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WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 26, 2022
Fraud
Continued from Page 1A
desire to not give fraudsters informa-
tion about how to commit it.
The amount of fraud Oregon employ-
ment department cited in the report
was low compared with other states.
In Washington, an audit by the State
Auditor's Office showed the state lost
$646 million to unemployment fraud in
2020, although the employment de-
partment disputed the amount reported
Labor
Continued from Page 1A
with respect,” said Jared Richard, bar-
tender at the Best Goose Bar. “I don’t
blame the employers, they’re doing as
much as they can do.
“My whole thing is that, yes it’s sad to
see part of the industry die and people
struggle, but in some ways it’s good - if
people want to see things change, it’s not
about paying them more or benefits but
the job itself, of being able to be who I am
and not have to deal with folks trying to
challenge them constantly.”
Richard said he’d had many different
experiences in service, from retail to food
and more. Folks in the pandemic have
seen that their lives no longer have to be
dictated by their jobs, so they’re choosing
to find a place that doesn’t give them so
much mental strife.
Unfortunately, those places are not in
food service.
To be (hired) or not to be
But is it all up to the employers? The
general consensus on hiring: it depends.
Conrad Venti, partner of the Venti’s lo-
cations and Basil & Board restaurant, said
hiring “has its seasons of being difficult,”
and the pandemic has exacerbated that,
to a degree.
Paris Cutten, a high school senior
working at Subway, said she got hired
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APPEAL TRIBUNE
as too high. In California, a reported $20
billion in fraudulent claims was paid
through October 2021, accounting for
about 11% of payouts.
Nationwide, $87.3 billion in fraud
was estimated since the start of the
pandemic to Sept. 30, 2021, according to
a Department of Labor report.
The Oregon employment department
said its section that investigates fraud
has increased to nearly 200 from 49
staff members before the pandemic.
“Fraud remains a significant threat to
Oregon’s UI system, but we continue
dedicating significant resources and
efforts to combat it,” Leahy said.
In its report, the department cited
factors that exposed it to greater levels
of fraud including:
h The boosts in unemployment
benefits from federal programs made
successful fraud more lucrative.
h The extension programs made
more weeks of benefits available, which
also made it more lucrative.
h The ability to backdate claims
made it easier to collect more weeks at
once.
h The sudden job loss during the
pandemic put pressure on the depart-
ment to pay benefits quickly and fre-
quent changes to programs also added
pressure.
h With the waiting week waived, it
prevented a thorough review of claims.
The state said it is investigating more
fraud cases from 2020 claims. It also
said it won’t report 2021 fraud until later
this year, citing ongoing attempts to de-
fraud the state.
Bill Poehler covers Marion County for
the Statesman Journal. Contact him at
bpoehler@statesmanjournal.com
or
Twitter.com/bpoehler
“pretty instantly” at Frozation in Decem-
ber. Cutten found her first job during the
pandemic at Subway, but through her job
search then and in the last few months
before Frozation, she didn’t find anything
particularly difficult.
“I’d been wanting to work here for a
year, and when I saw the sign up I ap-
plied,” Cutten said. “I got scheduled for
my interview, the process was quick, and
then I was on.”
But for those in the industry already,
it’s evident the landscape has changed
dramatically.
“My job search was terrible, absolutely
the worst I’d ever had,” said Colby Cami-
rand, Wild Pear bartender. “Not that
places weren’t hiring, but I feel like there’s
a general slowness in the air to every-
thing. People are trying to make sure la-
bor is low in case COVID hits and they
have to close, but the job search was ridic-
ulous for me, for someone coming back in
the industry.”
Camirand worked at Nagoya for two
years, and was manager and head chef at
the back of house, but left the industry for
eight months last year because of COVID.
He started back up at Wild Pear this past
December. He said he had seen many vet-
erans in the industry coming out of retire-
ment, but also how new to industry hires
were being paid more despite less experi-
ence. Inevitably, this can cause some in-
dustry veterans “upset and disgruntled,”
inspiring them to leave for places where
they can make more money.
“Before COVID, you had to earn your
wage,” Camirand, said. “I started pre-CO-
VID at Nagoya (for) $10.25 an hour and
worked my way up - it took me about a
year... I started (in the industry) when I
was 16 and now I’m 31, and I never saw a
few dollars over minimum wage unless
you were management. For someone like
me where I almost spent my entire adult
life to work for my wage and then see
places offer it when I spent years getting
there, it sucks.”
This inevitably creates greater gaps in
the industry, where there is a lack of
trained staff members to lead the un-
trained to provide service.
But even through the rough labor mar-
ket, it remains difficult for many to hire
folks, leading some employers going to
the extent of increasing entry wages and
adding on sign-on bonuses.
their employment may be.
