Eugene Mayor Kitty Piercy defended Thursday night her decision to miss the upcoming Mayors’ Prayer Breakfast and pledged to work with the University administration to start a community dialogue about the plans for a new basketball arena during her first appearance at a West University Neighbors meeting since last year’s mayoral election.
Piercy announced Tuesday that she would not be attending the annual breakfast and said at the meeting the main reason behind the decision is the need for the separation of church and state.
“My concern about the Mayors’ Prayer Breakfast is the very title of it,” Piercy said.
She emphasized that she is very appreciative of prayer in the community but said she wants to make sure she represents people of all religious beliefs equally.
“I’m willing to take the shots for that,” Piercy said, commenting on what she said were about 300 e-mails she has received commending or criticizing the decision.
Later in the meeting, Piercy expressed her interest in learning more about the University’s plans for a new basketball arena and in opening up a community dialogue about the issue with the University but said she will wait until the controversy surrounding the prayer breakfast dies down before tackling another potentially controversial issue.
“I would be glad to work with (City Councilor) David (Kelly) on trying to light the fires where they need to be lit,” Piercy said. “(But) maybe I’ll let the burs go out before tackling that one.”
Councilor Kelly said he contacted the city manager and members of the University administration after the neighborhood association passed a resolution March 3 asking for a say in the arena plans but did not receive a definitive response about the issue.
The resolution called for University, city and county officials to start a public forum on the University’s plans for the arena.
University Vice President for Administration Dan Williams said in an April 25 Emerald article that the recently purchased Williams’ Bakery property is the definite site for the new arena, though he said it is still unknown when the arena will be built.
University Planning Director and Architect Chris Ramey spoke after Piercy about the
University’s planning process, saying that the planning department’s role in the University’s arena plans is rather minimal.
“I oftentimes learn about it by reading the newspaper,” Ramey said.
Also at the meeting, neighborhood association board member and University student Don Goldman lambasted Piercy and the rest of the city government for approving a tax break for Hynix Semiconductor, a company that Goldman said is undeserving of such breaks because of the number of toxins it is reportedly emitting.
“I can’t believe you’re actually thinking about doing this,” Goldman said.
Piercy said state laws don’t allow cities to pick and choose which businesses within an enterprise zone to give tax breaks.
“I’m not going to make a case for them because I don’t owe them a thing,” Piercy said, stressing that Hynix has obeyed all the necessary requirements by improving its environmental standards and providing the community with decent-wage jobs.
The city has been working with Hynix to improve its environmental sensitivity and much progress has been made, Piercy said. She added that the nature of the business, computers and manufacturing, is such that a higher amount of toxins should be expected.
“In the end it would be great if we could do computers without toxins,” Piercy said.
Piercy also discussed plans for an external police review board that the Eugene Police Commission is currently in the process of putting together.
“It’s been a long time coming,” Piercy said.
Piercy said the community has been doing “incredibly great work” on the policing concerns in the city and invited anyone interested in participating to start attending commission meetings.
“The challenge to the Council and the community is to find a way to have an external review board that really works,” Piercy said.
West University Neighbors Chair Drix Rixmann asked Piercy about the current happenings with development at the Eugene Water and Electric Board’s riverfront property.
The city has been in a dialogue for many months about the possibility of a hospital being built near the river, and Piercy said she sees positive progress being made in the discussions.
Piercy said Arlie & Co., the company in charge of the development, has a reputation as a “speculator” but that it has hired some “creative thinkers” who are showing a willingness to work with the community to create a riverfront development project that works best for the community.
Rixmann said he hopes the hospital can be planned in a way that the developers will “not make it a box for sick people but make it a healing thing.”

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