Oregon Trails

An Occasional Newsletter

from

The Association of Oregon Counties

Interim Work in Full Swing

No issue untouched

April 3, 2012

Monday was the deadline for an entity to submit a letter of intent to apply to the Oregon Health Authority (OHA) to become a coordinated care organization (CCO).  From discussions with commissioners held around the state it appears as if there are multiple entities in most counties that have put in a letter (a list of these entities will be published later this week on www.health.oregon.gov). This does not mean that all entities will meet the criteria set by OHA or that all the entities will take the next step in the application process.

A community or entity may ask the county commissioners for a letter of support or endorsement for their application. It is important to understand that a letter of support/endorsement does not guarantee that an entity will become a CCO nor does the lack of a letter of support/endorsement guarantee that they will not become a CCO.

CCO/County FAQs

OHA has put together a FAQ for counties and their responsibilities as the Mental Health Authorities.

Important Upcoming Dates for the First Round of CCO Applicants:

• April 30, 2012: Technical Applications are due to OHA.
• May 14, 2012: Financial Applications are due to OHA.

Please contact Mark Nystrom at AOC with any further questions or if you have any concerns about the CCO process.

Duke Shepard, Governor Kitzhaber's early education policy advisor, will be attending the next AOC Human Services Steering Committee meeting to discuss the next steps for the Early Learning Council (ELC). AOC highly encourages you to attend, phone in, or video in for this important meeting. Find out more about what is happening with the Early Learning Initiative in Oregon. Contact Mark Nystrom for call/video information.

ELC-HB 4165 Issue Brief

To help commissioners with the transition from the local commissions on children and families to the ELC, AOC has put together this Issue Brief. Please contact Mark Nystrom with any questions.

The first two weeks of April is a key time for the newly conceived "10-Year Plan for Oregon Project."  The Governor's policy advisors will instruct state agency directors about policy areas and 10-year visions. The Governor will also set macro-allocations for each of six program areas across the state system. Agency directors will then begin their "two-year tactical response" to proposed budgets for the 2013-15 biennium, while addressing the 10-year vision. The program areas that the directors are to address are: improving government/internal operations, education, healthy people, economy and jobs, healthy environment, and safety. This new project is managed by the Chief Operating Officer, Michael Jordan, and an Enterprise Leadership Team of directors of the 20 largest state agencies plus the Governor, Secretary of State, State Treasurer, and Attorney General. Consider this, at this point at least, an executive branch exercise. The Legislative Fiscal Office is proceeding on a parallel track of the traditional biennial budget process. Also consider this an evolving project, which has gained form since an initial briefing by the COO Office to the AOC Legislative Committee a few months ago. This new process will be a discussion topic again at the Legislative Committee meeting on April 9th.

Matt Garrett, Director, announced his reorganization of ODOT. The Department will be structured around transportation functions rather than modes as a way to integrate multi-modal services. The biggest changes, led by Jerri Bohard and Paul Mather, will be in a new Operations Division and Policy, Planning and Programming Division over the next 12 to 24 months.

Some of the first steps will be:

• Create the expectations of the Transportation Regions.
• Develop an organization structure that supports and integrates planning and program management functions.
• Create a decision making process that incorporates voices from both divisions and leads to decisions that support all transportation, not any single mode.
• Provide avenues for external stakeholders to have a voice in policy development and project delivery processes.
• Identify regulatory functions that may be better consolidated within Motor Carrier.

On The Hunt For A Vehicle To Move Federal Forest Payments

A one-year extension (five percent less than the 2011 payment) of federal forest payments and PILT payments to counties was included the Senate surface transportation bill (S. 1813) that passed the Senate two weeks ago. Unfortunately the House was unable to finish work on the transportation package before the authorization expired, so the House and Senate passed a three-month extension of the existing authorization. Which means, that vehicle has sailed for the time being.

Congressman Hastings' National Forest County Revenue, Schools and Jobs Act (H.R. 4019) is one of four efforts to replace federal forest payments but it is the only proposed legislation that has an active management component to generate offsets for forest health treatments and payments to counties. Other proposed legislation includes S. 1692, (Senators Bingaman, Murkowski and Wyden) and H.R. 3599, (Representative Heinrich) which have identical wording. These two bills would provide payments to counties at 95 percent of the Federal FY 2011 level and ramp down over five years.  The administration included an amount in their 2013 budget released in February that is much lower than the one year extension in the Senate version of the surface transportation bill.

BLM Pilot Projects On Three Districts In SW Oregon At a Glance

Work continues on the Secretarial BLM "Pilot Projects" on the three southwestern Districts. Scheduled field tours on the Medford pilots have been postponed due to snow but will be rescheduled later in the spring. The Roseburg pilot draft Environmental Assessment is scheduled for release for a 30- day comment period beginning April 3, 2012, with public meetings scheduled at the BLM Roseburg District on April 12th. The Coos Bay pilot timber sale that failed to garner any bids has been re-advertised and was scheduled for auction on March 30th.  The Secretarial Pilot Projects are discussed in "Our Experience So Far and Broader Considerations For Long Term Plans" by Drs. Franklin and Johnson that was released for review on February 15. 

The Good Leave Too Soon

Oregon Washington BLM State Director Ed Shepard recently announced his retirement, effective June 1st. Shepard said after June 1 "I intend to relax a bit, travel to see grandkids and fish a while. When I get tired of that, I will probably look for work in the natural resource area. I'm not ready to completely give up my vocation in forestry just yet."  Shepard has been a friend of the O&C within the BLM for most of 30 years. His commitment to the O&C lands, the counties and people he has worked with over the years is without equal. His replacement will have a hard time filling his well-worn boots.

Blue Sky funding is available for projects in Pacific Power's service area that are locally owned and have a generating capacity of less than 10 megawatts of electricity. Projects must be completed by Dec. 31, 2013. Preference is given to projects with a strong educational component and community benefits that bring a broader understanding of renewable energy development and generation, and/or further research and development of new renewable generation technologies.

Funding is not available for off-grid or residential projects, for passive or thermal solar energy projects, or for geothermal or biomass heat pump systems. Other restrictions also apply. For detailed criteria on project qualifications and application forms, please visit the Pacific Power Blue Sky funds Website.

In these days of fast paced, social media and electronic communication, imagine the opportunity to personally shake hands and connect with procurement staff from all levels of government and private sector firms, too. The Governor's office is pleased to present the 10th Governor's Marketplace Conference on Wednesday, April 18th!

For more information, or to register, please go to the Economic and Business Equity Website. See "Resources and Events" at the top of the right-hand side.