AOC President Craig Pope and Legislative Director Mike Eliason met with Governor Kate Brown on Friday, January 12th to discuss priorities and common objectives for the coming year. The Governor opened the meeting, which also included key members of her staff, by walking through her five legislative concepts for the upcoming February session. The concepts include the products from two different work groups, one on addressing the PERS unfunded liability and the other on addressing the opioid epidemic. President Pope articulated key AOC initiatives including greater local involvement in addressing the statewide housing crisis and the need for earlier involvement in the agency budget development process. The League of Oregon Cities (LOC) leadership also participated in the meeting and both AOC and LOC emphasized the increased partnership with Oregon’s business associations and schools boards in searching for mutually agreeable solutions to the state’s perpetual budget crisis. Governor Brown and her staff expressed an interest in further meetings and collaboration.

Contributed by: Mike Eliason | AOC Legislative Director