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May 31, 2020
Dear Neighbors and Friends:
I hope that you and your loved ones are doing well, staying healthy, and looking out for your neighbors and friends.
Following up on my comments in the intro to yesterday’s newsletter, I want to share with you two reactions to the recent events in Minneapolis and in Portland that were released yesterday.
The first is a joint letter from the Oregon Association of Chiefs of Police, Oregon State Sheriffs' Association, and the Oregon State Police deploring “the reprehensible actions and tactics” by the Minneapolis police officers that led to the death of George Floyd. The letter, which was shared with legislators, points out the long-term and far-ranging effects of this instance of police misconduct: “Public trust and accountability for police agencies and police officers is crucial to a safe, inclusive community. We recognize that even isolated incidents of police misconduct anywhere undermine public trust everywhere.”
It would of course be wrong for us here in Oregon to take a “holier than thou” approach to the events in other states—we definitely have plenty of stains on our record, some very recent.
I will say that the Oregon Legislature, with excellent leadership in the Senate from my colleagues Lew Frederick and James Manning, has been working hard to improve our laws in order to fight against police misconduct. Working in partnership with Attorney-General Ellen Rosenblum and the Department of Justice, for example, we’ve improved the monitoring of bias stops and have passed laws requiring officers to wear body cameras and undergo psychological screenings.
But we have much more to do. The Senate passed SB 1567 in February, making it easier for Portland to remove officers who had gone through the collectively bargained process and who had clearly committed misconduct. Unfortunately, the Republican walkout made it impossible to get the bill through the House. This bill, along with others, such as SB 427, which would have required the Attorney General to appoint an outside attorney to lead the investigation into use of deadly force by a police officer, remain on our urgent to-do list. Recent events, I hope, have only made it easier for us to recognize their urgency.
The second public statement is from a group of legislators that formed earlier this year as the Oregon Legislative People of Color Caucus. The caucus consists of Representatives Teresa Alonso Leon, Janelle Bynum, Diego Hernandez, Akasha Lawrence-Spence, Mark Meek, Andrea Salinas, and Tawna Sanchez, along with Senators Lew Frederick and James Manning, Jr. In the release, these legislators communicated their support for and solidarity with the “Eulogy for Black America” vigil and rally on Friday evening to demand justice for Black Americans and accountability for police officers. They signaled their commitment to continued work on zero-tolerance legislation to combat racist behavior. And they also deplored the hijacking of the Eulogy by a group of “opportunists” and “outliers,” who “went to downtown Portland with the intent to deface buildings and start fires.” Echoing sentiments expressed forcefully by Portland City Commissioner Joann Hardesty yesterday morning, the legislators are urging us to keep our focus on what is most important—a long-term commitment to real, equitable justice in this city, state, and nation.
In today’s newsletter you’ll find today’s numbers (fortunately, no deaths reported today, but a significant number of new COVID hospitalizations and cases), as well as news of a change at the Oregon Employment Department, and—as I do every Sunday—a look at the way that age is a factor in the number of cases, hospitalizations, and deaths here in Oregon.
Tomorrow, we return to a week of hearings and briefings, and I’m sure there will be much to learn.
TODAY’S CORONAVIRUS AND CORONAVIRUS RESPONSE UPDATE
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Positive Cases: OHA has reported that 52 additional Oregonians tested positive for COVID-19 yesterday, putting the total at 4,135.
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Total Tests: The total number of tests in Oregon now stands at 129,093. That’s an increase of 2,400 tests.
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Ratio: The percentage of positive results for today is 2.1%. Today’s national percentage is 5.4%. See below for a graph showing Oregon’s daily percentage changes over the last 14 days.
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Deaths: I’m happy to report 0 additional deaths due to the coronavirus. The total number of deaths in Oregon remains at 153.
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Hospitalized: The number of Oregonians who have been hospitalized with symptoms, and who have also tested positive for the disease, increased by 8, and is now at 786.
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Presumptive Cases: OHA is now including “presumptive COVID-19 cases” in its daily reports, consistent with recently amended guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. A presumptive case is someone who does not yet have a positive PCR test result but is showing symptoms and has had close contact with a confirmed case. If they later test positive by PCR, those will be recategorized as confirmed cases. Today the number of new presumptive cases is 6, and the total of presumptive cases is now at 108.
