WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 26, 2022 | SILVERTONAPPEAL.COM
PART OF THE USA TODAY NETWORK
Oregon reports $24M in fraud
0.3% of unemployment
claims were fraudulent
Bill Poehler
Salem Statesman Journal
USA TODAY NETWORK
Oregon is getting its first glimpse of
the scale of fraud perpetrated against
the state’s unemployment insurance
system during the height of the pan-
demic.
A report released by the state’s em-
ployment department says it paid out
more than $24 million in fraudulent
claims in 2020, the first 10 months of the
COVID-19 pandemic.
Oregon overall paid $7.4 billion to
581,000 people in 2020, meaning about
0.3% of the claims were fraudulent.
“The good news is that Oregon has
not seen losses on the scale of some oth-
er states,” Unemployment Insurance
Division Director Lindsi Leahy said.
Details of the fraud included:
h $11.2 million to 3,335 people in reg-
ular unemployment claims.
h $4.4 million to 385 people from the
pandemic unemployment assistance
program, which is for the self-em-
ployed.
h $825,000 to 421 people from the
pandemic emergency unemployment
compensation program.
h $196,000 to 135 people from the ex-
tended benefits program.
The state also said it overpaid 2,198
people $5.9 million and that it has re-
covered $1 million of that.
A law passed in the 2021 legislative
‘POOR’ CONDITION
session allows the employment depart-
ment for five years to wave overpay-
ments caused by unintentional errors.
While other states have been forth-
coming about the amount of fraud per-
petrated, Oregon Employment Depart-
ment acting director David Gerstenfeld
until now has repeatedly declined to
publicly discuss the amount of fraud
that occurred on the state’s unemploy-
ment insurance system.
Gerstenfeld cited the department’s
See FRAUD, Page 4A
Food service
industry
faces
changes
How Mid-Valley restaurants
are working with labor
shortage, hiring issues
Em Chan
Salem Statesman Journal | USA TODAY NETWORK
Construction work continues on the Silverton Road Northeast bridge over Little Pudding River in Salem.
ABIGAIL DOLLINS/STATESMAN JOURNAL
Oregon gets $268M for bridges
under Biden infrastructure law
Tracy Loew
Salem Statesman Journal
USA TODAY NETWORK
Oregon will get $268.2 million over
the next five years to repair its failing
bridges, part of the $27 billion in feder-
al funds President Joe Biden an-
nounced would be invested in repair-
ing bridges nationwide.
Oregon will get $53.6 million for fis-
cal 2022. That’s a little less than half
the $120 million per year the state al-
ready spends on bridges.
Oregon Department of Transporta-
tion officials will decide how to allocate
the money.
“Even though we are getting an in-
See BRIDGES, Page 3A
In Salem’s food service sector, is there really a labor
shortage or a surplus of non-working employees?
Somehow, both.
The number of folks quitting their industry job is at
an all-time high, yet because of robust growth in the
last year and a half, the number of folks in the food in-
dustry is just 1,100 jobs - or 8% - from its pre-pandemic
levels, as of November 2021.
This rebound is coming from the “greatest employ-
ment low that occurred between February to April
2020 - from 13,800 to 8,000 jobs,” said Patrick O’Con-
nor, regional economist (Marion, Polk, Yamhill, Linn
and Benton counties) for the Oregon Employment De-
partment.
Since then, 4,700 jobs have been added back, but
despite this good news, working in this industry has
never been more difficult.
Food service has “a quits rate of 6.9% - more than
twice the overall quits rate of 3.0%,” O’Connor said.
Amongst the news of “The Great Resignation“ as re-
ported by USA Today, the declining number of folks in
service jobs continues to leave an impressionable mark
on the industry - including Salem.
“I think Salem’s labor market conditions are similar
to Oregon and the U.S.,” O’Connor said. “In November
2021 the Salem metropolitan statistical area (MSA) un-
employment rate was 4.1% nearly matching Oregon
and the U.S. which both had a 4.2% unemployment
rate.”
The issue of whether there is a “labor shortage” is
difficult to encompass in just a single-worded answer,
but comes in two-fold: from the perspective of employ-
ers and of employees.
No service
There are 395 bridges in Oregon in “poor” condition, according to
2020 data from the U.S. Department of Transportation.
An ongoing
alternative
approach to
juvenile reform
On the ground, the reality of the situation is more
difficult to explain than the data can display.
Mina Khamphilavong, owner of Mina’s Cafe, said
she can’t find employees, or if she can that sometimes
they don’t show up because they’re sick from COVID or
have to care for someone else that’s sick - leaving her
already short staff even more shorthanded.
The issue has gotten to a degree that the emptiness
of the restaurant has left customers calling and asking
if she’s open, when really it’s just Khampilavong work-
ing by herself. On some occasions, she said, her cus-
tomers feel so bad at her working without staff, they’ll
jump in and pick up a phone or two to take orders.
“We all have the same problems,” Khamphilavong
said. “(Thai and Laotian) food is already hard to cook -
not everyone can put it together - so we (as owners) end
up having to work a lot. We also have to end up hiring
whoever is available because we need the people, and
the person we hire is not always meeting our usual
standard. This affects my service, then customers
think the service isn’t good but it’s because our help
isn’t good, and it becomes a chain.”
Others say the industry is in need of a reboot.
“I think if people want what’s happening right now
to stop happening, we need to start treating people
Dianne Lugo and Virginia Barreda
See LABOR, Page 4A
Salem Statesman Journal
USA TODAY NETWORK
Jaleaha Wright, 18, works for Black Joy Oregon as an
alternative program to community service. Wright
has learned administrative duties, joined the Black
Joy Tour and submitted testimony during the 2021
session. ABIGAIL DOLLINS/STATESMAN JOURNAL
There are 400 kids on probation at any given time in
the Marion County Juvenile Department.
Jaleaha Wright, 18, was one of them.
She entered the juvenile system last year after getting
into a fight with a girl who, she said, had spit at her. It was
the first time she had ever gotten in trouble.
See JUVENILE REFORM , Page 4A
Vol. 141, No. 6
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Owner Mina Khamphilavong prepares salad rolls in
Mina’s Cafe kitchen. BRIAN HAYES / STATESMAN JOURNAL