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.
In 1897, Mark Twain was
quoted by the New York
Journal as saying from Lon-
don that “the report of my
death was an exaggeration.”
(Twain was responding to a
report in the New York Her-
ald that he was “grievously
ill” and “possibly dying.”)
In 1924, Congress passed,
and President Calvin
Coolidge signed, a measure
guaranteeing full American
citizenship for all Native
Americans born within U.S.
territorial limits.
In 1953, the coronation of
Queen Elizabeth II took place
in London’s Westminster
Abbey, 16 months after the
death of her father, King
George VI.
In 1966, U.S. space probe
Surveyor 1 landed on the
moon and began transmit-
ting detailed photographs of
the lunar surface.
In 1976, Arizona Republic
investigative reporter
Don Bolles was mortally
wounded by a bomb plant-
ed underneath his car; he
died 11 days later. (Prose-
cutors believed Bolles was
targeted because he had
written stories that upset
a liquor wholesaler; three
men were convicted of the
killing.)
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.)
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DELIVERY ISSUES?
If you have any problems
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TODAY’S QUOTE
“We are minor in every-
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— Elizabeth Bowen, Irish
author (1899-1973)
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GRANDE
541-605-2109
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111 Elm
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La Grande,
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BAKER CITY
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2021 Washington
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Baker City,
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541-239-3782
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ENTERPRISE
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113-1/2 Front E. Main St.
Enterprise, OR 97828
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