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MINUTES <br /> <br /> Eugene City Council <br /> Regular Session <br /> City Council Chamber-City Ha11-777 Pearl Street <br /> <br /> February 11, 2002 <br /> 8p.m. <br /> <br />COUNCILORS PRESENT: Bonny Bettman, Betty Taylor, David Kelly, Pat Fart, Nancy <br /> Nathanson, Scott Meisner, Gary Rayor, Gary Pap~. <br /> <br />Mayor James D. Torrey called the regular session of the City Council to order at 8 pm. <br /> <br />I.PUBLIC FORUM <br /> <br />David Monk, 3720 Emerald Street, spoke against citywide elections. He said such elections <br />would be detrimental to the City and raised concern over campaign costs if the idea was <br />implemented. He went on to say that ward elections let councilors better communicate with their <br />constituents and added that ward elections fostered the representation of a more diverse <br />constituency. <br /> <br />Sara Charlesworth, 2373 Pershing Street, maintained that the idea for citywide elections had not <br />come from the citizens of Eugene. She opined that citywide elections would remove constituents <br />from their council representative and noted that the Citizen Charter Review Committee had voted <br />against it. <br /> <br />John Herberg, 395 East 30th Avenue, spoke against citywide elections and raised concern over <br />the cost of campaigns if the idea were implemented. <br /> <br />Lynn Reichman, 84095 Murdock Street, stated that the United States Justice Department had <br />ruled against citywide elections more than once. She said citywide elections were a suspect <br />practice primarily used as a way of limiting minority representation and opined that using them <br />would put Eugene back into the "political dark ages." <br /> <br />Doug Black, 4645 West Hillside Drive, spoke against citywide elections. He said they would be <br />damaging to the neighborhood representation that the City now had. <br /> <br />Ruth C. Duemler, 1745 Fircrest Drive, spoke against citywide elections. She stressed that ward <br />elections gave wards a better choice of candidates and raised concern that special interest <br />groups would dominate citywide elections because they would be able to donate the most money <br />to the candidates. <br /> <br />Mark B. Baldwin, 2167 Kinkaid Street, expressed his opposition to citywide elections. He raised <br />concern that there would be no limits on campaign financing and the electees would not be <br /> <br /> MINUTES--Eugene City Council February 11, 2002 Page 1 <br /> Regular Session <br /> <br /> <br />