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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (May 23, 2017)
3A THE DAILY ASTORIAN • TUESDAY, MAY 23, 2017 Legislators pursue changing the appointment authority for ODOT Governor would no longer appoint By PARIS ACHEN Capital Bureau SALEM – Legislators on a joint committee to craft a transportation package plan to propose shifting authority to appoint the director of the Oregon Department of Trans- portation from the governor to the Oregon Transportation Commission. “If you are going to have entity with fiduciary responsi- bility, they need the ability to appoint the CEO,” said state Sen. Lee Beyer, D-Eugene, the committee co-chairman. Under the proposal, the five-member commission would appoint the direc- tor “in consultation with the governor.” The proposal is one part of a transportation package that would raise about $8 billion over the next 10 years to pay for projects to relieve conges- tion and maintain roads and bridges. The 14-member committee met over the past two weeks to refine points they wanted to include in the legislation, which legislative counsel is in the process of drafting. Law- makers emphasized that their agreement for the first draft of Paris Achen/Capital Bureau Left to right, Sens. Brian Boquist, R-Dallas, and Lee Beyer, D-Springfield, talk at the Oregon Capitol earlier this month before their presentation on the transportation package. the legislation did not neces- sarily indicate their support for all of the provisions. Many of the finer points will be hashed out after the first draft is com- pleted. Co-chairwoman Rep. Caddy McKeown, D-Coos Bay, estimated the first draft would be finished by the end of May, with public hearings scheduled afterwards. The money for the plan would come from a combina- tion of hikes in the gas tax and registration and license fees, tolls and new taxes on payroll and purchases of new vehicles and bicycles. The legislation also would require a website where taxpayers could follow the progress and budgets of projects in their area and cre- ate an independent staff for the Oregon Transportation Com- mission, which sets policy for ODOT. Tammy Baney, the com- mission’s chairwoman, ear- lier this year asked Gov. Kate Brown for a separate staff and for more involvement in the appointment of the ODOT director. The plan identifies a few specific projects to ease con- gestion, but other projects would be prioritized by the Oregon Transportation Com- mission. Specific projects would: • Add lanes on Interstate 5 near Portland’s Rose Quarter from Interstate 84 to Interstate 405. • Add northbound and southbound lanes on High- way 217 through the Portland metro area. State House approves tighter tracking for medical marijuana • Widen Interstate 205 to six lanes from Oregon City to Staf- ford Road. • Widen and seismically reinforce Interstate 205’s Aber- nethy Bridge. The plan raises an aver- age of about $800 million per year in additional transportation funding. The money would come from increases in the gas tax and vehicle fees and a set of new taxes over the next 10 years, including: • Gas tax increase from 30 cents to 44 cents. • Tiered increase in title and registration fees, with higher increases for fuel-efficient vehi- cles, which pay less in gas taxes. • Statewide payroll tax of one-tenth of 1 percent to pay for mass transit. • Tolls to be determined. • Bicycle excise tax of 5 percent. • Dealer privilege tax of 1 percent on new vehicle purchases. The state spends about $1.3 billion a year on transporta- tion system maintenance and upgrades. This proposal would bring that amount up to about $2.1 billion. The committee’s co-chairs have estimated a vote on the package could happen as early as mid-June. The Capital Bureau is a col- laboration between EO Media Group and Pamplin Media Group. Child welfare director resigns after six months By CLAIRE WITHYCOMBE Capital Bureau SALEM — The director of Oregon’s beleaguered child welfare division of the state Department of Human Ser- vices is stepping down after six months on the job. Lena Alhusseini, who joined the agency in early November after it conducted a national search, submitted her resignation as child welfare director Wednesday afternoon. She did not return a phone message seeking comment. A department spokesman declined Friday to provide answers to further questions about Alhusseini’s departure. She will stay on at the agency, leading an effort to recruit diverse employees, until September. Department of Human Ser- vices Director Clyde Saiki announced Alhusseini’s depar- ture in a statement Friday. “I respect Lena’s vision for child welfare — a frame- work of community engage- ment and support — and that essential work will continue,” Saiki said. “However, Lena and I agree that we have not been able to get the results we need to achieve.” Saiki himself is retir- ing in September. He will be replaced by the director of the Oregon Youth Authority, the state’s agency overseeing juveniles in the criminal jus- tice system. Submitted Photo Lena Alhusseini has resigned as director of Oregon’s be- leaguered child welfare division of the