Revised: December 2018
By Sarah Owens and Michael Livingston
As at the October meeting, attendance at the November meeting was down. Absent were Kathleen Ashley, Ron Hays, Sheriff Myers and, the Polk County contingent: Commissioner Wheeler, Steve Bobb, Sheriff Garton, and Heidi MacKay. Irma Oliveros was present "as the representative for the [Salem-Keizer 24J] school district." There were about 20 people in the audience.
During the discussion of the "Update" memo, Commissioner Carlson told the Task Force that Heidi Mackay had not resigned, that she and Sheriff Garton "just couldn't be here." She said nothing about having received and responded to Mackay's email earlier in the day.
Carlson's comments came in response to a question from MWVCAA Director Jon Reeves, who was aware that the Polk County team had resigned, and had asked to know the reason.
Janet Carlson: "If I could clarify. Jennifer resigned. Steve Bobb sent in his resignation recently. Heidi Mackay has not resigned. Sheriff Garton has not resigned. They just couldn't be here tonight."
Reeves: "It's two meetings in a row, though, so it feels like it's related."
Carlson: "Right. So, we have reached out. Lisa has contacted all of the Polk County members. We have talked with the Commissioners of Polk County, Craig and Mike Ainsworth, and their legal counsel, to affirm that they have not rescinded their charter, so we clarified all of that. It's really up to their jurisdiction to determine if they're going to appoint replacements...we are pivoting to implementation, and there will be opportunities in the implementation process to move forward. That would be my clarification. So, do we have a motion on the floor?"
At which point, the ever-credulous Warren Bednarz, seemingly unaware of what had just happened, changed the subject. The motion to adopt the memorandum passed unanimously, without further inquiry or discussion. Carlson then gave a long, rambling introduction of Karen Ray. See Ray's PowerPoint here, the recommendations she had the Task Force review during their 90-minute session here, and a draft "asset map" that they did not go over here. Ray's fee, which was paid by Marion County was $20,000.
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| Karen Ray telling the Task Force they've planted a tree. |
She said, "if we are going to take ahold of the Task Force recommendations -- and they are multiple and complex -- and move to implementation, we need to understand some alternative structures that the Task Force can be thinking about as you complete your work."
There were three more meetings during which the Task Force could look at the recommendations in detail, she said, so she did not want to do that during this meeting. She continued:
Instead, we're going to take a broad look. If these are the kinds of...strategies that your subcommittees and your experts have suggested can impact homelessness effectively, what kind of structures are you going to need to implement those alternatives?
Ray put up a slide of all the people who had been "working behind the scenes for a year" to "generate the best ideas." Then she put up a slide showing that four more committee meetings were scheduled, and read the schedule aloud to demonstrate that "the work continues."
The next slide was a graphic of a leaf. She said the members should think about "all these good ideas...as if you've been exploring a tree piece by piece."
You have more than 75 people [FN] discussing the minutiae of homeless girls and the minutiae of helping vets, who may or may not understand that there's an alternative to their lifestyle. You've had lots of interesting ideas about how to fund, how to negotiate with the federal government, how to advocate at the state level.
Putting up a graphic of a branch, she explained, "So you've been looking at the...leaves on a big tree, and some of your committees have started to put these leaves together on a branch -- well this piece fits with this piece, and this piece fits with this piece" until, over the last nine months, "you've created a tree." She put up a graphic of tree.
"And that tree" she said, "you're getting ready to plant." She continued,
Come February, someone's going to ceremoniously dig a large hole, and you're going to ceremoniously stand around this tree you've assembled, and plant it. So, our charge tonight is not to look at the individual leaves -- you have 75+ people [FN] doing that. But instead, look at this whole tree. To look at what the whole tree is doing. So, before we go any further, I would like to take a moment, and have you talk about your experience in the subcommittees, and your experience on this Task Force. I'd like you to think about whether you believe the subcommittees have been doing quality work. I'd like you to think about what you have gained in knowledge or experience as a result of being on this Task Force. I'd like you to reflect on the quality of work that's been done.
