Mental Health Association of Portland

From The Lund Report, March 15, 2013

The DOJ settlement with the city of Portland requires coordinated care organizations to set up mental health drop-off centers by July, but it’s unclear how they were singled out in the agreement

Last December’s settlement between the Department of Justice and the city of Portland tasked the city and Multnomah County with a host of reforms intended to improve interactions between police and people with mental illness – and to improve access to mental healthcare.

READ – DOJ v City of Portland settlement

Some of the provisions in the yet-to-be-finalized settlement have been identified and, according to DOJ Police Reforms Manager Clay Neal, are already under way. Neal said the bureau has established a behavioral crisis unit and, after expanding crisis intervention training to all officers is looking to offering an enhanced version of that training to other officers.

“It’ll just be more intense. They’ll just be the go-to officers,” Neal said. “They’re people who want to be working in that realm.”

But another section of the settlement is less well-known and has some stakeholders puzzling over next steps and funding – particularly since they aren’t involved in the settlement.

Section V of the settlement outlines goals for creating community-based mental health services, and tasks the coordinated care organizations with a big piece of that: “The United States expects that the local CCOs will establish, by mid-2013, one or more drop-off center(s) for first responders and public walk-in centers for individuals with addictions and/or behavioral health service needs. All such drop off/walk-in centers should focus care plans on appropriate discharge and community based treatment options, including assertive community treatment teams, rather than unnecessary hospitalization.”

The settlement also says that CCOs should create addictions and mental health-focused subcommittees, which will include representatives from the police bureau’s addictions and behavioral health unit, the unit’s advisory board, Portland Fire and Rescue and the Bureau of Emergency Communications.

Neal called that section “aspirational” and not binding to the city, and said city staff is participating in mental health workgroups with staff from the coordinated care organizations. Because these drop-in centers are not required, they will have no impact on the city’s budget deficit.

It’s also still an open question as to why the coordinated care organizations are actually part of the settlement since they were in their infancy when that agreement was reached in December. Neither Multnomah County nor the Oregon Health Authority participated in those settlement talks, he said.

Most of the recommendations in the settlement were negotiated, Neal said, with representatives from the city and the Department of Justice.

“Looking at the issue of police involvement with mental illness, a drop-off facility was one of the primary recommendations,” Neal said. “It wasn’t new ideas that were coming through the agreement. The process involved a lot of looking at what research has been done.”

Several workgroups have already been convened by Health Share of Oregon to strengthen the mental health system, said Beth Sorensen, communications manager. Deborah Friedman also begins her role as director of behavioral services in April.

“Health Share’s efforts are aimed at reducing the number of transports to avoid the need for a new drop-off center,” Sorensen said. “However, if the outcome of our work groups and our grant-funded initiatives indicates a need for that type of center, then not only Health Share, but Family Care and the county mental health authority would also be part of creating that type of facility.”

The settlement has yet to be finalized – as the mediation process between the DOJ, the Albina Ministerial Alliance and the Portland Police Association is still ongoing.

Last fall U. S. Department of Justice report said what mental health advocates had been saying for years: the Portland Police Bureau disproportionately and excessively applies force against people with mental illnesses.

The settlement is the result of an investigation begun in June 2011 and concluded last fall about the Portland Police Bureau’s use of force. That investigation determined that incidents involving the use of force disproportionately involved people with mental health diagnoses, as highlighted by several use-of-force cases in recent years, including the death of James Chasse, Jr., a lifelong Portland resident who died in police custody in 2006, several hours after an incident where several of his ribs were broken, prompting three lawsuits. Following the 2010 death of Aaron Campbell, who was unarmed and distraught over his brother’s death, former Mayor Sam Adams asked the federal government to investigate the bureau’s use of force.

Alien Boy, a documentary film about Chasse’s life and death, just wrapped a two-week run at Cinema 21 in Portland and is now playing at the Living Room Theater in Portland.

Most recently, Merle Hatch, who was shot by Portland police after a confrontation at Adventist Hospital, was described as struggling with addiction for most of his adult life, and Santiago Cisneros, who died March 4after a shootout with two officers in Northeast Portland, had received treatment for depression and post-traumatic stress disorder.

In an open letter to the DOJ released by the Mental Health Association of Portland last fall, its authors noted that people experiencing mental illness often do not respond well to authoritative commands – and that incidents of police brutality are the result of a system that fails to dismiss officers with a history of violence, but also fails to provide treatment options to head off acute episodes of mental illness.

