HomeMy WebLinkAboutCC Minutes - 09/11/06 Work Session
M I N U T E S
Eugene City Council
Work Session
McNutt Room—Eugene City Hall
September 11, 2006
5:30 p.m.
COUNCILORS PRESENT: Jennifer Solomon, Bonny Bettman, David Kelly, Andrea Ortiz, Gary
Papé, George Poling, Chris Pryor, Betty Taylor.
Her Honor Mayor Kitty Piercy called the meeting of the Eugene City Council to order. She announced that
there would be a memorial service at Civic Stadium at 7 p.m. to remember and honor the victims of
September 11, 2001. She invited Police Chief Bob Lehner and Acting Fire Chief Randy Groves to join the
council before leaving for the memorial service and asked them to convey deep gratitude to first responders,
sympathy to those who lost loved ones and a sense of continuing grief over the country’s losses.
Chief Groves shared his shock and horror as he watched the tragedy of September 11 unfold and his awe at
the heroic response of public safety professionals. He reflected on the local concern and his department’s
actions to secure its own response system and place everyone on the highest alert while off-duty personnel
called or came in to find out how they could help. He said that almost 3,000 lives were lost that day,
including 343 New York City firefighters, but in turn thousands of lives were saved by the actions of those
who responded to the calls for help. He said it was important to remember not only the firefighters, medics
and police officers who made the ultimate sacrifice, but the ordinary citizens and their families, many of
whom were also heroes. He said the passage of time could not fully heal the wounds but would dull the pain
and there was survival, learning, a renewed strength and a future that afforded a chance to learn from the
past. He said a plaque over the door of the Fire Department’s training tower read “Never Forget.” He
thanked the council for the opportunity to speak on behalf of the Fire Department and share his thoughts and
expressed the department’s appreciation for the council’s leadership.
Chief Lehner observed that Chief Groves had eloquently addressed the perspective of public safety first
responders. He shared a personal anecdote about being at the World Trade Center and the Pentagon during
the excavation periods at those sites. He was present when the bodies of eight police officers were recovered
at the World Trade Center site. He noted that the event was the largest single public safety fatality count in
American history; no one would ever forget and the county was forever changed. He reflected on the heroes
of that day and how their sacrifices made communities around the country better prepared to respond to both
manmade and natural disasters. He thanked the mayor and council on behalf of the Police Department and
Fire Department for the proclamation that would be issued at the regular meeting that evening and for their
thoughts and support.
Ms. Piercy thanked Chief Groves and Chief Lehner for the remarks and expressed the council’s respect and
best wishes.
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A. COMMITTEE REPORTS AND ITEMS OF INTEREST FROM MAYOR, CITY
COUNCIL AND CITY MANAGER
Ms. Solomon reported that the Manufactured Housing Subcommittee continued to meet and would propose
ordinance changes to the council early next year. She said the Friends of Golden Gardens held a benefit
garage sale and raised approximately $2,000 to help pass the parks bond measure.
Mr. Papé commented that there were two organized committees to assist with passing the parks and library
bond measures. He encouraged councilors to become involved in their efforts to pass the measures. He
expressed disappointment that the Whole Foods project was on hold and hoped that was temporary. He said
that private investment in the downtown would be the start of revitalization efforts.
Mr. Pryor reported he attended the Lane Workforce Partnership and Lane Metro Partnership awards
ceremony. He was pleased to see local companies recognized for their efforts regarding employment. He
said that School District 4J Superintendent George Russell spoke about the critical link between education
and employment. He noted the addition of a west Eugene intersection to the list of most dangerous
intersections and indicated he would be advocating for both short- and long-term traffic solutions for that
part of the community.
Ms. Bettman thanked Chief Lehner and Chief Groves for their earlier comments.
Mr. Kelly thanked Downtown Events Management Inc.’s volunteer board and the hundreds of other
volunteers for a superb Eugene Celebration over the weekend. He also thanked Chief Groves and Chief
Lehner for their remarks. He read a poem by Pablo Neruda called “Keeping Quiet” as a reflection on the
anniversary of September 11, 2001.
