Forum Lane

I have been asked to participate in the State of the City program on January 9, 2013.  I would like to thank Mayor Piercy for asking me to attend.

As I leave the Eugene City Council, after a total of ten years, I am forced to reflect on the time I spent here.

I won my first election when Ruth Bascom was Mayor and Mike Gleason was the long-time City Manager.Through the years I served with three mayors: Bascom, Jim Torrey and Kitty Piercy.Through those years I worked with no less than eight City Managers and acting managers: Gleason, Linda Norris, Vicki Elmer, Jim Carlson, Jim Johnson, Dennis Taylor and Angel Jones (while I was in the Legislature) and Jon Ruiz.

The list of Councilors I served with is extensive and impressive: Jim Torrey, Tim Laue, Laurie Swanson-Gribskow, Shawn Boles, Barbara Keller, Nancy Nathanson, Kevin Hornbuckle, Bobby Lee, Scott Meisner, David Kelly, Ken Tolenaar, Gary Rayor, Gary Pape, Betty Taylor, Bonny Bettman, Andrea Ortiz, Chris Pryor, George Brown, George Poling, Mike Clark, Alan Zelenka, Claire Syrett.

Much happened to change the face of Eugene during my years of service with these 22 Councilors, including:

…We reopened Charnelton, Agate and Willamette Streets and Broadway;

…We tore down the old pedestrian mall and jack-hammered the Broadway/Willamette fountain;

…We wrote a groundbreaking Telecommunication Ordinance;

…We built a remarkable downtown Transit Station;

…We built a new Fire Station 2 and regional training center;

…We built a new Downtown Fire Station;

…We remodeled the Bethel, Sheldon and Churchill fire stations;

…We changed the WWII Memorial on Skinner Butte from a cross to a US Flag;

…We enacted changes mandated by Measure 5;

…We enacted changes in service mandated by Measures 47 and 50;

…We rode the dot-com bubble of prosperity in the ’90′s;

…We endured the budget cuts and service realignments resulting from the bursting bubble;

…We put a new runway at the airport;

…We rebuilt downtown Eugene adding the Bennett Building, an LCC Campus and facilitated renovations to 5th Street Public Market and Center Court.

…We tore down Sears, endured years of a hole in the ground and watched Lane Community College build a new campus;

…We built and rebuilt no less than eight parks in Bethel;

…We built overpasses and extended Beltline Road toward West 11th;

…We formed the Council Committee on Homelessness and Youth and redefined services to homeless families and singles;

…We added hundreds of low-income housing units;

…We conducted Envision Eugene, a vision for the land-use future of our city;

…We closed the old City Hall;

This is but a fraction of the happenings and events.  Forgive me if I missed your favorite.

I will now move on to serve on the Lane County Board of County Commissioners.  The challenges are great, ranging from natural resource use to budget management, public safety, youth and mental health services, transportation, land use and on and on and on.

My dedication to service as a Eugene City Councilor will be continued on the Lane County Board of Commissioners.

I look forward to years of increased coordination and cooperation between the cities and the County.

As I leave the Eugene City Council, after a total of ten years, I am forced to reflect on the time I spent here.  I won my first election when Ruth Bascom was Mayor and Mike Gleason was the long-time City Manager.

Through the years I served with three mayors: Bascom, Jim Torrey and Kitty Piercy.

Through those years I worked with no less than eight City Managers and acting managers: Gleason, Linda Norris, Vicki Elmer, Jim Carlson, Jim Johnson, Dennis Taylor and Angel Jones (while I was in the Legislature) and Jon Ruiz.

The list of Councilors I served with is extensive and impressive: Jim Torrey, Tim Laue, Laurie Swanson-Gribskow, Shawn Boles, Barbara Keller, Nancy Nathanson, Kevin Hornbuckle, Bobby Lee, Scott Meisner, David Kelly, Ken Tolenaar, Gary Rayor, Gary Pape, Betty Taylor, Bonny Bettman, Andrea Ortiz, Chris Pryor, George Brown, George Poling, Mike Clark, Alan Zelenka, Claire Syrett.

(During my time on the Council, which spanned a total of 18 years, there is but one Councilor who served with whom I did not serve:  Jennifer Solomon, who replaced me for eight years while I served in the Legislature and as Executive Director of FOOD for Lane County).

The Roll Call of Ward 6 (Bethel) Councilors over the last third of a century: Jeff Miller, Bobby Green, Pat Farr, Jennifer Solomon, Pat Farr.  I am humbled by the company.

