2015 graduate of Emerge Oregon, a training program that
encourages Democratic women to run for election. She’s
played a supportive role politically as campaign manager
for Zelenka and as a helping hand in Piercy’s reelection
campaign in 2008, but the rest of her applicable experience
lies solidly in the nonprofit realm.
As development director at ShelterCare, Vinis
engaged the community in understanding and supporting
ShelterCare’s work in providing assistance to the unhoused
and at-risk in Eugene.
She has career experience working on issues surrounding
homelessness, and her approach centers on finding more
housing and resources for people currently lacking them.
“There is a need for us as a city to find sensible, humane
solutions,” she said at the March 3 candidates’ forum.
Vinis says Eugene needs to do more to address
homelessness, which for her means adding emergency
shelter and more rest stops, investing in transitional
programs and working to implement Housing First.
“Rather than lift the ban on camping, we can provide
more places to live,” she says.
Adding to her history with nonprofits, Vinis also has
worked with the Northwest Coalition for Alternatives to
Pesticides as well as Eugene-Springfield’s EarthShare of
Oregon.
This environmental background makes sense, given
the fact that one of her platforms is working to instill
“progressive policies for a sustainable future.”
Take a look at campaign donations and you’ll find
financial support from a few enviro-friendly names:
Shawn Donnille of Mountain Rose Herbs donated $2,000
and Deborah Noble of the conservation-minded Be Noble
Foundation donated $500. The local chapter of the Sierra
Club and the Oregon League of Conservation Voters have
endorsed Vinis.
Vinis supports Eugene’s Climate Recovery Ordinance,
and she’d like to see Eugene continuing to make sustainable
progress, she says. At the debate, she wasn’t afraid to point
out that Eugene City Councilor Mike Clark, also a candidate
for mayor, did not vote in favor of the climate ordinance.
“Our existence as a community depends on how we
move forward” on this issue, she says.
While supportive of sustainability, Vinis also supports
development downtown. She says Eugene needs to work
with the business community to continue improving spaces,
because development downtown “is a win for the public.”
Her take on Kesey Square, for example, is similar to
Mayor Piercy’s ideal, one of a public-private partnership
while keeping the public space open.
Vinis says she has canvassed in all eight of Eugene’s
wards with her crew of volunteers, reaching around
2,000 doors. She says she crafted her platforms based on
conversations with Eugeneans, and she plans to continue
having those conversations.
“The thing you have to love about people in Eugene is
that they’re passionate about their opinions,” Vinis says.
“It’s an adventure.” ■
COUNCILOR CLARK
And his 10-year track record
BY CAMILLA MORTENSEN
“When you’re dealing with God and country, nothing in
Eugene is easy,” says a Fox News story about Eugene City
Councilor Mike Clark’s 2011 effort to force the council to
say the Pledge of Allegiance before every meeting.
It would seem hard to believe that green-Eugene would
even consider voting into office a conservative candidate
who has voted against helping the homeless, against com-
batting climate change and against environmental ordi-
nances.
But when you’re dealing with social issues and the en-
vironment, nothing in Eugene city politics is easy, either.
It’s a topsy-turvy election year, and while progressive
candidate Lucy Vinis is gaining in name recognition and
has raised more money from her supporters, Clark has the
advantage of the fame associated with having held a seat
on the City Council for the past decade, though his votes
bear a closer examination.
Clark did not respond to three invitations for an inter-
view and meeting with EW’s editorial board. He told a re-
porter he had indeed received the invitations. Clark was
the only political candidate who did not respond, locally
and statewide.
The May 17 primary election is nearing quickly, and
any candidate who gets more than 50 percent in the pri-
mary is the only name on the ballot for that seat in the fall.
With five candidates vying for mayor, it is a numbers game
as to whether anyone can win outright in the spring.
It’s tempting to compare Clark to that “short-fingered
vulgarian” who is also running for office, Donald Trump.
Trump, who also benefits from name recognition, vacillates
between calling climate change a hoax and admitting that
global warming is in fact a problem. Clark recently told
an audience at a mayoral candidate forum that he “doesn’t
know” if he believes in manmade climate change but then
weaseled and also said that “if critics and doubters are
wrong, it has catastrophic consequences.”
He voted against the city’s Climate Recovery Ordinance
in the summer of 2014, against a resolution in support of a
statewide carbon tax in 2015 and he also voted against Eu-
gene’s plastic bag ban in 2012.
In the battle over the Pledge of Allegiance, Clark lost,
but he gained a compromise in which the council agreed
it could say the pledge at the four meetings closest to the
Fourth of July, Veterans Day, Memorial Day and Flag Day.
Pledge debate aside, Clark is no stranger to controver-
sy. In the week before the election in his first unopposed
run for the Eugene City Council Ward 5 position in 2006
— Clark has never faced opposition in a race before now
— The Register-Guard reported he was cited by an Oregon
State trooper for driving under the influence and entering
VINTAGE MIKE CLARK
AT THE EUGENE CELEBRATION IN 2007
PHOTO BY TED TAYLOR
a diversion program. He was just below the legal limit, but
failed a field sobriety test.
In 2011, the Oregon Government Ethics Commission
fined Clark $500 for failing to file financial disclosure re-
ports for three years from 2009-2011, despite reminder let-
ters. He could have been fined more, but the commission
decided it needed to have better educated Clark on the im-
portance of filing the forms, the R-G reported. In a letter to
the commission at the time, Clark wrote that after failing to
file the forms, he had intended to catch up, “but got scared
and procrastinated.”
Clark’s votes themselves are a good indication of his
track record and where he might go as mayor. Clark has
been wooing south Eugene voters by coming out against
the controversial South Willamette rezoning plan known
as SW-SAZ (South Willamette Special Area Zone), even
winking in the direction of South Willamette neighbors
when he made a motion to delay the plan at an Oct. 26,
2015 City Council meeting.
While Clark told the audience at the March 3 mayoral
debate, hosted by Oregon Strong Lane County, that he sees
homelessness as a major issue for Eugene, his voting his-
tory doesn’t back it up: In 2011 he voted against establish-
ing the Bascom Village affordable housing project; in 2012
he voted against an Opportunity Village Eugene site; and
he voted against an ordinance allowing overnight camping
on city properties and churches in 2013. The OVE micro-
housing pilot project (now SquareOne Villages) has made
headlines across the country for its innovative efforts to
give the unhoused a leg up.
Clark’s record on social issues is also marred by his
vote against Eugene’s sick leave ordinance, his vote to sell
the courthouse garden plot that helped at-risk youth and
former inmates, as well as voting against the city giving
$50,000 to Nepal after the devastating 2015 earthquake
that killed more than 8,500 people. Eugene is a sister city
with Kathmandu.
Clark’s campaign, which is currently reporting $8,715
in donations, has received $1,000 from Wildish Land Com-
pany and $250 from Oregonians for Affordable Housing,
which is a committee “to support candidates and legisla-
tion that support the building industry.”
EW had a lot of questions for Clark on his voting record
and on his statements during his campaign. Like Trump, is
he trying to revise his views on global warming to garner
votes? Or does he fully appreciate the magnitude of the
problem climate change poses? Does he actually think that
golf courses are parklands or was he just confused in a Jan.
25 City Council work session?
Clark chose not to speak to EW and explain his views
and votes. ■
Additional research provided by Alex V. Cipolle and Amy Schneider.
eugeneweekly.com • March 17, 2016
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