Hello Friends,
It has been a pretty busy and exciting time since the end of the 2019 legislative session, so I hope you can forgive the tardiness of this update. I think it’s important that you know, however, that just because the session is over doesn’t mean that my work is done in representing the district. If you’ve been following my Twitter or Facebook pages, you’ll see that things have been fairly non-stop since sine die. With session over, however, it’s an opportunity to continue learning about our district, and the important issues impacting the daily life for our neighbors on the North Coast. I hope you enjoy the update!
Kiwanis Coho Classic Derby
You may all remember mention of Barbara Trout in a previous newsletter regarding SB 1025, a bill meant to help find a peace between the interests of both commercial and recreational clammers in the Tillamook Bay. Not only is Barbara the legislative aide to Representative Brad Witt in neighboring HD 31, but she is a constituent in HD 32 and also a dedicated volunteer in the Kiwanis Club of Tillamook.
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Barbara contacted the office about her volunteerism with the Kiwanis Club, and invited me to take part in the 10th annual Coho Classic Fishing Derby held on Saturday, July 20 in Garibaldi. The event, held as a fundraiser to support youth activities in Tillamook County, is also a great opportunity for avid recreational fisherfolks to catch a few salmon! Though I wasn’t able to participate in the fishing part myself this year, my office sponsored a fishing boat and attended the celebratory feast. It included amazing clam chowder prepared by Rockaway Beach’s mayor, Joanne Aagaard, and featured clams harvested from the Tillamook Bay!
It’s always great to get out and have fun with folks—but especially when it’s for such a good cause!
National Conference of State Legislators
As a legislator, it’s important to keep your ear to the ground and mind open to new people and ideas that can help spark inspiration for legislation that can help the people of Oregon. Great ideas are rarely born in a silo and we often hear ideas from constituents and in-state stakeholders. Another source for legislative inspiration to improve the lives of constituents is networking with state legislators from other states. In seeking out ideas for how to best serve the residents of District 32, I attended the conferences for the National Caucus of Environmental Legislators and National Conference of State Legislators in Nashville, Tennessee.
Take-Aways from National Caucus of Environmental Legislators
Though it was a lot of information at one time, NCEL provided an amazing opportunity to see what other legislators are doing to confront environmental issues and to look after the health of the people who live in their states.
Particularly in Oregon’s House District 32, where we have an abundance of families whose livelihoods depend on the health of our natural resources, understanding how to strike the balance between conservation-driven objectives and economic ones in a sustainable way is incredibly important. And even for those not directly involved in resource extraction-based industry, being able to breath pollutant-free air and trust that your drinking water is safe is concern for everyone. Especially in the face of climate change, it becomes absolutely essential that we talk about protecting our coast and its residents from the worst impacts of a changing planet. This will include transforming our economy in a way that both retains and creates high-paying, valuable jobs, while shifting away from a reliance on fossil fuels. After having the opportunity to speak with other legislators from across the country, and to listen to what many have already done, I am looking forward to working with many of my legislative colleagues who also attended the conference to work on legislation that continues to make Oregon a leader on this front.
Take-Aways from National Conference of State Legislators
Just as with the NCEL conference, it was a lot of information all at once—but still, incredibly useful. I chose to zero in on my assigned areas of focus within the Oregon State Legislature—health care and human services—but also spent a fair amount of time exploring a panel on rural economic development and literacy development programs. For example—did you know that famed country singer and Tennessee native, Dolly Parton, has a foundation that runs the “Imagination Library,” which donates thousands of books a year to children under five to help instill within them a love of reading?
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Though it impacts all of Oregon, two specific panels that I attended really touched on issues that are very specific to District 32: health care pricing and short-term vacation lodging (especially as it relates to affordable housing supply). On the health care side when it comes to cost-drivers, some of the smartest people in the nation invited to speak on the issue all came back to one very specific thing that makes health care so difficult for so many Americans to access: price. With short-term vacation rentals, what many have observed in areas of District 32 is happening elsewhere—large companies like Airbnb and Flipkey come into a desirable area, buy up housing that can be more advantageously used as a vacation rental, and it ends up driving up the housing costs for everyone else as supply is taken out of the market.
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If there is anything that I hope that I can do as a legislator for my district, it is to further help drive down the cost of medical care for my constituents, and to help make more units of housing available for our workforce. Two ways to do this, as presented at NCSL, include measures taken by the states of Colorado and Arizona. Colorado, for example, recently passed a law to limit the monthly out-of-pocket costs for insulin to no more than $100/month. Arizona chose to create a law that sets a “baseline” in their state for short-term vacation rental housing, which includes requiring the owners of short-term rentals to provide the municipalities with contact information and requirements to timely respond to complaints, subjects them to sales tax in Arizona, and prohibits the use of short-term rentals for events that would normally require a permit or license (like a wedding—yes, apparently it’s happened).
