Forum fails to clarify plans
■ Eugene residents found the *
proposed election reforms
confusing and complicated
By Aaron K. Breniman
Oregon Daily Emerald
If there is one thing that last year’s
election proved, it’s that the elec
tion process in this country is not
getting any simpler.
Thursday night, the Citizen Char
ter Review Committee held a pub
lic forum at the Amazon Communi
ty Center to discuss proposed
alternative methods for conducting
Eugene elections of city councilors
that are intended to make the elec
tions process simpler.
But the proposed changes only
seemed to be confusing and chmpli
cated to many of the nearly 50 com
munity members who attended the
forum.
The Eugene City Council created
the nine-person committee in Au
gust to review the Eugene Charter,
the basic governing document of
the city. The committee hopes to
make a recommendation to the
council in order to get a Eugene
election reform measure on the bal
lot in September.
Community members repeatedly
stepped to the microphone to express
their displeasure with the electoral
process and the proposed solutions.
“I feel bad; I know you’ve spent a
lot of time on these options,” Eu
gene resident Bob Mylenek said.
“I’m really concerned that it is too
complicated. I don’t know if we
need to get that deep so early.”
The committee proposed four op
tions for consideration and public
comment to be submitted to the City
Council. The complexity and con
fusion of the committee’s options
remained a consistent topic for
many speakers.
“I’m not convinced that we fully
understand the problem,” commu
nity member Kathy Madison said.
Election reform
Current System:
Eight councilors
Eight wards
Single member district; majority
needed to win; primary in May,
runoff in November
Four year term
Mayor elected at large
Option A:
Eight or 10 councilors
Eight or 10 wards
Instant runoff voting
Four-year term
Mayor elected at large
Comments: If no candidate receives a
majority of votes, instant runoff vote
would eliminate need fora primary
Option B:
Nine or 12 councilors
Three wards
Four-year term
three or four councilors elected from
each ward
If nine councilors, mayor elected by
council. If 12 councilors, mayor elect
ed at large.
Comments: Mayor’s term dependent
upon number of councilors
Option C:
Eight or 10 councilors
Four or five wards
One half of the councilors are elected
by and from wards using instant
runoff voting. The other half are
elected at large using coach or single
transferable voting
Four-year term
Mayor elected at large
Option D:
Eight councilors
Eight wards
Councilors are elected using cumula
tive voting with each voter casting
four weighted votes
Four-year term
Mayor elected at large using instant
runoff voting
Comments: Each voter would be able
to cast one vote for each position or
cast all four votes for one candidate
or spread votes among two or more
candidates
The committee’s four options ad
dressed several issues: proportional
representation, instant run-off vot
ing, ward boundaries, term limits
and city-wide voting.
Many present at the forum spoke
out against the timeline set by the
committee.
“I have concerns that we are real
ly rushing through a serious issue,”
Terry Connelly said. “I think there
are a lot of different issues that the
public needs to be educated on.”
Another Eugene resident, Gary
Cook, presented what he termed his
“far superior” plan for the election
process to the committee. Cook’s
proposal would allow for a weight
ed council vote, dependent upon the
councilor’s percentage of the vote in
citywide cumulative voting, and the
incorporation of multiple parties.
Councilor Gary Rayor also ad
dressed the committee, asking them
to think hard before proposing to in
crease ward size. He said that the
small size of his ward allowed him
to campaign door-to-door through
out most of it.
Rayor pleaded with the commit
tee to make a final recommendation
that is both tried and proven.
“I would like to see a proposal
that is working somewhere,” he
said.
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State officials search
for budget solutions
■ Despite the higher
education budget shortfall,
legislators say the outlook
isn’t so bleak after all
By Andrew Adams
Oregon Daily Emerald
Faced with a $96 million budget
shortfall, the Oregon University Sys
tem is looking to members of the state
Legislature to ease their budget blues.
But that relief may be hard to come
by, now that the state revenue projec
tion for March has come in more than
$100 million lower than expected.
Legislators made clear at a rally
on the capitol steps last week that
they support funding the OUS, but
admit that finding the dollars to do
it will be difficult.
Tom Anderes, OUS vice chancel
lor for finance and administration,
said there are funds available in the
state’s tobacco settlement and other
areas, so the situation is not that bleak.
“It isn’t a matter of if a revenue es
timate goes down, everything is
lost,” he said.
He said with three weeks of hear
ings coming in which the OUS can
make its case for funding, and with
support from legislators, there re
mains plenty of room for more high
er education funds.
“I think all of that will hopefully
come together for some positive im
pact,” he said.
Rep. Phil Barnhart, D-Eugene,
said funding education is one of his
top priorities.
“I talk about that incessantly,” he
said. “I think people get bored with
Barnhart talking about that. ”
Barnhart said he has introduced
legislation that would increase the
corporate income tax by 1 percent. He
said this would raise $136 million.
“There would be enough to cover
higher education and all the holes
in senior services,” he said.
Sen. Tony Corcoran, D-Cottage
Grove, said the lower revenue esti
mates “make that deeper of a hole to
climb out of,” but said that doesn’t
mean it’s impossible.
He said the key to finding the
funds for higher education will be
through increasing general fund
revenue. This could come through
using tobacco funds, or implement
ing a cigarette tax or a beer and wine
tax, though Corcoran said he does
n’t support “sin taxes. ”
The most direct method to raise
revenue would be to change the state’s
tax model, which Corcoran said has
helped create the shortfall. He blamed
Republicans for retaining a tax system
that does not place enough burden on
the higher brackets.'
Speaker of the House Mark Sim
mons, R-Elgin, said he supported
raising higher education funding two
years ago, and pointed out that the co
chairs of the Ways and Means Com
mittee had already found an extra
$29 million for higher education.
While the Democrats are pushing
for revenue-generating measures to
fill budget holes, Simmons said the
Legislature needs to look at every pos
sible source for funding in the budget
and do a better job of allocating fupds.
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