Councilors change course to maintain toxics program.

Byline: Joe Mosley The Register-Guard

Eugene City Councilor Bonny Bettman hit the brakes on a runaway council decision in time to salvage Eugene's trendsetting Toxics Right to Know program on Wednesday.

Bettman and fellow liberal councilors initially opposed a move to staff the toxic materials reporting program at a reduced level in the coming budget year, while a pair of conservative council newcomers voted against the compromise because they want the toxics law scrapped altogether.

The unintended alliance would have left the toxics program without funding after June 30 if Acting City Manager Jim Carlson hadn't asked for clarification of the council's position. That's when Bettman dug in her heels and asked for a new vote on the earlier proposal by council moderates.

"We need some clear direction of what we're supposed to do," a somewhat stumped Carlson said as the council began to move onto other matters following the initial vote. "We do not have a funded program, and we have not asked the voters to repeal the (toxics) charter amendment."

The council's three liberal members - Bettman, Betty Taylor and David Kelly - changed their votes the second time around, leaving only the new conservative wing of freshman councilors, Jennifer Solomon and George Poling, opposed to the compromise funding proposal.

The reduced funding level - proposed by Councilor Scott Meisner and supported from the start by Nancy Nathanson and Gary Pape - is based on paring city staffing for the toxics program to three-quarters of a full-time position. The program is currently administered by the equivalent of one full-time staff position.

The program is funded entirely by fees from manufacturing businesses in Eugene that have 10 or more full-time employees and use hazardous substances in their manufacturing processes.

So the staffing reduction means a corresponding reduction in manufacturers' fees - to $13.92 per employee working at each business from the $16.95 per employee that was anticipated for the coming fiscal year.

Solomon called the fees and the toxics law itself "just fundamentally unfair" because it puts Eugene manufacturers at a disadvantage, and Poling characterized it as another example of city policies that are unfriendly to businesses.

"Here we are again, one step beyond what's required not only statewide but nationwide," Poling said.

Eugene voters approved a Toxics Right to Know measure in 1996, following an initiative drive by a citizen group concerned primarily about toxic materials used at a west Eugene computer chip manufacturing plant owned by Hyundai - now Hynix.

State and federal reporting laws covered only a portion of the chemicals used in chip-manufacturing operations, but the Eugene law requires detailed public reports on the amounts of all hazardous materials used - and emitted - in manufacturing operations.

"I disagree with you strongly when you say this program doesn't provide information that isn't available from the state and federal programs," Kelly told Solomon during Wednesday's discussion.

"The information is different, qualitatively and quantitatively."

"Our citizens have a right to know what kind of toxics they're consuming," Bettman said.

Mayor Jim Torrey acknowledged the toxic law's public appeal, but said it ought to be reworked because the charter amendment approved by voters seven years ago has been tinkered with by the Oregon Legislature and appellate courts.

Some members of the 1997 Legislature, acknowledging concerns raised by business leaders including those at Hyundai, attempted to have the Eugene law voided before it took effect.

Two years later, the Oregon Court of Appeals ruled that state law did not allow Eugene officials to collect toxics reporting fees based on quantities of hazardous substances used by various manufacturers. The City Council then modified the program to require toxics-using businesses to pay fees based on the numbers of their employees.

"There's no question the community wants a Toxics Right to Know plan," Torrey said.

"But I think it is so seriously flawed we are going to have to start over on this."

At one point during Wednesday's discussion, the unusual split among those for and against Meisner's compromise proposal prompted Pape - just last year considered one of the city's more conservative councilors - to describe himself as "the new center of the council."

Solomon and Poling were elected to the council last year to replace Pat Farr and Gary Rayor, respectively. Farr and Rayor were viewed as the council's moderate swing votes on most issues.