City Council - Regular Meeting

And good evening. Welcome to the May 11th, 2026 Eugene City Council meeting. Thank you for joining us in this hybrid meeting format. And for anyone wishing to access the meeting remotely can do so by watching the live stream available on our website, the broadcast on Comcast channel 21, or by following the access instructions listed on the city's public webcasts and meetings materials. Tonight's meeting will include a public comment period. And if you wish to speak, please fill out a request to speak form on our public webcast and meetings materials web page or at the entrance to the room. We will accept request forms until 7:35 p.m. And these forms will be used to generate the order of speakers and accurately enter speakers names into the record. The public comment period will be limited to 90 minutes or conclude by 9:50 p.m. whichever occurs first to provide sufficient time to address all agenda items on tonight's agenda. If the number of speakers exceeds the time that we have allotted, we encourage speakers to consider abbreviating their remarks so that the maximum number of speakers can be heard. And for those joining meeting remotely, you are welcome to email your comments to city council. And that is of course true of anyone who is also here in person. As a reminder, city council's meeting rules of conduct apply to all attendees both in the chambers and in the lobby and include no flags, signs, loud or disruptive language, noise or conduct that obstructs the business of the council. Please keep the room quiet and respectful for all speakers, and you are welcome to wave your hands in silent support. We encourage all those that are ill to join our meeting remotely rather than in person. And we also have masks available in the lobby if you need one. In case of a medical emergency, an automated external defibrillator, an AED, is located on the counter behind staff on the west side of this room. The emergency exits are through the double doors located at the back of the room and the double doors near the front of the room and the doors to the patio can

also be used as needed. And with that, I call the May 11th, 2026 meeting of the Eugene City Council to order. We begin with the land acknowledgement. Since time in memorial, the Calapouya people have been the indigenous stewards to our region, building dynamic communities, maintaining balance with wildlife, and enacting sustainable land practices. This acknowledgement is a way of resisting the erasure of indigenous histories and to honor native communities by inviting truth and reconciliation. Following treaties between 1851 and 1855, Kalapouya people were dispossessed of their indigenous homeland by the United States government and forcibly removed to the coast reservation in western Oregon. As we consider the impacts of colonization, we also acknowledge the strength and resiliency of displaced indigenous people. The city of Eugene is built within the traditional homelands known as Calipuya Illehi. Calpuya descendants are citizens of the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ron community of Oregon and the Confederated Tribes of Select Indians of Oregon and they continue to make contributions in our communities here and across the lands. We express our respect for the inherent political sovereignty of all federally recognized tribal nations and indigenous people who live in the state of Oregon and across the nation. Our first item on tonight's agenda is the pledge of allegiance in recognition for Memorial Day. We will open tonight's meeting with the pledge of allegiance. And to lead us in this pledge, we are joined by the Eugene Police Honor Guard Detail. Brian Holberg is a police detective with 24 years at the Eugene Police Department. He served over four years in the United States Navy with helicopter C Combat Squadron 3 at Naval Station North Island. After active duty, detective home detective Holberg Homeberg was served as an armorer in the Oregon National Guard and the second

battalion of the 162nd Infantry Headquarters Platoon. Anthony Vioto is a patrol officer with a total of over 16 years of service, eight of them being with the Eugene Police Department. Prior to serving in law enforcement, he spent two decades in the hospitality industry. Detective Kelly grew up and began his law enforcement career in the state of Texas in 1999. He moved to Eugene in 2008 when he was hired as a patrol officer at the Eugene Police Department. Detective Kelly has had many assignments while working at the Eugene Police Department such as patrol officer, field training officer, downtown bike officer, and crash reconstructionist, and is currently a member of the violent crimes unit. Jeremy Williams is a police lieutenant with 23 years at the Eugene Police Department. He served six years in the United States Marine Reserves with six engineer support battalion, bridge company B, and engineer company A is a combat engineer and squad leader. The Eugene Police Department honor guard will post the colors, the American flag and the state of Oregon flag for the pledge of allegiance. And I will lead us in the pledge when our honor guard has reached the front and we are ready for that moment. So please stand now if you are able.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you everyone. Please be seated. That concludes our first agenda item. Our second item on tonight's agenda is ceremonial matters. And I would like to share with you uh just briefly a few remarks about each of the proclamations that I've asked to be prepared this month. Mayoral proclamations are ceremonial documents signed by the mayor and related to public awareness campaigns, charitable campaigns, uh cultural celebrations, and special honors at the recommendation of the mayor. And these are the proclamations that we had prepared for the month of May. [clears throat] Uh the first proclamation which many of you had an direct experience with was on May 1st when in the city of Eugene we

celebrated international workers day. May 1st was also the beginning of uh our city's celebration of bike month and also Asian Asian-American Pacific Islander Heritage Month as well as wildfire awareness month. And there will be more information available about uh these proclamations and work in our community related to them in the days and weeks ahead. Just yesterday, we also celebrated Mother's Day in the city of Eugene and across this country. And uh this coming week, we are celebrating uh National Public Works Week. And tomorrow at 5:30 p.m., I will be sharing a proclamation related to KCC listener appreciation day as a part of our local public radio stations uh work to celebrate uh local journalism and all that goes into maintaining that access and that incredibly important service within our community every year. All of these proclamations are available on the city of Eugene's website and you'll hear more about them at community events and also from myself. Thank you for the opportunity to share them briefly with you this evening. And that concludes our second agenda item this evening. Our third agenda item tonight is committee reports and items of interest. And uh before I open the floor to committee reports um and items of interest from our city council, I would like to read to you a statement that I've shared uh earlier with some of our media and that will also be available um to to anyone who wishes to access it. Uh and it is [clears throat] regarding the events from this past weekend. On Saturday, a now former Eugene Police Department officer, Martin Siller, was caught using racist and dehumanizing language on video footage that was captured by his body cam in January of 2026. I am infuriated by the behavior of this now resigned officer. The casual,

off-handed nature of his derogatory and offensive remarks is deeply disturbing, and this behavior has no place in public service or in our police department. This former officer violated our values, contradicted our policies, and betrayed the community's trust. Over the past 48 hours, these past two and a half days, I've been in touch with our city council, our city leadership, our independent police auditor, and the office, our police commission leadership, and community stakeholders. And our independent police auditor has initiated an investigation into this incident, and the Eugene Police Department has submitted this incident to Oregon State Policing Standards Board. While it has been determined that no other EPD officers were involved in the video incident, we are committed to a thorough review of police policies, training, supervisory practices, and organizational culture. Our department knows that the perspective captured by this video evidence cannot represent our local employees or our department. As your mayor, I want to directly acknowledge the harms caused by this moment and also the work ahead and the importance of our shared commitment to it. Racism in any form is unacceptable and we will not excuse or tolerate it, especially among those who are charged with serving our city. Affirmatively, we can do much more to build understanding, awareness, and relationships across our community. and building and sustaining trust requires acknowledgement, reflection, action, and a continuous recommitment to partnership. Every individual, regardless of race, background, or circumstances in our community, deserves dignity and fairness and respect. And I support our city's already stated commitments to a thorough policy review, enhanced training, and cultural change. And the independent police auditor's office's ongoing investigation is an essential component of this work. We are committed to ensuring that accountability is not only

promised but felt in our community. Uh this is a statement that I had prepared uh earlier today, but I would also include members of the community to watch the press conference that was held this afternoon that had uh both our independent police auditor and police chief Skinner there uh sharing updated information and answering questions. And now I will open the floor to committee reports and other items of interest from council. Councelor Groes.

Thank you, Mayor, and thank you for your opening comments. Uh I have an intergovernmental relations committee report. I serve as chair. Um we uh this is from our meeting on May 6th. The IGR committee met on Wednesday, May 6. The committee reviewed a summary of 2026 legislative session updates from the United Front delegation's late April trip to Washington DC and preparing for the May 27th IGR work session with city council. Additionally, the committee discussed the process for drafting the 2027 Oregon State priorities and the 2027 state and federal policy documents. As is our practice for these guiding documents, the IGR committee provides input and guidance in the development of the draft documents, approving them before bringing them to the full city council for review, discussion, and action later this fall. At the May 27th IGR work session, staff will present summaries and materials for counselors of the legislative session and the United Front trip, including the annual UF book, and also outline the schedule, including opportunities for counselor input in the 2027 priorities and policy agenda. The IGR committee's next meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, June 3rd at 1:30 p.m. Please let your IGR committee which includes myself, councilors Evans and Yay and Mayor Nudson, city manager Aryama is or IGR manager. Uh let them know if you have any input or questions to follow up on. Thank you,

Councelor Keading.

Thank you, Mayor. I I wanted to before I I I echo elements of of of your clear clearly um powerful statement, I do want to uh invite folks to uh participate in the Lane Regional Air Protection Agency's meeting this Thursday. It's a body an intergovernmental body uh that I I serve as chair. We meet physically in uh person in Springfield. Uh there's also a hybrid online component. Um, mayor, like many in our community and many here tonight, I uh I condemn the racist and misogynistic comments by uh a now former EPD officer that was made public this weekend. I do want to thank both Chief Skinner and Independent Police Auditor Craig Renevki for their swift and transparent response, both condemning or both conducting an investigation into the matter and publicly rebuking such repugnant behavior. That being said, I call for additional bias training, additional implicit bias training. Um, and I stand with independent police auditor auditor Renevi um uh in in making those that that that that public request. And I do applaud the chief for his commitment to DPSST, that's the Oregon Department of Public Safety standards and training to revoke the now resigned officer's statewide certificate to ensure that that officer never wears the badge in the state of Oregon again. Bottom line, the repugnant and racist misogynistic commentary made by a now resigned public safety officer is unacceptable and it was collected simply by chance. That should spark a thorough review. As you have alluded to, Mayor Kudson, to the community,

I'm sorry that trust has been eroded, and I do hope that we can unite around accountability, increased transparency, and support for our independent auditor to investigate appropriately, thoroughly, and bringing back to this body a series of recommendations that will not erase, but hopefully help rectify this most unfortunate and let me bold it atalicize and underscore unacceptable incident. Thank you, Mayor. Councelor Clark.

Thank you, Mayor. I just wanted to say that I absolutely in every way and in every word agree with both you, Mayor, and your statement and councelor Keading as well. Um, I was disgusted by what I heard and I agree and echo both of your remarks completely. So, thank you very much.

Thank you, council. If there I'm sorry, councelor Leech, am I seeing you? Who was councelor Evans? Councelor Leech, would you like to also offer comment? I'm so sorry. I did not see your hand if it was raised. My hand was not raised. mayor, but I really appreciate the sentiments from you and our our fellow uh my my colleagues um about what has happened and and just want to echo them.

