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About Eugene weekly. (Eugene, Oregon) 1993-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 30, 2006)
BY ALAN PITTMAN City to move police out of City Hall downtown crime downtown are frightening away redevel- opment investors. The move could also hurt efforts by the city to increase police accountability and oversight in the wake of the Magaña/Lara officer sex abuse scandals. The patrol division will be far away from top police commanders downtown, from the Internal Affairs Division, criminal in- vestigators, top police supervisors and the new independent police auditor and review board. The Magaña scandal broke after detectives went downstairs in the current City Hall and found key evidence in Magaña’s patrol locker. The city has struggled for years to integrate the separate “culture” in the police department with the rest of city government. But with the move to a separate building, it will look like the city is trying to “sequester the police off in their own police building,” Bettman said. The move to build the police station without a vote also comes after voters rejected ballot measures for it three times, last time in 2004 with 60 percent voting no. To circumvent vot- ers, the city will avoid another vote by funding the new building out of its “facility reserve.” The city set aside the reserve of about $29 mil- lion by reducing city services and redirecting money from lawsuit windfalls to the reserve in- stead of increased services, street repair or lower taxes. Voters won’t like the city spending money without a vote for a thrice failed police station while asking for a big tax increase for a new — C OUNCILOR B ONNY B ETTMAN * APPLES * HONEY * NUTS * P EARS * PRESERVES * MUSHROOMS * JAMS * WREATHS * GARLIC * The Lane County Farmers’ Market presents 10- 6 OPEN THIS SATURDAY & SUNDAY! 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But design consultants said the construction cost would be only “very slightly less” than in City Hall downtown, and their estimates didn’t include the cost of paying police to make fre- quent trips between City Hall and the other lo- cation for supervisory, court, prosecutor and other visits. But perhaps the biggest impetus for a sepa- rate patrol station wasn’t discussed. Seven years ago, a number of EPD officers were caught stealing parking spaces costing up to $50 a month from the city by fraudulently claiming they were car pooling to work. At the Roosevelt facility, the city plans to pay for a 100,000 sq. ft. surface parking lot and give all the cops spaces for free. ew ‘What we’ll end up with is paying for a police station out of the money we saved for City Hall, and having a failed ballot measure and no City Hall.’ CIDER * PICKLINGS * SYRUPS * HAZELNUTS * TREES * PORK * BREADS I n a blow to downtown, police accountabil- ity, the will of the voters and prospects for a new City Hall, the Eugene City Council voted 7-1 last week to pull most of the police department from designs for a new civic center. “It’s going to doom any ballot measure” for a new City Hall, Councilor Bonny Bettman, the lone dissenting vote, said. At the Nov. 20 meeting, councilors and city staff discussed moving the police patrol divi- sion to an industrial area near 2nd Avenue and Chambers Street, known as the Roosevelt site, that the city uses for firefighter training and its public works division. A new police building at the site could be funded without a vote, using the city’s facility reserve account, said City Manager Dennis Taylor. Taylor recommended the Roosevelt site, and a council majority ap- peared to support it, although there was no for- mal vote. The move would hit downtown with the loss of about 200 more employees at a time that the city is struggling to retain and attract private development downtown with millions of dol- lars in subsidies. Promoting downtown is a key part of the city’s efforts to reduce sprawl and promote livability and environmental sustain- ability. The struggling downtown will also suffer the loss of patrol cars driving through the area. The loss in police presence comes at a time that the Downtown Eugene Inc. business group is complaining that vandalism, vagrancy and City Hall, according to Bettman. “There’s little chance in it passing,” she said. “What we’ll end up with is paying for a police station out of the money we saved for City Hall and having a failed ballot measure and no City Hall.” Supporters offered comparatively little jus- tification for moving the police out of city hall and downtown. Some councilors said some of their con- stituents were uncomfortable with having a po- lice patrol officer presence in a City Hall. But design consultants offered options to put most of the police on upper floors, and the building will still house police detectives and command staff. Bettman argued that the way to reduce pub- lic discomfort is to integrate the police into the community, not by hiding officers in another building. “I don’t think the answer to that prob- lem is to relegate the police off somewhere into TODD COOPER Cops Out * JAMS * CANDIES * LOTIONS * WWW.LANECOUNTYFARMERSMARKET.COM * SQUASH * SOAP * GREENS * SOLUTION FOR THE REST OF US Quick loans at fair rates from local people you trust. BECAUSE MOST OF US WON’T WIN THE LOTTERY. THE LENDING OUTLET IS HERE. AND WE’RE HERE TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE. HOURS Mon – Fri 8:30 a.m. – 5:30 p.m. 2073 Olympic St., Ste. 105, Springfield, OR 97477 PHONE (541) 736.7617 L E N D I N G O U T L E T. O R G NOVEMBER 30, 2006 13
