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e State of the City Address Mayor Jeff Miller January 8, 1990 noon A year ago, I indicated that serving as your mayor was one of life's great opportunities, and so it is turning out to be. Just as when I started my first job in Cleveland, Ohio--it was a great opportunity and learning experi- ence. Being mayor has given me a very rich personal education. It has given me very many lasting friends. It has also given me a few interesting phone calls, letters, questions that look at my ancestry, and some interesting headlines as well. I enjoy being your mayor, I really do. I enjoy seeing what the city is capable of doing, and right now we have more to do than ever before. This afternoon, I want to present to you a summary of where we have been over the last year, and some of the accomplishments we have had, and then present to you three new challenges. First, a review of last year. last year we talked about the need for improved public safety, and your City Council responded. This council responded and developed a Community Response Team, which marries the Eugene Police with the social service agencies Whitebird, looking Glass, and Buckley House, so that when we find people who need professional treatment because of drug abuse or mental illness, they can have it. But it also allows us to have time, when we find people who are violating the law, to make sure that they can be prosecuted that way. We reduced aggressive panhandling on the mall; drinking and harassment in our parks; and we've eliminated graffiti which gangs use to communicate, making it very difficult for gangs to infiltrate our community. If people are ill, we want to make sure they receive treatment. If people choose to commit crime, we want to make sure they are prosecuted. We also launched the Chronic Violator Program, which guarantees jail time for those few people who commit most of the crimes. This frees up officers to do their duties. We increased our traffic team. We have hired the equivalent of ten officers over this past year. It is not by accident that we have avoided some of the problems that other communities on the west coast have faced. It is because this council took a chance with decisive action with regard to public safety. This month we will be looking at a master plan for public safety and this area will need to continue to be a time and budget priority so that we can continue to have the livability in this community that we have had and that we want. Livability that comes because we are able to deal with people who need treatment in a humane way and can confront people who want to commit crime and they know that they are going to have a hard time doing it in the city of Eugene. ~ We also said a year ago that we need to continue working on having a competi- tive economy. And we have responded there as well. We have dedicated the e STATE OF THE CITY ADDRESS: MAYOR JEFF MILLER January 8, 1990 Page 1