Thank you, councelor. If there are no other items of interest from the council, I will now invite Oh, Greg, are you I'm sorry. We appear to have a technic technology problem. Councelor Evans, please.

Uh thank you, Mayor. And I want to thank you, Council Kading, Council Clark, um for the, you know, supportive words that that you've given. It's it's really important um with regard not only to this incident uh but with regard to the relationship that um communities of color have or I should say have not had uh with the Eugene Police Department for many years. And one of the reasons why we have the system in place that we have, we have a police auditor that's independent. is hired by this body and reports back to this body uh about uh police misconduct and misbehavior and other issues that our citizens are engaging with our police department. We also have uh a police commission which we've had for years to review policy and procedures and we have a citizen review board um which were all established uh the police auditor and civilian review board were established in the '9s um when similar issues came up around police misconduct and police misbehavior in Eugene. What I want to say is that I know a number of police officers in Eugene who are totally appalled by what happened over this weekend with that one officer. And I will say that that should not characterize um this police department. But the problem is is that uh after viewing the uh the tape evidence and the other audio evidence of the incident and I

understand there's other evidence that will be emerging as the investigation moves forward that we have a cultural problem in the uh Eugene Police Department and it's been there for years. And when I say that, I say that with having lived here for 40 years and have had positive and negative experiences in police stops and other things and understanding that one of the only reasons why I was stopped because I was driving in black and I was stopped. The first time I was ever stopped by the police in my life was in Eugene. And I was walking down 13th Street and it was the third day that I was here. And so I will tell you that I've had a number of conversations since Saturday with people throughout the community, African-Americans and others, and people who are relaying to me and have over the years their incidents with police engagement that have either been inappropriate or just downright unacceptable. And a lot of this stuff was based on race and ethnicity. And I know that uh some of my colleagues and other folks in the community may have some difficulty around articulating this, but trust me, I have no problem articulating this. And if you've known me since I've lived here for the last 40 years, you know, we have had to deal

with this not only with ourselves personally. It doesn't matter what status of what level you are in the community, whether you are an administrator or you're just somebody on the street. We all have had issues, you know, with the police department. And we need to have a significant change in culture. As council Kitty pointed out, we need more, you know, folks need more training, but we also need to examine how people get hired, get through a significant screening process to be able to feel comfortable while in uniform, on the job, in a police vehicle, wearing a done to be able to say what this ex officer said and sit there and laugh and giggle not only about racist things but about beating other people up. It's, you know, it's some of the misogynistic things that came out of that. It makes it so that people, it was expressed to me today, we don't feel safe when we call the police. And so I will say this to you. Um, we have to rely on the police. If somebody's breaking into [clears throat] my car, I'm calling the police. If you're breaking into my house, I'm calling the police. I'm not calling Ghostbusters.

They don't exist. Despite what some of you might think, but I'm calling the police. And I've had family, my family, police officers. You know, my cousin taught me how to hold a gun. And I understand police work too large. It's not what you see on the rookie or 911 or any of that. Nobody's jumping out of the car chasing people down the street every day, you know, with weapons out. My cousin was a police officer in Washington DC for 31 years, and he never drew his gun once. So, let's get real. This is not about television. This is not about silly stuff that you see on CNN or Fox or whatever news channel you turn into. This is real life. This is what people have been going through this country since for the last 400 years. And the fact that, you know, this is not an indictment of the Eugene Police Department, per se. It's an indictment for our entire community that we have allowed this to go on. Knowing what we know about the history of people who have engaged in inappropriate activity and illegal activity under the color of law. It happens throughout this state, throughout this country, and it needs to stop now. And I am committed. I've been here 40 years. Until I draw my last breath,

we are going to make a significant change in this community and we're going to turn the ship the right way, not the wrong way. By well over my time.

Thank you, counselor. And thank you, audience. With no other notices from council and please wave your hands if you've pushed a button and I'm not seeing it on my small um screen here. I would like to invite our independent police auditor Craig Reki to the podium to provide an update. Thank you, Craig. Good evening. On the morning of May 9th, 2026, at approximately 11:32 a.m., I became aware of a disturbing video posted on the internet that showed an former Eugene Police Department officer engaging in a conversation which contained racist statements. It also referenced domestic violence and described actions and utilized language that without question are morally reprehensible and ethically unacceptable. Under no circumstances is this type of attitude, language, or action acceptable. My office, as you are aware, is independent of the police department. I report directly to the council, and no one in my office, including myself or any of our family members, works for the police department. We are not located in the police department's facility and do not answer to the police chief or anyone in the department. As part of this independence and as mandated by city ordinance, we receive, classify, and investigate complaints of misconduct in the Eugene Police Department. We also audit the investigations by the department and conduct our own preliminary investigations into these complaints. Importantly, if we discover a misconduct, we are empowered to initiate formal complaints without the need to wait for a complaint from the public. And in this particular observation, what I observed in that video was of such an abhorrent nature that I immediately started the process to bring formal allegations against the officer. I also reached out to the EPD executives

and city leadership. I wanted to ensure that they were aware of the incident and to ensure that the EPD would take the type of action necessary to immediately remove this officer from duty pending a full, thorough, fair, and complete investigation. At 2:24 p.m., I was notified that the officer in question had tendered their resignation. This action prevents my office from proceeding against the specific officer in the form of filing formal allegations against them since they are no longer an EPD employee. However, and I stress, however, it will not close out my investigation into the incident itself. I'm also making this investigation the top priority in my office and I've identified three goals moving forward. The first goal was to determine if there are any EPD officers involved in this specific incident. The body warn video references other individuals. I was determined to find out who these individuals were and if they are current or former EPD employees. This would have allowed me to bring forth al allegations of misconduct against those officers as well. For clarity, my office has absolutely no jurisdiction on matters outside of the EPD. This includes any oversight for any federal, state, or local jurisdictions except the EPD. The following investigative steps have been taken since this incident. I requested a number of items from EPD to determine if there were any other EPD employees in that vehicle. Based on the review of the entire v video, not just the limited portion that was initially released on social media, and the additional evidence that I requested and immediately received, it was determined that the officer in question was alone in the patrol vehicle. It appears that the officer in question was talking on the phone to an officer from an agency outside of Oregon. It appears to have been the West Valley Police Department in Utah. The officers

whose names were mentioned in that video have never worked for the EPD. The second thing that some of the counselors have already addressed is our office is mandated to analyze trends and recommend improvements to police department services in the city. This means that we will examine the EPD as a whole to identify any steps or changes that can be taken to ensure the members of the community are served by officers that have the type of ethics, morals, and character character that the citizens of Eugene and this members of our community um deserve and expect. Lastly, I want to urge the public to notify my office of any information that can assist in this investigation, but of equal importance at any time they become aware of any misconduct of any employee of the EPD that they should not hesitate to file a complaint with my office. Reports can be made anonymously, if so desired, and this can be done by phone, email, in person, or an online portal. and I'm available for any questions that regarding the status if the council has anything.

Thank you. Please auditor Renitzki. Councelor Keading. Uh please I'm so sorry. Councelor Keading does have a question.

Thank you, Mayor. Um uh Auditor Revki, uh you uh thank you again. Uh I had emailed earlier and and you had indicated that we were going to have an opportunity to to discuss uh elements within the email and a lot of those were were um answered in in your public statement um earlier today alongside Chief Skinner. So thank you. But I'm still uh fuzzy about one detail. You asked for the public to come forward if there are any allegations of misconduct, but it's my understanding that there's a a small window of time. Uh, and it's, it's my understanding, I could be wrong, it's a 60-day window. Um, or for some cases it even extends to a six-month window. Um, this particular incident, it's been impressed upon me by constituents, has been a triggering one uh that brings up past trauma, and there might have been incidents years ago that have never gone reported. What can your office do to either remove those kind of and I'll editorialize arbitrary uh barriers to properly report misconduct? And is your office welcoming any um notification of any past uh wrongdoings that might fall outside of the current existing prescribed time frame?

Excellent question. This is something we come up against. Unfortunately, the way the ordinance itself was written, we have these deadlines in there. So, it's something that I perhaps the city attorney can address, it would probably require a process to modify that. Yeah, those were set in code by you. So, um as the council, if they want to consider changing those, um timelines, that's certainly within your purview, um as policy makers, and we would welcome that. We we would even a late report is better than no report at all, quite frankly. I'm really glad to hear that. Thank you. Uh thank you. And I I suspect that there will be a great many of us who will have interest in in refining said ordinance. Thank you. Any other questions?

Thank you. Thank you, Police Auditor Reetski. Thank you. This concludes our third agenda item this evening. The next item on tonight's agenda is consent calendar one ratification of fiscal year 2026 2027 Metropolitan Wastewater Management Commission regional wastewater program budget and capital improvement program approval of the city council minutes and approval of the city council tenative agenda. If there are no questions from council, I will turn to the council vice president to put a motion forward. I move to approve the items on consent calendar one.

Second. Any discussion from council? Seeing none, I'll now take a vote for this motion. Counselors, please lock in your vote on the tablets in front of you. And councelor Leech, I see you with your hand raised, voting in the affirmative, but please turn off your microphone and tell if it's anything other than that. Um, and the motion passes unanimously with a vote of 8 to zero. Thank you. That concludes our fourth agenda item this evening. We'll now moved on to our fifth agenda item, which is an action on an ordinance amending the Fairmont University of Oregon Special Area Study Diagram amending sections 9.4205, 9.4215, 9.4220, and 9.9570 of the Eugene Code 1971. reszoning the property identified as assessor's map 17-03-33-32 to remove the east campus overlay zone and provide providing an effective date. Before we ask the city manager to introduce this first item, I am going to ask the council vice president to put a motion forward related to a procedural matter. I move to reject and not consider the email from Peter Sak Sacramento dated April 20th 20 uh 2026 with the subject line east campus dorm expansion and an email from Arthur Farley dated April 21st 2026 with the subject line UO enrollments because they were submitted after the record was closed to interested parties.

Second. Any discussion from council? Councelor Zelena. Oh, okay. Um, councelor Evans on this topic. Mayor, I need you to uh declare each part. Just one moment, counselor. We'll get to that in one second as soon as we take a vote on this motion.

Thank you. We'll come come back to you in just a moment, counselor. Very appreciated. Now, take a vote on this motion. Counselors, please lock in your votes on the tablets in front of you. And that motion passes with a vote of 8 to zero. Thank you. And now I'm going to ask the city manager to introduce the item and then councelor Evans will come back to you immediately after that introduction.

