CC Minutes - 07/18/05 Mtg - Laserfiche WebLink

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balancing the City’s need for enough revenue to provide essential services. She recalled that the County agreed to it in April and had no language about job retention or the possibility that the cap could be waived. She asserted that the County retroactively tried to change the terms of the agreement. She believed that raised legal issues. She thought the standards as proposed by the County provided “extraordinary” benefits to business developers. Councilor Kelly supported Councilor Bettman’s substitute motion. He asserted that it had only been through compromise and collaboration that the City Council was able to arrive at a decision on the enterprise zone in the first place. He felt the County’s changes jeopardized this level of agreement. He noted that the enterprise zone was an agreement to give up tax revenue in order to provide an incentive to a business for expansion. He said the balancing act for an elected official was to maintain equilibrium between the incentives provided with the revenue needed for services. He averred that the council’s proposal did so. He asserted that it had been hinted that “all economic development would cease” without the enterprise zone. He disagreed with this notion and hoped that the enterprise zone could be retained with the cap as originally proposed. Councilor Ortiz was disappointed that no one was willing to discuss the motion she had set forth. She underscored that she would vote on behalf of the best interests of her constituency. She pointed out that her constituents needed jobs. Councilor Pryor could not support the motion. He refused to head down the path toward termination of the enterprise zone. He believed a solution could be reached. He acknowledged that councilors would have different perspectives but by trying to terminate the zone, pressure was being created that was unnecessary. He thought the council had gone a long way in terms of reaching agreement, having agreed on standards, boundaries, that brownfields would be targeted over greenfields, a cap, and a whole variety of other areas. He pointed out that the County had accepted some of the council’s agreements and now it was the City’s turn to accept some of the County’s decisions in a spirit of compromise. He stressed that the first step would be to not continue to try to terminate the zone. He believed that termination would create problems and could “blackball” the City from being able to apply for another one. He supported the original motion and not the substitute motion. Councilor Poling indicated his opposition to the substitute motion. He agreed that the County made concessions as had the City. He noted that the vote on the cap had been a 5:4 vote and that based on that vote, the council voted 7:1 to move forward. He thought it unfortunate that the council had not included the County in its discussions on what the dollar amount of the cap would be. He said support for the original motion would allow the council an opportunity to follow up with the suggested motion in the agenda item summary (AIS) and the City would have some local control and local standards over the enterprise zone that was now in effect. He stressed that a company could come in at present and it would be under State guidelines; there would be no local control. He felt it boiled down to the “retention part.” He averred that a company that had been in the community for a long time and wanted to make a substantial investment in the company would, in the long run, allow the City to make more money even if no employees were added. He opposed treating them differently from an out-of-state or out-of-country entity that would bring in new jobs and ultimately create more work for the infrastructure and public services. He noted that Mr. Cassidy asserted in the Public Forum that the City of Eugene was creating jobs for people who resided outside of City limits and opined that this was not a bad thing. He pointed out that the City received tax money that resulted from the business such employees worked at while the services to those employees were being provided on “someone else’s tab.” He reiterated that the principle of an enterprise zone was to increase the MINUTES—Eugene City Council July 18, 2005 Page 14 Regular Session