It’s Time To Fire Those In Charge Of Oregon’s Unemployment

Government never met a computer project it couldn’t completely screw up.

Examples fill Oregon history.  

A 300-million dollar Obamacare “coverup Oregon” that literally NEVER worked.  

But the latest problems with Oregon’s employment system take the cake.

And it’s not like two different Governors didn’t know about the problem nor have the money and a dozen years to fix it.

Kate Brown, as Secretary of State, did an audit almost a decade before the pandemic that predicted a silicon meltdown if the employment computers ever got stressed.

Brown became the “accidental” Governor.

Yet even with 100-million bucks from the Congress to fix the problem, just ignored her responsibility. 

And then covid arrived.  

4 years later the Employment division launched a shiny new computer system with a cute name, “Francis”.  

To hear Oregon’s recently unemployed tell the tale, six weeks into the newer, better system, Francis is all franked-up.

KOIN tv news tells the story of Gregory Smith: lost a great job at Intel, burned his savings while waiting the last six weeks and still doesn’t have his first check.

Now, he stands to lose his house.

Can we just put the employment division in the private sector where we have actual accountability…instead of more PERS worker FUBAR?