Mayor: Collective win resulted from ‘working upstream’ of legislative session

Presenter: Eugene city councilors offer their suggestions for legislative priorities. At a July 8 work session, IGR Manager Ethan Nelson:

Ethan Nelson (IGR, manager): Ethan Nelson, the city of Eugene’s intergovernmental relations manager. I do want to take a step back to look at the 2023-2026 strategic plan, and specifically around the urgent community needs. You’re navigating a lot of issues across the community, and by taking time to really focus in on what the strategic priorities are for the organization and the community, that helps to give really clear direction and clarity.

There’s a lot of alignment that comes out of spending this time to then give us direction. That allows us to increase our coordination. ’cause we’re really clear on alignment and purpose. And so we want to just spend some time to really recognize that.

And I think in our May 27 presentation, we talked about the $45 million of discretionary funds that have come through in the past five years. And I would argue that it is predicated upon the Council’s strategic direction and clarity in that purpose. It really cuts away a lot of the noise and tells staff what you want and how to go get that and get that done.

That helps to then roll on into a very tight agenda that we had last year for the 2026 state priorities. And we started out recognizing that we might be in a tight state financial budget situation.

And so we really focused in on protecting the allocations, appropriations that the state had given to us related to Clear Lake Road infrastructure. We were also seeking funding for the Eugene Airport, but then protecting funding for the statewide shelter program. 

The financial position for the state was not as dire as early forecasts were, and we were able to not only secure the funds that we had brought in earlier in 2025 for Clear Lake, but also get an additional $5 million for the project and secure $1 million for the airport expansion, current projects that are going on. 

So that’s what really this clarity and alignment results in: a realistic, focused agenda that we can share across a broad spectrum of stakeholders.

Presenter: Councilor Eliza Kashinsky:

Councilor Eliza Kashinsky: One thing that I would like to highlight is that there is currently a cross-jurisdictional working group specifically looking at ambulance transport services and financial stability and operational stability for ambulance transport. 

That’s an area that has both in Eugene with that being a distressed fund many years for us and some of the other districts in the area. Like, I believe some of them are announcing now that their levies didn’t pass, and so they’re having to reduce ambulance service.

And so I know that group is trying to come up with some various methodologies that that could help address that problem. And I know that some of them will probably involve legislative advocacy, and so wanting to highlight that, that would be something that I would like us to have some further discussion of things that could help both Eugene and Eugene Springfield Fire and all of the fire districts… 

I was wondering if there are opportunities to testify or to connect with legislators.

Presenter: IGR Manager Ethan Nelson:

Ethan Nelson (IGR, manager): Two different ways. One is that Mayor Knudson will be engaged (as previous mayors) as the chief elected official in the organization, and be able to come and represent what the City Council’s and the community’s position is.

And why that is, is that in Salem, a lot of times legislators want to hear from the chief elected official mayors. The title carries a lot of gravitas and weight there. And so that’s one of the reasons why we will spend time briefing the mayor, and asking her to come on up and be involved in that, whether it’s virtually or whether it’s in person.

Secondarily, we also then spend a lot of time with our IGR committee members as the standing body for Council, related to state policy and federal policy pieces.

We’ll look to Council members and in the past, Councilor (Jennifer) Yeh and I have driven on up, chatted about items, she’s given testimony and driven on back and we always have that opportunity to really focus in on where, if there’s a councilor that needs to attend, we look to IGR first and foremost, simply because that’s how Council’s working or operating agreements structure that.

And then next we then we will identify if there’s a councilor who maybe the issue is within a specific councilor’s ward, and we can have that as be very cogent to the City Council’s position, have that councilor up there representing.

Presenter: Councilor Mike Clark:

Councilor Mike Clark: I very much would like to see our future efforts directed at a priority item that I don’t see represented on a previous list there.

And that is infrastructure necessary to create more housing in our community. It’s been a number of years ago now, but from our planning department, Heather (O’Donnell) made a presentation to us one time about housing construction and quoted a particular statistic that I thought was interesting.

And the statement that was made was that 48% of our city’s current buildable land supply is unbuildable because of its lack of infrastructure. 

That was a significant number when she said that, and it was a while ago, and there have been updates, but I’d like to see our priorities reflect a stronger ask of the legislature for assistance with infrastructure so that we can make more housing possible in our community. 

