CC Minutes - 02/28/05 WS - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

City Manager Taylor also thanked Mayor Piercy, President Frohnmeyer, and Mayor Leiken for the article in The Register-Guard. City Manager Taylor said that on March 3 at 8 a.m. at the Board of County Commissioners Conference Room, the chief executive officers of the cities of Springfield and Eugene, Lane County, Lane Community College, University of Oregon, the two Eugene school districts, Eugene Water & Electric Board, and Lane Transit District would meet to recommit to and re-sign the memorandum of agreement that guides those organizations' diversity efforts. The organizations would use the occasion to talk about where the community has been with regard to diversity as well as where it is going. City Manager Taylor took official note of the agreement between EWEB and Triad. He said that much work remained to be done. City Manager Taylor recalled the council's discussion on a possible moratorium on the construction of outdoor smoking facilities pending completion of its most recent review of the ordinance. City Attorney Jerome Lidz had prepared an ordinance that allowed the City to prohibit smoking in all outdoor smoking areas for which authorized construction did not begin before March 1, 2005. He asked the council to adopt that recommendation by motion so staff could present such an ordinance on April 11. He said the City could not achieve that goal through an administrative rule. Ms. Solomon, seconded by Ms. Bettman, moved to direct the City Manager to bring back an ordinance that would prohibit smoking in all outdoor smoking areas for which authorized construction did not begin before March 1, 2005. Ms. Solomon asked what would happen if someone had a building permit but had not commenced construction by March 1, or if a permit was being processed but had not been approved. Mr. Lidz said neither situation would be protected under the contemplated ordinance. He said the council could choose to ban smoking virtually anywhere in the city regardless of whether someone had built a smoking area. He understood the purpose of the motion was to put people on notice that if they had not built such a facility yet, they might want to reconsider it because the council intended to prohibit smoking in such areas or planned to do so in the future. It was a "heads up" to the public so that they do not construct such an area, only to find later it is not allowed. Ms. Solomon said she was not opposed to the idea but preferred to allow those having made such an application make that decision on their own. Mr. Kelly asked if there were any such applications in the system. Keli Osborn, Planning and Development Department, was not aware of any such applications. Mr. Kelly pointed out that rather than prohibit such areas, there were other options under consideration. He supported the motion because it merely directed staff to return with such an ordinance. Mr. Pap~ concurred with the remarks of Mr. Kelly, reminding all councilors of the council's goal of protecting workers from secondhand smoke. MINUTES--Eugene City Council February 28, 2005 Page 3 Work Session