JWN Board Election Candidate Statements
Watch the August JWN General Meeting recording to see the candidates and listen to Q&A.{coming soon]
New Candidates for Vice Chair
Vanessa Wheeler
- Why are you interested in serving on your neighborhood board?To truly be a member of a community, I believe it is important to contribute in some way to benefit the collective whole. After much consideration, I’ve concluded that one of the best ways I can serve the JWN community is to be a working board member of its neighborhood association. I am service-oriented and have routinely “rolled up my sleeves” in the service of previous neighborhoods I’ve lived in. As a citizen volunteer, I’ve taken on issues and faced challenges, great and small, with the goal of making my community a little better for everyone who lives within it and would be honored to continue this tradition of service for my community here and now.
- What does it mean to “represent” your neighbors?While I might not always agree with the perspectives of everyone I meet, I believe strongly in the process of respectful discourse and, when reviewing my decision track record, find that I align myself with the conclusions likely to provide the greatest good to all, even if I might personally prefer another outcome. I believe listening to and considering the views of our residents will be a notable component in serving the greater good of JWN’s diverse inhabitants.
- What specific topics or issues in the neighborhood interest you (projects, initiatives).Living adjacent to Monroe Park for the past year has offered additional perspective on the needs of our neighborhood and its citizens. While homelessness, mental health issues, and drug addiction are all much larger issues than a neighborhood association is alone going to solve, I see JWN as well-positioned to impact how the Eugene community at large approaches these issues. As a neighborhood association, we have the potential to help drive policy, rally neighboring associations, and bring people together to find lasting solutions that serve the greater good of everyone in JWN, including those officially and unofficially residing here.My professional background is in education and communications, specifically relating to bicycle and pedestrian advocacy and transportation demand management. I’ve conducted walkability assessments and performed numerous bike/ped counts, coordinated volunteer projects, led group bike rides and walking tours, and have served as a bike commuter coach. I successfully co-founded a nonprofit organization promoting active transportation which served as a bridge between citizens and city transportation professionals. I am well equipped to step in and assist with any transportation-related projects and I’ve had significant experience liaising with city professionals to mend the gap between citizen needs/desires and municipal constraints, like limited budgeting. I am also a professional illustrator and have significant experience with creating mission-oriented artwork representing countless public awareness campaigns.
- How will you go about addressing those topics or issues?For societal matters relating to homelessness, addiction, and mental health:I’ve added my name to the recent proposal presented to the city by JWN and other neighborhood associations asking leaders to evaluate how to better address issues of houselessness and consider further supporting White Bird and its CAHOOTS program (or a similar program). Larger political discussions aside, I do think this organization is a critical part in responding to people in crisis. While I do not yet know what impact JWN can ultimately have in motivating the city to further support White Bird, I do believe that bringing residents together to back this mission might encourage more successful outcomes for this crucial organization and the citizens it serves.I also stand behind the city’s proposal to adopt and implement a parking permit system in the area around Monroe Park (and in potential future areas in JWN if it’s deemed necessary and appropriate). In doing so, I believe there is a responsibility to help implement a sponsorship system to assist neighbors who are financially struggling so that the annual permit expense isn’t a burden. I also believe that, by implementing this system, we owe it to our houseless neighbors to push the city for systemic solutions that provide better alternatives to camping in parks and sleeping in vehicles in front of homes. Effort will be required to avoid perpetuating [to quote a neighbor at our recent neighborhood association meeting] the “whack-a-mole” approach to keeping our streets safe.For transportation and communications matters: I stand ready to serve in whatever capacity needed.
- How will you engage your neighbors about them?As a communications professional, I know how important accurate and clear information is to making a mission enactable. Personally, I’ve found community engagement is most successful when the one thing most beneficial that a citizen can do to help achieve a common goal can be identified. I’ve led many public listening sessions; listening is a key step before one can even begin identifying what that “one thing” is.
- How might you address differences of experience or perspective?Speaking civilly and respectfully is the foundation on which all productive conversations are built and how the most effective solutions are discovered. As a community leader, I would share in the collective responsibility to help maintain order and facilitate healthy dialogue in neighborhood meetings — part of doing so is by demonstrating civility and diplomacy, even when opinions are incongruent with my own.
New Candidates for At-Large Positions
Stephanie Coopman
Why are you interested in serving on your neighborhood board?
I’ve been on the JWN Outreach Committee since 2016, designed and set up the current JWN website, and have edited the paper newsletter for the past two years. I’d like to get move involved in serving the JWN.
What does it mean to “represent” your neighbors?
Listen to my neighbors and advocate for them.
What specific topics or issues in the neighborhood interest you (projects, initiatives).
I remain interested in outreach and getting neighbors involved, so I’ll continue to serve on that committee. In addition, I’d like to work on pedestrian and cyclist safety.
How will you go about addressing those topics or issues?
I’ll work with the other members of the outreach committee. I’d like to create or reconstitute a task force on pedestrian and cyclist safety. The neighborhood has worked on this issue in the past; I’d like to revive those efforts.
