| December 2009 |
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| Director's Message |
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Welcome to the latest edition of What’s Up at DAS, the quarterly newsletter of the Department of Administrative Services.
Sustainability is a popular issue these days, but at DAS, it is much more than a topic of conversation. Several of our newsletter articles this quarter highlight our efforts to reduce energy consumption and promote sustainable practices.
With winter weather now at hand, take note of the article about the process to close a state office due to weather or other factors, and the resources for notices on closures.
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| Director's Office |
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Economic forecasts to go “green” in 2010
Beginning next month, the Office of Economic Analysis will go green by limiting its mailings of quarterly forecast publications.
People may sign up to receive automatic e-mail notices whenever the Office of Economic Analysis makes available new or revised forecasts — economic, revenue, corrections (adult and youth). The office posts new information on its Web site, giving users easy access to view, download or print desired publications. Subscribe to e-mail notices.
The office also has set up a new subscription service for people who want to buy copies of the forecasts and receive them by mail. Order form (pdf)
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The Oregon Economic and Revenue Forecast provides information to planners and policy makers in state agencies and private organizations for use in decision-making. The forecast is the basis for much of the budgeting in state government; it comes out four times a year (March, June, September and December).
Corrections forecasts come out in April and October each year.
For more information, visit the Office of Economic Analysis Web site.
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DAS and ODOT gear up for winter weather
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Oregon state government wants to ensure it stays open to conduct the citizens’ business. Occasionally, though, bad weather or other conditions force the state to close offices.
During the past year, DAS has worked with the Department of Transportation and others to revise the policy that details the decision-making process to close a state office. The revised policy calls for ODOT’s regional staff to make the call if conditions warrant a closure outside the Salem and Portland areas. The DAS Director still makes the call for Salem and Portland offices.
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DAS maintains a Web site to communicate with state employees and citizens about the closure of state offices in Oregon. The site contains resources for employees and agencies, including the employment rules that apply to closures, and sample flyers to communicate with employees.
Other sources for closure announcements include the media, and for Salem and Portland closures, an employee-only hotline: (503) 373-0850.
Building Closure Web Site | Policy on Temporary Interruption of Employment (pdf)
Contact: Raelynn Henson, (503) 378-4481
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| Enterprise Information Strategy and Policy Division |
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Statewide Aerial Imagery
In 2005, EISPD’s Geospatial Enterprise Office (GEO) worked with federal, state, county, local and private entities to acquire statewide high-quality color imagery. For the first time color imagery of this scale and quality became available for Oregon. Even better, the imagery is public domain, which means everyone may use it.
Originally, distribution involved copying the imagery to portable hard drives and sharing the drives among project partners and other entities. This approach became too labor intensive, however, and resulted in multiple copies of the data, sometimes within a single organization. To solve the problem, GEO worked with the Oregon Explorer program to develop a Web-based viewing and distribution portal called Oregon Imagery Explorer.
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Oregon Explorer is a cooperative effort between the Oregon State University Library and Institute for Natural Resources.
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This Imagery Explorer portal is just one aspect of the larger Oregon Explorer Web site. By using Imagery Explorer, people can view and acquire the 2005 imagery and apply it in many different ways.
This fall, GEO again coordinated an effort to acquire more imagery, and anticipates adding 2009 imagery to the 2005 collection. Both “vintages” of imagery will be available via the Oregon Explorer portal at http://www.oregonexplorer.info/imagery/.
Contact: gis@gis.state.or.us, (503) 378-2166
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DAS helps agencies work on security plans
An agency’s security plan details how to protect information assets, beginning with creation of the assets and ending with proper disposal when their usefulness is gone. Implementing an information security plan is not a one-time event. Rather, it is an ongoing cycle to identify changes in policy and requirements, train users, enforce compliance, and assess results. An agency should develop a plan that supports its mission and business goals in light of the value of its information assets, as well as the required steps to protect the information.
To guide agencies through the plan-writing process, the DAS Enterprise Security Office has held several hands-on workshops and developed a security plan template, guidelines, and a criteria sheet. When the security office reviews an agency’s plan, it looks for these elements:
- Processes designed to:
- Identify the agency's information assets
- Determine the sensitivity of information
- Determine an appropriate level of protection
- Applicable legal and regulatory requirements
- Roles and responsibilities for information security within the agency
- Security awareness and training programs
- Policies that govern the agency’s information security activities
Agencies can obtain additional reference materials at the security plan Web page. To submit a completed plan, send it to Theresa A. Masse via e-mail, shuttle mail or post: 955 Center Street NE, Room 470, Salem, OR 97301.
