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Mr. Meisner said he would support a motion that retained the intent of the last sentence while making it clear <br />the attorney was subject to the authority of the City Manager. He did not support merely striking the sentence. <br /> <br />Mr. Fart suggested "provide oversight to" as opposed to "supervise." <br /> <br />Mr. Carlson emphasized the council was proposing to change the charter, and suggested that the charter not be <br />overburdened with detail. He pointed out that the charter was not specific to the fact that, because the manager <br />was not an engineer, a licensed civil engineer supervised the City's contracts with engineers. <br /> <br />Mayor Torrey did not support the proposal but urged the council to keep what it referred to the citizens clear. <br />He said that the language before the council did not give the manager authority over the in-house attorney. He <br />thought the last sentence in the proposal made it difficult to clarify the responsibilities of the parties involved. <br />Mayor Torrey expressed concern about how the changes being proposed impacted the job the city manager <br />was tasked to do. He pointed out that the charter did not need to be changed for what the proposal envisioned <br />to happen. <br /> <br />Ms. Taylor thought the last sentence must be retained. She said that the person in question should be <br />responsible for legal contracts. If the person did not do their job correctly, like any other department head, he <br />or she be told so and would probably lose the job. <br /> <br />Ms. Taylor asked CCRC member Ken Tollenaar his opinion of the proposal. Mr. Tollenaar said he had just <br />seen the text. He suggested that as a compromise, the sentence be revised to read, "With supervision from the <br />City Manager, the city attorney shall oversee performance of all contracts for legal services." <br /> <br />Ms. Taylor preferred the text proposed by Mr. Kelly because she took it for granted the City Manager oversaw <br />all operations in the City. <br /> <br />Mayor Torrey solicited another round of council comments. <br /> <br />Mr. Pap~ objected to the phrase "supervise all contracts" because of the City's other contracts, such as its self- <br />insurance contracts, which were better overseen by someone with the appropriate expertise. He indicated he <br />would accept Mr. Tollenaar's text as a friendly amendment, with the concurrence of his second, Ms. <br />Nathanson. Ms. Nathanson asked to examine the amended text. <br /> <br />Ms. Bettman asked if the proposed amendments would lead to a situation where the manager oversaw some <br />contracts and the city attorney oversaw others, meaning there were some contracts that the city attorney did not <br />oversee. Mr. Carlson interpreted the amendments as making the City Manager responsible for some contracts <br />and the city attorney responsible for others. <br /> <br />Ms. Bettman believed the change in text would "marginalize" the city attorney from the start. She said that, <br />consistent with the CCRC provision, the City Manager would have the power to replace the person hired to fill <br />the position if that person did not perform to the manager's expectations. She thought the motion suggested <br />that the City was going to move toward an in-house attorney, but only halfway, because the manager could <br />determine which contracts he would oversee. She thought that the change could allow the City Manager to <br />conduct the City's legal business through the existing firm, which accomplished nothing. She termed the <br />change a huge loophole that could mean a legal mind was not overseeing the City's legal contracts. <br /> <br /> MINUTES--Eugene City Council July 8, 2002 Page 6 <br /> Work Session <br /> <br /> <br />