Yesterday, Secretary of State Brown stopped by the KOBI studios in Medford for an interview. Thanks to KOBI, we are able to stream that interview here on our blog!
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Monthly Archive for November, 2009
Elections are the bedrock of our democracy and something we at the Secretary of State’s Office take very seriously.
As we noted on this blog, there was an election on November 3rd in many of our State’s counties. In talking to elections officials around this special election, I came away with the impression that despite measures to allow for observation of the process by bystanders, officials are still combating the perception that our elections are susceptible to corruption.
In light of this, I took the opportunity to head over to the elections offices in both Clackamas and Washington Counties in order to take a behind the scenes tour of the elections process.
My first trip was to Clackamas County Elections, where I was welcomed by County Clerk Sherry Hall. Below is a slide-show that will take you from ‘your’ ballot being picked up at an official drop-off location, to the ballot being scanned and stored for tabulation.
Authorized Personnel Only!
Source: debbieweil.com
We often hear that government bureaucracy is slow to respond, difficult to deal with and frustratingly opaque. One of the major problems is that government agencies tend to be like silos; isolated and unable to effectively share information and contribute to improving the function of state government.
Back in September, we highlighted the Central Business Registry in light of our Corporation and Information Services Divisions being awarded a Digital Government Achievement Award in the Government-to-Business category. But aside from winning awards, we at the Oregon Secretary of State’s Office believe that the CBR is a tremendous example of how government agencies can create frameworks upon which they can build projects to share information and streamline their processes.
Currently, customers can log on to the CBR and complete registration with the Oregon Corporation Division, Employment Department, and the Department of Revenue. The next phase of development will bring the Department of Consumer and Business Services into the mix, further streamlining the process.
There are a couple of state agency functions, which could benefit from a Central Business Registry framework. The licensing process, for instance, could be dramatically improved by an online registry built on the same principles as the CBR. The usefulness of such a system would span across the licensing spectrum, helping construction contractors, health care professionals and especially convenience store , restaurant, taverns owners, all of whom have a vast array of licensing needs.
Making the process more fluid for customers is just one great benefit the CBR has produced. Another is the tremendous number of hours that are saved when customers use CBR. The Secretary of State saves approximately 400 hours a month, while the Department of Revenue boasts a savings of roughly 135 hours a month in processing time. These savings translate to improved services to the State’s business customers as well as savings to the agencies involved. In looking to future applications of a CBR framework, these kinds of savings could mean huge gains in productivity across State agencies.
We will be sure to highlight new developments in the CBR as they arrive.
There’s nothing new about scam artists and hustlers contaminating the business world. The truth is, they even show up in Oregon from time to time.
The Oregon Corporation Division is especially wary of these cons because sometimes they’re designed to look like documents that come from the state when in fact they’re only new ways to illegally separate a business from its money.
“They’re always out there,” said Peter Threlkel, head of the Corporation Division. “They run a pretty regular business, like the 0ld emails for the Nigerian bank scam. But remember, these guys don’t need a lot of people to fall for it for them to make some money. Then they disappear.”
Two familiar scams from recent years include the annual corporate minutes scam and the annual report renewal scam. Both have been seen in Oregon in past years – but not now — and business owners should keep their eyes open. Here’s how they work.
The annual corporate minutes scam arrives in the mail looking as if it came from a government agency. The solicitation warns of penalties and legal consequences for failure to comply and asks business owners to complete a form and pay a fee of up to hundreds of dollars. But corporate minutes are not filed with the Secretary of State, they are internal records for the corporation only.
Here’s how the annual report scam works. Businesses registered with the Secretary of State are required to file an annual report and pay a fee each year to keep their business registration active. (Assumed business names renew every 2 years.) In this scam, a solicitation warns of the pending expiration of an assumed business name and offers to prepare and file all documents needed to renew the business name for $100. Click here to see a recent example of this solicitation.
You can always check the validity of a mailing by calling the Corporation Division at 503-986-2200 or by going to www.filinginoregon.com/scam_alert to learn more about these scams and find out what legitimate state mailings really look like.
Small businesses are particularly vulnerable because they often don’t have the resources or the time of large company to devote to scams. But all companies, big and small, should be wary. They’ll save themselves a lot of money and a lot of heartache.
Identity theft is a real problem as well. The Federal Trade Commission set the cost of identity theft to U.S. businesses at $48 billion a year. Last summer, 41 states, including Oregon, reached a $9.75 million settlement with the parent company of T.J. Maxx and Marshalls over a data breach that exposed 94 million credit and debit card numbers to hackers.
More and more, it’s businesses being victimized by identity thieves. The scams are sometimes quite simple. One involves a criminal who rents space in your building. He then applies for corporate credit cards in your firm’s name and they’re issued because the company name and address check out. The cards are delivered to his mailbox, not yours, he sells them on the street and leaves town and your credit is wrecked.
The economy is making things tough enough without crooks sneaking in to steal your money. Be extra careful.
A few years back, when I was still a State Senator, I attended a workshop, which was put on by the Council of State Governments regional arm, CSG-West, an organization I also chaired for a year.
This particular workshop was focused on how legislators can build credibility –through improved accountability– with their constituents. At the outset of the workshop, the keynote speaker asked who in this room of legislators could do 20 push-ups. Thinking nothing of it and being the eager beaver that I am, I quickly raised my hand as did a few others.
The speaker then spent the next 15 minutes talking about some key functions of building and maintaining accountability with constituents, delivering on campaign promises and engaging groups back inside the district.
With that lesson delivered, the speaker conducted a little real-world experiment, recalling the claim I and a few others had made regarding these 20 push-ups. She invited me and one other legislator, a gentleman from New Mexico, up to do the 20 push-ups we had promised her we could do. This was a moment of truth.
The good news for Oregon; I did them pretty easily. The bad news for New Mexico; their legislator couldn’t do his.
This drove the message home for me: If you’re going to commit to something during the campaign, you need to make absolutely sure that you can deliver on them once you’ve been elected.
When I was running for this office, I made three major promises to the voters of this state:
- That I was going to restore integrity to the initiative process
- That I was going to undertake a comprehensive civic engagement program
- That I was going to focus our work in the Audits division on performance auditing
When I took office, I remembered that day when I was called up to do 20 push-ups. Taking a high profile position in State government, I knew that I was going to be held to my word on the campaign trail, so I started right in, working on fulfilling those promises.
Continue reading ‘Oregon Secretary of State Brown – 20 Push-ups’
Today is election day in many counties throughout the State of Oregon!
That’s right, counties throughout the state will be partaking in the democratic process in order to weigh in on issues large and small. For instance, the city of Bandon is asking for money for police services, while the Shangri-La Water District in Lane County is asking for money for system repairs. The city of Ashland wants to extend a tax on food and beverages to pay for waste-water services. Finally, the Rogue River Rural Fire Protection District is asking for money to maintain services.
If you are in a County, which is having elections, it is too late to mail your ballot in. You must take it to an official drop site in order for it to be counted.
Official drop sites will be open for 8 hours or more until 8PM for depositing cast ballots. Each of the County Clerk’s offices will also be open from 7am-8pm for issuing and depositing ballots. Each county’s election site will have a list of official drop off locations. To find a link to your County’s election site, please check our handy reference site.
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