[0:14] Good morning, everyone, and welcome to the regular meeting of the Multnomah County Board of Commissioners. Commissioner Singleton is joining virtually and Commissioner Brim Edwards is excused at 1215. She will be joined virtually if the vote on R3 hasn't happened yet. Audience members, I want to start by asking you to please silence your electronic devices. I would also like to remind you that in addition to the audience in this room, we have people watching and listening online. So please consider your language and comments and testimony today. Today's meeting is a hybrid board meeting. Some presenters and guests will appear in person.

[0:44] and some will appear virtually.

[0:46] For those presenting virtually,

[0:47] please meet your mic when not speaking,

[0:49] and when presenting, make sure to unmute your mic

[0:50] and turn on your camera.

[0:52] For those joining us in person to provide public testimony

[0:54] or present, please turn your mic on

[0:56] when you begin speaking and off when you've completed your remarks.

[0:59] For all presenters, please date your name for the record

[1:01] before speaking or responding to questions.

[1:05] I announced last week, but wanted to announce it again today

[1:08] to make sure everyone hears it.

[1:09] In recent weeks, people have asked to yield time to others.

[1:12] We want to make sure that everyone has a chance

[1:14] to give testimony during our board meeting, so I will no longer be allowing people to yield

[1:18] time during their testimony.

[1:20] May I have a motion on the consent agenda?

[1:22] So moved.

[1:27] Shannon, can I get a second?

[1:29] Second.

[1:29] Sorry, it took me a minute.

[1:31] That's okay.

[1:31] Thank you.

[1:32] Commissioner Brum Edwards moves.

[1:34] Commissioner Singleton seconds approval of the consent calendar.

[1:36] Commissioner Singleton.

[1:39] Aye.

[1:41] Commissioner Brum Edwards.

[1:42] Aye.

[1:43] Chair Vega Peterson.

[1:44] Aye.

[1:45] The consent calendar is approved.

[1:49] Opportunity for public comment on non-agenda matters.

[1:52] This is a time for the board to hear public testimony and offer board deliberation.

[1:56] When it is your turn to speak, I'll call you to the presenters table.

[2:01] I will set a timer for three minutes when you begin speaking and announce when your time is up.

[2:05] At which point please wrap up your sentence.

[2:07] Chair, we received seven folks signed up, which were shared with board members and staff.

[2:12] I'll call four people at a time.

[2:15] We have Anna Aziz-Kani, Jamie Whitaker, and Sarah Fisher.

[2:20] You

[2:35] can go ahead and begin.

[2:38] There you go.

[2:39] Good morning.

[2:40] My name is Anna Aziz-Kani, and I'm here again for the fourth time.

[2:44] And I want to just summarize some of the things that we've brought to your attention

[2:47] about Kennel cough at the Multnomah County.

[2:49] Animal shelter and how it highlights some of the other issues at the shelter.

[2:54] Every time to prepare for me coming here, I read pages and pages of public records

[2:59] It's about specific dogs, and I'm haunted by some of the things that I read.

[3:04] I spend sleepless nights thinking about these helpless dogs and how powerless I am in my ability to care for that, or to help them.

[3:12] But I want to remind you that you guys are here because you have the power to make these changes for them.

[3:18] So you heard about Winnie, a dog that had a severe skin condition that was put on productive custody.

[3:25] so that because they thought the owners were negligent,

[3:32] she got kennel cough, and then by the time she was properly

[3:34] diagnosed by a vet, she had advanced pneumonia

[3:38] and was euthanized within hours.

[3:40] You heard about Marge who only got medical care

[3:43] because a volunteer was persistent

[3:44] about making sure that she got seen.

[3:47] She got seen, got taken to a foster because of the volunteer.

[3:52] She asked me and a retired vet, Dr. Robin Jones,

[3:55] Jones to go and see her because she thought her symptoms were way too severe to be kennel cough.

[4:00] Dr. Jones said that from her experience, she probably had developed advanced pneumonia,

[4:05] but wasn't certain she advised the foster on what to say to animal health.

[4:10] And then subsequently the volunteer was fired for speaking to us because of her concerns.

[4:16] She was second-guessing what she was seeing.

[4:19] There have been many dogs presented as healthy for adoption, where the adopters went home

[4:27] and realized that there was something really wrong with the dog.

[4:30] I spoke to three of these adopters.

[4:32] I brought those cases to your attention.

[4:34] That was Jade, Thor, and Millie, two of these adopters that spent over $1,000 caring for their

[4:39] dog because they went to the ER and the doctor was like, this dog is dying.

[4:43] You have to do all of these things because they have advanced pneumonia.

[4:46] There's other many other cases where the dog was adopted out to a home with another dog.

[4:54] So you are sending these animals out with some type of disease out into the community

[4:59] putting them at risk.

[5:01] And the worst part of that is that multiple county shelter hasn't even properly established

[5:06] whether these dogs have kennel cough or if they have canine influenza or atypical canine

[5:13] infectious respiratory disease.

[5:15] So we don't know what we're sending out into the community to be spread.

[5:19] There's no medical director and the vets and the animal texts are prescribing and diagnosing.

[5:26] Diagnosing situations and prescribing medications.

[5:30] This is in violation of the veterinary practice act chapter 87, division 30,

[5:36] which states that no one other than a vet may diagnose and prescribe medication.

[5:39] This is the law because what's happening is these people are misdiagnosing and

[5:43] missing very important symptoms.

[5:45] I just have one other thing to say.

[5:47] I was sent a response to some of the things that we've brought up by, I think, your assistant,

[5:52] where the Department of Community Services said that from their sample size 37% of the dogs had upper

[5:58] respiratory infection and 5% of those had developed ammonia.

[6:01] So, okay, thank you.

[6:03] Let me just say these last numbers.

[6:04] So that would mean that within 2024, 1,151 dogs would have had pneumonia.

[6:10] and 57, I mean, would have had Ken O'Connor cough

[6:13] and 57 of those would have developed pneumonia.

[6:15] Thank you.

[6:16] And if you want to leave any written testimony,

[6:18] and then we, Marino, make sure we all see it

[6:20] so we can get the full, your full remarks.

[6:22] Thank you.

[6:24] One more check for Jamie Whitaker,

[6:26] and then we have injured and pissed off and lightning.

[6:34] I'm Jamie Whitaker.

[6:36] Good morning.

[6:39] I'm a parent whose child attends a K through 12

[6:43] Portland Public School in Northwest Portland,

[6:45] and call the Metropolitan Learning Center.

[6:48] You're likely familiar with a group

[6:50] that I work with called the Friends of Cooch Park

[6:52] or diligently working on making the park safe for kids.

[6:56] However, we need your urgent help and action

[6:58] and we need a proactive approach instead of a reactive approach

[7:01] to keep the kids safe.

[7:03] During the first week of kindergarten, last September,

[7:06] there was an incident that you may have heard about in the news

[7:09] with an individual with the machete.

[7:13] sorry,

[7:21] not violent. But I had to walk past with my five-year-old.

[7:30] Oh, I'm so sorry.

[7:36] Weeks later, the parkron.

[7:43] Do you want to come back later? Okay, no, we got it.

[7:47] A few weeks later, the park rangers showed me some photographs of six fenders that were in the park

[7:56] police.

[7:57] He was there on Friday, come Monday morning.

[8:02] They were still there.

[8:07] I emailed the mayor's office, Portland Public Schools,

[8:11] the police department, sex offender in the park,

[8:14] and I got calls back from each person that I contacted.

[8:19] There was a lot of sympathy that there hasn't been a lot of action.

[8:25] I've learned a drive around the city block to look for the safest route

[8:29] to walk my daughter to school.

[8:31] We're constantly being shouted at, she's been called the C word, the F word, the E word.

[8:40] It is rare that there's not an incident walking my daughter to school,

[8:48] I mean that this is the world that we live in.

[9:02] It's written out much better, sorry.

[9:05] There's actual, tangible steps that the city and the parks department and

[9:10] and Portland Public Schools can take to make change.

[9:14] I'm not trying to solve the House's crisis.

[9:18] I'm not trying to solve the fentanyl crisis.

[9:21] I want active steps that are gonna keep these kids safe.

[9:26] There are hundreds of kids at Portland Public Schools

[9:29] that use Cooch Park.

[9:31] These kids don't have a field, they don't have sports.

[9:35] They weren't even allowed to use the playground for years,

[9:38] which is why parents don't want to say anything.

[9:41] Time.

[9:44] I'm asking today that the city please,

[9:46] I know Jessica came out and walked around the area,

[9:50] but we need action.

[9:52] And there's actual things that can happen.

[9:54] We need to close the Lou.

[9:55] It draws people in.

[9:56] We were sent the person who designed the Lou.

[9:59] She said no, we're not going to get rid of it.

[10:01] She designed the Lou.

[10:03] I know I'm out of time.

[10:05] There's other things in my letter,

[10:06] but we need collaboration.

[10:09] with the city and the school and the parks.

[10:12] Thank you.

[10:13] And lead your written remarks and we'll make sure

[10:15] that we read them in.

[10:16] Thank you so much so far for coming.

[10:27] Ensured and pissed off and lightning.

[10:39] Quote marks.

[10:41] My name's injured and pissed off.

[10:43] And I say that X-rays and bones don't lie.

[10:50] The same is true with organs

[10:54] in the body and blood tests. They don't lie, but doctors pervericate, lawyers pervericate,

[11:04] politicians pervericate, all the time about bones and x-rays and injuries. That's the reason why

[11:17] I took my name, Andrew and Pistach.

[11:22] There's a few papers that I'll hand in as well,

[11:28] but I wanted to read this one.

[11:31] It's concerning City Council Chamber,

[11:35] five votes, three, eight, two, three, four,

[11:41] nine, two, February 5th.

[11:44] And I went there to sign up in December.

[11:47] second I believe it was and I returned the past city or the next city council meeting with

[12:01] no opening, with an opening for you for

[12:09] a statement. They're only supposed to schedule

[12:14] for two months. That would be December, month and January. And they're not just

[12:22] scheduled anything more, but this paper clearly, they didn't want me to talk about the

[12:31] injuries and things. And of course, I'm facing eviction. There's a paper here and I have

[12:39] medical statements where I went to the hospital from here last week and I apologize to the

[12:45] the people that had signed up to speak, they apparently weren't allowed to go online

[12:52] or wouldn't be able to, so they didn't get to speak and I apologize for that.

[12:59] And here's medical papers from OHSU of all things they want me to continue to go back to them for treatment.

[13:10] Well, that's the reason why I ended up like this.

[13:14] There's 27 people a day that get paralyzed.

[13:18] I'm not paralyzed, but I had two fractures to my vertebrae.

[13:24] It's T-12 and L-1.

[13:25] They controlled the arms and the legs.

[13:28] And as I was saying, I'd met John Kitsoper, Johnny, at the Pendleton Armory.

[13:38] I gave him a statement that had been printed in the E.O. paper and he said that I was injured

[13:46] in Idaho.

[13:47] Well, that's just, yeah, I was injured in Idaho and like I said, the statements I stand

[13:54] on.

[13:59] Thank you.

[14:00] I'm glad to see you back.

[14:12] Good morning.

[14:13] Yes, my name is Lightning.

[14:15] I represent Lightning, superhumanity, R&D, lab X.

[14:20] Again, when we're talking that deflection center and the security around that preschool,

[14:25] I think you just heard a speaker and why that's necessary.

[14:28] Pay for their security, make them an offer, make sure that property is well secured when you're operating your deflection center.

[14:37] Make sure that it's taken care of.

[14:40] Issue number two on the support of housing services measure.

[14:43] Again, looking at all the data,

[14:49] you've definitely got the money coming in there.

[14:52] That is the one, opposed to the clean energy fund or the pre-school for all-

[15:00] All, when you look at the numbers based on those charts, you do not want to give up that money, you do not want to put this up in front of the voters again to where it can jeopardize everything. You can make some minor changes here and there between the county and the metro, but as far as putting that up in front of the voters, that would be the biggest mistake you'll ever do from the chair and the commissioners. Because if that fails, you lose

[15:29] everything and the people in the communities right now are fighting every type of tax they can and they're trying to

[15:37] Make sure they don't have to pay anything in the future. So again

[15:42] Everyone's picking on Elon Musk again and to Elon I

[15:46] have a

[15:48] Suggestion and I know you already know about this business. I want you to buy South of East art auction I

[15:54] Do not want the Saudis to end up taking control of that as you know?

[15:58] they want to start moving a lot of the artwork into various areas.

[16:04] I want that to be stopped, in my opinion, if you buy South of the B's auction, you will

[16:09] be right at the forefront.

[16:11] You will make sure that the people in the United States will know what art is being presented,

[16:17] what the values are, what the prices are.

[16:19] And again, this will also be an accelerator for XAI, also for GROC.

[16:26] And you will find many advantages that whatever your value is that you purchase that, you will go up 100 times.

[16:34] Again, that is one of your most important investments to make.

[16:38] Pick that up right now as you know they're hurting right now financially.

[16:44] And again, that will take in the real estate aspect of it, the luxury homes, and

[16:48] also will take in the classic car aspects of it, the auctions.

[16:53] And you need to be right at the forefront of this, right in the middle of this because again the Saudis are making a move.

[17:00] They're going to try to take control of this and they will begin moving all of the most precious art out of the United States.

[17:11] That has to be stopped and you need to stop it right now.

[17:16] Purchase, set the b's, art auction, be at the forefront.

[17:20] It's a wonderful investment for you to make.

[17:24] Thank you.

[17:25] Next online, we have Laura Curry.

[17:27] Laura, are you able to unmute and begin?

[17:31] I am, thank you so much.

[17:34] So first I want to thank Chairwoman Vega for coming and touring my Northwest community.

[17:40] I'm from stadium hood, and my heart goes out to the mom with the student at Metropolitan

[17:49] School.

[17:50] I live in the neighborhood.

[17:51] I understand what's going on.

[17:54] I'm here to speak about two assaults that personally happened to me in my area.

[18:00] Again, it's the Northwest, I'm part of stadium hood.

[18:04] So, I was assaulted, my phone was stolen, you know, it's a thing, but more importantly,

[18:14] I was assaulted when another time I had my bicycle and a man threatened to kill me

[18:22] and said, be your dead.

[18:25] And I thankfully had my bike between myself and this person, and I was by a roadway, so I could call out.

[18:35] Nobody stopped this person back to off.

[18:39] I made a police report immediately, but at the same time, and I shared this with Chairwoman Vega in our walkthrough.

[18:48] at the same time, there was another person with a knife that was threatening students at the Catholic

[18:56] elementary school, which is Kitty Corner from where I live. So, while the housing crisis and

[19:06] the fentanyl crisis will not be remedied overnight, and I understand that, we in the Northwest

[19:13] neighborhood, and this includes Kooch Park, this includes the Metropolitan School, all the schools in

[19:20] the Stadiumhood neighborhood. There are many elementary schools, daycares. We need to have

[19:28] action. We need to see that things are changing. Right now, outside my window, there's somebody that's

[19:37] sleeping off of fentanyl high.

[19:38] So this is every day.

[19:41] And the real effects of this on our children

[19:46] and our citizens, when the mom says,

[19:48] I'm sorry for crying, oh my lord, don't be sorry.

[19:53] This is real and your feelings are real.

[19:55] And the reason you're crying is because this is not

[19:59] and cannot be normal.

[20:01] This is not the way that a city lives

[20:05] and this is not the social contract, thank you,

[20:08] that we are signed up for.

[20:10] So please, let's work together,

[20:12] but I want this to be fixed.

[20:15] On my final note, Chairwoman Vega,

[20:18] the issues that I share with Karen Sherry,

[20:22] with the rest of the stadium hood are real.

[20:25] We support each other,

[20:26] and that is why we yield our time to each other,

[20:30] not to eliminate other people,

[20:32] but because we are in support of each other,

[20:34] because we're out here, we're out of your loan.

[20:37] Thank you.

[20:38] Thank you.

[20:40] Next is Karen Sherry.

[20:50] Karen, are you able to unmute and begin?

[21:02] Could you speak up a little bit?

[21:04] It's a little hard to hear you.

[21:10] Can you try again?

[21:11] Just a little louder.

[21:18] Yes, I think it will probably, it'll probably.

[21:21] It's a little bit difficult to hear,

[21:24] so if you could speak up a little bit more.

[21:35] Well, I can't get my video working either, so I have no idea what's going on.

[21:39] We can hear you well now.

[21:41] Okay.

[21:42] Good morning.

[21:43] My name is Karen T. Ray.

[21:45] First, I do want to thank chairwoman Peterson for coming to stadium to do a walk around.

[21:52] We hope we can do another one next month with our new district commissioner and the chairwoman

[21:57] as well.

[21:58] And thank you Natalie for arranging it and sewing up to our problem solvers meeting with

[22:02] the city. Go on to any social media platform and you will see thousands of

[22:08] comments from people regarding the state of the county and the city. People are

[22:12] leaving to the live work elsewhere, less people are coming to live work, and fewer

[22:17] people are coming to visit Portland. We are talked about on the national level

[22:22] too and not in a good way. How did we get here? Where do we go from here?

[22:27] There's frustration with leadership. Many community members have spread the deep

[22:31] fence of frustration with the county's leadership and ability to address pressing issues,

[22:37] leading service options in neglect and apathy. Why are we always over-budget when the numbers

[22:43] don't seem to match with their supposedly spent on? Where is the missing might?

[22:48] There's feelings of defeat. Citizens often describe feelings of defeat and hopelessness

[22:54] believing that their concerns are being ignored, which diminishes their trust in local government.

[22:59] How can leadership assert people what they say doesn't go on deaf ears so they don't feel defeated?

[23:08] There's calls for accountability, strong demand for accountability from care women, Peterson, with citizens urging her to actively engage with a community and address her concerns rather than remaining distance and pretenses.

[23:24] While we finally got the care woman to tell me to our area, many people feel it was a political

[23:30] strength on her part. However, I'm responding to those people that we got her out there because

[23:36] we spoke up, which is what they need to start doing no matter if they are with for homeless or

[23:43] mentally ill. I commend Injured and his staff for showing up at these meetings just as much as I

[23:49] I have, and I'm glad to see that he is better today than who was last week.

[23:54] A community is not just voice in complaints, but is also advocating for change, emphasizing

[24:00] the need for proactive measures and responsive governance that prioritizes the needs of residents.

[24:07] I'm hoping city and hood advocacy will inspire others in the community to step up to the plate.

[24:13] The county needs more community input and all city county leaders to be more involved

[24:18] of walking and talking in the communities on the streets.

[24:23] Many comment highlight how the lack of leadership

[24:26] has tangible effects on daily life in the community,

[24:29] such as increased crime and adequate public services

[24:32] and deteriorating infrastructure.

[24:34] The city has an excellent resource phase

[24:36] where people can connect with various city services

[24:39] to get help.

[24:40] Not a lot of people know that.

[24:42] Maybe we need to start marketing centers.

[24:45] Despite individual concerns,

[24:46] So I can raise the sounds in the back.

[24:47] Time is up.

[24:50] I think you guys have all had my written comments as well.

[24:55] Thank you. We'll make sure that they get distributed.

[25:02] Chair, that is all the public testimony this morning.

[25:05] All right. Thank you, Maureen.

[25:05] I can move on to our one.

[25:10] Our one resolution approving the FAC1 project plan

[25:14] to proceed with construction at the Harrison Community Village Project.

[25:18] So moved.

[25:19] Second.

[25:20] Commissioner Stegman moves.

[25:21] Commissioner Myron's second approval of R1.

[25:25] So today we have the chance to continue our process of adding critical shelter beds

[25:32] to support people in need.

[25:34] This alternative shelter site, part of the larger community sheltering strategy, moving

[25:39] conservatively toward forward by the Joint Office and homeless response systems.

[25:46] I want to say HSD, I want to say like normalize that.

[25:49] But we'll be a new program to shelter people who experience homelessness and need to

[25:54] save place to stay along with the services so that they can remain off the streets and move to housing.

[26:00] Adding shelter beds is a cornerstone of our strategies and this facility will add 38 new shelter units

[26:05] in a part of Multnomah County that desperately needs additional capacity in this area.