The conference created an opportunity to network with legislators from around the country, both Democrat and Republican, to inspire ideas that could work from one state to another. I’m hopeful to explore some of these topics as we move into the next legislative session, work with my colleagues, and of course, invite constituents and stakeholders from around the district to contact me and weigh in about what they’d like to see in legislation to address issues within the district.
The Astoria Regatta and Tillamook County Fair
Back in district—and immediately after returning from Nashville--I had the privilege of attending both the Astoria Regatta and Tillamook County Fair. For me, these are two of my favorite events in the district because they really showcase the cultural heritage of our communities and how that heritage brings us together.
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At the Astoria Regatta, one of the oldest festivals west of the Rockies, I celebrated the deep maritime tradition of Clatsop County by walking in the “land parade” with the local group, Indivisible North Coast Oregon.
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At the Tillamook County Fair, I attended the closing ceremony alongside the Tillamook County Commissioners (Mary Faith Bell, Bill Baertlein, and David Yamamoto), celebrated the area’s amazing agriculture and farming, checked in on animals raised by our kids in FFA, and cheered on the drivers (and pigs) in the over 90-year-old Pig-N-Ford tradition of the Tillamook County Fair. |
Keeping Families Together with Family First
Many people know that before entering the Oregon Legislature, I worked in both the Self-Sufficiency unit, as well as Child Welfare. As a case management coordinator in Child Welfare, I was absolutely amazed at how high the caseload was, how few caseworkers we had to handle that load, and especially just how many cases shared a common theme of substance use disorder as an underlying cause leading to the removal of a child from their families. That experience created for me a motivation to, as a state legislator, have a deep focus on how we handle the behavioral health issues that often run concurrently to our cases. That’s why I’m excited to talk here about my involvement with a work group run by Sen. Sara Gelser, from Corvallis, to implement “Family First.” Family First is a new federal policy that is aimed at funding programs in states to prevent kids from entering into foster care in the first place.
Title IV-E, the Federal Foster Care program, is how the state of Oregon funds much of its foster care programs. The problem was, up until Family First was passed, we couldn’t use much of that money on a foster care case until a child had already entered care. This new legislation will now allow the State of Oregon the flexibility to draw down those federal funds to pay for substance use treatment and other services for families at risk of having a child go into the foster care system—effectively allowing us to treat what is so often the cause of a child removal before the situation ever gets that severe.
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As a big advocate of addressing problems “upstream,” which is what this policy will do, I am excited to be delivering on this key promise I made when I ran for office. The real trick to the implementation of Family First is ensuring that we use evidence-based programs that have shown to be successful in creating promised outcomes, which will be a big part of the work group. Thanks to the over 100 stakeholders assembled in the group, I am looking forward to what this legislation will do to transform and help Oregon’s most vulnerable kids and to help keep families together.
The Coastal Caucus, of which I am a part as a representative of a HD 32, is one of the oldest and most diverse caucuses in the Oregon State Legislature. We are a bipartisan and bicameral caucus which makes us very unique and an excellent place to work on the issues that impact all coastal Oregonians. We endorse legislation unanimously which means that everything that comes out of the Coastal Caucus has support from Republicans and Democrats, Representatives and Senators.
This year, we will be focusing on two of the most important issues to the Oregon Coast: housing and climate. For the housing panel, we will be discussing the recent changes to increase the housing supply here in Oregon. We will end by identifying collaborative solutions to Oregon’s housing challenges. As for Climate, I look forward to a robust discussion between the Coastal Caucus and the architects of the Clean Energy Jobs legislation from the 2019 session. I hope that we can look for common ground and use that as the foundation for climate action in Oregon.
House Healthcare Committee Subcommittee on Behavioral Health
I’m grateful that Speaker Kotek has appointed me to be Vice-chair of a new House Health Care Committee Subcommittee on Behavioral Health. This committee will be looking at health care policy that is specific towards mental health and substance abuse. I am excited to dive into the issues and work towards real solutions to improving behavioral health services in Oregon. Though efforts for this committee will not begin until closer to session, I’ve already been reaching out to stakeholders in our local area to get the provider perspective on improving services. If you have ideas, please don’t hesitate to let me know your thoughts. And, if you’re a consumer—hearing directly from you about your challenges with Oregon’s mental and behavioral health system will be helpful as well!
Upcoming Townhalls
Bay City Townhall
Saturday, September 7th, 2:00pm - 3:00pm
Bay City Arts Center
5680 A St, Bay City, OR 97107
Astoria Townhall
Sunday, September 8th, 3:00pm - 4:00pm
Clatsop Community College, Room 219, Columbia Hall
1651 Lexington Ave., Astoria, OR 97103
Capitol Phone: 503-986-1432
Capitol Address: 900 Court St NE, H-285, Salem, OR 97301
Email: Rep.TiffinyMitchell@oregonlegislature.gov
Website: http://www.oregonlegislature.gov/mitchell
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