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Mr. Kelly asked for clarification of the statement in The Register-Guard that the program would be <br />open to youth from River Road and Santa Clara. Mr. Johnson said yes; he pointed to the <br />difficulty of refusing to serve students that attend Eugene schools, even if they lived outside the <br />city limits. Mr. Kelly said he had a problem with that. He said that criteria currently existed that <br />let the City to distinguish between service to residents and nonresidents. He wanted staff to <br />consider conditioning all RFPs on services being provided to Eugene residents only. Mr. Kelly <br />wanted to give good service to Eugene residents rather than diluted services to a wider <br />population. Mr. Johnson said that staff would look at those possibilities, but he repeated that it <br />was difficult to tell a single child that he or she could not participate in an activity with the rest of <br />the class. Mr. Kelly acknowledged that fact, but repeated his interest in ensuring Eugene tax <br />money was spent to benefit Eugene tax payers. <br /> <br />Mayor Torrey pointed out that the City Council could approve the conditions of the RFPs. <br /> <br />Mr. Kelly indicated he would support the proposal with reservations, and would remind the <br />council of the mayor's statement that the serial levy would not be renewed in the future. <br /> <br />Mr. Farr pointed out that many of the programs would be delivered through the schools, and <br />typically noncity residents would not be from outside the two school districts. That tempered the <br />issue for him. He thought the RFPs could be crafted to address the council's concerns. <br /> <br />Ms. Nathanson said that the primary objective of the program was a healthy community. A <br />healthy community required healthy children with healthy minds and bodies. <br /> <br />Ms. Nathanson noted that many of the activities involving youth resulted in tangible physical <br />improvements to the community. She expressed interest in ensuring that improvements to <br />community assets was a concept built into the program. Ms. Nathanson also wanted to provide <br />opportunities for youth to learn about their community. For example, she had for some time <br />wanted to create opportunities for high school students to learn about how local government <br />worked. She volunteered to help in implementing that concept. <br /> <br />Ms. Taylor asked if school officials were involved in the planning. Ms. Phelps said yes. Ms. <br />Taylor asked why the schools did not propose a levy to support the program. She would have <br />preferred that the levy be a school levy because of the connection to youth. Mayor Torrey <br />pointed out that the school districts were at the cap with the passage of recent serial levies. <br /> <br />Mayor Torrey reiterated his support for the proposal and said he had already begun the process <br />of soliciting public support for passing the measure. He invited the council's support in that <br />effort. <br /> <br />Mr. Rayor supported the measure, but he emphasized that "not all kids are Kidsports kids." He <br />supported the provision of cultural and arts programs as well as team sports. Mr. Johnson said <br />that how the money was spent was a policy choice for the council. He estimated that at least <br />$250,000 was intended for arts-related activities. <br /> <br />Mr. Johnson clarified that the cost to the average household would be 21 cents per $1,000 in <br />property taxes paid for an average cost of $27 per year. He noted after uncollectibles, discounts, <br />and the amount budgeted for the unappropriated ending fund balance, the total available for <br />services was $1.435 million. <br /> <br />MINUTES--Eugene City Council July 17, 2000 Page 9 <br /> Work Session <br /> <br /> <br />