Uh thank you, mayor. Tonight the Eugene Council is scheduled to take an action on a package of land use applications submitted by the University of Oregon for the east campus area. A refinement plan amendment, a code amendment, and a zone change application. Uh, this package of applications would amend the Fair Mount University east campus area to align with recent updates to the east campus area plan and the university's next generation housing development plan. Thank you, city manager councelor Evans.

Now, Mayor, I need to declare an exparte contact. I had a conversation with uh Matt Roberts at the University of Oregon uh earlier today um my mistake for uh some clarification around uh the university's position on this issue. So I'll recuse myself from the vote on this matter.

Thank you. Councelor Evans, is there any response from the public to this declaration? Councilors, uh, Lauren Summers, assistant city attorney. Um, councelor Evans, just to be clear, you don't need to recuse yourself. What needs to happen is that you declare the exarty contact, put it on the record, and then there's an opportunity for a response to that exarty contact, which the mayor has just offered. So, if there's anyone in the room who wants to respond, now would be the time to ask for that opportunity. Seeing none, then I'm just going to ask you if you feel like you can make a decision tonight based solely on the um applicable approval criteria and the evidence and argument that is in the record and not anything that's outside of the record.

I I I think I can do that. So I can unrecuse myself.

Thank you, Councelor Evans. Thank you to our city attorney's office. And now, uh, councelor Zelena. Also, um, would like to request that you, uh, share into the record some information from an email. [clears throat] Yeah, I sent the following comments to the council yesterday in an email and I was advised by the city attorney that since this is a quasi judicial proceeding that while not a problem, uh, I should read the email in its entirety into the record. However, it will take more than three minutes to do that. So, I'll need two rounds unless you want me to read the whole thing at once. I may pause you and then have you keep reading, counselor, but yes, please continue. Let me know in three minutes.

Unless no other counselors are in the queue. If someone joins the queue, um, I'll pause you. But if no one else is in the queue, you'll please keep reading.

Okay. Um the decision the decision before the council on the east campus environment plan amendments needs to be based on whether or not the applicant, the UFO, met the burden of proof that their proposed amendments to the east campus plan are consistent with the approval criteria. Because of the quasi judicial nature of the proceedings, we only have three options to council. We can approve it, we can modify it, or we can deny it. While it's possible that the council could make modifications to the application, I think it would be extraordinarily difficult for the council to craft adequate modifications to the proposed amendments to address all the issues. However, I find, and I hope you will too, that the professional testimony by the Fairmont Neighbors was very persuasive and compelling, and I agree with them, that the findings are not adequate, not supported by the evidence, and that they failed to meet the burden of proof showing that they are consistent with the approval. Even the planning commission struggled with the volume and complexity of its application, which led to one commissioner abstaining from voting. In my 20 years on the council, I've never seen an application like this before, where it was so fundamentally flawed that the applicant had to so substantially revise the submission that it required another public hearing. This is extremely rare. And even after the revisions, I don't believe the application uh it still fails to prove consistency with the The preferred outcome to all of this should be to have the parties work together in a workg group to develop a mutually acceptable result that both enables the Uvo to develop the east campus plan area and maintain the compatibility with and mitigate for the negative impacts to this historic significantly historic Fairmont neighborhoods stability and quality as is required by the approval criteria. That exactly that is exactly what we did in the east campus refinement plan

amendments in 2004 and the matnight arena application. Both ended up with a plan everybody could live with and I believe this is possible here given the development uh in this case is not time critical. So to achieve this end we have only really one choice remaining because of the quad judicial process and that is to deny the application. If we do not do that, we are very likely headed for a luba appeal, delays, more ranker, and divisiveness. So, I worked with the city attorney's office, Lauren Summers, to craft a motion, and I'll read it and then I'll I'll make it after I'm done. Um, to move to deny the applications due to non-compliance with approval criteria in EC980651, EC9.80652, 80652 EC 84241 and EC84242 and I move to direct C manager to bring back written decision supporting the denial.

Councilor link I'm going to pause you now and bring come back to a second round. Councelor Kosinski thank you.

Thank you councelor Zelinka. So, um, we should all be clear that this issue is not about housing as the Uvo would have us believe. The number of students has been relatively flat for quite some time, is expected to be so over the foreseeable future. So, this is really about the impacts on the Fairmont neighborhood. While we need more housing, it doesn't have to come in the in in the form of high-rise sevenstory dorms in an established historic neighborhood without any additional standards or requirements to address those impacts from it. The reality is that the Uvo can right now build middle and highdensity housing in the area without any amendments to the east campus plan. But they've decided they want to allow to build to be allowed to build sevenstory dorms adjacent to homes without any additional requirements to address the impacts on the historic Fairmont neighborhood. This is in direct contradiction to comprehensive plan policy A25, which requires a balancing of development interests with quote increasing the stability and quality of older residential neighborhoods end quote through measures such as traffic calming, parking requirements, and other that support plan densities. The amendments would allow the height of a new potential dorms and other institutional facilities to go from 45 ft to 85 ft adjacent to neighbors backyards. And we saw that in the scale model that's in our council offices. Instead, as the count Fairmont neighbors suggest, the applicant could maintain the buffer area by incorporating trans transitional increasing heights as a step back from the neighborhood and as we have already on the old Germania Joe Romania Chevrolet lot in the 19th Avenue uh area south of the university. In addition, the substantial impacts on the neighborhood of the additional 800 beds in a potential new dorm on top of the already being constructed 800 beds uh are not being addressed under this proposal. To be clear, this amount of

people is like the equivalent of adding the entire populace of the city of Cobberg in the Fairmont neighborhood. It's important to realize that the traffic and parking impacts are not only from the additional students, but from the numerous workers, the maintenance and repair vehicles, service and delivery vehicles, waste hauling, lifts and Ubers, drop offs and pickoffs, and visitors. And the impact would be profound on the neighborhood. So, in summary, the proposal raises building heights, allows large dorms, makes no provision for addressing all those resulting impacts on the neighborhood, and makes the proposal inconsistent with the approval criteria. The proposal would double the height, scale, and size, and occupancy in the Fairmont neighborhood from what is allowable today. And the impact on the traffic, and parking associated with the functioning of the new dorms would also be inconsistent with the refinement plan and the approval criteria. And then finally, the sheer volume and qual quality of the opposing testimony and written comment in this proceeding since October of last year is one more final indicator that applicants have failed to meet the required burden of proof that their application is consistent with the approval criteria. So therefore, I move to deny the applications due to non-compliance with approval criteria EC9.80651, 80651, EC980652, EC984241, and EC984242. And I move to direct the city manager to bring back written decision supporting the denial.

Second. We'll complete this uh conversation on the table and then if needed explain a little bit about the background as to why that rather unusual um and lengthy um statement was just read at that point in our meeting. Um any we have a motion on the table and a second. Any discussion from council councelor Kashinski? Uh, yes. And thank you, Councelor Zelinka. And I I appreciate you bringing up at the the front of this conversation um that this is a a quasi judicial decision. And so the question before us is not whether or not we think the university's proposal for dorms is a good proposal or a bad proposal or whether we think that those impacts would be this or that. And is does that meet the approval criteria? Um, and I've spent a lot of time looking at the approval criteria and looking at what the the language is and what the proposal is. And in my opinion, they have met that approval criteria. Um, in particular, and I could sort of go through point by point each one and the concerns that got brought up, but I will just pull one out because I only have a couple of minutes. Um, one of the concerns that was brought up was approval criteria surrounding uh, compliance with the existing refinement plan which calls for transition between um, the university uses and the residential uses. It doesn't specify what that transition has to look like. And looking at this language um this does what is a meaningful transition is to some degree in the eye of beholder. It's not a a specific set of criteria. And when I look at the

transition that is included in this proposal um and compare it to transitions between higher and lower intensity uses in other parts of the city. If you look at what the transmission standards are for R1 abudding R4 in the city, what is proposed in this uh proposal is significantly more transitiony, I guess, for there's more of a step back. There's more of a change there. Um, you know, we I I think it is likely that no matter what decision we make, this is going to go to Luba either way. Um, I think that, you know, there's a a fair chance that if we make a wrong decision here, the university will bring us to Luba. Um, and so I'm looking at where I think where I think that we have the best opportunity to be able to successfully defend our decision at Luba. And so I am unfortunately not going to be able to vote for councelor Linka's motion. Thank you. Any other discussion from council? Then I'll now take a vote for this. Oh, counselors Lena.

Um I appreciate that councelor Kazinsi. The refinement plan does indeed call for a transition of heights and it's not specific because the specificity of that is actually in the ordinance. So if you just read the refinement plan, you wouldn't see that. But if you read the entirety of of all the documents associated with it, you'd see that there was a specific plan and with specific numbers in it that's not in the refinement plan, but in the ordinance. So in in that sense, this does exactly violate that um inconsistent with what is um the entirety of the refinement plan, which incorpors the the adopting ordinance. Any other discussion from council? Councelor Leech.

Thank you, Mayor. Um, you know, I've I've spent some time with this as well and I am in favor of councelor Zelena's motion because I've seen a lot of uh these votes over the last few years. What I haven't seen is one that asks us to reszone the property, to change the refinement plan, to change the height limitations, to change an overlay zone all in one. And when we're looking at these state goals, um I think we have to look at this as a comprehensive what are we changing in this neighborhood that is going to really impact and why do we have a refinement plan? Why do we have, you know, a comprehensive plan if we are just going to be able to take this to a completely different place? You know, we are we are doing neighborhood planning in other neighborhoods. What is the point if in one fell swoop that we can just say you can do this project how you want and regardless of how the neighborhood and the impacts to all of these co sets of code that we have set for a reason. So, I I am going to be in favor of of the motion and um I'm hopeful that in denying this application, we can go back to the drawing board and we can approve something that looks like um something that the neighbors, the the neighborhood, the community, the university that we all can come together because I think it's completely possible. So, I appreciate um I appreciate you um Councelor Zelinka for bringing this up. Any other comments from council? Seeing no additional discussion. Sorry,

Councelor Groves, you all are right at the last moment. It's the last minute. I was thinking Thank you, mayor. I was uh I was pondering this. Does the city attorney have any comments between the two positions that have just been expressed and the planning commission? you have a recommendation I think from planning staff. Um the recommendation is um what what we would be relying on. We'll obviously be defending any um decision that this council makes, but the recommendation in your packet um is to approve the application. Okay. Thank you.

