Lauree Morton ended her 30-year career fighting sexual assault and domestic violence after a Nov. 18 meeting with Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was told that (he and the governor) wanted to go in a different direction and the preference would be for me to resign,\u201d said Morton, who, until last Thursday, was the executive director of the state\u2019s Council on Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault.<\/p>\n
The council\u2019s mission is to promote the prevention of domestic violence and sexual assault, and to provide safety for victims. The council is part of the Department of Public Safety.<\/p>\n
By statute, the nine-member council, as a whole, hires an executive director. The statute does not address firing one.<\/p>\n
Monegan, one of the council\u2019s members, met Morton without notifying the council.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need to change the paradigm on what we do. We need to get more preventative, we need to get more awareness built, we need a lot of things, and we\u2019re looking for somebody who can carry the banner higher and faster,\u201d Monegan said by phone last week. \u201cDomestic violence and sexual assault are issues that we\u2019ve been infamously too long at No. 1 and we need to fix that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Alaska leads the nation with 122 rapes per 100,000 residents, according to 2015 FBI statistics. The national average is 38.6.<\/p>\n
Monegan said he and the governor want CDVSA to go in a \u201cdifferent direction\u201d instead of \u201cbusiness as usual.\u201d<\/p>\n
The governor\u2019s office didn\u2019t comment on the issue, but press secretary Katie Marquette wrote in an email Tuesday that Monegan \u201cspeaks on behalf of the administration.\u201d<\/p>\n
On the \u201cdifferent direction,\u201d Monegan said CDVSA should be collaborating more. For example, he\u2019d like to see CDVSA partnerships with the Village Public Safety Officer Program, tribal courts, Native nonprofit health corporations, Alaska Federation of Natives and \u201canybody else that has a dog in this fight.\u201d<\/p>\n
The executive director, he said, should be coordinating that.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want to find a leader who can be everywhere at once finding partners, working with the legislators, working with the feds, working with tribal orgs,\u201d Monegan said.<\/p>\n
He also had issues with Morton\u2019s management style, which contributed to the decision to let her go.<\/p>\n
\u201cI need someone with fresher ideas and a lot more energy to champion a cause that all of us are plagued by. We need someone who\u2019s aggressive and thinks outside the box,\u201d he continued.<\/p>\n
Monegan\u2019s thoughts were news to council chairwoman Patricia Owen.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had talked to different board members and they weren\u2019t aware with any issues with Lauree or Lauree\u2019s position,\u201d she said last Thursday.<\/p>\n
Owen said Morton\u2019s resignation is a \u201chuge loss\u201d to the council. She described Morton as an effective leader, specifically noting \u201cher ability to collaborate with other organizations and agencies across the state, her relationships with other organizations as well as policy makers.\u201d<\/p>\n
She called Morton a \u201cstabilizing factor\u201d during budget reductions, staff cuts and council turnover. In an email, Owen elaborated: \u201cShe is recognized and respected nationally and throughout the state for her leadership and expertise in the area of domestic violence and sexual assault prevention, intervention and treatment \u2026 Under her direction, we have started to bend the curve in the high rates of domestic violence and sexual assault in Alaska.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Morton has firsthand knowledge of the anti-rape and battered women\u2019s movement. She was raped in 1984.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was going to college and had a group of people over to my house,\u201d Morton recounted. \u201cEverybody left except for one young man and he forced himself on me.\u201d<\/p>\n
She felt violated, hurt and disillusioned.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt never should\u2019ve happened and it wasn\u2019t my fault, and it\u2019s not any other person\u2019s fault who survives that crime being perpetrated against them,\u201d Morton said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt can define part of who you are, but not all of who you are. So, there is hope. It doesn\u2019t end your life and it doesn\u2019t have to be something that keeps you from finding your way. I think you can go on and live a fulfilled life and you can be happy and strong,\u201d she continued.<\/p>\n
Morton, 54, turned the traumatic experience into a career in sexual assault and domestic violence advocacy.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy very first job was in 1984 in Texas. I was hired as the night and weekend advocate in a rural shelter that served nine counties. I worked 4 to midnight and every other weekend and got $400 a month and was really, really happy,\u201d she said, laughing.<\/p>\n
She moved to Bethel in 1989 to work for the Tundra Women\u2019s Coalition. In 1994, Morton became the executive director of the Alaska Network on Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault in Juneau and led the nonprofit for 10 years. She started working for CDVSA in 2007 before becoming its executive director in 2011.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s my vocation. It\u2019s not a job; it\u2019s a calling. It\u2019s what I know to do and what I think can be my contribution to most help make a better, just society,\u201d Morton said.<\/p>\n
