Oregon governor candidate Q&A: George Carrillo

Editor's note: NewsChannel 21 reached out to all of the Democrat and Republican candidates for governor and asked if they would respond to the same set of questions. We are presenting their answers online, in full and as sent, except for any minor typos/spelling errors.

Democratic candidate George Carrillo
https://georgefororegon.org/

• What sets you apart from the other candidates? 
  • I'm a candidate that has firsthand experience with government and state agencies from a variety of roles - as a second-generation Latino immigrant, disabled United States Marine Corps Sergeant, prior Sheriff Deputy, an executive leader within the Oregon Department of Human Services, and currently as an executive leader within the Oregon Health Authority. I understand what equity looks and feels like and also what oppression looks and feels like, too. I know that situations and circumstances don't improve for people by simply "pulling themselves up by their bootstraps." I understand that Oregonians have an uphill challenge with our political systems because when communities, such as rural Oregon, point out systemic issues they are canceled, ignored, and silenced. What sets me apart from the other candidates is that I understand what is within the governor's control, how the executive branch works, and have plans ready to enact within the first one hundred days to make immediate, effective change for all Oregonians. 
• What are your top three priorities and plans to address them?
  • My top three priorities are government agency reform, criminal justice reform, and education.  
• • Government Agency Reform 
    • Government Agency reform starts by changing the way our government agencies manage risk, liability, and our workforce. We manage our public service employees by managing risk, which directly impacts how we provide services to all Oregonians. How we can change this is by taking a different route with our Human Resources Department. 
    • I believe we must rewrite the state agency Human Resources (HR) Department's mission statement and policy to no longer mitigate risk to the agency, but rather do what is in the best interest of Oregonians.
    • I believe in consolidating all Human Resources Departments where HR will be a separate entity that reports to the Department of Administrative Services (DAS) to lead investigations and correct leadership on appropriate implementation of diversity, equity, and inclusion practices and expectations. This will create accountability and separation from the governor. DAS will report HR findings to the Governor’s office.
    • There will be a separate unit that will conduct investigations on misconduct by anyone in the governor’s cabinet and management services that will be completely neutral.
    • HR Specialists will focus on streamlining equitable practices that include recruitment, onboarding, retention, training, and leadership development.
    • Unions - Unions will receive funding to allow for increased full-time positions. Unions will work in collaboration with HR to develop new equitable recruitment, hiring, onboarding, training, and leadership development processes. Unions will have access to data on hiring, progressive discipline, demographics, and be able to perform annual equity audits.
    • We must fix all state programs backlogs. Streamline current business processes with fair and equitable practices; based on new processes, reallocate staff to positions that will provide the necessary support to each program.  
    • Provide ongoing training on cultural humility, implicit bias (including biases based on race, gender, sexual orientation and identity, religion, ethnicity, and class)
    • Create paid oversight committees to work with departments within our government. All oversight committees will report to the governor. The oversight committees will establish networks throughout the state to coordinate efforts to engage communities on program implementation and solutions to the current system. Agencies will implement strategies that the oversight committee brings forward and will work in a collaborative approach to discuss desired outcomes. Oversight committees will be tasked to engage community members from populations directly impacted by decisions, including but not limited to the following populations: 
      • Older adults
      • BIPOC
      • LGBTQIA2S+
      • Disability
      • Immigrant and Refugee
      • Low Income
      • Homeless
      • Youth

