BY ALAN PITTMAN
Squirrelly
City raids its $29 million stash for
cop shop that voters rejected.
E
ugene voters have twice rejected
paying for a big new police station,
the last time by nearly a two-to-one
margin.
But city officials still want the big new
cop shop. They’ve secretly squirreled away a
staggering $29 million by diverting money
from city services to fund the unpopular proj-
ect. With the $29 million in buried nuts, a
sharply divided council decided Monday to
ask voters in November for an additional $7
million to complete the $36 million police
project.
“I think the measure will lose,” says
David Kelly, one of three councilors who
voted against the financing package.
There’s a lot of things going against the
police proposal. Voters may resent the city
hoarding of taxpayer dollars for the cop shop,
be disgusted with police after sex crimes by
officers, think the building is too big and may
look at the police station as a costly three-
time loser.
But supporters say the relatively small tax
increase made possible by the city stash and
the support of non-profits who police say
they’ll give space to in the new building
could push the measure over the top.
The conservative council majority and
city staff act like the $29 million they’ve
squirreled away is there’s to do with as they
see fit.
But Councilor Betty Taylor says the coun-
cil should get voter approval before spending
the $29 million in internal money. “It’s their
The city wasn’t going to ask, but we will.
What do you think Eugene should do with its
$29 million hoard? (Check Box)
❏ Police Station
❏ Fix Potholes
❏ Refund Taxpayers
❏ Pay Off Police Lawsuits
❏ Buy Parkland
❏ Community Policing
❏ School Support
❏ Run Library
Fill in the Blank:
_____________________________________
_____________________________________
_____________________________________
____________________________________
Mail your responses to Squirrelly Ballot ,
Eugene Weekly, 1251 Lincoln St., Eugene, OR 97401
or email to editor@eugeneweekly.com
We’ll publish the results for you and the city.
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10 JULY 29, 2004
leverage a bigger bond vote for a new City
Hall later. “It’s shortsighted,” she says. “I do
hope this measure fails at the ballot.”
Spending the $16 million in telecom
funds on an unpopular police station could
also prejudice a vote on whether to continue
those taxes.
Bonnett wonders whether the city should-
n’t be saving the $29 million to pay off mil-
lions of dollars in lawsuits from the more
than a dozen sex crime victims of officers
Roger Magaña and Juan Lara.
“It seems sort of shortsighted to build a
police station instead of using that money for
the problems the police have generated,”
Bonnett says.
The Magaña and Lara scandals could
‘It seems sort of shortsighted to build a police station instead of
using that money for the problems the police have generated.’
— Howard Bonnett, former Budget Committee chair
SQUIRRELLY BALLOT
Summer Sale
money, not ours.”
The city piled up the $29 million from
scrapping money from city services for the
last four years ($11.4 million) and through
years of phone and cable taxes and fees
($16.2 million). The city has another
$750,000 diverted by the downtown urban
renewal district plus $750,000 in accumu-
lated interest on its cash hoard.
Howard Bonnett, a former chairman of
Eugene’s citizen Budget Committee, says
he’s “surprised” at the size of the building re-
serve the city has diverted from city services.
Bonnett says he wonders which citizen
services the city had to cut or not fund to ac-
cumulate that much money. “What are they
doing?”
Even supposed “one-time” funding the
city has acquired can “clearly” be amortized
over many years to provide funding for ongo-
ing services, Bonnett notes.
“They’re taking money away from pro-
viding services,” Bonnett says. “I don’t think
they should be doing that.”
TOP PRIORITY?
A host of other city needs could
use the millions the city has squir-
reled away.
The city claims it has a $90 million
backlog in street repairs that will explode
to $250 million in the next decade if it is put
off.
Another city study found the city has
more than $40 million in threatened natural
areas that could be lost to development if not
preserved as parkland. Other unmet needs in-
clude funding community policing, traffic
calming, a homeless shelter, a new down-
town swimming pool, and money to actually
implement Eugene’s adopted growth man-
agement and nodal development plans for a
more livable, greener city. City library and
school support property tax levies are also
due to expire in coming years and face uncer-
tain futures.
Councilors Bonny Bettman and David
Kelly say they want to use the $29 million to
build a combined police station and new city
hall a couple years from now. Bettman
says that spending all the $29 million
now will leave no internal money to
cripple efforts to pass the bond measure.
“Let’s face it, there are some police de-
partment perceptions in the community,”
says Councilor Kelly.
Mayor Jim Torrey admits the scandals had
a “tremendously negative impact” on the
public reputation of the EPD, but he argues
the police still need a new building.
At a time when the public is calling for
more police oversight, the city shouldn’t put
the police away in a separate building, some
argue. Councilor Bettman says the citizens
want a combined police station and City Hall.
Bonnett notes that even before Magaña
and Lara, the police station failed repeatedly
while youth, library, school and parks meas-
ures passed. “There’s a reason why it hasn’t
been approved,” he says. “They have a credi-
bility problem.”
Councilor Taylor says putting the station
on the ballot a third time will only solidify re-
sistance. Already, she says, people in her gen-
erally pro-tax ward have told her, “You al-
ready did that two times.”
THIRD TIME AROUND
But supporters say the police station will
pass on its third try.
By using the squirreled $29 million for
just the police station, the bond measure can
be kept relatively small and more palatable to
voters, council conservatives argue. The $6.8
million will increase property taxes for the
average homeowner a total of about $200
over the next 20 years.