OPLC Update Nov/Dec 2009
OPLC Update
November/December 2009
In this Update:
Consumer Law & Foreclosure
Joe Maskovyak and Linda Cook continue to work on several foreclosure related bills that are working their way through the legislative process. On November 18, 2009, Linda testified as an interested party for HB 306*, a foreclosure mediation bill, expressing general support but also concern about requiring defendants to file an answer to trigger mediation. To see Linda’s written testimony, click here. Both Joe and Linda attended a December 1, 2009 meeting of interested parties to discuss further possible amendments to this bill.
Linda and Joe have been attending meetings and hearings and submitting comments and concerns to the sponsor on HB 323, a bill that seeks to help cities and localities address the rise in vacant and abandoned properties that has resulted from the foreclosure crisis.
Education Law
OPLC is one of 200+ signatories nationwide to the Dignity in Schools Campaign’s (DSC) National Resolution Against School Pushout, a call to end school policies and practices that push children out of school and to recognize and respect the dignity and human right of all children to receive an education. Sarah Biehl is a core group member of the DSC and has been working on the National Resolution for most of the year. Sarah will use the National Resolution as a starting point for advocating for changes to Ohio’s policies such as zero tolerance, school discipline, and special education.
Sarah founded and has been working with a coalition of statewide partners, including Vanessa Coterel from the Legal Aid Society of Columbus and representatives from Policy Matters Ohio and the ACLU of Ohio, to create a statewide strategy and plan to end the School to Prison Pipeline in Ohio.
Employment Law
Mike Smalz and Gene King are working with Zach Schiller of Policy Matters Ohio and attorneys from the Wage Payment Clinic at the Legal Aid Society of Cleveland to try to restore funding to the Bureau of Wages and Hours in the Ohio Department of Commerce. The agency was zero-funded during its second fiscal year under the current budget (beginning July 1, 2010). The loss of the investigative resources and capabilities of the state Bureau of Wages and Hours could seriously undermine enforcement of the state minimum wage and overtime laws.
Family and Juvenile Law
Sarah, Joe, and Mike have been spending a lot of time at the Statehouse working on HB 167*, a bill to provide housing and employment protections to domestic violence victims. Sarah and Joe worked closely with the sponsor to defeat numerous industry amendments prior to the vote in the House Committee, some which would have had the effect of gutting the bill's safeguards for domestic violence victims. Additionally, Mike and Joe, along with our partners at the Ohio Domestic Violence Network (ODVN), vetted and significantly improved various “compromise” amendments shortly before the bill’s sponsor introduced those amendments on the House floor. In the past month, OPLC’s focus for HB 167 has been on talking with targeted moderate Republicans in the House prior to the House floor vote. Our efforts were successful, as HB 167 passed the House 58-38, with eight Republicans and all Democrats voting for the bill. The bill now moves over to the Senate, where it has been assigned to the Civil Judiciary Committee. OPLC will continue to work with partners at ODVN to ensure that the bill becomes law.
Mike continues to work on HB 10, a bill to allow juveniles to obtain civil protection orders and to allow CPOs to be obtained against juveniles. Recently, Mike contacted the bill’s sponsor to persuade her to support adding a legal aid filing fee surcharge increase amendment to her bill. As a result of his and other advocates’ work, the sponsor agreed to support the amendment and the Senate Judiciary Civil Justice Committee approved the legal aid funding amendment and passed HB 10.
As a member of the Ohio Supreme Court Advisory Committee on Children, Families, and the Courts and its Child Abuse, Neglect and Dependency Subcommittee, Mike (and others) worked on drafting comprehensive child welfare reform legislation, HB 371, to replace the existing “child abuse, neglect and dependency” terminology with “a child in need of protective services” (CHIPS), providing more precise and consistent definitions of the types of harm to children that will trigger Children Services intervention, and implement the family-friendly, support of services-oriented “alternative response model” to handling child welfare cases statewide.
Public Benefits
Chris Barley continues to monitor the delays and backlog of public benefits appeals hearings with the ODJFS Bureau of State Hearings*. Due to advocacy by OPLC and the Ohio legal services community, ODJFS recently hired additional hearing officers and support staff, but so far there has not been any measurable improvement in the delays or timeliness rates. ODJFS tells us they expect improvement in the first quarter of 2010, after employees have exhausted their cost savings days and the Bureau catches up with an increase in the number of monthly hearing requests. Click here to see a chart showing the number of untimely state hearings decisions issued by ODJFS from January 2008-November 2009.
