Item 2A: Approval of City Council Minutes

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Mr. Pryor, seconded by Ms. Bettman, moved to direct the City Manager to convey owner- ship of the City-owned parking lot identified in Attachment C to Diamond Parking as par- tial compensation for the URA’s acquisition of the property identified as Property #4 in At- tachment A. Responding to a question from Mr. Zelenka, Mr. Braud described the appraisal methodology and clarified that the City did not actually commission a formal appraisal for the property. Ms. Solomon asked why a formal appraisal of Property #4 was not done. Mr. Braud said the City did formal appraisals on all properties in the redevelopment area and had information on downtown property land values and assumed the two lots were fairly equivalent in value. He had also talked to some real estate professionals about those values. He acknowledged the company was not easy to deal with and the transaction might not be a real market value transaction. Ms. Solomon was not comfortable with the lack of an appraisal and could not support the transaction as proposed. Speaking to Ms. Solomon’s remarks, Ms. Bettman pointed out the URA spending limit expansion and entire West Broadway development proposal were based on purchase options that were acquired without formal appraisals. That entire process occurred without appraisals. If the City “stopped the clock now” to get an appraisal, it would lose the property. The motion passed unanimously, 6:1; Ms. Solomon voting no. C. WORK SESSION: City of Eugene Elections Code Revision City Recorder Mary Feldman was present for the item. She distributed a matrix noting the change being proposed to the Elections Code, the nature of the change, and the reason for the change. She said the changes were intended to clarify confusing provisions, correct grammatical errors, and reorder the code sections to chronologically reflect the process people were expected to pursue. She identified Section 2.977, Section 2.980, Section 2.981, Section 2.993, and Section 2.994 as sections the council might wish to discuss further for their policy implications. Ms. Feldman said nothing in the changes being proposed would affect the May 2008 election or the voters’ pamphlet for that election. Mayor Piercy solicited questions. Ms. Bettman suggested the code lacked definitions as it referred to “election” without being specific as to whether the election in question was a “special,” “primary” or “general” election. That either meant any election or that the council could choose any date and hold an election. In addition, on page 8 of the draft ordinance, where it spoke to the need for the City Recorder to determine “immediately” whether the submitted petition was in proper form, “immediately” was not defined. Ms. Feldman said that usually occurred at the time of petition submission, when she met with the petitioners personally. She would make that clear. Speaking to the lack of a definition for “special” elections, etc., Ms. Feldman noted the four election dates provided by State law. Any election held on one of those dates in any year other than the regularly MINUTES—Eugene City Council February 11, 2008 Page 8 Work Session