LET TERS
RECALCITRANT
PACHYDERMS
For the last eight years it has been
my pleasure to serve on the Lane County
Parks Advisory Board, and last year I
was the chair of the Advisory Committee.
I am writing to complain about the
recalcitrance of right-wing Republican
commissioners who for months neglected
to even nominate any candidates for the
three openings on the board and caused
the Advisory Committee to be basically
handcuffed from any activity. This right-
wing ploy resulted in a whole year being
wasted because there was no quorum
to enact any motions. It wasn’t until the
board went directly to the commissioners
and begged them to act, that two of the
elephantine commissioners fi nally came
up with their appointees.
Faye Stewart still has not even put
anyone forward — just told the county to
“pick someone” — after all these months
of inaction! This is the same commissioner
who supported Seneca Timber’s fabricated
and fl awed lawsuit against Democratic
commissioners, and who is trying to hoodwink
the county into giving his developer friends
the McDougals and Demers our drinking
water from the McKenzie!
This is a refl ection of the same “calcifi ed
partisanship” that national Republicans
have shown, dragging their pachyderm
feet on everything, effectively negating the
governance of this country!
Enough of this Republican runaround!
We need new commissioners, ones who
will actually do their jobs, and not just do
favors for their moneyed friends! We need
commissioners like Kevin Matthews, who
cares about Lane County and who’s been
working to help our area for years!
Cat Koehn
Fall Creek
OUR CURRENT NEEDS
Mayor Kitty Piercy says that there may
be a million dollars available to build a new
shelter for the homeless. She says that the
city has a revenue source from a developer.
The mayor says it is time for the city
to stop fooling around with camping and
meet the obvious need to provide a safe
legal place for homeless persons to be.
Her statement is precipitated by Eugene
Mission turning itself into more of a rehab
and no longer being an emergency night
shelter as of this August.
The service community could expand this,
perhaps getting matching grants to help with
several distinct shelters, not just one big one.
Wet beds, accessible shelters for disabled
persons, a women’s shelter, expanded
spaces for families, expanded spaces for
HOT AIR SOCIETY
unaccompanied children, a place focused
on working people (including night shift),
parking access for people with vehicles,
places for homeless students, a place for
together couples now accommodated only
at the short Egan Warming Centers stays,
etc. All are current needs.
St. Vinny’s, Shelter Care, LILA, First
Place Family Center, Looking Glass,
Station 7, Womenspace, etc., are services
with histories of offering shelter and might
attract additional foundation moneys if they
get some of the city’s million for shelter.
The homeless persons support
community needs to get proposals together
quick. Campsites are being destroyed now.
Remember “the $100,000 for homeless
people” the homeless never got? It was spent
for other city efforts, including a dog shelter!
Jerry Smith, MSW
Eugene
DIRTY WARS
Liberal peace marchers and Ron Paul
supporters alike should be able to agree
on the utterly simple fact that the U.S.
military is creating new terrorists faster
than it can kill the existing ones. As though
we need further reminding, I encourage
patriotic U.S. citizens of all stripes to go
see Dirty Wars playing at the new Bijou
Metro theater downtown.
Journalist Jeremy Scahill has covered
the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Trying to
expose the dark and secretive Joint Special
Operations Command (JSOC), Scahill
went to Yemen, Somalia and elsewhere
and learned more about a branch of U.S.
foreign policy that can easily be described
as psychopathic. Exhibiting towering
arrogance, JSOC goes where it wants
showering cruise missiles and predator
drone strikes on anyone it deems a threat
— including U.S. citizens. Many innocent
civilian men, women and children are killed
in these strikes. JSOC hires mercenaries,
arms warlords and sanctions torture. The
bitter, anti-American sentiment is palpable
on the screen.
If you want the U.S. to be safe from
the threat of terrorism, please go see Dirty
Wars and learn how the “War on Terror” is
having just the opposite effect.
Robert Bolman
Eugene
BALANCING ACT
As a newcomer to Eugene, I’m seeing
lots of things I’ve never seen before.
I love the “stack” — people don’t take
a bag to the store and they don’t buy a bag,
they just stack their groceries and walk
them home. The preferred shape seems to
be a square column supported on double
BY TONY CORCOR AN
Grand Bargain … Really?
