2A Polk County Itemizer-Observer • September 23, 2015
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EMILY MENTZER/ Itemizer-Observer
Juan Navarro is the new community liaison for the city of Independence.
Navarro unafraid to lead
New liaison open about his undocumented status
By Emily Mentzer
The Itemizer-Observer
INDEPENDENCE — Juan
Navarro, 22, has already had a
great impact on others, inspir-
ing high school students and
politicians in Washington, D.C.
Navarro, the new commu-
nity liaison for Independ-
ence, testified in front of the
Oregon State Legislature in
favor of Undocumented
State Tuition, which allows
undocumented residents of
a state to receive in-state tu-
ition rates.
Navarro, who is vocal about
his undocumented status, was
born in Mexico, but said he
grew up in Stayton.
“I learned English in Stay-
ton, went to school in Stay-
ton, my first girlfriend was in
Stayton,” he said. “Life was
in Stayton.”
Navarro was born with a
birth defect. The Mexican
government said he would
have to spend his life in a
wheelchair. Unable to accept
his son’s fate, Navarro’s father
heard about the Shriner’s
Hospital in Portland.
“He decided to take mat-
ters into his own hands,”
Navarro said of his father.
“So he emigrated over here
to make me better.”
After six surgeries in his
youth, Navarro found himself
on the high school track team,
playing basketball and soccer.
President Barack Obama’s
executive order, DACA —
Deferred Action for Child-
hood Arrivals — made it
possible for Navarro to go to
college and find work other
than in the fields and facto-
ries, but it hasn’t been easy.
His openness about his
undocumented status has
helped inspire other Latinos
to pursue an education.
Navarro has spoken at
conferences for the Oregon
Students of Color Coalition,
and now serves as a member
of that board. He tells high
school students about his
journey, and shows them it
is possible to achieve a high-
er education without papers.
“Your grades matter,”
Navarro said, particularly as
an undocumented resident.
“You can’t get financial aid.
You can’t get any federal
loans or anything, so you
have to make a difference
through your grades, through
your efforts, through your
volunteer work.”
A student at Western Ore-
gon University, Navarro is
majoring in exercise science,
and considering a double
major in community health.
He is active in Mecha of WOU
and student government.
Along the way, Navarro
has had people who be-
lieved in him and his abili-
ties more than he did him-
self, and now he plans to use
his enthusiasm for life to
help the Latino community
in Independence.
“Many things need to get
done,” he said of the work to
bridge the communities in
the city. “I’m a very strong
grassroots organizer.”
First of all, Navarro wants
to tackle police-Latino rela-
tions. He said in Stayton,
there was one particular offi-
cer who seemed to harass
Latinos, particularly those
who were undocumented.
“Because there’s a lan-
guage barrier, they don’t
know what they have to say,”
Navarro said. “Whenever a
Latino gets stopped by the
cops, they wonder, ‘What’s
going on?’ The fear of depor-
tation is there.”
The officers in Independ-
ence aren’t like that, Navarro
said, but not everyone may
know that. He plans to start by
including the Latino police of-
ficers in conversations in the
community.
Navarro said he has made
an impact at Western, and
now he has to go from or-
ganizing events for a cam-
pus to an entire city.
First up? Bringing a Dia de
los Muertos, also known as
“Day of the Dead” event to
the city.
“Having some kind of Dia
de los Muertos event would
be such a wonderful thing,”
Navarro said. “I have contact
with a couple people here.
We will get the gears rolling
to see what we can do.”
MINET board to shift focus
But first, it discusses employee benefits, board policies
By Emily Mentzer
The Itemizer-Observer
503-837-0048
Healinggreen.org
Open 7 days 11 am - 7 pm
769 N Main St, Suite C
Independence
MONMOUTH/INDEPEN-
DENCE — Monmouth Inde-
pendence Networks board
of directors believes it needs
to stop “playing small ball”
and refocus on the big pic-
ture of telecommunications
and running the business.
But before that, the board
addressed whether MINET
employees should receive
free cable, telephone and In-
ternet as a perk of working
there.
MINET General Manager
Don Patten said board
members need to focus on
“appropriate agenda items”
that will move the company
forward.
“Too much negative at-
tention is being attached in
public and press to the
board, and, by association,
to MINET,” he said. “This
board has been focused on
the small issues to such a
degree that it misses the big
ones.”
Patten said members of
the board have focused on
employee manuals, job de-
scriptions and “chasing legal
citations.”
“While these are genuine
issues, over-focus on details
presents a poor public per-
ception,” he said.
Bo a rd m e m b e r Mi k e
Lodge agreed, saying, “This
board has been wound pret-
ty tight, to the point of
micro-managing.”
Lodge said the term
“manage” should not be part
of the board, as a board’s
role is broader, focusing in-
stead on policies.
Board vice-chair man
Scott McClure said the
board has been playing
“small ball for a year.”
Monmouth-Independence Networks board of directors
and their connections:
David Clyne—Independence city manager, MINET board chairman
Scott McClure—Monmouth city manager, MINET board vice-chairman
David Ritchey—Monmouth police officer
Jon Carey—Monmouth city councilor
Jerry Hoffman—Independence city councilor
Mike Lodge—married to Nancy Lodge, Independence city councilor
Other connections:
Marilyn Morton—MINET administrator, Independence city councilor
Board members are appointed by the Independence and Monmouth city councils,
according to the intergovernmental agreement (IGA) that formed MINET.
He said that the managers
at MINET have a handle on
the day-to-day operations,
and that he would like the
board to shift focus.
Board member David
Ritchey agreed.
After the board came out
of an executive session to
discuss records exempt from
public records laws, Lodge
said Chad Stokes, MINET’s
attorney, was not on retainer
and cost $200 an hour each
time he is called.
“Anytime anybody picks
up the phone and calls the
attorney on behalf of
MINET, he drops a bill on
MINET,” Lodge said. “In
view of that fact, I would
suggest that the board agree
that none of us call him un-
less we agree.”
Board chairman David
Clyne said they couldn’t
agree to call the attorney as a
group before Stokes was
called because it would be
considered an illegal public
meeting. Instead, McClure
will look into creating a
board policy about calling
the attorney. The board ap-
proved a code of conduct at
its August meeting, but has
yet to establish any board
policies or bylaws.
Since May, MINET has
paid $3,700 in attorney’s fees
for various investigations,
including the tort claim filed
in June by Laura Rodriguez
for discrimination.
McClure, who had been
working on possible bylaws
for the board with board
member Jerry Hoffman, said
they decided the MINET
board did not need more
documents, but would let
t h e i n t e r g ov e r n m e n t a l
agreement (IGA) stand
alone.
He said revisions should
be suggested to the two
councils — Monmouth and
Independence — to clean
up the IGA document, such
as redefining the role of the
secretary/treasurer.
After a discussion about
employees receiving free
telecommunication services,
Clyne was the sole negative
vote.
Clyne said giving employ-
ees services for free could
mean up to $3,000 per year
value if they received the top
package MINET has to offer.
He wanted to reduce that to
the basic service package, if
not remove the benefit com-
pletely.
“MINET should be able to
offer benefits to their em-
ployees,” Ritchey said.