09/16/1991 Meeting - Laserfiche WebLink

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e Mr. Nicholson said that it should be made clear to the public at the outset that the ultimate goal of this process is to develop a sustainable funding package that incorporates service reduction, maintenance, and expansion strategies. The public needs to understand that these are only examples and they will be expected to create their own strategies during the next round of public involvement. Mayor Miller suggested that in order to encourage the public to develop their own preferred service and funding package, a list of service categories with their approximated funding costs, should be presented at the bottom of the reduction strategies. Mr. MacDonald offered his support to this "menu-ap- proach." Mr. Boles noted that the City's underlying financial management policies influence these figures and asked that a statement of these financial manage- ment policies be made available to the council. Mr. Nicholson suggested that the council present the public with an example of a single integrated service and financial package. Mr. Rutan disagreed and said that the council made a decision when it created this process that it would present the public with six basic strategies, receive public input from these strategies, and present the public with a single, integrated ap- proach based on that input. Mr. Robinette said that it is not important what examples are provided on the e strategies, and indicated that this part of the process was only designed to assist the public in forming their own strategies. Mr. Rutan asked that the "eliminate development services" category in reduc- tion strategy 1 be more specific. He suggested the phrase "eliminates all non-user fee supported services." Mr. Nicholson questioned how these strategies honor the "do things different- ly" message that the council received from the community during the initial round of public involvement. He said that it is important that the community believe that its input was seriously considered in creating these strategies. Mr. Gleason said that staff recognized from the first round of community input that there is a strong push within the community for reducing costs by doing things in different ways. While it is possible for staff to compile a list of possible ways to do things differently, it will be very difficult to assess potential cost savings until implementation. Mr. Nicholson suggested that the council either provide a poster that highlights certain "do things differently" strategies or that specific examples among the strategies be highlighted or printed in a different typeface. Mr. Boles suggested that councilors attempt to create a strategy themselves so that they are sensitive to what the public is being asked to do. Mr. MacDonald said that this would be a constructive exercise for a council sub- committee to undertake, but cautioned that the public may perceive wrongly that the committee is deliberating toward a final decision package. e MINUTES--Eugene City Council September 16, 1991 Page 3 Dinner Meeting