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NEWS
BRIEFS : State of the City
| State of the County | Attneave
Honored | KLCC Takes a Leap | New
Directions |
News:
Unionize It, Take II Employee dissatisfaction surfaces in EFN
labor action.
News:
Robo-Librarian Will the new library's book sorting machine
work?
Happening
People: Ian Hill, Tomas and Josh Endicott
STATE
OF THE CITY
Eugene progressives, anticipating another
pro-sprawl State of the City Address by Mayor Jim Torrey this week,
are planning a Citizen's State of the City Address next week, laying
out a broad agenda for not only city government in 2003, but also
for citizen involvement.
Two local groups, Citizens for Public Accountability
(CPA) and Friends of Eugene, are collaborating on the presentation
at noon Wednesday, Jan. 15 at St. Mary's Episcopal Church, 13th and
Pearl. The main presenters last year were Bob O'Brien of CPA and Jan
Wilson of the Coalition for Health Options in Central Eugene-Springfield.
Several speakers yet to be chosen will give this year's address and
slide show.
"The main focus will be on land use and growth management,"
says Jan Spencer of CPA, "along with the budget, economy, human rights,
public process and the environment."
Spencer says the city has made some progress toward
sustainability in recent years, but needs to do much more, particularly
in planning and encouraging mixed use areas — combining employment,
residential and commercial uses. And he says citizens need to be "more
engaged and have a better understanding of the issues." — Ted
Taylor
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SLANT
It's rare for the Lane County Commission
to open its year with a pair of rancorous 3-2 votes. That
was the signal for the deep division ahead when the commission
votes to replace Tom Lininger after his eight-month tour of
duty. And that was the buzz at the swearing-in Monday afternoon.
Who wants the job? Who can get the three votes? Here are some
names that are out there; Tony Corcoran, Tom Bowerman, Cindy
Weeldreyer, Ed Kemp, Al King, Kathy Keable (named to the county
Budget Committee Monday), Cedric Hayden, Maureen Weathers, Warren
Weathers, Nina Lovenger, Don Nordin, Don Hampton and Jamon Kent,
former Springfield superintendent of schools who has attended
and taken notes at many commission meetings.
We hear Eugene-area medical doctors have
allowed the local chapter of Physicians for Social Responsibility
to go inactive. Our local docs are stressed out by their patients,
insurance hassles and office politics; and many do other volunteer
work. But come on, people. Your voices, passion and clout are
needed at this critical time when we are hell-bent to destroy
lives and health on a grand scale. A good way for medical folks
to plug back into politics is to attend the statewide PSR's
"Health Effects of War" presentation by Portland physician Catherine
Thomassen at 7:30 pm Jan. 14 at the Sacred Heart Medical Center
auditorium. Consider yourselves drafted.
Oregon's hardly New Hampshire or Iowa,
but we're already talking '04 presidential politics. One of
the announced candidates, Sen. John Edwards (D-NC), will be
shaking hands with paying guests at several events sponsored
by trial lawyers in Portland this weekend. Edwards' record as
a trial lawyer prompted the first of what will be many nasty
rants on the same theme in a long e-mail sent to EW last
week. Let the games begin!
One careful reader of the new Measure 28
Voters' Pamphlet notes that Alternatives to Growth Oregon has
placed two nearly identical arguments in the pamphlet, one in
favor of Measure 28 and one opposed. Both talk about the underlying
problems that have created our chronic economic problems: rampant
population growth and a tax structure that benefits and encourages
developers at the expense of individual taxpayers. Check it
out on pages 21 and 28.
Another statement worth noting in the
Voters' Pamphlet is the argument in opposition on page 32 from
the state GOP. Along with the usual conservative crap about
destroying the rich to help the poor is the statement, "Every
expansion or increase in the size or purpose of government places
an additional strain on the limited resources of its citizens."
This argument against Measure 28 keeps popping up, but it's
misleading. M 28 will not expand government, but rather
it will only help maintain education and other state-funded
public services. Services are shrinking whether 28 passes or
not.
SLANT includes short opinion pieces and rumor-chasing
notes compiled by the EW staff. Heard any good rumors lately?
