SALEM, Ore. – Oregon lawmakers advanced a bill Wednesday that bans businesses from excluding unemployed applicants in their helped wanted ads.
While Senate Bill 1548 doesn’t have any opposition, it nearly died after at least one member powerful enough to kill the bill expressed concerns about it.
Under the bill, Oregon businesses would be fined $1,000 by the state for writing in their job ads that unemployed applicants will not be considered.
The other key issue was whether applicants could sue a company. The bill doesn’t allow new lawsuits against companies and it also doesn’t stop employers from actually excluding unemployed candidates once they have their resume.
But questions linger over whether it could lead to broader protections for the unemployed that businesses might oppose.
“It does raise the question of is this the slippery slope? Is this leading towards protected class like minorities or disabled or seniors?” said Rep. Bill Kennemer, R-Oregon City. “If this opened the opportunity for any employee who had this experience to sue, I think this would be a very unacceptable practice because all of a sudden we’d have huge proliferations of lawsuits.”
He said he was hesitant to sign off on the bill until he was assured companies couldn’t be sued…
SUPPORT THE RE-ELECTION OF STATE REPRESENTATIVE BILL KENNEMER
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OREGON CITY–Rep. Bill Kennemer (R-Oregon City) today announced his campaign for re-election to the Oregon House of Representatives. Rep. Kennemer said his campaign will focus on representing the people, improving the economy, and creating jobs for Oregonians.
“It’s an honor to represent the citizens of House District 39 in the Oregon House,” Rep. Kennemer said. “With Oregon continuing to suffer from high unemployment, it’s clear that more work needs to be done to help families during these challenging times. I’m running for re-election as an experienced leader with a record of working with Republicans and Democrats to help improve our economy.”
As Co-Chair of the House Business and Labor Committee in 2011, Rep. Kennemer worked to improve Oregon’s business environment and limit excessive regulations that stifle job growth. He recently earned a 100 percent score on bills promoting job creation and economic growth according to the Oregon Prosperity Project, a coalition of Oregon business and trade associations. Kennemer also served as Vice-Chair of the House Health Care Committee where he supported measures to help reform and reduce the costs of health care.
“I’m running to continue doing what my constituents have asked: live within our means and work with both parties like we did last session. Don’t kill jobs with taxes and fees and strive to make regulation more jobs friendly,” said Kennemer. “We need more jobs to have adequate funding for education, public safety and necessary human services.”
Rep. Kennemer will run in the new House District 39, which was reconfigured due to legislative redistricting. The new district continues to represent Canby and Beavercreek, but includes a smaller portion of Oregon City and extends to the Clackamas County communities of Estacada, Boring, Damascus, Mulino, and Charbonneau.
“While I’ll miss my former constituents, I look forward to meeting citizens in the new House District 39 and working with them to improve the future,” Rep. Kennemer said. “While the district has changed, our needs and priorities have not. I’ll continue to meet with voters to discuss how we can get Oregon back on the right track.”
It’s hard to believe, but May is already growing old and rumors are abounding of the 76th Legislative Session ending mid-June. Still, most of the budget bills have yet to be voted on and other important issues have to be resolved. We won’t be going anywhere until our work is done!
Until then please continue to keep in touch. Write, email, or call us at (503) 986-1439. I’ve really enjoyed hearing from many of you already and shared some of your comments below.
If you’d like to keep up on Floor Sessions or Committee meetings from home you can find links to the different Capitol channels by clicking Here. You can find information on when the House and Senate are in Session and when the Committees are meeting Here.
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Redistricting Maps Released
The proposed Republican and Democratic redistricting maps have been released for public testimony, and they sure are causing a stir! Take a look at them for yourself and let me know what you think. You can submit written testimony to the committee by sending an email to oregon.redistricting@state.or.us.
