Oregon Sea Grant's Legislative Fellowship: Who Benefits?

[Opening Credits roll over views of the Oregon capitol, outside and in the legislative chambers]

(On camera) Jay Rassmussen, Associate Director, Oregon Sea Grant: "In 1986, Professor Jim Good of Oregon Sea Grant came to me in my position as Director of the Oregon Coastal Zone Management Association with an idea of providing a student at Oregon State University with a…an experience with the Oregon Legislature.  And, I thought it was a wonderful opportunity, certainly for my association at that time, or for the university, and thought it was probably a good thing to do. 

"And so we began in 1987 with the first Legislative Fellow.  It runs for six months to whatever the session is.  Sometimes it's gone eight months.  And we've broadened that so that any student from an institution of higher learning in Oregon can be a candidate for it."

(On camera, then voice-over as Ephraim walks through legislative offices and works at his desk) Ephraim Temple, 2007 Legislative Fellow: "My name is Ephraim Temple.  I am the current Legislative Fellow for Oregon Sea Grant.  My weekly activities consist of facilitating the Coastal Caucus, which is all the coastal legislators, senators and representatives in…helping them…get appropriate presenters to those meetings.  A lot of these presenters are special invites from…from one or two of the members, or they're people that I find that I know have expertise in a certain topic.  And, I'll invite them to come and…and they'll do a presentation.

"Every now and then a member will come up and ask me to do a little research for them on different topics and I'll go and find as much as I can and get that information to them.

(On camera) Jay Rassmussen:  "Representative Boone, I appreciate the time here to talk with you today and I wanted to thank you very much for hosting our Legislative Fellow this past session.  Recognizing that all sessions are different and all legislative fellows are oftentimes different, I'm kind of curious as to what you would perceive as the benefits that Ephraim derived from this experience."

(On camera) District 32 Representative Deborah Boone:  "Well, he probably learned, if he already didn't have this skill, was how to be flexible and, uh…[chuckles]…I'm reminded of, what is it?  Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.  That…that machine they get in and it goes all different directions at just the push of a button.  Because, this is the hardest process to explain to anybody, the legislative process.  I had to explain it to a new assistant this year and everything I said…[chuckles]…didn't happen.  And things I said wouldn't happen, happened.  And…and you just have to be extremely flexible and accommodating, and resourceful as well.  And Ephraim's very organized and, you know…he's a scientist, so there's that…that's a skill we don't all have that we could probably use more of.  But, I think that he also learned that lawmaking is not as mysterious as it might seem to some outsiders."

Jay Rassmussen:  "What are some of the benefits that you saw in having as a legislative fellow someone with a university background?"

Representative Boone:  "Often Ephraim was in committee or helping us with committee, arranging speakers, etcetera, for bills that we were going to hear, and following bills and… reporting on things.  So, sometimes it was hard to separate caucus and committee.  And, he never questioned it and was very, very helpful for me to have a scientific set of eyes and ears to…to rely on right in the office.

"And then he, obviously, had his connections with you and with Oregon Sea Grant and Oregon State University, the Marine Science Center… all the additional resources."

(On camera) Ephraim Temple:
It's kind of a fun position to be in where…where I'm apolitical and I don't make any of the decisions.  And I try not to influence them, but in a roundabout way I do because I’m the one…um, I'm the liaison and so I'm shuttling information and I filter a lot of information.  So, in that sense I kind of help make law.

[MUSIC – Ephraim walking through House offices]

(Voice over) Ephraim Temple:
"I'll get a phone call from a constituent on a Wednesday regarding something that they feel is incredibly important.  And I'll bring it up to the Chair, Representative Boone, and I'll see her eyes brighten up and she'll agree this is incredibly important.  And…so it'll come up.  Uh, on the Wednesday I'll get a bunch of information together and I'll invite someone to come in.  And on Thursday morning they'll present and the entire caucus will agree, this is important!  We need to act on it now.  And, by noon on Thursday they'll have a plan together and…and things are moving. "

(On camera) Onno Husing, Executive Director, Oregon Coastal Zone Management Association and 1989 Sea Grant Legislative Fellow: "What I really admire about the Coastal Caucus was how they really embraced me as a young professional--relatively young professional--and they actively sought out my advice on things.  And that, to me, was astonishing that I could have such direct access to the coastal legislators. 

"We had the Exxon Valdez, the oil…the tremendously awful oil spill up in Alaska that happened during 1989.  And we also had the drift nets.  The Asian high sea drift nets.  The…the piracy, in a sense, out there and that was also a stunning thing for us to learn about and then try to influence from a state legislative situation.  And we, working with the Coastal Caucus, we were able to, I believe, successfully influence the debate at the national level.

(On camera) Ephraim Temple: "There are political agendas that need to be protected.  The members of the House and Senate represent real people and their constituents care what they do.  They need to protect their voters. "

Onno Husing:  "The partisanship is real.  It's not a fiction pedaled by the media.  It…it dominates the way things happen.  This is serious stuff here.  You know, you really change lives in this capitol.  And, there's a lot at stake.  And so, no one should be surprised that occasionally some real shots get delivered.

"And as a…as a young professional putting yourself into this kind of an environment, it's a great challenge to navigate that.  I'd never tell someone, don't…have this experience because of the partisanship.  Just know that it's there, it's real.  Be careful about it.  It's part of the larger struggle.  It just sometimes seems magnified here in the capitol. 

"And people should recognize a legislative session ends.  Unless you're gonna try to become a committee administrator or start running for office yourself, you're not gonna be doing it for twenty, thirty years.  So even…even if you're in the middle of it and you find it distasteful, you know, it'll end and you can go on and do something else.  But you'll always have that experience behind you and you'll have the contacts."

[MUSIC AND CREDITS]

[End of video]