Any other comments from council? Seeing none, I'll now take a vote for this motion. Council, please lock in the votes on the tablets in front of you. Have councelor Leech, will you please indicate your vote? U a vote for the motion to uh that counselor's link move to deny the application.

Correct. I vote to approve this motion. We have three in the affirmative and five against. And so the motion fails. I'll now turn to the council vice president to put another motion forward. I move to approve the ordinance amending the Fairmont University of Oregon special area study, amending the Eugene code, and reszoning the property that is included as attachment B in this agenda item summary.

Second. Any discussion from council? Seeing none, I'll now take a vote for this motion. Counselors, please lock in your votes.

And councelor Leech, would you please indicate your vote? Either thumbs up, thumbs down, or a yes or no. I'm an opposed.

Just confirming. Then the motion passes with a vote of five to three. And the motion passes. Thank you. That concludes our fifth agenda item this evening. The next item on tonight's agenda is the public comment period. Public comment period is an opportunity for individuals to speak to the city council on any city related issues except for those items which have already been heard by a hearings official. Staff, can you please share the list and number of speakers that signed up to speak by 7:35 p.m.? Thank you, mayor. We had 31 folks sign up to speak. Um, as a reminder, public comment period will be limited to 90 minutes or conclude by 9:50 p.m., whichever occurs first, to have sufficient time to address all items on tonight's agenda. Uh, oh, that's not my line. Um, I will announce two speakers names at a time. When you are called to speak, please state your name and your ward or neighborhood if known before beginning your comments. When you are announced as the next speaker, please move to the seat in the front row designated for the next speaker. When it is your turn, you may come to the podium. [clears throat] Please leave any bags you may have with you at your seat. If you have documents to give counsel, please place them in the basket near the podium. You will have 2 and 1/2 minutes to speak. The timer will flash red when you have 15 seconds remaining to speak. Your microphone will be muted at the 2 and 1/2 minute mark. Please note that use of profanity is not permitted. Our first speakers tonight are Lynn Woodrich followed by Kevin Cronin. My name is Lynn Woodri. I'm the co-chair of the active BETHL community and a Bethl resident for over 30 years. I live in W 8. I've been speaking on behalf of our ABC board for the last six years. I'm repeating this speech today without

the musical interlude. I'm allowed to speak first as I'm representing my neighborhood association. The active Bethl community has over 12,000 households. Speaking is a privilege and has made a difference in the Bethl neighborhood. Starting six years ago, I spoke regularly that Bethl hadn't had a neighborhood plan for 40 years. There was a city council work session recently where our new Bethl plan was presented. Highway 99 has been a regular topic in my speeches. At the state of the city address this year, Mayor Kudson said, "I think we need to begin thinking differently about Highway 99, its future as a safer, greener, multimodal boulevard. It needs to be reimagined. And as with so many other examples, we can bring a new spirit of collaboration to this work. Working with Beyond Toxics and many agencies to bring attention to the JH Baxter neighborhood contamination resulted in its closing and becoming a super fun site. There have been many urgent topics relating to the Bethl neighborhood as it was ignored for far too long. Bringing the neighborhood issues to our city council mayor and city manager regularly is important and I will continue to advocate for BETHL. I encourage other neighborhood associations to give permission to their leaders to advocate for their needs, too. We're inviting everyone to attend our we are BETHL celebration on Saturday, May 30th at Peterson Barn from noon to 4. We have 60 booths with activities, live performances, games, food carts, and raffle prizes. The Kinder Foundation is helping to sponsor our event this year, and we'll have lots of kindness to spread around. Check out our website, active beth community.org, and sign up for our monthly email newsletters. Thank you.

Thank you, Lynn. Our next speakers are Kevin Cronin, followed by Tim Lewis.

Hello, my name is Kevin Cronin. I live in Ward 7. Yesterday, Officer Sag Miller told me not to worry. Eugene has the highest standards of any police department in the country. I say tonight, we review Chris Skanner's tenure and see if he's meeting those standards. He started April 30th, 2018, 8 years ago. Following the former EPD officer catching a child pornography charge in 2017, Skinner told us he would bring a culture change to EPD. Culture starts with leadership. Currently, EPD has zero women in leadership above sergeant. And currently the culture is one of a casual attitude about women in their lives and in the people that we serve. September 2018, an officer resigned when a woman complained to the auditor's office about a sexual relationship with him. 2019, officer Tel shot and killed Elorio Rodriguez while he was collecting cans. Tael lacked probable cause. Tel was promoted to sergeant. He hires and trains new officers. 2020 when on duty, officer Drum followed up on a domestic violence uh victim visiting her home and raping her twice. The second time at gunpoint. He pleaded guilty. 2021, Wes Darling resigns after being accused of rape. 2023, Judson Watson was found to send inappropriate photos, make unwelcome comments, inappropriately touching one of his co-workers. All eight claims of misconduct were substantiated. 2024, Officer Cardwell told KVAL that a sergeant continued inappropriate behavior with her for four months after she asked to be removed.

2024, Joshua West was arrested and charged for domestic violence and strangulation of his girlfriend. 2025, the flock of Yasco. It's clear that after 8 years at the helm, Skinner has failed to change the culture at EPD. Your only leverage over the police is to fire the chief. It's time to pull that lever. Ladies and gentlemen, please the rules of conduct at council meetings, wave your hands in silent support. The only thing that we hear should be coming from the podium and the person speaking. Thank you very much.

Thank you, Kevin. Our next speakers are Tim Lewis, followed by Misty Strawberry Bowman. Um, I'm uh the person with Picture Eugene along with Jedi Yeti who released uh the short video. And I'm not an arrogant guy or anything too much, but uh you're thanking each other for all the work you've done, the police, and how we responded and everything, but nobody thanked us for releasing this video footage to force you to do some of those things, you know, and uh so just a little bit of recognition would be cool. Um, usually I have other people speak for me and Jetty's going to speak tonight because she's a lot more eloquent. But when I was trying to make a decision on releasing the 23 minutes or the 4minute video, it took me about a week and a half to two weeks to figure that out. I struggled with it. I talked with people, talked with friends, talked to my attorneys because frankly I sort of felt for this officer because he was being thrown under the bus because it's a it's a culture that I said in this video. It's just a small taste of police culture and that's not unusual. like you heard from Kevin right here, all the different things that have gone on and this window dressing that you're talking about and the police auditor doesn't really have any strength either because it's with the chief of police and the city manager. So, the things that we're going to do, um, Mike was helping with this, uh, quite a good marketing strategy to get that 23 minute out quick before we could. And that's really why we're here also to, uh, continue this dialogue and let everybody know in the city that we're having our own press conference and it's going to be on Friday. We're working on a spot, but we're also going to have a live feed from on Instagram, Tik Tok, and Facebook. And we're going to have key

people in the neighborhood talking about their experiences with the EPD. And uh and that'll be happening on Friday somewhere around 10:00 and we're going to get it out there on the internet. But uh anyway, it wasn't an easy decision for me to release this stuff and uh we're all human, but again, I don't pack a gun and uh I'm not living in that kind of culture that uh has to be accounted for. Thanks. Thank you, Tim. Our next speakers are Misty Strawberry Bowman followed by Latif Amato.

Good evening. My name is Misty Strawberry Bowman. I live in W 7. I'm a dark sky advocate. Um, I just want to say I was very moved by Councelor Evans testimony, large parts of it tonight, and that's inspired me to speak a little bit more generally right now. Um, firstly, however, some old business. Councelor Clark, I'm sorry this took a while. Um, but I want to speak on safety and security real quickly and say something I would not have said two years ago. I genuinely believe that uniform standardized dark skylighting will improve the safety and security of this community, including for our first responders as well. uh which seems to be on the mind of a lot of people tonight. Um but let's not get into that for a moment. Um safety and security deserve more than two and a half minutes. So I'll leave it at that. I uh tabled at Eugene's Mayday Fair and um I asked people of Eugene to share star stories and stories of the night with me and I got children as young as eight sharing testimony about street lights that are keeping them awake at night. City Council will recall I once testified that children in light polluted cities get 20 minutes less of sleep per night and I had residents as old as 60 testifying about seeing Haley's comment. Um I was originally going to turn it in 26 pages of star stories seems like plenty, but I'm thinking about all the star stories that I haven't gathered and I think I would like to hold on to this notebook for a little while longer. And I'll be sure to leave a couple of pages blank at the end of the notebook for city council to put their own star stories in. Um, another piece of business. I did ask the mayor and now I would like to ask publicly, can we please get some closed captions on at least one of the TVs in the room. I know elderly people, hearing disabled people, people with auditory processing issues, all sorts of people who would definitely appreciate having closed captions on these TVs. I had a lot more to say, but my time is running out.

Thank you for your time. Thank you, Misty. Our next speakers are Latif Amato, followed by Justin Burns.

Good evening. My name is Latif uh and I'm a resident of Ward 7. I'm here because what is happening with this police department is not okay and the systems meant to hold them accountable are not working. an EPD officer with a department of seven years, seven years, was caught on his own body camera making racist remarks about black people and immigrants while protesters were being tear gas outside the federal building for standing up for immigrant rights. The video sat hidden for months and it only came out because of the community members behind me posting it online. And when it did, the officer just resigned. And that's not accountability. That's the loophole and the cowardly way to address the problem. And there is zero chance zero chance that in those seven years that officer expressed those was was the first time that that officer expressed that for the first time. So it isn't um a bad apple problem. This is really an infestation of rotten culture protected by a system of impunity. So let's not act surprised. This is the culture of an entire department, not just a former EPD officer. Last year, I personally witnessed an abduction by ICE and I called 911 and the dispatcher told me they could not help because they don't interfere with federal operations even though the man had already been had already been taken and I was simply asking them to take a report. My tax dollars pay for that service and it should work for all of us. I've also seen EPD interfere with legal observers and rapid responders and EPD violate First Amendment rights. Officer Hammond in front of his supervisor, Officer Wear, stated out loud on camera that he does not know the Constitution. I'm sorry, but you don't get to carry a gun and not know the Constitution. I filed a complaint with the auditor and they closed it because EPD said that there was no policy violation. I requested a public records request and that was denied, too. Every avenue that

the city has offered for accountability has led to a dead end. And let me read directly from the auditor's closing letter. We received a memorandum from Captain Wright indicating he reviewed the records from the incident that gave rise to your complaint and investigated the event. Based on what he said, Captain Wright says that the actions were within policy of the established standards of the Eugene Police Department. How can EPD close its own case and then denied access to that memorandum? The auditor's office is not enough. We need a new chief of police and we need actual reform. We need Latif. Thank you, Latif. Our next speakers are Justin Burns, followed by Andrew Becker.