Unfortunately, there are many significant flaws in the Democrat proposal. For starters, it changes the district from being roughly split between the parties in terms of voter registration to giving the Democrats a greater than 14% advantage. It also removes Canby entirely while adding Gladstone, putting me in the same district as Representative Dave Hunt. It barely even included my house (Cherie and I live on the far SW corner of the map). Frankly, I believe this map is unnecessarily partisan and needlessly reshapes the district, separating communities of interest. What do you think?
If you have any concerns or comments, please send them to the Committee. You can find more information on the redistricting process and other proposed maps by clicking Here.
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In the Mail
If you’ve contacted your elected officials before, you may wonder what affect your messages have had, so I want to share some of the comments my office has received through letters, emails, and phone calls. Hearing from you helps!
I received great letters from several Teenpact students, including this one from James about his visit to the Capitol: “…The whole time was a great learning experience, from the buttons on the desk to the books on the shelf. …I enjoyed and appreciated the time you spent with us.”
From 12-year old Grant: “Thank you for helping small businesses….I would like to manage a small business someday…”
Here are some of the many responses to my last newsletter:
“Thank you for the great job you are doing in the legislature and trying to bring some compassion into the decisions to be made.” – Fred and Judy
“What a wonderful and endearing message for you to send this week (Mother’s Day). I have two sons as well, so it very much touched my heart. As I received your message I was in the process of finishing up touches of a cookbook of all the families [sic] favorite recipes that my mom made over the years. We’re going to be giving it to her as one of the gifts in celebration of her 90th birthday this month.” – Kay
“[Your] efforts to keep job creation at the foreground of this session’s conversation is positive and very much needed.” – Brian Hodson, President of the Canby Area Chamber of Commerce
“Thank you…for caring for our families and individuals impacted by Blue Heron. We are seeing the effects of this loss.” – Deb
“I am sorry that big heart of yours needed some help…” – Greg
“…Thank you for sponsoring Senate Bill 736, [which] will create jobs, inspire economic development in rural areas, stimulate tourism up and down the Columbia basin, provide better protection for wild fish recovery…” – Liz
“Thank you for being a sane politician.” – Amanda
In response to learning that I do not support the ban on single use plastic shopping bags: “Finally someone is listening!!! THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!” – Gary
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Accountability in Government
When I ran for office, one of my priorities was to increase government accountability. I am pleased to report that an important bill I sponsored is doing just that and recently passed unanimously in the House and Senate. House Bill 2825 improves the transparency of economic development tax incentives. Included programs are the Business Energy Tax Credit, the Strategic Investment Program, and Enterprise Zones, which all account for about $600 million in spending over the next two years. This bill requires information about the recipients of these credits (who received the credits, how much they received, and what they used it for) to be posted on Oregon’s transparency website: www.oregon.gov/transparency.
Hopefully with bills like this we can shed some light on another of our significant budget expenditures and make sure no tax dollars are being wasted!
Bill Kennemer knows now how close he came to serious trouble. He also knows what a good lesson his recent health ordeal is for others to learn from.
Kennemer, the Oregon House Representative for District 39, is healthy and laughing now, but two weeks ago the story was much different. Two weeks ago, his heart was sending him messages that, after initially ignoring, he listened to.
“On Monday and Tuesday (March 28-29), I was on my exercycle and both mornings when I finished I had a bit of chest pressure,” Kennemer said. “I figured it was because I hadn’t had any breakfast. I went upstairs, ate and it went away.”
That Wednesday morning, the symptoms came back, including a very painful headache and some indigestion.
“You know, they were ones and twos on a scale of 10, so I didn’t give it much thought,” Kennemer said. “I went upstairs and ate breakfast, but this time it didn’t go away.”
There was a reason.
While on the House floor later that day, Kennemer said the symptoms persisted and at one point used his laptop to Google “heart attack symptoms.” What he discovered riveted his attention.
“I had all but two of the symptoms,” Kennemer said with a laugh. “They were very subtle, so I took a couple of aspirin and immediately drove to Providence Willamette Falls Medical Center. About 45 minutes later, my blood pressure went crazy.”
