LET TERS
hours and decibels in Eugene. Oddly, it
is advocated that train whistles not be
sounded at night. This point has been made
in communities across the nation for years.
I personally believe that the timbre of
railroad horns/whistles provide healing
resonance to imbalances in our bodies,
including in bone marrow, something long
understood, at least subconsciously. It was
once understood that the sound of train
whistles at night worked as sleep aids for
the community, an unintended benefit of
the rail industry. Whistles and horns help
persons drift off to sleep at night.
I have resided in Eugene for two-
and-a-half years. When I move to a new
area, I try to locate near an airport and/
or an active railroad system. I consider
each an enhancing environment visually
and audibly. To eliminate rail sounds,
VIEWPOINT
especially at night, is to remove health-
providing properties.
When I located in Eugene, I heard an
employee of the Eugene police force, who
picked up on my perspective, indicate
he intended to “go over there and talk to
them” about railroad whistles still being
heard from the Northwest Highway area
in late afternoon because “they were
supposed to have turned those off.” I
don’t think that was accurate in 2014; the
whistles were reduced but not eliminated,
thank goodness.
I do think that the benefits of railroad
horns and whistles should be a factor in
considering their use within city limits
and especially at the time of night when
most people go to bed, even if some
newer residents in the area choose, or are
directed, to locate near railroad byways
who then complain of rail sounds long
accommodated by long-standing residents.
The greater good must be weighted.
Sharon Pearce
Eugene
SOLAR BUDGET
The reason we use fossil fuels is they
are more concentrated and easier to use
than the alternatives. It would be nice to
have simple replacements for this stored
energy, but our growth-based economy
requires ever-increasing use of resources.
Now that the “low hanging fruit” of
easy-to-extract fossil fuels are in decline,
replaced by difficult-to-extract energy such
as offshore drilling, tar sands, fracked oil
and gas, our economy is having increased
difficulty sustaining continued growth.
This is a deeper problem than the politics
of oil company executives or corporate
bribery of politicians.
Economic impacts of energy decline
are leading to increased instability, with
social chaos that can be as challenging as
the ecological damage.
Financial hardships lead to demagogues
— the classic example is 1930s Germany.
Trump is indicative of the blaming likely
to happen on the energy downslope.
Energy
literacy
about
energy
decline could be a partial antidote for
scapegoating, but would require admitting
we have reached the limits to growth on an
abundant, round, finite planet.
Using solar panels for a quarter century
taught me living on our solar budget
will power a much smaller, steady state
economy no longer based on exponential
growth.
BY K A RL E YSENBACH
The City Council Bubble
DYSFUNCTION IN LOCAL GOVERNMENT
S
ometimes extremely revealing insights pop
up in places where you least expect them.
Such was the case of a recent Fairmount
Neighborhood Association meeting. City
Councilor Alan Zelenka gave a report on
a variety of current topics facing the Eugene City
Council, and in the process revealed some very dark
and disturbing insights into the dysfunctions in our local
government, particularly regarding the controversy
surrounding the newly revealed information that
there were $7 million of previously unaccounted-for
overruns in the construction of the new Eugene City
Hall.
I asked, “How do you respond to some people
saying that the city mismanaged $7 million of taxpayer
money on the City Hall project, and that this has
broken the trust of the citizens of Eugene in their local
government?”
Zelenka, of course, denied that either of these things
had taken place. But then he basically admitted that
costs spiraled because the City Hall project was similar
to the unanticipated costs that one would incur if one
were doing a home remodeling.
If this is his true attitude, then it reveals way too
much about what is wrong with city government under
the Zelenka-Piercy administration.
Planning for a City Hall paid for by the taxpayers
is not analogous to extra add-ons by homeowners
in a remodeling and/or new home building project.
Apparently costs and proposals for City Hall had not
been thoroughly vetted by city staff and the council
before information on these costs was provided to the
general public in the push to demolish the existing City
Hall.
According to Zelenka, repeated questions from and
request for changes by City Council played a part in
driving up the cost after the initial information was
provided to the public.
Unfortunately for Eugene taxpayers, what would
appear to be repeated requests for redesign by the City
Council definitely violates any principle of prudent
management of taxpayer dollars and city resources.
8
June 2, 2016 • eugeneweekly.com
And, unfortunately, the bill for these increased costs
was never presented to council by the city manager in
a timely fashion.
As a former city administrator myself, I know
that definite procedures need to be followed when
undertaking a capital construction. In the case of a
new city hall, the first thing that a city council and its
management should do is to take careful note of the
way in which current space is being used, the condition
that it is in and the costs of maintaining the current
structure. If it is in fact determined that a city hall is
needed, then the council should undertake a public
planning process, informing the public of its needs
for new space, and hold public hearings on planning
proposals.
At such a time as there is general consensus that a
new city hall is needed, the city council can then go
about retaining the services of an architect, or better
yet propose a competition between architects to insure
that the best design is built for the community.
More importantly, a specific dollar amount has to
be allocated and the local government has to have a
timeline and strict accounting of public monies for the
project. Most importantly, the city should continue to
live in the existing building until such time as it can
move into the new one.
Zelenka said the earthquake standards for the
new building were downgraded because of the cost
overruns, yet he said one of the reasons for supposedly
getting rid of the old building that had international
design awards was that it was seismically unsound.
Zelenka dug himself further into a hole by
defending the city's five-year effort to push for multi-
story buildings along South Willamette Street. Zelenka
defended city efforts, but he did not have on hand the
number of taxpayer dollars that were futilely spent in
top down governance that ignored citizen input.
He reported that progress on city acquisition of
the EWEB property along the Willamette Riverfront
had been delayed due to liability questions regarding
industrial waste in the form of PCBs from leaky
electrical transformers in the area for 80 years. It was
obvious that this would lead to extended negotiations
between the city EWEB, and that the City Council
was intent on breaking ground for the new City Hall
in June.
One might be led to believe from the recent article
in The Register-Guard that City Manager Jon Ruiz was
the villain in wasting taxpayer dollars, when he finally
was forced to reveal the $7 million cost overrun by
saying that there was “no particular reason” for him
to bring up the overruns until being forced to do so by
City Councilor George Brown.
But one must ask oneself if it is possible that Ruiz’s
supposed cavalier remark was given in response to
a Eugene City Council that is so wrapped up in the
minutia of details that it totally neglects overarching
principles of prudent management of taxpayer
dollars and the careful following of contracting and
construction procedures.
Brown’s line item budget of original cost estimates
show line item increases of 100 percent to 70 percent
for the most recent construction expenses. Is it unfair
for the council to inquire what brought on these massive
increases in things like seismic safety or soil studies
when a project is supposedly going to be implemented
according to some plan?
But it is possible that City Manager John Ruiz’s
seemingly cavalier remark on cost overruns may have
been generated by his resignation to the fact that his
bosses have no idea on how to run a city government,
and that he was only doing what he was told to do. If
Zelenka’s remarks are emblematic of the feelings of the
majority of the council, then the Eugene City Council
has a serious problem in sticking to any overriding
principles of citizen accountability or prudent financial
management.
It might also appear that city councilors exist in
some kind of bubble that promotes harmony and
unanimity on the council without any reference the
actual wishes of their constituents.
Karl Eysenbach of Eugene is a retired teacher, homeless advocate, former
city administrator and presidential campaign worker.