Eugene Weekly : News : 11.30.06

Cops Out
City to move police out of City Hall downtown
BY ALAN PITTMAN

In a blow to downtown, police accountability, the will of the voters and prospects for a new City Hall, the Eugene City Council voted 7-1 last week to pull most of the police department from designs for a new civic center.

"It's going to doom any ballot measure" for a new City Hall, Councilor Bonny Bettman, the lone dissenting vote, said.

At the Nov. 20 meeting, councilors and city staff discussed moving the police patrol division to an industrial area near 2nd Avenue and Chambers Street, known as the Roosevelt site, that the city uses for firefighter training and its public works division. A new police building at the site could be funded without a vote, using the city's facility reserve account, said City Manager Dennis Taylor. Taylor recommended the Roosevelt site, and a council majority appeared to support it, although there was no formal vote.

The move would hit downtown with the loss of about 200 more employees at a time that the city is struggling to retain and attract private development downtown with millions of dollars in subsidies. Promoting downtown is a key part of the city's efforts to reduce sprawl and promote livability and environmental sustainability.

The struggling downtown will also suffer the loss of patrol cars driving through the area. The loss in police presence comes at a time that the Downtown Eugene Inc. business group is complaining that vandalism, vagrancy and crime downtown are frightening away redevelopment investors.

The move could also hurt efforts by the city to increase police accountability and oversight in the wake of the Magaña/Lara officer sex abuse scandals. The patrol division will be far away from top police commanders downtown, from the Internal Affairs Division, criminal investigators, top police supervisors and the new independent police auditor and review board. The Magaña scandal broke after detectives went downstairs in the current City Hall and found key evidence in Magaña's patrol locker.

The city has struggled for years to integrate the separate "culture" in the police department with the rest of city government. But with the move to a separate building, it will look like the city is trying to "sequester the police off in their own police building," Bettman said.

The move to build the police station without a vote also comes after voters rejected ballot measures for it three times, last time in 2004 with 60 percent voting no. To circumvent voters, the city will avoid another vote by funding the new building out of its "facility reserve." The city set aside the reserve of about $29 million by reducing city services and redirecting money from lawsuit windfalls to the reserve instead of increased services, street repair or lower taxes.

Voters won't like the city spending money without a vote for a thrice failed police station while asking for a big tax increase for a new City Hall, according to Bettman. "There's little chance in it passing," she said. "What we'll end up with is paying for a police station out of the money we saved for City Hall and having a failed ballot measure and no City Hall."

Supporters offered comparatively little justification for moving the police out of city hall and downtown.

Some councilors said some of their constituents were uncomfortable with having a police patrol officer presence in a City Hall. But design consultants offered options to put most of the police on upper floors, and the building will still house police detectives and command staff.

Bettman argued that the way to reduce public discomfort is to integrate the police into the community, not by hiding officers in another building. "I don't think the answer to that problem is to relegate the police off somewhere into a fortress independent of public access," she said at an earlier meeting.

Some councilors argued that a police location outside of the urban core would be cheaper. But design consultants said the construction cost would be only "very slightly less" than in City Hall downtown, and their estimates didn't include the cost of paying police to make frequent trips between City Hall and the other location for supervisory, court, prosecutor and other visits.

But perhaps the biggest impetus for a separate patrol station wasn't discussed. Seven years ago, a number of EPD officers were caught stealing parking spaces costing up to $50 a month from the city by fraudulently claiming they were car pooling to work. At the Roosevelt facility, the city plans to pay for a 100,000 sq. ft. surface parking lot and give all the cops spaces for free.

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		Cops Out City to move police out of City Hall downtown BY ALAN PITTMAN In a blow to downtown, police accountability, the will of the voters and prospects for a new City Hall, the Eugene City Council voted 7-1 last week to pull most of the police department from designs for a new civic center. "It's going to doom any ballot measure" for a new City Hall, Councilor Bonny Bettman, the lone dissenting vote, said. At the Nov. 20 meeting, councilors and city staff discussed moving the police patrol division to an industrial area near 2nd Avenue and Chambers Street, known as the Roosevelt site, that the city uses for firefighter training and its public works division. A new police building at the site could be funded without a vote, using the city's facility reserve account, said City Manager Dennis Taylor. Taylor recommended the Roosevelt site, and a council majority appeared to support it, although there was no formal vote. The move would hit downtown with the loss of about 200 more employees at a time that the city is struggling to retain and attract private development downtown with millions of dollars in subsidies. Promoting downtown is a key part of the city's efforts to reduce sprawl and promote livability and environmental sustainability. The struggling downtown will also suffer the loss of patrol cars driving through the area. The loss in police presence comes at a time that the Downtown Eugene Inc. business group is complaining that vandalism, vagrancy and crime downtown are frightening away redevelopment investors. The move could also hurt efforts by the city to increase police accountability and oversight in the wake of the Magaña/Lara officer sex abuse scandals. The patrol division will be far away from top police commanders downtown, from the Internal Affairs Division, criminal investigators, top police supervisors and the new independent police auditor and review board. The Magaña scandal broke after detectives went downstairs in the current City Hall and found key evidence in Magaña's patrol locker. The city has struggled for years to integrate the separate "culture" in the police department with the rest of city government. But with the move to a separate building, it will look like the city is trying to "sequester the police off in their own police building," Bettman said. The move to build the police station without a vote also comes after voters rejected ballot measures for it three times, last time in 2004 with 60 percent voting no. To circumvent voters, the city will avoid another vote by funding the new building out of its "facility reserve." The city set aside the reserve of about $29 million by reducing city services and redirecting money from lawsuit windfalls to the reserve instead of increased services, street repair or lower taxes. Voters won't like the city spending money without a vote for a thrice failed police station while asking for a big tax increase for a new City Hall, according to Bettman. "There's little chance in it passing," she said. "What we'll end up with is paying for a police station out of the money we saved for City Hall and having a failed ballot measure and no City Hall." Supporters offered comparatively little justification for moving the police out of city hall and downtown. Some councilors said some of their constituents were uncomfortable with having a police patrol officer presence in a City Hall. But design consultants offered options to put most of the police on upper floors, and the building will still house police detectives and command staff. Bettman argued that the way to reduce public discomfort is to integrate the police into the community, not by hiding officers in another building. "I don't think the answer to that problem is to relegate the police off somewhere into a fortress independent of public access," she said at an earlier meeting. Some councilors argued that a police location outside of the urban core would be cheaper. But design consultants said the construction cost would be only "very slightly less" than in City Hall downtown, and their estimates didn't include the cost of paying police to make frequent trips between City Hall and the other location for supervisory, court, prosecutor and other visits. But perhaps the biggest impetus for a separate patrol station wasn't discussed. Seven years ago, a number of EPD officers were caught stealing parking spaces costing up to $50 a month from the city by fraudulently claiming they were car pooling to work. At the Roosevelt facility, the city plans to pay for a 100,000 sq. ft. surface parking lot and give all the cops spaces for free.






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