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.
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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.