CC Minutes - 05/16/01 Work Session

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Speaking to Mr. Meisner's question, Mr. Johnson said that the organization had been managed over 20 years at a variety of locations, and while it worked, it was not the ideal situation. He thought consolidation would be an improvement. Mr. Johnson noted that currently, departments were located in different places. Mr. Meisner asked if more services could be consolidated in the Atrium Building and the leased uses in that structure moved out. Mr. Johnson reminded the council that the financing strategy for the building depended on the rental stream from those leases. He also reminded the council that two services now paying rent in other leased locations would be moving to the new library. Mr. Kelly indicated he had distributed an alternate motion to the staff-prepared motion via e-mail and asked for staff input. Mr. Johnson thought staff could work within the parameters it established. Ms. Bettman said the criteria she would use to make the decision would be to eliminate all leases, consolidate all services except Fire & Emergency Medical Services, the Eugene Police Department special functions, and the library in one building. She wanted the building to be located on 8th Avenue in downtown and to be of quality construction so it lasted a century. She said that once consolidation occurred, she wanted to sell buildings like the Atrium Building and City Hall. Ms. Bettman said that once the City decided to invest in a new city hall, it would increase the value of property in downtown. She asked what the City could contribute to the new building by selling its old buildings. Mr. Farr asked if the City was contemplating building on land it currently owned. Mr. Johnson said there were options; those options could include consolidation with other units of government. That could include property owned by the Eugene Water & Electric Board (EWEB). He said that staff had not discussed the potential with EWEB staff and noted that the downtown vision was clear about its focus on 8th Avenue. Mr. Farr requested a map of the entire city showing both EWEB-owned property and City-owned property. He agreed with Ms. Bettman about the type of construction and the location of a new city hall. Ms. Nathanson said a fundamental question was whether the City should lease property at all. She preferred to own rather than lease public facilities. However, in light of new trends toward e- government and telecommuting, she questioned how much the City needed to be flexible and maintain a baseline square footage. Given the need for internal efficiencies and the need to help create a sense of community and a center for local democracy, she asked if the physical size of offices should stay the same. Mr. Johnson said he agreed the City should own its buildings and they should have flexibility. He thought a future city council would have a better idea of the efficiencies gained from telecommuting and e-government. He wanted to provide that council with flexibility and money to build a new city hall. He said that consolidation did result in a need for ten percent less square footage. Ms. Nathanson favored consolidation as much as was reasonable, owning over leasing, and said she preferred to build for ten to fifteen years rather than forty. If the City built more square footage, she wanted to consider leasing it to other governments or nonprofit organizations, and not necessarily count on occupying space for which the need was speculative. Mr. Rayor thought the City government should be located downtown and that it should own its buildings. He said the City should try to be in new buildings but he was concerned that there are many substantial buildings in downtown that are underused or not used at all. For the sake of due MINUTES--Eugene City Council May 16, 2001 Page 2 Work Session