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numerous requests taking longer than two hours to fulfill. He would notify a councilor if a request was <br />likely to exceed two hours of work and the council could then bring that issue before the body to determine if <br />it was appropriate to proceed. <br /> <br />Mr. Zelenka pointed out there were numerous ways in which a councilor could request information from <br />staff and there should be a master list of requests to assure that nothing was overlooked. Mr. Ruiz said the <br />Assistant City Manager tracked requests that came into the City Manager’s Office and ensured that <br />responses were provided. He asked that any requests that were made via email also be copied to the <br />Assistant City Manager. He said that the status of decisions and requests from past council meetings would <br />be periodically reported to the council. He encouraged councilors to let staff know if there was no response <br />to a request. <br /> <br />Mr. Clark said he occasionally made requests of department executives and expected that if any of those <br />exceeded the established guidelines that information would be conveyed to him by the City Manager. Mr. <br />Ruiz said he was supportive of councilors working directly with executives and trusted that executives could <br />accurately determine whether a request conformed to the guidelines and discuss any concerns with <br />councilors. <br /> <br />Ms. Taylor was pleased that Mr. Ruiz encouraged communication between councilors and executives. She <br />appreciated having the City Manager’s Office track decisions and requests and providing status reports. <br />She did not like the two-hour rule and felt if a request took longer it should not be eliminated just for that <br />reason. <br /> <br />Ms. Bettman said that tracking decisions and requests was an important service to the council. She said she <br />had many requests for information because she perceived that agenda packets had less information and she <br />only asked staff to pursue something that was already on the agenda or an issue in which the council was <br />already interested. She objected to the quality of responses to issues raised during meetings or public <br />forums as being too general. <br /> <br />Mr. Poling hoped that executives understood that if an individual councilor’s request or direction crossed a <br />boundary they could indicate to the councilor that the matter had to be referred to the City Manager before a <br />response would be provided. <br /> <br />Topic: Raising issues/motions at meetings without adequate prior notice <br /> <br />Mr. Poling said he was not concerned with motions that were made during a meeting that were related to the <br />agenda items or motions that were time-sensitive or in emergency situations. He was concerned with <br />motions that had major repercussions in the community, such as the purchase of the Amazon Headwaters <br />property, being sent out a few hours before a work session, or motions that were made at the last minute that <br />were unrelated to an agenda topic. He felt there should be more than a few minutes or hours of notice, even <br />if the issue had been discussed previously by the council. <br /> <br />Ms. Taylor disagreed and felt that councilors should be able to make motions at any time. She said there <br />were different types of motions and different reasons for publishing them in advance or for not providing <br />advance notice. <br /> <br />Mr. Clark felt it was an issue of fidelity to the agenda. He said the council agreed on a tentative working <br />agenda and the issue was last-minute changes to a previous agreement of the council that were made by one <br />person. He said that was acceptable if the council wanted to grant the chair the ability to change the agenda <br /> <br /> <br />MINUTES—Eugene City Council October 15, 2008 Page 7 <br /> Work Session <br /> <br />