LOCAL
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 8, 2019
THE OBSERVER — 5A
Meet the man changing the way Oregon
responds to mental health, addiction
By Sam Stites
Oregon Capital Bureau
Ben Lonergan/EO Media Group
Phil Wright takes over The Observer newsroom start-
ing on Nov. 18. He joins the La Grande newspaper after
nearly 15 years in Pendleton at the East Oregonian.
WRIGHT
Continued from Page 1A
experienced journalist like
Phil Wright,” Rush said.
“Observer readers will soon
learn what East Oregonian
readers already know: Phil is
dogged in seeking out impor-
tant local news and report-
ing those stories faithfully
and accurately. He’s a true
community journalist with a
passion for rural Oregon.”
Wright is a 1986 graduate
of Pendleton High School and
a 1993 graduate of then-West-
ern Oregon State College. He
later earned a master’s degree
in English from Portland
State University.
“Obviously, we are losing a
very talented reporter here
at the EO,” said Cutler, a
former editor/publisher of
The Observer. “And while
we are sad to see someone
with Phil’s talent leave, we
are happy that he’s getting
a chance to lead the news-
room in La Grande. I think
the staff in La Grande and
the readers of The Observer
are going to see a number of
positive changes as Phil gets
acclimated to Union County.”
Brogoitti said at the end
of the day, Wright’s com-
mitment to quality journal-
ism, along with his work in
Pendleton, were among the
reasons he was the right fi t.
“As a veteran reporter for
the East Oregonian, Phil
understands what it means
to be from Northeast Oregon
and the values and cultural
differences in rural commu-
nities,” she said. “It’s impor-
tant that The Observer’s
news coverage resonates
with our readers and that we
are bringing them the best
that journalism has to offer.
Phil brings that element in
spades.”
The Observer was pur-
chased by EO Media Group
in July, along with the Baker
City Herald, from Western
Communications of Bend.
Western Communications
fi led for Chapter 11 bank-
ruptcy protection in January.
The company fi rst sought to
restructure, then decided to
liquidate its assets. This was
the second bankruptcy for
Western Communications in
the past 10 years. It emerged
from another bankruptcy in
2012.
SALEM — Finding a director to
run a key new division of the Oregon
Health Authority vexed Pat Allen for
months.
The agency director worked with
hundreds of internal and external
stakeholders to search for someone
who would bring experience and famil-
iarity with Oregon’s forlorn behavioral
health system. Allen needed someone
to overhaul critical state services
provided to the one in six Oregonians
dealing with mental illness or sub-
stance abuse.
“Over those months, I became
convinced that every state’s behav-
ioral health system is screwed up, but
they’re each screwed up in their own
way,” Allen said. “I really thought that
local expertise was critical. We took
several runs at trying to fi nd the right
candidate and never really got there.”
He found that those recruited to lead
the behavioral health subdivision were
well aware of the challenges facing
Oregon’s emergency in mental health.
Mass homelessness, higher than
average rates of addiction and suicide,
a state psychiatric hospital nearly full
and a system of community mental
health programs that severely lack
resources all needed attention.
Taking on the task of renovating
the unit of state government respon-
sible for looking after Oregon’s most
troubled citizens was not attractive.
BEVERAGE
But where others saw a chaotic
mess, Steve Allen saw opportunity.
At the time of the Oregon Health
Authority’s search, Steve Allen, 63, was
working with lawmakers, advocacy
groups and behavioral health special-
ists to craft policy that would become
Senate Bill 937. He was a consultant
from the Washington D.C.-based Coun-
cil of State Governments Justice Cen-
ter tasked to help Oregon. He helped
design the plan to infuse $10.6 million
in grants to Oregon’s counties, tribes
and regional consortia to strengthen
services for people who frequently cycle
through jails, courts, and hospitals.
“I wanted to look at what the state
could do differently to slow or stop that
trajectory, and what additional services
could be provided,” Allen said.
