Emails obtained through a public records
request show that while County Administrator
Liane Richardson contacted Stewart by
phone and Commissioners Sid Leiken and
Jay Bozievich by email on the evening of
May 2 about scheduling an “emergency
meeting” to release documents alleging
wrongdoing by Handy, she did not contact
Handy or Sorenson until the next day.
“There was no contact except for the email
that went out around 7:40 am Thursday
morning,” Sorenson says.
Marianne Dugan, an attorney for Handy,
received the emails as part of a public
records request she filed after questions
arose about the May 3 emergency meeting.
She has not yet received all the records she
asked for.
Under Oregon law there must be
justification in the minutes of the meeting for
emergency meetings arranged with less than
happening people
24 hours’ notice. The minutes of the May 3
meeting have yet to be released, though the
minutes of five other meetings of the Lane
County Board of Commissioners have
appeared on the county website since then.
Handy has said the release of the
documents was timed to maximize the
damage that would be done to him in the
May 15 primary election, and that by the
time he is cleared of allegations of
wrongdoing in asking for donations to offset
the $20,000 he must pay as part of the
Seneca lawsuit settlement, the election
would be over. Handy lost to City Councilor
Pat Farr, and Farr will take the North Eugene
commission seat in January.
Dugan says she is not sure yet how these
emails and phone calls between a quorum of
commissioners will play out under the
Gillespie ruling.
— Camilla Mortensen
BY PAUL NEEVEL
AUGUST SABINI
“This is where I meet the kids,” says August Sabini, sharing a bench with Rosa Parks in
bronze at the downtown LTD station. “It’s really fun.” An outreach worker for the New
Roads Program serving homeless youth, Sabini hits the street on Wednesdays and
Saturdays, carrying snacks, socks, condoms and “bathroom cupboard stuff” in his
backpack. Raised a Quaker in Skyview Acres, a cooperative community along the Hudson
River, Sabini got started in mental health work as a conscientious objector in 1968. He
picked up the saxophone around that time and played in bands that toured the Northeast
from the 1970s to the ’90s. He worked in a residential treatment center, finished college,
married Lesley in ’91, adopted Rose in ’95, and taught English for 10 years to kids of
Japanese fathers assigned to NYC. The family moved to Eugene, joining Lesley’s sister, in
2002. “There was no work, so I volunteered at New Roads,” says Sabini, who wound up
with a job at New Roads’ Center Point School for kids with mental health issues. “I’ve
never worked so hard in my life, but kids got better.” His work these days is varied: “I’ll be
cooking tomorrow night at New Roads,” he says. “We serve lunch and breakfast all week.”
Catch Sabini on blues sax at the Rooster Jam Tuesday nights at the Black Forest.
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EUGENE WEEKLY JUNE 7, 2012 9