CC Minutes - 06/25/07 Work Session

Metadata

Thumbnails

Annotations

they related to the expenditure of Eugene tax dollars. She believed the citizens expected the City Council to work collaboratively with other jurisdictions when possible while still looking to the bottom line. Ms. Bettman continued to maintain that the concept represented a merger of services and asked if an Intergovernmental Agreement would be signed. City Manager Taylor said no. He said the concept was not a merger of services as there would still be two separate budgets and two separate departments with a common and rational way of responding to emergencies in keeping with past practice. Ms. Bettman termed City Manager Taylor’s remarks “semantics” and repeated that the concept was a merger of services. She recommended that the concept be placed on the ballot for a vote. The citizens and council had no control over the decisions made by Springfield, and if that community failed to keep up with its investments, Eugene would have to take on that responsibility. She suggested the first thing staff should have done was to look at the numbers. Ms. Bettman perceived the concept as a major policy decision and she opposed its implemen- tation without further discussion. She maintained Eugene ratepayers subsidized wastewater infrastructure rates for Springfield, and the more Springfield grew, the more it cost Eugene. Ms. Ortiz reiterated her support for the concept. However, she was unsure that the Eugene Emergency Medical Services goals were the same as Springfield’s goals. She recalled the Broadway tree-cutting incident in 1997 where Eugene could not speak to the actions of other responding departments, and there was no accountability in a riot situation. She asserted that those departments had their own cultures and belief systems, and while she was sure they were similar, she as concerned. Chief Groves said that in his experience, the Springfield department was a professional department with high standards. He reiterated that no money was changing hands, and without experience it was difficult to gauge the impact. He said under the current arrangement, units were moving back and forth across jurisdictional boundaries, but the incentive got the two departments on the same operating page so that incident commanders know what they were getting in emergency situations. Ms. Ortiz commended the work of the fire and police departments. Mr. Zelenka thought the concept would result in an increase in services for both communities. It should also save more lives. However, it “always mattered who pays.” He agreed that it was not a service merger, and questioned why that was not proposed. Chief Groves said that Tualatin, for example, was a fire district that served multiple communities, and that was always a possibility. What was being proposed for Eugene and Springfield was similar to the Gresham/Portland model, which enhanced automatic aid parameters. City Manager Taylor said that some fire districts were formed to get around the impacts of Ballot Measure 47/50. Historically, the metropolitan area had questioned the wisdom of creating such single purpose governments and has looked to other approaches that left the general government structure in place. The concept was intended to improve current operating and mutual aid structures. Mr. Zelenka asked how Springfield intended to cover the Peace Health River Bend campus, and what was expected of Eugene. Chief Groves said that Eugene was part of that response under its current automatic aid agreement. He pointed out the River Bend campus was a regional facility that benefited Eugene citizens as well as Springfield citizens. Responding to a question from Mr. Zelenka, Chief Groves said Springfield had two ladder trucks to fight high-rise fires, very similar in type to what Eugene owned. Those were located at the Gateway station and th the station at Main and 66 streets. MINUTES—Eugene City Council June 25, 2007 Page 8 Work Session