CC Minutes - 01/22/07 Work Session

Home Browse Search

M I N U T E S Eugene City Council Work Session McNutt Room—Eugene City Hall January 22, 2007 5:30 p.m. COUNCILORS PRESENT: Andrea Ortiz, Chris Pryor, Betty Taylor, Bonny Bettman, George Poling, Alan Zelenka, Jennifer Solomon, Mike Clark. Her Honor Mayor Kitty Piercy called the meeting of the Eugene City Council to order. A. COMMITTEE REPORTS AND ITEMS OF INTEREST FROM MAYOR, CITY COUNCIL AND CITY MANAGER Mayor Piercy announced that she would be attending the United States Conference of Mayors in Washing- ton, DC, on January 23, 2007. She thanked councilors for their participation in the recent two-day retreat to consider council goals. She said that the council’s goals included continuing goals on race, homeless initiatives, City Hall, neighborhood empowerment, arts and outdoors, and a hospital, and new goals related to a sustainability initiative, downtown initiative, police initiative, and transportation initiative. Mr. Pryor reported that the Human Services Commission (HSC) met earlier and began the process of determining how to make service cuts. He said that the HSC and the many agencies it funded would lose a significant amount of resources in the current budget cycle, both from one-time funding and County funding. He said that precipitated a conversation about which services could be cut and the extent of those cuts as the commission faced a growing need and declining revenue. He said the Council Committee on Intergovern- mental Relations would meet on January 23 and there were bills to consider. He encouraged councilors to let committee members know of any specific legislation they might be interested in tracking. Mr. Clark agreed with Mayor Piercy that the retreat was productive and he was pleased that it resulted in many issues on which there was consensus. Mr. Zelenka also expressed his appreciation for the retreat and said he enjoyed the process. He announced the first Lane County Public Energy Forum would occur from 7 to 9 p.m. on January 23 at the First United Methodist Church and encouraged people to attend. He also encouraged visiting the display of flags on the University of Oregon campus in commemoration of those who had died during the Iraq War. Ms. Taylor observed that Portland had recently reduced its tax on small local businesses and Eugene had no such tax. Mr. Poling was pleased that there would be a work session later in the month to “fine tune” the results of the goal-setting retreat. He thanked Public Works employees and public safety personnel for their efforts to keep the community safe during the recent storm. He noted that the EmX system began operations on MINUTES—Eugene City Council January 22, 2007 Page 1 Work Session