City Council - Regular Meeting

Yep. Perfect. I would like to call this work session to order. Uh with work sessions, there is this just discussion. There is not going to be any decisions made tonight. Uh we are going to be discussing substance abuse and homelessness. Uh with that, I want to start off. We'll do introduction to go this way. My name is Justin Rock and I'm the mayor of the brand. David Glade. I'm on the council. Karine Duo on the council. Chris Chandrea, recreation coordinator. Stu Spitz, parks and recreation director. Molly King, council. Faser Keing services coordinator. Danielle Beal, Center for Human Development. Brooke Taylor, Center for Human Development. Jason Hayes, for the first time publicly, Chief of Police,

Cody Bowen, Union County Sheriff, Ricky Joe Hickeyi, counselor. Maryanne Meisner, counselor. John O'Brien, city manager. Perfect. And with that, I will turn it over to the chief and he will get us going.

All right. Well, thank you. Thank you, uh, councilors, city manager, mayor, recorder, media, special guests. Um, uh, so you had to pick like the huge uh, societal problem topics for me. Uh, but I'm glad and I want to make this worth your time. And really, uh, in your packet, you will have some bullet points. I'm going to go through A through Z quickly, but these are to trigger the discussion uh so that this is meaningful for you. Um and another approach that I had is I wanted this to be systematic. Not what is Jason Hayes saying about these big topics, but other community members. Uh Chris, um Frederick, Danielle, Brooke, Cody are all special guests uh that I've asked to come that can speak on their uh specialties in regards to substance abuse, homelessness, and wrapped in that is also mental health because they're intertwined. So, if you'll indulge with me, I I'm just going to go through this quickly to give you some ideas. Uh so community overview. LRAN like many Oregon communities faces ongoing challenges related to substance abuse, mental health crisis, and homelessness. These are societal issues. These issues are interconnected and create sustained pressure on law enforcement, dispatch services, hospital systems, behavioral health providers, and the jail. And there's many more as well. Drug addiction, untreated mental illness, and homelessness often exist in a cycl cyclical pattern that is difficult to break without coordinated intervention. Uh, inter agency collaboration. So, the Lrand Police Department works closely with the District Attorney's Office, CHD, Oregon Center on Behavioral Health, the Behavioral Health, Union County Multidisciplinary Team, Right Track Resource Center, Union County Sheriff's Office, Oregon State Police, and other community organizations in addressing

these community concerns. These partnerships are critical in addressing crisis response, treatment, access, enforcement, and long-term stabilization efforts. mental health and suicide data for uh this is just the city of Lrand for 2025. Uh we had 462 mental health related calls for service. Uh that is where the root cause is a mental health uh disorder or issue. Uh that is a 12% decrease from 2024 when I ran that number. I was optimistic until I ran January statistics and we had 69 mental health related calls just in January of 2026 alone. um 149 suicide related calls in 2025 reflecting the severity of the crisis. Calls are often complex, repetitive, time inensive and carry increased safety risks. Uh the homelessness and I you will see words interchange. I was corrected. So, homelessness and houseless. Uh, moving forward, I I prefer that we use houseless because you can say you're from Lrand and that's your home, but be houseless. So, if you see those interchange, that's uh uh why you would see a name change in that. Um, so 149 calls for service related to houselessness. Uh, 25% decrease from 2024. Most of those calls are the ones uh people sleeping in the lobbies uh on the sidewalks under the overpasses. Uh and and now we're starting to see a trend more in their vehicles. Uh many contacts involve individuals suffering from substance abuse and me mental illness and a lot of times it's a combination of both. Uh high housing costs and compliance challenges limit long-term solutions. And when I say compliance challenges, uh there's often people who are suffering

from these disabilities who get placed into housing, but they can't follow the rules and they get evictions. Um I asked the school district, they have 68 students in the LRAN school district who are experiencing uh houselessness. Um and some of them may live in motel, RVs, uh but that is houseless. drug activity and overdoses for Lrand. In 2025, we had 41 overdose calls reported to dispatch. Uh, and the methamphetamine and fentanyl just show what the current trends are. Uh, methamphetamine continues to be the drug of choice in Lrand. Uh, fentanyl had its hit, but we're starting to see it decline. I think it's because of uh the high risk safety risk to the people who um uh have addiction issues um in the over overdose rate associated with that. Uh drug addiction continues to drive crime, instability and health emergencies. State level barriers. Um, Oregon legislation prioritizes civil rights before before public safety. Uh, we could get into examples on that, but really what that means is is that mental health treatment and drug treatment is largely voluntary. Um, and our experts here on the panel can talk a little bit about that. Uh, high criteria for involuntary uh, commitment. We have limited bed space. Uh, and so the bar to involuntarily place somebody is very high. I did a study on this, but I could really get in the weeds on on that. Uh, but for tonight, I want to be respectful of your time. Uh, limited uh mental health bed space. Oregon ranks among the worst nationally uh for mental health access, suicide rates, and addiction rates involving fentanyl and methamphetamine. So, uh you can see that

this is not just a a problem in Lrand. This is statewide. uh system and justice uh limitations, limited tools to address criminal behavior rooted in untreated me mental illness. Uh civil commitment mapping workshops that were a part of uh have produced limited measurable outcomes. GEL is often the default option when other systems lack capacity and police departments are largely limited to short-term band-aid interventions such as arrests, citations, or temporary removals. While durable long-term solutions to substance abuse, homelessness, and mental health crisis require comprehensive legislative reform, sustained public funding, and coordinated social service systems beyond the scope of law enforcement authority that's a lot to digest right there. I'm sorry. uh operational impact on LRAN Police Department, significant officer and dispatch time spent on crisis mitigation and deescalation, repetitive calls for service involving the same individuals, increased safety risk due to unpredictability of mental health crisis and resource strain limit uh resource strain limits proactive policing efforts. Uh I know that drug uh enforcement has came up. Um so proactive drug enforcement as a strategy uh although it in itself is not a fixall uh it can prevent overdoses and disrup disrupt drug supply chains provide accountability for users and dealers create pathways to drug court and treatment programs and reduce street crimes associated with drug use and distribution. Uh barriers to drug investigations the number one is limited staffing and funding. uh advanced investigative requirements and high liability, specialized training and informant management, surveillance, operational planning and search and seizure law. Need for multiple dete detectives to

