CC Minutes - 10/28/02 Meeting - Laserfiche WebLink

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the message of the City needed to be consistent and said that the City undermined itself when it pursued schemes to contract out work that trained loyal city workers performed. John Janis, 2862 Bailey Lane, reiterated Mr. Froming's concern over the construction of a new school in the Monroe area. He also raised concern over traffic and safety in the area. Gene Mooney thanked Mayor Torrey for bringing up the homeless issue again and allowing councilors to either support or oppose his proposed project. Mr. Mooney acknowledged that the tree sitting protest in the Park Blocks of the City was taking momentum away from what his group wanted to accomplish. He said he was working on a solution to that problem and apologized for not being able to convince the person to come down from the tree. He said the person was not willing to come down until a viable solution for homelessness in the City was found. He stressed that he was doing everything he could to create a viable solution and come up with land for his project. Mr. Mooney said the proposed homeless village could be a very positive thing for the citizens of Eugene, both homeless and not homeless. He stressed that stability and security would benefit homeless people and went on to say that the community could benefit from the learning opportunities provided from the project. Melissa Mona, 1755 Mill Street, expressed her belief that every council member cared about the homeless but stressed the importance of dealing with the issue in a realistic way. She said it was unconscionable that homeless people in the community were breaking the law just by going to sleep. She stressed that the City was facing a growing crisis and added that the worst part of winter was coming. She said the worst possible response was to do nothing. John Hubbird, 2489 Emerald Street, reiterated Mr. Mooney's thanks about the previous discussion by the council during its work session. Regarding the zoning and building concerns over a homeless village, Mr. Hubbird cited Oregon Revised Statute 446.265, which trumped local codes and allowed any municipality to establish up to two encampments and allowed for temporary structures that met minimum thresholds for safety and sanitation. Mr. Hubbird noted that the plan had already been tried but there had been issues over "management" of the camping area and urged the councilors to allow another attempt. Tracey Joseyln, 2634 Harris Street, said there was a lot more to living in poverty than other people's judgments. She said the people involved in the homeless protest were not indicative of the people in Mr. Mooney's group. She said many of the homeless were responsible, well- intentioned, with goals and dreams and hopes. She raised concern that a starvation fence had been put around the tree sitting protester who nonetheless had constitutionally protected freedom of speech rights. She said that anyone who was not trying to get the fence removed was condoning the City of Eugene starving a human being. Mayor Torrey called for council comments. Regarding the issue of library custodial services Councilor Rayor said PERS was a problem when dealing with City contracts. He said PERS had to be addressed at a local level. He commented that Tier 2 people who were being laid off were union brothers and sisters as well as custodial workers at the library. He said the PERS board was made up of greedy people that were near MINUTES--Eugene City Council October 28, 2002 Page 2 Regular Meeting