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In response to a question from Mayor Piercy, Ms. Fahy clarified that the initials ‘i.e.’ in the motion were akin to <br />“that means.” <br /> <br />Mayor Piercy asked how specific the motion was to the deadline of 2020 to offset the remaining emissions. She <br />supported moving in this direction but she wanted to leave some room in case a financial situation arose that would <br />require different sets of decisions. <br /> <br />Mr. Bruce stated that the subcommittee’s intent was for the City of Eugene to be carbon neutral by 2020. He said <br />the City could continue to choose to purchase hybrid vehicles for its fleet, as an example, in order to meet that <br />deadline and could make other choices along those lines. <br /> <br />Mr. Clark, seconded by Ms. Solomon, moved to amend the motion to say that all City-owned facili- <br />ties and City operations shall move towards the goal of carbon neutrality by the year 2020 and that <br />the commission and staff shall inform the council of the cost for doing so prior to implementation. <br /> <br />Ms. Bettman questioned the amendment. She felt that it could lead to the council micromanaging “every single tiny <br />decision.” She commented that the council had a goal to adequately staff the police department and then worked <br />through it during each budget process to determine the staffing that could be implemented. <br /> <br />Mr. Clark clarified that his amendment was not intended to micromanage, it was an attempt to place a “point of <br />pause” in the recommendation in order to analyze the costs and budget implications and make the budgetary <br />decisions. <br /> <br />Mr. Poling thought it was a mistake to call out a $300,000 to $350,000 annual cost. He felt the public would only <br />see a big price tag coming from the City’s general fund. He said they should have an analysis of the overall costs. <br />He indicated he would support Mr. Clark’s amendment. <br /> <br />Mr. Ruiz remarked that it would be more difficult to conduct a full financial analysis prior to making decisions as <br />directed by the policy. He felt the recommendation would put into place a policy that would be used as a filtering <br />process to determine how a purchase or activity would impact the particular policy. <br /> <br />Mayor Piercy averred that it was a shared goal that all operations and facilities of the City “shall be” carbon neutral <br />by 2020 and that the City would put processes and policies in place to try to get there. She asked if there was <br />appropriate language that would allow them to move forward with a unanimous voice. <br /> <br />Mr. Clark reiterated that it was not his desire to micromanage the staff’s operations. He understood the City <br />Manager to say that this was a somewhat fundamental shift in policy and would drive choices that would have <br />economic impacts. Mr. Ruiz responded that their choices were being driven by sustainability goals that the council <br />had already set. He said they had many people who were working on purchasing plans and vehicle procurement, <br />among others, that were already being guided by the sustainability goals. He averred that the recommendation would <br />place a tighter framework on how those decisions would be made. <br /> <br />Mr. Clark reiterated that he liked the idea of the goal, but there was a difference between saying firmly that the City <br />would accomplish this one way or the other no matter the cost and saying that the goal was worthy but it would be <br />good to have a firm grasp on the costs, impacts, and tradeoffs. In this way, he averred, they could make an intelligent <br />decision. <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />MINUTES—Eugene City Council October 8, 2008 Page 4 <br /> Work Session <br />