Councilor Gary Rayor stumped the Eugene City Council on Monday night when he announced plans to switch ward reassignments with Councilor Bonny Bettman upon the approval of the Indigo-D scenario. His decision came on the crux of a final vote for changing ward boundaries in the city for the next 10 years.
“Explain yourself!” Councilor Nancy Nathanson said, in response to Rayor’s announcement.
Rayor said he was making the change for personal reasons, and because he had decided to not continue as a city councilor.
“In the political system, if you are not going to run again, the fairest thing to do is to let your opponents know as soon as possible,” he said.
The councilors split 4-4 in a vote on adopting the plan, with Mayor Jim Torrey casting the deciding vote in favor of the Indigo-D scenario.
Because the city council adopted state criteria for reassigning councilors, the original Indigo choice would have moved Bettman from her current Ward 3 to Ward 4, north of the Willamette River. The state policy dictates that the representative with the highest number of constituents in the district remain assigned there.
Bettman, who currently represents the West University neighborhood and a large part of the University campus, will now become the councilor in the new Ward 1 in South Eugene.
The resolution follows eight months of work on the new districts by planners and council members, who did not always see a clear end to the task.
“It has been a painstaking, long and at times painful process,” Councilor Scott Meisner said.
The other option before the council was the Violet-A scenario, which would have varied the least from current boundaries.
“It seems the councilors right now pretty much represent their ward and the will of their district,” Carol Feinberg-McBrian said, who spoke during the meeting’s public forum. “I urge you to consider the Violet option because it seems to reinforce that.”
Resident Nick Urhausen said that incumbency should never have been a part of the council’s reasoning.
“The city councilors are supposed to be here for the voters,” he said. “The councilors are expendable. Not any one of them deserves the guarantee of a seat.”
The council redraws the boundaries every decade based on new population figures from the U.S. Census. Eugene grew about 22 percent in the last decade, with Wards 5 and 6 growing the most in size. These wards are north of the Willamette River, in the Santa Clara and Cal Young/Coburg Road neighborhoods.
“We need a plan that more fairly divides up the area,” Nathanson said. “I want a plan that has the long-term best interests of the city.”
The new ward boundaries must be in place by Jan. 1, 2002.