conduct effective investigations. Increased operational costs such as equipment, vehicles, training and personnel. And Union County is not a highintensity drug trafficking area which limits access to federal resources. uh detectives frequently reassign to patrol due to staffing shortages. Alternative enforcement approaches uh there are things that uh patrol officers can do through by bus operations, traffic interdiction, surveillance operations, informant-based investigations, collaboration among criminal and street detectives. um recruitment and retention challenges, staffing shortages at the LRAN Police Department, the district attorney's office, significant case load and case backlogs with delays lasting years. This is mostly the DA's office. We have drug investigations where we've made an arrest that have not been dealt with in two years now. Uh staffing limitations within the LRAN Police Department currently restrict the ability to conduct proactive drug investigations. Adding two additional officers would enable more focused drug enforcement efforts, increase capacity to connect individuals in crisis with appropriate services, and strengthen the the department's overall long-term ability to serve the community. The Lrand Police Department is partnering with the Union County Sheriff's Office and Center for Human Development to pursue grant funding options for a community service officer position, which would be a non-sworn Lrand Police Department employee dedicated to providing resource referrals and one-on-one support to houseless individuals and those in crisis. Therefore, freeing sworn officers to focus on education, prevention, and other enforcement efforts. Demonstrating a sustained commitment to proactive drug investigations will strengthen the Lrand Police Department's ability to build collaborative partnerships with the Union County Sheriff's Office and the Oregon State Police, enhancing coordinated enforcement efforts across jurisdictions.

That's a lot and I apologize, but those are hopefully trigger some Q&A from you. Um, and I think what I would like to do is just start with special guest Sheriff Cody Bowen and and and then we'll move around. special guest and add uh their input and then open it up to you uh the council for uh questions.

Thanks Jason. Um yeah, in a nutshell I try and keep things as simple. This is is so much depth and so much detail on each one of those bullet points. Bottom line is Oregon has a mental health addiction crisis and we have dug this hole and I say we as a state we have created this problem. Um and and we can go back and and and argue one way or the other but Oregon has created this problem and enabled this problem and now we are so deep like he says we are the nation's worst state when it comes to mental health and addiction services. we just to flat bottom of the the pool. Um that really inhibits our ability as law enforcement to hold these people accountable when when when he especially when he says, you know, we have cases that are 2 years old. Some of them are even close to three years old now. Um and it's to nobody's fault other than um the cases just haven't been prosecuted that people haven't been accountable held accountable. However, that being said, even if those folks are being held accountable to what level of accountability are we talking here? because we have I don't say the majority, but the majority of the folks that we deal with are repeat offenders over and over and over and over again. And then when we get to the mental health stuff, we're we have no options in Union County, period. We have absolutely I mean CHG, God bless them, they do the best job they possibly can from 8:00 to 5:00 Monday through Friday. And they they they've done a lot of good good things in our community, but we have no treatment centers. We have no stabilization. We have no residential beds. that these folks can receive the treatment they need and fix this problem. And I'll tell you, even if we did, I don't know that we would see a huge thing because it's you have to be willing to change. You have to recognize you have the problem. You have to commit yourself to this program um of recovery. And and and we see very few folks in our community that sit on that that that it's a pedestal really of being in recovery and being successful and taking those other folks under their wing. and

they do so Brooke especially I've seen her you know for the last few years try and try and try to get these folks into recovery mode and they're they have very limited options on what they can do and when that person decides that hey right now I'm ready to go we need to be able to provide them something right now they're ready to go load them in the truck and take them to a treatment or a stabilization to get the detox started to get them something and we don't have that flat don't have that in Union County so what happens is they end up going to the hospital and then they end up going into the jail and everybody knows the jail is not a treatment facility. We do really good work with CHD. They come in, they they have counseling services, they have mentor services, and they try their best to to provide that service. But um it's very frustrating for us. It's very difficult. Um six or seven of our beds are usually filled up with mental health situation that um we have people in there that should not be in jail. They have no criminal history. They have no criminal record. They just had a crisis and no resources to direct them or no place else to put them other than in jail. that that's unacceptable. Um, so I think what my excitement about being here is just brainstorming this with everybody and seeing what we can do on a local level because I'm I don't have a lot of faith in our state and I don't rely like relying on our state and if there's stuff that we can do here to move the needle, I want to be a part of that.

Thank you, Sheriff. Thank you, Clar. Um, I would like to piggy back off that my main role um at CHD is the substance use disorder coordinator. So, myself and my team um do a lot of outreach and our resources are limited. If we have somebody that we haven't been able to get in contact with because they have no phone and they're houseless and they come in on a Friday at 3:00 and want help and they at that point are ready, whatever the case may be. Um, we have to tell them, I hope you can make it through the weekend. a majority of the time. Um, our closest medical detox, which is what is needed for fentanyl and alcohol and benzo dioipines, is 45 minutes away, and it's really hard to get somebody in there on a Friday. Um, the weather right now, it's hit and miss. Um, if we can't get them in there, uh, they have to go over to the coast, which we don't have the resources to be able to have one of our people take them. And then medical transport is a whole another mess. Um, we just don't have the resources and it's it's getting worse out there. And we we have our crisis team that goes to the hospital. We have our jail diversion that goes into the jail and they're amazing. Um, we do have our outreach center from 12:00 to 4:00 Monday through Friday. Um, we coordinate awesome with the Right Track Resource Center and other partners. Um, like Sheriff Bowen said, it's just a

crisis. It's it's not getting better. Um, if we have resources closer, that's not going to bring substances into our county, it's going to allow us to help and build that bridge that so many people need to be able to actually have stabilization to get their feet back under them and do something that that is able to work and and want to put in the effort. um with closer mentors and access to CHD services and all that instead of going out of county and coming back and getting lost in the shuffle of things. Um yeah, and on the note of criminal charges that you know I'm I also sit on the union court the Union County Treatment Court panel. Um, and it's been it's been a rough couple years getting people in there and I've seen that program work for a lot of people. Um, and it has huge huge benefits. But

it's hard to get people in there. Yeah. Just I don't know. I'm not going to pretend to know how the whole thing works with the legal side and the, you know, but just having the people be ready and willing to accept that offer because it takes so long for all the other pieces to come together. Yeah. Is that part of the drug court? Yes. Okay. So, it's now called treatment court instead of drug court. There's or there's there's drug court. Okay. Which is what I call it. Treatment court. Drug court. And then there's behavioral health court. Okay. So, that's for the mental health side. I sit on for the drug side. Okay. Thank you.

I think that's all I want. Don't like being put on the spot. I don't like you. I'm going to put you on the spot. Great even more.