Chris continues to collect and index ODJFS policy clarifications, historically referred to as “Secret Rules.” OPLC has collected policy clarifications issued in 2009 and maintains an indexed and searchable library of issued hearing and appeal decisions. Contact Chris for more information.
Mike continues to work with the statewide Refund the Credit Campaign, which is drafting an recruiting legislative support for legislation to establish a state Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) and a refundable childcare tax credit. Both changes would provide cash benefits to many low income working families in Ohio.
Utilities
Mike and Joe continue to oppose SB 162 and HB 276, the telecom “dereg” companion bills. They are working with a statewide coalition, Ohioans Protecting Telephone Consumers (OPTC), led by the Ohio Consumers’ Counsel (OCC). Mike testified in opposition in both the House and Senate versions of the bill, and Senator Ray Miller compared Mike to Jesse Jackson in his “eloquence.” Joe has attended stakeholder meetings as well as numerous meetings with individual legislators. OPTC opposes the bills primarily because they allow price increases without effective competition, decrease consumer protections, weaken the low-income Lifeline program, and offer no broadband commitment.
Mike and Joe teamed up with the Ohio Consumers’ Counsel (OCC) to make some final improvements to the Ohio Department of Development’s (ODOD) Percentage of Income Payment Plan (PIPP) rules for electricity service. This is the finalization of a long term advocacy effort by many legal services lawyers statewide. ODOD responded favorably to our suggestions to improve the new arrearage crediting plans and hardship exemptions from the minimum payment rule. OPLC joined a letter of support with OCC to endorse passage of the rules by JCARR, which occurred on November 16, 2009. The changes will be implemented in November, 2010, in time for the next winter heating season.
OPLC Board of Managers Meets
The OPLC Board of Managers held its initial meeting on November 23, 2009. The Board reviewed the OPLC structure, workplan, and finances and discussed future work and potential issues. To see a list of OPLC Board members, click here.
CORT Board Meets to Set 2010 Training Schedule
The Board of the Committee on Regional Training (CORT) met on December 4, 2009 at OPLC’s office to review training needs, survey results, and available training funds, and to establish a regional training schedule for 2010 for Ohio, Michigan, and West Virginia. The board approved a contract to revise and update CORT’s Negotiation training. Ohio’s CORT representatives are Andrea Price, Kelly Malone, Aneel Chablani, and Gene King. The Board agreed to expand Ohio’s membership on the Board to include a representative from each region. Ohio will announce its in-state training schedule in early 2010. To see the 2010 CORT training schedule, click here.
OPLC Plans to Add Communications Capacity
OPLC is going to contract with a communications consultant to work with staff 10 - 15 hours per week to expand OPLC’s use of strategic communications. The consultant will help to direct OPLC’s media, public relations, and other communications efforts. The position will include developing and implementing targeted and effective media campaigns to support OPLC’s statewide poverty law advocacy work as well as training and providing leadership to OPLC staff and others to develop messages, promote poverty law issues, and communicate effectively with the public about OPLC’s work.
Revised BLST a Success
OPLC and CORT presented Basic Lawyering Skills Training (BLST) in November for 40+ participants from Ohio, Michigan and West Virginia. This was the first presentation of the newly revised training package and case file. Using a combination of lectures, demonstrations, and small group exercises, the training covered interviewing, negotiations, discovery, motion practice, and case analysis. We will present this training again in late 2010. Review the 2009 BLST training agenda here.
Other Recent Trainings and Conferences
Linda and Gene participated as panelists at the annual NLADA Conference in Denver. Linda and Tom Mlakar (LAS Cleveland) joined panelists from Michigan to discuss the Ohio legal services community’s coordinated response to the foreclosure crisis. Gene was a panelist to discuss the current status and future strategies of state and national support programs as they evolve to respond to the changing needs of the overall legal aid community.
Gene participated in the West Virginia statewide conference. He presented a session on Project Planning, Project Management and Time Management and another session on Professional Development.
On November 17, 2009, Linda moderated a panel discussion on The Ins and Outs of Loss Mitigation for the Ohio Housing Law Conference.
Mike planned, organized, coordinated and lectured at CORT’s Advanced Family Law Training November 5-6, 2009 in Columbus. The training attracted 52 participants.
