02/11/1987 Meeting - Laserfiche WebLink

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M I NUT E S e Eugene City Council Lunch/Work Session McNutt Room--City Hall February 11, 1987 11 : 30 a. m. COUNCILORS PRESENT: Debra Ehrman, Freeman Holmer, Ruth Bascom, Robert Bennett, Jeff Miller, Roger Rutan, Emily Schue, Cynthia Wooten. I. PROPOSED POLICY FRAMEWORK FOR USER FEES AND CHARGES The work session was called to order by His Honor Mayor Brian B. Obie. Finance Director Warren Wong presented the staff report. Mr. Wong said the proposed policy framework for user fees and charges described the responsibilities of the City Council and City Manager. He said the fees and charges would be established based on a cost-of-services study that included both direct and indirect costs. e Mr. Wong said the proposal would mean that most fees and charges would be set through the annual budget process. He said levels of property tax subsidy, if any, could be discussed and set during the budget process. Mr. Wong noted that special policies, such as low-income and senior-citizen deferrals or fees or charges regulated by law would come before the council. He also said the City Council at any time could request information from the City Manager on a specific user fee or charge. Mr. Wong said administrative implementation of the policy framework would occur as part of the cost-of-services study, and the resulting user fee/charge adjustments would appear in each yearl s budget. He reviewed agenda attachments and noted that financial management policies adopted last March had provided for recovery of full service costs wherever possible. Mayor Obie asked whether the City Council favored delegating responsibility for determining the level of public subsidy to the Budget Committee. City Manager Mike Gleason said some fees currently were presented to the City Council, while others were not. He said the policy framework would serve as a guide in fee decisions. Mr. Miller said he thought a work session was needed to decide the relationship between the Budget Committee and the City Council. He said involving the Budget Committee in decisions would require informing and educating Budget Committee members. Mr. Holmer said he favored allowing the Budget Committee to examine fee schedules and listening to the comments of 1 ay members. Mr. Bennett asked whether staff usually provided scenarios of different user fee levels. Mr. Gleason said the usual process was for an executive budget recommendat i on to be presented to a Budget Committee subcommittee, with e MINUTES--City Council Lunch/Work Session February 11, 1987 Page 1