CC Minutes - 06/27/11 Meeting - Laserfiche WebLink

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MINUTES Eugene City Council Council Chamber —City Hall 777 Pearl Street — Eugene, Oregon June 27, 2011 7:30 p.m. COUNCILORS PRESENT: Betty Taylor, George Brown, Andrea Ortiz, George Poling, Mike Clark, Chris Pryor, Alan Zelenka, Pat Farr. Her Honor Mayor Kitty Piercy called the June 27, 2011, regular meeting of the Eugene City Council to order. 12 9 0 .190010191, 9 1110 - 1 Mayor Piercy reviewed the rules of the Public Forum. Calling for a point of order, Councilor Farr noted the council's earlier action to include the recital of the Pledge of Allegiance at council meetings closest to Memorial Day, Flag Day, Veterans Day, and the Fourth of July, and asked City Attorney Glenn Klein if the meeting counted as the meeting closest to the Fourth of July. City Attorney Klein did not know. Councilor Clark believed that it did but suggested the council postpone the activity at this time and recite the Pledge of Allegiance at the next meeting instead. James Baptiste, a California resident of California who spent six months each year in Eugene, questioned why Eugene wanted the money from the wars when councilors did not want to recite the Pledge of Allegiance. He suggested that the country could bring the soldiers home but there were no jobs for them. While he appreciated the mayor's views, he questioned where her allegiance lay. He believed the country was built around the concept of God. He said there was something wrong with the situation and the councilors should examine themselves. He believed the pledge was important and that God was important. He asked the council to think about what it did. Joseph Newton, PO Box 10334, Eugene, supported Councilor Brown's proposed resolution against the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan because the money being spent on the war was needed at home in Eugene. The police did not have the resources to respond to the small thefts that affected people's lives. He believed the basic elements that made up civilization were crumbling while the nation's resources were going to ill- defined missions that the country should have avoided. He said the United States had stayed in Iraq long after it was not wanted. He believed the wars were affecting the work of the council and the welfare of the residents of Eugene. Mr. Newton said it was within the council's purview to state that it wanted the community's resources to remain in Eugene to help the council create a society that people could feel allegiance to and want to defend. Kimberly Gladen, 361 West Broadway, 44, discussed the Lane County Courthouse and Wayne Morse Free Speech Plaza. She reported that she frequently met visitors to Eugene who were impressed with downtown and amazed by Saturday Market and the Fanners Market. They often expressed a desire to move to Eugene. Then they visited the Wayne Morse Free Speech Plaza and saw how the community honored Wayne Morse by allowing a chaotic free - for -all that included criminal behavior. The scene drew transients and runaways from all around the country to downtown and the Board of County MINUTES— Eugene City Council June 27, 2011 Page 1 Regular Meeting