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MINUTES <br />Eugene City Council <br />McNutt Room --City Hall <br />777 Pearl Street — Eugene, Oregon <br />December 20, 2011 <br />Noon <br />COUNCILORS PRESENT: Betty Taylor, George Brown, Andrea Ortiz, George Poling, Mike Clark, <br />Chris Pryor, Pat Farr. <br />COUNCILORS ABSENT: Alan Zelenka. <br />A. OCCUPY EUGENE <br />Her Honor Mayor Kitty Piercy called the December 20, 2011, emergency meeting of the Eugene City <br />Council to order and read the following statement she had prepared for the meeting: <br />Occupy Eugene has demonstrated against the economic inequities in this country and has worked <br />to alleviate some of those inequities at the local level as they apply to the unhoused members of <br />our community. Their camp has been a key part of their local efforts. As you know last week our <br />city manager and police chief expressed concerns about growing unsafety in the camp. The <br />council heard this and voted to end the waiver for the park on Jan 11, giving some time for <br />Christmas to pass and a thoughtful transition to take place. <br />Unfortunately, last night there were several violent incidents at the site, one resulting in a serious <br />life threatening injury to one individual. This has caused me to see the wisdom in moving sooner <br />than originally decided. The safety of the public and our officers has to be foremost for us. That <br />is why I have called this emergency meeting. <br />I ask council to end the camping ban waiver immediately and to direct the city manager to begin <br />the process of closing the Occupy Eugene camp. <br />I ask Occupy Eugene, the broader community and council to come together in unified support of <br />the peaceful closure of the camp. It is my hope that just as hundreds of community members have <br />donated and volunteered in the demonstrations and camp they will now turn their efforts to <br />helping people with the transition through volunteering and donating to organizations that <br />provide services for the homeless. <br />It is important to us all that the good lessons learned from the Occupy Eugene camp experience <br />be used to help us move forward. This is already true in terms of council direction to expand our <br />existing car camping program and to support providing shelter for those with mental health and <br />addiction issues this winter. <br />Our staff has been meeting with service providers and Occupy Eugene to plan for helping people <br />as the camp closes. A homeless action task force is being formed and the first meeting is to be on <br />Dec 28. <br />MINUTES— Eugene City Council December 20, 2011 Page 1 <br />Emergency Meeting <br />