We presented our petition to the Eugene City Council on November 14, 2011 at a public forum. The petition called for the City Council to pass a resolution calling on Congress to pass an amendment that abolishes corporate personhood. We got about 5,000 signatures on our petition.
On February 15, 2012, the Eugene City Council passed WtPE Eugene resolution 5055, which was based upon the resolution that we asked for, but had changes, some for the better, some not so much.
Thank you to all who signed our petition, to the City Councilors who helped with this, and especially to our hardworking signature gatherers.
The key part of the resolution passed by the city follows:
NOW, THEREFORE,
BE IT RESOLVED BY THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF EUGENE, a Municipal Corporation of the State ofOregon, as follows:
Section 1. Corporations, unions and special interests should not have the constitutional rights that natural persons possess.
Section 2. Given its impact on free and fair elections and effective· self-governance, the Eugene City Council determines that the most urgent action needed to address the negative impacts of United States Supreme Court Citizens United (2010) decision is to stop unlimited independent campaign expenditures by corporations, unions and special interest groups.
Section 3. The City of Eugene hereby includes in its 2012 Federal Legislative Agenda support for an Amendment to the United States Constitution which reverses the impacts of Citizens United, including, but not limited to the provisions of the current drafts of S.1. Res. 29 introduced by Senator Tom Udall of New Mexico and Senator Jeff Merkley of Oregon and H.J. Res. 72 introduced by Representative Kurt Schrader ofOregon and co-sponsored by Representative Earl Blumenauer and Peter DeFazio ofOregon; and, respectfully urgesOregon’s Congressional delegation to prioritize congressional proposal of an amendment to the United States Constitution addressing the threats to representative government identified in this Resolution so that the states may ratify it.
Section 4. The City ofEugene calls on the Oregon Legislature, other communities, jurisdictions, and organizations to join with us in this action by passing similar resolutions.
KMTR news coverage of our petition (October 21) and comments by Mayor Kitty Piercy
KEZI coverage of our petition (Friday, October 21)