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MANAGER HITS
TAXPAYERS WITH
BIG HIDDEN FEE
Eugene City Manager Jon Ruiz has
imposed a large, but largely unnoticed tax
increase that will take effect June 5 unless
the Eugene City Council objects.
Homeowners will pay an average of $61
per year more on their EWEB water bills to
cover up to 24 percent increases in stormwa-
ter and wastewater fees tacked on by the city.
Ruiz signed an administrative order May 1
that will impose the fees in July unless the
City Council votes to overrule him.
The increase comes at a time of record
unemployment and furloughs and cutbacks
of other government employees to meet
deepening deficits.
The fee increases include about $5 a
year for local stormwater fees (5 percent
increase), $20 a year for local wastewater
fees (24 percent increase) and $36 for
regional wastewater fees (18 percent
increase).
Ruiz and other city and wastewater staff
argue the fee increases are needed to
improve facilities and cover rising costs and
declining revenues.
Compared to other revenue measures
that have been referred to a public vote, the
taxpayer impact is high. For example, a $61
tax per year on the average homeowner
would be equivalent to about a $22 million
five-year property tax levy.
— Alan Pittman
COUNCILORS
BALK AT RAPID
TRANSIT
In a radical shift away from controlling
global warming and urban sprawl and pre-
serving livability, a majority of the Eugene
City Council now appears opposed to an
EmX bus rapid transit line in west Eugene.
At a May 13 meeting Councilors George
Brown, George Poling and Mike Clark
appeared opposed to the effort to reduce
traffic snarl and pollution with public tran-
sit. Councilors Betty Taylor, Andrea Ortiz,
Jennifer Solomon and Chris Pryor appeared
to be leaning against BRT. Only Councilor
Alan Zelenka and Mayor Kitty Piercy
appeared supportive in their statements.
Based on the council discussion, it
appeared that a majority coalition of pro-
gressives and conservatives has allied
against BRT. Progressives have criticized
LTD for neighborhood impacts such cutting
down large trees; and conservatives oppose
public transportation in general.
Poling said he favors an outcome for the
west Eugene BRT study similar to what
happened when business groups killed a
proposal for BRT on Coburg Road. “At the
end of those 18 months the stakeholder
group says no build,” Poling said. “That
worked really well.”
The no build alternative “is a very prom-
ising idea,” Brown said. “A lot of people are
questioning is this even necessary.”
Brown said Seattle and San Francisco
don’t have BRT. Actually, Seattle spent a
half billion on a downtown bus tunnel and
is moving to light rail, and San Francisco
has one of the largest subway systems in the
nation.
Councilors Taylor, Clark, and Ortiz said
the views of opponent homeowners and
businesses along the route should decide
whether BRT gets built. Those stakeholders
should be considered “first and foremost,”
Clark said.
Mayor Piercy appeared sup-
portive of BRT’s environmental
benefits. “I only wish we could
get it up and running faster.” But
the mayor said that LTD should
follow the Coburg process which
resulted in a killed route. “We’ll
work toward a stakeholders meet-
ing.”
The Coburg group was domi-
nated by businesses opposed to
losing driveway access to BRT,
while a large number of environ-
mentalists and transit riders sup-
ported the project.
Conservatives have questioned
BRT’s cost, but the project is
funded almost entirely by state
and federal funds and will be a big
boost to the local economy.
Councilor Zelenka appeared to
be the only elected official clearly
supportive of BRT. “I’m a great
supporter of EmX,” he said, using
LTD’s name for BRT.
Zelenka said the dedicated BRT line is
needed to secure right of way for a future
light rail system to reduce global warming
and sprawl and increase livability, as in
Portland. “To me EmX is really about right-
of-way, right-of-way, right-of-way,” he
said. — Alan Pittman
EMAIL DOCS
FOLLOW-UP
Last week’s cover story on email use by
doctors and medical offices has inspired a
few responses.
William Balsom, M.D., of Oregon
Medical Group, likes the efficiencies of
email and websites for routine patient-
office communication, “but anything that
involves medical inquiry, problem solving,
diagnostic issues and treatment recommen-
dations seems unfit for a non-real-time for-
mat such as e-mail. … In medicine, body
language, speech pattern and inflection,
nature of inquiry and visual cues count for
a lot (not to mention an actual exam).”
