CC Minutes - 02/16/98 Meeting - Laserfiche WebLink

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MINUTES Eugene City Council City Council Chamber--City Hall February 16, 1998 7:30 p.m. COUNCILORS PRESENT: Pat Farr, Tim Laue, Bobby Lee, Laurie Swanson Gribskov, Scott Meisner, Nancy Nathanson, Betty Taylor, Ken Tollenaar. The adjourned February 11, 1998, Eugene City Council meeting was called to order at 7:30 p.m.; Mayor James D. Torrey presiding. i. PUBLIC FORUM Mayor Torrey reviewed the guidelines for participation in the Public Forum. Bradley R. Meyers, 2490 Lincoln Street, stated that he was opposed to a daytime curfew for school age children as proposed in the State of the City address of Mayor Torrey. He said he did not believe the proposal was logical and reported that legal precedent indicated such laws were unconstitutional. He suggested that evaluation of the concept be provided by school district officials. He described experiences of his own children with legitimate daytime off-campus activities. Caryle Tylerkays, Post Office Box 22912, stated that she was the parent of a child enrolled in the YMCA Downtown Children's Center, which had recently announced it would be closing. She said she and other parents were working to resolve funding issues for the center and asked the City Council and mayor to provide assistance in resolving what she characterized as "safety issues" related to the Downtown Mall location of the center. She read a letter from the operator of a business in the area which expressed concern about loitering, aggressive panhandling, and illegal drug use and sales. She said she believed the solution to such problems was a permanent walking police patrol officer on the mall. She expressed concern that continued growth in the use of downtown was being threatened by conditions in the area. George Boehnke, 2040 Willamette Street, stated that he was a life-long resident of Eugene and that he had participated in the organization of the first Eugene Celebration. He said it had been promised that the event would be financially self-supporting, but that it continued to require taxpayer support. He said he believed that in the face of service cuts forced by revenue reduction, it was time to either end City sponsorship of the event, charge entrance fees which would provide the needed support, or scale back its scope to reduce its cost. Alan Wagner, 2650 Chuckanut Street, stated that he had sent an electronic mail message to members of the council expressing his support for the privatization of the Eugene Celebration. He said a nonprofit organization with experience running public events would be able to solve its financial problems. He suggested that candidates for such an organization were the groups Minutes--Eugene City Council February 16, 1998 Page 1 7:30 p.m.