“Without worthwhile treatment resources, acute illness is a predictable, routinely experienced complication of many illnesses,” the statement said. “For us, inability to respond to police immediately or typically can provoke an escalation in tactics that too often results in injury or death. While the settlement agreement does address treatment deficiencies, it is mainly responsive to the convenience of police, not the expressed needs of our community.”

From The Oregonian, January 7, 2013

The Albina Ministerial Alliance Tuesday afternoon filed a motion in federal court to intervene in the city agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice governing Portland police reforms.

Eds. Note: The motion for intervention was filed by the Albina Ministerial Alliance Coalition for Justice and Police Reform – not the Albina Ministerial Alliance. The AMA Coalition is a project of the AMA, but also includes other organizations and individuals which are not members of the AMA, including Disabity Rights Oregon, the Oregon chapter of the National Lawyers Guild, the Mental Health Association of Portland, and Portland Copwatch which is a project of Peace and Justice Works.

The alliance seeks to intervene as a plaintiff in the pending case United States of America v. City of Portland.

READ – Memorandum in support of AMA motion to intervene, 21 pages (PDF)
READ – Declaration of Dr. LeRoy Haynes iso AMA motion to intervene, 6 pages (PDF)
READ – Intervenor-plaintiff AMA Coalition’s motion to intervene, 2 pages (PDF)
READ – Officer-involved shootings and other in-custody deaths by the Portland Police Department, 2000-2011, Albina Ministerial Alliance Coalition, 31 pages (PDF)

The alliance argued that the settlement agreement failed to address concerns raised about police use of force against people of color; lacks strict restrictions on police use of Tasers and provides no formal process for court oversight once an agreement is signed.

“Thus it is critical that an intervener representing the public’s interests be part of this process,” attorneys J. Ashlee Albies and Shauna Curphey wrote in a motion on behalf of the alliance.

The alliance is a group of 125 Portland-area churches that has been engaged in social justice work since the 1970s. The Albina Ministerial Alliance Coalition for Justice and Police Reform was founded in 2003 after the officer-involved fatal shooting of Kendra James.

“The AMA Coalition, with its diversity and deep roots in the communities most affected by the Portland Police Bureau’s excessive use of force against people with mental illness and persons of color, and long history of police reform advocacy in Portland is best suited to represent the interests of the community as an intervenor,” the attorneys wrote in a memorandum in support of its motion.

The Albina Ministerial Alliance submitted to the court a chart of shootings over the past decade. Its research found that at least 30 percent of the 61 people shot at or killed by Portland police were people of color, in a city that is almost 79 percent white. Of those 61 people, 14, or 23 percent were African American, according to the Alliance’s court filing. Twenty-two of the 61 people, or 36 percent, were unarmed, according to the alliance’s analysis.

Tuesday was the deadline for any person or group to file a motion to intervene in the case.

The Portland Police Association is the other group to have sought such intervention.

The U.S. Department of Justice and City of Portland have until Jan. 22 to respond to the motions.

U.S. District Judge Michael H. Simon will hold a hearing Feb. 19 to rule on them.

The court filings stem from the U.S. Department of Justice’s nearly 15-month investigation into use of force by Portland police. The inquiry found police engaged in a pattern or practice of excessive force against people suffering from or perceived to have a mental illness.

The settlement, approved by the City Council on Nov. 14, calls for widespread changes to Portland police policies on use of force, Tasers, training, supervision and oversight. A community liaison official would be hired to oversee the agreement, under the settlement. A federal judge would maintain jurisdiction over the agreement, and could be asked to intervene if the agreement is not followed.

The Portland Police Association also has filed a motion to intervene. In court papers filed last month, the police union argues that the negotiated changes to Portland police policies and procedures undermine the collective bargaining rights of union members.

The union cited a 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals case that allowed the Los Angeles Police Protective League to intervene in a consent decree before the federal court on Los Angeles police reforms in 2002.

Members of the public will be able to participate in a so-called “fairness hearing” before the federal judge at a future time to express their opinions on whether the negotiated settlement is “fair, adequate and reasonable.” No date has been set for that public hearing.

Friends,

On Dec. 17, USDOJ filed suit against the City of Portland under the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act alleging that city’s police have acted with excessive force against persons with (or perceived to have) mental illness. This follows the negotiation between the USDOJ and City of a Settlement Agreement. Terms of the Agreement include the filing of this action and its dismissal pending the performance of its other provisions.

