02/21/1977 Meeting - Laserfiche WebLink

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e M I NUT E S EUGENE CITY COUNCIL February 21, 1977 Special meeting of the Common Council of the City of Eugene, Oregon, was called to order by His Honor Mayor Gus Keller at 7:30 p.m. on February 21, 1977, in the Council Chambers for the purpose of consideration of the Community Develop- ment Block Grant application for 1977-78. Council members present were: Eric Haws, D. W. Hamel, Tom Williams, Ray Bradley, Jack Delay, Scott Lieuallen, Brian Obie and Betty Smith. Mayor Keller opened the meeting, saying this meeting had been called to hear public testimony on the HCDC 1977-78 Community Development Act application. He asked Chairman Jack Delay for some introductory comments. Mr. Delay expressed appreciation to the hardworking people in the community, especially to Neil Murray and Tom Williams, Charles Kupper and his fine staff, and all the membel's of HCDC. He said this was the third and final public hearing, and indicated some adjustments had been made based on previous hearings. The application reflected what he felt was the best allocation of scarce resources for many needed services in the community. Public hearing was opened. - Jim Lemert, 10 East 40th, spoke on behalf of the South Hills Neighborhood Association. He said he felt there were problems in terms of the way certain neighborhood groups were encouraged to develop proposals under this funding, when actually they had no chance for getting the funds. He said he did not oppose the allocation of funds, but that perhaps some changes should be made in advertising for proposal development and a better statement of the criteria used to judge th~ proposals. He said his group had submitted two proposals, for a total of $9,000, and neither were approved or funded. He felt HCDC appeared to depart from its own guidelines, as according to HCDC materials received by his group, 15%-20% of the funds were to be available to other areas (excepting BetheljDanebo, central city, and the University areas). He said that considerable time had been spent by his group developing these two proposals, and reiterated his belief that advertising should be changed and description portions of the program needed to be changed. -- Will Carlstrom, 1091 West Broadway, spoke regarding the general priority of the program in regard to community development funds. He felt there was a lack of attention to definitions between priority and needs, indicating he was in favor of more social services being funded: heal th, dental, pre- and post-natal care. He said there were many people with less resources available to them than others, and funding these social services would provide a resource not otherwise available to them. He felt the present funding put a priority on phys ical stock--houses and their development --and said very Ii ttle money had been allocated to social services. He said he sees people who need health care, and going without it. He said he thought it was the intention of federal 13't