Director's Message

Dec. 1, 2006

To: All DHS employees

From: Bruce Goldberg, Director

"The mode by which the inevitable comes to pass is effort."

~Oliver Wendell Holmes

This has been a busy week for those of us who work with the Legislature. During the past few days DHS staff have made presentations to no less than seven legislative committees, task forces and work groups, in addition to yesterday's Emergency Board Subcommittee on Human Services. As you can see, sometimes the interim between legislative sessions can be as hectic as the actual session.

The good news is that your efforts continue to achieve results. DHS is steadily improving its financial position, streamlining its processes and delivering more cost-effective services to Oregonians. As I told the E-Board Subcommittee yesterday, we have accomplished all of this thanks to the high-quality work of our staff.

Highlighting the positive changes we have made within DHS is the fact that we will not need to use nearly $10 million of the funding that was set aside by the Legislature during this past April's special session when we faced an anticipated budget shortfall of $136 million. Even more impressive is the fact that we have been able to achieve this fiscal turnaround while absorbing $15.5 million less than expected in payments from tobacco companies under the Master Tobacco Settlement agreement.

As you well know, most of our budget (almost 85 percent) is spent in Oregon communities purchasing vital services such as nursing home and hospital care, foster care, and mental health care for our most vulnerable neighbors. The need in our communities is a large part of what drives our budget. As such, one of the reasons for our improved financial standing is that many, though not all, of our caseloads are tracking approximately 1 percent below forecasted costs. However, just as important, we have improved our ability to forecast, track and manage not only our caseloads, but also our general finances.

It is now up to us to stay on target financially so that we can uphold our commitment to operate within our remaining budget for the rest of this biennium. Divisions have developed detailed plans to ensure that this occurs, and we will be monitoring our progress closely.

In the end, however, we all must remember that this is not simply a budget exercise; our work involves the lives and well-being of people, families and communities. Almost 1 million Oregonians rely on us for some direct service; many of these are Oregon's most vulnerable people. Furthermore, the entire state relies on our ability to protect the public's health. Having a stable financial foundation in place so that we can meet all these needs is imperative. People rely on us, and we need to be able to be there for them.

With our improved ability to provide prudent program management and fiscal accountability, the Governor, the Legislature and the public will have confidence that DHS is meeting the needs of Oregonians in the best way possible. This is important, because we know that so many needs in our communities continue to go unmet. Addressing these needs will require future investments of resources, which we must ensure will be used to serve the public good to the greatest extent possible.

Every time we can find ways to deliver services more cost-effectively, we can extend those services to more Oregonians. That fact should be our strongest motivation for continuing to improve our fiscal processes.

A penny saved at DHS is not a penny earned -- it is a penny delivered -- to those who need it the most, our clients.

To provide feedback email: DHS.Directorsoffice@state.or.us