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wanted to consider new evidence such as a new appraisal they would need to re-open the record, which <br />could not be done given the processes involved and the upcoming council break. <br />Mr. Klein commented the excavation permit process was not as simple as Mr. Zelenka had described since <br />there were some types of excavation that could occur under the City Code, and that the City had been <br />awaiting the Attorney General’s determination as to whether this was an instance where excavation could <br />proceed. <br />Ms. Solomon said the matter before the council was simply a stall tactic and that the council had had all the <br />time and information necessary to make a thoughtful and well informed decision. She said the questions <br />before the council could have been asked when the record was closed instead of in the current work session. <br />She believed the council’s behavior in the work session was seriously compromising what little integrity it <br />still had. She said the University had followed the processes that had been defined to them, and urged the <br />council to not change the goal posts or attempt to extort the University any further. <br />Mr. Clark, averring that the council’s primary mitigating factor should be the public interest and benefit, <br />stated a recent public survey had indicated that an improved relationship between the City of Eugene and its <br />inter-governmental partners such as the University of Oregon was the fourth highest priority to the public. <br />He worried that, by the council’s willingness to postpone the matter, the City would ultimately be costing the <br />University up to $12 million for the sake of only $200,000 for the City of Eugene. He said the council had <br />all of the information necessary to make a decision immediately. <br />Mayor Piercy called for a vote on Ms. Bettman’s previously stated motion to postpone and <br />direct the City Manager. The motion failed, 3:5; Pryor, Clark, Poling, Ortiz and Solomon <br />dissenting. <br />Returning to Mr. Pryor’s motion to adopt Council Bill 4986, Mayor Piercy opened the meeting to further <br />discussion. <br />Mr. Zelenka thought the increased cost issue of the property vacancies was a total red herring, and <br />expressed that while he was in favor of the arena being built he wanted to ensure that neighborhood interests <br />concerning traffic and parking were fully mitigated. He said he had very high hopes that the University <br />would act out of goodwill, but his experience was that the City had received nothing more from the <br />University than a lack of cooperation and transparency and a manufactured sense of urgency surrounding <br />the project. He was further bothered that the University’s actions had necessitated the City’s expenditure of <br />approximately $10,000 in legal fees to combat the University’s lack of cooperation and engagement with the <br />community. <br />Mr. Zelenka said the University had broken a promise to him to have the Villard Alley vacation linked to a <br />conditional use permit once he had introduced the property vacations matter into the council’s agenda. <br />Mr. Zelenka said that after numerous meetings with various University personnel, the City Council had not <br />received a single concrete proposal to specifically address any issues of traffic, parking, noise, or litter. He <br />believed passing any motions on property vacations would be a tacit endorsement of the arena project <br />without any indication as to how the CUP process involved would actually play out. <br />Ms. Bettman disagreed with Mr. Zelenka’s characterization of the cost issues as being a red herring, and <br />said the financial aspects of the proposed property vacations were in fact on the record and that they had <br />been brought up by members of the public via correspondence as well as by herself in previous public <br /> <br /> <br />MINUTES—Eugene City Council August 13, 2008 Page 7 <br /> Work Session <br /> <br />