City Manager - this page is under construction

Eugene's "City Manager" form of government is profoundly undemocratic.

Many cities (ie. Portland, OR) do not have a "City Manager" that has more power over local government than the ostensibly elected officials.

The City of Eugene's bureaucracy needs to be reformed to minimize conflicts of interest between the external City Attorney and the corporations his law firm represents, problems at the Eugene Police Department regarding their respect for the laws they are supposed to uphold, lack of accountability from the bureaucracy to the citizens, voters and taxpayers. Perhaps the most important single step that could make a difference would be to replace the position of City Manager with an administrator tasked with carrying out the policies of the elected officials. The City Manager is paid about twice as much as the entire City Council combined. At a minimum, the Councilors should be paid more than minimum wage for their hard work (at least for those who actually do hard work), and the Manager's position converted into a role of implementing policies decided by those who are nominally accountable to the voters.