THE LEGISLATURE’S WINNERS AND LOSERS
W
hen the press reports that the
Oregon Legislature adjourned sine
die, it does not mean physician-
assisted suicide by trigonometric
function. Gov. Kitzhaber’s not
that kind of doctor. Sine die is Latin for “without a
day,” meaning in this case that the 77th session of the
Salem Hot Air Society is done for this year, kaput. There
will be an additional $1 billion for schools, some half-
hearted PERS reform and no additional background
checks for guns. Next session, next February, unless
there’s a special session.
As always there were winners and losers in
the process. Gov. John Kitzhaber 2.0 lauded the
achievements of the Legislature — the additional school
money, lowering health-care spending infl ation, fl at
public safety projections for prison beds in the next
fi ve years, infrastructure projects with jobs and some
PERS stability — but he also pointed to the failure
to get additional revenue tied to some further PERS
reform needed to “prime the economic pump.” He not
only called it “unfi nished business,” he said he’d call a
special session of the Legislature if he can muster the 18
Oregon Senate votes and 36 House votes necessary for a
revenue/PERS package. I think the governor had a good
session and I hope he’s motivated to run again.
New House Speaker Tina Kotek had a pretty good
session. She’s a tough negotiator. She kept her caucus
together. House Minority Leader Mike McLane, on the
other hand, found out what it’s like to be a Republican
rookie with a whole bunch of dysfunctional deposed
leaders in your caucus who lost their majority last
4
July 18, 2013 • eugeneweekly.com
election. That dude had a tough job.
I didn’t think Senate President Peter Courtney had
a particularly good session, nor did Senate Minority
Leader Ted Ferrioli. Courtney got what he wanted, a
state hospital in Junction City, but he couldn’t control
his caucus enough to force the gun votes. Majorities
in both chambers and we couldn’t get a background
check vote? Really? Republican Sen. Bruce Starr, who
ran unsuccessfully against Secretary of State Kate
Brown two years ago, has already sent out his Second
Amendment-defender fundraising letter to constituents.
And he’s in a swing district! He’s also the only Senate
Republican to vote for revenue increases, before
changing his vote to a “no” when the bill was failing.
Ferrioli was almost clownish. We toasted him at our last
Hot Air Society beer meeting at Cornucopia (remember,
we only toast bad guys) for complaining about a do-
nothing session, when he was the biggest obstructionist
in the building!
Our local legislators had a good session. House
Majority Leader Val Hoyle had her speaker’s back;
that’s her job and she did it well. I bet you won’t see
her or Speaker Tina Kotek telling the press anytime
in the near future that they have the votes prior to the
next proposed revenue measure: Lesson learned —
don’t trust a Republican on a revenue measure. Floyd
Prozanski, Lee Beyer and Chris Edwards helped the
Senate bring some bacon home to the district, along with
good work by our House delegation, Phil Barnhart, Paul
Holvey, Nancy Nathanson and John Lively. A billion
more for K-12, $135 million for construction projects
at the UO, $80 million for construction of the Oregon
State Hospital campus in Junction City, $8 million for
construction projects at LCC and $12 million for LTD
to extend the EmX rapid transit service. (I love driving
those 11th Avenue anti-EmX’ers businesses crazy. I’ve
never set foot in an anti-EmX business and never will.)
So, in summary, Salem’s Hot Air Society won’t meet
again until it meets again. In February if not earlier. I’ll
keep you posted.
My head was not into writing a column this week,
but I had to sine die with the Legislature. Jeannie and I
are mourning the loss of a dear friend, Michael Convey,
who died July 12. A former teacher at LCC, Michael
was a master educator, a master craftsman, an incredible
neighbor and friend. We’ve known Michael and his
wife, Stevie, since I worked at DHS in the
early ’80s. As we speak, I’m typing
this column on the clear vertical
grain Douglas fi r dining room
table he built for us 10 years ago.
Countless years of kibitzing about
politics, about the Ducks, the Giants,
the 49ers and carpentry project
after project. So funny. Such a
clever man. And a good man.
All our love to Stevie.
Peace. Out. ■
Former state senator Tony
Corcoran of Cottage Grove
is currently a state employee
and his observations in this
column are those of a private
citizen.