COUNCIL VIOLATES
PUBLIC MEETINGS LAW
The Eugene City Council voted on the top
policy goal for the city using a secret voting
method in apparent violation of the Oregon
Public Meetings Law.
The council held a “retreat” on Saturday,
Feb. 21 in a Eugene Hilton conference room.
At the retreat councilors selected their top goal
for the city by crowding around flip charts at
the front of the room to anonymously place
round stickers. From a list of possible goals,
councilors placed stickers next to goals they
didn’t like. Goals that received two or more
stickers were eliminated under a “consensus”
process set up by a meeting facilitator.
The only goal that didn’t receive at least
two stickers was a hospital in Eugene’s central
core, which received no stickers.
The city sent out a press release claiming
“the City Council unanimously agreed
that the successful location of a hospital
in Eugene’s center is its top priority for 2004.”
There was a unanimous vote later in the
meeting to confirm the hospital as the top goal.
But the actual dot vote decision was far from
unanimous. Various councilors had pushed for
a tree protection ordinance, tax reform, a new
City Hall, more police funding and other
choices as their top goals. The lack of unanim-
ity was reflected in the dot placement, a new
City Hall was eliminated as a top goal by two
negative votes and a tree ordinance by three,
but the dots were anonymous.
“This grants some anonymity,” councilor
Jennifer Solomon remarked of the process as
she moved into the crowd of councilors to
place her dots.
The Oregon Public Meetings Law requires
that “decisions of governing bodies be arrived
at openly” and forbids the use
of secret ballots or other obscure voting meth-
ods.
Assistant City Manager Jim Carlson denied
the city had broken the law. He claimed the dot
vote was a “planning process” and not an ac-
tual decision action by the city council.
But the law defines its jurisdiction broadly
to include “any determination, action, vote or
final disposition” of a governing body.
City Councilor David Kelly denied that
there was anything illegal or inappropriate
with the anonymous vote. Kelly argued that
the public could call councilors to ask them
how they voted and argued that members of
the public present at the meeting could observe
which councilors placed which dots. Kelly
said the council had done dot voting before and
the city attorney had approved the dot vote on
the city’s top goal.
Accurately observing eight councilors
crowding around to simultaneously place mul-
tiple dots with their backs to onlookers was im-
possible.
This isn’t the first time this City Council
has apparently violated the Oregon Public
Meetings Law. A year ago, a council subcom-
mittee held illegal secret meetings to set up a
secret process for filling the city’s powerful
city manager position. None of the top goals
considered by the council this year apparently
included open government.
— Alan Pittman
MEMORIAL BENCH
HONORS NEILA CAMPBELL
A sculpture bench for Neila Campbell will
be installed in a ceremony at 2 pm Feb. 27 in
the Owen Rose Garden at the
north end of Jefferson Street
along the Willamette
River.
The installation is to
honor Campbell’s life and
her contributions to the com-
munity. Neila, featured in Neila Campbell
EW as a “Happening
Caregiver” in 1999, was a respected trauma
and grief counselor who died of cancer two
years ago.
The bench was designed and built by noted
metalsmith Peter Renzetti of the Samuel Yellin
Metalworkers. The ceremony will be presided
over by Rabbi Hannan Sills. The dedication
will be by Campbell’s husband Omar Nelson.
For information call 484-1275 or email geof-
frey.hughes@comcast.net
WICKES REMEMBERED
Longtime Eugene music teacher Linda
Wickes, 76, died unexpectedly Feb. 15 from
injuries suffered in a fall. In her honor,
BY PAUL NEEVEL
CR A IG
BR YA N
Cradling class mas-
cot Century in his
left hand, South
Eugene High’s Peer
Group Coordinator
Craig Bryan slaps
high-fives with stu-
dents leaving a
training session.
