CC Minutes - 01/14/08 Meeting - Laserfiche WebLink

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2. ACTION: Election of City Council Officers Councilor Ortiz, seconded by Councilor Solomon, moved to elect Councilor Chris Pryor as President of the City Council for 2008. Roll call vote; the motion passed unanimously, 8:0. Councilor Ortiz, seconded by Councilor Pryor, moved to elect Councilor Bonny Bettman as Vice President of the City Council for 2008. Roll call vote; the motion passed unani- mously, 8:0. 3. PUBLIC FORUM Mayor Piercy reviewed the rules of the Public Forum. th Deb Frisch , 3003 West 11 Avenue, thought an overpass should be constructed for people to travel safely from the downtown area to the Courthouse. She conveyed her opposition to the University of Oregon’s proposed basketball arena. She thought parking downtown should be free. She also reiterated her opposition to the exception granted to the parking lots around Autzen Stadium that allowed “tailgater” parties to happen there during home football games. She urged the council to expedite the hiring of a new City Manager. Drix , Ward 3, declared that “new is good.” He said the community had to find a way to fix roads and could not do it with forest revenue. He wanted to replace the economy with something new. He suggested that homeless people could be called “no-ads” because they did not have addresses. He also thought we could all call ourselves Eugene, instead of Eugenians. He said the holes in the downtown area represented opportu- nity as they were filled with nothing. He quipped that they were “air and space museums.” John Brown , 101 East Broadway, stated that he was speaking on his own behalf. He wished to make the th City aware of a potential real estate opportunity. He explained that 1650 West 13 Avenue was under City ownership and would soon be vacated. He said the Naval and Marine Corps Reserve Center had $800,000 budgeted to raze the building. He believed this would be a good reuse opportunity as the building was good and could be readapted to something else. He thought a group of non-profits could utilize the property for nothing. He suggested that the City approach the federal government and say for $600,000 it did not have to tear the building down. He hoped the council would think about this because there were many non-profit groups that could use the building. He wanted to maximize that asset. Joe Collins , 2233 Hawkins Lane, averred that one could not ignore the abuse of power. He believed the City Council only listened to one-third of the city population. He asked how many City employees would be fired in order for the City to pay for downtown redevelopment, buy condemned properties, and “build a trolley line” to connect Eugene and Springfield. He asked how the councilors were able to ignore the impending $40 million federal shortfall. He asked why the council could not hear the other two-thirds of the population. He asked why the councilors were not concerned about their fellow citizens that were losing their homes and had few places, if any, to turn. He wanted to see an infusion of compassion in the council’s deliberations and decisions and less concern for its present priorities. He said “trickle down economics is dead;” the City needed more heart and less development and redevelopment. MINUTES—Eugene City Council January 14, 2008 Page 2 Regular Meeting