The next day, the Portland Police Association moved to intervene as a matter of right under FRCP 24(a), or, in the alternative, to intervene permissively under FRCP 24(b).

This morning (the 21st) Judge Michael Simon held a Status Conference in his courtroom. He gave the USDOJ an extension of time to respond to the Motion to Intervene and set out how he plans to proceed with the case. Here’s what he said.

The Court’s role is to determine whether this settlement agreement is fair, just, and consistent with the public interest as determined by Congress. While class action settlements require a Fairness Hearing, a case of this sort does not. However, the Court has the discretion to hold a Fairness Hearing nonetheless. In this case, he believes a Fairness Hearing to be appropriate.

He said that everyone concerned will have an opportunity to be heard. He will allow anyone to submit written comments to the court, will hold hearings when the public can conveniently attend, even if that requires evenings or weekends, and is open to all suggestions about how the process can be as open as possible. He will also have a “clearinghouse” established so that anyone can review the written comments, motions, or other documents submitted.

He set the following deadlines:

Jan. 8: Any further motions to intervene will be considered “timely” if filed by this date.
Jan 22: Responsive memoranda to Motions to Intervene are due. Also, all comments on how to conduct the Fairness Hearing and public input process are due.
Feb. 5: Deadline for replies in Support of Motions to Intervene.
Feb 19: Hearing on all motions. (9 AM).

This will be covered in the news, but it’s important to spread the word that anyone can be involved who wants to be.

Happy Holidays!
Bob Joondeph
Executive Director
Disability Rights Oregon

From the Oregonian, November 21, 2012

Portland police officers are getting hurt during encounters with suspects because they doubt police brass, in light of a federal justice inquiry, will support them if they use the amount of force they deem appropriate, the police union president said.

Daryl Turner, president of the Portland Police Association

Officer Daryl Turner, who leads the Portland Police Association, said he’s addressing officers at precinct roll calls with this message: “Take care of yourselves. Protect yourselves. Remember, Department of Justice officials are not professional police officers. You are.”

Turner’s remarks offer the first detailed look at how the rank-and-file are responding to the city’s negotiated settlement agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice. The agreement calls for reforms to Portland police policies, training and oversight. It stems from federal investigators’ findings in September that Portland police engaged in a pattern of excessive against people suffering from, or perceived as suffering from, mental illness.

In recent weeks, several officers have had to be treated at local hospitals, including one who required stitches for a head wound after struggling with a suspect who pulled a dagger on police.

The union, in particular, has criticized the chief’s proposed changes to bureau use of force and Taser policies.

The draft policies say officers must recognize that people in mental health crisis require a “specialized response,” and officers must ensure confrontations are resolved with as little force as practical.

The policies stress the need to de-escalate encounters and resolve problems “with less force than the maximum allowed.” The bureau also expects officers to justify each use of force, noting that police can face discipline for unreasonable use of force.

“It’s giving the officers cause for pause, because they’re thinking in their mind about the DOJ,” Turner said, “and they don’t think they’re going to get the support of their leaders.”

“What these policies do is make a dangerous job more difficult,” Turner added.

Dave Fidanque, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Oregon, said no one wants to see officers injured. But Fidanque thinks Turner is jumping to conclusions.

“I think taking a couple of incidents and trying to draw a general conclusion from them is pretty dangerous,” Fidanque said. “You’re never going to eliminate all possibility of injuries either to officers or suspects.”

He said Turner’s “protect yourselves” remarks at roll-calls revealed a “shade of the thin blue line” and a belief that only police can judge their actions.

In contrast, Fidanque applauded the bureau for drafting new use of force standards, saying it shows the bureau is taking steps toward “trying to avoid injuries to everyone involved.”

Multiple officers were hospitalized for injuries in the last month.

On Oct. 30, for example, Officer John Billard suffered two broken ribs, a bruised lung and head wound requiring five staples after a man pulled a dagger and shoved officers. Police had confronted the man as part of an investigation into a possible drug offense or car prowl downtown.

On Nov. 12, a 41-year-old man was arrested, accused of knocking Officer Jakhary Jackson in the back of the head with a glass beer mug when the officer warned him not to jaywalk. The blow knocked Jackson to the ground. He required three staples for a head injury.

