Item 2A: Approval of City Council Minutes

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area’s homeless and a second one is scheduled for next month. Staff, social services, governing bodies, and hundreds of volunteers and donations make this event meaningful on every level. In July, our independent police auditor, Cris Beamud, officially opened her doors downtown and the Civilian Review Board is in place, working on complaints. Both have become an important part of ensuring justice in our community. Police staffing needs remain an issue before us and that problem is compounded by the inadequate funding of Lane County’s prevention, intervention and treatment services, jail beds, legal, and judicial processes. While Eugeneans are committed to community policing, the county public safety system itself is broken. We will have to be very strategic in our prioritizations in order to effectively address this critical issue. Loss of federal, state and county road repair dollars also continues to plague us and our pothole backlog grows. At my request, the council worked together to bring very diverse perspectives to the table and develop a funding package that included a gas tax increase. Although the tax increase did not survive the last election, we understand the growing need and will keep working on finding solutions that the community will support. No look at local issues is complete without some mention of the hospital saga. While neither the council nor I can legally comment on the location proposed by McKenzie-Willamette in north Eugene, I can reiterate my strong support for the presence of two full-service hospitals in our metropolitan area, which will ensure healthy competition and breadth of services. McKenzie-Willamette should be in Eugene where it can effectively provide health care for our community, support our tax base and where, if needed, we can have some influence on significant health care policies. I am proud of our continued efforts to guarantee the right and access to services for all our community members, regardless of race, age, gender, sexual orientation, abilities, beliefs, or income. We want this community to be a comfortable place for everyone to live, work and raise their families, where differences are respected and thought of as a valued part of the fabric of a strong community. It hurt last year when our city experienced repeated incidents of hate speech and the defacing of important religious objects. Our community will stand united against such behavior, and defend the rights of all its members. Same sex couples still pursue the same legal rights as married couples; clearly the day has come to end all forms of discrimination based on sexual orientation. As you are probably aware, an opportunity to take one more step in achieving this goal of equality was recently frustrated when a new domestic partnership law was postponed by the courts. Despite these setbacks, however, we must continue to be vigilant in pursuing equal rights for all. Differences of opinion about immigration issues can fuel bigotry and hatred; we need to remind ourselves that our community and our nation were built by indigenous peoples and immigrants, and that all human beings deserve respect. The social justice triumphs and defeats of this last year have increased my resolve to continue working on becoming an official Human Rights City, one that embraces human rights in every decision we make. If there’s any place in America that can do this, it is certainly here. MINUTES—State of the City January 7, 2008 Page 7