Item 2A: Approval of City Council Minutes

Home Browse Search

Eugene Councilor Taylor thought they should appoint Commissioner Fleenor to a committee to talk about the allocation of resources. She believed he had “an excellent point.” She opined that the area continued to do public safety “in the wrong way.” She thought the PSCC was a waste of time and money. She averred that the PSCC “put out a lot of reports” and she did not know if that made any difference. Councilor Taylor did not believe that the fire and police were comparable because the firefighters put out fires and what the police did could be very different. She felt it would be more difficult to combine the efforts of the police. She said they should cooperate in the areas of prevention and treatment. She opined that when the County started charging to go into parks it was contrary to the philosophy of prevention. She averred that she had seen people with children at Mount Pisgah wishing they could go for a walk but unable to afford it. She had also “heard from a lot of people” that people should just be sent to Eugene if they were homeless. She said taking care of things like that was a cooperative thing. She felt the jurisdictions would have different philosophies about community policing as well as what a crime was. Commissioner Green felt the discussion on funding for public safety was premature. He declared that criminals committing crimes have a better knowledge of the system than most of the people around the table. He said they needed to bring the community and people with a certain level of education about public safety to the table. He thought ultimately decisions would be made by the communities. He underscored the need for keeping the perspective of the victims in mind. He had not heard anyone talk about the victims, the people who were susceptible to the crimes. He pointed out that some of the people in the room had experienced having their car or their house broken into or having their purse stolen and knew how that felt. He said the other element that was missing from the conversation was the work of those who were in the non-profit arena that were trying to accomplish a lot on minimal dollars. He felt that those working on prevention and treatment were doing the best they could with the resources. He stressed that they needed to start the conversation with the non-profit agencies and the community to get an idea of what public safety was to them. He said they needed to talk to the people who disagreed with them to try to understand why they disagree as well as those that agreed with them. Commissioner Green stated that there were different components to the system. He said Senate Bill 1145 mandated that the area form the PSCC in 1995. He pointed out that if people found it useless or a waste of money they needed to tell that to the State Legislature who created it. He reiterated that they should be talking about what the area really needed for public safety and what the community was willing to support. He predicted that the funding would happen once people got the idea that they did not want anyone to be a victim. He suggested that the JEO members look in the paper every day and see the reports of sex offenders and that people were getting stabbed; those were victims. He suggested they look at the system through their eyes and the solution would come to them. Councilor Bettman declared that the City of Eugene provided more money per capita in the areas where the jurisdictions provided joint funding, such as the Human Services Commission. She alleged that there were other services that Eugene cooperated to provide where the City paid a larger share. Regarding the PSCC, she commented that the public did not know where their tax money went. She opined that Eugene did not have any control over the prioritization in outlying communities and what they decided to prosecute or not to prosecute. She felt this was why there had to be localized decision-making. She agreed that the PSCC was not a good use of resources. She averred that both Lane County and the City of Springfield had “pretty remarkable success at the Legislature when they go up there and they ask for favors.” She asked if anyone had ever asked for a repeal of the requirement to have the PSCC. She also wondered if anyone had ever asked for an exemption from the tax-base freeze that had been enacted by Ballot Measures 47 and 50. She claimed that the ballot measures had caught the County “unawares.” She asked why they were not coming up with a strategy at the Legislature so that they could access more funds. She remarked that she had been MINUTES—Joint Elected Officials— July 15, 2008 Page 9 Lane Board of County Commissioners and Eugene and Springfield City Councils