[26:10] This is the third recent investment in services in this part of the county,

[26:14] including adding shelter beds at the Oak Street Village and adding day

[26:17] services and shelter beds at the East County Homelessness Resource Center will

[26:22] also provide with many thanks to outgoing commissioner Laurie Steigman for her

[26:26] advocacy and prioritizing our investments in the ECHRC. This has been an ongoing

[26:32] project that we are doing our best to build from the ground up. In August of

[26:36] 2024 the Joint Office shared plans with key partners including the Montevilla

[26:40] neighborhood association. A significant amount of outreach happened in advance of a December

[26:46] 5th community meeting to ensure that there will be a large turnout to hear about the

[26:50] center and learn about the plans and next steps. The Monteville neighborhood association

[26:55] advertised this meeting in their newsletter and staff went door-to-door with flyers within

[26:59] a quarter mile radius of the site to make sure that the neighborhood was given plenty of

[27:02] opportunity to hear more, ask questions, and provide feedback. While this is just the beginning,

[27:07] and this site will require much more direct work with the community in order to meet Multnomah County's commitment to this neighborhood.

[27:14] I'm glad we've made these thoughtful first steps.

[27:16] We will have at least 12 months for this site to come online, which will give us many additional months to work closely with the neighborhood associations in Manavilla,

[27:24] as well as the many neighbors, both residents and businesses, who will help us create the framework necessary to build and maintain this site in collaboration with this community.

[27:32] In addition to this new site, there are other opportunities for neighborhood improvement.

[27:37] The sighting of the shelter gives us the chance to work with jurisdictional partners

[27:41] to look at adding sidewalks where there aren't any with the Portland Bureau of Transportation.

[27:46] The Joint Office of Homeless Service staff are in the process of initiating that conversation

[27:50] now.

[27:51] Additionally, through feedback on site design, efforts will be made to minimize safety concerns

[27:56] about students walking to school and will be working with Portland Public Schools on this.

[28:01] I appreciate the team's outreach engagement work that has begun, but there's still significant

[28:06] more work to do, including establishing a provider for operations and services at this

[28:12] site.

[28:12] They will also be developing a good neighbor agreement with neighbors.

[28:16] Now I'm happy to turn things over to Dan Field and a plumb, Austin Vannet and Zach Carole

[28:21] who are working with many people to bring this shelter closer to fruition.

[28:24] Thank you all for being here and I will turn it over to you.

[28:27] Thank you chair appreciate that introduction and I also appreciate your remarks.

[28:32] I'm Dan Field the Director of the Joint Office of Homeless Services for now.

[28:36] I mean the the joint office name part for now.

[28:39] Not the Director of Heart for now.

[28:42] But you never know.

[28:45] Before I start I just want to thank Marina and Travis Gray is in County Administration for allowing us to host a screening here in this room last night.

[28:55] just about 14 hours ago we had a screening of no place to grow old and I think

[29:04] some of you have heard that. It's a documentary filmed in Portland. It's about

[29:08] the homeless crisis and the housing crisis. They've had some screenings since

[29:12] September. We're going to try and organize another one here. It really powerfully

[29:16] speaks to the work that we are all doing and all of you are doing as our

[29:20] elected officials. So if you haven't had a chance to see it, I strongly recommend

[29:24] that and again we'll try and get another screening here for that but I wanted to just recognize

[29:30] the work that's going on in the community to bring those stories forward. I don't have

[29:35] a formal role in the presentation today but I wanted to be here personally to demonstrate

[29:39] my commitment to this project and to the work that we're going to talk about today with some

[29:45] of you around community engagement and other project related issues. This is really difficult

[29:51] We're asking communities to embrace some of our most vulnerable and allow them into their

[29:57] community in a way that puts them on a road.

[30:00] So hopefully back into permanent housing. That presents a lot of challenges. We'll talk about some of that today. I think our track record, the county is good and getting better. We just completed our negotiations with a nearby shelter. It took a lot of work. I commend the community leaders for leaning in with us. I commend county staff for their work on that and what that shows us is that it can be done and that it's hard work, but we can be successful at it.

[30:29] And I'm quite confident that we'll follow a similar pattern here with this project today.

[30:35] So with that I'm really pleased to turn it over to my colleague and a plum and let her

[30:39] kick us off.

[30:42] Good morning for the record.

[30:42] My name is Anna Plum.

[30:44] I use she and her pronouns and I'm the deputy director for the Homeless Services Department.

[30:49] Yeah, and we are here to approve the FAQ-1 under floor project plan for construction for

[30:54] the Harrison Community Village alternative shelter.

[30:56] Next slide, please.

[31:00] In today's briefing, we will start by talking a little bit about giving a view of the context

[31:06] map and the rendering of the site. We'll talk briefly about the goals and objectives

[31:09] of the project and the history so far. We'll speak around our community engagement around

[31:14] this project, and we'll also go through the scope, site layout, budget and funding source

[31:19] and project schedule, and then we will request your approval to move forward with a project

[31:22] plan under administrative procedure.

[31:26] I'm going to pass it to Austin to talk a little

[31:28] a little bit about the site context.

[31:37] Good morning.

[31:38] Sorry.

[31:39] Austin Vanette, I manage the construction portion

[31:41] of this project and this is our site context map.

[31:45] As you can see, where the project is located,

[31:48] the physical address is 18, 18 Southeast, 82nd Street.

[31:53] So it is just north of the division and,

[31:57] anyways, the next slide please.

[32:01] And this is our rendering that shows

[32:04] the adjoining properties and nearby structures as well as the location on the corner of the property.

[32:10] And you can see the pod location and the structures were pushed towards the front of 82nd.

[32:16] That was intentional to keep away from as much as possible the adjoining properties.

[32:22] Next slide please.

[32:25] So I'll speak a little bit.

[32:26] We're all having microphone issues.

[32:28] I will speak a little bit to the goals and objectives of this project.

[32:31] So this is another project under the Community Sheltering Strategy which is a part of the Homelessness Response Action Plan.

[32:37] Again, these are some of the beds that were originally in the FY 2024 budget, but had a longer design and construction timeline to them.

[32:45] So the goal is to expand our capacity to provide safety off the streets for

[32:49] members of our community who are experiencing homelessness.

[32:52] This will be a low barrier site that provides cultural responsive services.

[32:56] And I want to speak a little bit to the concept of low barrier because I think sometimes people get a little bit nervous about that concept.

[33:02] It is a value of the joint office that our sites are primarily low barrier because everyone has a right to safety off the streets.

[33:08] But I want to be clear that low barrier does not mean no accountability.

[33:13] Low barrier shelter sites have policies and procedures, they have expectations for their guests, and they have agreements with the community.

[33:18] Low barrier means that folks can access that site even if they are experiencing issues such as addiction, but

[33:24] it does not mean that they are able to behave in a way that is dangerous to themselves or others while on that site or near that site.

[33:30] That relates to the next bullet, which is that we are providing an environment of safety

[33:34] and support for our guests.

[33:36] The site will include programming and case management that supports people who are

[33:39] living there or visiting it.

[33:41] There will be a no visitor policy actually so that folks cannot have visitors on site without

[33:45] express permission.

[33:46] For example, somebody may have a case manager who doesn't, how is there come visit them on

[33:50] site, but they will not be able to have visitors.

[33:52] And it includes support programs that are person-centered and trauma-informed.

[33:57] Next slide, please.

[33:58] This is a brief history of this site and this project.

[34:03] Multnomah County acquired this site in December of 2022, used to be an RV dealership.

[34:09] We have been working with facilities and property management division like our friend Austin

[34:13] to develop the design of the Harrison Community Village site.

[34:16] We began our community engagement in August of 2024, although I know some engagement happened

[34:21] around the purchase of the site but I was not here for that so I cannot speak to those details.

[34:25] And we began doing initial community engagement in intensively in August of this year.

[34:31] As noted by the chair in December, we distributed a mailer and held our first community event.

[34:35] And I'm going to pass it to Zach Curle to talk more in depth about our community engagement that has taken place so far and our plans for future community engagement.

[34:46] Can you go to the next slide?

[34:48] Good morning, my name is Zach Curle, I work for the Joint Office of Homeless Services.

[34:52] and I oversee our community engagement efforts for this particular project.

[35:00] We have, I've got a lot of text on these slides, these next two slides, so I'm just going

[35:05] to give you an overview, a key chair for providing some context to the community engagement

[35:10] that we've done to date.

[35:13] We really have begun and earnest the full community engagement effort in November.

[35:19] We developed a project site where we had information about how to communicate with the joint

[35:27] office and to learn a little bit about the designs on November 18th, at which time we

[35:34] shared with community partners upon O-A-I-C-O, the Montevilla Neighborhood Association's Slavic

[35:40] Emanuel Church and our Portland Public Schools within near proximity which include Bridger

[35:48] Harrison Park and Clark.

[35:51] We also shared at that time the digital flyer and the project page with our district commissioner

[36:00] Brem Edwards to share through her media outlets as well.

[36:06] Monovilli Neighborhood Association provided an announcement of our future community event

[36:11] at the time on November 26th, and as was mentioned before, we did canvassing with mailers

[36:19] within a half mile radius of the future shelter site.

[36:24] The reason we did canvassing was that there was an unforeseen delay in part because of

[36:31] the holidays and getting that mailed.

[36:33] We did actually do a mailer, it went out to 628 addresses on December 4th, so we're continuing to get that message out to individuals.

[36:45] And following our committee meeting on December 5th, we collected feedback from community, there were over 60 individuals who were in attendance.

[36:56] and with those questions, we've developed responses, hosted those on our project website, which is at johs.us-1818-80-second-have, I believe.

[37:14] But I can follow up with that information.

[37:18] But so those questions and answers were submitted yesterday morning in an effort to and also to the board and our community and partners including PPS who followed up with sharing information to their constituents, their school communities, we can go to the next slide.

[37:46] So, our intention is to continue this intensive effort of committee engagement, while we're still at the very early stages of the project, we're over a year out, we're being very intentional in keeping those partners engaged.

[38:02] We've had solid communications with Portland Public Schools, chief of staff, and former chair,

[38:09] Debra Kaffory, and the principals, and made a commitment to host a second community engagement

[38:15] event at one of the schools.

[38:17] What we've heard from constituents to date is general concerns around safe routes to schools.

[38:25] And the crossing of 80 seconds, as well as broader conversation of our community engagement

[38:32] strategy and our development of a second site in Montevilla.

[38:36] That's an area of concern and interest, obviously, for a joint office that we're trying to address.

[38:43] We've incorporated language within our good neighbor agreement, commitment to the community for

[38:49] Oak Street Village that we're not intending to over-develop within Montevilla and

[38:55] explain the rationale of developing two sites here on 82nd in my neighborhood, which is largely these are public county owned properties, and we're responding urgently to the greater need of expanding shelter.

[39:12] This is not uncommon, this is not a Multnomah County or joint office effort, the city of Portland is also pursuing developing sites on city owned property.

[39:21] and this is an effort to urgently and rapidly respond to the crisis.

[39:27] I think the other element with safe rest schools were invested in meeting with Peabot and

[39:36] PPS to continue to consider the potential impact of students and their families crossing

[39:44] those intersections, walking past a managed and secure shelter site that's going to be

[39:51] serving 38 adults and providing case management and treatment.

[39:57] I want to highlight just two more kind of community engagement efforts that we'll be pursuing in 2025.

[40:04] The first is obviously we're committed to a good neighbor agreement,

[40:08] good neighbor agreement outlines essentially what the joint office are provider and

[40:14] their commitments and partner with City of Portland to manage and

[40:19] and ensure that any impacts of our commuting, sheltering strategy and our shelters are minimized.

[40:27] So we will be committed to meeting with commuting leaders so that we have a good neighbor agreement in the beginning of our opening of the shelter.

[40:44] And then I, the other, the, we'll have another meeting at the end of that good neighbor

[40:49] agreement process to outline what's in the good neighbor agreement.

[40:53] There's included resources about, you know, what, how to reach out to our various contacts

[41:02] within the county and the city to voice and continue the problem solving of our future projects.

[41:10] So, I think with that, I will hand it over to Austin Vanette to close out a presentation.

[41:19] Thanks, Zach.

[41:20] Next slide, please.

[41:23] So, this is our project scope.

[41:24] The site will have 38 pods, which are the sleep and units.

[41:28] Eight of those will be ADA accessible.

[41:31] There is an existing building on site, but due to costs to renovate that electrical mechanical

[41:37] structural improvements, it makes more sense financially to demolish that building.

[41:43] So that is what we are going to do, and then we are going to utilize the modular units

[41:47] which are basically retrofitted shipping containers for the sports services such as

[41:54] bathroom, showers, laundry, kitchenette, and office spaces.

[41:59] We will also have some outdoor areas for pets and an outdoor covered area for gathering

[42:05] for the community. The site will be

[42:09] fenced on all sides. The sides along

[42:12] the street will be a privacy fence

[42:16] with inserts and then on the back

[42:18] side we will do a wooden fence on the

[42:21] adjoining residential area property.

[42:24] Next slide please.

[42:27] And this is our

[42:28] layout of the site so you can see the

[42:31] 38 pods. They are laid out on

[42:34] angles to the main area which are the

[42:37] support services on the left side.

[42:40] So everything is lined up on the front towards 82nd, which serves a couple purposes when it

[42:45] organizes a site and allows a view of the entire site.

[42:49] But it also provides screening in some sound barrier from the road and protection from the

[42:54] road to the actual residents on the site.

[42:57] So that is nice.

[42:58] And then you can see the grass areas there in the lower corner for the pet and then the

[43:04] office locations. We still have access for emergency vehicles as well. There are two

[43:11] entrances, but primarily the one you utilize towards the rear and those parking spots

[43:16] that you're seeing, those are for staff and not participants, excuse me, staff and visitors

[43:21] only. Next slide, please.

[43:26] And these are our support units which I stated earlier are essentially

[43:30] retrofitted shipping containers, but you can kind of see the layouts that are similar to

[43:35] a lot of them will have restrooms, longer facilities, next slide please.

[43:43] And just another view of the sleep in units, the pods, these are set up to be individual

[43:52] units for one bed per pod, but these will be new pods for this facility as well.

[43:59] And next slide please.

[44:01] And our budget.

[44:02] So the budget is $4.1 million on this project.

[44:06] A large portion of that is we on this particular project have to purchase the pods.

[44:11] We did not have them in our inventory as we did with the last project.

[44:15] So there's a substantial cost for that.

[44:17] But construction is a little over $1.8 million.

[44:21] The containers which, again, those are reusable.

[44:24] So if we ever decide to do anything with the site, those can be repurpose somewhere else.

[44:28] and in the pods, so the pods, 684,000, and then a little over 900,000 for

[44:35] contingency and soft cost, and that is our budget, and that funding source was

[44:42] safety off the streets, emergency shelters, emergency events, investment, 330208B,

[44:50] next slide folks,

[44:52] and our schedule, this is our projected schedule that we'd like to

[44:59] Keep in mind.

[45:00] We're to maintain our delivery date of December. So right now we are developing the construction documents. We are at about a 50% plan review this week. We intend to hopefully go into permitting early in January and anticipate to have that permitting back somewhere March or April. And then we are going out to bid with a contractor.

[45:29] and we will have that in place by July and construction beginning in July with

[45:36] construction to completion date of early December 2025. Next slide, please.

[45:45] And at

[45:45] this time, the project team is seeking adoption of resolution on December

[45:50] today to approve the fact one project plan to proceed with the construction of

[45:54] Harrison Community Village project. We would like to thank you for your time

[45:58] and we welcome any questions or comments.

[46:01] Madam Chair, before we move to any questions and discussion,

[46:05] I just want to flag that I am going to have an amendment

[46:10] to the resolution, and at the appropriate time I can introduce it,

[46:15] and I've shared it, and I believe it's also posted.

[46:20] So I just want to note that.

[46:22] Thank you, Commissioner, I appreciate that.

[46:24] We do have several people signed up for public testimony,

[46:27] Monissa, I would love to hear from them, and then we'll move into the board comment where you can bring forward your amendment.

[46:33] Thank you.

[46:34] All right, Marina, can we proceed?

[46:38] Madam Chair, we received five verbal testimonies and four written testimonies which were shared with board members and staff.

[46:48] I'll call four people at a time.

[46:51] Sarah Fisher, Laura Mulligan, Nancy Deal, and Erin Milano.

[46:56] Okay,

[47:09] good morning. You can begin.

[47:16] Good morning. My name is Aaron Milano. I live six blocks from the proposed site and I have

[47:21] various serious concerns about the safety of my elderly mother or my older mother who

[47:25] lives just two blocks away from it. I urge you to vote no on the FAC one resolution. With

[47:31] 11,000 homeless in our county, 38 beds is a distraction, not a solution. You've been entrusted with

[47:38] With hundreds of millions of dollars and one-off projects like these, this is inadequate.

[47:43] The $6 million of capital that the county plans to outweigh for the 38 pods is over $150,000

[47:50] per unit.

[47:51] At that run rate, it costs nearly $2 billion to solve today's crisis.

[47:56] For context, with that money, the county could fully subsidize rent for 38 individuals for

[48:01] over a decade, or even buy a 30-unit apartment complex on Powell Boulevard, which is on the

[48:07] market today. Additionally, staff has not provided any color around the long-term operating

[48:13] cost of the facility. This simply isn't prudent and doesn't move the needle. You must be

[48:19] judicious with our tax dollars, especially since tax increases have been driving force

[48:24] increasing the cost of housing and living in our county. This is only making our housing

[48:29] crisis worse.

[48:32] The site represents a rare opportunity for infill development that could create permanent

[48:35] housing units serving many, many more people over time.

[48:39] Instead, as a temporary shelter space, this project will remove one of our few remaining

[48:42] buildable lots from the housing supply, exactly the opposite of what we need to be doing to tackle the larger problem.

[48:49] Beyond these concerns, this project conflicts with the city's broader community development efforts.

[48:55] The city is actively spending tens of millions of dollars to transform 80 second avenue,

[48:59] and increasing public safety, improving walkability,

[49:04] attracting small businesses, and making the neighborhoods more livable.

[49:09] Southeast 82nd has the opportunity to be so much more than it currently is,

[49:14] and the opportunity cost of continually targeting this area for temporary pod and

[49:18] RV parks, or counter to these goals, and could set back 82nds transformation for years to come.

[49:26] Addressing homelessness is important, and there are real concerns about the prudence of this specific project.

[49:32] Please don't let it distract you from the larger challenge at hand.

[49:36] I strongly urge you all to vote no today, and I ask that you work with the incoming mayor to evaluate this project against other more ambitious efforts.

[49:43] Thank you.

[49:44] Thank you.

[49:45] Good morning.

[49:48] Good morning, Chair.

[49:49] I have a good preacher's son and county board, I'm Sarah Fisher, I'm an Episcopal priest and

[49:53] street chaplain in East Portland, and I actually really appreciate everything that Aaron just said.

[49:59] And I have a question which is not part of my testimony, but

[50:03] my understanding when the two properties on 82nd were first purchased with the first press release that this was transitional temporary use of the property with an idea of building permanent.

[50:19] affordable housing in the future, so I'm curious about that.

[50:24] What I want to say about this is that I've spent time in Monavilla and

[50:28] specifically on 82nd Avenue for over 20 years since helping to found raw hub sisters in 2003.

[50:36] And I understand the challenges that people who live in Monavilla homes have with their unhoused neighbors.

[50:43] tens and garbage blocking the sidewalk, feces and needles on their lawns,

[50:49] frightening behavior, all of it, no one wants to live that way.

[50:54] The people who especially don't want to live that way are the people who are living outside.

[51:01] The solution for all of these neighbors is housing a roof, a door that locks,

[51:08] and readily available supportive services.

[51:12] Most of us have all of that.

[51:14] We just have different ways of talking about supportive services.

[51:20] People who live unsheltered in a neighborhood

[51:23] we all care about need shelter and support.

[51:27] They are already camped on sidewalks,

[51:30] near schools, and homes.

[51:33] Villages like the proposed Harrison Street Village

[51:35] will only make things better for all residents of Montevilla,

[51:40] those with roofs over their heads and those without.

[51:44] This past Tuesday, we heard from several of you about the value of working with urgency,

[51:50] courage and heart.

[51:52] As you consider moving ahead with this project, please do so with urgency, courage and heart.

[52:00] and provide safe, supportive, appropriate shelter for housing Montevilla neighbors.

[52:08] I often describe my work as emptying the ocean with a teaspoon.

[52:14] And sometimes that's what the work looks like.

[52:17] You've all heard the starfish analogy.

[52:21] It matters to each starfish that you pick up and throw into a life-saving environment.

[52:28] People give me a hard time because I don't actually sleep in Montevilla every night.

