jurisdictions to join the already-established statewide health care pools of PEBB, the Public Employee Benefits Board for state employees, or OEBB, the Oregon Educators Benefits Board for teachers.

 

Co-sponsored for AFSCME by Rep. Mitch Greenlick (D-Portland) and Rep. Jim Thompson (R-Dallas), HB 2279 has been sitting in limbo awaiting the drafting of amendments. Council 75 Political Director Joe Baessler says those are now apparently ready to go.

 

"The key amendment simply clarifies that joining PEBB or OEBB is optional for local governments — they don't have to," says Baessler. "That was always the intent of the bill, but some people were concerned, so the amendments will strengthen that understanding."

 

The HB 2279 amendments will also clarify that if a jurisdiction wants to leave once they've joined, they must opt into Oregon Health Exchange coverage for their employees.

 

"The whole purpose of a pool is to spread the overall risk, so you can't have jurisdictions jumping in and out at will depending on that year's rates," says Baessler.

 

Another feature of the amendments will outline the method for increasing the PEBB and OEBB boards of directors once local government jurisdictions begin joining those pools. Baessler says the goal is to keep such representation proportional.

 

The bill is in the House Health Care Committee, which Greenlick chairs. Baessler does not know at this writing if Greenlick intends to try and move the bill, or just work on the amendments and schedule a second work session later.

 

*   *   *

 

LOBBY DAY II — Over 50 AFSCME members and staff descended upon the state capitol Tuesday (April 9) for the second Council 75 Lobby Day. A March 19 lobby day focused on local government issues. This week's event turned toward primarily state government — PERS and the budget, most often — but there were a handful of local government and even private sector AFSCME-represented workers on hand as well.

 

"I thought both lobby days this year were extremely effective," says veteran Oregon AFSCME Political Coordinator Ralph Groener. "We had a great combination of members show up this year. We had people who have done this before and sort of know the routine, and we had some new people that were enthusiastic about getting an opportunity to address their concerns face-to-face with a legislator."

 

Groener says the opportunity for lawmakers to hear from "real people" can't be overstated.

 

"All of us that lobby for AFSCME work hard to represent our members' interests, but it's good for legislators to hear directly from members," he said. "They're the ones on the front lines actually doing the work, and people in this building need to hear from those people."

 

*   *   *

 

SECTION 8 VOUCHERS — Council 75 Political Coordinator Eva Rippeteau is lobbying HB 2639, which would redefine "source of income" for the purposes of prohibiting selling, renting or leasing real property.

 

"HB 2639 will give recipients of Section 8 vouchers, which are subsidies for very low-income families, elderly and disabled people, the opportunity to be considered for all housing options," says Rippeteau. "Currently, Section 8 recipients can only apply for housing where landlords take vouchers. Sometimes Section 8 housing isn't in the most ideal location for some recipients or there are too few options. HB 2639 will remove the barrier of allowing Section 8 as a prohibited source of income so that holders can more quickly finding housing that suits their needs."

 

Rippeteau says the bill also provides for supports for housing authorities and landlords to ensure the rights and property of all are protected. Oregon AFSCME represents employees of several housing authority jurisdictions statewide.

"For our housing authority members, please share any stories with your legislator on how this bill will help your clients," said Rippeteau. "Let them know if you have had clients that couldn't use a voucher because of housing options or denied housing because of their Section 8 vouchers. They need to hear from you."

 

E-mail links to all state lawmakers can be found on the Oregon Legislature tab of the Council 75 website.

 

*   *   *

 

DESTINATION: SENATE — On a strict party line vote, sans three absent members, HB 2448 passed the House floor 33-24 on Tuesday and moves on to the Senate. As detailed in previous editions of the e-lert, HB 2448 is an AFSCME-supported measure that changes "interim" or "expedited" bargaining.

 

HB 2448 would eliminate implementation of an employer's final offer under interim/expedited bargaining and call for binding arbitration when two sides cannot reach an agreement. The original bill was amended to include a mediation step before arbitration.

 

"The bill was carried on the House floor by Rep. Margaret Doherty (D-Tigard), a retired union rep for the Oregon Education Association, and she did a great job explaining how current law unfairly disadvantages public employees," said Baessler.

 

Ultimately, under HB 2448, once a matter goes through mediation and on to binding arbitration, employees could not strike.

 

Baessler believes the party-line vote came about because of heavy lobbying by local government representatives, the Oregon School Boards Association in particular. Local governments, he says, have historically been more likely to "game' the system" by stalling during the required 90-day expedited bargaining window and then simply implement whatever issue wanted through the final offer process.

 

"At one point I even had a local government lobbyist say to me, 'If this passes, how are we supposed to get around bargaining and get what we want?' He was kidding, but only a little," says Baessler. "This bill will help set a more level playing field."

 

*   *   *

 

MORE MONEY? — While a lot of attention has been focused this session (too much attention, from our perspective) on balancing the state budget via PERS cutbacks, the other piece of that puzzle is increasing state revenue. HB 2456 is a revenue proposal being followed by Groener that would add $275 million to state General Fund coffers, but alas, there's a catch: such revenue packages need a three-fifths vote in each chamber, not just a simple majority.

 

"If — and that's a big if — you could keep all of the Democrats, you'd need two Republicans in the House and two Republicans in the Senate to vote with them," says Groener. "In the House, that's a possibility. There, you might even lose a couple of D's and gain enough R's to make up the difference. But the Senate is locked down tight in its 16-14 make-up, and you're just not going to peel two Republican votes there. At least not without further reforms to PERS — that's what the floor debate on SB 822 was all about."

 

For the record, here's what HB 2456 would do per biennium, beginning with the 2013-15 biennium that starts July 1:

 

• Phase out Oregon deductions for high-income filers. Some current deductions for those with a taxable income of $125,000 for single filers or $250,000 for joint filers would go away. This would raise $169 million.

 

• Eliminate the personal exemption credit for high-income filers. The personal exemption credit is currently $183 per exemption; this would again apply to those above the $125,000/$250,000 adjusted gross income threshold. This would raise $38 million.

 

• Apply a corporate minimum tax of 0.1 percent to Oregon sales above $100 million. The current tax structure would remain in place for corporate sales up to $100 million, then the 0.1 percent rate would kick in on sales in excess of $100 million. This would raise $50 million.

 

• Include corporate income reported in federal "tax havens." This one's a little complicated to explain. Oversimplified, this would require corporations headquartered in defined federal tax havens to report Oregon's sales factor and apportion income back to the state. This is patterned after a successful Montana statute passed in 2003. This would raise $18 million.

 

"It's a good package that doesn't impact middle class people or 'middle class corporations,' so to speak," says Groener. "But right now, it's not going anywhere."

 

*   *   *

 

DOGGY GO HOME — The on-again, off-again saga of "Dog The Bounty Hunter" has apparently ended.

 

Of course, there was no guarantee that reality TV star Duane "Dog" Chapman would have made an appearance in Oregon had HB 2548 passed, but it's a moot point now as the proposed measure to allow a bail bonds system in Oregon has died.

 

As detailed in a previous e-lert, initially Botkin wasn't concerned that HB 2548 had any legs. A private, out-of-state company generally manages to get such a measure introduced every session. But then it appeared the bill may have some support this go-round within the House Judiciary Committee, so Botkin and Local 88-represented Multnomah County recognizance officer Sean McCabe testified against the bill. Council 75 represents many county-based, pre-release counselors throughout Oregon like McCabe, and they could have seen their positions usurped by bail bondsmen.

 

But that threat is over for this session.

 

"People on the committee were initially more interested in this than I would have guessed," said Botkin. "But Sean did a great job in helping me outline the four main concerns that come with a bail bonds system: public safety, jail costs and management, revenue streams and court costs and compromising the integrity of the judicial system. Additionally, a pre-release counselor like Sean McCabe has some relationship and potential influence over those in his caseload. A bail bondsman makes absolutely no attempt to monitor an offenders' behavior while on release — they only 'guarantee' the offender will be present at his/her court hearing."

 

Botkin also credits county management teams for lobbying against HB 2548.

 

"The end result of our joint effort was that it became clear to bill supporters that they likely didn't have the votes to move the bill out of committee," said Botkin. "And if they could get it out of committee, they very likely didn't have the votes to pass it on the House floor — and even if they somehow managed to get it out of the House, it was very clear it was going nowhere in the Senate.

 

"So it's dead, at least for this session. And people that want to watch 'Dog' can still do so on A&E Network, just not live on the streets of Portland."

 

*   *   *

 

QUICK HITS — In addition to April 9 being AFSCME's State Workers Lobby Day, it was also "Teddy Bear Day" for Local 132 (Child Care Providers). Local 132 members and staff reps Faye Zepeda and Gloria Gonzalez camped out on the steps of the capitol and made a "tree" out of hundreds of teddy bears and passed out buttons urging support for expanding the state's Employment-Related Day Care program. Zepeda offers a big "thank you" from Local 132 to Richard Swyers of Local 2067 (City of Salem), who helped set up the display and then went inside the capitol and rousted legislators and elected officials to come outside. Swyers even intervened on a meeting between statewide elected officials Secretary of State Kate Brown, Treasurer Ted Wheeler and Labor Commissioner Brad Avakian. You don't say no to Richard, so that trio was soon outside with the Local 132 crew, and Brown received a teddy bear and the photo op you see above. Most of the bears will eventually be donated to a local children's charity.

 

• Botkin was not happy Thursday afternoon when SB 643, a union-sponsored bill related to ESD employee transfers, was bumped from the Senate Education Committee to Senate Rules. Most often bills only need to navigate one committee before heading to a chamber floor. AFSCME, the Oregon Education Association and the Oregon School Employees Association had agreed to a stripped down version of SB 643 that took out "all the fluff" and simply added ESDs to the list of "public employers" eligible for the state's transfer act. It appears Senate Rules will hear the bill next Tuesday (April 16).

 

• Baessler testified this week on SB 154, a measure to require paid signature gathering companies to register in Oregon. The signature gatherers themselves must already register, thanks to legislation supported by AFSCME in recent sessions. Baessler says SB 154 is aimed at making the companies acknowledge and prove they are training their employees on Oregon law. He says often such companies will bring in extra workers from out-of-state in the last weeks of a ballot measure push, and those signature gatherers are not necessarily well-versed on Oregon law — especially given a high number of them tend to come from California, where the nuances of signature gathering laws are different. "We've done a good job of ballot measure reform over the years," says Baessler. "SB 154 is sort of the last piece of the puzzle."

 

• Botkin and Council 75 Communications Director Don Loving met with Department of Corrections officials April 9 in an effort to get a better explanation of the $100 million fiscal impact statement attached to HB 3361. As outlined last week, HB 3361 prioritizes the three largest Oregon counties (Multnomah, Washington, Clackamas) as comparators in DOC negotiations. Those counties can already be used as comparators currently, but surrounding states' comparisons come first. HB 3361 correctly bumps the county comparators up the list, as the Oregon DOC frequently loses staff to higher-paying counties but rarely to neighboring states. Botkin argues that the fiscal impact should be indeterminate. After the conversation with the DOC representatives, it appears the Department of Administrative Services (DAS) is the culprit in tagging $100 million as a hard number, a number that would have to be pulled from the state General Fund by the budget-writing Ways and Means Committee should HB 3361 pass. As fiscal statements can't be revised or "fixed," Botkin says the best ploy is likely to wait and re-introduce the bill in the 2014 mini-session.

 

*   *   *

 

Away from the capitol ...

 

WAYS & MEANS ROAD SHOW — Today is actually Day 1 of a Joint Ways and Means Committee Oregon "road show," as the committee is holding public hearings in six Oregon cities. The purpose is to give citizens a chance to comment on the budget plan without having to venture to Salem.

 

"This is an excellent opportunity for AFSCME members to show up and express concerns about PERS, the lack of new revenue and agency-specific issues," said Baessler. "I encourage our members to turn out and participate."

 

In addition to Eugene, the tour will include stops in Ashland, Bend, Hermiston, Portland and Tillamook, plus a final public hearing at the state capitol. Several of the meetings will offer live streaming, and the meeting in Hermiston will offer videoconferencing to other Eastern Oregon locations. Here are the details for each event.

 

Friday, April 12 — Eugene

3 – 4:30 p.m.

Ragozzino Performance Hall

Lane Community College

4000 E. 30^th Ave.

 

Saturday, April 13 — Ashland

10 – 11:30 a.m.

Music Recital Hall

Southern Oregon University

1250 Siskiyou Blvd.

 

Friday, April 19 — Bend

4:30 – 6 p.m.

William Healy Armory

875 SW Simpson Ave.

 

Saturday, April 20 — Hermiston

1:30 – 3:30 p.m.

Hermiston High School Auditorium

600 S. 1^st St.

 

Tuesday, April 23 — Portland

5:30 – 7 p.m.

Moriarty Arts & Humanities Auditorium

Portland Community College, Cascades Campus

705 N. Killingsworth St.

 

Thursday, April 24 — Tillamook

5:30 – 7 p.m.

Officers Mess

Port of Tillamook Bay

6825 Officers Row

 

At this writing, the details of the Hermiston videoconference have yet to be announced. We will pass those along if we receive them. You can also e-mail Robin Maxey in the Senate President's office and ask to receive an update on the Hermiston hearing.

 

*   *   *

 

THOM HARTMANN IN SALEM — Progressive radio talk show host Thom Hartmann is making a special appearance in Salem on Saturday, April 27. It's a fundraiser for Move To Amend, the Salem Progressive Film Series and Oregon Peaceworks. Hartmann will speak on the topics "Corporations are not people" and "Money is not speech," with a question and answer session to follow. Hartmann began with a local show on Portland's KPOJ when the progressive talk Air America network was first launched in 2005. He morphed into doing both a local and national show from Portland for several years. Air American eventually disbanded, and Hartmann moved his national show to the East Coast. The April 27 Salem event will run between 1 and 3 p.m., and the cost is a sliding scale "whatever you can afford" $5 to $20. More information is available on the Oregon Peaceworks website.

 

*  *   *

 

FINAL NOTES — Yesterday was University of Oregon day at the capitol. It took great restraint by yours truly not to include the picture of me with the Duck in this e-lert, rather than the slightly higher-ranking Kate Brown. Oh well. J

 

On a more serious note, due to the Oregon AFSCME Convention, there will be no e-lert next week. But we do hope to see many of you over there, please come up and say hi.

 

#   #   #

e-lert No. 8     ¥     April 5, 2013

Edited by Don Loving, Oregon AFSCME Communications Director

 

There is a freight train running down the tracks, and the letters on the side are not Union Pacific or BNSF — the letters are P-E-R-S. Read about SB 822, the DEQ budget, a couple of Corrections-related notes and more. Welcome to this week's e-lert.

 

*   *   *

 

MEMBERS 'IN THE HOUSE' — You could say there was Local 3336 royalty at the capitol April 4 as current Local 3336 President Karen Williams and former President Kevin Downing were both on hand to testify on the Department of Environmental Quality's budget. (They are pictured to the right, along with Council 75 Political Coordinator Ralph Groener, in the capitol rotunda comparing notes following the hearing.) Both have been frequent visitors to the Legislature over the years. Williams is a water quality analyst, while Downing does similar work in DEQ's air quality division.

 

As one of Oregon' largest regulatory agencies, within the capitol DEQ is sort of a love 'em or hate 'em entity. That can be frustrating for the 550 or so AFSCME-represented DEQ workers come budget time every two years. Local 3336's membership roster was over 700 not that long ago. As Williams told lawmakers during her testimony, "We are long past trimming fat and have begun to disassemble the skeleton." Read more ...

 

Williams noted her agency took over 100 position cuts in the last biennium. Though many of those were vacant positions, it still leaves current employees with more work and less colleagues.

 

"We're still trying to inspect as many sites, still trying to analyze as many water samples, still trying to provide businesses as many permits, all while taking on additional tasks that remain," said Williams. "None of these are optional tasks — they are essential to the protection of public health and the environment."

 

Downing is widely acknowledged as the state's leading expert on diesel emissions and their health risks, and has educated several legislatures about those issues over the years.

 

"These proposed further DEQ budget reductions would prevent us from obtaining accurate emission and pollution counts," said Downing. "Such data is crucial to DEQ as a scientific agency to do our job."

 

Downing also noted that DEQ has been a good steward of public dollars. The state and Metro — AFSCME also represents Metro employees — recently coordinated a joint program of $683,000 to retrofit 119 Portland-area garbage trucks. That retrofit project, Downing testified, will save $1.4 million per year in public health and environmental costs times five years.

 

"You're getting a $7 million return on a $683,000 investment," said Downing. "How many other agencies can say that?"

 

Groener praised Williams and Downing, saying that both "hit home runs" with their testimony. No action was taken; most state agency budgets will not be finalized until after legislators receive the May 16 state revenue forecast.

 

*   *   *

 

BY A WHISKER — On a close vote that fell mostly along party lines, the Oregon House passed HB 2870 on April 4 by the narrowest possible margin of 31-29. HB 2870, as detailed in previous editions of the e-lert, would allow counties the right to levy their own taxes on the sale of cigarettes. Current law does not allow such taxes from any form of local government; Oregon has one of the lowest state cigarette taxes in the nation.