So, I have to 100% agree with Chief Hayes. This is a huge topic and it's one that we focus on a lot. My role at Centers for Human Development is I'm one of the clinical supervisors that oversees all of the adult programs and I'm also one of the interrone behavioral health directors. So, um it's brought up on a daily basis and as an agency we're trying to find solutions, but as a sheriff had pointed out, there's really not a whole lot locally that we can offer. We don't have the treatment centers available. As Brooke pointed out, the closest one is 45 units away, and we tend to have to transport even further. Medical transportation's a great resource, but it's not always available, but they need 24 hours notice ahead of time. So, normally what we have to do is I pull one of my staff to go do the transport, which isn't the best option, but it's what we have. We don't really have many sober living home availability. A lot of them are really full. So that's putting out some of those clients that are houseless out further. Um and I know that Bright Track and Leon have different resources at this point, but um usually if it doesn't, it's not an immediate fit. There's a band that we're putting on. So, um, we do have the crisis team as they both mentioned that does work 24/7 and you know they try the best they can but we can't make anybody enter into treatment whether it's mental health or addictions. we can do um go towards civil commitment, but as uh Chief Hayes pointed out, it's a there's a lot of legalities that go along with that and we may agree, but the courts may have a

different perspective on it. I could keep going on, but I'll turn it over.

Um I agree with everything that's been said so far. It really is a crisis. Um, I've been with the resource center for about a year and a half now. And even when I was with child welfare or like Baker Women's up in Baker as a drug and alcohol counselor, I've learned more and more of how difficult the situation is. The resource center, my role is the housing services coordinator. I help people with community service. I recruit and train volunteers. We are only open if we get enough volunteers through the winter season for overnight shelter. There are no shelters except for like 45 plus minutes away. So in terms of a place for people to stay, this is the only option. We also provide showers and all those other like meaningful things that people have a right to like laundry and like you know being in good shape, getting a food box. And it's really important when it comes to mental health because it's hard to have good mental health when you can't shower, you can't shave, you can't sleep without worrying about someone stealing your stuff and stuff. And um we see a lot of people this year we've had 109 individuals come through so far. Um that's not saying that's all the houseless people in Lrand. There's probably more, but we see a lot of people and we handhold quite a bit. We've housed eight people, whether that's Oxford houses, an apartment, detox, but it's a lot and we're overworked. We have short staffing. It's just me and Maggie. Um, and it's just us and it takes a lot. Um, and we also are low in funding. Um, we have some part-time staff which has helped the overnight shelter which has helped people be more stable and get those applications in for a job, get those

housing applications and be able to shower and find work and stuff, but it's very difficult and we definitely need help. Um, we're doing good things, but yeah, if we all come together, I think we could get more accomplishments. And other than that, um, it takes time. It takes a long time a lot of handholding. A lot of the people we work with, they've suffered trauma, which leads to mental illness. And I don't know if any of you have done therapy, but it takes months, sometimes years to work through trauma. And then it takes time to get over the substance use, which is used to cover up that trauma and emotional dysregulation. And then after that, then you can start looking at stability when you do get into an impairment. But yeah, I think that's it's doable. It's not all doable.

Thank you. I'll just set Chris up if you don't mind, Chief. Yeah, please.

So, just want to talk about the other side um which is prevention, right? We're talking about treatment. We're talking about u resources. But um a key component that we're involved with in parks and recreation and also through the Union County Safe Communities Coalition, the sheriff, the chief counselor Dudo and others around the table, the CHD partners, the health, all the all the things, right, are part of this and um the challenges to address youth before they um get to this point, right? So, um, I think it's a valuable part of the conversation to also reflect on the things that we're doing to build these kids up and give them skills that, um, create resilience and maybe some prevention efforts, not only through the Safe Communities Coalition efforts and education in schools, but also through some of the things we do. So, go ahead, Chris.

Um, you know, collaboration is huge and like Stu said, you know, we're more on set of the prevention, right? We're not where you all are. Um, but it's it's key, right? Um, you know, there's lots of risk factors and trauma is a big one and having come from a lot of trauma myself, you know, having the programs that we offer like safe places like after school program, um, our summer camps. Um, it allows kids to develop pro we we prevent things by allowing safe spaces, mentorship from, you know, a lot of my staff are college students. um uh volunteers that work within our programs or volunteer coaches that work in our youth sports programs um that can make an impact. Um caring adults, right? Um respected peers. Um it builds a sense of community uh for the kids. It builds a sense of self-esteem through our programs. And those are all super important protective factors um to prevent going down the uh abuse and mental health. Is it going to solve everything? Is it the one all fix all? No. But it's a start and it's just the latter process um where I think our programs can really help and we we reach a lot of kids and we have low cost for that reason so we can reach more. Um and I think it's you know it's part of the process and so it's uh it's good that we have that and it's great that we have these other resources but more is always better. some

questions. I had a couple when we were talking and one of them was I was just wondering when you were saying here the repetitive calls for service from the same individuals. Yeah. Has that decreased increased? No. Increased it has.

Uh let me give you a perfect example. Thank you. So, I'll try to move quickly through this. Uh, we're talking about mental health. Um, so I did a study and I tried to identify why are we dealing with this now? But early in my career, we did not. And here's why. And this is a a a brief narrative of that. But I worked with CHD Dwight Dale who was the director of behavioral health at the time. Um so prior to around 2007 uh we had acute psych we had more money uh towards this and we had acute psychiatric centers and our we had one in uh Pendleton and the bar to get somebody involuntarily placed was inability to care. That was a low threshold. So the police would go deal with somebody determine that they're having a crisis. We would call the mobile crisis team from CHD. They would come out and on one time they could involuntarily place somebody in the acute psychiatric and long enough to get them restabilized, get them back on their medicines, get them showered, clean, dignity, uh, and then they would be reintroduced into the society and we wouldn't have these ongoing problems. What happened? The funding went away. So what happens? The acute psychiatric centers went away and and so you had very limited mental health bed space in the state of Oregon. So you have all the communities vying for very few beds. The state couldn't uh match that burden. So what they did is they changed the bar in which it takes to involuntarily place somebody. The bar now is you must pose a serious threat to yourself or others. Ninth circuit court has determined that that is an extremely high bar because we are a civil rights state. So what happens is is we deal with the same person over and over and over until they decompensate so badly that CHD then has enough tangibles to involuntarily place them because

