CC Minutes - 10/29/03 WS - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

would realize economies of scale, but the square footage the City required would be the same. He said that the problem to this point was that Lane County had no money to dedicate to such a facility. Ms. Taylor determined from Mr. Carlson that the City rented space at the Eugene Hotel and Central Building and rented some space from itself downtown. Mr. Svendsen added that the police substations and branch libraries were also located in rented space. Ms. Taylor suggested that the City would save money on rent by moving those services now in rented facilities into City Hall when the police moved out. She thought that would go a long way toward covering the costs of building operations and maintenance. Mr. Svendsen indicated that City Hall was not large enough to accommodate the Public Works functions currently located in downtown. Ms. Taylor determined from Mr. Svendsen that the space now occupied by the Fire Department in City Hall would be used for storage and the Police Department. Ms. Taylor referred to the $6 million in the Facilities Fund and said she wanted to use it for other urgent City needs. She suggested the council ask the voters about their willingness to pay for the entire cost of the proposed police station. Responding to a question from Mr. Pap6, Mr. Svendsen indicated that Police staffwould be out of the basement of City Hall sometime in late spring 2004. Mr. Pap~ averred that most cities have a police station and city hall adjacent to or near each other, and he encouraged staff to consider how it was going to plan for a new city hall with that in mind. He wanted to know what the City could do with the existing City Hall and if there was a way to dispose of it as it existed. Mr. Pap~ solicited a second round of comments and questions. Ms. Bettman did not support combining facilities with Lane County, saying that Eugene would end up paying the greatest share and she thought there was an identity issue to consider. She wanted the City to succeed in building a new facility and thought certain preconditions were needed. She was in favor of a combined city hall/police services facility, suggesting that the seismic issues were the same and City Hall would be more secure if the police were in the same building. Ms. Bettman asked when staff could return with revised numbers. Mr. Carlson reminded the council that it would soon hold a work session on election sequencing. He noted that the local option levy for school-related youth services was a three-year levy that started this year, and suggested that the City could consider going out with a GO bond measure for the police services building but that it not sell the bonds until that levy expired to avoid an increase in taxes on the public. Mr. Meisner said that he would like to see the creation of a civic complex and at this time he was not prepared to approve taking a new police building to the voters without an idea of what that would be. He questioned the need for buildings with separate meeting rooms, parking facilities, etc. He believed there were economies of service and scale to be realized by a civic complex. Mr. Meisner agreed with Ms. Nathanson that the local governments should work closely together on such issues. MINUTES--Eugene City Council October 29, 2003 Page 5 Work Session