Before the Nov. 18 meeting with Monegan, Morton had no plans to leave CDVSA.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was very satisfied and still excited about the directions we were going,\u201d she said by phone on Dec. 15, her last day of work.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith the increased focus on primary prevention, really focusing at the community level, particularly with youth and then the partnerships between adults mentoring youth, we\u2019re changing social norms, and I think that\u2019s the way to actually end domestic violence and sexual assault,\u201d Morton said.<\/p>\n
The focus on prevention started in 2009 when the Alaska Legislature appropriated more than $150,000 toward the effort. Since then, the council has strengthened prevention services and programs \u2014 like Green Dot Alaska, the Fourth R, Coaching Boys into Men, and Girls on the Run \u2014 and brought them to communities across the state.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat led us to do research, the first Alaska Victimization Survey in 2010, so we could have a baseline of real hard data about women\u2019s experiences with these crimes in our state and then from that, looking at what we can do to keep it form happening,\u201d Morton said.<\/p>\n
Since 2010, Alaska\u2019s rates of sexual assault and domestic violence have substantially declined, according to Andr\u00e9 Rosay, director of the University of Alaska Anchorage Justice Center, which conducts the victimization survey for the council.<\/p>\n
Data from the survey show that from 2010 to 2015, the percentage of adult women in Alaska who experienced intimate partner violence or sexual violence dropped by 31 percent, Rosay explained in a Dec. 14 My Turn for the Juneau Empire. The column was entitled, \u201cLauree Morton has made Alaska a safer place.\u201d<\/p>\n
Alcohol- or drug-involved sexual violence dropped by 44 percent. In 2015, there were 8,055 fewer victims of domestic violence and sexual assault than in 2010.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese are impressive declines that have substantially improved the health and safety of women in Alaska,\u201d Rosay wrote.<\/p>\n
Morton said the council\u2019s focus on prevention certainly played a role in the declines.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you look at the offender accountability, the victim services and the prevention, the new thing that was within those five years, from 2010 to 2015, was the focus on prevention and bringing those different programs and services into the state,\u201d Morton explained.<\/p>\n
Morton said she wished she could\u2019ve stayed with CDVSA to see the results of the 2020 victimization survey.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Carmen Lowry, executive director of the Alaska Network of Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault, was shocked when she found out Morton was asked to resign.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy is this happening right now?\u201d Lowry thought.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn these times when there\u2019s so much unknown, I don\u2019t understand the rationale with continuing to do things that would destabilize,\u201d she said on the phone Tuesday.<\/p>\n
The council and the network have historically had a close relationship.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve worked with Morton consistently. She\u2019s really been critical in helping me understand state government and helping me understand ways that the network and the council can work together to ensure there\u2019s greater access for victims, that more victims get service, that we really educate people and we get funding that supports the programs,\u201d Lowry said.<\/p>\n
She said she\u2019s worried about Monegan\u2019s \u201cdifferent direction.\u201d She said several people who were present at the council\u2019s special meeting on Dec. 12 expressed similar sentiments.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe reiterated and said, \u2018Wait, what is this new direction? We\u2019re happy to bring new strategies in, but nobody knows what it is and no one knows how it was informed.\u2019 And these are the experts at the table. If you don\u2019t talk to your experts then where\u2019s this coming from? We just don\u2019t understand it. We want to learn more so we can help support, but until we see the data that\u2019s informing it or the stories that\u2019s informing it, we just don\u2019t know,\u201d Lowry said.<\/p>\n
She wonders how the different direction fits in with regulations, public safety, and what it means for communities and victims.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are just a lot of questions,\u201d Lowry said. \u201cWhen it comes down to it, it\u2019s really about supporting victims, and if these actions are being taken, they\u2019re being taken on behalf of victims and survivors, and they shouldn\u2019t have to bear the brunt and they shouldn\u2019t have to pay the price for any kind of decision; they should benefit from decisions.\u201d<\/p>\n
At the Dec. 12 special meeting, the council established a hiring subcommittee that includes Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan. The council holds another special meeting today from noon to 2 p.m. to hear the subcommittee\u2019s recommendations on the hiring process.<\/p>\n
Morton\u2019s last day with the council was Dec. 15. She started her new job as legislative liaison with the Division of Behavioral Health the next day.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Contact reporter Lisa Phu at lisa.phu@juneauempire.com.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Lauree Morton ended her 30-year career fighting sexual assault and domestic violence after a Nov. 18 meeting with Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan. \u201cI was told that (he and the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":83,"featured_media":5515,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[216],"class_list":["post-5514","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-state-government"],"yoast_head":"\n