Stormwater. Wastewater. Protecting streams and rivers. The Bureau of Environmental Services -- Portland’s sewer and stormwater utility -- operates 2,500 miles of sewer pipes, nearly 100 pump stations, thousands of green streets, and two treatment plants, one of which is the biggest plant in Oregon. Protecting our environment and public health takes a lot of teamwork by people like project coordinator Debbie Caselton. For the last 26 years, she's helped neighbors stay informed about construction projects and helped our community’s voices be heard so that our projects work better for each neighborhood.
There's another reason we're talking to her during Pride Month. Debbie was one of the founders of DEEP, the Diverse and Empowered Employees of Portland, an umbrella project that gave rise to the City's employee affinity groups (technically known as employee resource groups.) She's one of the leaders of the Queer Alliance.
How did you start working with the City? I was working for the engineering firm that helped design the Big Pipe. That project was wrapping up. Then a community outreach position opened up at the City and a friend suggested I apply. I said, "But I don't have any community experience." And she said, "Yes, you do--all of your volunteer work!" I was the director of the Queer Film Festival at Cinema 21 for many years. So I applied and I've never looked back.
So what is community outreach, anyway? Let's say we have a construction project on your street. We need to think about how it's going to impact the public. Who lives here? Who works here? What are their needs? Is there a day care on this corner? Is there a school? Can we find ways to minimize the disruption? Then we engage with the public and inform them of what is going to be happening and get their input. If we're installing a green street planter, we really work with the neighborhood and the adjacent property owners very closely to get their input. How would this impact them? Does it remove parking? Are there ways to work around that?
What do you tell someone who doesn't want this in their neighborhood? That happens every day. I understand how they're feeling. I say, let's try to work through this. Let's work together. Let me try to find as many other opportunities as possible without disrupting your property. And I'll explain. I want you to understand why we're doing this. I'll show them maps of the neighborhood where houses are being flooded with sewage in their basements. I try to provide information. I try to find a solution if possible.
And if they're just dead set against it? It's my job to help try to find those solutions or ideas and then also engage the public in that decision making and input. Technically the city owns the right of way, and we could move forward without them, but that's not the right thing to do. The right thing to do is to work with the public and engage them and try to find solutions. I'll work with our team. We accommodate as much as we can, but sometimes we just absolutely have to have something there. Then I'll just say I'm sorry, we have to do this, but here's how we're going to try to make it nicer for you. One time I had a neighbor who said, “I park in front of my house, I just need a walkway.” So we provided a path across the really long planter in the planting strip (which also had a step out zone so he could park by it) and he was happy with that. I get to work with the community, and that's fun.
You have a strange definition of fun… Don't get me wrong. It's hard. But it's fun to partner with the public. It's fun to try to find solutions. And most of the time, we can. I tell them: "Here's my card. You're going to hate me for several months. You're going to curse my name. And then you're going to forget about me." It's a real source of pride though when I get people from 20 projects ago who call me out of the blue. They kept my number because we made a connection and now they have a question about something and I’m their city contact. That means the world to me.
What are the top issues that get folks riled up? Parking. Loss of parking. We try to minimize it, but sometimes a green street will take up a parking space. That's #1. And trees are #2. Sometimes a project might impact a tree in some way. Occasionally we need to remove a tree. And I'll ask the team, is there some way we can move the storm drain, or upgrade it later so we can save this tree?
So you're an advocate for the neighbors? That's a huge part of it. And I'm an advocate for the team, as well. And for the bigger picture, which is to protect public health and restore our rivers and streams.
What do you do when you're not at work? Gosh, I love so many things about the city. I grew up here. My favorite thing is all the restaurants and all the different neighborhoods. I love going to shows and theater. This weekend we're going to see Randy Rainbow at the Schnitzer and Two Dykes and a Mic at the Revolution Hall. Sunday, we're going to Riverdance at the Keller Auditorium. I like to make art -- collage, painting, illustration. I have a whole series of rodents -- because with sewers, there's a lot of rodents involved. So I draw rats, mice, squirrels, guinea pigs, hedgehogs -- hedgehogs are rodents, right? (Note: technically, hedgehogs are erinaceids, but let’s call them honorary rodents.)
When did you come out as gay? I came out on national television. It was on MTV. It was during the 1990s when the Oregon Citizens Alliance was attacking us as immoral people. I was a single mom with a young child. We did a short documentary about being a gay mom in Oregon.
What prompted you to start the Diverse and Empowered Employees of Portland? It was about 18 years ago. Tom Potter was the first police chief to march in the Pride Parade, and then he became mayor. And I thought, we need an affinity group at the City for our LGBTQ+ employees. He put me in touch with another group of employees who were trying to organize other affinity groups, so we started DEEP. Now we have 13 employee resource groups and something like 2,000 employees as members. We network, provide peer support, work on policy issues with BHR, and provide input and training and stuff like that. One project that Queer Alliance worked on was acquiring trans health care for City employees. The second city in the United States to provide this for employees.
Earlier you mentioned the dark times queer folks in Oregon went through in the 1990s. What got you through that? Do you see parallels today? The community. The community got us through. We supported each other. And today the community needs to come together and be loud and proud and support each other. We especially need to be there for our trans family during this difficult this time. We need to all come together and unite. That’s how we’ll get through this.