At an occasion unusually cordial for an election season, two of the three candidates running for the Lane County Board of Commissioners seat representing the North Eugene area met Thursday at the Pearl Street Ice Cream Parlour and Restaurant to discuss the future of Lane County.
Eleven other people gathered at the noon meeting to hear Bobby Green, D-Eugene, and Charlie Strange, R-Eugene, speak at the meeting organized by the Rubicon Society, which regularly holds public forums featuring state and local politicians.
Rep. Kitty Piercy, D-Eugene, is the third candidate for the seat and was not present at the meeting. All three candidates will be on the May 16 primary election ballot.
“This election is important because Lane County hinges on good leadership at the local level,” Green, who currently holds the District 4 seat, said. “Local government, county government, is the closest government to the people.”
The Lane County Board of Commissioners is made up of a board chair and four commissioners who represent five county districts. The board makes policy decisions affecting Lane County infrastructure, roads, public safety, land use and social services.
Green, 45, is a New Orleans native and University graduate. At Thursday’s meeting, he stressed what he called his “leadership based on achievement,” mentioning his efforts to encourage long-term goals for the board, his role in creating the Boys and Girls Clubs of Emerald Valley, and his work in funding construction to make the Beltline Highway safer.
“I’m standing for re-election because I have a record I’m proud of,” Green said.
Green has served on the board since 1995, and prior to that he served on the Eugene City Council from 1989 to 1995. He is also a current board member of the University Alumni Association.
Green said if re-elected, he would address traffic problems proactively, work to encourage economic growth without sacrificing Eugene’s green lands, and create social service programs for troubled youths to help prevent crime.
Strange, a newcomer to politics, said he decided to run for public office after the city’s Christmas tree was removed from the Hult Center in December. The tree was removed after a Eugene resident complained that the city shouldn’t give preference to any religious celebration.
“I grew up with Christmas trees, and they always represented peace on Earth and good will to men,” he said. Strange said the tree shouldn’t have become an item of political debate but should have been left in place as a symbol of holiday cheer. The tree’s removal was a symptom of the community’s diminishing cohesion, he said.
“People always tell me: ‘Charlie, that’s just the way it is,’” Strange said. “But why does it have to be that way?”
Strange said he wants to revive the patriotism and optimism that he said has waned during the past three decades. He said he would work to promote political participation and reduce public cynicism of government. He said he would also address traffic problems and ease tensions between businesses and Eugene residents concerned about the environment.
Strange recently retired from the Eugene Water and Electric Board where he worked for 28 years. A New York native, Strange, 65, played eight years in baseball’s minor leagues before moving to Eugene. He started at EWEB reading meters and moved his way up the public utility’s ranks to the position of community affairs coordinator.
During a telephone interview, Piercy said she too was concerned about low public opinion of local government.
“One of the reasons I chose to run was because many people have come up to me and said there’s no communication between the commission and the community,” she said.
Piercy, 57, said she would consider founding a commission newsletter and create programs to receive suggestions from county employees.
“We have to really think about how our decisions affect people’s lives,” Piercy said. “They’re not just grids on a map, but people.”
Piercy said she hopes to boost efficiency in Lane County’s social programs to better service senior citizens and troubled youths, promote dense urban growth to protect the outlying farms and forests and better include all of Lane County in decision making.
Piercy is currently a state representative and has worked as an educator and a Peace Corps volunteer.