CC Minutes - 03/12/07 Meeting - Laserfiche WebLink

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Councilor Solomon said she hoped the bill would pass and would have an effect on the City. She stated that the Bethel School District owned land outside of the UGB of Eugene and it needed to build a new high school. She averred that the bill, which was specific to the Hood River County school district, could set a precedent that would benefit the Bethel School District. Councilor Bettman asserted that the bill was inconsistent to the legislative agenda of Eugene. She averred that the Bethel School District could apply for a local exception to the statewide land use requirements. She felt the bill would set “a very bad precedent.” She urged the council to uphold the vote of the CCIGR. Councilor Zelenka concurred. He believed it was a bad precedent and a bad policy. Councilor Clark related that he had heard the concern expressed that such votes create conflict between public good and public bad. He suggested that the bill was an opportunity to remedy this. Roll call vote; the vote on whether to support the recommendation of the Council Committee on Intergovernmental Relations to take a position of Priority 2 Oppose was a tie, 4:4; councilors Zelenka, Ortiz, Taylor and Bettman voting in favor and councilors Solomon, Poling, Clark and Pryor voting in opposition. Mayor Piercy voted in favor of the recommendation and it passed. SB 293 Councilor Pryor stated that a number of bills that related to the use of mobile communication while driving had been generated this session, of which this bill was one. He pulled the bill because staff expressed concerns that the bill did not exempt the use of two-way radios by police, emergency personnel, and public works staff. He said the CCIGR voted to support the bill with the amendment to provide that exemption. He suggested that the council pull the bill for later approval when a more current version came out. Ms. Wilson interjected that she believed SB 293 was now a “dead” bill. She predicted that the Legislature would focus on distracted driving as a whole issue rather than “nitpicking” each activity. Mayor Piercy ascertained that there was no objection to dropping the motion. HB 2140 Councilor Pryor explained that the bill made technical changes to public contracting code. He said major revisions of public contracting had been undertaken one year earlier. He stated that the bill would add language for contracting with government agencies, changing bid thresholds and limiting certain kinds of contracts. He related that staff felt that the bill was primarily a clean-up of wording and that it added clarifications to the revisions. He said both Mr. Perry of the Finance Division and Mr. Klope of Public Works had recommended that the City support the bill. The CCIGR voted 2:1 to oppose it. Councilor Bettman affirmed that the bill made “alleged housekeeping changes” but she felt the changes were very significant in terms of public policy. She said one would change the quote limit for transportation projects from $50,000 to $100,000. She thought this would make so that anything that was under $100,000 would not need to go out for a competitive bid. She also took issue with language regarding pilot projects. She asserted that it circumvented public accountability, as any project could be called a pilot project. MINUTES—Eugene City Council March 12, 2007 Page 11 Regular Meeting