09/16/1991 Meeting - Laserfiche WebLink

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. e Responding to a question from Mr. Boles, Mr. Mounts said that prior to pre- senting the public with a list of services, staff will attempt to narrow the bracketed numbers to the nearest possible number. Responding to a question from Ms. Ehrman, Ms. Bellamy said that eliminating the Hult Center means that there would be no General Fund support of the Hult Center. Mr. Gleason said that the adoption of a strategy must be separated from strategy implementation. Once the citizens have chosen a strategy, it will be up to the council to decide how best to implement the strategy. Ms. Bascom said she is very concerned about the $500,000-$1,000,000 potential savings for closing the Hult Center because the public may mistake this num- ber as the General Fund subsidy of the Hult Center. She also expressed con- cern that the public may not be aware of the wide variety of community ser- vices that the public receives from Hult Center programs. Privatizing Hult Center operations would not serve the community well. Ms. Ehrman inquired about the Fire Service Availability Fee listed as a pos- sible source of revenue in strategy 1. Mr. Gleason explained that this is a fee for the availability of the City's public safety response. The fee would be calculated based on an evaluation of the risk of a structure to potential hazards. He said that the fee could be assessed on all structures at a rate set by council. Other cities have experimented with this type of fee. e John O'Connor, Human Resource and Risk Services, assumed the role of facili- tator at this time. He set a targeted 8:30 p.m. adjournment time. A. Reduction Strategies Mr. MacDonald inquired about the meaning of the term "capital savings addi- tional." Mr. Mounts explained that the potential capital savings from elimi- nating or reducing a service will vary based on what the council decides to do with the structure. Mr. Gleason pointed out that it will not be possible to know what the true cost savings will be until the decision has been imple- mented. If the decision was made to close the Hult Center, for instance, the public would then be faced with the decision to keep the facility and contin- ue to maintain it or to attempt to sell it. Depending on a variety of fac- tors, such as market conditions, the ultimate cost savings would vary. Mr. Nicholson commented that for these figures to have any meaning within the community, it will be important to provide the public with the underlying assumption about what will be done with property if it is no longer operat- ing. Mr. Boles agreed. Mr. Mounts responded that staff will need to conduct a preliminary evaluation on what the figures might mean under each circum- stance and then return to the council at a later date for an evaluation of each strategy. Ms. Ehrman said that all of the strategies should reflect the information received from the public during the first round of public involvement. e MINUTES--Eugene City Council September 16, 1991 Page 2 Dinner Meeting