Contact Ted Taylor at 484-0519, editor@eugeneweekly.com
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STATE
OF THE COUNTY
Amid special music and unveiling of an historic
Lane County painting, Lane County Commissioner Bill Dwyer delivered
the 2003 State of the County Address and Circuit Court Judge Mary
Ann Bearden presided over the swearing in of Commissioners Dwyer,
Tom Lininger and Anna Morrison, Tax Assessor Jim Gangle, and Justices
of the Peace Charles Navarro and Cynthia Sinclair.
Dwyer highlighted some of the county's successes in
2002: the first full year of Secure Rural Schools Funding, "boosting
law enforcement patrol, the environment, roads and schools;" a successful
lawsuit with other public partners for a judgment containing the costs
of Public Employees Retirement System (PERS); building a new mental
health building; forming a Land Management Task Force; making county
programs and services accessible online to citizens and establishing
the Lane County Animal Regulation Authority Task Force, as well as
the Diversity and Human Rights Consortium.
Dwyer also touched on the challenges the county faces
in 2003, including the complicated and continued fight to keep PERS
affordable, overall budget concerns and the cost of health care.
Later in the day, at the commissioner's regular meeting,
a somewhat strained discussion took place regarding the election of
the commission chair. Morrison nominated Bobby Green, but before that
motion was completed, newly elected Lininger nominated Peter Sorensen.
Dwyer seconded the nomination of Sorensen, leading to some confusion
and frustration that both nominations were on the table.
After a some discussion on how chairs should be chosen,
the commissioners voted 3-2 in favor of Sorensen. Lininger then nominated
Green for vice-chair, but Green quickly and politely declined. After
a small flurry of nominations, seconds, and declines, Green nominated
Morrison for vice-chair and she was elected.
Following the short debate between Green and Lininger
regarding how best to determine the chair position, Dwyer sighed and
said, "Regardless of what happens today, this is America. This meeting
is like a bad haircut: In two or three days [it'll be over] and we'll
all be working together …" And with that, so begins the new
year for Lane County. — Bobbie Willis
ATTNEAVE
HONORED
A memorial and celebration of the life of
Chris Attneave will be held at 1:30 pm Sunday, Jan. 12, in the Browsing
Room of the Knight Library at the UO, at 1501 Kincaid St. Attneave,
69, died of an apparent cardiac arrest at her home near Spencer's
Butte on Dec. 2, 2002, after several years of increasing health problems.
Attneave brought her education in psychology and social
sciences to bear on a wide range of social, political and environmental
issues. Throughout her life she was deeply concerned about the effects
of world population growth. She was one of the founders of Lane County
Planned Parenthood in 1966, and later served as its executive director.
She worked for many years with Zero Population Growth (ZPG), serving
in local and regional leadership roles, staying in touch with an extensive
group of colleagues via e-mail. She was considered a tireless researcher
and archivist; constantly scanning a wide range of periodicals for
articles related to energy, environmental and population issues.
During the period when EWEB was considering the construction
of a nuclear power plant on the McKenzie River, Attneave was one of
its most eloquent critics. From 1982 until her death she served on
the board of the Lane Electric Cooperative, and advocated for sustainable
and affordable electric power for Oregonians. Years before the recent
power crisis in California she was outspoken in her belief that the
energy deregulation process in California was badly flawed, and probably
would lead to disaster, a disaster she was determined must not be
repeated in Oregon.
Her late husband, Fred, was a psychology professor
at UO and both were active members of the university community.
The family suggests that in lieu of flowers, donations
be made in her name to either the Eugene Free Network, 43 W. Broadway,
Eugene 97401; or to Oregon Public Broadcasting, 7140 S.W. Macadam
Ave., Portland 97219.
KLCC
TAKES A LEAP
It's a challenge to describe 1 Giant
Leap. OK, it's a Grammy-nominated, multi-media musical and cultural
event, playing two nights in Eugene — at 7 and 9:30 pm Friday,
Jan. 10 and Friday, Jan. 17 at the McDonald Theater. It's also about
life in the 21st century, and how the global village Canadian communications
essayist Marshall McLuhan envisioned in Understanding Media,
1964, and The Medium is the Message, 1967, has come to pass.
And it's about how music is the common language we all speak.
KLCC music director Michael Canning said simply, "It's
a natural for us." Canning got the idea for the benefit from a New
York music rep for Palm Pictures, who said other non-profit radio
stations were bringing in the project as a fund raiser. "Palm Pictures
is Chris Blackwell's label," Canning said, referring to the world-music
pioneer who was Bob Marley's producer. "Blackwell is always interested
in looking at innovative projects. And KLCC has been in the world
music business for awhile, so it's a good match for us.
