Improving the accountability & transparency of city government
In the January 25, 2018, issue of the Register-Guard, reporter Christian Hill writes:
Eugene city councilors are one step away from referring a competing city auditor measure to the May ballot.
With a 4-3 vote Wednesday, they directed legal counsel to return with a final version of the proposed city charter amendment for a referral vote Feb. 12 after agreeing to several notable tweaks to an initial draft. …
On January 24, 2018, Rachael McDonald of KLCC reported:
The Eugene City Council voted 4 to 3 Wednesday to advance a city auditor measure to the May ballot. Voters may have a choice between two competing proposals. …
In the January 24, 2018, issue of the Register-Guard, Eugene’s independent police auditor Mark Gissiner writes in a guest viewpoint:
Recent discussions of the ballot measure that would create a Eugene performance auditor’s office have briefly mentioned our office, the Eugene Independent Police Auditor. This is an opportunity to remind people of our department’s extensive police oversight role. …
In the January 19, 2018, issue of the Register-Guard, Eugene resident Brian Wanty writes in a letter:
Creating an equitable and sustainable society is the central problem of the 21st century.
We need to check the extremes of poverty and wealth to ensure that everyone’s basic needs are met and society isn’t biased toward the interests of the affluent. Consumption and pollution must be substantially reduced to secure a healthy planet for young people today and future generations. …
In the January 19, 2018, issue of the Register-Guard, Eugene resident Carol Lavery McCornack writes in a letter:
It seems that the vigor with which the City Council resists an independent voter-approved auditor suggests that is precisely the solution that Eugene needs.
In the January 18, 2018, issue of the Register-Guard, reporter Christian Hill writes:
With opposing Eugene city councilors unable to block its path, a competing city auditor proposal moved another tentative step toward the May ballot on Wednesday. …
In the January 18, 2018, issue of the Eugene Weekly, staff write:
Backers of the city auditor Measure 20-283 always anticipated a fight from the city manager, city attorney and conservatives on the Eugene City Council. The established political structure in Eugene has rarely supported transparency and accountability. They fear independent auditing as a threat to their credibility, even if it saves taxpayers millions. But it turns out that some citizens have come late to this debate, and their push for an alternative, watered-down auditor by Citizens for Sensible Oversight (CSO) is divisive and confusing. This effort may end up killing the most solid and best-researched citizen proposal Eugene has seen in decades. CSO is advocating for a vague, competing measure of undetermined budget. As the RG called it in a recent editorial, it’s “auditor lite.” The competing measure is in the city’s hands now, and you can bet the administration is busy writing the devilish details that will take most of the teeth out of it. The CSO measure will become the city’s measure. The City Council has until Feb. 12 to decide whether to put the administration’s competing measure on the ballot. It’s a bad idea, and we urge the council to reject it.
In the January 17, 2018, issue of the Register-Guard, Eugene resident Ruth Duemler McCornack writes in a letter:
So some Eugene City Council members want to choose their city auditor.
Don’t they understand that what is urgently needed is a city auditor with no ties to city administration or the council? …
In the January 13, 2018, issue of the Register-Guard, Eugene resident (and former Eugene City Councilor and Measure 20-283 chief petitioner) Bonny Bettman McCornack writes in a letter:
In the Jan. 11 article “Rival auditor plan advances,” Bonny Bettman was quoted as characterizing the group Citizens for Sensible Oversight as “city government insiders” Essentially the city of Eugene is writing its own rules for its own auditor. Pretending that the proposed draft ballot measure presented to the City Council Monday night is a “citizens’ measure” is a charade that will not pass the smell test. …
In the January 13, 2018, issue of the Register-Guard, Eugene resident Richard Young writes in a letter:
In the Jan. 11 article “Rival auditor plan advances,” Bonny Bettman was quoted as characterizing the group Citizens for Sensible Oversight as “city government insiders” (clearly a bad thing) who are proposing “that the fox should guard the henhouse.”
Bettman sees the city government, including the councilors and the mayor, as foxes and the city manager as the main fox. Clearly, she wants an “independent” auditor to be a prosecutor of our city government rather than an enabler. …