On Nov. 18, officers investigating a silent alarm at a North Portland dental office confronted a suspect by the building who appeared intoxicated. When the man refused to remove his hands from his pockets, three officers grabbed his arms, and a struggle ensued. The suspect swung a fist at one officer and kicked another in the chest when he was placed in a patrol car.

In the wake of the violent skirmishes, Portland Police Chief Mike Reese sent out a video message, telling officers that their safety is his top priority.

“I know you are keenly aware of the Department of Justice settlement discussions and have concerns about what that means to our policies, training and practices surrounding use of force,” Reese said in the video. “I want you to know that I support your daily work in the tough situations that officers respond to and the need to use reasonable force to take people into custody or to keep our community safe.”

The police union president dismissed the chief’s Nov. 8 video as falling short.

“They don’t need that,” Turner said recently. “They need their chief of police to give them some direction.”

Until the federal agreement is signed in U.S. District Court, Turner said, the chief needs to be clear with officers: Will their actions be judged based on their current training and policies, or based on the city’s agreement with federal justice officials, and drafts of revised police force and Taser policies?

On the same day Reese put out his video, Turner complained in a police union newsletter that the city reached its agreement with the Justice Department without input from officers. Because the changes affect discipline and officer safety, Turner argued, they must be negotiated with the union.

“The PPA will take all necessary steps to preserve its collective bargaining rights,” Turner wrote on Nov. 8.

Mayor Sam Adams, who serves as police commissioner, said he had anticipated the union’s demand to bargain, and the city is prepared to discuss any union request.

Fidanque said he thinks officers have a legitimate need for “clearer guidance on what they should or cannot do.”

“What I hope officers will take away from the DOJ agreement is, there’s an opportunity for officers and the leadership of the bureau and the public to all get on the same page,” Fidanque said, “so officers will know that when they act, they’ll have the community’s support.”

City Attorney James Van Dyck said he’s awaiting word from federal justice officials on exactly when they plan to file the negotiated settlement in court, which city officials hoped would happen by years-end. The bureau also has been seeking public input on its policy changes.

“We got a lot of comments in. We’re taking a lot at those,” VanDyck said. “My guess is there will be further revisions.”

Turner said he shared his concerns with the chief and city attorney on Tuesday. “We’re cautiously optimistic our concerns were heard.”

From the Willamette Week, Nov. 20, 2012

About 50 Portland Police Officers tossed their names in to serve on the bureau’s soon-to-be expanded Crisis Intervention Team, a police spokesman tells WW.

Not long after the Department of Justice released its report finding PPB officers have a pattern and practice of using excessive force on those with mental illness, Chief Mike Reese announced the city would create a 24-hour intervention team specially trained to respond to mental health calls.

All officers will continue to receive 40 hours of mental health training, and the CIT officers will get more. The city’s Mobile Crisis Unit, which pairs an officer with a mental health professional, will also grow in size, Reese said in October.

The number of volunteers for CIT represent just 5 percent of the 956 sworn officers in the bureau.

Still, Police spokesman Sgt. Pete Simpson says that the bureau is “very pleased with the number of applicants” and that the administration is now looking through the applicants to see who may be selected.

Simpson says the bureau doesn’t yet know how many officers will be chosen, but police have said that at least one CIT trained officer will be on duty at each precinct every hour of the day.

“It’s a diverse group—a lot of different people from different divisions will be on the street,” Simpson says.

Public testimony about the City of Portland & Department of Justice settlement from the November 1 2012 session.

READ – Settlement agreement in United States v. City of Portland

From The Oregonian, November 2, 2012

Community activists, attorneys and civil rights workers told Portland’s City Council Thursday that the agreement the city reached with federal officials on police reforms doesn’t go far enough.

They urged the council to slow down and not rush to sign the 74-page agreement next week.

Tom Steenson, a Portland civil rights attorney, told the Portland City Council it should not sign an agreement between the city and the Department of Justice until some changes are made.

Civil rights attorney Tom Steenson, who represented the families of James P. Chasse Jr. and Aaron Campbell in federal lawsuits against the city, said he could not understand why several recommended changes to police practices were rejected. He said the agreement lacks several “best practices” governing police training and accountability.

“Don’t approve the agreement as it stands,” Steenson told the council. “I think that you need to step back and look at this and give much more consideration.”

