CC Minutes - 03/09/09 Meeting - Laserfiche WebLink

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M I N U T E S Eugene City Council Regular Meeting Council Chamber 777 Pearl Street—Eugene, Oregon March 9, 2009 7:30 p.m. COUNCILORS PRESENT: Chris Pryor, George Brown, Andrea Ortiz, Mike Clark, Alan Zelenka, Betty Taylor, Jennifer Solomon, George Poling. Her Honor Mayor Kitty Piercy called the meeting of the Eugene City Council to order. She announced that action on Item 4 on the agenda would be postponed as further work was required. 1. CEREMONIAL MATTERS Ron Dittler, Metropolitan Wastewater Management Commission, and Peter Ruffier, Eugene Public Works, presented an award to the City of Eugene from the Lane Council of Governments recognizing the Metropoli- tan Wastewater Management Commission intergovernmental partnership, which had provided wastewater services for 72 years. 2. PUBLIC FORUM Mayor Piercy reviewed procedures for providing comments. Drix, West University neighborhood, Eugene, spoke to the council about toilets, Twitter, style and class. He described the public toilets that were available at the Burning Man gathering and said that public toilets gave back integrity. He would provide more information at a later date. He discussed Twitter, an internet site that allowed people to connect with one-sentence statements about what they were doing. He suggested th allowing local artists to put their work at the 10 and Charnelton site downtown. Joe Collins, Eugene, discussed the Crest Drive/Friendly Street/Storey Boulevard “triad.” He said residents of the “triad” were coming before the council with many requests, including saving the Amazon Creek headwaters, saving trees, designation of their streets and objections to paying for street improvements because others would use them. He said those residents spent hundreds of hours preparing presentations to protect their neighborhoods and wallets. He noted the City was already paying $3.15 million of the $5.7 million cost of upgrading streets. He urged the council to read an article in that day’s Register- Guard about the project. He said it was discouraging to see so many people organized for their own benefit instead of advocating for things to benefit the community like a homeless shelter, more clinics, more jail beds and more treatment programs for addicts. Zachary Vishanoff, Ward 3, Eugene, urged the council to think about retaining the current police chief. He commended Interim Police Chief Pete Kerns for his willingness to solve problems and hoped he would be considered for the permanent position. Regarding the Police Auditor, he expressed concern that delaying an administrative investigation, during a criminal investigation, was a way to avoid investigating the police and supported concurrent investigations. He opposed involving municipal court judges in resolving differences of opinions between the Police Auditor and Police Chief regarding concurrent investigations. MINUTES—Eugene City Council March 9, 2009 Page 1