Chapter 71 Oregon Laws 1999

Session Law

AN ACT

SB 205

Relating to Oregon Youth Conservation Corps; creating new provisions; amending ORS 418.653, 418.657, 418.658, 418.660 and 418.663; and declaring an emergency.

Be It Enacted by the People of the State of Oregon:

SECTION 1. ORS 418.653 is amended to read:

418.653. (1) Subject to the availability of funds therefor, there is created an Oregon Youth Conservation Corps [which] that shall provide emergency services, public conservation, rehabilitation and improvement programs. The corps shall be headed by a program director, and shall be administered through the [State Commission on Children and Families] Office of Community College Services.

(2) Upon implementation of subsection (1) of this section, there shall be created an Oregon Youth Conservation Corps Advisory Committee to consist of nine members, three to be appointed by the President of the Senate, three to be appointed by the Speaker of the House of Representatives and three public members to be appointed by the Governor. No more than one Senator and one Representative shall be appointed. Members shall receive no compensation for service on the committee. Members may be removed by the appointing authority. Vacancies shall be filled by the appointing authority. Members shall serve for a term of three years and may be reappointed for an additional consecutive term.

(3) The advisory committee established under subsection (2) of this section shall advise the program director on the implementation of ORS 418.650 to 418.663.

SECTION 2. ORS 418.657 is amended to read:

418.657. (1) In consultation with the Oregon Youth Conservation Corps Advisory Committee [and with the approval of the State Commission on Children and Families], the program director of the Oregon Youth Conservation Corps shall:

(a) Establish eligibility criteria for participants. Such criteria shall not render the program ineligible for federal funds. Participants shall be lawful permanent residents of the state.

(b) Establish criteria in order to make the required determination that enrollment in the corps was not the reason that an individual ceased attendance at a secondary school.

(c) Assume that application of the eligibility and participation criteria results in enrollment of at least 75 percent disadvantaged and at-risk youth among the total number of participants.

(2) [With the approval of the commission,] The program director may take the following actions, including but not limited to:

(a) Applying for and accepting grants or contributions of funds from any public or private source;

(b) Making agreements with any local, state or federal agency to utilize any service, material or property of any such agency, where such agreements are considered reasonable and necessary; and

(c) Purchasing or contracting for necessary private services, equipment, materials and property where such are needed to carry out the projects approved for and undertaken by the corps.

(3) [With the approval of the commission,] The program director may adopt all necessary rules to carry out the purposes and objectives of the program and to regulate the standards of conduct and other operating guidelines for corps members and other personnel.

(4) Corps members shall be exempt from the State Personnel Relations Law.

SECTION 3. ORS 418.658 is amended to read:

418.658. (1) The program director of the Oregon Youth Conservation Corps shall establish a separate program known as the Oregon Community Service Corps. In addition to the established purposes of the Oregon Youth Conservation Corps, the purpose of the Oregon Community Service Corps is to promote community service activities throughout the state for a broad cross section of Oregon disadvantaged and at-risk youth through programs that also include appropriate educational and job training opportunities for participants.

(2) In addition to projects submitted under ORS 418.660 (1), projects of the Oregon Community Service Corps may include, but shall not be limited to:

(a) Child care services.

(b) Elderly and disabled care services.

(d) Recycling and other waste reduction services.

(3) The Oregon Community Service Corps shall offer employment and educational opportunities of at least three but not more than 12 months' duration for selected participants.

(4) Under rules adopted by the program director, participants who successfully complete any 12-month program under this section shall be eligible for $1,500 in tuition vouchers that can be used at any career school or post-secondary educational institution that is qualified to receive assistance through the State Scholarship Commission.

(5) All Oregonians who are at least 16 years of age and under 25 years of age are eligible to participate in the program. To ensure that Oregon Community Service Corps participants represent a broad cross section of Oregonians, special emphasis shall be given to recruiting high school dropouts and other disadvantaged and at-risk youth, according to criteria established by the Oregon Youth Conservation Corps Advisory Committee.

(6) To the extent practicable, the program director shall enlist state and federal agencies, local government, nonprofit organizations, and private businesses, and any combination of such entities, to act as sponsors for programs administered under this section. Selection of sponsors shall be based on criteria that include the following:

(a) The availability of other resources on a matching basis, including contributions from private sources, other federal, state and local agencies, and moneys available through the Job Training Partnership Act (P.L. 97-300, as amended, 29 U.S.C. 1501 et seq.);

(b) The provision of related educational and job training programs to participants, including but not limited to high school and college coursework, General Educational Development (GED) tests equivalency training, project-related education and professional training;

(c) Assurances that proposed projects will not displace existing employees or duplicate existing private or government programs; and

(d) Assurances that proposed projects are devoted to the enhancement of the community and are not based in maintenance activities and that these projects meet an identified need[; and]

[(e) Assurances that the proposed projects have been reviewed by the appropriate local commission on children and families established under ORS 417.760].

(7) In consultation with the advisory committee [and with the approval of the local commission], the program director shall make grants for programs administered under this section.

SECTION 4. ORS 418.660 is amended to read:

418.660. (1) The [program] programs established under ORS 418.650 to 418.663 may include, but shall not be limited to, projects such as:

(a) Rangeland conservation, rehabilitation and improvement;

(b) Endangered species and other wildlife habitat conservation, rehabilitation and improvement;

(d) Historical and cultural site preservation and maintenance;

(e) Recreational area development, maintenance, improvement and beautification;

(f) Road and trail maintenance and improvement;

(g) Soil conservation work, including erosion control;

(h) Flood, drought and storm damage assistance and relief;

(i) Stream, lake, waterfront harbor and port improvement and pollution control;

(j) Fish culture and habitat maintenance and improvement;

(k) Insect, disease, rodent and other pestilence control;

(L) Improvement of abandoned railroad land and right of way;

(m) Land reclamation and improvement, including strip-mined lands, public landscape work and tree planting programs;

(n) Energy conservation projects including assistance in the performance of energy efficiency audits, weatherization and renewable resource enhancement;

(o) Emergency assistance in times of natural or other disaster; and

(p) Recycling projects.