Venti said in an effort to show they
were being more accommodating and re-
ceptive to staff feedback, the business
made significant changes in its pay struc-
ture. Everyone got slight increases, and
tip rates were established so back-of-the-
house folks got a more equitable rate. Ad-
ditionally, Venti now offers health care to
its employees - something almost un-
heard of in the industry.
“In July, we launched Health Pass with
Court House Athletic Club, and contrib-
ute to their expense like other benefit em-
ployers,” Venti said. “This includes mem-
bership to Courthouse, primary care and
direct access to health care benefit.”
Other employers are offering sign-on
bonuses or even items like Apple Airpods,
various employees said.
Though this might seem like a great
addition that future workers can hope for,
it’s not expected this will be an industry
standard any time soon.
“Restaurants are hard work and they
don’t make that much money,” Khamphi-
lavong said. “We can only afford to pay
minimum wage, and if they work in the
restaurant and don’t get as much than
unemployment, I don’t blame them for
not working because it’s smart. Why
would they want to work hard and make
less money when they can get support
elsewhere?”
Future trends forecast Oregon will
continue strong job growth and reach
pre-pandemic levels of employment in
the fourth quarter of 2022, O’Connor said.
Doing the work
In other circumstances, folks would
want to work more hours or be more flex-
ible, but there is a juggling act of manag-
ing labor costs especially in lieu of poten-
tial shut downs that restaurants may go
through again.
Venti said due to the labor shortage
and not wanting to stretch the teams too
much, Venti’s Cafe locations went from
open every day to six days a week with
limited hours. He said despite these is-
sues, he is optimistic for the next round of
hiring they’ll do in the coming months.
Even with hope in mind, employees
are setting the stage for how the future of
Juvenile
reform
hands or develop a trade.
The work makes the youth feel accom-
plished and injects a dose of confidence.
“Unfortunately, they have not heard
many people tell them ‘good job’ or ‘you ac-
complished this,’ so their self-esteem is
kind of low -- or they don’t have any,” Na-
varrete said. “So when they’re able to ac-
complish small things like this, for them,
it’s huge.”
Continued from Page 1A
While the majority of youth in the de-
partment fulfill service hours and restitu-
tion payments through “Alternative Pro-
grams,” director of the Juvenile Depart-
ment Troy Gregg estimates about 30% of
youth seek other community non-profit or-
ganizations.
The list of organizations partnering with
the Juvenile Department as an outside
community service resource includes Hab-
itat for Humanity Mid Willamette Valley,
City of Salem Parks and Latinos Unidos
Siempre. Black Joy Oregon joined the list in
2021.
Forming connections
Family connection
Julianne Jackson, the founder of Black
Joy Oregon, believes strongly in the need
for alternative programs. At Black Joy Ore-
gon, she allows teens to travel with the or-
ganization on their Black Joy Tour and
teaches them about social justice work.
She also focuses on addressing the key
factors that bring teens into the juvenile
system in the first place.
Wright knew Jackson as one of her
mother’s longest friends. Jackson support-
ed Wright and her family after Wright’s sis-
ter, Shatamera, was killed while crossing
the street near the corner of Commercial
Street and Royvonne Avenue in 2019.
“She watched that,” Jackson said. “Ob-
viously, she went through some significant
trauma and had a tough time.”
Wright’s mom asked if she could fulfill
her community service hours with Black
Joy Oregon. Jackson had been planning on
running a youth program for some time
and jumped at the chance.
Jackson’s passion for offering opportu-
nities to teens in juvenile justice stems from
her own experience in the Marion County
juvenile system. She remembers feeling vil-
ified by the school district and juvenile sys-
tem after being arrested for punching an-
other student as a freshman. That student
had called her a racial slur, she said.
“If it weren’t for, I think, sheer luck and a
bit of fortitude, I would have been in that
exact same situation (of going through the
school to prison pipeline),” Jackson said.
“I’ve been very lucky not to have gotten in
trouble as an adult. I feel very lucky to have
gone through different stages of my life
where I probably could have been in the
system and not had that happen.
“It’s my responsibility to make sure that
folks have access to the things that make
them well and that allow them to thrive and
give them hope,” she said.
A different approach
“Alternative Programs,” established in
the county in the late ‘70s, provide oppor-
tunities for justice-involved youth to give
back to the community through service,
work to pay restitution to crime victims,
and, in some cases, learn higher-level tech-
nical skills for future employability, accord-
Founder of Black Joy Oregon Julianne Jackson and daughter Delilah Fredrickson,
10, pose for a portrait at the Black Joy Oregon Office in Salem, Ore. on Saturday,
Dec. 4, 2021. BRIAN HAYES / STATESMAN JOURNAL
ing to Gregg
Juveniles who participate in the Alter-
native Programs can be anywhere from 12
to 18, though the typical age is 15 or 16, Gregg
said.
