PERSPECTIVE FROM THE 19^TH HOLE: This is the title I chose for my personal blog, which is meant to give me an outlet for one of my favorite crafts – writing – plus use an image from my favorite sport, golf. Out of college, my first job was as a reporter for the Daily Astorian in Astoria, Oregon, and I went on from there to practice writing in all of my professional positions, including as a Congressional press secretary in Washington, D.C., an Oregon state government manager in Salem and Portland, press secretary for Oregon’s last Republican governor (Vic Atiyeh), and a private sector lobbyist. This blog also allows me to link another favorite pastime – politics and the art of developing public policy – to what I write.

Like it was yesterday, I remember the first time I heard the word “interoperability.” It was several years ago.

I thought it was a made up word and, at one point, it might have been. But, when I heard it a number of years ago, it referred to a proposed new emergency communications system for Oregon. As conceived, the new system would be “interoperable,” meaning that all first responders to an emergency – either manmade or caused by nature — would have the ability to communicate with each other regardless of the device they happened to hold in their hands.

The word appeared again this week in a letter to the editor of the Wall Street Journal dealing with “electronic health records,” or EHR.

“The financial burden to a physician who uses EHRs on a daily basis is overstated.  My cost (and the typical average cost) is only a few hundred dollars a month.  Contrary to the author’s assertion (in a Wall Street Journal column), there is ample competition in the EHR industry, though these systems lack interoperability.”

That was the same issue that bothered the Oregon Legislature in the aftermath of the 911 terrorist tragedy when the Twin Towers came down. Those who responded first to that tragedy could not communicate with each other as they risked their lives to deal with the emergency.

Legislative leaders in Oregon wanted to avoid that calamity. So, by passing House Bill 2101, they commissioned what came to be called the “Oregon Wireless Interoperability Network,” or OWIN.

Remember this point – the Legislature passed a bill to embark on a major interoperable communications strategy. To put a point on it, moving forward was the law!

Two major companies in Oregon decided to compete to provide the new system for the state – Motorola and my client, Harris Corporation.

Both companies worked hard on the competitive opportunity, but, in the end, Harris won the contract. The trouble, of course, as I outlined in a previous blog, was that the state, in its wisdom or, frankly, the lack of it, decided to throw out all the work and undertake a far smaller project to allow four state agencies to communicate “interoperably” with each other.

Local agencies in cities and counties be damned.

The Legislature paid no attention to the bill it had passed, House Bill 2101, even forgetting that it done so and without any interest in being reminded of its previous action.

For me, this was a clear blot on the record of the Legislature, though, of course, I have a bias, one for which I do not apologize. Legislators turned their backs on a forward-looking emergency communications project, even after authorizing its start.

They no longer cared about the risks for the state when emergency responders couldn’t communicate with each other. I suspect, when there is an emergency event, those legislators won’t be anywhere to be found.