MWHITF: Quelling Conflict

Revised: December 2018

By Sarah Owens and Michael Livingston

[From material originally posted on November 1, 2017, under the title, "MWHITF: Leadership Ignores Polk County's Departure" and January 13, 2017, under the title, "The Hopeless Task Force - Part 3."]

Commissioner Wheeler's October 18 letter of resignation gave no reason for the decision to leave.  After submitting the letter by email, she asked twice, also by email, whether her letter had been forwarded to the other members of the Task Force, as she had requested.  She received no reply.  Concerned that sending the letter herself would violate Oregon public meetings laws, she waited.

When the news of Polk County's exit reached Commissioner Carlson on the morning of October 18, she was attending a large, regular meeting of public officials.  Sources say she had an emotional "meltdown" strong enough to cause Mayor Peterson to come to her aid.  After a few "there there"s, it was resolved that Mayors Peterson and Clark would go to lunch and decide "what to do." 

The strategy of "what to do" that evolved over the next ten days included refusing to acknowledge the resignation or share it with the rest of the Task Force, avoiding email discussions ("I would prefer not to be using email to talk about issues like these"), stonewalling questions, meeting in secret.  They also included trying to get the other two Polk County commissioners to appoint replacements and looking for reasons that would allow them to ignore the letter (e.g., "the charter remains intact", and interpreting the it as applying only to Commissioner Wheeler, without acknowledging the letter, or communicating the interpretation directly).

On Wednesday, October 20, during a meeting of the Support Services/Education committee, staff was overheard telling a committee member, who'd asked if it was true Polk County had backed out, that there were always rumors flying about the community and that the (remaining) co-chairs would be meeting Monday October 24 to talk about it.  Staff refused to share the time or location of the meeting.

On October 28, 2016, Commissioner Carlson sent a letter to all the Polk County appointees, except Commissioner Wheeler, introducing Karen Ray and letting them know she would be facilitating the November 7 meeting.  The letter's indirect message was that the leadership did consider them to have resigned.

That same day, Commissioner Carlson sent the Mayors a draft of a memorandum "to be presented to the task force for approval at the November 7 meeting."

A revised version of the memo was issued later in the day, subject line, "update."

The revised version stated that "The Task Force affirms that charters from the four jurisdictions remain intact and representatives from all jurisdictions continue to be engaged and are welcome at the Task Force table."  It didn't mention Wheeler's October 18 resignation letter.

Mayor Peterson's comment on the memo:  "It is perfect." 

Final Version

After receiving the October 28 letter, the Polk County team conferred on how to respond.

On November 2, Steve Bobb sent staff an email confirming his resignation.

On November 7, Heidi Mackay did the same, and Carlson acknowledged receipt of her email at 9:22 am.

Also on November 7, the revised version of the memo was posted to the Task Force website, with Commissioner Wheeler's name  removed from the letterhead.

The memo appears as an action item on the agenda for the Task Force's November 7 meeting, most of which will be facilitated by consultant Karen Ray.  The agenda says she will summarize the Task Force's activities and  recommendations, and advise them on how to move to the implementation phase.