Joe did a presentation on a wide variety of topics on landlord-tenant law in an all-day training at the annual Ohio Housing Law Conference, sponsored by OHFA/OCCH.
As part of her work with the Dignity in Schools Campaign, Sarah has been working as one of the main drafters and editors of a Model School Code that would promote preventive practices as an alternative to ineffective and overly punitive school discipline policies that over-rely on exclusion from school, criminalization of student behavior, and increased reliance on law enforcement to discipline students. Sarah led a breakout session to vet the draft Model School Code at the American Bar Association Summit Raising Our Hands: Creating a National Strategy for Children’s Right to Education and Counsel in Chicago.
Melissa Lindsay continues to be involved in State and Franklin County prisoner reentry coalitions. She, along with Southeastern Ohio Legal Services attorney Joshua Goodwin, attended Ross and Chillicothe Correctional Institutions Reentry Days, providing 800 inmates with information about legal services and OPLC. Melissa also continues to build relationships with community organizations focused on prisoner reentry, as well as participating in Citizen Circle mentoring groups for post-release individuals. On December 11, 2009, she held a presentation and legal clinic at Hocking Correctional Institution, during which she gave 40 inmates nearing release information about available programs and services as well as how to most successfully reenter society. Melissa has also been working with other advocates around the state on S.B. 22, a corrections reform bill with reentry components.
January is NASTY
OPLC will present the New Advocates Substantive Training - Yearly (NASTY) on January 6 - 8, 2010 in Columbus. This training provides introductions to more than a dozen areas of substantive poverty law. The training aims to provide participants an outline of the subject matter, an overview of major issues in each substantive area, a method of analyzing issues, and written reference materials. It also helps participants identify resource people across the state in each substantive area of legal services practice. Click here to see the NASTY training announcement and registration form. Click here to see the 2010 NASTY agenda.
January and February Task Forces
Foreclosure Responsible Persons (FRP) (January 15)
Welfare (January 20)
Immigration (January 28)
Litigation Directors (February 24)
We hope this information about our work is interesting and helpful. Let us know if you have questions, comments, or suggestions. If you do not receive OPLC Update via email and would like to, please email info@ohiopovertylaw.org.
- Advocacy News
- OPLC News
- EJW Fellow Update
- Upcoming Trainings and Task Force Meetings
- OPLC Staff Contact Info
Advocacy News
*denotes an OPLC advocacy priority issue
Consumer Law & Foreclosure
Joe Maskovyak and Linda Cook continue to work on several foreclosure related bills that are working their way through the legislative process. On November 18, 2009, Linda testified as an interested party for HB 306*, a foreclosure mediation bill, expressing general support but also concern about requiring defendants to file an answer to trigger mediation. To see Linda’s written testimony, click here. Both Joe and Linda attended a December 1, 2009 meeting of interested parties to discuss further possible amendments to this bill.
Linda and Joe have been attending meetings and hearings and submitting comments and concerns to the sponsor on HB 323, a bill that seeks to help cities and localities address the rise in vacant and abandoned properties that has resulted from the foreclosure crisis.
Education Law
OPLC is one of 200+ signatories nationwide to the Dignity in Schools Campaign’s (DSC) National Resolution Against School Pushout, a call to end school policies and practices that push children out of school and to recognize and respect the dignity and human right of all children to receive an education. Sarah Biehl is a core group member of the DSC and has been working on the National Resolution for most of the year. Sarah will use the National Resolution as a starting point for advocating for changes to Ohio’s policies such as zero tolerance, school discipline, and special education.
Sarah founded and has been working with a coalition of statewide partners, including Vanessa Coterel from the Legal Aid Society of Columbus and representatives from Policy Matters Ohio and the ACLU of Ohio, to create a statewide strategy and plan to end the School to Prison Pipeline in Ohio.
Employment Law
Mike Smalz and Gene King are working with Zach Schiller of Policy Matters Ohio and attorneys from the Wage Payment Clinic at the Legal Aid Society of Cleveland to try to restore funding to the Bureau of Wages and Hours in the Ohio Department of Commerce. The agency was zero-funded during its second fiscal year under the current budget (beginning July 1, 2010). The loss of the investigative resources and capabilities of the state Bureau of Wages and Hours could seriously undermine enforcement of the state minimum wage and overtime laws.
