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the rent; all the departments subject to the rent would be held harmless through that dedication of <br />funding. Mr. Carlson said the proposal was intended to support the Downtown Space Plan, which <br />the council provided direction on several months past. <br /> <br />Mr. Carlson noted that many City departments paid rent now, citing the services housed in The <br />Atrium, the Central Building, the Eugene Hotel, the Aster Building, and the Jacobs Building. The <br />advantage to treating the departments in the same manner was that it would generate non-General <br />Fund resources to accumulate capital for the construction of facilities. He said the money involved <br />was not large at the current time, but it would be a revenue stream added to what was already <br />being saved. <br /> <br />Mr. Svendsen said that it was not staffs intent that the proposal would have a General Fund <br />impact until the council was at the point of deciding what to do about a new building or additional <br />space expansion. Staff attempted to create a situation where there was no competition for <br />resources outside the initial dedication of the FY00 exception value. He believed that the effect of <br />the proposal would be felt most immediately in the multi-year financial plan, which the council had <br />reviewed, where new capital facilities were shown in years 6 and 7 with the associated facilities <br />operating costs. Mr. Svendsen said that staff attempted to be explicit about the ramifications of <br />the proposal, with the understanding there was to be no other General Fund impact outside the <br />dedication already made. <br /> <br />Mayor Torrey called for additional council comments and questions. <br /> <br />In response to staffs comments, Mr. Kelly disagreed that the proposal was reflective of the <br />council's decision to dedicate the FY00 exception value to the Facilities Reserve, saying the <br />proposal created a different mechanism that might be designed to do the same thing but <br />represented a new approach. He expressed concern that staff was proposing to place dedicated <br />fund moneys into the Facilities Reserve. Mr. Johnson said that staff was proposing that such <br />services be charged for the General Fund-supported space they occupy, such as the Stormwater <br />Program, which was occupying space at 858 Pearl Street. Mr. Kelly indicated understanding, but <br />said he did not like what was proposed. <br /> <br />Mr. Kelly determined from Mr. Carlson that the FYO0 exception value was an ongoing source of <br />funding adjusted annually for inflation. Mr. Kelly said he preferred to continue to contribute that <br />amount of funding, plus an inflation factor, to the Facilities Reserve, "now and forever." <br /> <br />Ms. Bettman said the council agreed as to the importance of funding the Facilities Reserve, but had <br />not committed to a funding mechanism. She did not want to commit to the proposal without more <br />information about its long-term implications. <br /> <br />Mr. Meisner said he knew of no legal restriction or requirement that indicated the General Fund <br />could not charge rent to non-General Fund programs without spreading their rent to every single <br />program in the organization. He believed the City could recover rent from those programs quite <br /> <br /> MINUTES--Eugene City Council November 26, 2001 Page 8 <br /> Work Session <br /> <br /> <br />