CC Minutes - 10/23/00 Work Session

Home Browse Search

Mr. Pap~ also remarked on the Joint Adopting Officials' meeting and the action the council took on Lane County Commissioner Peter Sorenson's letter. He said that at its process session, the council had discussed the need to do things in an above-board way with appropriate notice. He did not think that occurred in the case of the letter. He was particularly concerned that Ms. Taylor, as de facto council president, be able to rise above partisanship in the MPC and ensure that everything was done with appropriate notice to the council. Mr. Pap~ cited the council's vision statement about effective accountable government that worked openly and respectively with all members of the community, and he did not think the letter was respectful to the City's other governmental partners. With the exception of those in the audience who orchestrated the letter, he believed other members of the community felt the same. Discussion about the letter had consumed 30 to 40 minutes of the meeting when there were many issues to be discussed, and he was disappointed by that. Mr. Pap~ said that the City's intergovernmental partners would be valuable to it in many areas in the future. He did not think the letter was effective in changing the process or plan outcome, or as a political publicity statement. Mr. Kelly said he would have preferred that Commissioner Sorenson had distributed his letter to all bodies before the Joint Adopting Officials meeting so people had time to reflect on it. He pointed out to Mr. Pap~ that the delay in the meeting resulted from members of the other bodies feeling the need to comment on the Eugene council's motion. He did not think the letter was a political statement but rather a policy statement. He felt it was legitimate for the council to support the letter. Mr. Kelly said that he had received an e-mail message from Tom Schwetz of the Lane Council of Governments, which indicated that because a concern had been raised about the federal requirement that the plan have a 20-year planning horizon, staff had developed an appendix to TransPlan addressing the five years past 2015. He was concerned that the MPC resolution process would occur and then at the adopting meeting the elected officials would be faced with a new appendix. Mr. Kelly suggested that and any other changes should be sent out to the elected officials as soon as possible. Mr. Kelly said the e-mail message also raised federal implications about not adopting TransPlan in a timely manner and impacts on other projects. He said that all the adopting officials should be alerted to the problem, and staff should consider other strategies, such as interim policy adoption, to avoid the problem identified in the e-mail message. Ms. Taylor said she had been very surprised by the fact that she was to preside at the meeting and hoped Mr. Pap~ did not think she was responsible for the letter. Mr. Meisner noted he had been contacted by Mr. Sorenson prior to the meeting about the principles he intended to include in the letter. He shared those principles. Mr. Meisner pointed out that many of the elected officials had indicated in August that the plan was not what they anticipated and hoped to do better in the spirit of compromise. He believed that the meeting had been largely productive and pointed out that many of the issues had been resolved by compromise text. Mr. Meisner was troubled that rather than addressing the content of the letter, the elected officials chose instead to make process objections. He did not think the letter was a political act. Ms. Bettman also regretted that the elected officials had not had the letter prior to the meeting but pointed out that in a similar situation she had been in no one had offered to postpone action MINUTES--Eugene City Council October 23, 2000 Page 8 Work Session