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St. Charles Catholic Church, 5310 NE 42nd Ave., welcomed a new Pastoral Administrator, Father Tony Galati, this summer.

Galati officially took his position in July and is no stranger to the Concordia neighborhood. He grew up in the Piedmont neighborhood and attended Holy Redeemer Grade School, Central Catholic High School and the University of Portland.

When he was a child, his family would occasionally attend Mass at St. Charles, something he remembers fondly as well as the friendships he made with St. Charles parishioners through the years.

Following graduation from college, he began a 28-year career in international shipping and then served as executive director of Portland’s Catholic Radio station, KBVM, now Mater Dei Radio. Galati noted he became interested in the radio station during his commutes. “I would time my drive so I could pick up certain programs during my workday,” he said.

He eventually joined the station’s board in 2002 and was hired as director in 2005, a position he held till 2014. During his tenure at KBVM, he helped to solidify its financial support and expanded its reach in Oregon, extending the station’s broadcast reach by purchasing two transmitters in the Eugene area.

Previously married, Father Galati has two grown sons and three grandchildren. His marriage was annulled, a Catholic process by which a marriage is considered invalid because it lacks at least one essential element to make it a binding union. Because of this, Galati was able to become an ordained minister in the church.

About a decade ago, he said he felt God’s call to the priesthood and was encouraged by others, including a priest friend, to consider joining the clergy.

“It took me a while to discern, and I did, and I haven’t looked back since,” he said. Galati decided to enter Mount Angel Seminary in St. Benedict and was accepted in 2016 and ordained in 2021.

Now at age 65, he is new to the priesthood but grateful for his life experiences, which he feels will help him to better do the things a priest is consecrated to do. He noted his age and life story enabled him to give spiritual counsel grounded in the practical challenges all people face.

“Had I not been married and had kids, I could not do this job,” he said. “I come with an instinctive desire to be a spiritual father to people.”

His priorities will be administering the sacraments, serving as celebrant for weekend and daily Masses, visiting the sick and homebound and presiding at funerals and weddings.

“I love it all,” he said when asked what he enjoys about being a priest. “Whether it’s celebrating Mass or anointing the sick or hearing confession or baptisms, for me it’s been wonderful. I feel duty-bound in being generous in offering the sacraments.”

In his first Sunday homily, he told the congregation: “It’s a privilege and blessing for me to be here with you. May God bless you and let’s pray for each other that we may be Christ to one another.”

This story contains additional reporting by Rob Cullivan.

By Rob Cullivan | CNews Editor

Rowan Dodero, 18, a graduate of Faubion Elementary School as well as Jefferson High, can speak Spanish, paint murals and talk fashion—Roman fashion, from back when the Caesars were emperors, not salads.

A fan of anthropology and history, Dodero is a valedictorian of the Class of 2022 and says she’s fascinated by how folks lived in the past. “I’m interested in the people,” she says. “I really like looking at what they wore and learning about what they believed and why and what they did.”

In addition to the aforementioned subjects, Dodero has also learned about biotechnology as an intern at her high school’s OHSU program, and she enjoys writing as well. The stellar student earned 40 college credits while in high school by attending Portland Community College classes through its Cascadia campus, graduated with a 4.2 weighted GPA and is enrolled at the University of Oregon.

She earned a Pathways Scholarship to the home of the Ducks, which she says will cover her tuition, and plans to pay her housing bill with the help of a $1,000 Stumptown Scholarship. Dodero was one of 16 East Portland high school graduates who won such a grant. Stumptown Scholars are primarily funded by retailer Mattress Lot and local donors. Scholarship awards are based on an essay, academic performance, community leadership and financial need.

For her Stumptown essay, Dodero was asked how she would teach young people 20 years from now about what it was like to be a student during the Covid lockdowns.

“I would start by delving into the effects that quarantine, masking and social distancing had on people,” she wrote. “I would focus on youth because I have first-hand experience being a high schooler during the pandemic, and I could relate it to my students. I would look into the long-term effects this had on my generation, how school etiquette and social skills were hindered.”

