Oregon Senate confirms Gov. Kitzhaber’s board appointees
Including a handful
important to labor
SALEM — The Oregon Senate
voted Feb. 13 to confirm several dozen
executive branch appointments, includ-
ing several of importance to organized
labor. The office of Gov. John Kitzhaber
announced the nominations Feb. 3.
• On the three-member Oregon Em-
ployment Relations Board (ERB)
Kathryn Logan, senior assistant attor-
ney general at the Oregon Department
of Justice, will become the manage-
ment-side member. ERB judges labor
law cases that have to do with state and
local public employee unionization. Lo-
gan has represented the City of Salem
and the state Department of Adminis-
trative Services as a management-side
labor attorney. She took office March 1,
replacing Vickie Cowan, who retired
Dec. 31.
Board service is a full-time job, and
terms are four years. Logan will serve
the remainder of Cowan’s term, which
expires June 30, 2013. Board chair Su-
san Rossiter continues to serve a term
that expired Sept. 30, 2011. As for the
labor-side member of the Board — Paul
Gamson — his term expires June 30.
Kitzhaber labor liaison Duke Shep-
ard said the governor used a new
process for the ERB appointment, in
that both management and labor repre-
sentatives were asked to serve as a
screening committee. The labor repre-
sentatives were Oregon School Em-
ployees Association Executive Director
Steven Araujo and Association of Engi-
neering Employees of Oregon co-exec-
utive director Joelle Davis. Shepard said
the intent was to make ERB less polar-
ized than its private sector counterpart
the National Labor Relations Board —
by having board members that were ac-
ceptable to both labor and management.
Shepard said no decision has been
made about a replacement for the chair,
but that Gamson is not being considered
for reappointment. Shepard said he ex-
pects the same process will be used for
Gamson’s replacement as was used to
select Logan.
• Washington County businessman
Isao “Tom” Tsuruta was confirmed to
the nine-member Port of Portland
Board of Commissioners, replacing
Oregon AFSCME Executive Director
Ken Allen. Allen stepped down to be
able to devote more time to the Oregon
Health Insurance Exchange Board, to
which he was appointed in August; that
board will advise the creation of the
health insurance exchange mandated by
federal health reform legislation. Port of
Portland commissioners represent dif-
ferent geographic areas within the
Port’s economic impact area, and the
commission still has two other repre-
sentatives of organized labor: Oregon
AFL-CIO President Tom Chamberlain
and Bruce Holte of the International
Longshore and Warehouse Union Lo-
cal 8. The board is the governing body
for the Port, which includes five marine
terminals, four airports, seven industrial
parks and the Portland Shipyard.
• Business consultant and Gresham
Chamber of Commerce president
Travis Stovall, and Bruce Warner, for-
mer executive director of the Portland
Development Commission, were con-
firmed to the seven-member TriMet
Board, replacing Richard Van Beveren,
who resigned, and Teamsters Joint
Council 37 political representative Lynn
Lehrbach. Lehrbach’s departure leaves
no representative of organized labor on
the board at a time when TriMet and its
union are in a protracted contract fight.
Lehrbach had wanted to serve a second
term, but Gov. John Kitzhaber chose not
to reappoint him.
• The 10-member Oregon’s Work-
ers Compensation Management-La-
bor Advisory Committee, commonly
referred to by its initials MLAC, got
four new members, two each from la-
bor and management, as the name sug-
gests. The new labor members are
Elana Guiney, Oregon AFL-CIO leg-
islative and communications director,
and Paul Goldberg, assistant execu-
tive director at the Oregon Nurses As-
sociation. MLAC makes workers’ com-
pensation policy recommendations to
the Oregon Legislature. One of the new
management members — Carol Dun-
can — is owner of General Sheet
Metal, a signatory contractor with Sheet
Metal Workers Local 16; she replaces
another union-signatory contractor rep-
resentative, Sheri Sundstrom of Hoff-
man Construction. Guiney and Gold-
berg replace outgoing members John
Kirkpatrick of Painters and Allied
Trades, and Mike O’Rourke of Plumb-
ing and Fitters Local 290, both of
whom retired. MLAC’s other labor
members are Tracy Brill of Portland
Fire Fighters Association Local 43, Lon
Holston of Laborers Municipal Em-
ployees Local 483, and John Mohlis of
the Oregon State Building and Con-
struction Trades Council.
• Jed Scheuermann, assistant train-
ing coordinator at Local 290, was con-
firmed to the nine-member Mechani-
cal Board, which helps to administer
state code regarding mechanical devices
and equipment.
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Kitzhaber’s previous appointments
include several other representatives of
organized labor:
• In September Oregon Education
Association Vice President Johanna
“Hanna” Vaandering and American
Federation of Teachers Oregon Presi-
dent David Rives were confirmed to
serve on the Oregon Education In-
vestment Board, a newly-formed 12-
member body that will oversee imple-
mentation of a set of education reforms
that were passed in 2011 over the ob-
jections of the state’s largest teachers
union.
• In November, Oregon State
Building and Construction Trades
Executive Secretary John Mohlis was
confirmed to the seven-member En-
ergy Facility Siting Council, which
oversees permitting and regulation dur-
ing the location, construction and oper-
ation of major energy facilities, and the
transport of radioactive materials.
The governor also appoints some ad-
visory boards which don’t need to be
confirmed by the Oregon Senate, and
Clif Davis, business manager of Inter-
national Brotherhood of Electrical
Workers Local 48, was appointed in
February to one of those: the Oregon
Innovation Council, which oversees
grants and other help to start-up tech-
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