Council weighs options for Referendum Petition 2025-1: emergency election, November vote or temporary fee

Eugene City Council on April 28 continued deliberations about options for Responding to Referendum Petition 2025‑1, including whether to let the measure go to the November ballot, pursue an earlier emergency election, repeal the ordinance that is the subject of the referendum, or adopt an alternative temporary fee or ordinance as a compromise. Council did not take final action; staff outlined timelines, fiscal trade-offs and administration challenges for each path.

City Manager (presenting) summarized the calendar and assumptions: if the council takes no additional action the referendum would appear on the November 4 ballot; Lane County told staff that an August 26 special election is not available except as an emergency election, which has a different timeline; and the deadline to notify Lane County to avoid inclusion on the ballot (by formally repealing the ordinance) is September 3. The manager said the earliest possible effective schedule for an emergency election path would require immediate steps and that the city could potentially reach an emergency-election vote as early as late July only if council moves quickly.

The city manager warned council members about the budget consequences of delaying a decision. She described the…