Mental health, homelessness, housing: Eugene's Ward 7 candidates list priorities in debate

Lyndsie Leech and Barbie Walker, two of three candidates for Eugene’s Ward 7 seat, took the hot seat Friday afternoon in a debate.

The debate, hosted by the City Club of Eugene and moderated by KLCC reporter Brian Bull, featured opening and closing statements and answers to 17 questions focused on priorities for the ward and city, homelessness, climate change and more.

Janet Ayres also has filed for the seat but did not take part in Friday’s discussion.

The three women are running in the May 16 election for the Ward 7 seat, which is open because of a successful recall against former councilor Claire Syrett.

Leech has served as the interim councilor since being sworn in Dec. 19, 2022. Walker and Ayres also applied last year for the interim appointment.

The recall showed officials that people don’t feel city officials are hearing them, Walker said. She could the person who “brings people’s perspective and their voice back to the city council table” along with “common sense and pragmatic and solution-oriented decisions.”

Leech has spent the last few months “diving headfirst into hundreds of topics” and hears all the time that the city needs to address the homelessness and mental health crises. She said her background in nonprofit management and “helping systems be strong” is an asset to the council.

Several similar answers

Leech and Walker listed the same top priorities of mental health, homelessness and housing.

They also both talked about using creative solutions for addressing housing affordability, said people should report prohibited camping in parks while the city works to get people into housing, decried hate crimes and indicated officials should look at requests related to building height on a case-by-case basis.

The two women agreed it was a good idea for Eugene to purchase the former EWEB headquarters for a new city hall.

“Even if it’s not city hall forever, it’s a very good investment to purchase this building and it’s going to allow the city to have a lot of cost savings over time,” Leech said.

She added a caveat that officials need to pay attention to the transition from existing city offices to make sure downtown remains viable.

Walker said it’s a better use of city funds than constructing a new building.

“Let’s not make and create more tax dollars for new builds when we have an EWEB building there that’s great,” she said.

They also agreed annexations to help the city envelop pockets of county land in the Santa Clara and River Road area should be voluntary.

Disagreement over whether appointment led to more of the same, other issues

Leech and Walker do have differences in opinion on some issues.

Walker sees Leech’s appointment as “the same politicians, the same divide” despite a recall that indicated people wanted a change.

“What we have going on right now is the exact same councilors and I believe we’re kind of spinning our wheels,” Walker said.

Leech stressed she’s her own person and represents the diverse and mostly progressive ward. She added she can “bring a deep sense of compassion and empathy and strong sense of where people are because I work with them every single day.”

Walker and Leech also offered different solutions for helping with the homelessness crisis and addressing police shortages.

Walker would focus work on homelessness at the youth level, while Leech pushed for increasing housing at all income levels and making it easier to build affordable housing.

And Leech talked about finding alternatives to armed police for traffic patrol and other situations to allow officers to focus on crime while Walker said the city should invest in recruitment.

They also disagreed about the gas ban ordinance, which now will be a ballot measure. Walker said a public vote on it is the right move while Leech said it’s the council’s job to enact building codes.

Watch the debate, submit questions

The debate is available to watch at youtube.com/watch?v=gsW_M1bVRhE.

The Register-Guard would like readers' questions to pose to the candidates. There’s a form to submit questions at bit.ly/rg-ward-7-questions-form.

Contact city government watchdog Megan Banta at mbanta@registerguard.com. Follow her on Twitter @MeganBanta_1.

This article originally appeared on Register-Guard: Eugene Ward 7 candidates Lyndsie Leech, Barbie Walker debate