Family and Juvenile Law
Sarah, Joe, and Mike have been spending a lot of time at the Statehouse working on HB 167*, a bill to provide housing and employment protections to domestic violence victims. Sarah and Joe worked closely with the sponsor to defeat numerous industry amendments prior to the vote in the House Committee, some which would have had the effect of gutting the bill's safeguards for domestic violence victims. Additionally, Mike and Joe, along with our partners at the Ohio Domestic Violence Network (ODVN), vetted and significantly improved various “compromise” amendments shortly before the bill’s sponsor introduced those amendments on the House floor. In the past month, OPLC’s focus for HB 167 has been on talking with targeted moderate Republicans in the House prior to the House floor vote. Our efforts were successful, as HB 167 passed the House 58-38, with eight Republicans and all Democrats voting for the bill. The bill now moves over to the Senate, where it has been assigned to the Civil Judiciary Committee. OPLC will continue to work with partners at ODVN to ensure that the bill becomes law.
Mike continues to work on HB 10, a bill to allow juveniles to obtain civil protection orders and to allow CPOs to be obtained against juveniles. Recently, Mike contacted the bill’s sponsor to persuade her to support adding a legal aid filing fee surcharge increase amendment to her bill. As a result of his and other advocates’ work, the sponsor agreed to support the amendment and the Senate Judiciary Civil Justice Committee approved the legal aid funding amendment and passed HB 10.
As a member of the Ohio Supreme Court Advisory Committee on Children, Families, and the Courts and its Child Abuse, Neglect and Dependency Subcommittee, Mike (and others) worked on drafting comprehensive child welfare reform legislation, HB 371, to replace the existing “child abuse, neglect and dependency” terminology with “a child in need of protective services” (CHIPS), providing more precise and consistent definitions of the types of harm to children that will trigger Children Services intervention, and implement the family-friendly, support of services-oriented “alternative response model” to handling child welfare cases statewide.
Public Benefits
Chris Barley continues to monitor the delays and backlog of public benefits appeals hearings with the ODJFS Bureau of State Hearings*. Due to advocacy by OPLC and the Ohio legal services community, ODJFS recently hired additional hearing officers and support staff, but so far there has not been any measurable improvement in the delays or timeliness rates. ODJFS tells us they expect improvement in the first quarter of 2010, after employees have exhausted their cost savings days and the Bureau catches up with an increase in the number of monthly hearing requests. Click here to see a chart showing the number of untimely state hearings decisions issued by ODJFS from January 2008-November 2009.
Chris continues to collect and index ODJFS policy clarifications, historically referred to as “Secret Rules.” OPLC has collected policy clarifications issued in 2009 and maintains an indexed and searchable library of issued hearing and appeal decisions. Contact Chris for more information.
Mike continues to work with the statewide Refund the Credit Campaign, which is drafting an recruiting legislative support for legislation to establish a state Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) and a refundable childcare tax credit. Both changes would provide cash benefits to many low income working families in Ohio.
Utilities
Mike and Joe continue to oppose SB 162 and HB 276, the telecom “dereg” companion bills. They are working with a statewide coalition, Ohioans Protecting Telephone Consumers (OPTC), led by the Ohio Consumers’ Counsel (OCC). Mike testified in opposition in both the House and Senate versions of the bill, and Senator Ray Miller compared Mike to Jesse Jackson in his “eloquence.” Joe has attended stakeholder meetings as well as numerous meetings with individual legislators. OPTC opposes the bills primarily because they allow price increases without effective competition, decrease consumer protections, weaken the low-income Lifeline program, and offer no broadband commitment.
Mike and Joe teamed up with the Ohio Consumers’ Counsel (OCC) to make some final improvements to the Ohio Department of Development’s (ODOD) Percentage of Income Payment Plan (PIPP) rules for electricity service. This is the finalization of a long term advocacy effort by many legal services lawyers statewide. ODOD responded favorably to our suggestions to improve the new arrearage crediting plans and hardship exemptions from the minimum payment rule. OPLC joined a letter of support with OCC to endorse passage of the rules by JCARR, which occurred on November 16, 2009. The changes will be implemented in November, 2010, in time for the next winter heating season.
OPLC News
OPLC Board of Managers Meets
The OPLC Board of Managers held its initial meeting on November 23, 2009. The Board reviewed the OPLC structure, workplan, and finances and discussed future work and potential issues. To see a list of OPLC Board members, click here.