[52:34] But I live not far from the Clinton triangle, which is a stone's throw from the new Avalon tiny home village on division.

[52:44] Both of these projects have been successful with the help of engaged neighbors, including the nearby Ebernath the Elementary School.

[52:52] neighbors who understand the need for multiple shelter sites in every neighborhood.

[52:58] Thank you.

[52:59] We can do this, please move ahead with this life-saving project.

[53:03] Thank you.

[53:04] Good morning.

[53:07] Good morning.

[53:08] My name is Laura Mulligan, and I am here testifying on behalf of the Montevilla Neighborhood Association,

[53:15] in which I serve as the vice president.

[53:18] Our intention with this testimony is to express our disappointment and our concern

[53:23] with the process and development of the proposed 1818 Southeast, 82nd Avenue Community Village.

[53:29] We ask that the board delay the approval of this item until further community engagement

[53:34] is done and the community has an opportunity to learn from the soon-to-open Oak Street

[53:39] Village.

[53:40] As I'm sure the board is aware, this is not the first time the county has stumbled in developing

[53:44] a community village in Montevilla, Oak Street Village, which is currently under construction

[53:48] with a planned opening this January was also mishandled from the start.

[53:53] The county initially failed to inform neighbors about the Oak Street site and include them

[53:57] in the process. It was left to community members to organize and invite city and county

[54:02] stakeholders to a meeting in order to get answers to their questions. It was that community

[54:08] led effort and the support of our community commissioner, Julia Brim Edwards, that led

[54:14] led to the reset of the engagement process.

[54:17] Thank you, Commissioner, for considering the interests of Monavilla in this decision.

[54:22] However, the county has, once again, fallen short of our community to this expectation.

[54:26] The first community meeting for this site was held just two weeks ago on December 5th.

[54:31] And neighbors adjacent to the site were given short notice in the form of flyers on their doorstep.

[54:36] In some cases, just days before this meeting took place.

[54:39] It's our understanding that the county has known for months that this site would be moving forward.

[54:42] why then was direct notice not provided further in advance.

[54:48] Additionally, it is our belief that the December 5th meeting should have been framed as a community information and listening session.

[54:54] Instead, the scope of the meeting was narrowed to site design and subject matter experts knowledgeable in the broader project goals process and background were not made available.

[55:04] This limited the information the community was able to receive and increased frustration of many in attendance.

[55:11] Lastly, it was shared at the December 5 meeting that the JOHS has yet to meet with the leaders

[55:16] of the two neighboring schools.

[55:17] I heard a little differently just recently, but Harrison's park elementary and Bridger

[55:23] Creative Science Middle School, this site sits directly on the safe route to school for both

[55:28] of these facilities that neither school has been consulted at the time of the meeting, speaks

[55:33] to the backwards order, that's a operation that defines the current status of the community

[55:37] engagement.

[55:38] These lessons that should have been learned during the Oak Street Village process, the Montevill

[55:44] and Neighborhood Association and other community stakeholders want to be good partners and

[55:49] have worked for the past year on a good neighbor agreement.

[55:52] Our community understands the need for additional shelter sites in the critical role they play

[55:56] in the region's homelessness crisis.

[55:58] In fact, our community is already home to many services and sites, but please do not mistake

[56:03] our compassion for complacency.

[56:05] The burden of this crisis should not fall unequally on the shareholders of Montevilla.

[56:11] This vote to prove this additional site occurring before previous JOH project has a chance

[56:18] to open, feels rushed, and a missed opportunity for learning.

[56:23] Thank you.

[56:25] Thank you.

[56:26] Thank you very much.

[56:29] Thank you very much for your words.

[56:30] My name is Nancy Deal.

[56:31] I'd like to thank the Chair and the Multnomah County commissioners for this opportunity to

[56:36] the boys are concerned regarding the Harrison Community Village Project.

[56:40] I'd like to thank all of us for the homeless community in Portland to have a safe place to live off the streets.

[56:45] But what is the right solution?

[56:47] I live in the Mount of Illinois neighborhood.

[56:49] I'm concerned about the reposed site at 1818 Southeast 82nd for the Harrison Community Village Project for several reasons.

[56:56] From what I understand, this is the only opportunity to object to whether this is an appropriate site for a shelter within a mile of another shelter.

[57:04] J.O.H.S. has admitted because of a printer problem they did not give the customary notice

[57:09] of a proposed shelter.

[57:11] And a minimum, J.O.H.S. should conduct a second meeting after customary notice.

[57:16] They never gave the residents an opportunity to object to the site.

[57:20] I never received a mail or ever.

[57:23] There is already one shelter going in at 333 southeast 82nd, if the site at 1818 southeast

[57:29] 82nd is also developed.

[57:30] That would be two shelters on the same street in the same neighborhood less than one mile apart.

[57:35] Why is Monteville getting two facilities?

[57:38] Shouldn't these projects be interspersed throughout the city of Portland so it's more fair?

[57:43] And why is the approval being rushed through so quickly without adequate public awareness by the community one week before the holidays?

[57:51] I was only notified of one meeting which was held on December 5th, 2024 by J.O. H.S.

[57:56] and that paper notice was found in my yard two days before the meeting.

[58:01] I understand the facility at 333 Southeast 82nd will be open soon.

[58:06] Why can't we see if any issues arise and how it can be improved before opening a second site so close to it?

[58:13] This site is also in a very close proximity to two schools, Bridger Creative Science School and Harrison Park Middle School.

[58:19] This facility is proposed to be low barrier so drugs can be used at the site.

[58:24] Are the schools aware, the facility is low barrier, how can the community be assured that drugs will not be sold outside on the streets close to these schools, or the crime will go up in the area.

[58:36] Or the campers will be attracted to the site and camp on the streets around it.

[58:40] I also want to add there are no grocery stores anywhere near the site, which seems bizarre.

[58:46] What types of services for mental health and drug abuse will be given to the people in the shelter is their data that states the temporary sleeping pod villages actually help get people into permanent housing solutions, which seems like that should be the end game, or that should be the end result here to get people into permanent housing for these many reasons again, I feel there should be more discussion with the community before proceeding with a vote to approve construction at 1818 southeast 82nd.

[59:15] Thank you for your time.

[59:20] Next we have Melanie Bobbitt online.

[59:24] Melanie, are you able to unmute and begin?

[59:27] Yes, thank you.

[59:28] Yes, I'm Melanie Bobbitt.

[59:30] My child is a student at Bridger Elementary School.

[59:34] First, I would like to say that I appreciate

[59:35] the hard work taking place to find solutions

[59:38] for the homeless crisis in Portland

[59:40] and to address the directly related crime

[59:42] in a rodent sense of safety in our community.

[59:44] I am a licensed social worker and 14-year Portland resident and my partner, the father of our two small children is a musician and local small business owner who has been here for 26 years.

[59:56] We're invested in our community and look forward to regaining...

[1:00:00] Confidence that this is where we want to stay. We've been seriously questioning that the past handful of years, living in Montevilla and now on the outskirts of Montevilla because of the crime and safety threats we have directly repeatedly experienced with the rise of homelessness in our area. We do not accept a shelter site within a couple blocks of our kids elementary school as part of a solution. We did not vote to fund this work so that our tax dollars can be used to create another level of safety risk for us.

[1:00:29] that of our children at school, on top of the repeated crime and safety issues that will

[1:00:34] likely continue or worsen, would not one but two of these sites in our area, Oak Street

[1:00:40] Village and 1818 Southeast 82nd. I urge close consideration of the appers effect there

[1:00:46] will be on the neighborhood having two sites so close together.

[1:00:50] J.O.H.S. emphasizes all the regulation there will be on activity inside the sites, but

[1:00:56] And nothing more than a non-binding agreement about mapping what goes on on the other side

[1:01:00] of the fence and surely spreading into the neighborhood.

[1:01:04] A non-binding, good neighbor agreement does not provide sufficient confidence in how the

[1:01:09] risk will be mitigated.

[1:01:11] Drug activity, weapons, theft, and the heightened risk from residents of the site who are homeless

[1:01:16] because of sex offenses and other violent crimes that will be trickling into the neighborhood

[1:01:22] by those who leave the site to carry out the activities that are not permitted within it,

[1:01:27] and or those frequenting the perimeter of the site as we already see other existing sites.

[1:01:32] It is unacceptable to knowingly make children vulnerable to these activities

[1:01:37] and risk a single child being harmed in any way. No promises and reactive enforcement measures

[1:01:43] in a non-binding agreement will lessen this risk created by a site at this location.

[1:01:50] Continuing to compromise community safety and specifically threaten that for children in the name of being trauma informed is an unacceptable misapplication of those principles.

[1:02:02] Prioritizing low barriers over the safety of the community and specifically children to the extreme of not requiring criminal background checks and not explicitly prohibiting people with sex offenses or other violent crime histories as stated by J.O.H.S.

[1:02:18] is shocking and completely unacceptable.

[1:02:22] The Principles did release a statement on the 17th, which did not provide any information

[1:02:27] about this meeting or the opportunity for public testimony.

[1:02:31] JLHS has done the significance of today's vote, and the value of speaking up at this

[1:02:38] time is significant, today's vote on whether to allow the construction to begin that has

[1:02:44] It's been downplayed and not communicated to the community.

[1:02:51] Thank you.

[1:02:52] Thank you.

[1:02:52] May I?

[1:02:57] So sorry.

[1:02:58] That's all right.

[1:02:59] Is it other?

[1:03:01] No chair.

[1:03:02] That is all the public testimony for today.

[1:03:05] Okay.

[1:03:06] Thank you, Marina.

[1:03:07] We'll bring J.O.J. back up and then we'll go to the board for questions and comments.

[1:03:25] All right.

[1:03:26] Thank you.

[1:03:26] We will start with commissioner segment.

[1:03:29] Thank you.

[1:03:30] Thank you chair.

[1:03:31] Excuse me.

[1:03:32] I mean, so I had a few questions, I do see Margie, I don't know if you have any transportation.

[1:03:39] People in here are talking about the safe routes to school.

[1:03:43] And if there is a designated, I'm not sure with the process that there is to designate a safe route to school around a particular school.

[1:03:57] Hi.

[1:04:02] Oh, for the record, my name is Margie Bradway. She hers. I am the director of community services.

[1:04:07] I currently have up on my laptop. Plan safe routes to school projects by Peabot website because I'm doing research as I listen to this.

[1:04:16] So I want to say for the record that I'm talking on the fly and I need to confirm what I see with my colleagues at Peabot.

[1:04:22] It does look like they have either plan to invest or will invest in several locations in the project area.

[1:04:30] And then according to this map, which I need to verify with my colleagues at Peabot,

[1:04:34] they have made several routes in that area eligible for investment with the Fixing Our

[1:04:40] Streets program.

[1:04:41] So if you remember the Fixing Our Streets bond was renewed last year.

[1:04:45] There's a safe routes to school bucket.

[1:04:48] The projects in that bucket were not identified.

[1:04:51] What they did instead is they identified routes that are eligible for investment with those

[1:04:56] dollars.

[1:04:57] And that's what I need to confirm with my colleagues at Peabot, but this is what their current map shows, and I'm happy to share that with our colleagues at Joint Office of Homelessness and work on that together.

[1:05:08] You did great on the fly market.

[1:05:11] Well, I used to manage that program, and I was part of the original fixing our streets.

[1:05:15] Thank you.

[1:05:16] Thank you.

[1:05:18] Yeah,

[1:05:21] so clearly I just wanted to make sure that there was a path forward to do what we're I think we are asking we'll be asking and what the community is asking for so it sounds like there is so that's great.

[1:05:35] Zach, I know I had asked you about the mailers and you had responded that it goes out to residents within a quarter of a mile but then I also heard you say today that maybe you can this half a mile.

[1:05:49] So can you talk about that no so we can vist within that same quarter mile we spent two days to deliver to

[1:05:59] Probably close to 600 residents

[1:06:02] In anticipation that the delay of getting a

[1:06:06] Flyer in people's mailboxes would have been too late

[1:06:10] So we did the best we can under the circumstances and to augment our outreach

[1:06:17] That's why we reached out to community partners like Montevilla neighborhood association, which did a newsletter, Pano, AYCO.

[1:06:27] Also, I believe Commissioner Bram Edwards also publicized on her newsletter.

[1:06:34] So, trying to find ways to be communicative in different ways to community while being really specific and focused on what

[1:06:46] area is most likely going to be of a higher impact where we want engagement.

[1:06:51] Great, thank you. And can someone maybe provide me a little bit of a history

[1:06:56] lesson about how there came to be two sites that were so geographically close

[1:07:02] to one another?

[1:07:07] Is it Commissioner Singleton?

[1:07:09] All the commissioners have been there. She wants to jump in.

[1:07:12] I have. You probably voted. Didn't the commission vote to purchase the sites?

[1:07:18] No? No. I will just share Commissioner Stegman when I was in-term director at the Joint

[1:07:25] Office. Both of these properties were up for sale around the same time, and they were

[1:07:29] part of a number of properties that the Joint Office purchased for short-term use for

[1:07:37] shelter, but also thinking about the long-term use and thinking about them as land-banking

[1:07:41] opportunities for future development great and I think that answers the questions that if we

[1:07:48] wanted to turn these shelter sites into permanent housing we could in the future so that's great thank

[1:07:54] you commissioner singleton I'm wondering is there any data around our shelter sites do we do studies

[1:08:03] are is access available that measures either an increase or decrease in public safety near our shelters

[1:08:13] And maybe it's public safety calls.

[1:08:15] I'm just wondering what kind of data is there a way to measure the impact that shelters have on a neighborhood or community.

[1:08:24] I don't have any data on that right now, but we can look and follow up.

[1:08:27] And I will say that we partner closely with the city of Portland.

[1:08:32] I can't remember the name of the office, Portland Solutions, yes, no.

[1:08:38] We partner closely, so what a really standard part of our good neighbor agreement is prioritization of like, this is not exactly what you're asking, but

[1:08:47] as it camps that might crop up in that area that is designated, so it's a common part of our agreements that we work with the city of Portland in that engagement area to have higher priority for situations that arise in that engagement area.

[1:08:58] And that's great Anna and I guess that what I'm getting at is I think residents bringing valid concerns that they are experiencing a lot of challenges in their neighborhoods until unsafe.

[1:09:13] And I guess the optimists in me believes that if we are citing these shelters in neighborhoods that have a lot of people experience homelessness.

[1:09:24] I would expect that the public safety would increase, not decrease, but I understand why somebody would feel that that may not be true.

[1:09:41] And so I'm just wondering or asking if there's a way we can actually start measuring that.

[1:09:47] Commissioner Stegman, one of the learnings I had in the Monovilla, the Oak Street Village process was that bringing a shelter village to a community turns in undeveloped, unmanaged site into a semi-developed, highly managed site.

[1:10:04] The other thing just to build on what Anna and Zach were referring to in the Oak Street Village process the city was at our side throughout the process of those community meetings and they actually made a commitment for increased scrutiny, if you will, or attention to the area surrounding.

[1:10:21] So you've got a provider who is heavily invested in the area surrounding the facility that they're responsible for the community.

[1:10:29] You have a city and all the resources of public space management resources that they bring who now is heavily invested and committed to that property

[1:10:37] So I don't have exact data about activity before and after but common sense tells me that when you've got a community resources focused on a location

[1:10:47] Things are going to be better and that's what's happening here

[1:10:52] Zach, did you have anything you wanted to add?

[1:10:54] Sure, yeah, Zach Curl with Joint Office.

[1:10:58] So I was just going to comment to what's within the Good Neighbor Agreement for Oak Street Village.

[1:11:03] We're employing in recent years and partnership with the City of Portland.

[1:11:08] What's called a community advisory committee or a CAC.

[1:11:12] This was employed with the reference that I believe Sarah Fisher shared about Clinton Triangle.

[1:11:18] And it's an effort to continue to have the conversations that were started within the good neighbor agreement ongoing to be able to review and consider some of the impacts.

[1:11:31] And within the Oak Street Village, good neighbor agreement, which we imagine will be very similar to this future shelter that there was a reporting section in which we worked closely with Montevilla Neighborhood Association and

[1:11:46] the Monteville East Taver Business Association

[1:11:48] to identify what data sources we want to be considering

[1:11:51] and looking at to assess that impact ongoing.

[1:11:56] Oh, that's great.

[1:11:57] Okay, so it looks like you will be tracking this.

[1:12:00] And I mean, I think it would be really important

[1:12:03] for us to look at tracking and measuring this

[1:12:06] at all of our shelters.

[1:12:08] Like we can tell qualitative stories,

[1:12:12] but sometimes it doesn't feel

[1:12:14] the way that our residents are feeling, so I think that data is a way to say

[1:12:22] actually things have gotten better, or they haven't, and if they haven't,

[1:12:27] then that's a data we need to know so that we can address it as well.

[1:12:30] So thank you so much. I know that, you know, this is, I know people are frustrated,

[1:12:36] but, you know what, we're getting a shelter ingress into, so just saying that I know

[1:12:41] I know that it feels like maybe a particular area is getting more of their fair share of services.

[1:12:49] But all parts of the county are receiving services and I'm grateful for that because we will have our East County Homeless Services Center.

[1:12:58] The first of its kind it will be a day center with I think 48 enough capacity for 48 people.

[1:13:05] And while 38 or 48 yes, those are small standalone numbers.

[1:13:09] members, but cumulatively they add up to 500 beds in our community sheltering strategy,

[1:13:18] which will eventually add up to 1,000 beds.

[1:13:22] So these small numbers, they do make a difference.

[1:13:26] So thank you so much for presenting.

[1:13:29] Thank you, Commissioner Brim Edwards, and I think it's a good time to move forward the

[1:13:34] amendment.

[1:13:34] I'm going to do that at the end because I have both questions and some statements.

[1:13:40] So for 50 years, I've lived within a mile of this site and the other site.

[1:13:46] So it's not just something that I've heard from the community.

[1:13:51] It's like Montevilla has been, say, for 50 years of place where I've just been part of my

[1:14:02] life. And I would say it's not that people feel there's elevated levels of crime, there are

[1:14:08] elevated levels of crime. If you just look at the 911 and non-emergency data over the last two

[1:14:15] years, it's very high. And also, it's not just they feel they're getting more, they actually are.

[1:14:24] If you look at them at the sort of map of the county and where things are cited,

[1:14:31] it's not evenly distributed across the county.

[1:14:35] And I think that's something that we need to talk about.

[1:14:37] So I just want to sort of share that framing.

[1:14:43] Also, to Laura Mulligan, hopefully got your last name right,

[1:14:48] for the Montevilla neighborhood association,

[1:14:51] you ask about a delay and after I attended the community meeting,

[1:15:00] December, I ask for that as well. I didn't feel, I don't feel the county is ready to move ahead. I was informed there wouldn't be support for that, which is why I'm going to bring forward an amendment, because I think that actually would have been the right thing to do. The county has owned the property for two years, so there was ample time to do, I think, more engagement, not just informing the community.

[1:15:30] So disappointing that while the county owned the property had plans for it, the actual time for people to come and get some questions answered, and about more than just the design, because the reality is that meeting was focused on we're only here to talk about the design.

[1:15:50] not a lot of the other issues that you raised, which really I don't think is the, given

[1:15:59] this, is the only past before the commission, the right framing for the start of our community

[1:16:06] engagement because people had a lot of questions.

[1:16:12] And I'm going to say since I joined the commission, I've championed the addition of shelter beds

[1:16:17] so that people have basic services, safety, and a pathway to housing.

[1:16:21] It's appalling that the city and county has not taken more urgent action to provide greater amounts of shelter.

[1:16:28] So I'm very supportive of our overall community sheltering strategy.

[1:16:32] And I believe it should be a county wide community sheltering strategy, not just focused on one neighborhood.

[1:16:42] This property was purchased before I joined the county and I think I would have asked,

[1:16:47] a lot of questions at the front end if I had been and clearly it was a decision of the chair

[1:16:51] and the department to purchase the property but I think there are in order to make this a

[1:16:57] workable site and I'm going to get to some of the design issues to make it workable both for the

[1:17:02] people there and the community is going to require a fair amount of resources and the question is like

[1:17:10] was this the best site given some of the complexities of it and it also the question

[1:17:17] And I would ask is there's, as one of the speakers noted, there is a huge community-wide

[1:17:25] effort around 80-second, better 80-second, to really change that vital transportation.