 

"This is about allowing counties the ability to decide how to pay for programs mandated by the state," said Oregon AFSCME Political Director Joe Baessler. "We co-sponsored this bill along with Multnomah County, which obviously has the largest public health budget amongst Oregon counties."

 

Rep. Jeff Barker (D-Aloha), Rep. Greg Matthews (D-Gresham) and Rep. Betty Komp (D-Woodburn) joined the 26 House Republicans in voting "Nay." Baessler says most of the "No" voters expressed concerns that counties would take the measure too far and set local cigarette taxes too high. Read more ...

 

"We believe such concerns are amply offset by the fact elected county commissioners would be making the local cigarette tax decisions," said Baessler. "They have their own constituents to answer to; no one is going to go out and add $10 per pack to cigarette costs."

 

Baessler says the bill designates 40 percent of the collected local taxes for public health, mental health and smoking secession programs. He says HB 2870 was spawned by three main streams of thought:

 

• Smoking is bad for everyone's health, smokers and non-smokers alike;

 

• Counties are required by state mandates to pay for the effects of smoking; and

 

• Counties should be given the ability to decide how they are going to raise the necessary funds for providing services mandated by the state.

 

"Our bottom line thought process is that if counties raise the cigarette taxes and the increased cost is a deterrent that helps stop teens from buying that first pack, that's OK," said Baessler. "There is irrefutable evidence that the best way to stop someone from smoking is to make sure they never start. We are long, long past any debate as to whether smoking is bad for health. Smoking and its effects have a huge impact on public health services and health care costs overall. If this measure can help stem that tide even a little bit, then it's a good bill."

 

*   *   *

 

FREIGHT TRAIN RUNNIN' — That whistle and rattle of the tracks you hear from Salem is SB 822 traveling at breakneck speed. As detailed last week, SB 822 is the so-called PERS reform bill co-sponsored by Sen. Richard Devlin (D-Tualatin) and Rep. Peter Buckley (D-Ashland), who just also happen to be the Co-Chairs of the Legislature's budget-writing Joint Ways and Means Committee.

 

While the provisions of SB 822 are straight forward, everything surrounding the measure is complicated and fraught with political theater. The bill was detailed last week in full, but in quick review, its main components are a new formula that reduces retirees' COLAs, an end to the out-of-state tax reimbursement and "collaring" of July 1 employer rate increases. (AFSCME has long supported the latter provision.)

 

The measure is on, to say the least, a fast track. It was introduced March 25, had a hearing barely 48 hours later, moved to a Ways and Means Subcommittee where it had another hearing April 3 — one described as "a joke" by veteran Oregon AFSCME PERS lobbyist Mary Botkin — is will likely be voted out of the full Ways and Means Committee sometime today (April 5). Read more ...

 

"The April 3 subcommittee hearing didn't start until 4:30, s we sat there several hours into the evening," said Botkin. "But they wouldn't let us testify as to the impact the bill would have on members. You could only speak on budget implications. Essentially, we — the entire PERS Coalition — were shut out of the hearing. We were not allowed to say anything meaningful."

 

The drama has come on all of the committee votes thus far. The bill is passing along party lines — Democrats voting for it, Republicans against. But GOP members are saying no because they want to add several amendments to SB 822 that would "reform" PERS even further to the detriment of public employees.

 

"While we hate this bill and are fighting it as best we can, we can also acknowledge that Sen. Devlin and Rep. Buckley have kept their respective caucuses in line and beat back a series of more severe amendments," said Botkin. "They are trying, in their own way, to make this 'the PERS bill' that passes this session with, as they see it, the least amount of pain for our members. That doesn't change the fact that SB 822 is still unfair and, we believe, unconstitutional. But this thing is headed down the tracks quickly, and collectively, we are struggling to slow it down. That's the ugly reality. It may pass, and we may be headed to court."

 

Botkin and Baessler both urge members to continue to call and e-mail their legislators with messages opposing SB 822. The capitol phone number and e-mail links to each lawmaker are available on the Oregon Legislature tab of the AFSCME website.

 

*   *   *

 

STATE LOBBY DAY — One way you can help the fight against PERS reform bills and other bad measures is to attend the AFSCME Lobby Day set for April 9. While this event has been designated "state employee lobby day" — a local government day was held on March 19 — non-state workers are welcome to attend next Tuesday's event. "If you can come, we will use you," says Baessler. "Retirees, local government employees, whoever — come on down!" The Oregon AFSCME Political Department does need a head count for planning meetings, lunches, etc., so if you can come and haven't RSVP'd already, you can do so by e-mailing John McGovern.

 

*   *   *

 

INTERIM BARGAINING BILL MOVES — A measure that would bring significant change to the interim bargaining process has passed the House Business and Labor Committee with bipartisan support. HB 2448, which we have detailed a couple of times previously, would eliminate implementation of an employer's final offer under expedited bargaining and call for binding arbitration when two sides cannot reach an agreement. The bill has now been amended to include a mediation step before arbtration, which Baessler says he is fine with.

 

The bill is sponsored by state Rep. Margaret Doherty (D-Tigard), a retired union rep for the Oregon Education Association; Doherty is also Chair of House Business and Labor. The Democrat committee members were joined by Rep. Bill Kennemer (R-Oregon City) and Rep. Jim Thompson (R-Dallas) in voting to send the measure to the House floor.

 

Ultimately, under HB 2448, once the matter went to binding arbitration, employees could not strike. Read more ...

 

"This is a situation we see more in local government negotiations, where sometimes the employer will try to 'game' the system," says Baessler. "Occasionally employers will basically just stall for 90 days and then implement whatever they want. In extreme cases, employers will 'hide' issues during regular contract negotiations, and then within weeks of settling that contract will call for expedited bargaining for some other issue that they didn't want discussed in the big contract talks.

 

"We think this bill will help keep everything honest and above-board, and it was encouraging to see some Republican support in the committee."

 

HB 2448 should move on soon to a full House floor vote.

 

*   *   *

 

BAD FISCAL — Legislative measures that could cost money, which is many of them, are tagged with fiscal impact statements. The vast majority of the time these are fairly routine. Unfortunately, every now and then "the fiscal," as they're colloquially known at the capitol, goes a little sideways. Or, in the case of HB 3361, a whole bunch sideways.

 

HB 3361 is one of AFSCME's Corrections-related priority bills this session (and just happens to coincidentally sport the number of our Security local union at Eastern Oregon Correctional Institution). HB 3361 would create new comparators for arbitrators to consider when the Security unit bargaining goes to binding arbitration (as it often does). Current law says the comparators are surrounding states. HB 3361 changes the comparators to the three largest Oregon counties. Botkin says the local comparators are a more realistic assessment of Corrections pay in the area.

 

But everyone was shocked when HB 3361's fiscal impact statement came in at $100 million. Read more ...

 

"This is a fiscal that is just horribly done," says Botkin. "The problem originated within the Department of Corrections. The agency creates the original fiscal on such bills. It goes from there to DAS (Department of Administrative Services) and then to LFO (Legislative Fiscal Office). But the reality is, DAS and LFO just take the number the agency gives them, which in theory makes sense — the agency should know its budget numbers the best. But in this case, it's very wrong."

 

Botkin says the numbers were apparently calculated by taking the highest possible average salaries from Multnomah, Washington and Clackamas counties and then applying that number to every DOC Security employee — not taking into account years of service, steps, etc. Unfortunately, there is no way to undo a fiscal statement.

 

"It's not a situation where you can go back and 'fix' it," says Botkin. "But this is so bad that we have legislators like Rep. Kim Thatcher (R-Keizer) and Rep. Jim Weidner (R-McMinnville) — two very nice people that are very conservative and generally not in our camp often — coming to us and asking what they can do to help."

 

"It's awful," chimed in Baessler. "I've never seen a fiscal statement so universally understood as wrong."

 

Botkin noted that bipartisan co-sponsors Rep. Greg Matthews (D-Gresham) and Jim Thompson (R-Dallas) have expressed a willingness to pull the bill and reintroduce it a the February 2014 short session.

 

"It's an option we may consider," says Botkin. "Tagged with the current fiscal, this bill is going to be nearly impossible to move."

 

*   *   *

 

HELPING INSIDE THE WALLS — Botkin also ended up in a battle this week over a bill that wasn't anywhere on her radar screen until seemingly innocuous amendments could have negatively impacted AFSCME-represented Corrections employees.

 

SB 396 is not a Corrections bill. It came from the private sector and was designed to allow debtors an ability to garnish assets from people's regular or medical savings accounts.

 

"We couldn't have cared less about this bill until Multnomah County introduced amendments that would allow counties to drain all money from a state inmate's account toward restitution or fees otherwise owed to the county jail," said Botkin. "At that point, SB 396 became a problem." Read more ...

 

Botkin explained that state inmates are allowed to maintain a minimum of $400 in their accounts. No one is allowed to take that account into "bankruptcy," for lack of a better term. Inmates have money either by earning it through prison work or via gifts from family and friends.

 

"The DOC does have access to the inmate accounts, and they do subtract things like child support payments," said Botkin. "However, the current rules are that inmate accounts cannot drop below $400 from outside withdrawals, that's the 'floor,' so to speak."

 

So why is SB 396 an AFSCME and an AFSCME member concern?

 

"Our Corrections members will tell you that you best control the inmate population by having inmates that are at least content, if not happy," says Botkin. "Part of that is having some money for canteen and personal products. It becomes a day-to-day, inside the walls issue that the general public really doesn't understand.

 

"In addition to simply putting a foul mood on things, allowing outside forces to zero out accounts could also lead to things like blackmail and coercion amongst inmates who are on the short end of the stick," Botkin continued. "Again, our members have hard enough jobs inside prison walls as it is, we don't need new outside forces to agitate the inmates."

 

Although the Senate Judiciary Committee had SB 396 scheduled for a work session, Botkin's objections to the proposed amendments helped halt any action on the bill, and no votes were taken. She will monitor the measure to see if it gets rescheduled for future work.

 

*   *   *

 

QUICK HITS — Groener continues to work for continued state funding for local agencies such as Northwest Senior & Disability Services, where AFSCME represents about 150 members. NWSDS is a local intergovernmental agency serving seniors and people with disabilities in Clatsop, Marion, Polk, Tillamook, and Yamhill counties, and the emphasis is to get lawmakers to understand it's cheaper for the state to help fund local services through such agencies. "The state is obligated by law to provide those services," said Groener. "Clackamas and Washington counties have handed such services back to the state in recent years, and it's costing the state millions. It can be done cheaper and more efficiently at the local level. But the workers have taken pay freezes year after year, and that has to change. Fortunately, I think people here are beginning to understand."

 

• Both Baessler and Council 75 Political Coordinator Eva Rippeteau have been involved in the debate at the capitol over the issue of paid sick days. The Portland City Council last month passed a resolution mandating businesses of a certain size to offer paid sick days to employees. HB 3390 would push the same concept statewide. "It's not really a union issue per se," says Baessler, "as most of our members have sick leave in their contracts. But it's a basic workers rights issue, and from that standpoint, we're at least involved in the discussions."

 

• The on-again, off-again SB 643 is beginning to look like a cat with nine lives — though it may be down to four or five at this point. The measure's original intent was simple: expand the transfer rights of ESD employees to cover school employees and even workers at some private, non-profit employers should ESD services be shifted around. The bill was initially drafted poorly and has been bobbing and weaving ever since as AFSCME tries to introduce amendments that will satisfy all involved. Things weren't looking good earlier in the week, but by Thursday Botkin says "it appears to be alive again." All we can say here is stay tuned.

 

• Groener is also optimistic he's making progress in the battle to bump up the wages of workers in private sector IDD (Intellectually Developmentally Disabled) group homes. He has doggedly been meeting with lawmakers throughout the session to explain how Oregon's indexed minimum wage impacts the stability of the IDD group home workforce. Group home turnover is exceedingly high when IDD workers can earn the same amount at a fast food restaurant or other entry-level job. "We have key legislators who understand the problem and want to help," says Groener. "We'll see."

 

*   *   *

 

Away from the capitol this week ...

 

CONVENTION SCHOLARSHIPS — The Oregon Next Wave is offering scholarships for new and young union members to attend the upcoming Oregon AFSCME Convention in Bend. The convention will be held at the Riverhouse Conference Center on April 19-21. Next Wave targets union activists 35 and younger.

 

"The convention is a great opportunity to see how our union works, to meet experienced and new members of your union, and learn how you can get involved," says AFSCME Organizer Dan Abernathy, the staff liaison to the Next Wave group. "If selected, you will get to attend the convention as a guest of the Next Wave. You will not be a delegate and you will not be able to vote on any business at the convention, but you will be able to attend all functions of the convention and participate in every other way.

 

"All we ask in return is that you report back to the Next Wave your experiences at the convention and how it was a valuable experience for you and your local."

 

If interested, you can fill out an online application form on the Council 75 website.

 

*   *   *

 

TROUBLE DOWN SOUTH — Yesterday (April 4) was the 45^th anniversary of the death of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. While many people remember King was in Memphis supporting striking sanitation workers when he was assassinated, not everyone — not even all AFSCME members — know that the strikers were members of then-fledgling AFSCME Local 1733.

 

Fast-forward 45 years and Local 1733 finds itself embroiled in trouble again, as some city officials are pushing to privatize and contract out the Local 1733 work. Amazingly, there are many veteran Memphis workers that walked picket lines with King still on the job, including one 81-year-old garage truck driver. The entire situation is detailed in an Associated Press article we encourage you to read.

 

*   *   *

 

That's it for this week. Have a great weekend!

 

#   #   #

e-lert No. 8     ¥     March 29, 2013

Edited by Don Loving, Oregon AFSCME Communications Director

 

You knew it was coming, but nevertheless, the first big fight over PERS came fast and furious. Most of you received an "emergency" e-lert on this topic earlier this week — thanks to those who responded. Here's what happened since that emergency missive went out, plus the rest of this week's news & notes.

 

*   *   *

 

BOOM! — In the space of barely 48 hours, "PERS reform" went from a brewing topic of concern to an all out fire drill this week when Joint Ways and Means Co-Chairs Sen. Richard Devlin (D-Tualatin) and Rep. Peter Buckley (D-Ashland) unleashed their own reform bill, SB 822. They announced SB 822 on Monday (March 25), and a fast-track hearing saw a joint session of the Senate and House Rules Committees hearing the bill Wednesday afternoon.

 

That chain of events left AFSCME and other unions scrambling to line up testimony from impacted members. The entire scenario surrounding SB 822 became a complete brouhaha, with the unions yelling foul while many Republican legislators chastised Devlin and Buckley for not going far enough — and, indeed, the GOP tried to push amendments the next day to make SB 822 considerably worse.

 

Here's what's in SB 822 as proposed by Devlin and Buckley. The measure would save roughly $400 million this biennium by applying a new formula to retirees' cost-of-living adjustment increases. Currently, all retirees receive an annual 2 percent COLA on all of their benefit. There have been several bills dropped that would cap the COLA to the first $24,000, the first $30,000, the first $36,000 and so on. HB 822 takes a different tact. It would have retirees receive the current 2 percent increase on their first $20,000 of retirement income. At that point, the COLA would then gradually decrease: retirees would receive 1.5 percent on any retirement income between $20,001 and $40,000, 1 percent on retirement income from $40,001 to $60,000 and 0.25 percent on all retirement income above $60,000. So depending on a retirees' income amount, their money could be adjusted as many as four different ways.

 

Here's an example. For a retiree making $36,000 a year in their PERS benefit, the current system gives them a 2 percent COLA on that entire amount, which works out to $720. Under SB 822, that same retiree would get 2 percent on their first $20,000 ($400) and then 1.5 percent on their remaining $16,000 ($240) for a total COLA of $640. So that retiree would lose $80 in the first year, and the loss would compound over time.

 

In order to give the PERS agency enough time to implement this new formula, for the first year of the coming biennium the COLA rate would drop from 2 percent to 1.5 percent for all retirement income. SB 822 also eliminates the tax reimbursement for retirees living out of Oregon for an additional $55 million in savings. The co-chairs' budget also calls for "collaring" 1.9 percent of employer rate increases to achieve an additional $350 million in resources in the 2013-15 biennium; AFSCME and the other PERS Coalition unions are OK with a collaring concept, which is essentially the same as the unions' call to re-amortize the 2008 PERS stock market losses.

 

Two current AFSCME members and the head of the union's retiree chapter all trekked to Salem for the March 27 public hearing, as did PERS Coalition attorney Greg Hartman. Hartman was allotted about 15 minutes to rebut the long-winded presentation by state Sen. Tim Knopp (R-Bend), who pushed hard for further reforms (see below). Hartman outlined the history of the 2003 reforms, what the state courts decided and indicated why he believes the concepts embodied by SB 822 will not pass constitutional muster.

