COUNTY TO VOTE ON
DISTRICT BOUNDARIES
Lane County commissioners will hold one more
public meeting on whether and how to redraw county
voter boundaries in a once-every-10-years process
called redistricting. This year’s process, which must be
fi nished six months before the May 2012 election, has
been contentious with allegations of gerrymandering
to alter the future makeup of the Lane Board of County
Commissioners.
The commissioners will take public comment on the
three possible scenarios that they will be voting on at a
meeting at 1:30 pm Wednesday, Oct. 26, at Harris Hall.
Scenario one is to leave the voting boundaries as
they are. According to Commissioner Rob Handy, the
majority of public comments at the last public hearing on
redistricting on Oct. 5 called for the voting boundaries to
be left as is.
Handy said that scenario three, which he slightly
tweaked, addresses many concerns, such as moving
Glenwood into Springfi eld to maintain that community
of interest, and he said it “makes the smallest adjustments
possible to the other boundaries, and where it does make
changes it really does a better job of keeping neighborhoods
and communities of common interest whole.” This
scenario leaves Bethel-Danebo intact, and does not move
the Whiteaker neighborhood, potential moves that have
concerned area residents.
In an email to the commissioners, Mayor Kitty Piercy
wrote in support of either option one or three. She wrote,
“the Eugene City Council agreed that, like the state, only
minor tweaks to our current wards are necessary since
no population growth necessitates any large changes. We
have moved forward with small changes and little to no
controversy and I’m very pleased with that outcome.”
Piercy, who is a resident of the Whiteaker neighborhood,
which would be split under option eight, continued, “You
too, have seen little population change and none that
necessitates any large change in current districts.” She
says, “Whiteaker neighborhood is well served in its current
district, and I ask you not to support option eight which
would change this designation.”
Commissioner Jay Bozievich added scenario eight after
the last public hearing. It is a revision of scenario six, which
was discussed at the meeting. Bozievich said that scenario
eight “does the best job of meeting the secretary of state’s
criteria” as outlined in a directive sent to the counties in
June, “and also follows the descriptions of the districts in
the Lane Charter well.”
Commissioner Pete Sorenson said that scenario eight
is a gerrymander of the county designed to redraw the
North Eugene district to move more liberal voters, such
as those in the Whiteaker, out of North Eugene to create a
conservative majority on the board.
In an Oct. 13 comment to The Register-Guard, Bozievich
said that his concern over scenario three is that Republican
candidate Mike Clark, who has fi led a prospective petition
to run against Handy for the North Eugene seat next year,
would no longer live in the district. Under scenario three,
Clark would live in the East Lane district and would run
against fellow conservative Faye Stewart for offi ce.
Bozievich said, “I made that comment about Councilor
Clark offhand and did not intend for it to become the focus
of redistricting.”
Handy said it was not his revision that would cause
Clark’s district to move. That revision was already present
in the version of the scenario that the redistricting task
force has been examining for several months.
WWW.EUGENEWEEKLY.COM • BLOGS.EUGENEWEEKLY.COM
Andrea Cantu-Schomus, communications director for
the Oregon Secretary of State’s Offi ce, which oversees
redistricting, said that if Clark as a candidate were to be
drawn out of one district and into another, he would simply
run in that new district.
She said that redistricting is determined by the criteria
sent to the counties by the Secretary of State’s Offi ce, and
by the county charter. According to the criteria given to
the redistricting task force, redistricting cannot affect a
commissioner who is already in offi ce. The criteria also
say that there can be “no favoritism to any person.”
— Camilla Mortensen
EUGENE PUTS
KID ON TRIAL
FOR SITTING
ON PARK WALL
For years Eugene police have been arguing that they
lack the taxpayer money to respond to even serious crimes.
But some crimes the city police and prosecutors have
focused their existing resources on aren’t so serious.
Josie Johnson said her son Nate, 18, won acquittal in
a trial in Eugene Municipal Court last week. The alleged
crime was sitting on a low wall in a park downtown.
“It seems kind of silly,” Johnson said. “It seems kind
of strange.”
She said police argued in the citation and at the trial
that sitting on the low wall in the park blocks violated a
city ordinance against using park property against its
designated use. The wall-sitting offense carried a fi ne of
$75 plus $40 in fees, she said.
Johnson said earlier her son and a friend had been
jumping off walls and trees practicing a sport named
parkour but were just sitting when the police arrived.
She said the earlier jumping caused someone to call and
complain, but they weren’t cited for that.
“He’s an Eagle Scout; he’s an all around good kid,”
Johnson said of her son. “Gee, the boys were running
around having fun in the park. I’m still puzzled by the
whole thing.”
“I appreciate a good police presence,” Johnson said.
“But I think they should have bigger things to deal with.”
Carol Berg-Caldwell, a citizen who watchdogs the city
court, said she’s seen the police use the same wall-sitting
charge to single out homeless and young people downtown.
“I think they simply go through ordinances and try to fi nd
things that they can apply to the people they don’t want
downtown,” she said.
Attorney Lauren Regan, who represents a local woman
who was also ticketed for wall-sitting, says she has heard
that the police have said they will cease giving wall-sitting
tickets. But that remains to be seen. — Alan Pittman
OLCV RELEASES
SCORECARD ON
LEGISLATURE
The Oregon League of Conservation Voters (OLCV)
released its semi-annual Environmental Scorecard for
the Oregon Legislature Oct. 13 at olcv.org/scorecard
and lawmakers in the southern Willamette Valley ranked
relatively high again this year.
Earning a 100 percent ranking for his environmental
votes was Sen. Floyd Prozanski, up from 79 percent in
2009. Other high scorers were Rep. Phil Barnhart with
93 percent, and Sens. Chris Edwards, Frank Morse and
Peter Courtney with 92 percent. Reps. Paul Holvey, Nancy
Nathanson and Sara Gelser earned 87 percent ratings,
followed by Reps. Val Hoyle and Brian Clem at 80 percent.
Lower on the rankings were Sen. Jackie Winters at 69
percent, Rep. Kevin Cameron at 67 percent, Reps. Vicki
Berger and Andy Olson at 64 percent, and Rep. Terry
Beyer at 60 percent.
Looking south at the Roseburg area were some surprises.
CONTINUED P.9
happening people
BY PAUL NEEVEL
JESSICA ZAPATA
Born in Mexico City, Jessica Zapata moved with her family at age 8 to Cuernavaca, the “City of Eternal Spring,”
to ease her brother’s asthma. She studied architecture at the local University of Morelos, worked as an architect
in Mexico City while she earned a masters in restoration, then went into business with one of her best friends in
Cuernavaca. “We did both restoration and architecture,” she says. In 1997, she met her future husband, Dan
Howard, a Eugene native who was in Mexico to study Spanish. She spent time in the U.S.; he spent time in
Mexico, and eventually they married. She joined him in Eugene four years ago and found work as an ESL
assistant at Prairie Mountain School. “The Latino kids didn’t have their familiar festivities,” Zapata noticed, so
she organized a Day of the Dead celebration, then got inspired and followed up with more arts and music
evenings in Bethel schools and around town. In 2009, she founded Eugene Arte Latino to sponsor monthly
cultural events in collaboration with community groups. “Everything we do is free,” says Zapata, who also dances
with Andean musicians Sol de los Andes. “We volunteer and we never charge.” EAL will present a Dia de los
Muertos fiesta at Downtown Languages, 1035 Willamette, from 5:30 to 8 pm Friday, Nov. 4.
EUGENE WEEKLY OCTOBER 20, 2011 7