NEWS
B Y T E D TAY LO R
700 SIGNATURES
A WEEK
City auditor petitions hit the streets,
public gatherings
V
olunteers are “well on our way” to collecting
10,000 signatures to put an Office of Independent
City Auditor on the Eugene ballot next May, ac-
cording to David Monk, one of the chief petition-
ers along with Bonny McCornack and George
Brown.
The organizing group, City Accountability Committee,
needs to collect about 700 valid signatures a week before
the deadline of Oct. 12.
Rallies and signature-gathering trainings are already
happening, and more are planned. A training for a core
group was held Oct. 12 at the American Federation of
State, County and Municipal Employees offices down-
town. More than a dozen people showed up to learn the
rules, get their bright turquoise T-shirts, and gather for a
group photo to be posted at cityaccountability.org.
Monk told the group that Eugeneans are responding
positively to the petition. Several hundred signatures were
collected outside the Oregon Country Fair gates July 5, and
petitioners will continue outside Kiva, Sundance, the Eu-
gene Public Library and at public events such as the White-
aker Block Party.
At the Lane County Fair this week, signature gatherers
will work out of the Eugene-Springfield Solidarity Net-
work (ESSN) booth. Petitioners will also be going door-
to-door.
At a July 10 rally in support of the petition drive, former
city councilor Brown said, “Based on my years of experi-
ence on the council, this is the best thing we can do to
improve, open up and get real accountability in local gov-
ernment.”
Brown said he has long been frustrated with the lack of
transparency in city government. Even council members
were often in the dark regarding the inner workings of city
S I G N AT U R E G AT H E R E R S
OUTSIDE THE AFSCME
O F F I C E S I N O C TO B E R
management. He said an auditor could look closely at pro-
grams such as the Multi-Unit Property Tax Exemption “to
determine whether it is producing the results intended,” or
examine Eugene’s old urban renewal districts, or the City
Hall contracts and “the fees paid to the architects, which
are two-and-a-half times what they should have been.”
An auditor would “have the freedom to audit any city
program, any vendor, any budget, any department,” Brown
said. “And we don’t have that now.” He also supports the
auditor’s hotline on which any citizen, vendor or city em-
sentative Julie Fahey from Junction City wrap up the
2017 legislative session to the City Club of Eugene
on July 14, and we came to one conclusion.
If Oregon is going to raise more revenue for educa-
tion, we need to elect more progressive Democrats.
There will never be enough “cost containment “ to
satisfy the Republicans.
• When even our 10-year-old friend asks what’s
going to happen on the old city hall/new county
courthouse lot in downtown Eugene, it must be time
to look for an answer.
Any suggestions? It will be at least three years,
probably more, before ground breaks for a court-
house.
Should we have a garden? Or even trees around
the edges? Remember those old-fashioned big-top
circuses — wouldn’t that be fun? How about a giant
art installation?
Of course, some have rightfully urged using
the space for a homeless shelter, but the cost of
maintenance and management always comes up.
Parking. That’s probably what will fill this precious
space.
• We listened to State Senator Floyd Prozanski,
Democrat from Eugene, State Representative Ced-
ric Hayden, Republican from Roseburg, and Repre-
8
July 20, 2017 • eugeneweekly.com
• Don’t waste time answering questions to the
fake phone pollsters calling themselves “Informed
Electorate.” They’ve been calling into the Eugene
area with questions about how the people can take
their government back, saying they are making half
a million contacts a month. Of course, it’s expensive
to reach that many people, so they need $20 per con-
tact or even $15. That’s when we catch the scam and
hang up, but the caller was really clever. We wonder
how much money they have raked in so far.
• What we’re reading: A friend who just finished
Hue 1968: A Turning Point of the American War in
Vietnam by Mark Bowden recommends it for read-
ers especially interested in how journalists exposed
deception by the American military. Some readers,
he warns, may not like the emotional details of the
fighting. This new book, recently reviewed on public
radio’s Fresh Air, reminds us once again of the role of
ployee can anonymously report fraud, mismanagement or
inefficiencies.
Lonnie Douglas, a self-described Republican and con-
servative and chair of the ESSN Action Mobilization Com-
mittee, organized the July 10 rally in Eugene. “The reason
ESSN supports an independent and elected city auditor is
because it just makes sense,” he said. “It’s all about trans-
parency and it doesn’t matter if you are on the right or on
the left. The idea is to have accountability in the hands of
the people.” ■
the free press in exposing lies by the government in
a democracy.
• Long summer nights. Eugene police were busy
last weekend keeping the lid on downtown partying.
The cops arrested two different intoxicated driv-
ers going the wrong way on one-way streets, one of
whom bashed a few parked cars in the process. They
arrested another man who tried to punch a tavern
employee and, across town, nabbed a guy who pulled
a gun during a bar dispute. All in all, downtown units
“had a busy shift with one of most populated party
scenes the commander said he had seen in years,”
the department said in an email.
Enjoy the good weather but be careful out there!
• Speaking of enjoying the weather, women in town
are likely to don dresses or shorts when the weather
gets hot. This is not an invitation to harass them. Even if
you like what you see, please keep it to yourself! What
you may think is a compliment can come across as a
threat to a young woman walking alone in an unpopu-
lated area. We’re not quite Saudi Arabia — where police
this week arrested a “girl in offensive clothing” for wear-
ing a crop top and a short skirt — but that doesn’t mean
women here feel safe in their summer garb, or wearing
anything else for that matter.