Two British musicians, Jamie Catto and Duncan Bridgeman,
spent much of the last three years traveling in Africa, Southeast
Asia, Australia, Europe and North America, visiting 25 countries and
meeting other musicians, artists, scientists and ordinary people.
They documented their travels with high-quality microphones, digital
video cams and laptops.
Among the luminaries Catto and Bridgeman spoke with
along the way are Ram Dass, Kurt Vonnegut, Tom Robbins, Dennis Hopper
and musicians Michael Stipe, Baaba Maal and Grant Lee Phillips. Many
other individuals contributed as well. In post-production, the filmmakers
weave together music played or sung by various artists in different
locales to create a "song," much as they edit the visuals to create
a montage. Mostly, it's a way to demonstrate that music transcends
borders, but the resulting sameness from song to song loses some of
the spice of musically unique cultures.
"At first viewing, I was bowled over by the amount
of stuff these two guys had put together," Canning said. "For the
songs, they take a rhythm track from one place, add a counterpoint
from another, work in vocals. It's pretty amazing."
The words knit together a running philosophy for the
music and images, but not all words are equal. Ram Dass speaks to
the center, while novelist Robbins rambles at the margins. Dennis
Hopper's lucid comments are relevant to the time, while Gabrielle
Roth is both direct and
inspiring.
The most creative and expressive moments in the film
are the movement of people dancing, making sacred space, inviting
viewers to participate. The movement of an aboriginal dance on a mesa
in Australia is poetry in motion. I watched it several times. Likewise,
the confrontational war dance of a Maori man in New Zealand is fascinating,
intense and a bit scary. The images of children from any part of the
world dancing make you want to grin, especially African children who
find such joy in moving.
Admission is $7. CDs and DVDs will be available following
the show. All proceeds benefit KLCC 89.7 FM. — Lois Wadsworth
NEW
DIRECTIONS
Is war the best response to the attacks
of 9/11? Will it result in reduced threats against our country, or
will it perpetuate the cycles of anger, hatred, and violence? These
issues, and others, will be on the agenda at presentation by Oregon
Physicians for Social Responsibility and Lane County Women's Action
for New Directions (WAND).
"Health Effects of War" will be presented by Portland
physician Catherine Thomassen at 7:30 pm Tuesday, Jan. 14 at the Sacred
Heart Medical Center auditorium, 1st Floor, 1255 Hilyard St. A sliding
scale donation is requested.
The multi-media presentation looks beyond the death
and destruction commonly associated with war and explores its other
short and long-term effects, including refugees, civilian casualties,
land mines,
psychological devastation, environmental and economic breakdown, and
nuclear threats.
"In the U.S. we labor under both the illusion of a
false sense of security, and under the reality of an incredible military
bill to pay," says a statement from WAND. "Consequently, funding for
valuable, life giving social services is radically slashed and the
young, the elderly, and the vulnerable suffer. Oregon and most other
states are struggling with severe cutbacks to education, mental health,
health care, housing and food programs, while the military-war complex
grows fat on ever-increasing federal contracts."
WAND is also organizing a speakers bureau to address
local groups on the response to terrorism, the Pentagon's budget,
nuclear weapons testing and proliferation, the USA PATRIOT Act and
other topics. For more information, call 342-5325 or e-mail rcundiff@rio.com
Back to Top
Unionize
It, Take II
Employee
dissatisfaction surfaces in EFN labor action.
BY
BOBBIE WILLIS
The unionization of a local non-profit Internet
service provider has been described as amenable and enthusiastic (EW,
12/19), but "There's a real story here," says Gary Frazier,
former employee of Eugene Free Network .
EFN employees recently joined forces with Industrial
Workers of the World "Allegedly progressive company employees are
unionizing," says Frazier. "Had the situation been properly managed,
this would never have had to happen. … Employees were happy
to be doing something they enjoyed and getting paid for it."
Many people within the EFN circle are concerned, like
Frazier, about the past year of management changes, employee dissatisfaction
and finally, the employees' decision to band together in unionization.