CORT Board Meets to Set 2010 Training Schedule
The Board of the Committee on Regional Training (CORT) met on December 4, 2009 at OPLC’s office to review training needs, survey results, and available training funds, and to establish a regional training schedule for 2010 for Ohio, Michigan, and West Virginia. The board approved a contract to revise and update CORT’s Negotiation training. Ohio’s CORT representatives are Andrea Price, Kelly Malone, Aneel Chablani, and Gene King. The Board agreed to expand Ohio’s membership on the Board to include a representative from each region. Ohio will announce its in-state training schedule in early 2010. To see the 2010 CORT training schedule, click here.
OPLC Plans to Add Communications Capacity
OPLC is going to contract with a communications consultant to work with staff 10 - 15 hours per week to expand OPLC’s use of strategic communications. The consultant will help to direct OPLC’s media, public relations, and other communications efforts. The position will include developing and implementing targeted and effective media campaigns to support OPLC’s statewide poverty law advocacy work as well as training and providing leadership to OPLC staff and others to develop messages, promote poverty law issues, and communicate effectively with the public about OPLC’s work.
Revised BLST a Success
OPLC and CORT presented Basic Lawyering Skills Training (BLST) in November for 40+ participants from Ohio, Michigan and West Virginia. This was the first presentation of the newly revised training package and case file. Using a combination of lectures, demonstrations, and small group exercises, the training covered interviewing, negotiations, discovery, motion practice, and case analysis. We will present this training again in late 2010. Review the 2009 BLST training agenda here.
Other Recent Trainings and Conferences
Linda and Gene participated as panelists at the annual NLADA Conference in Denver. Linda and Tom Mlakar (LAS Cleveland) joined panelists from Michigan to discuss the Ohio legal services community’s coordinated response to the foreclosure crisis. Gene was a panelist to discuss the current status and future strategies of state and national support programs as they evolve to respond to the changing needs of the overall legal aid community.
Gene participated in the West Virginia statewide conference. He presented a session on Project Planning, Project Management and Time Management and another session on Professional Development.
On November 17, 2009, Linda moderated a panel discussion on The Ins and Outs of Loss Mitigation for the Ohio Housing Law Conference.
Mike planned, organized, coordinated and lectured at CORT’s Advanced Family Law Training November 5-6, 2009 in Columbus. The training attracted 52 participants.
Joe did a presentation on a wide variety of topics on landlord-tenant law in an all-day training at the annual Ohio Housing Law Conference, sponsored by OHFA/OCCH.
As part of her work with the Dignity in Schools Campaign, Sarah has been working as one of the main drafters and editors of a Model School Code that would promote preventive practices as an alternative to ineffective and overly punitive school discipline policies that over-rely on exclusion from school, criminalization of student behavior, and increased reliance on law enforcement to discipline students. Sarah led a breakout session to vet the draft Model School Code at the American Bar Association Summit Raising Our Hands: Creating a National Strategy for Children’s Right to Education and Counsel in Chicago.
EJW Fellow Update
Melissa Lindsay continues to be involved in State and Franklin County prisoner reentry coalitions. She, along with Southeastern Ohio Legal Services attorney Joshua Goodwin, attended Ross and Chillicothe Correctional Institutions Reentry Days, providing 800 inmates with information about legal services and OPLC. Melissa also continues to build relationships with community organizations focused on prisoner reentry, as well as participating in Citizen Circle mentoring groups for post-release individuals. On December 11, 2009, she held a presentation and legal clinic at Hocking Correctional Institution, during which she gave 40 inmates nearing release information about available programs and services as well as how to most successfully reenter society. Melissa has also been working with other advocates around the state on S.B. 22, a corrections reform bill with reentry components.
Upcoming Trainings and Task Force Meetings
January is NASTY
OPLC will present the New Advocates Substantive Training - Yearly (NASTY) on January 6 - 8, 2010 in Columbus. This training provides introductions to more than a dozen areas of substantive poverty law. The training aims to provide participants an outline of the subject matter, an overview of major issues in each substantive area, a method of analyzing issues, and written reference materials. It also helps participants identify resource people across the state in each substantive area of legal services practice. Click here to see the NASTY training announcement and registration form. Click here to see the 2010 NASTY agenda.
January and February Task Forces
Foreclosure Responsible Persons (FRP) (January 15)
Welfare (January 20)
Immigration (January 28)
Litigation Directors (February 24)
We hope this information about our work is interesting and helpful. Let us know if you have questions, comments, or suggestions. If you do not receive OPLC Update via email and would like to, please email info@ohiopovertylaw.org.