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Dear Friends and Neighbors,
In this newsletter I want to tell you about a couple of upcoming
events and give you updates on several issues: healthcare reform,
police accountability, homecare workers, and career/technical
education.
For Your Calendar:
Upcoming Events
This Saturday, 4/3: Constituent Coffee
9:30-11:00 AM @ Manhattan Cafe (NE 27th & Broadway)
This Saturday is the first Saturday of the month, which means it’s
time for April’s Constituent Coffee. Come and bring your questions
and suggestions for legislation that you’d like me to be researching
and proposing. Let me know what’s on your mind, and take the
opportunity for some intelligent conversation with some of your
neighbors. See you Saturday!
Wednesday, 4/21: Small Business Roundtable
Time and Location TBD
We can’t get our economy out of this recession without successful
small businesses. But small businesses face many challenges.
Together with Senator Dingfelder, I’ll be holding a Small Business
Roundtable later this month. The event, which was first suggested by
constituent and small business owner Dwyane Johnson, will focus on
ways the state can help small businesses succeed in the current
economic climate.
The goal of this event is to bring together small business owners and
members of the public to discuss how the State of Oregon can make it
easier for our local businesses to succeed. Simply cutting taxes is
not the answer: we need to come up with creative ways for the State to
encourage growth in the small business sector.
Everyone is welcome, but those who own or work for small businesses
are particularly encouraged to attend. Please come if you can. I’ll
be sending an email out early next week with details on time and
location, so stay tuned for that.
Issue Updates
Health Care Reform: What Does It Mean for Oregon?
Since the last newsletter, we’ve seen the passage of the national
health care reform bills, and the implications of its passage are
still being analyzed. I believe that we in Oregon are well-poised to
take advantage of many features of reform, thanks to our own reform
legislation that was passed last year under HB2009. It was an honor
(and quite an arduous experience) for me to have been part of the
Health Care Committee that developed this legislation. The new Oregon
Health Authority is already working on proposals regarding a public
option, an insurance exchange, widespread electronic health records,
an evidence-based drug formulary, and many other features that the
federal legislation is leaving up to the states to develop.
If you’d like to see some of the ways that the federal legislation
intersects with our Oregon reform process,
take a look at the Oregon Health Authority website.
Also, here’s
a chart laying out features of the federal and state legislation
in a side-by-side manner.
Another of the potentially positive effects of federal reform will be
a change in the way that physicians are reimbursed for Medicare work
here in Oregon. One of the perverse effects of our current system is
that health professionals in Oregon are reimbursed at a lower rate
than elsewhere precisely because our expenses are lower (thanks to
managed care and our highly developed system of home and community
care for the elderly). As a result of these low reimbursement rates,
many Oregon doctors are refusing to take on new Medicare patients, and
are even dropping their current patients.
You may remember from last year’s newsletters that this is a problem
that I tried to address in House Joint Memorial 20, a legislative
message to Congress that I Chief-Sponsored in 2009. In it, the
Legislature resolves “that the Seventy-fifth Legislative Assembly
urges the Congress of the United States to enact legislation that
increases physicians' Medicare reimbursement rates and lessens
reimbursement rate variation among the states.” The memorial
passed easily in both the House and Senate. And now, thanks to the
stubborn resolve of our own Rep. Peter Defazio at the end of the
Congressional process, it is part of the federal reform, and it will
be easier for Oregon’s seniors to get the primary and preventive care
that they need.
Meeting with Portland Police
In the wake of recent controversy surrounding shootings involving the
Portland Police, I met last week with several metro-area legislators,
Commissioner Dan Saltzman, Assistant Chief Martinek, and others from
the Portland Police Bureau. I and the other legislators were able to
ask some of the questions that have come to us from constituents over
the last couple of weeks.
We were told that the Bureau is in the middle of a long-term process
to change the way that deadly force is used. In the past, they used a
very mechanical response protocol (if the suspect does X, the officer
responds with Y); now, they are trying to use a more flexible protocol
that takes many variables into account. They are trying to create
these changes via initial training and ongoing professional
development, but it’s a gradual process, and they’re obviously not yet
where they need to be.
You can
read the City of Portland Auditor’s analysis of progress that the
Bureau has made with respect to Police Force.
We were especially concerned about the fact that both of the recent
recipients of police force appear to be people with mental illness.
