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from participating in the program. He said there had not been enough collaboration with those <br />communities to ensure that if Eugene took the lead, those jurisdictions would help to backfill the <br />costs in the future. <br /> <br />Mr. Rayor referred to the financial forecast and asked how the funding fit into the continuum of <br />services the City offered its residents. Mr. Johnson said that reducing programs was a policy <br />choice of the council. He said that what was being suggested in the levy supported and built <br />upon the programs and services that the City and the nonprofits currently provided to community <br />youth. He said that during the Ballot Measure 50 reduction process, the City Council ranked <br />priorities related to the services the City provided, recreation services ranked near the bottom of <br />the list not because they were not wanted or were not appropriate, but because there were hard <br />financial choices to be made. Mr. Johnson confirmed that the City would add approximately two <br />full-time positions, but direct services would be delivered by the nonprofits. He anticipated <br />continued use of the competitive grant process. <br /> <br />Mr. Rayor asked how the budget was determined. Ms. Phelps clarified that the project budget <br />was determined by extrapolating from examples of existing services providing the same types of <br />services the project would provide. The task force prioritized the different services and <br />recommended the funding levels. <br /> <br />Mr. Rayor observed that the total of all the nonprofit contingency fund and budget requests <br />received by the City over the past year was about $875,000. He asked if the levy could be a <br />four-year, $875,000 levy meaning that optimization of the program in two years would not be so <br />burdensome. Mr. Rayor was concerned with the possibility the proposed levy would compete <br />with the renewal of the library levy. In response, Ms. Jones said that task force started with <br />outcomes and costed those outcomes out to determine the funding levels needed. She said that <br />the levy could be scaled down, but it would not be the amount represented to make a real <br />difference the task force wants to make. <br /> <br />Mayor Torrey clarified that the task force did not intend to seek renewal of the serial levy, but was <br />attempting to establish a base program that could generate public support. <br /> <br />Ms. Taylor was uncertain about her position on the task force proposals. She noted her past <br />support for retaining the City's recreation programs. She was concerned about starting programs <br />that might have to be cut in the future. Ms. Taylor thought the programs in question should be <br />school-based. She said that reduced fees were often not adequate for Iow-income residents. <br />Ms. Phelps clarified that the sliding fee scale not only addressed the most Iow-income residents, <br />but families with working parents who had limits to their incomes that did not allow them to pay <br />for after-school activities. People paid the price that they could. <br /> <br />Mr. Lee said that the discussion was about how to address the needs of youth, and assembling <br />such a program was a challenge. While he also did not like the mechanism of the property tax, <br />he thought the program represented a bridge to the future and would provide a tool to leverage a <br />larger discussion about a comprehensive youth strategy. Mr. Lee supported the inclusion of arts <br />activities in the program. <br /> <br />Mr. Lee thanked the mayor for the time he spent on the issue. <br /> <br />Mr. Kelly asked if the BMX program at Alton Baker Park could be included on the youth services <br />inventory. <br /> <br />MINUTES--Eugene City Council July 17, 2000 Page 8 <br /> Work Session <br /> <br /> <br />