Item 2A: Approval of City Council Minutes

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provide service to people who chose to live elsewhere. She said the County provided services far and wide and she would be looking for equity that any funding the City provided was constrained to serve City residents. She did not object to funding positions in the district attorney’s office unless all other existing resources were preserved for the rest of the County. She said similarly the City should pay for the cases it referred to Buckley House and not cross-subsidize other areas. She asserted that the Facility Reserve consisted of funds that were taken away from maintaining and updating the City Hall and if a new City Hall was not built a considerable reinvestment would need to be made in the current building. Mr. Pryor said he could support one-time funding if it was a bridge to long-term solutions that were sustainable. He said if funds were taken from the Facility Reserve, some portion had to be used to assure the current City Hall was functional. He said it was essential to be financially prudent with existing resources and accurately assess costs in order to make funds stretch as far as possible. Mr. Clark agreed with Mr. Pryor about bridge funding leading to long-term sustainability and Ms. Bettman’s point about equitably serving the people of Eugene. He cautioned against having those discussions in an accusatory manner and hoped jurisdictions could collaborate effectively to solve problems that affected them all. He did not see assistance coming from the State or federal levels; solutions would need to be found regionally and required establishing priorities. He said in view of the budget crisis it seemed inappropriate to spend almost $8 million to acquire Amazon headwaters properties without a communitywide conversation. He hoped the council would accept the chief’s recommendations and move them to the Budget Committee for discussion. Mr. Zelenka asked if costs associated with rehabilitating the current City Hall had been estimated. Mr. Carlson said estimates had been developed and would be presented at a work session in late May or early June. Mr. Zelenka said it was important not to suggest that the County’s budget crisis had been resolved by a Eugene bailout because there were still dramatic cuts that would be made. He asked if the city manager concurred with the chief’s recommendations. Mr. Ruiz said the recommendations were his and had been developed by a team. Chief Lehner clarified that the funding recommendations for Buckley House, the district attorney’s office, the jail and field law enforcement were not saving the County; they represented a set of very limited and specific contracts to avoid a public safety crisis and its impacts on the City of Eugene. He said the County clearly understood the funding was a City backstop for Eugene residents. Ms. Piercy pointed out examples of existing collaboration among jurisdictions, such as fire departments, which maximized available resources and established the foundation for further collaboration. Ms. Bettman said any funds remaining in the Facility Reserve after the current City Hall was upgraded should be used to add patrol officers on an ongoing basis. She said despite loss of revenue, the County’s budget was $455 million and the City was considering using $2.5 million of its General Funds, when it was facing a deficit, to bolster services that the County should be providing while at the same time the County was foregoing revenue from development projects throughout the County. She said the council and the voters did not have any impact on those policy decisions and that was a problem that should be rectified immediately. In response to a question from Ms. Bettman, Mr. Ruiz said he understood from the council’s discussion that it was supportive of the recommendations in the AIS as long as they were viewed as a bridge to long-term MINUTES—Eugene City Council May 12, 2008 Page 7 Work Session