Handy's Top Ten List - 2010
Hi Friends,
2010 was quite a year for Lane County and those of us who live here. There has been very little media attention to the good work we’ve accomplished this year, more attention has gone to stories that may titillate rather than inform.
I want to report to you on the “Top Ten” issues as I see them from 2010, highlighting some of our great work on supporting a localized and sustainable economy, food security, services to children, families, women and veterans, transportation, land use, public safety, clean air and water, and other issues that impact us every day of our lives.
Here is my entire "top ten" for the year. As always, please feel free to contact me at rob.handy@co.lane.or.us
--Rob Handy
10. Recognition of the times we live in… Call to Action
We live in challenging and difficult times. It’s unlikely our economy will ever be quite the same after this recession. Still, a crisis is a terrible thing to waste. In 2010, I have seen what we can do when we turn to one another, not on, each other. Our next economy will be very different – it has to be. I believe that to survive, we all need to take better care of ourselves and each other and our environment. It will be about local and sustainable business and food security. We held three town hall forums on food security this year – all very well attended. We heard from hundreds of people in 2010 that it is important to have consistent access to local foods that are safe and healthy.
In addition to food security, people have shown their caring this year by stepping up to help others in our community who are in dire straits. In 2011, let us each commit to increasing our volunteer commitment by a few hours a month to a cause we hold dear. This would add tens of thousands of hours of human power to address each and every problem we are facing. I’ve seen the solution, and it is us.
I want to report to you some of the ways I have spent MY time in 2010. In addition to attending events and meetings in my district, I also am a very active participant on:
- Human Services Commission
- Metropolitan Policy Committee
- BeltLine Corridor Study Steering Committee
- West Eugene EmX Steering Committee
- Metro Plan Update Task Force
- Tri-County Water Quality Study Group
- Charter Formation for a Lane County Area Commission for Transportation (ACT)
- Finance and Audit Committee
- Facilities Committee
- Fire, Ambulance and Emergency Responders Task Force
- (Vice-Chair) Lane County Board of Commissioners
- Lane County Budget Committee
9) Lane County Budget (woes)
Facing large state cuts in 2011, and uncertainties about the axed Secure Rural School (SRS) federal funding, I spent time urging my fellow commissioners to exercise fiscal discipline by considering ways to stretch our stability into the 2012 cycle. Although I had hopes that my proposal for even more fiscal discipline would be passed; it was rejected by a majority of the Board. We did, however, avoid a train wreck by waiting on critical budget news from the state before making decisions about expensive community health and public safety budget items.
With the needs of the community increasing and revenues lagging, I supported looking closely at possible small budget additions with reasonable price tags and strong rates of return in hopes of achieving the greatest benefit for the community in the long term. My priorities for spending a small amount of funds for large future gain included projects in public health, services for youth and families, sustainability, risk management, and services for veterans.
I will be working with others from our region and state and with our congressional delegation to hold President Obama to his campaign promise of renewing some level of federal funding to those counties who had received Secure Rural Schools funding. This is a top priority for 2011 as otherwise Lane County faces huge budget cuts within the year -- which means less health and social services and less public safety for us all.
8. Planning for Lane County's Future – Leaving a Legacy of Clean Energy, Clean Water, and Inreased Parklands
- I am committed to developing Lane County’s clean energy infrastructure for a sustainable economic future. I urged my fellow Commissioners to roll out step one of a Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) program, which provides financial help for Lane County individuals, businesses, and entire communities to improve their energy efficiency and to ultimately help us reach climate change goals. For more on PACE, visit www.robhandy.com
- We are also putting Lane County’s own house in order with solar retrofits and ground source energy creation at the Public Works Service center and the Jail. I am pushing for retrofits at the Fairgrounds and we are in the evolving planning stages for the Energy Park expansions envisioned at Short Mountain in Goshen.
