CC MInutes - 08/10/09 Regular Meeting

Home Browse Search

the vision to make the problems not happen. He opined that there was no reason to pay for parking downtown, noting that half of the businesses in the exemption zone were only open after 5 p.m. He asked the council what they were waiting for. He had seen more foot traffic since the exemption had been put into action. Mr. Kamis considered homeless youth downtown to be a big problem. He related that a 16-year-old had been assaulted by an inebriated man one week earlier and on August 7 he had walked out the back door of his business to discover a 40-year-old man “shooting up” a 14-year-old. He declared that there were always issues downtown and they needed another body there. He observed that if the City had funding for new police offices and a new city hall, it should have enough money to hire one more police officer. He added that Officer Tom Schulke was a great beat cop who knew all of the young people by name. He wished that Officer Schulke could be cloned. th Eugene Drix , 307½ East 14 Avenue, Ward 3, reiterated his love for Eugene. He observed that the one thing a person learned in the University was that they did not know it all. He said kids downtown were “just youth” who were “tired of what the preachers say and tired of what their parents say.” He likened it to a “bubbling cauldron of life.” He was not certain what to do about it. He commented that he was friendly with everyone from the councilors to street people. He related that he knew a former architect with a family who now collected cans for a living and slept in doorways. He said everyone had to keep an eye out for their neighbor. He declared that Eugene was a world class town and that people in Portland were starting to copy Eugene. Justin McBurnett , 4105 Fox Hollow Road, voiced his support for the community, the City Council, and community members including the police. He cited a couple of examples of when he had been thankful for the police. He recognized that the police were a valuable asset to the community, but he was “befuddled” to imagine that people who would do a good job for the community would not support transparency “in a sense that would make the community feel at ease.” He related that his three-year-old son had witnessed an incident involving police gunfire and was now afraid to go outside by himself. He wanted his son to grow up and trust the police. He thought citizens should be able to utilize the traffic cameras or to use their own cameras to monitor the police. Mayor Piercy closed the Public Forum and called for comments from the councilors. th Councilor Clark thanked everyone for their testimony. He noted that his office was located on 8 Avenue and Willamette Street. He understood what the downtown business owners were talking about because he saw it every day. He believed their first priority should be to dramatically enhance public safety downtown. He felt the City had made good strides toward that by adding bicycle officers full-time downtown and making room in the budget to allow more officers. He noted that he had brought up at the Budget Committee, along with Councilor Brown, an idea on how to pay for more public safety. He said if the business owners had ideas on what more they could do, they should contact him. Councilor Solomon thanked the downtown business owners for coming down. She averred that “all the visioning in the world” would be moot if they did not address the public safety situation first. She noted that Police Chief Pete Kerns was in the audience and added that she hoped he had taken notes from the testimony given. She also requested that staff provide some background information regarding the potential ORI project. Councilor Ortiz also wanted to thank everyone for coming down. She believed that policing in the downtown area needed to be part of a bigger picture. She opined that the children on the mall were there because they were “throwaway kids.” She asserted that it was part of their charge in the community to take MINUTES—Eugene City Council August 10, 2009 Page 3 Regular Meeting