Committee for Community Involvement - June 16, 2026

Agenda

Minutes

June 16, 2026, MEETING MINUTES 
Time: 6 p.m. 
Held via Zoom

CCI Attendees: Karen Bjorklund (Chair), Pat Erdenberger (Partial), Marrion Kaufman, Bill Merchant, Brent Parries (Vice-Chair)

Absent: Amy Nichols, Danielle Weber

Attending PGA Staff: Tonia Holowetzki

Public Attendees: Lance Ward, Heather Davis-Warren

1. Welcome

Chair Bjorklund welcomed public attendees, CCI members, and PGA staff. 

2. Previous Meeting Minutes

Chair Bjorklund confirmed a quorum and moved to approve the May minutes. Bill Merchant motioned to approve the April 2026 CCI meeting minutes, and Vice Chair Brent Parries seconded the motion. The committee unanimously approved the minutes. 

3. Public Comment

There were no public comments.

4. Report on Community Engagement Plan presented to BCC

Tonia Holowetzki summarized her presentation to the BCC on the proposed strategic communication and engagement plans. She devoted most of her summary to the strategic engagement plan, highlighting the IAP2 community engagement framework and its implementation across county departments. She discussed existing legacy programs, such as advisory boards and CPOs, and proposed new initiatives, including a youth engagement program and a volunteer recognition program. The presentations were well received by the BCC, which asked follow-up questions.

5. From CCI Action Plan: Review & update CCI Bylaws per PGA audit recommendations to all Advisory Committees

The discussion focused on potential revisions to CCI’s scope in the committee’s bylaws, specifically expanding beyond its role under the state’s mandated Goal 1 for land use planning to provide a voice for residents in unincorporated areas on other important issues and concerns. 

Members agreed that CCI needs to increase its visibility among unincorporated residents and cities, suggesting this could be achieved through a defined scope and a potential campaign. Chair Bjorklund asked whether CCI could identify specific services it could offer. The discussion generated several ideas.

• CCI could become a local network to help residents understand their local government structure, especially for those in unincorporated areas who may not be familiar with the distinction between city and county governments. CCI could also serve as a conduit to help residents navigate complex government services and to gather community input on issues before presenting them to county commissioners. 
• CCI could establish a coordination role to help connect people with existing opportunities and resources in their area and provide ways for people to get involved with government through surveys, town hall meetings, and other engagement opportunities.

Committee members also brainstormed new names for the committee and agreed to continue the conversation while defining and refining the new scope. All agreed that any new name should reflect the new scope. Key points included:

• Whether to retain "involvement" in the new name and to consider alternatives such as Public Affairs Committee for Unincorporated Clackamas County, Clackamas Unincorporated Voices (CUV), Committee for Clackamas Unincorporated Engagement (CCUE), Unincorporated Clackamas Roundtable (UCR), and Unincorporated Clackamas Liaisons to Engagement (UNCLE).
• The need to clearly communicate that the committee serves residents of unincorporated areas and the challenge of distinguishing between city and unincorporated addresses.

The group further discussed the challenges with terminology for unincorporated areas, noting that residents often don’t know or understand what “unincorporated” means and may confuse it with rural-designated areas.

Tonia clarified that CCI’s value proposition is place-specific rather than issue-specific, except for the committee’s deep expertise in CPOs and State Goal 1 requirements. The committee can represent residents’ lived experiences in unincorporated Clackamas County. The members agreed to consider expanding their scope beyond CPOs to include other important issues for residents of the unincorporated area, such as wildfire, weeds, and timbering.

Regarding CPOs, the committee members discussed ways to help volunteer organizations expand their scope beyond land-use planning to include other important areas, such as fire safety, transportation, and law enforcement. Bill Merchant suggested that CCI could help CPOs by broadening their scope to include more community involvement activities. Tonia emphasized that the organization's scope should evolve over time and focus on gathering community priorities rather than being limited to specific topics. Marrion Kaufmann noted the importance of being flexible in responding to community needs and suggested that the organization's scope might need to be defined broadly enough to accommodate future requests.

The group discussed CCI's role as the first point of contact for residents of unincorporated areas before reaching out to the county, and debated whether to continue discussions despite the lack of a quorum. 

Public member Heather Davis-Warren shared a few key words that came to mind as she listened to the conversation among members, acknowledging her limited experience with the committee's work: community, engagement, planning, advisory, support, representation, voice, advocacy, and service.

The committee did not move forward with any decisions due to a lack of a quorum following the departure of Pat Edinberger. 

6. From CCI Action Plan: Plan a 2026 Community Leaders meeting 

Due to a lack of quorum, the committee members agreed to postpone this discussion until the July meeting. For the future discussion, several CCI members expressed wanting to try again for the two-way communication format intended for the last Community Leaders meeting, which was changed in Administration. Chair Bjorklund suggested talking about honing in on the commissioners building relationships with a smaller number of people in each meeting, instead of trying to have commissioners do that for everyone at the meeting.. An example she gave was having each commissioner remain at the same table for the entire meeting, to discuss a topic of the commissioner’s choosing and build connections with just the people at that table. Other meetings could then provide the two-way forum with different people.

7. Update CCI Interview Question

Due to a lack of quorum, the committee members agreed to postpone this discussion until the July meeting. Members agreed that the current questions remain relevant but may need refinement to better reflect CCI’s new direction and the eventual revised scope.

8. PGA Update

Tonia announced her retirement as the PGA director, expressing gratitude for the team's partnership and the progress in community engagement during her tenure. The group acknowledged Tonia’s impact in building a strong partnership between CCI and the county, with Chair Bjorklund emphasizing that Tonia’s direct involvement in CCI meetings, as the PGA Director, accelerated decision-making.

9. New business for future agendas

No items were discussed.

The meeting adjourned at 8:28 p.m.
Next meeting: Tuesday, July 15, 2026, 6–8 p.m. via Zoom.