RANDY GROVES

Eugene City Councilor Ward 8

Professional

Randy is serving in his first term as a Eugene City Councilor in Ward 8. During this time he has worked to clean-up West Eugene and pushed for more and larger sites to relocate our unhoused. Randy believes that our public spaces need to be kept open for all people and they are not intended to be occupied by a small number of people. At the same time, people need to have a place to go. Randy, who considers community safety to be a core responsibility of government has also been working on addressing the dioxin contamination problem in West Eugene, economic development, creating opportunities for creating housing, supporting our youth, maintaining our infrastructure and promoting accountable and fiscally responsible government.

As the former Eugene Springfield Fire Chief, Randy consistently sought innovation while serving and protecting our community for over thirty-six years. Serving in leadership positions throughout his career, Randy has built strong relationships within our city, with our labor unions, with our partner agencies, and throughout our community. Amongst a number of impressive accomplishments, Randy set the vision and led our fire department during the merger between Eugene’s and Springfield’s fire services – and subsequently became Chief of the merged department leading over 300 employees and overseeing a multi-million-dollar operating budget. The merger has been a great success in improving service and reducing costs.

As Fire Chief Randy served as a member of both Eugene’s and Springfield’s executive management teams. He was directly involved with twenty of Eugene’s annual budgets, and concurrently six Springfield budgets. His experience in working with two executive teams, two city councils, and four labor unions demonstrates his maturity of judgement, and his ability to find common ground and build consensus between people with different points of view. We believe that Randy brings a unique and critical skill set that will help move our community forward.

Randy worked successfully for many years inside of our municipal system thinking creatively while working collaboratively. He also proudly served as a union officer in Local 851 of the International Association of Firefighters for almost 10 years, served as a unanimously appointed citizen member of Eugene’s Budget Committee, and now proudly serves as your city councilor for Ward 8.


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    Economic Development meeting West Eugene

    Councilor Groves Attending Economic Development meeting in West Eugene. Working to Create Living Wage Jobs

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    Eugene City Council Meeting

    Councilor Groves at Eugene City Council Meeting

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    Visiting Everyone Village Safe Sleep Site

    Councilor Groves Visiting Everyone Village Safe Sleep Site with Senators James Manning fan Floyd Prozansky

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    Councilor Groves with Eugene Springfield Fire Chief Mike Caven

    Councilor Groves with Eugene Springfield Fire Chief Mike Caven for Electric Fire Engine Demonstration

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    Willamette River Environmental Protection Tour

    Councilor Groves and Councilor Keating from the right during Willamette River Environmental Protection Tour with the River Keeper Organization and Eugene City Parks and Open Space and Eugene City Recreation Staff

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    Meeting with Utah Firefighting Task Force

    Councilor Groves Meeting with Utah Firefighting Task Force Staged in Eugene for Wildfire Deployment (2022)

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    Speaking at Churchill Area Neighborhood Association

    Councilor Groves Speaking at Churchill Area Neighborhood Association meeting on Emergency Management and South Hills Fire Safety

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    Councilor Groves at Willamette River Clean-up

    Councilor Groves at Willamette River Clean-up with Chris Pietsch from the Register Guard

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    Yogi Tea 50th Anniversary

    Councilor Groves Speaking at West Eugene’s Yogi Tea’s 50th Anniversary Celebration

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    Chief Eye-to-Eye Safety Campaign

    Chief Eye-to-Eye Safety Campaign

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    Chief Groves Life Flight


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    Chief Groves Swanson Mill Fire 2014

    Chief Groves Swanson Mill Fire 2014

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    Promotion to Captain

    Randy Groves - Promotion to Captain 1991

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    Randy Groves - Firefighter

    Randy Groves - Firefighter

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    Springfield, Swearing In


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    Randy Groves

    Emergency Medical Call

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    Randy Groves, Firefighter


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    Randy Groves with former Mayor Kitty Piercy


Register-Guard article, March 2016

"After 37 years on the job, fire chief to retire..."

By Christian Hill

Posted Mar 6, 2016 at 12:01 AM

Eugene Springfield Fire Chief Randy Groves, who led the department through its merger and three major fires during the past couple of summers, is retiring after a 37-year career. [Read more] [Read online]