Kitty Piercy is an American politician. She is the current mayor of Eugene, Oregon

Eugene, Oregon

Eugene is the second largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon and the seat of Lane County. It is located at the south end of the Willamette Valley, at the confluence of the McKenzie and Willamette rivers, about east of the Oregon Coast.As of the 2010 U.S...

, sworn in January 2005 and re-elected to a second term in 2008. During the 1990s, she was Minority Leader of the Oregon House of Representatives

Oregon House of Representatives

The Oregon House of Representatives is the lower house of the Oregon Legislative Assembly. There are 60 members of the House, representing 60 districts across the state, each with a population of 57,000. The House meets at the Oregon State Capitol in Salem....

.

Mayor Piercy was elected state representative for House District 39 three terms (95,97,99). She served as both assistant caucus leader and Minority Leader.

Climate change

Piercy has been a leader on the issues of sustainability and climate change, and she has repeatedly reached out to a wide variety of constituencies. Early in her first term, she assembled a broad group of stakeholders into a forum called the Sustainable Business Initiative. One of SBI's recommendations was to create the city's Sustainability Commission, which Council officially created in 2007.

In 2005, Piercy became an early signatory of the US Mayors Climate Protection Agreement. Over 900 mayors have now signed the Agreement.

Piercy also participated in and gave momentum to the West Eugene Collaborative, an effort to resolve on-going disputes around traffic in and development of West Eugene.

West Eugene Parkway

The West Eugene Parkway was the subject of a contentious community debate for many years. It is no longer under consideration by local, state or federal governments.

Beltline Renaming

On May 10, 2010,the Lane County Board of Commissioners wrote a unanimous letter stating their opposition to the renaming of Beltline Highway http://kezi.com/news/local/169800 and State Senator Chris Edwards

Chris Edwards

Chris Edwards is an inline skater who resides in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He was one of the early members of Team Rollerblade and is one of the most important early figures in aggressive rollerblading...

 and Representatives Nancy Nathanson

Nancy Nathanson

Nancy Nathanson is a Democratic member of the Oregon House of Representatives, representing the 13th district. Nathanson attended Northwestern University, and later the University of Oregon where she received a Bachelor of Science in urban geography.-Eugene City Council:In 1992, Nathanson was...

 and Val Hoyle

Val Hoyle

Val Hoyle is a Democratic member of the Oregon House of Representatives in District 14, representing West Eugene, Junction City, Cheshire, and Alvadore...

 publicly opposed the renaming http://www.registerguard.com/csp/cms/sites/web/news/cityregion/24570721-41/pap%C3%A9-state-belt-commission-transportation.csp Mayor Kitty Piercy and the Eugene City Council supported the renaming of Beltline in spite of several members of the Keep It Beltline movement testifying in opposition to the renaming. http://kezi.com/page/173356 One poll from a local newspaper indicated that about 95% of local residents opposed this renaming, with 19 supporting it, and 423 opposing it. http://special.registerguard.com/csp/cms/sites/web/sports/columnists/24578349-41/state-highway-otc-policy-governor.csp

Councilor George Poling proposed renaming Beltline for Randy Pape in honor of his many years of work for transportation in Oregon and this was supported by the Eugene City Council in a letter to the (OTC) Oregon Transportation Commission.http://images.bimedia.net/documents/Piercy.pdf The council voted unanimously in favor of the renaming.http://special.registerguard.com/csp/cms/sites/web/business/24692844-41/pap%C3%A9-piercy-eugene-commission-belt.csp Mayor Piercy asked the OTC to consider retaining Beltline as part of the name in order prevent confusion and to minimize costs of signage as much as possible. OTC made the decision to rename Beltline The Randy Pape Beltline. The Eugene city council were the only local officials to publically support the renaming.

West Eugene EmX

Piercy supports the west Eugene extension of Lane Transit District

Lane Transit District

The Lane Transit District is a public agency that provides public transportation in Lane County, Oregon, United States. The transit district serves the Eugene metropolitan area, including the neighboring cities of Springfield, Junction City, Creswell, Cottage Grove, Veneta, and Lowell...

's Bus Rapid Transit

Bus rapid transit

Bus rapid transit is a term applied to a variety of public transportation systems using buses to provide faster, more efficient service than an ordinary bus line. Often this is achieved by making improvements to existing infrastructure, vehicles and scheduling...

 system having voted for it in her capacity as city representative to the regional Metropolitan Planning Commission.http://eugenedailynews.com/2011/04/14/emx-funding-vote-passes-8-to-1 All local jurisdictions have been proponents of the EmX system for over a decade. There are two segments completed and both have proven to be successful and meet local goals. This mass transit system is built into all local planning documents and is recognized both nationally and internationally for its efficiency, ability to carry more customers for less cost, it's ability to reduce fossil fuel consumption and co2 emissions and its light rail like comfort qualities.

Opponents to the project include concerned citizens and business owners who claim that the bus system is too expensive, not needed, and will cause many businesses to lose business or have to close because of the construction.

Piercy maintains that the West Eugene EmX is vital for the city and a crucial component of the regional transportation plan.

Free Speech

The City of Eugene has a sign code that is content neutral as required by state law. The code is about size and location of signs, not content. Upon receiving complaints about illegal signs, city staff will investigate. If they find the sign code is being violated, they will notify the violator and offer suggestions for changes. If the violation is remedied, the complaint is closed. If the violator makes no remediation, fines are levied. Among the many signs regarding EmX, there are a few that have drawn public complaints about code violation. They have been verified and remedies have been offered. These remedies have been refused thus far. The property owner has contended he has the right to have as many signs of any size on his property as he sees fit.

