HomeMy WebLinkAboutCity Council Newsletter - 01/18/07
EUGENE CITY COUNCIL NEWSLETTER
January 18, 2007
City of Eugene
777 Pearl Street, Room 105
Eugene, Oregon 97401-2793
(541) 682-5010
(541) 682-5414 (FAX)
www.eugene-or.gov
IN THIS WEEK’S EDITION
CITY OF EUGENE @ YOUR SERVICE
DIRECT ACCESS TO MEDICARE’S ELIGIBILITY RECORDS
COMMUNITY INVOLVED IN CULTURAL POLICY REVIEW
ANOTHER SUCCESSFUL ‘TOYS FOR TOTS’ CAMPAIGN
AROUND THE CITY
City of Eugene @ Your Service
The City of Eugene web site, www.eugene-or.gov, continues to grow to provide
new and enhanced services to the community.
In FY06, the site dished up over 3.5 million pages to over 1 million visitors from
Eugene to as far away as Nepal, Thailand and Afghanistan. $1.25 million dollars
worth of service transactions occurred on the site, saving the community many
hours and gallons of gas for patrons purchasing Hult Center tickets, registering for Recreation classes or
paying parking tickets. The popularity and functionality of submitting job applications online continued to
grow – nearly 80% of all job applications received in FY06 were submitted electronically.
New interactive maps added to the site helped residents and visitors understand land use, planning and
neighborhood issues. These mapping applications include Land Use Zoning, South Hills Habitat Study,
and the recently introduced “My Neighborhood Association” application that maps street addresses to
neighborhood boundaries. For more information about the City’s site traffic or usage statistics, contact
Kimberly McCrea at 682-5234.
Direct Access to Medicare’s Eligibility Records
Eugene’s Fire & EMS Ambulance Billing Office is always looking for innovative ways to improve work
efficiency. Recently, Medicare has started the process of giving providers access to Medicare’s eligibility
records through a new Medicare Eligibility System. This is an exciting opportunity for Eugene’s
Ambulance Billing Office. Approximately 46 percent of Eugene’s ambulance gross charges are Medicare
patients, and Medicare is one the largest payers following commercial insurance companies.
With increasing numbers of patients covered by Medicare, this will provide Eugene’s Fire & EMS
Ambulance Billing Office with an especially useful tool that will be used by all employees of the
Ambulance Billing Office on a daily basis and help boost employee productivity. For more information,
please contact Billing Supervisor Gail Draper at 682-7130.
Community Involved in Cultural Policy Review
Despite the inclement weather, more than 75 people attended the latest Cultural Policy Review (CPR)
public meeting on Tuesday, Jan. 16. To date, thousands of people have participated in the CPR,
including more than 2,500 who responded to the Eugene Cultural Census. At Tuesday night’s meeting,
consultant Alan Brown compared findings from the Eugene Cultural Census to national trends.
Generally, Brown said Eugene is not alone in experiencing long-term funding issues for arts and culture
and he said other communities have found solutions.
EUGENE CITY COUNCIL NEWSLETTER PAGE 1
January 18, 2007
In a preliminary progress report on the CPR process, consultants from WolfBrown (formerly Wolf Keens
& Company) called the community involvement “extraordinary.” They noted that the level of
involvement reflects a view among residents that the process affords an opportunity to address cultural
issues in a systematic, effective fashion.
Initial observations from data collected by WolfBrown include little coordination or partnering among the
cultural initiatives of the University of Oregon, Lane Community College and the City, or between these
groups and Eugene’s non-academically affiliated cultural organizations. The information gathered to
date also indicates to the consultants that there is some room for growth in the private sector funding for
arts and culture, but it is not substantial. Furthermore, from their preliminary research, the consultants
observed that arts and culture has been described as playing a central role in the revitalization of
downtown, but because of the scale of the challenge, significant resources will be required and arts and
culture groups will need to be actively engaged.
An online copy of the consultant’s full, preliminary report as well as other information about the CPR is
available at: www.eugene-or.gov/CulturalPolicyReview. For information, contact Mark Loigman,
682-5307.
Another Successful ‘Toys for Tots’ Campaign
Once again, the Eugene Fire & EMS Department played a large role in another
extremely successful ‘Toy for Tots’ campaign over the 2006 holiday season. The
‘Toys for Tots’ program is sponsored by the U.S. Marines and the Eugene and
Springfield firefighters, and receives generous community support through
donations, volunteer time and resources to distribute toys to approximately 5,000
local children. Over the 2006 holiday season, the collection of toys at drop off
boxes at various locations throughout the city, including all the fire stations, brought
in more than 25,000 toys.
In addition to the toy distribution that is held at Chavez Elementary school, Eugene
firefighters and U.S. Marines distributed toys to the children who were in Sacred Heart Medical Center
over the holiday weekend. Eugene firefighters have played an active role in the ‘Toys for Tots’ program
for over 25 years. For more information, please contact Acting Deputy Chief Operations Randy DeWitt
at 682-7130.
EUGENE CITY COUNCIL NEWSLETTER PAGE 2
January 18, 2007