Mayor Jim Torrey easily reclaimed his position in Tuesday night’s local election.
The election of Bonnie Bettman and Betty Taylor to City Council might not make Mayor Jim Torrey happy, but both newly-elected councilors pledged to change the council’s attitude toward transportation and environmental issues.
The neck-and-neck city councilor races in Wards 2 and 3 were finally resolved Wednesday, with Bettman pulling away from Tracy Olsen and receiving 56.3 percent of the vote and Betty Taylor defeating her closest challenger with 60.3 of the vote.
Torrey, interviewed recently in The Register-Guard, had stated that he believed the election of Bettman and Taylor would result in a divisive city council, because the two progressives didn’t represent the voters in their wards, but only spoke for a “vocal minority.”
Bettman said that her success depended on the support from voters in her area.
“People in Ward 3 like what I’m doing,” she said.
Bettman also credited her win to her grassroots campaign, and said that “I wrote all of my own literature and had a lot of support from volunteers, including many students and mothers.”
Taylor said that she was looking forward to working with Bettman to make the city council more progressive.
“There won’t be a solid voting bloc now, but I am very happy that Bonnie is on the council,” she said.
Taylor said that she hopes to focus on injecting the city’s ongoing transportation plan with more alternatives to building roads and encouraging more cars.
Environmental concerns, such as saving the Amazon headwater and preventing piping, drilling and pumping, are also on her agenda.
Ron “Misha” Seymour, an activist candidate for the Ward 3 seat who received 5.8 percent of the vote, said that issues regarding police violence and lack of mirth in the city will still be outstanding.
“There were lots of people coming up to me saying that ‘you were the only one who addressed issues important to me,’” he said.
Torrey held on to his landslide victory for mayor Wednesday, garnering 69 percent of votes.
But whether or not he will be paid for his trouble is still up in the air.
While it was not passing as of Tuesday night, Measure 20-29, the city councilor and mayor compensation measure, was passing Wednesday with 51.3 percent in favor and 48.6 percent opposed.
Ballot measures underwent a few upsets, but many were still very close. An official at the Lane County Elections office confirmed that as of Wednesday afternoon, the “vast majority” of ballots had been counted, but some ballots were still trickling in.
Authorizing EWEB to build a fiber-optic network and enter the telecommunications industry, Measure 20-30 passed with a marginal lead, with 53.5 percent of voters in favor and 48.6 percent opposed.
Voters declined to fund the construction of new police and fire stations, voting against Measure 20-31 by 53.4 percent to 46.5 percent.
They did vote to provide Eugene schools with more funding, passing Measures 20-28 and 20-33 decisively. The 4J school district will receive $27 million dollars over five years, and the Bethel district will receive about the same amount from school bonds. The voter turnout was over 50 percent.
Election results were based on a 55.8 percent voter turnout in Lane County.