 

Shortly after Hartman came AFSCME three representatives:

 

• Rob Martineau is a City of Portland Water Bureau employee and member of Local 189. He told the committee about the "promise" he was made regarding retirement when he went to work for the city. "Basically I'm a ditch digger," said Martineau. "I perform a physically demanding job that takes a toll on my body. I went to work with the understanding that after 30 years, I could retire. Now I'm basically being told I've got 13 years down and 25 to go. No one can do this work that long. You called a special session just to give Nike a special tax break, which I was OK with on the surface, but now you're saying you have to cut into our retirement because you have a budget shortfall. That's not fair."

 

• Tina Turner-Morfitt, a Corrections Counselor and member of Local 2376, walked the committee through her years of service with the DOC, constantly struggling to do more with less money. "In our job, our word is our bond [with the inmates]," she said. "Your word needs to be a bond between us."

 

• Chuck Moffit is a retired City of Portland accountant and President of the AFSCME Retirees Chapter 75 in Oregon. Moffit pulled no punches in describing HB 822 as "illegal, immoral, wrong and unfair at every level."

 

WHAT HAPPENED NEXT? SB 822 is not moving like a "normal" bill. As mentioned earlier in this article, the hurry-up public hearing was held March 27 before a joint session of both chambers' Rules committees. The following morning, March 28, Senate Rules alone took further testimony. Ultimately, that five-person committee passed the measure out; it's next stop will be a Ways and Means Subcommittee, likely next week.

 

But the bill's passage was far from clean. The two Republican members of Senate Rules, Sen. Ted Ferrioli (R-John Day) and Sen. Bruce Starr (R-Hillsboro), pushed to adopt Knopp's aforementioned amendments. Those amendments would have pushed the COLA thresholds higher, lowered final average salary calculation by omitting sick leave and overtime accrual, eliminated the 6 percent pickup, put the 6 percent back into the general PERS fund and more.

 

In other words, Knopp's amendments attempted to turn SB 822 into another version of SB 754, the Oregon School Boards Association's more draconian PERS measure that was detailed in the March 8 e-lert.

 

Senate Rules Committee Chair Diane Rosenbaum (D-Portland) and members Sen. Lee Beyer (D-Springfield) and Sen. Ginny Burdick (D-Portland) banded together to defeat the proposed amendments. SB 822, sans amendments, then passed the committee 3-2 with Ferrioli and Starr voting no because the bill "didn't go far enough."

 

"It's a conundrum," says longtime Oregon AFSCME PERS lobbyist Mary Botkin. "On the one hand, Sens. Rosenbaum, Beyer and Burdick voted SB 822 out of committee, and we oppose that measure vehemently. By the same token, they did protect us from the far worse amendments offered by the Republicans.

 

"The bottom line is that the PERS fights are just getting started now."

 

Botkin and Council 75 Political Director Joe Baessler thanked and praised the many members who responded to the "emergency e-lert" and took time to call and e-mail legislators on SB 822.

 

"We'll need you again soon," said Botkin.

 

*   *   *

 

TRAINING BATTLE — A long simmering dispute between AFSCME and some private group homes for Intellectually Developmentally Disabled (IDD) clients came to a bit of a head on March 27 when HB 3132 had its first public hearing. Council 75 represents several hundred IDD workers in private, non-profit group home settings. While many of the providers provide good training, the training level is far from universal. HB 3132 would require the state to "adopt rules to ensure that caregivers in licensed residential facilities and adult foster homes have practical knowledge and skills necessary to maintain health, safety and welfare of residents." As you might imagine, not all group home operators are keen on such a mandate.

 

"As written, the bill includes all long term care facilities, but it was our goal to be certain that it was meant to cover IDD group homes," says Oregon AFSCME Political Coordinator Eva Rippeteau. "Tim Kral, the Executive Director of the Oregon Rehabilitation Association, called the bill 'a solution looking for a problem,' then went on to complain about administrative burden this would cause."

 

Rippeteau says the training issue sometimes spills over into abuse investigations.

 

"In doing research to prepare for the bill, I talked with some investigators that told me that, too often, when an employee under investigation for abuse says that they have not been trained on an issue, there is no paper trail," said Rippeteau. "An investigator will check with an employer to see if there is a record of what type and when trainings were received, and are finding that there isn't a record. We seem to think that's a much bigger problem that Mr. Kral does.

"Where Kral and I did agree," added Rippeteau, "is that IDD services statewide are severely underfunded, and that low wages are adding to high turnover of employees."

Rippeteau says HB 3132 will need to be amended in places, but she is encouraged that "there seems to be interest from some of the legislators in continuing this conversation."

 

*   *   *

 

WORTH A TRY — Not everything your AFSCME lobbying staff attempts to accomplish works out exactly as planned. When that happens, you can either laugh or cry, and Council 75 Political Coordinator Joe Baessler is willing to chuckle when recounting his effort to pass HB 2869.

 

At issue are the innocuous-sounding survey fees established under the Public Land Corner Preservation Fund. AFSCME represents surveying staff in several Oregon counties, and it came to Baessler's attention that the surveying fees charged by most counties required by the aforementioned Public Land Corner Preservation Fund most often don't cover the cost of the survey.

 

"The fee is maxed out at $10 in most counties, $5 in some counties and only $4 in Baker County," said Baessler. "We helped drop HB 2869 through the House Revenue Committee, merely with the intention of allowing each county the right to reset the survey fee to an amount that actually covers the cost. I had no idea the amount of consternation this bill would cause."

 

Baessler said a variety of groups were opposed on the general basis of "raising fees or taxes." Another group was concerned counties would use HB 2869 as a means of lowering the current survey fee.

 

"All we wanted to do was give counties the authority to decide how to set this fee for their own circumstances," said Baessler. "I got to testify first this week before the House Revenue Committee. I got up and told the committee, 'I'm going to explain to you why this is a good idea, and then there will be a long line of people following me telling you why I'm dumb.' Then I testified, and then there was a long line of people calling me dumb."

 

The committee took no action on the bill, and Baessler doesn't expect it to.

 

"I'm pretty sure this isn't going anywhere," he says with a laugh. "But it was still a good idea."

 

*   *   *

 

SENIORS BUDGET — What with both Gov. John Kitzhaber and the Legislature trying to give another $1 billion in funding to K-12 schools, something has to give elsewhere in the state General Fund, and one of AFSCME's concerns is services to Oregon's senior and disabled population. Three Council 75 members testified on that topic March 28.

 

Belinda Bayliss is President of Local 3669, which represents about 150 employees of Northwest Senior & Disability Services. She was joined at the capitol by co-workers and fellow Local 3669 members Chris Fery and Rebecca Schmiedel. NWSDS is a local intergovernmental agency serving seniors and people with disabilities in Clatsop, Marion, Polk, Tillamook, and Yamhill counties. The agency offers many services including information and assistance, financial and medical assistance, in-home and community based services, senior meals, peer counseling, family caregiver support, Medicare counseling, adult foster home licensing and adult protective services. Virtually all of NWSDS' budget comes from state and federal grants and funds.

 

Bayliss, Fery and Schmiedel, shepherded by Oregon AFSCME Political Coordinator Ralph Groener, testified before a Ways and Means Subcommittee on the overall budget for the Department of Human Services, though the subcommittee's focus March 28 was on the seniors and people with disabilities portion of the broad DHS budget.

 

Bayliss summed up all three members' testimony succinctly with one sentence: "We're not serving people as well as we could." All three talked about previous agency cuts and how NWSDS employees — as well as their counterparts at similar agencies statewide — have reached a "do more with less" breaking point. Fery, for example, is a case manager who has over 150 clients on his caseload.

 

The subcommittee took testimony for two hours, hearing time and again the AFSCME members' testimony repeated in slightly different words. No action was taken. Most budgets will not be finalized until legislators receive the May state revenue forecast.

 

*   *   *

 

HERRON BILL MOVES  — The House Business and Labor Committee this week unanimously passed HB 3243, the AFSCME-sponsored "Buddy Herron bill" in memory of the late Council 75 member who was murdered in late 2011.

 

Herron was six months short of vesting in PERS at the time of his murder, and because his death qualifies as "in the line of duty," HB 3243 would forward normal PERS benefits to his family. AFSCME sponsored the measure on behalf of Herron's family; it was introduced by state Rep. Bob Jenson (R-Pendleton) and Rep. Greg Smith (R-Heppner).

 

While longtime Oregon AFSCME PERS and Corrections lobbyist Mary Botkin says HB 3243 was written narrowly with Herron's situation specifically in mind, she says the measure has proven popular enough that other lawmakers are taking up the cause.

 

"This is our union's bill about Buddy Herron, but it's touched a nerve," said Botkin. "Rep. Greg Matthews (D-Gresham) and Rep. Brent Barton (D-Oregon City) are working on a new bill that covers all public safety officers killed in the line of duty."

 

Herron was a correctional officer at Eastern Oregon Correctional Institution (EOCI) in Pendleton. In uniform and on his way to work the graveyard shift from his home in Helix on Nov. 28, 2011, Herron encountered an apparent stranded motorist and stopped to offer aid on a lonely stretch of Oregon Highway 11. The motorist, Joshua Charles Weeks, fatally stabbed Herron and stole his truck. He was soon captured and faces life in prison.

 

*   *   *

 

KEEPING A WATCHFUL EYE — Staying with Corrections, Local 2376 (Corrections Security Plus) President Ron Thompson will make the trip from Ontario next week to testify on HB 3245, an AFSCME bill designed to keep inmates in the building trades apprenticeship program toeing the straight and narrow line.

 

Former Oregon AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer and current state Rep. Brad Witt (D-Clatskanie) is HB 3245's primary sponsor. Here's the issue. Many inmates participate in good apprenticeship programs while serving their times — electricians, plumbers, etc. Depending on the length of their sentence, they can reach journeyman status while incarcerated, giving them a foot up in securing honest employment when they're released. No one involved disputes it's an excellent program.

 

But there is an occasional problem. As Thompson points out, "these are inmates — by definition, they're not always trustworthy." In an effort to save money, the DOC will sometimes use journeyman-level inmates to fix things. Those inmates are supervised from a security standpoint — sometimes by a Security member, but frequently by members from Thompson's Security Plus bargaining unit. But such supervision doesn't mean the process is free from occasional mischief.

 

"Our members doing the supervision aren't necessarily electricians or plumbers or whatnot," said longtime AFSCME Corrections lobbyist Mary Botkin. "So while they 'supervise' the work from a security standpoint, they don't know if the inmate is doing the work correctly. There are times the work is done wrong inadvertently, and sometimes the inmate may be doing something on purpose — cross-wiring a light switch so it blows later, for example."

 

HB 3245 requires such work to be overseen by a trades person from that particular discipline — people that are already on the DOC payroll.

 

"They don't necessarily need to be there all the time, they just need to check the work," said Botkin. "What we're trying to avoid is having it come back on our members that they didn't supervise properly, or well enough. Again, if Joe Member isn't an electrician, he's not going to know if the inmate apprentice is wiring the job correctly — that's not the type of 'supervision' he's there to provide. It's not a huge problem, but it's an occasional problem, and this bill can simply put it to rest."

 

*   *   *

 

NOT DEAD YET — Though perhaps on life support, HB 2024 is still showing signs of life. As reported in earlier editions of the e-lert, HB 2024 would make crimes of assault on staff and other patients at the Oregon State Hospital a felony. AFSCME Local 3295 represents some 250 registered nurses at OSH, and our members there are frequently the target of such assaults.

 

Alas, money is a problem. At a hearing in February, Marion County District Attorney Walter Beglau testified that assaults at the state hospital are already a misdemeanor, but that he doesn't prosecute them because he doesn't have the money to do so.

 

"Because there are so many state buildings in Marion County from which they do not receive property taxes, services such as those provided by the district attorney are stretched bit thin," said Rippeteau, who is lobbying OSH issues this session. "I knows AFSCME faced similar hurdles when pushing for the DOC inmates' assault bill several sessions ago."

 

But Rippeteau says Rep. Jennifer Williamson (D-Portland) and Sen. Jackie Winters (R-Salem) are looking for a way to find money for Beglau to be able to prosecute these crimes.

 

"In the meantime, thanks to the persistence and passion of Local 3295 members like Mary Lou San Blise and Deb Morse Little, House Judiciary Chair Rep. Jeff Barker (D-Aloha) has agreed to get amendments drafted and possibly pass the bill," says Rippeteau. "It all depends on finding money and getting the votes lined up on the committee, but we are actively working with legislative staff setting up meetings and working on getting those votes."

In other OSH news, Rippeteau reports HB 3131 has still not received its first public hearing. HB 3131 would create a permanent relief pool for nurses and other staff at the hospital.

 

"This is much needed as there are still high numbers of mandatory overtime being given and currently the relief pool is made up of temporary workers who are limited to work 1,040 hours, with 300 of those hours going to training on psychiatric nursing," says Rippeteau. "Temporary workers are only supposed to be used in 'emergency' cases to fill in for people on leave and in special circumstances, but at OSH these temps are used as the relief pool. Making a real relief pool permanent would allow the state hospital to keep trained employees on staff. So we're working hard to get this bill a hearing."

 

*   *   *

 

IS 'DOG' COMING? — Veteran Oregon AFSCME Political Coordinator Mary Botkin is more concerned today than she was a month ago that a popular reality TV series star may be making a professional appearance in Oregon. We're talking Duane "Dog" Chapman "Dog The Bounty Hunter" here.

 

We mentioned over a month ago that the House Judiciary Committee would be hearing HB 2548, a bill that would open the door for bail bondsmen in Oregon. At the time, Botkin wasn't overly concerned that Oregon wanted to go down that road. Following the hearing, she's a little more nervous.

 

"People on the committee seemed much more interested in this than I would have imagined," said Botkin. "It's a little disconcerting. Oregon is one of the states that does not employ a bail bonds system, and we will fight to keep it that way."

 

Council 75 represents many county-based, pre-release counselors throughout Oregon; those positions could be usurped by bail bondsmen. Sean McCabe, a Local 88 member and "recog officer" for Multnomah County — "recog" as in "You are released on your own recognizance pending trial" — joined Botkin in opposing HB 2548.

 

Botkin and McCabe outlined four main concerns that come with a bail bonds system: public safety, jail costs and management, revenue streams and court costs and compromising the integrity of the judicial system.

 

"This isn't reality TV," says Botkin. "Bounty hunters use dangerous tactics to retrieve, sometimes at gun point, offenders who don't want to be taken into custody. Who do they call, and what happens when something goes wrong? And there is lots of data that shows offenders released on bail bonds have a higher rate of re-arrest or violations of release conditions than do offenders under our current system.

 

"Also," Botkin continued, "a pre-release counselor like Shaun McCabe has some potential influence over those in his admittedly over-large caseload portfolio. A bail bondsman makes absolutely no attempt to monitor an offenders' behavior while on release — they only 'guarantee' the offender will be present at his/her court hearing."

 

Botkin says bail bond systems do offer one guarantee: low income/low risk offenders stay in jail while cash rich/high risk offenders get out.

 

"Bondsmen are going to leave offenders with mental health problems, addictions, those that are homeless, public nuisance offenders and the like in county custody — in other words, the expensive ones for the counties to manage," said Botkin. "They'll take the relatively 'easy' ones. And if they miscalculate, guess what? They can surrender their defendants back to county custody at any time, forcing sheriffs to manage erratic jail populations through emergency releases. The general public already believes we release people we shouldn't, and this just exacerbates that problem. 

 

"It's a very bad idea, and we don't intend to let it happen here."

 

*   *   *

 

JOINT EFFORT — Sometimes the best-laid plans become victims of circumstance, and that happened a little bit to Oregon AFSCME Child Care Providers who participated in an Employment-Related Day Care (ERDC) Lobby Day on March 27. As denoted above, March 27 turned into "PERS Day" at the capitol, which sort of overshadowed everything else.

 

Still, Local 132 (CCPT) staff representatives Faye Zepeda and Gloria Gonzalez, plus Local 132 members Shelly Campbell and Penelope Vaughn, joined providers from SEIU, Kinder Care and advocates from Children First to talk with legislators on the importance of removing the cap on the number of families allowed to participate in ERDC.

 

Campbell and Vaughn met with Rep. Nancy Nathanson (D-Eugene), one of the legislators who has been tracking ERDC.

 

"Rep. Nathanson understands that if a parent doesn't have access to affordable, stable care for their children they can't go to work," says Rippeteau. "For many people entering the workforce for the first time — or after looking for work through the recession — the jobs they are getting are lower wage. Having open enrollment for ERDC will allow a parent to take a job and get access to quality care immediately and not have to worry about being on the wait list."

 

Despite the hullabaloo over PERS that day, Zepeda says the providers had a good time and made some important contacts.

 

"It was good to see so many different groups banded together to support the cause," she said.

 

#   #   #

 

e-lert No. 7     ¥     March 22, 2013

Edited by Don Loving, Oregon AFSCME Communications Director

 

It was a bit of a weird week at the capitol. The political staff was scurrying around, though there's not a ton of actual news to report. That'll change soon enough! And it was great to see all of the folks who turned out Tuesday for our first Lobby Day. As always, welcome to this week's e-lert.