“Our scholarship committee was super impressed by Rowan’s essay,” Michael Hanna, a Stumptown spokesperson, said. “Rowan is a creative and thoughtful writer. She writes clearly, in an organized manner. We liked her description of life during the pandemic for high school students and her description of how the pandemic changed our culture and society for years to come.”

Dodero credited her parents, Calley Dodero and Stephen Phillips, for supporting her academic journey, and added that her interests are varied, ranging from volunteering on behalf of the Oregon Food Bank to serving as a Portland Parks and Recreation camp counselor this summer, as well as an art camp counselor the previous three years.

Although she would love to study Spanish abroad, Dodero said she has not yet made up her mind what she wants to pursue as a career after university. “I’m just trying to learn a bunch of stuff and see what I like.”

CNews Editor Rob Cullivan is a veteran journalist, publicist and grant writer who has written about everything from rock ‘n’ roll to religion. He possesses a deep affection for writers and photographers who hit deadline.

By Rob Cullivan | CNews Editor

Kenyahta Sikes, co-owner of PDX SuiteSpot, an event space in Chinatown, says Black United Fund of Oregon (BUF-OR), 2828 N.E. Alberta St., is a valuable resource for her and other African American business owners in Portland.

She noted the Concordia-based organization helped her host 40 other Black businesswomen for a workshop titled “Boss Talks: Entrepreneurship for the Black Woman.” Attendees learned about how to use digital marketing and social media as well as access capital, she said.

“I wondered how many other Black business women were struggling with the same things,” she said, adding that a challenge for many Black business women is finding the resources and funding they need to make their companies succeed. “Nine times out of 10, that’s the greatest struggle,” she said.

Sikes’ company can host photo shoots, music videos, house parties with live music, baby showers, exercise classes, birthday parties, small banquets, launch parties and meeting space. She adds that she plans on taking advantage of any business assistance she can find through BUF-OR. “Black United Fund has been influential in my business journey.”

That’s exactly the kind of words Emmanuel Williams, the foundation’s community-justice and equity coordinator, wants to hear. Black United Fund is designed to help folks like Sikes turn their dreams into reality, he said, to help African American entrepreneurs stake their place in the nation’s business landscape. “A lot of the problems we deal with are economic,” he said. “We’re engaging in acts to drive economics in our favor.”

Legacy of uplift

Founded in 1983, Black United Fund of Oregon works to increase post-secondary opportunities for young people, support BIPOC as well as female-led nonprofits through its leadership program as well as by providing them grants, and aims to foster “a broader understanding of ethnic and culturally diverse groups,” its mission statement reads.

Located in a one-story building, the nonprofit foundation plans to literally enlarge its presence in Concordia over the next few years, aiming to erect a multi-story structure by 2024 that will replace its current building and that will host not just BUF-OR but multiple other nonprofits as well.

The new building will be called the Building United Futures Complex. Anchored by Black United Fund, it will be a consortium of organizations, programs and businesses centered on “equipping, empowering, encouraging and engaging Black and other BIPOC communities to enhance their educational advancement, economic mobility and social liberation,” reads a statement from Adre, the realestate development company overseeing the project.

Dr. LM Alaiyo Foster, BUF-OR president and CEO, says the new building will be designed to be welcoming to all people, with open spaces and lots of windows, and may even feature showers where houseless folks can get off the streets for a moment and take care of their hygiene. “It will be a neighborhood hub and unapologetically Black,” she says.

Scholarship students

Among the foundation’s best-known programs is its Post-Secondary Options, coordinated by Saeeda Wright, which provides educational and financial assistance to young people. Wright has mentored Christine Bynum, a junior at Atlanta’s Spelman College, the nation’s oldest college for African American women. Bynum said she wants to inspire other African Americans because she is planning to become an orthodontist.

“As a future Black dentist, I know there are not that many Black dentists out there,” she said. “I want to be a role model to other students.”

Bynum is also studying Spanish and hopes to work with Spanish speakers as well as folks of any race who are unable to access dental care due to financial challenges. As someone who’s worn braces herself, she said it’s important for people to feel welcome and supported as they get their teeth fixed.

“You are trying to help them smile better, and they never forget their orthodontists.”

