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Ms. Bettman had conflicts on both days. She said she could make arrangements to stay later on February 25 and asked if the council could agree to a later start time on February 26, such as 10:30 a.m. Mr. Pryor felt the council might not need the entire time it had scheduled for the session. Ms. Solomon stated that she had to be finished at 5 p.m. on Friday, February 25. Mr. Pap6 expressed his frustration that the council still had difficulty setting aside this time. He was opposed to cutting the time back. Mr. Kelly proposed the session be scheduled from 10:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Friday and 10:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. on Saturday. Ms. Taylor declared the session to be "way too long." Ms. Bettman observed that the session had been shorter in 2004 and asked why it had been scheduled for longer this year. City Manager Taylor responded that they were hoping for two full days of retreat time and if it ended earlier, then this would be a reward for the work. He felt the time set aside would provide ample parameters to cover the ground the council needed to cover. Ms. Bettman thought it would be a good compromise to go with the times suggested by Mr. Kelly. Mr. Kelly asked that the tentative schedule be circulated to the mayor and City Council for comments, once it had been submitted by the facilitator. Mr. Pap6 stressed that the City had hired a qualified facilitator and though the councilors might think items on her agenda were superfluous, they were likely borne of good ideas. Ms. Bettman recalled that the councilors had jettisoned a visioning exercise in the previous year's strategic planning session. She encouraged staff to recommend to the facilitator that she get right to the issues. Ms. Solomon recommended that the council be open and receptive to doing business in another way. She was reluctant to cut the facilitator short. She appreciated the opportunity to work with her and encouraged her colleagues not to be too picky about the agenda. Regarding the role of executives at the retreat, Mr. Kelly registered his opposition to allowing the mayor to vote on the internal decision-making process. Mr. Pryor agreed with Mr. Kelly's logic but thought it more compelling to have the mayor be part of the team. Mayor Piercy said the facilitator was thinking that full participation did not have a beating on the final vote. City Manager Taylor concurred, stating that the results from the planning session would come before the council for the final vote. MINUTES-- Eugene City Council February 8, 2005 Page 11 Process Session