 

*   *   *

 

NON-STRIKEABLE ATTORNEYS — It's been a long time coming, but the fight to make AFSCME-represented Assistant Attorneys General at the Oregon Department of Justice non-strikeable leaped its first hurdle March 21 when the Oregon House passed HB 2449 on a 39-18 vote.

 

Local 1085 represents about 220 DOJ attorneys. Current law says they can go on strike, but the Oregon State Bar and other ethics policies say they can't. The long sought-after solution is to send contract disputes to binding arbitration, which is exactly what HB 2449 does. Council 75 Political Director Joe Baessler, who has been shepherding the measure all session, is pleased the bill passed with bi-partisan support.

 

"Most of the discussion on the House floor centered on the notion that some folks didn't think attorneys needed to be in a union, which was sort of a moot point being that these people already are and have been for some time," said Baessler.

 

The six Republican representatives who crossed party lines and voted "aye" on HB 2449 included Rep. Bob Jenson (R-Pendleton), Rep. Mark Johnson (R-Hood River), Rep. Bill Kennemer (R-Oregon City), Rep. Kim Thatcher (R-Keizer), Rep. Jim Thompson (R-Dallas) and Rep. Jim Weidner (R-McMinnville). Jenson, Kennemer and Thompson were all endorsed by AFSCME in 2012 and frequently vote with the union. Johnson is a first-termer without a track record to date. Thatcher and Weidner do not often vote with AFSCME, but we appreciate them doing so this time.

 

AFSCME has been trying to pass this measure for several sessions in an effort to remove the conflict the Local 1085 members have with their ethical obligations. HB 2449 now moves on to the Senate.

 

*   *   *

 

NOT AS SIMPLE AS IT SHOULD BE — Things were a bit chaotic March 21 as Council 75 Senior Political Coordinator Mary Botkin, Staff Representative Issa Simpson and three members of Local 1995 (Multnomah ESD) testified before the Legislature on SB 643.

 

The measure's original intent was simple: expand the transfer rights of ESD employees to cover school employees and even workers at some private, non-profit employers should ESD services be shifted around. Botkin and Simpson were joined at the capitol by Local 1995 President Sally Kissell and members Martha Ward and Denise Wood.

 

"The biggest problem is that the bill simply got drafted badly," said Botkin. "It was assigned to a counsel who is more familiar with education issues than collective bargaining issues, and without going into great detail, that sort of set a firestorm when the bill first came out. People were concerned we were trying to do things we were not."

 

Botkin says the intent of SB 643 is singular: if an ESD employee's work is transferred to another ESD, the employee follows the work.

 

"Right, wrong or indifferent, ESDs have been under attack a bit the last few sessions, and people have been calling for 'reform,' for lack of a better word," said Botkin. "Multnomah ESD has not been one of the problems, but if you reform ESDs then you're impacting them all, so we're just trying to offer job protections for our members at MESD who could see changes forced upon them by problems elsewhere in the state.

 

"Once we get everybody settled down and get the proper amendments drafted, I think we'll be OK, but it was a little crazy on Thursday."

 

*   *   *

 

MOTOR VOTER DELUXE — Oregon AFSCME is supporting HB 2198, a measure from Oregon Secretary of State Kate Brown that would automatically register people to vote when they fill out DMV paperwork for driver's licenses (provided they are 18).

 

"This is sort of an enhanced 'motor voter' law, which other people have used successfully," says Baessler. "The bottom line is that with 'sharing' between state databases, we collect everything we need from people at the DMV to also register them as voters — including proofs and such.

 

"Under HB 2198, people would receive a postcard notifying them they have been registered to vote as a non-affiliated voter. They can check a box and return the postcard or go online to pick a party preference if they so choose. It's very quick and easy, and we're not collecting the same information from people twice."

 

Baessler notes AFSCME would likely not have supported the measure if the Bill Sizemore-inspired "double majority" rules hadn't come off the books in recent years.

 

"We want people to participate in our democracy, but it's got to be under the majority rules standard, not double majority," he says.

 

*   *   *

 

FACEBOOK BILLS — Are you on Facebook? The social media giant has inspired a pair of employment-related Oregon bills this session.

 

The so-called "Facebook bills," HB 2654 and SB 499, are virtually identical. The bills prohibit "retaliation" by employers against both current employees or job applicants for refusing to provide access to social media accounts (i.e., Facebook) or refusing to add the employer to social media contact list. In Facebook parlance, that means you don't have to be "friends" with your employer. The bills go on to add similar protections to students vis-ˆ-vis educational institutions in a number of circumstances.

 

"This is really about three things," says Botkin. "One, employers could not force you to give them your Facebook password. Two, they cannot use a Facebook post you made at home on your own time against you, even if it's critical of your employer. That's a basic free speech issue.

 

"Third," Botkin continued, "potential employers could not force you to provide access to your Facebook account so they can peruse it and use it as a pre-screening tool. It gives you pause, and really this is sort of a case of the law catching up with technology."

 

Botkin says police and fire management immediately asked for exemptions to the proposal, claming they need such access to screen incoming employees.

 

It's also interesting to look at the sponsors of the two measures. HB 2654 is off to the quicker start, having had a hearing March 22. It's sponsored by Rep. Margaret Doherty (D-Tigard), a former teacher and Oregon Education Association union rep whom most would label as "progressive" at the very least. SB 499, in contrast, is co-sponsored by Sen. Betsy Close (R-Albany), Sen. Tim Knopp (R-Bend) and Sen. Bruce Starr (R-Hillsboro), who are, objectively, three of the Senate GOP's most conservative members. At this point, SB 499 is not scheduled for hearing, and there could be agreement between the two chambers to allow Doherty's bill to be the one that moves forward.

 

*   *   *

 

PARENTAL WARNINGS — Council 75 political staffer Eva Rippeteau provided written testimony this week on HB 3162, which would require manufacturers of products aimed at children to warn parents of the inclusion of a wide variety of, as Rippeteau put it, "toxic stuff."

 

Rippeteau, who lobbies both child care and environmental issues for AFSCME, says HB 3162 will allow parents to make informed choices.

 

"Johnson & Johnson baby shampoo has formaldehyde in it, for example," says Rippeteau. "There are products out there that contain arsenic. Some Halloween body paints include cadmium, a chemical that oil-based painters saw removed from their paint pallets in the 1960s. Again, we just want parents to be able to make informed choices."

 

*   *   *

 

QUICK HITS — Botkin testified this week on the OLCC budget, which she says generally "looks fine." Local 2505 represents some 200 OLCC employees. While the budget hearing went well in its Ways and Means Subcommittee, OLCC staff took heat in another public hearing from what Botkin called "out of control" Hayden Island residents upset with Washingtonians crossing the border and taking advantage of Oregon's cheaper liquor prices. "These people completely didn't get that our enforcement members can only write citations and make recommendations — they can't arrest anyone and they can't close bars," said Botkin. "That's up to the OLCC Commission." Botkin thanked state Rep. Greg Matthews (D-Gresham), who got so fed up with those testifying that he told them he would not listen to such disrespectful comments, gathered up his belongings and left the hearing.

 

Rippeteau and Oregon AFSCME Political Coordinator Ralph Groener are both working different angles of IDD-related bills. While Groener continues to work on wage issues for employees at Intellectually Developmentally Disabled group homes, Rippeteau is focused on training requirements. In that regard, she says HB 3132 is scheduled for its first public hearing on March 27. HB 3132 is the bill that would require employers at group homes for adults to provide proof of training of their employees on "practical knowledge and skills necessary to maintain the health, safety and welfare of the residents." Training of employees in group homes is already required by law and many employers are compliant, but this bill would create an accountability mechanism to ensure that employees are indeed getting that training and clients are getting the quality care that they need.

 

Local 3336 (Oregon DEQ) President Karen Williams sent written testimony this week to the Senate Environment and Natural Resources Committee supporting SB 488, which would eliminate a planned December 2015 sunset on Oregon's Clean Fuels Program. "In the coming decades, climate change may be more economically devastating than most of us can imagine," Williams wrote. "Reducing greenhouse gases emitted from fuel processing, transport, and burning can only lessen those eventual climatic and economic consequences. In the near-term, we see the potential investment in Oregon businesses, new technology and in-state fuel production as an economic benefit ... Overall, we believe eliminating the December 2015 sunset and allowing the Clean Fuels

Program to build on past investments will benefit the health and economic well-being of Oregon's citizens."

 

*   *   *

 

LOBBY DAY 1 IN THE BOOKS — March 19 was the first of our two planned lobby days this session. This first event focused on local government issues; Lobby Day 2, on April 9, will highlight state employee issues. Political staffer John McGovern coordinated the event. He reports that 12 different locals were represented on March 19. Members met with 34 different state representatives and senators, and also pulled some legislators off of their floor session for quick meetings. The detail-oriented McGovern even notes that "some sandwiches shouldn't have tomatoes on them" in his post-event report, so state workers can anticipate tomato-less lunch options on April 9. Please e-mail McGovern if you'd like to RSVP for the April 9 event.

 

*   *   *

 

One quick note away from the capitol this week ...

 

SEQUESTRATION TALK — Would you like to better understand this whole federal sequestration issue? The Oregon AFL-CIO is hosting a "Sequestration Sit Down" on April 4 with U.S. Rep. Suzanne Bonamici (D-Ore.) and Rep. Kurt Schrader (D-Ore.). The event will be held at the Oregon Labor Center, which is located at 3645 SE 32^nd Ave. in Portland, essentially just off the corner of SE 32^nd and Powell Blvd. It is scheduled from 6 to 7:15 p.m. All Oregon AFSCME members are invited and welcome to attend, but the Oregon AFL-CIO's Jessica Giannettino does need a head count. Please e-mail Giannettino if you plan to attend.

 

#   #   #

 

 

e-lert No. 6     ¥     March 15, 2013

Edited by Don Loving, Oregon AFSCME Communications Director

 

It was sort of quiet on the PERS front this week ... a longtime AFSCME 911 dispatcher came to Salem to talk funding ... should cigarette costs vary by county? ... and of course, a lot more. Welcome to this week's e-lert.

 

*   *   *

 

PERS THIS & THAT — There really isn't much new news this week regarding PERS. Management attorney Bill Gary got a little ink when he "released a legal opinion" saying he thought SB 754, the Oregon School Boards Association's omnibus bill we detailed last week, was legal and defensible. Really Bill? You made millions in 2003 and beyond defending the '03 reforms, and you'd welcome Round 2? Gee, go figure.

 

Sorry for the sarcasm. Three things we can tell you:

 

• None of the PERS bills have been scheduled for hearings yet. Most of the House bills are headed to the House Business and Labor Committee. Most of the Senate bills are headed to that chamber's Rules Committee. (Unlike 2003, there is no special PERS Committee this session.) We will certainly let you know when they begin to have hearings.

 

• We have posted a PERS Calculator on the Oregon AFSCME website. It's a simple Excel file, actually, where you can plug in your anticipated/best guess annual PERS retirement income and the number of years you expect you'll work, and in return the calculator tool will tell you how much money you're looking to lose under the proposed 2013 so-called PERS reform legislation. You can then use that information to ...

 

• Write your legislators! They need to hear from you. While the Council 75 lobbying staff does an excellent job of representing your interests at the capitol, at a certain level legislators understand they are there to do just that. PERS is your retirement system, and we need you to be engaged and help in this fight. Start by writing one letter, from your viewpoint, and send that letter to both your state representative and your state senator. Both the state capitol address and e-mail links to every Oregon legislator are easily found on our Oregon Legislature tab of the union website. There's also a link there if you don't know who your legislators are.

 

*   *   *

 

911 FUNDING — Member in the building! Recent Past President of Local 189 (City of Portland) Deb Hussey, an 18-year 911 operator, joined longtime Oregon AFSCME Public Safety lobbyist Mary Botkin in testifying before the House Revenue Committee on March 14 on a series of bills that would stabilize 911 emergency communications funding statewide.

 

State money for 911 comes mostly in the form of 75-cent per month line charges for both residential landlines and cell phone contracts. AFSCME helped push a bill in 2009 that added the surcharge to permanent cell phone lines. Hussey and Botkin addressed two key issues: the lack of consistent fee collection on "burner phones" and the overall shortage of 911 funding in general.

 

"When someone buys one of these pre-packaged, cheap pay-as-you-go 'burner phones,' they only pay a one-time fee of 75 cents," said Botkin. "On top of that, collection of that fee is hit-and-miss at best. Pretty good from large chain stores, but not so good from mom and pop stores, flea markets and such.

 

"There's also a funding shortage that needs to be addressed," Botkin continued. "If you're going to have such a tax to begin with, shouldn't it be high enough to cover the cost of 911 operations and infrastructure? There's nobody out there who doesn't want a 911 operator to answer promptly when it's their emergency." 

 

Hussey told lawmakers how much her job has changed over the years in regard to how 911 calls come in.

 

"When I first started, a cell phone call was a rarity," she testified. "Now it's the majority and the norm. My AFSCME colleagues at the Clackamas 911 center received 2,000 calls about the Town Center shooting, mostly cell calls. We may get 100-200 calls simply if there's some sort of minor fire on the side of a freeway in Portland — those are all cell calls from passing motorists. That's fine, that's why we're there. But the idea that we're not collecting as much money as we need, or that we're not collecting it from all cell phones or that packaged phones are only 75 cents one time at best — that just infuriates me."

 

Botkin says there appears to be at least consensus from the committee to continue the current tax, which was due to sunset this year.

 

"We'll continue to push to raise it, but then we run afoul of the 'no new taxes of any kind' crowd," said Botkin. That's always an uphill fight."

 

*   *   *

 

COUNTY SMOKER'S TAX? — Oregon has one of the lowest state cigarette taxes in the country, and you may have seen reports in the mainstream news that state legislators seem hesitant to up that tax statewide. But Oregon AFSCME Political Coordinator Joe Baessler testified today (March 15) in favor of HB 2870, a measure that would allow Oregon counties to add their own hike to cigarette taxes.

 

"Current state law pre-empts any local governments from adding a local cigarette tax," said Baessler. "HB 2870 would allow counties to do so. Not cities, not special districts — just counties."

Multnomah County Chair Jeff Cogen terms HB 2870 his county's biggest priority this session. Baessler said AFSCME's support was based on several factors.

 

"One is health care costs in general," he said. "Related to that, so many of our counties are having budget crises, due to timber issues and other reasons, and county health departments are feeling cutbacks. This could help with revenue. More expensive cigarettes could mean less kids choose to smoke, or smoke less often, which is a good thing.

 

"I don't know where this is going, but it's a good measure and we're lending our support."

 

*   *   *

 

AN ACTUAL TAX INCREASE — Council 75 Political Coordinator Ralph Groener reports one measure that includes a real, live tax increase — albeit an infinitesimal one — moved this week out of committee. It's a proposed increase to the Fire Insurance Premium Tax, or FIPT.

 

When you pay your home fire insurance, typically as part of your global homeowners insurance plan, a portion of that premium goes to the state. It's been 1 percent for years, but it may get bumped to 1.15 percent this session. A bill to do that passed the House Revenue Committee Thursday (March 14).

 

AFSCME supports the FIPT increase to continue and stabilize the funding it provides to three state agencies: Oregon State Fire Marshal, Department of Public Safety Standards and Training and the Oregon State Police. Oregon AFSCME represents some personnel at each of those agencies.

 

"Our most direct impact is at the Fire Marshal's office, where eight AFSCME-represented positions are funded directly from the FIPT," says Groener. "It also helps fund fire instructors at DPSST and the arson squad at the State Police."

 

The bill now moves on to a House floor vote, perhaps as early as Monday (March 18).

 

*   *   *

 

BUDDY HERRON BILL — The House Business and Labor Committee will hold a public hearing Monday (March 18) on HB 3243, an AFSCME-sponsored bill dubbed the "Buddy Herron bill" in memory of the late Council 75 member who was murdered in late 2011.

 

HB 3243 is actually a PERS-related bill, co-sponsored on behalf of Herron's family at the request of AFSCME by state Rep. Bob Jenson (R-Pendleton) and Rep. Greg Smith (R-Heppner). Herron was six months short of vesting in PERS at the time of his murder, and because his death qualifies as "in the line of duty," HB 3243 would forward normal PERS benefits to his family.

 

"This is our union's bill about Buddy Herron, though it's written so that anyone n a similar circumstance would qualify," said Botkin. "Right now, as I understand it, there is one other family that would benefit, a police officer's family.

 

"The key consideration is the 'line of duty' provision," Botkin continued. "As unfortunate as any such death is, we can't expand PERS for any and all such cases. As originally written, it would have included a police officer that died at home of a heart attack. Again, while that's tragic for that family, that's not what this bill is about. This is 'line of duty' legislation."

 

Herron was a correctional officer at Eastern Oregon Correctional Institution (EOCI) in Pendleton. In uniform and on his way to work the graveyard shift from his home in Helix on Nov. 28, 2011, Herron encountered an apparent stranded motorist and stopped to offer aid on a lonely stretch of Oregon Highway 11. The motorist, Joshua Charles Weeks, fatally stabbed Herron and stole his truck. He was soon captured and faces life in prison.

