A longtime resident of Eugene, Mayor Kitty Piercy has deep roots in the community.
As early as 1978, Piercy has worked with the city in a variety of ways. She has held positions with the 4J School District, the Centro Latino Americano Board of Directors@@www.eugene-or.gov/portal/…pt/…/Valle%20ED%20Centro.pdf@@ and the Wayne Morse Historical Park.
And yet, after eight years of serving the city as mayor, her commitment shows little sign of slowing.
In a surprising move, Piercy announced three weeks ago she will look to extend her run to a nearly unprecedented third term this November. If Piercy were to be re-elected yet again, she would be the first to win a third term since Edwin Earl Cone, mayor from 1958-1968.@@http://special.registerguard.com/web/business/26838051-41/cone-family-eugene-greenhill-park.html.csp@@
“It was a very hard decision to make because this is a really high-energy, all-day-every-day kind of job,” she said. “I think because we’re seeing a lot of things that we’ve been working on come to fruition and these are really hard times in this country, I feel its just very significant for us to continue staying on track for our community.”
Piercy’s continuing passion for Eugene can be seen as she discusses her plans for the future. She is particularly proud of her work with Envision Eugene, an organization focused on how Eugene can best grow and change over the next 20 years.
“We have been doing our Envision Eugene work, which is both about being smart about how we grow as a community and implementing our climate and energy plan, a very ambitious one,” she said. “Everything is moving in the direction of trying to create a very strong community where everyone’s needs get met but that is still responsible to our environment.”
Piercy first became mayor in 2005 and was re-elected in 2008 after defeating Jim Torrey by the slim margin of 48.8 percent to 47.4 percent.@@http://www.eugeneweekly.com/2008/06/12/coverstory.html@@ But Torrey, her main competition for the previous two elections, said he will not run in the upcoming election because he is already serving another position. Meanwhile, no other major challengers have stepped forward.
“You need to have a high profile candidate to keep Piercy under 50 percent,” University political science graduate teaching fellow Brent Commerer said.@@http://directory.uoregon.edu/telecom/directory.jsp?p=findpeople%2Ffind_results&m=staff&d=person&b=name&s=Brent+Commerer@@ “Your best chance to beat her is to try to beat her in the primary. So it’s all about the opposing candidate. The fact that there isn’t as of yet any announced major candidate to run against Piercy — we have to give credit to Piercy herself and what she’s done the past four years.”
If Piercy receives more than 50 percent of the vote in the primary election on May 12, 2012, she does not have to campaign for the remainder of the year. But Piercy is not planning on an easy re-election.
“Almost every campaign, you get some people who decide that it would be an interesting thing to do,” she said. “If I have to run the whole time, it makes for a long year.”
Piercy cites her main motivation for running again as seeing many of the projects come to completion. She prides herself on how Eugene delivers results and accountability to the community as a city government. Piercy is hoping to avoid having to campaign for an extended amount of time so she can focus her energy on improving the city.
City Councilor George Brown@@http://www.eugene-or.gov/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=267&PageID=2143&cached=true&mode=2&userID=2@@ credits her with many positive changes Eugene has seen over the past six years.
“I think being open to listen to everyone is her strength,” Brown said. “It’s still going to take a while, but we’re going to have a real downtown again. And that is due to her efforts.”
Fellow Councilor Alan Zelenka@@see link above@@ is supportive of Piercy’s reelection hopes.
“I think she’s done a great job so far,” Zelenka said. “We’ve accomplished a lot but there’s a lot more to do — especially things in the city, like downtown development and jobs.”
Whether Piercy continues her tenure as mayor in a third term, she is committed to helping Eugene grow.
“I’m willing to do it because everything is moving in the direction … where everyone’s needs get met but still is responsible to our environment and leaves us with the kind of community that we all value and love so much,” Piercy said.