I would suggest that that is still a ripe opportunity from my perspective. That’s why I’m bringing it up. I just wanted to put in my two cents and I appreciate that. I think that’s one of, if not our highest priority, to make sure that we have at least the capacity to build that which we already know we need.

Presenter: Councilor Matt Keating:

Councilor Matt Keating: I would like to see our city lean in for local support around increasing investments around traffic calming, safe streets, expanding on our Vision Zero goals with the legislature and I don’t know what pools of resources that might open, but I’d like us to lead with our traffic calming, traffic safety approach.

I’d like to see us strengthen privacy laws in the digital space.  I would love to see us advocating, not only for the protecting the fulfillment of the statewide shelter program (which is laudable, I appreciate it) but if we could drill down specifically around our safe sleep sites and celebrate the fact that there are safe sleep sites in our community.

They bolster a 70% rehoming rate as part of those community-oriented safe sleep sites. 

There’s a statewide Imagination Library component that is, as I understand it, it shifts the burden, not burden, shifts the responsibility from our local library’s foundation or friends for raising revenue around the Imagination Library, because it’s now a statewide program and it has done so well here in Eugene. 

I would like for us to lean in and advocate for protecting those resources and expanding on those resources so every Oregon child has access to the Imagination Library. 

I would add incentives for building up and not out, protecting communities’ UGB—urban growth boundaries. There really is, as I understand it, a dearth of those incentives for a commercial on the bottom and residential on the way up, and if there are statewide fixes to that, that would be great to see the city of Eugene lean in.

In addition, supporting increased investments to animal services broadly statewide and locally and increased support for a diverse array of revenue options.

Support statewide property tax reform. Question: How realistic is that? 

Ethan Nelson (IGR, manager): I think it’s going to be really difficult to have a deep, meaningful discussion at the legislature related to local government and property taxes. That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try. The state government is focused in on transportation funding to fund Oregon Department of Transportation, all the services that those revenue sources provide.

Additionally, the state is going to be navigating the impacts of the federal HR 1 in regards to health care and Medicaid, Medicare services, and of those federal funds to the state that will impact services to community members across the state.

There will also be navigating education funding reform, so these core elements of what the state and then an element related to the health care system itself, and which is the state has a lot of jurisdiction over that.

And then there will constantly be local government saying, ‘Hey, we need to take on a discussion on property taxes and how do we do that?’ And so we’ve had those conversations in the past.

League of Oregon Cities has been working on a revenue reform work group. Assistant City Manager Matt Rodrigues sat on it. I think there’s a seat for Jenny (Haruyama) to be on, our city manager now, to be on that ongoing conversation. That’s helping statewide.

Rep. (Nancy) Nathanson, she passed a bill in 2025 that was a work group related to property tax reform and revenue reform.

And so we will continue to be able to take bites at the apple to really get a better handle on what is possible, the art of the possible, with the recognition, as you said, is that there’s likely not a ‘ripeness’ to that conversation at the state level this next biennium budget.

But we need to continue because it is, again, one of those long-term conversations that a lot of stakeholders need to be educated and engaged in, so that then when potential pathways come forward, that they’re there. 

Councilor Matt Keating: Right. Ethan, you mentioned health care. The Oregon Health Plan Governance Board will be making the recommendations this fall to the legislature for a 2027 implementation of a universal health plan.

May I request that through the IGR process that our IGR team review those recommendations and see if there’s anything that makes sense for our city to get behind, please.

And finally, kind of wearing my Human Services Commission hat alongside Council President (Lyndsie) Leech, the state has invested $14 million in a behavioral health stabilization center. Though it might be on the other side of the river, that’s going to be a game-changer for our community, and I suspect there’ll be increased investments that are desperately needed.

We’re talking about an alternative to jail or an alternative to the emergency room for folks who are having acute mental health crises who can go and be stabilized and get access to services for up to 10 days. Could you talk about investments in that space and what our priorities would look from this council’s perspective, please.

Ethan Nelson (IGR, manager): Yes, Councilor Keating, related to the Lane County Crisis Stabilization Center, I just refer that our priorities include one related to ‘supporting behavioral health state funds for behavioral health and mental health and recovery facilities.’ And so in the stabilization center tends to be right now the item that we will support.

And so last year we supported it in Salem and I have routine conversations with my counterparts at Lane County to say, ‘What’s going to be the ask, what’s the need this year?’ And it’s partially so that we can coordinate if we’re not asking for funding from the same pot of money, or we’d be in competition, but also so that we can provide adequate and appropriate support for their efforts to secure the required funding to move that asset forward.

