Aging Services Advisory Council - Dec. 15, 2025

Agenda

10:00 – Call to Order / Declaration of Quorum / Guest Introduction

10:05 – Approval of November Minutes

10:10 – O4DA Legislative Update

10:40 – Older Adult Legal Services

11:10 – Nutritional Visit Results 

11:25 – Service Equity Committee (SEC) Update

11:30 – Area Plan Subcommittees

11:40 – Subcommittee Updates 

11:45 – Officer Voting

11:50 – Member Updates (Older Adult Activities or News from the Community)

11:55 – Public Comment

12:00 – Adjourn 

Minutes

FACILITATOR: Dan Hoeschen

NOTETAKER: Sean Wells

Present:

• Anne Meader
• Eric Olson
• Sue Leslie
• Pat Torsen
• Jim O’Brien
• Carol Bernhard
• Sonya Norton
• Marge Lorton
• Dan Hoeschen
• Lynne Byrne
• Scott Stahl
• Alia Long
• Steven May

Staff:

• Tracy Garell
• Sean Wells
• Jeanie Butler
• Tonia Hunt

Excused:

• Joyce Caramella

Meeting Called to Order
Quorum is majority. 

The meeting to order at 10:03 am. A quorum was present.

Review and Adoption of Minutes

November minutes approved with corrections.

Older Adult Legal Services

Guest was unable to make it so the topic will be tabled until the January meeting.

Nutritional Visit Results

Jeanie shared data from the 2025 Community Center visits. An SSD intern compiled the data gathered from each visit and created a 27-page document, though Jeanie only shared a two-page summary with the ASAC. Sean will send out the full report after the meeting. Jeanie is also sharing this data with other Area Agencies on Aging. It was noted that there were a few visits where only two ASAC members in attendance so those visits might not have gathered as much data. It was suggested that for 2026 the Community Center visits be prearranged not only with the ASAC members but also the Community Centers and that posters describing the event be put up prior to the visit. The ASAC members also asked about Meal on Wheels ride-alongs, something that the ASAC did prior to the pandemic. Jeanie said she wasn’t sure about reviving the ride-alongs due to privacy concerns as all recipients of Meal on Wheels were implicitly homebound due to medical conditions, but that she would follow-up to check on the HIPPA compliance of the program. Dan thanked Jeanie for sharing the follow-up data and hoped that there would be similar reports in future years. 

O4DA Legislative Update

Nicole introduced herself as a lobbyist for the Oregon Association of Area Agencies on Aging and Disabilities (O4AD). She said that O4AD is prepping for the upcoming legislative short session beginning next year. She said that there was a 63-million-dollar budget shortfall, but that wasn’t as significant as it sounded to a state budget. She said that there isn’t much known about how this shortfall will affect anything. There are potential cuts to Medicare, but those cuts wouldn’t affect Clackamas County. She also said that due to the timing of the short session there won’t be much time to review bills before the short session starts. O4AD does presume that the recently passed transportation will likely be repealed. Midterm elections will also affect the short session in ways that are hard to predict. The ASAC asked about signing up for a newsletter for legislative updates and Nicole said that anyone could do so by signing up on the O4AD website. Sean will distribute a link to the website after the meeting. There will be a virtual O4AD meeting in February which will be discussed at the January ASAC meeting.

Service Equity Committee (SEC) Update

Tracy updated the ASAC on the new direction of the Service Equity Committee (SEC). While the SEC was initially established to have a more of an oversight role, the goal has shifted to help the six main SSD programs have plans in place to increase services to populations that haven’t received services in the past. Each month there will be a focus area that staff members will work on to improve service equity. Members of ABCs are also welcome to provide an outside perspective. The SEC is meeting on the second Wednesday of the month for the next six to nine months. 

Area Plan Subcommittees

Jeanie gave a brief overview of the Area Plan and the various subcommittees that will be established to help enact the Area Plan. The Area Plan went into effect in June 2025, but work will begin in earnest in 2026. She passed around documents describing the Focus Areas as well as a sign-up sheet. A digital sign up will also be sent out to ASAC members. When asked about a time commitment she said that the subcommittees are planned to run for four years. The subcommittees would check SSD progress in the related Focus Areas and providing suggestions and feedback to SSD to achieve its goals. 

Subcommittee Updates

• Behavioral Health Subcommittee: Anne let the ASAC know that there hasn’t been a meeting since the last ASAC at large. Members of the BH subcommittee have begun reaching out to Community Centers with their surveys and a few of those have been returned to Sean. He has started a spreadsheet to track and sort the resource lists from the Community Centers. Jeannie resigned before she heard back from her assigned Community Centers.
• Transportation Advisory Committee: Scott, who also serves on the Transportation Advisory Committee, provided an update on what that committee has been doing. They are looking for community feedback on transportation challenges in the County. Bad intersections, lack of sidewalks, notable bottlenecks, etc. The TAC also discussed TriMet budget cuts and how it will affect Clackamas County. The Max Green line terminating at Gateway for example. TriMet is also seeking feedback from the community. The ASAC discussed various volunteer transportation programs and raised the idea of bringing in someone from Transportation in the January meeting.

Officer Voting

Jim volunteered to service as vice chair. Sonya motioned to accept the nomination and Scott seconded. Jim was elected unanimously. 

Member Updates

• The December Exec Meeting will be moved from December 22nd to January 5th. The ASAC at large meetings for January and February will be moved from the third Monday to the third Tuesday due to holidays.
• Pat told the ASAC about her time speaking to the BCC on behalf of Molalla. She said that the meeting went well and the Commissioners were responsive and asked her to stay after the meeting was adjourned to continue the discussion.
• The ASAC discussed various apps to automatically check on older adults living on their own such as Helloeveryday.org and Snug. 

Adjourn

The meeting was adjourned at 11:48 am. 

Next Meeting

Tuesday, January 20, 10am-1pm

Hybrid at TBD