STATE
MyEagleNews.com
Wednesday, November 27, 2019
A11
Foster system crisis consultants close
to completing $1 million contract
By Claire Withycombe
Oregon Capital Bureau
By Christmas, crisis
consultants brought on to
improve Oregon’s strug-
gling foster care system are
expected to wrap up their $1
million contract.
In April, Gov. Kate Brown
asked a crew of consul-
tants from the firm Alvarez
and Marsal — perhaps best
known for taking over Leh-
man Brothers after the Wall
Street firm filed for bank-
ruptcy — to look under the
hood at the Oregon Depart-
ment of Human Services.
They were tasked with
kick-starting solutions to
deep-seated problems at
the agency’s Child Welfare
division.
About 7,000 Oregon kids
are in foster care on any
given day, and over the past
several years, a bright spot-
light has been on the agency
for treatment of children in
its care.
DHS has been the sub-
ject of multiple internal and
external reviews that have
laid out what the agency
needed to change to keep
kids safe.
Brown was adamant that
she didn’t want more rec-
ommendations. Instead, she
wanted action on recom-
mendations already made,
some repeatedly over recent
years.
For instance, multiple
audits and reviews pointed
to the agency’s workload
problem.
Experts have long said
that DHS caseworkers who
have front line duty for the
well being of foster kids have
too many to look after and
were getting overwhelmed
and burned out. About a third
of workers had less than a
year and a half of experience,
according to a 2018 state
audit.
In a meeting with law-
makers last week in her office
at the Capitol, Brown said the
consultants had made “really
steady progress.”
She pointed to their work
on the agency’s Critical Inci-
dent Review teams, which
investigate deaths of kids
who have interacted with
the child welfare system,
and to their efforts to rapidly
hire more caseworkers and
reduce the number of Oregon
children shuttled out of state
for care.
Brown also said the
agency is improving its han-
dling of requests for pub-
lic records and in communi-
cating with reporters and the
public.
Brown appeared espe-
cially happy with efforts to
hire more workers. Audits
and reports for years have
highlighted the damaging
impact of high workloads
on kids in the child welfare
system.
The agency received
thousands of applications to
fill new jobs, Brown said.
“All I know is it was
extraordinary. I’ve never
seen anything like it,” Brown
said. “We have now made ...
conditional offers to over 345
applicants and they’re in the
process of getting trained. So
I’m really, really pleased.”
Wanda Seiler of Alvarez
and Marsal told legislators
that the firm did a lot of work
smoothing out the inter-
nal workings of the agency
that wouldn’t be immedi-
ately apparent. One exam-
ple: Making it easier for kids
in foster care to get medical
care.
Seiler reviewed a host of
changes consultants have
already made, like creating
new training for certain jobs
and streamlining the agen-
cy’s hiring process.
State
Rep.
Alissa
Keny-Guyer,
D-Portland,
expressed concerns that high
caseloads could continue to
cause workers to leave.
“I just want to again, reit-
erate that as great as the …
surge is, and the extra train-
ing and hiring for other
positions to support that,
we would still risk hemor-
rhaging if the caseload is so
great,” said Keny-Guyer.
There was also some
discussion about a year-
long project to central-
ize the state’s abuse report-
ing hotline. That effort has
encountered long wait times
for callers and inexperienced
staff.
The change also seems to
have driven up the number of
assessments of abuse reports.
After the new central hotline
was put into place, assess-
ments by Child Protective
Services are up by about 40
percent, according to Oregon
DHS.
The consultants have also
worked on giving parents
more help so children could
stay in their homes.
“The big story here really
is the need for services to
support families to stay
together,” Seiler said.
Much of that progress will
take time, Seiler said.
Twenty-one arrested after hours-long
sit-in of Gov. Kate Brown’s office
By Sam Stites
Oregon Capital Bureau
State police ended a pro-
test and occupation of Gov.
Kate Brown’s office Thurs-
day night by arresting 21
people for criminal trespass.
They were the remaining
demonstrators who filled the
governor’s ceremonial office
Thursday afternoon to show
their opposition to the liq-
uefied natural gas project in
Coos Bay.
