LANE COUNTY
BUDGET CUTS
TO HIT HARD
Lane County’s budget misery has only just begun. The
county’s budget committee approved the proposed budget
in May, and the cuts kick in at the beginning of the fiscal
year, July 1, with cuts already taking place.
Though much of the media furor has been over issues
such as cuts to the jail and the sheriff’s office, the cuts are
hitting the public services designed to keep people out of
jail and healthy just as hard. And local AFSCME union
representative Jim Steiner says some of the cuts may cost
more money than they save.
The Oregon secretary of state’s office has chosen Lane
as one of eight Oregon counties it will monitor “based
upon 10 financial, economic and demographic indicators.”
A report released on May 31 says that on the positive side,
Lane County has a low debt burden and it “also has good
liquidity and the fifth largest fund balance in Oregon.” On
the other hand, in 2011 Lane “ranked next to last in per
capita local revenues,” and the county’s permanent tax rate
is the seventh lowest rate in Oregon. Lane is also in the
bottom third of Oregon counties on public safety spending.
The Lane County jail has been issuing reports of
“capacity based releases,” or as the county likes to call
them, CBRs, of inmates from the jail due to reduced jail
beds. Who to release is decided in part by a score in a
program called the “risk assessment tool” or for short, the
RAT. The “score takes a plethora of data into account
including the defendant/ offender’s current charges, past
convictions and rate of failure to appear in court,” according
to a news release by Sgt. Carrie Carver.
Steiner, who represents the county’s AFSCME union,
says the recent decision by the conservative majority on
the County Commission to contract out jail health care
services to a health care company called Corizon instead of
using union nurses could actually cost money in the long
run. Steiner says the union had requested a line-by-line
explanation of how contracting out to Corizon would save
money despite not reducing the number of staff, but says
the county “said they couldn’t do that.”
A health care expert’s report on Corizon’s work at the
Idaho State Correctional Institution says nursing mistakes
or failures were likely to have resulted in some inmate
deaths and one inmate wasn’t told for seven months that he
probably had cancer. Terminal and long-term care inmates
sometimes went unfed and were left in soiled linens, the
report said. If inmates were to file lawsuits over poor care,
this could cost the county money, Steiner says.
He also questions the county’s $191 million in
investments while spending $5 million to $6 million each
year to pay down more than $102 million in debt. “Why
not look at liquidating some of those investments to pay off
the debt?” Steiner asks. He says this question was not
adequately addressed at the budget committee meeting.
County Administrator Liane Richardson did not respond
to a request for comment on this before press time.
The county has more than $3 million invested with the
Tennessee Valley Authority. The TVA is probably best
known among conservationists for building dams that
threatened to wipe out the endangered snail darter. These
days the TVA has solar projects, a number of coal-fired
plants and several nuclear power plants as well.
— Camilla Mortensen
CIRCUS OF
SOLIDARITY FOR
ECOPRISONERS
The International Day of Solidarity with Eco-Prisoners
is June 11, and in Eugene the event will be marked with a
circus of sorts at the Wayne Morse U.S. Courthouse. Last
year the day was celebrated in 30 cities around the world,
according to Eugene’s Civil Liberties Defense Center.
Organizers say there will be jugglers, fire-breathers, stilts,
music, clowns and other performers.
June 11 started as the international day of solidarity
with Jeff “Free” Luers and all eco-prisoners, Luers himself
says. He was sentenced to 22 years in prison for burning
three SUVs at a Eugene car dealership in 2000. No one
was injured in the fire. The sentence was much harsher
than those imposed on other arsonists whose crimes were
not politically or ecologically motivated.
Luers and the CLDC fought for, and won, a reduction
in his sentence. He was released from prison in December
2009.
Luers says, “Sadly, I was not among the last to go to
prison for such radical actions. June 11 is now about Marie
Mason and my friend Eric McDavid.” He says McDavid is
serving 19 years in prison as a convicted domestic terrorist
“for something that never happened, in which the jury
themselves said they didn’t want to convict but felt that the
judge had given them no choice.”
Mason was sentenced to 22 years for her involvement in
the burning of an office connected to genetically modified
organism research and the destruction of a piece of logging
equipment.
The event will be a circus “because the idea of justice in
this country is a joke. Look at the recent Occupy uprising,
people feel that injustice and inequality viscerally,” Luers
says. He adds the event “is a mockery of a court that dare
dignifies itself with the word ‘justice’ when so much of what
has come from it has been injustice.”
Luers says events such as these do have an impact on
prisoners, “And it had an impact on the people holding me
too. Both positive and negative. I had guards that came in
and tell me they saw my case and the protests on the news.
They told my they thought I got a raw deal.”
