Meet the candidate: Mike Clark for Ward 5

Presenter: Meet The Candidate previously featured Ward 5 candidate Athena Aguiar, and you can find that story on our website at KEPW.News. Today ‘Meet The Candidate’ welcomes Mike Clark, running as the incumbent city councilor in Ward 5. From the City Club candidate forum Sept. 18 organized by Eric Dziura and moderated by Zac Ziegler of KLCC, here is Mike Clark:

Mike Clark (Ward 5 candidate): I’m Mike Clark. I’m the current representative that gets an opportunity to represent the people of North Eugene Ward 5. 

Here’s an interesting piece of information. The people who live in Ward 5 have a strong approval rating of the mayor and Council of a single digit: 6% is their strong approval of mayor and Council and the work that we do.

It’s less than 30% that have any kind of approval at all of the City Council. In North Eugene, Ward 5, the feeling is that the Council is part of the problem.

From what I have seen and heard so far, it seems to me, my opponent would like to join that Council majority and vote with them frequently.

I have real pride in being a fiercely independent voice for North Eugene and have for a long time been the outsider and have stood against what I thought were bad decisions at Council and have done so sometimes, even when I’ve had to stand alone, like where our City Hall belongs and how much money we should and shouldn’t spend to do it.

So from my standpoint, I’m doing as fierce a job as I know how to represent the people of North Eugene and Ward 5 who think that the city oftentimes is part of the problem and needs to do less.

If re-elected, it is my intention: to continue to make decisions as I have; to focus on those things that I think the city government is capable of doing well, those things that I think those issues that the city government is well suited for, and to avoid the ones that we’re not; for us to, most importantly, stand in strong support of public safety.

One of the things I’m very proud of is to have the endorsement of both the police officers union and the firefighters union, because the men and women who serve there know that I will fight for them and fight to make sure that they have the tools and the resources they need to keep the rest of us safe.

And finally, and most importantly, I think from a budgetary standpoint, we should do all of this while living within our means. Next year’s budget has a shortfall of $5.1 million, and we’re going to have some important decisions to make in this next year about what we fund and what we don’t.

My commitment is to fund core services, public safety, and to make sure that we live within our means and focus on the kind of economic development that can make us more long-term economically viable as a city.

The fire department has, since 1983, not significantly added personnel. Now their call volume has gone up by over 1,000%, and the number of people who lived here in 1983. Somebody have to check this for me, but I believe it was something nearer to 100,000 residents.

Today, it’s closer to 180,000 residents, and the same number of firefighters and EMTs respond to emergencies from almost twice the people. We haven’t meaningfully added to that, nor have we finished with functional consolidation, the job of merging our governance. 

I believe that the city managers of both cities have been working on a new plan for that, as it stands currently. What was announced was that we would separate the Eugene and Springfield Fire departments in the next two years. 

I believe that we will find a way to come to an agreement this year for a functional consolidation that continues and changes the IGA under which they operate, so that they can continue to function as a whole in a more efficient manner.

It may end up costing more money for an intergovernmental entity, and that’s going to be the difficulty there, is: How do we afford the new firefighters that we need, and what it might cost to continue and finalize the merger, as opposed to separating them and going separate ways. 

That’s a difficult set of discussions that have been ongoing for quite a while and will continue.

But I’m happy to say that I think that Eugene and Springfield city managers have close to a resolution on that from what I understand, Police has a levy that will come back or a payroll tax that will come back up this next year, and we’ll need to have a vision for how we support that if we support that.

Going back out to people, I believe, and I’ve been talking with the city manager, I believe that we need a stronger community response. I hesitate to call it a CAHOOTS-like because there are problems with that model that are complex to go into, and many people already know. 

But we need a service level difference that we will get, I believe, with this next iteration of that discussion.

Zac Ziegler (KLCC): So let’s move on to affordability then. Starting with housing, how can the City Council make housing cheaper, be it for rentals or homes for purchase? 

