CC Minutes - 02/12/08 Joint Elected Officials

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Councilor Wylie stated that the public safety and public health issues would affect everyone. She averred that they needed to be thinking clearly about how those issues would affect each jurisdiction. She noted that she served on the Mayor’s Blue Ribbon Committee on Financing Homelessness and Housing Programs and that she intended to keep working on social issues. Springfield Councilor Woodrow thanked everyone for meeting together. He agreed with Commissioner Green that there should be an inter-jurisdictional committee or commission that “gets to yes.” He averred that by working together the jurisdictions could resolve some of the issues they faced. He suggested that staff from Eugene and Springfield could work together on the housekeeping portions of the Metro Plan amendments and prepare a recommendation. Councilor Woodrow said public safety and ORS 190 were most important to the jurisdictions. He felt an inter-jurisdictional committee could work on those issues. He added that he would be happy to collaborate on such a committee. Eugene Councilor Pryor felt there were common issues that could be perceived as the “low hanging fruit.” In reviewing the lists he noted that the Metro Plan amendments, public safety, transportation issues, and the provision of urban services had risen to the top. He also agreed that the three jurisdictions should meet more often, perhaps quarterly. He suggested that by meeting more frequently they could handle the issues in steps. He agreed that it could be prudent to create subcommittees or task forces to work inter-jurisdictionally on the individual issues and then have the subgroups report back to the larger group. Mayor Leiken called the meeting a good start. He saw common themes in the discussion. He called the Metro Plan the “800 pound gorilla in the room.” He believed that if they dealt with the Metro Plan issues they could address the ORS 190 agreements because they were in conjunction. He said even the public safety issues fell under the Metro Plan. He also supported addressing the issue of homelessness. He felt the Project Homeless Connect should be more than a one-day event. Commissioner Stewart opened the table for another round of comments. Councilor Bettman said, in terms of creating a new body that would take on conflict resolution, this had been the charge of the MPC. She asked if the bodies would want to discuss reforming the MPC so that it was more representative and had a democratic voting process. She preferred meeting regularly as the Joint Elected Officials. Councilor Bettman stated that the Metro Plan changes she spoke of were strictly with regard to HB 3337. She was not talking about changing who would be the provider of urban services or special districts or other ways the Metro Plan could be amended in order to facilitate some of the other issues. Regarding urban transition, she wondered why the County would want to take on the corresponding planning and permitting for it. Councilor Bettman commented, in terms of an ACT, that if they started with a “functioning process” for prioritizing transportation projects that had been vetted through the elected bodies and the communities and had multiple stakeholders working through a democratic process, the other transportation issues would “resolve themselves.” Councilor Clark requested that any subcommittees or work groups formed provide their results to the Joint Elected Officials and not just individual jurisdictions. MINUTES—Joint Elected Officials— February 12, 2008 Page 5 Lane Board of County Commissioners and Eugene and Springfield City Councils