LINDA L.

MARSHALL
ATTORNEY AT LAW
PMB 408 3 MONROE PARKWAY SUITE P LAKE OSWEGO, OREGON 97035 (503) 699-2082 Fax (971) 269-2888 marshall.l@comcast.net

July 6, 2011 Commission on Children and Families c/o The Office of the Director of the Oregon Department of Administrative Services Executive Building 155 Cottage Street NE, U20 Salem, OR 97301-3972 Marion County c/o Janet Carlson Patti Milne Sam Brentano Board of Commissioners 451 Division Street NE Salem, OR 97301 CASA of Marion County, Inc. c/o Irene Trent-Valencia Interim Executive Director and Chair of Board of Directors 1185 22nd Street SE Salem, OR 97309

Subject:

Pam Sornson Notice of tort claim

Ladies and Gentlemen: This is a notice of claim under ORS 30.275. The claimant is Pam Sornson. The mailing address to which correspondence concerning the claim may be sent is Linda L. Marshall PMB 408

July 6, 2011 3 Monroe Parkway Suite P Lake Oswego, OR 97035 Telephone: (503) 699-2082 Facsimile: (971) 269-2888 Email: marshall.l@comcast.net

page -2

Ms. Sornson gives notice that claims for damages are or will be asserted against the above named public bodies and individuals. The claims may include claims pursuant to 42 USC 1983 for breach of Ms. Sornsons rights under the Speech Clause of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, claims under the Petition Clause of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, claims under Article 1, Section 8 of the Oregon Constitution, claims under Article 1, Section 26 of the Oregon Constitution, claims under ORS 659A.203 (Oregons Whistle Blower Law), and claims for intentional interference with contract, defamation, false light invasion of privacy, and wrongful discharge. Ms. Sornsons claims are based on the following facts. A. Ms. Sornson has given years of dedicated and exemplary service in the interest of child advocacy. Ms. Sornson practiced law for 20 years and has worked in child advocacy for 7 years. In fall 2003, she joined the Board of Directors of MARION COUNTY CASA. From June 2004 through June 2005, she was the Chair of that Board of Directors. In July 2005, she resigned from the Board and became the Executive Director of Marion County CASA. From July 1, 2005 through March 15, 2011, Ms. Sornson was the Executive Director of the Marion County Court Appointed Special Advocates agency (Marion County CASA). Marion County CASA is a not-for-profit agency under contract with Marion County to provide child advocacy services for children that are wards of the court in Marion County. Marion County CASA receives state funds, as well as private grants, donations, and gifts. The budget supports an Executive Director, 2.5 FTE paid case managers, and 80 volunteer child advocates. As Executive Director, Ms. Sornson was responsible for administering the agency, interacting with its Board of Directors, planning programs, hiring, training, and supervising staff, acting as counsel to the agency, writing grants, developing special projects, acting as a case manager, and generally performing any task that needs to be done. By law, any child under juvenile court care because of abuse or neglect is entitled to the services of a child advocate (a CASA) to represent his or her interests in any legal action. ORS 419A.170. The CASA, with the help of a case manager, investigates the case, files reports with the court, and attends all court proceedings in order to insure that the childs interests are effectively represented. In addition, the CASA monitors implementation of court orders,

July 6, 2011

page -3

interacts with the childs teachers and medical providers, and attends case planning meetings with Department of Human Services (DHS) staff. When Ms. Sornson became the Executive Director of Marion County CASA, the program had no policy or procedures to guide the CASAs. Ms. Sornson, who is a licensed attorney, performed extensive legal research into Oregon and federal law concerning child advocacy, and researched materials from the National CASA Association and the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges. She developed a system for Marion County CASA, which was focused on three issues: child wellbeing, sufficiency of foster care, and permanency planning. She tailored the services of the Marion County CASA to principals recommended as best practices by national experts on dependency law and child advocacy. Ms. Sornson developed an extensive reference manual for the staff and the CASAs. Through Ms. Sornsons efforts, Marion County CASA developed into an effective child advocacy program. She trained the case managers and volunteer CASAs on the specifics of what was required of them under state and federal law. She clarified the relationship between the CASAs and DHS in order to bring Marion County CASA into compliance with state law. She developed report formats for the CASAs to provide pertinent and required information for the court. She developed extensive reference material to enable the case managers and CASAs to be informed and effective. In 2009, Ms. Sornson developed a program for teens in foster care, called the CASA Teen Team. This program is an advocacy program for teens based on seven domains of the Comprehensive Transition Plan, as required by state and federal law. Ms. Sornson developed reference manuals for each of the domains and a directory of local and county resources which are available for teens. Ms. Sornson trained and assigned a staff person dedicated to program. The Teen Team was fully operational by the summer of 2010. By the spring of 2011, there were 21 CASAs on the Teen Team, representing some 45 teens in foster care. In the spring of 2010, Ms. Sornson developed an educational surrogate program for Marion County CASA, pursuant to ORS 419C.220, for foster children in the educational system. The purpose of the educational surrogate program is to ensure that children with learning challenges receive the assessments and support services they need to advance in their education. The educational surrogate is authorized to request an assessment on behalf of the child, so that the child can qualify for services that would not otherwise be provided. Through Ms. Sornsons efforts, Marion County CASA received numerous grants, including four (4) years of funding from United Way of the Mid Willamette Valley, the Jerome Foundation, the Collins Foundation and Spirit

