7A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, MAY 5, 2017
Parks: The entire council commended the parks department
Continued from Page 1A
Increase to 12 percent
Currently, Astoria’s lodg-
ing tax is 9 percent. The council
supports the idea of an increase
to 12 percent. This would make
Astoria comparable to what the
cities of Warrenton — 12 per-
cent — and Seaside — 10 per-
cent — already charge.
State law restricts how cit-
ies use money brought in by the
lodging tax: 70 percent must go
to tourism promotion or tour-
ism-related facilities and 30
percent is unrestricted in use.
Estes said they will discuss this
thoroughly with City Attorney
Blair Henningsgaard.
Estes, Parks and Recreation
Director Angela Cosby and
Finance Director Susan Brooks
estimate that an increase to 10
percent could bring in approx-
imately $205,000, of which
$61,500 would be unrestricted
in use. An increase to 12 per-
cent, as supported by the coun-
cil’s discussion, would bring
in close to $615,000, of which
$184,500 would be unrestricted
in use.
Visitors to help
Councilors were all in favor
of looking into this approach,
saying it would put some of the
burden of ongoing park mainte-
nance and staffing on the shoul-
ders of visitors.
“We have a lot of tourists
in this town and they’re using
our facilities,” Councilor Tom
Brownson said. “They’re put-
ting wear and tear on this town
and they need to help support it.”
He and Councilor Cindy
Price were also in favor of look-
ing into what it would mean to
increase utility fees connected
to residents’ water and sewer
bill, arguing that residents, as
park users, need to help sup-
port parks, too. Other council-
ors did not support this option,
however.
Councilor Zetty Nem-
lowill said she has received
“a lot of negative feedback”
about the proposed utility fee.
She pointed out that Astori-
ans already support the parks
by paying some of the highest
property taxes in Oregon.
“I don’t think it makes sense
to ask citizens to pay more, at
this point,” she said.
Staff commended
The entire council com-
mended the parks department,
Estes and Brooks for all their
work in trying to untangle a sit-
uation that, they say, has been
building for years.
The parks department grew
substantially in recent decades
without a master plan to guide
or inform decisions to build
new parks or expand services.
At the same time, the depart-
ment was also cutting back on
the number of full-time staff.
The skeleton crew in place now
works long hours with little
reprieve, Cosby said.
The recent months have
been especially hard as staff
face uncertainties about the
future of the parks and have
been unsure how to best plan
for their own needs. Cosby told
councilors she worries about
losing key staff during this
time, but is encouraged by the
council’s direction to look into
a lodging tax increase.
“They’ve done a magnif-
icent job,” Estes said of the
department, “and this isn’t
really a question about getting
park and recreation’s spending
under control.”
Previous councils and city
management were comfort-
able with transferring money
from the budget to keep the
department afloat, Cosby said
in an interview before the work
session.
“And now you have new
players and we’re not as com-
fortable with that,” she said.
Homeless: They are ‘part of our community’ Health district:
Candidates were
asked about the goal
of retaining staff
Continued from Page 1A
limited funding available. Clat-
sop Community Action, for
example, has some funding for
ID services, but often must pri-
oritize people who are already
engaged with the organization’s
housing programs.
Now they have a new place
to refer people to: Riverfolk,
a volunteer-led nonprofit that
launched last year. Since Jan-
uary, Clatsop Community
Action has referred about 15
people a month to Riverfolk
to get help securing state ID
cards and birth certificates.
In April, Riverfolk organizer
Mary Docherty announced
they’d hit their first goal as
an organization: 60 replace-
ment state IDs for homeless or
low-income individuals.
Filling a void
Routine tasks that many
people take for granted can
seem like insurmountable bar-
riers to the homeless.
Try applying for housing or
a job without an ID, Docherty
and Bruce say. Try to receive
mail reliably. It’s not going to
happen. Now try applying for
a state-issued ID: You’ll likely
need a birth certificate. Try
getting a copy of your birth
certificate — you may need
to apply through another state
— and you’ll need a state-is-
sued ID.
Maybe you have a phone.
Maybe not. At state and local
offices, there is paperwork and
lines and waiting. Maybe you
have access to a computer,
maybe you can use the Astoria
Library computers and maybe
you can fill out the forms
online. Maybe you have the
stamina for this, maybe you
don’t. Maybe you have a dis-
ability, or are struggling with a
mental illness. Maybe you’ve
had medical help recently,
maybe you haven’t had it
in years. Maybe you have
somewhere to sleep tonight,
maybe you don’t. Maybe you
ate today, maybe you didn’t.
Maybe you’ve been carrying
everything you own with you,
all the time, during the record
171 days of rainfall Astoria
has had since October. Maybe
your possessions are where
you left them, hidden and safe,
maybe they aren’t.
Unique services
In Bruce’s words: “It’s hard
to be homeless.”
Early on, Riverfolk orga-
nizers met with local agen-
cies, everyone from Clatsop
Community Action to the state
Department of Human Ser-
vices office in Astoria. They
wanted to avoid duplicating
any services.