these people do not seek voluntary service for the most part. The ones that do are the not the ones that we deal with. Here is why the system's broken. Uh we did we we dealt with somebody two weeks ago 16 times in one day. And what happens is is we go we deescalate we mitigate. These are not criminals. These are pe people who are experiencing a crisis. We call CHD. If they have the staffing they send somebody out. But they're just like us and everybody else there. There's a staffing shortage and they they have to reach that high threshold which they can't. So then uh they do a director's hold, they do safety planning, but pretty soon that person is reintroduced back into the community. And then we're dealing with them minutes afterwards. And this goes on and on and on. Now they are committing low-level misdemeanor crimes, usually trespass and disorderly conduct. That's the most common ones. Ultimately, we have no choice because we have victims that we have to arrest them. So we arrest them and they go to the jail. So then that person gets a defense attorney who does an assessment, finds out that they're unable to aid and assist in their own defense, and by then, so what happens is is then the DA has to drop the charges and they're released back into the community. It's a revolving door. It's a broken system. Um, so to answer your question, it's it we still deal with the same people over many times before they reach that threshold before they can be involuntarily placed. And do you want to comment on that, Danielle? Is there anything about that that

I agree with what you said, but it's really heartbreaking watching somebody continue to deteriorate like that. We want to be proactive, not as reactive as we have to be. The the bar is really high. Um we've had clients that should have been um civily committed, but they didn't meet the level according to the the rules and regulations. When you say be more proactive, what do you mean by that?

The way we had it back in the early 2000s where we had availability to help a client or a person get further into their care like the stabilization on medications or you know those types of things. We don't have that any longer. They have to either be voluntary or meet the level of needing to be placed on a hold for acute placement. Aside from the obvious answer that more money would help, um, what what would right look like? I mean, how would what what what would it take for us to get where you're describing right now? Change in legislative um process.

It's more than just money. It needs to there needs to be a bigger change. What do you think we all of you could do locally to to help the situation? Say legally things don't change, help the situation as it is. Um what what would be like three things that we would need would need to happen in psychiatric beds? Yes. What are you like your top three?

Um, well, if I was king for a day, the funding, um, acute psychiatric center. Well, let's just go let's go back to what it was to before 2007.

Let's have more money, more bed of more bed space, an acute psychiatric center near here, if not here. Um, and here's a here's a fact. You want to get the hospital fired up, you ask them about this because they only have they have designated ER rooms for patients suffering from mental health. And a mental health patient can be uh in that room and take up that room for days, even longer in some uh while the whole process is trying to get them into a longer term um bed space because there is no bed space at the state hospital available. Um, so if we had more bed space, we had uh the bar lowered for involuntary placement. But see, these things all happened at the legislative because we all collaborate like we all work together trying we ask these questions every month at our meetings. What are we not doing that we should be doing and what are we doing that we shouldn't be doing in trying to address this and make the our community better for everybody involved? And and sequential mapping is one of the things that we do. We get the whole state involved, the Oregon uh uh health authority and GOI, and we identify where are the gaps, but some of those gaps is in housing. Well, Jason Hayes, I don't have a solution for housing. Um what I what the Lrant Police Department is trying to do is jail diversion. Keep these people from uh tying up and going to jail when they don't need to be because they're not criminals. it's they're committing crimes because of their crisis that they're in. They're not criminals and and the system has made them go into the jails and uh I mean the sheriff can talk about you know I I I'm friends and work closely with the jail commander Lieutenant Hilter and his deputies are getting assaulted and injured by mental health uh people in custody um and not from the

other ones because they don't belong in jail. belong in a treatment facility. And the accountability in those circumstances doesn't exist because they were in crisis when they committed the thing they did against the deputy. Correct. Correct. Exactly. So, do you work at all with I mean, do you work closely with like Baker County? Uh, I do not not in my scope of care. You guys, we do. You do? We use their medical detox and respit quite a bit. So, they do have I mean, and do they still have uh treatment beds for um It's all around the state. That's another thing I do is I send off referrals to all the facilities that take uh Medicaid for people that for long-term impatient,

right? Um but for the detox, it's been harder to get people in. Um, we actually had somebody last week, a staff took somebody over and ended up having to turn around and get them. So, they were gone for about 3 hours. That took a staff out of our office and they were too high level for there. So, when you get back and this person is houseless and and a horrible mental health crisis, what do you do? Right. That's one of the things we're seeing a lot of is

high acuity for mental health and significant addiction. There's no placements available for that. We have independence place in it. I can't remember where those ones are over by Bend. Okay. And um there's a wait list just to be put on the wait list. They're not taking any names right now. And that'll be the beds that are held up at the hospital if somebody's on a hold to try to get them into a place. It's Have you talked with the hospital about if they can open up another wing? I mean, they've got they keep They're limited in number of beds. They're limited. And they're limited. Yeah. And our hospital won't help with detox. They don't they won't detox.

That's what I was going to ask cuz it seems like the hospital should be part of this group. Yeah. It's just one of those that's limited where the resources, but they still have the the beds for people who want to go back. They want to get into treatment, alcohol and drug treatment. Not at the hospital. No, Baker. Mhm. They had limited beds. I know. But yes, I don't. So, would a medical detox facility in Lrand or Union County, would that be a significant game changer? I I believe so. Absolutely. Would that be like the number one piece of the puzzle to help? That's what I would say. That sounds like that would at least get things started.

Yeah, I think the detox would be essential, but I also think we need to be able to wrap them up in residential afterwards because you're only going to get 3 to seven days in detox. That's not going to help somebody who has

You're speaking of Yeah. So, I know that a lot of the citizens here would have concerns about the point that you made earlier, which is you said, well, if we do this, it's not like we're going to be getting people sent in from other communities. We were told the same thing with the warming station, but we've seen factually otherwise. So, we have interacted with homeless individuals who were sent specifically to Lrand because we have a warming station from outside communities. So what's your evidence that this would not lead to people with mental health issues from surrounding communities being put into our community to assist? I don't have any evidence, but I do know like ahead. So when it um comes to the resource station, it's actually not the case.

So I've talked with individuals who have who stated their reason for being in Lrand is because they were told to come here because of a war station. Yes, there are people who have come here, but the majority of the people we work with are from Lrand and have been here for 5, 10, 20, 30, 40 years and stuff cuz we keep track of every single person who comes through the resource center and we have done that for like the last 5 to 6 years. We do an intake for everyone, first and last name, where they're from, last word of their souls, and it goes into this system called HMIS that's shared with DHS, Community Connections, CHD, and a resource center, and like a few other places. And the majority of the people that we've seen are from here. We do get a few people here and there coming from Pendleton or like, you know, other cities, but the majority are from here.

