Eugene weekly., April 25, 2013, Page 4, Image 4

LET TERS
COST-SAVING SERVICES
If Measure 20-211, the fee to fund
city services ranging from Eugene Public
Library to Fire Station #2 to Buckley
House and CAHOOTS, etc. fails, I hope
both its opponents and proponents will
get to work to make sure these cuts don’t
actually happen.
Some dismiss the notion of services
being reduced or eliminated as a “scare
tactic” while ignoring that such cutbacks
are already happening. Buckley, for
instance, is constantly in danger of closing
its doors, and has been for years. Buckley
is staffed by people who make nothing to
serve people who have nothing. Closing
Buckley would not only be morally
criminal but fi nancially irresponsible:
Many Buckley clients would merely
end up in jail or the emergency room, at
much greater cost to the public, if Buckley
weren’t available.
The program I work for, CAHOOTS
(which I don’t represent in this letter), is
another cost-saving service that is faced
with losing up to 50 percent of its budget.
In fi ve years of working on CAHOOTS,
I’ve responded to thousands of calls in-
volving people who are intoxicated, sick,
injured, depressed, suicidal, delusional,
grieving, etc. If CAHOOTS weren’t avail-
able, most of those calls would have gone
to more costly and already exhausted 911
services.
Cost-saving benefi ts aside, I know
there are countless people whose suffering
would be ignored if CAHOOTS or
Buckley weren’t available. And business
is booming: Society is becoming more sad
and disturbing by the moment, with rates
of poverty, addiction and mental illness
skyrocketing, making these programs more
essential than ever. We badly need more
of what they offer. The absence of such
programs only guarantees our community
worse fi nancial and social problems.
Brenton Gicker
Eugene
LAW FIRMS CALLING
County Administrator Liane Richard-
son: Please, please, please take the several
job offers you’ve had from local law fi rms
where your pay will be equal to your over-
blown and infl ated ego. Nor do we need you
speaking out of both sides of your mouth,
turning down an immediate pay increase
while lobbying via emails for said increase.
If you can make more money some-
where else (and this seems to be your driv-
ing force), please go there.
P.S. I will admit you have the ability to
smell out human feces at the Free Speech
Plaza but that is an ability we really don’t
want or need anymore.
Philip Dietz
Springfi eld
A MODEST PROPOSAL
THERE ARE MORE
IMPORTANT
THINGS THAN
PROFIT
Bonny Bettman McCornack and
opponents of the city service fee have
offered an exhaustive critique of city
government, elected offi cials, spending
priorities and budget process. That’s great.
Despite their noise, they have not offered
any relevant commentary on the city service
fee itself. The fee is modest — up to $10 a
month per household and $30 a month per
business — and pays for a specifi c list of
services. Funds raised by the fee would be
put into a separate bank account, and a citi-
zen oversight committee would keep the city
honest about spending the money only on the
services proscribed by the measure. Lastly,
there is an assistance program to waive the
fee for low-income families. If you are wor-
ried your family can’t afford to pay the fee,
chances are you would be exempt.
McCornack says opponents of the
fee value city services, and I believe her.
We agree that mental health services,
CAHOOTS, libraries and public pools
enhance our quality of life here in Eugene.
The difference between us — and the rea-
son why I am voting “yes” on the city service
fee — is that I’m willing to put my money
(less than $10 a month) where my mouth is.
Chris Wig
Campaign Manager, Eugene Cares
Eugene
CONTROLLING THE FEE
Landfills show us the gluttony of convenience. Why are we choosing
to create mountains of trash where flowers once grew?
Here at Mountain Rose Herbs, we have an aggressive Zero Waste
Program to prevent the creation of garbage within our company.
Every day, our recycling staff touches each piece of “trash” and
evaluates its potential for reuse. We work hard to recycle, compost,
and reclaim all of the waste materials that come into our facilities.
This important mission influences everything we do.
It’s time for business to value the Earth over ease.
800.879.3337 www.mountainroseherbs.com
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A pril 25, 2013 • eugeneweekly.com
Support for the proposed city service
fee has been confusing at best. Early zealot
Councilor George Brown did a 180-degree
about face and laid out a combination of
the traditional “there’s gold in them thar
hills” rant about poorly applied resources
and thereby calling it an “unnecessary fee,”
mixed with a city government insider’s
cynical conviction that, once approved,
such a service fee would only be applied
to the agreed upon list of services for the
fi rst year’s budget, but that following
year’s budget processes would, as always,
usurp these fees for whatever general fund
priorities suits each year’s budgeteers.
Fee supporters speak of an included
oversight committee, seemingly to guaran-
tee the intended application of funds, and
of a built-in review process in fi ve years to
ensure the appropriate next step — elimina-
tion of the fee; extension of fee at a different
amount; realignment of funding allocations
and proportions; assignment of fee resourc-
es to new priorities; etc.
Clearly there has been disagreement in-