CC Minutes - 06/01/98 Meeting - Laserfiche WebLink

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Frank Drysdale, 912 Van Buren, recalled the incident on June 1, 1997, in which citizens attempted to prevent the cutting of trees for the Broadway Place Parking structure. He said he regretted the confrontation with police which had resulted during the incident. He said he believed problems were created because of an addition made to plans for the structure after they were approved by the departmental advisory committee. He recommended that plans such as those developed for the structure should be made available to the community and neighborhood through the public library. He said he also believed City ordinances regarding trees were violated in the project when a 15-day comment and appeal period were not provided. Gordie Albi, 550 East 40th Avenue, stated that she was experienced with police review procedures in other areas and had attend all of the meetings of the External Review Advisory Committee. She said she believed the estimate of $100,000 for the procedure to be instituted in Eugene was too high, especially if no consultants would be hired. She said she disagreed with public comments made by members of the council regarding community support for the review process. She reported that she was aware of wide-spread dissatisfaction with the police and hoped a decision about the issue would be placed before the voters. Misha Seymour, 1313 Lincoln Street #306, stated that he was concerned with the "direction" of the City. He said that he believed the council was overly pessimistic and he opposed the proposed daytime curfew because citizens had the right to walk City streets. He proposed that the council develop "win-win" situations and complained about the absence of benches on 13th Avenue, public telephones which can not receive in-coming calls, public bathrooms which do not have soap, harassment of children, and tax incentives given the Hyundai Corporation. He said citizens had the right to sit on the downtown mall. Kristian Stiegler, 939 West Broadway, said that he believed the council would reap the "karma" of its actions in regards to the June 1, 1997, incident by losing elections. He said he believed the architectural design of the Broadway Plaza parking structure project could have been altered to accommodate the trees in the area. He presented a list of issues, as follows: (1) neither the mayor or seven of eight councilors had attended any meetings of the External Review Advisory Committee; (2) he has never seen a member of the City Council on a bicycle trail or riding a bus; the mayor lives in the hills; councilors are not responsive to citizens; prohibitions of skateboards and dogs on 13th Avenue curtail the rights of citizens; and pro-active police decisions are hurting the City. Paul Prensky, 933 East 29th Avenue, distributed copies of a leaflet entitled "Who Killed the Downtown Trees? How Come The Died and Why'd It Come To Be?" He said he did not believe flying a flag on Skinner Butte was a bad idea. He said he had participated in a silent march to commemorate the June 1, 1997, tree cutting incident. He read a portion of the leaflet he had distributed. Faddah Wolf, 520 West 13th Avenue, said that he believed the June 1, 1997, incident was an indictment of City policies, City government, City mandates, and a prevalent "us versus them" mentality. He said public comments by councilors that only a minority of citizens want a police review process were inaccurate because he was aware of many in the downtown area who wanted such a process. He said he also believed a curfew on the downtown mall was inappropriate because it was unfair to children of the community. He said he was involved in seeking to bring Federal civil rights charges because of violations which took place on June 1, 1997. MINUTES--City Council June 1, 1998 Page 2 7:30 p.m.