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Michael Dunne: I'm Michael Dunne. Lane County is situated in some truly stunning landscapes: the Pacific Ocean to the west, the fertile Willamette Valley in the middle, and the Cascade Range to the east. But our landscape also encompasses potential disasters like wildfires and the Cascadia Subduction Zone. Today on the show, you'll hear from the new Lane County emergency manager and learn about the critical nature of that role. With so much potential for community-wide crises, coordination among all first responders is key, and this position sits at the center of that coordination. Then, in the last part of the show, we'll hear about another challenge facing beleaguered Springfield Public Schools: lawsuits from former administrators. Monica Larcom is the new emergency manager for Lane County. Thanks so much for coming in and talking to us.
Monica Larcom: Hey, thanks so much for having me. I appreciate it.
Dunne: Before we get into your new role, talk about your previous role with the county.
Larcom: Before the emergency manager position, I was with the Linn County Sheriff's Office as one of the search and rescue program supervisors. I was with the sheriff's office since July 2023, for about three years, and I supervised about 150 volunteers in the search and rescue program and helped manage several training programs, like our technical rope rescue program with Eugene Mountain Rescue, our Search and Rescue 101 program, our youth program, our medical program and all sorts of others. So I got a lot of experience working with local partnerships in responding to incidents and working with people managing incidents, ranging from going down a distant Forest Service road to look for someone stuck in their vehicle to managing multiday, multi-operational-period incidents where we're looking for missing people or doing rescues up on the mountains, and all that.
Dunne: And then, before that, talk about your work with the Forest Service, right?
Larcom: Park Service, National Park Service. People often conflate the two, and really the only people who care about the difference are the people who work for either the Forest Service or the Park Service. But yes, I was previously working mostly for the National Park Service since 2016. I also briefly worked for the U.S. Geological Survey up in Corvallis, but in the Park Service I bounced around the country. I worked for a number of national parks, did some digital media and public affairs work back east with the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal National Historical Park, and yes, it is a mouthful. And then I worked at Arches National Park in Utah, Crater Lake here in Oregon, Mount Rainier and a couple other places.
Dunne: All right, cool. So explain to listeners what the emergency manager does for Lane County. Talk about the job.
Larcom: The job, well, I'm still learning what all the job entails, but if I were to put it in the simplest terms, it's about helping manage emergencies or incidents in the county that surpass or overly stress local resources that are already built to manage those kinds of incidents. A big example would be the wildfires that occur with too much frequency here in the county. The actual response to fighting those wildfires is managed by the administrative agency, which typically has been the Forest Service, but there are also several components that strongly affect our residents. The people of Oak Ridge, McKenzie Bridge and Blue River have had a disproportionate experience having to deal with being evacuated because of wildfire, so emergency management helps manage those components: evacuations, notifications, and then managing other things like mass care and shelter if people are displaced from their homes. And that doesn't go for just wildfires. It goes for flooding, and tornadoes, if we were to have them. Tornadoes actually are a disaster outlined by our natural hazards mitigation plan, so it's potentially a thing we'd have to deal with. And then, on the coast, the big hazards are tsunamis and landslides from potential earthquakes and inundation.
Dunne: Yeah, which I wanted to bring up, because of the two major disasters most people have in mind. One is predictable wildfires. We know they're going to occur. We don't know exactly where or when, but we know roughly the season when they're most likely to occur. And then the Cascadia Subduction Zone, which we know is there, but we have no idea when it's going to occur. It could be tomorrow, it could be 100 years from now. What kind of challenges does that place on emergency preparedness, knowing that Cascadia could happen anytime, or never, in our lifetime, and wildfires, yeah, we know it's going to happen?
Larcom: Yeah, that's the million-dollar question right there. It's kind of a consistent tension in emergency management: bridging that gap, or balancing addressing more immediate needs and hazards with preparation for the long term and, in theory, much larger hazards. With the resources I have, my focus so far has been on building up our resources and capacity to handle smaller incidents. By small, I don't mean wildfires are small, they're still large and extremely difficult, but a Cascadia-type earthquake would be overwhelming to any city, county or town. So building up our capacity to deal with smaller incidents like wildfires, making sure we have processes for damage assessment, that we have systems in place to help get people individual assistance or infrastructural and financial reimbursement in case of business damages or public infrastructure damages: focusing on those things. Then, in theory, with Cascadia, we'd be better prepared to respond to a larger incident. There are also things I think about and try to work toward, like doing what I can to prioritize retrofitting bridges and other critical infrastructure to help us withstand larger incidents. But yeah, there's always that tension about figuring out what to focus on, because I don't know anyone who's told me recently that they have plenty of money and don't know what to do with it all. So I'm in that same situation, trying to figure out how to maximize my time and resources to do the most we can for our community.
