STATE
Wednesday, november 13, 2019
HermIsTonHeraLd.Com • A11
voters could be asked to decide future of forestry practices
By SAM STITES
oreGon CaPITaL bUreaU
SALEM — A political
fight over how Oregon man-
ages its forests and timber
activity could resolved by
voters next fall.
Two separate sets of bal-
lot initiatives with contrary
views of forestry in Oregon
have been filed with the state
Elections Division. One side
seeks to insulate current
practices from change and
the other aims to create new
regulations that prohibit cer-
tain techniques they feel are
harmful to the environment
and Oregonians.
Last week, Jim James and
his fellow chief petitioners
filed initiatives they’re call-
ing the “Health Forests and
Wildfire Reduction Plan.”
They would keep the regu-
lation of forest and timber
practices on all state and pri-
vately owned lands in the
hands of professional forest-
ers, scientists and the Ore-
gon Board of Forestry.
The plan would require
the state Forestry Depart-
ment to report new forestry
regulations to the state board
for review. The measures
would add four members to
the board representing sci-
entific forestry fields and
timber interests. The pack-
age also would also amend
Oregon’s constitution to the
state to compensate land-
owner if state actions reduce
property values.
James is a professional
forester based out of Foster
and the executive director
of the Oregon Small Wood-
lands Association, a lobby-
ing group that advocates for
private forest owners. The
initiatives he’s promoting
were filed in response to a
Umatilla National Forest Photo/East Oregonian
The HK Complex Fire, seen from Madison Butte, burned acres of forest approximately 15 miles north of Monument in August.
set of prospective measures
called the “Oregon Forest
Waters Protection” package.
“I believe that our forests
are at a huge risk from the
ballot measures proposed by
radical, anti-forestry activ-
ists. We need these petitions
to be successful in continu-
ing to protect our manage-
ment of forests,” he said.
The opposing initiatives
were refiled at the begin-
ning of October by Kate
Crump, a resident of Rock-
away Beach, and two other
petitioners after their orig-
inal package was rejected
for violating the initiative
process.
One goal of Crump’s ini-
tiative package is to prohibit
aerial spraying of pesticides
on a forest clear cut within
500 feet of forest rivers and
streams, especially those
that feed watersheds used
for potable water. It would
also greatly reduce the log-
ging operations in proximity
to water bodies.
Crump said the Oregon
Forest Practices Act has
been enforced for too long
with little change, especially
relating to watersheds that
New director overhauls Oregon’s
response to mental health issues
By SAM STITES
oreGon CaPITaL bUreaU
SALEM — Finding a
director to run a key new
division of the Oregon
Health Authority vexed Pat
Allen for months.
The agency director
worked with hundreds of
internal and external stake-
holders to search for some-
one who would bring expe-
rience and familiarity with
Oregon’s forlorn behavioral
health system. Allen needed
someone to overhaul critical
state services provided to the
one in six Oregonians deal-
ing with mental illness or
substance abuse.
“Over those months I
became convinced that every
state’s behavioral health
system is screwed up, but
they’re each screwed up in
their own way,” Allen said.
“I really thought that local
expertise was critical. We
took several runs at trying to
find the right candidate and
never really got there.”
He found that those
recruited to lead the behav-
ioral health subdivision were
well aware of the challenges
facing Oregon’s emergency
in mental health.
Mass
homelessness,
higher-than-average rates of
addiction and suicide, a state
psychiatric hospital nearly
full and a system of commu-
nity mental health programs
that severely lack resources
all needed attention.
Taking on the task of ren-
ovating the unit of state gov-
ernment responsible for
looking after Oregon’s most
troubled residents was not
attractive.
But where others saw a
chaotic mess, Steve Allen
saw opportunity.
At the time of the Oregon
Health Authority’s search,
Steve Allen, 63, was working
with lawmakers, advocacy
groups and behavioral health
specialists to craft policy that
would become Senate Bill
937, otherwise known as the
Improving People’s Access
to Community-based Treat-
ment, Support and Services
program (IMPACTS).
He was a consultant from
the Washington, D.C.-based
Council of State Govern-
ments Justice Center tasked
supply potable water sys-
tems. She believes the bal-
lot is the best way to achieve
her goal because people are
concerned about protecting
their drinking water.
“We’ve had a ton of sup-
port, and I think people are
really concerned,” she said.
“This is something that’s
been on the minds of many
coastal residents and Orego-
nians across the state.”
