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Slant: Short opinion pieces and rumor-chasing notes. News: Growth
Gorilla MOWING FOR NANCY STIRS QUESTIONS
Jessica Picucci's front lawn faces Willamette Street, just south of 29th, and looks great. The next-door neighbor's grass stands two feet high. Other nearby yards are weed sanctuaries. Picucci says that a Nancy Nathanson campaigner mowed her lawn in exchange for permission to place the mayoral candidate's yard sign in full view of traffic on Eugene's busy north-south thoroughfare. Ted Booth, long-time Nathanson friend and campaign volunteer, says offering to cut Picucci's grass was a "lark," and initially a joke. But when Booth returned later with his lawn mower, he found a Kitty Piercy sign stuck in the ground. He says he cut Picucci's lawn "to get back into her good graces." He replaced the Piercy sign with a Nathanson sign. One Eugene attorney who asked not to be identified says such activities could be construed as illegal. Oregon's election laws (ORS 260.665) prohibits "undue influence," defined as money, employment or anything of value, to sway votes or support candidacies. Because people pay yard maintenance companies to cut their grass, it could fall under "a thing of value." Another Eugene attorney, Lauren Regan, says, "It's imperative that Oregon's election laws are strictly enforced. If a candidate has committed or attempted to commit undue influence on Eugene citizens, their ethics should seriously be called into question." Picucci initially agreed to the lawn mowing deal because she didn't know anything about Nathanson's politics. But after she read the April 4 EW issue on voting records, she switched allegiance — and lawn signs — to Kitty Piercy. She says the Piercy sign has been replaced by Nathanson's three times. She eventually called Nathanson's office and asked them to leave her Piercy sign alone. For all of her yard-sign hassles, Picucci says, Booth should have cut her backyard, too. — Michele Taylor
MEISNER ENDORSEMENT RAISES EYEBROWS How can a Eugene City Council member with only a 10 percent environmental voting record from the Oregon League of Environmental Voters land an endorsement from another major statewide environmental group?
Incumbent Ward 7 Councilor Scott Meisner was endorsed by the Oregon Natural Resources Council (ONRC) and is using the stamp of approval to diffuse heavy criticism of his recent voting record (see EW cover story, 4/8). His opponent, Andrea Ortiz, was also endorsed by ONRC. "We endorsed Scott because he had been there for us on federal forest issues from day one," says Jeremy Hall of ONRC. Hall says Meisner "championed a letter through the Eugene City Council back in 1997" that calls on stronger forest protection and modification of sales, including Blue River Face, that is being logged right now. "He went on to support ending logging old growth and mature forests in the entire Northwest Forest Plan area." "There are questions about his record on other environmental issues," says Hall, "but Scott has been there for us on federal forest issues." Jim Baker of ONRC says the group relied on questionnaires, interviews, committee meetings and "personal knowledge." "We knew it was going to be a difficult decision to make," he says. Baker says Ortiz does not know much about forest issues, but she is up to speed on pesticides and toxics in urban areas. "We think Andrea will be excellent on the issues once she gets on board. Her heart and feelings are in the right place, and she's coming on fast." — TJT
FUTURE OF EFN REMAINS UNCLEAR Not everyone is as confident as Paul Harrison about Eugene Free Network's alliance with Emerald People's Utility District (see news brief, 4/22). Former EFN employee Gary Frazier says, "EFN will cease to exist as an independent ISP." It seems that EFN will not be collaborating so much with EPUD as with Chambers Multimedia Connection, to whom EPUD outsources its ISP services. Says Frazier, "[EPUD] has always basically been a name on the Internet without actually being an ISP. Several of EFN's current services, such as shell access (via telnet or SSH), mailing lists, and advanced web hosting, are not offered by EPUD or CMC at this time." The decision to link with EPUD follows on the heels of financial woes at EFN (see 4/8 story). Harrison described EFN's plight as "a tight financial situation." However, now-former EFN employee and IWW union rep Patrick Wade describes it more specifically: "In 2004 the staff accepted a number of cutbacks to try to make ends meet. We froze our wages and put the wage scale increases in the union contract on hold, we took 20 percent hours cut, we laid off a support technician. … however, it was clear that we were not meeting our goals and that our situation was deteriorating. We explored several possibilities, including going out of business." Wade also says EFN is now operating with more than half the original staff laid off. Employees' hours are still down 20 percent, and changes are coming in health insurance. Either the insurance will be canceled or staffers who wish to keep it will have to pay their own premiums. Frazier is adamant that EFN's financial problems could have been avoided or managed better. "Financial mismanagement and lack of due diligence by the board of directors during the reign of Cohn set this up and internally weakened EFN," he says. "Rio's problems in September could have been weathered, but EFN was so badly mismanaged by the tag team of Cohn and Harrison that the Rio outage was a severe blow [resulting] in many high end subscribers leaving, which did damage the cash flow…" Whether EFN will continue to exist in any way, shape or form — even with the collaboration of EPUD — remains to be seen. — Bobbie Willis
SECRET MEMO DEFIES WHITE HOUSE OPTIMISM
But according to a closely held Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) memo written in early March, the reality isn't so rosy. Iraq's chances of seeing democracy succeed have been severely imperiled by a year's worth of serious errors on the part of the Pentagon and the CPA. Far from facilitating democracy and security, the memo's author fears, U.S. efforts have created an environment rife with corruption and sectarianism likely to result in civil war. The 3,000-word story "Fables of the Reconstruction" by Jason Vest for AAN is being published online by alternative papers nationwide.
