A Caring Newberg

Many misleading statements have fueled changes in the Newberg I love.

(Addendum added below on Dec. 13, 2022)

This is the poster that mobilized people to create the COPS PAC and overturn the Newberg School Board:

A desire to make our school and community welcoming to all students was named indoctrination and political.

This is the transitional housing project which which the COPS PAC, the recently elected mayor of Newberg, and candidate for Newberg City Council Robyn Wheatley want to stop:

A local church and Providence Medical Center are trying to provide a solution to a critical need in our community—short term housing of a month to a year, with support to create a permanent solution. The COPS PAC, the mayor, and candidates for Newberg City Council are naming this as a threat that needs to be stopped. I got a mailing claiming that the city gave $400,000 to this because they wanted “to attract Portland and Salem homeless persons to Newberg.”

As a former pastor and resident of Newberg for almost four decades, this is a long standing need in our community. This solution expands on previous amazing work by others to create short term shelters in town. It’s not to attract, it’s to meet the needs we have here, and it uses Federal grant money (not water rate fees as they misleadingly want you to believe.)

This program has existed on a small scale for almost two years, with background checks and a signed covenant agreement and wraparound services with BOB (Better Outcomes through Bridges). You can read the fact sheet for yourself here, as well as background for the program. These are not people living on the street, but those who are medically fragile or have other needs that make housing a challenge.

The COPS PAC doesn’t want a Newberg that meets needs like this. A vote for current city council members Jefferson Mildenberger and Stephanie Findley, and for candidate Rev. Casey Banks will work toward a Newberg community that welcomes all, and helps each other grow and thrive.

I want to live in a caring community. Please vote Mildenberger, Findley, and Banks for Newberg City Council (ballots due Dec. 20). And let’s vote in a new School Board in May as well.

ADDENDUM:

After some social media flames, I’ve added the following:

* I’m not part of North Valley Friends (NV) or involved with their Peace Village project, but as a former Friends pastor in town for more than 20 years, I’ve partnered with them on countless things. More than 30 years ago, NV began planning what to do with a substantial amount of land they owned at College and Bell Rd. They could have sold it to developers and made a ton of money. Instead, they wanted to use the land for the betterment of the entire community. They have faithfully worked as partners with community agencies, the city, and the county for decades to find out what the needs are and how they could use the land to meet those needs.

* When Veritas School needed property, they looked at a lot of places and could not afford land. North Valley incorporated Veritas’ need into their plan, and made the purchase affordable. So Veritas has always known that NV has been in a decades-long process to use the land for the betterment of the community.

* Perhaps you see houselessness as a recent issue in Newberg. Perhaps you think it is people coming from other places. That is untrue. Pastors and others have seen the needs for decades. We’ve worked with organizations and the city, we’ve bought hotel rooms, we’ve fed people. I’m so grateful for the shelters in town, and I was involved with setting up the first one more than 15 years ago. Shelters are the first line, for emergency needs. But what do you do after a crisis when you are without resources? Many in our community don’t have family, don’t have resources. Losing a job because of a medical issue can mean losing a place to live and having no solutions to get first and last month’s rent, etc.

* Transitional housing like that IS SUCH A HUGE AND COMPLEX PROBLEM. I’ve talked with at least three previous city managers about it, been invited to an affordable housing task force, and wrestled with other churches to find solutions. The biggest hurdle is: where do you build this kind of housing, and how do you fund it? There is very little buildable land in Newberg, and it is extremely expensive. North Valley and Providence have been in this for the long haul, more than ten years, trying things out on a small scale, and now have the opportunity to expand. To me, this is beautiful and a huge win!

* My post above was written because I want to be part of a community that is supporting efforts to help people in Newberg get the support they need. It’s hard seeing newcomers to the political process trying to stop those efforts. I have not seen them involved in providing solutions up to this point, and I do not see them trying to find how to address these difficult issues now. I want to support candidates who will have the will to try and help, not those who try to stop—and who are campaigning on that message.

*Finally, to address the blog post that says I harassed a company or that I organized a boycott. The school district had a company refuse to print something we needed. I wrote an email to staff saying we recommend going with another company in order to get your printing needs met. It’s like a supply chain issue: when a company can’t or won’t provide what is needed, you come up with another plan.

For context: outside print jobs for Newberg School District are quite rare. They have robust printing capabilities in every building, and the vast majority of printing is done in house. When they need to go elsewhere, it needs to be dependable and timely. I never spoke negatively of the company or even described what happened.

Over a year ago, multiple people in this community began public records requests for all of my thousands and thousands of emails as a district employee. This one email about finding another printer is all they have come up with after more than a year, and it’s being used solely to discredit the things I’m saying now.

* To sum up: I want to partner with people who are providing social support in our community. I know from years of trying that it is difficult work that takes time to get right. My personal perspective of the campaign messages, and of the track record of candidates’ involvement in our town, is that the election for City Council has vastly different perspectives. I’m for the ones who want to address community needs, not shut down solutions.