Each campaign submit-
ted three proposed ballot
measures to the state. Once
the language is approved,
they will have to get 1,000
Unions see decline in
state workers paying dues
By CLAIRE WITHYCOMBE
oreGon CaPITaL bUreaU
Oregon Capital Bureau photo by Sam Stites
Steve Allen, Oregon’s director of behavioral health, stands
outside the Barbara Walters Department of Human Services
Building in Salem.
to help Oregon. He helped
design the plan to infuse
$10.6 million in grants to
Oregon’s counties, tribes
and regional consortiums to
strengthen services for peo-
ple who frequently cycle
through jails, courts and
hospitals.
“I wanted to look at what
the state could do differently
to slow or stop that trajec-
tory, and what additional ser-
vices could be provided,”
Allen said.
During his work on the
2019 legislation, Allen had
the opportunity to see a lot
of the state and meet many
passionate people in com-
munities dealing with these
problems.
Pat Allen co-chaired the
SB 937 work group, and the
pair — who are not related
— became familiar with one
another’s history, strengths
and leadership styles.
“I was just so impressed
with the quality of (Pat’s)
leadership — clear, thought-
ful, decisive, self-reflec-
tive. He’s the kind of leader
that I knew I could work
for,” Allen said. “Having
just worked in 10 states,
the atmosphere here in Ore-
gon was that so many peo-
ple were coming together
and saying, we need to cre-
ate an environment in which
we can do better for the peo-
ple of Oregon.”
The nationwide search
came down to a conversa-
tion between the two, and it
couldn’t have come at a bet-
ter time. Mike Morris, who
took over as interim behav-
ioral health director follow-
ing Royce Bowlin’s res-
ignation after the Health
Authority’s 2018 reorganiza-
tion, had just retired.
“I came to realize a cou-
ple things. First, (Steve) is
an honest-to-God national
expert with experience in the
trenches delivering care and
running and operating state-
wide systems,” Pat Allen
said. “Also, he just has an
incredible way with stake-
holders and clients, and he
brings no ego.”
From his days as a gradu-
ate student at the University
of Wisconsin, directing the
mental health programs for
the entire Minnesota prison
system and consulting for
the Council of State Govern-
ments, Steve Allen gained
national acclaim in the realm
of behavioral health.
Pat Allen looks to his new
director to improve account-
ability and transparency in
state operations.
Since taking over in April
at a salary of $225,000,
Allen has continued tour-
ing the state, hosting even
more stakeholder listening
sessions and devising a new
approach to the state’s coor-
dination of more than $2 bil-
lion in spending on behav-
ioral health care treatment.
He’s heard that due to
Oregon’s housing shortage,
the stakes are really high.
Those who experience an
episodic break or mental
health crisis can end up los-
ing their jobs and becoming
homeless. Getting care once
on the streets isn’t easy in
Oregon, Allen said.
“It’s very difficult in Ore-
gon to work your way out
of that,” he said. “It’s this
vicious cycle that we have to
attend to.”
voter signatures to receive
a ballot title from the state
Attorney
General
and
receive public comment. If
there are no challenges to
ballot title, they will launch
full-blown signature gather-
ing to put the measures on
the November 2020 ballot.
The signature this cycle is
112,020 for statutory laws
and 149,360 for constitu-
tional amendments.
James is motivated in
part by the explosion of
major wildfires that Ore-
gon and other western states
have seen in recent years. He
believes active forest man-
agement — including har-
vesting, stand improvement
and thinning — are crucial
to mitigating wildfires.
“Everyone knows that
unmanaged forests are more
prone to catastrophic wild-
fires. The last thing Orego-
nians need are more wild-
fires on our landscape,” he
said. “It impacts the entire
citizenship of our state, and
I believe these petitions will
help the ability to manage
forests in a way that pre-
vents forest fire.”
According to the North-
west Interagency Coordina-
tion Center, roughly 80% of
acres burned by wildfire in
Oregon in the past decade
were on unmanaged federal
lands. Specifically, James
and his fellow petitioners are
hoping to protect the rights
of private property owners
to clear cut and use certain
herbicides targeting inva-
sive species, which allow
replanted trees to grow into
new, healthy forests.
Gallatin Public Affairs,
a political communications
and strategy firm with offices
in Portland, was hired to run
the campaign promoting the
Healthy Forests and Wildfire
Reduction package. Cam-
paign manager Sara Dun-
can said Wednesday the sig-
nature gathering process to
gain the 1,000 sponsor sig-
natures needed to qualify for
the ballot titling process is
now underway.
On Oct. 29, Crump and her
group filed 3,608 signatures
in favor of their three initia-
tives and received draft bal-
lot titles this week. The pub-
lic comment period as part of
the ballot titling process will
remain open for those initia-
tives until Nov. 20.
