2A — THE OBSERVER TUESDAY, JUNE 2, 2020 STATE Governor fi res Oregon employment boss over delays State’s Employment Department now has a 10-week backlog By Mike Rogoway The Oregonian/OregonLive PORTLAND — Governor Kate Brown fi red the head of the Oregon Employment Depart- ment on Sunday, responding to the department’s long delays in delivering jobless benefi ts to out- of-work Oregonians and the agen- cy’s inability to communicate the status of workers’ benefi ts claims. “In the middle of this pan- demic, the continued delays from the Oregon Employment Depart- ment in delivering unemployment insurance benefi ts to thousands of out-of-work Oregonians are unac- ceptable,” Brown said in a state- ment. The governor said she had asked for and received the resig- nation of Kay Erickson, who had run the department since Brown appointed her in 2016. “This is an unprecedented crisis, and the problems at the department demand an urgent response,” Brown said. She appointed Erickson’s deputy, David Gerstenfeld, to serve as interim director, and said she a computer upgrade in 2009, and many claims are in that category. expects “proactive communica- successive audits warned the Thousands of claims have been tion with claimants” and a time- department was unprepared for pending for more than a month, line for addressing the depart- a spike in jobless claims, work though, and many workers say ment’s claims backlog. replacing the computers isn’t due they have been waiting for bene- The employment department to be complete until 2025. fi ts since March. struggled through a series of lead- Since the pandemic hit in Mary Geddry is a freelance ership crises publisher and web- in the years site designer in before Erickson Coquille whose busi- “This is an unprecedented crisis, and the took over. ness cratered as problems at the department demand an She steered the pandemic hit. the depart- She fi rst applied for urgent response.” ment through a jobless benefi ts in Gov. Kate Brown period of rela- March, when Con- tive calm after- gress expanded wards, as the state’s jobless rate March, the department’s phone the unemployment benefi ts pro- fell to an all-time low of 3.3% and lines have been hopelessly over- gram to include self-employed the agency had relatively few ben- loaded. For well over two months workers like her, but has received efi ts claims. it has been impossible for the vast no checks — or even confi rma- When the pandemic hit, majority of laid-off workers to fi x tion of her claims status — from though, the employment depart- issues with their applications or to the state. ment was quickly overwhelmed learn the status of their claims. “I have no idea whether as more than 440,000 Oregonians Most callers get only busy sig- they’re even receiving my weekly fi led for jobless benefi ts and the nals, and the few that get through update. There’s no way to check. state’s unemployment rate spiked spend an average of more than There’s absolutely no way to call. to an all-time high, 14.2%. three hours on hold — and some- I mean, you can’t get through,” The department, relying on an times many hours longer. Even said Geddry, 64. She said she has antiquated computer system from among those calls, though, fewer credit card bills, a car payment the 1990s, was unable to keep than half ever reach a claims and a mortgage payment and has up with the volume of claims or processor. been negotiating with the lenders adapt its technology to accommo- The department said Saturday to defer payments while she waits date changes in the jobless pro- it has a 10-week backlog to fi x on her benefi ts. gram. Although Oregon received complex claims that require adju- “I honestly don’t know what to $86 million federal funding for dication, but did not say how expect or when to expect it. I’m like DAILY PLANNER a lot of other people,” Geddry said. “I could be contributing to the local economy if I had any money.” For several weeks, as the employment department’s prob- lems mounted, Erickson refused successive requests for interviews to discuss the situation. She broke her silence Friday with a tele- phone press conference but was unable to tell reporters how much the department owes workers. The state has paid out $1.5 bil- lion in jobless benefi ts since the middle of March, but at least 200,000 claims haven’t been paid. The department acknowledged this week it has no clear idea how many people it owes money to. The governor apologized for the department’s lapses in April but had been silent on the subject since then as the crisis mounted. Members of the Legislature and Oregon’s congressional delega- tion grew increasingly critical of the department as constituents fl ooded their offi ces with urgent calls over unpaid jobless claims. Gerstenfeld, the newly appointed interim director, has been with the employment depart- ment since 2009 — most recently as director of the paid family and medical leave insurance division. Miracle-Ear Hearing Aid Sale TODAY Today is Tuesday, June 2, the 154th day of 2020. There are 212 days left in the year. TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT On June 2, 1941, base- ball’s “Iron Horse,” Lou Gehrig, died in New York of a degenerative disease, amy- otrophic lateral sclerosis; he was 37. ON THIS DATE In 1886, President Grover Cleveland, 49, married Fran- ces Folsom, 21, in the Blue Room of the White House. 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In 1979, Pope John Paul II arrived in his native Poland on the fi rst visit by a pope to a Communist country. In 1981, the Japanese video arcade game “Donkey Kong” was released by Nintendo. In 1997, Timothy McVeigh was convicted of murder and conspiracy in the 1995 bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City that killed 168 people. (McVeigh was executed in June 2001.) LOTTERY Megabucks: $2.1 million 5-26-31-37-42-48 Mega Millions: $356 million 10-13-32-41-51-3 x2 Powerball: $135 million 13-32-41-58-60—PB-14 x2 Win for Life: May 30 42-53-54-61 Pick 4: May 31 • 1 p.m.: 0-4-8-3 • 4 p.m.: 8-3-1-4 • 7 p.m.: 4-4-1-2 • 10 p.m.: 2-9-8-7 Pick 4: May 30 • 1 p.m.: 7-2-9-4 • 4 p.m.: 2-7-3-6 • 7 p.m.: 7-0-7-3 • 10 p.m.: 9-4-1-6 Pick 4: May 29 • 1 p.m.: 8-3-8-0 • 4 p.m.: 0-9-3-5 • 7 p.m.: 7-1-5-9 • 10 p.m.: 4-2-4-7 DELIVERY ISSUES? If you have any problems receiving your Observer, call the offi ce at 541-963-3161. 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