CC Minutes - 07/18/05 WS - Laserfiche WebLink

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Mr. Pryor said he toured the Westside neighborhood recently, which held many examples illustrating the balance between infill and growth. He said the tour provided much food for thought on how to strike that balance in other neighborhoods. Mr. Pryor noted a recent article in The Oregonian article regarding homeless practices instituted by that City over the last few years. He noted that some of those practices, such as eliminating the areas where the homeless traditionally gathered, had an adverse impact on the homeless by making them more visible and seemingly more problematic. Mr. Pryor thanked staff for its assistance with constituent questions. B. EXECUTIVE SESSION The council entered into executive session in accordance with Oregon Revised Statute 192.660(2)(i). Mayor Piercy called the council back into regular session. C. WORK SESSION: CITY MANAGER EVALUATION Human Resources and Risk Services Director Lauren Chouinard and City Attorney Glenn Klein were present for the item. City Manager Taylor thanked the councilors for the remarks they made during the earlier executive session. He took them to heart. City Manager Taylor said he was proud and honored to be the City Manager of Eugene. He acknowledged that the job was a challenge. One challenge was the long interregnum between the council elections and the seating of councilors in January 2005. City Manager Taylor said staff used that time to orient new councilors to the organization. City Manager Taylor noted the council's commitment to its goal-setting retreats and said he and the rest of the organization appreciated that commitment and the resulting goals. He said the goals gave the organiza- tion an opportunity to focus on council priorities, an opportunity to work as teams across departments, and an ambitious purpose to work toward in addition to day-to-day work. He said the council's goals would be used in daily decision-making and budget development. City Manager Taylor said he would continue to update the council with regular status reports on the action plans implementing those goals. City Manager Taylor indicated he believed he could do more to improve his communication skills and had contacted consultants Peter and Susan Glaser for assistance in that. He would work with individual councilors to address and clarify the concerns they had raised in their evaluations. City Manager Taylor perceived an opportunity that existed in terms of council leadership and the neighbor- hood initiative. He said that all the important work of the City occurred in the context of relationships; his relationship to the council, the staff-council relationship, the City's relationship with its individual partners, and the City's relationship to individual citizens. He acknowledged a need to do better in this area. MINUTES--Eugene City Council July 18, 2005 Page 4 Work Session