CC Minutes - 09/15/99 WS - Laserfiche WebLink

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to know the fiscal impacts of its decisions. She had visited the property that had been of concern in testimony on August 9, 1999, and said she was enthusiastic about the opportunity to review how City ordinances helped the community meet its growth management goals. She noted her ongoing concern about how government actions could contribute to unintended consequences. Roll call vote; the motion passed unanimously, 8:0. Mr. Torrey reported that staffwas having a difficult time scheduling the council's process session. He asked the council officers to attempt to schedule the session. D.Work Session: Update on Y2K Activities Sue Cutsogeorge of the Administrative Services Department introduced members of the City's Year 2000 staff team: Mr. Wong, Phil Weiler of the City Manager's Office, Jeff Kurtz of Administrative Services Department, and Ruth Obadahl of the Fire Department. Ms. Cutsogeorge provided a general update on staff activities related to Y2K, and termed remediation progress satisfactory with no disruption of City services anticipated for those objects that the City controls. Contingency planning and testing were also occurring. Mr. Weiler reviewed the team's communication efforts. He described his participation in an emergency exercise conducted by Washington County and said it was good preparation for the City's exercise, scheduled to occur at the end of September. Mr. Torrey reported that he had been working with staff on a concept to use the student leaders from the five high schools to form teams of outreach volunteers to assist the elderly or disabled in coping with Year 2000. Mr. Torrey left the meeting at 6:30 p.m. Mr. Meisner assumed the chair. Mr. Meisner asked how many people were attending community presentations. Mr. Weiler said that the highest number of attendees was about 60, and the lowest 7. He said that close to 600 people had attended such events, and the effort was continuing. Mr. Kelly was disappointed by the fact the Lane/Metro Y2K Team was not stressing the preparedness message in its communications to the community. He said that the poster gave the message that government would take care of the problem and people did not need to worry. That was not the Federal Emergency Management Agency message, which was that government would not take care of people and they needed to prepare. Mr. Kelly said that the poster should state that citizens owe it to themselves to learn more about the Y2K situation. He suggested that the message telephone number needed review, because the message about electricity and water did not mention water. Mr. Weiler responded that there had been a spirited debate among representatives of the 19 participating agencies regarding the nature of the message. The County and City representatives felt that preparedness should be discussed, but that feeling was not shared. The major concern expressed by other agencies was about the possibility of scaring people. Mr. Weiler said that after the materials were displayed at the Lane County Fair, the City Manager's Office received a telephone call from a woman who was very, very frightened by the message. He had spent 40 minutes on the telephone with the citizen calming her fears. Mr. Weiler reiterated that it had been his preference to stress the issue of preparedness. MINUTES--Eugene City Council September 15, 1999 Page 3 5:30 p.m.