CC Minutes - 09/23/02 Meeting - Laserfiche WebLink

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MINUTES Eugene City Council Regular Session Harris Ha11-125 East 8th Avenue, Eugene September 23, 2002 7:30 p.m. COUNCILORS PRESENT: Betty Taylor, David Kelly, Pat Farr, Nancy Nathanson, Scott Meisner, Gary Rayor, Gary PapS, Bonny Bettman. CITY COUNCIL MEETING Mayor James D. Torrey called the meeting to order. 1.PUBLIC FORUM Nick Urhausen, 2858 Warren Street, thanked Mayor Torrey and Councilor Pap8 for their donations to the Veteran's Day Parade. He raised concern over the lack of advocacy for veterans in the community by others associated with the City of Eugene. He asserted that there were hundreds of homeless veterans in the community and said he had never heard anyone from the Human Rights Commission advocate for an American veteran. He noted that $50,000 had been recently allocated to studying sustainability and said opined that the council should consider how veterans had helped sustain the American way of life. He said the veterans had earned the right to have a free parade. He said veterans had already paid for the parade three times, serving their country in the armed forces, paying taxes as a working citizen, and paying the fees for the parade. Judith Greig, 2043 Smith Oaks Street, thanked Mayor Torrey and Councilor Pap8 for their donations to the Veteran's Day parade. Speaking for Laurel Lang, she read a statement regarding the definition of a veteran. She noted that Lane County alone was home to 38,000 veterans who would support the idea of taxes paying the fees for a Veteran's Day parade. Betty Porter, 155 Corliss Lane, spoke about what a veteran was and how veterans had served the United States. Timothy Thompson, Gateway Street, Springfield, completed Ms. Porter's statement defining a veteran. Phillip Williams, 5335 Daisy Street, Springfield, Oregon, stressed that veterans had taken an oath to protect the country without and within. He said that oath did not go away when a person was discharged from the service. He read a prepared statement regarding missing-in-action veterans which stressed the importance of remembering those who had not yet been accounted for. Mark English, 1279 Olympic Street, Springfield, noted that a veteran could not be identified by the way he or she looked. He stressed that they had distinguished themselves beyond the call of MINUTES--Eugene City Council September 23, 2002 Page 1 Regular Meeting