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League of Cities during the last two years. Ms. Nathanson said the federal government is acting now because it wants to increase competition and ensure a thriving environment for technological innovation. However, she said, the mechanisms have three dire consequences: 1) removing the ability to advocate for citizen interests; 2) closing the avenues for accountability for costs and service delivery; and 3) while conserving the ability to collect revenue at the federal level, eliminating a major revenue source for cities across the country. Ms. Nathanson said a related aspect is that Internet companies that are "e-commerce" are "everywhere and nowhere" and their impact on local retailers is going to be felt increasingly, with consequences on land use, zoning, transportation, as retailing and warehousing change. There will also be a change in taxation and fairness because local merchants will continue to pick-up the burden for those who engage in e- commerce only. Those who cannot afford to do all their business by home computer, she explained, will be shopping at main street merchants and be disproportionately impacted. In response to a question from Mr. Meisner, Ms. Nathanson said she raised the issue of bundling of services. The committee voted to include the topic as one of the three priorities. She described the two aspects: 1) the potential of bundling to avoid paying fees and taxes; and 2) citizens may be forced to spend more for services they do not want or need. Citing public testimony from the March 8 meeting, Mr. Farr asked that an appointment be made to the Metropolitan Sports Commission. Mr. Johnson added that the intergovernmental agreement was still in effect and Mayor Torrey will need to appoint representation eventually. iii. WORK SESSION REGARDING CITY LITIGATION Mr. Johnson introduced Bill Gary from the City Attorney's Office to provide information to the council on litigation before going into specific cases during the executive session. Mr. Gary said there were two objectives for the sessions: 1) explaining the general issue of litigation; and 2) hold an attorney/client discussion on pending cases. He reviewed the five basic categories of City litigation: risk management claims, land use litigation, labor litigation, policy and program litigation, and City Initiated Litigation. He noted a sixth category: municipal court prosecution, which was not be covered at this meeting. Mr. Gary also discussed the relative costs to the City for each of the categories. Addressing a question from Mr. Meisner, City Attorney Glenn Klein said that the great increase in land use cases costs was relative to the timing--challenges to the Local Street Plan and other issues having to do with the Growth Management Study. Mayor Torrey called the council into executive session pursuant to Oregon Revised Statutes 192.660(1)(h) to discuss litigation with the City Attorney's Office. He asked everyone to leave the room except for designated staff and representatives of the news media, and directed the news media not to report on any of the deliberations during the executive session except to state the Minutes--Eugene City Council March 10, 1999 Page 4 11:30 a.m.