Dunne: Talk about the challenges of coordination among multiple jurisdictions. A lot of times, as you said, some might get overwhelmed, but I imagine, I don't want to say turf battles, but it can be confusing as to who's lead, who's responsible. How do you work in that kind of environment?
Larcom: Yeah, I think emergency management can play a really important role, because in some ways we're a little neutral, a little like Switzerland. Really, our job is to help coordinate things, so I don't necessarily consider a lot of turf mine. I just want to make sure everybody's turf is taken care of and that our community members are able to get the services they need in emergencies. When you come to the table with that attitude, where you're just trying to assist the public and community members in getting better services and making sure their government is there when they need it to provide essential services in emergencies, I honestly haven't seen a whole lot of turf battles. I think by and large everyone wants those same things. There are definitely things that can be better understood, or miscommunications, but people by and large want to help their communities, and I've seen a whole lot of good-faith efforts. I feel really grateful to work with so many people who just want the best for their community.
Dunne: Okay. I want to go back to when you were in search and rescue, because to me it seems like that was kind of a micro event: you're looking for perhaps a single lost hiker or something like that. And now this is much more of a macro job. Were there lessons in search and rescue that you feel you can bring to this new role?
Larcom: Absolutely. In search and rescue, we talk about and use ICS a lot, the incident command structure, an organization system to help manage incidents. ICS is a scalable method of organization, so, as you mentioned, organizing 20 to 40 searchers to look for someone in the field, you have similar needs, in an abstract way, as you do organizing evacuations, or organizing response, or developing and standing up shelters. There's definitely a lot of overlap between the two, more administrative or zoomed-out uses, because it really is about using those same tools of organization and structure and then zooming it out and using it in the larger, slightly more abstract way of emergency management.
Dunne: As you're getting familiar with the role, I'm wondering, with your knowledge of the county and as an emergency preparedness expert, are there areas in the county where you say, boy, this is a challenge? For example, I know a lot of people have talked about the fact that with the major hospital in Eugene closing down, with PeaceHealth being the trauma center, and the fact that there are bridges and other infrastructure that could cut that off, are there things you look at and think, OK, these are the areas where we really need to think about a community-wide emergency?
Larcom: Oh, absolutely. I definitely worry about our hospitals and making sure those critical facilities are able to sustain normal operations in emergencies. That's something I've been discussing with Eugene emergency manager Althea Sullivan. As far as other hazards, I think about, as I mentioned, Oak Ridge, Blue River, McKenzie Bridge, Florence and Dunes City, and those areas that have unique challenges because of access, or lack thereof. A lot of our rural communities are kind of one-way-in, one-way-out communities: the areas around Lane and Noti, Swisshome, Mapleton, Deadwood. I've had the opportunity to drive through quite a bit of our county, so I have a map in my brain pointing out all the areas I've come across that have vulnerabilities: Row River, Dorena, other distant areas. I think a lot about how we would be able to get them the help they need in the case that hazards make that difficult.
Dunne: When you were coordinating search and rescue, obviously you were working with volunteers. Talk about the community coming together, whether it's volunteers or just neighborhood associations or groups that aren't paid to worry about emergencies but might be necessary to come together in the event of a community-wide disaster.
Larcom: Yeah, my work with search and rescue volunteers, I've just overall been so impressed with their work and their dedication, and I've really valued the opportunity to work with them and support them. They all have a passion for helping their community, and it is an organizational challenge, because the more variables you introduce to an equation, the more complex solving that equation is. So it's definitely a challenge to try to balance everything, but I'm also so glad there are organizations and people in their communities who are self-starters, who see problems and choose to address and fix them, because in the case of any sort of widespread disaster like Cascadia, it is going to be completely overwhelming. So having folks focus on their own personal preparedness and their neighbors' preparedness and ability, that kind of grassroots effort is going to be really important as larger resources come in.