• Criminal Justice Reform
  • We cannot justify the safety of some and not others. Thus, we have look at our law enforcement, 
  • Law Enforcement - We must clearly define the role of law enforcement in our communities as our police officers are being asked to do too much in the name of public safety. 
    • End the reliance on law enforcement agencies to respond to mental health emergencies, homelessness, and low-level civil violations.
    • Police officers will be retitled as Peace officers and will be required to build relationships with the local community they serve. A minimum of 12-hours a year and will be required to provide quarterly updates to a state database to collect important information from the community. 
    • A new joint task force will use the information to help solve investigations and take a proactive stance on identifying criminal organizations that work in the shadows of our communities. 
    • We must invest in our officer’s training and response to community needs.
    • Increase the Oregon Basic Police Academy from 16- weeks (400 hours) to 700-hours and field training for 3 months. The additional 300-hours will include classes for Ethics, Trauma-Informed Engagement, Recognizing Hate Crime, Recognizing and Supporting People in Distress, Survivor Advocacy, Disability Awareness, History of Marginalized People, and Community Engagement.
    • Provide officers with necessary and ongoing training on cultural humility, implicit bias (including biases based on race, gender, sexual orientation and identity, religion, ethnicity, and class), de-escalation, crisis intervention, adolescent development, and interacting with people who have visible and non-visible mental and physical disabilities. Ongoing annual training of 24-hours of use of force and firearms training. 24-hours of leadership training for all supervisors annually.  
    • Direct Oregon Police Agencies to collaborate with tribes for combatting the unsolved killings and disappearances of Indigenous Women, Girls, and Two-Spirited. The governor’s office will collaborate with consulates, state departments, and federal agencies for data sharing and joint task force investigations.
    • Establish standards for use of force by officers that emphasize de-escalation.
    • Diversify the police workforce by creating a new background investigation process that provides clear guidelines and restricts disqualification discretion from background investigators. All candidates who have entered the background stage of hiring will be reviewed by a joint community and police agency committee.  
    • Standardize access to counseling and mental health services for officers who have witnessed traumatic events or engaged in the use of force tactics.
    • Hold officers and leaders accountable when their actions aren’t in the interest of public safety.
    • Mandate criminal liability for civil rights violations resulting from police misconduct.
    • All officers will receive documented quarterly and annual evaluations based on criteria based on recommendations from the joint community and police agency committee.
  • Jail and Prison Reform
    • Invest in evidence-based interventions that will help youth and adults with rehabilitation options and transitional social services. 
    • Safely reduce confinement practices and create new policies that support a continuum of care to rehabilitate. The reform in which cases require formal court involvement, improve community supervision to be supportive of youth & adult development to engage in the opportunity to live a productive life in society.  
    • Create an Incarceration Equity Oversight Committee (IEOC) of judges, prosecutors, defense attorneys, and victims to evaluate judge's sentencing practices and send recommendations to the governor to reduce sentencing through clemency. 
    • Develop a strategy to release all low-level drug felony inmates in my first year. Transitional services will be provided prior to release and a career plan with services activated the moment they are released to provide them the ability to live self-sufficiently. I will direct the incarceration equity oversight committee to provide recommendations on who should receive a full pardon vs commutation.   
    • Jails and Prisons will create temporary separate areas that meet the needs of individuals with behavioral health needs. A cultural, healing, and linguistic environment will be created.  Trained behavioral staff and resources will be provided until the court reassigns the individual to an appropriate facility.  
  • Probation and Parole Reform
    • Officers will be reclassified as Community Engagement Counselors (CEC). Position description and qualifications will be re-written to support candidates with a combination of education in social services, social and psychological backgrounds, and lived experiences. Training will be focused on evidence-based practices to assist with transitional services and social reintegration. 
    • CEC’s will no longer wear police-style uniforms unless they are engaged in the apprehension of a suspect. Weapons for protection will be allowed but must be concealed. 
    • Provide CEC’s with necessary and ongoing training on cultural humility, implicit bias (including biases based on race, gender, sexual orientation and identity, religion, ethnicity, and class), de-escalation, crisis intervention, adolescent development, and interacting with people who have visible and non-visible mental and physical disabilities.
    • Ongoing annual training of 24-hours of use of force and firearms training. 24-hours of leadership training for all supervisors annually.
    • Establish standards for use of force by officers that emphasize de-escalation.
    • CEC’s basic training will be increased from 160 hours to 400 hours. 
    • CEC’s will provide alternate solutions for individuals to engage in treatment when a person relapses from a drug offense. 
    • Diversify the CEC workforce by creating a new background investigation process that provides clear guidelines and restricts disqualification discretion from background investigators. All candidates who have entered the background stage of hiring will be reviewed by a joint community and police agency committee.  
    • Standardize access to counseling and mental health services for CEC’s who have witnessed traumatic events or engaged in the use of force tactics.
  • Prosecution and Defense Reform
    • Provide appropriate representation for low-income individuals. Price match what the state will use to convict a case. Change the structure of success for prosecutors because currently they are measured by conviction rate. Over 95% of cases never go to trial and people without financial resources are forced to accept a plea bargain. 
    • Absolute Immunity for prosecutors will be addressed by a new state policy that matches defense attorneys under Qualified Immunity.
    • Low-level misdemeanor offenses will be examined to provide alternate options for serving time in county jails.  
    • Create new sentencing guidelines by the IEOC and revoke mandatory sentencing law.
    • We support HB 4005 B - Firearm Safety Requirements
      • This bill is in response to the murders of Cindy Ann Yuille and Steven Forsyth, Oregon having an average of 10 children under the age of 18 who commit suicide each year with firearms that were not safely stored and secured to prevent child access, Oregon’s per capita suicide rate and rate of suicides that are firearm suicides above the national average, the lack of a safe storage law in Oregon contributing to more than 22,000 firearms being lost or stolen in Oregon over the past 10 years, two-thirds of all school shootings in the United States from 1974 through 2000 involved weapons taken by the attackers from their home or from the home of a relative.

