Blog

On behalf of the Multnomah County Central Budget Office, the Hatfield Resident Fellow (HRF) prepared a research report that examines the advantages and disadvantages of biennial budgeting at the local level. This report was written in direct response to a 2023 Audit asking the County to consider the…

Multnomah County’s Deflection Program connects clients who would otherwise be arrested for possession of a controlled substance to a behavioral health pathway toward recovery. The overall goal of the project was to provide public health and deflection review services to the Multnomah County Health Department’s…

The main goal of this project is to build a clear and practical framework to investigate the practice of unauthorized transfer of water debt by the Portland Water Bureau, and better understand the nature of this problem. To accomplish the overarching goal there were several goals along the way. The first goal…

This was the first audit of Metro’s First Opportunity Target Area (FOTA) hiring program since its implementation in 1989. The goal was to evaluate processes and outcomes of the program and identify any risks to efficiency, effectiveness, or compliance. Findings are used to make recommendations to Metro,…

This fellowship project aimed to assess the effectiveness of the Behavioral Health Division’s (BHD) program areas and develop data-driven recommendations for improvement. Working closely with the BHD Quality Management team—including senior researchers and division leadership—the Hatfield resident fellow…

The overall goal of the project was to update the City of Manzanita’s Comprehensive Plan and housing-related Zoning Ordinance to comply with the State of Oregon’s Middle Housing rules (i.e., House Bill 2001), which are applied to Tillamook County through Senate Bill 406. 

The goal of this project is to complete the performance audit process and draft a report for a topic from the 2024-2025 audit calendar for the Metro Office of the Auditor. The Hatfield Residential Fellow (HRF) acted as a management auditor and collaborated with a Senior Management Auditor on most steps of an…

Young adults (ages 17 to 25) have needs that are different from those of children and older adults. Thus, providing comprehensive age-appropriate behavioral health (BH) services through the child and adult system is challenging. The large group of young adults with mental health conditions are vulnerable to…

The overall goal of the project was to provide reporting, documentation, and communications services to the Medicaid Community Engagement and Policy Team working in partnership with the OHP Open Card Lived Experience Advisory Panel (LEAP) at the Oregon Health Authority. The Hatfield Resident Fellow (HRF) acted…

SWA rules and regulations were analyzed under the guidance of the sponsor. Areas of interest for updates were known. Then a robust content analysis of 6 other water utilities, both cities and authorities were considered until an ideal template was found and that worked as the guideline for SWA rules and…

The project's primary goal was to create a framework to identify key social equity requirements to improve customer service. The water equity framework for Sunrise Water Authority aimed to be developed based on socio-economic research findings of customer population, equity need assessment, and best practices…

The overall goal of the project was to support the Independent District Commission’s decision-making process to create a citywide map with four geographic districts. The Oregon Summer Fellow (OSF) worked with the City of Portland Transition team to support community engagement efforts, analyze public input,…