3A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • THURSDAY, DECEMBER 31, 2015
Employment Department
Workers get $2.5 million
prevailing wage settlement computers still vulnerable
By PARIS ACHEN
Capital Bureau
SALEM — Some 325 em-
ployees who built a dining hall
and residence halls at Southern
Oregon University will receive
$2.5 million in a settlement
with the Bureau of Labor and
Industries.
The sum is the largest pre-
vailing wage settlement in the
112-year history of the agency,
according to bureau spokesman
Charlie Burr.
“This settlement is a result
of an extensive, multiyear ef-
fort by our Prevailing Wage
Rate Unit to ensure that these
workers receive every dollar
they’ve earned,” Labor Com-
missioner Brad Avakian said in
a statement.
Southern Oregon University
already has directed $1.5 mil-
lion to the Bureau of Labor and
Industries. The agency mailed
payments from that amount to
179 workers Tuesday.
The bureau will contact
the remaining 146 workers to
secure individual releases of
claims and collect and distrib-
ute the outstanding payments
by May.
The bureau’s Wage and
Hour Division initiated about
80 prevailing wage audits,
starting in 2013, because of in-
formation found during a sepa-
rate investigation at a Southern
Oregon University project.
The inquiry determined that
44 contractors and subcontrac-
tors on the project owed $2.6
million to workers. Prior to
the $2.5 million settlement, the
agency secured about $52,000
in wage payments for the work-
ers.
The employees built a din-
ing hall and two student resi-
dences in 2012 and 2013 at the
Ashland campus.
The university paid the set-
tlement despite disagreeing
with the agency’s conclusion.
“Though SOU disagreed
with BOLI’s conclusion that
additional wages were owed on
the project, due to the time and
cost of litigating the dispute, the
SOU administration concluded
that it was in the best interest
of all involved to mutually re-
solve the dispute,” university
spokesman Ryan Brown said
in a statement. “SOU is looking
forward to moving on from the
issues and continuing to serve
our students and community.”
The Capital Bureau is a
collaboration between EO Me-
dia Group and Pamplin Media
Group.
Transit funds help wheel
rural people together on coast
Maintaining access
pointment to pick up a break-
/DUU\9DXJKQÀDJJHG fast sandwich.
the bus down outside his
“This bus gives me a sense
Seaview, Washington, home of normality,” Vaughn said.
LONG BEACH, Wash. — MXVWEHIRUHDPZLWKDÀDVK- “I have the freedom to go to
3DFL¿F7UDQVLWEXVOHIWWKH light in one hand and a cane breakfast and then head to my
Port of Ilwaco at 6:50 a.m. in the other. Vaughn began appointment without relying
Monday to take the morn- riding the bus seven years ago on anyone but the bus driver.”
As the bus turned back
LQJ¶V ¿UVW JURXS RI WUDYHOHUV after he discovered he had de-
LQWR$VWRULD,Q3DFL¿F&RXQ- generative disc disease and onto the peninsula a half
hour later, a family of three
ty, people without access to decided to sell his car.
“The bus is the only way I ÀDJJHGGRZQWKHGULYHU7KH
a vehicle have to rely on the
transit system as their only can get to my doctor appoint- dad was off to work in Chi-
option to travel outside their ments,” Vaughn said. “Plus, it nook and the mom and son
¿WVZLWKP\¿QDQFLDOOLIHVW\OH were traveling to South Bend
communities.
3DFL¿F 7UDQVLW UHFHLYHG these days.” He paid $1 to to visit family for Christmas.
(YDQV VDLG 3DFL¿F 7UDQ-
nearly $2 million in grants this travel to Astoria and back.
Gayla Walsh, a communica- sit’s bus routes depend on
year as a part of Connecting
Washington — a new trans- WLRQVRI¿FHUIRUWKH:DVKLQJWRQ people’s needs. The system
portation package the state State Department of Transpor- is unique because it crosses
Legislature approved to sup- tation, said there’s been an in- state borders to get passen-
port rural public transporta- creased effort in recent years gers to other transportation
tion. The package is expected to create reliable transportation options that can take them
to destinations like Portland,
to give $16 billion to public throughout the state.
“Within rural areas, people he said. The organization
transit over the next 16 years.
Rich Evans, director of Pa- have longer distances to travel also works with other county
FL¿F 7UDQVLW VDLG FXVWRPHUV for services or goods,” Walsh public transits to close some
only pay for a sliver of the said. “And for people who of the coverage gaps for cus-
don’t have access to a car, or tomers.
company’s cost.
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“It’s very, very good news have a disability or some sort,
ridership has been consistent,
the state is focusing on this be- that can be really hard.”
3DFL¿F 7UDQVLW PRVW UH- so there hasn’t been a recent
cause we operate off of grants,”
Evans said. “Every two years cently received more than reason to increase or change
we have to beg the Legislature $52,000 as a part of a vehi- the transit’s service.
“Honestly, we just expect
for money and this removes cle replacement project and
$250,000 to support its rural to maintain the status quo,”
some of that pressure.”