The one I interacted with sound from the west side of the state over here. Yeah. It's interesting weather. This was recently. This was recently. I know it happened when the warming station started opening and there have been two that I've interacted with I think within the last year told they specifically came here. Again, I don't know how that works as a percentage but well for a percentage that's less than 5%. Cuz this year we've done 109 individuals so far. Okay. And last year was 109. So in terms of how many people you've seen, two people out of 100 is like less than 10%.

Do you have data when you take your intake forms as to how many of these people came from other communities? Can you speak to what that is? Because I imagine it's more than the two I spoke to and one of those represented about six individuals. So yeah. So yeah, we keep track of all the data, all the numbers

because I know as I interact with community members, that's a major concern that they have about creating a facility here is that we then become a target for outside referrals in and that I don't think that's what we want to accomplish. We want to take care of the individuals that are here and make our community better. We do not necessarily have the resources at all. We don't have the resources for our own individuals. We don't want to become the target for outside individuals being further. So I can speak on like the detox and some respit. When we send people over to another community, they do their days in detox and then we coordinate and get them back to their community. So that's that's how it's

if we got people from Baker or like they would be going back. It wouldn't be a long term. I I just for for reference I ran some numbers here. um you seized 495 grams of methamphetamine in the last year is what you said.

That is 200 milligrams is a lethal dose. Okay. So that's 2500 lethal doses of methamphetamine or about seven lethal doses per day on average if you average that over you know daily over the year. If you look at fentanyl this gets a lot worse. That's over 20,000 lethal doses of fentanyl in the amount that you seized in one year. That's more more we could kill our entire community and then some, right? Um that's 57 lethal doses a day. This is absolutely insane. I mean, if you just look at the those are lethal doses, by the way, that I referenced. Those aren't even the the doses of individual, you know, when when people use it, they're not trying to use a lethal dose. They're using a smaller amount.

But I mean, this is again, it's wild. 8,300 to 100,000 doses of methamphetamine on what you would consider like a normal street um dose for somebody to use. That's just in our community. Um I don't, you know, to your point, these aren't even drug dealers that we're seizing these from for the most part, right? These are probably just individuals. Yeah, we we deal with them on another crime and this is what they had on their possession.

I just I think that reinforces how big of a problem this is. But but the reason I'm talking about this is because I don't think we're going to move the needle on housing significantly. We have tried for years. That's not going to be something we can do. Are we going to build a mental health treatment center? No. We don't have the resources. We can't even touch that financially. Same with the detox center. Frankly, it's not going to happen. Okay. Borrowing some federal gift of over a million dollars, that doesn't happen. What can we do? We've talked about this. We can move the needle I think on prevention on we can start now to act so that 20 years from now we aren't putting more people into these programs and then we have talked about a drug task force. That's something I think we can legitimately talk about moving the needle on as a council because we can talk till we're blue in the face but what can we actually do as a council? I think we're limited to those things. I invite the thoughts of others, but I think that's something we can do is on the enforcement end, we can provide, you know, we may have resources to fund drug enforcement officers. We may have resources to beef up what we're doing in the schools and with our children to try to deter them from these things.

I think um we some of what you just said is um is definitely good for us to strive for. Um, but what I we have real challenges in the police department, not for lack of strong efforts, but real problems trying to get to staffing level. Um, and so to pull another resource from what we currently have to throw it at the drug task force to make it a focus there only. It makes the current problem harder. It'd be one thing if we find ourselves at a place in time where we actually at 100% and it we could have indicators that show us that we could we actually could hire two additional or one additional officer. Um, but the reality of is it's it's a whole lot harder to get there than just simply saying throw a resource at it. Actually creates another problem somewhere else if we pull a resource right now and throw it at that that answer even though I would agree we we want and need to do it. But we're going to create other problems if we just say we're going to do that right now. And what's the point of arresting someone if it takes two years, right, to even get their case heard or that's

but we're going to continue to do that because it's the right thing to do. But um

and I think that I don't stop but the disruption portion of it if if we set the tone out there that don't come to Lrand because they have a task force or we're going to disrupt that supply chain to our local area which in turn will show some huge benefits. There's always going to be somebody that's going to step up and take that guy's place. But just taking that person, incarcerating them for the 24 hours or however long it is, removing those drugs from the seat presents a huge inconvenience on that cartel ring, but a huge inconvenience on that supply chain to the grant. Um, it you're 100% correct. And when you when you said that what we're going to we did a study on a stabilization unit and part of the grant funding that we were looking at applying to required us to have a certain amount of beds for outofstate or out of area people coming in. So that is that is a concern. Um

but if they're inatient then they're not really in our out in the community. They're being treated. Agreed. Um so ha have we approached um the hospital or other medical providers on opening a detox facility anyone that's why I was saying I think the hospital should be part of this yeah I know they can't do it on the hospital because um but has has that been part of the discussion anywhere

it has been in in different circles I know that there's an individual that was um looking to open uh stabilization unit here. Um Dr. Rice was talking about that stuff. Um so I know that there's other people talking about that. I know there's been some other avenues explored, but I don't know enough to speak on it. Does the threshold for involuntary committal change if it is in a hospital setting with a with a staff psychiatrist or is that threshold the same? It's still the same. The state sets the bar and this is what it

we in our behavioral health MDTs. This comes up and I don't want to speak on behalf of the hospital and CHD, but it gets kind of heated uh because there's physician holds, director's holds, and then police officer holds. Um but the to answer your question that no, they they are all under the same state statute which is governed by the Oregon Health Authority. I don't want to speak too much because it'd be outside my that's my understanding too. I work at the hospital but I don't work on that end of things. Um but yeah, when we get together like this it's it's frustrating for all of us

because we're all grasping for solutions and we hit roadblocks constantly. You're gonna hit those roadblocks all through the state then. Yeah. Everybody's probably hitting it. Yeah. Oh yeah. This is so it's not a it's not just us that's hitting them. Correct. I mean, as a community, we need to push for legislative change, but in the meantime, we also have to find some other solutions, too. Yes. And we're all in it together. Yeah. Uh, one thing I, you know, a lot of these things that I put on that last page are band-aid fixes.