 

"Officer Herron was acting as an Oregon public safety officer in the line of duty in uniform when he stopped to help," said Botkin. "That's the distinction here."

 

*   *   *

 

DPSST REVOCATION — Botkin is also the point person for the union on HB 2771, which deals with appeals of any Oregon public safety officer's decertification of his/her Department of Public Safety Standards and Training (DPSST) certificate. Without said certificate, you can't work in the law enforcement field in Oregon.

 

"This is about the DPSST revocation process and our members' appeal rights," said Botkin. "There is a long laundry list of over 200 reasons why you can your DPSST certificate revoked. Anything from lying to your supervisor to a DUI charge to, believe it or not, illegally hauling hay."

 

Oregon AFSCME Legal Counsel Jennifer Chapman is helping write amendments to HB 2771. Botkin says her hope is that the measure can bring better clarity and timeliness to the process.

 

"Here's just one example," says Botkin. "Jennifer has been working on a case for over two years that involves a member who was a peacemaker in a bar scuffle but was determined to have relayed some of the details incorrectly to police because he had a little too much to drink. He wasn't involved in the fight, and if he'd just sat there and watched he wouldn't be in this situation. With so many — again, over 200 — reasons you can lose your certification, we need to streamline the appeals process. Two years doesn't serve anyone well."

 

*   *   *

 

QUICK HITS — Baessler was chuckling a bit this week that colleagues at the Oregon Education Association were taking all the heat over HB 3113. As reported last week, HB 3113 eliminates certain clauses from Oregon election law, including the provision that elections that include possible tax increases must denote those in red ink on the outer ballot envelope. Baessler was scheduled to testify Monday (March 11) along with an OEA representative, but conflicts precluded him from doing so. "It's our bill as much as theirs," he said. "I'm not sure if I should be happy or hurt — they're taking all of the heat or getting all of the credit, depending at how you look at it."

 

• Groener reports he's spent the bulk of this past week going door-to-door at legislators' offices, making appointments and talking about the Intellectually Developmentally Disabled (IDD) issue we detailed last week. In a nutshell, the problem is that as Oregon's indexed minimum wage rises, private sector IDD group homes can't keep staff, seeing turnover rates as high as 400 percent. AFSCME is pushing for a $1 across-the-board wage increase for such workers; Groener says the response from legislators has been surprisingly positive to date.

 

• Botkin joined the Department of Corrections in opposing SB 417 on Thursday. The measure, sponsored by Sen. Betsy Close (R-Albany), would make corrections officers mandatory reporters of abuse to inmates. "We appreciate Sen. Close's concerns, but COs are already mandatory reporters and there are some other nuance issues with this bill," said Botkin. "For now, we are opposed as it's currently written."

 

• Botkin also testified this week in favor of the Employment Relations Board (ERB) budget. As noted last week, the ERB just did last session finally get a small funding boost that helps make the agency more timely in its responses to labor relations issues. ERB has authority over all state and local government public employees covered by PECBA, the Oregon Public Employees Collective Bargaining Act — or, in other words, all Oregon AFSCME public employee members.

 

• It's not too late to join us next Tuesday (March 19) for our local government lobby day at the capitol. It's the first of two such days — the second one, April 9, will focus on state employee issues. But, as noted in earlier e-lerts, state employees are also welcome to come on March 19 and vice-versa — and AFSCME retirees are welcome either or both days. E-mail political staffer John McGovern to RSVP.

 

*   *   *

 

Away from the capitol this week ...

 

PEBB ROAD SHOW UPDATE — The Public Employees Benefit Board "road show" we mentioned last week has had to make one change: the meeting scheduled for Pendleton has been moved from April 4 to April 15. We have more details on the Council 75 website, and you can also check the PEBB website for updates.

 

*   *   *

 

WELCOME GILES GIBSON — The Oregon AFSCME legal team is once again up to full strength with the recent hiring of veteran labor attorney Giles Gibson. Gibson fills the vacancy created when Jason Weyand took a position on the ERB Board late last year.

 

Gibson joins AFSCME's now-senior legal counsel Jennifer Chapman to offer Council 75 members a wide variety of insight and experience — including time as a Corrections rep. A native of the San Francisco Bay area, Gibson was active in two unions early in his career. He came to Oregon in 1986 to spend two years on staff with SEIU Local 503, then made the "relatively late decision," as he puts it, to attend law school at the University of San Francisco. Upon graduation, he spent two years back in Portland clerking for U.S. Federal District Court Judge James Redden.

 

"Of course, as you near the end of a clerkship, you're looking for a job," says Gibson. "There simply weren't any openings in labor or labor-friendly law firms at the time, and I ended up, of all places, at Stoel Rives. But I made clear to them I would not do anti-union management work, and they are big enough and busy enough that worked out fine."

 

Stoel Rives, for the curious, is the state's largest "business law" firm. After a time there, Gibson was able to move on to Goldberg, Mechanic and Stuart, a noted Portland labor law firm. Gibson was, he believed, set for life.

 

"I really thought I'd be there until I retired," he says. "I was there 11 years and had just been made a partner — for a brief time it was Goldberg, Mechanic, Stuart and Gibson. But things changed. Gene Mechanic took a job in Florida with SEIU, Diana Stuart was appointed to a state judgeship, and the firm disbanded."

 

Gibson moved on briefly to another firm, then decided to set out on his own. But he candidly admits working on his own for three-and-a-half years wasn't his cup of tea.

 

"I did mostly union and wage-and-hour related litigation, but the reality is I'm much too much of an extrovert to work on my own like that," says Gibson. "In private practice, there's internal pressure to read-write-think business all the time. I'm more about the mission, and quickly applied when I saw the opening here at Oregon AFSCME."

 

Chapman believes the experience she and Gibson bring collectively mesh perfectly for AFSCME members.

 

"Giles brings us a broad range and wealth of experience from labor settings, but outside of AFSCME specifically," said Chapman. "I come from the perspective of having been an AFSCME member before I was an AFSCME staff person, so I think that's a great combination."

 

Chapman was an attorney at the Oregon Department of Justice and a Local 1085 activist before taking the Council 75 position some 14 months ago.

 

"Being a member is still fresh in my mind, it wasn't that long ago," says Chapman. "I was on the AFSCME Central Table Bargaining Team twice. I've been through those sessions. I experienced furlough days. I've been through the state's frequent and recent slaps in the face toward our members. I fully 'get' that — it helps me focus."

 

In addition to all of the nuances of her actual job, Chapman says she's noticed two things in her year-plus as an AFSCME staff attorney.

 

"One, there's a lot more going on behind the scenes than you realize from a member's perspective," she said. "A lot of things are much more complicated than they might seem at first blush.

 

"Second, members have more control than they think they do," Chapman continued. "This really is a grassroots, bottom-up organization. We say that a lot, but I didn't fully understand how true it was until I made the switch from member to staff. AFSCME members have great input in what happens here."  

 

Gibson says the AFSCME model is part of what drew him to Council 75.

 

"There's a great outside perception that AFSCME is a very effective union," he says. "AFSCME is successful in fighting the slings and arrows shooting at public employees. I'm happy to join the fray."

 

Gibson also notes that while he was with SEIU, he was at that time the union representative for the Oregon State Correctional Institution (OSCI).

 

"Back then, SEIU had both what we call today the Security and Security Plus units at OSCI, and I was the rep," says Gibson. "So from that experience, I understand Corrections and the Corrections culture pretty well. I know there are some distinctions within Corrections, and have a pretty good feel for those nuances."

 

Gibson will be based in the Portland AFSCME office, but also has space in Salem and will generally be in the Salem office two days a week. His e-mail is ggibson@oregonafscme.com; Chapman's is jchapman@oregonafscme.com.

 

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e-lert No. 5     ¥     March 8, 2013

Edited by Don Loving, Oregon AFSCME Communications Director

 

There was budget news both big and small at the capitol this week ... we're up to 59 PERS bills and counting ... we need your help soon, two AFSCME lobby days are coming ... and lots, lots more. Welcome to this week's e-lert.

 

*   *   *

 

CO-CHAIRS BUDGET — The biggest news this past week came on Monday (March 4) with the announcement of what is generally referred to as "the co-chairs budget." That's the document released right about this time relatively in every full legislative session by the co-chairs of the Joint Ways and Means Committee. Joint Ways and Means and its many sub-committees is the powerful budget-writing arm of the Legislature. The co-chairs this session are Sen. Richard Devlin (D-Tualatin) and Rep. Peter Buckley (D-Ashland).

 

While the governor's announced budget may give lawmakers some ideas about how to spend Oregon's money, it is actually the co-chairs budget that sets the financial framework for the state. It was not good news, then, that Devlin and Buckley's plan, like the budget proposal released by Gov. John Kitzhaber, relies heavily on PERS-related savings to fill gaps.

 

"We are deeply disappointed that the 'solutions' offered by the co-chairs weigh heavily on the backs of public employees, both current and retired," said Oregon AFSCME Political Director Joe Baessler. "In particular, we are concerned that through re-amortizing the 2008 PERS losses — a concept we support — capping retirees' COLAs and ending the tax offset for out-of-state retirees, those pieces of the co-chairs budget account for over $800 million. At the same time, their budget proposal only adds $270 in new revenue, mostly through closing some tax loopholes and tax breaks. That's not a solution, no matter how they spin it."

 

Baessler says the budget leaves Oregon's Rainy Day funds untouched, and capitol rumors persist that legislators and the governor have eyes on those funds to make up for the PERS retiree cap issue should the courts ultimately hold that move unconstitutional.

 

K-12 schools are the big winners in the co-chairs budget, allotted $6.55 billion — up almost a full billion from last biennium. As the full budget details are released, that could spell trouble for other state General Fund agencies, which includes the Department of Corrections.

 

What happens next? There will be lots of agency budget hearings — many are already underway — and legislators eventually vote on all agency budgets individually. However, again, the co-chairs budget serves as the overall framework and the agency budgets cannot total more than their final number. All this will play out over the next two months or so while lawmakers await the state's May revenue forecast, which triggers legislators' final opportunity to tweak state budget numbers before their anticipated late June/early July adjournment.

 

On Monday, AFSCME and the other major unions immediately released a joint response to the co-chairs budget proposal. The text of the unions' response is as follows:

 

Oregon's educators, front-line, public safety and health care workers recognize that our economy continues to struggle as a result of the recent economic collapse. We fully appreciate the Co-Chairs faced tough choices in putting together a budget that ensures that we can fund services that middle-class families and vulnerable Oregonians rely on.

 

Research and election results clearly show that Oregonians want legislators to prioritize schools, health care, public safety and services to seniors and the vulnerable. They also expect a shared sacrifice and want corporations and the wealthy to pay their fair share.

 

We are disappointed that the Co-Chairs' proposed budget does not call upon corporations and the wealthiest Oregonians, who have enjoyed almost all of the benefit of the economic recovery, to do their part in funding schools, senior services and other vital programs. It's unfair and irresponsible to balance the budget on the backs of working Oregonians and on those who rely on services. Legislators should make sure that those who've prospered even through this economic crisis are paying their fair share. 

 

It is extremely troubling that the co-chairs budget breaks a promise to hard working, middle class Oregonians and retirees on a fixed income. At the same time, the Legislature recently bent over backwards — even calling an emergency session — to be able to promise special treatment to profitable corporations like Nike.

 

The PERS proposal included in the Co-Chairs budget is very similar to a 2003 proposal that was ruled unconstitutional. This means that these dollars will likely never make it into Oregon's classrooms or to other valuable programs.

 

Making matters worse, the COLA proposal will cost the state millions of dollars to litigate and once this proposal is found to be illegal — again — the Legislature would have to rebalance the budget and slash funding for schools, health and senior care, and public safety in the middle of the biennium.

 

It's important to remember that every public employee group — teachers, public safety, health care and other front-line workers — have taken pay cuts, furloughs and are paying more out of pocket for health insurance. They are also doing more with less. Class sizes are bigger. Caseloads are larger. Public employees, like all middle-class Oregonians, are making sacrifices. Unfortunately, the Co-Chairs' budget continues to ask working and middle-class families and the vulnerable to carry all of the burden.

 

This budget appears to be another way of scapegoating those with a target on their back: public employees. We are now seeing the kinds of demonization of public employees here in Oregon that were the foundation for what happened in Wisconsin, Michigan and Ohio, where middle-class workers' voices have been silenced. We've seen clear evidence of this trend through continued attacks on promised pensions, and petitioners are now on the street with an initiative to put right-to-work on Oregon's ballot.

 

We believe that we can do better. The budget can be balanced in a way that is fair, sustainable and prioritizes what Oregonians value. We call on our lawmakers to consider the following:

 

• Cut out-of-control tax breaks and make sure everyone pays their fair share. Oregon's corporate tax rate is tied for the lowest in the nation, and over the next two years, Oregon is expected to give away more than $36 billion in tax breaks. We need to do more to close loopholes and ask those with the ability to pay to invest more before we ask teachers, front-line workers and retirees on fixed incomes to shoulder even more of the burden.

 

• Make every dollar count. A report released by a broad coalition of 10 organizations identified $278 million in savings at state agencies by increasing efficiencies and cracking down on tax cheats. These recommendations should be exhaustively examined before seniors and the vulnerable face cuts to services or attacks on their pensions.

 

• Pursue common sense, legal approaches to PERS. Wall Street misdeeds crashed our economy and significantly harmed PERS financial health. We are now faced with having to clean up the mess made by bad-behaving investment banks and others who abused our financial system. We should strive to recoup losses from fraud caused by Wall Street. The Treasurer and Attorney General have already recovered some of the money PERS was defrauded and they should continue down this path.

 

Additionally, in bringing certain financial and investment functions under the authority of the State Treasurer, we can keep a closer watch on how Oregon's tax dollars are invested, and we can significantly reduce wasteful spending on unnecessary fees to out-of-state corporations who don't have any ties to Oregon.

 

We can also realize substantial savings by having the PERS Board recapture the loss from the malevolence of Wall Street in 2008 over a longer period of time to help smooth the dramatic impact on schools, seniors and families.

 

• It's raining now. Our economy is slowly recovering from Wall Street's illegal and irresponsible actions; we should use our reserves for the purpose for which they are intended: preserving services when Oregonians need them most.

 

There is a better way forward. Before a single retiree has the rug pulled out from under her in her golden years, we need to make sure that the wealthy and every corporation pays their fair share. Before our teachers, firefighters and personal support workers are asked to do more with less, we need to make sure that our leaders are being responsible and efficient with our tax dollars. It may be a challenge, but it's what Oregonians expect from their leaders.

 

*   *   *

 

CORRECTIONS BUDGET — Speaking of budgets, it's wait-and-see time for many specific agency budgets, including the Department of Corrections. We reported earlier that the DOC's budget was one of the first heard this session; longtime Council 75 Corrections lobbyist Mary Botkin testified on it last month.

 

"My concern, which I expressed before the committee, is that I don't see any extra money for overtime or vacation relief or whatnot — there still aren't enough staff in the system," says Botkin. "The DOC budget is based on a flat inmate population, but even then, we don't have enough staff as is."

 

Botkin says the Legislature is looking at extending the sunset clause on Ballot Measure 57, which would delay introducing more property crime offenders into the state penal system.

 

"But that's a tightrope walk, because in the real world, property crimes are what fuel ballot measures," said Botkin. "Measure 57 passed overwhelming in proverbially 'liberal' Multnomah County. People don't like having their stuff stolen, period."

 

Botkin also says the co-chairs budget places a focus on community corrections, but notes that without available state beds, the community corrections system is hamstrung.

 

So what's next?

 

"My job right now is to do my best to find out what's happening behind closed doors," said Botkin. "Budget negotiations aren't necessarily as transparent as citizens might think. That's why we're here. I need to find out who's saying what to whom — and I will."

 

*   *   *

 

BIG PERS BILL — We have seen and reported each week on various pieces of PERS reform legislation. Last week we saw legislation what may be the key battle for both sides with the introduction of SB 754, an omnibus PERS reform bill that contains five major provisions.

 

SB 754 was introduced by state Sen. Tim Knopp (R-Bend) and Rep. Sherrie Sprenger (R-Scio) at the request of the Oregon School Boards Association. It would:

 

• Limit retirees' COLA to the first $24,000 of annual benefits;

 

• Eliminate the out-of-state tax offset;

 

• Limit/lower how a person's final average salary is calculated ("spiking");

 

• Reduce from 8 percent to 4 percent the Money Match calculation; and

 

• Place the employees' 6 percent contribution back into the general PERS fund, the equivalent of simply cutting pay by 6 percent.

 

Many of these ideas are encompassed within other bills. For example, we reported last week on SB 659, sponsored by Sen. Doug Whitsett (R-Klamath Falls), which is a retirees' COLA cap at $24,000 identical to the provisions within SB 754. There are several bills dealing with the out-of-state issue. But SB 754 takes most of the worst PERS reform ideas and packages them all up together.

