CC Minutes - 06/09/03 Mtg - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

Councilor Nathanson offered an addition to her comments at the April 28 meeting. She read the following into the record: "She said that she heard nothing to persuade her that there was any harm in choosing a process that gave residents an opportunity to present oral testimony as opposed to written testimony." Roll call vote; the remaining items on the Consent Calendar passed unanimously. Regarding Item B, Councilor Kelly said there was an ordinance scheduled for a hearing on July 14, and action on July 28, which would change the powers of University of Oregon public safety officers. He said the student leadership of the University had only recently heard about the proposal. He indicated that a hearing regarding an action designed to affect students should take place during the school year when more students were present. He noted that the issue was not time-critical and requested postponing the public hearing on the item until fall, when more students would be able to provide input. City Manager Taylor said the public hearing could be moved but noted that this would lengthen the time for the ordinance to take full effect. He opined that the Chief of Police would recommend proceeding with the suggested timing because the bulk of the work would take place between university students and officials and could take place sooner if the council took action according to the recommended schedule. Councilor Kelly said it was a matter of constituent representation and expressed his preference for moving the hearing into the fall. Councilor Kelly, seconded by Councilor Taylor, moved to amend the Tentative Working Agenda to postpone the public hearing on the ordinance concerning University of Oregon Public Safety Officers until after the beginning of the fall term. In response to a question from Mayor Torrey regarding whether he had been asked to delay the hearing or whether he was acting on his own, Councilor Kelly said he had first heard about the ordinance in April and his immediate reaction was that the hearing should take place during the school year. He said the University Director of Public Safety had agreed to try to get the matter on an agenda during the spring. He noted that he recently spoke to Associated Students of the University of Oregon, (ASU©), leadership who informed him they had only recently learned of the issue and wanted a chance to provide input to the City Council as well as communicate with the broader student body. In response to a question from Councilor Nathanson regarding student involvement, Chief Thad Buchanan said it was the University's intent to involve the student body in the process. He pointed out that it was a resource issue for his department since the fall term was a busy time on campus for the police who took a lot of time dealing with Iow-level violations. He added that the timing for the University was an issue because it wanted to have the process in place by the beginning of fall term. He said passage of the ordinance would allow the University to make the new rules part of the orientation for new and returning students. MINUTES--Eugene City Council June 9, 2003 Page 5 Regular Session