2005-01-30 Alert

SB 380 Assigned

Senate President Courtney has assigned SB-380 - the Senate version of our ORS-195 reform legislation - to the Senate Environment Land Use Committee. Thanks to those who contacted Senator Courtney to help make this happen!

This is the same committee that has SB-307 (School SDCs). We've already provided you with the member names and contacts: Senators Charlie Ringo, Jason Atkinson, Frank Shields, Roger Beyer and Ginny Burdick. The SB-307 legislative alert is on the OCVA website (www.ocva.org) if you need that information, or contact info is available on the Legislature's website, www.leg.state.or.us

Senator Burdick at last report is planning to introduce a bill to revoke the prohibition against using 195 by Metro cities - so she's likely a "No" vote. Senator Ringo should be supportive. The other three are unknown.

SO - the next order of business is to contact the committee members to support the bill and ask that it be given a hearing. HERE'S WHERE THE RUBBER MEETS THE ROAD, FOLKS!

Some tips for addressing the committee members:

1. Keep your message SHORT and direct.

2. Focus on supporting the bill, not hammering the opposition. Rebuttal opportunities arise during a hearing.

3. If you send a letter, keep it to one page

4. Note that you are a constituent, even if the committee membership doesn't include your own representatives. This issue affects ALL Oregonians.

We need to look at this battle as a "one step at a time" process. We're now at step two: Getting a hearing. At the risk of sounding like a broken record, we'll remind you that it's the sheer NUMBERS of calls that will make the difference.

On another matter, a couple members have advised me that attachments sent with my emails from my home computer are infected with the "Beagle" worm. There are no attachments with this email and I almost never use attachments with these alerts. Please continue to let me know if you get these messages.

Jerry

This page last modified on 2005-11-16 08:29.