CC Minutes - 02/22/99 WS - Laserfiche WebLink

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Mr. Johnson observed that it was difficult for the City staff to make recommendations about alternatives for Eugene police issue when the regional system was not fixed. He said that it would be ridiculous for Chief Hill to recommend more officers be hired to make more arrests if the jail could not accommodate them and the justice system could not process those cases. Mr. Torrey said that the State legislature appeared to be unaware of the impacts of its mandates on local government, and continued to pass laws in spite of local resources issues. He said that many people who committed crimes in Eugene were from outside the city, but people living outside the city did not support the PSCC levy. He said that it would take creative thinking and prioritization to provide the needed services. Mr. Meisner agreed with Mr. Rayor's comments. He said that if the City was unable to follow-up on cases such as burglary, it should tell the public so that the public did not have unrealistic expectations about the service. Chief Hill agreed. He said that follow-up was complicated even when an arrest was made because the department was not aware of what was going on in the District Attorney's Office. He added that the department had done work to inform the public about follow-up, but there was somewhat of a capacity problem in tracking those cases. Officers on the scene attempt to give people a realistic sense of what would happen to their cases. Mr. Meisner suggested that the department include a copy of the police report form in the government section of the telephone book and/or neighborhood newsletters to encourage people to report crimes. · Infrastructure and Planning Issues Planning and Development Department Director Paul Farmer responded to council questions and comments regarding the section of City Service Issues related to infrastructure and planning. Ms. Nathanson said that section lacked mention of facility disposal, which she considered an important upcoming issue. She cited the former Sears building, closed fire stations, and the library building on 13th Avenue as examples of her concerns, and said that a general council discussion, followed by specific discussions about each facility, would be good to have. Regarding the bulleted statement on page 6 regarding the general lack of employee and citizen awareness of the Growth Management Study, Ms. Nathanson agreed and said she would add a lack of awareness of adopted policies that already exist. Glen Svendsen of the Public Works Department noted that the council would be considering a supplemental budget request for appraisals at the current library site, Fire Station 6, and Kaufman Annex. Part of the appraisal would include recommendations from the appraiser for uses best suited to those structures. He noted that traditionally, the City sought to determine whether the organization had an internal use for such spaces first. Ms. Nathanson asked why the City created zoning districts that were so large it predetermined a development type people did not like, such as large multi-family developments, rather than smaller, dispersed pockets of multi-family housing in a different pattern. Mr. Farmer believed that the City should be looking at regulating not just uses but the magnitude of development. He suggested that the City could permit developments of a particular size outright while mandating that larger developments go through a site review process that included citizen input. MINUTES--Eugene City Council February 22, 1999 Page 5 5:30 p.m.