Laserfiche WebLink
stressed the importance of exercising personal discipline and said that the extra time would come <br />from councilors exercising that discipline. He expressed a desire to have the council be able to <br />take care of business without having to listen to the same points over and over again from the <br />same people. <br /> <br />Ms. Taylor raised concern that a time limit would rush agenda items without giving enough time to <br />properly consider issues. She opined that a time limit would further limit the time allowed for <br />people to speak at the Public Forum. She expressed a desire to listen to everyone who wished to <br />speak no matter how much time was involved. <br /> <br />Ms. Nathanson said the quality of discussion and relationships between councilors deteriorated <br />after 10 p.m. She added that the council did poorer work after that time. <br /> <br />Ms. Bettman said she would not support the motion. She said she could only support the motion <br />if there was a companion motion to replace the time lost for deliberation. She raised concern over <br />constraining the council's time to deliberate in the "public eye." <br /> <br />Mr. Pap8 said if things needed to be done in the "public eye," they should be done before 10 p.m. <br />He said that many of the statements made by councilors were superfluous and just added time to <br />meetings. He said if more official time needed to be dedicated to meetings he would support <br />moving the start time of regular sessions back to 7:30 p.m. <br /> <br />Mayor Torrey said he was absolutely convinced that the council could work more efficiently with <br />less time per item if councilors had their facts ready to be presented when they arrived at a <br />meeting. He added his opinion that no matter how much time was allotted for a meeting the <br />council would fill it up. He went on to say that there were work sessions scheduled by three <br />councilors that should never have been scheduled because there was no interest from the <br />majority of the council to proceed on those issues. <br /> <br />Regarding allowing speakers at the Public Forum, Mayor Torrey noted a suggestion he had <br />received from a concerned citizen that those who wished to speak should be sorted by city of <br />residence, with Eugene residents given preference. <br /> <br />Mr. Meisner opined that council work could be completed even if meeting times ended at 10 p.m. <br />if agendas were planned more carefully. He said he agreed with the Mayor's statements and <br />added that because of the councilors' "obsession" with more and more talking, the council had <br />marginalized itself in the eyes of many of the public. He stressed the need for the council to <br />impose self-discipline and urged the council to support the motion. <br /> <br />Mr. Farr noted that when he had first started on the council the Public Forum was only held once a <br />month. He had been a member of the Citizen Involvement Committee when it forwarded a <br />recommendation to the council that the forum be held at every regular meeting. He said the <br />council was currently way ahead of where it had ever been in terms of facilitating public input. <br /> <br />Mr. Kelly noted that, occasionally, there were public hearings after the Public Forum and Consent <br />Calendar items that went as long as 90 minutes. He questioned whether the council would end a <br />meeting when people were still wishing to speak. He opined that such a policy would show <br />disrespect to the electors of Eugene. He added that staff had done a good job of agenda planning <br />in the previous year and opined that the planning could not get much better. <br /> <br /> MINUTES--Eugene City Council August 14, 2002 Page 5 <br /> Work Session <br /> <br /> <br />