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Other Hospital Information:
- Patients Currently w COVID-19 Symptoms (who may or may not have received a positive test result yet): 117 (14 fewer than yesterday). Of those, 50 have already received a positive test back.
- Available ICU Beds: 238 (48 more than yesterday).
- Other Available Beds: 1212 (225 more than yesterday).
- ICU Patients w COVID-19 Symptoms (who may or may not have received a positive test result yet): 33 (1 more than yesterday).
- COVID-19 Patients Currently on Ventilators: 17 (the same as yesterday).
- Available Ventilators: 793 (6 more than yesterday).
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Dashboards:
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Today’s National Numbers:
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PPE:
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Additional Brief Updates:
Governor Replaces Employment Department Director
Governor Brown announced today that she asked Employment Director Kay Erickson to resign, and Director Erickson did step down. She has been replaced by Deputy Director David Gerstenfeld.
The decision came as a result of growing frustration on the part of legislators (including me), in public and behind the scenes, with the Department’s lack of responsiveness towards claimants who have been waiting many weeks for the benefits that are owed them. The Department has finally begun taking steps to do outreach and to work with legislators in helping our constituents get their claims addressed. But these new steps are unfortunately overdue by far too long.
Unemployment Insurance is a very complicated process, full of complicated federal requirements that must be met before a claim can be paid, and unfortunately those required steps were not waived in the federal CARES Act that came up with additional dollars for unemployed workers. Instead, the new programs were layered on top of the existing program requirements. With the huge increase in the number of claims, by far the biggest surge of new claims ever, the result has been frustration all around, and not just here in Oregon. I’ve been hearing similar frustration from legislative colleagues all over the country.
Director Erickson endured three hours of very tough questioning yesterday in a special Saturday meeting of the House Business and Labor Committee meeting, along with the man who is replacing her at least temporarily, David Gerstenfeld. David is someone I’ve worked with productively for many years on a variety of employment issues, including paid sick leave, family leave, and unemployment benefits. He has always been very clear, honest, and responsive, so I’m hopeful.
Improved communication will definitely help, and I’m confident that we’ll see that. My office should be in a better position to help constituents with that starting this week.
Again: Upcoming Legislative Committee Hearings
This week’s committee hearings are all on the Senate side. I’m listing them all below in order of appearance. You can click on them to see their agendas, and you can use the same links if you want to watch the hearings (either live or after the fact) or get to the meeting materials once they’re posted.
Most of the hearings will be COVID-focused, but most will also include briefings, updates, and reports on a number of other issues, and in many cases will include topics likely to be the subject of legislation next session.
June 1
Senate Labor and Business Committee, 8:00 am
Senate Health Care Committee, 12:00 pm
June 2
Senate Committee on Mental Health, 8:00 am
Senate Education Committee, 12:00 pm
June 3
Senate Judiciary Committee, 8:00 am
Senate Human Services Committee, 12:00 pm
June 4
Senate General Government and Emergency Preparedness Committee, 8:00 am
Senate Environment and Natural Resources Committee, 12:00 pm
June 5
Senate Committee on Wildfire and Recovery, 8:00 am
Senate Housing and Development, 12:00 pm
June 10
Senate Rules and Executive Appointments, 12:00 pm (No agenda posted yet. The meeting will be for the purpose of confirming executive appointments.)
Additional Graphs:
Want to See Past Newsletters?
If there was COVID-related information in a past newsletter that you want to go back to, but find you’ve deleted it, you can always go to my legislative website (www.senatordembrow.com), click on “News and Information,” and you’ll find them all there. Also, if someone forwarded you this newsletter and you’d like to get it directly, you can sign up for it there.
AND FINALLY,
Here again are some resources that you will find useful:
If the above links are not providing you with answers to your questions or directing you to the help that you need, please consider me and my office to be a resource. We’ll do our best to assist you or steer you in the right direction.
Best,
 Senator Michael Dembrow
District 23
email: Sen.MichaelDembrow@oregonlegislature.gov
web: www.senatordembrow.com
phone: 503-986-1723
mail: 900 Court St NE, S-407, Salem, OR, 97301
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