“That’s kind of one of
the beautiful things River-
folk did as they were creat-
ing themselves,” said Nate
Long, branch operations man-
ager with the Department of
Human Services’ self-suf-
ficiency office for Clatsop
County. “They talked with
community partners to find
where the void is.”
The self-sufficiency office
also refers people to River-
folk now. From Long’s per-
spective, one important rea-
son to have a state ID is that
it allows someone without a
home address to set up mail
service. Homeless individuals
can receive mail through gen-
eral delivery at the post office,
but it’s considered a temporary
service and the mail is only
held for up to 30 days. If a per-
son receives a service such as
food benefits through the state,
but doesn’t have a way to reg-
ularly check their mail, they
might miss a letter telling them
it’s time to reapply for the food
program. If there’s no reply,
the state assumes the per-
son no longer needs or wants
food assistance. They close the
case. The local office has sev-
eral ways to verify a person’s
identity and get them back in
the system, but a statewide
hotline intended to fast-track
these matters requires a state
ID, according to Long.
To set up for general deliv-
ery, just about any photo iden-
tification will work, employ-
ees at the Astoria post office
say. But these are forms of ID
that the homeless often do not
have, and a state ID covers
more ground.
There are dozens — hun-
dreds — of different issues
around
homelessness,
said Scott Docherty, Mary
Docherty’s husband and a
Riverfolk board member.
And those issues need to be
addressed.
“But they don’t need to be
addressed by (Mary),” he said.
Instead, Riverfolk found
the particular void that is
state-issued IDs, a small
thing that quickly becomes a
big thing. Grants and dona-
tions have covered costs like
Department of Motor Vehi-
cle fees while Mary Docherty,
with the help of other volun-
teers, handles much of the day-
to-day work of meeting with
clients. Many of Docherty’s
meetings take place where
people already are: on benches
or curbs in downtown Astoria,
at shelters, at warming cen-
ters. Riverfolk doesn’t plan to
open an administrative office
anytime soon; they want that
money to go to food, clothes
and ID services.
Asking
Brandon and Kristin landed
on the North Coast by way of
California. They slept in tents
and lived out of their back-
packs; ID cards were a big hur-
dle. Brandon didn’t have his,
and Kristin’s ID was old, taken
when she was sick. The picture
on that ID looked nothing like
how she looks now, she said,
and the ID’s validity was con-
stantly questioned. “A lot of
people want to help,” Brandon
said about his experiences. But
simply providing phone num-
bers or website addresses may
not be enough when the person
who needs the help is starting
with nothing and living day to
day without, as Brandon says,
“a safe zone.”
“Some people need the
helping hand,” Brandon said.
They need someone to guide
them through state department
phone trees and forms, they
need someone to stick with
them, which is what Riverfolk
and Mary Docherty did for the
two of them, Kristin and Bran-
don said.
The man who needed help
accessing his veteran’s bene-
fits? “He needed someone who
would work with him, who
could take him to appoint-
ments, who could network for
him,” Docherty said.
Riverfolk holds a brunch
every Sunday morning, open
to anyone who is hungry.
Columbia Memorial Hospi-
tal, local restaurants and vol-
unteers prepare and donate the
food. One Sunday this April,
Kristin and Brandon showed
up, this time to return the favor
and help serve food. They live
in Warrenton now, and Bran-
don recently got a call back
from a job he applied for after
he got his state ID.
They feel like they’re
finally in a stable place.
Community
The past few years have
been rough for relations
between Astoria businesses
and the shifting, ever-changing
homeless population down-
town. Merchants frequently
called police to report a variety
of complaints: homeless and
transient individuals sleeping
in shop doorways, catcalling
passers-by, public drunken-
ness and disruptive behavior.
Ask police and they will
say many of the homeless peo-
ple that residents and visitors
see downtown in the summer
months are part of a seasonal
migration: people who drift up
and down the Interstate 5 cor-
ridor, travel between cities,
following the weather, getting
stuck one place before setting
off again. Many have mental
health issues, complicated by
drug and alcohol use.
But others in this popu-
lation, Mary Docherty says,
have been here in Clatsop
County for a long time. Some
of them grew up here and they
aren’t going anywhere. At this
point, she says, these men and
women are “our neighbors,
part of our community.” The
word she prefers is “tribe.”
Yes, there’s some gaming
of the system, Scott Docherty
says, but there are complex
and varied reasons for why a
person ends up on the streets.
It’s worth it to take the chance
and help someone, he added.
“It’s not a specifically stated
goal (of Riverfolk) to get them
off the street, but we want
them to get what’s available to
them.”
“They might be broken but
they want to change their cir-
cumstances,” Mary Docherty
said about the core group
of homeless individuals she
helps. She points to Mike,
who lives in his car but has
no fixed residence. Mary calls
him a “tribal elder.” He’s often
her liaison with the rest of the
homeless community and he
helps her on Sundays to set up
and distribute food.
“A lot of people feel like
they need the help,” he said,
“but they feel like they’re
going to be a burden for
asking.”