Ms. Taylor thanked Mr. Kelly for his reading and Chief Lehner and Chief Groves for their comments. She
said that her recent visit to Eugene’s sister city of Irkutsk, Russia was enjoyable and inspiring and related to
September 11 because the more international relationships there were on any level, the more likely people
were to hesitate before killing others. She wondered whether having sister cities in Iraq would have made a
difference. She was impressed by the warmth and hospitality of the people of Irkutsk and their gratitude for
what had been done through the sister city initiative, such as the donation of library books. She said Irkutsk
residents were very interested in furthering the arts and there were discussions of exchanges between the
sister cities, including exchanges of children’s art.
Mr. Poling announced there would be an open house at Cal Young Middle School on September 14 and a
Harlow Neighborhood Association meeting on September 20 at Monroe Middle School would host a
candidates’ forum with Oregon State Senate candidates Jim Torrey and Vicki Walker.
Ms. Ortiz also thanked Chief Lehner and Chief Groves. She said a Trainsong neighborhood picnic would be
held on September 13 and she recently attended the Whiteaker neighborhood celebration. She said the
Latino Business Network would be hosted at the Town Club on September 12 and later that evening the
Toxics Alliance would discuss railroad pollution at the Red Cross facility on Bethel Drive.
Ms. Piercy said there would be a presentation on the visit to Irkutsk, Russia on November 8, 2006.
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Mr. Papé said he met with the co-chair of the Jefferson Westside neighborhood association regarding a
motion at the council’s August 16, 2006, meeting to address an anomaly in Area 15 of that neighborhood.
Mr. Papé, seconded by Ms. Solomon, moved to reconsider the City Council’s mo-
tions of August 16, 2006, related to the Jefferson Westside neighborhood.
Mr. Kelly stated he could not support the motion to reconsider. He wished to improve all neighborhoods
and provide different types of housing at all levels throughout the City. He said his motion of August 16
was an attempt to compromise and accomplish that goal and reflected the neighborhood’s own plan. He said
the substitute motion Mr. Papé would make following passage of the motion to reconsider would not
accomplish that and would move in a negative direction. He hoped that everyone could look beyond their
own backyards when talking about planning and growth and be honest about how they wanted Eugene to
grow.
The motion to reconsider passed, 6:2; Ms. Ortiz and Mr. Kelly voting in opposi-
tion.
Ms. Bettman, seconded by Mr. Pryor, moved to table the motion before the council
to Item 5 on the regular meeting agenda following the work session. The motion
passed unanimously.
B. WORK SESSION: Annual Meeting with Human Rights Commission
Assistant City Manager Jim Carlson announced that he would be sitting in for City Manager Dennis Taylor,
who was out of town. He introduced Human Rights Commission chair Carmen Urbina and vice chair
Surendra Subramani.
Ms. Piercy thanked the commission for dedicating its annual report to the memory of former commissioner
Dwight Souers, who had recently passed away. She congratulated the commission on its new Human Rights
Center.
Ms. Urbina introduced other commissioners who were present: Jim Garcia, Elizabeth Aydelott, Dave
Lottier, Neil Van Steenbergen, Hugh Massengill, Misa Joo and Councilor David Kelly. She thanked the
council for its support and for the opportunity to share the commission’s work. She recognized the lifetime
of service by Dwight Souers and said his life was about infusing, teaching and preaching equity, social
justice and human rights at every opportunity. She said that the community room at the Human Rights
Center had been named for him and his spirit, smile and guidance would be with those who used the center
every day.
Mr. Subramani provided a brief summary of work accomplished by the commission during the past year,
including:
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Numerous activities to further the council’s priorities on race and homelessness
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Secured funding for the installation of accessible pedestrian signals at approximately 30 key
intersections, installation and upgrading of assistive listening systems at City facilities, up-
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graded web portal access for those with visual impairment and consultation on accessibility
of the new City Hall complex
?
Gender identify code revisions and the difficult decision not to recommend the council move
forward with draft legislation
?
