Saul Hubbard
The Register-Guard
Eugene, OR, United States
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Past articles by Saul:
Oregon workers to start paying transit tax
All Oregon workers will see their take-home pay shrink — slightly — next month.That’s because a new statewide payroll tax to fund mass transit services kicks in on July 1. Employers will be responsible for automatically deducting the 0.1 percent tax from their workers’ pay. Someone making $60,000 a year will pay $60 a year for the new tax — or $2.31 per biweekly paycheck.The new tax will pump… → Read More
Oregon Duck Mike Bellotti bumped from top PERS recipient spot by a former OHSU doc
Dr. Johnny Delashaw, a former neurosurgeon at Portland’s Oregon Health and Science University, has supplanted former University of Oregon football coach Mike Bellotti as Oregon’s top public pension recepient. Delashaw receives an annual benefit of $663,354 a year — $55,279.53 a month — from the Oregon Public Employee Retirement System, the agency’s latest data shows. → Read More
County commissioners appear skeptical about closing rural garbage transfer stations
The Lane County Board of Commissioners appeared highly skeptical Tuesday of a proposal to close eight of the county’s 16 garbage transfer stations. That recommendation, proposed by an outside consultant, is one of several aimed at cutting $1.5 million in annual costs from the county’s waste management system. But closing the rural transfer stations has provem the most controversial: Hundreds of… → Read More
‘What’s old is new again’: Children’s Celebration returns to Springfield
SPRINGFIELD — Activities, activities and more activities. Kids and their parents, packed into Springfield’s Island Park for the Children’s Celebration on Saturday, were spoilt for choice. There were pony and train rides, inflatable slides, a bike safety training course, mask making and face painting, mini golf, Legos, a giant mister, a corn kernel “sandbox,” and on and on. → Read More
Eugene Skinner’s 1855 deed of land donated to county could affect City Hall plans
The deed specifies the land be used as a “public square” → Read More
County commissioners get an earful on ordinance that could limit ballot initiatives
A large group of county residents showed up at Tuesday’s meeting of the Lane County commissioners to blast a proposal that would allow the commissioners to potentially block some local ballot initiatives. The idea is likely unconstitutional, opponents argued, and represents a serious threat to local direct democracy. “At a time that people feel alienated and powerless,” the proposal would “take… → Read More
Lane County may loosen its ban on roadway herbicide spraying
Lane County government is considering ending its blanket ban on using herbicides to beat back weeds and invasive plants along county-managed roads. That moratorium, which has been in place since 2008, now requires road maintenance workers to use only mowers and other manual methods to manage vegetation in embankments and ditches along hundreds of miles of roadway. But county staff say the full… → Read More
Lottery commissioners didn’t show bias in probing Iranian-American manager’s promotion, investigation finds
An outside investigation has cleared two Oregon Lottery commissioners of creating a hostile work environment for an Iranian-American lottery manager by investigating and ultimately opposing his promotion to an assistant director post. The allegations against commissioners Liz Carle and Mary Wheat emerged publicly during the discordant ouster of Jack Roberts as lottery director in April. Shortly… → Read More
New site sought for homeless camp
Lane County and the city of Eugene are struggling to move an authorized homeless camp, or “rest stop,” off Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard in Eugene near Autzen Stadium. County officials want to move the camp, known as the Nightingale Health Sanctuary and located on the county behavioral health services campus, to another property. → Read More
Lawmakers tour potential transportation upgrade projects in Eugene area
Twelve key state lawmakers visited Eugene and Springfield on Wednesday, as part of a summer tour to build support for a new attempt to pass a transportation funding package in 2017. Lawmakers rode on Lane Transit District buses through Eugene and Springfield, looking at problem areas and potential projects, before an evening public hearing at the University of Oregon. Any transportation package… → Read More
Eugene councilors vote 7-1 to reject $28 million construction bid for new City Hall at old site
The Eugene City Council Monday night voted 7-1 to reject a $28 million construction bid for a new City Hall on the block where the since-razed old City Hall was located. In doing so, councilors left the possibility of moving the building to the so-called “butterfly lot” to the west, pending negotiations with Lane County. Or, they could rebid the project, at the same current proposed site, next… → Read More
Eugene councilors express willingness to work on new downtown land swap with Lane County
Any such exchange would delay construction of Eugene’s new City Hall → Read More
Lane County gives top administrator 9 percent pay raise
After a two-week delay, the Lane County Board of Commissioners approved a 9 percent raise for County Administrator Steve Mokrohisky Tuesday. The raise will increase Mokrohisky’s base pay to $182,510 from $167,475 a year. The board made the raise retroactive to May 6, Mokrohisky’s two-year work anniversary. → Read More
Dozens of volunteers help out with annual McKenzie River Cleanup
SPRINGFIELD — For about five hours Saturday morning, a crew of 10 people toiled on the banks of the McKenzie River, clearing out a well-established homeless camp. The camp, hidden deep in the trees and accessible only by narrow trails on privately owned land just north of Springfield, had been a base for at least seven homeless people, apparently for months. Tarps tied to trees created shelter. → Read More
Neighbors, Verizon at odds over proposed cellphone tower in rural Lane County
Verizon Wireless, the national telecommunications giant, is set to challenge Lane County government’s siting rules for new cellphone towers in unincorporated areas. Verizon wants to build a new 120-foot-tall tower on leased land near the intersection of Bodenhamer and Green Hill roads, in a rural area located between Eugene and Fern Ridge Lake. Under Lane County rules adopted in 2005, however,… → Read More
Public input sought on cost-cutting proposals for Lane County’s waste management division
Lane County government has scheduled four meetings to receive public feedback on its plan to cut $1.5 million a year in expenses in its waste management division. The meetings will all take place in July in areas where residents would be most impacted by the proposed, and likely controversial, service cuts: Eugene/Springfield, Creswell, Blue River and Walton. County staffers will be present at… → Read More
County commissioners examine ability to preemptively veto ballot initiatives
The proposed ordinance closely mirrors a lawsuit recently dismissed in Lane County Circuit Court → Read More
New PSU analysis delivers kinder verdict on corporate tax measure
A newly released analysis of Initiative Petition 28, a $3 billion a year corporate tax increase that will be on the statewide November ballot, paints a rosier picture of the measure’s impacts than a much-discussed May report from the nonpartisan Legislative Revenue Office. The new report, released Wednesday by Portland State University’s Northwest Economic Research Center, estimates IP 28 would… → Read More
Lane commissioners mull proposal that would allow them to block some initiative ballot measures
The Lane County commissioners are weighing giving themselves considerable new power over local ballot measures. Under the unusual proposal, the commissioners would gain the authority to preemptively block any countywide ballot measure that they deem to not be “of county concern,” before it goes to voters or the courts. The idea was brought forward last week by Dennis Morgan, a small-business… → Read More
Lane County commissioners hesitate on administrator pay raise
The Lane County Board of Commissioners lavished praised on County Administrator Steve Mokrohisky during his performance evaluation Tuesday, but they couldn’t agree on how much to increase his pay. The board hesitated between a 3.6 percent and a 9 percent raise for Mokrohisky, based on a new pay scale they adopted Tuesday for the county administrator position. Mokrohisky’s base pay, now $167,475… → Read More