The Rev. T. Allen Bethel, of the Albina Ministerial Alliance, said the lack of real community involvement has continued to erode the community’s trust that the reforms in the agreement will be put in place.

Bethel and others urged an independent court-appointed monitor to be assigned to oversee the changes.

“This agreement needs to be relooked at, renegotiated and needs to come back with teeth,” Bethel said.

The agreement was announced last Friday, more than a month after the U.S. Department of Justice found the Police Bureau engages in a pattern or practice of excessive force against people with mental illness. The agreement contains changes to bureau policies on use of force, its training of officers, retention of records, and community oversight.

Becky Straus, of the American Civil Liberties Union of Oregon, said the council has an opportunity “to achieve lasting change” in the Police Bureau.

But she said she worries that there’s not enough oversight.

“We continue to be concerned that there is not enough accountability to ensure that what is mandated will ever be actualized,” the ACLU’s written testimony says. “We are disappointed that the Agreement stops short of this necessary safeguard.”

Several members of the city’s Human Rights Commission decried the agreement’s dismantling of the Community Police Relations Committee, which would be replaced by a 15-voting member Community Oversight Board to ensure the DOJ reforms are put in place.

Kyle Busse, chair-elect of the Human Rights Commission, said he’s concerned that the important work of improving race relations by the Community Police Relations Committees would be jeopardized.

“It was a surprise to learn they’d be uprooted and be put in a position they knew nothing about,” Busse said.

ACLU representatives, the League of Women Voters and Portland Copwatch argue the agreement didn’t go far enough in improving the existing police accountability system.

“The Department of Justice letter of findings called Portland’s accountability system ‘self defeating.’ Unfortunately, the remedies outlined in the agreement do little to address many of the long-standing community concerns related to the system as it currently operates,” wrote Mary McWilliams, league president, and Debbie Aiona, the league’s action committee chair, in a letter to the mayor and commissioners.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Oregon also had recommended that the city abandon the current police oversight system involving the Independent Police Review Division and replace it with a “strong, transparent, and integrated civilian oversight body.”

Angela Kimball, a member of the National Alliance on Mental Illness, urged the Police Bureau to hire a national consultant, such as retired Memphis police Major Sam Cochran, to help the bureau recreate a specialized Crisis Intervention Team of officers that work closely with mental health providers and consumers.

Kimball urged the city commissioners to show true leadership to bring about the reforms.

“Real reform can’t be decreed by a legal document,” Kimball told the council, “but only by your sustained commitment and leadership to bring the culture of the Police Bureau in line with city mores.”

James Kahan, a volunteer member of of the bureau’s Crisis Intervention Team advisory council, said he was struck by many of the agreement’s demands that the bureau bring back a voluntary group of specialized officers to respond to mental health crisis calls and reconnect with community providers and mental health consumers.

“We’ve been making them (recommendations) for years and we’ve been ignored,” Kahan said.

Busse, of the Human Rights Commission, said the council should not rush into the agreement.

“Take the time to do it right,” he said.

The mayor estimated that the annual cost of the reforms will be $5.4 million – 60 percent of that or $3.5 million is from an increase of 32 staff positions , and 40 percent represents the ongoing funding of the city’s Service Coordination Team, which connects frequent offenders with housing and treatment.

If the council wants to make any changes to the settlement agreement, city officials would have to have the buy-in of the U.S. Department of Justice.

Once the three-hour hearing came to a close, the mayor said the City Council would hold another hearing next Thursday afternoon on potential amendments to the Justice Department agreement but would not vote next week.

READ – Skeptics Sound Off at Public Airing of Feds’ Deal with Portland Police, Portland Mercury
READ – ACLU of Oregon testimony about the DOJ / City of Portland settlement
READ – League of Women Voters testimony about the DOJ / City of Portland settlement

From The Oregonian, 11/2/2012

When Portland’s mayor last week announced the city’s plan to address federal concerns about police treatment of people in mental health crisis, he highlighted a key feature: a drop-off or walk-in center where police could take patients in need. He said a center would open in mid-2013.

Mayor Sam Adams on Oct. 26, announcing a negotiated settlement in U.S. Justice Department inquiry into police use of force against people with mental illness.

But the issue is far from settled. Leaders of the health care organizations that Mayor Sam Adams said would open the centers say they haven’t ironed out what one would look like, where it would be, how it would be funded or even whether such a facility is the best solution. Multnomah County officials say they were not involved in any talks. And other mental health providers called the deadline unrealistic.