Mike Clark (Ward 5, candidate): I think this issue in part illustrates one of the greatest differences between my opponent and I. The City Council can’t make gas cheaper for everybody, and the City Council can’t make groceries cheaper for everybody.

But the City Council can keep a lid on how much it costs all of you. And the way it does that is the property taxes that we charge you that end up in your rent payment and your mortgage payment. Now I am very clearly someone that thinks that the city government ought to live within its means, that we ought to spend the money that we get in the most effective manner possible.

My opponent has been in favor of a new 2% sales tax. The fire fee that was defeated here this last time and has been in favor and has said so at other forums about her being in favor of the legislature, tinkering with Measures 5 and 50 to increase the amount that the city could take from you in property taxes, increasing your rent and your mortgage payment.

The city needs to make it an environment, much like gardeners. Make sure to make sure the soil is the best possible, most fertile for growing a good garden. 

The city has a lot that we can do in the way of regulation and rules that make housing building more affordable, more affordable if we get out of the way.

Most of the time, I’m proud to have the support of every building trade. That is part of speaking out on this, from building trades union to the carpenters union to the Plumbers Union and on and on, Western Oregon builders, because they know that I have long advocated for the idea of making housing more affordable by the city, doing a better job of making it easier for them to build things.

Zac Ziegler (KLCC): So, Mike, just a minute ago, you did mention how it is difficult for the city to help on some affordability issues like groceries. What can the city do to make things more affordable outside of housing? 

Mike Clark (Ward 5 candidate): The biggest single thing that we can do is to live within our means. And by that, I mean say, well, we don’t have enough money to pay for all the things we want to do.

And my opponent lists a lot of different kinds of new services and programs that may or may not be a good idea to do, that may be outside of the city’s real scope of what it ought to do. 

But the number one thing that we can do to keep life affordable and a higher quality of life for people that live here, is to not find new ways to charge them new taxes and new fees.

And that has been a fundamental focus of mine for years. I have a long track record of doing it, even like I’ve said, when it means I need to stand alone to voice that opinion. 

Zac Ziegler (KLCC): All right. So you have already mentioned a few things about budgetary issues for the city. where does the city need to start cutting back to try and keep those taxes low that as you were saying.

Mike Clark (Ward 5 candidate): Thank you for that question. The city of Eugene has a statutory mandate that we can’t borrow money. We can’t, we can’t like the federal government, just go into deficit. We have to balance the budget. So if we don’t have enough money coming in, we have to cut something. And that’s the difficult decision-making that happens at the table.

How do you do this in a new or different way, so that you can adjust how the money is spent and maybe have this part cost less or that part costs less? 

These are the difficult, nuanced discussions, and it’s never a black-and-white decision. It’s always a nuanced discussion, and it’s very involved. And it’s one of those things that experience matters in these discussions.

But at my core level, I believe that we need to live within our means, which means if we’re short of funding, we will have to cut something. 

And for me, it’s a very clear thing: Protect core services–fire, police, safety—for the people of Eugene is fundamental, and other things that are nice to have may need to be trimmed if we don’t have the money.

But the real focus that we should be doing, as we have been doing this year, is long-term economic sustainability. How do we bring more jobs and better jobs to Eugene, right? We need to take advantage of the assets that we have at our disposal. Eugene is a beautiful community filled with brilliant people.

The University of Oregon is a great benefit to the city of Eugene. And it’s my opinion that we’ve never leveraged that to the extent that we should. We have leveraged it, but not quite enough. 

There’s a thing that has been working now for a year or so that people have been working on the Southern Willamette Innovation Corridor. 

And I think that that allows that model allows for a way for us to take advantage of the research that’s being done at the University of Oregon and the scientific works that are being done at that campus and leverage those into new industries.

Because, as a bottom line, we won’t have the kind of economic development we need unless we make more things here and sell them somewhere else. That’s the bottom line. 

Manufacturing here allows for a long-term, stable tax base, and better jobs for the people who live here. 

