Item 2A: Approval of City Council Minutes

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She stated that Sections 2(a) and 2(e) specified which areas of the City of Eugene disallowed skateboards on the sidewalks. She felt it was clear that those sections protected the pedestrians in the downtown and campus areas. However, she averred that many community members who choose skateboarding as an alternative form of transportation commute during nighttime hours and are negatively impacted by these restrictions. She said skateboarders were at risk when boarding in the streets at night because of drunk or erratic drivers. She urged the City to change the code to indicate where skateboarding was permitted, to specify that they should be allowed in bicycle lanes, and that travel by skateboard should be allowed on sidewalks during the nighttime hours in the campus and downtown areas. She underscored her interest in continuing to be a law-abiding citizen. Zachary Vishanoff , somewhere on Patterson Street, provided handouts for the council. He asserted that Mac Court was seismically sturdy. He said one of the reasons the University of Oregon had listed for razing the structure had been that it did not meet seismic standards. He asked the councilors to look at a report online by using the key words: Oregon faculty senate seismic report arena subcommittee. He also requested that the City hold a public hearing to determine whether the people of Eugene truly wanted to host the Olympic Trials of 2012. th Tom Bode , 1414 East 18 Avenue, spoke on behalf of the Association of Students of the University of Oregon (ASUO) Housing Liaison. He urged the council to pass the rental housing standards that included language regarding smoke detectors, housing security, and mold. He believed those things should not be controversial because they should be considered necessities. He underscored that those requirements were already included in state law. He said he did not support inclusion of a sunset clause. He believed that while property owners had the resources to return to repeat their case for discontinuing the program or portions of the program, renters did not. He pointed out that renters made up more than 50 percent of the population of Eugene. th Sam Dotters-Katz , 965 West 12 Alley, related that many landowners and renters had complained at the meeting held one week earlier about a lack of outreach and a lack of effective methods of bringing them to the table. He wished to underscore that the coalition of student renters who had attended the meeting to speak on behalf of the underrepresented population of renters had come of their own will and because they had figured out by themselves that the meeting was scheduled. He supported exclusion of the sunset clause because he felt that portions of the code could be revisited at any time by the council. He said interest had been expressed in forming a committee to speak on behalf of the mold issue. He encouraged the council to facilitate student and renter participation on it. th Norton Cabell , 1456 West 10 Avenue, legislative director of the Oregon Rental Housing Association (ORHA), conveyed the association’s support for inclusion of smoke alarms and exterior door locks for security in the rental housing code. However, he was concerned about inclusion of mold in the code because mold was not a simple issue to resolve with laws and ordinances. He said some mold was caused by tenant behavior, some mold was caused by landlord action or inaction, and some required effort by both sides. He averred that such complex issues could only be resolved by involving all of the stakeholders. He noted that the City of Portland had decided to revisit its housing code for the first time in 20 years. He related that instead of directing staff to come up with proposals, Portland created a work group comprised of tenant advocates, representatives of landlord trade groups, and public health officials. He said the City of Portland provided staff and hired facilitators for the work group. He had participated in the group. He felt that working together over the course of the year had led the two sides to greater understanding of the other side’s concerns. He related that they had explored the topics of mold, lead-based paint, and retaliation. He believed that whatever recommendation the group made to the Portland City Council would be multi-faceted and complex due to the nature of the concerns involved. He noted that Oregon was unique, at the state level, MINUTES—Eugene City Council May 27, 2008 Page 2 Regular Meeting