Employees say EFN was founded in 1993 on a certain
amount of idealism — that an Internet service provider could
be built as a community allowing everyone access to the Internet
— regardless of income or home/homelessness status. EFN was
built by people — both paid employees and volunteers —
committed to this philosophy, people who cared more about the mission
perhaps even than the business itself. EFN was also built on what
tried to be a truly democratic model. According to Frazier and employees
Patrick Wade and David Caruso, EFN had always been based on a collaborative
decision-making process, where employees and volunteers were involved
in discussions about practices and/or changes within the organization.
Last year, EFN underwent a shift in management, hiring
Seth Cohn, former network administrator for Oregon Medical Group,
as general manager. EFN board Vice-President Paul Harrison says, "There's
been a strong desire to have a strong technical leader as well as
a strong organizational leader. It's been a strategic concern from
the start. We have largely functioned with organizational leaders
of varying strengths, but without strong technical leadership." Harrison
feels EFN has found that combination of technical and organizational
leadership in Cohn.
However, EFN employees have reportedly struggled with
Cohn's style, which some have described as heavy-handed and overbearing.
Employees have also voiced concern with the EFN board's inaction regarding
grievances over management. Caruso, a contractor with EFN and a recent
addition to the board, says, "Everyone wants EFN to be fiscally responsible
and stable, [but this can be] a cover for doing things undemocratically."
Caruso and Frazier describe Cohn's management style
in terms ranging from controlling to micro-managing to autocratic.
Wade, EFN's union shop steward, is more diplomatic, focusing on issues
to improve work atmosphere and less on personal conflicts. Wade says,
"What's important is that issues with Seth are separate from issues
for us."
Caruso, Frazier and Wade are also each concerned with
EFN management's move to phase out the volunteer segment of the staff.
Mary Kay Brent, an EFN volunteer for the past eight and a half years
says, "Every bit of what built EFN was volunteer … Now, there
are no volunteers." She adds that with the volunteers gone,
paid employees have started to fear that they will be next, thus the
move to unionize.
Though the volunteers have been phased out, Brent
intends to stay involved with EFN by attending all open board meetings
and to keep a check on management decisions. "I'm afraid [EFN] is
going to lose its base. Members are not being consulted about what's
going on … They stay with EFN because it provides Internet service
to those who can't afford it. That's Eugene." Ideally, she'd
like EFN to involve board members from the nonprofit organizations
that access the Internet through EFN. New blood, Brent feels, would
reinvigorate a stagnant EFN board.
Wade hopes that the collective bargaining process
later this month will result in specific benefits for EFN employees.
"We'd like to see formalization of decision-making in a collaborative
manner. We'd like to see specific job functions and expectations in
writing. We would like a formalized mechanism for the hiring and firing
of employees. And we'd like formal complaint and grievance processes."
Wade, Caruso and Frazier all mentioned that the EFN
office atmosphere has become tense and stressful, not the pleasant
and relaxed environment they had all known before Cohn's hiring.
Harrison counters matter-of-factly, "We expected this
would be a change process that would challenge some people's comfort
levels," and that up until Cohn's hiring, employees "were effectively
unmanaged and now they are managed." He maintains that Cohn's management
style will strengthen EFN as an organization in the long run.
Cohn himself admits, "Yes, it's been a stressful year."
But he stands by his decisions. He says of employee dissatisfaction
that EFN workers have had "an inherent 'this is how we do things'
style, and I stirred all that up." With regards to phasing out the
volunteers he says, "We had legal advice [about volunteers], and we
are acting on the legal advice." Overall, Cohn's desire is for EFN
to operate on the "think globally, act locally" model, where Eugeneans
would choose the local ISP to access the global community.
Back to Top
Robo-Librarian
Will
the new library's book sorting machine work?
BY
ALAN PITTMAN
At the city's new public library, beaming patrons
"ohhh" and "ahhh," marveling at soaring ceilings and gleaming
vast expanses of sunbathed reading rooms.
But in the library back rooms, there's a different
kind of sighing going on. Thousands of returned books have piled up
as technicians struggle to work out bugs in a new $2.2 million book
sorting machine choking on a flood of returned books after a three-week
closure for the move to the new library.
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THE
LIBRARY'S NEW BOOK SORTING SYSTEM COSTS $2.2 MILLION.
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Library Director Connie Bennett says she's "80 percent"
satisfied with the performance of the new book sorter. The piles of
unsorted books are due to a combination of patrons returning a large
number of materials after the library closure and the new system not
operating at full capacity while its being tested and adjusted.
