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MINUTES <br />Eugene City Council <br />McNutt Room City Hall 777 Pearl Street <br />Eugene, Oregon <br />January 27, 2010 <br />Noon <br />COUNCILORS PRESENT: Mike Clark, Andrea Ortiz, Jennifer Solomon, Chris Pryor, George Poling, <br />George Brown, Betty Taylor. Alan Zelenka participated by telephone. <br />Her Honor Mayor Kitty Piercy called the work session of the Eugene City Council to order. She thanked <br />everyone for voting on the recent ballot measures. <br />A. WORK SESSION: <br />Downtown Public Safety Issues <br />Mr. Ruiz stated that the Eugene Counts public input process had been undertaken and both downtown and <br />downtown Public Safety had cropped up as recurring themes. He felt this pointed to the need to focus <br />some resources "in that direction." He thought improving the downtown would also increase the number <br />of jobs in that area. He hoped that the council would move forward on the recommendations. <br />Executive Director of the Planning and Development Department Susan Muir reviewed the first slide in a <br />PowerPoint presentation on Downtown Public Safety, which highlighted the Core Strategies. Hard <br />copies of the PowerPoint slides were provided to everyone present. She stated that the primary focus of <br />the present discussion was on the strategy related to public safety. <br />Eugene Police Department (EPD) Chief Pete Kerns listed some of the task team members. He said one of <br />the first things the task team had done had been to identify the things that needed to be changed and what <br />parts of the situation contributed to the present state of the downtown area. He related that a big <br />component lay in the lack of accountability in that there were not enough police officers or jail beds or <br />other services. He observed that the illegal and unpleasant behavior was upsetting people who would <br />come downtown to conduct business or spend time there. He said the task team had come up with more <br />than 40 strategies worthy of consideration. He noted that they had received input from a wide array of <br />people. In calling other municipalities across the country for information on how they had handled similar <br />situations, they had been repeatedly referred to the City of Portland. He related that they had contacted <br />Portland and made a field trip there. <br />Chief Ferns stated that the council packets included both short -term and long -term strategies. He said the <br />short --term strategies were those that they were already working on. He explained that there were a <br />number of existing resources they could coordinate better, such as improving the lines of communication <br />with the Department of Youth Services. He noted that there already existed closed - circuit cameras, owned <br />by private businesses for their own security purposes, and the EPD could take greater advantage of those. <br />He said EPD was in the process of taking an inventory of these resources. <br />Chief Kerns related that a number of communities had restricted the sales of fortified wine and malt <br />liquor. He explained that the Oregon Liquor Control Commission (OLCC) could make a change <br />administratively that would enable the City Council to pass an ordinance that would prohibit the sale of <br />MINUTES— Eugene City Council January 27, 2010 Page 1 <br />Work Session <br />