Item 2A: Approval of City Council Minutes

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there were several million dollars in changes to the budget but most were attributable to “cleaning up the estimates” in the budget. She noted a couple of items: ? The City was recognizing $3.9 million in grants in the General Fund; included in that was $500,000 from the State of Oregon to help with Olympic Trials expenses. ? The City had enough money to make the $900,000 transfer to the Capital Budget. ? $148,500 was being allocated from the Contingency Account for projects pending approval by the council. ? There are projects related to the election held in November, 2007, that were not included in the Supplemental Budget as costs were still being calculated. Mayor Piercy opened the public hearing. John Barofsky , 2010 Hubbard Lane, observed that there had been a change made in the 2008 budget document regarding supplemental budgets. He cited page B-14 of the budget packet and noted that there was a paragraph describing adjusting adopted budgets that contained a clause that allowed for 10 citizens to petition for a budget hearing that had been stricken since the previous year. He said it had been taken out without a directive from the council or the Budget Committee. He felt this had been an opportunity for a public hearing and that it had “magically disappeared.” He remarked that this was an area in which trust was taken away. Mayor Piercy closed the public hearing. Councilor Bettman asked Ms. Murdoch to explain the change in language. Ms. Murdoch said this had been discussed in the last Supplemental Budget process. She clarified that the City had been misquoting Oregon Revised Statutes (ORS) regarding the provision about supplemental budgets. She stated that there was no longer a provision that required a process such as Mr. Barofsky described and so it had been removed. Councilor Bettman said it seemed to her that given the importance of transparency and public involvement, this change should have been noted in the budget packet. Councilor Bettman remarked that she did not understand the adjustments that had been made because of initiatives in departments that had not been completed or pursued. Ms. Murdoch explained that those included items such as an allocation of $86,338 for the sustainability program startup, costs that had not been completely expended, a $125,000 contribution from Springfield for the Police Interoperability Grant, $66,550 in one-time funds for River Road/Santa Clara, $154,400 for opportunity siting and standards, and $152,944 for a neighborhood park. Councilor Bettman observed that there was $1.6 million in additional funds available in the beginning working capital in the General Funds main sub-fund and there was new revenue of $619,000. She surmised that out of the $12.9 million there was a $900,000 capital transfer and another $900,000 capital transfer and this would make $1.8 million. Ms. Murdoch clarified that there was only one $900,000 capital transfer. Councilor Bettman countered that she thought the council had directed there to be an “automatic” $900,000 to be placed in a capital transfer. Ms. Murdoch reiterated that there was only the one amount. MINUTES—Eugene City Council December 10, 2007 Page 8 Regular Meeting