protection of the urban growth boundary. They’re
upset with her on that basis, and Betty’s opponent is
taking money from them knowing full well what their
agenda is. That’s what I find distressing,” he says.
But Taylor has been outspent by opponents each
time she’s run opposed: In 2004, Maurie Denner
spent $21,699.79 trying to defeat her; in 2000 Mike
Sherlock spent $21,860; in 1996 Anne Marie Levis
spent a total of $15,263 in the May and November
elections. Taylor spent $6,689, $10,940.77 and $6,615
in those races, respectively.
This time around, Taylor’s funders include long-
time Democratic politico Scott Bartlett (donating the
most at $2,150), attorney and EW part-owner Art
Johnson, and timber company owner Deborah Noble,
known for her support of pro-environmental causes
and saving the Amazon headwaters.
In addition to Sorenson and Bartlett, Taylor boasts
the endorsements of Mayor Kitty Piercy, Councilors
George Brown and Alan Zelenka, The Oregon League
of Conservation Voters, Sierra Club, AFSCME, former
county commissioner Jerry Rust, Greater Eugene
Area Riders and former congressman Jim Weaver, a
rural Eugene resident who called her “the most
valuable member of the City Council.”
Valle’s endorsers include former 4J Superinten-
dent George Russell, State Rep. Terry Beyer, former
Greenhill Humane Society President Mary Walston,
NAACP Eugene-Springfield Southern Oregon Chap-
ter President Henry Luvert and four of 11 other police
commissioners.
Quit or Collaborate?
Valle’s citizen record includes serving on the
Eugene Police Commission since November 2007
and 14 months as its chair. But he stepped down as
chair in July amidst rumors that members planned a
motion to vote him out of the chairmanship; Valle says
he left the chairmanship to spend more time on his
campaign. While some fellow commissioners have
criticized his leadership, others have endorsed him or
written letters of support.
In April 2011, Valle resigned from the Lane Regional
Air Protection Agency (LRAPA) Budget Committee mid-
affects the air those children breath is spent. The
Budget Committee includes the LRAPA Board of
Directors plus nine board-appointed citizens, includ-
ing members representing large industry and agri-
culture.
In months since the May primary election, the
council has voted to approve the West 11th EmX
extension, and some have criticized Taylor for not
endorsing the extension until after Valle did. Taylor
says that the vote was one of the most difficult of her
four terms on the council, and she needed the time to
consider all of the data and constituent viewpoints.
“I’ve listened to everybody for a nauseatingly long
time,” Taylor says. She says she met with Eugeneans
in favor of and opposed to the EmX extension, and
she toured areas slated for denser housing with the
director of LTD to better understand why the route
would become vital in the future.
Taylor cites the repair, connectivity and classification
of Crest Drive (a major part of Ward 2) and other area
streets as another tough vote. “I lost sleep over Crest
Drive,” she says.
Sorenson says that as a Ward 2 resident, Taylor’s
vote against designating the streets as higher-traffic
“collectors” is part of the reason he’s a Taylor supporter
and endorser. “It’s a great example of where she took
a very difficult issue of how we’re going to fix these
roads, and how we’re going to do it fairly and how
we’re going to do it with community sensitivities in
mind, and she actually brought this project to
completion,” he says. “That’s just a local example, in
my opinion, of her leadership.”
Taylor’s record also paints a resolute but open-
minded picture. She’s spoken for and against the EmX
in different situations. While she says she doesn’t
approve of urban renewal “in a lot of ways,” she was
instrumental in using urban renewal funds for the
construction of the downtown branch of the Eugene
Public Library. She voted for an early property tax
exemption to bring dense housing downtown but
drew the line at doing so repeatedly.
Former councilor and Valle supporter David Kelly,
who served on City Council with Taylor for eight years,
has helped keep “collaboration” a key part of Valle’s
‘They’re upset with Betty Taylor for her advocacy for the environment,
for her advocacy for the Amazon headwaters, for her advocacy for the
protection of the urban growth boundary. They’re upset with her on that
basis, and Betty’s opponent is taking money from them knowing full well
what their agenda is. That’s what I find distressing.’
— COMMISSIONER PETE SORENSON
way through his three-year term, after LRAPA board
member Dave Ralston made xenophobic and offensive
comments about Centro LatinoAmericano, where Valle
was then board president. “I cannot see myself collab-
orating or even being at the same table as your col-
league knowing that human dignity and respect for
fellow immigrants and all people of Latino descent is
under attack,” Valle wrote to the LRAPA board chair.
Asked if he would resign should a Eugene City
Councilor make similarly abusive and insulting remarks,
Valle says he would not. He was not representing a lot
of people on the LRAPA budget committee, he says,
and he would be as a city councilor.
