OPLC Updates

Consumer Law
FTC Rule on Mortgage Assistance
On March 26, Linda Cook, in conjunction with SEOLS, ABLE, and LAS Southwest Ohio, submitted comments to the Federal Trade Commission on its proposed rule regulating Mortgage Assistance Relief Services.

Foreclosure Bills
Joe Maskovyak and Linda continued to work on a variety of foreclosure related housing bills, including meeting with Senator Shannon Jones (R), sponsor of SB 197, a foreclosure mediation bill that has became the legislative vehicle through which testimony was taken on all foreclosure bills pending in the Senate (HB 3, HB 9, SB 197). Unfortunately, that activity ground to a halt in March and the Senate does not seem to be interested in revisiting this legislation or trying to legislate solutions to the foreclosure problem here in Ohio. Undeterred, OPLC continues to work with a statewide coalition to press the legislature to take action to address the foreclosure crisis. Foreclosure case numbers climbed in Ohio for the 14th straight year, reaching almost 90,000 in 2009.

Education Law
OPLC Signs On to Dignity in Schools Campaign Letter on ESEA Reauthorization
OPLC signed on to a letter authored by members of the Dignity in Schools Campaign to urge the U.S. House Committee on Education and Labor to devote serious attention to school discipline’s impact on the health and academic success of our nation’s students and schools in considering changes to the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), also known as the No Child Left Behind Act, which is up for reauthorization in Congress this year.  The letter also urges the Committee to require the collection and reporting of better school climate and disciplinary data, incorporate school climate measures into the law’s accountability framework, and provide funding support for intervention efforts designed to improve student engagement and the learning environment.  For more information about the letter or to sign on in support, contact Sarah Biehl.

Employment Law
Funding for Wage and Hour Enforcement
The advocacy efforts of Mike Smalz, Zach Schiller of Policy Matters Ohio, and Katie Laskey-Donovan and Julie Clutter Cortes of LAS Cleveland helped to restore funding for enforcement of Ohio’s wage and hour laws.  The Controlling Board has approved a reallocation of funds within the Ohio Department of Commerce budget to provide funding for the Bureau of Labor and Worker Safety (wage and hour enforcement) for the second year of the current biennium.  Without that change, all funding for enforcement of Ohio’s minimum wage and overtime laws would have expired on June 30, 2010.

Family Law
SB 189 (Involuntary Adoption and Paternity Affidavits)
To prevent putative fathers who fail to file with the Putative Father Registry from raising last-minute objections to adoption petitions, SB 189 would abolish paternity affidavits and radically change the legal tests for involuntary adoptions in Ohio.  At the invitation of the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services (ODJFS), Mike met with representatives of the bill’s sponsor and other interested parties to discuss the bill.  Mike and ODJFS persuaded the bill’s sponsor that the sponsor's proposed approach is untenable because it violates federal law and seriously jeopardizes the due process rights of biological parents.  As a result, the Legislative Service Commission will try to draft a more limited and targeted bill to address the supporter’s concerns without placing at risk federal IV-D child support funding or substantially changing the legal test for involuntary adoptions in Ohio.

HB 371 (CHIPS Legislation)
Mike participated in a stakeholders meeting addressing various concerns or potential issues with recently introduced HB 371.  This bill replaces the current statutory definition of child abuse, neglect and dependency with a single, less stigmatizing category of “child in need of protective services.”  This new category is in turn broken down into seven categories of harm, with more precise, more consistent, and less confusing definitions than the existing statutory definitions of abuse, neglect, and dependency.  ODJFS has asked Mike to testify as one of several lead-off proponent witnesses on HB 371 before the House Civil and Commercial Law Committee.

Health/Medicaid
Medicaid Presumptive Eligibility and Continuous Eligibility
Gene King and Bob Bonthius of LAS Cleveland submitted comments on the proposed rules for Presumptive Eligibility and Continuous Eligibility in Medicaid.  Following their comments, they met with state Medicaid staff to further refine these important changes to the Ohio Medicaid program. When implemented, these changes should accelerate Medicaid enrollment for many children and increase the stability of their coverage.

Comments Submitted on Required HMO Grievances
Gene and Chris Barley, working with legal services staff across the state, submitted comments critical of JFS's proposed rule changes requiring a HMO client to use their grievance procedure prior to requesting a state hearing.  Current regulations allow a person to request a state hearing without going through the HMO grievance process. 

Public Benefits
Hearings Backlog Reduction Continues in March 2010
The Bureau of State Hearings was able to reduce its pending backlog of benefits appeal cases to about 15,000 in March.  The reduction occurred despite an increased volume of incoming hearing requests.   Currently JFS is issuing very few decisions as required by state and federal regulations.  More than 90% of the decisions are issued more than 90 days after the hearing request, in violation of federal law.  Chris will be working with other advocates around the state to ensure that the trend that began in February and continued in March will continue in the coming months.  If the backlog of cases can be reduced to about 6,000, there should be a significant number of decisions issued within the 30 and 90 day deadlines. 
Click here for a summary of the March data.

