CC Minutes - 01/14/98 Work Session

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MINUTES Eugene City Council McNutt Room--City Hall January 14, 1998 11:30 a.m. COUNCILORS PRESENT: Pat Fart, Nancy Nathanson, Tim Laue, Scott Meisner, Bobby Lee, Betty Taylor, Laurie Swanson Gribskov, Ken Tollenaar. The January 14, 1998, lunch meeting of the Eugene City Council was called to order at 11:30 a.m.; Mayor Jim Torrey presiding. I. REPORT FROM COUNCILORS NATHANSON AND TAYLOR ON NATIONAL LEAGUE OF CITIES CONFERENCE Ms. Taylor reported on three workshops she had attended at the conference. One regarded citizen involvement. She discussed the tools used by other communities for citizen outreach and involvement, which included government schools, neighborhood leadership colleges, guidebooks to city services, council agendas broadcast on public access television and printed in newspapers, free parking for city council meetings, public computer access kiosks, monthly newsletters, and weekly newspaper columns. Ms. Taylor was particularly interested in the idea of a monthly newsletter to all citizens with space for all neighborhood organizations to include neighborhood news. She said that she had also attended a session on the news media and a session on affordable housing. Ms. Taylor suggested that the council might be interested in hearing a presentation from Portland staff on that community's efforts in the area of affordable housing and inclusionary zoning. She said that presenters indicated housing was only one element of poverty reduction, and the issue required collaboration at all levels of government. Ms. Nathanson reported that she had talked to a representative of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) at the conference about the fact Eugene's emergency operations center ought to be relocated for safety purposes but there was no funding to underwrite the move. She had shared information with the FEMA representative about Eugene's risk factors, including the risk of conflagration and the risk of earthquake, and learned that FEMA had started a new program Eugene might want to apply to for assistance. Ms. Nathanson indicated she had asked the manager and Intergovernmental Relations Office to look into the matter. Ms. Nathanson discussed the Showcase of Cities, an exhibit area at the conference where cities displayed information about innovative or successful programs. She had been particularly interested in an exhibit from Champagne, Illinois, about that city's neighborhood-based service and program delivery systems. Champagne had a project called Campus Town 2000 that Ms. Nathanson likened to the West University Partners Project. She ordered a report regarding the Campus Town 2000 project and was arranging for copies for Mr. Lee as well as for representatives of the City's interjurisdictional partners. MINUTES--Eugene City Council January 14, 1998 Page 1 11:30 a.m.