The 5-0 vote – which officially extends the contract through June 30, 2023 – came just a week after Portland City Council held its own unanimous vote to approve the extension.
Both governments also said yes to a handful of interim amendments to the Joint Office contract. The changes clarify the City of Portland’s role in selecting and evaluating the Joint Office director, and they offer new pathways for the governments to collaborate on budgeting, data and policy decisions.
“We take a lot of heat for a lot of stuff, but this didn’t even exist prior” to 2016, Commissioner Lori Stegmann said of both the Joint Office and the City and County’s formal partnership. “We should be really grateful. This is amazing work, and we’re going to keep doing better and moving forward.”
New chapter for the Joint Office requires a new agreement
The original five-year contract – signed in 2016 and extended once before, through June 2022 – combined previously redundant homelessness work held by the City and County, and forged a new, unified team built on a blend of employees, contracts and practices from both jurisdictions.
Thanks to that new efficiency, the Joint Office has been able to lead a wide range of efforts to better meet the needs of people living outside, including a massive expansion in shelter, rent assistance, case management, health connections, street outreach and hygiene services such as mobile showers.
What was initially a small office with a little more than a dozen employees has since been established as a full County department, with a staff of more than 72 ongoing employees who have had to manage crises like the COVID-19 pandemic alongside transformational opportunities such as the Supportive Housing Services Measure.
That significant evolution has opened a new chapter for both the Joint Office and the City and County’s overall partnership in responding to homelessness, said Kim Melton, chief of staff for Chair Deborah Kafoury.
County officials first contacted the City last spring to begin determining that new course, Melton said, ultimately holding 11 negotiating sessions from September 2021 through March 2022.
The one-year extension approved Thursday will give both governments valuable time to continue their discussions, Melton said, with work likely to resume in July once the City and County have approved their respective budgets for the next fiscal year.
Melton said the parties’ agreement on some initial updates, presented alongside the extension, speaks to the progress that’s possible once talks resume.
“So much has changed in the seven years since the Joint Office was initially created,” Melton said. “We realized this discussion really requires more time.”
Interim amendments improve oversight, data, partnership with City
Lead members of the County’s negotiating team, Chief Operating Officer Serena Cruz and Will Glasson, a senior assistant County attorney, joined Melton in explaining each of the initial changes.
Cruz highlighted new language that makes clear that the City’s designated commissioner can directly contribute to the hiring process and annual performance reviews for the Joint Office director, even as the Chair retains the ultimate authority over hiring decisions and performance assessment.
The previous version of the agreement said nothing about an evaluation process, Cruz said. And it did not spell out that the City’s commissioner who oversees the Joint Office could help with hiring elements including timelines, candidate reviews and choosing hiring panels.
“Because we have such a strong process for evaluating personnel at the County,” Cruz said, “we were able to create a pathway for the (city) commissioner in charge.”
“The changes make sense to me,” Commissioner Susheela Jayapal said. “I understand the City’s desire for more involvement. That makes sense, given that they fund as much as they do.”
Melton explained two other changes that formally enshrine a more recent practice for Joint Office oversight built around regularly scheduled meetings, communication and decision-making. For months, Chair Kafoury and City Commissioner Dan Ryan, with lead staff members, have met consistently to discuss their shared work in the Joint Office.
The updated agreement cements that model by creating an official Executive Leadership Group for the Joint Office, including the two elected officials.
The agreement also assigns the group responsibility for coordinating the development of the Joint Office’s annual budget and any mid-year changes as needed. Previously, a staff-only committee that met quarterly had been tasked with a portion of that work.
“This is an example of where the growth and evolution of the Joint Office have already shifted how the City and County work together,” Melton said, noting Chair Kafoury and Commissioner Ryan’s leadership this fall in investing surplus funds into additional shelter and street outreach programs.
“This is a first step in taking a smart practice and matching the (Joint Office contract’s) framework to that practice,” Melton said.
Finally, Glasson noted new language that commits the City and County to a “good faith” process for fully shifting management of the region’s homelessness data-tracking system from the Portland Housing Bureau to the Joint Office. The transfer is set to happen by June 30, 2023, with details yet to be worked out.
The housing bureau was responsible for managing the database, called the Homelessness Management Information System, before the Joint Office was created. And the bureau retained that position in the years since. With full oversight of the system, the Joint Office will have improved and more nimble access to data on outcomes.
Looking ahead: ‘This is an opportunity’
Commissioner Jessica Vega Pederson said she was glad the updated agreement directly highlighted the need for more budget collaboration.
With more partnerships between the Joint Office and other County departments, and with the new Supportive Housing Services measure becoming the Joint Office’s single largest funding source, “that’s going to be important,” she said.
“This change will help with coordination with other departments and bureaus that are making investments in programs and services that impact the work of the Joint Office,” she said, “so there can be a more holistic view.”
Commissioner Sharon Meieran looked ahead to the resumption of negotiations in July and asked if there would be an opportunity for public engagement on the shape of any new long-term agreement, as well as the Joint Office’s overall future.
“This is an opportunity,” she said. “In some of the oversight responsibility for the Joint Office, it is sometimes seen more like a County office with some involvement, in consultation, with the City, and the City contributing a lot of resources to the work. But I hope, over the renegotiating process, the true collaborative element and oversight and sharing can be formalized.”
Chair Kafoury noted several additional complications to come, including a potential ballot measure that would change the City of Portland’s form of government, potentially taking direct administrative oversight of bureaus away from commissioners.
But she took time to thank Commissioner Ryan as an “enthusiastic” partner in getting an interim agreement approved, with a commitment to keep showing up at the negotiating table.
No matter what an intergovernmental contract might say, she said, “you still truly need an active and engaged partner to make those commitments come true. He’s been that partner, and it’s allowed us to make these changes.”
