Item 4: Ordinance Concerning Downtown Public Safety Zone

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opportunity to challenge the temporary or 90-day exclusion. So there is due process, and it is not arbitrarily imposed upon arrest by the police officer, there is judicial review. Kimberly Gladden: She’s a downtown resident, and has lived in the core for 10 years. She is on the streets every day, and walks several times around downtown. Over the years she has seen a progression of kids getting chased from the Whiteaker area, the University area, and are all pushed to downtown. This creates territory fights. She has seen kids who sit at the bus station who often come back behind her residence with alcohol, older predators, prostitutes, and are the same people over and over again. She has had people threaten to kill her or vandalize her property but the kids know the downtown officers and they know their schedule so they commit during off times. The young girls need to be protected, but she doesn’t understand why the police unions have not pressured OLCC to ban malt liquor beverages from the entire state as a substance that causes problems. The kids she offers to help don’t want it. She has noticed a big difference since the exclusion zone began—hardcore predators are gone for a little while and this gives kids a chance. Network Charter School kids are preyed on by criminals and aren’t being protected. Shirley Mitchell: She is a security guard downtown. She brought a visual for everybody in the room to see: a poster board with pictures of offenders and evidence from crimes (needles, guns, prostitution, etc.) that she has witnessed downtown. She emphasized all of these crimes are under the exclusion order and occur downtown. She concluded that security guards deal with this daily. Jeremy Star: As a citizen of Eugene, he spoke in support of the exclusion zone. He was very impressed by the statistics in the activity report on the effect of the zone. He had no idea that it had such a dramatic impact in a short period of time. He grew up in Eugene, and used to walk downtown to the bus station. Back then the downtown area was vibrant. Today it’s toxic. He thinks we need to find a medium. We should use the tools that we can enforce to create a better environment for our citizens. He said he would never allow his grandchildren to take the bus to the downtown library alone; it’s not an option. The exclusion zone is not an end-all, cure-all, but it is a tool. As a community person and business person, he thinks we owe it to our citizens and children to do something about our downtown. We have talked about it for years, and tried things that haven’t worked. The statistics speak very much in favor of the ordinance. John Brown: He spoke as a citizen, not representing any board or commission. He has some knowledge about what’s going on. He was a former Police Commissioner for 8 years and member of Downtown commissions and boards. It’s not the ordinance or a specific weapon that is the issue, but the ability for it to be implemented. He has a lot of trust in EPD, and also understands the ACLU’s concerns. But he’s been fighting this fight for many years. He added that one of the mentally ill people referenced tonight is a heroin dealer and sex offender. He’ll continually be matrixed out of jail. So who has the better right—the offender or the girl he is sexually offending? When you get repeat offenders with mental health issues continuing to pollute the environment and commit spousal abuse and crime, the damage cannot be fixed. We matrix 5-6,000 people and release them downtown every year. He said he has to pay for each security agency, but still isn’t getting protection. When a recommendation is made, he thinks it should be done while considering victims of these crimes. Mary Leighton: She is the Principal of the Network Charter School. She said that she is at the proud center of a 1,000 foot circle (referring to crimes occurring within 1,000 feet of a school). She really appreciated the thoroughness of the report and its comprehensiveness. Two things occurred to her: the exclusion is like a time out. When her grandson does something bad, he has a time out to think about his behavior. Time out is a time- honored behavior management strategy. You just don’t get to be someplace when a certain behavior is expected and you don’t behave. In life you get better about doing things where you don’t get caught and impact other people than yourself. At a minimum, the exclusion zone is a hassle and expense, but it makes people leave a space until they learn the rules of behavior for that space. She sees the Downtown Eugene, Inc. people and the Red Hats often, and they know everyone around. How they operate is they have a long list of