Community Voices: CAHOOTS 2.0?

Happy Sunday, Lookout Eugene-Springfield,

What’s the future of mobile crisis response in Eugene? The city took a step toward the answer last week, when it selected the peer navigation provider Ideal Option to run a yearlong pilot program.

City officials hope the pilot eventually leads to something resembling CAHOOTS’ crisis intervention services, which connected homeless residents in distress with medical treatment, substance abuse recovery services and more.

But, as Lookout’s editorial board noted, this pilot program will bear little resemblance to what CAHOOTS offered in Eugene for decades. So the selection of Ideal Option to run the program raises as many questions for the city as it answers.

Are you satisfied with the city’s efforts to restore mobile crisis services to Eugene? Do you think more needs to be done? Send me a letter up to 350 words and let our readers know what you think: lte@lookoutlocal.com

(You can skip straight to last week’s letters and guest columns by scrolling down to the “Other letters to the editor” and “This week’s guest opinion” sections.)

The importance of civic engagement

When did you last attend a city council meeting? Terry Parker thinks it wasn’t recently enough. The Executive Director of League of Women Voters of Lane County wrote a guest column last week urging residents to see up close how their elected officials do business and communicate with constituents.

“It’s at these meetings that we can experience an unfiltered view of how local government works,” Parker wrote.

Here’s a case in point: Last week, Springfield City Council voted to advance a payroll tax to eliminate its proposed $800,000 for the next fiscal year, but it’s unlikely to prevent $300,000 in cuts to the public library budget.

Springfield library volunteer James Lauinger wrote in a letter to the editor that “library staff were obviously stunned by the immensity of the City Council-appointed task force’s unfair recommendation” to move forward with library cuts, asking “wherever did fairness and transparency go?”

Endorsement update

I know, this is what you’re here for: my extremely unscientific prediction of who will win local races in the May 19 primaries based on the number of letters I get endorsing each candidate.

Well, last week brought fresh endorsements for some Lane County Commissioner and Eugene City Council candidates.

Eugene School District 4J board member Ericka Thessen (writing in her personal capacity) called Thomas Hiura, the West Lane commissioner candidate challenging incumbent Ryan Ceniga, “adept at finding ways to advocate for accountability and transparency while being fair to all parties and keeping personal attacks out of the equation.”

And Blake Thompson, a co-worker of Hiura’s at a Eugene restaurant, called him “the kind of people-first collaborator we need” on the board of commissioners.

Meanwhile, former Springfield City Councilor Marilee Woodrow praised Springfield mayor and commissioner candidate Sean VanGordon for “his humility, his honesty, his diligence, his responsiveness, his social intelligence,” and urged Springfield residents to support him.

And Eugene letter writer Paul Westerman recalled a rainy February day when Ward 5 City Council candidate Athena Aguiar knocked on his door and earned his vote.

So what’s the endorsement tally looking like now? Let’s not worry about letters written by supporters who live outside their favorite candidate’s district and can’t actually vote for them. As the kids say, this poll runs on vibes:

Lane County Commissioner

District 1, West Lane

Thomas Hiura – 2

Ryan Ceniga – 1

District 2, Springfield

Sean VanGordon – 2

David Loveall – 1

District 5, East Lane

Heather Buch – 5

Jake Pelroy – 3

Eugene City Council

Ward 3

John Barofsky: 1

Jennifer Smith: 1

Ward 5

Athena Aguiar: 1

Mike Clark: 0

Jasmine Hatmaker: 0

Overcrowded emergency departments

Due to a family health scare, I spent some time last week in the emergency department at PeaceHealth Sacred Heart Medical Center at RiverBend.

The experience gave me a firsthand look at what Lookout’s reporting has been detailing for months: an overcrowded ER. Patients loaded onto hallway gurneys. Long waits and overworked staff.

I had nothing but time, so I took 30 minutes to listen to an episode of the Emergency Medicine Journal podcast from last year. The topic? Overcrowding in the emergency department.

The show touches on the UK health system, but it’s still worth a listen, and you can start about 7 minutes in, when the conversation turns to the impact of overcrowding and extended ER stays on patients. Listen here.

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