CC Minutes - 04/17/06 Process Session

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council did not generally hear. She supported a first-come, first-served process, and suggested that the logistics for the process could be improved. Ms. Bettman suggested that the council should consider holding public hearings on the Monday nights that do not already have regular meetings scheduled. She said that it might be less inconvenient than reschedul- ing and postponing public hearings. Mr. Pryor said he voted for the two-minute limit because he wanted to get out of the meeting at a reasonable time. He supported the three-minute limit but wanted a time certain by which the council continued with its business. Leaving the time open-ended was inviting problems. If one established a system, people would adapt to it. It was only when the process changed that people had difficulty. He said the council needed to have systems in place so those in attendance understood the process. He suggested that might require a council “huddle” prior to the meeting. Mr. Papé suggested that the sign up for the forum be cut off at 7:30 p.m. Ms. Solomon suggested that the doors of the Council Chamber be opened earlier to give staff a better sense of how many people were signing up. She did not oppose giving people three minutes to speak, but did not want to meet past the hour of 10 p.m. She suggested that alternatively, an additional meeting be added during the month. Mayor Piercy said the “flow” of the council’s schedule might suggest the need for additional meetings. City Manager Taylor noted the tension between the advertised hearings and the public forum, particularly when the forum lasted for 90 minutes. Mr. Kelly determined that no one strongly objected to granting all speakers in the public forum three minutes to speak. He agreed with City Manager Taylor about the tension between the forum and the advertised hearings, and suggested that the more controversial hearings be deferred to the proposed additional hearing. If the hearing was not needed, it could be canceled. Ms. Bettman said that another option would be to hold public hearings at 5:30 p.m. rather than at the regular meeting. She was not opposed to having people sign up via e-mail but did not think that should mean they were first in line. The situation should be first-come, first-served, and those persons could be added to the list after others signed up. She agreed with the suggestion to open the doors earlier and cut off sign-ups at 7:30 or 7:35 p.m. Ms. Solomon reiterated that she wanted to be free to leave the meeting at 10 p.m. and wanted meetings to end at that time. Mr. Kelly agreed, with the reminder that if the council was in the middle of an item, the meeting went past 10 p.m. Ms. Taylor preferred to have meetings run later rather than add another meeting, given the number of meetings councilors already attended. She thought several meetings had been poorly planned because of the number of controversial items scheduled. She also suggested that perhaps the council break periods were too long. Ms. Ortiz liked the idea of a meeting dedicated to public hearings as she thought the current format puzzled people. She agreed that staff should open the doors earlier for people to sign up, particularly in the winter MINUTES—Eugene City Council April 17, 2006 Page 5 Process Session