Veterans Advisory Council - Oct. 28, 2025

Minutes

Present:

• Betty Fish-Ferguson
• Paul Edgar
• Laurie Kimmell
• Tracy Bogard
• Carol Bernhard
• Thomas McAlarney
• Don Hedlind
• Tawnya Lege
• Austin Hansen
• Dan Miner  
• Brian Gornick  
• Aubrie Balkwill  
• Don Kingsborough  
• James Manning  
• Steven Beals

Absent:

• John Budiao

Staff:

• Joey Johns
• Tracy Garell
• Gus Bedwell
• Ken Bietschek
• Sean Wells

Guests

• Travis Gardner
• Ben West
• Garrett Souder    

Meeting Called to Order and Introductions 

A quorum was established at 2:30 pm. Dan motioned to approve meeting agenda. Agenda adopted by acclimation.  

Adoption of Minutes 

Paul motioned to adopt August 2025 minutes. Approved by acclimation. August 2025 minutes adopted.  

Chair Report Laurie reminded members about a suicide prevention training that will be taking place on December 1st and recommended that all members attend. Dan asked about a veteran’s caucus lacking funding and Gus explained that the caucus in question was unofficial and thus lacked a budget. Laurie also reminded the VAC about an email she sent out regarding the Federal VA funding a group of lawyers who provide legal services to vets. She went on to congratulate the committee on the success of the October 15th Veteran’s Expo. Betty asked how many surveys were collected at the expo and Gus said that just shy of 100 were gathered. Finally, Laurie let the VAC know that the attendance policy will be more strongly enforced going forward and that the VAC bylaws will be updated at the February meeting 

Subcommittee Updates

• Expo Subcommittee
  • Betty and Tom provided a quick debrief on the expo. Betty opined that the expo was a success and said that she had only received positive feedback from attendees. Tom said that the speakers were well received, though he did note that the audience was sparce. Laurie suggested some administrative improvements such as asking vendors if they need an electrical outlet during registration. Austin said that he thought the expo went well for a first-time event, though he did note that the expo was slated to go until 6:00, but that everyone had left by 4:30. Gus suggested moving the next expo to a weekend to increase attendance. Aubrie let the VAC know that Clackamas Community College was happy with the event and agreed that a weekend day might be better going forward as it would help with some logistics such as parking. 
• Social Services Report
  • Tracy let the VAC know that Social Services was proud of the expo and the federal government shutdown was being monitored.
• VSO Report
  • Gus let the VAC know that the limited term VSO will be onboarded on November 3rd. He reiterated that does not mean that the VSO will be able to accept walk-ins as the new VSO will need to be trained for at least six months. Another VSO that has been out will be back working a half teleworking schedule and there could potentially be more new hires in the near future. Paul asked about the potential of creating a village of individual tiny houses for permanent veteran housing as opposed to the temporary or transitional housing it usually used for. 
• Veterans Housing
  • Joey informed the VAC that 97 veteran families have been provided with permanent housing over the last year. 
• Monument Subcommittee
  • There is an issue with budgeting for HRS39 that is being ironed out. Joey offered to help, but Laurie pointed out that the legislature is not in session so it will have to wait until it reconvenes. There have also been some conflicts with ODOT over decorations at monuments. Commissioner West said that the Clackamas Caucus will investigate, and Brian suggested regulations be loosened. The VAC members also let Commissioner West know about the many successes of the Monument Subcommittee.
• Veterans Employment
  • Joey let the VAC know that 42 veterans have found jobs with 92% of them working for more than 90 days. 
• Mental Health Subcommittee
  • Laurie announced that the subcommittee had been formed and met on September 30th. A mission statement has been drafted and the subcommittee will meet on the first Wednesday of the month at 8:00. Aubrie also let the VAC know that CCC is working on suicide prevention as well. 
• County Commissioner
  • Clackamas County Commissioner Ben West introduced himself and asked the VAC members to do likewise. He spoke about his service in the National Guard and talked about the handoff between himself and Commissioner Savas. He made it clear that the BCC is fully supportive of the VAC and had worked with Camp Withycombe. He said that he would attend as often as he could, but as a commissioner he was often busy. 

New Business

• Women’s Veteran Engage Event 30 May 2026: The Expo subcommittee will host this event and Aubrie said that there were several rooms available at CCC to host. 
• VAC Holiday Get – Together 12/08/25: Brian offered to host a VAC holiday party at his house at around 3:00.
• Laurie requested that the Expo Subcommittee be converted to the Event Subcommittee and be made permanent. Aubrie motioned that the new name and permanent status be adopted and Dan seconded. After a brief discussion of VAC Event Subcommittee and Event Subcommittee as the name, the motion to rename the subcommittee to Event Subcommittee and make the subcommittee permanent was passed.

Adjourn

The meeting was adjourned at 3:55 pm.

Member Updates, Announcements and Upcoming Events

• Brian noted that the VAC webpage was missing some documents. Sean said that he would investigate and make sure any missing documents were uploaded.
• Springwater Grange is holding a veteran’s breakfast on November 1st from 7:00 am to 11:00 am.

Next Meeting

Veterans Advisory Council

Thursday, February 26, 2:30-4:30pm – In Person

Location TBD