Regarding the payment quandary,
Balsom says, “When Regence says ‘We
don’t have a policy for e-visits’ they really
mean, ‘We don’t pay for that because we
have no way of determining the value of
this doctor-patient interaction since it isn’t
in the usual documentation format.’”
Corvallis engineer Thomas Kraemer
says, “The reason doctors are resisting elec-
tronic communications is because of the
high cost of using multiple and incompati-
ble electronic health record systems. Health
records software companies have intention-
ally designed proprietary systems under the
guise of ‘security’ while secretly hoping
they will become the next Microsoft-like
monopoly.”
Looking ahead, Kraemer says he envi-
sions “an open standards medical records
slant
• Climate expert Bob Doppelt’s message is clear: Climate change will have a huge
impact on our planet and on our community in the next few decades, and to deal
with it effectively we need to invent new ways of providing for our needs. Tweaking
our existing systems will not do nearly enough to offset increasing forest fires, more
insects, worse air pollution, hotter summers and lower river flows, said Doppelt in
his talk to City Club May 15. Doppelt is director of resource innovations and the
Climate Leadership Initiative at the UO’s Institute for a Sustainable Environment.
Doppelt was cautious in talking about specifics, such as moving the police across
the river from downtown, tearing down City Hall, or allowing Seneca’s cogeneration
plant. But all these things have potential negative impacts on our city’s carbon foot-
print: more driving miles, more energy-intensive concrete, more CO2 in the air.
Doppelt lauds some of the city’s sustainability efforts, but are our elected officials
and city staff really making substantive changes to head off disaster? We see
improvement in policies and procedures, but when it comes to the big, high-impact
decisions, it’s business as usual.
Watch Doppelt’s talk at www.youtube.com/user/CityClubEugene
• Two top environmental jobs are open in Oregon right now. Bob Stacey is leaving
his executive director slot at 1000 Friends of Oregon this fall, and Jonathan Poisner
has given notice as ED of Oregon League of Conservation Voters. Both jobs are
based in Portland with plenty of travel around the state, especially to Salem.
Neither Stacey nor Poisner is announcing his next gig, but replacement will be
tough. Their organizations deserve plenty of credit for moving the Oregon
Legislature toward greater support of the livability of this state. Both Stacey and
Poisner should be knighted for the jobs they have done, if we did such things.
What's more important than the leadership of the Oregon environmental nonprof-
its?
WWW.EUGENEWEEKLY.COM • BLOGS.EUGENEWEEKLY.COM
• Tiny turds on campus? Two weeks ago in this column (5/7) we wrote about the
UO faculty blog http://uomatters.com and now a look-alike parody has appeared at
http://uomutters.blogspot.com commenting on everything from the new president
to sports scandals to the questionable sources of dorm food. Here’s a sample:
“University Counsel Melinda Grier STILL refuses to comment on the rumors that
physical plant workers are asked to regularly remove small brown turds from cam-
pus. Vice Provost for Institutional Equity and Diversity Charles Martinez STILL has
failed to deny claims that goats are an underrepresented class on the UO campus.”
Our favorite headline on the blog: “Eugene Weekly is run by morons.”
• Early in the basketball arena siting saga, a neighborhood group, chaired by a
small business owner, asked the UO to answer questions about traffic, parking,
noise and garbage on the streets. The neighbors were quite moderate, not oppos-
ing the elephant ahead, but only raising valid questions. To its credit, the UO
responded to the concerns and has worked to ameliorate them. But, when this
story hit the mainstream press and the chairman's name was printed, he received
enough threatening calls and comments about boycotting his business that he
resigned from the chairmanship. Same scene when a woman who lives in sight of
Autzen Stadium questioned the permitting for the monster "O." She was threat-
ened, vilified and ridiculed until she withdrew with concern for the safety of her
family.
The UO and local sports media have skillfully created the Ducks sports fans
and their carnival, and while only a few fans are idiotic in their obsession, it’s time
for a teaching moment from the academic institution. Someone suggested that
every ticket buyer receive a copy of a "code of ethics for a Duck." Someone else
suggested that the same public relations machine that created the sports giant
be put to use civilizing it.
EUGENE WEEKLY MAY 21, 2009 7