CC Minutes - 09/26/05 WS - Laserfiche WebLink

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Mr. Papé offered a friendly amendment, accepted by the maker of the motion, to add to the motion that staff come back within three months with a list of the new projects in the Capital Improvement Program funded with money that could have been used for operations, preservation, and maintenance. Ms. Bettman said if staff was dependent on a motion, one should have been provided to the council. The motion on the table essentially directed staff to return with options to raise new taxes. She did not support the motion. In regard to the issue of prioritization, Ms. Bettman said the council had voted two or three times on motions directing the actions of the Transportation Planning Committee, the staff committee charged with the tasks of recommending projects to the Metropolitan Policy Committee. Neither council itself nor the Transporta- tion Planning Committee had been able to demonstrate the discipline needed to prioritize maintenance and preservation above new projects, as demonstrated by the council’s support for the Chad Drive extension and Monroe Street bicycle project. Ms. Solomon said with due respect, she believed that Ms. Bettman had mischaracterized the discussion about Chad Drive, as the dollars allocated to the project were not necessarily available to the City for reallocation for other purposes. She did not consider that to be a lack of prioritization, pointing out the project was listed in the Capital Improvement Program and staff was simply securing funding for City projects. Mr. Pryor summarized the motion. The motion passed, 4:3; Ms. Taylor, Ms. Bettman, and Mr. Kelly voting no; Mr. Poling did not participate in the vote. C. WORK SESSION: Public Safety Task Force Update Mayor Piercy called the council’s attention to a summary distributed prior to the meeting in regard to the work of the Public Safety Task Force. She and Mr. Kelly attended the meetings of the task force, which included participation by Lane County and eight to ten other Lane County communities. The document, entitled “Focus, Goals, and Outcomes,” described the desired focus, goals, and outcomes for additional public safety funding to achieve a public safety system. Mayor Piercy briefly overviewed the document. Mr. Kelly said the task force had six meetings and would hold another on September 28. There was ultimate agreement about the service recommendations. The upcoming meeting would focus on how to fund the package. Only one of ten jurisdictions supported the use of the property tax, so other options included a personal income tax and a sales tax. The task force would recommend to the Lane Board of County Commissioners whether it should adopt the revenue source by ordinance. Mayor Piercy said she and Mr. Kelly were seeking input from the council with regard to what was acceptable to it. Ms. Bettman did not think that capital infrastructure expenditures belonged in the proposal. She said staffing and services should be included, with no overlap of services already provided by the City. She emphasized that City taxpayers should not be subsidizing rural services. Ms. Bettman did not support the use of property taxes noting that any proposal selected by the Board of County Commissioners should go MINUTES—Eugene City Council September 26, 2005 Page 10 Work Session