(2) In consultation with the Oregon Youth Conservation Corps Advisory Committee [and with the approval of the local commission on children and families established under ORS 417.760], the program director of the Oregon Youth Conservation Corps shall [assure] ensure that projects selected under ORS 418.650 to 418.663 shall be consistent with all other provisions of applicable state and federal law relating to the management, oversight and administration of affected public lands.

SECTION 5. ORS 418.663 is amended to read:

418.663. (1) Projects selected under ORS 418.650 to 418.663 shall:

(a) Result in an increase in employment opportunities for disadvantaged and at-risk youth over those opportunities which would otherwise be available;

(b) Not result in the displacement of currently employed workers, including partial displacement such as reduction in the hours of nonovertime work or wages or employment benefits;

(c) Not impair existing contracts for services or result in the substitution of state for other funds in connection with work that would otherwise be performed;

(d) Not substitute jobs assisted under ORS 418.650 to 418.663 for existing federally assisted jobs;

(e) Not employ any person when any other person is on layoff by an employer from the same or any substantially equivalent job in the same area; and

(f) Not be used to employ any person to fill a job opening created by the act of an employer in laying off or terminating employment of any regular employee, otherwise reducing the regular workforce not supported under ORS 418.650 to 418.663, in anticipation of filling the vacancy so created by hiring a person to be supported under ORS 418.650 to 418.663.

(2) Where a labor organization represents employees who are engaged in similar work or a workers' cooperative is engaged in work in the same area to that proposed to be performed under the program for which an application is being developed, the organization or cooperative shall be notified and shall be afforded a reasonable period of time prior to the submission of the application in which to make comments to the applicant and to the program director of the Oregon Youth Conservation Corps.

SECTION 6. On the effective date of this 1999 Act, the administration of the Oregon Youth Conservation Corps is transferred from the State Commission on Children and Families to the Office of Community College Services.

SECTION 7. The State Commission on Children and Families, whose duties, functions and powers relating to administration of the Oregon Youth Conservation Corps are transferred by this 1999 Act to the Office of Community College Services, shall deliver to the office all records and property within the jurisdiction of the commission that relate to the duties, functions and powers of administration of the Oregon Youth Conservation Corps so transferred, and shall transfer those employees engaged primarily in the exercise of the duties, functions and powers of administration of the Oregon Youth Conservation Corps so transferred. The office to which such delivery and transfer is made shall take possession of such property, and shall take charge of such employees and employ them in the exercise of their duties, functions and powers relating to administration of the Oregon Youth Conservation Corps assigned or transferred by this 1999 Act, without reduction of compensation but subject to change or termination of employment or compensation as provided by law. Any dispute as to transfers of property and employees under this section shall be resolved by the Governor, and the Governor's decision is final.

SECTION 8. All unexpended moneys appropriated or otherwise available to the State Commission on Children and Families for the purposes of any of its duties, functions or powers relating to administration of the Oregon Youth Conservation Corps transferred by this 1999 Act to the Office of Community College Services are appropriated to the office.

SECTION 9. Any proceeding, action, prosecution or other business or matter undertaken or commenced before the effective date of this 1999 Act by the State Commission on Children and Families, with respect to the duties, functions or powers of administration of the Oregon Youth Conservation Corps transferred to the Office of Community College Services, and still pending on the effective date of this 1999 Act, may be conducted and completed by the office in the same manner, under the same terms and conditions and with the same effect as though undertaken, conducted or completed by the commission before the transfer.

SECTION 10. Nothing in this 1999 Act relieves any person of any obligation with respect to a tax, fee, fine or other charge, interest, penalty, forfeiture or other liability, duty or obligation.

SECTION 11. The Office of Community College Services to which duties, functions and powers of administration of the Oregon Youth Conservation Corps are assigned and transferred by this 1999 Act is considered to be a continuation of the State Commission on Children and Families with respect to such duties, functions and powers relating to administration of the Oregon Youth Conservation Corps, and not a new authority, for the purpose of succession to all rights and obligations of the commission as constituted at the time of such assignment or transfer, except as otherwise provided by this 1999 Act, with the same force and effect as if such duties, functions and powers had not been assigned or transferred.

SECTION 12. (1) Whenever, in any law or resolution of the Legislative Assembly related to the administration of the Oregon Youth Conservation Corps or in any rule, document, record or proceeding authorized thereby, reference is made to the State Commission on Children and Families, or employee thereof, whose duties, functions or powers of administration of the Oregon Youth Conservation Corps are assigned or transferred by this 1999 Act, except as otherwise provided in this 1999 Act such reference is considered to describe the Office of Community College Services or employee thereof that by this 1999 Act is charged with carrying out such duties, functions and powers.

(2) The lawful rules of the commission with respect to duties, functions or powers of administration of the Oregon Youth Conservation Corps assigned or transferred by this 1999 Act continue in effect until superseded or rescinded by rules lawfully adopted by the office to which was transferred the duty, function or power to which the rules apply.

SECTION 13. This 1999 Act being necessary for the immediate preservation of the public peace, health and safety, an emergency is declared to exist, and this 1999 Act takes effect July 1, 1999.

Approved by the Governor April 20, 1999

Filed in the office of Secretary of State April 20, 1999

Effective date July 1, 1999

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