Presenter: Councilor Randy Groves:

Councilor Randy Groves: Thank you, Ethan. I just want to say, I believe I’m in my third year of serving on IGR and I really appreciate what you bring to the table and how you help educate us so we can be more effective in how you advocate for us, as really a lobbyist, at times.

Getting to what Councilor Keating was speaking to, I’m still longing for a refresh of our strategic plan, and I know we had a workshop where we were just talking about that. I still don’t believe that the old plan is reflective of Council as much as it was the cast of thousands that was at the last Council strategic planning process a number of years ago. 

So I would like us to strategically talk about how we prioritize the various issues that are before us. I think you’ve named some good ones, but I mean, there’s other ones as well, and how we get that into a priority package that will actually help the IGR when we’re meeting and trying to get into the more granular stuff.

Right now, it just feels like we’re still taking some pretty general swipes at things. But I think if we can actually get in and prioritize some of the stuff, it would help Ethan and I believe it would help our committee be even more effective. So I just wanted to share my two cents on that.

Again, appreciate the work.

Presenter:  Mayor Kaarin Knudson: 

Mayor Kaarin Knudson: I just want to highlight yesterday we had a essentially a showcase and a tour and launch event at Eugene Airport that certainly connects to a significant legislative priority for this upcoming session. 

And the reason I mention it, that’s a transformational project for our community, but an extraordinary opportunity for five counties served by Eugene Airport. So it is a great collective win for a large portion of the population of Oregon and I know will be a focus in this session.

Why I mention it is because it’s also a really good example of something that I think was part of the inspiration for this conversation, which is really working upstream with our city capacity and priorities and needs, and with our legislative leaders and partners to put together proposals that we are completely and fully engaged behind, not just the city of Eugene, but a whole host of partners. 

And in thinking about this timeline that we typically work with each year, I’m thinking about where the work that has led into that project sort of fits with this type of flow and how important it is for us to have early engagement with our legislative partners around the development of what will be not just our priority concepts for a session or priority bills, but are their priorities, as well.

And working through how we can support and be both steady in that process, but also responsive to some of the timelines that have been raised by other councilors, which are incredibly challenging, especially in the short session. Long session seems slightly better, but really not much because there’s so much more going on.

I’m wondering if you could just speak a little bit to that process.

Presenter: Ethan Nelson:

Ethan Nelson (IGR, manager): Every legislator will have a set of priorities and some of them overlap with city of Eugene operations or areas of jurisdiction. Some don’t. 

And every year I have a conversation with a legislator, and sometimes they’re really open and they share those, and sometimes they keep ’em really close to their chest because they’re playing the game of politics, of getting a bill introduced.

And as soon as you introduce it and you get language, that’s when there will start to be critiques and pushback there. And so they’re very mindful of the political process up in Salem. 

And so sometimes those (legislative) concepts come on out and we say, ‘Oh, yep, that one has got overlap with our operation, or our interest. How do we work proactively?

An example is about six years ago, city of Eugene staff, including Alissa Hansen, our planning development director and I, and Lauren Sommers, one of our assistant city attorneys, we started working really collaboratively with the Speaker (at the time she was the Housing chair) because she had a lot of land use and housing-related policies that were counter to what the adopted policy of the City Council was, and/or city code.

And so we were really trying to be engaged up front to say, ‘How do we land this so that it’s implementable? That we can have conversations with Council in real time? As Councilor Kashinsky shared, it’s a very compressed schedule a lot of times in during a legislative session.

So we really spent a lot of time building up those relationships so that we could land in a position that was aligned with the Council direction, aligned with city code, and also was not necessarily counter to what our local legislators had interest in seeing move the community forward.

And so it, it takes a lot. And I give that example because it’s multiyear, and so there’s really never a starting point because you’re constantly, it’s just every year there’s something coming on up.

Mayor Kaarin Knudson: My closing observation will just be that I think there could be opportunities for us to think about before-session, after-session connection points between this body and our legislative representation, that delegation of partners and leaders and could be a benefit to our community to think about how to create more of those opportunities for connection, and discussion of what’s been accomplished and then where we all are thinking about heading the years ahead.

Presenter: The Eugene City Council weighs in on its priorities for the upcoming legislative session, from housing infrastructure to Vision Zero. 

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