CC Minutes - 08/13/03 WS - Laserfiche WebLink

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Ms. Bettman said she objected to the staff-recommended motion because it was inconsistent with the Budget Committee motion. It only gave the EECA one year and left the organization in uncertainty about the second year. She recalled that the Budget Committee approved a two-year time period. Speaking to the use of the trust fund, Ms. Bettman said that the City's budget authority for $22,000 from the trust fund for major maintenance was to be used for materials, and the labor was to be donated. She compared the proposal before the council to its recent decision to spend $92,000 to underground power lines, and asked how that expenditure would impact the lives of children and seniors and the needs that they had, which were increasing daily now that the State had backed away from funding those services. Ms. Jones assured the council that she was continually looking at partnership opportunities. She said that the partnership with the EECA was ideal in terms of service provision. Her concern was how the dollars in question were being leveraged and how they were being spent in a manner that was consistent with the other requests for partnerships she continually receives. She said that the one-year time period was based on the fact that the City's contracts with service providers were based on performance. She received many proposals from organizations about the great things they could do, but until she had identified outcomes, all that remained were great expectations. She wanted to keep the City's approach to partnerships consistent, and wanted to ensure that they included clear outcomes that must be achieved by the provider. Ms. Jones believed that it was speculative as to whether volunteers would be able to do the repairs that were needed at both the annex and the center. She said that she had recently visited the facilities, and it was her professional evaluation that repairs must occur to the annex before it could be used at all. Ms. Taylor supported the amendment and suggested that the amendment be tabled so the council could view the facilities in question. Ms. Bettman feared the one-year time line would be insufficient for the needed repairs to be done and to get the programs established. She said that if the EECA was a new partner, she would agree with Ms. Jones, but she believed that the EECA had already demonstrated competency through its current operations at the center. Ms. Nathanson indicated she would not support the amendment. She suggested that the constrained time line could help the EECA as it was fund raising and recruiting volunteers because it established a firm end date. She said that the council wanted the agency to survive, and she recognized it was not unusual for such organizations to have a small revenue stream, such as from a gift shop, to support their activities. She believed that the City would be flexible with the time line if it could see that the EECA was making progress. The vote on the amendment to the motion was 4:4; Ms. Bettman, Mr. Kelly, Ms. Taylor, and Mr. Meisner voted yes; Ms. Nathanson, Mr. Pap~, Ms. Solomon, and Mr. Poling voted no. Mayor Torrey cast a vote in opposition to the amendment, and it failed on a final vote of 5:4. The motion passed, 8:0. Ms. Taylor, seconded by Mr. Kelly, moved to extend the meeting by three minutes. The motion passed unanimously, 8:0. MINUTES--Eugene City Council August 13, 2003 Page 9 Work Session