Oregon daily emerald., April 13, 1977, Page 9, Image 9

Citizens committee
examines 5 bills
By JIM ROTH
Of the Emerald
The Citizens Advisory Committee for Criminal Justice Plan
ning, part of the Lane Council of Governments (L-COG), will meet
Monday to examine five bills currently under consideration by
Oregon Senate and House committees.
The citizens committee hopes to form a group opinion on
each bill for approval by the L-COG Board of Directors. These
opinions would be written into statements which could be used to
lobby for the interests of Lane County when the bills reach the
floor of the Legislature.
Representing the public opinion of Lane County in the state
Legislature is one of a number of functions the committee could
perform — and it has recently been expanded from 10 to 18
members to promote new activity.
“The sky is the limit for this group," sayd Dave O’Brien,
district criminal justice planner for L-COG. “They can define their
own role and decide how much work to take on.”
The committee does have one well-defined task: to provide a
set of recommendations each year to the L-COG Board of
Directors outlining priority projects for federal grant money. The
citizens committee has a professional counterpart in the L-COG’s
technical advisory board, made up of the district attorney, county
sheriff, municipal police chiefs, a district court judge, the public
defender and several other professionals.
Linda Mills-Erickson, a University law student, is the com
mittee chairer. She shares O’Brien’s hopes for the newly en
larged committee.
“We had trouble getting a quorum at meetings before we
expanded," said Mills-Erickson. “It’s difficult to get work done
when only four or five members show up each week.”
The committee includes two other students, two nurses and
two juvenile workers, but most members are professional. The
committee does not have as broad a representation of the com
munity as L-COG would like, according to O’Brien.
“L-COG doesn’t have to maintain the citizens committee but
we have chosen to have it,” says O'Brien. “We could hire a staff of
professionals who would study the community and suggest
changes or new programs but there wouldn’t be that link between
public opinion and government that we want."
The citizens committee is in turn linked to the L-COG board
by O’Brien, whose job entails more administrative and liaison
work than actual planning.
The bills under consideration next Monday are: House Bill
2246, victim compensation, establishing a minimum time period
for offenders before release on parole; HB-2286, setting the
minimum sentence for felons at five years for first conviction, 15
years for second conviction and life for third conviction; HB-2213,
repealing legislation criminalizing prostitution; HB-2321, bringing
back the death penalty; and Senate Bill 20, appropriating general
funds to the state board administrator to reimburse counties for
judicial expenses.
The meeting, open to the public, will be held Monday at 7:30
p.m. in the Public Safety Building’s cafeteria conference Room A.
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Co-op bids for brush-clearing
By KEVIN HARDEN
Of the Emerald
A new workers’ co-op has an
offer for Lane County.
Since the Lane County Board of
Commissioners banned the use of
herbicides on county roads, alter
native solutions have been in the
making. One likely to be heard out
is hand-clearing brush. And the
Western Lane County co-op has
offered a bid of $4 less per mile to
hand-clear county roads than the
job would cost with herbicides.
“We want to offer the county an
alternative to herbicides,” says
Carolyn Smyth, head of Western
Lane County co-op, which is
based in the Deadwood and Five
Rivers area.
The only hitch is that Lane
County has not yet put the brush
clearing jobs out to bid. Neverthe
less, Smyth is optimistic.
‘‘Were mainly waiting for Al
Driver (Lane County transporta
tion department head) to make a
decision on the project,” she says.
“I’ve spoken twice to the com
missioners, but until the job opens
up we just won’t know.”
Formed last fall, the Western
Lane County co-op grew out of the
idea that people should be able to
live in the Deadwood and Five
Rivers areas without having to
travel far away for jobs. High un
employment has given impetus to
Smyth and 32 others to found a
Films on aging scheduled
“A Large Slice of Life,” a trio of films on aging, will be shown tonight
at 8 at the Laurelwood clubhouse, 17th Avenue and Columbia Street.
The public is invited and there is no admission charge.
The films are the work of filmmaker Bill Maddron, former owner of
Industrial Litho in Eugene.
“Able, Stable, and Wise—the Older Worker” provides information
on the special qualifications the older worker brings to the job market.
“Retire? Who? Me?” is a documentary of a group of pre-retirees
considering their own immiment retirement with insight and humor.
“Why Must Our Elderly Die Alone?” contrasts the increasingly
sterile and artificial treatment of death in today’s society with the time
when death was regarded as a natural, expected part of the human
experience. It suggests how and why today ’s society might regain some
of the age-old meaning and richness of the experience of dying.
Criminology lecture set
The accuracy of crime reports issued annually by the FBI will be
discussed by two Eugene criminologists-Friday at 3:30 p.m. in Room
189, PLC. The talk, titled “The War on Crime — Is There Any Way to
Know Who Is Winning? Some Methodological Problems with Crime
Statistics," will be given by Janie Burcart and Ann Schneider of the
Institute of Policy Analysis. The Department of Sociology Colloquium
Series is sponsoring the free event.
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co-op and provide year-round
employment for people in the
area.
‘‘Some of our friends were
faced with the possibility of leav
ing the area to go back to Eugene
to find work, so we formed the
co-op,” she says. “We're trying to
open up alternatives to leaving.”
Smyth explained that the road
clearing project has been the first
major job the co-op has been able
to focus on. “We’re really positive
about getting the contract,” she
says. “We re just getting started
so we’re open to ways to employ
more people.”
The co-op has spent the past
several months “brain storming”
about possible jobs and “just
growing.” Following the example
of Hoedads, a Eugene-based
cooperative, the co-op has ac
cepted work from odd jobs to log
ging, says Smyth. The group held
10 meeti ngs this year and decided
which jobs to accept, what to
charge for their work and what
amount of profit to apply to the
next job.
Most decisions are made on the
basis of group consensus, Smyth
says.
“We are a registered coopera
tive corporation with bylaws and
officers and we have a small
membership fee that goes back
into the co-op to be used for new
equipment, insurance for certain
jobs and as a resource for the
group to draw on,” she adds.
Although the co-op provides
work for people, it hasn’t received
offers of assistance from any
county or state agency. According
to Smyth, Lane County Commis
sioner Jerry Rust has been asking
for money to fund groups and pro
jects such as the workers’ co-op.
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