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<br />Mr. Pryor did not consider the survey a “green light” or a “red light,” but he thought it indicated a new city <br />hall would be a very tough sell to the public. The council would have to put enormous effort into the issue <br />to overcome what appeared to be structural obstacles to the project as well as to the interconnection with <br />other projects and the trust and faith the community had in the council. That was a huge challenge, and he <br />did not want to waste anyone’s time unless the council truly believed the project could go forward. He said <br />the council had many priorities and he wanted to be sure they were in the right order. <br /> <br />Ms. Solomon supported removing the butterfly parking lot and Rock ‘N Rodeo site from further considera- <br />tion and said the A-2 Option was her preference. However, she was intrigued by the idea of moving the <br />courts into the federal building. She had been somewhat surprised at the polling data as she had not thought <br />things were “that bad.” She agreed with Mr. Pryor that the council had its work cut out for it but she <br />continued to think the project was important. <br /> <br />Mr. Zelenka did not think the project was unraveling; however, he thought the survey should have been done <br />earlier in the process. He thought the public was telling the council that the price tag for a big consolidated <br />city hall was too high, and the council needed to get down under a $100 million bond. The council needed to <br />look at other options, such as the C options. The only way to reduce the cost was to reduce the size of the <br />project. He agreed with Mr. Pryor about the need to build a building that would last for the long term and <br />he emphasized the importance of the building being sustainable. <br /> <br />Mr. Zelenka emphasized the importance assigned to the two top sites, including the existing site, by the <br />public forum participants. They were ranked high above the sites below them. The public forum had been a <br />well-balanced cross-section of the community, and he trusted their judgment. He was prepared to let go of <br />th <br />the Rock ‘N Rodeo and butterfly parking lot. He suggested that the sale of the lot on the other side of 8 <br />Avenue could help with some of the moving costs. <br /> <br />Speaking to the timing of the bond issue, Mr. Zelenka expressed concern about a bond measure that might <br />compete with a transportation financing measure. He also did not think that gave the council enough time to <br />build trust with voters that Mr. Pryor mentioned. He believed that the council should be able to show <br />progress in downtown and progress in the other high priority issues identified by voters before going to the <br />public with a bond measure. He was not in favor of moving forward with a separate police facility. He was <br />also not in favor of having the police facility inside city hall, and needed more information about why it was <br />so expensive. <br /> <br />Ms. Bettman cautioned the council against reading too much into the survey responses related to growth and <br />development, for example, as that could be any split between people who thought the council spent too much <br />subsidizing it and those who thought the council needed to do more to encourage it. Overall, people were <br />unhappy and she was sure they were unhappy for different reasons. <br /> <br />Ms. Bettman again emphasized her interest in the consolidated options. She said the community did not <br />understand the distinctions between different levels of governments and she feared that relocating Municipal <br />Court to the federal building would further confuse the public. It would be different if the entire building <br />was available for a new city hall, as many people were interested in that, but it made no sense to her to rent <br />space at the federal building. Speaking to the issue of the EWEB site, Ms. Bettman thought it would cost <br />too much to create the transportation link between that site and downtown as it was not really downtown. <br />She suggested that the council agree that the issue was not “ripe” and take the $30 million to buy the EWEB <br />site or at minimum, the riparian area. <br /> <br /> <br />MINUTES—Eugene City Council June 20, 2007 Page 6 <br /> Work Shop—City Hall Goal <br /> <br />