news
briefs
LTD employee Sherry Watson
at an ATU rally Jan. 14.
LTD MANAGER
BLAMED FOR
OVERSPENDING
LTD’s operating revenues for fiscal year
2004-05 are expected to exceed operating
costs by more than $2 million, and the district
has operating reserves of almost $8 million.
So why, ask unionized LTD workers, is the
district cutting both services for riders and
health care benefits for employees?
The answer, in short, is a huge increase in
capital spending. In the 2005 fiscal year, LTD
plans to spend $14.1 million on the Bus
Rapid Transit project, $3.5 million on admin-
istrative support equipment and $5.2 million
on relocation of the Springfield Station,
among other expenditures.
This represents a huge increase in capital
spending for LTD. The district spent about $5
million on capital projects in 2001-02, $10
million in 2002-03, and $15 million in 2003-
04. The adopted budget for 2004-05 allocates
more than $27 million for capital projects.
While the bulk of the funding for these proj-
ects is federal, the district is required to match
• Hey Joanie, what happened to you?
More than a few of us in Eugene had an
on-going love
affair with Joanie
McGowan, that
wild and funny,
beautiful woman
from Ashland who
made us laugh
and think with her
absurd, yet
poignant political
theater. As Joanie
would say, “It’s
never too late to
save the world,”
but now it’s too
late to save Joanie. Her body was found
along Bear Creek last week, an apparent
suicide. Some 600 people showed up for
her memorial in Ashland Sunday. We did-
8 JANUARY 20, 2005
federal funds with a local share of 20 percent.
Much of this money will come out of the op-
erations budget, which funds employee
salaries.
“The money that is flowing through these
projects would turn any school supporter
green with envy,” Metropolitan Policy
Committee (MPC) chair Bonny Bettman
says.
But LTD Service Planning and Marketing
Manager Andy Vobora claims that the district
has the right to tap the operations budget for
capital expenditures. “The union says ‘That’s
our money,’but it’s the community’s money,”
he says.
Members of the local Amalgamated
Transit Union (ATU) blame the district’s gen-
eral manager, Ken Hamm, for the inflated
capital spending. “We need a good manager,
not fat-laden Hamm that is unhealthy for us
all,” ATU member and 15-year LTD em-
ployee Sherry Watson says.
Hamm once managed the transportation
systems in Wenatchee and Kitsap, Wash. “He
had misguided priorities then; he has carried
those misguided priorities here,” union sup-
porter and LTD rider Sarah Jacobson says.
But LTD Director of Transportation Mark
Johnson defends Hamm’s record. “He’s done
a great job everywhere he’s gone,” Johnson
says.
LTD levies an employer payroll tax which
funds its services, but its board is appointed
by the governor rather than elected. County
Commissioner Bill Dwyer says this structure
allows the board to be dominated by business
interests while being unaccountable to the
public. “The LTD board serves the public at
large and it should be elected by the public at
large,” he says.
The R-G has presented the strife between
the district and the union as a health care
issue (“Health care costs fuel LTD labor rift,”
1/7/05), but ATU spokesperson Jason
Reynolds says that the union’s chief com-
plaint is not the scaling back of the employ-
ees’ medical plan. Rather, union members
primarily object to the mismanagement of
public monies to fund unnecessary capital
projects at the expense of riders and employ-
ees, he says.
Negotiations between the district and the
n’t know about the demons of depression
and addiction that we now hear torment-
ed her. What we witnessed
was her infectious, playful
energy and her boundless
dedication to peace, jus-
tice and fun with duct
tape. In one of her stand-
up comedy routines in
Eugene she urged us to
“start living like we’ve
been talking about living
since the summer of ’69.”
In her intense living, she
gave us all that she had to
give, and then there was
no more. But we are
blessed for it.
• John Musumeci’s firm Arlie & Co. is get-
ting plenty of head pats in the R-G and TV
union continue, but the ATU may go on strike
at any time after giving a 10-day notice.
— Kera Abraham
TOOTHLESS
OVERSIGHT
Eugene Police Chief Robert Lehner
wrote a rare 2,200 word op-ed in the R-G Jan.
16 outlining a vision for the Eugene Police
Department that includes only weak citizen
review.
EPD scandals have resulted in calls for a
strong, independent citizen review board for
complaints against police. But Lehner criti-
cized such boards in his op-ed. Lehner wrote
that boards that are created under the assump-
tion that they will “eliminate or minimize fu-
ture acts of misconduct,” or reach conclu-
sions “substantially different than those of in-
ternal police investigations” will fail. “Under
these types of systems, all that results is a
very expensive, additional bureaucratic layer
with no change in outcome, often mired in
legal challenges.”
As an alternative, Lehner said “very suc-
news following the company’s press con-
ference last week. Arlie announced its
plans for redeveloping the EWEB site if
Triad/McKenzie-Willamette bows out of its
hospital plans. Sleepy R-G newshounds
wrote about Arlie’s “offer” and “propos-
al,” but where’s the kibble? No dollar
amounts were mentioned, no earnest
money offered, no plans for traffic across
those nasty railroad tracks. What’s behind
this dog and pony show? We hear rumors
that Musumeci, who once mated with
PeaceHealth on the RiverBend deal and
carried off 18 million bones, is now bark-
ing about Triad building its new hospital
at Crescent Drive, not more than a five-
minute trot from PeaceHealth’s RiverBend
site. Such a deal might scratch Arlie’s
back, but it would be a choke collar for
the public, unless of course PeaceHealth
rolls over and retreats to lick its wounds
cessful police auditor models” in San Jose
and Sacramento “hold great promise for a
city such as Eugene.”
But the controversial auditor models
Lehner sites lack independence and teeth.
The San Jose auditor lacks the power to inde-
pendently investigate, subpoena witnesses or
impose discipline and was criticized by sup-
porters of a real citizen review board for that
city. The Sacramento auditor isn’t even inde-
pendent but is rather hired, fired and super-
vised by the city manager.
Lehner’s opinion piece also goes further
than the department has gone before in dis-
missing a recent racial profiling complaint.
Lehner claimed that officer Wayne Dorman
was “right” in stopping Cortez Jordan, de-
spite Jordan’s complaint of racial profiling.
Dorman “did not violate either the nationally
accepted or local version of the racial profil-
ing policy,” Lehner wrote.
But that claim goes beyond even what
Lehner’s own Internal Affairs investigator
found. IA found that the racial accusation
against Dorman by Jordan was “not sus-
tained.” By IA definition, that means that due
to insufficient and/or conflicting evidence,
in Glenwood. We can’t help but wonder if
PeaceHealth board members had any idea
what kinds of dogs they were about to
unleash when they walked along the
McKenzie River in 2001, inhaled the
aroma of pine trees and thought, “This
would be a healing spot for our new hos-
pital.” Leaves us scratching our heads.
• Counter-inauguration events abound
today (Thursday) on campus (see
Calendar) and a Eugene contingency is
headed for Washington, D.C., to join the
protests there. If we hear from Peter
Chabarak and others, we will try to get a
short report on our website News Briefs
this week (www.eugeneweekly.com). Look
for tales from the streets of D.C. next
week.
SLANT includes short opinion pieces, observations
and rumor-chasing notes compiled by the EW staff.
Heard any good rumors lately? Contact Ted Taylor at