In the March 24, 2018, issue of the Register-Guard, Eugene resident Jerry Diethelm writes in a letter:
Give the Eugene City Council credit for a clever and potentially effective strategy. If you can keep people arguing over the detailed differences in the two performance auditor proposals, they will be distracted from the larger strategic intent, which is to kill the project altogether.
Given the ease in collecting the 13,000 signatures to put an elected performance auditor initiative on the May ballot, it was reasonable to expect that Measure 20-283 by itself would pass. I’d guess at around 60 percent yes to 40- percent no, but it could be much closer.
The city’s competing measure will unfortunately split the yes vote and add to the no vote on the May ballot. In a 30-yes-30-yes split, the added opposition to the already-firm no vote will clearly add up to a defeat of both measures.
It’s a perfect way to argue with tongue in cheek for choice and democracy. Honest democracy would have been to let people vote first on the initial measure they gathered required voter support for.
Competing for the elected auditor yes vote becomes just a veiled strategy for putting the auditor matter back under the rug.