Ray then asked the members to share their thoughts privately with the person(s) next to them, which with some exceptions they did, for about two minutes, while the public watched. After apologizing for interrupting them, she asked if anyone would like to make a statement "publicly, about the quality of the subcommittee work as you've experienced it." Bruce Bailey and Chief Moore spoke. In summarizing, Ray said she was hearing that they'd learned about resources they didn't know existed, and also that resources were not adequate to meet the problem. Councilor Bednarz responded, following which Ray said,
The Task Force agreed to meet for a year and plan. We need to put a period on the planning, so we can pivot to implementation, so that planning doesn't become the only thing the group does. And how will we ask the community to structure its implementation work?...What will the Task Force ask the community, and its organizations, to ensure that all the study that's been done by excellent thinkers in the subcommittees actually take fruition, that you actually plant the tree and it starts to bloom?
Ray directed attention to a "chart of recommendations" (a paper document they had before them) and read aloud from a slide those that had been approved. She then gave the members five minutes to read their paper charts, which included recommendations not yet approved, while the public watched and waited. When they were done, she asked the members to turn to the person(s) next to them, and say whatever they wanted to about the proposed recommendations.
After a couple of minutes, she interrupted, invited the members to share their thoughts with staff later, after the meeting, and asked them to look at the three columns on the right side of the chart, labeled "Funding", "Coordination", and "Advocacy." She spoke of the need to find funding and to coordinate. She asked the members to turn to the person(s) next to them and share ideas on how to coordinate.
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| Ray and easel |
Successful collaborations exist and do good work when they pay attention to the self-interest of each member organization. So as you shape some kind of implementation team, we'd be interested in what it is that business people need, in order to engage the business community as a whole, [and so on, citing the Salvation Army, UGM, MWVCAA]. Now the payoff for that, then those organizations would need to go to their boards, and we would get board approval and board energy for adopting some kind of strategic framework...If we can get all of the boards of all of the major service providers to be looking at the same document, then we avoid the big problem of this becoming something that sits on the shelf.
Mayor Peterson then commented on Bruce Bailey's comment and expressed gratitude for Councilor Andersen's attendance at Task Force meetings. After observing that Mayor Peterson would be leaving office in 2017, Ray asked if the Task Force recommendations could be discussed at a January meeting of the Salem City Council, to which the Mayor replied "Absolutely", adding that the Mayor-elect fully supported what the Task Force had been doing.
Ray said, "So what I'm hearing so far is that we need some kind of backbone organization ... some kind of team of people ... who will hang on to the shovel and remember that you are planting a tree, and try to get that tree planted deeply in the proper ground." She again asked for ideas on how to coordinate such a team. Carlson said "There has to be some dedicated staff support." Ray asked if anyone had any ideas how to make sure that there's paid staff? Carlson suggested that someone in the community ("LT/Ron") might provide funds or a "project manager" for that purpose.
Ray said she wanted to turn to "a second piece, advocacy", and asked the members how they could make sure that, during the implementation phase, advocacy actually occurs. Bednarz, Carlson, Peterson spoke. Ray asked the members whether they wanted to ask the committees to continue in some way after February 2017. "Or -- I don't know the culture in this community -- is it important for you to release them and then invite them back in again?" Peterson, Shaney Starr, Carlson commented. Ray said she was hearing it was important to "release everyone", to "complete the charter" and then reassemble in a new, "more nimble" structure, and she asked the members what they thought that might look like. Reeves, Bailey, Moore offered comments. Ray responded,
Executive Director Reeves and Executive Director Bailey have spent 33 years putting together powerful collaborations that change the way business is done among -- in the non-profit community, in a given organization. You know, down in Eugene-Springfield, they came together, non-profit organizations and safety-net clinics, and an insurance company came together, and they insured 25,000 men, women and children in a two-year period, and provided them with a medical home. Now that took a big change in the way those non-profits decided to operate together. Do you think there's a climate where, with specific help and direction, non-profit organizations in this community might use the homeless issue as an opportunity to overcome some of the turfism that Chief Moore is alleging--is allowing?
