CC Minutes - 07/14/03 Mtg - Laserfiche WebLink

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Councilor Taylor, seconded by Councilor Solomon, moved to approve the Consent Calendar. Councilor Bettman stated that she had previously submitted corrections to the minutes. She pulled Item 2C. Councilor Taylor said that she had submitted corrections to the minutes of the work session held on June 18. Councilor Kelly, and several others, noted that they had not received the corrections and Councilor Taylor read the following correction into the record: · June 18 work session, page 5, third paragraph: "Ms. Taylor said that some citizens who sent letters to the City Council following the close of the public record were told the council could not receive them., ~*~ .... ~ ~ ~ ...... ~'~'~ ~ ......... ~'~;~ Councilor Kelly noted that he had submitted his corrections to the minutes to staff. Roll call vote; the motion to approve the Consent Calendar with the exception of Item 2C passed unanimously, 7:0. Councilor Bettman explained that Item 2C was requesting that the council amend the effective date of a resolution that would adopt the Metropolitan Wastewater Management Commission's (MWMC) regional wastewater development charge. She reminded the council that it had taken this item up in January and had modified the methodology so that, instead of a five-year project list, it was based on a ten-year project list. This resulted in a slight increase in systems development charges (SDC) but also evened out the collection of SDCs. Councilor Bettman said she would oppose the motion because, as the City of Springfield was responsible for the delay, she felt the council should be reexamining its Intergovernmental Agreement (IGA) with Springfield in regard to this issue rather than postponing the effective date of the resolution. She averred that the wording of the IGA allowed Springfield to stall the process, which had already been stalled "quite a bit." She stated that the SDCs were not being collected at this level and there was not enough being collected currently to offset the expense of the infrastructure for new growth. She asserted that many of the objections were coming from the Lane County Home Builders Association, that this association was well-represented on the MWMC, and that the home builders were very involved in this process. Councilor Bettman felt that this was a recurring problem with the SDCs; that people who had worked on the committees to develop solutions for the SDCs then returned after the process and expressed dissatisfaction with the methodology and with the result. She called it a "ploy" to stall implementation of fee increases. She urged the City Manager to review the wording of the IGA in order to assure that Springfield City Council was not dictating to the ratepayers of the City of Eugene what should be paid for wastewater services. MINUTES--Eugene City Council July 14, 2003 Page 9 Regular Meeting