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October 5, 2023
Dear Neighbors and Friends,
I hope that you and your loved ones are doing well, staying healthy, and have been looking out for your neighbors and friends during this past week.
Tonight’s newsletter is mainly just to remind you about two opportunities to meet this weekend: the regular monthly constituent coffee on Saturday morning and Sunday’s annual bike town hall. You’ll find all the details further down in the newsletter.
I do also want to take the opportunity to steer you to a few items that came up in last week’s Legislative Days committee hearings. I’m still catching up myself on all that happened, watching the archived videos on the Oregon Legislative Information System and reading the materials. If you’re interested in doing the same, again here's a PDF version of the committee list, times, and topics from last week.
If I see you this weekend, please be sure to let me know if you have any questions or thoughts about anything in this newsletter. And if I don’t, send me an email!
Next Constituent Coffee This Saturday
Our next constituent coffee will be the first Saturday of October 7th (this coming Saturday).
We’ll be back (with coffee and cookies) at the Hollywood Senior Center, 1820 NE 40th Avenue (from 9 am to 10:30 am).
We’ll also have a zoom option for the meeting to accommodate those who cannot be there in person. (Register for Zoom access here)
This will be an opportunity for me to catch you up on the latest news from the Legislature. I’ll give you a sense of the ongoing issues that are out there as we prepare for the short session in February/March 2024 and let you know about some of the things we learned from last week’s Leg Days. I’ll also of course want to hear your priorities, and answer any questions that you might have.
Hope to see you there!
And the Day After That: BIKE TOWN HALL
Bike Town Hall 2023 Date: Sunday, October 8th, 1pm-4pm Start & End: Portland Mercado, 7238 SE Foster Rd
Yes, coming very soon will be OUR FOURTEENTH bike town hall. It’s something we’ve been able to do nearly every fall since I first came into the Legislature in 2009—the one exception was 2020 when COVID made it impossible.
If you’ve never participated, it’s a unique and always enjoyable event. It’s both a group ride (a leisurely 5-mile group ride on low-traffic streets or streets with protected bike lanes) and a series of interactions and opportunities to get a close-up look at what’s going on in the district. One year we focus on the HD 45 part, the next the HD 46 part.
This year’s bike town hall will cover neighborhoods in the HD 46 part of SD 23, specifically the Lents and Foster-Powell neighborhoods in Southeast Portland.
We’ll be making a number stops to get a better sense of both the challenges and the successes occurring in those communities. It will be an opportunity to hear from a number of interesting people along the way, as well as a chance to get to know your legislators (Representatives Khanh Pham,and Thuy Tran and me) and other riders (always an interesting group) a little better, both during cycling time and stop time.
We’ll be starting off at the Portland Mercado, https://www.portlandmercado.org/ a fascinating community hub itself if you don’t know it. Great food carts, shops, and gathering places (and a wonderful support for new and emerging businesses). The ride goes from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m., but I’d recommend your coming a little early and staying after to partake of their delicious food.
As always, this bike town wouldn’t be possible without the ongoing support of the Portland Bureau of Transportation (PBOT), Greg Raisman in particular. Greg has been working with us on this project from the very beginning, helping us map out the route, finding the safest routes, and coordinating the logistics. We are eternally grateful to him (and of course to our staff!).
By the way, e-bikes and scooters are perfectly acceptable for this event!
AND A LATE-BREAKING PIECE OF NEWS: We've just learned that both directions of Interstate 84 will close near Interstate 205 this weekend. So, if you were planning to drive your bike to the Mercado via I-84 and I-205, you might want to find an alternate route.
Hope to see you there!
Legislative Days Lookback
Federal Grants Applications
One of the responsibilities of Ways and Means subcommittees during the interim is to review and approve agency proposals that seek federal funding. That was certainly the case this time for the Natural Resources Subcommittee, which I co-chair with Rep Khanh Pham.
Thanks to the Federal Inflation Reduction Act and Bipartisan Infrastructure Bills, two of the landmark accomplishments of the Biden Administration, there are lots of resources out there for states that have good proposals ready to go. One of the biggest was generated (sorry for the pun) by our Oregon Department of Energy (ODOE), $138 million for the Solar for All program. This is a program that will allow thousands of low-income Oregonians to install home solar power in their homes and provide training for new solar technicians. You can read about it here.
I was especially gratified to hear from the ODOE Director that the funding that we put into residential and community solar during the big Climate bill last session (HB 3409) has demonstrated Oregon’s willingness to “put skin in the game” and will greatly improve our chances of receiving this level of funding from the feds. With its focus on low-income residents in all parts of the state, this grant will not only benefit the environment, but provide benefits to individual households, bringing down their energy costs and making their home environments cleaner and more resilient.
ODOE also let us know about the new program to provide electric heat pumps to low-income Oregonians around the state, making use of the $100 million that they’ve already received from the federal Department of Energy for this purpose.