Bennett says staff expected that the sorting system
would need a break-in period and time to handle the backlog of returns
from when the library was closed. She says the system will be operating
smoothly in about a month. "We have every expectation that it will
meet our needs."
In the sorting room at the new library, three conveyor
belts from book drops converge and pneumatic pistons "pish" and "pah."
A frowning technician pulls a book from a heaped bin and puts it on
a conveyor. The lone book moves slowly down rollers and under a hanging
black box with an electric eye. Paddles push it to and fro, orienting
the book. A hidden antenna energizes a 50 cent microchip implanted
in a label in the book, causing the chip to radio transmit its identification
number. A computer checks in the book and tells the chip to resensitize
itself for the door security system. The book crawls on to a platform
where a device looking like a lunar lander with four suction cup feet
pulls up the cover, judging how to orient the book spine. Further
down the conveyor, paddles push the book onto the appropriate shelf
of the appropriate cart for that book's call number.
The Tech Logic system will process and sort 350 books
an hour, doing the work of seven full time staff and reducing damage
to books and staff injuries from repeatedly lifting heavy books, library
staff say. With saved labor costs estimated at $350,000 a year, the
system will pay for itself in less than five years, library staff
told the City Council.
But just looking at the new machine now, nearly two
weeks after the new library first opened, the benefits aren't apparent.
In the library lobby, a staffer directs patrons to place returned
items in large book bins rather than overloading the conveyor belt
system. The staffer then slowly and carefully feeds books into the
system one by one. At the sorting machine in back, three library staff
stand around the machine. Every few minutes they reach in and grab
books when they fail to stack or feed correctly. Two staffers bend
down to transfer armloads of books from the machine onto a cart from
the old library. All around the room, books are stacked in bins, carts,
shelves and cubicles, several feet deep.
Bennett says she expects technicians from Tech Logic
to fix any problems. She says the city won't pay the company until
the system is fully functional. "We haven't signed off on it yet."
A loader/unloader on the conveyor belt system that
would allow more books to be fed through the book drop slots at once
isn't yet functioning properly, Bennett says. Right now, when the
system gets 2,000 books on the three belts, it automatically shuts
doors on the two outside book drop slots to prevent an overload.
The piles of unprocessed books mean that some books
returned as much as a week earlier have yet to be checked in. To prevent
unwarranted fines, the library has instituted a no fine period until
Jan. 12. Patrons with long overdue books taking advantage of the fine
amnesty period may have also contributed to the large number of books
being returned.
After the 12th, staff will mark carts of unprocessed
books so patrons don't get fined for processing delays. But library
users with holds on books that are returned will have to wait longer.
Another problem has been the new library cards required
by the new radio tag system. Long lines for the cards have led to
complaints. Bennett says library staff decided not to simply mail
the cards because of the potential of them being stolen.
Bennett says more than a dozen other public libraries
have installed the Tech Logic sorting system without major problems
and she expects Eugene's system to soon work just as well.
It will have to. The old Eugene library circulated
about 1.2 million books and materials a year. With the popularity
of the new library, staff expect that figure could as much as double.
Back to Top
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Ian
Hill, Tomas and Josh Endicott
After his pickup caught fire on the freeway
in 2000, Ian Hill replaced it with a diesel VW van. Hill and his friend
Tomas Endicott had escaped the "sprawl and consumerism" of Lexington,
Ky., in '97 for continued education in Eugene. Early in '01 they fitted
a 55 gallon drum with a water-heater element to brew clean-burning
biodiesel fuel from used restaurant cooking oil. "The first batch
was perfect," Endicott reports. See how it's done at www.EugeneBioSource.org,a
website they launched with other biofuel enthusiasts. Eugene BioSource
demos drew crowds on Earth Day and at the Oregon Country Fair, and
hundreds of gallons were produced. Still, the process is messy, and
homemade fuel can't be sold. And so, joined by Endicott's recently
downsized brother Josh, the ex-Kentuckians researched commercial production.
"A big outlay, and not enough demand," Endicott concludes. Instead,
the trio founded SeQuential Biofuels and partnered with distributor
Tyree Oil to import soy-based biodiesel from the Midwest. Last August,
SeQuential opened a biodiesel card-lock pump at First and Blair. "It's
one of less than 50 pumps nationwide," says Endicott. Learn more at
www.Qfuels.com. — Paul
Neevel
Nominate A Happenin' Person
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