In race for Ward 7, priorities in conflict
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The race is between candidates with different priorities.
Ortiz wants Eugene to improve race relations,end homelessness and protect the environment, especially for residents who live near the city’s railyard and the J.H. Baxter creosoting plant.
Crane, with a business and management background, believes Eugene must be more willing to grow and be more helpful to businesses.
Ward 7 covers a far-flung area, from downtown and neighborhoods west, including Whiteaker, Trainsong and Bethel, to neighborhoods in north Eugene’s River Road and Santa Clara areas.
A semiretired management consultant, Crane said he is challenging Ortiz because she does not adequately represent the interests of Ward 7 residents.
Ortiz often votes with south Eugene councilors Betty Taylor and Bonny Bettman, he said, and those votes don’t generally match the views of the ward.
For example, Crane said, Ortiz has shown interest, along with Mayor Kitty Piercy and half the council, in buying and preserving two forested south hills parcels in the Amazon Creek headwaters.
Meanwhile, Santa Clara area residents were promised a large park in the city’s 1998 parks bond measure, he said, but have yet to get it. “If you are elected from a ward, you are supposed to take of that ward first,” Crane said, referring to Ortiz.
Ortiz is a clerk in the emergency room of Sacred Heart Medical Center in Eugene. She won election four years ago, helped by the endorsement of the Lane County Democratic Party in the officially nonpartisan race to upset two-term incumbent Scott Meisner.
Ortiz agreed that she votes with other liberals on the council, though not always.
Unlike Bettman and Taylor, for example,Ortiz supported the revival of the West Eugene Enterprise Zone, where qualified companies receive property tax waivers for new investment and creating jobs. She also backed the collaboration between the city and the developer of a proposed Whole Foods Market store in downtown before that project fell apart.
Ortiz said many of her supporters were unhappy about those positions.“I have taken a lot of heat for voting independently,” she said.
Ortiz, 51, lives in the blue-collar Trainsong neighborhood. She defends her representation of constituents, citing her advocacy for residents who live near the sprawling Union Pacific railyard, where vapors from polluted groundwater have risen through the soil and into the crawl spaces of some homes. Ortiz said she’s concerned about airborne emissions produced by creosoting and other wood treatment at the J.H. Baxter plant.
Also, Ortiz said she helped residents outside city limits in the River Road and Santa Clara area receive city-funded neighborhood newsletters. “I’ve worked hard to represent the communities that are in my ward,” she said. The River Road and Santa Clara areas are a checkerboard of homes within and outside city limits.
Ortiz’s backers include some of Eugene’s prominent liberal politicians, namely Piercy and Lane County Commissioner Pete Sorenson. She has been endorsed by environmental groups and labor unions, including the Oregon League of Conservation Voters and the Eugene Firefighters Association.
Crane, a Santa Clara resident, works as a consultant to Identity by Sew-On, a Springfield firm that puts logos on clothing, mainly for businesses.
Before that, Crane worked in financial consulting and marketing. Between 1999 and 2003, he was chief executive of Kidsports, the local sports nonprofit group.Crane is a veteran high school football referee. He has been a March of Dimes volunteer and helped build the Bethel area’s Babe Ruth baseball field.
Crane has run for public office before, with unsuccessful tries for the Eugene 4J School Board and the Oregon House of Representatives.
A grandfather of 13, Crane said he’s worried the City Council’s no-growth attitude is making housing unaffordable, particularly for young families.
He faulted Ortiz and the council majority for opposing the expansion of Delta Sand & Gravel onto agricultural land east of River Road, and for not moving more quickly to study whether the city has enough buildable land for homes and businesses.
“You have to plan for growth because people are going to continue moving here,” he said.
If elected, Crane said he will “champion” public safety and the hiring of more police officers.Eugene should repair more pothole-filled streets, he said, and not “waste any more money” on a proposed new city hall.
Crane has been endorsed by the Eugene Area Chamber of Commerce and the Eugene Police Employees Association.
“The constituents of Ward 7 will realize that they have not been well represented and they will elect me,” he said.
Backed by business owners and business groups, Crane’s campaign is outspending Ortiz 6-1, according to filings with the state.
As of Wednesday, Ortiz had raised $5,400 and spent $1,299 on her campaign. Her largest single contributors were $500 apiece from Eugene wood products company co-owner Deborah Noble and commercial real estate broker John Brown.
In comparison, Crane had raised $14,100 and spent $7,851.
Crane’s largest contributors were Avon Lee Babb, co-owner of Delta Sand & Gravel, who gave $2,500, and Wildish Sand & Gravel, which also contributed $2,500. The Eugene chamber and the state homebuilders’ association gave Crane $1,000 apiece.