• Education
  • Intervene on the current school-to-prison pipeline.
    • Oregon needs programs and policies designed to eliminate the disproportionate impact of disciplinary policies and practices on students of color.
    • Restructure schools to provide social services within school buildings for children and families in need. 
    • In kindergarten identify children with low phonological awareness and place them in special groups to address reading disorders. This will prevent microtraumas from having to fail before receiving help. 
  • We must ensure we have sufficient educators across the state for our K-12 so that classroom sizes don’t exceed 14 students. If classroom sizes go over then schools will receive funding for teacher assistants to accommodate the needs of our children with a cap of 20 students per class. 
  • Provide options for families who wish to continue to participate in an online program. 
  • Every high school student will have access to a mentor who can walk them through affordable education options. 
  • Create a state-funded loan forgiveness program for graduate school students who meet the criteria as low-income and who commit to 5 years of state service. 
  • Amend SB 155 to include investigations of allegations of discrimination or abuse to a student. 
  • Amend SB 612 to contract with community organizations that provide dyslexia services instead of requiring one teacher in each school to be trained in dyslexia services. 

• What one accomplishment are you most proud of and why?
  • While I have earned many accomplishments in my public service roles, my greatest accomplishment is helping my son identify his learning disabilities and helping him receive the services he's needed. I have the privilege of being college-educated, working for the government, and being connected with community resources. Yet, when it came to helping my son who had been struggling for years in school, my privilege didn't seem to matter. Navigating the education and health systems can be incredibly difficult for any parent. I learned that the education system doesn't want to work with outside resources to have a more equitable and collaborative approach for children with learning disabilities. I learned that the primary way for many children with learning disabilities to get tested and receive services or support was to repeatedly fail throughout their education career. Getting a child tested is just the beginning. In order for children to then receive services, they must have strong advocates, be it parents, an educator, or a community member. My son had worked incredibly hard for years and I'm starting to see him make progress. It has taken his parents, an educator, and a community partner to learn and advocate for his needs. We celebrate his successes and also worry about what new challenges the next school year will bring. 

• Why should Central Oregonians vote for you?
  • Central Oregonians, I want to elevate your voices and bring acknowledgment to your struggles. I want to take the politics out of the executive branch so that we can effectively make necessary changes throughout the state. I believe in the power of a checks and balances system. As governor, I will try to understand the experiences of those who identify as red or blue in order to see how our government has met or not met our Oregonian's needs. It is the governor's duty to serve all Oregonians and I will proudly do so.