SALEM — Oregon’s
largest public employee
unions have seen dou-
ble-digit declines in the
number of state work-
ers paying dues, state data
show.
Together, SEIU 503 and
AFSCME Council 75 rep-
resent about 29,000 workers
employed by state agencies.
A shrinking share of
those workers have cho-
sen to be members, though,
according to data main-
tained by the state Depart-
ment of Administrative
Services and provided to
the Oregon Capital Bureau
through a public records
request.
Until last year, unions
representing workers in
the public sector divided
workers into two groups:
members and “fair share”
dues-payers.
Workers who wanted to
pay full membership dues
could do so, and could vote
and run for leadership posi-
tions in the union.
Workers who didn’t want
to support the ideological
stances or political work
of the union had another
option. They could pay
“fair share” dues instead.
That arrangement changed
in June 2018, when the U.S.
Supreme Court decided
in Janus vs. AFSCME
that government work-
ers couldn’t be required to
pay any fee to a union rep-
resenting them, including
“fair share” assessments.
Gordon Lafer, a pro-
fessor at the University of
Oregon’s Labor Education
and Research Center, has
an analogy for the Janus
decision.
“I always think of this
as, if the city of Eugene told
me that the part of my tax
that goes to pay for the fire
department is now optional,
but they’ll still come and put
out the flames if my house
catches on fire,” Lafer said.
You may not opt out of
paying the tax necessarily
because you’re against the
fire department, but because
“times are tough and one
of your bills just became
optional,” he said.
The Supreme Court’s
decision means that the
unions representing pub-
lic sector workers no lon-
ger receive “fair share”
payments.
Separately from that, the
number of state workers
who are full union members
declined since mid-2018,
the data from the state show.
Together, the two phe-
nomena mean the number
of state workers paying dues
has dropped — by nearly
26% to SEIU 503, and by
about 16% to AFSCME
Council 75 — since June
2018. For SEIU 503, that
has meant that 5,555 fewer
state workers are paying
dues, and for AFSCME
Council 75, about 1,009.
As of Sept. 30, about
70% of the people SEIU
503 represents in state gov-
ernment are members of the
union, while about 80% of
AFSCME state workers are
members.
The unions contend
those numbers are just one
plot point in a different
story.
They
say
public
employee unions have
bounced back in the face of
what many observers had
opined would be a major hit
to unions’ income, and by
extension, their power.
“The Janus decision was
supposed to be the death
knell of the labor move-
ment,” said Ben Morris, a
spokesman for SEIU 503.
“That was the narrative that
was put out there around
that. And we are just not
seeing that happen.”
Morris
acknowl-
edged that there have been
challenges.
“Losing fair share fees
is a hit,” Morris said. “No
doubt. But the resiliency of
the membership at a time
where, you know, we have
organizations like the Free-
dom Foundation going to
people and saying ‘drop
your union’ every single
day and we’re just not see-
ing that happen, is a really
big deal.”
Lafer also says that the
drop in union membership
since Janus has been less
than the unions and their
detractors anticipated.
“People on both sides
were talking about (a) 30
to 40% fall-off in the six
months or year before the
Janus decision came down,”
Lafer said.
Although the overall
trend in the year and three
months between June 2018
and September 2019 has
been downward, Morris
points to a recent bump —
between June of this year
and the end of Septem-
ber — of about 900 new
SEIU 503 members in state
government.
He ties that bump to
the July settlement of a
new two-year contract that
secured raises of 10 to 15%
for state workers repre-
sented by SEIU 503.
“There’s a story to tell
here that despite historic
challenges to public sector
unions, at least, our union
is coming through strong,”
Morris said.
David Kreisman, a
spokesman for AFSCME
Council 75, also empha-
sized that union’s growth.
“While we’ve seen
impressive growth else-
where in our public sector
organizing, as well as in the
private sector, we recognize
that there will always be
a small number of people
who don’t see the intrinsic
value in being active mem-
bers in their union,” Kreis-
man said in a written state-
ment. “At the same time,
there are newly hired state
employees who simply
haven’t signed up yet.”
In the year and a half
since Janus, AFSCME
Council 75 has been orga-
nizing new groups of work-
ers, including graduate
researchers and house offi-
cers at Oregon Health and
Science University.
The Freedom Foun-
dation, which urges pub-
lic employees to quit their
unions, has claimed credit
for a membership decline
among unionized govern-
ment workers. It has orga-
nized drives and publicity
campaigns to urge workers
to leave.