Public Safety subcommittee advances Oregon Youth Authority budget to full committee

The Public Safety Subcommittee advanced House Bill 5,041 — the biennial budget for the Oregon Youth Authority (OYA) — to the full Ways and Means Committee on May 27, 2025, endorsing the Legislative Fiscal Office(LFO) recommendation and a dash-1 amendment by voice vote with no recorded objections.

The LFO recommended a budget of $464,733,871 in general fund, $8,360,503 in other funds, $45,717,833 in federal funds and 1,006 positions (977.01 full-time equivalent), according to the Legislative Fiscal Office analyst who introduced the work session. The analyst said the package represents a 0.3% increase over current service levels and includes two reductions, one investment and one net-zero package.

The budget changes LFO outlined include: a net-zero conversion that creates five positions (5.00 FTE) by shifting supplies-and-services funding into position authority for vocational educational services and a position to support Project Pooch, a nonprofit dog-training program for youth; a net $534,146 general-fund decrease tied to caseload forecasting; a $2,244,166 increase (general fund $2,177,289; federal $66,877) to add six positions to the agencyprofessional standards office (including a Deputy Chief Investigator and new investigators); and a $180,580 general-fund reduction in the capital-improvement line for small capital projects, described by LFO as a balancing action.

The committee also approved LFO-recommended updates to the agencykey performance measures (KPMs). LFO staff said some long-standing KPM targets were adjusted to match current performance, including lowering the runaway goal in community programs from 255 to 150 and reducing a youth-to-youth injury goal in the field to 0. The analyst flagged one KPM that showed an anomalous drop in reported results and said the LFO and agency will monitor data collection for accuracy.

The LFO read a budget note into the record requiring OYA to report to the Joint Committee on Ways and Means during the 2026 legislative session, the September 2026 meeting and the 2027 session on progress addressing reported cases and Prison Rape Elimination Act investigations.The note directs that the report include statistics on any case backlogs, the time from report to investigation, the number of open cases and status, and how 2025 legislative investments affected case resolution.

Senators on the panel pressed agency leadership about performance measures and oversight. "My name is Jana McClellan, interim agency director for the Oregon Youth Authority," McClellan said when asked to introduce herself and answer a question about why the agency did not have a KPM tracking youth-on-staff injuries. "I'm not aware... I don't have an answer as to why there might not be one. I could imagine consideration of a new key performance measure."

A committee member expressed concern about the agency's recent leadership transition and its effects on operations, saying the new director has taken the agency at a "very difficult time" and that failures in the agency can "hurt kids, and that's a line we don't cross." The senator gave a conditional yes vote on the budget and said further oversight may be necessary in Ways and Means.

Formal actions during the work session included motions to: adopt the LFO recommendation on the bill, adopt the LFO recommendation on KPMs, adopt the dash-1 amendment, and move House Bill 5,041 as amended to the full committee with a due-pass recommendation. All motions passed by voice, with no recorded roll-call votes and no objections noted on the record.

The bill will be carried to the Ways and Means full committee for additional consideration. Committee members assigned carriers for the Senate and House floors before adjourning. The subcommittee adjourned after assigning upcoming work sessions for the Military Department and the Oregon State Police.