Um, but if we were to get this, it's an impact grant through CHD. Um if if that was to come to fruition, we had a community service officer, it would alleviate police officers from what you know, Chief Bell always called dwell time is because the amount of time it takes for officers to deescalate and mitigate people in crisis is a long time. Um and so if we had a community service officer that could not only uh respond instead of a police officer but also give that person a ride somewhere uh to rest they we our community service officer can take them to Baker if that's you know so that would help but it's a band-aid fix

but if you get the if you get the grant how long would the grant be good for? Uh do you know how long the grant impact grant is it three years? I think it's three years right now. They can be extended. Yeah. Because I think what we're doing right now is we're working on the extension. Oh. Um and you have the grand. So we're trying to reallocate what the purpose of that to maybe include a community service officer. Okay. So you're Okay. Can you explain uh to us what the difference is between a sworn and a nonsworn officer? Yes. It's authority. your uh uh so a nonsworn doesn't have the authority to make arrests or um issue criminal citations.

They are still trained as a police officer or they are not not not trained as a police officer. No, our code uh code enforcement officer is a nonsworn position. Okay. So are there special training but not they don't have the authority to make an arrest or or site in criminal matters. Would there be any liability to the city potentially in having someone without training out acting on behalf of the police department?

Right. Oh, good question. So, they would not work for us without training. Uh police departments are sued for two things. Uh what whatever the action was, is there a policy on it? And if there is, did you train on it? Those are the two things. So, we would not send a community service officer out without having the training. Uh, this is exploratory. Uh, but other cities do have a municipal community service officers that are nonsworn. Um, I've received a couple of um job descriptions of what they do. Uh, but it would be something that we would have to look at when rubber meets the road. Just like what Eugene has,

they have a team a cahoots model. They have they're bigger. Yeah. And they have a full-time clinician on staff um who who works for them. This would just be a in a on these things where you're having somebody that you're dealing with over and over and over but aren't a like a threat to anybody is just having a community service officer who's trained in mental health first aid um and can be a conduit between them and services. But if we have a shortage of services, the conduit I mean Yep.

Y you you see it. Yep. So I mean kind of this some of it doesn't work very well because you don't have the services for this person to be able to send to. So we're kind of stuck in the same thing, aren't you? We are. But there's some circumstances. Then Danielle hit on this where you strike where the iron's hot. Okay. If you get some voluntariness, you get that right now. Okay. Before they have a chance to to change their mind. But if there's still no service to go to to provide that. So to take care of that, we're still in the same position, aren't we? Right. We need a detox. We need

I know that end of things. the progress still still being made since I've been at the resource center staying open especially this season every single day we haven't had one closure which is amazing compared to the last few years we've seen an increase of people wanting to go to detox an increase of people who have more stable mental health because it's really easil easy to like destabilize when it comes to mental health when you're outside and you can't shower you have no place to use the restroom and stuff the resource center. Not only does a lot of handholding and helping people that can't help themselves all the time, but just those basic things have been very beneficial in terms of people getting housing. This year we've had eight people get into housing and that's about 10% of the people we've seen come through our doors this season. Last season we had about five people who've gotten into housing. That's whether it's an apartment, residential treatment, an Oxford house, but it's been about 8 to 10% each season and stuff, which is really high and stuff.

How is the retention? The retention is hard. Last year, we had about six people lose their housing and then another five keep it. Um this year with the eight that are getting to housing, I have high hopes that they'll keep it because um they have less struggles than last year's group. But it's all about those rubber own services with um me and Maggie just being us two with 100 people that we see. It's hard and stuff. Yeah. So, what does the house that's on the corner of Cove and Willow, I believe it is, what do they do there?

EO EOC. Okay. They are harm reduction. They're what? Harm reduction. So, what does that mean? Um, it's a place to clean needle exchange to do your drug safely. Okay. So, they two houses for that. There's two buildings. Yeah. And they also have beds there. It's a new program they just started where they have about seven or eight beds

for people who are in active addiction to be able to stay there and stuff. So, it's not exactly a detox, but it's a place where people can go when they're in active addiction. We don't turn anyone away if they're actively high or like drunk or anything, but it's nice to have more than one spot for organized services. So, you do send somebody there. You have Well, you have to sign up for it and like apply for it and stuff. Um, we just show up and stuff, but there you have to like sign up. Um, but yeah, it's another place where people can not be outside. Just I see the building, but I never see anybody there. I never see it there either.

It's like pretty new. This is like within the last 2 or 3 months. So, like I don't think it's officially started yet. I have to talk to why because I know it was an old house and that they remodeled and they have they built the other one. She does a lot of outreach on the streets and camps and getting different resources to people. She'll go and find them just like some of our team does. They go out and so where's her funding come from? Is it state funded or or I don't I don't speak on that. I'm not quite sure. I don't know. But they have chapters all across the state. Like they have grants in Portland. They have them everywhere. Yeah.

Yeah. I'm surprised that the county is not here too with this. I mean, cuz this problem is countywide. It's not just the grand. You have the sheriff. Okay. We've had several focus group work groups in regards to going forward with stabilization, that type of stuff. We've actually spent, I think, $50,000. We had a company come in and go through all of the grant writing, all what do we need? Um um as far as stabilization, as far as in treatment, staffing, um bed numbers, all that stuff. So, we sure grants aren't easy to come by for this because everybody's going to be applying for throughout the state, right?

I mean, we our opioid funding, it's basically our opioid focus group is it's the one that's done this research on that and they've had to Yeah. I was going to say we we haven't talked about the opioid funds, the settlement funds that we've had because I thought that money was you remind me the amount of money that we have and then it comes in distributions. Yeah. Um I believe right now we have in the vicinity of $350,000 but we also have time that we have to use it by.

Um and so if we haven't used the dis a dispersement within I think it's 5 years of the of the dispersement um then that gets turned back over. So, that's part of the reason why with the stuff that we're going to talk about at the next council meeting, um we have uh um tabled some funds to release because we're on the cusp of sending some back um and we found an actual um good fit for utilization of it. So, and when you do we know how much the county received? Um they they received similar dispersement amounts. Yeah, I think it's a little bit more, but not by much. Okay.

Yeah. I mean, I just again, I think as we look at long-term potential long-term solutions, 600,000 doesn't get you very far. That doesn't get you a detox center. That doesn't get you mental health treatment. Um, it it may buy you a few years of an enforcement officer, although as I recall, that was I don't think it was a prohibited use as much as it wasn't listed among it's it falls in that gray area where you're kind of sticking your neck out a little bit. because I don't can you can you not I didn't think we could use it for it. Well, it's as I recall when I read the language I don't believe it is expressly prohibited as much as it's in that gray area. Okay. There are some county there are some cities that are using that's what I've heard is that other others have looked at those

I've reached out to them and said hey how are you doing this because my council is a little bit uneasy about doing this and and their answers are all over the board. Right. for this year in our revenue we have 125,000 from the opioid settlement and it's a gradually it diminishes but I don't know how much we have that's income I don't know how much we have I think I thought John said we had 350 yeah there's something about like it comes over time though like dispersements over time um you get a big one at first it's also evolving as there's more cell that's being released so it keeps growing and extending also so it's a moving target. We don't know.