She credited Black United Fund for helping her to defray the considerable costs of her college education. “The financial support means that I am able to continue my time at Spellman,” she said. “I am able to reduce the amount of loans that I may need to take out for school.”

For more information on Black United Fund, visit BUFor.org.

For more information on PDX SuiteSpot, visit PDXSuiteSpot.com.

CNews Editor Rob Cullivan is a veteran journalist, publicist and grant writer who has written about everything from rock ‘n’ roll to religion. He possesses a deep affection for writers and photographers who hit deadline.

By Rob Cullivan | CNews Editor

Residents of Concordia and other Portland neighborhoods may have a greater voice in their city government if a proposed city charter is approved by voters this November, the charter’s proponents say.

The proposed charter would change the city council’s makeup from its current one of four at-large members and the mayor to one made up of 12 members who will represent four districts, each with three council members representing it.

Furthermore, council members will no longer run city bureaus and voters will be able to use proportional ranked-choice voting to choose their council members. Proponents claim ranked-choice voting is more inclusive of underrepresented voters than the current simple majority system by which councilors are chosen.

The Concordia Neighborhood Association Board will host a discussion on the proposed Portland City Charter, at 7 pm Wednesday, Sept. 7, at McMenamins Kennedy School Community Room, 5736 N.E. 33rd Ave.

Three Big Changes
The independent 20-member City Charter Review Commission has been at work for more than 18 months gathering citizen input on the proposed charter. The proposed charter contains three key changes that affect how Portlanders vote, how they are represented and the scope of their leaders’ formal responsibilities.

Proportional Ranked-Choice Voting
Under the proposed charter, voters can rank their choices for city council members instead of simply voting for one person for each seat. You can choose any number of candidates, from the one you most want on down to the one you may not support strongly but can accept.

To win a seat in one of the four districts, candidates must reach a threshold of one vote more than 25% of all votes cast. Votes are then counted in rounds until all three seats representing a district are filled. Under a process called “Single Transferable Vote,” votes can be transferred in two ways to ensure voters are getting more use of their ballots.

First, if a candidate has surplus votes that put their total over the threshold, the surplus votes are transferred to whomever those voters marked as their next choice. The transferred votes are then added to the corresponding candidates.

Second, if no other candidate meets the threshold, the candidate with the fewest votes is eliminated and their votes get transferred to whomever those voters marked as their next choice. This process repeats until the three winners have enough votes to win a seat, giving voters more say in who their preferences are.

The theory behind this system is that such voting will give underrepresented constituencies a better shot at being represented than they are under the current system. Instead of just one representative, for example, getting in because they won a mere 51 percent of the voters, proponents said, you can have three representatives winning office with varying percentages of the overall vote.

Becca Uherbelau, a city charter commission member, said proportional ranked-choice voting would open up the city’s government to a greater range of voices.

“It actually results in better representation for folks who haven’t seen their interests represented,” she said. “Voters hate choosing between the lesser of two evils, and this way the voter has a better experience.”

Multi-member districts
Currently the at-large members of city council each represents the entire city of Portland, but under the proposed charter, the city would be divided into four districts with three council members representing each district. Charter proponents say this will allow voters to be able to more easily work with their council members to advocate for specific concerns. One such advocate is Concordia resident and political activist Mont Chris Hubbard, who testified before the charter commission.

“I think that city council will better represent the opinions of Portlanders when we have 12 of them elected with proportional representation,” Hubbard said.

Responsibilities Shift
Currently the mayor and city council members directly administer various departments, but under the new charter, the mayor would appoint a city administrator who in turn would then appoint administrators of such city departments as the police or the housing bureau.

Charter proponents contend this would free up the city’s political leadership to focus on their most important job, which is addressing constituent concerns, not managing bureaus. The current arrangement can lead to a “politicization of service delivery,” Uherbelau said, and replacing it means constituents can voice a concern to a council member, who can then take that concern to the mayor and/or city administrator who would then direct the bureau in charge of a service to address a concern. “You have a straighter line to both answer and solution,” she said.

Learn more about the proposed Portland city charter here.

CNews Editor Rob Cullivan is a veteran journalist, publicist and grant writer who has written about everything from rock ‘n’ roll to religion. He possesses a deep affection for writers and photographers who hit deadline.