The people who come to
Riverfolk’s Sunday brunches
are fairly quiet. They are there
to eat and check in with each
other. At a recent brunch,
volunteer Dan Peters sorted
through clothing donations —
piles of neatly folded white
socks, T-shirts in all sizes,
sweaters — and chatted with
people as they stopped to look
at what was available. Most of
them come here every week.
But, as Riverfolk has taken off
and focused on getting people
the documentation they need,
Peters said, “There are proba-
bly a dozen people who aren’t
here now because they got
their IDs.”
Continued from Page 1A
contracted for-profit, Salem-based Aidan
Health Services Inc. to assume the man-
agement duties of former CEO Nicole Wil-
liams, who recently took a job with Colum-
bia Memorial Hospital. The health district has
warned of the potential closure next year of
the Clatsop Care Health and Rehabilitation
Center if Aidan can’t put the district on better
financial footing.
Candidates were asked what the role of the
board would be moving forward with Aidan.
Burke, who has been on the board for eight
years, said the group’s role, regardless of the
administration, is to oversee the work admin-
istrators are doing, provide good care and
ensure the district is being fiscally responsible.
Little said the board’s role is limited to hiring
the CEO, and that all other positions would be
the CEO’s choice.
Stokes had a more dour view of the new
private management, saying the district
would lose professional jobs, that people have
already been laid off and that the decrease in
staffing would most likely affect patient care.
DeVaney agreed with Stokes’ view and
said she wanted to make sure no patients were
being endangered or staff burned out.
Sansom said the board can’t rely entirely
on the management company, and needs to
reach out to families and other sources to
gather and validate performance data.
Karen
Burke
Jacqueline
Devaney
Roy
Little
Helping staff
Candidates were asked how the board
would reconcile the goal of keeping staff with
Allison
a recent exodus.
Sansom
Stokes said retention requires a juggling of
inspiring, educating, fair wages and providing
insurance.
“I know the district is in budgetary crisis,
but if we continue to say we can’t raise wages,
and we don’t start talking about ways to com-
pensate our employees better, we’re never
going to change what’s going on,” Stokes said.
Burke said the current position of the dis-
Mindy
trict came about through a number of rea-
Stokes
sons, but that the board is committed to rais-
ing wages. “That is something that we need
to do to attract caregivers that care about residents they inter-
act with and treat them in a way that we would want our fam-
ily treated,” she said.
DeVaney said that along with paying staff fairly is learning
what motivates them to stay.
Why they run
Burke said the first step is turning around the district’s finan-
cial situation so it can invest in staff, along with a culture change
in long-term care where every resident feels valued rather than
just living out their days until death.
Stokes said she would focus on retaining staff, being
resident-centered and keeping professional jobs in the
community.
“No matter who wins, what I hope for is a positive outcome,
that patients receive quality care,” DeVaney said. “I hope staff
feel empowered and are proud to work there.”
Watch: On the owner’s behalf
A TTENTION A LL F AMILY , F RIENDS AND L OCAL B USINESSES
the ones that are not quite as
cooperative.”
Astoria’s version of the pro-
gram is based on similar ones
offered in Pendleton and Bea-
verton that were successful,
Randall said.
“We modify based on what
we’ve learned,” he said. “We
looked at these cases and tried
to craft something that would
give officers a tool to deal with
some of the issues.”
Handing police more
authority over loitering issues
will prove to be effective, said
Skip Hauke, the Astoria War-
renton Area Chamber of Com-
merce’s executive director.
“The idea is super,” he said.
“If the chamber took this on, it
wouldn’t have half as much of
an effect. I think it’s a step in
the right direction.”
The program will help a lot
of low-income individuals and
families who often fall victim
to crimes, said Elaine Bruce,
Class 2017
Continued from Page 1A
in 2015, which involved four
rental properties. Since the pro-
gram was rebooted in March,
nine businesses and rental prop-
erties have agreed to partici-
pate. The list includes a num-
ber of downtown businesses
and buildings: M&N, Hob-
son, Astoria Downtown Mar-
ket, Columbia River Maritime
Museum, In The Boudoir and
Commercial Adjustment Co.
On the owner’s behalf
Oregon law does not give
police the authority to stop
people from panhandling, loi-
tering, sitting or lying in pub-
lic spaces. So the agreement
essentially allows police to act
on the property owner’s behalf,
Sgt. Andrew Randall said.
“After the business closes,
people come on to the prop-
erty and hang out there,” he
said. “It’s about dealing with
Clatsop Community Action’s
executive director.
“I think it’s a great preventa-
tive program,” Bruce said. “In
any capacity, it would be add-
ing to our clients’ safety.”
Earlier this year, Police
Chief Brad Johnston asked
Randall to revisit Property
Watch in response to growing
concerns over aggressive pan-
handling downtown. Police
initially offered the service to
10 businesses this year. Other
businesses or rental proper-
ties that haven’t been extended
an offer can also participate
by contacting Randall at aran-
dall@astoria.or.us.
Police will continue to
renew contracts with busi-
nesses on a yearly basis to
avoid confusion in the long
term when properties are sold.
Property Watch will be re-eval-
uated each year.
‘We’re going to see if there’s
a want for it,” Randall said.
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