So we need to, as I referenced earlier, I love to grow vegetables. I don’t know about you guys, but I love to grow vegetables in the backyard. And one of the most important pieces of effort that you do when you’re vegetable gardening is ground preparation. 

The ground has to be and the soil has to be right to grow the best and strongest crops. 

For us to have a thriving manufacturing environment, we need to create a growth mentality amongst those who are in the manufacturing businesses, and the city needs to be a support for them. And my strong desire is that we will continue to move in that direction.

Zac Ziegler (KLCC): Mike, you’ve had a fair number of years of experience now on the Council. What is the case for experience in this role?

Mike Clark (Ward 5 candidate): As I indicated before, the budget conversation isn’t a black-and-white thing. And it’s not a simple yes-or-no sort of discussion. It’s incredibly nuanced in not just which services do you prioritize, but how do they get delivered? 

And which parts of which ones do the most good for quality of life in Eugene and which ones are integral to how they interact with one another?

That nuance is something that comes with time. Understanding it matters. Having the ability to know what we’ve tried before that didn’t work, and the decisions we’ve made that, frankly, were not very smart and have put us in the box we’re in. 

And there are a lot of those, frankly, where (as I have said) I’ve been proud to be someone who stands against.

And so hopefully experience allows you the opportunity to work with your colleagues at the table to have thorough discussions over time that eventually begin to make for better decisions. That’s my strong hope, anyway, with experience…

I have always maintained that my priority is on core services.

So police and fire are not an option when it comes to cutting. Okay. There are other things that the city does in the way of quality-of-life issues in our community, and if adjustments must be made, that’s, I think, the appropriate place. 

At least that’s where the people of North Eugene seem to give me the most input about.

But it’s also important to note that we need to not make the problem worse on purpose. And when we talk about the creation of new kinds of services, one of the things that we do is always have to ask the question: What’s that going to cost all of you? What’s the impact on the budget?

I understand people’s desire, for example, for an addition of a CAHOOTS- like service, but that’s an additional $3 to $4 million to the budget, with a budget that is already $5.1 million shy. So that adds to the top of that.

And the question is: Where do we find that money?

Well, we don’t have it, is the point. And so unless we are willing to say we will live within our means and focus on core services, we can get ourselves into a place where the affordability of living here becomes ridiculous.

Zac Ziegler (KLCC): How do you make sure that you’re getting the input of those that you represent?

Presenter: Ward 5 Councilor Mike Clark:

Mike Clark (Ward 5 candidate): Involvement in our community, which I have a long track record of from organizations that I’ve served on the board for, nonprofits to organizations that support me and endorsed my campaigns of the past and currently this time. My involvement with the Chamber of Commerce or with the homebuilders or with the HBA or the plumbers union or you know, on and on and on.

There are organizations that are filled with area residents that I hear from regularly, as well as neighborhood association meetings. And I attend almost all of them. 

That’s why I have—I’m proud to say—I have the endorsement of former neighborhood association chair people and current neighborhood association chair people within Ward 5, because they see me, you know?

Jackson Kellogg with the Cal Young Neighbors sees me at every single Cal Young Neighborhood Association meeting and calls me when there’s an issue to deal with in our ward. 

So that as well as knocking on doors during campaign time, is the way you keep touch with what’s going on and what do people really think?  

Zac Ziegler (KLCC): Mike, what do you think about how EPD should be handling its interactions with ICE?

Mike Clark (Ward 5 candidate): EPD should not ever interact with ICE. The state law is very clear in this. EPD may not spend any city monies, may not use any city equipment, may not spend employees’ time on behalf of working for ICE. And that’s already a big Council-understood point of view. Okay.

We live in a country that is governed by law. And we need to respect the laws and different levels of government have different jobs to do when it comes to enforcing those laws.

So the city of Eugene and its police department has no part in enforcing immigration laws at all and should never be doing that work. And they don’t.

The federal government that does so in our community in a way that makes me personally very sad. We are a country of laws and we should follow the law, but we can do it by extending to the people you’re interacting with a great deal more dignity and kindness than we do.