July 6, 2011

page -4

Mountain Community Fund. Beginning in July 2009, Marion CASA received $50,000 per year of funding from a local benefactor. The benefactor was so impressed with the materials developed by Ms. Sornson and implemented in Marion CASA, that in January 2011 he offered to fund two additional years and to pay an attorney to act as the Chief Operating Officer of Marion County CASA while Ms. Sornson dedicated her time to promoting her systems of child advocacy throughout the state. He was interested in developing a sound and sustainable funding platform for Marion County CASA. In addition, he offered to fund an intern from the Willamette University MBA program to develop accounting and financial systems for Marion County CASA. B. Ms. Sornson discovers broad misallocation of funds appropriated to OCCF for distribution to CASA programs. The Oregon legislature appropriates funds for the Oregon Commission on Children and Family (the OCCF), which administer state revenues for CASA programs. The OCCF also administers federal money for CASA programs. The OCCF allocates funds to each countys Board of Commissioners. The Board of Commissioners then contract with individual CASA programs, who actually implement the CASA law, ORS 419A.170. There are 30 local CASA programs throughout the 36 counties in Oregon. Ms. Sornson noticed that OCCFs allocations did not appear to equitably match funding with the needs of the various counties. In the summer of 2010, the Juvenile Court Improvement Program released statistics concerning children in foster care. From that research, Ms Sornson learned that there are serious misallocations of federal and state CASA funds among the counties. A comparison of the allocations to Marion County with allocations to Wheeler County illustrates the disparity. In both the 2007-2009 and 2009-2011 bienniums, OCCF allocated $87,317 per year to Marion County to serve an average of 1000 foster children (1053 as of July 30, 2010, per JCIP report). This means that Marion County received an average of $83 to provide services to each child in foster care. OCCF allocated $13,250 to Wheeler County, which had only 3 children in foster care. This means that Wheeler County had $4417 to provide services to each child. The discrepancy is not only inequitable. It can be harmful for the hundreds of Marion County children who are wards of the court and are denied the services of a CASA, while Wheeler County has funds to use for other purposes. Ms. Sornson discovered that there were four counties who reported no CASAs, but received state funding for CASA. She immediately questioned how the funds are allocated and used. She set out to achieve a more equitable allocation of CASA funds. In the summer of 2010, Ms Sornson was approached by the leadership of the Oregon CASA directors group for assistance in reinstating the Oregon CASA Association, a not-for-profit agency that had been allowed to be administratively dissolved. The mission of the Oregon CASA Association was to

July 6, 2011

page -5

develop and provide support to the CASA programs in Oregon. Ms. Sornson did the legal work to reinstate the company and paid its delinquent fees herself. She agreed to join the Board of Directors with Chris Olson, the Executive Director of the Polk County CASA, Judge Charles Luukinen, Representative Jim Thompson (R-H23), attorney Steven McCarthy, and Lee Effinger, a Marion County CASA. The Board adopted the original mission of the organization and determined to establish a more effective and equitable distribution of funds for Oregon CASA programs. The group was concerned that OCCF had no relation to the courts or child welfare system and was not providing proper oversight of local programs. The Board concluded that the Oregons foster children would be better served by moving state level CASA administration to the Oregon Judicial Department. In addition, the Board sought to develop a qualification based system for funding local programs. In December 2010 and January 2011, Ms. Sornson, together with Ms. Olson and Mr. McCarthy, began to meet with members of the Oregon legislature to voice concerns about the funding inequity and to support an alternative for state administration. C. OCCF, Marion County and ultimately Marion County CASA retaliated against Ms. Sornson for exercising her First Amendment rights. Ms. Sornson believes that in January or February of 2011, the executive staff of the OCCF set out on a course to punish and retaliate against her for her advocacy with the legislators. The staff of the OCCF took measures to discredit Ms. Sornson and to undercut her employment with Marion County CASA. They disseminated false and defamatory information. They asked the Marion County CASA Board to silence or terminate Ms. Sornson. Ms. Sornson believes OCCF directly or through Marion County threatened to terminate the contract if the Board would not fire Ms. Sornson. In February 2011, Marion County sent a letter to the Marion County CASA Board questioning Ms. Sornsons activities with the legislature. When Ms. Sornson was not immediately terminated, on February 28, 2011 Marion County sent a letter to the Marion County CASA Board contending the program was in breach of its contract. This was in direct contradiction with a letter sent by Marion County to OCCF on February 23, 2011 stating that Marion County CASA was in compliance with its contract. In fact, under Ms. Sornsons management, the Marion County CASA program had satisfied every contract term under its control, and was in compliance with all national standards At the March 9, 2011, Marion County CASA Board meeting, the Board leaned heavily on Ms. Sornson to stop her communications with members

July 6, 2011

page -6

of the legislature. In order to save her job, she agreed to acquiesce. Nonetheless, on March 15, two board members presented a letter to Ms. Sornson asking for her resignation, or in the event she declined to resign, the Board would terminate her employment. Two days after Ms. Sornson was terminated, letters generated and received by Marion County were published in the Statesman Journal newspaper, alleging that Ms Sornson was a liar and a cheat. Given the false publicity generated by the OCCF and Marion County, it is unlikely that Ms Sornson will find work in Marion County or anywhere in child advocacy. In fact, Ms Sornson has been rejected for every position for which she applied and was well qualified. We believe that false and defamatory information was intentionally disseminated by representatives of one or more of the above agencies resulting in serious damage to Ms. Sornsons reputation. D. Conclusion.

Given Ms. Sornsons exemplary dedication and service in the interest of child advocacy, it would be a shame to have this matter drift into litigation. Please call me to determine if we can explore resolution of Ms. Sornsons claims outside of the litigation process, where the costs for all parties can only go up. Very truly yours,
Digitally signed by Linda Marshall DN: cn=Linda Marshall, o=Linda Marshall, Atty. At Law, ou, email=marshall.l@comcast.net, c=US Date: 2011.07.06 16:46:32 -07'00'

Linda L. Marshall cc: Commission on Children and Families c/o Mickey Lansing Marion County c/o Legal Counsel Pam Sornson