CC Minutes - 06/10/02 Work Session

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increased costs, PERS and medical costs for employees. Until that issue was addressed, "everyone was going down together." He pointed out that the City was party to a suit against PERS and the school districts were not. He did not think giving a few million to the schools would solve the problem. Mr. Rayor criticized "foul ups at the top" that had lead to mismanagement. Mayor Torrey supported the proposal before the council. He said he was not willing to wait while Salem made a decision. He was concerned about area children. He said that the council should direct staff to return with a measure to vote up or down. He did not want to take on the board's role, but thought the board should take into account the council's remarks, which would be reflective of the community discussion. Ms. Jones pointed the council to information in the Agenda Item Summary related to the impact of a ballot measure on the property tax cap, and said more information was forthcoming. Councilors noted the time and concurred that they would devote five more minutes to the item. Mr. Kelly, seconded by Mr. Pap~, moved to authorize staff to proceed with developing a proposal for a ballot measure to be returned to the City Council by August 2002. Mr. Kelly endorsed Ms. Nathanson's remarks that the effort lead to an ongoing partnership related to issues of other concern. Mr. Fart said the districts had cut as much as they could cut. He thought the City should help the school in whatever way it could. He supported the motion and hoped others did so as well. He acknowledged Ms. Bettman's concerns about serving nonresidents, but believed the City had ways to address that issue. Ms. Bettman agreed with Mr. Rayor about enabling the dysfunction at the State legislature, but did not want Eugene's children to have to wait for the legislature to "wake up" and fund education. She wanted to see options for what would be funded and different ways of funding the services, such as the Portland model. She said her priority was restoration of cuts as close to the core as possible. Ms. Nathanson said fees for nonresidents were one way to address the issue of concern to Mr. Meisner and Ms. Bettman, and suggested that the information brought back to the council address the issue of the complication of services inside city and school boundaries. She suggested a solution existed midway between a County and City solution. Mr. Meisner thought the points made by Mr. Rayor related to the legislature were well-taken. He said that every session of the legislature he observed was a failure from a financial planning point of view. He opposed the motion on the floor as it did not contemplate a regional solution. The motion passed, 6:2; Mr. Rayor and Mr. Meisner voting no. C. WORK SESSION: Judicial Evaluation Task Team MINUTES--Eugene City Council June 10, 2002 Page 5 Work Session