- Commissioners were key in facilitating the agreement between the Wildish Family, Nature Conservancy, and others that resulted in adding a huge tract (1270 acres) of public land that will connect the Willamette River Greenway out to Buford Park and Mt. Pisgah -- a lasting legacy for our community.
- I have participated in lobbying the State and Congress to initiate a carbon sequestration pilot project on public lands in Lane County. We believe that carbon sequestering can become part of a sound plan to fund essential services in Lane County and other timber-dependent counties.
- After much research and work within Lane County, I was happy with our success this year in establishing strategic Marine Reserves off the Oregon Coast to protect the diversity of life in our waters from accelerating acidification, while providing some certainty for our coastal economy for the future.
- We all live downstream or upstream of someone, and when it comes to water resources we all have an absolute interdependency and obligation to each other. I support a proactive approach to protecting this most valuable resource. Water is key to our County's health, safety and sustainable economic development. Over 80% of Lane County residents get their drinking water from community drinking water source areas such as rivers, lakes or reservoirs or groundwater. Water is lifeblood, and I plan to push the newly constituted Board of Commissioners to take on this issue on behalf of our community’s health.
7) Integrating Transportation, Land Use and Public Health Policy
Sprawl is expensive. It is expensive for small businesses and families who often foot the subsidies that go to developers. It is costly to governments that cannot fund existing and ongoing maintenance needs along with other essential services. And it is costly to kids and families during the widening obesity epidemic, when decision makers do not provide healthy transportation options for traveling to school, play or work.
- In a huge win for public participation and the public interest, the Commissioners reached an agreement with the 12 cities in Lane County on bylaws for a Lane County Area Commission on Transportation (ACT). I fought hard to ensure that the bylaws provide for a minimum of 11 citizen members and designated seats for environmental land use, pedestrian/bike, and trucking and rail representation. This important advisory committee makes funding and project recommendations to the state’s Oregon Transportation Commission (OTC).
- I have vigorously supported funding and planning for Multi-Way Boulevards (MWBs) on Franklin Boulevard in Glenwood and in east Eugene in front of the University of Oregon. MWB's integrate land use/transportation efficiently and create better transit, bike and pedestrian incentives and safety conditions, drawing a critical mass of eyes-on-the-street, housing and business to the MWB corridor. I’d like to see even more MWBs in the near future - they work, and save taxpayers money.
6. Diversity, Justice and Fairness
- I am pleased to have been asked to lead the way in 2010 to revitalize Lane County’s Commission for the Advancement of Human Rights (CAHR). I am committed to ensuring that the human rights of all Lane County citizens are respected and protected. The CAHR has an important role as a beacon and advocate for those who are subjected to marginalization and/or discrimination.
- I was happy to initiate the first joint meeting between the Board of Centro Latino Americano and the Lane County Board of Commissioners, and continue to work with and support Centro Latino Americano.
- I worked hard with war veterans in the LGBTQ community to pass a County Commission resolution in support of repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell", which was sent to Congressional leadership on the eve of their historic debate in 2010.
- Lane County provides matching funds for staffing needed to assist veterans in navigating the maze of federal requirements and red tape, helping them procure their benefits and bringing federal dollars into our local economy.
5. Accountability, Transparency, and Good Governance
- I am proud to be a part of bringing more transparency, accountability and inclusiveness to the proceedings and work of the Lane County Board of Commissioners than at any time in recent history, including more public outreach and community meetings.
- I take seriously my obligation to provide access for input to the public. I did this in 2010 through the support of public hearing opportunities, six community “Meet and Greets”, five Town Hall forums, and an average of 12 appointments a week with constituents and/or other concerned residents.
- I am disappointed that a majority of my fellow Commissioners at the end of 2010 canceled public hearings on issues of importance to all of us – clean water and healthy riparian areas. This is still a need to be met, perhaps in 2011.
