Health care benefit negotiations are no longer a private matter between a few civil servants discussing how much of the public treasury should be spent on those sitting at the table. Every health care benefit package negotiated by every public jurisdiction affects every Oregonian's ability to find affordable health care. Candidates for public office that believe health care should be a matter of charity not government, elected officials that believe the federal government will solve Oregon's health care crisis and bargaining units that believe that they deserve better health care protection than the taxpayers who pay for that health care must all be exposed and held to account in the court of public opinion. You, my dear readers, are that court.

Very soon, Oregon's largest city, Portland, will begin the bargaining process for health care benefits. During mayor Potter's term in office there will be an INCREASE in health care costs, paid by some employer/employee contribution, of $25,000,000. To a lesser degree, every public jurisdiction in our state will face similar circumstances. It will be instructive to observe how the players in Portland's game move the pieces.

Following are the fundamental questions that have been asked of these players. Their positions were indicated either directly or by publicly available evidence. These questions need to be asked of every candidate for public office, every elected official and every bargaining unit in Oregon's public arena: 

1. Do you as a city commissioner or does your bargaining unit organization agree or disagree that our state is in a moral and economic health care crisis, (see specifics A,B,C below) which must be solved by our state government?
A. Huge numbers of Oregonians have no health insurance.
B. Huge numbers of Oregonians pay for such costly health insurance that they can afford little or no actual health care.
C. All of Oregon's public institutions are facing skyrocketing and unstoppable increases in health care costs which significantly diminish the quality and quantity of services that need to be provided to the public.

AGREE
Commissioner Sam Adams 
[To their considerable credit gubernatorial candidates Kevin Mannix and Pete Sorenson also agree.]

DISAGREE
Mayor Tom Potter [Potter continues to believe the self-delusional fantasy that George W. Bush, his administration, his congress, his court and his health care proposals will solve Oregon's moral and economic health care crisis. Dream on Tom.]
Commissioner Randy Leonard [Randy has been in the public health care cocoon for so long that he can't remember if or when he was ever without taxpayer funded health insurance.]
Commissioner Dan Saltzman [Dan "ever-the-enigma" Saltzman comes from a family that has so much money that it really wouldn't matter to him or them if the public stopped paying for his health care coverage. That could happen.]
Commissioner Erik Sten
911 Operators - Susan Skites - Negotiator
AFSCME, Local 189 - James Hester - Negotiator
City of Portland Professional Employees Association - Doug Bloem - Negotiator
District Lodge No. 24, IAMAW - Scott Lucy - Negotiator
IBEW, Local 48 - Clif Davis - Negotiator
Operating Engineers, Local 701 - Tony Sandbothe - Negotiator
Painters and Tapers Union, Local 10 - John Kirkpatrick - Negotiator
Portland Fire Fighters' Association - Jack Finders - Negotiator [Jack Finders deserves special mention. Jack decided a publicly issued personal insult was the appropriate professional response to a citizen that had the effrontery to ask him as lead negotiator for a public employee bargaining unit about his opinions of our state's health care crisis. This is the behavior of a public employee that truly believes that he, Jack Finders, DESERVES better health care coverage than the citizens, voters and taxpayers of Oregon that pay for his coverage. No one is going to challenge Jack Finders' certitude. Jack Finders is on the " We DESERVE" side of the health care coin. The other "CHARITY" side depicts gubernatorial candidates Jason Atkinson and Ron Saxton. Atkinson and Saxton believe charity should take over when Oregonians and Oregon's public institutions can not afford health care. At the other extreme, Finders and his ilk believe the world owes them not only a living but a good one and an excellent health care plan to boot. This is the coinage of the uncaring and the greedy. It's blood money. Others have to bleed in order for them to take "their share." It's extremists like this that make it extraordinarily difficult for those of us in the middle to find solutions to the health care crisis in our state. Those in Jack Finders' bargaining unit organization are ill served by this behavior because Jack Finders is, and, so long as he remains in a leadership position, will be seen as exhibiting behavior, spouting opinions and insults that are sanctioned by everyone he represents. This may cast an unfairly dark public perception on his colleagues or perhaps not unfairly. There are Jack Finders' "clones" in every public jurisdiction in Oregon. You'll have no trouble picking them out. Just ask them about health care. When they get angry and start calling you names then you've found them.]
Portland Police Association - Robert King - Negotiator
Portland Police Commanding Officers Association - Dave Benson - Negotiator
Recreation Employees & Laborer’s, Local 483 - Richard Beetle - Negotiator
U.A. Local Union No.290 - Ron Murray - Negotiator


2. Do you as a city commissioner or does your bargaining unit organization support the Oregon Community Health Care Bill?

YES
Commissioner Sam Adams [When you know Sam's story you will understand why he has both the vision, the commitment and the courage to take a stand to bring affordable health care to Oregonians and their public institutions. Sam, along with gubernatorial candidate Pete Sorenson, House candidate Jim Robison, Multnomah county commission candidate Jeff Cogen et al. deserve your gratitude, your support and your vote.]

NO
Mayor Tom Potter
Commissioner Randy Leonard
Commissioner Dan Saltzman
Commissioner Erik Sten [Erik's inability to protect the public purse cost taxpayers around 30 million dollars when Sten managed the Water Bureau. If reelected Sten is poised to raise his own bar of failure as a result of not supporting a plan that could save the city 80 million dollars over a four year term in office. Perhaps it's time for Erik to put his fiscal competence to work finding affordable health care for himself as a self-employed or unemployed person in the private sector?]
911 Operators - Susan Skites - Negotiator
AFSCME, Local 189 - James Hester - Negotiator
City of Portland Professional Employees Association - Doug Bloem - Negotiator
District Lodge No. 24, IAMAW - Scott Lucy - Negotiator
IBEW, Local 48 - Clif Davis - Negotiator
Operating Engineers, Local 701 - Tony Sandbothe - Negotiator
Painters and Tapers Union, Local 10 - John Kirkpatrick - Negotiator
Portland Fire Fighters' Association - Jack Finders - Negotiator
Portland Police Association - Robert King - Negotiator
Portland Police Commanding Officers Association - Dave Benson - Negotiator
Recreation Employees & Laborer’s, Local 483 - Richard Beetle - Negotiator
U.A. Local Union No.290 - Ron Murray - Negotiator
[There is nothing liberal/progressive about this group. They are all behaviorally self-defined conservatives ready, willing and able to protect the status quo. At the moment they are part of the problem not the solution.]

3. If you as a city commissioner or your bargaining unit organization agrees that our state is in a moral and economic health care crisis which must be solved by our state government and you or your bargaining unit organization does not support the Oregon Community Health Care Bill then what solution do you or does your bargaining unit organization propose?
[None of them came up with a single idea.]

How these folks approach bargaining for health care benefits depends on how they answer these questions. Once again, my dear readers, you are the judge and jury. You decide which of these players are moving us in the right direction and which of them needs to be persuaded to change or be replaced.


Richard Ellmyer
Oregon Community Health Care Bill author and project champion
President, MacSolutions Inc. - A Macintosh computer consulting business providing web hosting for artists and very small businesses.
Writer/Publisher - Oregon Health Watcher commentary - Published on the Internet and distributed to 6000 readers interested in public health care policy in Oregon.
http://www.goodgrowthnw.org/health.html
http://www.goodgrowthnw.org/octoberpoll.html
http://www.goodgrowthnw.org/candidates.html

P.S.
Our great state of Oregon requires that ALL benefit negotiation sessions for public jurisdictions be open to the public unless both parties deny access, apparently a very, very rare occurrence. Perhaps I'll see some of you there.