During his work on the 2019 legisla-
tion, Allen had the opportunity to see
lot of the state and meet many pas-
sionate people in communities dealing
with these problems. Oregon was the
10th state he’d worked in as a consul-
tant and the only one that prompted
him to share observations with his
wife back home in Wisconsin.
“I told her this was a place we could
live for two reasons. One, Oregon is
just gorgeous, but as importantly, I
was really taken by the people here
trying to work differently and improve
systems,” he said.
Pat Allen co-chaired the SB 937
work group, and the pair — who are
not related — became familiar with
one another’s history, strengths and
leadership styles.
“I was just so impressed with the
quality of (Pat’s) leadership — clear,
thoughtful, decisive self-refl ective. He’s
the kind of leader that I knew I could
work for,” Allen said. “Having just
worked in 10 states, the atmosphere
here in Oregon was that so many
people were coming together and
saying, we need to create an environ-
ment in which we can do better for the
people of Oregon.”
One day after a work group meeting,
Allen casually asked Health Authority
director how someone might apply for
the job of behavioral health director.
Pat Allen pointed him in the right
direction and went about his business,
but hours later, he picked up the phone
and rang the consultant.
“I called him up and said, ‘Steve, I’m
kind of dense, but are you the person
that’s interested in the job?’” Pat Allen
said.
The nationwide search came down
to a conversation between the two,
and it couldn’t have come at a better
time. The previous interim behavioral
health director had just retired.
“I came to realize a couple things.
First, (Steve) is an honest-to-God
national expert with experience in the
trenches delivering care and running
and operating statewide systems,” Pat
Allen said. “Also, he just has an incred-
ible way with stakeholders and clients,
and he brings no ego.”
“Building a relationship between the county and all
of the cities (in it) has been a priority during my time
as commissioner. Working together, we can get things
done.”
Continued from Page 1A
The commissioner also
said that as a member
of the Natural Resource
Committee for the Oregon
Association of Counties and
the National Association of
Counties, she will continue
to work on natural resource
issues that are important to
Union County.
She said she wants to
continue strengthening
connections between Union
County and its cities.
— Donna Beverage, Union County commissioner
“Building a relationship
between the county and all
of the cities (in it) has been
a priority during my time
as commissioner. Working
together, we can get things
done,” Beverage said.
Beverage noted that she
attends a regular meeting
of Union County mayors. By
TEXTS
Continued from Page 1A
that old texts sent in the spring sud-
denly went through. Two people said
they fi gured out the original messages
were never received. It’s not clear why
this months-long delay happened.
Phone companies blamed others and
offered no further explanations.
Stephanie Bovee, a 28-year-old from
Portland, woke up at 5 a.m. to a text
from her sister that said just “omg.”
She immediately thought something
had happened to her newborn nephew
at the hospital.
She started calling everyone. Her
sister and her sister’s husband didn’t
answer. She woke up her mom, freak-
ing her out. It was three hours before
she learned that everything was fi ne
and the text was an odd anomaly.
doing this, she and the may-
ors get to know one another,
making it easier to ask for
help when a need arises for
something such as advice or
equipment.
Beverage’s position is
the only one of the three on
the Union County Board of
Commissioners that will be
“Now it’s funny,” she said. “But out of
context, it was not cool.”
Bovee fi gured out that people were
getting some of her old texts that failed
to go through when her sister and a
co-worker both got texts that she had
sent in February. The text her sister
received wished her a happy Valen-
tine’s Day.
Mobile carriers offered unhelpful ex-
planations for the weird-text phenome-
non, which appeared to be widespread,
at least according to social media.
A Sprint spokeswoman said it
resulted from a “maintenance update”
for messaging platforms at multiple
U.S. carriers and would not explain
further. T-Mobile called it a “third party
vendor issue.” Verizon and AT&T did
not answer questions.
Marissa Figueroa, a 25-year-old from
California, got an unwanted message
up for election in 2020.
