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THE ASTORIAN • THURSDAY, APRIL 7, 2022
BOLI: ‘The law is complicated’
Continued from Page A1
$98,600 the governor makes
and barely twice the $32,839
paid to state lawmakers for
their offi cially part-time jobs.
Unlike other offi ces, it
hasn’t been a springboard to
bigger things. Incumbents
have run for governor, U.S.
s enator, Oregon Supreme
Court j ustice and secretary of
state. None has won.
The three most active can-
didates have been Helt, Kulla
and Stephenson.
Helt
A restaurateur in Bend,
Helt served about 10 years on
school boards and two years
in the state House represent-
ing Bend.
Helt is a remnant of a van-
ishing political species that
once dominated state politics:
the moderate Republican.
Elected to the House from
a Democratic-leaning district
in 2018, Helt often bumped
heads with the GOP cau-
cus — sponsoring legisla-
tion for mandatory vaccina-
tions for school children that
was opposed by Republi-
cans. When the House GOP
caucus walked out to deny
a quorum to consider a con-
troversial cap-and-trade bill,
Helt was the only Republi-
can who remained in Salem.
After losing her 2020
re election bid to Rep. Jason
Kropf, D-Bend, Helt’s focus
was on maintaining her fam-
ily business and employ-
ees during the COVID-19
pandemic.
Looking to return to pub-
lic offi ce, Helt felt she was a
good match for the politically
moderate electorate in the
newly aligned 5th Congres-
sional District. She could win
a general election, but win-
ning a closed primary against
opponents who are avid sup-
porters of former President
Donald Trump and supported
by vaccine skeptics seemed
unlikely.
Hoyle’s decision to drop
her re election bid for BOLI
was an opportunity.
“I liked that BOLI was
non partisan,” Helt said. “It
fi ts my experience well. I’ve
been a business owner for
18 years. We’ve had 103
employees. BOLI has 120.
No other candidate has run
a business with over 100
employees.”
Helt said she’d seen the
ups and downs of career and
technical training programs
as a school board mem-
ber. She praised Hoyle for
realigning programs to bet-
ter fi t with real-world job
demands in Oregon. Her
time in the Legislature gave
her a view on how workplace
law evolves.
“The offi ce takes all of my
hats and combines them into
one,” Helt said.
Helt rejects the label of
conservative in the race, but
wants to bring an open and
pragmatic approach to the
job.
“The job is to uphold
the civil rights of all Orego-
nians,” Helt said. “It has to
be a fair process and a bal-
anced process. Part of the
job is ensuring that every-
body knows the rules. This
shouldn’t be a ‘gotcha’
agency. I think most employ-
ers want to do the right thing.
But for the bad actors, I’ll
enforce the law.”
Kulla
Kulla was the fi rst candi-
date to sign up for the Dem-
ocratic primary for gover-
nor when the window to fi le
opened last fall .
But as more candidates
entered the race, the Yam-
hill County commissioner
saw money and attention
among Democrats focused
on former House Speaker
Tina Kotek, S tate Treasurer
Tobias Read and, before he
was ruled ineligible because
of residency requirements,
New York Times columnist
Nicholas Kristof.
In mid-January, Kulla
switched to run for BOLI.
Kulla said the labor com-
missioner’s top priority is
ensuring the civil and work-
ing rights of workers and
people seeking housing are
protected.
The
commissioner’s
offi ce has to be a place that
proactively gets out informa-
tion to workers that business
Field
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Cheri Helt, Casey Kulla and Christina Stephenson are among the
candidates running for state labor commissioner in the May election.
owners don’t make the rules
— and BOLI is a place to get
information and, if necessary,
seek help to resolve disputes.
“But fi rst, they need to
know that BOLI exists,”
Kulla said. “It doesn’t mat-
ter if there are rules if people
don’t know about them and
who enforces them.”
Kulla said relations
between businesses and
workers that come to BOLI
don’t have to always be
adversarial. As one of the
fi rst cannabis licensees in the
state, Kulla took part in cre-
ating the rules and regula-
tions that would guide the
legal marijuana business into
the future. Both the state and
the growers shared exper-
tise and dispelled inaccurate
information.
“It was a great example of
the regulators and the regu-
lated listening to each other
and fi nding solutions that
worked,” Kulla said.
Oregon’s economy and
workforce are rapidly evolv-
ing, Kulla said, with areas
such as gig workers and farm-
workers whose jobs don’t fi t
easily into existing defi ni-
tions of jobs. BOLI needs to
keep both workers and oper-
ators in these areas up to date
with changes in the rules.
On technical job train-
ing, Kulla said he wants to
see more cooperation with
employers so that the stu-
dents who commit to the pro-
grams as a path to their post-
high school or community
college working lives don’t
just end up with a certifi cate.
“There has to be a clear
path to real jobs at the end,”
he said.
Stephenson
The day after Kulla fi led
for BOLI, he was followed
by Christina Stephenson,
a Democrat and employee
rights attorney.
Stephenson has won the
backing of at least 21 labor
union groups, including the
AFL-CIO, the American
Federation of State, County
and Municipal Employees
and the Teamsters, along
with political action commit-
tees for Planned Parenthood
and Pro Choice Oregon.
She’s been endorsed by
Hoyle . Political backers
include U.S. Sen. Jeff Merk-
ley, former Gov. Barbara
Roberts, House Speaker Dan
Rayfi eld and De Fazio .
Stephenson said she’s
had a front-row seat to the
shortcomings of labor law in
Oregon.
“My job has been rep-
resenting workers getting a
raw deal for employers who
aren’t following the rules,”
Stephenson said.
Stephenson said BOLI
needs to be a resource for
both employers and employ-
ees so that they know what’s
right and wrong from the
start.
“The law is compli-
cated,” she said. “There are
a number of diff erent tests
— civil rights vs. wage and
hour laws, workers com-
pensation, unemployment.
Both sides are probably
unsure of where they stand.
BOLI’s role is to help every-
one understand rights and
responsibilities.”
Stephenson said the gig
economy, in which busi-
nesses consider themselves
middlemen between cus-
tomers and contracted work-
ers, will be a challenge
to defi ne in labor law. So
will the evolving status of
farmworkers.
“It’s up to the Legislature
to make the laws,” she said.
That may mean taking a
step like California to legally
defi ne the status of gig work-
ers as employees or some-
thing else.
“What everyone wants
and needs is clarity and sim-
plicity,” Stephenson said.
BOLI’s role in job and
technical training is to align
students as early as middle
school to know their options.
Programs have to match
employers’ needs. The result
has to be good jobs that pay
a living wage.
Stephenson said she was
proud of the support she’s
received from organized
labor, but that didn’t mean
she would come into the job
in an adversarial stance to
business.
“Quality jobs, fair hous-
ing, fair wages, should all
be pretty non controversial
issues,” she said. “Our good
employers don’t want these
bad actors breaking the law.
It puts them at a competitive
disadvantage when some-
one else is making money
through wage theft.”
The Oregon Capital
Bureau is a collaboration
between EO Media Group
and Pamplin Media Group.
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