Immigration justice rallies
Mr. Subramani said that the upcoming mental health and human rights conference to be held October 20,
2006, at the University of Oregon was the culmination of three years of dedicated work by commissioners
and community volunteers.
Ms. Urbina said developing the work plan was a very difficult process for the commission as it reviewed the
issues faced by the community and the things that had to be accomplished. She said commissioners initially
tried to reduce the list of tasks to a manageable number given the volunteer nature of the program but soon
realized that all issues were critical and nothing could be removed from the work plan; therefore, the
commission was asking the council to approve a two-year work plan for FY07-08. She thanked the mayor
and councilors for taking a bold step by adopting the priorities on race and homelessness. She said the
commission had strong ties to both the homeless community and Communities of Color and asked that the
council keep the commission involved on those priorities. She said the commission was also looking at
establishing the City of Eugene as a human rights city as part of its two-year plan. She asked Accessibility
Committee chair Hugh Massengill to discuss accessibility in the community.
Mr. Massengill read the names of Accessibility Committee members and said they had worked remarkably
hard during the past year on issues such as accessible pedestrian signals and assistive listening devices in
public facilities. He said the committee would continue its efforts under the upcoming work plan to ensure
the City provided the most accessible public information possible to the community. He said the committee
would also explore the definition of accessibility with respect to access to services and perhaps expand its
charge to include the concept of a human rights city. He saluted the committee members for their dedica-
tion.
Ms. Urbina briefly discussed the commission-planned activities regarding immigration. She said immigra-
tion was a painful issue in the community and the commission was planning to become an ally to organiza-
tions like CAUSA, which was a statewide immigrant rights organization. She said the national debate over
immigration was causing some people in the community to treat immigrants as less than human and the
commission would work with its allies on a multi-pronged approach to the community including education
of the Latino community about their rights and education of the community at large about the myths that
existed about immigration and immigrants.
Ms. Urbina invited everyone to attend the three-day open house to be held at the Human Rights Center
during the Eugene Celebration. She thanked recognized Human Rights Program staff for their dedication
and hard work, thanked the City Manager, the Mayor and the City Council for their support and advocacy
for human rights and for the new Human Rights Center, which was an asset to the community. She also
acknowledged and thanked many others in the community who had supported the commission and its work.
She concluded by reading a call to action by Reverend Martin Niemoller called “I did not speak out.”
Ms. Ortiz said she looked forward to the joint meeting with the Human Rights Commission because she was
passionate about the issue. She gave credit to staff for helping commissioners accomplish their important
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work. She commended the new Human Rights Center and said it would provide better program access to
people in the community. She was pleased to see the dedication to Dwight Souers.
Ms. Taylor asked if the commission considered the impact on human rights of the Patriot Act and making a
recommendation against parts of it. Ms. Urbina said the commission had not addressed the Patriot Act at
this point. Mr. Subramani added that the commission discussed how the legislation impacted the City but
had not looked at it from a national perspective.
Ms. Taylor asked if the commission discussed the rights of people it might regard as bigots and considered
recommending that some of those people be added to the commission. Mr. Subramani pointed out that
anyone could apply to be appointed to the commission and it was the council, not the commission, which
made those appointments.
Ms. Bettman thanked Ms. Urbina and Mr. Subramani for a comprehensive and passionate presentation. She
appreciated the commission’s work and was aware of the level of commitment and amount of service it
required. She was impressed by the extent of the commission’s efforts throughout the community and the
services provided on behalf of the City. She said without the volunteer service hours, the City would not
have the quality of human rights outreach that it enjoyed. She would be happy to approve the very
ambitious work plan and agreed that many of the issues were ongoing and could not be set aside and dealt
with in a year. She commended the working agreement for commissioners and felt the City should adopt it
in general. She asked what needed to be done to bring the Hate Crimes Conference to the City of Eugene.
Mr. Rikhoff replied that the organizing a conference was a major undertaking and thought that a conference
in 2009 or 2010 would be a reasonable goal. He noted that the conference in Portland was excellent and
staff was working to bring some of those speakers to the community. He said there was significant anti-
Semitic activity occurring in the community and a strong educational effort was being developed.
