Item 2A: Approval of City Council Minutes

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Ms. Solomon averred that it was important to recognize other government agencies. She felt a lot of the West Eugene Parkway (WEP) discussion had been hearsay, for instance, as no one from ODOT was present. She recalled a work session at which Rob Handy had been allowed to speak on behalf of the River Road Neighbors, though it was not an official government organization. She advised the council to be consistent. Mr. Papé remembered that members of the City of Coburg’s staff and elected officials had come to make a presentation about tying in to the Metropolitan Wastewater Management Commission (MWMC) Wastewa- ter Treatment Plant. He favored limiting the amount of time such outside representatives were given. He suggested five minutes. Mr. Pryor found the discussion to be interesting. He thought duly constituted government agencies did represent partners and that they should have some official role, as was being discussed. He suggested such an entity be given a specific five minutes to talk about what they wanted to do. He did not want them to be part of the deliberations because they were not part of the City Council. Ms. Bettman preferred that agencies involved in a multi-jurisdictional issue submit information to the council packets. She did not want them to participate to the discussion “much.” She asserted that when there were stakeholders in an issue they were represented at the table. Mr. Kelly liked the idea of having the information included in council packets. He declared that a truly inter-governmental issue was a cause for a joint meeting with the appropriate body. Ms. Taylor opined that it was fine to provide information but another governmental body should not try to persuade the councilors. She commented that she had requests from people for “20 minutes on the calendar.” Mr. Poling clarified that he did not want to give the impression that he wanted to suggest that representatives from another governmental body should be able to vote. He underscored that his intention was merely to have such representatives present to provide information or to clarify points. He noted that he received the Lane Board of County Commissioners agendas and sometimes had thought that he would like to weigh in on an issue. City Manager Taylor said they had created a new device called the “Workshop” which provided for people other than councilors to be part of problem-solving for an issue or a project, e.g. the City Hall Complex. He commented that sometimes it seemed they were less prepared for the Consent Calendar items, in regard to having people present to respond to questions. He noted that an item involving the Eugene Water & Electric Board (EWEB) had come up through the Consent Calendar and notification of EWEB staff had been overlooked. He said staff usually made an effort to provide other elected officials with “first shot” at the Public Forum, but there was not a place for officials from other jurisdictions to participate in the delibera- tions. Mr. Papé said he wanted to make sure the information that was allegedly correct was actually correct. He thought it was good to be able to verify things with their sources. Ms. Taylor asserted that there were times that she had sat in a Lane Board of County Commissioners meeting and had heard something said about the City Council that was not true and she was not able to dispute it. MINUTES—City Council September 18, 2006 Page 7 Process Session