Item 2A: Approval of City Council Minutes

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Mr. Pryor stated he was impressed with the performance ratings and would appreciate more frequent discussions with Judge Allen about how the court system in Eugene could better serve the people. He said people judged the quality of service provided by the City by quality of life crimes; if there were no sanctions, the system was a sham. He said if 10 additional jail beds would signal that the City was serious about dealing with those crimes he was willing to consider the judge’s budget proposals. Ms. Bettman said capacity had been a problem for some time and she intended to request a discussion of the facility reserve. She said funds that had been reserved for a new city hall could be considered for expanding the court. She felt the County would have $3 million in additional funds if it would deny urban renewal districts. She said removing the prohibition on using system development charges (SDCs) for public safety would also help resolve the problem and hoped that would be supported by the CCIGR. She noted that the different styles of enforcement in Eugene and Springfield reflected different community values and felt the public would not support merging public safety departments. Ms. Ortiz thanked Judge Allen for his years of service and impressive performance statistics. She pointed out that the exclusion ordinance was not yet being enforced and had therefore not contributed to space or capacity problems. She asked if the municipal court dealt with metal theft. Judge Allen said if the value was under $750 it was a misdemeanor and would be handled by the municipal court; above that amount it was a felony and would go to circuit court. Mr. Zelenka also thanked Judge Allen for the quality of his service, as demonstrated by the survey results. He also wanted to have more frequent discussions with the judge and periodic reports from the municipal court and police auditor would be helpful to the council. He asked for a memorandum on options for increasing the number of jail beds. He was interested in pursuing State funding for the public safety system and pursuing repeal of SB 1145. He asked staff to look at options for expanding the court’s space and moving functions such as Human Resources to other space. Ms. Piercy said the city hall discussion had been postponed several times, but it would include reconfigura- tion of space. She appreciated the performance evaluation statistics and asked if people who had been to court were surveyed about their experience. Ms. Hammitt said a customer satisfaction survey was conducted annually and the satisfaction rate was normally around 90 percent. She would provide the council with a copy of the survey and said that information gleaned from it was used to improve court services. She said the formal survey evaluating Judge Allen’s performance was conducted every four years and included responses from people who had appeared in court. Ms. Bettman said the council had discussed a survey of people who had used the police auditor system and suggested that parallel systems could be used for the police auditor and the judge, both of whom were council employees. She said that Human Resources could help coordinate that effort. Mr. Clark was in favor of looking for creative solutions during the next budget cycle. He said that recent discussions with the County had resulted in innovative approaches to using different resources and a similar approach should be explored at the State level. He said the public safety system in Lane County had been on the brink of failure for several years and asked if the City was in a similar situation. Judge Allen said that was the reason he wanted to address the council; the City’s system was close to becoming dysfunc- tional. MINUTES—Eugene City Council September 24, 2008 Page 4 Work Session