But Centro LatinoAmericano is arguably Eugene’s
most important advocacy organization for the rights
and well-being of Latinos, and Centro and Beyond
Toxics report that schoolchildren in west Eugene,
which is 13 percent Latino, breathe in about 72
pounds of air toxics a year.
Critics argue that Valle stepped away from a spe-
cific opportunity to influence how the money that
campaign, writing in a letter to the R-G that Taylor is
“unable to work collaboratively.” But others disagree.
In an endorsement, National League of Cities (NLC)
Center on Federal Relations Program Director Neil
Bomberg writes, “She guided the members through
difficult policy discussions on controversial issues like
Social Security and Medicare by creating an atmo-
sphere that welcomed disagreement and discussion,
but ultimately resulted in consensus. Her knowledge
of the subject matter, coupled with her strong commit-
ment to the issues, helped make her year as chair of
the committee one of the most productive in the his-
tory of NLC.”
Taking Positions
The downtown exclusion zone, which allows
people to be banned from the downtown core prior to
conviction of a crime, is due for yet another vote in
2013. Taylor has consistently voted against the zone.
Valle says that without the October compromise
cutting the number of exclusion-eligible offenses, he
“might have voted no.” But he says that he would
have voted for the modified extension.
Bartlett, Taylor’s biggest donor, says he thinks a
“whole cadre of special interests,” like real estate and
timber, are backing Valle because they want to get rid
of the 4-4 progressive-conservative balance on the
council (the same voting lines as seen in this October’s
exclusion zone vote). “My basic position,” he says, “is
that we can’t afford to lose her.”
Taylor and Valle indicated they might vote differ-
ently on the future of Eugene’s City Hall. Taylor says
she thinks the skeleton of the existing structure
should be saved and rebuilt (see wkly.ws/1a9), while
Valle says he’s undecided and still open to the possi-
bility of using the EWEB building.
Valle also says that while he doesn’t want high-rise
buildings on the riverfront, he sees the riverfront as a
place for small enterprise and public access. He calls
it an “opportunity to have careful development.”
“I think that all that riverfront should be saved as
green space,” Taylor says.
The candidates both support Opportunity Village
Eugene, the proposed village for homeless people.
Valle suggests that the Lane County Fairgrounds
might be a good site. Taylor was part of City Council’s
7-1 vote Oct. 17 asking city staff to create a list of all
possible sites by Oct. 31. With the fairgrounds located
in the heart of several neighborhoods, that site is sure
to be contentious.
Taylor says her other priorities for a fifth term
include saving the Amazon headwaters from
development, seeking funding for a youth center, not
expanding the urban growth boundary and exerting
pressure on the 4J School Board to keep neighborhood
schools open. She supports free parking downtown
and more bike paths.
Taylor says she’s very comfortable in losing votes
when she’s spoken for her constituents and she
doesn’t agree with the majority position. She says
liberals need to be more comfortable with
disagreement. “The conservatives are determined;
the semi-liberals are nice,” she says.
Fifty Shades of Voting
Valle says that on civil rights and the environment, he
sees his positions as “parallel” to Taylor’s. Taylor laughs
and says that her opponents usually end up with posi-
tions similar to hers by the end of the elections.
The opponents each have fascinating life stories.
Valle, once homeless, now has a college degree, and
the former undocumented worker is a U.S. citizen
active in Centro LatinoAmericano (and is a former
president) and still a member of the Eugene Police
Commission, despite resigning as its chair.
Taylor organized civil liberties forums during the
McCarthy era and began her environmental activism
in the 1960s. After years of teaching high school
English, she returned to the UO to earn an English
Ph.D., graduating in 1986. She went on to chair the
NLC Human Development Steering Committee after
cities throughout Oregon campaigned for her election
to the NLC board.
Either way, the demographics on the council are
going to be ugly. If Valle wins, 51.1 percent-female
Eugene will be represented by a council that’s one-
eighth female. (Claire Syrett is all but certain to win the
Ward 7 seat.) If Taylor wins, the council will be entirely
white and non-Hispanic, though Eugene is 7.8 percent
Hispanic or Latino and 90.2 percent white. (Greg
Evans, an LCC instructor and LTD Board chairman
who is African American, is rumored to be under
consideration for the Ward 6 position when Pat Farr is
seated on the County Commission.)
Sorenson says that the big-money advantage is
bigger in November elections. “This what happens to
a progressive leader when the special interests
believe she’s vulnerable, and they’ve got a candidate
who’s willing to take that kind of big money and go
into the heart of south Eugene and try to take out a
strong, progressive leader,” he says. “Yes, it does
worry me.” ■
eugeneweekly.com • October 25, 2012
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