letters
TO THE EDITOR
Council, with the exception of Councilors
Burke and Murphy, differs. The Council
recently decided to terminate Judge
Richard Brissenden’s 12-year employment
with the Municipal Court.
Their decision was based on the alleged
concerns of some anonymous citizens,
concerns that probably were not submitted
by email, since a mail server would have,
no doubt, relegated them to “junk” status.
One councilor defended her decision,
saying that it was mainly a fi nancial
consideration. Judge Brissenden, she said,
just wasn’t fast enough to be profi table.
Apparently they prefer a “conveyor-belt”
system in which the guilt or innocence of
accused citizens is decided as swiftly as the
dollar will allow, justice notwithstanding,
since there’s not much fi nancial gain in that
principle. They tiptoed around Brissenden’s
lengthy dedication to their community,
volunteer service, and habitually being on-
call 24/7 to the police and court.
Jake Boone, one of the two councilors
who voted against fi ring the judge, summed
it up this way: “I think what it really boils
down to is the danger of working for a
group of elected people who don’t have a
lot of expertise in the job you’re doing.”
Brissenden is a man who has for years
committed his time to advancing the cause
of justice. He remains a gifted judge, and a
public-spirited citizen.
Ethel Bassett
Walton
DIFFICULT ANIMALS
It’s offi cial. Greenhill Humane Society
is taking over Lane County Animal
Services’ vacancy. This gives GH a total
of 25 days to train their employees to do
something they’ve never done before
… help sick animals. In the past GH has
held such “impressive” live release rates
because they had the ability to discriminate
the animals that were accepted into their
facilities. Now they will have to deal with
problem dogs, spring litters, and every
fl ea-ridden alley cat that is picked up.
We can only hope that GH will open
their animal care committee to outside
members and allow advocates from fellow
animal welfare agencies with experience
in more diffi cult cases to aide in their
decisions with strays with medical and
behavioral problems. A simple read over
their Facebook page will show that even
recently their idea of a problem animal is
far too loose, having euthanized two cats
for skin and dental issues and three dogs
for, in many people’s opinions, fi xable
behavioral issues, within the last month.
As a concerned citizen I can only
hope that the city of Eugene has made an
informed decision, not one only of haste. If
any others are concerned I encourage you
to not only write to local news agencies
but to GH, Eugene City Council and
Lane County Commission to express your
worries on this matter.
Drew Allen
Eugene
HARD LESSON
Regarding Camilla Mortensen’s piece
on strife in Lane County government (News
Briefs, 6/7), one point of clarifi cation:
It wasn’t the County Commission’s
“proposal” of an income tax that led to
the attempted recall of commissioner
Bobby Green. Said proposal had been
narrowly rejected by county voters in
November, 2006 — four months before
the commission decided to impose a 1.1
percent tax anyway. At the public hearing
where that ill-fated decision was made,
some well-known area “leaders” basically
told the commissioners they had no cajones
unless they ignored the voters and imposed
the tax.
It took only one weekend to get more
than enough signatures to stick the tax
“where the sun don’t shine.” Given the
narrow margin of defeat in November, a
revised and more focused proposal might
have fl own at the polls on a second try.
Instead, the commission thumbed its nose
at the voters. Anyone with an IQ above
room temperature could have predicted the
result.
This should not necessarily prevent
the commission from trying again —
hopefully with the hard lesson from the
past not forgotten.
Jerry Ritter
Springfi eld
our services and pay the workers their fair
share to keep up the excellent work we do.
Cj Mann
President, Housing Authority and
Community Services Agency Local
3267
PAY CAPS NOT NEEDED
DIFFERENT ROADS
While well-intentioned, HUD’s recently
announced plan to impose pay caps for
the hard-working professionals who lead
local housing agencies is, unfortunately,
unnecessary. Salary levels have been held
in check ever since the Bush years. The
Bush administrations failed to recognize
the value in the services we at local housing
agencies provide.
Funding levels during the Bush reign
has kept our salaries low here on the West
Coast and Pacifi c Northwest. Our agency
barely saw one COLA in the last 10
years. We have yet to come up to market
levels with any other housing agencies in
our region.
Housing authority executives are public
employees tasked with administering
programs that meet the basic housing
needs of nearly seven million of the most
vulnerable Americans, including veterans,
the elderly and the disabled, and working
poor, families with young children, nearly
all of whom would be at serious risk of
homelessness if not for the services that
local agencies provide.
We are not overpaid for the services we
provide; in fact we are simply overworked.
Many of our co-workers have opted out
to early retirement to save a few jobs here
and there. The work and the services we
provide only increased with these budget
balancing attempts. The work didn’t go
away, only the co-workers.
HUD’s attempt to reel in some salary
issues in giant housing authorities like
those in Chicago, Philadelphia and New
York, doesn’t work in small housing
authorities like those here in Oregon.
What HUD should focus on is getting
more money out of the federal budget to
assist more struggling families that need
I was talking with a beautiful young
lady the other day while she was waiting
to pick up her children at an elementary
school at which I volunteer. The school had
had an “Old Time Rock & Roll” day, and
her children had dressed up like hippies.
I told her that the fl owers in their hair
brought me back to the years when I was a
thinner version of my present self.
We talked about hitching across and
around the U.S. and got to talking about
all the folks holding up cardboard signs at
the side of the road. I explained to her that
it was not the same at all back in my day.
We, the tens of thousands on the road, were
looking for something indefi nable, and we
were traveling in hope of excitement. We
were young and searching for the Dreams
Come True place that we all believed was
out there, somewhere, on the road, and we
shone like the sun.
The poor folks alongside the on-ramps
and on busy corners nowadays are not like
we were. They are much, much older and
most appear damaged and broken. While
we were the yearning and the learning,
burning to be free, these broken ones are
the confused, the abused and the misused.
We took to the roads in hope. They are
forced to the roads and hopeless. It is not
the same. It is not the same at all.
Jamie Selko
Eugene
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timely local issues. Please limit length to 200 words, keep
submissions to once a month, and include your address
and phone number for our files. Email to letters@
eugeneweekly.com fax to 484-4044, or mail to 1251
Lincoln, Eugene 97401.
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EUGENE WEEKLY JUNE 14, 2012
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