- Lane County must improve Lane County property owner scores in the Community Ratings System (CRS) that FEMA uses to set flood insurance rates and discounts in order to help achieve the goal of saving taxpayers more money on their flood insurance . Many people were ready to testify about what was good and what was in need of changing in two draft protection ordinances. I will look to the new Commissioners coming onto the Board to help resurrect the public hearings that we promised, and scheduled, for the people of Lane County on this issue.
- I supported adding a new feature on the County website, the posting of all revenue and expenditures accounting, including contracts and transactions that Lane County enters into, making it easy for citizens to track this information from home.
- I am pleased with the fair and thorough public process the County Commissioners facilitated had for interviewing and filling the Lane County vacancies in the Oregon Legislature which resulted in the appointment of Senator Chris Edwards and Representative Val Hoyle.
4) Leading the way with Reducing Toxins in our Environment
- For too long, the wrong question has been asked relating to toxins in our environment: How much damage is safe? I believe the correct question to ask is: How little damage is possible? We must do a better job of understanding the full cost of decisions relating to toxins made by policy makers in order to examine the full range of alternatives.
- When it comes to roadside maintenance, we worked hard these past two years to ensure a Lane County moratorium on spraying toxins along roads under County jurisdiction. We pushed ODOT to partner with Lane County on a toxins-free pilot program on one of their facilities here, and finally ODOT has agreed to this first-in-the-state ODOT pilot for Hwy. 36. We anticipate the river will be healthier, and that the plethora of organic farms that dot the valley adjacent to the highway will be well –served by this policy shift.
- In November, I led the way with adopting a new, improved integrated pest management policy (IPM) for our Housing and Community Services Agency (HACSA) subsidized, low-income public housing facilities. The new policy prioritizes prevention and non-chemical solutions to make these homes as safe as possible for our neighbors to live in.
3) Transportation in North and West Eugene
- I spoke out against our Belt Line Highway being renamed without adequate local public involvement and spoke out against spending $250,000 for new signs. My fellow County Commissioners did agree to sign the letter I drafted to the Oregon Transportation Commission (OTC) advocating the OTC reverse their decision.
- Meanwhile, interim safety and congestion improvements for Belt Line near Delta Highway are now due in the next eighteen months, while I continue to serve on the Belt Line Corridor Steering Committee working with ODOT on the longer-term solutions and funding for Belt Line.
2) Expanding Quality and Affordable Health Care
- We have overseen expansion of primary health care to 20,000 Lane County residents, through smartly and aggressively leveraging ARRA and other federal funds. We recently opened our Charnelton Health Clinic in downtown Eugene, and are expanding the Riverstone Clinic in Springfield.
- Commissioner Sorenson and I are working with Public Health to expand smoke-free campuses at Lane County and at LCC. Recently, we made our public housing facilities (HACSA-- Housing and Community Services Agency) smoke-free. 18% of Oregon's general population are smokers - 35% of those in poverty have a smoking addiction. There is more we can do to help the most vulnerable in our community be healthier and cut down on health care costs.
1) Localizing the Lane County Economy
- Ninkasi Brewing and Next-Step Recycling applied for and have been awarded video lottery match funds to leverage deeper investments in job growth and facility expansion.
- Recently, Commissioners match-funded Arcimotos stage 4 electric vehicle prototype, helping move Arcimoto towards production. Arcimoto employs talent from the declining RV industry at prevailing wages and benefits.
- Lane Workforce Partnership continues to be a force in retraining people in these mercurial times. The Commissioners support EDev, which helps many entrepreneurial start- ups become successful here locally.
- I continue to advocate for a revitalized agriculture sector, where we grow, process, distribute and consume locally in an integrated food system. Commissioners match-funded Camas Country Mill towards building a new grain and bean milling facility near Junction City, understanding a 1% increase in local food production/consumption would be an $11.7M positive impact to Lane County’s economy. Currently, 90% of the money spent on food in Lane County goes out of our local economy. We can, and must, do a better job keeping those dollars here, creating more local jobs, and benefiting Lane County farmers and consumers.