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have been used to provide free tuition for all of the University students. He guessed that having the “world’s most expensive college arena for the Ducks” was more important than educating people. He alleged that the City and County were asking the Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) for “$100 million of our money” to rebuild Franklin Boulevard to “help subsidize the arena.” He hoped they would find a better use for that money. He asserted that the State and Federal governments were pushing for a “bailout” for the highway construction industry. He believed that traffic levels on the nation’s highways had peaked. He averred that Amtrak could go 124 miles per hour, but had to slow to 30 miles per hour to cross a bridge in Junction City because the bridge was “decrepit and should be condemned.” He preferred to spend money on “inner-city rail” than to spend it on “widening Interstate 5 between Canada and Mexico.” He felt Portland’s model of government was a more democratic form of government. He added that the Hood River prohibition on “big box stores” was more important now because it was important to fund local businesses. Pauline Hutson , 1025 Taylor Street, said she was speaking on behalf of herself and not as a member of 3RT. She wished to address the issue of eminent domain in regard to the expansion of the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT), the threat of which she believed to cause a devastating psychological impact. She asserted that a senior official of Lane Transit District (LTD) had brought up eminent domain as one solution to dealing with people who did not want to sell their property. She felt the senior staff had a “cavalier” attitude about it. She did not think there would be a need to utilize eminent domain to take land because there were ththth several alternative routes, such as the combination of 6 and 7 Avenues and 7 Place. She thought the passing of the expanded boundary for the Multiple Unit Property Tax Exemption (MUPTE) redevelopment could coincide with LTD’s stated goal of expanding the BRT routes in connection with economic develop- thth ment. She believed that a proposal to use West 11 and West 13 Avenues as a route would be “the most destructive, disruptive, astronomically expensive” choices with numerous complications. She thanked Councilor Bettman for giving her time to the community. Jozef Siekiel-Zdzienicki , 1025 Taylor Street, thanked the councilors for their service to the community and Councilor Bettman in particular. rd Josh Schlossberg , 1765 East 43 Avenue, did not think the City of Eugene had a fully empowered and functional police auditor at this time and that it should as soon as possible in order to follow the democratic principles of government. He averred that a city “plagued by rapist cops, racist cops, and cops who had repeatedly violated constitutional rights” could not have the luxury of making any compromises to its police oversight. He said he had spent “half of [his] waking hours” for the past five years in efforts to create what he believed to be “positive change in the world.” He asserted that his trust in elected officials at “every level of government” had eroded. Nonetheless, he continued to try to encourage members of the public to communicate their opinions on issues to the “powers that be.” He opined that the will of the “vast number” of the public was ignored. He felt it would be “delusional” to “keep pretending” that most elected officials valued and considered input from the public. He declared that a “few shining lights in the gloom” had kept him from giving up on grassroots advocacy to encourage elected officials to create change and one of those “shining lights” had been Councilor Bettman. He spoke glowingly about Councilor Bettman’s work and thanked her. Carol Berg-Caldwell , 2510 Augusta Street, had been disappointed in the council vote against a motion submitted by Councilor Bettman to hire a law firm outside of Eugene with “expertise in municipal law” to guide the committee on external police review. She opined that the current firm that provided legal services to the City had its “fingers in many pies.” She supported the establishment of inhouse legal services. She asserted that the legal review provided by the City Attorney had made the external police review vulnerable to attempts to undermine it. She declared that police misconduct trials at which the City Attorney had represented the City, had cost the City “virtually millions” in settlements and legal fees. MINUTES—Eugene City Council December 8, 2008 Page 2 Regular Meeting