Dear Friends and Neighbors,

 

It’s the end of September and I’m back to juggling my PCC teaching duties with my legislative duties. This week is the first round of interim committee hearings in Salem (for online agendas for these hearings, click here), and the Online Learning Task Force has its second meeting.

 

This week's newsletter is a little lengthy, because so much is going on!

 

New Additions

I’ll have two new colleagues in the House starting this week: Margaret Doherty replaces Larry Galizio as the representative for HD35 (Tigard), and Val Hoyle replaces Chris Edwards (who was appointed to the Oregon Senate) as representative for HD14 (parts of Lane County including Eugene). Meanwhile, Rep. Chip Shields from my neighboring HD43 (N/NE Portland) has just been selected by the Multnomah County commissioners to replace Margaret Carter in the Senate, so his seat will be open for a replacement. The HD43 Democratic Precinct Persons will be meeting soon to identify the three candidates for the county commissioners to choose from.

I’ve been trying to squeeze in visits to local government agencies, schools, and leaders, seeking to get a better understanding of how services are being delivered, what’s working and what’s not, and where new legislation might be needed. I’ll describe one set of visits below and continue to do so in future newsletters. Please let me know if you have questions, comments, or suggestions about any of them

Learning More About Multnomah County Services:

Last week I visited some county agencies and a school to learn more about some of the issues that we’ve been addressing on the Human Services and Education committees.

Weatherization and Energy Efficiency: Making our homes and buildings more energy efficient is of course key to lowering our carbon footprint and if done right will also reduce energy costs over time. The county has a program that helps low-income people (both homeowners and renters) with weatherization projects, doing energy audits and then helping with the necessary upgrades. They’ve just received a multi-million dollar federal stimulus grant to expand this work. This money will go to multi-unit residences that are sorely in need of upgrades, and will provide jobs for many local workers.

Home Care: As you may know, Oregon has been a real leader in efforts to keep seniors and persons with disabilities out of nursing homes and allowing them the ability to remain independent in their own homes. I got to see how this plays out in the daily work of a County case worker who works with clients to coordinate their care. Needless to say, the work is becoming increasingly challenging with declining budgets and increasing case loads, but it’s extremely important work (both the case management and the actual homecare work). It was particularly important for me to learn more about it since I’m on a new Human Services work group that is looking at ways of expanding and improving home care for persons with developmental disabilities and mental illness.

Public Guardianship/Conservatorship: Another of my task forces is looking at the need for more public guardians and conservators around the state. (Guardians are appointed by courts to arrange care and make daily living decisions for persons who are deemed unable to make informed decisions for themselves. Conservators do the same for the person’s financial decisions.) Multnomah County is currently the only county in the state that has a public program to serve as a last resort safety net for high-risk residents. It is extremely challenging work, but especially important with the increase in elder abuse and financial scams.

Rigler SUN School: I’ve known about Multnomah County’s SUN-school model for a while and have been very impressed by it. SUN stands for “Schools Uniting Neighborhoods.” It turns selected schools (currently 58) in the Portland, Parkrose, and other area school districts into hubs of community, government, and private partnerships, actively involving parents in the educational lives of their children, allowing them to access needed services, and giving their children quality after-school and summer programs that are integrated into the regular curriculum.

Rigler Elementary School, which is located at 5401 NE Prescott, is one of the best of them. You may remember that we visited the Rigler Community Garden last spring as part of our Town Hall On Wheels (the group cycling tour of the district that I did with Sen. Dingfelder in May). This time I got to meet the Principal (the incredible Kristie Cunin), SUN coordinator, and others involved in SUN at the county level, as well as some of the students. Rigler has many challenges (a very transient population, many students coming with limited English, 87% on free and reduced lunch), but they have been extremely successful on a number of indices, partly due to the staff’s great sense of mission and partly due to the resources and parental engagement that SUN creates.

Rigler also has a unique and very successful program called Juntos Aprendemos (Together We Learn), which invites the Latino parents of Pre-K children to the school and helps give them the skills and confidence to develop early literacy in their children. I got to speak about it with the program manager, Christine Taylor (also a District 45 constituent). Very impressive.

I really believe that SUN is a partnership and enrichment model that needs to be replicated statewide. For more information on SUN schools, click here.

CNAC Makes Recommendation on Overhead Approach

At their September 10th meeting, the Citizens Noise Advisory Committee (CNAC) voted 10-2 to support a resolution in favor of authorizing the Oregon Air National Guard (ORANG) to perform the Continuous Descent Overhead Approach (CDOA) maneuver at PDX. The resolution includes several parameters that limit ORANG’s ability to fly the maneuver, including:

--Only using Runway 28L

--Only between 9am to 5pm Monday - Friday

--Only during weather conditions greater than 5,000 ft ceiling & 5 miles visibility

--Only using a 2-jet maximum formation.

These limitations were designed to reduce noise impact on affected neighborhoods. In addition, air traffic controllers will have authority to deny the CDOA at any given time due to considerations of other incoming aircraft.

The resolution also includes a six-month review of data associated with the procedure, including related noise complaints filed with the airport. CNAC’s recommendation now goes to the Port of Portland, who will make their own recommendation to the FAA on the issue. If the FAA chooses to grant permission to ORANG to fly the procedure, it could begin within the next month.

As you know from previous newsletters, I appreciate the public process that has been used here, but I also want to make sure that the new procedure is done in a way that mitigates impact on neighbors. It is my hope that CNAC will also undertake a review of the procedure after one year, to determine what the noise impact has been on the neighborhoods and whether public opinion on the issue has changed considerably. I’ll need you to let me know how the new procedure is impacting you, if at all. I’ll continue to keep you up to date on this issue as other developments arise.

Town Hall Report

This past Monday evening, about 60 constituents joined me at the Hollywood Senior Center for a joint Town Hall with Sen. Jackie Dingfelder and Rep. Ben Cannon. We had plenty of great questions from the audience, and a good conversation about the 2009 session and the issues facing our district moving forward. Among the topics discussed were revenue issues, global warming, the proposed Columbia River Crossing, bicycle infrastructure, green jobs, economic development, and the connection between higher education and workforce training.

We also talked briefly about the special session in February. Each legislator gets to introduce one bill for the month-long session, and I haven’t yet decided what mine will be. If you have a concrete idea for a bill that would be relatively non-controversial and couldn’t wait until the 2011 regular session, send me an email with your thoughts.

Upcoming Events

Tonight (Monday) I’ll be visiting the Alameda Neighborhood Association at their regular meeting. The meeting will be at 7:00 at the Fremont United Methodist Church, 2620 NE Fremont St. Next Thursday, October 8th, I’ll be at the Sumner Association of Neighbors meeting at 7:00 at the Central Northeast Neighbors office (side door of the fire station) at 4417 NE 87th Ave.

Then, on Saturday, October 10th, Jackie Dingfelder will be joining me for a joint constituent coffee event. Stay tuned to the newsletter for details on the time/location. I hope to see you at one of these events in the coming weeks.

Best,

Michael