Commissioner Saltzman and Chief Martinek told us that the bureau is
starting a pilot project where mental health professionals will ride
with police officers and help them to defuse deadly situations.
Many of us were also concerned about inadequacies in the oversight
process. I believe that a stronger, more transparent review process
(both the internal review and the citizens review processes) is going
to lead to better training and more appropriate behavior. We did hear
about some positive changes to the Bureau’s Independent Police Review
Division that City Council is considering. Several of us local
legislators subsequently sent the Council a letter in support of IPR
reform.
We also may be considering State legislation to create greater
transparency, accountability, a more diverse police workforce, and
better support for the police when they have to deal with people with
mental illness.
Please let me know if you have any questions about the meeting or
suggestions about what the City or the State could be doing.
Governor Signs HB 3618 Into Law
Monday morning, Governor Kulongoski signed HB 3618. This bill, which
I Chief Sponsored, will bring all state-funded homecare workers under
the Home Care Commission, providing them with access to training
programs and workers compensation coverage, and ultimately—if they so
choose—a path to unionization. It passed the House and the Senate
during the final days of the special session in February. With the
Governor's signature, the bill is now officially law.
I’m very proud of what we have accomplished with this bill. There is
still a lot of difficult logistical work ahead of us in order to get
the additional 8,000-10,000 homecare workers (those working with
people with developmental disabilities or mental illness, or with
medically fragile children) under the Home Care Commission, but it’s
going to pay off with much better treatment for the workers and much
better care and support for the clients. I’ll keep you abreast on how
it’s going.
Work On Career/Technical Education Partnerships Begins
Fewer and fewer middle schools and high schools in Oregon are offering
shop and other career/technical education courses. Some of this is
due to testing, some of it is due to a loss of respect for blue-collar
work and of career paths that don’t entail a university education, and
most of it is due to lack of funding. Funding is definitely a
problem, but I feel that we could be doing a better job of creating
partnerships between our high schools, our community colleges and
universities, industry, labor unions, and mentorship organizations to
guarantee that students all over the state have access to technical
programs that will both educate and motivate them.
My office helped to draft legislation last session (HB2732) to create
a task force that will encourage these kinds of partnerships and tear
down the silos that unfortunately are causing many young people to
fall through the cracks right now. The task force had its first
meeting this past Monday. I’m on it, along with Senator Diane
Rosenbaum, and a number of people from the world of education, labor,
industry, and youth development. We are committed to coming up with
creative solutions that will help keep young people in school, give
them more opportunities, and help them get on a pathway to success.
I’ll provide you with regular updates, but if you have any specific
questions or concerns, please do pass them on to me.
One final footnote: One of the members of the task force is in fact an
HD45 constituent who made the mistake of coming to one of my
constituent coffees a few months ago. He told me he was having
trouble finding good people to do electrical work for his company and
was bothered by the lack of technical education in the schools. Next
thing he knew, he was a part of this legislative task force. So, be
careful when you have a suggestion! No, seriously, this is what
citizen participation is all about. I thank him for being part of the
process, and I encourage you to do the same.
Website Work Continues
I'm continuing to update
my legislative website during the interim, with a focus on adding
constituent resources. If you have an idea for a topic you'd like to
see covered on the site, please email me and let me know. The most
recent addition to the site is contact information for HD 45's
representatives in Congress—you'll
find it here.
Michael
Rep. Michael Dembrow
Oregon HD 45
Rep. Michael Dembrow
House District 45
District Office Phone: 503-281-0608
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The former PCCFFAP president, Michael Dembrow, is now State Representative in House District 45.In my time at PCC I’ve been impressed with Michael’s leadership with the federation, his dedication to supporting education in this state,and his commitment to progressive causes. Northeast Portland will continue to have a true progressive leader as our voice for change in I personally invite you to find out more about his ideas for Oregon's future and learn more about what he will do in office. www.MichaelDembrow.com. Please visit the site, and see how you can join the fight to bring bold, progressive leadership to Salem. --a process of reaching out, empowering people, and creating new communities. I hope you will be part of it. If you need specific literature or information about Michael, contact logan.gilles@gmail.com Friends of Michael Dembrow
http://www.michaeldembrow.com/cgi-bin/display.cgi?page=endorsements |
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mail: mailto:tflanaga@pcc.edu or mailto:tim@peaceresour |
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