 

"I hardly know what to say," says Botkin, the union's point person on PERS since 1986. "The proposal to cut Money Match in half, for example, isn't based on anything — it's completely arbitrary and, our attorneys would tell us, completely illegal and unconstitutional. But there is enough of a drumbeat for PERS reform that I'm sure this package will get a hearing. We, both AFSCME and the PERS Coalition, will be ready to fight."

 

*   *   *

 

MORE PERS — Two other PERS-related notes. Botkin and Council 75 Communications Director Don Loving escorted PERS Coalition attorney Greg Hartman to several legislative meetings on Thursday. Hartman met with both individual lawmakers and legislative staff to outline the legal history of PERS reform, particularly in light of the 2003 reforms. Hartman has made several trips to Salem already this session with both AFSCME and other PERS Coalition partners — and more trips are in the offing — as the unions and Hartman try to explain that the 2003 reforms set a clear legal path for what can and can't be done to PERS, and that most of the 2013 proposals land in the "can't" camp.

 

Also, PERS itself has released a list of 59 bills the agency is tracking that impact PERS in one way or another. It is, in all honesty, a cleaner version than the one we offered you last week via our bill tracking system, which can be a little clunky if you're not used to it. The PERS list also includes all committee assignments to date. Click here if you'd like to take a look.

 

*   *   *

 

IDD CLIENTS IN CRISIS — The battle continues to brew over privately operated group homes for Intellectually Developmentally Disabled (IDD) clients, specifically, over their quality of care and how much they earn. Oregon AFSCME Political Coordinators Ralph Groener and Eva Rippeteau both have pieces of this fight.

 

Oregon AFSCME represents several hundred private sector IDD group home workers throughout the state: Coast Rehab in Astoria, Rainbow in Portland, Albertina Kerr in Salem and Eugene, Star of Hope in Coos Bay, just to name a few. Even the unionized group homes struggle to keep wages much above minimum wage, and Oregon's consumer price indexed, increasing minimum wage pressures the ability of such homes to keep employees.

 

"It's a constant battle," says Groener. "It's not just a clichŽ. If you're going to earn the same amount of money doing these important but difficult care jobs that you earn at McDonald's, you're going to choose flipping burgers. Some of the private sector, non-unionized group homes have a turnover rate of 400 percent per year. That means the quality of care for these patients is severely compromised when there's no continuity amongst the care staff."

 

The state cut funding to such homes by 6 percent in 2010, and this year's governor's proposed budget didn't add any new money. There appears to be some possibility of money available in the co-chairs budget, but that hasn't been spelled out yet.

 

"I believe we're going to have to push for a bill to increase the wages for front-line workers by $1 an hour across the board," said Groener. "That may upset some of the provider groups, who we are trying very hard to work with, but the bottom line is that we've got to keep these wages ahead of minimum wage or people just won't do these jobs. Right or wrong, that's reality."

 

*   *   *

 

ERDC EXPANSION — Rippeteau will be testifying on Monday (March 11) in favor of expanding the state's Employment-Related Day Care (ERDC) program. As reported two weeks ago, the state has some additional money available from a 2011 federal block grant, initially reported to be $5.4 million. In the 2012 mini-session, AFSCME and SEIU jointly asked if some of that $5.4 million "left over" block grant money could be used for either add-backs to those in ERDC, or to increase rates. It's an issue that impacts both child care providers and Head Start agencies.

 

"We were told 'no' on that request, but also told we could ask to use the money in 2013 as part of an 'expansion' of the program," says Rippeteau. "But now, we're hearing that $5.4 million figure may be as much as $12.8 million — we're waiting for a final analysis."

 

Assuming there's some money available, still to be decided is the issue of expanding the ERDC program so that the 2,000 to 3,000 families on a state waiting list can get off the list and in the program, or allotting the child care providers with a state subsidy rate increase, which hasn't happened since 2007.

 

"It's a difficult issue," says Rippeteau. "On the one hand, our Local 132 (Child Care Providers Together) providers need a subsidy increase. On the other hand, they realize that by increasing the ERDC slots available to all families on the list, that would help stabilize the system. They wouldn't see people jumping in and out constantly, and most would gain clients and so increase their bottom line in that way. There likely won't be the money for both."

 

AFSCME and SEIU child care providers will be participating in a joint "Save ERDC" lobby day March 27 at the state capitol. AFSCME represents licensed and certified providers statewide; SEIU the "exempt" providers. Local 132 Staff Rep Faye Zepeda needs RSVPs by March 11. You can e-mail Zepeda for more information; you can click here to view or download an informational flier regarding the event.

 

*   *   *

 

LOBBY DAYS — A quick reminder here that we have two Lobby Days scheduled at the capitol. Tuesday, March 19 will be focused on local government employees and their issues; Tuesday, April 9 will be focused on state employees. AFSCME retirees are welcome either day to talk about PERS, and Baessler notes that if state employees can't make it on April 9 but can on March 19 — or vice versa with local government employees — they are welcome to come on the day that they can. "We'll work it out," says Baessler. There's more information and downloadable fliers on the Oregon AFSCME website.

 

*   *   *

 

O & C MEMORIAL — Groener testified Thursday on SJM 6, a Senate Joint Memorial urging President Obama and Congress to allow Oregon counties with federal O & C timberlands within their boundaries the right to exercise management authority over those forestlands. There are 18 western Oregon counties that include old Oregon & California Railroad grant lands. SJM 6 asks that Uncle Sam either transfer title to the lands at no cost or lease them long-term to counties at a token cost. That would free up counties to enact sustainable harvest of timber on property that has long been locked up.

 

"AFSCME has a long history of working on this issue, both in Oregon and through our International union in Washington, D.C.," said Groener. "It's an important county revenue issue, and our support opened the eyes of some newer conservative legislators about how this union goes about business. Now, to be honest, an SJM from Oregon or any other state doesn't really carry much weight back in Congress, but essentially this supports the plan pushed initially by U.S. Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.) and others, and passing SJM 6 can't hurt."

 

*   *   *

 

BAIL BONDS — Oregon is one of the states that does not employ a bail bonds system, and Oregon AFSCME is a partner in the fight to keep it that way. HB 2548, which would open the door for bail bonds in Oregon, will be heard on March 26 in the House Judiciary Committee.

 

Council 75 represents many county-based, pre-release counselors throughout Oregon; those positions would be usurped by bail bondsmen. But there are other concerns as well.

 

"While 'Dog the Bounty Hunter' may be a popular TV series, we don't want 'Dog' in Oregon," says Botkin.

 

Botkin says a bail bonds system brings four main concerns: public safety, jail costs and management, revenue streams and court costs and compromising the integrity of the judicial system.

 

"This isn't reality TV," says Botkin. "Bounty hunters use dangerous tactics to retrieve, sometimes at gun point, offenders who don't want to be taken into custody. Who do they call, and what happens when something goes wrong? And there is lots of data that shows offenders released on bail bonds have a higher rate of re-arrest or violations of release conditions than do offenders under our current system.

 

"Also," Botkin continued, "a pre-release counselor has some potential influence over those in his admittedly over-large caseload portfolio. A bail bondsman makes absolutely no attempt to monitor an offenders' behavior while on release — they only 'guarantee' the offender will be present at his/her court hearing."

 

Botkin says bail bond systems do offer one guarantee: low income/low risk offenders stay in jail while cash rich/high risk offenders get out.

 

"Bondsmen are going to leave offenders with mental health problems, addictions, those that are homeless, public nuisance offenders and the like in county custody — in other words, the expensive ones for the counties to manage," said Botkin. "They'll take the relatively 'easy' ones. And if they miscalculate, guess what? They can surrender their defendants back to county custody at any time, forcing sheriffs to manage erratic jail populations through emergency releases. The general public already believes we release people we shouldn't, and this just exacerbates that problem. 

 

"It's a very bad idea, and we don't intend to let it happen here."

 

*   *   *

 

QUICK HITS — Baessler reports that HB 2449, which grants Local 1085 members at the Oregon Attorney General's office binding arbitration, has a work session scheduled on Monday. The bill appears to have bipartisan support and Baessler is optimistic it will move through the committee.

 

Botkin is keeping a close eye on the Employment Relations Board budget. While ERB employees are naturally enough non-represented, it's a critical agency that deals with union members' rights through arbitrations, Unfair Labor Practices and so on. "ERB had been underfunded for years," says Botkin. "We made some gains in 2011, and we don't want to see slippage. It's especially important in cases involving employee terminations. If a case gets that far, it's vital for everyone — employees and employers — to have those cases resolved as quickly and efficiently as possible."

 

Groener is monitoring attempts to scale back the Vehicle Inspection Program at DEQ. Local 3336 represents VIP (and other) DEQ employees. One bill would eliminate VIP entirely, based on the argument that cars are so efficient these days the inspections are unwarranted. Indeed, Washington state did just that recently. Another bill would exempt late model cars from the testing, likely 2006-2007 or so and newer. Such legislation would, obviously, phase down the program over time. We'll keep you posted.

 

Rippeteau reports the work group on HB 2024 headed by Rep. Brian Clem (D-Salem) is scheduled to meet Monday. As reported earlier, HB 2024 would create a felony count of assault in the third degree aimed at patients in the Oregon State Hospital, where Oregon AFSCME Local 3295 represents registered nurses. In February, Local 3295 member Mary Louise San Blise explained to lawmakers the distinction between state hospital patients acting out due to uncontrolled mental illnesses and willful attacks by those who know better. The work group will try to hammer out compromises between bill proponents and clients' rights advocates.

 

Baessler will testify Monday on HB 3113, a measure to clean out state election law clauses mandating unnecessary and often inaccurate information from local bond and levy elections. "Many of these came about from when Bill Sizemore was at the brief zenith of his popularity," says Baessler. "There are some mandates about including certain percentages that simply aren't accurate. The rule that says ballot envelopes must print the words 'possible tax increase' in red ink — some counties just print the whole envelope in red ink. There are things like that to be cleaned up. It's time. Such local money measures should pass or fail on their own merits — the ballot envelope shouldn't editorialize on its outside." Baessler will be joined in testimony by a representative from the Oregon Education Association.

 

Botkin says there's no new news on a possible hearing for HB 2910, AFSCME's bill sponsored by Rep. Greg Smith (R-Heppner) that would allow Corrections employees the right to keep personal weapons on DOC property provided they have a permit and a locked gun box. As reported last month, the real purpose of the bill is the allow the employees the opportunity to have their weapons with them while they are in transit to and from work — many large state prisons are in rural areas and workers commute a great distance. "Gun bills are lightning rods, everybody understands that," said Botkin. "The Legislature wants to get a good foot up on budgets, so there is a tacit understanding that all gun bills of any persuasion will be put off until later in the session. We will report just as soon as we know when 'later' is."

 

*   *   *

 

Away from the capitol this week ...

 

PEBB ROAD SHOW — We'll have more information soon, both here and on the Council 75 website, but for now a quick note for state employees that PEBB, the Public Employees Benefit Board, is going on the road in April to hear input from members about its health care plans, particularly as it devises its next RFP. Management and labor reps from PEBB will be attending most sessions. The schedule includes Medford/Ashland (April 1), Eugene (April 2), Bend (April 3), Pendleton (April 4), Salem (April 8 and 9), Portland (April 10) and Coos Bay (April 11). There is discussion about beaming a live webinar to La Grande, Baker City and Ontario. Again, we'll have more information soon, and you can also check the PEBB website for updates.

 

*   *   *

 

RECALL ELECTION — We won't go into all of the gory details here, but there's been an ongoing saga at the Clackamas River Water District that's culminated in a recall election. CRW employees are covered by a sub-local of Local 350 (Clackamas County), and some of those workers, as well as a Local 88 (Multnomah County) member who lives in the district, have helped spearhead the recall effort to oust CRW board member Patricia Holloway. Ballots are due March 19; if you live in that district, we urge you to vote.

 

*   *   *

 

R.I.P. BILL FRITZ — We are saddened to report that longtime labor activist Bill Fritz died suddenly at his home on March 4. He was 67. Fritz moved to Portland from San Francisco in the late 1970s to work for the Oregon Federation of Teachers. He also spent time working both for Oregon AFSCME and for LERC, the University of Oregon's Labor Education Research Center. "It was Bill Fritz who first recruited me to AFSCME in 1978," notes Council 75 Executive Director Ken Allen. "Our condolences to his family." Fritz will be remembered at a memorial service Sunday (March 10) at 5 p.m. at the Portland artistic gallery BodyVox, located at 1201 NW 17^th Ave.

 

*   *   *

 

GOOD, BAD, UGLY — We close this e-lert with an update on state bargaining. AFSCME-represented state employees are in negotiations for a new contract; the current agreement expires June 30. The Oregon AFSCME Central Bargaining Team met again with state representatives on March 6 to formally receive the state's economic proposals, which can be summarized in the aforementioned three words: good, bad and ugly. The state is offering to unfreeze steps and end furlough days (the good). They are not offering state workers a COLA (the bad). They also proposed a new insurance scheme so convoluted the state's chief negotiator was at a loss to explain it (the ugly). You can track state bargaining on the Central Table Update tab of the union's website.

 

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e-lert No. 4     ¥     March 1, 2013

Edited by Don Loving, Oregon AFSCME Communications Director

 

Ah, welcome back my friends to the show that never ends. (Apologies to Emerson, Lake & Palmer.) Indeed, our show is barely getting started, as the 2013 session will likely run through late June at the least. This week's news includes more PERS stuff, budget hearings, federal sequestration concerns and more. Read on!

 

*   *   *

 

MORE, MORE, MORE — Last Thursday (Feb. 21) was the deadline for legislators to drop bills for consideration this session. Sort of, anyway. Each lawmaker also has the ability to drop up to five "priority bills" later into the session. Nevertheless, Feb. 21 was the first big deadline of the session, and it takes awhile for everything to get sorted out following the big bill dump. The count right now of bills directly or indirectly related to PERS: 50. You can view a PDF list of them here, and we'll continue to bring you highlights and lowlights in the weeks ahead.

 

Last week we outlined four PERS-related bills dropped on Feb. 20 by state Rep. Bruce Hanna (R-Roseburg). The next day, deadline day, Sen. Doug Whitsett (R-Klamath Falls) introduced another nine PERS bills of his own, so we'll focus this week's e-lert on Whitsett's measures. You may recall that Hanna dropped HB 3057, which would cap retirees' annual 2 percent COLAs to the first $36,000 of retirement income. Whitsett's package includes SB 659, the cost-of-living adjustment cap that Gov. John Kitzhaber proposed, which limits the COLA to 2 percent on the first $24,000 of a retiree's income. 


 

Here are the other eight PERS bills from Whitsett:

 

SB 652 — Eliminates the employer "pick-up" of the 6 percent employee contribution employees are required to make to their accounts. Unlike a similar bill from Hanna, Whitsett's version does not allow for a gradual phasing out of the pick-up, it eliminates it immediately.

 

SB 654 — Eliminates any and all payments to the Individual Account Program (IAP), the employees' 401(k) accounts, which is where their 6 percent contribution has gone since the 2003 PERS reforms. SB 654 would be a flat out 6 percent wage cut for employees and, as written, would not allow workers to contribute anything to their retirement funds even if voluntarily and on their own dime.

 

SB 655 — Prohibits the employer from making the 6 percent contribution, and would make it optional for employees. This measure is apparently a fall back should SB 652 fail.

 



SB 657 — Requires public employees to contribute half of what is required to fund their pension. This mean all workers would have to contribute half of what employers now pay in their contributions as part of payroll, not including the 6 percent pickup.



 

SB 658 — Eliminates the COLA for any retirees who had less than 10 years of service under the PERS system. This idea would appear to be off-the-cuff egregiously unconstitutional.

 

SB 660 — Prohibits the use of vacation and sick leave in the calculation of final average salary. Hanna's HB 3056 is virtually identical.

 

SB 662 — This would allow employers to continue the 6 percent pick-up, but they can change the percentage, and it must be reduced to 3 percent by Jan. 1, 2016. This measure is, apparently, Whitsett's fall back option No. 2 should SB 652 fail.

 

SB 674 — Bans legislators, judges and statewide elected officials from PERS. Sen. Tim Knopp (R-Bend) and Rep. Jason Conger (R-Bend) have already introduced legislation that would ban legislators (only) from PERS.

 

*   *   *

 

SEQUESTRATION CONCERNS — Does anybody know who decided we are now "sequestering" rather than going off a "fiscal cliff?" No matter, sequestration begins at midnight tonight (March 1), and at last report, members of Congress were heading home.

 

While it's a complicated issue, oversimplified, the state, cities and counties will take a hit on anything federal grant-related. So things like Medicare and Medicaid are not affected, but things that rely on block grants are.

 

Two big areas of concern for certain pockets of Oregon AFSCME members are Head Start and Employment-Related Day Care (ERDC) programs. Council 75 Political Coordinator Eva Rippeteau, who has all things early learning related in her lobbying portfolio, says Oregon Head Start programs are looking at a $3 million hit; ERDC a $1 million hit.

 

"I'm personally having a hard time wrapping my head around the fact that Congress would allow across-the-board cuts this horrible to go through," she says. "We have numbers for Head Start and ERDC, but this impacts lots of other things — programs from WIC to things like the Oregon Military Department. We'll learn a lot more in the next week.