How will you engage your neighbors about them?
Encourage neighbors to join committees and boards, as with the renters advisory board and outreach committee. I’ll also attend the general meetings, listen to neighbors, and ask questions. I’ll assess interest in these topics and find out who would like to work on them.
How might you address differences of experience or perspective?
Again, listening is key. I want to hear what neighbors have to say–their concerns, questions, ideas. I welcome different perspectives–that’s how we come up with innovative solutions.
What does success in addressing those issues/topics look like to you?
Getting more people involved in the neighborhood, increased attendance at meetings, more people speaking at general meetings, increased turnouts for work parties and other neighborhood events, more neighbors stepping up to serve and complete needed tasks in the JWN. Safer streets and sidewalks.
Duncan Rhodes
I am interested in serving on the JWN Board in order to learn about my new community. I moved here from Southeast Eugene a month ago to be closer to my grandson, who lives a block west of my apartment. I am 75, retired for a dozen years from a sales, marketing, & engineering career with Reliance Electric/Rockwell Automation & then Siemens.
I lived in the Whit for about 5 years, until I moved to Southeast Eugene about 5 years ago to be closer to my grandson’s school. In the Whit, I served on the Whiteaker Community Council as a Board member & then as Secretary, and was on the NLC CoS. In Southeast, I served on the board & then as Secretary.
I am interested in how development progresses in Eugene, and follow a few projects, especially the South Willamette Street redevelopment & road diet.
I like to bike, and have been a board member, secretary, & treasurer for GEARs, a Eugene bicycle group. I split with them because they insist that riders wear helmets on their many club-sponsored bike rides. I argued that this policy excluded most riders, and rather than split the board (I had the younger members on my side of the issue), I quit. I am now riding an electric bike to help me up the hills here…
I remain interested in biking/street rideability issues, & attend most City webinars on these topics. I follow some of the development plans in Eugene, and am interested in increasing the supply of affordable housing.
Susan Connolly
Board Members Running for Re-election
Ted M. Coopman, current Chair:
Why are you interested in serving on your neighborhood board?
I have been a Board member since 2016 and Chair since 2018. It is important that people have a voice in neighborhoods they inhabit and a way to stay informed and successfully engage with city government. I have a lot of experience in community organizing and having an organization is key to clean, green, safe, and equitable communities.
What does it mean to “represent” your neighbors?
While board members have agendas and desires, representing your neighbors means taking the time to get to know their needs and desires, understanding that everyone’s perspective is valid and their own, listening to people, and trying to act in the best interests of all neighbors. It means following and supporting policies endorsed via member votes and putting collective interests above personal ones.
What specific topics or issues in the neighborhood interest you (projects, initiatives).
I am very invested in the protection and enhancement of Monroe Park. My main joy is in the editing the monthly eNews and maintaining the JWN website. I am trying to better engage businesses and renters. To preserve what is best about the JWN, while working on areas we can improve. Finally, working with other neighborhood leaders on the big issues facing Eugene.
How will you go about addressing those topics or issues?
Managing and encouraging volunteers to get things done. Creating information networks that keep me informed and updated and fostering professional networks to build productive relations with city and county political leaders, staff, management, and local non-profits.
How will you engage your neighbors about them?
I will inform neighbors by improving and expanding coverage via mailings, the eNews, social media, and our website. Creating forums for community input at meetings and via surveys.
How might you address differences of experience or perspective?
All experiences and perspectives are valid, but you need to put those in context with the constraints of what can be reasonably done and what is best for the larger neighborhood. Ideally, policy and initiatives should be driven by those willing to put the effort into making them happen. The goal is to find where different needs and desire meet and overlap and focus on these areas of agreement or how you can meet the needs and desire of different people.
What does success in addressing those issues/topics look like to you?
Action and implementation. Whatever the goal is, to see concrete results. Creating infrastructures for action and coordination, and building positive relationships, with government, non-profits, and businesses; to extend the scope of outreach and engage diverse neighbors; to enhance public safety without sacrificing liberty.
Sue Cummings, Current At-Large Board Member and Treasurer
How long you have served and doing what?
I have been on the board since 2009. I am currently serving as Treasurer and substitute NLC Rep. I have also held the positions of Vice Chair, Secretary and NLC Representative.
I have been one of the chairs of the Events Committee for several years. During normal years the Events Committee has coordinated the Summer Picnic. Hope we can do that again in 2021. I have also helped to coordinate our entry in EUG Parade.
Quite a bit of my time has been spent educating myself about all of the different issues that can affect the JWN. Land Use/Planning, Housing, Transportation, Parks and Recreation, Public Safety, Public Works, Disaster Preparedness and Climate Change Action to name few. I have been involved with supporting projects in the JWN neighborhood by attending meetings and training sessions, taking surveys, writing letters and signing petitions. As a board member I have voted to show support for many neighborhood initiatives that were brought to us for deliberation.
Why are you interested in serving on your neighborhood board?