Utilities
Telephone/Telecom Legislation
Mike and Joe continue to work on telephone deregulation bills with the statewide coalition, Ohioans Protecting Telephone Consumers, which also includes LAS Southwest Ohio, ABLE, ProSeniors, and LAS Cleveland, and recently sent letters to the leaders in both houses.  On March 16, Mike submitted written testimony on a substitute version of HB 276, which included improved (but still inadequate) consumer protections.  The committee and the full Ohio House of Representatives passed Sub. HB 276.  The substitute bill includes a statewide Community Voice Mail program for homeless and transient low-income Ohioans and, unlike the Senate bill, requires telephone companies to develop a budget for promoting the low-income Lifeline program.  The House and Senate have passed two different bills, HB 276 and SB 162, and it is unclear how they will be reconciled or whether the more consumer-friendly HB 276 will prevail.  Joe continues to assist the Ohio Consumers' Counsel in meetings with legislators to ensure that consumer issues continue to be part of the conversation.


OPLC Hires New Communications Director
The OPLC staff is excited to announce that OPLC has hired a communications director!  Bill Eichenberger started April 30.  Look for more from him soon!  Click here to read the press release about Bill.

OPLC Gets Grant for Reentry Clinics
Through a joint application with the Franklin County Reentry Task Force, OPLC was awarded American Recovery and Reinvestment Act/Justice Assistance Grant funding for ex-offender reentry clinics to begin in July 2010.  The clinics are part of Melissa Lindsay’s Equal Justice Works fellowship on prisoner re-entry issues.

Upcoming Statewide Wage Theft Meeting
Mike Smalz is working with Policy Matters Ohio, the Cincinnati Interfaith Center, and LAS Cleveland to plan and organize a statewide meeting on May 11, 2010 in Columbus on Wage Theft and Worker Misclassification.  Catherine Ruckelshaus of the National Employment Law Project will join advocates and agency personnel from across the state to address the growing issues of wage theft and independent contractor misclassification of employees by Ohio employers.  The participants will include representatives of the Ohio Department of Commerce, the Ohio Attorney General’s Office, the Ohio Employment Lawyers Association, legal aid attorneys, the Ohio AFL-CIO, and other low-income worker and immigrant advocates from across the state.

OHFA Foreclosure Funding
Linda and Gene, working with the executive directors of Ohio’s legal aid programs, submitted a proposal to the Ohio Housing Finance Agency (OHFA) to fund foreclosure legal assistance under the latest round of federal foreclosure relief funding. OHFA is developing and will administer the state plan for Ohio’s share of the Hardest-Hit Fund.  Programs that will receive funding under the plan must have foreclosure prevention and housing market stability as their primary objectives.  Linda will be attending an interested parties meeting at OHFA on April 27.

Gene Elected Vice Chair of the HealthPath Foundation of Ohio Board of Trustees
In March Gene was elected as the Vice Chair of the Board of Trustees of the HealthPath Foundation of Ohio.  HealthPath, formerly known as Anthem Foundation, provides funding and support for wellness, family safety and stability, and dental care.

Redesigned CORT Negotiations Training Coming!
Amanda Lennon, former OSLSA/OPLC attorney, is working with Gene and CORT to design a new negotiations training that OPLC/CORT will present in October 2010.  The two and one half day event will include multiple role play exercises and will focus on improving negotiation skills and strategies.

New Task Forces
Melissa Lindsay held the first meeting of the OPLC Prisoner Reentry Task Force on March 31, 2010, and it was very well attended.  Contact Melissa if you’d like to get involved.  Gene and Mike have met with Julie Cortes and Katie Laskey-Donovan of LAS Cleveland to discuss the possibility of establishing a new task force for employment law.  Click here to complete a survey about the efficacy and usefulness of an employment task force.


Mobile Home Mini Seminar, May 6

• It is anticipated that another mobile home seminar will be presented later this year once it becomes clearer how much pending legislation, HB 186, may change housing law for mobile home residents.

OPLC Board of Managers Meeting, May 11
Tax Task Force, May 11 (via telephone)
Wage Theft Meeting, May 11 (LAS Columbus)
Unemployment Compensation Mini Seminar, May 12 (LAS Columbus)
Social Security Disability Training, May 28
CORT Migrant Farmworker Training, June 2 (Ann Arbor, MI)
ADA and Civil Legal Practice Training, June 4 (LAS Columbus)
Tax Task Force, June 8 (via telephone)
Health Task Force, June 9
Consumer Task Force, June 15
Education Task Force, June 16
Family Law Task Force, June 23
Housing Task Force, June 24
Prisoner Reentry Task Force, June 30

*unless otherwise noted, all meetings and trainings take place at OPLC's office in Columbus