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Mayor Torrey pointed out that all of the City Councilors had indicated that the City needed the new <br />facilities, though some felt the bond measure in question was not the right approach. He noted that some <br />felt that the recent conviction of two Eugene police officers would impact the vote. He opined that it <br />would impact the vote regardless of whether the vote was on a measure for a portion of the vision or for <br />the whole vision. He thought the proposed building made great planning sense as it allowed for flexibility <br />and expandability. Mayor Torrey called the inclusion of victim services element a statement that the City <br />recognized that something meaningful needed to be done to step forward to address some of the incidents <br />that had happened, not because such incidents happened but because it was just the right thing to do. He <br />expressed amazement regarding the number of people who had shown a willingness to help campaign on <br />the behalf of this bond measure. <br /> <br />Mayor Torrey recognized that some councilors would vote in opposition. He expressed hope that, should <br />the motion pass, that no council members would oppose the motion in the public because individual points <br />of view did not succeed in the present vote. <br /> <br />Councilor Bettman hoped the bond measure would fail to be approved for the ballot. She advocated for <br />planning for the ultimate replacement of all of the services that were in the City Hall and upgrading <br />facilities. <br /> <br />In response to a question from Councilor Bettman, Chief Lehner stressed that the precinct model would <br />only encompass patrol deployment. He stated that there was, by no means, a commitment to that model at <br />present. He would not recommend, at any point, the decentralization of the investigations unit, which was <br />the primary partner for the victim services providers. He noted that some information had been provided <br />to the council on how this model had worked in other cities, such as San Diego, California, and Mesa, <br />Arizona. He explained that, typically, the type of collaboration housed in such a facility included law <br />enforcement investigations staff, primary prosecution and advocacy staff from a district attorney's office, <br />social service and victim service advocates for victims of domestic violence and child abuse. He asserted <br />that the planned facility was adequately sized for such partnerships. <br /> <br /> Councilor Bettman asked if the Chief was suggesting that a victim of such a crime would not go to the <br /> nearest precinct but, rather, would have to go downtown to the centralized Community Safety Building. <br /> Chief Lehner replied that where the victim would go had to do with the victim's condition. He under- <br /> scored that the benefit of collocation was that the victim would not be bounced around from the Police <br /> Department to the District Attorney's Office and so on. He said properly choosing the parmers to <br /> collocate with community safety would result in the right group of victim advocate agencies being <br /> available, primarily those who dealt with domestic violence, child abuse, and sexual assault. <br /> <br /> Councilor Bettman also objected to only allocating $3 million to the victim services. She said the other <br /> $3.8 million was allocated to infrastructure improvements. She asserted that there were other funding <br /> sources for such improvements such as urban renewal funding, fees and assessments, and other kinds of <br /> capital funds. <br /> <br /> Councilor Nathanson remarked that the proposal was not what she had hoped or advocated for. She <br /> recognized, however, that hers were only one set of ideas out many good ideas brought by both staff and <br /> the City Council. She felt that, though it was not what she had proposed, she would support it because it <br /> was obvious that staff and its partners had come up with a progressive idea that fulfilled the objectives in <br /> <br /> MINUTES--Eugene City Council July 26, 2004 Page 11 <br /> Regular Meeting <br /> <br /> <br />