Jana Jackson is one of the three candidates seeking to replace David Kelly as City Councilor for Ward 3, which encompasses the University and the 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: I had thought about it four years ago but felt I didn’t have enough information at that time. Now, I have spent a lot of time going to Council meetings, speaking before the Council and the Budget Committee, and I watch them on TV. I don’t feel like my values are represented on the Council and my two opponents, I think they’re very knowledgeable and experienced men, but I don’t feel like either one of them, if they were elected, would represent my values. One of the big ones is that I’m a very strong property rights supporter. I think that homeowners are the ones who have invested in it, take care of it; they pay all the bills and the taxes and the insurance. They’re the best persons to make decisions about it and at the very least, be consulted. I’m hearing this huge turf war going on and I don’t hear people saying, ‘Why don’t we talk to people who own it and see what they think?’ It’s very stressful to homeowners when there is all this discussion and they don’t know, ‘What do I have to do to protect my property, and to protect my interest and my investment?’ I also think it’s very important that the City Council follow the law and not just act as if. In the past they’ve received advice to act as if, and then just wait and see if they get caught. The specific example I have is when the Santa Clara sewer assessment went on and people were forced to hook up to the sewer, being as they weren’t part of the city of Eugene. One family lost their home, and one of the family members died a year later, broke and homeless. And later on, legal action was taken and from what I heard, and I don’t know if it’s true, the City Council settled out of court. That to me is an incredible abuse of power. It should never have happened. I’m told that there’s examples of that; that maybe probably the most egregious, but that kind of thing happens a lot where the city just acts as if. I think it’s very difficult to insist that young people or anybody follow the law when our city leadership isn’t following the law. I’ve also heard similar complaints about the University. I went to a forum on Violence and Youth and What We Can Do About It, and one of the things that people who are experts in the field were saying is that young people who do drugs and are violent need to feel heard, and young people don’t feel like their voices are heard. I feel like by extrapolation, number one, their mentor’s and the people they live with are generally adults, and for instance the West Eugene Parkway was a huge example of people getting involved, voting on something, and it was voted for twice, and to have that just dismissed- specifically, the voters voted not to pay for another study. What happens when people have that happen twice, they feel disinclined to get involved, and they feel hopeless, they feel frustrated, and they’ll either internalize it and get depressed and get apathetic, or they’ll externalize it on the people around them. The city’s leadership needs to not only set the example, but they also need to listen to we, the people, if we’ve gone to the trouble of a vote.
Q: What do you think are the key issues facing Ward 3?
A: This historic district battle was the third of fourth time around, and it could still be resurrected. In (the South University) neighborhood, it became where people were losing friendships and people were moving out of the neighborhood. I think every neighborhood has similar land use issues that they’re dealing with. Or they’re repairing habitat in the South ward, and that’s a big issue there. And there was the issue in the Friendly neighborhood of traffic engineers wanting to widen the streets and take 10 or 20 feet of people’s property along the road and make it a major thoroughfare. I think all 40 or so neighbors on that road strongly objected. On any battle, whether it’s in our case the historic district or their case the road widening, or in another place whatever it is, it’s extremely expensive for the residents and there’s no recourse. We don’t get our money back, and whatever agency is pushing this through is on the taxpayers’ salary. I’d like to see some recourse, so that when someone puts through an idea that the vast majority of residents or the owners don’t want, they should have to pick up the legal tab. For a lot of people, they’re just really busy going about their lives and they don’t have a lot of time or even the inclination or know-how to get involved, and then all of a sudden something happens to them. I think the city should be supportive of people who are busy working and having a life and not bothering their neighbors and being good citizens.
Q: Have you worked with the University before?
A: In this battle, we met with the dean of the A&AA school, and we met with the women who was in charge of the investigation.
Q: How do you feel about representing a ward with such a large student population?
A: I know that students are very idealistic and they’re very gung-ho, and very enthusiastic. We moved here because being next to the University is a wonderful experience. It’s very dynamic. Students are very energizing. It’s a vibrant community. If you live in a place without youth, it’s kind of a dead place. On the other hand, it can go on a tangent in one direction. A criticism I would have of the U of O is that there isn’t a lot of room for differences of opinions and differing points of view, although I think that’s true of Eugene as well.
Q: What are some of the things that City Council has done well? What are some things they can do better?
