CC Minutes - 07/10/06 Meeting - Laserfiche WebLink

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M I N U T E S Eugene City Council City Council Meeting Council Chamber—Eugene City Hall July 10, 2006 7:30 p.m. COUNCILORS PRESENT: Jennifer Solomon, Andrea Ortiz, David Kelly, George Poling, Chris Pryor, Bonny Bettman, Betty Taylor. COUNCILORS ABSENT: Gary Papé. Her Honor Mayor Kitty Piercy called the meeting of the Eugene City Council to order and welcomed everyone to the meeting. 1. PUBLIC FORUM Mayor Piercy reviewed the rules of the Public Forum. Stephen L. Riley , 2212 Onyx Street, spoke in regard to the West Eugene Parkway issue. He read the job description of the Mayor and City Council members into the record. He underscored that councilors had taken an oath to uphold the office, something he considered to be solemn and sacred. He cited Title 18, United States Code 16.21, in which violation of an oath of office by members of government was a form of perjury. He felt the councilors who had tried to stop the parkway project had violated their oath. He quoted Grover Cleveland, who said “Public officers are the servants and agents of the people, to execute the laws which people have made.” He contended that once the vote of the people had been taken, even if it was not to pass a particular ordinance, it would carry the same weight in law as if it were. He also quoted Henry Clay, who said “The government is a trust and the officers of the government are the trustees, and both the trust and the trustees are created for the benefit of the people.” He said in our form of govern- ment, the councilors’ authority came from the people. He stressed that the people had not authorized the council to override the vote of the people. He stated that the purpose of the vote was for the people to express their desires and the elected officials were expected to carry out the will of the people. He declared that authorization of the project had been voted upon and approved twice and there had been a vote of the people to not authorize a look at any alternatives. He felt that members of the council had chosen to ignore this and called it an affront to the people of Eugene. Jim Hale , 1715 Linnea Avenue, averred that the State could punish the City of Eugene for its decisions regarding the West Eugene Parkway (WEP). He said “they can, they have, and they will.” He recalled working on the committee that wrote the Metropolitan General Plan and the Transportation Plan in the 1980s. He felt that, at that time, the State did punish Eugene for being what it considered a “poor planning partner.” He predicted that abandonment of the WEP would cause the City to have to fend for itself in west Eugene. He thought the City would have to “wait forever” for a solution to the transportation problems experienced on the Delta and Beltline highways. He likened watching the City Council over the last 25 years to watching the World Cup Soccer games: two sides evenly matched most of the time, too MINUTES—Eugene City Council July 10, 2006 Page 1 Regular Meeting