Much happened to change the face of Eugene during my years, including:

…We reopened Charnelton, Agate and Willamette Streets and Broadway;

…We tore down the old pedestrian mall and jack-hammered the Broadway/Willamette fountain;

…We watched Fletcher’s, Bon Marche, Woolworth, Newberry, Burches and other stores leave downtown;

…We caused the grand new hospital to be built in Springfield instead of Eugene;

…We wrote a groundbreaking Telecommunication Ordinance;

…We built a remarkable downtown Transit Station

…We built a new Fire Station 2 and training center

…We built a new Downtown Fire Station

…We built a new River Road Fire Station

…We remodeled the Churchill Fire Station

…We remodeled the Sheldon Fire Station

…We took the Cross off Skinner Butte;

…We caused the citizens of Eugene to have to vote to replace it with a US flag;

…We enacted changes mandated by Measure 5;

…We enacted changes in service mandated by Measures 47 and 50;

…We rode the dot-com bubble of prosperity in the ’90′s;

…We endured the budget cuts and service realignments of the bursting bubble;

…We put a new runway at the airport;

…We tore down Woolworth, endured years of a hole in the ground and watched the Bennett Building grow;

…We tore down Sears, endured years of a hole in the ground and watched Lane Community College build a new campus;

…We rebuilt Bethel Fire Station;

…We built and rebuilt no less than eight parks in Bethel;

…We built overpasses and extended Beltline Road toward West 11th;

…We formed the Council Committee on Homelessness and Youth and redefined services to homeless families and singles;

…We added hundreds of low-income housing units;

…We conducted Envision Eugene, a vision for the land-use future of our city;

…We closed the old City Hall;

This is but a fraction of the happenings and events.  Forgive me if I missed your favorite.

I am now moving on to serve on the Board of County Commissioners.  The challenges are great, ranging from natural resource use to budget management to jails and sheriff services to youth and mental health services to transportation and on and on and on.

I campaigned on the platform of addressing the daunting challenges of the next four or eight years or more in Lane County.  Not the least of which is a nearly complete disintegration of trust in the ability of the Board to effectively conduct its proceedings.  I am ready to meet the challenges.

Over the course of the next two weeks I will name what I see as the ten greatest challenges we face as a Board and as a County.

I will also offer my views on how we as a Board can meet the challenges.

Stay tuned.

Recent polling shows a strong support from Eugeneans on selling water to Veneta.  The support has remained steady throughout the polling period.

View the polling here.

Similar to the Lane County Board of Commissioners, the Eugene City Council faces a daunting 63% disapproval rating.  The Council has fared a bit better than the Board of Commissioners on the approval rating, carrying a 33% currently.

View the polling here.

Recent polling shows residents in Eugene vehemently agree that economic growth has been too slow.

View the polling here.

As seen in the latest report from the Lane County Sheriff’s office, we are still seeing a shockingly high release of inmates due to the lack of funding for the jail.

Click here for the report.

On October 22 the Eugene City Council passed Council Bill 5078, calling for a ban on single use plastic bags.  It passed 6-2. (See historical polling results here.)

But there’s a problem with the bill:  one provision requires that grocery stores–every grocery store, charge at least a nickel for every paper bag it issues to customers–all bags, no matter the size.

Soon every paper bag you get from a Eugene grocery store will cost you a nickel. Even penny-candy sized bags.

The purpose, as stated by members of the council (plus one) majority, was to encourage people to employ reuse-able  bags and steer them away from paper bags.  ”Change your behavior or pay the price…”

I introduced an amendment that would have made charging for the bags optional.

My motion to amend failed with the Council split 4-4, with Brown, Zelenka, Taylor and Ortiz against not charging a mandatory minimum nickel and Mayor Piercy splitting the vote in their favor.

So if you shop at grocery stores in Eugene you will be forced to pay a nickel for every paper bag your groceries or other items are packed in.  But more significantly, retailers will be forced, then, to keep their various paper bags as regular inventory items and incur the added cost of doing business, such as tracking sales, reporting profits and presumably proving that they are indeed gigging their customers for the bags.

I pointed out that some shoppers are reluctant to use reuse-able bags for sanitary reasons and will always choose to use store-supplied bags.

Additionally I question the enforcement mechanism for ensuring that grocery stores, small and large, are indeed complying with the law.  I spoke with a checker at a popular local supermarket on Thursday who said that the management had told her they would continue giving their bags away.  Thus breaking the law, those miscreants.  Who’s going to bust them? Who has time?  Who wants to?

It would have been far more advisable to allow the store owners and operators to determine how much, if anything, they charge for the bags they supply, just as they do with all other items for sale or offered for free in their stores.

Eugene’s Market of Choice, for example, takes a nickel off your bill for each reuse-able bag you bring with you.  That’s good business!

There is no demonstrable evidence that charging a nickel for a bag will cause you remember to bring your reuse-able bags when you shop.  Nor will kids who want to buy penny candy on their way home from school have one in their back pack.

The Council/Mayor majority felt it necessary to ordain that retailers charge a fixed minimum price for bags.  No matter what the size and no matter the ability of the shoppers to pay.

If you don’t like cloth bags your grocery bill just went up. Thank the Eugene City Council (plus one) majority.

According to recent polling, Eugeneans believe the population growth of Eugene is close to optimal.

View the polling data here.

Recent polling shows there is a good amount of support from local Eugene residents in subsidizing downtown developers, this could most notably be seen in the Capstone development project recently approved by the Eugene City Council.

Click here to see the polling data.

Recent polling shows Eugene residents have a strong desire for the city to continue renting, rather than build a new building.

View the polling data here.