Mr. Papé thanked the commission for its acknowledgement of Dwight Souers, who he regarded as one of the
most thoughtful, deliberate and discerning individuals he had ever known. He remarked that one of the most
positive experiences of his time on the council had been his service on the Human Rights Commission. He
asked for clarification of the table of case data for the Human Rights Support System (HRSS) that appeared
on page 23 of the annual report. Ms. Leyva-Johnson said that the table included Paso a Paso advocacy
cases to show a more complete picture of HRSS activities. Mr. Rikhoff explained that the HRSS was
created to address discrimination and harassment and the table represented incidents in which HRSS case
managers were involved in both positive and negative situations to bring about a positive result.
Mr. Kelly commented that the Eugene City Council was among the first in the country to pass a resolution
objecting the certain parts of the Patriot Act when the legislation was first enacted. He said it would
behoove the City to revisit the issue with reauthorization of the act pending. He echoed Ms. Bettman’s
remarks about the working agreements on page 19 of the annual report.
Ms. Ortiz acknowledged James Dean for his extraordinary work as a volunteer with the Human Rights
Program.
Ms. Solomon, seconded by Ms. Ortiz, moved to approve the Human Rights Com-
mission goals and work plan for FY2007/2008. The motion passed unanimously,
8:0.
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C. WORK SESSION: City Council Priority Issue – Communities of Color Meeting Debrief
Mr. Carlson introduced Lauren Chouinard, executive director of Human Resources and Risk Management,
to discuss the Communities of Color meeting.
Mr. Chouinard introduced consultant Phyllis Lee and asked Ms. Piercy to facilitate a short debrief on the
Communities of Color meeting and discussion of future steps.
Ms. Piercy said the subject was an important connection to the work of the Human Rights Commission. She
thanked the 65 community members who participated in the Communities of Color meeting. She asked
councilors to share their experiences and what they had learned during that meeting. She said she had
learned that people needed to hear more often about the City’s awareness of and commitment to the issue.
She said there was some discussion at her table concerning a lack of knowledge about the City and the
possibility of an activity similar to the Business After Hours events hosted by the Chamber of Commerce.
Mr. Poling said he heard frustration from participants about again discussing the issue, but also awareness
that the City was engaged. He said there was some concern about what the next steps would be. He was
struck by one of the recommendations in the report that City Councilors should participate more visibly in
community events, particularly those put on by the Communities of Color. He agreed that an effort to
introduce people to City government and how they might fit in and be involved was a good idea.
Ms. Ortiz said it had been interesting as a person of color advocating for the event and then participating in
it. She felt at times that she was “in the know” but when she met with her peers she was amazed at what she
learned from people she had known for years. She said the dynamics in her group were interesting and
enlightening as there were two African-American men with significantly different experiences and
perspectives. She agreed that people lacked understanding of how government worked and liked the concept
of holding a “government class” similar to the police academy. She said that the Bethel School District held
classes for Latino parents to help them understand their role in assisting their children to have a good
educational experience in the district.
Mr. Kelly commented that the meeting was valuable and revealing. He said it reminded him that there was a
real need for statements from leadership of the City on those issues and not just after an incident. He said
there was also a need for concrete actions. He heard from participants about the amount of denial in the
community about racial problems. He thought the problem was getting worse and would not improve until
people acknowledged its existence.
Mr. Pryor said he had a strong impression that the best way to approach problems was to acknowledge they
existed. He said there was a variety of intolerance and racism in the community and it was important to
start by being sincere, candid and respectful about how to approach the problem. He said part of the
council’s role was to keep the issue before the public and remind people of what good behavior looked like
in order to change community attitudes, similar to the efforts to discourage drinking and driving.
Ms. Solomon remarked that she had a lot to learn about the issue and appreciated the willingness of those at
her table to share their experiences and help her to learn more about their perspectives.