 

This is definitely one of those "stay tuned" issues.

 

*   *   *

 

ERDC LOBBY DAY — Speaking of ERDC, AFSCME and SEIU child care providers will be participating in a "Save ERDC" lobby day March 27 at the state capitol. Local 132 (Child Care Providers Together) Staff Rep Faye Zepeda needs RSVPs by March 11. You can e-mail Zepeda for more information; you can click here to view or download an informational flier regarding the event.

 

*   *   *

 

COUNTIES IN CRISIS — It's no secret that several Oregon counties, particularly those traditionally dependent on federal timber receipts, are in dire financial squeezes. Coos, Curry, Douglas, Josephine and Lane counties top most of the "in trouble" lists, and AFSCME represents the majority of county workers in three of those: Coos, Josephine and Lane. Oregon law prohibits municipal jurisdictions from going bankrupt, but there are efforts underway at the capitol to change that — a definite concern for employees.

 

"There is a package of bills that deals with everything from full-fledged bankruptcy to 'fiscal distress,' which is not particularly well defined," says veteran Council 75 Political Coordinator Mary Botkin. "I can't tell you where this is headed, but obviously, anything that could potentially enable counties to abandon their collective bargaining agreements and walk away has our full attention."

 

Botkin says there are myriad concerns about bills she's seeing. SB 173 would allow the governor's office to create an assistance program for counties in the aforementioned "fiscal distress" without defining the term. The measure talks about awarding grants for service delivery innovation, enter into agreements to provide for technical assistance and convene task force and work groups.

 

"I don't see where this bill actually does anything real," says Botkin.

 

HB 2924, on the other hand, is very real. It allows local governments to file for "all relief that is available to a municipality" under federal bankruptcy law.

 

"That's not something we know many specifics about at this point," said Botkin. "We're not bankruptcy law experts. Obviously we'll be learning a lot on the topic as these bills get hearings, assuming they do."

 

At this point, Botkin says there are far more questions than answers.

 

"If state law allows counties to abandon legal agreements, would that include collective bargaining agreements? We have to assume it would," she says. "So then what happens? One bill specifically mentions allowing the Oregon Secretary of State to come in and run county elections. Are those workers still AFSCME-represented county clerk employees, or unrepresented Oregon SOS employees? Who's paying them, and how much?"

 

There are other issues as well. While all of the current concern is focused on counties, Botkin says most of the drafted bills denote "local government jurisdictions," meaning they would pertain to cities and special districts as well. There have also been conversations in the capitol about moving county service funding to the same equalization model the state uses for paying for K-12 education statewide.

 

"In that scenario, you end up with Multnomah, Clackamas and Washington counties subsidizing the rest of the state," says Botkin. "It's a sore point for many on schools, but I believe it would be a boiling point if you took it to county funding.

 

"All I can do tight now is assure our members that we'll be all over these issues as they develop. I also want to plug our local government lobby day that's scheduled for March 19. We may need you."

 

*   *   *

 

STATE HOSPITAL BUDGET — Budget hearings were held for the Oregon State Hospital this week. AFSCME Local 3295 represents registered nurses at the two OSH campuses. (Salem and Portland — there are a lot of people who don't realize there is a state hospital sub-campus in Portland.) As there is constant concern about staffing levels at OSH, AFSCME closely monitors the agency's budget every legislative session.

 

Rippeteau covers OSH issues this session. In her testimony, Rippeteau acknowledged that OSH management and the union have regular labor/management meetings and are always discussing ways to improve patient care and safety. Always center in that discussion, she said, is staffing.

 

"As part of the solution to staffing, our nurses' local proposed taking the money that is currently spent on temporary workers and using it to fund a permanent 'float' or 'relief' pool," Rippeteau told lawmakers. "Temporary employees are limited to 1,040 hours worked, with 300 of those hours going toward training to become a psychiatric nurse. Creating permanent funding for the relief pool will keep well-trained nurses and other staff beyond that 1,040 hour limit and help provide better continuity of care and help ensure that open shifts are covered."

 

Addressing safety issues, Rippeteau told legislators OSH needs to have designated beds for the most violent patients and those with a criminal history that would otherwise be in the prison system. Where those beds are located — whether in a specified unit at the hospital or in prisons where specialized care is provided — is a discussion that needs happen, she said. Additionally, Rippeteau urged legislators to look at procedures around appropriate and safe ways to restrain patients who are causing harm to other patients and staff.

 

"The concerns around safety and staffing levels span all areas of mental health treatment," she testified. "I would be remiss to not mention the need to protect the clients and staff in group homes and other community programs. Occurrences of violence are not limited to the state hospital, and our members in all of these areas are eager to find solutions to improve safety for the people they care for and themselves."

 

Rippeteau noted that in all settings, the state needs to be certain that funds are being spent on direct care — which includes staffing ratios, staff wages to keep staff that know client issues and training to make sure the best possible care is given.

 

*   *   *

 

ESD FUNDING CHANGE — A measure that would help stabilize funding for educational service districts was up before the House Revenue Committee, though perhaps that's not where it exactly belonged. Regardless, HB 2889 recognizes that ESDs — such as the Multnomah ESD in East Portland, where AFSCME Local 1995 represents most employees — need consistent and adequate funding.

 

In Oregon, all children in public schools, K-12, are designated on a scale of 1, 1.5 or 2. A "regular" mainstream student is a 1. A student with some disability is rated at 1.5, and students with more severe disabilities (or other factors) are rated as 2s. Each school district's profile includes the cumulative total, which factors into how much state funding it receives.

 

"Most ESD kids are 2s, though they also have some 1.5s," said Botkin. "If your students have been in an adjudicated setting and are difficult to manage, they are automatically a 2. The bill is meant to clarify who gets what dollars, to help clarify the funding stream. But the committee, which self-admittedly got bogged down in a school funding discussion and believed the bill should have been assigned to the Education Committee in the first place, got a little off track. I was there to monitor, but I ended up testifying."

 

Botkin says ESDs need the infrastructure to operate as though all their students are 2s, because potentially that could happen and their students trend that way already. There was, in fact, committee discussion to simply designate all ESD students at the 2 level.

 

"I finally felt compelled to jump in and remind the committee that regardless of the 1, 1.5 and 2 ratings, the number that matters is $87 per day," said Botkin, who is the Council's longtime public safety lobbyist. "If we 'lose' these kids and they end up in the state prison system, it will cost us $87 a day for every day they're there.

 

"The bottom line: it saves money in the long run to properly fund up front ESDs and other programs that deal with at-risk youth."

 

*   *   *

 

H20 INFRASTRUCTURE — Rippeteau testified this week in favor of HJM 7, a House Joint Memorial urging Congress to enact water-related infrastructure rebuilding nationwide. In large part, says Rippeteau, HJM 7 parallels an Oregon AFSCME Environmental Caucus resolution the union passed at the 2011 Oregon AFL-CIO Convention.

 

"The words aren't identical, but the underlying premise is the same," says Rippeteau. "Our country is full of aging, overdue-for-repair water systems. It's important that all Americans have access to clean water, and it's also an economic stimulus, as it would put our many of our brothers and sisters in the building trades unions back to work. So we were pleased with the joint memorial, and happy to attach our name to it as well."

 

*   *   *

 

OOPS — Last week we reported that HB 3132, a measure that would tie proof of training to license renewals for Intellectually Developmentally Disabled (IDD) group homes, had its first hearing. In fact, the bill was only introduced last week and still awaits its first hearing assignment.

 

*   *   *

 

EXTRA CREDIT — Botkin teamed this week with Jetson Black of the Oregon Education Association to testify before the Senate Rules Committee in favor of continuing Oregon's political tax credit. That's the law that allows you to claim $50 as a single person, or $100 as a married couple, as a tax credit off of your Oregon tax return. Oregonians from virtually every possible spectrum of political persuasions take advantage of the program, and the credit does not appear to be in any trouble — all tax credits are reviewed on a four-year cycle and it's simply "up" this session.

 

"There's been some discussion about whether this credit should be means tested, but I don't think that's going to happen," said Botkin. "When [conservative GOP] Sen. Ted Ferrioli (R-John Day) applauds it and deems it 'the democratization of the political process,' that's a pretty good indication that it's future is OK."

 

*   *   *

 

Away from the capitol ...

 

'RISING STAR' — Even as we are in the midst of the 2013 session, the Portland Tribune recently took time to interview Oregon Treasurer Ted Wheeler, terming him the "rising star of the Democratic Party" and speculating whether he will run for governor in 2014. Wheeler told the Trib he expects Kitzhaber to seek re-election and will support him, but that didn't keep the Portland weekly from deeming him "next in line" for the job, citing the jump of former Attorney General John Kroger to Reed College and the relative struggle Secretary of State Kate Brown had in winning re-election last year against Republican no-name newcomer Knute Buehler. You can read the short Wheeler blurb here.

 

*   *   *

 

NEW DIGS — This isn't likely to happen to your local union, but then your local doesn't have 5,500 members (and growing every day). Unless you work at the Oregon Health & Science University and you're already part of Local 328, that is.

 

Local 328, far and away Council 75's largest local, recently purchased its own office building in SW Portland. More and more Local 328 members work somewhere other than "Pill Hill" — OHSU has extensive and growing facilities in Portland's SW waterfront area and in other buildings downtown.

 

"We had some rented space at the bottom of Marquam Hill, but we were paying about $1,000 a month for that, it was too small and then the landlord needed it for something else, so we had to move," recalls veteran Oregon AFSCME Staff Representative Frank Vehafric, who has been one of the Local 328 staff reps for many years. "As we looked at it, we saw that we had a pretty decent amount of money in our strike fund that was only drawing 1-2 percent interest, and we soon understood that we could get a better return on that money, in addition to significantly upgrading our office space, by investing in a piece of real estate."

 

The Local 328 building sits at 4006 SW Barbur Blvd., about two blocks south of where the OHSU tram passes Barbur overhead. The local has about 1,200 square feet of office space. It's also now the landlord for a small, adjacent Farmers Insurance office (about 800 square feet). Additionally, the building has a basement that is being remodeled into a 2,000 square foot, three-bedroom apartment.

 

"When the apartment is finished and rented out, what we receive each month from Farmers and the apartment tenant will pay our monthly mortgage bill," said Vehafric. "So the financial part is working out very well."

 

The new Local 328 digs are four blocks from OHSU's human resources office, and about five minutes from "The Hill" and five minutes from the SW waterfront area.

 

"It's more accessible to our members," says Local 328 President Matt Hilton. "That's point No. 1. It also reduces our staff commute time, so they are able to provide more efficient services to our members. We're simply trying to provide the best service we can, and this was the way to do it."

 

Vehafric and fellow staff reps Diane Lovell and Val Andreas have moved their offices out of AFSCME's Portland E. Burnside location to the Local 328 building. Kate Baker, Local 328's fourth rep, lives in Gresham and continues her primary office at the Portland AFSCME office.

 

"For Diane, Val and myself, this cuts 20 to 30 minutes of commute time from home to work, so that's better, and it's cutting hours of wasted time getting from the Burnside office up the hill and back, dealing with traffic, bridge lifts and whatnot," said Vehafric. "We still have a joint office on Burnside and Kate is there, so it's all working out great."

 

Telephone and Internet lines have all been tied to the Portland office, so it's a seamless transition if you call or e-mail. The staff transitioned less than a month ago, so Vehafric says a limited number of members have actually utilized the new facility.

 

"But the response so far has been great," he says. "It's a good, central location for us, and it's helping us better serve our members' needs."

 

*   *   *

 

HE'S BACK — We end this e-lert with some good news for those of you who miss progressive talk radio on KPOJ in Portland (it switched formats some weeks ago), longtime morning host Carl Wolfson is back with a new gig: Internet radio. You can "tune in" at www.carlwolfson.com/live to catch the program on a live stream, or to listen to a replay of the show. There are also more details on Wolfson's Facebook page.

 

Additionally, Wolfson in general isn't the only thing that's back. His Friday morning program again features Oregon AFSCME Executive Director Ken Allen, along with Oregon AFL-CIO President Tom Chamberlain and SEIU Director Heather Conroy — just like the old KPOJ days.

 

Of course, being streamed on the web means you don't have to be within KPOJ's old radio signal to listen, so instead of "tune in," "click and play" instead!

 

#   #   #

e-lert No. 3     ¥     Feb. 22, 2013

Edited by Don Loving, Oregon AFSCME Communications Director

 

Welcome to this week's e-lert! Things are beginning to move at the capitol. We finally saw the governor's PERS proposals drop — courtesy of a former Republican Speaker of the House. We also had the initial hearing on one of our biggest priority bills for the 2013 session, allowing local government health insurance pooling, and we kicked off our Department of Corrections "gun bill" with a big press event. Read on!

 

*   *   *

 

THE BIG PERS BILLS — We've been waiting since the 2013 Legislature was gaveled to order to see the actual bills that make up the proposed PERS reform package announced pre-session by Gov. John Kitzhaber. And, in an indication of just how difficult this session's PERS fight will be, the governor's package was not introduced by fellow Democrats, but by state Rep. Bruce Hanna (R-Roseburg), who was Co-Speaker of the House during 2011's evenly-split 30-30 session.

 

"The fact that these were introduced by a former Republican House Speaker doesn't make them any more likely to pass, but it does illustrate that we have a real fight on our hands," said longtime Oregon AFSCME PERS lobbyist Mary Botkin. "It's also an indicator, though not a surprise, that there have been some quiet discussions going on that we [the PERS Coalition] haven't been privy to. And while I'm still confident that few of these will ultimately pass legal scrutiny, absolutely, this will be a battle — and at some point, we will need members' help."

 

Kitzhaber's reform package saves about $865 million in the next state budget biennium that begins July 1, and it's a concern that Kitzhaber built those savings into his proposed budget while well aware that should any or all of his measures pass, they will be challenged in court. That will all play out in the weeks ahead. For now, here's a look at the four measures from Hanna.

 

• HB 3056 — This measure would prohibit workers from including unused vacation leave and sick leave as part of their final average salary, which is one of the formulas used to calculate their retirement benefit. HB 3056 would instead give employees one lump-sum payment for those amounts. This was almost a moot point the last 10-12 years as most Tier 1 retirees went out on the Money Match option, but more and more current and future retirees will use the formula plan.

 

• HB 3057 — This bill represents a change from the Kitzhaber proposal. HB 3057 would cap the cost-of-living adjustment for PERS retirees at 2 percent on the first $36,000 of their pension income. Kitzhaber had proposed the cap at $24,000. Regardless, PERS Coalition attorney Greg Hartman believes any cap is a clear contradiction to the PERS case law generated by the 2003 reforms, and is therefore unconstitutional.

 

• HB 3058 — This is another change from the Kitzhaber plan, which would have made the PERS pick-up negotiable on any number between 0 and 6 percent. Current law says "either/or" — it's 6 percent or nothing. Kitzhaber's idea to make that number flexible could well pop up in another bill. Hanna's bill, HB 3058, simply prohibits employers from "picking up" the 6 percent employee contribution to PERS — which equates to a 6 percent pay cut for workers.

 

• HB 3059 — This bill would eliminate the income tax differential for out-of-state PERS retirees. HB 2456 from the '11 session already did this for anyone who retired after Jan. 1, 2012; Hanna's measure would go back and hit retirees who left Oregon PERS employment 20, 25, 30 years ago and more, taking about 9 percent away from their fixed incomes. HB 3059 is nearly identical to SB 471, co-sponsored by state Sen. Ginny Burdick (D-Portland) and Rep. Jeff Barker (D-Aloha), which also does away with the out-of-state tax break.

 

Stay tuned! There will be more.

 

*   *   *

 

A (RELATIVELY) LITTLE PERS BILL — Ever since the PERS hullabaloo started back in 2003, there have been bills introduced each succeeding session that would pull legislators out of PERS. Currently, lawmakers — who make under $2,000 per month in salary under Oregon's "citizen Legislature" model — do receive proportionate PERS benefits for what time they serve in Salem. The prevailing thought from those wishing to pull legislators out of PERS is that they are bias in their deliberations on the system because they are part of the system.

 

It's no surprise that we've now seen the first such bill of the '13 session. Central Oregon colleagues Sen. Tim Knopp (R-Bend) and Rep. Jason Conger (R-Bend) have introduced this year's measure that would disqualify all members of the House and Senate from PERS.
 Members have the option to opt out, as both Knopp and Conger have done, but their as-yet-unnumbered bill would make it mandatory.

 

"I have heard from many citizens who are concerned that the Legislature is biased when it considers PERS reforms because many legislators are also PERS members," Conger said in a joint press release. "Whether that is true or not, the public's confidence and trust in our elected representatives is critical to a strong republic. By keeping legislators out of PERS, this bill will simply take a significant step to remove even the perception of conflict."

 

During his first foray as a legislator, Knopp was chair of the House PERS Committee in 2003, the committee that heard that session's reform bills.

 

"For many communities, the price tag of PERS has forced them to make significant cuts in education, health, and public safety," Knopp said in the press release. "Because of our budget crisis, we have a unique opportunity in Oregon to obtain real meaningful PERS reforms."

