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Lane County Commissioner Anna Morrison
The Lane County Commission could play an important role in the future of the casino in Florence. Florence's commissioner, Anna Morrison, has assumed the lead role for the county in these matters. The following letter, by Arnold Buchman, speaks for itself. After reading this letter, if you believe that our interests will NOT be well served by Commissioner Morrison in this position, we urge you to write the Lane County Commissioners as Mr. Buchman has. Ask them to replace Ms. Morrison with someone who can provide effective, fair-minded representation for Lane County and Florence. March 13, 2004 Lane County Board of Commissioners 125 East 8th Avenue Eugene, OR 97401 Dear Commissioners: This is a request that Commissioner Anna Morrison be replaced as the Lane County Commission's representative in dealings with the governor's office and the Confederated Tribes of Coos, Lower Umpqua, and Siuslaw Indians in matters relating to the Tribes' Three Rivers Casino project. I am a resident, taxpayer and registered voter of Lane County living in Florence. I served on that city's Task Force on Casino Impacts and have been active in grass roots efforts opposing the casino. As you will know from the Task Force report, news articles and communications from your constituents, the casino project has raised the concerns of Florence officials and area residents over the casino's detrimental effects on the community. At the request of Mr. Brian Cole, a Florence businessman and long-time resident, Commissioner Morrison met with him and me in her office on February 23. Mr. Cole's purpose in asking for the meeting was to learn from Commissioner Morrison the part the County was playing with the state and the Tribes in identifying and mitigating the casino's negative effects on public safety, transportation and the environment. Commissioner Morrison mentioned her participation in National Association of Counties efforts to formulate a proposal for federal legislation to protect local communities threatened by casinos in the future. However, with respect to present threats posed by the Three Rivers Casino, she characterized her involvement as the County's representative on the governor's team working on these casino issues as a waste of her time. Commissioner Morrison went on to state that the opposition to and concern about the Three Rivers Casino expressed by individuals, city officials and PACT, the Florence-area grass-roots organization, was an embarrassment to her when dealing with members of the governor's team and elsewhere in the state. Told of Florence's Coastal Highlands neighborhood, without warning, awakening to casino construction literally within a stone throw of their homes, her response was "you deserve what you get." In the context of her harangue, the unavoidable implication was that Commissioner Morrison felt it was just deserts for the "embarrassing" opposition. I respectfully submit that this response to a disquieting action that would not be permitted to any other entity - federal, state, county, governmental, institutional, corporate or individual - in the United States evidences an egocentric insensitivity to the legitimate community concerns of Commissioner Morrison's constituency. The Florence area and the rest of Lane County deserve to have casino-related matters objectively represented in intergovernmental negotiations. Commissioner Morrison's statements, expressed and implied, during the February 23 meeting demonstrate that her judgment in these matters is tainted by contempt for and hostility to the people of Florence who have "embarrassed" her with their casino project opposition. Commissioner Morrison, herself, best summed it up when, referring to Florence city officials and residents, she stated she hoped that "the Tribes clean your clock." Unfortunately for her Western Lane County constituents, Commissioner Morrison has been assigned or assumed a role in intergovernmental casino dealings that leaves the County and its citizens without effective, fair-minded, dispassionate representation. Ms. Morrison's professed "embarrassment" at the lawful, constitutionally protected casino opposition from her constituency makes clear her disqualifying prejudice. If Ms. Morrison does not choose to remove herself from further involvement with intergovernmental casino matters I request that the County Commission remove her. It would be indefensible to allow her to continue in a position that enables her to assist in cleaning the clock of those she is sworn to represent. Very truly yours, Arnold E. Buchman |
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