Item 3A: Approval of City Council Minutes

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Mayor Piercy thought it was premature to identify champions until there was a strategic plan. Her priority was to integrate thinking about race relations into everything the City did and not place it in a project- specific silo. She believed that the people long to see the diversity in the community reflected in a building. She observed that people often did not know how to react when confronted with inappropriate behavior and it was important to put those tools out for the community to use. She said there was grant funding available for community initiatives to improve race relations. Ms. Taylor said it was not necessary to build a cultural center; the City could make facilities like the Bascom-Tykeson Room available to community groups free of charge. She preferred to build a youth center open to all races and cultures. She also wanted to see greater recognition of Eugene's four sister cities. She suggested that the council's ceremonial matters could be used to celebrate different cultures with dance and music. Ms. Ortiz appreciated the suggestion to make public meeting rooms available to community groups. Ms. Bettman stated her support for the other priorities within the context of the strategic plan. She reemphasized the value of Eugene sponsoring the hate crimes conference, as it was an excellent way to reach out to the broader community and continue dialogue and education. She learned through her participation in the Portland conference about an educator who contracted with school districts to go into schools and work with children while they were young to promote appropriate behaviors. She wanted to see the City contract for that training on behalf of the school district. Mayor Piercy said the district's response to a racial incident at North Eugene High School could possibly be replicated at other schools. She said the youth action board regarded themselves as a diverse group and wanted to be part of community cultural diversity activities, including a cultural center. Mr. Zelenka said his interest in a cultural center was related to providing space and a forum, possibly in City Hall, rather than to building a new facility. He liked Ms. Taylor's suggestion to celebrate cultural diversity at council meetings and Ms. Bettman's suggestion for educating young people to promote understanding and tolerance. In response to a question from Ms. Ortiz, Mr. Chouinard said staff was already working on the rough draft of a strategic plan to present to City diversity committees, executive and division managers for feedback. He said staff would continue to refine the plan over the winter months and hoped to begin outreach to community groups for their input in the spring, but resources were needed for that effort. Diversity Manager Jason Mak explained there were three options for the community outreach process: a low cost option predominantly using staff resources at a cost of $5,000; a medium-cost option using graduate students at the University of Oregon at a cost of $50-70,000; and a high-cost option using a consultant at a cost of several hundred thousand dollars. Ms. Ortiz, seconded by Mr. Zelenka, moved to use $50,000 from the Council Con- tingency Fund for item 1 to create an over-arching strategic plan for the organiza- tion that addresses diversity and human rights which includes defined mission and goals. Mr. Clark said he would support the motion because the amount was modest, it could be covered by the contingency fund and he supported what the council was trying to accomplish, but when larger sums were MINUTES—Eugene City Council October 10, 2007 Page 4 Work Session