Dunne: She's Monica Larcom, the new emergency manager for Lane County. Thanks so much for coming in and talking to us.
Larcom: Thank you so much for having me. I appreciate it.
Dunne: Now let's bring in KLCC's Rebecca Hansen-White, who's been following all the twists and turns of Springfield Public Schools. Rebecca, always great to see you. Thanks so much for coming in.
Rebecca Hansen-White: Always great to be here.
Dunne: Boy, you have been following the trials and tribulations of Springfield Public Schools. Talk about the latest challenge, which involves potential lawsuits.
Hansen-White: Yeah, so Springfield was already facing a couple of potential lawsuits. If you recall, the former superintendent and assistant superintendent stepped down, accusing the school board of harassing them with constant requests for information and retaliating against them, among other things they believed were meant to intimidate them. They both ended up resigning, with separation agreements. Now there are two other administrators: the chief operating officer, who, if you go to school board meetings, is the one presenting financial information to the board, and the human resources director. Both have filed what's called a tort claim notice. In Oregon, you can't just sue the government, you have to provide written notice first. That notice usually preserves records, or says, here's the problem we feel we could litigate. They did that back in January, putting three school board members on notice, and then added a fourth school board member last month. The Register-Guard, and The Lookout had that story first, reported that they were potentially going to sue over retaliation and accusations that harmed their reputations.
Dunne: OK, so what's the next step for it to move forward?
Hansen-White: Sometimes tort claim notices are resolved without ever going to a courtroom. Sometimes the two parties can work it out between themselves without it getting into court. There are probably going to be executive sessions, there's probably going to be some stuff we can't see that has to happen to get these situations resolved. But there are all sorts of complaints flying around about administrators and school board members, and the public is still really frustrated. If you read my story, those two administrators have been named in a separate, completely different complaint stemming from all the turmoil this school year, an unfair labor practice complaint, so that's still getting worked out. And then we have the ethics commission also investigating, so there are a lot of moving parts and investigations happening at Springfield schools.
Dunne: I guess my next question is this: From the board's perspective, generally speaking, what has the board chair, the spokespeople for the district, said about all of these investigations, especially with regard to retaliation? I know they're probably limited in what they can say, but have they talked about how they plan to navigate all of these challenges?
Hansen-White: I think everyone is limited in what they can say about pending litigation. One of the frequent accusations that underpins a lot of this is alleged open meetings law violations, so there were a couple of board members who did go and testify before the Oregon Government Ethics Commission about those concerns, and that investigation into whether they broke open meetings law. The board members who went in to testify said they're doing the best they can during a pretty chaotic time, that they were trying to follow legal advice they were receiving. If you remember the time period a lot of this actually stems from, it's December through February, the most turbulent time this school year: the midyear layoffs, the previous school board chair resigning, the superintendent resigning, and then appointing an acting superintendent. That was really chaotic and challenging. They were doing their best to follow legal advice, and the chair, Jonathan Light, was doing his duties as chair.
Dunne: OK, I'm going to set up an analogy here just to get your reaction to it. Were the midyear layoffs like the first domino that kicked off a lot of these challenges, or was it gasoline already poured onto a fire?
Hansen-White: I think gasoline would be more accurate.
Dunne: Boy, I tell you, obviously now it's summer. Does that allow for, I don't know, a cooling-off period to some degree for what's going on at Springfield Public Schools?
Hansen-White: That's possible. They don't meet for a couple weeks, so everyone's got to go on summer break. We've got a new superintendent, potentially a little bit of a fresh start. He just started his job, I believe, yesterday, and hopefully we'll be able to hear from him soon. This one-year superintendent will lead the district through the next school year, so that's potential for change. But right now it's summer, and it's a chance to cool off.
Dunne: Cool off, metaphorically speaking, not literally.
Hansen-White: Exactly.
Dunne: Rebecca Hansen-White, who covers so many things for us here at KLCC, including education and Springfield Public Schools. Thanks so much for coming in and chatting.
Hansen-White: Thank you.
Dunne: That's the show for today. All episodes of Oregon on the Record are available as a podcast at KLCC.org. Monday on the show, we'll bring you the story of a water crisis in central Oregon from our colleague at OPB that pits rich landowners against the region's farmers. I'm Michael Dunne, host of Oregon on the Record. Thanks for listening.
