Item 2A: Approval of City Council Minutes

Home Browse Search

Mr. Papé also thanked all involved in the SBI effort. He said the City was doing a good job of leading by example and thanked Mayor Piercy for her vision. He thought the goal of zero carbon emissions by 2020 was great but was not certain to what extent the City could control its destiny in that respect with Interstate 5 running through it. He asked how achievement of that goal would be measured. Mr. Funk said the goal was for the City, not those driving on Interstate 5. He felt the City, through a combination of purchasing sustainable power and offsets could achieve that goal. City Manager Taylor said that Eugene was in a coalition with other governmental entities to create baseline information and measure progress against that. Mr. Doppelt explained that the City was quantifying greenhouse gas emissions from internal government operations as well as the broader community and that Resource Innovations was attempting to quantify greenhouse gas emissions from the broader Eugene/Springfield metropolitan area. He said the drivers on Interstate 5 were not being included but agreed that transportation was the biggest issue. Ms. Taylor thanked Mayor Piercy for establishing the SBI and all those who worked on it for their efforts. She hoped that some of the SBI task force members would be on whatever board or commission was established for continuity reasons. She asked if the task force had discussed requiring sustainable practices in situations where the City was providing subsidies or incentives. Mr. Rexius said that could be a subject for future discussions. Mr. Doppelt commented that the task force had some discussion of regulation but concluded that an incentive system to encourage sustainable practices was preferable. Ms. Taylor speculated about which boards or commissions could be phased out if a new one to address sustainability was created. She suggested that perhaps the Police Commission had served its purpose and could be phased out as well as the City’s participation in the Metro Partnership. Ms. Bettman thanked the task force for its work and appreciated the vision and values that were articulated in the report. She was not certain that a perceptible difference in the status of global warming could be made in 18 years. She agreed that if the City was engaged in economic development it should have a sustainability screen but was unclear if the task force’s recommendation to continue with current practices and add incentives was to encompass all of the City’s economic development strategies. Mr. Funk said that the recommendations were not intended to be in place of anything the City was already engaged in; it was separate and in addition to current practices and the purpose was to target the City’s efforts. Ms. Bettman said that while the initiative was strictly aimed at business, the objectives seemed to be broader. She asked how the recommendations, given their breadth, cost, and objectives that might or might not be achieved, compared with a strategy like subsidizing transit within the City of Eugene that was known to be effective and had maximum benefit. She asked which would be the best cost/benefit investment for the City. Mr. Funk said the task force realized that everything was related to sustainability, including transportation, education, compact density and urban growth. He said the challenge was to focus on something that the task force felt it could get a grasp on and business was chosen because with the City functioning as a lever to move business toward sustainability, there was a powerful engine for change. He did not know how that could be measured on a cost/benefit basis. Mr. Rexius said that subsidized transit would certainly be a great way to reduce carbon emissions; however, another way to reduce carbon emissions was by establishing carbon neutrality as goal. He said that business people would regard that as an opportunity to look at ways to reduce carbon emissions in their own businesses and many of those initiatives could result in more jobs. MINUTES—City Council September 25, 2006 Page 5 Work Session