CC Minutes - 04/25/05 Mtg - Laserfiche WebLink

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Mr. Vishanoff thought the "big report about police misconduct" under consideration precluded the "real stories about what was happening with the citizens." He indicated that he was not likely to read the report. He recalled his encounter with the EPD when he was hit with a non-lethal beanbag. He said his complaints about being hit had gone unaddressed and alleged the police continued to characterize his actions on that day as threatening. He wished the EPD would apologize to him. Continuing, Mr. Vishanoff likened the report before the council to "big reports" the University of Oregon generated to support planning changes. He asserted that people were '~torn from their homes and thrown in the street." He wished the University of Oregon would talk to its neighbors more and rely less on big reports written by outsiders. He suggested the City start over and find out everything the police had done. David C. Woods, 935 West 8th Avenue, called the problems at hand a deep issue. He averred that the problem was not the police so much as it was violence. He said people try to raise children to talk to each other and resolve problems civilly while citizens tell our leaders to solve problems through violence. He asserted that citizens were supposed to have a civil society and not a militaristic society or a police state. He pointed out that police officers were citizens like the rest of the citizenry. He said police officers put their lives on the line in their work but so did construction workers and medical personnel, among others. He stated that police officers did not have special rights to intimidate the people of the community. He thought the police should show respect to the citizens and the respect would be returned. Jim Hale, 1715 Linnea Avenue, commented that the only time he felt intimidated by police officers was when he was receiving a traffic ticket that he deserved. He disputed the need to hire consultants or an assistant to the police chief. He averred that the department needed to hire more officers. He pointed out that the city of Eugene had a high incidence of property crimes. He disagreed with the report's recommendation that a consultant be hired to do a time study of the sergeants. He thought an increase in sergeants was unneeded, though perhaps a few more lieutenants should be hired. Mr. Hale said answers were needed to the questions raised by the report, such as whether the HRRS tampered with files and whether investigative reports were changed at its behest. He thought there was a need for better records security so that police and personnel files did not disappear and reappear. Mr. Hale reiterated that the primary conclusion of the report, in his opinion, was that there were not enough officers to do community policing. Jana Jackson, 1012 East 22nd Avenue, spoke in support of the EPD. She said she was one of the 1,500 friends of Officer Randy Ellis. She related that she had spoken with over 2,000 people in the past two months regarding policing in the city of Eugene. She had concluded from speaking to people that most of the citizens were more "far more conservative" than those who frequented City Council meetings. She asserted that people, in general, wanted more policing and an increased budget for the EPD. She expressed her support for the modifications to the Metro Plan that would provide more funding for the Lane County Sheriff's Office. Ms. Jackson shared that some people she discussed these issues with had spoken wistfully of "Sheriff Joe," the sheriff in Arizona who kept prisoners in a tent city. She related that a couple of merchants expressed concern that some people would begin to take the law into their own hands. She said a greater number of people were more matter-of-fact about such things; the people would take the law into their own hands and this was inevitable given the lack of community policing. MINUTES--Eugene City Council April 25, 2005 Page 2 Regular Session