W. Bruce Mulligan is one of the three candidates seeking to replace David Kelly as City Councilor for Ward 3, which encompasses the University and surrounding area. The following is a transcript of an interview that was conducted Thursday.
Q: What was the reason, or were some of the reasons, that made you decide to run for City Council?
A: The principal reason was to complete some unfinished work. I spent six years on the Budget Committee and five years on the Human Services Commission. In 2004 we opened the RiverStone Clinic, which is a healthcare center over in Springfield,
because we have a huge number of people who are uninsured and have no primary care services or anything other than the emergency room. I want to see us build, and have funded by the federal government, a second community health center here in Eugene. I have been encouraged by the response from numerous quarters, including here at the University, and a desire to end the polarization and the gridlock that exists on the City Council.
Q: What do you think are the key issues facing Ward 3?
A: I think the number one issue that faces Ward 3 and the city overall is our ability as a community to work together to achieve consensus on solutions to some of the more complex problems. I’ve demonstrated in my time on the Budget Committee and the Human Services Commission, and in my 20-plus years of municipal experience, that we can solve our problems, but it requires us to step out of our normal boxes and reconnect with one another as a community. I think that the city is tired of the bickering and polarization that has existed on the City Council. They want to get on with solving some of our more perplexing and troublesome problems. Heath care is a real pressing issue because it’s affecting everybody. A third of our population that’s at risk, without care or at risk of losing care. The environment is another big issue.
Finally, creating a livable community and city. As we grow from a small town to a city, we’re right on the threshold of that.
Q: Have you worked with the University before?
A: I worked with the Fairmount Neighbors subcommittee that’s working on the Walnut Node project. It was a group of neighbors, including some business owners, and (University architecture professor) Mark Gillem and some of his students from the design studio. We came up with an alternative to the options presented by the city that would both preserve the neighborhood and create a livable urban scale environment along Franklin Boulevard. We have so much of a resource here at the University that we haven’t tapped in to and I just sense a desire to reach out and reconnect with the community. There are some forward-thinking people here that are willing to step up and do that, and I’m encouraged by that. I’m also encouraged by the student participation, because more of the activities and the dynamic nature of this city are dependent on a vibrant student community.
Q: How do you feel about representing a ward with such a large student population?
A: It is a challenge in that the population tends to be more transient than other residents in the community. But I like the new ideas and enthusiasm that it brings to the process. But if students are disengaged in the community, it doesn’t work. The only way we can do it is to engage in community action in creating a community that we all want to live in.
Q: What are some of the things that City Council has done well? What are some things they can do better?
A: In trying to articulate a vision for downtown, it has started the process. I applaud the initial steps at adopting a housing code for Eugene. Financial planning has been good. We have a vibrant park system. We purchased some great parcels, with a few more we have yet to purchase.
But we don’t have the resources to maintain a lot of what we own. We’ve got a partial solution for our transportation system in that the city did adopt a gas tax, but it’s not enough to fund the maintenance backlog. We need to come up with another funding stream to make the streets passable because if we let them go further, pretty soon they’re going to cost more to rebuild. We need to create a more vibrant vision for a downtown. We’ve got to find a regular funding source for our libraries. We need some higher density development downtown to grow up, not out. Sprawl just eats up more gas and more farmland.
Q: What are your thoughts on the current business climate in Eugene? If elected, what would you do to make it better?
A: It’s poor. We have fallen into labels and platitudes in describing ourselves and each other. All business is bad. All environmentalists want to stop everything. I’m hoping that we can improve the business climate and get the labels out of here, because they don’t serve anybody. (I would encourage) a lot more refinement of the planning that we’re doing now. We need to get together around the table and say how can we create a smart urban scale environment. The City Council can facilitate that.
Q: How would you have voted on the Whole Foods project?
A: I would have supported Whole Foods, as I would have supported any business going into the spot. The question got intertwined with the separate issue of the parking garage, which was approved and on the books. It was not in any kind of visible place where people could see it in advance, so we got that discussion the same time that Whole Foods got involved. The fact of the matter is that Whole Foods is going to build its own parking, and they do a nicer job of building parking garages than we’ve ever done. I was disappointed, and I would have expressed my disappointment, in not having an earlier discussion about the underground parking that was raised by the students in (Gillem’s) studio. Given the time constraints and what we had to work with, I think the Council made the right decision. My vote would have been the same if it had been Whole Foods or Market of Choice coming in here.
Q: What is your opinion on the current homeless situation in Eugene? If elected, what would you propose to deal with it?
A: The challenge we got with homelessness is that we have multiple things that are affecting us. We’re reaping the harvest that has been sown by massive federal disinvestments in mental health care in this country, coupled with a massive swing in drug and alcohol problems. I would do more to create the core infrastructure that would deal with some of these issues, and lobby for federal funds for this, because it’s the federal disinvestments in a lot of our basic safety net that has resulted in what we are seeing today. The cities, unfortunately, are left holding the damn bag.
Q: Do you think the crime rate is something voters in this ward should be concerned about?
A: I think they should be in terms of property crimes. I think we need to strengthen our community-based policing resources. We need to do a lot more to deal with the meth epidemic. The challenges we’ve got in Lane County in terms of prosecution is that they’re just not attacking some of those crimes. I think the recent code improvements the City Council did for pawnshops on recovery of stolen property is good.
Q: Since you’re competing against two other candidates, is there something that distinguishes yourself from the other two?
A: My background is in healthcare, Alan (Zelenka)’s background is in
energy, and Jana (Jackson) works in a dry cleaners. My experience is the most recent of either of the cand
idates. Coming into the Council, I know the issues and I’ve probably hit the ground running because I’m more current on all the budget aspects.

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