In order to have a welcoming, healthy and livable neighborhood I feel it is important to have a vibrant and active neighborhood association. An important and part of that is to have a full and active executive board. The neighborhood association and the board help our neighbors stay informed about government and other organization’s plans and programs which may affect their lives. JWN is a valuable and open venue for gauging the opinion of everyone who qualifies as a member of the neighborhood association. The JWN is also a very effective way to communicate neighborhood positions and concerns to the City. I have enjoyed my time on the board and would like to continue contribute to the neighborhood association’s successes. Having at least a few people on the board who have been around a while is helpful for continuity.
What does it mean to “represent” your neighbors?
Since our neighborhood has a diversity of opinions on many topics, I think it is important to give everyone a chance to voice their opinion and vote on important decisions. As a board member I consider representing my neighbors as first listening to them and then being willing to stand behind the decisions that were made during votes by the JWN neighborhood association.
What specific topics or issues in the neighborhood interest you (projects, initiatives).
- Homelessness and Unsheltered
- Affordable Housing
- Land Use/Planning
- Covid-19 Relief and Recovery
- Climate Action/Environmental Protection
- Safe routes for walking, biking and other forms of alternative transportation.
- Parks, green spaces and street trees.
- Public Safety
- Local, State and Federal Elections
How will you go about addressing those topics or issues?
- Participate in as many meetings (JWN and others) as I can and help to organize and/or run meetings about relevant current topics when needed.
- Stay educated about local government actions and current issues.
- Vote
- Participate in surveys and letter writing.
How will you engage your neighbors about them?
- Talk with my neighbors
- Surveys
- Provide ways for them to stay educated about local government actions and current issues.
- Contribute to the JWN News and Outreach initiatives.
- Collaborate with other Neighborhoods facing similar issues.
- Invite representatives of organizations to discuss their programs at events and meetings.
How might you address differences of experience or perspective?
- Listening to others opinions and experiences with an open mind.
- Search for more ways to make everyone feel that they are being heard.
- Share what I have learned.
- Look for common ground.
What does success in addressing those issues/topics look like to you?
Having a welcoming, healthy and livable neighborhood with a vibrant and active neighborhood association. A neighborhood that has a diverse population, green space, a balance of old and new owner occupied homes as well as comfortable dwellings for renters with a mix of age groups and incomes throughout. A large selection of housing that is affordable enough to allow people to stay in the heart of the City while saving some of their income for life’s other pleasures, like the ones some of our neighborhood businesses offer. Ideally having no one who is considered homeless or unsheltered because we have found a way to provide the services they need to stabilize their lives.
A neighborhood that can still grow in density without losing the charm that makes it a place so many people want to live in.
Eric Dill, Current At-Large Board Member and Secretary
Why are you interested in serving on your neighborhood board?
I came to Eugene in November 2016. In Amsterdam I contributed for 20 years to the small community of the apartment complex with 95 households that I was living in. I chaired a garden committee, took care for the maintenance of the huge roof garden and helped organizing our yearly garden party. Besides that I was member of the board of two art organizations. When I moved to Eugene I felt the need to contribute to my new neighborhood. I am member of our neighborhood board since September 2017.
What does it mean to “represent” your neighbors?
For me ‘representing’ my neighborhoods means that I stimulate and support the board to pay attention too, and put our efforts in issues that are of particular importance for our neighborhood. In general I know what those issues are thanks to the input of neighbors or I sense that they have that importance. I contribute to the board to serve my community and not a personal goal; for instance a step in my career.
What specific topics or issues in the neighborhood interest you (projects, initiatives)?
Given the fact that I am a biologist and a passionate gardener issues that concern our parks, our trees and climate change are for me personally extra interesting. Coming from the Netherlands I am very concerned by the social inequality that I see in my new homeland. That is why I am extra interested in creating more affordable housing, (micro) sites for our unhoused neighbors and projects that offer our unhoused neighbors the opportunity to have their own house.
How will you go about addressing those topics or issues?
Until now I see my role in the board as supportive. I will address topics that I think that we should discuss in our board, and will support initiatives from other board members. Given the fact that I am longer in the board I can contribute based on my earlier experience in the board and knowledge of earlier board initiatives.
How will you engage your neighbors about them?
I see our General Meeting and our e-news letter as important platforms to inform and engage my neighbors. When I meet neighbors I actively promote new initiatives in our neighborhood.
How might you address differences of experience or perspective?
I think that differences of experience or perspective can contribute to our board. I would address them in showing interest in the experience or perspective of the other. But I will be critical if those perspectives are driven by a passion for the well being of our neighbors and neighborhood or are more driven by a personal goal that has no relevance for our neighborhood.
What does success in addressing those issues/topics look like to you?
Success in issues/ topics like I named earlier means for me concrete steps forward to neighborhood specific solutions, the realization of concrete projects that set an example for what is possible in our neighborhood and other neighborhoods (for example the first microsite in our neighborhood and / or an affordable housing project on a now still empty lot).