WORKSHOP LINKS WORLD VIEW, POLITICS Linguist Deborah Tannen says our civic dialogue on politics has deteriorated into what she calls "the argument culture." Whoever shouts the loudest wins. Linguist George Lakoff says at the subconcious level we have as our world view either the "strict father" or the "nurturant parent." This "strict father" viewpoint looks at the world as a dangerous place, therefore you must arm yourself against danger, have self-reliant children who can succeed and win and pursue their own self interests, and the government should support individuals to maximize their wealth and not coddle through social programs. This viewpoint is today considered more along Republican Party lines of thought. In contrast to the "strict father," the "nurturant parent" will raise children to nurture others and teach them to be empathetic and responsible to themselves and others. Cooperation is valued over competition. This viewpoint is today considered more along Democratic Party lines of thought. Naturally, most people have a little of both in them; some fall more in one category than the other. "How to Speak American" is a workshop presented by WAND members Dianne Lobes and Susan Cundiff, both counselors and peace activists, that looks at the underpinnings of our political beliefs using Tannen's and Lakoff's theories. The first part of the workshop will cover how our subconscious viewpoints affect our political beliefs. By understanding them, says Lobes, we can engage in more of a democratic process. "After all," she says, "We all want to speak and be heard without shouting past each other." The second part of the workshop is interactive and will cover "how to engage in a substantive, civil, respectful manner with those with whom we don't agree so that we can truly understand their point of view while still expressing fully our own," she says. The workshop will be from 9 am to noon Saturday, May 1 at St. Mary's Episcopal Church Parish Hall (upstairs), 13th and Pearl. $20-40 donation requested, includes lunch and workshop. Pre-register at 232-5560 or dlobes@qwest.net. — AS
ACTIVIST ALERT LandWatch Lane County's annual meeting is at 7 pm Tuesday, May 4 at the Bascom/Tykeson Conference Room, Eugene Public Library. On the agenda will be wetlands destruction in Veneta with Mona Linstromberg; the proposed gas-fired power plant in Coburg with law professor Tom Lininger; statewide Initiative 36 with Bob Stacey of 1000 Friends of Oregon; and "Mapping the Future of the Willamette Basin" with David Hulse, UO professor of landscape architecture. For more information call 741-3625 or e-mail: info@landwatch.net The Eugene-based Oregon Toxics Alliance (OTA) will be holding a meeting concerning the Coburg power plant at 7 pm Wednesday, May 5 at Harris Hall in the County Courthouse Building, 125 East 8th Ave. For more information, visit www.saveourvalley.comCommunity TV (CTV cable channels 22/29) is running dozens of Eugene council and mayor election interviews and each will be broadcast multiple times over the next few weeks. The schedule can be found online at http://members.efn.org/~accesvid/schedule.htmlor call 341-4671.
CORRECTIONS/CLARIFICATIONS In a letter from Boyd Wilcox (4/8), two errors were made by a typist. The words "long age" were intended by Wilcox to be one word. And a sentence near the end should have read "Each district originally had 30,000 constituents; now they contain over 600,000." Regarding our "Blowing in the Wind" story (4/22), Andrew J. Orahoske tells us he did not reprimand a law student for "suggesting during the course of a question that the speakers hadn't presented all sides of the debate," but rather "my discomfort with Mr. Lessman's question did not stem from the content. Rather, it was the way in which he phrased his statement that was derogatory. The tone and word choice was the focus."