Um, I've spoken to you guys plenty. You don't listen.

I've come in front of the city council multiple times asking for help from looming threat of fascism that is attacking every facet of American society. I've been I've asked the mayor and the entire city council to stand up against ICE and DHS only to be only to see EPD work side by side with them. EP has been recorded meeting with ICE in their very own parking lot. When confronted, EPD tried to intimidate the recorder telling them they couldn't be in public property. I personally seen three EPD officers engaging in a conversation with Will Turner, the head of DHS in Eugene. When asked officer Clues sitting in that corner right over there, you can ask him later about it what he actually said. When I asked him what he had what what they're talking about, he told me they were talking about the weather. The weather. First of all, why are you guys even hanging out with each other? If you if there was something really pertinent, something you needed to do, do it. Don't be talking about the weather. You shouldn't be hanging out with each other. Okay. Okay. So, um, and then, uh, so you know, oh, and also Will Turner, the local Gustafo, was carrying a Manila envelope labeled EPB. Now, we have this new video showcasing in 4K the racist and misogynist culture that is obviously prevalent in Eugene Police Department. Chief Ser Karen, you want us to trust you after working directly with DHS fascists, adopting flock cameras without public consent, and now after having your police department's racist and misogynist culture revealed? I think the only acceptable response would be for leadership, you in the corner, Police Chief Skinner, to resign. Shame on this city for not standing up for its most vulnerable people. Thank you, Justin. Our next speakers are Andrew Becker, followed by Sarah K.

Hi. Uh, my name is Andrew. I live in W 7. Um, I'd like you to think if there was like a a babysitting agency of, you know, like 200 employees and they had uh committed as many rapes and murders as EPD has under uh Police Chief Skinner. Would you hire that babysitting agency to babysit your kids? Uh if you know if it if you know a different city department you know the sanitation department had raped and killed as many people would you keep the sanitation department head or get rid of them? I mean [clears throat] apart from the many stories that you know Mr. Cronin and others have shared about EPD uh a lot of it goes back to the violation of trust that came with the flock incident. Uh, I know hours after the council um made it clear that they wanted the block cameras shut down, uh, Chief Skinner came out with a statement that they had just miraculously found a couple of burglars up on Skyline Boulevard and it was only because of flock. Well, the [clears throat] closest flock camera to that place on top of Skyline Boulevard is more than a mile away. And there are at least 25 different ways without going by a flock camera to get up onto Skyline Boulevard. There's no direct access point from that flock camera. The next one is a a mile and a quarter away and the next one is more than a mile and a half away. So [clears throat] from the deceptive nature with which Flock was brought into the city without government oversight by its elected democratic leaders uh and just based off of his statements that uh I heard word for word in other uh police jurisdictions across the country in online videos where police chiefs would say almost verbatim, you

know, exactly, oh, Flock did exactly this and that and the other thing. These are just press releases that Flock gives out to every contract holder that they have and the undemocratic nature of letting that go forward. Put together with some of the other statements that were very misleading that uh Police Chief Skinner made to the council such as that, you know, it doesn't have AI, can't be done with live video. Fox says in their own contract, if you just pay us a little extra money, which apparently can get with grants, they can turn video on at will. They can turn AI uh modeling on at will. You Andrew license plates. Our next speakers are Sarah K followed by Amelia Folks.

Hi, I'm Sarah. I live in W 8. This is my first time addressing you. I have worked in six states and I've worked alongside cops in five of those states. I have never come across a police force that allows and encourages businesses to give them donations. Donations are bribes. Donations encourage the police to show up consistently at the local business. Consistently, predictably, constantly in uniform with their patrol cars. Never in my life have I seen this. Tacoma, Seattle, they don't even allow for discounts to be given to police officers. And you know that they're doing this. You know that Skinner is doing this because you've talked to him about taking stuff out of his budget that he's getting donations for. He's sent officers into local businesses to ask for receipts that he can gerrymander to make it look like you're paying for those things that he's getting donations for so that his budget remains intact. Skinner has to go.

Thank you, Sarah. Our next speakers are Amelia Folks, followed by Jane. Madame Mayor and city councilors, this is my first time speaking tonight and I'm going to be speaking for myself and myself only. I am from Ward 1 and uh I'm also the current chair of the Eugene Police Commission. Uh when I chose to sign up for the police commission, I really didn't have much knowledge of EPD as a whole. Um and I wanted to get involved within the community. And since my time here, I've been able to attend the Police Citizens Academy, which is a 8week. I could be wrong on that. Don't quote me. Um, but it is essentially three hours once a week where you get to learn about the different departments of the police department. Um, the people that I have met have been very lovely humans and um are very passionate about being part of this community and serving this community. with that. The incident on Saturday was like everyone has said disgusting, deplorable, and really disheartening. Um, but what I would love to focus on is moving forward to make sure that these types of folks are not allowed back in our community that are not allowed on our force law enforcement um are um just not part of law enforcement as a whole or folks that help to serve the community. Um, I'm hoping that we can build trust moving forward. Um, and let people know that there are really good humans in EPD that are truly there to serve every day. And yeah, there are some great people and there are some really not great people. Um, and let's keep focusing on getting those good people in those positions. Thank you very much.

Thank you, Amelia. Our next speakers are Jane, followed by Alice Warner. I'm not here to ask this institution for anything. You've made it clear where you stand. Your declaration of a humanitarian crisis is nothing more than a performative empty promise. You provided a permit to the fascists so they could build their Nazi fortress. You claim your hands are tied because you insist on following the laws of those that are violating the Constitution every day. You've allowed Skinner and EPD to get right up to that line of just barely but not quite violating sanctuary law time and time again. Mayor Kudson, city councilors, Chief Skinner, thanks for making it crystal clear that your purpose here is to make it easier for Nazis to operate in Eugene. We get it. No matter the violence perpetrated against our city, you will always choose to cower behind rules and regulations rather than grow a spine and fight unjust laws. The statement Skinner released the one day of body cam footage he shared and him being here tonight is not accountability. It is just as performative as his council. The violence and racism hasn't been weeded out all because one officer resigned. Racism, misogyny, and violence are literally core pillars of police culture. And it starts from the top. Um, for those of you here, I'll turn around. For those of you who are here tonight and body will not be coming to our rescue anytime soon, actions over words. It is up to us to protect each other. So, grow your community network. Spill your community pantries. Start your community garden. Join a neighborhood defense group. get involved in skillsharing. These are going sorry things are going to get much worse and we only have us to

rely on. Thank you Jane. Our ne Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, please wave your hands in silent support so that we can move on to our next speakers and they have their time.

Our next speakers are Alice Warner followed by Trisha Campbell. police. The police chief has said that the Eugene Police Department does not assist ICE, but actions speak louder than words. The EPD does assist ICE. Citizens have filed complaints with the police auditor documenting local police assistance with ICE, violations of the sanctuary law, which covers both direct, and this is super important, indirect assistance for immigration enforcement at the federal level. The auditor has rejected complaints failing to weigh critical evidence. The work is not thorough. And so the police have continued to find ways to assist ICE. You, not the police chief and not the auditor, are ultimately responsible for the work of these departments. Supervision is needed. And I understand that in this audience are people who feel that the time for a firing review that that's now. Whether you're reviewing for firing or whether you're reviewing for continued employment, you still need to exercise vigorous supervision because there are violations of law going on every day and this is a life ordeath issue. When ICE calls, EPD says yes to help. Many different kinds of help. First, the EPD allows ICE to drive around in cars that have no license plates. Second, the EPD allows ICE staff to wander about in our community with masks on. EPD has directed traffic for ICE staff. I read that in an auditor's report. I was somewhat shocked.

EPD has provided a second a second security detail for the ICE operations center at High and Pearl. And it is reported that ICE may be copying Eugene ICE may be copying ICE tactics documented in St. Paul, Minnesota, where ICE makes a false 911 call and uses local police to prevent citizen legal observers from documenting ICE detentions. Are these things helpful? They sure are. They're really helpful. Do they use city money, staff, and resources and equipment? Yes, they do. And that's a violation of the sanctuary law. So, I'd like to conclude by asking

Thank you, Alice. Um I'm Our next speakers are Trisha Campbell Campbell followed by Jetty Eddie. Hello.

Here. My name is Trisha. I'm a resident of Ward One. Uh, as we all know, a video got released of body cam footage of an EPD officer on a speaker call with another officer. Chief Skinner released a statement addressing this the following day. A statement that was so performative, incompetent, and shameful that every person in the city should be outraged by it. Chief Skinner said, "Accountability must be real and trust earned through action." Yet, when he put that statement on social media, public commenting was turned off. Shame on Chief Skinner. Why was this officer allowed to resign? If you were so outraged, then you should have fired that officer. Shame on Chief Skinner. Nowhere have I seen or heard the chief of police address the domestic violence and the child abuse that was talked about by these officers on that call. Shame. Chief Skinner employs violent, narcissistic, powerhungry thugs. If you think that this was one, if if this was a one-off, it is not. This is the norm, not the exception. I could spend hours giving you examples of police misconduct, excessive force, and gross misuse of our funds because the police work for us. Ultimately, we pay their salaries. This should be the final straw of incompetence that we allow from Chief Skinner and EPD. Shame on Chief Skinner. Shame on Eugene City Council if you are not immediately calling for his removal.

Thank you Trisha. Our next speakers are Jetty Eddie followed by Khloe Rice. Guys, how's your day been? Yeah, good.

Oh, uh, so here are some here are some things. I know all about cop culture. My dad was a cop. Uh, I grew up with that in my life and breaking the law has been something that causes extreme anxiety in my life. I have um I've been criminalized over and over and over by EPD and I've reached out to most of you guys. I've sent emails. I've emailed you I don't even know how many times, Chief Skinner. I a lot I pro I think he's got me on block because he absolutely won't respond. Um, this council has arrested me because I tried to talk to you the correct ways. You ignored me. Ignored me. Ignored me. I was staying out on the streets with people who were surviving for 5 days. And in those 5 days, five sweeps happened. So, I came in here desperately begging for somebody to listen to me about the police misconduct out there, about the the city workers breaking 72-hour notices. And guess what happened? Y'all [ __ ] sent freaking sent me to jail.

I'm sorry. Sorry about that, Jetty. Profanity.