Contact: Theresa A. Masse, (503) 378-4896
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| Public Employees' Benefit Board |
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More than 95 percent of employees enrolled for 2010 benefits during Open Enrollment in October. Through the online system, they updated their information, certified dependents, chose benefits and confirmed their choices.
PEBB will self-insure healthcare for about 80 percent of employees next year. Providence Health Plans will administer the self-insured medical plans. ODS administers the self-insured dental plans. Administrators process claims and contract for networks of providers.
Employees who enrolled in a new plan will receive a new ID card in December. They should use the new card when they access healthcare in the New Year.
Contact: Ingrid Norberg, (503) 378-4313
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| Human Resource Services Division |
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Update on online recruiting
E-Recruit is a product
of NEOGov
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In June, the Human Resource Services Division launched the E-Recruit project to meet the goal of providing Oregon state government an online tool for recruiting. The tool will offer applicants a modern, online recruiting process; provide greatly improved recruiting capabilities; and ease the workload created by the current paper process.
Representatives from many state agencies serve on the project team, a group that has used a highly collaborative process to implement the new E-Recruit system. Several agencies volunteered as early-adopters and implemented the system in November. Among them are the departments of Revenue, Transportation, Housing and Community Services, the Cemetery and Mortuary Board, and Office of the State Treasurer.
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All branches of state government — Executive, Judicial, Legislative — will transition to the new system between now and March 31, 2010. During the transition, employment opportunities will still appear on the state jobs page at www.oregonjobs.org; openings that agencies post in the new system also will appear at
http://agency.governmentjobs.com/oregon. As more agencies move to the new system, more postings will appear.
If you have any questions about this new and innovative approach to filling state jobs, please contact one of DAS’ team members: Steve Schafer, Twyla Lawson, Laurie Grenya or Sheri Nees, or visit E-Recruit on the Web.
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| Facilities Division |
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Electricity “scorecards” shine light on energy use
DAS recently launched a new communication tool for tenants of DAS-owned buildings: Electricity Scorecards. The card displays a building’s performance in conserving electricity and offers tips for improvement. One scorecard packs a powerful amount of information that tenants can act on immediately. The text next to the black arrows below describes the contents of the scorecard.
The DAS sustainability Web site provides several recent scorecards for state buildings. To request help or ideas to increase sustainable practices at your location, contact Elin Shepard, DAS Sustainability Coordinator.
Contact: Elin Shepard, (503) 373-7132
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| State Services Division |
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P&D offers tips to improve print quality
Technology has improved the copy-print process in recent years. Most P&D customers provide originals for print via electronic file transfer. In some cases, though, a customer supplies hardcopy originals.
If you supply hardcopy, use these tips to improve the quality of the final product:
- Furnish clean originals with sharp, high contrast images.
- Do not write on the back or fasten anything, including tape, to the document.
- Submit an original, rather than photocopies. A copy of an original produces a better final product than a copy of a copy.
- Originals that include sections of cut and taped copy often produce shadows and lines. If taping is necessary, tape all the way around the added piece.
- Originals submitted on colored paper do not copy well and often cause a background to appear on the copies. The best quality copies come from originals in black ink on white paper.
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Call on P&D's customer service
team for any print question.
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For future print orders, P&D can prepare a print-ready PDF and provide it to the customer via CD or electronic transfer.
Contact: Customer Service Team, (503) 373-1700
Fleet reduces greenhouse gas emissions
Following the closure of the only compressed natural gas (CNG) fuel site in the Washington County area, DAS Fleet moved several CNG vehicles from Hillsboro and Beaverton to its Daily Rental Fleet. Fleet saw the opportunity to put the vehicles to better use in Salem.
CNG vehicles cost about $1.50 per gallon to fuel. These vehicles produce a very small amount of greenhouse gases, and their range is about 200 miles per tank. They are perfect for 63 percent of the Daily Rental trips that occur between Portland and Eugene.
If Fleet can achieve 50 percent use of CNG fuel in Daily Rentals, the agency and its customers will save approximately $275,000 per biennium and greatly reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Contact: Brian King, (503) 378-6057
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Surplus to offer Space Shuttle artifacts
The Federal Surplus Program has begun to work with NASA and the General Services Administration to transfer the first batch of Space Shuttle artifacts to Oregon museums. NASA anticipates over a million items from the shuttle program will become available over the next few years. Schools, universities and libraries also may obtain NASA’s items and should contact Steve Smith to establish eligibility for the Surplus program.
DAS Surplus helps Oregon agencies obtain items from federal agencies across the nation. From 1999 to 2008, the program transferred thousands of items with original purchase prices totaling more than $60 million.
Contact: Brian King, (503) 378-6057
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