Teens are typically referred to certain
programs by a probation officer and priori-
ty is given to those required to fulfill court-
ordered community service and those who
have restitution payments, he said. The de-
partment has around 400 kids on proba-
tion at any given time.
One example is the Matrix program,
which offers jobs involving physical labor
for teens who violated conditions of super-
vision or are looking for ways to pay restitu-
tion. Work includes tasks like working at
the department’s mill cutting firewood,
paint recycling, paint pick-up, vegetation
management, ditch clearing, landscaping
and lawn maintenance.
‘Learning is liberating’:
developing a trade
Teens can also spend their days mea-
suring, chopping and sanding with Josh
Navarrete at the woodshop, one of the vari-
ous vocational training programs offered
through the Marion County Juvenile De-
partment.
The Focused Utilization of Employment
and Labor (FUEL) has programs like: the
woodshop, construction, mechanics, met-
alwork, have more responsibilities and
build more advanced trade and vocational
skills that can translate into the workforce.
At the woodshop, youth use chop saws,
sanders, joiners and lathes to shape their
wood and make it into products then sold
at the Fresh Start Market & Espresso, an-
other program where teens can learn cus-
tomer service skills. These include pens,
pizza-cutter handles, coffee scoop handles
and cutting boards.
A typical day begins at 8 a.m. and ends
at 3 p.m., with anywhere between two to
four kids working in the shop at once.
The accumulated hours worked trans-
lates to dollar amounts that go towards
paying restitution, Navarrete said. Funds
from sales at Fresh Start go back into the
program to buy more tools for the teens.
Navarrete, a blacksmith and owner of
NK Forge and Metalworks in West Salem,
credits his high school shop teacher for in-
stilling his own love of woodturning and
working with his hands.
“To me, it’s a relief, to me it’s an escape,
it’s therapy,” he said.
He said he’s worked with retirees, veter-
ans, people with disabilities, and underrep-
resented groups, but has always wanted to
work with children. He seized the chance
when he saw a job posting as a relief worker
at the Juvenile Department last year.
Navarette says the teens he works with
are hungry for knowledge.
“Learning for them is liberating,” he
said. “Most of these kids, they believe that
where they come from, where they live,
what they’ve gone through -- that’s all
they’re going to know.
“What this program is doing is giving
them choices, it’s giving them a little taste
of what else is out there,” he said.
Many of the kids, he says, have never
had the opportunity to work with their
Navarrete acknowledged the program’s
efforts are only one piece of the puzzle in
rehabilitating justice-involved youth. He
knows children face external challenges
and pressures in their personal lives when
they leave the shop.
Approaching the teens without any
judgment or preconceived notions removes
barriers to trust and it’s easier to listen, Na-
varrete said. Sometimes, it’s as simple as
having chats during lunch or being mindful
of their struggles if they come to work with
negative attitudes.
“Once they realize that you’re actually
acknowledging that they’re having a bad
day maybe, then they’re more willing to ac-
tually talk about what’s is really going on,”
Navarette said.
Failing to acknowledge the external
challenges means failing the teens, added
Jackson.
“No one chooses to have antisocial be-
havior,” Jackson said. “No one would natu-
rally make that choice. No one would natu-
rally just say, ‘Forget it, I want to be a violent
person,’”
It is why she emphasizes restorative jus-
tice practices at Black Joy Oregon and why
Wright was encouraged to join the group in
their Black Joy Oregon, encouraged to write
legislative testimony and participate in var-
ious Black Joy Oregon events.
“I internalized that I’m the problem. I’m
a failure now. I can’t succeed,” Jackson said.
That isn’t the reality. Jackson said the
onus should be on adults to understand
why children of color are failing.
“That’s one of the things that’s most im-
portant for me, removing that onus from
the children and putting it back on adults
where it belongs and giving them opportu-
nities to see themselves in spaces I never
would have.”
Wright has since completed her man-
dated community service hours but she
doesn’t plan on stopping her work with
Black Joy Oregon. She is excited to join the
group again in their next Black Joy Tour
stop and she’s grateful to have adults in her
life who stepped in and recognized she
wasn’t bound to be a “troublemaker.”
“Our community needs more help and
guidance,” Wright said. “You don’t have to
feel like you’re nothing but a bad kid.”
Dianne Lugo is a reporter at the States-
man Journal covering equity and social
justice. You can reach her at
dlugo@statesmanjournal.com, 503-936-
4811 or on Twitter @DianneLugo.
Virginia Barreda is the breaking news,
public safety and courts reporter at the
Statesman Journal. She can be reached at
503-910-6982 or at vbarreda@statesman-
journal.com. Follow her on Twitter @vbar-
reda2.