CC Minutes - 07/08/02 Meeting - Laserfiche WebLink

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MINUTES Eugene City Council Regular Meeting McNutt Room--Eugene City Hall July 8, 2002 8p.m. COUNCILORS PRESENT: Betty Taylor, David Kelly, Nancy Nathanson, Scott Meisner, Gary Rayor, Gary Pap~, Bonny Bettman, Par Farr. CITY COUNCIL MEETING Mayor James D. Torrey called the meeting to order. 1.Public Forum Mayor Torrey reviewed the rules of the Public Forum. Bruce Miller, PC) Box 50968, Eugene, said he had recently been involved in a personal evaluation of the University of Oregon as it related to the community, and believed that the University represented an inaccessible resource for local government. Julie Whitmore, 2670 Beaumount Drive, thanked the council for considering a City levy for schools. She acknowledged that it was not an ideal solution but no one had been able to persuade the State legislature to develop a long-term solution for the schools. She did not think a State solution was forthcoming, and in the meantime students suffered. Ms. Whitmore said that once programs were eliminated, they were difficult to restore. She spoke of the loss of music programs in local schools and anticipated that in the coming year music programs would be eliminated entirely because of budget cuts. Ms. Whitmore thought a local approach was far- sighted and critical to the success of local schools. She offered to work on behalf of such a measure. Roxie Cuellar, 2053 Laura Street, Springfield, representing the Homebuilders Association of Lane County, thanked Councilor Nathanson for wishing to include homebuilders in a discussion of fire- resistant building materials. Regarding staffing reductions at the Permit and Information Center (PIC), she reminded the councilors that the Budget Committee declined to fund the full cost of providing public information. She said that those who wanted to raise fees were forgetting that they were asking the development community to pay those costs. Regarding the cost of predevelopment conferences, she pointed out that those were in another budget altogether. She said that the cut must be high-profile, and must affect the general public because it was a cut affecting the General Fund. Mark Rabinowitz, 28549 Sutherlin Road, suggested that the elected officials who stood to benefit from council decisions should recuse themselves. He stated he was against new taxes and wanted growth to pay its own way. He said that the City should not subsidize land speculation. MINUTES--Eugene City Council July 8, 2002 Page 1 Regular Meeting