Ms. Bettman said she shared the frustration about continuing discussions of the issue but no specific actions
identified. She appreciated the need to have an ongoing discussion but urged the council to identify and
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move forward with some concrete steps. She said the meeting reinforced the importance of not making
assumptions.
Mr. Papé said he appreciated all of the discussion and feedback from his group. He said there should be a
method to determine how well the City was modeling desirable behavior throughout the organization.
Ms. Taylor said she had not learned anything new in the meeting but recently learned there were a number of
Native American tribes locally and people were very ignorant about them. She suggested the council could
have a performance or educational activity during its ceremonial matters. She said that people found it
disturbing when others had preconceptions about them. She thought that education was valuable but did not
think there were any laws that discriminated in the community. She said it was good to talk to all kinds of
people, including bigots, to find out why they had certain beliefs or feelings. She felt that the remaining
biggest prejudice was against gays and lesbians.
Ms. Ortiz said she also heard a sense of frustration with more discussion. She described a recent event of
the Community Alliance of Lane County (CALC) she had attended and commented that youth at that event
indicated a commitment to the work of CALC and awareness that it was an ongoing process as long as there
were immigrants moving into the community. She emphasized the need to continue working on the issue on
a daily basis until it was ingrained into the fabric of the community.
In response to a question from Mr. Kelly, Mr. Chouinard said that the timeline in the initial action plan had
been extended for a variety of reasons, but there was no reason that a joint meeting with the Human Rights
Commission could not be scheduled in November and a facilitated council discussion scheduled in
December.
Mr. Kelly asked what the timeline would be for next steps to be worked out by an ad hoc committee as
suggested under council options. Mr. Chouinard said that as a result of the Communities of Color meeting,
there was a need to engage those communities in working with the council. He said the best approach
seemed to be the formation of an ad hoc committee composed of twelve to fifteen people to produce a set of
recommendations over a two-month period. He said those recommendations could be supplemental to the
council’s work plan for race priority.
Mr. Kelly indicated he was distressed by the timeline as there would be no council action until after the first
of the year. He asked the Human Rights Commission to consider whether its joint meeting with the council
should occur prior to or concurrent with formation of the ad hoc group or wait until the group had provided
recommendations. Mr. Chouinard said he did not mean to imply that the council’s other activities related to
the race priority should be suspended while the ad hoc committee was at work.
Mr. Kelly said that a wonderful aspect of the meeting was that people felt comfortable asking tough
questions or questions that might be perceived as “dumb.” He said engagement of the broad public was
critical and suggested that staff and the ad hoc committee consider publication of a City human rights
newsletter, similar to the stormwater and parks newsletters published annually.
Mr. Papé stated that the council and City should model good behavior if it was expected of the community
as a whole. He said he was not aware of any audits to ensure accountability of the City as an organization
and measure progress against policies, but that should occur and the results published for community
review. He said the City should lead by example. Mr. Chouinard replied that an assessment of the City
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organization had been conducted by a nationally recognized consultant and one result was current work on
the development of a strategic plan for diversity that could be linked to the council’s priority on race. He
said a component of that plan would be performance measures and evaluation.
Ms. Piercy said she heard a willingness, both at the meeting and in the community, to believe that the
council was taking the matter seriously and committed to moving forward with a plan of action. She
stressed the importance of council members participating in events and activities throughout the community.
Ms. Bettman said establishing benchmarks was one of the concrete steps the City could take. She hoped the
ad hoc committee would consider a formal process for establishing benchmarks and ensuring those
benchmarks were part of a council public process and not just internal to the organization.
Ms. Ortiz acknowledged the attendance of incoming councilor Mike Clark at the Communities of Color
meeting.
Mr. Chouinard noted that part of the race priority action plan was continuing to make training available to
council. He said there had been a suggestion that Perspectives in Profiling training could be provided to the
council, the Police Commission, the Human Rights Commission and perhaps other interested parties.
Ms. Lee expressed her appreciation for the good working relationships she was experiencing and her
enthusiasm for working with the council and City organization.
The meeting adjourned at 7:15 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Dennis M. Taylor
City Manager
(Recorded by Lynn Taylor)
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