Following a comment by Reeves, Ray spoke of having met privately with Reeves and Bailey, and of their "great commitment to doing something, because what you're currently doing isn't working", and said she had heard "the same commitment from the three co-chairs." Verena Wessel and Bednarz commented. While Bednarz was speaking, Shaney Starr got up to leave. Ray asked her if she was "leaving angry?", to which Starr replied she was not. As Bednarz continued, he was interrupted by Carlson, followed by Clark, who invited comment from Irma Oliveros. Ray attempted to take back the discussion at that point by saying,
So I'm hearing a kind of multi-step plan already, and Step one is to find some kind of backbone organization to organize the ongoing effort. Step two, is to ... develop this strategic plan that staff have showed me ... Step three would be to get organizations to officially engage that plan and say yes, this is our plan, and then the next step is to prioritize sets of projects for funding. That solves several problems, including coordination and funding.
She then asked the members if what she'd just said "does indeed summarize what we've said so far about implementation." She then re-summarized what she'd heard, and asked the members to agree or disagree, and everyone nodded agreement. Peterson and Carlson commented. Ray then asked the members to be thinking about what organization could serve as the "backbone" and told them they could leave the questions of funding, coordination and advocacy to the new, more nimble implementation group that would convene March 1.
She then asked the members to "turn to the person next to you one last time and say how was this meeting for you? Was it a good use of your time?" After a couple of minutes, during which the members conversed privately, she asked them to rate the meeting's usefulness by a show of fingers, 1 being the least positive, 5 being the most positive. All fives.
She then asked them whether they believed they could find a backbone structure to implement the recommendations? Mostly fives, except for Chief Moore, who gave it a two.
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| Chief Moore rates the chances of finding a backbone |
"Karen Ray's style matches my style?" Mostly fives. Ray then turned the meeting back to Commissioner Carlson, who wrapped things up.
~~~
On November 14, Councilor Bednarz gave the Salem City Council an update on the work of the Task Force:
We have a finite number of days that we're going to be holding these [Task Force] meetings...and we've got to come to -- I don't want another report, I want some action items to come out of this whole discussion, and I will just let you know that after this last meeting we had [with Karen Ray], I'm really glad to see that something's really coming out -- there's wheels underneath this plan, there's some ideas that are happening, and there's a lot of cogs, a lot of things that are moving out there. I do know one thing that came out of it is, the discussion about having a permanent, more of a permanent, overall, I mentioned something like SEDCOR, but it's the idea that there's somebody out there advocating for the homeless, who coordinates between all the multi-jurisdictional - jurisdictions - that are out there, and likely - I guess what I'm saying is that likely, I'm going to come to this [Council] - as well as the county, as well as the other communities around here, to help fund some of that, and I certainly hope I won't be on Council when that comes up to fruition. But I certainly hope that this Council finds some resources, as we were mentioning earlier to help solve, resolve, a little bit of the homelessness problem that we have in our community. I've noted very much that they're lining up on the sidewalks on Liberty Street next to Rite Aid, I saw them down on Court Street...down across from Busick Court, and boy, they're really coming out in droves. It's getting colder and wetter out there and we need to take some action quickly about this matter.
A podcast of the Willamette Wake Up report on the meeting can be found here.
FN - Ray didn't say how she arrived at the number 75. It could be the total number of Task Force members (20) + the total number of Technical Advisors (50) + staff, however, there certainly were not 75 people immersed in committee work. The average committee size was about six, including non-Task Force members, attendance was poor, and only staff appear to have been working outside the meetings.
~~~ Epilogue ~~~
As mentioned, Mayor Peterson and Councilor Bednarz had, by February 2017, left office. By June, 2017, Bruce Bailey had resigned from UGM. By June, 2018, Jon Reeves had resigned from MWVCAA. Commissioner Carlson did not run for reelection in 2018 and will be moving to Idaho in early 2019. Of the original Task Force members, only Mayor Clark remains actively engaged.
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