He said roughly half of the public transportation service. Evans said. “The revenue we
see right now allows us to do
transit’s operational funding
just that.”
comes from state and feder-
The status quo
He said if the need grew,
al grants and the majority of
After the bus pulled into
the remaining revenue comes Astoria Monday morning, 3DFL¿F 7UDQVLW ZRXOG KDYH
from a three-tenths sales tax Vaughn headed to McDon- to begin looking for more
from the county.
ald’s before his doctor’s ap- grants.
By KATHERYN
HOUGHTON
EO Media Group
Bummer! Tax-free pot burns out
Associated Press
PORTLAND — Oregon’s
tax-free marijuana sales come
to an end next year.
Beginning Monday, the
state will collect a 25 percent
sales tax on marijuana prod-
ucts sold to people without
medical cards.
That means pot will be-
come one of just three prod-
ucts with a tax applied at the
point of sale. The others are
hotel rooms and prepaid mo-
bile phone credits.
Oregon marijuana stores
have been selling tax-free
pot in limited quantities
since Oct. 1 due to a quirk
in the voter-approved initia-
tive that allowed adults to
buy the drug from licensed
stores.
State marijuana sales taxes
will drop to 17 percent late
next year when Oregon’s rec-
reational marijuana program
is fully up and running. Local
governments will then be able
to assess their own taxes of up
to 3 percent.
a year after security breach
SALEM — Computer
systems at the Oregon Em-
ployment Department remain
vulnerable more than a year
after a major data breach at
the agency, according to a
state audit released this week.
State employees have tak-
en steps to tighten the Em-
ployment Department’s cyber
security, but auditors found
that problems remain. These
include a lack of control and
tracking of which state em-
ployees can access data, and
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state data center where the
Employment
Department
systems are housed.
The data breach at the
Employment Department in
October 2014 affected more
than 800,000 people. An
anonymous tipster alerted
the state that hackers had ac-
cessed information including
names, addresses and Social
Security numbers of people
who were looking for work.
People who received unem-
ployment insurance also re-
ceived notices they might be
affected.
Many of the problems cit-
ed in the audit stem from the
Employment Department’s
use of mainframe computer
programs from the 1990s,
housed at the Department
of Administrative Services’
state data center. The agency
started the process to replace
the systems, which it uses to
collect employment taxes and
GLVEXUVH EHQH¿WV EXW LW ZLOO
take a decade to complete,
said Legislative and Pub-
lic Affairs Manager Andrea
Fogue. By then, the systems
will be at least 30 years old.
As a result, employees have
to do a lot of work manually.
“It is a long, ongoing
process so it’s happening
as quickly as it can,” Fogue
said.
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State employees also lack
a complete understanding of
the systems’ security func-
tions, because of poor docu-
mentation over the years, au-
ditors wrote. Auditors found
the Employment Department
and Department of Adminis-
trative Services have not done
HQRXJKWRSURWHFWFRQ¿GHQWLDO
information from inside the
organization, by restricting
access to certain high-level
employees and monitoring
their actions.
Old computer systems
have prevented the Employ-
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VHFXULW\ ÀDZV RQ LWV ZHEVLWH
that put Oregonians at risk
of what is known as a “man
in the middle” attack. As of
Wednesday morning, the Em-
ployment Department portal
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for unemployment insurance
was still using the encryption
protocol TLS 1.0 that has
been known to be vulnerable
for years.
Fogue said earlier this
year that information tech-
nology employees had taken
additional steps to encrypt the
sensitive information entered
on the website, so even if an
attacker intercepted the infor-
mation, “it would take years”
to decipher.
strictly limiting which em-
ployees can access certain
data — cannot be implement-
ed until a new system is in
place.
Auditors wrote that com-
puter systems should employ
“a complex and multi-lay-
ered” security system to
defend against hackers,
but stopped short of saying
whether the Employment
Department systems met that
goal. They did, however, re-
IHUWRWKH¿QGLQJVRIDQDXGLW
of the state data center earlier
this year which also apply to
the Employment Department
systems at the facility. That
audit found that state data cen-
ter employees never imple-
mented many of the security
strategies planned when the
facility opened in 2006, and
WKH\LJQRUHGUHSHDWHG¿QGLQJV
of security shortfalls in half a
dozen state audits and a pri-
vate consultant’s report.
Handle a lot of money
The computer systems
also handle a lot of money:
in 2014, the state collected
$1 billion in employment tax-
es and paid out $625 million
in unemployment insurance
EHQH¿WV DFFRUGLQJ WR DXGL-
tors. The Employment De-
partment had also been skip-
ping an important step that
could detect unemployment
tax return errors, according
to auditors. That crucial re-
Security weaknesses
The EO Media Group/ port could help the state de-
Pamplin Media Group Cap- tect when employers over or
LWDO %XUHDX ¿UVW UHSRUWHG RQ under report taxable wages.
the security weaknesses on Auditors found that rough-
websites operated by the Em- ly 4,400 employers might
ployment Department and have underpaid their taxes
other state agencies in April.
by as much as $2.9 million
In a written response to in 2014, or 0.4 percent of
the audit, Employment De- total taxes collected. At the
partment Director Lisa Nis- same time, other employers
enfeld wrote that the agency overpaid their taxes by nearly
has already started to imple- $850,000.
ment some of the auditors’
The Capital Bureau is a
recommendations. However, collaboration between EO
Nisenfeld wrote that some Media Group and Pamplin
of the suggestions — such as Media Group.
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