 |
 |
|
 |
||
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Slant: Short opinion pieces and rumor-chasing notes News: Happening Person: Holly Peters SECRETIVE CITY MANAGER SELECTION The Eugene City Council appears to be heading toward making one of its most important decisions in secret. While many cities select their city managers from among a handful of publicly announced finalists for the job, Eugene does not. In 2003, the council selected former City Manager Dennis Taylor in a secret meeting without publicly announcing any other finalists. The secret selection for the powerful city manager position drew widespread criticism. In addition to EW editorial criticism at the time, a Register-Guard editorial compared the council's secrecy to cardinals announcing the selection of the pope with puffs of smoke. "There really are no convincing reasons for choosing the city manager behind closed doors," the editorial stated. "Eugene residents deserve to know who is being considered as finalists for the critical position of city manager." But city councilors and city staff said in a Sept. 12 meeting that they wanted to keep the names of city manager finalists secret. The city's recruiter, Bob Neher, said that if the names were public, "I warn you, you're going to lose some of your candidates." To justify secrecy, the city has used the fear of candidates withdrawing if they think the cities where they work now will find out they're looking for another job. But many other cities manage to attract good candidates with more open processes. Cincinnati, Ohio, and Federal Way, Wash., for example, released lists of candidates and invited public comment. Lawrence, Kan., publicly announced Eugene manager Taylor was a finalist there in 2006. The R-G called the fear of losing candidates "overblown," noting that entertaining other job possibilities is expected for top city managers. Neher himself explained that finalists know and understand that their applications will likely go public as citizens meet finalists and as the recruiter conducts background and recommendation interviews. "Confidentiality at that point is going to be moot." Despite wanting to make the decision in secret, councilors have stressed the choice as crucial to the public. The unelected city manager of Eugene is the most powerful person in the region. She or he rules over a staff of 1,400, a budget of $300 million and city assets of half a billion dollars. The manager controls all information coming out of city government. "This is probably one of the more important things we do," said City Councilor Mike Clark of the secret selection. — Alan Pittman PARTY FOR NEW PARK DOWNTOWN
Got a green carpet and a potted tree? An email is circulating among Eugene community groups this week inviting everyone to join in transforming a dreary downtown parking lot into a lively public park — for two hours. The "Park This" event runs from 5 to 7 pm Friday, Sept. 21, at the parking lot across the street from the Eugene Public Library, next to the excavated hole known as Sears Pit. All over the world Friday, people will be transforming parking lots of all sizes into people-friendly urban parks. See parkingday.org for more information. The local event coincides with city and developer plans for downtown redevelopment — plans that do not include any kind of public space other than wide sidewalks. "Park This is intended to be a family friendly event," reads the email. "Imagine a community frolic in a downtown park; that is what we would like. … Please bring any items that you would bring to a nice downtown park frolic: lawn chairs, potted plants, pink flamingos, croquet, Frisbees, kids' stuff, acoustical music, a few square feet of artificial grass … color and humor! Dress up if you want!" Participants will need to pay for the private parking, which costs $1 from 5 until 6 pm when the lot becomes free. Multiple people can share a parking space. Organizers ask, "Please help with a full clean up when it's over, and please be on best behavior." "Currently, there is a good deal of debate about redevelopment in downtown Eugene, park or no park," says the email. "It's a safe bet most people would like to see a park so we invite all park supporters to join us! … We want to simulate what a park could be like downtown."
OFFICIALS URGE END TO IRAQ OCCUPATION
Sixty-one elected city, school, education, county and state officials from 27 counties, representing every corner of the state and every congressional district in Oregon, signed a letter sent to Oregon's congressional delegation, calling on them to direct the Bush administration to bring our troops home now and to cut off the funds for the Iraq War, according to Michael Carrigan, Progressive Responses community organizer for Community Alliance of Lane County (CALC). Lane County Commissioner Pete Sorenson initiated the letter, and he, along with CALC's Progressive Responses and the Rural Organizing Project, secured the support of the elected officials. "Congress has the power of the purse and must assert its responsibility to do what is right and just. It's time to bring our troops home now," says Sorenson in the letter. A complete listing of those who signed the letter can be found on CALC's website at calclane.org Elected officials are struggling to provide basic services at a time when the occupation's costs are mounting, says Carrigan. "They have been told by federal officials, time and time again, that federal funds for roads, schools, economic development, housing, corrections, tuition assistance, law enforcement, health care, mental health and all other purposes are limited because of the Iraq War." Carrigan notes that as a nation, we have spent more than $452 billion on the Iraq War, with Oregon's share of that cost $3.7 billion. "The movement to stop the war is at critical juncture. Congress will be voting on war funding in late September or early October," he says. "I urge people to join with the elected officials who signed Sorenson's letter and contact Sens. Wyden and Smith and Rep. DeFazio and insist that they oppose any further war funding."
