Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Eugene weekly. (Eugene, Oregon) 1993-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 22, 2017)
The Shedd Institute www.theshedd.org - 541.434.7000 Béla Fleck Abigail Washburn Echo In The Valley Friday Nov 24 out the Check eled remod newly- cer t Hall! Con J aq u a Shedd Theatricals 2017 your property out here? Do you think you can still get another fir crop, or is it dawn- ing on you that climate change droughts and your soil-killing forest practices make that a risky proposition? Jan Nelson Eugene A FOOT IN THE STREET Pedestrians have the right of way at in- tersections not controlled by traffic signals. If you stand on the curb or sidewalk, you are not a pedestrian and cars are not required to stop. To cross the street, put a foot in the street. Cars are required to stop when you do this. Oregon drivers should be ticketed often for not observing this law. That covers it. S. Lea Jones Eugene CITY NEEDS ACCOUNTABILITY CityAccountability.org gathered 5,000 extra signatures within the 100 days al- lowed to put an elected independent audi- tor measure on the May 2018 ballot. Obviously, people from all political persuasions think this is an idea whose time has come. There were numerous city rules and codes to meet in achieving this goal. If not met, the petition would auto- matically have been thrown out. City Ac- countability did meet those challenges, but the city itself did not. According to city code 2.980, they had 20 days to “present” the completed petition to the council after it was certified by the city recorder. On day 22, the city attorney included something(?) about it in a memo in a packet to councilors — not exactly a presentation or in time to meet the city’s own code requirements. I asked councilors at the Nov. 13 meeting where the accountability for this breach of code rules lies, and what are the penalties associated with it? I received no answers from the mayor, the city manager or the city attorney. Do they even care? It doesn’t appear that they do. Short of suing the city, what can citi- zens do about it? To me, this illustrates again just how much we need some chang- es at city hall. Here is one more reason to pass the city charter changes in May, allowing us to elect an independent auditor in Decem- ber 2018, bringing some transparency and accountability to how Eugene city govern- ment functions. Robin Bloomgarden Eugene ATTACK ON OREGON HEALTH CARE Oregon Legislators passed a law this year (predominantly by Democrats) asking for a 1.5 percent assessment on insurance companies and hospital providers to obtain revenue which would be matched by the federal government to provide health care coverage for Medicaid patients in Ore- gon. Without this revenue, about 350,000 Oregonians could lose coverage. The legislation was passed with the in- put of all concerned parties. and it’s impor- tant to note that every health care delivery organization supports this legislation, in- cluding the Oregon Association of Hospi- tals and Health Systems. Who then would want to overturn this legislation? Well, Republican state reps. Julie Parrish, Cedric Hayden and Sal Es- quival would, joined by Rep. Knute Buel- ler. They have gathered signatures to place this on the ballet Jan. 23, 2018. In essence, it’s a smaller version of what the Repub- licans in Congress are doing — repeal of health care coverage. Their claim is that this assessment would only be passed on down; we’ve heard that old tune before. That claim reeks strongly of the anti-tax, anti-government, Tea Party forces. Get ready for tons of slick and glossy mailers funded by the Koch Bros Freedom- Works, Tea Party backers and millionaires who don’t like health care for anyone but themselves. Zenia Liebman Junction City Singin' In The Rain December 1-17 A Jazz Kings Christmas at The Shedd 2017 The Brockett Family An Old-Fashioned Christmas Wed, Dec 6, 7:30 pm Sun, Dec 10, 3:00 pm Tue, Dec 12 Corvallis Wed, Dec 13 Florence eugeneweekly.com • November 22, 2017 5
