Item 2A: Approval of City Council Minutes

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ATTACHMENT A M I N U T E S Eugene City Council Work Session McNutt Room—Eugene City Hall—777 Pearl Street Eugene, Oregon November 21, 2007 Noon COUNCILORS PRESENT: Andrea Ortiz, Chris Pryor, Betty Taylor, Bonny Bettman, Jennifer Solomon, George Poling, Mike Clark, Alan Zelenka. Her Honor Mayor Kitty Piercy called the meeting of the Eugene City Council to order. A. WORK SESSION: Planning Process for Eugene Water & Electric Board Riverfront Property City Manager pro tem Angel Jones recognized the Eugene Water & Electric Board (EWEB) commissioners who were in attendance. She introduced Associate Planner Nan Laurence to provide an overview of recent activities. Ms. Laurence said that City and EWEB staff had been working to develop a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to outline the process for master planning of the EWEB site. She said binding aspects of the MOU pertained to the process of master planning, such as appointment of an advisory team and participation of the community at large. She said other aspects of the MOU were description and nonbinding on the council or any other regulatory body reviewing the master plan; those would include the description of open space or mix of uses. She said the EWEB commissioners had reviewed and unanimously approved the MOU. She said the master planning process was structured to provide as much council involvement as possible while maintaining protocol around the issue of quasi-judicial decisions, namely that the council could not participate in the development of a plan that they would later be involved in evaluating. Ms. Bettman felt there were inconsistencies between the EWEB process and the process undertaken with respect to the hospital. She said the council had passed a motion asking for the provisions of the MOU to be brought back for discussion, not approval. She said there was no reason, because of its quasi-judicial role, that the council would have to endorse or approve the MOU. She saw the definitions of mixed use and open space as a land use issue and the council directing staff to utilize those definitions via the MOU was a land use decision. She said the council could adopt those definitions in a parallel process. She commented that the MOU was intended to define the role of staff, but it did not; it did discuss timelines and if the council agreed to those timelines it would violate its quasi-judicial role. She said the agreement was between staff and EWEB; the council could approve the tenets as they applied to the citizen advisory committee and appointment process but should not approve the MOU. City Attorney Glenn Klein said the only reason for the council’s approval of the MOU was because the MOU committed the council to certain actions. He would be willing to craft a different motion that would address Ms. Bettman’s concerns. MINUTES—Eugene City Council November 21, 2007 Page 1 Work Session