The protest started with
hundreds on the Capitol steps
before moving inside to the
rotunda midday and then to
Brown’s office, on the sec-
ond floor.
Brown wasn’t in the office
at the time but did talk to pro-
testers by phone. Later in the
evening, she returned and
talked with those occupying
her office.
Thomas Joseph, a leader
of the sit-in, said that around
9:30 p.m., the Oregon State
Police ordered about 65 pro-
testers to disperse. The state
police said in a press release
Friday that the order was
given by Superintendent Tra-
vis Hampton.
At that time many of those
remaining packed up and left
the Capitol, but 21 individu-
als stayed and were arrested
by state troopers.
The target of the protest-
ers is a project called Jordan
Cove, which includes plans
for a gas pipeline running
across 229 miles of Oregon
landscape, from the border
town of Malin east of Klam-
ath Falls to Coos Bay.
Oregon Capital Bureau/Jake Thomas
Demonstrators protesting the proposed liquefied natural
gas facility at Jordan Cove staged a sit-in Thursday at Gov.
Kate Brown’s ceremonial office in the Capitol in Salem.
Proponents say the project
would be an economic boon
for Coos County while envi-
ronmentalists say the risks to
Oregon’s environment are
significant.
According to a press
release from Southern Ore-
gon Rising Tide, one of those
arrested was 72-year-old
Sandy Lyons, a landowner
in Days Creek who would be
impacted by the pipeline.
Lyons said Thursday that
her family has lived and
worked on their Douglas
County ranch for nearly 30
years and have been fighting
the pipeline for the past 15.
“I am here today because
we have tried every possi-
ble way to be heard and want
somehow to gain the gover-
nor’s attention to how wrong
this is, and the negative ways
in which it will permanently
scar us and our land,” Lyons
said.
Also arrested were Guy
Berliner, 49, Shawn Creeden,
38, Simone Crowe, 31, Kelly
Campbell, 47, Diana Rempe,
53, and Dineen Orourke, 24,
all of Portland; Eric How-
anietz, 38, Tyee Williams,
22, and Samuel Yergler, 34,
all of Eugene; Rianna Kop-
pel, 31, and Kayla Starr, 78,
of Talent; Derek De Forest
Pyle, 28, of Ashland; Domyo
Burk, 48, of Beaverton; Jon-
athon Major, 42, of Jackson-
ville; Sofia Jokela, 28, and
Henry Jokela, 25, of Mil-
waukie; Stephen Dear, 55, of
Elmira; Emma Rohwer, 40,
of Klamath Falls; Sally Mal-
itz, 72, of Corvallis; and May
Wallace, 69, of California.
The state police said they
were each accused of sec-
ond-degree criminal tres-
passing and booked at the
Marion County Jail. The
crime is punishable by up to
30 days in jail and a fine of
up to $1,250.
The jail’s online inmate
roster showed four of those
arrested – Lyons, Koppel,
Creeden and Pyle – remained
lodged as of Friday morning.
Proposal to limit money
in Oregon politics unveiled
By Jake Thomas
Oregon Capital Bureau
Legislators last week
considered a plan intended
to impose greater con-
trols on Oregon’s increas-
ingly expensive political
campaigns and reduce the
influence of money on state
politics.
“There is at minimum
the perception of undue
influence of money in pol-
itics,” said state Sen. Jeff
Golden, D-Ashland, chair
of interim committee on
campaign finance, on Nov.
19.
The committee is craft-
ing campaign finance
reforms to be considered in
the 2020 Legislature.
Oregon is one of five
states with no limits on
campaign
contributions,
and the proposal would
establish regulations that
have eluded reformers.
During a committee hear-
ing, legislators from both
major parties expressed
reservations about the
proposal while campaign
finance reform advocates
called on lawmakers to go
further.
Under the proposal,
individuals would be lim-
ited to $750 in contribu-
tions to any legislative can-
didate and $2,000 for those
seeking statewide office.
The limits would apply sep-
arately to primary and gen-
eral election campaigns.
Individual
contribu-
tions to state party com-
mittees and legislative cau-
cus committees would be
capped at $2,000 annually.
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