Minutes

April 28, 2011

Ad hoc Homelessness Steering Committee

Gresham Room, Ashland Public Library

4:00 – 6:00

Attendance

Saldana, O’Bryon, Rohde, Parker, Lewis, Ayars, Voisin (council liaison), Hopkins-Powell, Slattery (council liaison) Seltzer (city staff)

Absent

Everson

Call to Order

Parker called the meeting to order at 4:05.

Approval of Minutes

Minutes of the April 21 meeting were approved with corrections.

Approval of Announcement

The group approved the announcement.  It was suggested the Mayor read the announcement at the Council meeting on May 3.  Seltzer will provide the Mayor with the information, post the announcement on the city’s website, and send to the media.

Score Sheet

The group discussed how it will evaluate proposals.  Ayars suggested using the CDBG format of rating proposals as high, medium and low.  Rohde suggested using a rating system of numbers ranging from 0 to 5.  Others suggested using the four bullet points listed on the announcement as a means of separating proposals into groups.  Rohde likes a grading system in order to form an objective group discussion for the committee and commented grading helps get to the key proposals.  Hopkins-Powell stated the process is not a competition and wants to keep all proposals in the mix.  Each proposal will have a different degree of complexity. 

In the end it was decided not to use a score sheet.  Each committee member will evaluate each proposal and be prepared to discuss each proposal at a future meeting.

Short Term Issues

Committee members asked what action the need to take with the “short term list.”

Voisin and Slattery clarified the committee does not need to take action at this point and that the committee can wait and see if any proposals reflect an action on the list.  Slattery is confident the committee will receive proposals that address actions on the list.  He clarified the Council is not expecting the HSC to present solutions.  Voisin explained the Council is concerned about the potential for disruptions on the Plaza and wanted possible solutions (short-term list) that might mitigate disruptions.

O’Bryon thinks the word will get out from the local homeless community to the transient homeless who may visit Ashland during the summer months.  Hopkins-Powell reminded the group there are many people who are homeless that don’t go to the Plaza and there are multiple problems to solve.

Next meeting dates

The committee reserved May 12 and May 26 as meeting dates depending on the number of proposals received.

The committee confirmed it will meet as a group on Thursday, June 9, Thursday, July 14 and Thursday August 18 and report to the Council in September.

The committee did not set meeting dates for a second round though at the April 21 meeting, it was suggested a second round could occur September, October, November and a third round could occur December, January and February.

Next meeting

Tentative: May 12 and May 26 from 4:00 – 6:00 Gresham Room at the Library

The meeting adjourned at 5:00 p.m.