I think we'd all like to see those funds used towards something with longevity, something with a lasting impact. Although, you know, again, so, you know, I realize that's a discussion we have targeted for a later date. But I I also don't think it's remiss to talk a little bit in this setting, you know, about, you know, what options we would have that would have a more lasting impact than, you know, you know, we can throw a little bit of money for a volunteer here, a program there, but that's that's not a last. We have money and we need to spend it. So, I think we need to find

uh an appropriate place to spend it that's going to give us the most bang for our buck. That's why I was asking, okay, what what do you think would give us the best, you know, the best chance or of putting a dent in this at least? I mean, you almost want to look at like another community or another place that has those resources that doesn't have them, you know, maxed out and and you know, like jails, other places do this where you basically throw money at it and say, "We're going to pay you to allow us to get, you know, our people in here and get some treatment that I mean, that's far more cost effective than trying to build or create something."

That money isn't large enough to do anything with like that like building something. No. Yeah. It's just not. But but that's what I'm wondering like can we can we look at other res Baker's the closest one I think you know but I mean do you go across the border do you look at Idaho do you look at Washington I mean those may be on the table if you if you look at what does it take what's the money that it takes to lay claim to you know some channel to get people help does Pendleton have one I don't I believe their detox is closed right now I could be wrong. Last I heard their detox was closed, but the residential is open.

We could try to go out of state. Also, you ran into the issue of insurance. Yeah. Yeah. Although I'm surprised how well insurance is crosses borders around here, especially Medicaid. Idaho and Washington, Medicaid crosses pretty well for medical care. It does for medical care, but not for mental health. Okay. It's a little different. So, yeah, I agree with you that, you know, you could get probably more bang if you could say, "Hey, can we tag into this, you can expand a little bit, maybe even for a couple bids." I mean, that's the problem with addiction is until you take care of the addiction, it's coming back or, you know, until you get somebody stabilized well enough, if I know that's going to be 9 months or so, six months,

takes a long time to get them stabilized. I can put myself on blast and say I um and then I part of what makes me allowed to do my job. Um I have lived experience with addiction and I have 10 years clean. Um good for you.

Thank you. Sheriff Bone can he was a good support and the at times the fear of the drug task force and you know but just knowing that there was those people and back then it was a lot easier for resources but the majority of the team that I work with we all have the lived experience we're very passionate about it and it's frustrating to not see us be able to do it when people are are ready. We've lost a lot of people. Yeah. But isn't But isn't usually it takes 6 to9 months to get them into somewhere?

Well, not well into somewhere too, but that long to be in residence six months. So, uh, most of the programs now are up to 90 days. 90 days. But is that really enough? No, I didn't. You have to do the afterare and you have to stay in the therapy and you have to continue to work on yourself. Is virtual care an option at all in this space or is that just not effective or not a thing? I think it would be. So we have virtual care that we're

um I struggle with that a lot when it comes to addiction because it's I I don't find it as accountable. Um people will sign on then they'll turn their cameras off and then they'll disappear in person I feel is a lot better especially for addiction. Yeah. You have to build that rapport and let them know to trust you and it's it's a longterm thing.

That's Yeah, that's what I thought. So, um, the, uh, organization that we're looking at and considering utilizing is the Union County Safe, um, Communities Coalition, and it's a lot of the stuff that we're talking about here is exactly what that organization um, is intended to do. So, that's where we would be throwing that opioid money um, is towards helping make those things happen, that treatment. But they're not doing the treatment. No, their their facility is offering um they're it's a partnership that's offering many different um treatment options for people or assistance and support for them that are in addiction.

Okay. I would like to explore looking again at the usage of those funds because again I think we were informed a couple of years ago, you know, you can't use it for this and this. Again, as I looked at the specific language, most of those are not explicitly stated as much as they state things you can use it for, not necessarily things that you're prohibited against. And so, if other communities are doing this, so I'd like to know about Yeah, I think the biggest function is how do you interpret prevention, right? So, if you as a council can say that we in Lrand say prevention is the disruption of the supply chain in Lrand,

it's hard to use drugs if you can't get them. um those those drug task force we we've also looked at them you know teaching classes you know adding to that prevention level of um you know partnering with you know having our drug task force aims go into the schools with our youth and and talk to them about it which we have in the past but if you put it under that umbrella of prevention I mean it it it's how you interpret it and and at the end of the month when you send in your report of what they've done and this is what we spent the money ond this is clearly identified as prevention and it from what I've heard from other counselors and commissioners across the state is it's how you interpret it and how you describe what they're doing. Um so councelor I don't I'm an advocate for it. I think that we can um ethically use that money for that um and and back it up of what we're doing. Um again it like you said I mean holding people accountable you know not putting them in jail um what it is is disrupting the whole organization to what's going on. I mean if we removed you know over 20,000 lethal doses of fenil uh with a non-dedicated you know officers working on this. What would it mean if if we had somebody who could really go after this and say we do not want drugs as part of our community?

And I'll be honest with you, our our law enforcement consumption of taking those off the street, like you said, has all been we not say we've stumbled upon it because great cops doing great work, but it hasn't been that they've spent a month on this case tracking this guy coming in and out and that type because we just don't have the time. will call to call to call to call without having those dedicated professionals to do the wire taps, to do the buys, to do the search warrants. You know, it really inhibits our ability to go after the bigger fish, if you will. But are those ones that that you can't that you stop, are they ones that are waiting for trial? Uh, at times, yes, for sure. I mean, so that they're back out on the street doing the same thing again.

Yeah. I mean, the key is when you when they have an encounter with law enforcement is to have resources for them at that moment. Sure. Um, and at times, to be honest with you, that's the that's the the straw that broke the camel's back. Okay, I went to jail again for this. I'm done. I need help. I'm going to go reach out. Yeah.

Yeah. I worked in the drug task force for three years. Uh, it it takes a lot. It takes a lot of manpower to do a effective work. Um, takes a lot of resources. It's not just the people. Um, it's the equipment. Our we don't even have equip. Well, what equipment we have is so outdated. It's all technological now. Um, and advanced. So, we would have to buy new equipment uh to to do that. Uh, we would Huh. What kind of equipment?

