CC Minutes - 11/25/98 Work Session

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organizations for a variety of different reasons, and the council could not control that. The council could only adopt a clean mission statement and hope that everyone focused on it. Mr. Lee supported the proposed matching grant program. He said that newsletters were an important tool for the organizations. He acknowledged concerns expressed by participants in the Neighborhood Program about having a single citywide newsletter. Mr. Torrey expressed support for the mission statement drafted by the NLC subcommittee, although he wished to modify the fifth bulleted statement by specifying that organizations would identify and advocate for the neighborhood's position on neighborhood land use, transportation, public safety, and social services. He said that would not preclude residents' right to talk about all sort of City issues, but he wanted, for example, to have the Harlow Neighbors' input on the impact of the Ferry Street Bridge project on their neighborhood rather than their input on the impact of the West 11th Avenue improvement. Mr. Torrey said that such input should be home- based when possible. He recollected that when he ran for mayor and debated before the Harlow Neighbors, no one other than those running the debate got to ask a question. He had spent more time in the parking lot responding to residents' questions about neighborhood issues than he had spent in the debate responding to questions about citywide political issues. Mr. Torrey concurred with Mr. Tollenaar's remarks regarding the ties between neighborhoods and elementary schools and said the council should try that approach for neighborhood organizations where it was appropriate. He clarified that he was not proposing to dismantle existing organizations. Mr. Torrey suggested that the issue of park siting and disposal of unused City-owned property was an appropriate discussion to have with the neighborhood organizations. Mr. Torrey said that he had not always been the strongest proponent of neighborhood groups because he did not think they were truly representative of the community's neighborhoods. Some were well-represented, but the vast majority were not represented at all. Ms. Nathanson said that the budget for neighborhood newsletters should be increased to increase communication with neighborhood residents. Regarding the issue of neighborhood decision-making, Ms. Nathanson asked, what neighborhood? what group? She did not support the inclusion of the fifth bulleted statement as presented. She suggested the following wording: Identify neighborhood opinions and ideas on land use, transportation, public safety, and social services. She did not think for legal and other reasons an organization could identify the official neighborhood position; it would only be the position of those at the meeting. She did not support including the term "advocating the neighborhood's position" because she did not think it was possible for a neighborhood organization to know all those whose views should be considered. Ms. Nathanson identified the following three main themes for neighborhood organizations: 1) building community; 2) neighborhood improvements; and 3) facilitating communication and access between people who live in neighborhoods and the City organization. She added that sometimes it was not the neighborhood organization that sponsored a meeting that resulted in the solution to a problem, and asked if neighborhood organizations were the only official, recognized avenue through which the council received information. Ms. Nathanson asked if, when staff received a neighborhood needs request from a neighborhood organization that was MINUTES--Eugene City Council November 25, 1998 Page 8 11:30 a.m.