OLA Legislative Committee
Thursday, March 9, 2017
Oregon State Library Room 102
Attending: Ruth Murray, Brooke Robertshaw, Janet Webster, MaryKay Dahlgreen, Abigail Elder, Diedre Conkling, Nan Heim, Elsa Loftis, Sue Ludington, Buzzy Nielsen, Robin Rolfe, Jane Corey, Rachel Bridgewater, Carol Dinges, Ross Beltzer
1. State Librarian Report (MaryKay)
MaryKay reported on a very positive budget hearing with strong testimony from OLA.
She will start making appointments for office visits during National Legislative Day. We confirmed that Buzzy, Ruth, Sara and Carol will be going. The committee has $750 in the budget to support someone’s travel. This will go to Carol this year. Next year, we will discuss this earlier so others can plan. Abigail asked every Division to consider sending someone without any takers this year. Janet will send MaryKay an example of a district report done by Oregon Humanities. These were very well received by the Congressional Offices.
2. OLA Core Values (Elsa, Jane, Janet)
At the last OLA Executive Board, there was a lively discussion around how to respond in the current political climate to actions and events that appear to conflict with the library profession’s core values. As a result. Jane and Janet put together a statement on OLA’s core values that are currently embedded in the legislative agenda and our mission statement. This document was the basis for the productive discussion by the committee. We reviewed the values and actions in an attempt to see if we could combine or delete any. We agreed that we needed to set the context and will attempt to do so through linking to definition and articulating that it is OLA’s statement as an organization. Janet and Diedre agreed to draft a web presence for review. This will go to the Executive Board for its next meeting and be shared with the membership for comments. We would like to see a vote on this at the membership meeting at the April conference.
3. Douglas County Update (Buzzy)
Buzzy received an update from the newest commissioner on February 28th. The Oregon Community Foundation is holding a listening session in Roseburg with Penny Hummel as a resource. The State Library is informing cities in Douglas County of their options for providing services. Reedsport and Sutherlin have the most robust efforts to date. There will be another county hearing on April 5 so commissioners can decide on the final steps for closing the library systems. Buzzy is planning on testifying as he has some standing. MaryKay will inform the County Commissioners of the next steps from the State Library’s perspective once the district is closed.
4. Lobbyist Report (Nan)
OLA Legislative Day was a great success. All of the books have been distributed. Photos are still in process. School libraries were front and center for legislators in terms of where they sent our books. Robin will do some follow-up with the school librarians receiving books.
The session is racing along with lots of hearings but few work sessions. We don’t anticipate a work session on the State Library’s budget until much later. That said we will need to keep some pressure on so Ready To Read funds are reinstated.
5. Pending State Legislation: what is OLA’s position, if any?
· SB 75 Expansion of Ready to Read: OLA supports, but we don’t want to expend political capital if it’s not going anywhere. It provides an excellent opportunity for expanded funding and that’s not a possibility in this session.
· SB 123 Children’s districts: OLA has serious concerns with this. Special Districts Association of Oregon is opposed. No hearing is scheduled.
· SB 0822 Post notice on copiers, scanners that information may be digitally stored: Nothing is scheduled. We are probably neutral as many libraries already post policies. Nan will check with Senator Gelser on the origins of this bill.
· SB 1002 Private tutors: OLA opposes as we already address public library use by private tutors. We haven’t been able to find out who wants this legislation. Nan will send Senator Roblan’s office our concerns.
· HB 2729 Open Ed Resources for Higher Ed: OLA submitted a letter of support.
· HB 2859 Sunsetting of tax exemptions: This had a hearing, but might not go anywhere. Amanda dug up more information. Janet will contact Tillamook, Coos and Multnomah Counties’ libraries.
· HB 3191 Summer Learning: OLA appreciates the effort, but this does not look like the consensus of the Work Group. The bill as proposed sounds like summer school. Nan will meet with Smith-Warner to get a better sense of how the bill ended up looking like it does. We anticipate that it will not move forward.
· SB 787: This is an anti-funding bill proposed by Curry County. It would allow a county to take a percentage of funds going to a special district for county use. OLA opposes. Nan will look into this one.
6. Federal Legislation (Buzzy)
The possible repeal of the Johnson Amendment has been introduced in Congress, WR 781, S 264. OLA opposes as it could take away the sense of neutrality non-profit organization currently have. The supposed intent is to ‘unshackle religious organization from limitations on political speech.’ Janet will get input from the Federal of State Humanities Councils.
7. Programming for partner conferences (Buzzy)
We have done some programming in the past with SDAO and have had a booth at League of Oregon Cities. It’s not easy to get onto the programs, but there may be opportunities given contacts that we have or timely topics. We discussed contributing to association communication vehicles as another way of sharing our expertise. Topics could include information literacy, recognizing scams, phishing. Buzzy will take the lead on this effort so others should feed him leads.
OASL is interested in MaryKay reporting on the China exchange.
8. General Updates (Everyone)
Robin reported that there is another survey around Oregon’s ESSA Plan. She encouraged us to submit comments around the value of a well-rounded education.
Abigail reminded us of the OLA Conference. We agreed that Nan should invite legislators to the all-conference reception and we will pick up any drink costs. We should also check the legislative calendar for those dates in case there is something that would be of interest to OLA members. Sue and Diedre will design postcards that we can have at the Legal Reference Roundtable for members to write to our congressional delegation. These can be hand delivered during ALA’s Legislative Day.
Future Meetings:
May 11
Outstanding Action Items:
· Abigail will draft a model gun policy and have it reviewed by Kate, Buzzy and Diedre.
· Sue and Janet will continue to work on the Engage site.
· Janet will send MaryKay an example of a district report done by Oregon Humanities.
· Janet and Diedre agreed to draft a web presence of the values statement for review.
· Robin will do some follow-up with the school librarians receiving books from Legislative Day.
· Nan will check with Senator Gelser on the origins of SB 0822.
· Nan will send Senator Roblan’s office our concerns on SB 1002.
· Janet will contact Tillamook, Coos and Multnomah Counties’ libraries on HB 2859.
· Nan will meet with Smith-Warner to get a better sense of how HB 3191 ended up looking like it does.
· Nan will look into SB 787.
· Janet will get input on the Johnson Amendment repeal from the Federal of State Humanities Councils.
· Sue and Diedre will design postcards that we can have at the Legal Reference Roundtable for members to write to our congressional delegation.