I begged the city council to please react, to please listen, to please help. I was arrested. I've been harassed by multiple EPD officers. I have filed complaints with the city uh with the police board, whatever they're called. They say, "Yeah, we see some misconduct here." Then guess what happens? It gets sent over to Sergeant Salo over at EPD, and he says, "There's nothing wrong here. This is fine. Like multiple times, five times. I don't take any anyone in the city serious because none of you guys are going to come to our help. None of you are. In fact, the chief mocked me on the podcast when I talked about being followed and how the flock cameras were were dangerous to me. I'm helping people living outside. I'm not being a criminal. I'm helping 72y old women not freeze to death. I'm doing good things in this city that you guys are not doing. that EP is not doing. And I say shame on every one of you. I want to know why. I want to know why we keep hearing over and over and over training blah blah blah. Isn't it like a two-hour training a year on a computer with multiple choice questions? I want to know why this cop resigned and was not fired because he will get his pension for the rest of his life. Shame on you. Ladies and gentlemen, we need to have only the person at the podium speaking and we need to have a public comment this evening that everyone feels comfortable participating in. That is one of the rights that we are trying to uphold in this space. We are asking you to please adhere to our rules of conduct and if we can't do that then we will not be able to continue. I have confidence that we will be able to continue. stuff.

Our next speakers are Khloe Rice, followed by Holly Graves.

Wish I can match the anger in this room vocally. I can't. But I'm going to talk about something else tonight. I've been following the West Eugene ER situation closely. The permits, the timeline, the financing. I'm not here to pick apart any of that. East Health ER staffing nearly got handed to a company from Atlanta that lied to a federal judge. The hospital that used to be here was torn down for student apartments by a developer from Georgia. The CEO who promised us a replacement was fired. The hospital has represented has gone silent. The local developer holding the project can't confirm financing and won't answer questions. He has now asked for 10 years to figure it out. Every major decision about Eugene's emergency medical future in the last three years has been either has been made by entities that won't be here when it matters or people who won't say anything at all. The last Cascadia earthquake was in the year 1700. They average every 243 years and we've been building pressure for 326. We're already on borrowed time. When that time is up, those bridges will go down and that's not speculation. ODOT, FEMA, and USGS all say that a full margin cascade event will qu will take out many of our bridges. If the bridges go tomorrow, what happens to the people of Eugene? Because at some point, emergency medical care stops being a real estate opportunity and starts becoming public infrastructure. I'd like to know if this council has decided where that line is because the Cascadius subduction zone already has.

Thank you, Chloe. Our next speakers are Holly Graves, followed by Demand Hawkins.

Hello, council. I wanted to come here tonight uh present something a bit fun. I don't know, maybe increase tourism. Uh but in light of recent events, I no longer feel like it would be good to invite people to come to the city of Eugene. I do not believe that it would be safe for people to be coming here. what with ICE abductions and EPD collusion. And if that officer was comfortable saying that, who knows what the officers are comfortable saying uh when their cameras are not on, when they are among themselves and themselves only. Um, as others have said clearly, uh, there seems to be no haste to get something meaningful done other than allowing these officers to resign before they bring trouble to the rest of the EPD. Um, but as you say, your hands are tied.

Thank you, Holly. Our next speakers are Deand Hawkins, followed by Khloe Longworth. Uh hello, I'm Deont Hawkins. I am in Ward 8. Um Councilman Randy Groves there. This is actually my first time speaking here. So I', um Councelor Evans, I'd really like to thank you for your comments there. I'd also like to um just thank all the folks that really commented and denounced what was said by the that officer there. I would say if you guys did not say anything, people would be upset. So saying something is actually very important. I've never been in this space before like this, but I just wanted to mention that I I kind of talked to people all across the country and I talk about how what we're doing here and how we're fighting things here and our trouble and the struggles that we have and I forget that other states their states is not trying to fight with them. So, I mean, there there are some things that we have this beef with our with our city and our in our state, but it is us working together. We're have on the same side with some of these things. Now, I would say with the the thing what we're talking about with this this videotape here, I'm I'm very disappointed. I'm I'm very disappointed what I'm what I saw there, but I can't say that I was ever surprised about that. as an African-American man, this is kind of what I've I've grown up with, what I've known 50 years in this uh this community for the NAACP. I guarantee 50 years ago, this was a social norm, right? They could say this without without any qualms at all. So, what we want right now is really the accountability, you know, from his colleagues. if he's been here for seven years, there had to be people that knew what he was doing and how he was talking about that and they didn't feel comfortable speaking up. But

the other thing that was going on here was the the domestic violence that was spoken up there that we don't talk about. We're not calling that out as much as we should. and the fact that he was really praising the the abuse going on with with being teargassed from our our our people in our community that was trying to fight for our immigrants in our community. That shows that his values really wasn't with his job that he stands for. So there is something that needs to be looked at for our police department. That's just my comments there. Thank you. Thank you, Demand. Our next speakers are Khloe Longworth, followed by Matt P.

Ow. I have a giant picture of EP and a little bit of SPD there standing at the Fed building guarding the fence as it is being put up. Show you all here. Look fantastic. all these little Nazi supporters over there like those three in the back and all the rest of that department. Just uh one a very long series of incidents of EPD and the police system working exactly as intended. It is not flawed in any way whatsoever because the police originated from a Nazi style system. They were originally slave catchers. What makes anyone in this room think that they're going to be any different now? Cuz they're not. Clearly that was true with the racist remarks that we all just saw in the last week on that freaking body cam footage. That was 20 minutes of random accidental body cam footage in a random car. Like, this is not a oneoff incident. Obviously, if this was accidental, then that means that this is happening all the time and we just happen to see it. Wow, what a freaking surprise. Have you think of EPD? Remember this picture? They are defending the Nazis in America. They defend DHS. They defend ICE. And the city behind me lets them do it. System isn't broken. It's working exactly as intended.

Thank you, Chloe. Our next speakers are Matt P, followed by Alfredo Gormazano.

Hi, I've been up here, I don't know, a number of times. Uh, couple city councils ago, we urged you to just not let them build a fence. deny what you could at least publicly like show your unapproval of it. Um, and I believe Keading told us to do some homework uh because we don't know of your powers or like what you can do. So, we put out a foyer request and got the email chain between you and DHS where they just are so happy with how easy and streamlined you help their uh process for getting the rideaways for the building. So, I'm glad that I did the homework. Um, you know, uh, couple last week, um, city said, "Oh, EPD doesn't help ICE. What are you talking about?" And then we just have, uh, you know, pretty good picture of them helping out DHS. So, I don't know. It feels like a lot of hollow words from a bunch of small people who are a little nervous to say no to anybody that has any inch of power. And when we sit here and we hear our own counselors say that there's nothing that they can do, that they don't have the power to stop this, that they can't help these people in any way, it kind of makes me think like, then why are you up here? You know, why do we vote for people with no power to stop anything? That seems redundant uh and just completely wasteful. Um Skinner has been uh what the chief of police for eight years. Um and I think that if that officer who said all of those racist horrible [ __ ] things Oh, sorry. Was 7 years senior. So he would have worked with him for seven years, right? Um and I'm sure that that was the first time that he ever said anything wrong. It was a two-way conversation. The whole

incident is ridiculous. We just found it by chance, right? Um and to think that it's all solved and and well and good because we caught one of them on candid camera is insane. It's asinine. And I think that Chief Skinner does a really piss poor job at being uh chief of police. I think that he needs to resign. I think that uh you know the integrity, compassion, and courage that he's worked so hard for in the past eight years has fallen very flat as proved time and time again. Thank you, Matt. Our next speakers are Alfredo Gormazano, followed by Ember.

Good evening. I had planned to come and speak about something totally different. I had no idea what I was going to hear tonight. Number one, I'm very disappointed that we're going to have yet another gigantic box dropped upon the Calapouya land that we honor at the beginning of these meetings. Something about that sounds hypocritical to me. I mean, we we're screwing this place up. We don't own it. It belongs to someone else. We're just here. Also, we're living in a time where disscent is being classified as terrorism, domestic terrorism. Wearing black, wearing black is considered Antifa these days. You're subject to arrest and being called a de a domestic terrorist. Why don't we turn around and designate ICE in this community as a terrorist organization? Because that is exactly what they are. Ladies and gentlemen, please if we could have only the speaker and waving hands and silent support. Thank you. Speaker, please continue. Thank you. Thank you. So anyway, what I really came here to talk about tonight is I'm one of those Door Dashers and Uber Eats deliverers at night and we are being pressured by these companies to drive faster, to get more deliveries in so these billionaires at the top can get richer and richer off of every moment. It causes us, many of us, to drive recklessly. Recently, a Uber driver t-boned some McDonald's workers that I just heard about from a friend of mine who works at McDonald's. Why? Because we're trying so hard to meet these deadlines. We're pushed. So, if the city can start talking to these companies and saying,

"Hey, slow it down. Don't demand so much of your drivers. Make our city a safer place." And that we need that. We We definitely need that. And yes, and at the beginning of this meeting, while they appreciate the desire to honor the flag, having people up there looking very military with guns was very terrifying.

Really very terrifying. It was like, "Honor this flag or we've got these guns." No, I don't pledge allegiance to a flag. I pledge allegiance to the people of the United States of America, to the land of the United States of America, to the democracy of the United States of America. Thank you, Alfredo. Our next speakers are Ember, followed by Stefan Strek. Thank you.

Good evening, council. My name is Ember. I currently live in ward 1 and I am a seminarian and trauma chaplain. I want to begin by acknowledging that I appreciated my council woman's response to me regarding the pearl pedestrian prominade project proposal. Um and I do still believe the prominade is a good and doable idea. But more importantly, I believe it was an idea. It was an opportunity for this council to demonstrate imagination, courage, and some actual capacity to govern. and there have been many such opportunities. I also think that in the face of how trust in our institutions is being actively eroded, the loss of sidewalk space on Pearl is kind of the least of our problems. I did not get back to you, Councilwoman, because my time and attention has been consumed by the kind of anti-fascist community work that residents should be able to expect from city leadership. If you want to speak with me about that project or really anything else, I am easier to find than I should be. You can come talk to me anytime. And I am not here to detail the saga or the of the fence or spell out EPD's ongoing and blatant collaboration with DHS and ICE using taxpayer resources despite our inability to fund basic programs. or to remind you that we are still waiting for an update about our flock data. Your inaction is not neutral, particularly in light of the humanitarian crisis you declared. The saying is one bad apple spoils the bunch. And you and police chief Skinner are currently at the bottom of that barrel. I will be blunt that I don't think it helps our movement tactically to center removing city leadership because in many ways that only gives the federal government more room to

maneuver. But if we continue to perform concern while refusing to govern then you are making that conversation inevitable. Your meetings statements and declarations are not substitutes for governance and they are becoming evidence of its absence. Thank you. Thank you Ember. Our next speakers are Stfan Strek followed by Naftali Renshaw.