By Rob Cullivan | CNews Editor

Members of American Legion Post 134 have served in Vietnam, Iraq, Bosnia and Korea, among other places, and shared their experiences of military life and views on patriotism with CNews recently.

Post Commander Barry M. Larrain is a retired Army colonel who served in Vietnam, Okinawa, Korea, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Iraq. Among his duties, he worked as a Vietnamese linguist from 1968–69 and as senior military advisor to the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad from 2009–10.

Larrain noted being a veteran has strengthened his commitment to the nation and its principles, and given him experiences that make him realize the impact his service made. For example, he said, he was deployed to Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, in Dec. 1995, just after warring parties in the former Yugoslavia had signed the Dayton Peace Accords.

“My unit was one of the first to arrive in the city, which was badly damaged following years of war between Serbia and Bosnia,” he said. “I was with a few other soldiers moving through the city when a half dozen people saw us and started yelling, ‘USA, USA, USA.’ It was uplifting! During the war 10,000 Sarajevo residents were killed by artillery and mortar rounds, or sniper fire. These people were much more than grateful for our presence.”

With July 4 approaching, he added that it’s a holiday he wishes included reflection, not just celebration.

“I think July 4 should be a time for introspection, taking into account the complex history of the country, our successes and our failures, and a visceral appreciation for ‘There but for fortune, go I.’”

Peenesh Shah, a member of the Post’s executive committee, was an army sergeant who served in Iraq, and is now an assistant attorney general for the Oregon Dept. of Justice.

An aid station and evacuation medic in Baghdad, he had to respond to calls to evacuate casualties and also worked in a hospital emergency room. He said veterans are a diverse lot and he wished people would get to know more of them. Common misconceptions of veterans, he said, are “that we’re all the same, that we all share the same political views, that we’re all damaged in some way.” He noted that his own experience of military life was both uplifting and challenging and even contained moments of humor.

“One time a drill sergeant told me I was so bad at calling cadence that I needed to get a bowl of rhythm next time I was at the cafeteria,” he said.

Post Adjutant Patrick Bardel was a first lieutenant in the Marine Corps, from 1979–85 and served in various locations stateside. Serving has given him a sense of duty fulfilled, he said. “I am proud to have been involved in the defense of our country,” Bardel said. “The Cold War was a risky period of our history, and as we are seeing in Ukraine, there are some leaders that only respect power.”

He noted veterans bring to civilian life various characteristics that are useful to society. “There are many skills we learned in the military that translate well into the civilian world—leadership, organization, honesty—that aren’t recognized by employers who have no contact with vets.”

Bardel said serving in the military has given him a sense that the flag stands for more than one type of politics. “Our country’s government will always be a work in progress,” he said. “If the arc of justice and liberty keeps improving, with everyone’s help we can make this country better every generation. Recognizing and improving problems is a feature of democracy and not a problem.”

Robin Eckstein, E-4, Army, served from 1999–2007 here in the United States, as well as in Germany. She did a tour in Iraq in 2003 as a truck driver delivering supplies around Baghdad. She is now Post 134’s finance officer and said she’s working hard to revive the American Legion locally. “I bring fresh perspectives and want the Legion to change and start meeting the needs and wants of new generations of veterans that no longer just want a bar to sit at,” she said.

The military was a mixed bag of experiences for her, she said, noting she liked the camaraderie but disliked “the sexual harassment and old-boys-club attitude of it.”

Life in a war zone brought the cost of citizenship home to her in a particularly difficult way, she added.

“I saw my friend in the hospital after he had been blown up in a roadside bomb,” she said. “He said it wasn’t worth it. Almost losing his life and he said it wasn’t worth it. I think about that to this day knowing he has to live with disabilities for the rest of his life.”

Eckstein said the American Legion should continue to expand its historic mission to assist veterans like her and those with whom she’s served. “The American Legion has done a lot of important lobbying in Congress for rights and benefits for veterans and that work is extremely important.”

CNews Editor Rob Cullivan is a veteran journalist, publicist and grant writer who has written about everything from rock ‘n’ roll to religion. He possesses a deep affection for writers and photographers who hit deadline.