|
Citizens State
City and County
Food Security
Regional Food Security
Food System Infrastructure Urban / Rural Cooperation Farmland Management Fairgrounds Repair Project Bean and Grain Project Lane County Food Assessment Transportation Choices
Peak Traffic and Peak Oil
Highway Bailouts & Finite Funds Federal Bridges To Everywhere $18 billion for Oregon roads Lane County Request to ODOT Regional Trans. Plan $817 mill. Transportation Triage Troubled Bridges Over Water Spy Roads: GPS Mileage Taxes Amtrak Cascades hi-speed rail LTD Bus Rapid Transit RV factories to make buses Saving Oil in a Hurry W. Eugene Parkway alternative Bicyclist & Pedestrian Safety Land Use: Urban, Suburban, Rural
Big Look task force
Regulation and Enforcement Intelligent Urban Design Big Boxes or Local Businesses Block Planning Reusing Parking Lots Billboards Bans Dark Sky laws: Light Pollution Forest Restoration, Preservation
Cascadia's Original Forests
Peak Forests: Overcutting Does Money Grow on Trees? Long Rotation Forestry Forest Biomass Burning trees for electricity Forest Biomass: liquid fuels Wilderness and Biofuel Thinning Clearcutting the Climate Vision for Cascadian Forests Public vs. Private logging Federal Forests: USFS, BLM Oregon State Forests County Payments City of Eugene Forests Private Timberland Tax Policy Clearcuts, Roads & Landslides Herbicide Spraying Forest Fires & Clearcuts Ecoforestry examples Non Timber Products Value-Added vs Log Exports Carbon Sequestration Alternative Fibers (non-tree) express your views
Eugene City Council & Mayor
Lane County Commissioners Oregon State Legislature Federal representatives Media guides calendar and links
Eugene Climate and Energy Action Plan: a mix of good intentions, greenwash and self-censorship
Disaster Planning and
the Long Emergency Risk Mitigation with Permaculture
Cascadia Subduction earthquake Volcanoes and inter city transport A Damn Big Problem: Aging Dams floods, hospitals and farmland windstorms and urban forests urban wildland interface and fire fireworks toxic spills: roads, rails, factories The Long Emergency: Peak Oil and Climate Change Renewable Energy
and Green Jobs EWEB's relocation to wetlands
solar power on every roof wind turbines on the coast wave energy and tidal power methane biogas algae (non-GMO?) conservation, the first priority Liquid Natural Gas - a new danger Sustainabull: Greenwash
Understanding Energy
Beyond Growth:
Ecological Economics Peak Money
Steady State vs. Smart Growth beyond the limits to growth recession, depression, collapse corporate welfare Local Currencies Green Building
Affordable Housing Toxics Prevention and Cleanup
Bio & Myco-Remediation
Waste is a Terrible Thing to Mind Union Pacific Railyards Grass Seed Smoke forest slash burning, plastic tarps Formaldehyde from Plywood Nanotechnology Herbicides and Pesticides Democracy and
Public Accountability Education
U of O Arenas
"When politics enter into municipal government, nothing resulting therefrom in the way of crimes and infamies is then incredible. It actually enables one to accept and believe the impossible..." SustainEugene.org does not use "cookies" or other spyware to track visitors to contact this website:
|
Eugene's City Manager
Eugene's City Manager is not a servant of the people and their elected leaders faithfully implementing the will of the City Council. Instead, Jon Ruiz, Eugene's unelected (and overpaid) City Manager, is the real Mayor of Eugene. Eugene's "City Manager" is paid about TWICE the total salary of all eight City Councilors - combined. Calling the Mayor's office is first routed through the Manager's office (the phone number for the Mayor listed in the phone book rings in the Manager's office). Some cities have Managers, others have oversight by the City Council and Mayor. Portland, Oregon, for example, does not have a manager -- oversight of the various City departments is done by the elected officials. This is not a perfect system, but it has more democracy than Eugene's City Charter, which forbids the elected officials from having much interaction with the sprawling City bureaucracy. For many years, democracy advocates have demanded that the City stop paying millions of dollars to Harrang, Long, a law firm that represents many of the region's biggest developers, as its alleged attorney. Most cities of Eugene's size have their own in-house lawyer, which reduces the potential for conflicts of interest. In March 2009, City Manager Ruiz -- not the City Council -- created the position of an in house attorney but chose the previously outside attorney as the new City attorney. In other words, the same conflict of interest ridden lawyer for the law firm that simultaneously represents the City Manager AND developers with interests at the City is now the new alleged in house attorney. To add insult to injury, the Manager also extended for four years additional contracts with Harrang Long, further compromising this process. If the City Council and Mayor have any shame, they will vote to fire the Manager and work toward changing Eugene's City structure toward a more democratic (small "D") system. The money currently spent on the City Manager's exorbitant salary would be better directed to increasing the salaries for the City Councilors so they could dedicate themselves full time toward oversight of the City departments. This would not be a perfect solution, but it would probably be considerably better than the status quo. Unfortunately, the current Council probably lacks much political courage to make any substantive improvements, and the Mayor is unlikely to make any needed shifts. links for background about the lack of democratic process at City Hall: Bonny Bettman interview - Eugene Weekly Bonny Bettman's City Club speech, as aired on KLCC-FM -- perhaps one of the most important things broadcast in Eugene, ever.
http://blogs.eugeneweekly.com:80/node/1067#comment-1978 City Manager Creates In-House Office of City Attorney
----- comment: The idea that the City supposedly now has an "in house" attorney because the money flowing to Mr. Klein takes a slightly different route is ridiculous. This is an astoundingly cynical development that shows Eugene needs to abolish the City Manager position and instead adopt an elected city government. Lots of cities have their City Council run the government - Portland, for example, is not run by an unelected City Manager. It is unfortunate that there is not leadership from the Council or the Mayor for accountability and transparency. "No matter how cynical you get, it's hard to keep up." |