And this isn’t an opportunity for us to campaign for a federal job. But if I had my way, they would do their job radically differently.

But to be clear, there is no place for EPD to coordinate with ICE in the work that they do to enforce immigration law.

Zac Ziegler (KLCC): The city’s stance on data centers. Mike, your thought on data centers in the city.

Mike Clark (Ward 5 candidate): Let’s be real clear, both in an explicit and an implicit fashion: Data centers are not an allowable use in Eugene from a land use perspective. Because that’s true and I’m not a lawyer, although I’ve had our city’s lawyer explain it to me, and I could go into detail if you want, because it’s not allowable in Eugene under any circumstances as a land use question, a moratorium by default already exists.

And that’s something that, while I would do, I would advocate that our need for innovation and our need for economic development are extremely high, that we only get to a place where we have new taxpayers adding to the pie and making it bigger, rather than getting more and more money from each of you, all the businesses that want to do business here, we should be encouraging of that environment.

But I’m not a fan of the kind of business that they do, and the prognosis for the economics of what I think that future brings us. I don’t think it’s the best kind of economic future for us.

So frankly, I’m personally happy that the data centers don’t seem to have a place in Eugene legally. I do think we need to have other types of infrastructure available for high tech use and high tech growth in our community and manufacturing specifically in that sector.

So I’m hopeful that we see that.

Zac Ziegler (KLCC): All right. You have stated that the current Council can be part of the problem. How would you be different come January?

Mike Clark (Ward 5 candidate): Well, I think I might get a chuckle out of quite a lot of you in the room knowing that, there have been plenty of times where, if the Council takes a vote, it ends up 5-3, or 6-2, or sometimes even 7-1.

And I have said before that I’ve often taken pride in being that and been willing to stand alone as the outsider to try and represent as best as possible the point of view and the voice of the people of North Eugene of Ward 5, and I think I’ve done that well.

I’ve been willing to do it when I think the majority is wrong. And I think there are plenty of things to point to, as I did earlier with regard to City Hall, that I think I was right and it saved us money by doing things a different way.

We’ve made decisions that cost people a lot of money that should have gone a different way.

So I have a long track record of being fiercely and independent voice for the people of Ward 5, and would like to continue to.

Presenter: With his closing statement at the City Club Ward 5 candidate forum, Mike Clark:

Mike Clark (Ward 5 candidate): Thank you. I appreciate the opportunity to be here today and to speak with you.

The Council is only empowered to do things when you can count to five. The Council majority runs the decision-making that happens. 

And so the question is—if in fact you’re a voter in Ward 5 and you believe that the Council is part of the problem—then the question you have to ask is:  Which way would your representative likely vote: more along the lines of the way that you feel is the right way to go, or more along the lines of where the majority typically goes?

And that was my proposition at first, is that that’s one of the fundamental differences amongst a couple between my opponent and I, is that I believe strongly in the same sorts of things majority of people in Ward 5 do, and have tried my best to be an effective voice for them, even when that means I stand alone to do it.

I believe my opponent is much more likely to vote with the majority and become part of the problem and make the problem worse. We have a fundamental opportunity in the future to start making budget decisions better than we have, or to continue down this road of spending right to the line, and then getting to the next year and not being able to afford all of the commitments we’ve made.

My opponent has suggested that we put a 2% sales tax on everything you buy at Walmart or everything you buy online as a part of that. And by the way, that’s not a charter amendment. it’s an ordinance that’s on the ballot for the fall, which means five councilors, any five councilors can change it in any way they see fit.

And I don’t know about you, but I don’t trust that the next Council majority would change that in a way that would not cost us more money and would be of benefit to the community as opposed to the track record that they’ve had. ,

I hope to have an opportunity to continue to serve and be an independent voice for the people to focus on core issues of the city core services, and to do so living within our means.

Presenter: Meet The Candidate welcomes Mike Clark, speaking at the City Club Sept. 18. You can also listen to Meet The Candidate welcomes Athena Aguiar on our news website, KEPW.News.