Community Action Board - Feb. 5, 2025

Agenda

The purpose of the Community Action Board (CAB) is to:

• advise the Community Action Agency (CAA) on ways to: mobilize human and financial resources at the local, state, and federal levels to benefit disadvantaged persons and maximize their opportunity for self-sufficiency;
• minimize the causes and conditions of poverty;
• cooperate with other persons and organizations interested in community betterment; and
• advocate for institutional change to reduce the conditions of poverty.

7:30 – Welcome - Adam

• Establishment of a quorum
• Introductions
• Adoption of minutes: January 2025

7:35 – Energy Trust of Oregon – Ben Russo
Clackamas County Weatherization Manager – Korene Mathers

• Learn about the programs
• Identify gaps and synergies
• Strategic Plan Goal II: Deliver accessible, equitable and culturally responsive services & County residents have greater awareness of services and service access points. Will help households achieve and maintain basic needs stability.

8:10 – Recruitment Strategies – John & Adam

8:25 – Application Reviews 

8:40 – Member Updates 

8:50 – Adjourn

Next Meeting: March 5, 2025

Minutes

FACILITATOR: Adam Khosroabadi

NOTE TAKER: Sean Wells

Present:

• Paul Edgar
• Richard Sheldon
• John Parker
• Adam Khosroabadi

Absent: 

• Sonia Agnew

Staff:

• Tracy Garell

Guest:

• Ben Rousseau
• Charles Carter
• Korene Mather
• Greer Ryan,
• Brenda Durbin
• Joey Johns
• Jennifer Much Grund
• R.E. Szego
• Sean Wells

Meeting Called to Order

Quorum is 50% +1

Adam called the meeting to order at 7:34 am. A quorum was present. 

Adoption of Meeting Minutes 

January 2025 minutes adopted as written. 

Energy Trust of Oregon

Ben Rousseau introduced himself and his colleague Charles Carter and gave their background working with Clackamas County. Ben then gave a history of Energy Trust of Oregon, the program’s goals, and partners. It is designed to help people in underserved communities weatherize their homes to lower utility costs and increase resilience to extreme weather events without costing the recipients much if anything. Currently the project has launched in Jackson and Clackamas counties with plans to expand to other counties starting in 2026. He also briefed the board on the eligibility requirements for the program including income and a preference for homeownership. Charles then shared some of the successes the program has had in Clackamas County such as weatherizing a house while maintaining it’s wood stove and repairing a relatively new heat pump.

Korene Mather, a manager with Community Preservation, gave the board an overview of the weatherization services offered by the County itself. She provided information on what the program offers, what the eligibility requirements are, and what the benchmarks for success are. She did acknowledge the waitlist for weatherization was quite long, but that the County has been working with Energy Trust of Oregon to alleviate the wait times. Adam made it clear that the CAB would be happy to help spread the word about the offered programs.

John asked if Energy Trust was fully up and running or if it was still ramping up and what was the best way to alleviate the long wait times with the County.

• Ben said that there was not a current backlog for Energy Trust and they were looking to scale up their operations. He said that finding new funding sources would be the most helpful way to assist Energy Trust’s expansion.

Korene explained some of the difficulties that her program faces. Primarily it was finding funding and spending time planning the most efficient way of using those funds. She also pointed out that most of the contractors that the County uses also work in other counties and states, which leads to competition with other entities over the contractors’ time.

Recruitment Strategies 

John summarized his discussion with another group about recruiting. He said that the current meeting time of 7:30 on a Wednesday was probably the biggest barrier to recruitment as most people with the lived experience that the CAB is looking for cannot attend at that time. He wanted to start a formal process to change the meeting time to the afternoon. He also said that other organizations feel that in person meetings did a better job of building camaraderie between board members, but that a hybrid option is important for accessibility. Sean will send out a poll for the 

Application Reviews 

Sean provided an update on the number of applications received for the CAB. The exec committee will review the applications at their next meeting. 

Member Updates

• Greer Ryan, a perspective new member, introduced herself to the board. She provided a brief history of her career and how it related to the goals of the CAB.

Paul brought House Bill 3146 to the board’s attention. It regards emergency housing in Oregon and he felt the CAB should support the bill.

Meeting Adjourned

• The meeting was adjourned at 8:58.

Next Meeting:

• Wednesday, March 5th from 7:30 to 8:50 on Zoom