Guest Column: A bad start for transparency

Published 12:30 am Tuesday, February 2, 2021

2021 is starting badly as far as transparency in state government.

A quick recap of just the past few days:

• The Oregon Health Authority abruptly announced it no longer would disclose information about individual deaths from COVID-19 before Gov. Kate Brown reversed the decision.

• Thirty-two thousand vaccine doses destined for elsewhere in Oregon were redirected to the Portland metro area by the governor’s order, but officials did not explain where those doses were being taken from.

• A week ago, Brown held a lengthy press conference that supposedly was “to discuss her legislative agenda as outlined in her State of the State address, as well as Oregon’s ongoing response to COVID-19.” Instead, most of the time went to Brown and her invited guests praising her controversial decision to prioritize vaccinations for school employees ahead of senior citizens. That consumed so much time that only three reporters could ask questions before Brown ended the press conference. Meanwhile, Brown’s post-State of the State press conference that had been scheduled for the previous day had been canceled “due to scheduling changes and changes to the legislative calendar this week.”

• The names, titles and email addresses for the governor’s staff have been scrubbed from her office website because of security concerns. Fortunately, the public index of state agency employees remains viable (as of this writing).

• Unlike Washington state and California, Oregon’s Employment Department will not release information about the number of COVID-19 benefit claims being investigating for unemployment fraud or how much has been paid out in potentially fraudulent benefits.

• Because the Oregon Capitol remains closed to the public, legislative leaders promised unparalleled public access through technology. That new system turns out to be geared toward the technological literate, exacerbating the divide between the technology haves and have-nots.

I’ll focus today on that public interaction with the 2021 Legislature, because most of the other issues have been covered widely in the news media.

Legislative staff put together an excellent selection of Citizen Engagement resources. However, the technology can be challenging, to say the least.

State Sen. Michael Dembrow, D-Portland, alluded to that in his Wednesday evening newsletter. He chairs the Senate Education Committee, which conducted a public hearing that afternoon on reopening public schools. More than 100 pieces of testimony were submitted online. However, many people who had signed up to speak did not do so.

“I’m not sure if the problem was technical or they decided to rely on their written testimony,” Dembrow wrote. “In case it’s the former, I decided to schedule a ‘second chance’ hearing for Friday, 3:30 to 5, to give those who had signed up another chance to testify.”

To testify before a committee, people must register in advance. Registration closes at the start of the meeting, unlike past years in which the committee chair often would look around the room and say, “Is there anyone else here who wishes to testify?”

The Legislature uses Microsoft Teams videoconferencing for its virtual meetings. Testimony also can be given by phone. Registration is different for the two methods.

Once a committee arrives at public testimony on the agenda, people in the queue are supposed to stop watching online and instead listen on their phone or through Microsoft Teams, so they don’t miss their name being called. That is because the “live” video streaming on the Oregon Legislative Information System is more than a few seconds behind.

People may turn on their camera while testifying, if desired, so others can see their face. However, unlike Zoom, Microsoft Teams shows only a few meeting participants. Brett Hanes, the interim legislative administrator, says Microsoft has been asked to fix that.

In addition, some legislators turn off their computer cameras except when speaking. The cumulative result is that people testifying – or anyone watching online – cannot pick up the visual clues of legislators’ reactions, including whether legislators are paying attention at all.

Written testimony can be sent through old-fashioned mail, or by uploading a PDF or submitting text through an online portal. No longer can people email their testimony, although emails might be accepted if there is a public hearing on a topic instead of a bill.

To add to the confusion, you cannot click on the links listed in committee agendas in OLIS. Instead, you must copy and paste that link into a browser. Or click on the PDF version of the agenda, which does have hot links.

The bottom line is that finding one’s way can be confusing and time-consuming.