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QuickTake:
Lane Community College’s taxing district extends into a small part of Douglas County, where commissioners recently said they did not want to be a sanctuary county. LCC trustees are concerned about the potential impact on students and staffers.
Members of the Lane Community College Board of Education are worried that LCC students and staffers could be affected by a resolution by Douglas County commissioners declaring that county’s “intention not to be a sanctuary.”
At a meeting Wednesday, Sept. 2, trustees asked LCC administrators to prepare a legal memo outlining ways the college could respond — up to and including taking legal action against Douglas County.
LCC President Stephanie Bulger said the administration would work up the memo.
The LCC taxing district includes a small portion of Douglas County, including an area south of Florence and another section south of Cottage Grove.
Trustee Austin Fölnagy brought the issue to the board’s attention.
“My personal take on this: If a single person or a single inch of our district is stripped away from their sanctuary protections, that is my line in the sand, and that should be our line in the sand and our fight,” he said.
Other trustees, while criticizing Douglas County’s action on immigration, agreed that they’d like legal advice before deciding how to proceed. In addition to legal action, trustees said other options include asking the Lane County Board of Commissioners to intervene or updating a 2017 LCC policy on “the protection, safety and sanctuary of all students.”
Trustee Julie Weismann, while saying that she was “appalled” by the Douglas County resolution, said she wanted “legal advice first so that we are absolutely clean about what we’re considering or thinking.”
In July, the Douglas County commissioners unanimously approved a resolution titled “Expressing Support for the Principles and Policies of the Current, Federal Administration and Declaring the County’s Intention Not to be a Sanctuary.”
Oregon’s sanctuary laws prohibit state and local police and public agencies from assisting with federal immigration enforcement without a signed judicial warrant.
“There’s a lot of politics we could get into here,” said Jesse Maldonado, the chair of the LCC board. Maldonado, a Latino, added that he now travels with his passport “everywhere, just in case.”
“A lot of people in my life who are undocumented DACA recipients are absolutely scared for their lives and have been for the last 18 months,” he said, referring to Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, a U.S. immigration policy that has protected undocumented people brought to the U.S. as children. “This is something that is beyond abhorrent and appalling. It is a racist action, and I think immigrants do nothing but make our country better and stronger and more prosperous.”
He added: “The No. 1 priority for us, as a board of education, is to ensure that we protect our students.”
A spokesperson for the Douglas County commissioners, Tamara Howell, said the LCC board’s concerns are “based on assumptions about legal consequences that the resolution itself does not create” — and added that the resolution “does not create new legal requirements or change any law.”
In an email to Lookout Eugene-Springfield, Howell said: “It is important to clarify that the action taken by the Board of Commissioners was a resolution expressing the Board’s position and opinion on the matter.”
She added: “We would encourage the Lane Community College Board of Education and others expressing concerns about the resolution to read the resolution in its entirety and consider the actual language approved by the Douglas County Board of Commissioners.”
Also at the meeting, the board:
- Approved its goals for LCC President Bulger for the current school year. Three of the goals — fiscal sustainability, managed enrollment growth and improving institutional climate — remain the same as previous years. But the board added a fourth goal: completing a new LCC strategic plan by the end of the school year.
- Reviewed a timetable for building a budget for the 2027-28 budget. LCC’s three-year plan to restore its ending fund balance to the level called for in board policy requires another $2.5 million budget cut in 2027-28. One goal of the timetable is to improve communication to stakeholders about LCC programs that might be considered for consolidation or elimination.