[1:17:34] And you know, a place where people live, workshop, the 80-second avenue bus is the most used

[1:17:43] route in the in the climate system. So it's just a question of like having a fence along

[1:17:51] the entire order. I don't think when I look at the plans that's not what the vision is

[1:17:57] for better 80 second. So thinking about then again this long-term plan for housing versus

[1:18:03] a offence property along 80 second. So I'm going to ask some questions about the

[1:18:13] design and there

[1:18:21] were some representations made about the community engagement and I because I attended the meeting and I have lots of conversations with neighborhood and I also had conversations with many people in the school community.

[1:18:41] I think we should say what it was and what it wasn't.

[1:18:47] The meeting didn't actually answer a lot of questions, and the fact that it was, the people

[1:18:54] had, and the fact that it was so focused just on, this is only about the design, not

[1:18:59] about all the other things that you've raised that are real concerns, whether it's kids

[1:19:04] going to school, or their routes to school, or just where things, who the provider was

[1:19:14] going to be how things would be run.

[1:19:18] So a lot of answers didn't get provided at that

[1:19:22] meeting and so people that get them yesterday. Also people weren't informed that they could

[1:19:27] come to this meeting with a here's how you sign up for public comment, here's how you reach

[1:19:32] out to other commissioners.

[1:19:36] So I'm clear there was plenty of time in advance to have those

[1:19:42] Those conversations, in addition, the engagement with Portland Public Schools was more just informing them that this is happening versus having a meeting in which I feel parents could have, and school staff could have had their questions answered it was less engagement and more just informed that we're moving ahead.

[1:20:10] So my amendment is going to talk about the type of engagement that really needs to happen

[1:20:17] in order for this project to move forward in a successful way.

[1:20:24] And I think we're really lucky that we have somebody like Margie Redway who's sitting

[1:20:27] in the audience who can just answer a question on the fly, but we shouldn't be doing this

[1:20:31] on the fly and it's not very reassuring to me that we haven't done some of that ramp

[1:20:39] up before we have our boat here today.

[1:20:43] So with that, I'm going to ask

[1:20:52] a couple questions.

[1:20:53] the,

[1:20:57] I'm

[1:21:01] going to start with a slide which

[1:21:11] is the site layout.

[1:21:21] So Milstreet and 80 seconds.

[1:21:26] So Milstreet is the street that comes off of 80 seconds that you've designated as the

[1:21:31] entrance. And there you've also, there is a bust, so for the purposes of the other commission

[1:21:41] I've shared with you, I think, what is probably a more complete map so you can visually understand

[1:21:49] what's happening here.

[1:21:51] So on 82nd and Mill Street there's both a bus stop and a light.

[1:22:00] And

[1:22:03] I haven't seen Margie's map, but I'm assuming that I know that Mill Street is a major, it's

[1:22:12] It's the only crossing in a number of almost a third of a mile in either direction to get across 80 second for school kids.

[1:22:20] And if commissioners, if you can see the 80 second and a mill, and then you've got Harrison Park middle school, and the Harrison Park within two blocks of this.

[1:22:32] Given that there's no whether ability placed across 80 second, other than 80 second and mill, which is really the corner of the site.

[1:22:42] Tell me about how you see the interface between our shelter site and the entrances with that being the sort of major route for students to walk on to get to Harrison Park School.

[1:23:02] Like how that fits with the design with

[1:23:12] no sidewalks by the way.

[1:23:16] In terms, it's kind of a two-layered question, and I think both of us may have to respond.

[1:23:22] But in terms of the design efforts, so those drives that you're seeing are established

[1:23:29] on that site, so we utilize those aprons for design purposes in terms of cost savings

[1:23:35] and the RE exists, and you're right, there's a bus stop right there in that corner.

[1:23:43] So I think that that was our design intent was this site already existed that way and we didn't want to have that main opportunity on the front, but in terms of it was a use car it was a use car lot or

[1:23:57] beforehand. I mean, so that it wasn't daily in and out of.

[1:24:04] So what I would emphasize is one of the reasons that we focused on the design in that first

[1:24:09] community meeting is to have exactly the conversation that you're wanting to have right now about

[1:24:14] questions you have about the design.

[1:24:16] This vote does not finalize the design, it allows us to do the work that will finalize

[1:24:20] the design.

[1:24:20] And so the vote to move forward allows us to move forward so we can meet our timelines

[1:24:25] and add shelter to the community, but this design is not absolutely final and we can still

[1:24:30] have the conversations that you're wanting to have about, is there a different way the

[1:24:34] entrance could work, what would that do to the number of pods, what would that do to

[1:24:37] where we cite the community stuff. So we are still capable of having those conversations

[1:24:41] and we actually are working on some efforts to have some more concentrated conversations

[1:24:45] about that with the community as well. So those conversations can still happen.

[1:24:51] So from the, but I understand the meeting that that I attended was about design.

[1:25:00] And so you heard feedback what what design changes have happened since based on the feedback

[1:25:06] from that meeting.

[1:25:09] That meeting was relatively recent so we haven't made any changes yet, but we are we I think

[1:25:14] we have we're making some efforts.

[1:25:16] There were some folks who wanted to speak more about the design and it was they have asked

[1:25:21] for some follow-up conversations and potentially like a survey to get more impact on the design

[1:25:25] itself. So we're still working through that.

[1:25:30] And that entire stretch of Mill Street currently has no sidewalks, so a student crosses

[1:25:35] that street. There's now sort of ingress and egress on Mill Street with no sidewalks. What

[1:25:45] What sort of commitments do you have from Peabot that they will address that?

[1:25:52] It's a mess right now.

[1:25:54] It's tons of deep puddles and piles of debris.

[1:25:59] Correct.

[1:26:00] So, currently, if you're there right now, there's a considerable amount of construction vehicles

[1:26:05] that Peabot has staged on that site, on the south edge of Mel Street.

[1:26:11] My understanding is that Peabot is going to be developing sidewalks on the block of our

[1:26:16] shelter on both sides of the street.

[1:26:18] I do not know if they're going to develop sidewalks all the way down the stretch of Mill.

[1:26:23] That's a conversation that Peabot has jurisdiction over, and

[1:26:28] I want to ensure that it is our intention to advocate for the community as a county office and

[1:26:37] representing the county's interests on public and safety.

[1:26:41] to have Peabot have that strongly consider the extension of sidewalks.

[1:26:47] There's things that are in a different field that I am not familiar and not strong on about the impact of those mature trees and those kinds of things.

[1:26:58] But I do know that it is our genuine effort to ensure that stretch that's alongside the shelter is safe for

[1:27:11] for pedestrians, and I also want to acknowledge that on the north edge of the shelter with these entrants and exits, they're not open to the shelter.

[1:27:21] They are closed secured gates, and they're managed by both participants of the shelter and shelter staff.

[1:27:30] So it's not, and we've also mentioned around programming that there's not going to be a guest policy and you know, so basically the entrance and exits, it's not going to be a queue of people waiting for services or in an out of a bunch of cars or residents, the participants are going to be able to exit, obviously if they have a going to a job and whatnot.

[1:27:58] And we also want to make sure that we have service providers to be able to have access including utilities to be able to remove trash from the facility.

[1:28:08] But it's not a like open air entry to the shelter.

[1:28:15] And again, I will continue to work with Peabot to advocate that there's opportunities to access that.

[1:28:25] you know, the schools at Harrison Park and Bridger for those who are walking along Mill to either redirect that or ensure that those walking paths are

[1:28:36] safe and, you know, as removed as we can from the shelter and the perceived security concerns and safety concerns.

[1:28:44] Yeah, since no design changes happened from the feedback that's occurred to date, I would

[1:28:54] really suggest that feedback around the design be posted and shared so that people can

[1:29:05] see whether their feedback is being accepted or not, because often what people feel is like,

[1:29:09] I came to a meeting, I gave feedback and that was a check the mark activity and it didn't

[1:29:15] result in any actual adjustment. So I think it's going to be really important that will people

[1:29:22] give feedback or ask questions that we are able to provide some specific, like how it got addressed

[1:29:27] versus just like, you know, you had an opportunity to share what your concerns was.

[1:29:31] Another concern that this, which is linked on this slide, but the site layout, the eastern

[1:29:41] edge actually is adjacent to like all of Mill Street or essentially single family homes.

[1:29:50] And immediately adjacent is a, is this somebody's home who came to the meeting who hadn't had

[1:29:59] a lot of

[1:30:00] I noticed it was an outwardly gentleman with his daughter.

[1:30:05] When we have something that's immediately adjacent, what sort of engagement will happen with that specific individual? I mean, they're going to have a real impact on sort of their property. What kind of, what does that engagement look like?

[1:30:23] So this is that girl again, well, I was unfortunately sick for that meeting. But we will say that

[1:30:33] But commitment to reaching out to that particular local neighbor.

[1:30:38] We also, within the good neighbor agreement, we're talking about the programming and

[1:30:43] those impacts would invite the opportunity for that kind of engagement.

[1:30:49] But on the design side, it sounds like the recommendation direction from you is to reach out directly

[1:30:56] and tried to, you know, offer an opportunity for further engagement around the east boundary of the shelter.

[1:31:06] And I will say that there are certain limitations around what can cannot be done,

[1:31:13] around the height of fencing and that kind of thing within permitting.

[1:31:18] And but we've intentionally tried to design a draft that you see today,

[1:31:24] around reducing any sound and potential traffic

[1:31:29] that could be, you know, an impact to that resident.

[1:31:36] So in addition to all the other community members,

[1:31:40] I mean, I hope special attention gets placed,

[1:31:43] because that will have a real impact on somebody's home.

[1:31:48] And I think we should make every effort

[1:31:51] to try and be a good neighbor.

[1:31:56] Then is there an answer to the question that was raised by Sarah Fisher and I'm noting

[1:32:04] when again when I got on the county commission that it was originally purchased to be sort

[1:32:09] of it was pitched as housing I'm

[1:32:15] just curious how long is this temporary we're making a

[1:32:18] huge investment I'm pretty significant investment for 38 so how long is this going to be in place

[1:32:25] and like what is the longer-term plan?

[1:32:27] So as Commissioner Singleton noted, the idea was that this property could be used for

[1:32:31] either a temporary shelter or for permanent housing in the future.

[1:32:35] The plan is to use it for now and you're right, it's considerable investment for at least

[1:32:41] several years as alternative shelter that does not preclude us from then developing housing

[1:32:44] on that site.

[1:32:46] And so the cent costs are all the site costs, but the sort of pods and other infrastructure is mobile.

[1:32:56] The pods and the buildings that are the, what are they, what are they called?

[1:33:03] Ship and conators, thank you.

[1:33:05] Those are reusable.

[1:33:06] Sometimes pods that we try to make sure, again, we haven't determined exactly how this will look on this site.

[1:33:11] But it is a standard part of this kind of shelter to do checks on the pods to make sure that they're being cared for

[1:33:17] but the people who are living in them so that they can be reused as needed.

[1:33:20] So we do, we put a lot of work in to make sure the pods are themselves maintained so that they can be moved or used again as needed.

[1:33:29] Great, it's just, like I say, a huge investment.

[1:33:33] And the last piece before I share my amendment is that

[1:33:38] But when I ask about some of the specific issues that the neighbors and the community had raised, which I think are very valid issues, it was we don't have a provider yet, and once we have a provider, we'll be able to share kind of what are the county, what the commitments will be around the site.

[1:33:59] And I really would encourage the county as part of this process to set so like what are our expectations for the provider?

[1:34:10] So it's not like the provider is going to like you have total flexibility to run this however you want.

[1:34:16] I mean the county I think because it's being run on our behalf that we should have some base level of commitments that like this is what the what we expect to provider.

[1:34:27] in terms of if they are going to be running a site for the county, here's the framework

[1:34:33] of the county commitments versus that's up to the provider.

[1:34:38] Because what I've heard from county staff is that there are some sort of base level

[1:34:45] requirements.

[1:34:46] And so we should just say that versus like we have to get a provider or we can tell you

[1:34:50] that.

[1:34:50] It's like we know that we're going to try and be a good neighbor.

[1:34:52] and some of the things I think that are in the Oak Street good neighbor agreement.

[1:34:57] Those would be things we would pick up and it would be expectations for whoever is the

[1:35:01] provider selected.

[1:35:03] And I think that will actually answer a lot of community questions versus like we have

[1:35:08] to wait because I think we already know that we're going to make some commitments.

[1:35:13] I just want to say I agree commissioner I think we could have done a better job of communicating.

[1:35:17] Here's some basic things that you can expect.

[1:35:19] I think we could have communicated that better and we will make sure that gets communicated.

[1:35:23] Yeah, and even if the meeting is about the design, we know that people are going to come about,

[1:35:28] you know, and have questions about the everything else because this is the one opportunity really

[1:35:34] before the commission votes on the investment to have that.

[1:35:38] I think it would be helpful because I think it would address a lot of people's concerns.

[1:35:44] So, I'm the amendment that I'm going to offer and I talked about some of my concerns the

[1:35:53] day after the meeting with the chair and shared that with the joint office is the amendment

[1:36:01] I'm going to be offering is that prior to the opening of the site the county and does

[1:36:06] any partners including the neighborhood and business associations and PPS representatives

[1:36:10] will negotiate and commit to their best efforts to secure assigned good neighbor agreement.

[1:36:14] which includes provider commitments and then the second piece is prior to the opening of the site, the county will work with the Portland Bureau of Transportation, Portland Public Schools to ensure there's a safe routes to schools plan for students traveling to nearby schools and given Mill Street is a major intersection and transportation route for students and prior to the opening of the site, the county will work with the nearby school communities to hear and address school community concerns.

[1:36:42] So, that is the amendment should I offer it and make a motion and maybe

[1:36:52] put on the table

[1:36:53] but then finish with the question.

[1:36:55] Does that work?

[1:36:56] Yeah.

[1:36:56] Okay.

[1:36:56] So, I'm going to move that amendment to the, do I have a second?

[1:37:12] Commissioner Brim Edwards moves, Commissioner Myron seconds, consideration of the amendment

[1:37:17] as described.

[1:37:19] All right.

[1:37:20] Thank you.

[1:37:21] So, we'll go, we'll continue with the board questions.

[1:37:25] We are on the amendment, but obviously this can, the amendment ties to the underlying resolution

[1:37:33] as well.

[1:37:34] So, Commissioner Singleton, I want to turn it over to you.

[1:37:38] Thank you, Chair.

[1:37:39] And thank you Commissioner Brim Edwards for your your comments and participation and the amendment that you brought forward.

[1:37:48] I do want to just kind of highlight a couple of things. One, the absolutely the idea of redevelopment and I appreciate the joint offices, understanding and perspective of future opportunity of this site.

[1:38:03] I think it's really important that part of what you're doing even though it's a temporary site for now is continuing to engage with the city of Portland as the conversations about redevelopment on 82nd happened and be looking at the timeline for any future development opportunities that we want to pursue for actual permanent housing.

[1:38:25] As our first public commenter I think very accurately stated is the actual goal here is getting folks into permanent housing.

[1:38:35] I did hear a question as well from commenter about data and alternative shelters sites and housing placement.

[1:38:44] So I think it's important to just note that we do have some early data on that from a study out of PSU.

[1:38:50] But I think if the joint office could continue to update us as you're doing housing placements

[1:38:58] of housing by type, I want to keep hearing about housing placements out of congregate,

[1:39:04] all shelter sites, all of the different types, hotel, motel, shelters, so that we continue

[1:39:10] to understand where we're having the best results for our community.

[1:39:14] I think I heard you say that you're going to work with some of the bigger camps when

[1:39:26] there's like a camp sweep in that conversation with the city regarding folks having priority

[1:39:32] access into this site.

[1:39:34] Is there any plan to include neighbors and businesses who often have knowledge of people sleeping

[1:39:41] in the community that they can help get folks referred in an access so that it's not just

[1:39:46] reliant on a larger camp, but some of the folks who might be more solo sleeping in this community.

[1:39:54] Great question. So I didn't speak to that specifically, but it's still a great question.

[1:39:58] We were speaking about the fact that the city prioritizes removal of, they still have to follow the 72-hour

[1:40:04] rules, but they prioritize removal of camps in the engagement area. But I think the question of like

[1:40:09] access to that site and whether we prioritize folks who are camping in the neighborhood is a great one and it's a conversation we will engage in with our providers and with the community as well.

[1:40:20] So I think that communication, that conversation is ongoing.

[1:40:24] We do in the existing Good Neighbor Agreements have really clear, we try to be really clear about different communication channels for the community if it's reporting like a problem who they should report it to.

[1:40:35] And what's the best way to get their question answered?

[1:40:38] And there's, we kind of give a tear of, if it's urgent, if there's something that hears you contact on site, right?

[1:40:43] If it's not an urgent thing, but it's a question that you have, this is your avenue.

[1:40:46] So our good neighbor agreements outline really clearly, and we partner with the city on this.

[1:40:50] On this, where folks should go, if they have an issue that they would like resolves?

[1:40:54] Can I just jump in commission Singleton to add to that with regard to the proximity issue?

[1:41:00] I think one thing that's evolved in the last couple of years, primarily because of

[1:41:04] Oak Street Village and also because of East County Homeless Resource Center is a

[1:41:08] discussion with the community around how that particular property and set of

[1:41:13] services at the shelter will serve people in that neighborhood. And I don't know what

[1:41:19] the long-term history is on that, but I think we are recommitting that in those

[1:41:25] instances where the neighborhood is actively engaged with us, we're going to

[1:41:28] prioritized people in the neighbourhood. So, for example, Oak Street Village was originally

[1:41:32] envisioned as being able to serve people coming out of their cars. And those, at least

[1:41:37] initially, we're going to be cars that were parked in the neighbourhood, not in other

[1:41:41] parts of Portland. East County Homeless Services Center, we've had an extensive discussion

[1:41:46] with City of Crescent Leaders around the same idea that we will not be prioritizing people

[1:41:51] from outside of that immediate community. In fact, we will be prioritizing people from

[1:41:56] the community. So it's not something that's going to be ironclad or always perfect but the

[1:42:01] commitment is there to listen to the community and engage with community including unhoused

[1:42:07] members of that community. We're living in that part of Multnomah County and prioritize

[1:42:13] them for services available at that site. One other thing I would add is I think that also relates

[1:42:17] to the work we're doing to coordinate our outreach efforts. And I hear you asking what's the role

[1:42:22] of like house neighbors and saying, hey, I see this person, they need help, like, is

[1:42:26] their space.

[1:42:27] So I think that's an interesting question.

[1:42:28] There are, you know, right now folks can call 3-1-1 and connect with somebody from the

[1:42:32] City of Portland navigation team.

[1:42:33] And how does that look as we continue to work together on outreach coordination as a really

[1:42:37] good question?

[1:42:38] So that's something we can address in that outreach work group that we're working through right

[1:42:42] now to think about how we engage our house neighbors in that particular process.

[1:42:48] Thank you.

[1:42:49] So I really appreciate that and I know that we have data in our previous point in time counts

[1:42:55] that people are generally sleeping in the neighborhood where their last residence was.

[1:42:59] So I think this is a really good way to ensure that we are providing those opportunities

[1:43:04] because folks want to stay where they know and so getting them into these spaces where

[1:43:09] they can actually access permanent housing placement support services I think is really critical.

[1:43:15] So one last piece that I wanted to raise is I know that it is a challenge on what can

[1:43:24] be shared when and when you have the right information around community engagement.

[1:43:29] I think I mentioned recently that when you're in the middle of a real estate transaction

[1:43:34] that's really complicated.

[1:43:36] But I do think it's important and I will just say we didn't even have a template for

[1:43:40] a good neighbor agreement when I started at the joint office. And so this is not a long

[1:43:46] term that you all are kind of really trying to pick up something that I think started a

[1:43:50] little late in the history of the joint office. So with that said, I do think it's important

[1:43:57] to start to be really clear about your work plan and your engagement and your timeline so

[1:44:02] that people know when to expect the ability to have these conversations whether it's before

[1:44:09] for a fact one, or as it's all going

[1:44:11] in what those topic areas would be.

[1:44:14] I think it's really important to have a community

[1:44:16] gauge of it plan and timeline

[1:44:18] so that you can bring a little more transparency

[1:44:20] to this process.

[1:44:24] And that is it for me.

[1:44:26] Thank you.

[1:44:27] Thank you, Commissioner Myron.

[1:44:34] Okay, so

[1:44:38] I first wanna go way back

[1:44:40] to the beginning of the presentation

[1:44:42] where director field spoke about the film, no place to grow old.

