[ODF_Private_Forests] ODF Agency Budget Update and Planning for the Future

[WEEKS Kevin]

Private Forests News list members:

The Oregon Department of Forestry's Executive Team provided this budget situation update to Forestry staff on Thursday afternoon.

Kevin Weeks
Public Information Officer
Oregon Department of Forestry / Agency Affairs Office
(503) 945-7427
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Sent: Thursday, November 12, 2009 5:12 PM
Subject: Agency Budget Update and Planning for the Future

Hi everyone…we wanted to give you another update on our where we are in implementing our agency budget for the 2009-11 biennium, which began July 1.  As you know, we are working through one of the most challenging financial times in Oregon’s history, and as an agency of state government, we’ve had to make significant organizational changes over the past 12 months, particularly in the State Forests and Private Forests programs, to live within our means.  Now that we are into the biennium, three additional planning steps are underway that will likely bring additional change.

Changes to administrative programs

As we have been planning and implementing the changes in State Forests and Private Forests over the past year, we have also been examining the functions within the agency administrative programs to see how the operating program changes would impact administrative work, and vice versa.  We have said all along that administrative support levels must align with operating program needs, and that these operating program needs, after the changes are implemented, would drive the decisions for administrative changes.

We are now at the point where the administrative changes need to be considered, and for the past two months, the administrative program directors have been considering the impacts of the State Forests and Private Forests program changes in the broader context of needs for the Fire Protection program and legal and regulatory requirements at the agency level.  The program directors have developed and presented to the Executive Team a number of cost savings and budget reduction options that could be considered in order to align the administrative work with the operating program needs.

Out of this current work, we expect three things to happen.  First, we will implement or continue to implement some changes in administrative program work and procedures to reduce costs and generate budget savings over the biennium.  Examples here include reducing printing and publication costs, redesigning training programs and delivery methods, reducing travel expenses, moving some planning work to federal agreements, taking advantage of reimbursements for purchasing and employee injury management, increasing energy efficiencies in buildings, etc.

Secondly, we will implement some new administrative cost savings measures across the entire department to again reduce costs during the biennium.  Examples include suspending the normal replacement of some computer and technology hardware for a year or so, reducing our telephone instrument and line charges, delaying the replacement of some vehicles, delaying some capital infrastructure investments, etc.  This will come in the form of uniform guidance from the Executive Team to the Leadership Team.

The third action is that we will move forward to implement some budget reductions in the administrative programs to bring down our overall costs and align with the reduced work of the operating programs.  As we move forward with the budget reduction actions, we will use the same guiding principles we used for the State Forest and Private Forests reductions, and to the greatest extent possible, try to minimize the impact of budget reductions on employees and our internal service delivery.  Actions that do have employee impacts will be handled in the same manner as we have before, guided by the collective bargaining contract, and handled on a personal level with the employee’s supervisor and Human Resources staff.

The Division Chiefs and Area Directors are currently reviewing all the proposed cost saving and budget reduction options and will be finalizing the set of recommended actions within the next four weeks, at which point the full Executive Team will make the final decisions about moving forward.  We’ll be sharing information across the agency in these coming weeks as soon as the initial thinking is completed and then as final decisions are made.  Actions that are taken will begin to occur in early 2010.

Further state level budget reduction planning

As you know from previous messages, the Oregon Legislature will be convening in a special session in February of next year.  The Oregon economy continues to be in serious recession, and revenues for state government operations are very uncertain.

Much of the February session will be centered around the budget and revenue situation.  In order to prepare contingencies for a worsening budget or revenue outlook, the legislative leadership has asked all agencies funded with state revenues or lottery funds to prepare further budget reduction options up to a 10% of current budget level.  For us, that means a General Fund reduction of about $4 million.

In our planning for this response back to the Legislature, the Executive Team has chosen to return to our original strategic plan for General Fund budget reductions that we used for the regular legislative work last summer that produced the budget we now have.  This means that we will propose reduction options that further reduce the Private Forests program, but because this doesn’t get us to the full 10% reduction level agency-wide, we will also have to propose reductions in the Fire Protection program.  And because part of the funding of the Fire Program’s share of agency administration in this biennium is General Fund, we will also have to submit reduction options for agency administration programs.

As we said before, the outlook for the state’s budget is still uncertain, and we really don’t know today how much of a budget reduction will need to be taken at the state level, if any – and we also don’t know how much our share would be if reductions are made.  The decisions will be made by the Legislature during the February session, and as we know more between now and then, we will share that information with you.

Stimulus planning and new federal funding

We’re continuing to work aggressively to obtain and now implement federal stimulus dollars, which have provided opportunities for some employees affected by layoffs.  Our new Partnership Development Program and the operating programs are working very hard to leverage and capture all that we can effectively implement as we work to provide meaningful forestry services to landowners and our state forests.  This work is challenging, but folks across the agency are doing a great job with a very complex system.

Also, in just the past two weeks, the federal budget for fiscal year 2010 was completed, and some positive news for forestry agencies across the country has resulted.  The final budget levels for state and private forestry programs through the US Forest Service for wildland fire protection increased by 23%, while the remaining state and private programs that we work with most closely increased by 16%.  We won’t know for a couple of months how those increases will specifically translate to our agency, but it is safe to say that we will see an increase in federal funding in both our base level federal program work and also in our grant level work.

In closing

We know that these past 12 months have been difficult, both organizationally and personally.  These continue to be the most challenging of times. The loss of staff – our most valuable asset – and the personal effects of layoffs on employees and their families, are unfortunate and hard on all of us. So is the loss of service, commitment and expertise that make this agency such an asset to the state and our stakeholders.

We are doing all we can to alleviate these consequences through our management of the budget, the workloads, the reductions, the layoff processes, an aggressive pursuit of stimulus dollars and other revenues, and implementing cost-saving measures.  But you can help a lot by continuing to focus on your job at hand and giving it your best effort like you always do, and also by trying to be an encouragement for one another, recognizing that even in these tough times, we are fortunate in many ways, including having each other to lean on as needed.  Take a moment in the coming weeks to say, “thanks” to one of your fellow workers for the great job they are doing, and tell them how much you appreciate them.

And as always, we also thank each of you for the great work you do – especially in the face of such uncertainty and change.

Please feel free to speak with your supervisor or a member of the Executive Team if you have questions.


Best regards,

Paul Bell, Associate State Forester and Chief                                    Nancy Hirsch, Chief
Fire Protection Division                                                                     State Forests Division

Jim Paul, Chief                                                                                  Clark Seely, Chief
Private Forests Division                                                                     Administrative Services Division