Uh, mayor point point of information. Are we asking uh residents to leave bags um behind? We we do ask residents to or speakers to leave their bags at their seat. The briefcase Please, please proceed, Stefan.

Appreciate it. Well, thank you, city council. And I would like to start this off by a land acknowledgement to the taxpayers of this city who have to fund so much incompetence from appointed officials who are unqualified for their jobs, who are given those jobs without merit by politicians who also never had to work for their jobs. The taxpayers deserve better and I think we should all acknowledge that. Now, so far as police brutality, I am not unfamiliar with the lack of responsibility and accountability that's being proposed and acted upon in Eugene. Now, everybody knows about little Flubbers, who I adopted, but he had a brother and his name was Caesar. And I loved this cat. Back in 2022, he'd been waiting outside my house for four years while he was neglected. And neglect is abuse. This is was an abused animal. Now, during the wildfires, there was so much smoke in this valley, in this city, that this poor little cat was developing asthma because he was living outside my house 24 hours a day, huddling in the bushes, coughing. [cough] So, I after four years of waiting, I finally let him inside. And this cat followed me everywhere. Every morning we'd go on a walk around the neighborhood. We'd go just to the cemetery. I got great pictures of this little guy. And then after six years of taking care of this cat, my neighbors who abandoned them were moving and decided they wanted one back and not the other. They wanted to separate two 18-year-old cats who they had neglected and abandoned for six years.

This was my family. I cared about these animals. And so the cops, Eugene police, came banging on my door at midnight, the same night that Donald Trump was being raided by the FBI to take my cat at gunpoint. I am disgusted by how this has happened. Eugene deserves better. Now, rest in peace, Little Caesar. And rest in peace little flubbers, they are together again. Those cats deserve better and so do the people of Eugene. Thank you. Thank you. Our next speakers are Naftali Renshaw, followed by Rebecca Scott.

Good evening, counselors and people of Eugene. I am a local clergy uh member and a nonprofit leader. And it strikes me that um as I was sitting here listening to the comments of my neighbors um that Martin Luther King Jr. Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. made the statement once that riot is the language of the unheard. Tonight I'll amend this to define riot as what you might call disorderly conduct. And I would encourage our leadership to listen to what is being said by disorderly conduct, especially in light of recent occurrences nationally in which the voting rights bill has been gutted. A bill that was won by disorderly conduct. Policing in the United States hearkens back to the southern slave patrols of the 1700s. The very states who have eagerly jumped on the opportunity to disenfranchise the hard-earned voting rights of black people across this nation live in the fertile crescent of policing in America. Law enforcement in America is rooted in racism. Fair to say that we have a long way to go. We've talked about training, but I would say based on EPD's claims that we have one of the most progressive police forces in Oregon that we've had a lot of training. Maybe it's trying time to change the dynam dynamic. There might be a few like me who don't engage in the pledge of allegiance for

religious reasons. However, as I sat here tonight during the pledge of allegiance, as in a time of highly militarized action is taking place, we saw men with guns carrying flags, I wondered if the others sitting next to me sat down because we don't feel safe. And this is an expression of safety. And so I would encourage you to look back on that. the citizens that sat down in protest and realize they don't feel safe. Thank you, Napalie. Our next speakers are Rebecca Scott, followed by Meline Woodward.

Hello. Uh my name is Rebecca. I live in Ward 8. Um addressing the uh body cam footage that was released. Um there's not a lot for me to say that has not already been said. Uh, I appreciate Councelor Evans statement about how this is a culture problem, not a person problem. This cannot be solved by letting one person resign just to shove him off to another somewhere else so someone else can deal with them. So he can act like that somewhere else and we but we don't got to worry about it anymore. So, I don't know. Maybe we could start off by to address this by preventing EPD from colluding with ICE officers who are currently terrorizing our black and brown communities. the amount of people who've I've talked to in this community who've expressed how terrified they are all the time when they walk down the street, when they go to work, when they go to school, everywhere they are scared of that. I know people, someone whose mother was abducted by ice, thrown to the ground because of the color of her skin. Like, and you all sit here and continue to claim that you have no power to stop this. Yeah. Anyway, uh

I'd just like off to finish off by saying that um uh for the sake of our country, for the sake of our city, for the sake of my friends, my family, my neighbors, grow a [ __ ] spine. Ladies and gentlemen, there are several people there are several people who would like to still give public comment this evening. This is their time that we're using in those moments of outburst. Please adhere to the rules of conduct so that we can hear from the people who have come here to speak this evening. That's our agreement being in this space. Staff, please announce the next speaker. Our next speakers are Maline Woodward followed by Levi Simmons.

Good evening. My name is Meline. The racism and anti-immigration comments said by the officer was disgusting. But I wanted to specifically take time to comment on the misogynistic rhetoric delivered and the and addressed the reaction of the chief of police that I, as someone who is a survivor of domestic abuse, think was insufficient. From what I was able to understand from the footage that I saw, I'm appalled at the two men in the body cam footage who callously gossiped about the the abuse they knew from men in their lives, detailing that the men would grab their wives, tell their wives, "No one is going to want you because you have five kids and don't work." Would beat up their daughter, call their daughter the beur, chuck their daughter up against a wall, slap their daughter, and beat their ex-wifeives husband so badly he thought that he killed them. Yet regardless, after discussing these abuses, one rushed very quickly to defend one of the abusers by saying, quote, "He's a cool guy. You'd want to meet up with him. The nostalgia of being together. He's a decent dude." What was said between these two men was enabling behavior. Knowing that the men they used to work with and were around were abusers, listening to these men detail abuse, yet not intervening or cultivating an environment that would make it safe for those women to report the abuse. How are we supposed to trust EPD to protect and serve the community when they won't even protect and serve the women in their lives that they know that are being abused? How are we supposed to report and feel safe as victims of abuse in a community if we are forced to go to the people that protect abusers? The fact that this was such common knowledge gossip and the fact that the abusers felt comfortable enough to discuss the details of the abuse they administered with the two men in the video is very telling of the environment that has been cultivated. This wasn't just gossip between two men. This was a tell all of the inner workings and how they enable, handwave away, make it a safe space for abusers to vent freely and laugh off abuse. As to the matter of the chief of police, I'm disappointed that there was no mention of this in their official address other than deeply offensive

language. I want EPD to be mindful going forward and know that this event deserves the utmost seriousness other than labeling it as just offensive language. I want to know what specific systems will be put in place to prevent this moving forward. Thank you.

Thank you, Meline. Our next speakers are Levi Simmons, followed by Ken Willis Nepe. I shake all of your hands with a warm heart. I am the son of a Lakota mother and I've grown up as a white presenting person in Oregon my whole life which makes me purview to a lot of things that other white people don't often see. I was appalled by this video and as a former former Army medic, I'm I'm appalled by the treatment and callous callous words used in this department. And as a former military member, I've seen what culture could do to a unit and how it can destroy a unit's integrity. I would like to see our police do better. And I [clears throat] would I would like to see some real accountability. It so far all I've heard is talk. Thank you. Thank you, Levi. Our next speakers are Ken Willis, followed by Amanda Walberg.

Ken Willis, W five. Chris, Jake, why don't you come up here and face everybody with the criticism instead of hiding in the back? Nothing.

Okay. So, Chris, I'm going to talk to you directly about the impact of your flock cameras on my autistic daughter and the damage it's done inside of my family. So, I got a daughter who's got an IQ of 53 and she's autistic. We go for walks. We used to anyways on a nightly basis because you put your cameras up and freak my wife out. She didn't want to take my daughter for a walk anymore. So, because she can't understand what's going on, she's now holding my wife and I account for that and it's put a wedge in our relationship. It's also caused us to spend a lot of time with her psychologist and her psychiatrist. So, your very actions put a wedge in my family and destroyed about five years of work I was trying to do to build a relationship with a child who doesn't seem to trust us. And I put that blame on you, brother. So, I'd really appreciate you to come up here and apologize for that and show some guts, but of course, you're not going to. Hey Jake, what were you doing at Dispatch 911 in Eugene last summer where you were asking for information and were told it was inappropriate for you to have that? I got a lot of inside ball and what you guys were up to. Maybe you need to know about that. But why are you two not up here letting the city address you and actually standing here? Because this is cowardice and I'm done. Chris, you screwed my family. Rotten hell. Our next speakers are Amanda Wahberg.

Ladies and gentlemen, next speaker, please.

Our next speakers are Amanda Wahlberg, followed by Shelley Divine. Hello. So, I'm here to talk about what no one in this town apparently will. And this isn't this is on the police, but this is on every single person who isn't talking about this, okay? There's child trafficking happening at an unprecedented unpre you might not know all these kids that it's happening to because they come from California. They come from Asia. They come from all over, but it's happening and it's happening to college students. And I've been aware of this for a long time. I've submitted multiple reports. I've had my mental health questioned. I've gone out of my way to find proof because people talked to me about it. I know things and I have found proof. I have found human remains off Delta Highway where I was told that college students were being taken by a gang of men, some of whose names I know, and I have given to the police, and where they're being put in barrels and killed and held for ransom. And do you ever hear about any college students going missing in this town? No, you don't because it's being covered up. and I have footage of it and I reported it to the police both times I found it and in both situations under Oregon law what the police are supposed to do is secure the premises call the medical examiner they didn't even go to the location I gave them and I don't care who you are I don't care if you're homeless I don't care if you're sitting up there I don't care if you're in the audience I don't care if you're the cops anyone who doesn't care about what's happening to the children here and doesn't want to talk about this you're all part of the problem and go ahead and call me crazy later. I don't care.

Thank you, Amanda. Our next speakers are Shelley Divine, followed by Josh Easterland.