BIG KITTY HUNT IS ON Fall cougar season began Aug. 1 and the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife just sent out a reminder to hunters to "avoid long lines" and buy their tags now for $11.50 a pop. The general statewide season on cougars runs Jan. 1 to May 31 and Aug. 1 to Dec. 31 or until "hunt zone quotas have been met, whichever occurs first." The ODFW's hunt zone quotas allow for 777 cougars to be "harvested" by hunters in Oregon this year. The deadline for the big cat hunters to buy a cougar tag for the 2007 season is Sept. 28. Bear tags can also be purchased for the $11.50 price tag. "Outrageous," says Brooks Fahy of Predator Defense, "that this hunt continues under the guise of public safety." On the issue of safety, if you are planning on hiking, it's time now more than ever to wear your bright orange clothing — rifle buck season begins Sept. 29. And in related news, the ODFW, after public outcry, has decided not to "euthanize" two blacktail deer recently found living with a family in Mollalla. It would seem, according to the agency, animals killed in the wild are to be "harvested" and wild animals illegally owned by people are "euthanized." ODFW described one of the deer as "aggressive" and said it, too, is an issue of "public safety."— Camilla Mortensen RECALL OF ZELENKA? A neighborhood opponent of the UO's planned basketball arena said he will launch a voter recall of City Councilor Alan Zelenka for his alleged support of the project. In an email to EW, Fairmont neighborhood resident Eric Eiden said that the UO's arena and use of eminent domain threaten his neighborhood and that Zelenka's public support of the project warrants an upcoming recall effort. As of Tuesday, Sept. 18, no recall petition had been filed with the city. To be successful, Eiden would have to gather at least 951 valid signatures from the ward around the UO in 90 days and then defeat Zelenka in a recall election. Eiden argues that the UO should be maintaining existing academic buildings rather than building the new basketball arena for Phil Knight, who pays a big chunk of UO President David Frohnmayer's salary. "The only way to get Frohnmayer to do his job and upkeep the main campus is to deny him his ability to sprawl on top of existing neighborhoods utilizing the power of eminent domain," says Eiden. — Alan Pittman
NEW TRAIL FOR BIRDING Birdwatchers and other nature buffs are being asked to nominate sites for a new Willamette Valley Birding Trail. The deadline for nominations has been extended to Oct. 31. More than a dozen tourism, wildlife, park and land management groups have been working over the past year to develop the new trail as a way to enhance the public's enjoyment of birds and their habitats. The selection group will make its decisions based on overall habitat and the types of birds found at the site, according to oregonbirdingtrails.org where nominations can be made. Other factors include the site's accessibility to area attractions such as historical sites, waterfalls and bike trails. The potential environmental impacts of increased visitation to the site will also be considered in the selection process. The Willamette Valley Birding Trail will become at least the fourth major trail of its kind in Oregon. Other trails include the Cascades Birding Trail, the Klamath Basin Birding Trail and the Oregon Coast Birding Trail. "Lane County Audubon supports this effort because of our interest in habitat preservation and education about the natural world," says Maeve Sowles, president of the Lane County Audubon Society. "We share the goals of raising awareness and enjoyment of nature with others in the hope that they will learn to value and protect our habitat resources."
WAR DEAD Since the U.S. invasion of Iraq began onMarch 20, 2003(last week's numbers in parentheses): • 3,771 U.S. troops killed*(3,739) • 27,767 U.S. troops injured* (27,279) • 122 U.S. military suicides* (118) • 1,297 Coalition troops killed* (1,297) • 417 contractors killed**(417) • 78,081 Iraqi civilians killed***(77,566) • $450.4 billion cost of war ($448.4 billion) • $128.1 millioncost to Eugene taxpayers($127.5 million) * through Aug. 13, 2007; source: icasualties.org; some figures only updated monthly ** estimate; source: icasualties.org *** highest estimate; source: iraqbodycount.org; based on confirmed media reports; other groups calculate civilian deaths as high as 655,000 to one million
CORRECTIONS/CLARIFICATIONS Regarding our cover story last week on the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Michael Elich, who stars as Petruchio in Taming of the Shrew at OSF, is not a Portland State professor; Michael Olich, who designed the Willamette Rep's production of King David during the Oregon Bach Festival, is a theater prof — at Lewis & Clark.
Holly Peters
Her mother died when she was born, so Holly Peters was raised by her father and 13 uncles in a Lakota tribal community in Gresham. "My dad's grief created alcohol problems," she says. "I became an alcoholic at age 12. I detoxed in a sweatlodge at a Lakota center in Idaho when I was 14, and I started doing traditional ceremonies." Peters finished high school and then got a degree from WSU and a master's in social work from Portland State. After several years in the mental health field in Portland, she came to Eugene in 2004 to work as a drug and alcohol counselor for Integrated Health Clinics. She is now clinical supervisor for IHC in Eugene and Milwaukie. When her father, who had never stopped drinking, died a year ago, Peters was motivated to start a Lane County chapter of Wellbriety, a wellness/sobriety program rooted in Native American traditions. "The solution is in the culture," she says. "We have weekly meetings, open to native and non-native people. A lot of non-native people feel drawn to these traditions." Learn more about Wellbriety at whitebison.org. |
|
|||||||||||
|
||||||||||||
