07/22/1991 Meeting - Laserfiche WebLink

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Mr. Boles said that while it would be difficult for the council to deal with e the community's concerns, it would be even more difficult to organize the results of various surveys in an orderly fashion. He said it was fairly certain that the process would evolve because it had been doing so all along. He said the interaction between the council, staff, and the community would depend on the proper organization of this material. Linda Norris, Acting Assistant City Manager, said it had taken the executive managers and City employees time to comprehend the extent of the City's fi- nancial problems and it would therefore probably take the community a couple of months to absorb the information in the Eugene Decisions process. Mr. Nicholson said he was concerned that the entire process would look more like a public relations tactic than a sincere effort. He said most of the public would probably come to only a couple of meetings at which the issues of concern to them were being presented, and then not participate further in the process. Mr. Nicholson said the City might get coherent information from a small group of citizens who are intensely involved in City affairs, but the larger commu- nity might disagree with this information. Mr. Robinette said citizen sur- veys would help test the validity of material. Ms. Bascom said the situation just described by Mr. Nicholson had in fact occurred with the Eugene Agenda. Mr. Gleason said the Eugene Agenda was based on the council's agenda. He said the concept was accepted by a few, e but soundly defeated in a public vote. Mr. Gleason said Eugene Decisions would mobilize community activists to cre- ate a community conversation about strategies. He said some of the strate- gies would gather their own momentum. Mr. Boles said the Eugene Agenda was based on the results of a small number of questionnaires, not a reasonable sample range. Ms. Ehrman pointed out that although the Eugene Agenda was defeated, it led the way for a successful public vote on expansion of the Eugene Airport and began setting the stage for a new Library. Mayor Miller said there was a great deal of pressure on the council to reach consensus, but that it was important to let the councilors disagree with one another because superficial agreement was not helpful. Mr. Nicholson said the council needed to hear from very low-income people who would not normally participate in this kind of process. Mr. Boles agreed that the council should listen to this segment of the community. He said the council's goal was to create a sustainable service system and that some strategies would not lead to this. Mr. Robinette added that the City needed long-term methods for creating sustainable service systems. e MINUTES--Eugene City Council July 22, 1991 Page 5