Well, we're delighted that the UFO is going to build a annihilate another neighborhood. Okay, the body cam footage, we've all seen it and we made sure it went viral. We demand account consequences and accountability. Anything less than Chris Skinner's immediate termination will serve to simply illustrate the continued hypocrisy being played out here because it's ongoing. It's tiresome and it's unacceptable. No more lip service about a sanctuary city when the EPD loudly and proudly proud boy reveres ICE. They revere ICE. We won't be policed by a bunch of uneducated, unempathetic, immoral, racist bigots living out their wet dream of authoritarian cosplay and red pill manosphere insanity. A bunch of J6 sympathizers. Remember that, Mike Clark and misogynist knuckle draggers. Okay, if you're not going to address this directly and immediately, you're not fit to hold office and you should see yourself out because we're flocking over it. And why is nobody here aside from me speaking out of turn directly address the racist bigot that comes here every other week and spews misinformation and inaccurate history in the name of some imaginary personal grievance. Bob with the laptop and the stripe shirt and the Gatorade zero. Shut it down. Call it out and name it for what it is. Eugene was in fact a sundown town. Black families could not find safe housing due to racism and deed restrictions and they removed the residents among whom were also white families and bulldozed the settlement in preparation for the Ferry Street Bridge. This is historical fact. Stop allowing a white racist pretentiously agrieved liar. You know who I'm talking to. Stand up here and be a blatant racist. call it

out and shut it down. In the same way you'd cut off this microphone for swearing, shut it down for racist remarks. Stop condoning this behavior in the EPD and in this room. We deserve and demand better. And trust is not eroded, Mr. Kading. It's annihilated what little may have been left. We don't have cahoots, but EPD and ICE sure are in cahoots. It's a feature, not a bug. Thank you, Shelley. Our next speakers are Josh Easterland, followed by Win Manel.

Good evening, mayor and city councilors. My name is Josh Easterland. I'm the director of Equitable Access Eugene, residing in W 8. Uh I'm here once again to ask you to support a policy to depprioritize law enforcement against adults for the personal use and cultivation of psychedelic plants and fungi within the city limits of Eugene. Spoken on this issue many times over the years and at this point sometimes I wonder what else I can say. But one thing that continues to stand out to me is how uh how many people quietly support this effort even if they never speak publicly about it. People approach me after meetings. Strangers stop me on the street. Friends speak to me privately about how psychedelics have helped them process grief, reconnect with family, recover from addiction, confront depression, and or rediscover meaning in their lives. Veterans, parents, students, healthcare workers, retirees, people from every background. And yet, many of these same people are deeply uncomfortable speaking on public record. not because they're dangerous people, not because they're irresponsible, but because these substances are still criminalized, and there is still fear attached to even admitting support for them. Uh there is something profoundly important in that reality. When large numbers of otherwise law-abiding, thoughtful thoughtful adults feel afraid to honestly discuss experiences that they believe improve their lives, it suggest it suggests a disconnect between the law and the lived reality of the community. I also think that this issue is larger than individual healing alone. Psychedelics do not just affect individuals in isolation. They are often they often increase feelings of connection connection to family, to community, to nature, and to a broader sense of responsibility toward others. Many people report becoming more empathetic, less self-destructive, and more engaged with the well-being of the people around them. A healthier society is built from healthier people. And importantly, decriminalization is not legalization. It's not commercialization. It's not encouraging reckless behavior. It's simply recognizing that arresting and prosecuting adults over naturally occurring psychedelic plants and fungi should not be a priority for law enforcement, especially here in Eugene,

a city that has long valued compassion, public health approaches, civil liberties, and evidence-based policy. There are already people in our community using these substances regardless of the law. The question is whether we want to respond primarily with fear and punishment or with honesty, harm reduction, uh, education and compassion. I believe that Eugene is capable of leading with courage and humanity on this issue. Thanks, guys. Thank you, Josh. Our next speakers are Win Manel, followed by David Igel.

Good evening, council staff, uh, Win Manzel, Ward 7, and, uh, if I may, I'm going to open with a question to auditor Renky. Um, by way of anecdote, I've worked in a few uh, regulated industries during my career, FDA, financially regulated, and one thing that was always impressed upon me was that um, you kept your books clean. You didn't leave anything lying around for an auditor to find because if there's anything an auditor is good at, it is finding things that are worth auditing and then digging. Um, I believe that the video that we all saw that was so abhorent this weekend is something worth digging into. And I've heard a lot about more training, um, looking into the culture, but I think counselor Evans was very correct in what he was sharing with us of his 40 years of experience. And my question to the auditor is, are you going to do the digging that I assume you have more than enough power to do to dig into the same PRs, the same foyer requests, the same videos that we all um as citizens have looked into and dig deeply into the actions of this one officer, uh, former officer that indicate that there is a culture of just horribleness to all of the citizens of the city. Um, and if you are not so empowered, uh, I would, if I may, uh, tack on to what councelor Keading asked for, which is to, um, have y'all give the auditor that power. You know, let people make uh, their reports more than 60 days, more than 6 months. let the auditor if the auditor finds something worth digging into dig uh because as I've said many times I believe transparency is one of the only

ways that we go forward. Um I will just share now saw some stuff related to Flock recently changes to their contract uh Flock using cameras in a children's gymnasium in Georgia to make sales data. Uh and in my last 15 seconds uh a couple of things again I'll share from my personal experiences. One, a good leader takes responsibility for things that have failed on their watch, and I would expect Chief Skinner to do the same. Thank you, Win. Our next and final speaker is David Ikele.

David Igel, Ward One. The last city council many meeting and tonight exhibited some examples of some of the sad behavior I've had to deal with. Ladies and gentlemen, please while the speaker is speaking, please stop the time. Please allow the final comment to be given. We'll speak to this after.

Bye-bye. I'll remind everyone that our council rules of conduct apply in this room and in the lobby of this building. They're here for everyone's protection and so that we can respect the public comment period that is afforded this evening and a priority of this body. Ask the speaker to continue. The last city council meeting tonight exhibited some examples some of the sad behavior I've had to deal with over the last 10 years when I present documented history that history conflicts with the ide ideology of individuals whose ideological constructs are shown to be fantasies when exposed to cold hard facts such as Shelley Divine. Many years ago, after exposing the Dunhal dnaming scandal, I asked that the city council disassociate itself from the scandal by truthfully making a statement that council had not researched the Dunhal matter and that therefore the council had no opinion on the matter. I had merely asked that the council state the obvious truth and to avoid being associated with what in my researched opinion constituted a cheap smear. I received a written letter from Jennifer Yay, who had apparently anointed herself as Lady Magnificent. She stated that my attempts to rewrite history were not appreciated and that she would oppose any such statement. She CCD UVO President Schill. Apparently, Jennifer Yay believes lying is acceptable if it supports her point of view. At the Alton Baker Park event supporting the North Bank monument, she yelled out in front of a group of children that I was a liar. As I previously pointed out, Miss Yay has been able unable to ever provide even a single example of my lying about anything. I believe I've conclusively documented that Eugene was not a sundown town, that Eugene has a proud 135 year of history of black residents, and that the residents of the North Bank were

racially mixed group of individuals who are residing there because of an extreme housing shortage, not their race. I believe my documented expose of the extensive misrepresentations of history in the racing to change exhibit at the Lane County History Museum result in Miss Yay being removed as a museum director. Last week, Miss Yay misrepresented my remarks about non-native Oregonians. Of course, I believe non-native Oregonians should become involved in public affairs. However, I do object to anyone promoting fake historical narratives to smear good people. as Miss Yay has repeat repeatedly done. Thank you.

Thank you, David. Mayor, that was our final speaker. Thank you, staff. I now close the public comment period. Are there any comments from city council councelor? Yay.

Yeah, thank you. Um, I just want I know a lot of people have already left, but I just wanted to thank people for coming out tonight. I know many of the subjects that we've talked about tonight are not easy and I wanted to just um agree with the second to the last person that spoke up that good leaders take responsibility for what happens on their watch. And um as a city councelor here in Eugene, um the the video that we have seen recently happened on my watch. And so while I don't have all the answers today, I I can say that this isn't over the statements that have been made. I appreciate what our police auditor has done so far. I appreciate what our our um chief has been doing, but um obviously there's more work to be done. Um and I hope folks will stay along with us and work with us because, you know, as as councelor Evans was talking about this, this isn't a EPD problem. This is a an entire Eugene problem and we all need to work together. So, I appreciate you all coming out tonight.

Thank you, councelor Yay. Any other counselors like to respond this evening? Seeing no other uh comments from council, I will just uh echo councelor Yay's appreciation for the people who came out this evening and for the community members who have continued to engage with our local work to be a representative democracy and to um actually demonstrate the things that we talk about all the time. One of those things that we talk about all the time is the rights that we each hold uh within this democracy. And I want to remind everyone that when we have public comment and the opportunity to speak directly to your elected officials, that is because in this community, this mayor, this council, um our community broadly, we care deeply about protecting the work the the the first amendment about protecting people's rights to freedom of religion and speech and the free press and assembly and petition. And what we are doing when we have public comment is actually engaging in that work in real time. I want to offer that um I know you all are aware and and the public at large is aware of how upsetting um and as I said earlier earlier infuriating um the behavior that was documented by this video is. I also want to offer that one of the reasons that we have data and reports and information to share publicly and to speak of publicly as part of our calls for improvement is because of the systems in place in this community because of the ways that we capture this information within the systems we've designed. Does that mean that our systems are perfect? No. Does it mean that we are engaged in a continual process of improvement in this work? Yes, and we have to continue that

work. Um, a lot of other thoughts. Um, in response to some of the comments raised tonight, I want to reiterate our commitment to a thorough review of policies and training and supervisory practices and organizational culture. Um, I want to reiterate that we are aware that the conversation that was recorded in this video was with uh individuals who appear to be part of a community in West Valley, Utah. Um, and these are people who can be reached and there are people who are elected officials within that community as well. Um, and they will be hearing from the mayor of Eugene about this instance and about the investigation that we have underway. Am I the only person who will be in touch with them? Absolutely not. Um, the work that we have before us continues and it is our work across the city of Eugene, across the county of Lane, across the state of Oregon, but across the United States of America. And that is part of why we also begin these council meetings on these evenings with a land acknowledgement because this work is deep and it requires our continued commitment and attention. With that, I now close the May 11th, 2026 city council meeting.

Actually, mayor, you have a last sorry, I've lost our last item. Sorry, everyone. We're nearly we're nearly there, but not before completing our agenda. Um, one last item on our agenda which is consent calendar 2 which we have after public comment uh specifically to capture that comment as it relates to this item. Consent calendar 2 which includes a resolution annexing land to the city of Eugene assessor's map 17-03-08-44 tax slot 00400 located at the northeast corner of Marjgery Avenue and Downing Street. Um, and if there are no questions from council regarding consent calendar 2, I'll turn to the council vice president to put a motion forward.

I move to approve the items on consent calendar 2. Second. Any discussion from council? Seeing none, I'll now take a vote for this motion. And councelor Leech, if you raise your hand icon, I will count that as a yay vote. Thank you. And the motion passes with an affirmative vote as well from councelor Zelena. The motion passes with a vote of 8 to zero. Um, thank you. That now concludes our agenda for today and I now close the May 11th, 2026 city council meeting. They are adjourned.