Agenda Packet 3-9-20 Meeting - Laserfiche WebLink

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MINUTES – Eugene City Council Work Session January 15, 2020 Page 2 Councilor Clark – expressed concern that randomizing speakers for Public Forum wouldstill result in limiting newer voices who did not get the chance to speak to council; preferredlimiting each speaker to 15 minutes per year. Councilor Pryor – was supportive of a 60-minute Public Forum, given that it was longerthan any other city, including Portland. Councilor Zelenka – noted Eugene’s Public Forum was more than twice the length of anyother city; thought the repetition of speakers was not contributing to more knowledge andwas getting in the way of council’s business. Councilor Yeh – thought the repetition of the same speakers was the biggest problem; wassupportive of a 90-minute forum, but not a 60-minute forum; thought council’s need formore work time was not necessarily due to the length of Public Forum. Mayor Vinis – noted that 90 minutes was enough time for 45 speakers and that theupcoming discussion regarding randomization of speakers may be the time to address otherissues. Councilor Semple – thought limiting the speaking time to two minutes would still result inan overall reduction in Public Forum time; voiced concern about limiting accessibility tocouncil; said she planned to make a friendly amendment for 90 minutes; the friendly wasnot accepted. Councilor Clark – said council was very accessible to the public compared to legislativebodies of its type and size; thought Public Forum had become about performance ratherthan sharing new information and ideas with council. Councilor Taylor – was supportive of a 90-minute Public Forum; thought one of thepurposes of public forum was for people to talk to the community; opposed a 60-minutePublic Forum. Councilor Pryor – did not think Public Forum should be an opportunity for communitymembers to speak to one another or provide entertainment for themselves or each other;agreed with Councilor Yeh that one of the problems was with the small number of speakerswho came repeatedly and said he would be willing to have a 90-minute Public Forum aslong as there was a variety of speakers making testimony that was effective, appropriateand addressed to City Council. Councilor Semple – was concerned about free speech issues; questioned how limiting timewould deal with repetitive speakers or those who wanted to entertain. MOTION TO AMEND and VOTE: Councilor Semple, seconded by Councilor Yeh, moved to amend the 60-minute Public Forum limit to 90 minutes. PASSED 5:2, Councilors Clark and Zelenka opposed. VOTE on AMENDED MOTION (with friendly amendment): PASSED 7:0 Mayor Vinis reminded council of the third motion on the table from the previous work session regarding randomizing the order of speakers at Public Forum. MOTION: Councilor Zelenka, seconded by Councilor Clark, moved to randomize the order of people speaking once they’ve signed up. Council Discussion Councilor Clark – asked for clarification on how randomizing of speakers might work;expressed concern about the motion not addressing the lack of variety of speakers. Councilor Taylor – opposed the proposal to randomize speakers’ names. Councilor Zelenka – thought randomization would help with some of the equity and“gaming the system” issues; said the entertainers and repetitive speakers were still a March 9, 2020, Meeting - Item 2ACC Agenda - Page 11