A: I appreciate the fact that there are public forums. I think a lot of what the Council does well is like a two-edged sword. I think the Council has a tendency to micro manage, and I don’t think it’s all the Councilors, so a lot the knowledge base can go too far. On the other hand, I think their civil discourse, in spite of the recent e-mails, by and large there is a tremendous amount of patience and civility between the Councilors and the public and with the staff members as well.
What is strength at times is a weakness, and what a weakness is at times is strength.
Q: What are your thoughts on the current business climate in Eugene? If elected, what would you do to make it better?
A: I personally think that Eugene is a very difficult place to do business. I think that the city would do better to get out of the way for the most part. I think there is an awful lot of regulations on the books that are difficult, if not almost impossible, for some of the small businesses. I agreed with (City Councilor) Betty Taylor when she recently said that the enterprise zones, she didn’t think that they were a good thing because they helped businesses that happened to be in those particular areas but not businesses struggling all over town. I also think, because I can see these questions a lot on what can Eugene do to help economic development, and I think one of the things that the City of Eugene can do, aside from getting out of the way of people who are business professionals, is they can change the word economic development to economic preservation because development is a really negatively charged word here, and preservation is a positively charged word.
Q: How would you have voted on the Whole Foods project?
A: I happen to be a very enthusiastic fan of Whole Foods. Any time I get up to Portland, I do my best to go there, even if
I don’t buy anything. In a sense it was none of our business, because Whole Foods and the property owners are building it. I can see why people were upset (about the parking garage). On the other hand, we had plans in the works for a number of years to do it. And also, and this is where people missed the boat in complaining about Whole Foods, I don’t see why people weren’t upset about the Federal Courthouse not building enough parking for their needs. I believe the Federal Courthouse is short about 200 parking spaces, and magically that’s about the number of parking spaces that are being built in the other half of the structure. I found that interesting. If I had it a complaint, it would be why isn’t the Federal Courthouse building their own parking. (City Councilor) David Kelly had said that the Federal government turns up to do whatever they want. If they didn’t want to build any parking spaces, they didn’t have to, which I’m stunned by. To be 200 spaces short- that’s a lot of parking.
Q: What is your opinion on the current homeless situation in Eugene? If elected, what would you propose to deal with it?
A: I think that that needs to be an area of focus for the non-profits that focus on it. I think that it terms of the city’s involvement, it needs to be supportive of the non-profits. What I would like to see is some minimal expectations placed when agencies give handouts, that it’s not just a handout, in exchange for food or what we’re doing for you, could you pick up five pieces of litter. Perhaps each agency, or they could have the people themselves, could come up with ways that they could give back. I’ve noticed when I talk to people who have been at the mission for a long time, they tell me, ‘Yeah, the mission was an awful place and they made you do stuff,’ but on the other hand, what they said was they would not have a job today, they wouldn’t be able to hold down a job, because (at the mission) they were expected to do certain things in exchange for having a bed and food. And that got them plugged back in to working with other people. When I was investigating what other cities around the country were doing, the success stories were the ones that had some level of expectation. That it wasn’t just a handout.
Q: Do you think the crime rate is something voters in this ward should be concerned about?
A: I hear people complaining about it, not so much my neighborhood, but definitely the West University Neighborhood. They definitely don’t want any more service agencies. I read a story where the police chief spoke and he said that violent crime in Eugene is less, but property crime is greater than average. Not having people killed or beat up or bloodied is great, if you had to take a choice. I think it’s of concern that Oregon has the least number of police per capita and that Eugene has the least in Oregon. I’m a supporter of the police. I’m not advocating a police state, but I think that all of the negative publicity around the police department has been a lot of noise over some unfortunate incidents, but they’re in the minority. That’s not cops in general.
Q: Since you’re competing against two other candidates, is there something that distinguishes yourself from the other two?
A: I’m a property rights person, and I don’t think that either one of them are. I’m more of a keep-it-simple person. I think that sometimes it’s an advantage not to already be part of the system. I think that’s the advantage I bring, and I like practical solutions. I’m not saying that neither of them are practical, I think they both have some strengths. Not that they’re necessarily City Council strengths, but I think that they’ve got some really good strengths. Property rights, to me, are a core value. I feel like when you work hard and your home is your biggest investment- it’s where you come to relax and have a place that’s yours. I’m pro-choice on many levels, and one of them is being able to modify your house to suit your needs.
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