Director's Message

June 24, 2005

To: DHS employees

From: Bryan Johnston, Interim DHS Director

I’m having a little trouble realizing that I’m writing a fifth director’s letter already. The days and weeks seem to fly by. I find I have to be very careful in this job because there are so many events, emergencies, questions, meetings that call for a response. The poet Carl Sandburg wrote:

"Time is the coin of your life. It is the only coin you have, and only you can determine how it will be spent. Be careful lest you let other people spend it for you."

Although I will respond to the situations that require me to, I also want to choose how I spend some of my coin.

I’ve tried to avoid lengthy letters to you, so I’ve limited myself to two subjects -- this week those are Budget and Ethics. I’ve also added a paragraph at the end that will address some updates and some short items you may be interested in.

Budget

This is the first time since I left the Legislature in 1999 that I have paid such close attention to the Oregon budget. The process that has been developed is a very difficult one to read. Since early in the session, we have had two budget committees (instead of a Joint Ways and Means Committee) and no one has been able to give a definitive answer of how the two chambers will come back together to make one budget out of the emerging two budgets. That’s a riddle that this Legislature will have to answer or they can’t go home. The betting money is now on the end of July as the likely time of adjournment.

The success of the DHS budget is not entirely clear yet. Both the House and the Senate have been very responsive to a number of our requests. The largest single issue outstanding in the $25.4 million listed in the reshoot as follows:

• TANF Caseload (anticipated growth of 1,100 more families): $13.3 million.
• Employment Related Day Care (as many as 989 children could lose services without funding): $6.8 million.
• Residential Treatment for 90 emotionally, socially and behaviorally disturbed children: $5.3 million.

Unfortunately, those items were properly identified as “Non-Mandatory” in the document that was delivered to the Legislature. It’s the legally correct term to use because the Oregon Revised Statutes identify certain mandatory services and leave all others under the non-mandatory label. In our relationship with the federal government, though, as well as in our scheme for the delivery of services, these activities need to be done. The label “non-mandatory” is making it tough for some to grasp the requirement that these services be provided. Currently, both chambers have kept these numbers outside the budget bills and still have them under discussion.

Ethics

This speaks to one of the topics upon which I wish to spend my “coin." As I said to you in my first email, one of my goals is to continue work on making DHS a value-driven organization.

We’re now in the roll-out stage of an organization-wide Ethics program. For more than three years a task force has been meeting and refining the direction DHS would take on this project. Before I accepted the Governor’s offer of Interim Director, I had been selected as a contractor to work on this task for DHS. Now that I find myself in the director’s office, I remain committed to the project.

If you are in management, you’ve been invited to attend a day-long presentation on Ethics. If you’re in a staff position, you are the next step. Please join in this effort. I assure you that you’ll find it worthwhile. You’ll be hearing more from me as we go forward on this project.

The end result we seek is a great culture here at DHS. Value-driven organizations serve their publics better and reward their employees in multiple ways.

Loose Strings

DHS Public Health just put out their first newsletter, "Vital Signs" … our Medicaid Management Information System is officially being launched with a $72-million, seven-year contract …. KXL's Lars Larson told Trish Neiworth that no DHS Director has gone on his show in five years -- I appeared there on Tuesday. 

Enjoy the week!

This message is intended for all department employees. Please read it electronically, if possible. Managers and supervisors are asked to share the message each week with employees who do not have email access.

If you have a disability and need this message to be provided to you in another format, please send an email to dhs.forms@state.or.us, or call (503) 947-5107. You can also fax your request to (503) 373-7690, or call (503) 947-5080 for TTY service. If you know of others who need this accommodation, please let them know it is available.