CC Minutes - 12/06/99 WS - Laserfiche WebLink

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Mr. Kelly suggested that the immediate policy question before the council was whether to authorize the manager to negotiate with the GSA. Other policy questions needed to go through a broader public process. He agreed with Ms. Nathanson and disagreed with Mr. Rayor regarding the urban design impact of the proposed federal courthouse. He could not envision the building as designed without thinking about the negative impact the building would have on the one part of downtown that was thriving. Mr. Kelly did not want to present the voters with a ballot measure that, if turned down, would result in the Police Department being relocated to double-wide mobile homes at the 2nd Avenue and Chambers Street site. He wanted to ensure that any sale of City Hall was contingent upon the successful passage of a May ballot. Mr. Fart agreed with Mr. Kelly that the process brought out some facility and urban design issues that needed to be addressed. He thanked the Congressional delegation for its support of Eugene and the desire of the citizens. He indicated he would support a motion directing the manager to enter into negotiations, pointing out that nothing was final and a public process would soon be initiated that would inform the council's decision. Regarding keeping the current facility, he said that Mr. Rayor made some good points, but he agreed with Ms. Nathanson that the sale would realize money the City did not have now, and would preclude having to spend money on a seismic retrofit. He did not think the City would get a better deal than it was being offered now. Ms. Taylor said it was a terrible mistake to do something so large as sell City Hall without a public process. She said that the people should get a chance to speak before the council made a decision. She did not think the City could back out of a decision to sell. She said that the federal courthouse proposal did not make City Hall unsafe or City facilities inadequate; those conditions already existed. Ms. Taylor said the council was allowing the federal government to push it into something it was not prepared to do. She called for more public involvement and more time. She suggested that neither site under consideration for the federal courthouse was adequate, and said that the courthouse should be on the edge of downtown. Ms. Taylor asked why the City did not merely move departments to other locations in stages if there was money available. She advocated spending money for a seismic upgrade of City Hall if that was necessary. Mr. Pap~ concurred with the comments made by Ms. Nathanson, Mr. Lee, and Mr. Kelly. He also agreed with Mr. Kelly that the process highlighted the City's many facility needs. He agreed with Ms. Taylor that those needs existed before, but the citizens were largely unaware of them. He said that the council should let the public know it was facing a deadline and a decision that it must begin to work on immediately. He did not agree with Mr. Rayor that funding should be spent on a seismic upgrade as he considered it a waste of money. He advocated that the motion in the packet be reworded by revising the reference to "purchase price offer" to "purchase offer." Mr. Meisner said he did not run for office to build a new city hall and was not happy about the way the process transpired. Regarding the lack of public process, he said that might be true in the most formalistic sense, but while there had been very little formal public process, there had been considerable public input to councilors as individuals. He had personally received hundreds of e-mail and telephone calls, although he acknowledged there was no unanimity of opinion among them. MINUTES--Eugene City Council December 6, 1999 Page 6 5:30 p.m.