Item 3A: Approval of City Council Minutes

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Councilor Bettman and Mayor Piercy “in a deplorable manner.” He favored achieving the objective of the oversight system. He had read Councilor Bettman’s motion and agreed with her objectives. He commented that one could not legislate behavior without consequences. He supported giving the auditor subpoena power so that the auditor could subpoena witnesses and documents from the police department. He predicted that without such power, the auditor would continue to be resisted and treated with disrespect. He averred that there was nothing in the amendments that would keep that from happening. Tim Laue , 124 Spencers Crest Drive, stated that he had served as chair of the Police Commission for the three years it spent developing the oversight model, which the council had passed and the community had voted for four years earlier. He had supported the charter amendment. He related that he had seen nothing the council had done on one side or the other that would usurp the will of the voters regarding a charter amendment that passed. He wanted to express his appreciation to the council for taking some time on the proposal. He declared that the nation was “littered with failed oversight models.” He recalled that they had spent three years and had constant deliberation with a lot of stakeholders and a lot of members of the community to come up with a model they thought was best for the community and had the best chance of success. He said they had developed a quality assurance model and had put “as many efforts as [they] could” to ensure its success. He remarked that it was not an advocacy model, it was not an appellate model, and it was different from the ordinances in Portland, Denver and San Francisco. He stated that this was because Eugene was a different community. He agreed that most of the 11 suggested amendments to the ordinance proposed by Councilor Bettman, which was distinct from the recently approved charter amendment, were things that needed to be addressed. He did not believe they needed to be addressed “precipitously.” He feared there would be unintended consequences if they were addressed in this way; the council could open itself up to challenges that could tie up the oversight system for years if it moved too quickly. He did not want to invest all of this energy into the ordinance just to have another failed oversight model. He believed that police oversight was “imperative for Eugene.” He felt they needed to rebuild trust on both sides. He averred that they would not be able to do this overnight but they had to do it nonetheless. He recalled that when he had served on the council there had been the strongest effort to- date to implement community policing. He believed that the community was now as far as it could be from that goal. Ruth Duemler , 1745 Fircrest Street, opined that the community did not get community policing because the police union had prevented it. She urged the council to give the Police Auditor the support needed to do the job. She believed the vote on the charter amendment demonstrated this. She questioned why they needed another “police committee.” She felt the process would have unintended consequences for everyone. She said she was cynical about this and wondered if there was “some underlying agreement that had been negotiated by a few people in our community” to keep the charter amendment from happening. She was very disappointed and believed the committee process would only lead to more problems and a divided community. She wanted to move forward and support the auditor and to forget the committee. th Samantha Chirillo , 157 East 27 Avenue, Apt. 3, stated that she was a graduate student in Public Policy and a steering committee member for the Citizens for Public Accountability. She opined that the 12 provisions that were proposed were “just basic fundamental objective independent measures that any city should have.” She believed delay to be a “typical tactic used by decision-makers when they do not want to act.” She alleged that she had experienced this and had served on such committees. She expressed frustration that she was “wasting [her] time” giving testimony as she had other things she needed to do. She also wished to speak about the incident at the Campbell Club student co-op housing that had happened over the previous weekend. She noted she had witnessed the tasering incident on May 30. She averred that both actions had emerged from bias against “young emerging leaders who realize that our civilization” would not survive “in the way we are dealing with things.” She said the students at the co-op were her colleagues and had come up with “amazing sustainability innovations” for their home. She related that they operated on consensus. She asserted that the residents were “probably the most peaceful youth” she had met. She had MINUTES—Eugene City Council November 24, 2008 Page 4 Regular Meeting