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About Street roots. (Portland, OR) 1998-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 16, 2015)
COAB from page 4 There seem s to be sort of less side ' conversation. For a while, people were getting a bunch of emails, and some of it was unpleasant, to say the least,” Watson said. r ^ an '° r ’S emafl 3)80 stated some WJAB members remained silent during meetings because the environment did not eel safe for differing opinions to be shared, and the sense of distrust, skepticism, angst and conflict that were present in the first meeting seem to be growing.” Compliance Officer-Community Liaison m ember Watson said that her team had numerous discussions with Taylor about how to address the issues and recommendations he outlined in his memos and that some were implemented. We have a lot of people who are really passionate about improving things in Portland, but they’re coming with different opinions, different perspective and some variation in priorities, so I think some conflict is inevitable,” she said. Six months into the COAB-’s process, on Aug. 11, Taylor sent another memo to the Compliance Officer-Community Liaison, once again stating his concerns over the loss of what was, by then, four voting members and one alternate, “three of whom are individuals who had indicated on their initial application that they have lived experience with mental illness,” he wrote. Nine days later, on Aug. 20, COAB member Rivier, who goes by V, sent a formal complain^ against Saadat and Taylor to Rosenbaum and Watson, citing an incident that occurred between h er and Sadaat y e steadfastly and personally committed to »Bowing the Aug. 13 COAB meeting at domg anything we can to make sure that is Portland Community College’s Cascade not true.” Campus and voicing h er concerns about Fetiless said while the process has been a Taylor s perceived secret reports. struggle, the COAB is coming to understand In a response to her its role and is successfully complaint, Rosenbaum making key issued a response stating, recommendations to the “Nothing about this "W e h ave a lo t o t peo Police Bureau. incident suggests to us that p le w ho are re a lly pas “Kathleen has brought any misconduct or violation sionate a b o n i im p ro v new focus, but in doing so, of the law has oectirred on in g th in g s in P o rtla n d , she’s brought a very firm the part of Ms. Saadat,” h u t th e y 're c o m in g w ith hand,” Feuless said of and he concluded his letter Saadat “Many in COAB d iffe re n t o p in io n s , d if with the recommendation have had their issues with that “everyone return to fe re n t p erspective a nd that, including myself.” the work of the Settlement some v a ria tio n in p r i Sadaat said her approach A greem ent” o ritie s , so I t h in k some has been meeting with Watson said the c o n flic t is in e v ita b le ." board members individually infighting among parties to see what they need, has taken up a considerable A M Y WATSON ._- COMPLIANCE OFFICFR- clarifying the COAB’s role, amount of the Compliance C O M M U N I T Y L lA iS O N T E A M and putting operational m em ber Officer-Community . structures in place. Liaison’s time. Members of What the COAB needs, the team are paid with Feuless said, are resources. taxpayer dollars, with Saadat earning the There are only 15 of us plus five police most: $150,000 annually. advisers, and we’re just running out of In Taylor’s last memo, he noted that people for work groups.” views expressed to him by members of the Watson, a Compliance Officer-Community COAB indicated many believed “the COAB Liaison team member, said: “I t h in k there was created as a public relations move and was some naivete in term s of thinking about the seats were filled in a ‘tokenism’ what it would take to really get everything fashion,” and the community board done. Some of the settlements in other members felt like they were there to cities have multimillion-dollar budgets each observe the process, not to advise i t year to support all of the work.” When asked if she agreed with this The Portland settlement is funded with sentiment, Feuless said, “I think most of us $750,000 annually, $458,000 of which goes operate under both a fear that that could he <xiirectly to the Compliance Officer- true, but also we remain here because we C om m unity Liaison. LA UG H IN G PLA N ET.C O M Feuless said the COAB needs help from the community it’s representing. “We would be welcoming to any community member that wants to engage and have their voice heard and that wanted to get involved in work groups,” she said. Sadaat said a good place to start for members of the public who wish to get involved is reading the Compliance Officer- Community Liaison’s Draft Second Quarterly Report, then going to a town hall meeting where they can give public comment on i t The meeting is at 6 p.m. O ct 22 at PCC Cascade Campus in the Moriarty Arts and Humanities Building, Room 104. “I wish that people would really take the time to understand what an opportunity this is for Portland and the country,” she said. “This is'intended to involve the people in Portland who are not elected officials, and I d like to see the auditorium packed.” Both Saadat and Feuless said the COAB has become more focused and has generated a dozen substantive recommendations for the police bureau. There s a lot of background noise, but you should be seeing more and more and more recommendations,” Feuless said. “We came in with our superhero capes on, and we still have that level of commitment, but we’ve found out that we are not the legion of superheroes.” Portland residents are also encouraged to attend COAB subcommittee meetings. For a complete schedule and to see the draft | report, go to cocl-coab.org.
