Item 2A: Approval of City Council Minutes

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Mayor Piercy said she had no objection to the language of the goal, but noted that the City was making progress with neighborhood associations through better communications and better collaboration with the City. She said the neighborhood associations requested that the council delay revising the language of the goal until after the associations hold their summit meeting on February 17. She suggested the council could continue its work on the neighborhood initiative with a focus on the neighborhood association component. Mr. Pryor said he saw two directions for the goal: neighborhood associations and neighborhoods. He cautioned that would make a very large goal and he would be interested in seeing what might be achieved during the time span identified. Mr. Clark expressed an interest in waiting until after the neighborhood association summit for the sake of better understanding the issues. He was hesitant about accepting the Neighborhood Leadership Council’s (NLC) suggestion of language for the goal as it was the council’s goal and should be defined by the council. Mr. Zelenka said that he received feedback indicating that restating and renaming the initiative had de- emphasized the neighborhood associations. He did not think that was the intent of the council. He thought the associations played a key role and the language clearly stated part of the goal was empowering neighborhood associations to get more involvement. He thought that neighborhood protection and livability was linked to the City’s land use policies as expressed in code, ordinances and regulations and that emphasis was not in the previous goal. Ms. Taylor said she understood the council agreed not to discuss the neighborhood initiative until after the summit meeting. Homeless Initiative Ms. Ortiz announced that Project Homeless Connect would take place on February 8, 2007, at the Lane Events Center. She encouraged councilors to attend if possible. Mayor Piercy also invited councilors to participate in Project Homeless Connect. She said she was developing for the council’s consideration a list of potential members for a committee to address the issue of more adequately funding community services for the homeless. Mr. Pryor stated that the Human Services Commission was also working diligently on the issue and there was a great deal of coordination with City staff and partner agencies. He said that a count of the homeless would be done to develop a more accurate picture of the extent of the problem and demographics of the homeless population. He said the goal spoke to working collaboratively to end chronic homelessness, but that was only a fraction of the problem. He urged the council not to lose sight of the fact that many people were “situationally” homeless and could benefit from a wide range of services that would have an immedi- ate, tangible impact on their circumstances. Mr. Zelenka related that the Safe and Sound program worked with homeless youth. He said there were many reasons why youth were homeless and that drugs were a major factor. He said that needed to be considered in the process and youth should be treated differently than chronically homeless adults. He was pleased that youth were recognized as a distinct category under the goal. City Hall MINUTES—Eugene City Council January 31, 2007 Page 7 Work Session