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Ms. Bettman felt strongly that the council was a deliberative body and the discussions it had were important to <br />her and informative for the public. She often did not know how she was going to vote on an issue until a <br />discussion occurred. She said the discussion often led to a better decisions than the options offered to the <br />council by staff. Ms. Bettman said that three minutes was plenty of time for comment, and she often used less. <br /> <br />Ms. Taylor wanted to adhere to the three-minute limit and thought two minutes might also be sufficient. She <br />agreed that the public was informed by the council's discussions. <br /> <br />Mr. Pap~ agreed with Ms. Bettman, saying that dialogue and discourse were the basis of democracy. <br />However, brevity was an art form he thought few councilors had mastered. He said that redundancy and <br />"beating a dead horse" occurred frequently at the council table. He asked the mayor to cut speakers off to <br />accommodate the agenda if that was needed. <br /> <br />Ms. Helphand summarized the discussion, saying the council wanted to keep the three-minute rule, wanted the <br />mayor to monitor the discussion closely, and wanted councilors to have discipline. She said that the council <br />needed to think about where it spent its time given its full schedule. She suggested the council evaluate the <br />issue from time-to-time. <br /> <br />Mr. Rayor said that he might request a personal point of process and talk over individuals who exceeded their <br />three-minute time limit. <br /> <br />Mr. Meisner did not think reducing the three-minute time limit for comments would do anything to overcome <br />the problem of repetition. He suggested the mayor could help address the problem of repetition by limiting the <br />council to two rounds of comments on an item. <br /> <br />The council agreed to schedule future process sessions as needed. <br /> <br />C.Goals Session <br /> <br />Jan Bohman of the City Manager's Office, Assistant City Manager Jim Carlson, and the City's Executive <br />Management Team joined the council and Mr. Johnson for the discussion. Ms. Bohman distributed <br />documents entitled 2001-2002 City Council Goals and 1999-2000 Vision and Goals, and a memorandum <br />entitled Executive Managers 'Key Strategic Issues for 2001-2002. Ms. Helphand said that on the 2001-2002 <br />goals document listed under each broad goal area were the areas of concern identified by councilors in her <br />interviews with them. She said that the issues identified by the executive managers were also listed. The <br />information provided was intended to inform the council as it discussed its goals for the coming year. <br /> <br />Ms. Helphand called the council's attention to an additional item, Review Roles of Mayor, City Council, and <br />City Manager. She suggested that because of a lack of time, the council might want to schedule a work session <br />on the issue, and hire a facilitator from the International City Managers <br />Association to help in that discussion. <br /> <br />Review Roles of Mayor, City Council, City Manager <br /> <br /> MINUTES--Eugene City Council January 31, 2001 Page 4 <br /> Work Session <br /> <br /> <br />