QuickTake:

Friday's meeting will include candidates running for seats representing Ward 3 and Ward 4.

The City Club of Eugene wraps up its series of election forums Friday, April 24, with a session featuring candidates running for seats on the Eugene City Council.

The meeting begins at noon at the WOW Hall, 291 W. Eighth Ave. Club meetings are open to the public and free to attend.

Friday’s meeting features candidates in the May 19 election for Ward 3 and Ward 4.  They’ll offer brief comments about why they’re running and answer questions posed by moderator Zac Ziegler of KLCC and submitted by the audience.

The program will highlight both shared priorities and key differences in how candidates propose to address Eugene’s most pressing challenges.

(An April 3 forum hosted by the City Club included candidates from Ward 5 and Ward 6.)

Two candidates are running for the council seat representing Ward 3, which includes areas in east Eugene north of 30th Avenue and south of the Willamette River.

  • John Barofsky is a small business owner and a resident of Ward 3 since 2003. He moved to Eugene in 1981 to work at Mazzi’s; in 1998, he co-founded Beppe & Gianni’s Trattoria. He has served on the Eugene Budget Committee, the Eugene Planning Commission, the Community Safety Payroll Tax Oversight Committee, among others. He has also served as a commissioner with the Eugene Water & Electric Board.
  • Jennifer Smith is a project coordinator at the University of Oregon, president of UO’s classified employees’ union and a governor-appointed member of the state of Oregon’s Higher Education Coordinating Commission. She has been active on local committees working on transportation and transit budgets, including the city’s Active Transportation Committee, and the Lane Transit District’s Budget Committee, among others.

Two candidates are running for the council seat representing Ward 4, in the northeast corner of Eugene:

  • Tom Stedman served in the U.S. Army in Washington state, Alaska and Panama and worked as a civilian with the Army Corps of Engineers. In a production job at Weyerhaeuser Paper, he was a union steward, an emergency responder and a training officer. He served as a medic with CAHOOTS, providing aid to people in crisis.
  • Jennifer Yeh has represented Ward 4 on the council since 2017. She moved to Eugene to attend the University of Oregon and later became involved in neighborhood activism in the Harlow area. In her professional life, she works as the development manager for Community Supported Shelters.

Friday’s program will be livestreamed on the City Club of Eugene’s YouTube channel. Club meetings are rebroadcast Mondays at 7 p.m. on KLCC, 89.7 FM, and are available later as episodes on the club’s podcast.