[1:44:50] Literally my last board meeting, bringing up something I've been crying out about for eight years.

[1:44:58] And that's because you saw a movie.

[1:45:00] We should be about it a year and a half after you started. We should not have to rely on a film to know that the fastest growing newly homeless population with unique innumerable vulnerabilities is our senior adults. It's been the case since I started on the board and the joint office has done literally nothing about the title wave or tsunami or whatever natural disaster analogy you want to use. The vulnerabilities include many disabilities.

[1:45:29] I'm curious, do we have a dedicated ADA person working in the joint office to ensure these

[1:45:35] issues are addressed, similar to what they have at PHB?

[1:45:41] We do not have a dedicated ADA position.

[1:45:44] How do we address issues around discrimination based on ADA at the joint office, or whatever

[1:45:51] we're calling it now?

[1:45:56] Although we don't have a dedicated person, we have a focus on ADA incorporating every project

[1:46:02] And so, for example, we're working with the provider right now on the Oak Street Village

[1:46:07] project around ADA access to some of the services on that site, and that's partisan back

[1:46:13] and forth we're having with that provider.

[1:46:15] You noticed in this site, there are some ADA dedicated units, so I think even without

[1:46:19] a dedicated staff person we can still address ADA concerns.

[1:46:23] It was also one of the aspects of the community sheltering strategy that our sites be accessible.

[1:46:27] So we follow all ADA laws and rules, it's very important to us, and it is a part of all of our projects.

[1:46:36] I'm one thing about how do you know you're following all the rules if you don't have an ADA person that's addressing them?

[1:46:47] I'm asking about more than facilities because I believe that our coordinated access application might violate some

[1:46:56] provisions, anti-discrimination provisions that there are a number of things that are procedural

[1:47:02] or a process oriented or policy oriented that might, and that's what I'm more concerned

[1:47:08] about.

[1:47:09] So we don't have a specific person about that.

[1:47:12] So Commissioner Mike, I just, I just, I do connect how these questions are with this matter.

[1:47:17] Commissioner, a director feel brought it up.

[1:47:20] That's, I wouldn't have addressed it if he had not brought it up in the beginning, so kind

[1:47:23] of open that door a bit.

[1:47:25] But it does tie to this because it ties to all of the work that's being done.

[1:47:30] I just want to point to a constituent that contacted me with a story that I can't even fully

[1:47:37] process.

[1:47:38] It's so traumatic.

[1:47:39] But she is a senior disabled.

[1:47:42] Is it about this site, though?

[1:47:44] Yes, because she wouldn't be able to access this site.

[1:47:48] So can we, if you have something you want to share, can I be the person who is in board

[1:47:53] comments?

[1:47:54] Okay, I'll make it in board comments, that's fine.

[1:47:57] So, and I am going to ask you to remember a lot of the nice things you said about me

[1:48:01] on Tuesday during my service recognition celebration, those things that you said I speak from

[1:48:08] my heart and from my vast experience working on the front line, that my passion can be mistaken

[1:48:14] for disagreement, but it's because the focus is on the people we serve and those dying on

[1:48:19] our streets every day.

[1:48:20] So keep all of that in mind as I make these comments and ask questions because I'm not going to go along to get along on my final board meeting for my final one of my final votes.

[1:48:33] All of this needs to change on a systems level that fiscally in a humanitarian and effective way makes sense.

[1:48:40] And this project, I feel, and the way that it's been approached is emblematic of everything wrong with how we address shelter and shelter strategy.

[1:48:55] So, I want to point to what so many folks brought up from the community that have not been engaged.

[1:49:03] What I think we brought the property two years ago, and real engagement started in November.

[1:49:14] What, how can we do that and consider it engagement?

[1:49:20] It's simply not.

[1:49:22] People have been dying and living on our streets in horrific conditions for two years

[1:49:28] since the county purchased this property.

[1:49:29] We're going to be getting a domicile unknown report that is going to be horrific of the increase

[1:49:37] in the number of people dying on our street.

[1:49:40] And we had this property sitting here for two years.

[1:49:45] Only, meanwhile, down the street, there's been another similar sort of fiasco about a piece

[1:49:53] of land that was across the street that's supposed to be a safe park site.

[1:49:56] the lowest hanging fruit, it should be of shelters.

[1:50:02] We should have been able to do something with that.

[1:50:04] I think that was even longer ago than this site that was purchased.

[1:50:08] But all of it, it languishes for years, and then literally at the very last minute,

[1:50:14] last board meeting, we had a fact one because it has to be done at the last minute.

[1:50:20] It's not just this, it is a pattern of every single thing brought to this board.

[1:50:25] So I appreciate Laura from the Montevilla Neighborhood Association speaking in all the community members who spoke.

[1:50:37] I would like to see the actual so-called shelter strategy overarching shelter strategy because for me,

[1:50:47] the only strategy I see is ready fire aim.

[1:50:50] It relies on providers to come in and save the joint office to come up with a plan or a deflection center and then holding the board, nonprofits and neighbors hostage.

[1:51:03] The default seems to be to prevent bringing anything to this board, unless it's absolutely required by law to keep it behind closed doors as long as possible, examples of deflection.

[1:51:17] and avoid bringing anything to the neighbors

[1:51:20] until the plan is cooked.

[1:51:22] And it's sort of like you tell them we're gonna do

[1:51:24] and make a superficial effort to act like we're listening.

[1:51:31] You hold all of us hot, the nonprofits, it's the same thing.

[1:51:36] You invite them to the table at the very last minute.

[1:51:39] They have to be there because they rely

[1:51:42] and you for all of their funding.

[1:51:43] I mean, you hold all of us hostage

[1:51:46] because you leadership holds all the power.

[1:51:49] Speaking out is labeled disruptive,

[1:51:52] and you demean our community members

[1:51:54] when they speak to the safety of themselves,

[1:51:56] their children, and their families.

[1:51:59] They don't come to the last minute table.

[1:52:01] You said or don't say something that you like.

[1:52:04] You label them nimbi or disagreeable.

[1:52:09] You hold all the cards as chair, as the joint office,

[1:52:15] and all the real people being impacted

[1:52:17] at the mercy of a dysfunctional organization that just says it cares but doesn't act like it cares

[1:52:24] for the people we serve. Then, do you have questions? Sure, even as you asked the board to engage in

[1:52:32] sort of supporting this project and the board I know is going to dutifully rubber stamp it as it does.

[1:52:38] Commissioner, again, you're talking, you're implying motives to how people are voting and what

[1:52:44] What's my motive that I'm applying?

[1:52:47] That it is a rubber stamp.

[1:52:48] I mean, everybody is coming to stamp.

[1:52:49] I think it's, okay, I will, I, okay, they will vote for it, whether or not it's a rubber stamp.

[1:52:58] But you don't, you haven't mentioned the Cenderland RV Park that's closing, that directly impacts

[1:53:04] this conversation today.

[1:53:06] That site has almost doubled the number of units as this one does, and it's working great

[1:53:10] as a RV, say, Park site, and it's being closed for no real reason.

[1:53:17] How is this accounted for in our shelter strategy?

[1:53:20] Like when you say we're adding 38 beds,

[1:53:23] how do you account for the fact that we're minusing 70 beds?

[1:53:29] Like how do those, because we don't hear anything about that,

[1:53:31] and in a strategy where that kind of site is unique

[1:53:38] and stands out as a beacon,

[1:53:39] and it's being closed.

[1:53:41] Where does that get accounted for?

[1:53:48] Thanks commissioner.

[1:53:49] We are aware of the closure of the Sunderland site

[1:53:51] we're partnering with the city of Portland

[1:53:53] on making sure the folks that are in that site

[1:53:55] have places to go.

[1:53:56] And as we look forward to new elected administrations

[1:53:59] on both sides of the river,

[1:54:01] we'll be working together to ensure

[1:54:02] that our community sheltering strategy

[1:54:03] and the plan that the mayor has are complimentary

[1:54:07] and working together under the homelessness response action plan.

[1:54:10] So theoretically, places to go would be, this news site, we're going to open for a whole

[1:54:15] bunch of money over years when we have one that's working perfectly and is a great example

[1:54:21] and we should be replicating it.

[1:54:23] That doesn't sound like a great sheltering strategy.

[1:54:26] So I guess this is symbolic of everything that I feel that over eight years, the office

[1:54:31] has said it doesn't do.

[1:54:33] It's a non-strategy.

[1:54:34] And I appreciate Sarah Fisher, I appreciate so much about you, and your work, and the organization, you help to establish.

[1:54:45] And you serve so many with your heart and soul.

[1:54:49] But you spoke to emptying the ocean with a teaspoon, or you spoke to the individual starfish.

[1:54:54] And that is your work, you do that, you have that teaspoon.

[1:54:59] our work is different at the county.

[1:55:01] We need to manage the ocean, 10,000 people are unsheltered-ish.

[1:55:07] This is 37 out of 10,000 here without the bigger strategy of where the other 90,

[1:55:14] however many, 9,000, however many are going to go.

[1:55:17] We purchased the site for $2.3 million that didn't come before the board.

[1:55:21] Then there's going to be construction.

[1:55:24] Don't know what that's going to be.

[1:55:25] The plus a service provider who we don't know who it is, like what could we have done as the alternative?

[1:55:32] Like no one can argue we need every space possible.

[1:55:37] Our question is, what did you consider as alternatives for use of these funds in this money and this site?

[1:55:47] This site has been an established part of the community sheltering plan which was designed by a work group of providers and elected officials and staff from the joint office.

[1:55:55] So this this is a part of the plan. It has been a part of the plan the whole time and it is the the we feel the best use of these funds for this purpose.

[1:56:06] I know I'm leaving so you can run out the clock and don't have to get me the information. I would love it if you could about how this cost benefit analysis was made in the scheme of an entire sheltering strategy.

[1:56:18] When you have all of that charted out with the actions, not check boxes, but actual implementation steps, I would love to see that because all of this feels like governance by price release, what I've said, and it's happening, even as I speak, it sounds like you chair you called me right before this to say there's a plan you've been working on with the new and old mayors and it'll be 200 units of extreme weather shelter.

[1:56:47] We don't know about, and when I asked you about how it's being funded, it wasn't clear.

[1:56:52] It's like, well, we don't have the details.

[1:56:54] We put these things out there without the details.

[1:56:57] We need to know the details.

[1:56:58] That's our job as the county.

[1:57:01] So I'll just finish that I came in as a commissioner with as the greatest fan.

[1:57:10] Like I was your cheerleader for the joint office, the support of housing service measure.

[1:57:15] I was a fierce advocate, but everything I've seen from the front row seat as a policymaker,

[1:57:22] as a frontline provider, since I've got here, has eroded my trust to the point of non-existence.

[1:57:28] It's negative trust. My default now is to not believe what you say, because I feel trust

[1:57:34] distrust has been earned. I hope you will earn it back, and I don't think I'm just speaking for

[1:57:41] myself. I think I'm speaking for a lot of people in the public who feel this way.

[1:57:46] I hope you will earn that trust back and that it will be brought to the incoming board.

[1:57:52] We brought back for the public and my biggest hope is that the new board will hold you to account.

[1:57:58] We'll have the courage to ask the deeper questions that people prefer not to be asked to speak like I'm speaking now,

[1:58:05] which people prefer that I don't do.

[1:58:09] I, to have the courage to vote, no one speak out on things.

[1:58:14] Not just on individual projects,

[1:58:15] but looking at bigger systems.

[1:58:17] It's ironic and even poetic in a tragic way.

[1:58:23] I guess that this is one of my final votes

[1:58:26] on my final day at a board meeting.

[1:58:28] Because I feel it's every emblematic

[1:58:31] of everything wrong with how the county does business.

[1:58:34] and in terms of engaging with the public planning, delay, use of funds, accountability, I pray that we, I don't pray, I don't ever pray, but I hope and advocate for a deep forensic and performance audit of the joint office because things I see are not right.

[1:58:58] As I've said before, I regret that I have but one final no vote to give to my county, but it will be a no vote on the overarching thing.

[1:59:10] I support the amendment.

[1:59:12] Great, thank you.

[1:59:13] Marina, can we have a roll call vote on the amendment, please?

[1:59:17] Commissioner Mayeron?

[1:59:18] Aye.

[1:59:18] Commissioner Singleton?

[1:59:21] Aye.

[1:59:22] Commissioner Brim Edwards?

[1:59:23] Aye.

[1:59:23] Commissioner Stegman?

[1:59:24] Aye.

[1:59:25] Chair Vega Peterson?

[1:59:26] Aye, the amendment passes.

[1:59:27] So now we return to deliberation on the underlying item and everyone has had a chance to

[1:59:36] speak.

[1:59:37] I want to see if we're ready for the vote.

[1:59:41] Just a final comment.

[1:59:44] First of all, thank you to my fellow commissioners for approving the amendment.

[1:59:49] I do, I think our work, our community wants us to address homelessness and increase the

[1:59:57] amount of shelters and provide better-

[2:00:00] There are options for people living on the streets without basic services, and at the same time for us to have continued trust and support for our work. And for the community to champion our work, we need to upper game in how we engage the community. It can't just be informing them. It needs to be in a way in which there's real engagement. They get answers to the questions, even if they don't like the answers.

[2:00:28] that they understand what our process is and they don't feel that it's all just happening

[2:00:34] to them because if you're on the east side of Portland you feel often that things are

[2:00:38] going to happen to you and then you don't have a lot of say.

[2:00:42] So I hope that the amendments provide space for the community, both the school community

[2:00:49] the impairments, neighbors to have that engagement.

[2:00:53] I think we saw in the Oak Street project that there was acting engagement from the neighborhood

[2:01:00] association, from neighbors, from businesses, and reached an agreement.

[2:01:04] And now the county needs to make sure that we implement it with fidelity and that we make

[2:01:12] sure that we live up to those commitments because it will be a signal to just down the street

[2:01:17] to how we're going to operate at Harrison Park and I think we should look at some of the

[2:01:23] lessons learned from this and how do we incorporate them going forward because if we look at

[2:01:28] the number of people we need to shelter in the community. This isn't going to be the

[2:01:34] only time we need to do it. So I really appreciate the community bringing

[2:01:41] their concerns and the joint office staff for actively engaging them and I hope this next year

[2:01:51] we see have a successful conclusion to the Good Neighbour agreements that we have a safe

[2:01:56] route to the school plan. I just want to also mention that during the meeting I went on to the

[2:02:02] website and it seems like we could be dropping in more information that would be starting to add

[2:02:09] that's these questions. I don't see in there. Yesterday I got a, you know, a nice detail

[2:02:16] the outline of when the big chunks of work around the engagement and the planning and

[2:02:20] the provider process were going to happen, but I'm not seeing it necessarily on the website.

[2:02:25] And again, continuing to push this information out because information empowers people

[2:02:33] to be able to make their voices heard, to engage. And, you know, hopefully we have a successful

[2:02:39] opening and a successful engagement with our community and that we are going to continue to build

[2:02:45] that trust because it's absolutely going to be fundamental for our work ahead.

[2:02:49] Thank you, thank you, Commissioner. So I just have a few remarks and then we'll go to the vote.

[2:02:55] I mean I so you know every single time we create a shelter whether it is Arbor Lodge in North

[2:03:02] Portland whether it is the East County homeless resource center that is happening in Gresham

[2:03:08] and whether it is the partnerships that we do

[2:03:10] with the city and opening up the tax sites, right?

[2:03:12] There is always, the process of doing it is just as important

[2:03:18] as what we are doing and what we were building there

[2:03:20] because we know that in order for our shelter strategy

[2:03:24] to be successful in order to address our crisis of homelessness

[2:03:27] and in order to really move people through the pathway

[2:03:30] into permanent housing, we need to have these resources

[2:03:36] throughout our community, and so I appreciate having had lived in East Portland for 18 years,

[2:03:43] having formally represented this district that there has been an ongoing need for resources

[2:03:50] to that are available for the people who are experiencing homelessness who live right

[2:03:57] in this area.

[2:03:58] This has been the case since I became a commissioner and even before that.

[2:04:03] I think that, you know, of key piece of the success of this is really working to ensure that people from the neighborhood are prioritized for access to shelter.

[2:04:12] That is something that is a priority for me.

[2:04:13] I've said it multiple times because we want these to be resources for all of the neighbors there.

[2:04:20] I think that the joint office has made big improvements in how you are engaging with the community.

[2:04:28] I think making sure that that is consistent and robust through all of this work

[2:04:33] Has to continue to happen

[2:04:36] and

[2:04:37] I know that there are

[2:04:40] Conversations that are happening with PPS that they will be happening and have been happening with P.

[2:04:45] But I will say like the fact that there are no sidewalks here the fact that

[2:04:48] Mill Street has been a greenway in East Portland for years

[2:04:52] I mean my family and I would take that route as we would as we were driving or as we were biking down to

[2:04:58] amount table, like that has been the case for years here. So I think what we're trying

[2:05:03] to do is add resources and then hopefully, you know, use this as a way to really spur

[2:05:09] some conversation and investment about the need and the priorities, whether it is, you

[2:05:15] know, children and families who are walking to school, or whether it is, you know, people

[2:05:21] who are using it for a greenery, or whether it is the people who are using the businesses

[2:05:24] This is where the services that are going on, 82nd Avenue, this is a piece of it, but

[2:05:28] we have to continue our commitment to the Shelter and Strategy that we have and the work

[2:05:33] that is going on here.

[2:05:34] So, we have a year runway before this will be open, there is going to be a lot of opportunity

[2:05:40] and my expectation that there are going to be a lot of conversations that are happening

[2:05:44] with partners and stakeholders that we have done that model and we will continue to do that

[2:05:49] model as we move forward but I mean engaging with the provider when the provider is selected

[2:05:56] and really making sure that the community understands that that relationship in that

[2:06:00] network. I think you have made a good start with the oak street and made really big strides

[2:06:05] in that area and you know I know that will be the case here. So just appreciate this, appreciate

[2:06:10] everyone who came out. I'm so glad the community did come out to talk about this because your

[2:06:16] your voices are important and do have impact on our work and the way that these things move forward.

[2:06:22] So thank you.

[2:06:22] Marina, can we have a roll call vote?

[2:06:24] Commissioner Mayeron?

[2:06:26] No.

[2:06:26] Commissioner Singleton?

[2:06:29] Aye.

[2:06:30] Commissioner Brim Edwards?

[2:06:32] Yes.

[2:06:32] Commissioner Stegman?

[2:06:34] Aye.

[2:06:34] Chair Vega-Peterson?

[2:06:35] Aye.

[2:06:36] The resolution is adopted.

[2:06:38] R2, ordinate submitting MCC chapter 39 of the zoning code to add a reference to standards applying

[2:06:44] I am applicable in the significant environmental concern for streams overlay zone and declaring an emergency.

[2:06:53] So moved.

[2:06:55] Commissioner Mayer moves.

[2:06:56] Commissioner Stegman seconds approval of R2.

[2:06:58] Good morning.

[2:07:00] Good morning, Chair Peterson and good morning commissioners.

[2:07:04] For the record, I'm Kevin Cook, senior planner with the Department of Community Services.

[2:07:09] This is, I'm joined this morning by Deputy Planning Director Adam Barber.

[2:07:16] And this is, this ordinance before you today is really just a simple fix.

[2:07:23] Back on last month on November 21st, the board passed an ordinance number 1330, which relates

[2:07:33] leads to amendments to significant environmental concern regulations.

[2:07:40] And unfortunately, that ordinance, we inadvertently left out a single piece of standard that relates

[2:07:52] to stream overlays and their protections.

[2:07:56] And so what this ordinance does, it simply adds that piece back and we do request adoption

[2:08:05] by emergency so that the effective date lines up which is December 21st.

[2:08:14] So that's really it in a nutshell.

[2:08:16] I can certainly answer any specific questions if you have them for me or for Adam.

[2:08:22] Great.

[2:08:22] Thank you so much.

[2:08:23] I would like to appreciate you being here.

[2:08:25] Do we have any questions on this item?

[2:08:31] We're going to do we have any public testimony on this item.

[2:08:33] Okay, thank you.

[2:08:34] Can we have a roll call vote?

[2:08:36] Commissioner Mayeron?

[2:08:37] Aye.

[2:08:38] Commissioner Singleton?

[2:08:40] Aye.

[2:08:41] Commissioner Brum Edwards?

[2:08:42] Aye.

[2:08:43] Commissioner Stegman?

[2:08:44] Aye.