After an initial week
of training, these peer-group leaders will meet once a week for the rest of the
term in small groups, each one composed of five or six freshmen and two or
three upper-class leaders. “It’s a chance to talk to older people and a break from
school — very relaxing,” notes a freshman in his evaluation. Leaders meet weekly
in their own staffing groups and also once with coordinator Bryan. “Staffing
groups are intense — kids say that’s the most important group,” he reports. A
Californian with degrees in psychology, Bryan worked with juvenile offenders and
drug-dependent teens before he moved to Eugene in 1982. After his daughter
Summer entered South 10 years ago, Bryan worked with teacher Marty Johnson
to expand a Peer Helper program. While Peer Group is voluntary, 98 percent of
freshmen choose to take part, and a quarter of upper-class students trains as
leaders. “They get health or community service credits,” Bryan says. “The kids
run the program.”
friends and family are organizing a scholar-
ship fund to send talented, low-income stu-
dents to the Oregon Suzuki Institute summer
camp in Forest Grove. Wickes was featured
as a “Happening Person” in EW in 1999.
“Linda had a passion for teaching
music,” says a statement from friends Isha
Lerner and Michael Wolf. “She was a major
influence in the lives of hundreds of children,
bringing the art and technique of Suzuki vio-
lin instruction to the Eugene-Springfield
community over 20 years ago. Through her
love of music and her belief in the creative
genius of the child, Linda mentored and
taught hundreds of area children the fine art
of violin playing and music appreciation.”
Wickes played in the Eugene Symphony
Orchestra and founded and directed the
Eugene Strings Celebration camp each sum-
mer at UO. For information on the scholar-
ship fund, call Susan Mondon at 683-1413 or
Anne Simons at 342-2375.
UO ENVIRO CONFERENCE
COMING UP MARCH 4-7
“Rousing The Restless
Majority” is this year’s
theme for the 22nd
annual Public Interest
Environmental
Law
Conference, which runs
Thursday through Sunday,
March 4-7 at UO. Topics will Chief Evon Peter
range from political strategies for environmen-
tal action, to the Healthy Forests and
Restoration Act, stormwater pollution, the
Northwest Forest Plan, Indian sacred land pro-
tection strategies, land trusts, alternatives to
environmental litigation and grassroots fund-
raising.
PIELC is one of the world’s premier envi-
ronmental law events and each year more than
3,000 people from around the globe convene
in Eugene. They include attorneys, scientists,
students, environmental activists and con-
cerned citizens. More than 140 panel sessions,
workshops, keynote addresses and special
events are scheduled. Events take place at the
law school and EMU.
Keynote speakers this year include: Bev
Harris, Mike Brune, Richard Drury, Maria Elena
Foronda Farro, the Rev. Robert Jeffrey,
Dune Lankard, Betsy Loyless, Ed Marston,
Ingrid Newkirk, Chief Evon Peter and Jane
Roberts.
For more information, visit www.pielc.org
or contact Land Air Water at 346-3828.
PEACEFUL POET
Poetry therapist John Fox comes to
Eugene next week, lecturing on and demon-
strating the healing power of words. Fox is
author of Poetic Medicine and Finding What
You Didn’t Lose, as well as numerous articles.
A free public lecture, “Expressing Your
Truth: The Healing Power of Creativity,”
sponsored by PeaceHealth’s Women’s
Information Network, is at 7:30 pm, Tuesday,
March 2 at the Hilton.
Fox will hold a more detailed talk at 7:30
pm Friday, March 5 and a workshop from
9:30 am to 4:30 pm on Saturday March 6.
Both of those events are at the Tamarack
Wellness Center, 3575 Donald St. Cost is
$125 for Friday and Saturday, or $20 for
Friday only. 685-9009 for info.
EUGENE, CORVALLIS
EXAMINE COHOUSING
Architect and author Kathryn McCamant
will give a free public lecture and slideshow
on cohousing in Corvallis at 7 pm Friday,
Feb. 27 at the Corvallis Art Center. The
Corvallis Cohousing group and a group of
Eugene residents forming a cohousing com-
munity in town are hosting the event. It is an
opportunity to learn more about the possibili-
ties of cohousing from a national expert and
meet other residents interested in this semi-
communal urban lifestyle.
Cohousing communities consist of indi-
vidual homes that are often architecturally
designed to promote interaction and commu-
nication between neighbors. They usually in-
clude a community house or space where res-
idents can spend time together and share
meals or events. Martin Henner, who is de-
veloping cohousing in Eugene, says that co-
housing differs from intentional communities
in that “cohousing communities are not ideo-
logical,” but instead are based on environ-
mental and social values.
FEBRUARY 26, 2004 7