CCMinutes - 05/10/04 Mtg - Laserfiche WebLink

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which could also work on such a measure. Patrick Munyon, 1560 Chasa Street, supported a moratorium on big box retail and a study of their impacts on the community. He said the majority of Wal-Mart jobs left people in working poverty. He asked the council to preserve existing clean jobs in the community. Mr. Munyon also supported fair housing standards for rental housing, such as that modeled on that of Corvallis. Maddy Melton, 957 Chambers Street, outgoing University of Oregon Student Body President, asked the City to create a local enforcement system for the State housing standards. She thought the current system inadequate and called for a local system based on the Corvallis model. John Evans, 2355 West 14th Avenue, supported a moratorium on big box retail uses. He said businesses such as Wal-Mart are a drain on the economy. They pay low wages and encourage their employees to seek public assistance. In addition, Wal-Mart was anti-union. He was concerned about Wal-Mart's policy of driving down wages to third-world levels for the sake of corporate benefit. He thought Wal-Mart was at odds with American values such as respect for employees and investing in local communities. Steve Stevens, 572 Jefferson Street, a union grocery worker, discussed the impact of big box retail on communities. They drove down wages and forced the closure of local businesses. Increased competition from new supercenters in southern California would have a drastically negative impact on union employees. Taxpayers subsidized Wal-Mart's unwillingness to pay family wages in the form of housing, food, and wage subsidies. Wal-Mart shopped around the world for the cheapest goods, and the workers in those countries were treated even worse than Wal-Mart employees. While the company operated within its legal rights, it was at a high moral cost. Kathy Ging, 2787 Harris Street, noted the high percentage of Eugene residents who lived in rental housing and advocated for the establishment of local housing standards. She thought the cost of such a program nominal contrasted to high rents. She said she was a landlord but recognized that some landlords were not responsible. Ms. Ging supported the Corvallis model. She suggested that, given increasing densities, it was essential to prevent fires from electrical hazards. She pointed out that additionally, insulation improvements saved tenants money. Ms. Ging noted that the Amazon Community Neighbors had recently endorsed housing standards. Ms. Ging noted that Wal-Mart proposed to institute radio-frequency identification in all products. She urged the council to visit the Web site www.stoprfid.com Patrick Costello, 474 Brookside Drive, said he was part-owner of an apartment complex in the Whiteaker area, and a survey of his tenants indicated many were low-income. He suggested that housing standards, if adopted, be applied to both owner-occupied and rental housing. He said he would merely pass the costs of such a program on to his tenants, and suggested that would disproportionately hurt the low-income people in the community who lived in such housing. Mr. Costello said that $8 did not sound like much to some, but to those on a fixed income paying more than half their income in rent, it was a lot. Dawn Balzano Peebles, 2715 Jefferson Street, reviewed statistics that indicated a high percentage of Wal- Mart employees were low-income and eligible for food stamps. She noted the high combined net worth of three of the Walton heirs, and the fact the company sought $10 million in tax subsidies from a Colorado community. She noted that Wal-Mart had advertised heavily as buying American but purchased $12 billion in merchandise from China in 2001. Ms. Peebles said that as a mother, she was concerned about her children's future. In addition, to have a modest retirement, she needed to save $5,000 and earn eight percent return on her savings every year until age 65 to retire. She asked how she could do that if she worked at