[ODF_Private_Forests] ODF Administrative Reductions Update

[WEEKS Kevin]

Private Forests News list members:

Oregon Department of Forestry Administrative Division chief Satish Upadhyay provided this update to ODF staff Monday about additional budget reductions within ODF. Employees affected by position reductions are scheduled to be notified Tuesday March 9.

Kevin Weeks
Oregon Department of Forestry
Agency Affairs Office
(503) 945-7427

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Hi everyone -

As you may recall, the Executive Team has been reviewing options for budget reductions in our agency-wide administrative programs, to bring down our overall costs and align with the reduced scale of the operating programs.

Based on recommendations from the directors of our administrative support programs, the Exec Team has made decisions on these reductions, and we are now moving forward to implement them.

In our review, we looked for ways to reduce expenses in services and supplies as well as in staff resources, while maintaining as best we could our capacity to serve the agency.

I wanted to take a moment to summarize these reductions for you.

In all, the reductions for the rest of this biennium (through June 30, 2011), total almost $1.8 million. Most of these savings are in what is called administrative pro-rate - dollars that each operating program pays to support agency-wide services, such as Human Resources, Information Technology, Business Services, Facilities and others.

Here are the main elements of our reduction plan:


 *   Personnel reductions. These include three layoffs - one each in Human Resources training, Facilities, and Business Services office support. We also will not be filling six positions that are currently vacant or that will become vacant soon. These positions are in Human Resources, Resources Planning, Information Technology, Business Services and Agency Affairs. There are several other position adjustments as well.


 *   Other savings within administrative services. This category includes actions such as reducing overtime costs in Information Technology for system maintenance, increasing use of federal funds through new agreements for some of our Resources Planning work, reducing staffing in our legislative tracking office, and trimming our Service Award Program, Agency Leadership Program and other activities.


 *   Administrative cost reductions across the department. These are measures taken across all programs, in Salem and in the field. They include suspending our normal schedule for replacing desktop computers, reducing telephone costs, and gaining efficiency by delivering more training electronically rather than in person.

Adequate administrative supports are essential if we are to successfully serve our stakeholders and all Oregonians. However, many of these basic services are inadequately funded, a challenge we have had for many years.

In seeking reductions in these areas, we have followed the same principles we used earlier in reducing budgets in other parts of the agency. We have tried to retain staff resources - our most valuable asset - wherever possible, and to retain an essential core of priority services.

Nonetheless, as has been the case with the reductions we have seen in our operating programs, these cuts will affect the services we are able to provide to Oregonians.

In closing, I'd like to join my colleagues on the Executive Team in expressing my appreciation for your dedication and continued hard work as we endure a challenging time. We'll continue to strive to make the most of the resources available to us, and to pursue new funding sources wherever we can find them.

As always, please feel free to speak to your supervisor or a member of the Executive Team if you have questions.

Best regards,

Satish Upadhyay
Chief, Administrative Services Division

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