CC Minutes - 01/24/01 Work Session

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Ms. Bettman, seconded by Ms. Taylor, moved to amend the motion by substituting Sam Frear for Eric Forrest. Ms. Taylor concurred with Mr. Kelly and Ms. Bettman, saying she was impressed by Mr. Frear's wide knowledge of City government and other subjects, as well as his open mind. Mr. Meisner said that while he had supported Mr. Frear in his ballot, he would not support the motion to amend. He believed the council had an obligation to provide opportunities to participate in City government for new people. He asked that the letters sent to candidates commend them for the quality of their interview and encourage them to apply again. The motion to amend failed, 5:3; Ms. Taylor, Ms. Bettman, and Mr. Kelly voting yes. The main motion passed, 6:2; Ms. Bettman and Ms. Taylor voting no. C.Work Session: Council Goals: Environmental Scan Jan Bohman of the City Manager's Office joined the council for the item. She provided an overview of the results of the recent community survey, characterizing the response as strong and positive overall. Mr. Johnson called the council's attention to the progress report on the 1999 council goals. He said that the City was about 80 percent on target or on time on the 203 action priorities associated with the goals. He noted that most of the action priorities were ongoing items, and suggested that might mean the next set of goals would be similar to the current set of goals. Mr. Johnson referred the council to the Executive Managers Key Strategic Issues document, a summary and description of key strategic issues identified by the executives. He noted that many of the issues were related to the City's budget and staff resources. He indicated that the list was a subset of a larger list staff would provide to the council. Mr. Meisner questioned the utility of the community survey. He read it, but did not find it useful. He did not see a relationship between the council's goals, the executives' key issues, and the survey. Mr. Meisner expressed concern about how long it took for the council's goals to be realized. He said that goals should represent an extra effort, not continuing efforts. He did not think the manager's key issues fit into the goals. Mr. Johnson clarified that staff was not suggesting them as goals. Mr. Meisner said that he did not consider a strategic issue to be "we continue to look at and think about what we've always done." Responding to a question from Mr. Kelly, Ms. Bohman said the contract for the survey cost $7,000 and, because of the ongoing nature of the questions little City staff time was needed. Mr. Kelly agreed with Mr. Meisner that the survey was not well-connected with the goals, but he thought it was a useful way to solicit broad community input in a statistically valid way. He thought the cost was somewhat high. MINUTES--Eugene City Council January 24, 2001 Page 6 Work Session