CC Minutes - 06/12/06 Meeting - Laserfiche WebLink

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M I N U T E S Eugene City Council City Council Meeting Council Chamber—Eugene City Hall June 12, 2006 7:30 p.m. COUNCILORS PRESENT: Jennifer Solomon, Andrea Ortiz, David Kelly, Gary Papé, George Poling, Chris Pryor, Bonny Bettman, Betty Taylor. Her Honor Mayor Kitty Piercy called the meeting of the Eugene City Council to order and welcomed everyone to the meeting. 1. PUBLIC FORUM Mayor Piercy reviewed the rules of the Public Forum. Ken Neubeck , 4915 West Hillside Drive, urged the City Council to support Resolution 4881, the Human Rights resolution. He said he was on the Board of the Amigos Multi-Cultural Services Center, which has operated in Eugene since 1993, working with immigrants, refugees, and asylum-seekers. He related that most of the people he worked with suffered severe human rights abuses in their home nations, ranging from life-threatening poverty to political violence, including torture. He declared the resolution “extraordinarily important” to people who were in the community as immigrants, both documented and undocumented. Recent rhetoric in the media frightened many of the people he served. He stated that people he worked with were heavily traumatized by human rights violations in the nations from which they came. He averred that the City of Eugene had an opportunity to make a strong statement about its belief in human rights and its interest in respecting the dignity and safety of people in the community regardless of heritage, nationality, or whether they were here legally or not. He asked the council to give unanimous support to the resolution so that it would send a message to surrounding communities. Guadalupe Quinn , 3820 Greenwood Street, stated that she worked with CAUSA, a statewide coalition for immigrant rights. She thanked the council for considering the human rights resolution. She asked the council to pass the resolution as it would send a clear message that the City was committed to the welfare of all members of the community. She said people need to know that they will be treated with respect and everyone has the right to feel safe. She underscored the contributions that immigrants have made to this country. Mitzi Colbath , 2230 Churchill Street, President of the Eugene Planning Commission, said the Planning Commission sent her to convey the unanimous affirmation of and support for its letter of May 16. She provided another copy of the letter to the councilors. She related that the letter was about land use issues and the type of work the Planning Commission wanted to conduct for the council as the City moved into the next year. MINUTES—Eugene City Council June 12, 2006 Page 1 Regular Meeting