state Department of Human Services. She joined the agency in early November. Both departures come as the Department of Human Ser- vices struggles to recover after significant documented prob- lems in child welfare. Starting in 2015, news reports revealed the agency did a poor job mon- itoring management and safety issues at a Portland foster care provider, prompting further scrutiny of the system and calls for a culture change at the agency. Under Alhusseini’s direc- tion, which began shortly after the agency released a detailed outside report on the foster care system’s shortcomings, the division seemed eager to make improvements. Alhusseini came to Ore- gon from Brooklyn, New York, where she was executive director of the Arab-American Family Support Center. Earlier this year state law- makers learned children being screened after reports of abuse and neglect remained in unsafe situations after being deemed safe by department staff. In March, Alhusseini unveiled a new training simu- lation for social workers. Last week, she announced an initia- tive to equip caseworkers with iPhones and tablets, in what was portrayed as an effort to increase productivity and home visits. Saiki said that the agency would continue to emphasize child safety. “Moving forward, our focus must be on the basics,” Saiki wrote, including cor- rectly screening reports of abuse and neglect, ensuring safe placements and “ensur- ing ongoing oversight and support in family foster care and residential placements.” “In addition, we must con- tinue our efforts toward the culture change needed to put children’s safety at the center of every decision and action,” Saiki said. According to a spokesman for the department, Alhussei- ni’s annual salary of $150,000 will not change with her new position. The agency’s deputy direc- tor of child welfare, Lau- rie Price, has been appointed interim director of the division. The governor set aside about $1 billion for the child welfare division in her spend- ing plan for the next two years. That figure may change as state legislators attempt to make cuts and raise taxes to fill an overall $1.4 billion bud- get gap in the upcoming two- year budget cycle. Discourages diversion to illegal market By PARIS ACHEN Capital Bureau SALEM — The state House of Representatives Monday passed a bill 51-7 that requires medical mar- ijuana to undergo the same tight-looped tracking as the recreational product. “The core purpose of this bill is to make sure that we eliminate the illegal market by enhancing tracking and other associated things that will prevent diversion from Oregon’s legal marijuana sector to the illegal market,” said state Rep. Ann Lininger, D-Lake Oswego, co-chair- woman of the Joint Commit- tee on Marijuana Regulation. The effort to pass the reforms took on more urgency after the Trump administration indicated it could crack down on mar- ijuana commerce in states where the drug has been legalized, legislators have indicated. The requirement is the most significant of several tweaks the bill makes to Ore- gon’s marijuana regulations. The Senate passed the bill 23-6 earlier this month. Under existing law, med- ical producers, processors, wholesalers and retailers have to self-report to the Ore- gon Health Authority how much marijuana they have. The bill requires all of that product to be tracked with a bar code or computer chip that follows the plant from a seedling to its final product. Pamplin Media Group The state House Monday passed a Senate bill tight- ening regulations for the tracking of medical mari- juana. The bill goes to the governor. The bill exempts medi- cal marijuana cardholders and home growers from the tracking requirements. The legislation also requires: • Oregon Health Author- ity to create an electronic database to track medical marijuana cardholder activ- ity and to share that infor- mation with the Department of Revenue and the Oregon Liquor Control Commission. • Adding two commis- sioners to the liquor commis- sion from Eastern Oregon and western Oregon. • Financial disclosures to the liquor commission by people with a financial inter- est in a marijuana business applying for a license. • The liquor commission to pursue disciplinary action against a former licensee even if the license has been revoked or suspended. The liquor commission pre- viously did not have that enforcement authority over former licensees. The Capital Bureau is a collaboration between EO Media Group and Pamplin Media Group. 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Her Bridesmaids consisted of sister-in-law Noelle Lund, cousin Corey Sanders and lifelong friends Natalie Dwight, Jenn Johnson and Kacie Melton. Dane’s Best Man was his older brother Hans, along with groomsmen and close childhood friends Dylan Israel, Max Johnson, Marcus Brown, Taylor Landwehr, Ian Erickson and Peyton Gastelum. C op ies d istrib uted throug hout the year to n orth coast hotels, m otels, cham b ers of com m erce, visitors b ureaus, cam p g roun d s, restauran ts an d stores an d in serted in T he D aily Astorian & C hin ook O b server N ew th is Y ea r! 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