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<br />Councilor Taylor indicated she would vote for the motion. <br /> <br />Councilor Clark asked if the council did ethics investigations of firms it hired or did ethics investigations. <br />City Attorney Glenn Klein did not know what background investigation had gone on with the firm involved. <br />He indicated he could check. He said that generally, the City would do reference checks. <br /> <br />Councilor Clark said that the council was being asked to support a resolution that explicitly concurred with <br />the value assigned the property by the appraiser. He was troubled by asking for $1.9 million of other <br />people’s money without more information. <br /> <br />Councilor Bettman asked if the City had an appraisal for the Golden Gardens property before it purchased <br />it. Mr. Medlin did not think so. Councilor Bettman recalled the City had “picked a number” and paid what <br />the seller asked. Mr. Medlin said the City had licensed appraisers on staff and the price of Golden Gardens <br />was relatively low ($10,000 an acre) and it was also specifically targeted within the City’s parks and open <br />space bond. <br /> <br />Mr. Zelenka recalled that the City did not have an appraisal for the Diamond Parking lot exchange. <br /> <br />Mr. Zelenka said the grant would pay for half the price of the acquisition cost of the properties in question. <br />He could not say the property in question was overvalued; the appraisers who testified, when asked, did not <br />identify a problem. The committee asked for a third-party verification that met Yellow Book standards. Mr. <br />Zelenka agreed that the value of the property was controversial, but did not think “this was the place to pick <br />that up.” The City was using the best information it had at the time of making the grant application. He <br />suggested that the City could accept less in grant money if the appraisal was lower. <br /> <br />Roll call vote; the motion passed 6:2; councilors Clark and Solomon voting no. <br /> <br /> <br />Mayor Piercy adjourned the meeting at 8:08 p.m. <br /> <br /> <br />Respectfully submitted, <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />Jon Ruiz <br />City Manager <br /> <br />(Recorded by Kimberly Young) <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />MINUTES—Eugene City Council April 28, 2008 Page 4 <br /> Work Session <br />