CC Minutes - 05/11/09 Meeting - Laserfiche WebLink

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MINUTES Eugene City Council Regular Meeting Council Chamber Eugene City Hall 777 Pearl Street Eugene, Oregon May 11, 2009 7:30 p.m. COUNCILORS PRESENT: Chris Pryor, George Brown, Andrea Ortiz, George Poling, Mike Clark, Alan Zelenka, Betty Taylor, Jennifer Solomon. Her Honor Mayor Ditty Piercy called the meeting of the Eugene City Council to order at 7:36 p.m. 1. PUBLIC FORUM Mayor Piercy reviewed the rules of the Public Forum. Carol Berg -- Caldwell, 2510 Augusta Street, invited the councilors to attend a. town hall on tasers, to be held on May 21, in the Training Room of the Eugene water & Electric Board (EWEB). She said panelists would share their views and there would be questions and answers with the audience. She noted that the panel included James Salisbury, father of Ryan Salisbury -- a young man who was shot and killed by police officers responding to a call for help from the family. She greatly respected Mr. Salisbury for his willingness to share his personal tragedy with the community and to provide input. She hoped the Police Chief or another Eugene Police Department (EPD) designee would attend. She noted that Police Commissioner Juan Carlos Valle had indicated that he would attend. She provided copies of the flier for the event to the council. Maritza Herrera, 2583 Park View, stated that she was a resident of North Eugene. She requested that there be a park for the area. She said when she took her dog for a walk she had to drive to Alton Baker Park or to Armitage g Park, which cost $3. She related that her fiancee loved to play soccer and had to-drive south to do so. She understood that land had been purchased for parks in South Eugene, but parks were really needed in North Eugene. Margaret Thumel, P.G. Box 1966, had been recently annoyed by some of the things that the City of Eugene was doing and proposing. She objected to spending $6.2 million on a bicycle flyover from willagillespie Road over an abandoned quarry and freeway. She opined that the idea of charging a fee to garbage collectors was "hare- brained." She called this a"phantom tax" for the City to repair potholes. She had been galled by the request for matching funds from the City of Eugene, available for the project from Systems Development Charges (SDCs),' for a skate park. She averred that she did not know where the councilors lived or "which reality zone"' they were in, but she considered these types of decisions to be irresponsible. She asserted that the number one responsibility of the council was public safety. She alleged that the City had the lowest per capita amount of police officers in the nation; it was not uncommon for the City of Eugene to have only five off cers on duty at one time. She observed that Lane County Jail was letting felons out guided by a matrix based on the dangers the felons posed to the community, rather than a time matrix. She asked the councilors when they had last done a ride -along with a sergeant of EPD during -a regular shift. She . asked the council to forget the skate park and the "other tidbits" and prioritize public safety first. Erik Humphrey, 777 High Street, Suite 120, Vice President of the Eugene Police Employees Association (EPEA), indicated that he was providing testimony specifically under the guise. of Eugene Code (EC) 2.400(2) to file an official complaint against a City Council, employee, interim Police Auditor Dawn Reynolds. He stated that in MINUTES Eugene City Council May 11; 2009 Page 1 Regular Meeting