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Hello!
I hope your family is enjoying winter, family time, and the holiday spirit in your community. My office and my new staffers Claire and Brett have been busy with December legislature days, meetings, and getting ready for the 2019 Session.
Homelessness Conversation in Western Washington County: I have been working with the faith leaders to facilitate a conversation around homelessness in our community. I am proud to support the newly founded West Washington County Community Coalition that will be working to address this issue. They will bring together the various groups that serve people experiencing homelessness and housing insecurity. If you want to support their work, please reach out to Brian Schimmel at brians@oldtownfg.com.
Youth Civic Empowerment Summit: I am always grateful for interns that use their time in my office to make our community even better. Luda Isakharov did that by putting together an education event for her peers, high school students that are interested in civic engagement. A wonderful group of students participated in the Summit and heard from a panel of public officials including myself, Metro Councilor-Elect Juan Carlos Gonzalez, and Ree Armitage on behalf of Senator Ron Wyden. We were also joined by a panel of youth leaders including representatives from the Bus Project, the Hillsboro Youth Advisory Council, and the Lake Oswego Students for Change. They participated in policy development through a workshop led by youth leaders. During the report back, I heard thoughtful policy ideas that benefited from real-world experiences and research. I hope to do this event again!
CTE & STEM Town Hall with Rep. Janeen Sollman: Career and technical education and science, technology, engineering, and mathematical topics help engage students by showing them the real world applications of the topics they are studying. In October Rep. Sollmon and I hosted a panel of CTE and STEM experts to discuss the programs in the area. Forest Grove’s own Chris Higginbotham was there to share the success of the Viking House program at Forest Grove High School. He offered great insight into the benefits of leaving industry to teach students. We’re lucky to have him! Other panelists were Brooke Nova with the Hillsboro School District, Lisa Klingsporn with the Hillsboro Chamber School to Career, and Jeff Leo with the Banks School District.
Center for Women's Leadership Power Lunch: I joined other female elected leaders to discuss empowering young women. It was such an uplifting event and left me feeling inspired. We must envision an Oregon where women have equal representation in leadership positions and lead confidently in their chosen fields. Our state is far ahead of the nation in this regard, and we will continue to thrive with groups like the Center for Women’s Leadership within Portland State University.
Genentech 10 year Anniversary: It’s great to see industry that creates family-wage jobs with good benefits celebrate 10 years in our community! Genentech is a leading biotechnology company that discovers, develops, manufactures and commercializes medicines to treat patients with serious or life-threatening medical conditions. They are an asset in our community.
Meeting With Forest Grove Community School and Forest Grove School District Leaders: Earlier in the fall I met with around 40 students to discuss what it is like to run for office and be an elected official. This is the second time I have given this talk to students from the Community School, and I am consistently impressed with their active listening and thoughtful questions. Thank you to the City of Hillsboro for allowing us to meet at the Civic Center!
I was also able to meet with Dave Parker, the superintendent of Forest Grove School District. We talked about many of the issues our schools are having and how the state can continue to better support students. I appreciate Superintendent’s hard work and I look forward to continuing to work with our local schools.
Free Orchards Elementary School Visit: After school started I was able to sit in at Free Orchards Elementary School to see first hand some of the new learning and behavior tools being used in the district to keep students more engaged and better able to learn. I was joined by Rep. Sollmon and Rep. Doherty, who are also education focused legislators I love to work with. It was great to see the hard work our schools are doing to use evidence based systems like the PAX program at Free Orchard and at nearly every school in the Hillsboro and Forest Grove School Districts to improve our schools. It’s estimated that for every one dollar schools spend on the PAX program they save $83 due to improvements in learning and behavior. What a program!
The Group That Toured Free Orchard Elementary
December Legislative Days: I have been very busy over the last few days in Salem with Committee meetings as well as discussions about possible future legislation. Over these four days I was able to meet with many groups, including students from OSU and members of Oregon's agricultural community. What great groups! I was particularly impressed by a group I met with called State of Safety, which advocates for common sense gun safety measures such as making sure guns are safely stored when not being used, and making sure that firearms are secured when being transferred to another user. I was quite moved after hearing stories about several Oregon children that were killed due to unsafe gun storage practices in the past years. I think these are simple changes that can make our communities much safer, and if they end up coming to a vote I plan on supporting them.
State of Safety Members Who Met With Me
As we enter the winter months, I want to acknowledge there are many in the community that struggle with access to adequate food and shelter. There are many amazing groups that work to fight these issues, and I want to make sure they’re acknowledged for their hard work as well as make sure members of the community know of services they can use and share with others in need.
Old Town and United Church of Christ (UCC) have teamed up to offer a Temporary Emergency Shelter! It runs from November 19th 2018 to March 29th 2019, with 4 nights per week. Monday and Tuesday are at UCC (2032 College Way, Forest Grove) and Wednesday and Thursday are at Emanuel Lutheran Church (1124 S Beech St, Cornelius). The shelter has a Capacity of 15-22 adults and two or three families depending on size.
For more info on this shelter go to:
Oldtownfg.com/shelter
The Washington County Webpage also has many more resources to help those in need in our community, I encourage you to learn more about them here:
https://www.co.washington.or.us/Housing/EndHomelessness/homeless_resources.cfm
Additionally the Oregon Food Bank, which is a network of many local food programs has many other great resources. To read more about them and their work go to the internet address below.
https://www.oregonfoodbank.org/find-help/additional-assistance/
Thank you to everyone who helps run these programs that help serve those in the most need in our community! If you have questions or need assistance navigating state programs do not hesitate to reach out to my office.
Oregon's Legislature will be in session from January to July of this coming year. During this time legislators like myself will introduce and debate potential laws that will affect our whole state.
I am focusing on several different issues for the coming session, but I wanted to highlight three of the pieces of legislation I am currently working to pass in the 2019 session.
Household Hazardous Waste Legislation: I will re-introduce my bill to create a product stewardship program to collect household hazardous waste. These materials (at-home pesticides, nail polish, cleaning solutions, etc) can pollute our waterways and harm people and the environment. In this next session, the process in the bill has become even more streamlined and will become effective sooner. I have introduced this bill every session since 2017 and I committed to seeing this concept through to reality!
Newborn Screening Legislation: I am proud to be working on a newborn screening bill that would add more mandatory screening for genetic diseases and other health issues within the first months of a child being born. This issue was brought to me by a constituent, and I think there is a lot more the state can do to ensure that every child is healthy. Many diseases currently are not tested and can be treated or cured if they are diagnosed while the child is young. I am excited to work with my peers to raise this important issue and hopefully improve the lives of the youngest among us.
Autonomous Vehicle Regulation Legislation: I am continuing to work with a broad group of manufacturers, businesses, insurers, state officials, and regulators in order to write Oregon’s laws that will regulate self driving cars and other forms of autonomous vehicles. This is an exciting issue that will do a lot to improve the lives of Oregonians and businesses in the state. The committee is still working on writing the legislation, but it is good to see so many groups working together collaboratively to address the coming technological changes. Safety, data collection and sharing our roads and pathways must be reviewed in a measured way.
Team McLain wishes you Happy Holidays!
I hope you have a wonderful holiday season filled with family and joy. I am excited by the opportunity to keep serving my community of Hillsboro, Cornelius, and Forest Grove for another two years as your State Representative. Please do not hesitate to contact me with your comments and concerns.
Yours Truly,
 Representative Susan McLain
email: Rep.SusanMcLain@oregonlegislature.gov I phone: 503-986-1429
address: 900 Court St NE, H-376, Salem, OR 97301
website: http://www.oregonlegislature.gov/mclain
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