CC Minutes - 01/07/08 State of the City

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VI. SPECIAL PRESENTATION Bill Drumheller, Oregon Department of Energy, provided a special presentation on the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives Greenhouse Gas Inventory. VII. MUSICAL SELECTION Those present heard another musical selection by Tonn Nua Celtic Band entitled The Gaelic Song. VIII. STATE OF THE CITY ADDRESS Mayor Piercy delivered the following remarks: Good evening everyone and thank you for joining us here in our beautiful Hult Center for the Performing Arts. Let me take this opportunity to thank our citizens, our council and our staff for all their efforts in 2007 to keep Eugene such a great place to call home. Like many of you, I start off most days by listening to the radio, reading the newspaper and checking the web. Like you, I am acutely aware of the ever-rising death toll in Iraq, the ever-rising temperature of the earth, the fretful American economy and the resulting financial challenges we face at home. And, I am more committed than ever to doing everything we can to work for peace and justice, to reduce our impact on global warming, to keep our economy strong, and to provide the services our community expects. I believe absolutely in the power we have individually and collectively to make change, influence policy and set the direction for the future. Cities are where it all happens; where people live, work, raise families, and establish roots. Eugene is our city and our home. It is a reflection of our values and how we want this world to be. A lot of our work occurs at the City Council table, through advocacy groups, on committees and commis- sions, and in our neighborhoods. Our energy and passion for civic engagement is a tremendous community asset, allowing us to address more issues in greater depth. Essential to our civic engagement are our neighborhood associations. I am impressed with the ever more active and successful role they are taking to bring forward community perspectives and expertise, whether it’s on mixed-use development, infill and neighborhood livability, safer parks, railroad pollution, response to traffic fatalities, or protecting headwaters. Civic engagement almost always comes with differences of opinion and the issues we face are often thorny. To me, the important thing is to work together - to find points of common agreement so that we can move forward as a community. Some recent examples of successful community cooperation are the Mayor’s Sustainable Business Initiative and the West Eugene Collaborative. MINUTES—State of the City January 7, 2008 Page 4