My WebLink
|
Help
|
About
|
Sign Out
Home
Browse
Search
Item 3A: Approval of City Council Minutes
COE
>
City of Eugene
>
Council Agendas 2006
>
CC Agenda - 09/11/06 Meeting
>
Item 3A: Approval of City Council Minutes
Metadata
Thumbnails
Annotations
Entry Properties
Last modified
6/9/2010 1:07:41 PM
Creation date
9/7/2006 11:23:50 AM
Metadata
Fields
Template:
City Council
City_Council_Document_Type
Agenda Item Summary
CMO_Meeting_Date
9/11/2006
There are no annotations on this page.
Document management portal powered by Laserfiche WebLink 9 © 1998-2015
Laserfiche.
All rights reserved.
/
54
PDF
Print
Pages to print
Enter page numbers and/or page ranges separated by commas. For example, 1,3,5-12.
After downloading, print the document using a PDF reader (e.g. Adobe Reader).
View images
View plain text
rate of 521 percent. The family had written a postdated check for $840 but the check had not cleared the <br />bank after two weeks. The family was assessed a $25 check return fee and an offer to roll over the loan for <br />$140 was made. This cycle repeated itself and the family took out two additional payday loans and a car <br />title loan. She related that this family became caught in a financial trap until they finally sought the <br />services of a local credit union, which helped them finance the repayment of what had become a debt of <br />over $2,000. She said most of the customers of payday loan businesses were already cash-strapped and <br />barely had their heads above water. She observed that when people were desperate they did desperate <br />things. She declared that no one should be gouged with outrageous interest rates in loan terms that trap <br />them in more debt. She said people get payday loans to help pay rent, buy groceries and medicine, but then <br />end up in an even worse position because of them. She underscored that steps had to be taken to help the <br />citizens of our community and the City could start with this payday loan ordinance. She thanked the <br />council for its time and commended the councilors for their good work. <br /> <br />Laurie Trieger <br />, 2710 Polk Street, submitted testimony in writing on behalf of Dan Bryant. <br /> <br />Ms. Trieger reported that the State Legislature had passed payday loan reform legislation in April that <br />would not go into effect until July 2007. She said with over 700,000 payday loans being made in Oregon <br />each year, tens of thousands of unregulated loans could be undertaken between now and then. She said the <br />council had the power to offer people taking payday loans out in Eugene a modest bit of consumer <br />protection almost immediately. Eugene would be joining seven other city governments in sending this <br />message to the payday loan industry. She stated that the provisions in the ordinance were complementary <br />to and not a duplication of the statewide law. She added that the ordinance was a perfect fit with the <br />council’s initiative to address homelessness in Eugene. She stressed that in order to help families stabilize <br />economically the City must do all it can to ensure their meager resources were not further watered down. <br />She related that as Advocacy and Outreach Coordinator for Food for Lane County she had seen many <br />changes in shifting trends but one thing remained constant: people who seek food boxes do so because they <br />do not have the financial wherewithal to meet their basic human needs of safe secure shelter, adequate <br />health care, and food. She averred that hunger persisted even in the face of news of a recovering economy <br />and that for far too many Oregonians, wages were simply not keeping pace with the costs of providing <br />basics. She said thousands of Oregon workers were losing ground. Many attempt to bridge the gaps <br />created by poverty wages with short-term, high-interest payday loans and end up in a “debt trap.” She <br />underscored that Food for Lane County’s mission was to eliminate hunger in the community and it was <br />committed to providing emergency food programs and developing creative responses to the problem of <br />hunger. She declared that in order to achieve that mission, a climate that honored families in their efforts to <br />create healthy whole financially stable lives was required. She said the ordinance would provide modest <br />protections for low- and middle-waged consumers of payday loans, many of whom also need food boxes. <br />She added that she was also speaking on behalf of a local coalition that included members of the faith <br />community, business owners, payday loan consumers, social service providers, labor representatives and <br />concerned citizens. She urged the City Council to approve adoption and prompt enactment of the <br />ordinance. <br /> <br />Claire Syrett <br />, 363 Adams Street, supported the ordinance. She thanked the Mayor and City Council for <br />adopting the local wage and benefit standards for the West Eugene Enterprise Zone, making Eugene one of <br />the only cities in the United States with community standards of this kind. She felt that in setting the <br />standards, the City sent a clear message that good wages and benefits matter and are the key to fostering a <br />healthy local economy. She said passage of the ordinance would protect the City’s most vulnerable citizens <br />from economic exploitation. She stated that by addressing the economic pressures facing workers from <br />both sides, encouraging higher wages, and protecting those in economic hardship, the council would show <br />great leadership and strengthen the City’s economy and its community. She thanked the council. <br /> <br /> <br />MINUTES—Eugene City Council July 10, 2006 Page 7 <br /> Regular Meeting <br />
The URL can be used to link to this page
Your browser does not support the video tag.