MISSION — Patty Perry was hired by the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation (CTUIR) in 2007 in the associate planner position. Nearly 20 years later, she has announced her departure from her position as the Planning Director.
“I just thought it would be unique, because I knew that the tribe here did its own thing, and had a lot of similar goals in mind with preserving the land, the resources and the First Foods that are here,” Perry said.
She said it was a special opportunity to work for the CTUIR after coming from a senior planner position with the county, where she was also the president of the union, on the state’s AFSCME executive board and the president of Umatilla-Morrow Central Labor Council.
Working for the CTUIR in comparison to the county in terms of resources and development for housing, Perry said a lot of the job was more community-centered.
“One of the first things when I got hired here that I was assigned to do and to work on was updating the Comprehensive Plan,” she said. “It really gave me an opportunity to understand the whole organization, how it was set up, all of the different departments.”
Perry said, after her retirement, she plans on making the move to the Salem area to be closer to her family. Her sister, nieces and nephews live there and her son, Jake, is a firefighter in McMinnville.
“I’m getting up there in years, and I want to be able to make the move over there,” she said. “So that’s what I’m going to be working toward — clearing out the house, getting another place over there and then moving in. Then I have a little more support in my old age.”
Though she’s retiring from the CTUIR, Perry will still be working with the Oregon State’s Energy Facility Siting Council. She said the CTUIR Board of Trustees wrote a letter to Gov. Kotek last year which recommended her to the council position, and since she’s been approved, she will travel to monthly on-site meetings at facilities across Oregon.
CTUIR Environmental Health and Safety Specialist Brian Fullen recounted the past three years he had spent working with Perry.
“Her and I were usually the first people in the building every day, so we always had about a half hour of time to just sit and talk about our job, our day, our family lives and I’m really going to miss that,” Fullen said. “The knowledge she’s going to take with her can never be replaced, she’s been here almost 20 years, she has a built-in computer in her mind.”
Following Perry’s retirement, Holly Anderson will be filling in as interim Planning Director; she said she’s been working with Perry for nearly 15 years.
“She’s a very hard worker and very knowledgeable; she’s acquired a lot of information over the years that she’s been here. They’re some very big shoes to step into,” Anderson said. “She’s very dedicated and she thinks things out; she makes good decisions and has done great at hiring good staff, so we are well-positioned to carry the planning mission forward.”