Uh, body wires is probably one of the biggest ones. Uh, we use trackers. um which are GPS things to track suspect vehicles. Um these are all under court, you know, search warrants and court orders and things like that. Um so there's more than just to to John's point, you know, like Cody and I are like-minded. You know, I've been in the task force. I see the benefits of it. Uh there's an option where, you know, uh cuz it was me and the Union County Sheriff's Office, one person that worked together, so it was a twoman team. uh you're about as good as your informants are good, you know. Uh but we had a really good informant and we made a lot of waves. But what was healthy about that is a lot of the people that we arrested of the low-level dealers all went into drug court and it was beneficial for about 70% of them. They did not reaffend while I was in the task force. Doesn't mean they don't use as far as being in the trafficking. So it is disruptive. Um it does sketch them out uh when you start doing your work. Uh you know so it'll dry up uh but the dur but it has to be durable. Um and one of the things I said in here so right now today I'm down five officers. What that means is I have two vacancies and I have three in training. So I have five vacancies on patrol right now because the three that are in training don't count until they're solo. So, for me to staff somebody in a drug task force, uh, I I want to get there. Um, and and you guys set the priorities for me when it comes to that. But we So, we had testing for a police officer two weeks ago. We had 10 applicants. Only five confirmed to attend. Only one uh survived the testing. Uh, was supposed to turn in their pre-employment background investigation to me last Thursday and

did not. So I have zero candidates and that's the trend nationally uh with policing. Um this this effort has been going back since at least 2016. So it's not for lack of effort on their part to do all the right things. It's just the reality of the environment that they're trying to recruit in. I think we've kind of understand that that's what's been going on. And of course you can put a new officer in that trap. I mean Oh no. This is uh when you're talking about drug investigations, it's advanced police techniques,

but we have people who could fit that role and and you know, the new officers, it's not all doom and gloom because like I said, I have three in training right now. That's three officers in seven months from now that are going to be covering the shift and and they're wonderful. Um and you know, we're doing good things. You know, we're making way on the recruitment and retention, but it does remain a problem. And so I just have like if you said you want a drug task force, me and Cody are committed to partnering. Um we have a good working relationship. I have a good working relationship with the Oregon State Police and we might be able to pull them in in some way. Um but being able to stop it is a barrier for me right now. Well, I'm just thinking, you know, if we determined that that was an an appropriate use of our opioid funds between us and the county, if we could talk with them cooperatively, you might fund somebody for five or six years.

I mean, that's that starts to put a dent in things, you I I that that's one of many uses, but you know, I just I want to I want to see what we can do, you know, and you know, if you put a dent in it for 5 years and and get the word out that Lrand is not a place to be doing drugs, you're going to get hammered.

Um you know, maybe maybe that lasts uh a little bit longer. I don't know. Or maybe we scr up funding somewhere in the next 5 years to be able to do something, you know, more. I just I again I look at our funding options and to me I again we talk and talk and talk and talk and that's fine but what can we as a council actually do. It's one of the few things as I went through here and I said well we can do that. So I mean I'm all ears for other things but I feel like so many of the other uses for those funds is going to be a little pittance here and a pittance there and it's not going to move the needle. Stu, could you talk to uh what Union County Safe Communities Coalition could do?

What they they're going to make a presentation. Is that right, John? Sorry. Is is the Safe Communities Coalition on the agenda in March? They will be. So, there'll be a presentation, right? Oh, I wanted you to I could do it, but I wouldn't want to spoil their You want to do it as well? You're We let them do their specification because that's a a different kind of option. Yeah. It's just a change. Yeah. I don't

Yeah. It's it's just a change of mindset. Prevention is different than treatment, but they go hand in hand. Prevention and enforcement. Prevention and treatment. I mean, it's all it's all puzzle, you know? So, it's complicated and it it all needs more money and funding and resources and and legislation and changes. So, right, we we do have the advantage of measure 110 getting kind of back reversed and that that's been a huge help to you guys. I know with decriminalization and then recriminalization of some of those drugs and substances, but yeah, complicated. It is.

What efforts are League of Oregon cities tapped into what they're doing with this? I mean, I'm sure again, we're not in isolation here, but it might be nice to know where we can link in with other communities and lend our voice to, you know, potentially trying to convince our state legislators that what we have is working.

Yeah. I I don't know the answer to that question. It's a good um point. I can tell you I'm looking at the uh the next um what do you call it? conference that's next month. Um, I'm not recalling right now anything that's on the agenda that's specifically addressing it, but I do have access to a overall League of Oregon C's city managers group um that I can pose things like that and bring it up. So, I I will do so seems to be all about transportation right now, not drugs and treat. Yeah. on the transit room tax and yeah um those are saying

wish we could have given you a great answer but we don't have it either the solution this is providing you with just information and you can see the barriers that we struggle not just as a PD but all of our constituents here um that deal with these things it's a huge barrier it is it's a yeah and we alone cannot fix it unfortunately alone I mean this whole group here cannot fix it unless we had the money. Yes. Do you ladies get to see a success from individuals that make it through though?

Yeah. Really hard. Yeah. Takes a lot of work, but it makes it that much more rewarding. We do, but I love it. Question. You have to.

Yeah. Well, I wanted to point out you guys are asking about kind of other communities. Um county has a really great program, the PATH um center and program where they have a transitional housing center south of the city of Umatillaa. And it's a real regional collaboration. They try to provide wraparound services, but they they get people there. they kind of it's very temporary sort of housing. They're kind of like yurts and the weather there is a little more moderate than it is here. Um but that's a program they've had a lot of success with over there and kind of getting people off the streets, getting them somewhere. They've got a navigation center they call it where they've got kitchens, they've got professionals that come in and provide these services and then you know the idea is to get them out of that into something more permanent. But it provides a little bit of that kind of in between um services that they need.

It's called the path path. Yeah. Project path. We are running towards the end of our meeting here and I want to say thank you to each and every one of you time and come out here and spoke with us. Had a lot of great information. Of course, we all know we have a lot of work. You know, there's a lot of problems, but solutions are not the easiest way to come to. But we do appreciate you coming out and sharing with us and giving us the information. Uh before I close, is there any other questions or comments the council would like to make? I just appreciate you're working in the fields you are. Thank you. Because not everybody can do that and obviously there's so many holes that we have that we don't that we can't fill.

Thank you. Anybody else? With that, I would say thank you and good evening.