“How this effort will be funded is a good question, and we don’t have an answer to that right now,” said Janet L. Meyer, interim chief executive office of Health Share of Oregon.

Health Share is one of the state’s two new coordinated care organizations for Multnomah County — a network of health care providers to serve people under the Oregon Health Plan.

“To have something as complex as a drop-off center organized, established and operational by mid-2013 seems, quite frankly, beyond what would be considered possible,” said Derald Walker, chief executive officer of Cascadia Behavioral Healthcare.

Written into Portland’s negotiated agreement with federal justice officials is the expectation by the U.S. Department of Justice that the state’s new local coordinated care organizations will create one or more of the centers for people in need of immediate mental health care by mid-2013.

Meyer said her management team worked closely with the mayor to assist in Portland’s response to the Justice Department inquiry. The team’s role, she said, was providing background information.

“We agreed that if the outcome of our work indicates a need for a drop off center, then it would be incumbent on everyone — Health Share, FamilyCare and the county mental health authority — to facilitate the creation of such a facility.”

She called next year’s deadline “a challenge.”

Jesse Gamez, chief operating officer for FamilyCare Inc., said Thursday he had talked with the mayor by phone before the Justice Department agreement was released, but doesn’t know where the mid-2013 deadline came from.

Gamez described the opening of a crisis drop-off center as “one of the options” where police might take people in need of immediate mental health care. “To me, it’s unclear how the funding stream is going to occur.”

“We are there to partner with the city. We are going to be involved in the process moving forward,” Gamez said.

Multnomah County spokesman David Austin said county mental health providers have been involved with the city in “broad-based” discussions on how to improve the mental health-care system.

“We were not involved in any plans or discussions with the city or CCOs around building new drop-off centers,” Austin said. “We were not a party to this.”

For years, Portland police have lamented the 2003 closing of the Crisis Triage Center at Providence Medical Center, where officers could drop off someone they encountered during a call who needed immediate mental health care.

But the triage center quickly became overrun with patients. And, despite the center’s ability to keep patients on mental health holds up to 72 hours, patients often were let out after that period. Budget cuts closed the center.

After the 2006 death in Portland police custody of James P. Chasse Jr., a 42-year-old man with paranoid schizophrenia, the city and county moved to open a new, 16-bed Crisis Assessment Treatment Center. The Portland Development Commission provided $2 million for development, and the state contributed $1 million to renovate the second floor of the David P. Hooper Sobering Center for the new center.

The center opened in June 2011 off Northeast Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard. Its staff provides patients up to 10 days of assessment and treatment, and develops a treatment plan for after they leave the center. Police, hospital ER staff or mental health care providers can refer patients by calling the county’s Mental Health Call Center. But the Crisis Assessment and Treatment Center is not a “drop-off” center for anyone who wants services.

Oregon’s U.S. Attorney Amanda Marshall said that before the federal-city agreement was reached, she had attended a brief meeting with the mayor, Central City Concern, hospital officials and other community-based health care groups. “We discussed the need to have the private sector come together to work with the city and state,” on mental health care reforms, Marshall said. But any details about deadlines or drop-off centers were negotiated by the mayor, Marshall said.

Adams and Commissioner Amanda Fritz said the mid-2013 deadline came from their talks with coordinated care organization representatives over the past several months.

“Everything in that agreement regarding the drop-off centers, they agreed to,” Adams said Thursday.

But the mayor and Fritz said no details on location or funding have been ironed out. Adams said those questions would be answered by a coordinated care organization-subcommittee that includes city and county representatives. “Having us at the table redesigning mental health community services is key,” he said.

Fritz added, “We think it’ll end up being cheaper to take care of people in crisis.”

The mayor said his early conversations with community-based health care organizations suggested it would take 18 to 24 months before the CCO “could get to local mental health service reform.”

“At my request, I am very grateful they moved it up to mid-2013,” Adams said.

Walker isn’t convinced the mayor’s timeline is achievable for a drop-off center. “As much as we would like to have something like that set up” he said, “that strikes me as overly ambitious.”

READ / LISTEN – Critics Tell Portland Council DOJ Agreement ‘Does Not Go Far Enough’, OPB.org
READ / CHAT – Portland police reforms: Live chat at noon Friday with Maxine Bernstein, Oregonian
READ – Portland Council Gets Feedback On DOJ Settlement, DailyAstorian.com