For more on the International Day of Solidarity with
Eco-Prisoners go to cldc.org
— Camilla Mortensen
CONSERVATIVES
GOT ADVANCE
MEETING NOTICE
Is arranging an emergency meeting through serial emails
and phone calls a violation of the open meetings law under
the ruling by Judge Michael Gillespie? Recently released
emails show the Lane County Commission’s conservative
majority decided to have a meeting to vote on an issue with
less than 24 hours’ notice. They did not contact progressive
Commissioners Pete Sorenson and Rob Handy until less
than an hour’ and half before the 9 am meeting on May 3.
The controversial ruling by Gillespie that has been used
to paint Handy and Sorenson in a negative light was never
appealed, because the conservative majority voted not to do
so. That ruling argued that Handy, Sorenson, Faye Stewart
and former commissioner Bill Dwyer used serial emails to
form a quorum and deliberate. Since Stewart and Dwyer
were not named in the Seneca timber-funded suit, they were
not part of the case.
The Oregon Legislative Counsel, the agency that provides
legal research for the state Legislature and its members,
reviewed Gillespie’s ruling and concluded that the judge’s
reasoning “does not support the conclusion that a public
meeting law violation occurred.” It’s only a violation of the
open meetings law if a quorum deliberates together in
private. But the Gillespie ruling still stands as far as Lane
County goes.
sports
ACTIVIST ALERT
EMFC AZUL STOMPS SPOKANE, 2-0
Rain fell hard on Friday, June 1, as Eugene Metro Azul Women’s Fútbol Club (EMFC) took
the pitch for their fi rst home game of the season. The stands, home to a 620-person crowd of
screaming fans of all ages, became a puddle-ridden waterway only minutes after the starting
whistle was blown. But the atmosphere at South Eugene High School was jovial and spirited, with
feet stomping against the metal and hordes of fans engaging in chants each time the excitement
level on the pitch rose.
Azul’s opponents, Spokane Shine, held possession well in the opening 20 minutes, but as the
fi rst half went on, EMFC became increasingly comfortable and confi dent, allowing Tahne Apo to
score the fi rst Azul goal not only of the night, but also of the entire season-to-date, in the 37th
minute of the fi rst half.
The second half saw the true excitement of soccer brought to spirited fans dressed in blue. For
a town that has no prior experience with women’s premier soccer, the last 45 minutes of the game
were intense. The crowd cheered collectively as a Spokane Shine player was knocked down during a
fair but tough challenge on the wing, and several near misses in the late stages of the half had the
crowd on its feet, screaming for the ball to hit the back of the net. This request was answered swiftly
and smoothly with nine minutes to spare as a goalkeeping error left Spokane’s posts unguarded. For
Caitlyn Jobanek, the conversion was a tap-in past a lone defender to put Azul up 2-0.
Unexpectedly, Spokane began to bounce back in the closing minutes, and in stoppage time
Eugene goalkeeper Lindsay Parlee put in a remarkable effort to keep her clean sheet (shared with
Elise Nord) intact, aiding EMFC Azul in achieving their fi rst victory of the season. The next game is
at 7 pm Friday, June 15, at South Eugene High School versus the Portland Rain.
— Andy Valentine
8 JUNE 7, 2012
EUGENE WEEKLY
• A
free
screening of the
•
Sustainability
the
pm Sunday, June 10, at the Eugene
neighborhood is planning a speaking
Public Library Bascom Tykeson Room.
tour this June talking about “Creating
Sponsored by the Lane County
a Safer, More Secure and Greener
Chapter of the Oregon League of
Neighborhood.” The free talk begins
Conservation
Surfrider
at 7 pm Wednesday, June 13 at the
Foundation and Environment Oregon.
Corvallis Public Library, followed by a
Eugene City Councilor Alan Zelenka
talk at 6 pm Thursday, June 21, at the
will talk about the council discussion
First Methodist Church, 1771 Harvard
regarding banning plastic bags. Space
St. in Roseburg. Next, he will speak at
is limited. To RSVP or for more
6 pm Wednesday, June 27, at the
information visit www.olcv.org/events
Pringle
or call Ashley at 968-8269.
Village Center Drive SE, in Salem. He
Creek
River
Jan
Spencer
Voters,
of
activist
independent film, Bag It! will be at 3:15
Community,
Road
3911
• Guided hikes by Oregon Wild will
says he will be talking about “how
include some in Lane County and the
neighborhoods, suburbia, human
nearby Cascades this summer. See
potential,
www.oregonwild.org for info and
uplifted values are all elements of
reservations and to get on the
creating a safer, more secure and
emailing list.
greener neighborhood.”
social
activation
and
WWW.EUGENEWEEKLY.COM