[2:08:44] Chair Vega Peterson?

[2:08:45] Aye.

[2:08:46] The ordinance is adopted by emergency.

[2:08:48] Thank you.

[2:08:50] All right, three, resolution approving the library capital bond program.

[2:08:53] St. John's Library Project plans to proceed with construction per administrative procedure, FAC-1, and authorizing the county chair to execute a guaranteed maximum price amendment.

[2:09:04] So moved. Second.

[2:09:06] Commissioner Mayer removes.

[2:09:07] Commissioner segment seconds approval of our three.

[2:09:10] So we have our some folks on our library project team here today on November 13th.

[2:09:17] I think several of us were delighted to attend the groundbreaking ceremony for the St. John's Library.

[2:09:21] that day I was also glad to connect with community members, many of whom voiced concerns about losing their library services in St. John's and what with this mean, especially with the closest library being three miles away.

[2:09:33] I'm very happy to hear that the library is actively working with the St. John's Neighborhood Association to address as many of the concerns as possible.

[2:09:41] for example, community members from St. John's

[2:09:43] and the North Portland community should know

[2:09:46] that we are going to have a library program

[2:09:47] at your local community centers, as well as mobile library visits

[2:09:50] at Cathedral Park on a regular basis.

[2:09:53] These will provide access to Wi-Fi, computers,

[2:09:56] and printing, scanning, and copying services.

[2:09:58] Library, director, Annie Lewis is not here today,

[2:10:02] but we'd like folks to, if we want to hear more about this work.

[2:10:06] With the back one today though,

[2:10:08] we're talking about the construction of the new facility.

[2:10:10] Multnomah County Library is starting construction at one of its vital renovations and expansions.

[2:10:16] The St. John's Library is going to grow to approximately 8,500 square feet, which preserves

[2:10:20] the original Carnegie building and adds a new addition.

[2:10:23] I actually had the opportunity to go out into the East County Library site last night and

[2:10:30] it was amazing and incredible to see what is being built there and it's just again so exciting

[2:10:34] to see all of this work happening for this investment in our community.

[2:10:38] So I'm going to turn it over to the project management team who is here to tell us more good morning

[2:10:44] Good morning chair and commissioners. My name is Kate Vance. I use she her pronouns, and I'm the library

[2:10:50] capital-bond

[2:10:52] program deputy director for DCA

[2:10:55] Good morning chair and commissioners. My name is Elise Henderson, and I am the PM for the St. John's library project

[2:11:02] Next slide please

[2:11:04] Thank you for having us here today.

[2:11:06] I am headed out to East County Library right after this, so I will be there shortly.

[2:11:12] And we are really excited to be here today because we are requesting our ninth and final

[2:11:17] request to proceed with construction and our guaranteed maximum price amendments.

[2:11:21] So this is the last of our major projects for the bond program.

[2:11:26] And we will follow the program that we've for the agenda and outline that we've used on

[2:11:32] all of our previous ones, we'll touch very briefly on the bond overview, we'll look at

[2:11:37] the project goals, touch on the scope, give a design update, let you know where we're

[2:11:44] at with the budget and schedule, and as well as sustainability and our an our diversity

[2:11:49] participation before we request approval. Next slide please.

[2:11:56] This graphic is exactly the same as our November graphic, so there have been no changes.

[2:12:04] and next slide please and this graphic should also be familiar with you there

[2:12:11] have been no changes since we last met and with that I will turn it over to

[2:12:14] Elise to talk about the St. John's project. So St. John's library, oh, next slide.

[2:12:21] St. John's library has one of the smallest footprints of the Milnoma County

[2:12:25] libraries and as Kate mentioned it is the ninth and last of the major projects

[2:12:29] of the bond program. So with this project the building will grow from about 5,000

[2:12:35] square feet to just over 7,000 square feet on the same site and that doesn't include the

[2:12:40] basement square footage. The original Carnegie building will remain with renovations like

[2:12:45] seismic upgrades and some minor plan changes. The new 2,900 square foot addition which replaces

[2:12:51] the addition that was built in the late 90s with the last bond program will be added behind

[2:12:57] the original building at the back of the site. The design team, architects, coordinated

[2:13:02] an extensive community engagement effort that included paid community design advocates

[2:13:07] that worked with their diverse community groups and a variety of public meetings, surveys

[2:13:12] and workshops. One of the community engagement activities was a public vote to select the

[2:13:18] interior color palette. There were 766 votes cast, both online and in person. And the winning

[2:13:24] color option was called Forest Park Views with the cool blues and greens and warm tones

[2:13:31] reflecting the colors in nature.

[2:13:33] Based on community input, the design features a new play

[2:13:36] in learning space for children and families.

[2:13:39] Flexible meeting spaces for community use,

[2:13:41] a teen area with space for technology, homework,

[2:13:44] and creative expression, upgraded technology and internet,

[2:13:48] and new art that represents the community.

[2:13:51] Next slide.

[2:13:55] So this is a rendering of the exterior showing

[2:13:58] the existing Carnegie structure with the new addition

[2:14:01] behind it. Next slide.

[2:14:06] And then moving inside, here's a rendering from the main entry with the

[2:14:10] new welcome desk to the left and some of the adult collections just to the right of the image.

[2:14:14] And then from the main entry, you'll be able to see all the way down through to the new edition

[2:14:19] that will house the new play and learning space for children and families. The decorative feature that

[2:14:24] you can see on the ceiling is a special art feature that Bora will create using images created from

[2:14:31] some of the community engagement workshops.

[2:14:33] Next slide.

[2:14:37] And then this last rendering is of the new Woodframe

[2:14:40] Edition, where it connects to the existing structure.

[2:14:43] And it includes the new play and learning space

[2:14:45] for children's and families.

[2:14:47] And it'll also feature an installation

[2:14:49] by the Crippurgeon Group.

[2:14:51] And then beyond the kids' area is a door

[2:14:53] to the new community flex room.

[2:14:55] Next slide.

[2:14:58] And then here's our floor plan.

[2:15:00] The red arrow shows the main entry at the front of the original structure, and then upon entering, the first thing you'll see is the new welcome desk, which will have clear sightlines to the patron computer tables and adult collections. And as you move towards the right, there are two small flex rooms and an enclosed teen space, some flexible seating, and moving further towards the right is the children's seating area with the kids' tech area. And then the red square shows the footprint

[2:15:29] of the new addition that homes the children's collection

[2:15:32] in play area, a large flex room and staff area

[2:15:36] with the new automated material handling unit.

[2:15:39] Next slide.

[2:15:43] So our current authorized budget is 13.3 million.

[2:15:47] Our proposed guaranteed maximum price

[2:15:49] with our general contractor, Howard S. Wright,

[2:15:51] is 8.95 million, and that amount includes

[2:15:55] about a 5% owners controlled contingency.

[2:15:59] Next slide.

[2:16:02] St. John's Library closed to the public in October.

[2:16:05] Howard S. Wright mobilized at the start of this month shortly after the groundbreaking ceremony.

[2:16:10] We are tracking substantial completion next winter at 2026 and then early spring 2026 opening.

[2:16:18] We take a good news this week. We received our building permits, so it was approved and issued,

[2:16:23] which is always a great milestone. And then with the approval of the GMP amendment,

[2:16:27] We can target the GMP amendment execution in early January.

[2:16:32] Next slide.

[2:16:36] For sustainability, we are tracking well into lead gold at 67 points.

[2:16:41] Are yet energy use intensity or EUI, which is a measure of the amount of energy used in a given building area?

[2:16:47] The lower the number, the better.

[2:16:50] And our designated EUI for St. John's at this point is 41.7, which exceeds the requirements for both lead and the Oregon energy code.

[2:16:59] next slide.

[2:17:02] Right now we are tracking about 26% COVID participation with more than half

[2:17:07] of that from women owned businesses and our target goal for participation is 25%. And

[2:17:15] with that I will turn it over to Kate.

[2:17:19] Thank you Elise. Today we are asking the board

[2:17:21] for approval to proceed with the next step in the construction phase and approving the GMP

[2:17:26] amount for the St. John's Library. I will note that we do have our library colleagues

[2:17:32] in the audience if they have if we have questions about service and with that I'll open it

[2:17:36] up for questions and comments.

[2:17:40] Thank you so much. Marina, do we have any public

[2:17:43] testimony on this item? No, chair.

[2:17:47] Oh, we have lightning. Okay. We will go to the board

[2:17:50] for questions as soon as we get down the public testimony. Thank you.

[2:18:13] Yes, my name is Lightning

[2:18:14] and I represent Laney, superhumanity, R&D lab X.

[2:18:19] I absolutely approve of this resolution.

[2:18:22] And again, I want to commend the library for

[2:18:28] doing outstanding work on their new libraries and their renovations.

[2:18:33] Again, one of the services I want to make sure that patrons are up to date with would be, again, on chat.

[2:18:40] that GPT and possibly CROC and offering those type of services to patrons in the library.

[2:18:47] Again, just on the headphones that they use on the laptops, I really think that they need to upgrade those.

[2:18:58] I think some of the headphones they have are really outdated.

[2:19:02] I think they could actually be harming the ears of patrons.

[2:19:06] and we need to get up with the latest technology and somehow have them be able to check those headphones out, use them.

[2:19:17] Again, I'm more worried about their ears. I've used some of those old ones that they have and actually kind of hurts my ears.

[2:19:25] So I've updated a real nice pair, but a lot of the patrons in there don't have that opportunity to go out and buy a nice pair.

[2:19:33] So I think that's something to really look at from a health issue at Multnomah County.

[2:19:37] And again, like I say, I really like the work on the Gresham Library Commissioner Stegman.

[2:19:42] I know had a lot of influence on that.

[2:19:46] And I really like what they're going to do there.

[2:19:49] And as I've stated to Commissioner Stegman, I want to maybe use the same builders in the type of construction on the new Multnomah County Animal Services property.

[2:19:59] I think that type of construction in the builders have done an outstanding job there.

[2:20:06] And again, to give Mr. Remiron, it's been a pleasure.

[2:20:12] You are the Red Rose of Multnomah County, and I sincerely mean that.

[2:20:18] And to give Mr. Stegman, you are the Red Rose of Multnomah County.

[2:20:25] enjoy your other things that you want to do and I'm sure you'll do quite well.

[2:20:33] And it's been an absolute pleasure and a lot of times from my position when

[2:20:37] you hear me kind of saying things and you kind of sit back and go oh why does

[2:20:42] he say something like that? Well that's what public communication is. That's what

[2:20:47] addressing the government with your grievances and having freedom of speech to

[2:20:53] be able to say that in the council chambers is so very important and that's why more

[2:21:00] people should join in to do public communication. And again, like I say, it's been an absolute

[2:21:06] pleasure. Thank you. Thank you. All right. We'll go to the board for questions and comments

[2:21:14] and we will start with Commissioner Remedowitz. I don't have any questions. I had an opportunity

[2:21:22] this morning to go out and see what's happening with the East County Library and, oh, so exciting,

[2:21:26] so I can't wait because I know it's in the future for North Portland, which I know it's

[2:21:33] going to be an amazing library and it's already a beloved library, but even more so when it's been

[2:21:41] improved, so fully supportive. Thank you. Commissioner Singleton.

[2:21:48] Thank you. This was my neighborhood

[2:21:51] library, so I am very excited about the future of this space. And do want to also, as

[2:21:57] Chair Vega Peterson said, appreciate the library and staff for engaging with our

[2:22:04] neighbors and making sure that we're finding spaces for some temporary services. And

[2:22:09] also appreciate being availed of that information so I can be sharing it out amongst our district

[2:22:16] two folks make sure people are updated. I have one question about the COVID goals in particular.

[2:22:23] Do we have any breakdowns of what this translates to into dollars into these businesses,

[2:22:28] or is that something that we can find as this construction moves forward?

[2:22:33] Yes, we track all of that information. It's not part of our normal presentation to this,

[2:22:38] but it is included. We do have that and I can make sure that we get that to you.

[2:22:41] So, awesome. Thank you.

[2:22:44] Thank you, Commissioner Myron.

[2:22:47] I do not have any questions, but thank you so much for everything.

[2:22:53] And I look forward to hearing about all of this exciting work

[2:22:58] from the standpoint of just reading the news and finding out.

[2:23:04] So, but I will always be there to support you and your work and the library.

[2:23:09] Thank you.

[2:23:11] Thank you.

[2:23:12] Thank you.

[2:23:12] Commissioner Segment.

[2:23:13] Thank you, Chair.

[2:23:14] Thank you, Kate.

[2:23:15] Annelise.

[2:23:16] And thank you for the opportunity to go out and do the beam signing.

[2:23:20] I'm not sure why they scheduled it when they did, but I did get to sign the beam.

[2:23:24] Not that anyone's going to excuse me.

[2:23:26] See it because it will go on the top of the building.

[2:23:29] But I just wanted to comment how much I appreciate and how important our libraries are.

[2:23:37] and the refresh that I saw at Fairview and Troutdale and then you know the new

[2:23:44] additions and of course the East County library. I don't think that there is a

[2:23:49] time that our community needed it more than ever to have a place of healing and a

[2:23:57] place of gathering and a place of hope and that's what the libraries have done

[2:24:04] And then I see a chair, former chair,

[2:24:07] Debra Cofore here, who led on that bond measure.

[2:24:12] And I had the pleasure of working with her on it.

[2:24:15] And it's really reverberating through our community

[2:24:19] at a time when people need something to uplift their spirits.

[2:24:24] So thank you so much for the work.

[2:24:28] Yes, thank you so much for all this.

[2:24:30] I don't have any questions.

[2:24:31] I just really appreciate the work

[2:24:32] that the library has done on this project.

[2:24:34] and also the close work with the community.

[2:24:37] And we are very excited to see this move forward.

[2:24:40] So thank you.

[2:24:41] Renek, can we have a roll call vote?

[2:24:43] Commissioner Amirin.

[2:24:44] Aye.

[2:24:45] Commissioner Singleton.

[2:24:47] Aye.

[2:24:48] Commissioner Bram Edwards.

[2:24:49] Yes.

[2:24:50] Commissioner Stegman.

[2:24:51] Aye.

[2:24:52] Chair Vega Peterson.

[2:24:53] Aye.

[2:24:53] The resolution is adopted.

[2:24:55] Thank you.

[2:24:56] Thank you.

[2:24:57] Our four, recognition of Commissioner Laurie Stegman.

[2:25:02] So, oh, I thought it was just so much.

[2:25:06] Oh, we can move our recognition for.

[2:25:13] I'm glad you're getting the clean access ready.

[2:25:16] So, I'm really, really happy to have this opportunity to kick off this tribute to my friend

[2:25:21] and colleague Roy Stegman.

[2:25:23] This is a really big day.

[2:25:25] It brings me really great joy to welcome everyone who is here today to honor the work and the

[2:25:29] legacy that you have built, Lori.

[2:25:32] You know, this is really a momentous week at Multnomah County

[2:25:35] where we've been saying our goodby to Commissioner

[2:25:37] or Myron and Commissioner Stegman.

[2:25:39] I have to say, I have nothing but praise for the steadfast

[2:25:42] work, dedication, leadership, and representation

[2:25:45] you have brought every single day as you serve district four

[2:25:48] for the past eight years.

[2:25:52] Lori and I both joined the board, as well as with Sharon

[2:25:55] in 2017 and January.

[2:25:58] And, Laurie, when you and I joined, both of us were providing diverse representation for our districts

[2:26:02] and bringing, you know, this kind of community-servant leadership model to the county board of commissioners.

[2:26:10] You are the first Korean-American and the first Asian-American elected to the Multnomah County Board of commissioners

[2:26:17] in our, at that time, 162-year history, 170 years now.

[2:26:23] And as such, you have truly given a voice to communities that had never had

[2:26:27] one before at the moment, County Board. And that is something to be incredibly

[2:26:31] proud of. That it was such a milestone at the time and it continues to be

[2:26:36] critical to our ability to meet the needs of the broader communities who make up

[2:26:39] this place that we call home. And I think that while you have represented your

[2:26:44] district district for so well, I think in that unique role that you have had, you've

[2:26:48] also serve so many people throughout the county who have looked to you for your leadership

[2:26:53] and for your representation.

[2:26:58] Your primary focus has been increasing our investments in the work that we do, especially

[2:27:05] when it comes to social services, homelessness investments, all of the things that make up

[2:27:12] our safety net for East County, and you have done that from infrastructure projects to so

[2:27:17] many other things that you have champions and I think the East County

[2:27:22] library that we are we're just talking about is an incredible example of that.

[2:27:26] You have really taken your role seriously and moved forward work for the

[2:27:32] county and work for your district that is impressive. That has really changed the

[2:27:37] lives and improved the lives people in East County. I think that you bring an

[2:27:43] incredible, just an incredible power and it's like this, this quiet power in the advocacy

[2:27:54] that you do that you deeply admire but an authenticity of who you are and your understanding

[2:27:59] of your community and your constituents and your understanding of this work that I deeply

[2:28:04] admire and it has really resulted in some important steps forward and there have been so many

[2:28:12] over the last eight years, but I'm gonna try to focus on a couple of the big

[2:28:18] things that stand out over eight years here. You know, going all the way back

[2:28:24] to the time when we thought the biggest thing that was gonna happen in 2020 was

[2:28:30] a census.

[2:28:33] You represented our county in the 2020 census and you have always kept

[2:28:39] your focus as a small business owner on economic stimulus and development. And so the work that you

[2:28:44] in your office did, even in light of a pandemic, even in light of how are we going to actually do

[2:28:50] ace fences of people and at time when people are encouraged to not be around each other, your

[2:28:55] flexibility, your ability to pivot. And I see your staff there, Becca and Mila and Jennifer.

[2:29:01] Like it is just so incredible, the work that you were able to do during that time.

[2:29:07] You have been the primary driver in not, in building not just one, but two community,

[2:29:13] school health centers, and that is really incredible.

[2:29:17] You've championed Vance Vision, the common application for use across all of Multnomah County's programs.

[2:29:26] Most recently, and arguably most impressively, you have paved the way for an East County Homeless Resource Center

[2:29:32] that creates exactly the footprint we need at exactly the time when we need it.

[2:29:37] As the ECHRC joins many other shelters and truly expanding and diversifying our resources

[2:29:44] to make sure that we're addressing homelessness across the entire county.

[2:29:50] I think of the number of individuals, both like the young people, families, seniors,

[2:29:55] are vulnerable neighbors whose lives have been impacted and supported by your vision.

[2:30:03] I will say to me, it's like, there are so many things about what you've done, but to me,

[2:30:10] what also stands out is the way that you've done it. You are tenacious in working on projects,

[2:30:20] on issues. You're not afraid of hard work of getting the heart to the heart of the matters

[2:30:28] and really like focusing on the things that you want to see done for your

[2:30:31] district and for your community. You're not afraid of speaking your truth and how

[2:30:37] things impact you personally in the work that we do. I think that it's so

[2:30:42] amazing the way that you have stepped up and stepped into this work on a national

[2:30:46] level through your work with the National Association of County of

[2:30:51] counties through your advocacy, whether it's economic development, whether it

[2:30:57] is looking at great ideas to bring back here to the county so we can do better at our

[2:31:02] work. I think it's the way that you have really connected both with the Korean and

[2:31:08] Korean American communities here, but also in Korea with the work that you've done here

[2:31:14] and I think that as a proud Korean adoptee, you are bringing humor and optimism and a guiding

[2:31:21] light to your leadership that you bring. Like I said, a multinational Oregon, but also

[2:31:26] nationally and internationally as well.

[2:31:30] You know, we lost the straight talking poet, Nikki Giovanni recently, but her voice does

[2:31:36] remind me of yours, Laurie.

[2:31:38] She was always ready and willing to tell it like it is, and she said, if we don't like

[2:31:42] the world we're living in, change it.

[2:31:44] And if we can't change it, we change ourselves.

[2:31:46] We can do something.

[2:31:48] And Laurie, your actions have shown that you're ready to change the world we're living in.

[2:31:52] your approaches to it and our ability as a broader comment can we do something

[2:31:57] that makes a difference for each other. So I am so grateful to have had you

[2:32:02] out as a colleague for the last eight years. You have my gratitude. You have my

[2:32:06] respect. I know we have folks who are coming up here today to talk about you. So

[2:32:11] I want to make space for those leaders who are here to say a few words. The first

[2:32:16] is a very special surprise guest but I didn't even know who it was until this

[2:32:21] morning, but I am very happy to invite former Chair Deborah Kafori down to speak some words

[2:32:27] for Commissioner Laurie Stegman, and then we'll have the other folks join us home.

