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About The Observer. (La Grande, Or.) 1968-current | View Entire Issue (July 16, 2020)
Opinion 4A Thursday, July 16, 2020 The Observer OUR VIEW Tale of a flop at the Oregon Employment Department T he more you know about the failure to update the Oregon Employment Department’s computer system the more frustrating it becomes. It has had the money. It has lacked the leadership, organizational stability and technical exper- tise to pull it off. The Employment Depart- ment has scrambled to pro- cess more than 600,000 unemployment claims since the pandemic hit. It has not kept up. It has hired hundreds of new employees, opened a new center, started up a new hotline and more. Still, it has not kept up. And the depart- ment’s computer system has been a powerful obstacle. So what went wrong? The Legislative Fiscal Office put out a seven-page report Friday. It reads like a govern- ment horror story, though we can’t recommend reading it for fun. The department’s com- puter system was developed in 1993. Yes, it’s that old. Old technology can work. It’s just not as flexible. The system relies on an old computer language called COBOL. It can be hard to find people in information technology who know it. The task of repro- gramming the system was so daunting, the department waived what’s known as the waiting week so people could get unemployment benefits sooner after initially saying it wasn’t going to do that. The department did have the money to start updating the system — in 2009. In the wake of the Great Recession of 2008, the federal government gave the depart- ment $85.6 million in what are commonly called modern- ization funds. The department kicked off several information technology projects during the 2009-11 biennium. It’s one thing to start projects. It’s quite another to carry them out effectively. In the 2011-13 biennium, the Oregon Secretary of State’s Office released an audit of the problems with the department’s computer system. The system was too difficult to update. And many changes had to be manu- ally entered in the system. Those problems led to about $56 million in overpayment of unemployment benefits in 2010 and 2011. So it is not as if the problems with the department’s system had not been publicized. The Employment Depart- ment’s next budget request was oddly for things other than the benefit information system. And even those proj- ects were then put on hold, delayed or stopped. The agency’s chief information officer resigned. The resig- nation was at about the same time an internal audit of the department’s information technology department criti- cized it for a deficient struc- ture. Many projects were even being undertaken without required approval from the state’s chief information officer. The resignation is part of a pattern of turnover of key staff — information tech- nology project members and agency leadership — that repeats again and again, even including this year. That has made progress and prioriti- zation difficult. You can see it in the agency’s next budget request in 2012. Even after the audit, the next request was again for technology projects other than the benefit system. In 2013, Cover Oregon failed. That was the health insurance exchange website flop that cost the state about $300 million. That incident was not related to the employ- ment department. The failure rippled through state govern- ment, though, leading to a needed, new heightened over- sight of information tech- nology projects. The employ- ment department continued to have a hard time moving for- ward because of more leader- ship changes. To make mat- ters worse, the department had a security breach in 2014 that led to the release of the confidential information of 800,000 Oregonians. We could go on. But you get the idea. As we said, the money has been available. The agency has lacked the leadership, organizational stability and technical exper- tise to upgrade its systems. Does it have it now? We hope so. New computers would not have solved all the depart- ment’s problems. Even states with updated unemploy- ment computer systems have labored with the spike in unemployment claims from the pandemic. But it has made Oregon’s situation worse. Legislators and the gov- ernor are supposed to be the ones providing oversight of how the state spends money. They failed to adequately monitor and question the performance of the state’s employment department. And Oregonians who are out of work are suffering more because of that. Write to us MAIL: The Observer, 911 Jefferson Ave., La Grande, OR 97850 EMAIL: news@lagrandeobserver.com • The Observer welcomes letters to the editor. We edit letters for brevity, grammar, taste and legal reasons. We will not publish consumer complaints against businesses or personal attacks against private individuals. Thank-you letters are discouraged. • Letters are limited to 400 words and must be signed and carry the author’s address and phone number (for verification only). • Letter writers are limited to one letter every two weeks. • Visit The Observer’s website, www. lagrandeobserver.com, for more news, opinion and other content. MY VOICE It’s time to stop blaming Lighthouse church and its leadership of a woman caught in sin and lit- e have all heard how a local church apparently erally thrown at Jesus’ feet for his declaration of guilty, the reli- spread the COVID-19 gious “good virus through guys” were the mingling DORIS EAKIN ready to cast of the congre- RECTOR gation weeks stones at her LA GRANDE before the until death. state gave per- Never saying mission to reassemble. Now we a word, Jesus leaned down and know the decision to open early wrote in the dust. (Perhaps listing did not turn out well and should the accusers’ sins and shortcom- ings?) Then he said, “Those who have been delayed. Hindsight are without sin can throw the first proves accuracy better than fore- sight. It is regrettable that people stone.” One by one the accusers in our community suffered, and slunk off. Jesus said to the may continue to do so, with this woman, “Neither do I accuse you. virus. What should we be feeling Now go and sin no more.” about the church now? In light of this biblical story, let According to the biblical story us not pick up a verbal or literary W stone to throw at the Lighthouse church. Rather, let us replace those thoughts and words of con- demnation by remembering the good works the church has done. I am not a member or regular attendee of this church, but I have a few memories of the church lifting others up in their needs. For one, I attended a funeral for two families grieving the loss of their young boys. This church offered their beautiful building to the families for a place to hold the wake and funeral service. Another memory, the church presented a moving Christmas drama service for the commu- nity, which I attended and was deeply blessed even to tears. Again, the church pastor offi- ciated at my wedding, and the church provided the tables and chairs for the buffet in the yard, including picking up and deliv- ering them which was a much appreciated act of kindness. Lastly, the church has edu- cated hundreds of children with a Christian education, gifting many the price of tuition. The Bish- op’s wife, Robin, has directed this school for 35 years, serving 70 children each year. Yes, they made a wrong call regarding the virus, but the church and its leadership should not be shunned with “rolling of the eyes” and veiled threats as detected in the former articles of this paper. In this instance, we should continue doing our acts of kindness to all in our community while obeying the government’s COVID-19 directives. Union County’s communities know and practice obeying the laws, treating other people as we want to be treated, and forgiving. Let us move on. About the Author Doris Eakin Rector has lived in La Grande for 50 years, serving as the founder and director of Heidi Ho Christian School and day care for 24 years, and the Union Country director of the Court Appointed Special Advo- cates for seven years.
