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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (June 1, 2000)
Torrey starts second term, confronts issues first hand ■ He wants to improve police/student relations, revitalize downtown and see new fire/police stations By Christena Hansen for the Emerald This year’s election cycle seems to have hardly fazed Eu gene Mayor Jim Torrey. Re-elected to serve a second four-year term by 69 percent of voters, Torrey is busy whit tling away at his munici pal. wish list for expanded youth pro grams, a revi t a 1 i z e d downtown and a slimmed-down City Hall renovation project. And regarding the University area, where recent protests have put relations between police and students in the spotlight, Torrey said he is putting his confidence in the efforts of the newly formed Eugene Police Commission to improve the situation. Estab lished last December, the com mission is made up of 12 mem bers, including one University student, and was created to al low a forum for the police de partment’s broad policies to be evaluated, Torrey said. TORREY “I spent more time making sure it was a broad-based com mittee than any other set of rec ommendations that I have made to the City Council,” Torrey said. “We have people from all spec trums of our community. They’re to look at the policies that the po lice department use in respond ing to protests, the loud parties and things of that nature. They’re running it through that filter, and it’s very helpful.” Torrey said he has little pa tience for out-of-the-ordinary protests and parties on campus or elsewhere in Eugene that end up costing tax payers large amounts of money. As a result, he said he supports — in concept — the police department’s pro posal to charge renters a fee for multiple police visits within a 90-day period. “I would be inclined to find some level of penalty for multi ple abusers,” he said. “If we're having to send police officers weekend after weekend after weekend to the same location, then there needs to be a re sponse.” The police department’s pro posal, introduced to the commis sion last month, has come under fire from some University stu dents who worry that the 90-day window is too long, allowing a renter to be fined for activities of a former renter. Other students r have complained to 'Jorrey that the threat of fines would keep students from calling police in the case of an emergency, he said. But Torrey said he thinks the proposal could be modified to penalize only those responsible for overuse of police resources and feels confident that students in need of emergency services would not avoid calling police, fire or medical services. Torrey said his frustration comes, in part, from working to secure money for new projects — including his desire to offer after school activities to children and youth — only to watch funds drain away in police-related ex penses. The protest over Pennsylvania death row inmate Mumia Abu Jamal on April 3 “was a $29,000 expenditure,” he said. “We just turned down numerous people at our budget committee process for programs in the range of $29,000 to $30,000 because we didn’t have the money.” During his first term as mayor, Torrey made little progress to ward providing city funds for “Lighted Schools,” a program that he envisions paying commu nity members, including senior citizens, college students and high school students, to mentor and teach younger children after school hours and on weekends. It’s an effort that he promises to throw his heart and soul into during his second term. Already, he said he is mulling over the idea of proposing to the City Council a five-year serial levy or a 5 percent surcharge on admis sion to theaters, movies or other shows to pay for the program. “We have a really great recre ation sports program in Eugene: Kidsports,” he said. “It’s as good as any in the country. But what we don’t have right now is acces sibility to safe places and posi tive activities after school. My goal would be to have [the pro gram] from the time school gets out until 7 p.m. at night.” Torrey’s interest in children’s reading programs — a trademark of his first term in office — is also likely to continue. As the vice chairman of Oregon’s Juve nile Justice Advisory Committee, Torrey’s goal last term to read a book to every elementary class in Eugene had a deep connection to his philosophy that childhood reading problems are strongly as sociated with juvenile crime. During his first term, Torrey persuaded state lawmakers to put $250,000 toward the Bethel Reading Readiness Program, de veloped by University education professors Deb Simmons, Ed Kameenui and Roland Good to help students be proficient read ers by the time they reach third grade. To Torrey’s satisfaction, the ODE Classifieds. Run your for sale item for five days (items under $1,000)... if you don't sell it, we'll run it 5 more days for free! program’s two-year report pre sented Tuesday night showed that the number of non-readers in Bethel’s first-grade classes dropped from 15 percent to 6 percent, Simmons said. Also at the top of Torrey’s agenda for his second term is his desire to “bring vitality to the downtown area,” a part of Eu gene that he sees as somewhat strangled by one-way streets and the section of the downtown mall that is blocked off to vehi cles. Although on May 16 voters turned down the ballot measure aimed at building new police and fire stations, Torrey hasn’t given up the idea of presenting a more modest proposal to voters { {/ would be inclined to find some level of penalty for multiple abusers. If we’re having to send police officers weekend after weekend after weekend to the same location, then there needs to be a response. Jim Torrey mayor that he said would trim at least $8 million off the original police plan alone. He favors the con struction of an additional 90,000 square-foot building on the park ing lot south of City Hall and a strengthening of the current building. “Anytime we lose an election, I don’t want to just throw the same thing back in front of the people — I don’t believe in doing that,” he said. “But we have to find a safe place for our police of ficers to work. I’m not positive that I’m going to get everything I want, but I’m going to fight real hard for it.” Brochures auailable now!!! Woodworking, Drawing, Ceramics, Jewelry, Photography, Fibers REGISTRATION STARTS THURSDAY, JUNE I, 10:00 AM J0 C"R AFT CENTER WORKSHOPS on the ground floor of the EMU east wing, For more information please call (541)346 - 4361 or uisit http://craftcenter.uoregon.edu Class of 2000 I Hi UO Career Center Graduate Survey and $100 ca$h Just answer a few questions by June 24 and you could have some extra cash in your pocket! Three seniors will take away $100 ca$h. Enter to win $100 cash, while helping future students know what happens to UO graduates. You can't lo$el Go to uocareer.uoregon.edu/survey to enter. (Did we forget to mention you could win some extra cash?) CAREER www.eweb.org The Power is in Your Hands. E WEB
