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camera “would have revealed the truth” about both the actions of the police and those that attended the rally in May 30, 2008. She considered herself very familiar with Mr. Brissenden as chair of the CRB. She related that she had attended a police oversight panel that he had participated in and she had also served with him on the community panel to interview police auditor candidates. Additionally, she had attended the CRB meeting at which they had considered the public impact case. She agreed with Mr. Brissenden’s assessment that it was a matter of choices on the part of the police that determined the course of events on that day. Speaking on her own behalf, she averred that the “greatness of a city” depended largely on how it treated the members of the community that had the least financial and political status. She considered this group to include youth and homeless people. She opined that “time and time again” youth were being treated in a “deplorable and immoral and illegal manner.” She felt that “politically active” youth were singled out. She did not think that they could expect a positive future in the community if youth continued to be treated this way by law enforcement. William A. Ivanoff , 2340 Grant Street, commented that he had been a person that had been against the EPD, but after recently working with them he had found that a lot of them were nice and helpful. He averred that with the “possible appointment of pro-police commissioners on the CRB” it seemed to him that someone was trying to make more revenue available for the City. He believed that if they stacked pro-police people on the CRB, then there would be no reason for its existence and then there would be no real reason for an auditor. He suggested that if this was true they should put it on the ballot and ask the voters if they wanted to get rid of the auditor’s office and “free up some money.” He hoped he was misinformed about the council’s “wish to put pro-police people on the CRB.” He also had noticed that there were efforts to make the downtown better, one of which was the bicycle police officers. He felt their presence had made it nicer in the downtown area. He suggested that one thing that might help to revitalize the downtown would be to reduce the streets to two lanes in either direction with parking on all downtown thth streets. He also suggested that the City “take back” 6 and 7 Avenues from the State. He believed this would make the downtown a more pedestrian-oriented place. Tracy Dumas , 2986 Oak Street, Apt. 110, Ward 2, thanked the councilors for passing the resolution for choice in the mental health system. She had been a member of the mental health system for approximately 35 years and she had seen a lot of individuals, including her, who had not been given a choice of alternatives and who had their power taken away. She wanted to thank Mayor Piercy especially because she had “been there with us since the beginning.” Diane Raack , 865 Louis Street, Councilor Solomon’s ward, stated that she routinely was asked to shoo the vagrants out of the alley that led to the front door of the business she worked for. She said sometimes she had to deal with teenagers who were skipping school and smoking in the alley and other times people hung out there to smoke pot and drink beer. She related that she tried to be respectful when she asked people to vacate the area, explaining to them that their clients needed to have access to the door. Some people had been respectful in return and others had been verbally abusive. She also related that in the past year some people had taken to “hanging out in the bushes” and making it their home. While she wanted people to have a place to go, hanging out in the bushes near the business’ front door was not the right place. She said it started with a few bags of clothes and then a tarp showed up along with human excrement. She had spoken with the people and they had left, but this type of situation was becoming more frequent. She understood that people needed a place to go, but she did not want to clean up their vomit, urine, feces, or trash. She underscored that this situation was not specific to just the area in which she worked; it was all over the downtown area. She averred that there needed to be tools “with teeth.” She added that Councilor Clark had a good idea for cleaning up the downtown area and she hoped the council would give him support for it. MINUTES—Eugene City Council October 26, 2009 Page 3 Regular Meeting