[2:32:40] Good morning.

[2:32:44] We've upgraded since your time.

[2:32:47] I know.

[2:32:47] I saw new doors.

[2:32:49] I was like, wow, you guys are really going fancy.

[2:32:52] So, Lori,

[2:32:56] I had the pleasure of first meeting Lori Stegman when she was running for County Commissioner.

[2:33:04] And I think like a lot of people, I wasn't quite sure about whether Lori was going to win the election.

[2:33:13] I think she didn't start off with people thinking she was the frontrunner in that campaign.

[2:33:19] I mean, let's be clear, she was Republican in Multnomah County, but Lori did what Lori does,

[2:33:26] which is put her head down and work really, really hard. She managed to get the endorsements

[2:33:34] of Republicans, Democrats, liberals, conservatives all across her district and actually all across the

[2:33:41] whole of Multnomah County and she crushed it and she has done nothing but crush it since she came

[2:33:47] I had a list of long list of things that Lori has done,

[2:33:52] Chair of Vega Pears, and named almost every single one of them.

[2:33:56] But I think that really the things that stick out to me are the things that Lori has done,

[2:34:01] it's she's done because she leads with her heart.

[2:34:05] Whatever issue she takes on, it's because she cares deeply about the people who are involved.

[2:34:10] We can talk about the common app that she put together to make it easier for people to

[2:34:15] sign up for benefits and services.

[2:34:18] But she didn't do that because it was going to get her headlines or her name in the paper.

[2:34:21] She did that because she cares about the people who are struggling to get their needs met.

[2:34:27] She's always led with that at the forefront of her mind.

[2:34:31] One of the things that Lori did that really impressed me and did garner her the national headlines

[2:34:38] was when during the Trump administration, she stood up against the terrible, horrible things that he was spewing, that hurt people, people who really felt for because she herself was an immigrant.

[2:34:54] And she changed her party in East County.

[2:34:58] It was a very, very brave thing to do, and I think it was one of the shiny moments for me when I knew what an amazing, strong, powerful woman you are.

[2:35:09] So I think people underestimate because they see her as a person who leaves with her heart, but need to remember that deep down inside Lori has a core of steel.

[2:35:21] No, don't mess with her.

[2:35:23] She gets stuff done, she gets stuff done and she doesn't care about the headlines.

[2:35:28] And she's, it is, let's be clear, it's hard to be on this board and be from East County.

[2:35:34] You don't get as much press, you don't get as much focus.

[2:35:38] But instead of trying to pick fights with people and get her name in the paper because she said bombastic things, she decided to work hard and get things done.

[2:35:48] And Lori leaves behind her a legacy that I would put up to any county commissioner in the history of Multnomah County.

[2:35:55] She's amazing. She's fantastic. And the good news for all of us in Multnomah County is she's not leaving us.

[2:36:01] She's still going to be working hard for the people of Multnomah County, which should not be a surprise to anyone.

[2:36:06] Lori, I am so happy to call you a former colleague, but mostly a dear dear friend. Thank you.

[2:36:26] All right, and now I would love to invite Greg Caldwell.

[2:36:31] Good morning and we are so honored to have you here with us.

[2:36:35] Thank you.

[2:36:39] Can you hear me?

[2:36:41] Yes.

[2:36:41] Good.

[2:36:42] Good morning everyone and thank you for being here today and thank you for the opportunity

[2:36:47] to say a few words on this special occasion as we mark the continuation of the great work

[2:36:56] and the remarkable career of Commissioner Laurie Stegman.

[2:37:00] Over the years, Laurie has carried many official titles.

[2:37:07] She's been candidate Laurie Stegman numerous times.

[2:37:10] She's been the City Councillor in Gresham, as you know, and of course she is Commissioner

[2:37:16] of Multnomah County at this time, but she has other titles as well.

[2:37:22] She's a Korean adoptee, she's a business owner, and importantly she is the mother.

[2:37:29] mother, which I think is very important, and her next step, as you know, she will be

[2:37:35] director of Multnomah County's youth and family services. Her record of service continues,

[2:37:43] and that's good to see. I first met Laurie when through my work as honorary

[2:37:50] consul for the Republic of Korea. That was about, I think, 14 or 15 years ago when she was

[2:37:58] member of the City Council in Gresham, and at that first meeting she proudly told me that she

[2:38:05] was a Korean adoptee, but she convinced that she remembered very little about her early childhood

[2:38:15] there, and that she knew very little about Korean culture or Korean history. But she said she had a

[2:38:22] natural curiosity about the country and its people. About two years, one or two

[2:38:30] years later, Laurie told me that she was going to visit South Korea. That would

[2:38:35] be her first visit back to Korea after her adoption. And she was going there as

[2:38:42] a member of the Gresham Sokcho delegation, a sister-city delegation. And she

[2:38:48] She would spend some time in Sokcho, and then with her daughter Rachel, she was going

[2:38:53] to stay an extra week and tour around Korea and to try to explore her Korean roots.

[2:39:01] I thought that was a great, great idea at the time, and I helped her a little bit by

[2:39:09] I said, well, there's a Korean adoptee here who takes adoptees back to Korea to look at

[2:39:16] Korea and find their roots a bit. And she did that. She accompanied Laurie and Rachel on that tour.

[2:39:24] For Laurie, I think it was an eye-opening experience, a transformational journey,

[2:39:30] and I've always felt a little bit of pride in having some role in connecting her or reconnecting

[2:39:37] her with her roots. Throughout her career, Laurie has been an advocate for adoptees, for immigrants,

[2:39:46] for refugees and marginalized community members.

[2:39:52] She's been a champion for underserved communities

[2:39:56] and she has a track record working on policies

[2:40:00] to improve housing stability,

[2:40:03] economic mobility development,

[2:40:06] as well as public safety.

[2:40:08] And I think we can trace some of those interests

[2:40:12] and some of that back to her roots

[2:40:15] as a Korean-born adoptee.

[2:40:18] She's leaving Multnomah County very soon

[2:40:22] because of term limits, but she will serve admirably.

[2:40:26] I'm sure as the county's youth

[2:40:28] and family services director,

[2:40:31] she will also serve as a model

[2:40:33] of our ethnic communities here in Oregon.

[2:40:39] She will serve as a model for the immigrants,

[2:40:41] for citizens at large as well, and they will know what they, too, can achieve with hard work,

[2:40:51] determination, a good education, and good common sense. So, Laurie, thank you for your outstanding

[2:40:58] service to Multnomah County in your role as commissioner. Best of luck in your role as director of the

[2:41:07] in your new job, best of luck in that.

[2:41:11] And we in the Korean community are very proud of you.

[2:41:15] Thank you.

[2:41:22] Thank you, Councilor Caldwell.

[2:41:24] And now I would like to invite one of the East County mayors

[2:41:29] in the district that Lori represents to come down,

[2:41:32] Mayor John Minor, from the City of Wood Village.

[2:41:48] I've got a green light here.

[2:41:50] Yeah, that one's, I don't have to do anything.

[2:41:52] That's what works about the bus.

[2:41:53] Well, I can tell you, as the mayor of Wood Village, this meeting's been much more exciting

[2:42:00] than the ones we have at our city councils, and I've really enjoyed just sitting up there

[2:42:06] and listening.

[2:42:10] As a mayor of one of our small cities out in East Baltimore County, including Trotdale,

[2:42:18] Fairview and Wood Village. Excuse me. We know Gresham is out there, too. And Gresham, because of its size compared to our cities and political influence, we often feel, and I'm going to speak generally of our three cities, but I'm here representing Wood Village because I don't want to speak for those other mayors right now.

[2:42:45] But we often feel like we're kind of lost in the maze of things because you obviously

[2:42:55] have, and again I enjoyed listening to the conversations on homelessness, we feel

[2:43:04] like we get lost but what Laurie has provided us is really a conduit and she knows and

[2:43:13] meetings with the four mayors and sometimes three, not everybody necessarily agrees.

[2:43:21] But she's been the conduit and she sat through meetings with some of the mayors on issues

[2:43:29] of homeless, just like you're doing here, on issues of transportation, on issues of public

[2:43:36] safety, and we all have those problems and we all have those challenges.

[2:43:41] But Lori has been really a voice for our East County in particular for our three cities.

[2:43:50] And as a mayor of Wood Village, I got to know her when I was on the East County Transportation Committee.

[2:44:01] And I was serving as vice chair.

[2:44:03] And what I witnessed about Lori as I watched that, as we've heard here,

[2:44:10] She listens, she understands and works at understanding, and as she managed that group of people,

[2:44:21] I was always impressed with her ability to be gracious when we know we're going off track.

[2:44:29] And also aware of what we need to get done in those meetings.

[2:44:33] But she was, as we've heard here,

[2:44:38] she includes people. She includes everybody. And she gives all voices a chance to be heard.

[2:44:48] When I became mayor, one of the first things I figured out is that I better get a little bit smarter

[2:44:55] about the county government, because I-

[2:45:00] I understood education and education in the county business. We're all equal opportunities for criticism. And we're pretty good targets for people. But I spent 35 years in education, both at the Reynolds High School District and retired in the Gresham Barlow School District as a superintendent. And during those years, I watched, and I understood,

[2:45:29] the population we were dealing with, and it changed, and more services needed to be brought to East County.

[2:45:40] And I know I worked with my constituency and the stakeholders at the time.

[2:45:47] And Lori was on the City Council.

[2:45:49] I believe Lori, you are right close to the City Council when I was in the district office.

[2:45:56] But I know the development of Rockwood in that area, and Lori said a tremendous influence on that.

[2:46:04] But I cited, we know Lori would be interested in the breakfast now then, so we periodically had a breakfast.

[2:46:11] So I can have a chance to talk to her. And really through those breakfast meetings,

[2:46:18] we really accomplished, I believe, because of her efforts.

[2:46:24] Well, Cook's Plaza was spoken here today, the East Mall and the County Housing Shelter,

[2:46:30] and we were beginning to have those conversations, and certainly she was a great influence

[2:46:37] there.

[2:46:37] Now, Laurie remembers the meeting when we showed up for some input, and it was a little bit

[2:46:45] But like I heard here today, that there wasn't, there were a lot of people in that neighborhood

[2:46:53] that weren't very happy what was happening.

[2:46:56] So we had the conversation very briefly with Laurie and immediately we had a conversation

[2:47:01] with a member of the joint office in our city.

[2:47:05] The support that Lori has given to other activities that you may not have to get a lot of attention.

[2:47:16] But we have obviously lots of populations of families and children in the East County that do not have access to recreational activities.

[2:47:25] They don't have access to defined arts, the money is not there in school districts as we all know.

[2:47:34] Well, they're not offering some of those things.

[2:47:36] Well, Lori has been a great supporter of Plays.

[2:47:39] And Plays is serving a number of individuals now.

[2:47:44] And Lori, I'm going to give you an annual budget message.

[2:47:50] But that's next year after we can go to breakfast or something.

[2:47:55] But I want you to see that.

[2:47:57] But just so you know, this last quarter, 800 plus kids were served through Plays.

[2:48:03] and they don't have to pay a senate if they can afford it.

[2:48:08] I want to talk about public safety.

[2:48:10] She's been just a vicious advocate for the Multnomah County Sheriff's Office.

[2:48:16] And that's our sheriff's.

[2:48:18] That's our law enforcement in these counties with our three cities.

[2:48:22] So, Laurie, you know, I'm Commissioner Stagman still,

[2:48:27] but I'm happy for you.

[2:48:29] I want to wish you good luck.

[2:48:31] and your eight years of service is a city counselor. I'm looking forward to

[2:48:37] continuing our work together when you take over your duties, the Director of

[2:48:42] Children and Family Services. So good luck and thanks for your work.

[2:48:53] Thank you so

[2:48:54] much for being here mayor and now we have our next guest is Ivory Matthews who is

[2:48:59] the Executive Director of Home Forward, a real leader in our community on

[2:49:04] housing. So great to have you here this morning, Ivory.

[2:49:09] Thank you. Good morning, commissioners.

[2:49:12] Commissioner Laurie Stegman, an exceptional leader who has made a lasting impact on our community.

[2:49:20] As your term comes to a close, it is important to reflect on your remarkable contributions,

[2:49:27] especially your advocacy for housing opportunities in East County.

[2:49:31] Recently, your vision and leadership were instrumental in facilitating the donation of a county-owned parcel that will enable home forward to develop 85 new affordable homes for low-income families in Troutdale.

[2:49:48] This area, like many others in our community, is currently facing a shortage of affordable homes for families.

[2:49:57] However, this project represents more than just housing,

[2:50:01] more than just the housing development,

[2:50:04] it's a testament to the power partnerships and collaboration.

[2:50:08] And what we can achieve when we come together

[2:50:11] and marshal our collective resources to address a pressing issue.

[2:50:16] With the support of Metro's affordable housing bond,

[2:50:20] home for will transform the previously vacant county site

[2:50:24] into a valuable community asset and a beacon of hope for the families in

[2:50:29] Troutdale striving to make ends meet. Additionally, the development will

[2:50:34] feature local art, play areas, a community room, and share computer access, all of

[2:50:41] which will be available to residents and their neighbors. True to the spirit of

[2:50:45] community, it will not only serve as residents, but also foster connections

[2:50:50] among neighbors. The process of shepherding this land and donation was not without challenges,

[2:50:58] but even when obstacles arose, Commissioner Stegman and her team worked tirelessly to ensure

[2:51:05] the shared understanding of how this project aligned with the county's goals and how affordable housing

[2:51:12] contributes to a more vibrant, inclusive community. Thanks to your efforts, you and your entire team,

[2:51:20] The site, ideally located near public transportation, schools, downtown businesses and essential services will soon be home to 85 new families.

[2:51:32] Commissioner Stagman, your leadership and dedication have been invaluable to this community.

[2:51:38] On behalf of all who have benefited and all who will continue to benefit from your efforts, we at home forward extend our deepest gratitude.

[2:51:47] Thank you for your service and commitment, your legacy will live on and the lives of the families who will soon call Troutdale home.

[2:51:56] We wish you all the best in your future endeavors and we look forward to our continued partnership as you transition into your new role.

[2:52:04] We love you.

[2:52:08] So

[2:52:11] now we have a short video of the last eight years of commissioner segments time on the board and then we will go to the board for remarks and then we will turn it over to commissioner segment.

[2:52:24] I know we have a reception afterwards as well, so don't go anywhere for that, but now we'll go ahead and have the video.

[2:52:30] I

[2:52:41] learned that I'm a lot stronger than I thought I was.

[2:52:46] I remember walking across the bridge path here and I think we've all experienced the

[2:52:53] imposter syndrome and thinking what lies ahead of me in these next eight years so to be

[2:53:00] at the end of the eight years it really is astonishing how fast time flies.

[2:53:07] One of the reasons that I ran is that many people know that I'm an immigrant, and I was born in

[2:53:13] Seoul, South Korea.

[2:53:18] It upgraded a lot, but maybe not the bandwidth, so what?

[2:53:41] You do have another way to play it?

[2:53:43] Okay.

[2:53:44] One second.

[2:53:45] Always technical difficulties.

[2:53:47] Yes.

[2:53:48] I

[2:54:16] learned that I'm a lot stronger than I thought I was.

[2:54:20] I remember walking across the bridge path here and I think we've all experienced the

[2:54:28] imposter syndrome and thinking what lies ahead of me in these next eight years.

[2:54:34] So to be at the end of the eight years, it really is astonishing how fast time flies.

[2:54:41] One of the reasons that I ran is that many people know that I'm an immigrant and I was born in

[2:54:47] South Korea. And I was adopted. And even though my parents were really amazing and my family was

[2:54:54] free, we struggled financially. And along the way, we received a lot of services and benefits.

[2:55:02] We didn't realize we were poor at times. But then I kind of started piecing everything together.

[2:55:10] there, and then I started thinking about how we survived, and my dad was a logger, and

[2:55:17] he broke his back when he was relatively young, and he received disability benefits.

[2:55:23] And without those disability benefits, I don't know what my family would have done.

[2:55:28] So I've always felt kind of this deep responsibility to pay it forward, because someone else paid

[2:55:34] it forward for me. People that I have never met will never meet have helped me and I hope to do

[2:55:42] the same for others. I am most proud of a lot of things. One of them being the Multnomah County

[2:55:50] Flagship Library which is a 90,000 square foot library in one of the most low income neighborhoods

[2:56:00] for so long East County has not received the level of investment that other parts of the county have and I couldn't have asked for more.

[2:56:09] We're also doing the East County Public Resource Center, which will be the first day center in

[2:56:15] in East Baltimore County to serve our house's population.

[2:56:20] But, you know, while I talk about these big projects

[2:56:23] and big ideas, really what comes to mind

[2:56:26] are like individual times when myself or my office

[2:56:30] has been able to help people.

[2:56:32] I remember during the pandemic,

[2:56:35] a woman had called and she was trying to get rental assistance

[2:56:38] and she didn't have the appropriate paperwork.

[2:56:41] She wasn't quite sure how to go or what website to go to

[2:56:44] And long story short, we help this woman get rental assistance and so she didn't get

[2:56:50] addicted.

[2:56:51] And so that's what I think about are really just those small interactions that might

[2:56:57] not mean a lot to the world, but certainly to those people that are struggling with challenges.

[2:57:05] It means a lot to them.

[2:57:07] I just learn everybody wants to be seen, everybody wants to be heard, and everyone has a voice.

[2:57:14] and we should be listening to each other.

[2:57:17] What most people don't know is that the county

[2:57:20] impacts people's lives every single day.

[2:57:25] From the time they leave their home

[2:57:26] until the time that they get that.

[2:57:28] All these different things from pest control,

[2:57:31] to animal services, to bridges,

[2:57:34] to the criminal justice system,

[2:57:37] to all of our health clinics,

[2:57:38] just the breadth of what the county does

[2:57:41] is astounding. I would say to the youth, if you want to change the world, throw

[2:57:48] your hat into the ring and make sure that your voice is heard and don't do

[2:57:53] like what I did. Don't think that you're an imposter. You have every right to

[2:57:58] hand up and be heard and don't be afraid because we're counting on you and we

[2:58:04] know that you're gonna be able to help get our community to the place that it

[2:58:09] needs to be.

[2:58:20] That was really a beautiful video and I want just want to thank our county

[2:58:23] communications department for all their work and putting it together. Mark, just got everyone

[2:58:28] back there who was a part of it. Thank you so much. All right, so now we are going to turn it over

[2:58:33] to the board for some comments. I'm going to actually start with Commissioner Brim Edwards because

[2:58:38] we also, because there's always things going on at the end of the year, there's a swearing in for

[2:58:42] the City of Portland new commissioners and mayor and so she has to leave for that. So I'm going to turn

[2:58:47] I don't know if we're to you first, I can make sure.

[2:58:50] And I was saying, if it wasn't my chief of staff,

[2:58:52] things weren't in, I would be saying,

[2:58:53] so I'm just my apologies, but I'm so glad I'm gonna have

[2:58:56] an opportunity to share some thoughts before I leave this morning.

[2:59:05] And so this is a second farewell this week.

[2:59:08] I just got here and we're already saying goodbye.

[2:59:12] At this time, it's to my fellow East Portland

[2:59:15] and East County on neighbor, and also my hallway neighbor, Commissioner Stegman.

[2:59:21] And it seems really appropriate that I started my day today driving out to East County.

[2:59:27] It was a beautiful morning with Mount Hood in the background and beautiful sunrise.

[2:59:32] And I was going out to sign the beam for the East County Library.

[2:59:37] And as you get near, you can see like what is going to be.

[2:59:41] and I think it's really going to be a lasting symbol of your tenure on the commission and it's

[2:59:51] beautiful and it's going to be just an incredible asset for the community. So I'm glad I started

[2:59:56] in that way just to give me inspiration.

[3:00:00] So, I just want to say a couple things about our tenure. I can't go back in the time machine like the chair because I've just been here for your last years. But during our time together, you have been a consistent and stalwart voice for vulnerable populations, including immigrants and refugees, diverse communities, individuals facing evictions. You were a person who always spoke up to give voice to

[3:00:31] concerns or needs that, and for individuals who might not have a voice speaking up for

[3:00:36] them, I really appreciated that. You've also been a leader in standing up against anti-Asian

[3:00:43] hate actions, especially in the last several years in which we know that those actions

[3:00:50] have had such a huge impact on those in our community and so thank you for being the

[3:00:56] leader and lending your voice from the county and also for your community.

