CC Minutes - 02/23/98 Meeting - Laserfiche WebLink

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Ms. Nathanson said that she would have difficulty voting on the motion because she favored supporting the celebration but only if it required a minimal of financial support from the City. Mr. Lee said he believed citizens were saying they wanted the Eugene Celebration to take place and that they wanted City leaders to find a way to make it happen. Mr. Tollenaar said he was unable to vote for the motion because it would imply a commitment to proceed with the celebration without consideration of cost to the City. Mr. Fart requested that his motion be withdrawn from consideration. Mayor Torrey determined that Ms. Taylor objected to having the motion withdrawn and declared that it continued to be under consideration. Mr. Tollenaar moved to amend the motion by adding the phrase "if a reasonable and affordable option can be found to continue it." Mr. Fart stated that he accepted the amendment to be part of his motion. Ms. Nathanson stated that the "threshold question" for her was whether the City should finance the Eugene Celebration. Mr. Laue said he believed continuing the Eugene Celebration was only possible with City support. The amended motion was adopted unanimously, 7:0. Ms. Taylor said that she would like to continue City financial support for the celebration in 1998 and to immediately begin discussing how alternate means of supporting it could be found for the following years. She said the event had been high on her list of priorities in council discussions of cutbacks required by Ballot Measures 47/50. Ms. Nathanson stated she had ambivalent feelings about the Eugene Celebration. She said she wanted it to continue, but that she was concerned that it might not be possible when persons who have been actively involved in planning the event refused to be involved in 1998. She said she felt the trust of the council had been violated in 1997 when the allocation of support provided by the council had been exceeded by more than 300 percent. Ms. Nathanson said that she preferred that sponsoring and managing the Eugene Celebration be transitioned to a nonprofit organization. Mr. Tollenaar said he wanted the Eugene Celebration to continue. He said he did not believe the event was the only way to celebrate the diversity of the City or that its support was a core service of the City. He said for the council to reverse its priorities and provide funding for the event would "open the door" to all of the other programs of the City for which support had been reduced or eliminated in budget cutting processes. He suggested that the City continue to provide in-kind Police and Department of Public Works support for the event. He said he believed that if the council "stuck to its guns" regarding financial support for the celebration, a way would be found for it to continue. MINUTES--Eugene City Council February 23, 1998 Page 11 7:30 p.m.