CC Minutes - 06/18/03 WS - Laserfiche WebLink

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Ms. Taylor disagreed with those who said that there was a public process. She did not think there had even been a council process as the council had never discussed the merits of renaming in a work session. Just when the general public was becoming aware of the issue, she said, the council closed off the public process. People were interested in offering other suggestions and in talking about how much they wanted to retain the name Centennial Boulevard. Ms. Taylor said that during the public hearing the council was informed the street renaming must occur because the process had come so far. She had never heard that argument before, and hoped it was repeated for the natural resource inventory. Ms. Taylor said that some citizens who sent letters to the City Council following the close of the public record were told the council could not receive them, although she acknowledged the council was receiving e-mails on the topic. In the meantime, the council received Mr. Mylenek's e- mail message following the close of the record, which she questioned. Ms. Taylor suggested that the outcome of the process could have been the same with a committee process, only the street renaming would have more community support. Mayor Torrey agreed with Mr. Poling that the process was flawed. He thought that the council's action directing the manager to return with a community process following its decision to rename the street was a step toward avoiding such mistakes in the future. Mayor Torrey recognized Mr. PapS's insinuation that he was trying to hide his position on the issue. Following the meeting of June 11, he was contacted by a reporter of The Register-Guard who asked him if he contacted Ms. Nathanson. He responded to the reporter in the affirmative. Mayor Torrey said he did not know why that was not reported. Mayor Torrey said that the media was not notified in advance of the meeting that a motion to reconsider would be offered. Mayor Torrey said that he contacted Mr. Mylenek on June 11 after he had spoken to many members of the community that day and the previous day about the committee process. He said that he spoke with Mr. Mylenek, as the lead business person in opposition to the street renaming, about his intent to ask the council to reconsider his action. He had subsequently asked Ms. Nathanson about her degree of confidence in her vote and whether she would reconsider her action. Ms. Nathanson had not given him an answer. Mr. Mylenek did not know when he sent the e-mail to Mayor Torrey whether there would be such a motion and the mayor indicated he was unsure as well. He believed, however, that the fact the motion had been made by Ms. Nathanson and seconded by Mr. Meisner was in the best interest of the community. He noted the extremely racist e-mail messages the council received regarding the issue from those who wanted nothing to do with recognizing Dr. King, and he reminded the council that it agreed through the process it wanted to recognize Dr. King in some way. Mayor Torrey reminded the council it heard 58 people speak in support of the street renaming and two people speak against it. Mayor Torrey said he had not offered Ms. Nathanson any instructions and further noted that he did not believe Ms. Nathanson would accept any instructions from him. He questioned why Mr. Pap8 voted for the street renaming, and said that if it was for the purpose of moving to reconsider he MINUTES--Eugene City Council June 18, 2003 Page 5 Work Session