Aging Services Advisory Council - Jan. 20, 2026

Agenda

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

10:05 – Approval of December Minutes

10:10 – Adult Legal Services

10:40 – Area Plan Subcommittees

11:10 – SSD Transportation Programs and Funding

11:35 – 2026 ASAC Goals and Planning Round Table 

11:45 – Subcommittee Updates

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

• County Mileage Reimbursement

11:55 – Public Comment

12:00 – Adjourn 

Minutes

FACILITATOR: Dan Hoeschen
NOTETAKER: Sean Wells

Present:

• Anne Meader
• Eric Olson
• Sue Leslie
• Pat Torsen
• Joyce Caramella
• Jim O’Brien
• Carol Bernhard
• Sonya Norton
• Dan Hoeschen 
• Lynne Byrne

Excused:

• Marge Lorton 
• Scott Stahl

Staff:

• Tracy Garell
• Sean Wells
• Jeanie Butler
• Danielle Cloyd
• Tonia Hunt
• Kim Whitely
• Kristina Babcock

Guest:

• Divine Zheng

Meeting Called to Order

Quorum is majority. 

The meeting to order at 10:04 am. A quorum was present. 

Review and Adoption of Minutes 

December minutes approved with corrections. 

Older Adult Legal Services

Divine introduced herself and her organization Legal Aid Services of Oregon (LASO). LASO provides free civil legal help to low-income Oregonians. Clients’ eligibility is based on financial and immigration circumstances. Ineligible clients can be referred to other organizations with lower eligibility requirements. The majority of LASO’s clients live in Multnomah County, however about a fifth of their clients live in Clackamas County. LASO has a number of bilingual staff as well as translators on call for most languages, although Divine was uncertain about their resources for deaf clients. 

Divine then gave an overview of the types of legal issues they assist with including civil rights, consumer law, wage theft, family law and domestic violence, government benefits, housing, immigration, and seniors and people with disabilities among others. Due to limited capacity, LASO sets priorities every two years based on recommendations from a steering committee made up of staff, subject matter experts, and community members. She outlined the current priorities, the first of which is abuse prevention due to the immediate fear of violence against clients and their children. Next LASO is focusing on consumer issues, primarily related to unfair debt collections, fraudulent car warranties, and identity theft scams targeting older adults. Their third priority is government benefits, most often regarding long-term care facilities and keeping seniors in their living situations. She was asked if LASO helps with long term care applications and said that they can provide help, but only in extreme circumstances. The last priority she talked about was housing, mostly focusing on eviction defense, housing voucher termination issues, and requesting reasonable housing modifications from landlords. 

Divine then described the work that LASO does in Clackamas County. An Older Adult Act (OAA) grant allowed LASO to expand services to older adults up to 300% of the federal poverty line. In 2025 LASO billed 373.7 house of case work with Clackamas County residents aged 60 or older. Hours worked included helping seniors stay in long term care facilities, dealing with unfair debt collections, and work on divorce and domestic abuse cases. She said that much of their work in 2025 focused on housing issues. She was asked about the current wait time for service and said that it depends on the specific issue that a potential client needs and the current workload. Because of that she couldn’t say and didn’t want to provide inaccurate information. She concluded by leaving her contact information with ASAC members as well as the Oregon State Bar Lawyer Referral Service. 

SSD Transportation Programs and Funding 

Kristina gave an overview of the Transportation programs provided by Social Services. She then provided a breakdown of the funds that support each program and where they come from. She was asked if the soon to be enacted reduction in Trimet services would affect the last mile shuttle and said that it was being discussed, but definitive changes are unknown.  

Area Plan Subcommittees The survey was sent out to ASAC members, but due to member dissatisfaction with the survey it will be reworked and reissued. 

Subcommittee Updates

• Community Center Liaison Subcommittee: Joyce let the ASAC know that she has a meeting scheduled with the Community Center directors. She asked for volunteers to serve on the CCL and then said she would schedule a meeting to meet with them.
• Behavioral Health Subcommittee: Anne let the ASAC know that the subcommittee is working on collecting information on behavioral health resources from the Clackamas County Community Centers. Sean has started compiling the resources into a spreadsheet that can be sorted by needs and location. When finalized it will be distributed to the Community Centers. The next subcommittee meeting will be on March 19th.

2026 ASAC Goals and Planning Round Table Tabled until February due to lack of time. Member Updates

• County Mileage Reimbursement: Tracy introduced Danielle Cloyd to go over the County’s milage policy. Danielle explained that the first step was registering as a vendor with the County and went over the paperwork that was involved with that. When that is completed the ASAC members will need to fill out Milage forms each time they travel for ASAC work. This includes attending meetings in-person as well as other ASAC-related events, such as Community Center lunch visits. Danielle said that if ASAC members had any questions, they could reach out to her or Sean.
• Pat asked if there were any additional funds being provided for congregate dining, but she was told there had been no change in funding.
• NAMI will be holding a charity comedy show, Stand-Up(s) Against Stigma Comedy Night, on March 13th at the Milwaukie Community Center. Tickets are $60.00 and 

Adjourn 

The meeting was adjourned at 12:09 am.  

Next Meeting

Tuesday, January 20, 10am-1pm

Hybrid at TBD