Very exciting. You can watch the subcommittee hearing and find all the background materials here.
Educator Salaries Task Force Has Its First Meeting
The new Joint Task Force on Educator Salary Schedules had its first meeting last Tuesday. The task force was created by SB 283 (2023), the omnibus piece of legislation designed to address our difficulties attracting and retaining educators at all levels.
At Tuesday’s meeting we went over the initial work plan for the task force, which is tasked with exploring a potential statewide salary schedule for educators, beginning with statewide starting salary levels. Much of Tuesday’s meeting was spent going over a state-by-state survey of states that have established salary minimums in statute, prepared by our in-house researcher, Maia Powloski. You can check it out here.
All task force meetings will be streamed and recorded. There will be opportunities for public testimony.
You can follow the work of the task force and its research on the Taskforce Website.
Multiple Hearings On Measure 110
As we prepare for the February session, one of the key topics of discussion is the future of Ballot Measure 110, the Drug Addiction Treatment and Recovery Act of 2020. The ballot measure passed by a fairly comfortable margin in November 2020, but it remains controversial.
What was not controversial was a recognition that Oregonians with addictions need more access to treatment that works. Oregon has traditionally been one of the worst states for people who need substance abuse treatments. Unfortunately, the new treatment programs that it funded were slow in getting off the ground. The Legislature had to follow up the ballot measure with implementing language to create the new programs. We continue to experience serious workforce shortages in behavioral health. The Oregon Health Authority has faced (and in some cases created) a number of bureaucratic hurdles as we’ve assigned it a number of new responsibilities.
Several legislative committees heard updates on the new programs that have been created in the last year, particularly the new Behavioral Health Resources Networks (BHRNs) that the Legislature created in 2021. You’ll find testimony and materials in Senate Judiciary on Wednesday, House Judiciary on Thursday, and, most extensively, House Behavioral Health and Health Care on Friday..
It appears that the BHRNs are starting to do really important work on the ground, filling in the vital treatment gaps that Medicaid currently cannot handle (housing, employment support, peer support and mentorship). I recommend that you check out one or more of the hearings. (I’d suggest the House Behavioral Health hearing.)
What remains controversial has been one of the central components of the measure: decriminalization of possession of small amounts of hard drugs. Let me say up front that I support decriminalization of possession for a number of reasons—primarily because our experience with the War On Drugs has shown that criminalization has not worked. Certainly there are individuals for whom being arrested and jailed served as the “rock bottom” that they needed to begin a road to recovery. But as I understand it, for the great majority of people with addictions, it doesn’t work that way. That’s in large part why the war on drugs has not worked.
Still, many believe that our current fentanyl crisis, particularly among those living on the streets, is a direct result of Measure 110’s decriminalization. They’re calling for an end to decriminalization as a way to help us get out of the crisis. This includes people who have opposed M110 from the very beginning and those who are frustrated with our lack of progress and blame M110.
It’s understandable, but there is much evidence that fentanyl is an equal (or greater) problem in many places that have not decriminalized possession. A recent study from NYU researchers suggests that the increase in Oregon’s rate of fatal fentanyl overdoses has been in line with other states and what would have been expected absent M110. Here’s info about the study and a link to it. OPB’s Think Out Loud had an interview on Tuesday with the study author.
Think Out Loud also had an interview this week with neuroscientist Maia Szalavitz on how and why decriminalization worked in Portugal and the lessons she believes it holds for Oregon--and the U.S. as a whole.
And in my last newsletter, I pointed to this article from The Nation, suggesting that Oregon’s overall crime rate has not been increasing since BM 110 passed either.
Still, there is no disputing that Oregonians are concerned and looking for answers. We are hearing calls for a change in the law that would allow police to stop public consumption of hard drugs. The Portland City Council has called on legislators to prohibit public consumption of controlled substances. On the surface, it makes a lot of sense. As with all such changes, though, the devil is in the details. What exactly does prohibition mean? What are the alternatives for those with substance use disorders who are houseless? What are the consequences? If we are going to change the law in February, there are many questions to be answered.
I can tell you that Portland-area legislators have been meeting and discussing these questions.
In the meantime, by the end of Leg Days the Senate President and Speaker of the House had created the Joint Interim Committee on Addiction and Community Safety Response, a bicameral, bipartisan committee to prepare potential legislation for February. You can read about it here.
The two committee co-chairs are Senator Kate Lieber and Representative Jason Kropf, both former district attorneys. Lieber is also the Senate Majority Leader and Kropf the Chair of House Judiciary. The other members are all chairs and/or members of relevant committees. You can see the members and follow its work here.
I look forward to getting your thoughts.
Best,
 Senator Michael Dembrow
District 23
email: Sen.MichaelDembrow@oregonlegislature.gov
web: www.senatordembrow.com
mail: 900 Court St NE, S-407, Salem, OR, 97301
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