Eugene Weekly

After decades of complaints about spiraling legal costs and potential conflicts of interest, Eugene City Manager Jon Ruiz has decided to hire an in-house attorney rather than having all the city’s legal work done by a private law firm. Ruiz announced in a press release today that Eugene will have at least one in house lawyer starting July 1 and could expand to three attorneys working as city employees. City managers have given the private law firm of Harrang Long Gary Rudnick, P.C. exclusive contracts for almost all the city’s legal work for the past three decades. Continue reading →

Interim Police Auditor Dawn Reynolds’ attorney issued a statement denying an allegation that Reynolds improperly disclosed confidential information. Reynolds’ attorney Margaret Wilson said the interim auditor’s “conduct was professional and entirely consistent with her public duties.” Continue reading →

The allegations that resulted in the Eugene City Council putting interim Police Auditor Dawn Reynolds on leave are “disturbing and disruptive” and lack merit, Eugene’s previous auditor Cris Beamud said in a written statement. “I have had an opportunity to speak with Dawn Reynolds, and I do not believe that the allegations against her are meritorious,” wrote Beamud, who left Eugene last summer to head the police oversight system in Atlanta. Continue reading →

Remember all the talk about Oregon leading the nation in fighting global warming? Well, ODOT must have thought people meant leading the nation in increasing global warming. The state transportation agency, Gov. Ted Kulongoski and Portland’s supposedly green city government is gung ho for a 12-lane, $4 billion, that’s right $4,000,000,000, I-5 freeway bridge across the Columbia River to facilitate urban sprawl. But, grassroots opposition is building. Here’s a mocking shopping channel video from a Portland bike activist: Continue reading →

After the cancellation of the West Eugene Parkway sparked a two year search for alternatives, the West Eugene Collaborative (WEC) has recommended the eventual conversion of the West 11th commercial strip into a green, multi-modal, mixed-use, dense boulevard. Continue reading →

Cargo bikes are in. Revolution Cycles in Whiteaker has started to sell this stable Madsen from Utah featuring a big, low-slung cargo tub and a 600-lbs. capacity (click images for links): The non-profit Center for Appropriate Transportation (CAT) is offereing classes to build this sturdy hauling trailer: Continue reading →

Let’s see if we got this right. The UO’s new President will make a half million a year. The UO’s new athletic director will make at least another half million. The UO’s new football coach will make $3 million. That adds up to $4 million a year for the three positions. Due to a supposed lack of money, the UO is hitting in-state students with an extra $150 and out of state students with an extra $300 in fees Spring semester. Continue reading →

After the closure of the county’s armory warming shelter, the homeless have few choices but the county jail now. Eugene Acting Police Chief Pete Kerns told the City Club last month that arrest and the jail is where “many” homeless mentally ill people wind up. “It’s a dry warm place where they can get warm meals and some treatment,” he said. Continue reading →

Remember all the hype last fall in The Register-Guard and local TV news that crime downtown was frightening people away from the Eugene public library? Library visits were up 21 percent last year, the largest increase in five years, according to the library’s recent annual report. Continue reading →

Twenty-one Roosevelt Middle School students biked to school today to save the world and perhaps win a prize, according to Freiker. Continue reading →