CC Minutes - 09/17/07 Community Forum

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that the form of government did create some tension in the community, adding that this was how she thought it should be. Ms. Seese-Green said she wanted the next City Manager to understand the necessity of the neighborhood associations and to have a relationship with the City and be supported by the City. She averred that the City Manager also had to be independent and autonomous from the City. She believed that a lot of the people who were involved with neighborhoods felt that the relationship with neighborhood associations was of high importance for a City Manager. David Hinkley , 1350 Lawrence Street, #1, declared that the next City Manager needed to have a thick skin and the “backbone to say the truth even when people did not want to hear it.” He underscored the importance of public participation to the citizens of Eugene. He said the new City Manager needed to enthusiastically embrace the concept of public participation and this participation must happen before a decision was made and not afterwards. He averred that a City Manager needed to “have a strong hand on the reins.” He said if the City Manager needed to “replace one of the horses” the City Council must back the manager. He thought a City Manager should plan on a tenure of four to five years. He opined that having a long-term City Manager created a situation whereby city employees had not experienced a transition to different management and this created difficulties with that situation. Rich Gaston , 2281 Wisconsin Street, stated that he had served on the Budget Committee. He shared his impression that the City Manager carried a lot of weight in the budget process. He advocated for having a financially conservative person to guide the City through that process. He averred that deficits should only be brought forward because of special needs. He also wished to advocate for the institution of some kind of independent performance auditor for the City of Eugene. He believed that it would be good to have someone who had worked with that kind of system and appreciated the checks and balances. He shared his great respect for city staff. He said if projections were correct the City was in for tougher fiscal times. Jan Wostmann , 2645 Riverview Street, noted his service as co-chair of the Neighborhood Leaders Council. He said the first characteristic he hoped those hiring the City Manager would look for was someone who was comfortable with the idea that Eugene was composed of neighborhoods that had distinct needs. He felt the delivery of services was best tailored to the individual neighborhoods. He did not believe it was a given for a City Manager to think along those lines. He added that as a part of that the next City Manager should MINUTES—Eugene City Council September 17, 2007 Page 3 Community Forum