SIUSLAW NEWS | SATURDAY, JULY 20, 2019 | 7A
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Allen continued, “There-
fore, I request that the may-
or and city council produce
a resolution that pledges to
join forces with community,
state and federal entities to
address our climate crisis, and
I further request the mayor
designate a commission that
includes a wide range of in-
terested parties in order to de-
velop concrete actions for the
City of Florence to take.”
The next items on the meet-
ing agenda were the consent
items forwarded to the at-
tention of councilors by staff.
Both approving a modifica-
tion to the city’s fee schedule,
Resolution No. 19, Series 2019,
and the acceptance of Public
Works Director Mike Mill-
er’s recommendation to ratify
City Manager Erin Reynolds’
decision to accept a second
proposal for masonry work at
Miller Park were passed with
little discussion.
Miller also recommended
the council approve his request
to authorize an expenditure of
$40,574 to Ray Wells Inc. to
pave the entrance driveway to
the Water Treatment Plant and
the parking lot for the Munsel
Greenway Park.
One consent item that did
draw some attention was a re-
quest from the city to approve
a long-term lease of the Pacific
View Business Park, locat-
ed on property owned by the
Florence Municipal Airport,
to Larry and Crystal Farn-
sworth.
With approval, the lease
would potentially be in effect
for 60 years.
Councilor Ron Preisler
was the only dissenting vote
on the approval. He based his
concern on the fact the rent-
al amount to be received for
the first five years of the lease
agreement was less than $200
a month.
Since at least the beginning
of the year, the debate over
what role the city should play
in supporting the purchase
and placement of art around
Florence has been a point of
contention during Florence
City Council meetings. The
topic was again brought up
Monday for discussion by
Henry, who made clear his
intentions to sever official ties
between the city and the PAC.
Greene, an ex-officio mem-
ber of the PAC, has been criti-
cized by Henry for his perfor-
mance in spearheading efforts
to bring diverse art that has re-
ceived mixed responses from
the public.
As a result, funding through
Florence Urban Renewal
Agency (FURA) for the PAC
has been curtailed at the urg-
ing of Henry, and the future
of projects envisioned and
planned by the committee are
now on hold.
The city’s workplan for the
next two years and the prior-
ities given to city staff do not
include providing support or a
grant writer to the PAC. This
lack of support for the PAC
was at the heart of comments
made by Henry, who made his
position clear.
“It is my personal belief
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Senior Services Advisory
Council Needs New Members
Are you a senior? Have a passion for working with seniors? If yes,
please consider applying for the Senior & Disability Services (S&DS)
Senior Services Advisory Council. S&DS serves all of Lane County with
a wide range of publicly funded services for older adults and persons
with disabilities. The council advises S&DS on services and advocates
on senior topics. Contact us at: sdsadvisorycouncil@lcog.org or
download an application from: http://www.lcog.org/827/SSAC-Council-
Membership Application deadline: April 26, 2019.
that the Public Art Commit-
tee and the city council have
reached a point where we
cannot continue under the
current conditions. There are
perceived injustices in setting
priorities, though they were
agreed upon by the city coun-
cil during our goal sessions in
early 2019,” Henry said. “That
ship has sailed, and we are go-
ing to have to live with that for
a time. There is a substantial
amount of negative media
and name calling and unsub-
stantiated allegations that are
hurting the image of our city.
There is a negativity and a lack
of support for the city coun-
cil in public art meetings and
comments made by members
of the committee and ex-offi-
cios that are inappropriate and
show a lack of respect for the
City of Florence.”
There are at least three sep-
arate city entities that have be-
come entangled in the crux of
confusion that is public art in
Florence.
The PAC, FURA and city
council have all discussed the
relationship between the city
and the PAC, and tensions at
those meetings have been ev-
ident.
There is a divergence in
thought on the council as to
whether there should even be
a PAC.
This was at the heart of the
discussion initiated on Mon-
day by Henry, which later led
to Greene’s angry exit from the
council meeting.
The debates in the PAC and
city council have frequently
centered around the differing
views of Henry and Greene,
who seem unable to put aside
personal differences in order
to move forward on city busi-
ness. Greene believes the de-
velopment of an extensive and
varied art collection in Flor-
ence will reap enormous ben-
efits for the community; Hen-
ry made it clear he disagrees
strongly with that opinion.
“I just don’t buy it,” Hen-
ry said when responding to
Greene on the importance of
art as a significant economic
driver in the future. “I’ve lis-
tened to you and I’ve listened
to enough public art presen-
tations — and at the end of
the day I just don’t buy that it
has the kind of impact on our
community that you describe.
In my heart I do not buy that.”
The tipping point for Henry
seemed to be the approval by
the PAC to place two murals
on the east and south sides
of the Lincoln Public Utilities
District building on the corner
of Highway 126 and Quince
Street.
The public uproar that
surrounded the content and
placement of the mural led to
a continued discussion among
community members about
all aspects of the process sur-
rounding public art in Flor-
ence.
During the July 15 meet-
ing, Lucio was openly irritated
with Greene and directly con-
fronted him with her opinions
of his professionalism and his
temperament.