Beverage and anyone who
fi les to challenge her will be
on the ballot for the May 19
primary election. If one can-
didate receives more than
50% of the vote, that individ-
ual will be elected. However,
if no candidates top the 50%
mark, the top two fi nishers
will run against one another
in a November 2020 runoff
election.
The deadline for fi ling for
the Union County
Commissioner election is
March 10.
from an ex she had stopped talking
to — and then he got one from her as
well. Neither actually sent them last
night, both said. Figueroa couldn’t
fi gure it out, even worrying that her ex
was messing with her, until she saw
reports of this happening to others.
“It didn’t feel great,” she said. “It just
was not good for me and my mental
health to be in contact with him.”
A friend who’d just re-entered his life
got a mystifying message from Joseph
Gomez at 5:32 a.m. Thursday. In that
text, Gomez seemed to assume she was
on her way over to his house so they
could order a Lyft.
It took a half hour of back-and-forth
texting and help from a screenshot
to clear up the situation. Can their
relationship recover? Gomez, 22, said
it was “confusion, then awkward, and
then funny.” No mixed messages there.
Courtesy Photo / Ashley O’Toole
This is how a portion of the lower Morgan Lake Road
area appears via a drone photo.
EOU
FIRE
Continued from Page 1A
Continued from Page 1A
have fi re protection for their
houses for the fi rst time ever,
said Mike McAllister, who
has lived on lower Morgan
Lake Road for decades.
McAllister has been a leader
in the effort to get fi re protec-
tion for this area.
The fire protection option
became available after the
residents banded together to
successfully request that their
properties be annexed indi-
vidually into the fire district.
This means that residents who
agree to pay additional money
in property taxes, submit the
proper paperwork to the coun-
ty and the state, pay required
fees and get proper board ap-
proval will receive emergency
service from La Grande Rural
Fire if department officials
determine that their fire trucks
can reach the home.
Jim Kreider, who with his
wife, Fuji, owns a home in
the lower Morgan Lake Road
area, is delighted that it ap-
pears they will soon have fi re
protection for their home.
“It sets my mind at ease,”
he said.
He noted that a Union
County report in the 1980s
indicated homes in the
Morgan Lake area faced the
highest wildfi re risk of any in
the county.
exceptional job of running it.
She noted that his under-
standing of it is enhanced
by the fact that he was in
a TRIO program while at-
tending college.
“He is perfect for the job,”
she said.
Lund is impressed with
the growth of Eastern’s
online program because so
many universities now have
online programs, creating
a very competitive environ-
ment across the nation.
Lund, who served as dean
of Eastern’s distance educa-
tion program in the 1990s,
added that she hopes East-
ern’s on-campus enrollment
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can grow in the future. She
said this is critical because
on-campus programs add
to the vitality of the entire
campus and community.
David Nelson, chair of
Eastern’s board of trustees,
said there are a number
of reasons to believe that
EOU’s enrollment will
continue its promising
growth trend. One is the
addition of baseball and
women’s lacrosse, which
was announced on Oct. 12.
Eastern will fi eld teams in
both sports beginning in the
spring of 2021.
It is anticipated that the
addition of both sports will
boost Eastern’s 2020-21
enrollment by 45 students,
Seydel said.
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Nelson said the work of
EOU President Tom Insko is
another reason the school’s
enrollment may continue to
improve. He said that Insko
has an excellent reputation
in the region and across the
state and provides Eastern
with stability. Insko, who
grew up in Elgin and is an
EOU graduate, is in his fi fth
year as Eastern’s president.
Nelson also feels good
about the vast market of
potential online students
Eastern has the ability to
serve. He explained there
are about 40 million people
in the United States who
have attended college but do
not have a degree. Many are
looking for a school where
they can complete their de-
gree requirements, he said.
Nelson, a former state
legislator who lives in
Pendleton, said he believes
Eastern may be on its way
to reaching a goal Insko
set about three years ago
— to have 5,000 full-time
equivalent students online
and 2,500 FTE students on
campus by 2029.
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