Three-way commission race centers on public safety tax.Byline: Matt Cooper Matt Cooper may refer to:
In one sense, the three-man race for east Lane County commissioner is easy to understand: The incumbent favors an income tax for public safety; his challengers oppose it. Given the electorate's recent distaste for county public safety measures safety measures, n.pl actions (e.g., use of glasses, face masks) taken to protect patients and office personnel from such known hazards as particles and aerosols from high-speed rotary instruments, mercury vapor, radiation exposure, anesthetic and , this could spell trouble for Faye Stewart, the board's newest and youngest member, who joined at the start of last year. On the other hand, if voters in the May 16 election separate their feelings about Stewart from their feelings about the tax, the incumbent won't face a glaring handicap. Stewart, 38, matches up against Ron Davis, a 63-year-old laboratory scientist for Sacred Heart Medical Center Sacred Heart Medical Center may refer to: In the United States:
Lane County voters have rejected 11 straight public safety measures since 1996. Still, Stewart has been a leading voice in favor of more funding for public safety, and says he has grudgingly accepted the new income tax as the only politically plausible solution. As the commissioners move toward putting the tax issue before voters in November, Stewart said he worries most about ensuring that residents grasp the severity of the county's financial instability. "If I could find some other way to improve public safety (than an income tax), I would be for it," Stewart said. If the county doesn't pull in new revenue "the system's not going to get better," he said. Davis and Kutcher fault the income tax proposal, but for different reasons. Davis said the tax could be unfair to people who don't own real estate but must pay the tax, because they wouldn't receive the property-tax relief to be written into the new tax. Kutcher, meanwhile, said the county needs only to rethink its spending, and that the proposed tax would mostly fund the wrong kinds of services - law enforcement and incarceration Confinement in a jail or prison; imprisonment. Police officers and other law enforcement officers are authorized by federal, state, and local lawmakers to arrest and confine persons suspected of crimes. The judicial system is authorized to confine persons convicted of crimes. . "There are serious problems, and problems with crime, and they can't be solved with more jails," Kutcher said. If the donations collected by the three candidates are statements for or against the income tax, Stewart doesn't appear to be disadvantaged: Backed by the logging and mining industries, he collected $25,000 in the first round of reporting, dwarfing the Davis and Kutcher tallies. Stewart wants to try to create jobs in rural areas by directing the county's economic development coordinator to go after the needs there. The county should also do more to promote its services, rather than simply wait for citizens to inquire about them, he said. Stewart would try to speed up the development-approval process by cleaning up building codes and adding staff, paying for the latter through fees and cost savings, he said. Davis, who said he sees a shift in his district toward increased care for the environment, wants development steered to the urban areas. He favors the growth of businesses that respect the environment and a living wage, not just the bottom line. But his top priority is ensuring that residents, especially rural ones, have access to quality health care. Davis said he would try to use the county's land-use authority to push Triad/McKenzie-Willamette to abandon plans to build in north Eugene and build instead on the south side of the Willamette River Willamette River River, northwestern Oregon, U.S. It flows north for 300 mi (485 km) into the Columbia River near Portland. Oregon's most populous cities are in its valley. The Fremont Bridge, a steel arch with a main span of 1,225 ft (373 m), crosses the river at Portland. , closer to the urban core. As a commissioner, he said he would also try to use the bully pulpit bully pulpit n. An advantageous position, as for making one's views known or rallying support: "The presidency had been transformed from a bully pulpit on Pennsylvania Avenue to a stage the size of the world" to persuade PeaceHealth officials to ensure a complete range of services at their Sacred Heart Medical Center campus on Hilyard Street in central Eugene, when they move the medical center to Gateway. Options include turning the Hilyard facility over to public ownership, he said. Kutcher wants to boost public involvement in government, starting with the vote - he would make the elections division focus on aggressively registering citizens for elections. He would assess property taxes based on one's ability to pay, and would cut the salaries of the county's upper-management staff. The state's land-use rules are ineffective, Kutcher said, because they don't do enough to protect the environment or promote sustainable development Sustainable development is a socio-ecological process characterized by the fulfilment of human needs while maintaining the quality of the natural environment indefinitely. The linkage between environment and development was globally recognized in 1980, when the International Union . Kutcher also took aim at the incumbent, saying Stewart is "part of the privileged class" that is out of touch with the basic issues of survival that most of the county's 340,000 residents face. "Most people in Lane County are not being represented by our current government," Kutcher said. "I have a much better connection to the average person than Faye Stewart does." If any of the three candidates receives more than half of the vote in the primary, his name alone will appear on the November ballot, although opponents may campaign to have their names written onto that ballot as the better choice. If none of the three claims the "50 percent plus one vote" majority in May, the top two vote-getters compete in November. FAYE STEWART Personal: 38; wife, Tami; children, Gracie, Fayth, Joshua, Hope Education: Attended Lane Community College and Oregon State University Oregon State University, at Corvallis; land-grant and state supported; coeducational; chartered 1858 as Corvallis College, opened 1865. In 1868 it was designated Oregon's land-grant agricultural college and was taken over completely by the state in 1885. Work experience: Lane County commissioner; president, Bohemia Foundation; director, Faye and Lucille Stewart Foundation; partner, Stewart and Sons LLC (Logical Link Control) See "LANs" under data link protocol. LLC - Logical Link Control , excavation and logging Civic experience: Budget committee, South Lane School District; director, Community Sharing; member, Cottage Grove Cottage Grove, village (1990 pop. 22,935), Washington co., SE Minn., near the St. Croix River; inc. 1965. There is farming (cattle, sheep, corn, and soybeans) and manufacturing (chemicals and machinery). Planning Commission Noun 1. planning commission - a commission delegated to propose plans for future activities and developments commission, committee - a special group delegated to consider some matter; "a committee is a group that keeps minutes and loses hours" - Milton Berle RON DAVIS Personal: 63; wife, Mary Jo; daughters Sita, Danel and Amber Education: Associate of arts Associate of arts and Associate of science are two-year undergraduate degrees offered by many community colleges or junior colleges in the United States. Such degrees transfer to four-year institutions which offer full bachelor of arts and bachelor of science degrees. degree, El Camino College El Camino College is a two-year public community college located in the city of Torrance in Los Angeles County, California. It is commonly referred to as "El Co" or "ECC". It consists of 37 buildings spanning an area of roughly 26 acres (105,000 m²). ; bachelor of arts degree, University of California The University of California has a combined student body of more than 191,000 students, over 1,340,000 living alumni, and a combined systemwide and campus endowment of just over $7.3 billion (8th largest in the United States). Work experience: Clinical laboratory scientist, Sacred Heart Medical Center in Eugene; co-owner, Oregon Wells bottled water; math and science teacher Civic experience: board member, Emerald People's Utility District, 1981-1994, and board president for five years GARY KUTCHER Personal: 50 Education: Attended Reed College Reed College, at Portland, Oreg.; coeducational; inc. 1908, opened 1911 through a bequest from Mr. and Mrs. Simeon G. Reed. Reed is noted for its program of natural sciences and for its system of tutorial and small-conference instruction. , Lane Community College and Portland State University Work experience: Executive director, Sustainable Forestry Sustainable forestry is a forest management practice. The basic tenet of sustainable forestry is that the amount of goods and services yielded from a forest should be at a level the forest is capable of producing without degradation of the soil, watershed features or seed source Network; former editor, Southern Willamette Alliance newspaper Civic experience: President, Eugene PeaceWorks; board member, Community Television of Lane County |
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