The ACLU has suggested some improvements to the city sign code. . At council direction the city is working with the ACLU on possible code improvements.

Complaints are anonymous. Mayor Piercy and Council do not know the identities of those making complaints and it is unclear how anyone would know.

Piercy along with Eugene city councilor Alan Zelenka have answered questions regarding the sign code. The city cites city code that requires a permit to display the signs. The American Civil Liberties Union

American Civil Liberties Union

The American Civil Liberties Union is a U.S. non-profit organization whose stated mission is "to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to every person in this country by the Constitution and laws of the United States." It works through litigation, legislation, and...

 has stepped in giving two ultimatums to the City to cease enforcing their "legally indefensible " sign code or face a lawsuit. Their objections have nothing to do with the case at hand. The city continues to work with ACLU and to enforce the sign code.

Civic Stadium

4J School District owns Civic Stadium. This property is no longer being used for its historic baseball games purpose. There has been interest expressed in purchasing the property by Save Civic in order to save this historic stadium for the community and to repurpose it. There has been interest by Fred Meyer to purchase the property to develop a store. There has been interest by the YMCA to build a new facility on this property. All proposals have been rejected at this point by 4J as they reassess this property and others for future usage. The Eugene City council has taken the position that this is a 4J decision. Several City Councilors and Mayor Piercy, after meeting with community members, have been interested in a recreational use for the facility that will fit in with the surrounding neighborhood and benefit the city as a whole. The city of Eugene will continue to work with 4J as they assess their next steps regarding this property.

Civic Stadium

Civic Stadium

Civic Stadium may refer to:* Civic Stadium in Eugene, OregonOther places formerly called Civic Stadium:* Oshawa Civic Auditorium in Oshawa, Ontario* Ivor Wynne Stadium in Hamilton, Ontario* Jeld-Wen Field in Portland, Oregon...

 is owned by the 4j School District. On October 1, 2010, the 4j School District put out a request for proposal for those who may be interested in acquiring the Civic Stadium property. http://www.4j.lane.edu/civicstadium/timeline Three proposals were submitted. One was submitted by Steve Master, who would have created a Fred Meyer

Fred Meyer

Fred Meyer, Inc., is a chain of hypermarkets founded in 1922 in Portland, Oregon, by Fred G. Meyer. The company was one of the pioneers of one-stop shopping, eventually combining a complete grocery supermarket with a drugstore, clothing store, shoe store, fine jewelers, home decor store, home...

 anchored shopping center that would have recycled and incorporated elements from the stadium into its design and created at least 200 living wage jobs during a time of recession http://special.registerguard.com/web/newslocalnews/26227633-41/stadium-civic-eugene-save-councilors.html.csp, and would have also brought the most ongoing revenue to the financially-strapped 4j School District. The other two proposals would have relocated the YMCA to that property, or would have refurbished Civic Stadium with the hope of attracting a soccer team. Neither of the latter two proposals had the financial resources at their disposal and would have relied on fundraising efforts. On March 15, 2011, Kitty Piercy sent an e-mail to YMCA Executive Director Dave Perez suggesting that the YMCA and the Save Civic Stadium groups join forces to "knock out Fred Meyer". http://special.registerguard.com/web/newslocalnews/26094739-41/stadium-civic-piercy-fred-mayor.html.csp Ultimately, on June 1, 2011, the 4j school board voted 4-3 to reject all three proposals. http://kezi.com/page/213992

City Tax for Schools

School funding remains a challenging issue throughout the state of Oregon. Mayor Piercy and the City Council were approached by a number of school advocates to see if the city could be helpful in making more support available for schools. A well attended public forum was held give advocates an opportunity to provide suggestions to the community. They proposed a local income tax measure. The City Council referred such a measure to the public. It was defeated. Mayor Piercy is a strong public school advocate and has expressed her belief that a healthy community needs to have a great school system where all children can be well prepared for future employment and success.

Kitty Piercy endorsed proposed income tax measure 20-182 sponsored by Stand for Children

Stand for Children

Stand for Children is an American organization that is an independent and non-partisan advocate for American children's education. Founded in 1996 following the largest rally for children in American history, the non-profit helps organize and mobilize citizen activists who care about children to...

 and Strong Schools Eugene, that would have been levied by the City of Eugene to its citizens to help shore up the finances of the 4j and Bethel School Districts. http://www.eugeneweekly.com/2011/04/28/news1.html This proposed measure would have led Eugene to having one of the highest combined state and local income tax rates in the U.S. http://www.thefreelibrary.com/City+tax+for+schools%3A+No.-a0258860337 Ultimately, this measure endorsed by Kitty Piercy was defeated by a nearly 2-1 margin on May 17, 2011. http://kezi.com/page/212771

Pledge of Allegiance controversy

A proposal to have Eugene council members begin saying the pledge of allegiance prior to council meetings on days of national patriotic importance was passed. There was Fox news coverge that stimulated nationwide controversy, but little comment at the local level. Council recited the pledge at the next regular meeting to commemorate Memorial Day. When asked by a Fox news reporter if the consideration of the pledge would be divisive, Piercy stated it would likely be and added : "If there’s one thing the flag stands for,it’s that people don’t have to be compelled to say the Pledge of Allegiance or anything else.” Jordan Sekulow, director of policy and international operations for the American Center for Law and Justice, cited this as a case of political correctness overruling American traditional values: "It vindicates all of us who say our Judeo-Christian heritage is under attack. Sometimes it’s in the courts, sometimes it’s elected officials and sometimes it’s the media.”

External links

• Kitty Piercy for Mayor