Walker Commends SAIF For a Job Well Done

Senator Addresses Board Of Directors, Praises New Leadership

Oregon Senator VIcki Walker

(SALEM) - Senator Vicki Walker (D-Eugene) addressed SAIF Corporation`s board of directors at the State Accident Insurance Fund office in Salem on Tuesday and praised SAIF`s new leadership team for squarely confronting the many problems that have beset the organization in the past.

Walker, formerly one of SAIF`s sharpest critics, sent a letter to SAIF`s CEO Brenda Rocklin in May lauding the corporation`s April 25 Final Report and requesting the opportunity to attend the June board meeting.

Under the guidance of Ms. Rocklin, SAIF has cleaned house in top-level management; increased board oversight and agency transparency; installed an internal auditing function by hiring the top-notch former director of the state`s Audits Division, Cathy Pollino; established a document retention and email policy; and established new public records policies and procedures.

In addition, the agency has severed its questionable relationship with Associated Oregon Industries, has given the board oversight over all group contracts, and has redesigned its advertising and public relations strategy.

`These are the kinds of steps that my colleagues and I have been clamoring for," Senator Walker told the board. `It is refreshing to see this state agency remember the people it serves and the people to whom it should be accountable…the citizens of the state of Oregon and its representatives in the legislature," she added.

The Final Report also indicated that `[i]n January 2006, the board of directors adopted a lobbying policy that sets forth guidelines for the hiring of lobbyists, lobbying activity by SAIF employees, and the reporting of lobbying expenditures."

Senator Walker encouraged the board to fully implement that new policy when the Victory Group`s lobbying contract expires August 30, 2006. She told the board that it did not serve them well to have an overtly partisan lobbyist on their payroll who could not even step into the offices of nearly one-third to one-half of the members of the Oregon Legislative Assembly. She reminded the board that SAIF is neither Democrat nor Republican; it is a state agency acting like an insurance company.

In response, Chair John Anhorn told Senator Walker, `We want to stay out of politics." He noted it has been his goal as board chair to see SAIF Corporation taken completely out of politics.

Senator Walker also observed that SAIF Corporation was implementing many of the recommendations that were contained in SB 310, the SAIF reform measure, and SB 984, which would have reformed the assigned risk pool by developing ways to help Oregon businesses grow and prosper with access to low-cost insurance.

`I am very encouraged by the changes SAIF has made over the past several months, and I am confident they will continue to make progress under the leadership of CEO Rocklin and Chair Anhorn," said Walker.