Growth
Gorilla The Eugene Area Chamber of Commerce has thrown a 1,000-pound gorilla into local elections to pursue its pro-sprawl and anti-environmental agenda. The chamber's political action committee (PAC) reported that by April 1 it had amassed a $32,700 war chest for local elections next month. The Chamber is backing Nancy Nathanson for mayor and Maurie Denner, Tom Slocum, Scott Meisner and Chris Pryor for the City Council. Pryor is unopposed in Ward 8. Developers, construction companies, land speculators and other pro-sprawl development interests have written most of the checks for the Chamber's PAC, contributing nearly $30,000 over the past two years. The Papé Group was the largest contributor to the Chamber PAC, giving $5,050. Papé sells heavy equipment to developers and road builders and owns the Sanipac garbage company. The Giustina timber family and their various companies were the second largest contributor to the PAC. The Giustinas have speculated on large tracts of land on the edges of Eugene and could stand to make millions from urban sprawl. The Giustinas gave $2,050 to the PAC directly. Thousands more came through a PAC opposed to taxes to repair roads. The Giustina's contributed $3,000 to the Repeal Unfair Taxes PAC. The Unfair taxes PAC then gave $4,466 to the Chamber PAC in in-kind and cash donations. Carolyn Chambers, owner of Chamber's Construction and Chambers Communications (KEZI), gave $3,500 to the Chamber PAC. Hamilton Construction gave $3,000. The Delta, Egge, Eugene, and Wildish sand, gravel and construction companies each gave $1,000, except for Wildish, which gave $1,200. Developer Hult & Associates gave $2,150 and developers, land speculators and timber barons at Giustina Resources gave $2,050. Bennett property management company gave $2,000. Duncan & Brown real estate appraisers gave $3,000. Rexius and Jerry's Home Improvement, suppliers for developers, each gave $1,000. Lumberman J.P. Hammer gave $1,000. Businesses opposed to environmental, safety and quality of life regulations and in favor of yet more tax breaks were the other big funders of the Chamber PAC, kicking $18,366 into the pot. Michael Schwartz, owner of M. Jacobs Furniture and other companies, gave $3,000 to the PAC. Charles Warren, owner of Excalibur Cutlery gave $2,000. Hynix Semiconductor gave $1,000. The city has given Hynix more than $40 million in tax breaks and permits to fill and build on a large swath of wetlands. The Gaydos, Churnside business law firm and Pepsi Bottling Company gave $1,000 each. PeaceHealth, now moving its hospital to Springfield, gave $500. Many of the Chamber PAC's biggest donors are also big contributors to George Bush and right-wing politics. The Giustinas recently gave $50,000 to the Republican National Committee's efforts to re-elect George Bush and his friends. The Wildish family recently gave $2,000 to Republicans nationally, $5,000 for the pro-West Eugene Parkway campaign two years ago and $2,000 to the Gang of 9's attack ads against City Council progressives. Warren has given almost $3,000 to the state and national Republican parties and George Bush over the last four years Many Chamber donors also gave big donations to Nathanson's mayoral campaign. Giustina, Hamilton, Delta, and Wildish gave similar big donations to Nathanson. The Chamber reported spending $18,613 so far for the May election. The biggest chunk of the money went to Edgewater Strategies, a local political consulting and surveying firm. It's unclear whether Edgewater was in fact doing work to benefit Nathanson and other candidates. The Chamber PAC reported donating $1,500 directly to Nathanson and $750 to Denner. As of April 1, the PAC had $14,085 in cash. Much more money is likely to pour into the Chamber PAC this month with the next spending report due May 6. As of April 1, Kitty Piercy lead Nathanson in mayoral fund-raising $38,446 to Nathanson's $24,360. But if the Chamber throws its money fully behind Nathanson, the conservative candidate's financial backing will far exceed Piercy's. In the past two years, the PAC has spent a total of $14,430 on political work by Edgewater, $4,500 on surveys and $12,500 on direct donations to candidates. About $5,000 has gone to catered fund-raising events. Although the Chamber of Commerce has thousands of members
(including Eugene Weekly), only a small group of pro-sprawl interests
funded the PAC and apparently decide how the money is spent. Almost
$9 out of every $10 contributed to the PAC came from 22 large companies
and wealthy individuals who gave $1,000 or more. If politics follow
money, these
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An
investigative report commissioned by the Association of Alternative
Newsweeklies (AAN) notes that as the situation in Iraq grows ever more
tenuous, the Bush administration continues to spin the ominous news
with matter-of-fact optimism. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld says
Iraqi uprisings and the deaths of more than 100 soldiers in the month
of April alone, is merely "a moment in Iraq's path towards a free and
democratic system." 