“If I’d been 45 minutes later, I think I would have been in the midst of a big one,” he added. “The next day I ended up having an electrocardiogram, and they transferred me to downtown Providence. The electrocardiogram was good, the EKG looked fine, my blood pressure was good — and the doctors didn’t think they’d find anything with an angiogram.”
Turns out, they did. Kennemer had two blocked heart arteries.
“What a good lesson. If I’d blown it off another hour, I think I would have been in serious trouble,” Kennemer said. “On a scale of one to 10, until I was in the hospital, the worst pain had been about a three. Well, there are a lot of times when I crawl out of bed and my back and other things are at a three. It was quite a shock, and then to find two of them. What a miracle.”
Doctors inserted two stents into the blocked arteries, had Kennemer rest a day and discharged him Friday. After a quiet weekend, he was back to work in the Oregon House April 4.
Now, more than two weeks after the scare, Kennemer said he sees the lessons to be learned and hopes others will heed his warning.
“Truth is, there were a lot of symptoms, but they were all small,” he said. “It’s a real warning to us guys. We need to take these things seriously and be vigilant about the warning signs.
“There’s another lesson, too,” he added. “As I’m telling this story to people, they are realizing that the symptoms for women are significantly different than men. There’s an education piece to this. Women ought to be doing a little checking as well.”
Kennemer is back to putting in a full day at the Oregon House, taking three medications and just recently stopped taking afternoon naps. He says he feels good and certainly relieved he avoided a serious heart episode.
Bill joined about 700 other folks on Saturday as they marked the closing of the Arch Bridge in Oregon City. The bridge will be closed for about two years for a major rehabilitation. Bill has worked with ODOT (pictured is Jason Tell, Region 1 Manager) and the business community to help alleviate the impacts of the closure.
Another important event is here – the very exciting convening of the 2011 Legislative Session in Salem. We will convene for three days to formalize leadership roles, organize committees, and begin the bill introduction process. Then, we will be in recess until February 1 when a 5 month limited and fast-paced session begins. These are the beginning of the changes from last election that established annual, instead of biannual, legislative sessions. The break allows us to hit the floor running on the first formal day of Session, having dealt with lots of the required administrative/legal preliminaries.
And, with the 30-30 split of membership in the Oregon House of Representatives, it is even more exciting because we are charting new ground. There has never been a 30-30 split in the history of our great state. The leaders of each party have been chosen by their members, but final details of how this will work are still under consideration literally even now as we prepare to start. I am honored to have been re-elected to represent the people of District 39 and look forward to hearing from you and, hopefully, seeing you participate in the process at your State Capitol. Please be in touch with any comments, concerns or feedback. My staff and I are here to serve you. We would love to have you visit us in Salem.
Blessings,
Bill
Cherie and I extend a heart felt and sincere thank you to our family, our friends, our supporters, our volunteers and the voters of House District 39 for the honor of being re-elected and returned to Salem to serve our citizens.
We all worked hard, knocked on many, many doors, dotted supporters’ yards with lawn and field signs, called voters, wrote letters to the editor, attended community events and got our message of less spending and less government to the voters. It is the message the voters wanted to hear!
Now we must continue to work hard to bring economic health back to Oregon – creating new jobs, assisting businesses, keeping our citizens safe, providing the best educational opportunities to our children, keeping seniors healthy and helping those most in need. This is not an easy task, especially with a $3.2 billion deficit – but, together, we will work towards setting solid priorities and finding the best solutions.
Our sign teams (including me) were out picking up our lawn signs – I got at 8:45 on Wednesday evening. And, if we don’t pick yours up by Friday, please send us an email and we will come by and pick it up.
As we prepare for the 2011 legislative session, your thoughts, views and innovative ideas on how to bring Oregon back are most welcome. Thank you, again, for the privilege of serving and representing you.
