Item 3A: Approval of City Council Minutes

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ATTACHMENT A M I N U T E S Eugene City Council McNutt Room—City Hall—777 Pearl Street Eugene, Oregon June 25, 2008 Noon COUNCILORS PRESENT: Bonny Bettman, Chris Pryor, Betty Taylor, Jennifer Solomon, George Poling, Andrea Ortiz, Mike Clark, Alan Zelenka. Council President Chris Pryor called the work session of the Eugene City Council to order. He noted that Mayor Piercy was attending a utility conference and speaking on Eugene’s pursuit of sustainability. A. WORK SESSION: Feral Cats City Manager Jon Ruiz introduced Mary Walston, City Manager’s Office, to discuss the topic of feral cats. Ms. Walston stated that the work session was held at the request of Ms. Solomon because of the large number of feral cats in her ward and the problems they were causing. She said there were requests to include other problem animals, such as raccoons and nutria, but these animals fall under the jurisdiction of Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife. This could be the topic of another work session. Also, the direction to work with Lane County Animal Services (LCAS) limited this conversation to cats. She said that feral cats were defined as the offspring of abandoned cats and typically formed colonies. She said colonies continued to breed and the cats frequently had diseases that could spread to household pets. She said that LCAS had previously accepted feral cats and euthanized them, but was now working with community groups to develop a trap, neuter and return (TNR) program. She said the City operated a self-supporting spay/neuter clinic, but did not handle feral cats. She said cats had no legal status as there was no licensing program in the City or the County. She said some people had objections to a cat licensing program, or a microchip program, but there were examples of successful programs in other communities. She said the agenda packet contained information on several approaches to dealing with the problem of feral cats. Ms. Solomon said many of her constituents were concerned with the problem of feral cats. She struggled to distinguish between a feral cat and a neighbor’s cat that was a nuisance. She agreed that the community would not accept euthanizing as a solution and appreciated the information about options. She felt the TNR program had promise. Ms. Walston said she understood that LCAS was working with local veterinarians who were willing to donate their services and Greenhill Humane Society had been asked about using its spay/neuter surgery space. She introduced the Assistant Director of Lane County Department of Health and Human Services, Karen Gaffney, who was managing LCAS and available to answer questions. Ms. Solomon said she would support the City’s participation in a program but did not want the City to be the sole funding source. She wanted the City’s contribution to result in a specific number of cats that had been spayed or neutered. Regarding the 3,500 surgeries performed by the City’s Spay and Neuter Clinic MINUTES—Eugene City Council June 25, 2008 Page 1 Work Session