Item 2A: Approval of City Council Minutes

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Mayor Fiercy aektlOwkdged that Lan;::: County Conunlssionus Hobby Green and Faye Stcwart were in att;.:~ndan<:e, H h (' Ad 1401 E T,th ~ 1 h '." . e<.l n {} . A1SSl Y, . ~a&t ~ it- vcnu,~, <:ommente( t .at on H8 surtace,We enlelTmse zone ,>e<:m" . l. :.C a '.win-win sHuati<m" l:Kcaus<;~ it::; ha.sk purpose Vlas to create j(}bs and pmmoti;) growth, thereby incrc<l8ing revenues for the City. He asked, then" why it had not wOl;kezt He fcH i;uch zs:me.s forced growth and ;~au:.;ed more expz~nses tha:n revem.w 0, that the bent~fits werc going ebewlwre, He .averrcd that johs provided. in Eugene pften were takG1 hy pe()pk v(ho live ill outlying eomrmmiLies, lIe alleged that haLf of the citizens in Springfidd and 72 percent of the population of Veneta worked in Eugenc. He opined that the County shl>u1d help pick HP th{~ tab f()r "fo!"<:e.d growth" in the city of Eugene, He recognized that the County did not have all i;)x.eeSi; of funds, though it \vould be more possihle if a n{~w publk s.Hfdy district was approved, He semartnld that after an the years of growth, fh,) city of Eugene ccmld n~)t afford. to mai.ntain its streds., ~(rnong other things, He said thc enteqrri::;e lone ,vas not a "'whH'lln f(}r everybody," D KI' 'ill 94f \V l",th ^ 'd h . j " 'ki' I" . , on emsfll.l'" . . J 'est :::> j'W{lnue. sm . e "vas t1re~ or pK' ng up tne ta) for an en.terprisc lxme <UK! urged the council not to ::;uppOrf. it. He Obsl;:rved that the zone required ,{ wagc of $9 per hour aud. t.his ,<vas less than what he was m~tl-dng on the day he retired 18 y<:-ars earlk:r, He fdt the en1(~rpris~~ zone ,vas. '''giving things a\vay" Wht:il dK City could not aff~}fd to adeqnatdy fund its police and -fire departments. He ass~rtcd that the City sh<.mld not give tax breaks to bu~'(ineS5es. He s.aid the City had givcn "tho\is~mds in ta~< hre~tl'i$ to Jean Tate - t{l creak what't. He ;;tdded that when he moved to Eugene it had a population of 14,000 and was a nicc Wtlc city, L~Hl{}nna Cadisle, 120 North S<;~ne\:".a Street, assistant to the president of Gloryhee fwds, stated that the company 5ta!t<.:::d in 1975 out. of a garage at a reskh;:nCl;~ on River Road aud. had grown to a company thut elnployed 90 peopl.e. She said th<;~ growth vms direc.tly M.tributabk to outsidefinandal help a::; the company never had sufficient capital to "grow the busintsi;:' She recalled. thut. the companyboHowed the down payment ror its property from a business as::;ocia{e in. 19S7 and was then able to exp<md thrz..>e difT<;Tent timet'> through bans 6\1n1 the bank tIS wen as. the tax~exempl statu:,; provi.ded by th(: (:nterpri.t'>e zone. She averred that the tax exeruption l"l(:.i1itated the reduction of capital needed to continue to grow the bU8lneS5_ She i;tres:,;ed that verification ofthe company's suct.ess wai; on record as the enterprisc .',7},:me required regul.ar reporting. She reit<;~mted that the tax exempt investrn.ent bend'It wa~; a major component of the enterprise zone proposal and would f1:K~tor into a deds.ion to be madc by h{-)r company on its next huilding site. She un.derscored that the busine:,s would prefer k) renmin in El,!gene. She related that Glorybet Foods intended to huild a $6 million dollar phtnt and <mtkipated a 20-percenJ inerease in the number of employees. Sh~" bdkv-.:xl that susl~tinahle economic ineentives brought about by an enkrpri:,e zone \vmdd provide impwved wage and ht.'lldit 8tandm:ds to thc ;~ommunity ~md could mppmi business prosperity whiJ.e protecti:ng thc ciwironmenL She reitemte<.l that the renewal of the zon.c would be of great assistance in the pn;jeded expi.ln~.;ion ofCHorybee Foods. r4ike Clnrk. Che,YI Street, thanked th{~Mayor and coundlori; for th;;;ir service, Mr. Clark o\}:.,erved t.hat a signifkantportion of the reservt.foryrevenue sh()rttl~ll had been used in the last t'rLKlget cyck in order to gd the budget to hablKe. He said th(: six..year Gmmcial Ib,ecast indicated the rest:-:!'ve.for-revcnUi;) shortlan would be depleted in two tn three years. He was concerned that scnding a de ./acto lnessage that the City was not interested in cmnpanies growing in west Engi:~ne would discourage Uynix SerniyConductor Incorpomted ftom expanding. lk ni)ted that Hynix c:urrently paid six percent of City tax revenue. He noted that other hUi;ine::;se::; wercl(l~lking to expand ~md if they chose to go MINUTES-Eugenc City Conndl July 18, 2005 Page 2 Regular Session . ... ................................_.. u................