NEWS
BY CORINNE BOYER
EUGENE POLICE CHIEF SEARCH
Community members, organizations weigh in on city’s search process
• Protest Trump on Halloween at the Federal
Courthouse, 405 E. 8th Avenue, noon-1 pm Tuesday, Oct.
31. Costumes encouraged! Resist Trump every Tuesday
from noon-1 pm, a peaceful rally in opposition to Trump
agenda.
• Occupy Medical Eugene, a 501c3 nonprofit offering
free medical care to all, is in need of a new clinic. White
Bird was offering the group space, but OM says, “They
need to expand, and we have had to relocate.” OM’s bus,
previously at the downtown Park Blocks, is in the shop.
OM is a hoping a philanthropic landlord might ideally
provide “a modest location near downtown or west
Eugene.” The group says, “We are hoping for a couple of
exam rooms, a restroom and a waiting area with office
space.” Contact OM Clinic Manager Sue Sierralupe with
ideas at 541-316-5743 or occupy-medical.org.
• There are openings on the Lane County Equity and
Access Advisory Board, which advises the county
administrator on practices and policies surrounding
equity, access and inclusion. The board meets monthly
or as needed. County residents interested in applying for
a two-year term must turn applications in by 5 pm
Monday, Nov. 13. Hardcopy applications are available at
the Board of Commissioner’s Office at the Lane County
Public Service Building, 125 East 8th Avenue, and can be
turned in there. Emailed copies and questions go to mo.
young@co.lane.or.us. The application is online at goo.gl/
FGLB7q.
POLLUTION UPDATE
The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality
(DEQ) recently sent warning letters to two Eugene
businesses for hazardous waste law violations
discovered during recent inspections. DEQ warned
Western Pneumatics Inc. for a dozen violations
involving recordkeeping, labeling, training, failure to
close containers and use of improper containers. DEQ
warned Molecular Probes Inc. for 10 violations
involving recordkeeping, training, inspection, failure to
provide a contingency plan to emergency responders,
and failure to have adequate space in its hazardous
waste storage area. Western Pneumatics is classified as
a small generator of hazardous waste (220 to 2,200
pounds per month), and Molecular Probes is classified
as a large quantity generator (more than 2,220 pounds
per month).
Doug Quirke/Oregon Clean Water Action Project
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eugeneweekly.com
T
he last of seven public meetings to discuss Eu-
gene’s search for a new police chief will be held
6 pm Oct. 26 at the University of Oregon’s Ford
Alumni Center. The city is seeking community in-
put and says it will use feedback to finalize the job
description and to make a hiring decision.
The new chief will replace Police Chief Pete Kerns,
who has announced he will retire from the department at
the end of the year and go to work at St. Vincent de Paul
Society of Lane County.
Kristie Hammit, interim assistant city manager, opened
the Oct. 19 meeting at Gilham Community Church by talk-
ing about the purpose of the forums. Hammit says the city
hasn’t defined the interview process and that the city wants
a “transparent process.”
In addition to hosting forums, the city is working with a
Texas recruiting agency, Strategic Government Resources,
to assist with its search. Eugene City Manager John Ruiz
will make the final hiring decision. When asked why Ruiz
rather than the mayor and City Council makes the deci-
sion, Laura Hammond with the city manager’s office says
the city manager form of government allows the city man-
ger to make the hire.
any of his 140-day jail sentence and was allowed by the
judge and jail officials to stay home and wear an electronic
monitoring device, according to The Register-Guard.
The city has also been asking community organizations
for input. Lee Gilmore commented by email on behalf of
Showing Up for Racial Justice (SURJ). “We appreciate the
transparency with which they’ve conducted the process so
far, and their apparently genuine interest in hearing from a
wide range of community members. We also hope that in
the end the process will transcend mere optics and result in
a police force that genuinely works to act on the concerns
that we and the other groups participating in the Human
Rights Work coalition have raised,” Gilmore writes.
The Civil Liberties Defense Center, a nonprofit that
is also part of the Human Rights Work coalition, has met
with the city to voice concerns, according to Associate Di-
rector Charles Denson.
“Most of the way that they have been accepting input is
from these notecards that they are passing out at the meet-
ings, where they have three questions all framed in what
are positive things about the police, and I think that only
gives you one side of the coin,” Denson says.
Hammit says one of the most important issues raised
‘Most of the way that they have been accepting input
is from these notecards that they are passing out at the
meetings, where they have three questions all framed
in what are positive things about the police, and I
think that only gives you one side of the coin.’
— CHARLES DENSON, CIVIL LIBERTIES DEFENSE CENTER
Four people attended the Oct. 26 meeting. They were
handed three note cards that read: “I’m glad Eugene has a
police force that… ”; “If I were writing the job description,
I would include… ”; “My ideal police chief is someone
who… ”
Community members at the meeting said they want a
police chief to be friendly to people of color and who will
ensure that officers abide by the same standards — adding
that they want a chief who does not view the police as a
separate entity and don’t want to see an abuse of power.
Lloyd Zimmer, who attended the meeting, says he
wants a police chief “to enforce the laws in an equitable
way. It’s a tough task and will take a special person. There
are a lot of challenges here — it’s a great community, with
all of its warts.”
Over the past two decades, EPD has had problems with
officers breaking the law and harming people in the com-
munity. In 2005, officer Roger Magaña was sentenced to
94 years in prison for raping, harassing and sexually abus-
ing more than a dozen women. In the same case, trainee
officer Juan Francisco Lara was sentenced to five years for
coercing women to have sex with him while on duty.
In 2013, EPD officer Stefan Zeltvay was convicted of
sexually harassing coworkers, however; he didn’t serve
at the forums is safety. “I think people have a heightened
awareness around working with all of the diversity of our
community, helping people feel safe, having a high quality
of life and dealing with all of the livability issues. Again,
so our community can be safe and welcoming for every-
body — that’s come up quite a bit.”
Hammit says all of that information gathered together
from public meetings will “inform the job description and
the hiring process.”
“We’ll take all of that information, the city manager
will get a chance to see all of the direct comments that
we’ve been collecting, and we’ll use that information to in-
form the job description, but also, even more importantly,
informing John Ruiz so that he understands what’s impor-
tant to the community,” Hammit says.
Denson hopes to see the community meetings extended
so that more people have the opportunity to attend.
“I also think them being more honest in realizing that
there are concerns or critiques of the police department and
the police chief and having the questions framed in ‘What
are some of the problems in the current police department?
What changes would you like to see?’ and framed more in
the sense of realizing there are changes that are needed and
being open to hearing and asking those things,” he says.
INSTA TWEETING THE GRAMS TO YOUR FACE IN CYBERSPACE
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October 26, 2017 • eugeneweekly.com