Trust
A Sad Old Joke about Politicians
There is an old joke that people use when they talk about politicians running for office. It's in the form of a question and answer:
Q: "How do you know when politicians are lying?"
A: "When they open their mouths."
This old joke tells a sad story about modern media-focused political campaigns. With many candidates, it doesn't matter if something is true or not. The only important thing to these folks is winning. The morality of truth and falsehood doesn't really enter into the matter, except perhaps to encourage them to craft their words so that the message is at least arguably defensible.
When the politician doesn't even bother to craft a defensible half-truth, but just out-and-out promises something then does the opposite, the old sad joke applies more directly. Unfortunately, it also usually means that the electorate she or he represents might suffer greatly.
I am disturbed by several promises made by Mayor Piercy that have not been fulfilled. It is too early to judge the consequences for the public, but I am not hopeful.
First Example: A Promise Broken by the Mayor
While campaigning in April 2004, Mayor Piercy promised to continue the planning process that that was necessary to allow job growth in Eugene. This included cooperating with the City of Springfield in determining the amount of buildable land in our combined metro area, adequate to meet a 20-year demand for both residential and for business uses. There is a requirement under Oregon law for cities to comply with this assessment of buildable land.
In January 2007, now Mayor Piercy stopped the planning process by reneging on her promise to perform the required work, later claiming a technical loophole. The Oregon legislature then passed a law requiring the piece of compliance that Eugene had refused to do under the technicality.
During the process, the Mayor alienated our joint planning partner, Springfield. Springfield petitioned the Oregon legislature to break the joint planning agreement with Eugene, a petition that Democrats and Republicans overwhelmingly approved.
Apparently unconcerned with her actions, Mayor Piercy admitted on tape at a neighborhood meeting that she had, in fact, broken her campaign promise.
The result of these actions in the jobs area is that employers are bypassing Eugene to locate elsewhere because there is insufficient land on which to build facilities.
Second Example: A Promise Broken by the Mayor
In September 2006 Mayor Piercy promised in the Eugene Voter’s Guide to use voter-approved bond money for parks and open space throughout all of Eugene. This promise was made as part of the printed argument urging voters to pass a new parks and open space bond.
In December 2007 she voted to use most of the money available to buy land for open space adjacent to one of her top donors’ homes in Southeast Eugene. The price she voted to support is far greater than its assessed value.
Mayor Piercy sought an appraisal from a business in Salem to justify the price being offered for the property. Local appraisers expressed deep concerns about the price. The mayor appointed a committee, with many members from the Southeast and South Eugene area who are favorable to the purchase.
Three members of the committee—environmental guardian Steve Gordon, the committee chairman and highly respected former planner for the Lane County Council of Governments—Liz Cawood, a coordinator of the bond measure campaign that created the parks and open space fund—and respected real estate professional Sue Pritchard, one fo the Mayor's longest-term supporters—have recently resigned because the committee was not being allowed by the Mayor to consider price with value in making its recommendations. These three voices were the only credible voices on that committee in my view—the only three who kept it from being a Kangaroo Court with the Eugene public on trial.
Overall, it feels at best highly irresponsible for the Mayor to act the way she has in this matter. I will not discuss my “at worst” judgment of the motivation behind her actions.
Third Example: A Promise Unfulfilled
The City of Eugene went through a long public input process to develop a solution to solve the emerging traffic congestion problem in West Eugene. This process resulted in a proposal for the West Eugene Parkway that I then put to a vote of the people when I was Mayor,
In October 2005, Mayor Piercy overruled this vote and stopped the West Eugene Parkway. She has called it a boondoggle. She also promised to find an alternate solution to the traffic congestion problem in West Eugene at the time she killed the project. As usual, the Mayor appointed a committee to find that solution. Three years later, West Eugene and the city are still waiting. She tells us now that she will get to it in 2009, after the election.
Fourth Example: What the Mayor Is Promising in THIS Campaign
The Mayor has been fielding some difficult questions about her performance over the last three years. In my view, she has responded to all of them in a way that can be interpreted basically as: “Trust me. Trust me because I know best…”
When I interpret her answers on important individual issues, they come out like this:
• “Trust me on traffic. I will bring you a plan to deal with the congestion in West Eugene—but not until after the election.”
• “Trust me on parks. I will tell you how much we will pay for the land in the South Hills and how we will pay for that new park in South Eugene—but not until after the election.”
• “Trust me on the hospital. We will put the McKenzie Willamette Hospital in Eugene (and the $3.5 million in new taxes that will come with it) and I will tell you where—but not until after the election.”
• “Trust me on jobs and potholes and public safety. I want to fix Eugene's roads and potholes, provide more police patrols for all areas of Eugene, and create more livable wage jobs for Eugene's citizens—but not until after we study the problem some more, and not until after the election.”
“Trust me” is an easy thing for some politicians to say—without really understanding what they are asking the electorate to do.
I trust one important part of my opponent’s campaign: That the voters of Eugene are smarter than they are being treated.
The Mayor's Credibility
As a voter myself, I believe that all of these issues and answers are about credibility. And that leads to my closing thought on this matter—a quote which was written years ago by newspaper columnist Herb Caen:
“A person’s credibility is like their virginity. Once it is gone, it is gone forever.”
He was talking about politicians too…