“I publicly and privately
have been bashed by Joshua
Greene. He is quite frank-
ly impossible to work with.
He continues to talk negative
about the city council, myself
and the mayor and call us
by name. I think they (PAC)
should become their own
501(c)3,” Lucio said, echoing
a suggestion made earlier by
Henry. “I don’t support what
they are doing, and I repeated-
ly get harassed at my business.
People come in and ask how
could I have done this, and it’s
what the PAC has done. So, I
don’t support the PAC.”
Greene seemed taken aback
by the attacks directed at him
and took a second to compose
himself before responding.
“I feel on the spot here and I
don’t want to be defensive. But
obviously now I have to de-
fend so many things,” he said.
“I don’t remember saying any-
thing negative about (Coun-
cilor) Woody Woodbury or
Geraldine. I have issues with
Joe, which has been well es-
tablished and is well known.
And I’ve said this at public
art meetings, in the paper and
privately. But that is a separate
ongoing dilemma that exists
that we need to settle and I’m
still working that out.”
Henry then returned to his
desire to change the way that
the PAC interacted with the
city council and city staff.
“We can continue as we are
but that is not healthy for our
community, it’s not healthy
for the council and it’s not
healthy for the staff. And I will
do whatever I can to change
the situation,” Henry stated.
“We can disband the PAC and
allow them to go do their own
thing, wherever that might be,
as a 501(c)3 or possibly with
FRAA (Florence Regional
Arts Alliance). We could sus-
pend the PAC for 90 days until
we can reach some agreement
on what direction they are
going to take ... but I believe
everybody has had enough of
what’s going on now.”
Woodbury was less strident
in his desire to see the PAC
disbanded and supported a
90-day cooling off period to
allow the PAC to reimagine
how the group might work
within the framework that
currently exists.
“I believe it is time to sep-
arate the PAC from the city.
Too much time is spent by our
staff, wasted hours that are
not in our priorities sched-
ule for the next two years,” he
said. “I appreciate the work
they do but I think it’s time for
them to stand on their own
two feet.”
Discussion over a three-
month reprieve before dis-
banding the PAC was initially
opposed by Henry, without
accompanying changes in
PAC leadership — specifically
the removal of Greene as chair
of the committee — contin-
ued as Preisler interjected a
different appraisal of the pub-
lic art scenario.
“I believe the PAC did what
they were supposed to do, and
they did it very well. Most of
the problems started when
we decided to defund them
from the FURA group and
to change their management
from FURA to the city,” Preis-
ler said. “That created most of
the divisions we are experienc-
ing right now.”
He then made a motion to
allow the PAC 90 days to come
up with a plan that was accept-
able to the council regarding
some type of official relation-
ship with the city.
This motion was one of
the few points in the evening
where all of the councilors
agreed on a path forward.
Greene said, “I would wel-
come the idea of taking a 90-
day pause and letting public
art put together a presentation
that then is shared at a work
session where a new direc-
tion is given as to how public
art will function. I think that
would be a very smart thing
to do and it and it would al-
low a chance for everyone to
see everything and to hear ev-
erything ... so that you can all
really have the opportunity to
go to the community and let
them know what the new path
forward will be.”
The motion was then passed
unanimously, seemingly end-
ing the dramatic discussion
preceding it. However, a terse
interchange between Henry
and Greene about social me-
dia posts and the accusations
Henry felt were made towards
Lucio and Greene once again
caused tensions to rise within
the council chamber.
It was after this argument
that Greene said he had
enough of the tone of Henry’s
comments and quickly rose
and left while complaining
about Henry.
The remainder of the meet-
ing continued without inci-
dent, quickly concluding with
comments by the councilors
and the city manager.
Reynolds made a point of
mentioning in her closing
comments that she had taken
the unusual step of asking the
city attorney to investigate the
validity of comments made by
area resident Lea Patton on
the opinion page of the July 3
issue of the Siuslaw News.
Reynolds said the com-
ments made by Patton con-
cerned the conduct of coun-
cilors at the June 26 FURA
meeting.
In her guest viewpoint, Pat-
ton had leveled accusations
of ethical wrongdoing against
Henry.
Reynolds reported the ac-
cusations did not rise to the
level of legal concern due to
the vague and unsubstantiat-
ed nature of the accusations.
The disagreeable nature
of the July 15 Florence City
Council meeting was later
addressed by Reynolds in an
email response to the Siuslaw
News.
“City staff are aware of the
conflicts that exist and were
observed at Monday night’s
meeting at the city council
level,” she wrote. “While the
city supports and encourages
a constructive and produc-
tive working environment
for all its staff and volunteers,
the city also recognizes that
sometimes conflicts can oc-
cur. As staff, we continue to
look forward and perform the
work of the city. We are work-
ing on items outlined in the
city’s work plan and towards
our city goals and priorities.
The city staff continues to
operate to perform our day
to day functions and is work-
ing to make our community a
great place to live, work and
play.”
The next Florence City
Council meeting is sched-
uled for Monday, Aug. 5, at
Florence City Hall. All city
council meetings and meeting
materials are available online
at ci.florence.or.us.
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