Item 2A: Approval of City Council Minutes

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Councilor Kdly ::;uppmted Couw~ilor BdJrn<'ln's subi;Htute mmil.)n, He n:;serted that it had only been through com.pwmi:;e and collaboration that the City Cotmdl was able to arrive at a decision on the enterprise zone in thl.~ firi;t ph!i~e. He felt the C01.mty's cbmgz~s jeopardiz.ed thi:;; 1evd {}f <'\grcemeut He n.oted th<tt the enterpri~e zone WM an agreement to give up bx revenuc in o:rd(T to provide an inccnthT to. a busine:;;s for cxp<.mi;ion. He said the balancing act for an elected ofiit.ial \vas to maintain equilibrium bdwetn the in~xmtivc,,> provided with the revenue ne\:~ded for servke::<. He avernxlthat the counGWs proposal did so, He assertcd that it had been hinted th<'it "all e;.;:onomic developml.:-nt would cease" \vithout the enteq1rise zone. He disagreed with this notion and hoped that the (~nkrpd:.;e zone conld be retained with the cap as orlginaHy pro.po:;ed. Councilor Ortiz was disappointed that no one was willing to discu,Ss thl.~ motion. she had set forth. She undersc.;)red that she would vote on behalf of the best interests of hcr <.:oni;htuency. She pointed IJut that her constituents ne<.")'-1ed job:;, Coundlor Pryor could not support the motion, He refused to he~td down the path toward termination of the enterprise :wrv;::, He believed a solution could be reached. He acknowledgd tlwt councilors would lu!ve different pcr~pective$ but by trying to terminate the ZOl1l::, press1..,re Vias being creakd that ~.v~!:; unnecessary. He thought the couneil had g;,:me a long way in tenns of reaching .<'!greenlent, having agreed rm :"tandaxds, boundaries, that bfownGekb would he targeted over greenfield!'" a cap, and;) who}ev<!riety .of other ~m;::a$, He pointed. out that thc County had m::cepted some of the coundl's ~tweemems and now it wa:" the (~ity's turn to accept :wme of the Connty's dechions ill a spirit of wmprmnise. 1-1e stress<~.d that fhl~ first step would be to not c.ontinue to try to knn:inate thc zone. Hc bdievtxl that termination would create probh:~ms Md <.:odd "bh.ttkbal1" Hw City from. hdng able to apply for another one. He supported the original motion and not the suhstitute motion. Councilor Poling indicated h:is opposition to the sub!',htme nwtionA He agn;~ed that the County made wncz~ssions.as h<'ld th<;: City. He noted that the vote on the cap had been a 5A vote and thM b.asd on that vote, the 1;;("}UllCii Y{)ted 7:1 to move forward. He thought it unfortunate that the cOl..md! had not included th{:~ (\~unty in its di:;cus:;ioni; on what the dollar amount of thc cap \vmdd be. He said support for the original motion 'would allow the cUlmcH a:n !}pportunity to f()Eow up with the snggested motion in the agenda item summary (AIS) and the Uty \\iodd have ,Some local confrol and loeal stanilim..Js oyer the ent~"Prise zone thaJ was now in dTec:t. He stre::;:"ed that B. eompany could come in <it present and it would. be under State guidelines; thcre \v{mld be no lo<.:al <xmtroL He felt it hoded down to the "retention pmt.'" I.le averred that a <;;~llnpa:ny that .had been in the cornmunity tl;n' ~! lnng time and w<inted to rnake a substantial inve::;tmem in the company \voukt in the kmg nm, allow the City to make more money even if no employees. were added, He oppo:"ed trcating thcm d.ifkrently from an out-of....state or o1lfnofclJuntry entity that vlOuld bring ht new jobs and dtimatdy cre.ate more work for the infrastrudure aud public servicei;. He noted that .f'vlr. Ca~lsidy asserti;)(l in the Public Forum that the City of Eugenc w<::; creating jobs for people who res.ided outside nfCity limits and opined that this wa:; nut a bad thing. He pointed out that the City received tax money that resulted {l'om the business such en,ployee,~ workd <'it \vhiIe the serviees to thosc employeei; were being provided on "someone eLse's tah:' He reiterated that the principle of an enterprise zone was to inl.:rease the tax hase through job c.rea:tlon,joh retention., stabi.lir,atkm of the base, and through the S\ip'port f()t. gn}wth and for local husin(~sc,,>,He corn:mented that six companies \v<;::re h'.mking at the enterprise zone, He predkted the City WOUld lose tho:"e companies should thc substitute motbn be pass\:~d, Councilor Pa:pe explained that he had not seeonded the motion made hy Cormdlor Ortiz because he thought ;;lnything that could he interpreted by the State as an indination toward ten:ninati.on of the MINUTESuuuEugene City (\mnc:!l July 18.2005 Page '14 Regular Sei;sion .. -.. ........... ... ... ................................-...--... ---............