 

*   *   *

 

SECOND AMENDMENT BILL — Surrounded by several AFSCME-represented Corrections members, state Rep. Greg Smith (R-Heppner) introduced HB 2910 on Feb. 20 at a state capitol press conference. The measure allows Department of Corrections personnel to possess personal, licensed firearms within their vehicles on DOC property.

 

Current Department of Administrative Services (DAS) policy prohibits guns in vehicles on prison property. The Smith/AFSCME bill will allow corrections officers to have guns in their vehicles provided that the officer is present in his/her official capacity, has a valid concealed handgun permit and has the weapon locked in a gun box inside the vehicle.

 

"HB 2910 is really a simple change in the law that acknowledges corrections personnel as the trained, public safety professionals that they are," said Smith. "DAS administrative policy should not trump employees' Second Amendment rights. We are talking about highly trained, professional corrections officers. These people are part of our law enforcement community, and are held to high standards both pre- and post-employment. Many are former or active military personnel. They treat weapons with respect, and they, in return, should be treated with the respect they deserve by our laws."

 

Smith also talked about HB 2910 from a personal safety standpoint. Corrections personnel, noted Smith, face career criminals daily. They are authority figures over people who, by definition, have not respected authority. Yet eventually, over 90 percent of felons incarcerated in Oregon state prisons are released, and some of them hold grudges against the people who supervised them.

 

"In reality, HB 2910 isn't about corrections personnel being allowed to possess their weapons while their vehicles are parked at work — it's about their right to legally possess their weapons while they are in transit to and from work," said Smith. "That's when they can be most vulnerable to someone with a grudge."

 

Jeff Coffman, Vice President of AFSCME Local 3361 at Eastern Oregon Correctional Institution in Pendleton, talked about death threats he's received over the years from inmates. Coffman also talked about the circumstances surrounding the November 2011 murder of his friend and colleague, EOCI Officer Buddy Herron. Herron, on his way to work from his home near Athena, stopped to assist an apparent stranded motorist on relatively desolate Oregon Highway 11 just before midnight. It was a ruse, and the "stranded motorist" fatally stabbed Herron and stole his truck. He was apprehended soon thereafter and faces life in prison.

 

"I can't say that Buddy would be alive today if he had his gun with him, but that's the point, we don't know," said Coffman. "It could have made a difference. We'll never know."

 

HB 2910 has bi-partisan support from several co-sponsors, including Sen. Alan Olsen (R-Canby), Sen. Arnie Roblan (D-Coos Bay), Rep. Jeff Barker (D-Aloha), Rep. Brent Barton (D-Oak Grove), Rep. Cliff Bentz (R-Ontario), Rep. Kevin Cameron (R-Salem), Rep. Sal Esquival (R-Medford), Rep. Wally Hicks (R-Grants Pass), Rep. John Huffman (R-The Dalles), Rep. Bob Jenson (R-Pendleton), Rep. Wayne Krieger (R-Gold Beach), Rep. Greg Matthews (D-Gresham), Rep. Kim Thatcher (R-Keizer), Rep. Gene Whisnant (R-Sunriver) and Rep. Gail Whitsett (R-Klamath Falls). Several other lawmakers have expressed interest in signing on.

 

The bill will be routed to the House Judiciary Committee, which is chaired by Barker. Longtime Oregon AFSCME Public Safety lobbyist Mary Botkin hopes to have DOC officers return to the capitol once a hearing on the bill is scheduled.

 

*   *   *

 

LOCAL POOLING — You know it's an important day for AFSCME at the capitol when Council 75 Executive Director Ken Allen shows up to testify. Such was the case today (Feb. 22) when Allen appeared before the House Health Care Committee to provide initial testimony in support of HB 2279, an AFSCME priority measure that would allow local government jurisdictions to take advantage of statewide pooling for health insurance.

 

AFSCME tried to move bills in both the 2009 and 2011 sessions that would have created new, local government-specific pools. Both bills failed for a variety of reasons. Allen and Oregon AFSCME Political Director Joe Baessler both believe HB 2279 has better traction. Rather than creating another new statewide pool, this measure would allow local governments to participate in one of the two already existing pools — PEBB, the Public Employees Benefits Board that provides a pool for state employees, or OEBB, the Oregon Educators Benefits Board, the statewide teachers pool.

 

"Health care benefits and insurance are increasingly our No. 1 issue at local bargaining tables, more so than wages," said Allen. "The concept is simple: the bigger the pool, the more risk is shared and the lower the rates offered by insurance companies. This bill could really help our members in city, county and special district jurisdictions — and would help those jurisdictions, too."

 

Larger local jurisdictions may tend to gravitate toward PEBB, which relatively speaking provides higher levels of coverage. OEBB, says Allen, could be a good place for smaller jurisdictions, as that pool has several different options and levels of coverage.

 

House Health Care Committee Chair Mitch Greenlick (D-Portland) is the bill's chief sponsor. State Rep. Jim Thompson (R-Dallas), one of the GOP members with the best AFSCME voting record over the years, is a primary co-sponsor.

 

Baessler notes that as drafted, HB 2279 may need a couple of tweaks in the weeks ahead.

 

"Sometimes bills don't come back from legislative counsel drafted exactly as you envisioned them," said Baessler. "HB 2279 is one of those that we'll need to amend a little before we're through. However, we wanted to get Ken in here, get the ball rolling, have the initial hearing and start the bill moving. The changes aren't major, and we have plenty of time for amendments."

 

*   *   *

 

OSH FLOAT POOL — The measure to create a permanent "float pool" for nursing staff at the Oregon State Hospital has dropped. It's HB 3131, and is co-sponsored by Rep. Brian Clem (D-Salem) and Sen. Alan Bates (D-Ashland). Bates is a Southern Oregon physician.

 

Council 75 Political Coordinator Eva Rippeteau says AFSCME is coordinating its efforts on HB 3131 with the Service Employees International Union. AFSCME Local 3295 represents registered nurses at OSH, while SEIU Local 503 represents a variety of nursing aide staff. Both unions have long fought understaffing battles with the agency at the hospital.

 

Rippeteau says the initial goal of HB 3131 is to be as revenue-neutral as possible. Supporters believe the float pool can be created and funded by dollars currently used to hire and train a wide range of temporary workers.

 

"Details from OSH are a little fuzzy on this," says Rippeteau. "Apparently the hospital uses 'supply' money to help fund the temps. As we move forward with this, I'd certainly like members of Local 3295 to e-mail me if they can provide further details."

 

*   *   *

 

REVENUE ISSUES — Veteran state budget watchers understand that things don't really get serious each session until lawmakers receive the May revenue forecast. But with that backdrop in mind, there are a lot of behind-the-scenes discussions taking place.

 

Baessler and longtime Council 75 Political Coordinator Ralph Groener both keep an eye on revenue issues for the union. At some point soon, the Joint Ways and Means Co-Chairs proposed budget should be released. That document, more so than the governors proposed budget, kicks off serious number crunching.

 

"We're hearing it could be a K-12 'no cuts' budget, which creates a revenue hole of some $450 million," said Baessler. "We would support finding $450 million in revenue rather than cuts, though that doesn't necessarily mean new taxes. We need to look at a lot of things — current tax breaks in their entirety, means-testing other tax breaks, are there loopholes out there that need to be closed? There's a lot of areas for discussion."

 

Groener said reviewing what tax issues Oregon connects with to the federal government should also come under scrutiny.

 

"Should we put a cap on the mortgage deduction at $400,000?" asked Groener. "That's something that's been discussed in the building. Should every Oregon senior citizen get a health care break, no matter their income level? These are the kinds of issues we need to look at before state budgets — and eventually, our members — start getting cut."

 

*   *   *

 

CCPT LOBBY DAY — Oregon AFSCME and SEIU also collaborated on a child care providers Lobby Day Feb. 20 at the capitol. It was intended to be a somewhat small scale event, not a pull-out-all-the-stops kind of deal, but those who participated marked the day a success.

 

Child care providers — AFSCME represents the licensed, registered ones, SEIU the exempt, unlicensed ones — have not seen an increase in the state subsidy rate since 2007. While there is talk at the capitol about the possibility of expanding the Employment-Related Day Care (ERDC) program, Rippeteau says all involved are in "a tough spot" when the discussion moves to adding more families off the waiting list vs. increasing the subsidy rate.

 

"For example, our Local 132 (Child Care Providers Together) President Autumn David has been a provider the past 16 years, and she's only seen one increase in those 16 years," said Rippeteau. "Some of our providers get as little as $2 per hour per child through the state subsidy — that's simply not enough for them to stay in business. So it's a difficult issue."

 

The state actually has some additional money available from a 2001 federal block grant. In the 2012 mini-session, AFSCME and SEIU jointly asked if some of that $5.4 million "left over" block grant money could be used for either add-backs to those in ERDC, or to increase rates.

 

"We were told 'no' on that request, but also told we could ask to use the money in 2013 as part of an 'expansion' of the program," says Rippeteau. "We've talked with several legislators, and there's not a clear definition of what 'expansion' means. There are probably 2,000 to 3,000 families out there that would like to be added to the program, but adding them at the current subsidy rate doesn't help our providers much. It's not an issue with an easy answer."

 

Despite some fuzziness, Lobby Day participants felt good about their time at the capitol.

 

"It was great," said David. "We had the opportunity to share with many legislators what we do and what ours need are. Some of our children did the 'ask' to state Sen. Chip Shields (D-Portland) — it turned out that some of them go to school in Portland with his daughter. So I felt it was a very productive day."

 

In addition to David, AFSCME participants included providers Renee Holmes, Sue Mackey and Sabi Velasco, in addition to Rippeteau and Local 132 staff rep Faye Zepeda.

 

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BILL WATCH, TOO — The child care providers also had the opportunity to sit in as the House Business and Labor Committee heard HB 3146, which would expand what can talked about when the providers "bargain" with the state Children's Services Division. The measure would add compliance and licensing issue to the bargaining mix, as well as a variety of "labor relations issues."

 

"That language means things like complaints, appeals of those complaints, grievances and allowing providers the right to contact the union if there's an inspection that could impact their license renewal," says Rippeteau. "It's an opportunity to give our providers some more rights at the bargaining table. What they can do right now is pretty limited."

 

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QUICK HITS — It's just a coincidence, but another of AFSCME's Corrections-related priority bills sports the number of our Security local union at Eastern Oregon Correctional Institution: 3361. HB 3361 would create new comparators for arbitrators to consider when the Security unit bargaining goes to binding arbitration (as it often does). Current law says the comparators are surrounding states. HB 3361 changes the comparators to the three largest Oregon counties. Botkin says the local comparators are a more realistic assessment of Corrections pay in the area. HB 3361 was amongst the flurry of bills released on the Feb. 21 deadline, so while it's freshly numbered, it has yet to be printed and isn't yet available to be tracked. More in this measure in the coming weeks ...

 

As detailed last week, the bill that would grant Assistant Attorneys General in the Department of Justice the right to go to binding arbitration in contract negotiations had its first hearing Feb. 22. AFSCME Local 1085 represents the state AAGs, and Local 1085 Executive Board members Judith Anderson and Sam Kubernick both testified in favor of HB 2449. Current state law says the attorneys may strike to resolve their contract, but Oregon State Bar and attorney ethics rules disallow the strike option ...

 

We also talked last week about HB 2448, which would shorten the timeline and move to arbitration issues surrounding interim expedited bargaining. Council 75 Staff Representative Evan Wickersham testified in favor of the measure on Feb. 22, outlining a situation he faced where Columbia County implemented 26 furlough days on Local 1442 members by simply waiting out the timelines. Baessler says HB 2448 may be amended to add an interim step of state mediation before binding arbitration. He says the union is OK with that amendment, though conscious of the fact that state mediators are often hard to schedule in a timely manner.

 

HB 3132 tackles the sometime difficult issue of training requirements for private group homes for the Intellectually Developmentally Disabled (IDD). Oregon AFSCME represents several hundred private sector IDD workers throughout the state. Some of those group homes do a great job of training their employees; others, frankly, do a poor job. HB 3132, which had its first hearing this week, would tie proof of training to group home license renewals, a concept not popular with all group home management. At the same time, the union is working closely with management on the issue of wages for IDD home workers. State subsidies were cut in 2010, and AFSCME is working to boost support. With Oregon's indexed (and therefore increasing) minimum wage law, the current minimum wage has caught up or nearly caught up with what many IDD workers earn in the group homes. Employee turnover — and the related training of new hires — is a huge issue when IDD workers can make the same money working in a fast food restaurant.

 

Groener testified this week in favor of SB 331. The measure would increase from 35 percent to 50 percent the cut that counties receive from the state from the registration of travel trailers, campers and motor homes. The money would be specifically designated to the maintenance of county parks. "It's not a ton of money, but something that helps our county budgets," said Groener.

 

There's a hearing Monday (Feb. 25) in the Senate Judiciary Committee on SB 565, which would allow OHSU security personnel to be armed. Baessler notes this is an OHSU-sponsored bill; AFSCME Local 328 represents over 5,200 members at OHSU including the security personnel and is supporting the measure. A side note to the bill would also bring the University's security force into the PERS Police & Fire retirement tier.  

 

Botkin, the union's longtime lobbyist for public safety issues, both testified and monitored other discussions this week on the Department of Corrections and the Oregon Youth Authority budgets. She says it's too early to tell exactly what's happening, although "the counties are once again trying to horn in on OYA, hoping to take over some of their obligations and therefore receive some extra money." She expects both budgets to come into sharper focus soon.

 

Botkin is also monitoring yet another attempt to bring bail bondsmen to Oregon. Oregon is one of the states that doesn't use a bail bond system, but rather operates under a pre-trial release system. It's a public system that includes many AFSCME-represented county workers statewide. The effort to switch to private bail bondsmen is being pushed by the out-of-state Two Jinn company, which generally does business as Aladdin Bail Bonds. They claim to have a lower "failure to appear" rate, given that they force people to show up to court and/or have made suspects sign their houses as security, for example. In Oregon, a bench arrest warrant is issued currently for failure to appear; Botkin notes Oregon already has one of the nation's lowest failure to appear rates already. "There's no reason to change," she says

 

We saw a familiar face at the capitol on Thursday. AFSCME retiree Pat Riggs-Henson was about the statehouse, serving as a volunteer lobbyist for the Northwest Youth Corps. Coincidentally, it was a lobby day for community colleges that day as well; Riggs-Henson is a former Lane Community College Board of Directors member. Riggs-Henson was a member of Local 2831 (Lane County) for many years before her retirement in 2011, and served in a variety of local union and Council 75 positions. Her husband is Eugene office Oregon AFSCME staff rep Rick Henson.

 

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LOBBY DAY(S) DETAILS — We have two special lobby days scheduled this session, and we've been promising you some details the past couple of weeks. For the first time, we are dividing our annual lobby day activities so that state employees and local government employees — who have different issues — will have separate lobby days.

 

"It's a chance for us to focus a little better on each of the two days," says Baessler. "While PERS is an issue that both groups will want to address, the other issues are different. So we're going to try this format this year and see how it goes.

 

The local government lobby day will be Tuesday, March 19. Baessler says participants will focus on three key issues: health care pooling, PERS (in particular, the 6 percent pick-up issue) and the overall issue of local government revenue instability and the need for local government to be able to raise its own revenue. Additionally, participants may have specific local issues to discuss with their home legislators.

 

The state government lobby day will be Tuesday, April 9. Those participants will have four key messages to lawmakers: state government efficiencies, the management to front-line worker ratios, PERS issues and the concept of "shared sacrifice" — that is, state government cannot continue to take cuts while many large corporations use tax breaks and/or loopholes to skirt paying their fair share.

 

We do need a head count of who wants to come, so if you'd like to participate in either lobby day, or, if you have specific questions, e-mail political staffer John McGovern to RSVP or to get a question answered.

 

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One quick note away from the capitol this week ...

 

ERB APPEAL — The City of Lebanon has appealed a June 2012 Unfair Labor Practice (ULP) ruling by the state Employment Relations Board in a case involving Local 2909. The appeal stems from events that began in January 2011, when the city was facing budget shortfalls Local 2909 sent a letter to the city suggesting it could save money by eliminating the assistant city manager/human relations and assistant human relations positions. City Councilor Margaret Campbell shortly thereafter sent a letter to the local paper condemning the union on a variety of points — then urged Local 2909 members to decertify the union.

 

Campbell tried to make the distinction that her letter was written as a private citizen, and did not represent the city. The ERB disagreed, ruled that the city "must cease and desist from further unfair labor practices" and post a notice that there had been such a ruling in all city buildings where there are employees for at least 30 consecutive days. The city complied with the order and Campbell resigned from the council in October 2012.

 

In the appeal, Lebanon City Attorney Tre' Kennedy contends that a ULP can only be committed by a public employee or its designated representative. He contends a city councilor is neither a public employee nor a designated representative. Not surprisingly, Council 75 Staff Representative Neil Bednarczyk says the local is fine with the ERB ruling just the way it is.

 

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