CC Minutes - 05/23/07 Work Session

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M I N U T E S Eugene City Council Work Session McNutt Room—Eugene City Hall May 23, 2007 Noon COUNCILORS PRESENT: Andrea Ortiz, Chris Pryor, Jennifer Solomon, Betty Taylor, Bonny Bettman, George Poling, Mike Clark, Alan Zelenka. Mayor Kitty Piercy called the meeting of the Eugene City Council to order. A. WORK SESSION: Recommendations of the Council Subcommittee on Transportation Funding Solutions Mayor Piercy thanked the subcommittee for the work that had gone into the proposal. She noted that City Manager Dennis Taylor and Assistant City Manager Angel Jones were indisposed and would not be attending the meeting. She stated that Executive Director of the Public Works Department Kurt Corey would provide an overview of the report. Mr. Corey conveyed City Manager Taylor’s regrets at not being able to attend the meeting in person. He explained that according to a report completed in 1998, the backlog of road repairs amounted to $32 million. He said the City Council determined in the year 2000 that it should assign a subcommittee of the Budget Committee to consider transportation funding; at that time the backlog had reached the sum of $67 million. He related that the subcommittee had come back with new information that $9 million in additional annual revenue would be required to make up for the backlog. He stated that two years after that point, the council adopted a three-cent-per-gallon tax on gasoline, generating $2 million annually, and some changes were made to the Systems Development Charge (SDC) methodology. Continuing, Mr. Corey recalled that the gas tax had been increased by two cents per gallon in 2005. He said at present $4.5 million was incorporated into the capital preservation budget annually and in that time the backlog had grown to an estimated $170 million. He reported that there had been no increase in the state gas tax in 14 years and, in addition, the revenue sharing from Lane County was likely to fall from $2.5 million to zero as of July 1 of this year. He stated that in response to this, Mayor Piercy formed the subcommittee consisting of Mr. Zelenka, Mr. Pryor, Ms. Solomon, and Ms. Bettman to review funding mechanisms and form a proposal to address the backlog. He highlighted the Council Subcommittee on Transportation Funding Solutions Final Report. Mr. Pryor averred that the subcommittee ultimately posited funding solutions that were workable, usable, and reasonable. He thanked staff for all of the help provided to the subcommittee, noting that the facilitation provided by Management Analyst for the Public Works Department, Roland Hoskins, had been “masterful.” He declared that the council and the City either needed to fix the problem or stop complaining about it. He understood that not everyone would be completely happy with the proposal but he believed it was important MINUTES—Eugene City Council May 23, 2007 Page 1 Work Session