C3 Needs You: On Wednesday, October 26, at 10:30 a.m., the doors to the Corvallis Community Center, located at 2601 NW Tyler Ave., will be opened up to allow you to bring an opinion or two. Over refreshments, the people at C3 will be telling the public about their updates in the works. They ask that you listen and offer your thoughts, ideas, and any interests you have for the center.
If you can’t make it in the morning, come by at 5:30 p.m. for the second session.
HOPE Board Meeting: The Home, Opportunity, Planning and Equity (HOPE) Advisory Board will be having their monthly virtual meeting on Oct. 26, from 4:00-6:00 p.m.
In this meeting, they will be discussing resource centers in Benton County, how they are changing to meet the growing needs in the area, and how their resources align with HOPE recommendations. Speakers will include Allison Hobgood of the Corvallis Daytime Drop-in Center and Janeece Cook of the Kepi Nak-Nak Resource Center in Monroe.
Find the details for attendance here.
New JSIP Poll Results: On Oct. 18, the Benton County Commissioners spoke about the newest poll results concerning the Justice System Improvement Program (JSIP) – which is set to replace the Benton County courthouse, District Attorney’s offices, Sheriff’s offices, Emergency Operations Center, and jail, while also building a Mental Health Crisis Center and a Homeless Resources Center. This poll was conducted from September 7-14 as a means of better understanding voter priorities.
Of the 400 respondents, voters supported the idea of a $95 million bond “that would fund investments in community safety, mental health, and homeless services facilities” 57-to-36 with a margin of error of ±4.9%. Support for the measure fell to 49-to-43 when homeless services were not included in the proposal.
Two aspects of the proposed system – the Crisis Center and Homeless Resource Center – were the most popular with those polled, garnering 61% and 58% support respectively. Read more about this poll here.
Paid Leave Oregon Coming: One new law that will be added to Oregon’s books come January 2023 is known as the Paid Leave Oregon. According to the law, employers – anywhere in the world provided with at least one Oregon employee – must participate in this wage replacement program which allows new parents to care for and bond with a new child/children after birth, adoption or foster care placement and to care for a family member with a serious illness or injury. The program also provides Paid Leave for employees who need to recover from their own serious health condition or to take leave if they or a family member has experienced domestic violence, sexual assault, or harassment.
Employers and employees begin contributing to the program on Jan. 1, 2023, and employees are eligible for Paid Leave benefits starting in September 2023.
There are three caveats – the employee must be actively employed to receive the benefit and cannot simultaneously receive unemployment insurance or worker’s compensation; the employee must have earned at least $1,000 in at least four of the five quarters in Oregon prior to requesting to be on the program; and the employee must have been employed with their current employer for at least 30 days prior to requesting to be on the program.
Employees are allowed to use their accrued paid time off or sick leave prior to applying for Paid Leave Oregon benefits, however the employer may not require an employee to do so. An employee may be eligible to take 12 weeks of paid leave through this program per benefit year. Employees contribute 60% of 1% of their gross wages and employers with 25 or more employees will contribute 40% of the employees’ gross wages. Employers with less than 25 employees do not have to contribute the employer contribution. For more details, go to paidleave.oregon.gov.
By Advocate Staff
CORRECTION: In the original article, there were some inaccuracies about the new Paid Leave Oregon program. They have been corrected.
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