CC Minutes - 09/08/99 WS - Laserfiche WebLink

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potential council candidates and other members of the community. She also hoped there was adequate time for public input into the committee's recommendations. Mr. Johnson said that staff could not guarantee that the previous committee could continue to serve. Due to the short time frame, the committee's charge needed to be very clear. He believed the motion was clear. Mr. Meisner agreed that the previous committee was represented of the diversity of opinion in the community, but he had believed the committee would accept input, and had been disturbed by the hardened positions expressed by members in regard to the appropriateness of compensation in the absence of that input. Mr. Meisner agreed a clear charge was needed, and indicated his support for the motion on the floor. Regarding the issue of the manager/council form of government, Mr. Meisner pointed out that of 125 cities represented at the most recent National League of Cities, Eugene was the only city with no council compensation; every government represented had a council/manager form of government, so compensation did not appear to affect the structure of government to any extent. He hoped such information was shared with the proposed committee. Ms. Nathanson did not know if the previous committee members were still willing to serve in the absence of definitive information. At this point, she was willing to support the motion to facilitate the work to be done. She asked if the council was willing to give a more refined charge to the new committee, such as stating that full-time pay was not an option, or if it wanted to leave the topic "more up in the air." Mr. Kelly believed that having a public input process and the background material the previous committee had would probably lead the new committee to the conclusion that full-time salaries were not a viable option. He said he would find it difficult to develop language at this time that would tighten the charge without precluding something the council might want the public to bring to it. Regarding maintaining the previous committee, Mr. Kelly noted that a little more than half of the committee members attended the final meeting and voted on its report to the council, an indication to him of the level of continuing interest. He said that he had discussed the issue sufficiently with members of the previous committee, who indicated that the philosophical debate between committee members was likely to continue indefinitely. Mr. Rayor expressed hope that previous committee members would apply for the new committee. He said he wanted the new committee to know what the council was currently doing in terms of the time councilors spent on council time, and suggested that those two facts would lead the committee in the direction Ms. Nathanson envisioned. Mr. Torrey endorsed the motion and charge. He did not think the task was a big one and it could be done quickly with enough focus. Mr. Torrey was concerned about the desired outcome: what did the council want the citizens to say yes to, and why? If the outcome was to ensure more people could serve as councilors, the council should also make sure that the committee paid attention to the position of mayor as well. He asked for input on how the committee would be selected. MINUTES--Eugene City Council September 8, 1999 Page 9 5:30 p.m.