CC Minutes - 07/23/08 Work Session

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with police issues, he had considered a compliment to be asked to help in this way. He stressed that the commission would provide whatever public input it could but would not serve in a decision- making role. Ms. Taylor agreed that the commission served as an advisory body regarding policy but she did not perceive the siting of the patrol facility as policy-related. She said she was “a little disturbed” by this. Mayor Piercy said if the council did not have enough clarification on this particular item, it seemed to her that it could be pulled out of the work plan for separate consideration. Mr. Clark thanked the commissioners whose terms were ending and commended them for volunteering. He said he would support the motion. He did not see any fundamental change in the responsibility of the City Council when it came time to appropriately site a new police facility. He perceived the Police Commission’s work on this as “a wonderful addition to that,” given all of the work the commission did on police policy and the depth of understanding they had of some of the intricacies of what would be required in a new facility. Mr. Zelenka read from the document that the committee would evaluate potential sites and functions and that the team would work with staff to develop site criteria, research options for possible locations, and consider which programs would operate out of the facility. He assumed that the City Council would do this. He understood that the council wanted help in doing this work and he thought the Police Commission would add “some valuable conversation to that.” He said he wanted to see what “that was all about” before the commission did this task. Ms. Solomon expressed confidence that the committee would not get off “running in the wrong direction” because Ms. Ortiz was sitting on the committee. She pointed out that it was six-week task force working on a short timeline. She did not understand why the council would not want their input. She averred that they were “just taking a first cut” at the issues and possibly sifting out the ones that would not work for the City. She appreciated the committee’s willingness to do some of the research for the council. Ms. Taylor commented that she would “belatedly” thank the departing commissioners for their service and she wanted also to congratulate Mayor Piercy on her new appointments. Ms. Taylor, seconded by Ms. Bettman, moved to temporarily delete the language regarding the patrol facility siting from the motion to approve the work plan. Ms. Bettman said it sounded to her like the process would be completed before the council would do what it thought it would do. She felt the work would be prescriptive. She indicated that she would support the other recommendations in the work program. In response to a question from Ms. Bettman, Mr. Denner stated that the Police Commission had not undertaken a process at this point to identify the community priorities; it had not scoped out the work yet. Mr. Zelenka supported the amendment, adding that he supported the rest of the items in the work plan. Mayor Piercy expressed concern about “how this will work out.” She felt that with a little more work something that “was satisfying for everyone” could be provided. She thought it was in the best interest of the commission to “get to a place where everybody could say ‘yeah, go do that.’” MINUTES—Eugene City Council July 23, 2007 Page 8 Work Session