[3:01:02] At different moments, and it's always like I'd have to get the Kleenex pucks out, you

[3:01:07] shared your journey of immigration to the US and Oregon.

[3:01:11] And I know community members who followed a similar path identified with your story and

[3:01:17] appreciated that a leader and decision maker here at the county knew in some way the challenges

[3:01:24] is the hopes and dreams that come with being a new American.

[3:01:27] And I know that your comments and you're talking about your journey helped them feel

[3:01:33] like Oregon was their home.

[3:01:35] So thank you for that.

[3:01:38] I appreciated that as a new commissioner who had never worked very closely with the county

[3:01:45] in a lot of other forms, but not of the county, you welcomed me to the board and you took the

[3:01:48] time to share your county learnings and history and some very practical know-how's about

[3:01:54] how to get around here in the county and at the board table.

[3:02:00] You also taught me a lot about East County, so as what I felt like, what is this agenda

[3:02:05] item that we have and I don't even know what this is or where it is and often it was because

[3:02:10] I'm a Portlander and as for my focus, you took the time to share with me the history and

[3:02:17] project, why it was important to the people in your district and I was great to have others come today and speak to the work because we don't necessarily always see that here in the Mobile County building so to hear your community bring it in and I so I've appreciated you educating me about more about East County and again also joining me with partner when we're speaking up for East Portland.

[3:02:46] which we have a joining districts in the eastern part of Portland.

[3:02:55] And I know this has been mentioned by others, but I couldn't speak to your service without

[3:03:01] also referencing the common application. And really, I know when you first were talking to me about

[3:03:08] it's like, oh, this can sound kind of wonky and technical administrative. But you think about what

[3:03:15] But actually the common application means it's really a gateway and access to so many services and removing barriers and connecting individuals in this community to the safety net and ways in which haven't happened to the past.

[3:03:31] So thank you for bringing that forward, another thing that will have implications for years to come.

[3:03:37] I also want to offer my respect and honor your accomplishment as the first Asian American member of this board.

[3:03:46] And again, I think the message it sends to the community that people feel like somebody else who shares my, not only shared my journey, but

[3:03:56] shares my continuing journey on the board has been really important.

[3:04:01] So I want to really share my appreciation for your eight years of service.

[3:04:04] and not just service to the East County and your district but to the entire

[3:04:12] county. Thank you, Laurie.

[3:04:21] Thank you, and we'll go to Commissioner Myron.

[3:04:23] Thank you.

[3:04:26] So, I have worked at the other end of the

[3:04:32] Dias and at the other end of a very, very, very, very long hallway from

[3:04:39] Commissioner Stegman for eight years. And it has been quite an eight years.

[3:04:47] And you do get to know someone in that amount of time and especially when you're going through a lot of the trauma that our county has been going through.

[3:05:02] and I am so grateful for you and for all that you have done.

[3:05:12] From day one you have just been a fierce advocate

[3:05:16] for the needs of district one.

[3:05:20] You speak up for those needs.

[3:05:23] Every, what is it?

[3:05:24] Everywhere, all the movie.

[3:05:27] Every time, everywhere, all the ones, whatever.

[3:05:29] but it's you are always doing it and it's just like a reflex now to think of

[3:05:35] District 4 because you have made it so.

[3:05:42] I love the work you've done around our

[3:05:45] libraries and I think that was just such a fitting thank you Commissioner Bernad

[3:05:49] Edwards for describing that scene and coming upon it and that will be such a

[3:05:55] lasting testament to just some of the work that you have done at the county but really

[3:06:01] big work.

[3:06:04] I personally love how you've just advocated for and supported and pushed the

[3:06:11] hope team which is just such a brilliant example of what we can all do together in shared

[3:06:18] shared space to support those who are so vulnerable, living unsheltered outside, with

[3:06:27] our public safety, with our share of softwares, as partners and supporters and neighbors,

[3:06:33] and it is beautiful. It truly is a beacon of, yes, hope for our community and you have

[3:06:39] been such an advocate and champion. And I too have to speak to the common application

[3:06:48] because that's one, unlike Commissioner Bromabrums,

[3:06:50] I think from the first second you mentioned it,

[3:06:54] it was just like, oh my gosh, that is brilliant.

[3:06:57] Of course, we need to do that.

[3:06:59] It is something that may seem walking on its surface,

[3:07:04] but the impact that will have on real people is profound,

[3:07:09] and it's because you made that happen.

[3:07:12] And not just like heard about it somewhere,

[3:07:14] like you research it, you are the one who pursued it

[3:07:16] and they did happen and you know I'd actually forgotten the census until

[3:07:24] chair mentioned it but that's a huge one that you took on and did and then it all came

[3:07:31] flooding back like oh my god yeah there was that and there's just so much that is oh your work

[3:07:36] around anti-hate and around anti-Asian hate but around just against hate and not accepting

[3:07:50] that in our community and it was your idea to have commissioners speak and make these

[3:07:56] public service messages about anti-hate from our own perspectives that it was just such

[3:08:04] It's a wonderful, brilliant idea and to be honest, when I first heard about it, I don't want to make a video, I hate making videos, because I'm an introvert.

[3:08:15] But it was so valuable that I'm going to do it, and just the process of it was so powerful to me, and I know I heard from so many community members about all of those messages.

[3:08:31] and it was it was just huge so you know over the years we may have disagreed on

[3:08:42] some things and and I think you know that is it is important to be able to

[3:08:51] disagree and pressure test ideas and think about things but I have never for

[3:08:59] one moment ever doubted your compassion and dedication and authenticity towards every

[3:09:09] single person that we serve in the county. And I will cherish always the deep and thoughtful

[3:09:17] conversations that we had huddling together in your office over those chairs and sitting

[3:09:22] there and just talking about stuff. I will never forget those. So I don't think our work

[3:09:28] together is really, you know, our paths are undoubtedly going to be crossing because we share

[3:09:33] the commitment to the same work and to the county. But it is it is a very emotional farewell

[3:09:45] and and I just am grateful to you and is your where's your daughter? Did she come in? Okay Rachel okay

[3:09:57] I was like where is she? I was going to say she must be so proud of you. I'm like where is she and undoubtedly she is and so it's been wonderful having you know having her be sort of a part of the county as well like you it's she and you come as a you come as a package and that has been a beautiful thing too. So anyway, thank you and I wish it's weird. I don't know. I don't know how to close this out so I'm just going to stop.

[3:10:26] Okay. Thank you.

[3:10:34] Commissioner Singleton.

[3:10:38] Thank you. Commissioner Stegman, I have had

[3:10:43] the opportunity not to work with you so long as a commissioner, but in other aspects

[3:10:48] of our community work. I remember the first time I met you when we were dreaming up what

[3:10:54] became the Portland Housing Bond and you are a Gresham City Councillor and it started

[3:10:59] our conversations about housing and homelessness and East County that continued all the way through my time

[3:11:06] when I was at the Joint Office for a brief period. I think that I've said this to you and I've

[3:11:12] said this to many others. I think you're one of the best legislators that we've had and I appreciate

[3:11:17] having had the opportunity to learn from you. You are an example of how commissioners can and should

[3:11:26] engage with department directors. While I was at the joint office, you pushed me. You held

[3:11:32] us accountable to making sure that we were looking at opportunities to give services in East

[3:11:37] County. I remember I started disaggregating data as well as dollars on geography at your insistence

[3:11:45] that we be addressing East County needs. I think additionally you do it with a willingness to learn

[3:11:52] and incorporate new information as you're really engaging with directors and with departments on the work of the county.

[3:12:01] And I can't say enough how much I appreciated that as a former director, but how much it taught me about how I can show up as a commissioner.

[3:12:09] And I think, you know, not only around things like purchasing Cook Plaza for the sheltering space, but that was about you prioritizing what the East County city.

[3:12:23] Not only community members, but elected wanted to see happen for that community. So you centering the community voice has is something that has not gone unrecognized.

[3:12:34] And I would say there was a little bit of mention of some of your work around the economic development, but I think I've also been privileged to have the opportunity to work a bit with you in some of the economic development work that the port is convening to address needs in East Multnomah County and that has also been a privilege to get to see you be not only at that table but continue to be a staunch advocate for the needs of the community members.

[3:13:03] So I just appreciate not only having had these opportunities to engage with you in the past but really look forward to continuing to get to work with you in the future.

[3:13:14] And thank you for being a great model and example for me.

[3:13:23] Thank you so much, Commissioner Singleton. And now we will turn it over to Commissioner Lawrence.

[3:13:28] Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for your address to all of us.

[3:13:33] Okay.

[3:13:36] It seems incredibly apropos, and thank you, Commissioner Singleton, because you're part of this.

[3:13:43] That I end my term at our last board meeting with an all women majority minority board of

[3:13:51] county commissioners,

[3:13:57] which is exactly how I began my term.

[3:14:02] Representation matters and seeing people who reflect the makeup of our community instills greater integrity and trust.

[3:14:11] So I want to thank all of my colleagues both past and present for ensuring the voices of our constituents are heard.

[3:14:19] But before I begin my comments, I want to let you know that there's probably going to be tears, mostly mine, but it will be tears of gratitude and love.

[3:14:27] of. I want to tell you all how much I appreciate each and every one of you. And while I haven't

[3:14:35] been able to meet every single one of our 6,000 employees, I know each one of them has contributed

[3:14:41] to the mosaic of good called Multnomah County. And that goes for our vendors, our CBOs and

[3:14:48] nonprofits that we have with us, especially today. It's been an incredible privilege to lead

[3:14:55] the urgent work of the county and it has been

[3:15:03] It has been one of my most rewarding and meaningful things that I have ever done in my life. I've always strived to do the most good for the most people. And I know that you all will continue to carry out that mission.

[3:15:25] I am so proud of the many accomplishments I've had the pleasure of seeing come different wishing during my turn from the building of the flagship East County Library to the Vance Division to the East County Homeless Resource Center.

[3:15:38] and countless other policies and investments.

[3:15:42] Thank you to all of the department and division managers

[3:15:46] and staff that I've worked with these past eight years,

[3:15:51] who are responsible for actually implementing these policies.

[3:15:55] I leave knowing that these initiatives are in good hands

[3:15:58] and will take flight under your stewardship.

[3:16:03] And to my team, thank you for the great things

[3:16:07] we have achieved together.

[3:16:09] To land and worry, land stand up.

[3:16:21] Land is my policy and planning director for the past five and a half years.

[3:16:26] Land, thank you for bringing your sense of equity and

[3:16:30] justice and ensuring those values were always embedded in our work.

[3:16:38] Your leadership to complete the 2020 census during a pandemic was instrumental in greater representation for

[3:16:45] more again as we elected Andrea Salinas as our sixth representative.

[3:16:51] Because of your efforts, census participation actually went up and

[3:16:56] resulted in increased federal funding to our state and county for a decade.

[3:17:02] And because of your work on the common application, more people will have access to programs and

[3:17:07] benefits that will allow them to nourish their families, stay warm in the winter,

[3:17:12] and cool in the summer and become more self-sufficient.

[3:17:16] You truly have made our community more resilient and made sure that diverse perspectives and voices were always at the forefront of our policies.

[3:17:27] Thank you for always standing for what is good and right.

[3:17:31] Thank you, Lynn.

[3:17:38] And to Jennifer Lewis, Jen, wave your hand.

[3:17:41] Oh my gosh.

[3:17:45] Jen has put together this beautiful spread

[3:17:47] so don't leave because there's going to be food.

[3:17:51] Jen has been my constituent relations

[3:17:53] and communications liaison for the past three and a half years.

[3:17:58] Jen, thank you for keeping us all in line.

[3:18:01] Making sure I knew where to go, where I'm sure you were,

[3:18:05] there were probably times when you wanted to tell me where to go.

[3:18:07] And she did, where to go, when to go, and how to get there, and for serving as the complaint

[3:18:15] desk for county government.

[3:18:19] You have the skills of a master juggler, an air traffic controller, a social media manager,

[3:18:25] and a wedding event planner all rolled into one.

[3:18:29] I'm so grateful for the urgency, efficiency, and organizational skills that you have brought

[3:18:35] to our team. Thank you for always making sure that the trains were running on time. Thank you, Jen.

[3:18:47] And last but not least, and I know how Rebecca Savageard loves attention.

[3:18:53] Rebecca, stand up please.

[3:19:10] So Becca has been my chief of staff from day one.

[3:19:14] Becca, I think Charles Dickens' words reflect a pretty accurate description of our time together

[3:19:19] these last eight years. It truly was the best of times and the worst of times. I

[3:19:27] think you can all relate. I remember the first time we met and we forged a

[3:19:33] partnership so deep that it was stood the storms of a pandemic, political upheaval,

[3:19:39] and a racial reckoning. But through all of that, because of you, I never lost my

[3:19:45] footing.

[3:19:49] You were and are my foundation, my rock and most of all my unicorn. I always

[3:19:58] told her I want rainbows and unicorns and she never failed me. You not only made me

[3:20:04] a better elected but you made me a better person.

[3:20:09] You always encouraged me to take the high

[3:20:11] road when all I could see was the low road. Thank you for being a shoulder to lean on. A pillow

[3:20:18] I will just scream into and for always making me laugh when I should be crying.

[3:20:24] Thank you, Becca.

[3:20:33] Okay, I'm almost done.

[3:20:35] I hope the work that my team and I have done over the last eight years has a significant

[3:20:41] impact on our community for generations to come.

[3:20:45] Thank you all for your support, your love, and your confidence.

[3:20:50] And finally, I want to share my hopes and dreams for each and every one of us that is beautifully

[3:20:56] reflected in a poem by Max Irman called the Ciderata.

[3:21:02] Go placidly amid the noise and haste,

[3:21:05] and remember what peace there may be in silence. As far as possible, without surrender,

[3:21:12] the young good terms with all persons, speak your truth quietly and clearly and listen to others.

[3:21:21] Even the doll and the ignorant, they too have their story.

[3:21:26] Avoid loud and aggressive persons.

[3:21:29] They are vexations to the spirit.

[3:21:32] If you compare yourself with others, you may become vain and bitter.

[3:21:37] For always, there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself.

[3:21:41] Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans.

[3:21:45] Keep interested in your own career, however humble.

[3:21:47] It is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.

[3:21:53] Exercise caution in your business affairs for the world is full of trickery.

[3:21:59] But let this not blind you to what virtue there is.

[3:22:03] Many persons strive for high ideals and everywhere life is full of heroism.

[3:22:12] Be yourself, especially do not fan affection,

[3:22:15] neither be cynical about love or in the face of all

[3:22:20] erity and disenchamment, it is perennial as the grass.

[3:22:26] Take kindly the counsel of the years gracefully

[3:22:30] surrounding the things of you, nurture strength of

[3:22:33] spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune, but do not

[3:22:37] distress yourself with dark imaginings.

[3:22:41] Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness beyond

[3:22:45] a wholesome discipline be gentle with yourself. You are a child of the universe, no less than the

[3:22:53] trees and the stars. You have a right to be here. And whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt

[3:23:03] the universe isn't folding as it should. Therefore, be at peace with God, whatever you can see

[3:23:13] him to be. And whatever your labors and aspirations in the noisy confusion of life, keep peace with your soul.

[3:23:23] With all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world. Be cheerful,

[3:23:32] strive to be happy. Thank you.

[3:24:01] And now let's eat some food. Please join us in the back of the room

[3:24:05] And thank you all. Please hang around. I want to chat with you and I'll still be here for a couple of more weeks

[3:24:12] But thank you all so much and and Greg and ivory

[3:24:15] And everyone for your kind words and thoughts and your presence. Thank you. Thank you

[3:24:21] So that concludes our

[3:24:24] agenda we do have time for board brief or comments today

[3:24:27] So and Commissioner Murray. I know you had one thing that you wanted to share

[3:24:31] Yes, thank you so much, Chair, and it's a hard act to follow, so I'll try to be very brief.

[3:24:38] I just wanted to call out it was on the consent agenda today, but the resolution affirming the board's commitment to address the risk created by the fossil fuel infrastructure located in the critical energy infrastructure hub.

[3:24:53] And I was just very proud and honored to bring this co-sponsor, this, with commission or singleton resolution within the first couple of weeks in office as that's awesome.

[3:25:08] That's both well, but it just it has been something that we as a board committed to five years ago.

[3:25:18] So we committed to hold polluters accountable for the dangers they expose us to and the

[3:25:24] risks they bring to our communities.

[3:25:27] And nowhere is this more apparent than this critical energy infrastructure hub, where there

[3:25:31] are over 630 giant fuel tanks containing toxic substances right in the middle of a cascadious

[3:25:40] abduction zone where earthquakes will happen and anyway catastrophic harm will result and

[3:25:52] this is on the consented agenda because a very full board meeting and b there has been

[3:26:00] so much we have done about this since the five years that I had brought this forward worked

[3:26:08] with Commissioner Giapal in District 2, nice partnership, D122, where we had a resolution

[3:26:16] committing to this work.

[3:26:17] We then had an analysis saying what is in those things, how old are they, what damage

[3:26:24] really is going to occur, and it's worse than you can imagine.

[3:26:26] It's really bad if harmful to humans devastating to the environment.

[3:26:32] So then we then got together said, what are we going to do about it?

[3:26:38] Meanwhile, the state did something to require these companies owning these fuels to be to mitigate the risks,

[3:26:51] to shore up their tanks to hold the feet, I can't speak, it's too much, to make sure that the tanks are up to

[3:27:01] current standards so that they can be as safe as possible to hold these combustible toxic polluting

[3:27:11] substances. So we have done a lot of work. It may feel plotting to me as an ear doctor, it felt

[3:27:20] like a glacial pace, but each step was essential. And we have gotten to the point where that work has

[3:27:28] laid the foundation, tried to bring forward an ordinance about this to put the policy into

[3:27:37] practice and act. So that ordinance didn't pass, but this board has clearly demonstrated

[3:27:50] its commitment.

[3:27:51] So, what this resolution does is it is a formal statement of that commitment.

[3:27:58] It is elevating the fact that this board, it is not stopping as our current board members leave.

[3:28:05] This commitment exists, and as our new board comes in, they are committed to it.

[3:28:11] Commissioner Singleton is a true champion, and I'm looking at you in my screen, I don't know what it looks at.

[3:28:18] But I have just so appreciated your partnership, and I'm just grateful and confident that you are committed to this work.

[3:28:28] And Commissioner Moire, who will be stepping in, I hope you will be the D1D2 partners leading this forward.

[3:28:35] The resolution calls for implementation and action of a financial risk assurance policy within the year.

[3:28:43] Hopefully soon but with the chair helping to shepherd that the dedication of John W of Chris Voss of the incredible advocates who put their time energy heart and soul into this and really made it happen.

[3:29:00] It just never would have without you it will it will happen and I'm just grateful for all of the hard work that went into this.

[3:29:09] sorry this is longer than I intended. I didn't have written talking points as always

[3:29:14] about things so anyway I'm very excited. Thank you so much.

[3:29:21] I just want to echo that

[3:29:27] I look forward to our work on that and appreciate Commissioner Meirin's leadership on the CEI hub

[3:29:33] so more to come and thank you everyone for keeping moving this work forward. It will not

[3:29:38] not just fall to the wayside.

[3:29:40] Thank you.

[3:29:42] Commissioner Stigman.

[3:29:45] Let's eat.

[3:29:45] Okay.

[3:29:46] I just want to say this is a really

[3:29:49] momentous for meaning because I am

[3:29:51] saying goodbye to my two colleagues

[3:29:53] who have been on this board as long

[3:29:54] as I have and I will miss you.

[3:29:58] I also, though, just want to appreciate.

[3:30:00] Committee, commissioner Singleton, commissioner Brim Edwards, commissioners, elect, Jonathan

[3:30:06] Stixon and Moir. We had a really wonderful, thoughtful board retreat yesterday, and I am

[3:30:14] just grateful for them bringing their full selves to the retreat yesterday at Midland

[3:30:18] Library, another fantastic library in our renovation project. And I'm looking forward to continuing

[3:30:24] not just the work of the infrastructure hub, but also just all of the really great and important

[3:30:30] work we're doing at the county. So you are leaving this week, and that's pretty

[3:30:33] momentous, but you're leaving it in good hands to carry this work forward. There being no further

[3:30:38] business, we are adjourned.

Regular Board Meeting

Agenda

Transcript