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a positive thing. He acknowledged that part of the reason for the manager's standing <br />committees was to preprocess issues and advise staff on preparing materials for the council <br />discussion, adding that they were also intended to work on specific council goals and provide the <br />council with specific advice or recommendations. Mr. Smith suggested the following: 1) setting a <br />ground rule about public participation, as some committees has extraordinary participation and <br />others do not; 2) schedule trimester sessions as previous councils have done to review <br />committee work plans and charges, along with the council's work plan and progress on goals; 3) <br />make the issue of staff time and staff commitment a criteria for discussion of convening a <br />committee; and 4) set a ground rule on committee agendas, with negotiation periodically <br />between support staff and the committee chair. He asked the council to consider Ms. Swanson <br />Gribskov's notion that at the June 15 work session the council discuss hot issues for the next six <br />months and decide then how to process them, i.e., assign to a committee or to the full council, <br />etc. <br /> <br />Mayor Torrey said on June 15 the council would also discuss expectations of the city manager <br />pro rem. <br /> <br /> B. Work Session: Legal Services Review <br /> <br />Mr. Wong recalled that the report was commissioned by former City Manager Vicki Elmer as <br />directed by the council. He called attention to a memorandum from City Manager Jim Johnson <br />making recommendations and other pertinent material in the meeting packet, including a report <br />from the consultant. <br /> <br />Mayor Torrey asked City Attorney Bill Gary to sit at the table as a representative of the firm and <br />answer questions posed by the council. <br /> <br />Addressing questions from Mr. Fart, Mr. Wong said that Natalie West's firm was chosen from two <br />responses to the City's request for qualifications (RFQ) and Ms. West was a former Berkeley City <br />attorney. <br /> <br />Mr. Tollenaar said he was aware that it is the responsibility of the city manager to contract for <br />services but under Section 16 of the charter, the council may discuss anything having to do with <br />the affairs of the City and make suggestions to the City Manager. He said he hoped to ascertain <br />what council's views are but to make no decision or offer suggestions at this session, given the <br />City Manager's absence. He noted that the consultant's report was not well-received by staff and <br />"for good reason." He explained that the report did not respond very adequately to the staff's <br />comments despite the report addendums. Mr. Tollenaar also faulted the report for failing to cite <br />its sources. Of particular importance, he continued, was the issue of the conflict of interest <br />raised by the report and responded to by Mr. Gary (Attachment 2). Mr. Tollenaar said the <br />evidence was that the City will not completely escape any conflict of interest situation even with <br />in-house legal staff but, he said, so long as the City contracts for legal services there is no way of <br />avoiding situational conflict--"what may be good for the law practice is not necessarily what is <br />good for each of its clients, including the City of Eugene." Mr. Tollenaar said the council should <br />give serious consideration to having a small full-time in-house counsel that would take <br />responsibility for the basket of services for oversight of contracted-for legal work, and perhaps for <br />dealing with some other issues such as questions of land use. He emphasized that the current <br />arrangement presented a structural problem, not one with individuals, adding that the firm's <br />expertise accumulated over the last 26 years was invaluable to the City. <br /> <br />MINUTES--Eugene City Council June 10, 1998 Page 4 <br /> 11:30 a.m. <br /> <br /> <br />