Forum Lane

The Register-Guard printed my essay today, headlined:  ”Combine government efforts to gain efficiency.” (link here)

The text of the guest viewpoint follows:

Combine government efforts to gain efficiency

BY PAT FARR

Published: February 3, 2013 12:00AM, Today
The cities of Eugene and Springfield are in the process of merging their fire departments. Many of the same benefits obtained from the fire merger could be pursued by consolidating other local government efforts.
Reasons for the fire merger abound, including:
1) Eliminating boundaries that could hinder fire and medical emergency responses.
2) Standardizing equipment used in the field, allowing different crews to hook up to each other’s hardware as well as keeping a single inventory of replacement and backup parts.
3) Streamlining the command structure to reduce administrative overhead.
4) Ensuring the availability of life-saving services with faster response times to more addresses.
The bottom line is this: The people of Eugene and Springfield will be safer, while money spent on fire and EMT services is optimized.
Compare that approach with this recent development: The city of Eugene is embarking on creating a committee to study homelessness. The group is slated to be a standing committee of the City Council. This committee is overdue and will essentially be a clearinghouse for needed services.
Its aim will be to study homelessness in Eugene by:
1) Examining local ordinances that affect homeless individuals and families and comparing Eugene with other similar cities.
2) Keeping abreast of emerging issues.
3) Considering specific requests and recommendations from the public.
4) Providing the community an education and outreach component regarding homelessness and homeless services.
The standing committee will consist of seven to nine members who will represent public safety officials, service provider organizations, the faith community, business interests, the city of Eugene Human Rights Commission and others. It is well-intentioned work, and it will be good.
It will be good, that is, if it is coordinated with a similar committee that is being formed by Lane County. The Lane County committee is required by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
HUD provides Lane County with federal money for housing assistance, among other things, and in order to grant certain parts of the funding, HUD is requiring Lane County to establish a new council on homelessness. This council will have an almost identical composition and set of goals.
Both groups are in the conceptual stage. If the two committees end up duplicating efforts — or, worse, competing against each other for time and money — valuable human service assets will be wasted and the end result is likely to be compromised.
An opportunity exists for the two committees to either combine with a single charge, or to coordinate their efforts in order to complement the other committee’s work.
Additional examples of duplicated committee work exist throughout the region. In some cases, nonprofit organizations are working on a particular issue while at the same time a well-meaning government jurisdiction identifies the same concern and forms a task force, effectively duplicating the work — and perhaps doubling the cost. At other times committees are formed to study a condition that has been previously studied, needlessly replicating the work and expense. Locally we have a number of established intergovernmental commissions that are intended to consolidate and coordinate efforts. But government has not always been expert in allowing them to do so.
For instance, there is an intergovernmental Human Services Commission, which consists of elected officials from Lane County, Eugene and Springfield. One of its main functions is to effectively distribute available funds to the most effective service providers. But it is not always unilaterally supported by the represented government bodies. For instance, City Council members are often reminded that the HSC is the best way to address local human service needs.
Other commissions and committees consisting of multi-jurisdictional staff members and elected officials can be used effectively to optimize the precious, ever-diminishing resources that are available. These committees address housing needs, economic development, public safety and more. These committees are often duplicated elsewhere locally.
Additionally, the Lane Council of Governments provides services to all cities and school boards in the county. Under the leadership of its recently-appointed director, Brenda Wilson, LCOG has a chance to reach new heights in efficient service and resource use.
As Lane County and its cities enter a new year with a new mix of councilors and board members, we should also enter a new era of coordination of services. That approach will allow us to identify ways to increase efficiency and provide higher levels of service without needless duplicated spending.
Pat Farr, a former Eugene city councilor, represents north Eugene on the Lane County Board of Commissioners.

The cities of Eugene and Springfield are in the process of merging their fire departments into a single department.  (click here to see details.)

Reasons for the merger abound:

1.  Eliminating boundaries that could be a hindrance to overlapping fire and medical emergency response.

2.  Standardizing equipment used in the field in order to allow different crews to hook up to each other’s hardware as well as to keep a single inventory of replacement and backup parts.

3.  Streamlining the command structure to reduce administrative overhead.

4.  Making more life-saving services available to more addresses.

The list goes on.  Bottom line:  people of Eugene and Springfield are safer while the money spent on fire and EMT services is optimized.

Compare that with a recent development.  The city of Eugene is embarking on creating a committee on homelessness that is slated to be a standing committee of the City Council.  This committee is overdue and will essentially be a clearing house for needed services.  It will consist of 7-9 members who will represent different segments of the community such as:  public safety; service providers; faith community; business; Human Rights Commission, etc.  It will be good.

It will be good, that is, if it is coordinated with a similar committee that is being formed by Lane County.  A committee required by the  U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (which provides Lane County with federal money for housing assistance among other things) which will have an almost identical composition.

If the two committees end up duplicating efforts–or worse, competing against each other for available resources–valuable human service dollars will be wasted and the end result is likely to be compromised.

An opportunity exists for the two committees to either combine with a single charge (set of goals) or to coordinate their efforts in order to compliment the other committee’s work.

Other examples of duplicated committee work exist throughout Lane County.  Non-profit organizations often are working on a particular issue while at the same time a well-meaning  government jurisdiction identifies the same issue and forms a new task force, effectively duplicating the work.  And perhaps doubling the cost.  At other times committees are formed to study a condition that has been previously studied, needlessly replicating the work and expense.

Locally we have established intergovernmental commissions that are intended to consolidate and coordinate efforts.  But we have not always been expert in allowing them to do so.

For instance, we have an intergovernmental Human Services Commission, which consists of elected officials from Lane County, Eugene and Springfield.  Its goal is to effectively distribute available funds to the most effective service providers.  But it is not always unilaterally supported by the represented government bodies.

We have other commissions and committees that consist of multi-jurisdictional elected officials and staff that can be used more effectively to optimize the precious and diminishing resources available.

We also have Lane Council of Governments (LCOG) which provides services to all cities and school boards in the county.  Under the new leadership of its director, Brenda Wilson, LCOG can reach new heights in efficient service.

As we enter the new year, if we also enter a new era of coordination of services, we can find ways to be more efficient and provide higher levels of service without requiring duplicated spending.

Now, that would be new.

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.

After winning the primary election in May by 30 points I ran unopposed in the November general election.

I subsequently received just short of 100% of the vote, with a small number of write-in votes recorded.  I will be sworn as County Commissioner in early January.  I will tender my resignation from the Eugene City Council to be effective just before my installation as Commissioner.  The other seven members of the Council will select my temporary replacement through a process that has already begun.  My temporary Eugene City Council replacement will stand election in May to complete my current term.

County Commission work differs from my School Board, City Council and Legislative work in a variety of significant ways.  Noticeably, Commissioners have administrative responsibilities with the staff and organization that directors, councilors and legislators do not have.

My work will include Health and Human Services; Public Safety; Land Use; Transportation and a number of other fields.  Overarching all work is focus on the health of the economy and environment.

I will personally employ a “triple bottom line” approach to decision making, which takes into account “planet, profit and people,” or as defined locally, “environment, economy and social equity.”

Thanks to the electorate for your confidence as I enter my new scope of service duties.

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.

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 overwhelming amount of support of the Toxics right to know measure, although there is a large and significant number of undecideds.

View the polling data here.

Eugene was officially born on October 17, 1862.

It seems kind of fitting that Eugene was born in the middle of the Civil War.