Horton wins another term
According to one of his pre-election sta
tements, Pat Horton will begin his final term next
January as Lane County voters’ choice for district
attorney.
Horton, who won with a 56-percent vote total to
challenger Doug Melevin's 32.5 percent, has held
the office since 1973, and said he thinks 10 to 12
years in the position is a "good length of time” for
one person to head the department.
His immediate priority for the beginning of his
next four-year term will be economic, he has said,
tmeraia pnoto
Pat Horton (at right)
because the demands on county finances will
make it necessary to find funding alternatives for
law enforcement in order to provide adequate
levels of service.
Horton, who devoted most of his campaign
funds to a late-effort advertising campaign after a
basically low-key contest with Melevin, listed his
district attorney office prosecution priorities as
violent crime, narcotics, prostitution and gam
bling. He pointed to his rape-case conviction rate,
which he said is the highest in the state.
The incumbent countered Melevin s claim that
the district attorney’s budget has increased by
300 percent — mostly in investigative staff — since
Horton took office by saying that he has the finest
corps of prosecuting attorneys in any Oregon
county. Voters apparently thought Horton has
given them their money s worth, reinstating him
by 45,556 votes to Melevin’s 26,296.
Besides the Melevin promise of more service for
less money, the main differences between the
candidates focused on plea bargaining and
rehabilitation for criminals.
While Horton said rehabilitation programs,
except for county work-release programs, don’t
work because most of those convicted are habi
tual offenders, Melevin wanted regional centers
to take the overcrowding burden off the state
penitentiary, and increased use of the drug
diversion program to lessen inmate numbers at
the county level.
Melevin also wanted to use plea bargaining as a
tool that would bring fewer cases to trial and help
keep offenders out of jail. Horton said “plea
bargaining is a tool that can be abused,” and
advocated a tough stand on criminal charges.
Incumbent Burks takes
county sheriff’s contest
Incumbent David Burks cruised to an easy victory over his
three challengers in the Lane County Sheriff race, wfnning with 74
percent of the vote (53,173) votes.
Opposing Burks but winning little support was Deputy Sheriff
Ken Larsen, with 8,288 votes, former Idaho state policeman
Welton with 9,225 and Jimmy Willingham with 1,757.
Burks, a 20-year veteran of the force and sheriff since 1972,
will begin his third term “reflecting the will of the people by
carrying out the law.”
Burks said he considers the sheriff’s position an administra
tive job and the budget the biggest issue for his next term.
"I don't know how much will be cut yet, but I will meet with the
budget committee and try to come to a balanced cut so no service
will be cut more than any other,” he said.
The increasing demand for law-enforcement services and the
spiraling costs of energy are the most severe budgetary pressures
facing his administration, he said. These pressures have a
tremendous impact on the ability to maintain a desirable level of
professionalism, he said.
He said the jail and the civil department are the most
important facets of the sheriff's office, adding that he hopes these
departments will suffer only minor cuts.
“The rest of the departments will have to bear the burden of
the remainder of the cuts.”
Burks expressed concern about the reduction of patrols in
the rural areas of Lane County. Though he has opposed two-per
son patrols in the past, he said he is forced to re-evaluate his
position because of rising fuel prices.
In the two terms he has served as sheriff, Burks has
established corrections and law enforcement policies. Oversee
ing the budget and personnel matters are his most important
duties, he said.
“I expect my employees to treat people like they would like to
be treated if the tables were turned.”
Oregon voters OK most ballot measures
Oregon voters want roads
without potholes and buses
without drinks, according to
voting results of the two mosl
controversial statewide ballot
measures.
While voters resoundingly
approved limiting highway anC
gasoline taxes to highway
maintenance and construction
by passing Ballot Measure No
1, they rejected the vehicle
liquor-by-the-drink measure 2.
The four other ballot measure
results went about as political
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Only ‘no' goes to vehicle liquor plan
observers expected.
Oregonians voted in favor of
Ballot Measure 1, a constitu
tional amendment that would
limit the uses of gasoline and
highway user taxes to highway
upkeep by almost a two-to-one
margin. With 82.4 percent of the
2,519 statewide precincts
reporting, the vote was 336,551
yes and 209,799 no.
In the past, taxes collected
through gasoline sales and
vehicle registration have been
used to support the policing of
! highways and the maintenance
| of parks and historic sites,
i The measure will make man
V
datory what Oregon legislators
have already accomplished.
The 1979 Legislature allocated
no highway funds to state and
county police or the parks and
recreation division for the
1980-81 biennium.
Ballot Measure No. 2 would
have allowed all passenger
vehicles to serve drinks without
having to serve food. With the
same statewide precinct
number reporting as for mea
sure 1, measure 2 apparently
has seen its demise. The voting
was close, but the measure was
going down with a vote of
245,076 yes and 291,813 no.
Meet the Author!
Steve Chappie, author of Rock ‘n ’ Roll is Here to Pay will
be signing copies of his new novel of country lust and
urban decay, DON’T MIND DYING, this Thursday, May
22, from 12 to 2 p.m. upstairs in General Books.
BOOKSTORE
You’re invited!
13th & Kincaid 686-4331
Open: Mon-Fri 8:15-5:30 Sat 10:00-2:00
Ballot measure 2 would have
allowed all passenger vehicles
the privilege of serving drinks
without serving food.
Small-scale renewable re
source projects were given a
boost with the passage of Ballot
Measure No. 3 by a vote of
317,886 yes and 227,553 no.
The state energy department
can issue bonds for solar, wind,
geothermal, biomass and water
resources, and cogeneration
projects for up to one-half per
cent of the value of the taxable
property in Oregon. Small bu
sinesses, cooperatives, non
profit and municipal corpora
tions are eligible for the loans.
Ballot Measure No. 4 was
proposed to equalize veteran’s
benefits, and it passed with a
clear mandate from Oregonians
with 452,997 yes votes and
115,743 no.
This measure provides a
standard set of eligibility requir
ements for veterans who served
in the military between Sept. 15,
1940 and Dec. 31,1976.
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Ballot Measure No. 5 will
continue the state tax-reduction
program adopted by the 1979
Legislature with the passage of
HB 2540 and HB2186.
Measure 5 won by a landslide
with 505,283 yes votes
statewide, and only 51,402 no
votes. The measure will contin
ue to limit property assessment
increases to a statewide aver
age of 5 percent. Taxpayers will
continue to receive state sur
plus in excess of 2 percent.
Ballot Measure No.6 will bring
about a technical change of ar
ticle Xl-I of the Oregon Consti
tution, providing a definition of
multi-family housing for the
low-income elderly. The article
had no such definition when it
was added to the constitution in
1978. Such housing now in
cludes cooperatives, con
dominiums, mobile home parks
and other retirement facilities.
The state is now able to issue
bonds for financing the con
struction of these structures if
they are for the low-income el
derly. The measure was passing
with a vote of 425,140 yes to
111,768 no.