Item 2A: Approval of City Council Minutes

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seeing an “upswing” in drug dealing. He urged the council to continue its support for funding for the bicycle patrols. Mayor Piercy closed the public forum and invited comments and questions from councilors. She noted, regarding Mr. Gran’s testimony, that the topic had been brought up in the preceding work session and Councilor Bettman had requested a memorandum on urban core bicycle patrols from Police Chief Bob Lehner. Councilor Solomon said she had polled her colleagues to determine if there was interest in having a discussion on the city manager/city council form of government and there were not enough votes to devote a work session to the subject. Councilor Ortiz thanked everyone for coming to testify in the Public Forum. She said she was interested in the testimony regarding fines to bicyclists. She thought there was some merit to Mr. Burchell’s suggestion. She opined that there should be some bonus to people who choose to ride their bicycles. She requested a copy of the fine structure for bicycle tickets. City Manager Dennis Taylor agreed to outline the rationale behind the fines. He noted that a transportation subcommittee tried to address concerns about widening and increasing the bicycle lanes. Councilor Ortiz also wished to underscore her support for continued bicycle patrols of Monroe Park. Councilor Bettman opined that the City was spending a lot to revitalize the downtown area and “if staff had their way we would spend over $100 million to do it.” She noted her request for a memorandum from the Police Chief regarding whether funding had changed for the bicycle patrols. Councilor Bettman commented that she was “alarmed” to read that the Police Auditor had not been monitoring investigations. She believed that the Police Chief was supposed to work out the protocols regarding how this would happen. She wondered what obstacle was preventing the Police Auditor from doing this job. City Manager Taylor indicated that he would have City Attorney Sharon Rudnick speak to the council about the bargaining sessions. Councilor Bettman alleged that the EPEA was undermining oversight of the complaints against officers, adding that this was discouraging to her. Councilor Poling stated, in response to testimony on the EmX, that the council did not give any direction to th use West 11 Avenue as a transit corridor. He said he had made the recommendation to consider a West Eugene route and that different possibilities be included in this initial consideration. He also clarified that businesses did not shut down the Coburg Road route, the subcommittee stakeholder group which included residents, business people, and elected officials had decided that having a route in the area would not work for the commercial or residential areas along the corridor. Councilor Poling thanked Councilor Solomon for her comments on polling the council about whether to have a work session to discuss the form of government. He wished to underscore that neither Councilor Solomon nor himself favored changing the current form of government. He said they wanted to have an open discussion in public purview on the forms of government that were out there in order to make very clear what the expectations were to the next city manager hired. MINUTES—Eugene City Council June 11, 2007 Page 3 Regular Meeting