Meet the candidate: Greg Evans for Ward 6

Presenter: Meet the Candidate on KEPW News welcomes Greg Evans. Please tell us about yourself and why you’re running for City Council in Ward 6. 

Councilor Greg Evans: Well, I’m a 40-year resident here in Eugene. I’ve been here since 1986, have raised the majority of my family here, in this area. And I have a significant investment with my children and my grandchildren to making sure that Eugene is a healthy and successful place for them to grow their families and to live here and to call Eugene home.

Presenter: What’s the most important issue facing the Eugene City Council in this election? How would you address it?

Councilor Greg Evans: I think the biggest issue right now is economic development. Most specifically, it is: How are we going to continue to pay for the level of services that people have been accustomed to in this city and have expectations should be delivered by the city?

As you know, the last Budget Committee deliberations were fraught over the fire fee and other things that we were looking at in terms of being able to fund the service profile that we have, whether that be parks and rec, libraries, pools, along with public safety and public infrastructure and public health.

Our tax situation has not been fixed since Ballot Measure 5 was passed back in 1990. Ballot Measure 5, 47 and 50 have severely limited our ability to grow our tax revenue pie, especially when we have inflationary pressures that are continuing to press upon it and the fact that individual incomes are not going up to match the increase in expenses that we all are facing, whether that’s in transportation and fuel, gas cost, and/or the cost of food, medicine, everything else.

So we are in, you know, some really tough straits as far as our economy is concerned, and we definitely need to expand and develop the private economy and taxpayers all along the chain so that we can keep up with the necessary things that we need to have, particularly police, fire planning and development, as well as the other services the community demand like library, parks and rec, recreation services—all of those things that we need to be able to continue to fund or figure out how we deliver differently than what we’re doing right now.

Presenter: If elected, how would you differ from your opponent? 

Councilor Greg Evans: I would say that the most glaring gap between my opponent and myself is the number of years that I have in service in this community, not only on City Council—12 (years) on city council, seven (years) on the LTD Board of Directors, four years on the Lane County Fair Board. And then I’ve been in a number of other situations both locally, statewide, national.

I was president of League of Oregon Cities in 2019, very involved in the National League of Cities. I was chairman of transportation infrastructure in 2017 for the National League of Cities. I’ve been on a number of different committees and different things both at the local level, at the regional level, at the national level.

So my level of experience, which is mostly about 35 to 40 years of experience in this community, I think lends to giving me a significant advantage in this particular election.

Presenter: Is there anything else you’d like to add? 

Councilor Greg Evans: My campaign kickoff: It’s going to be Friday, April 10, 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. at Putters Pizza on Highway 99 in the Gilbert Shopping Center. And folks are welcome to come and enjoy and visit with us and have a few snacks and there’s no cost. Friday the 10th from 5 to 7 p.m. at Putter’s Pizza on Highway 99. 

You can go to my website at www.GregForBethel.com. People want to donate, they want to volunteer, all of that, they can just go to that website and everything is there.

Presenter: Councilor Greg Evans explains why he is running for re-election.