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<br />Ms. Piercy commented that she had recently attended the Mayors Innovation Project and the United States <br />Conference of Mayors conferences in Washington, D.C. and felt that those conferences had communicated a clear <br />message that city governments would be instrumental in executing programs that would be funded by a federal <br />economic stimulus package. She noted that the City of Eugene would need to be prepared to take advantage of the <br />federal stimulus package and implement programs extremely rapidly. <br />Ms. Wilson noted that there would be no earmarks included with any upcoming federal budget stimulus packages and <br />that the stimulus funds would flow through traditional funding mechanisms. <br />Ms. Wilson commented that she had received an email from the League of Oregon Cities that it had investigated what <br />policy would be used in distributing federal stimulus funds through the Oregon Department of Transportation <br />(ODOT). She expressed that City staff had been diligent in communicating to state and federal agencies that Eugene <br />had people and projects that were ready to be put to work once the federal stimulus package had been approved. <br />Ms. Piercy noted that it appeared that stimulus funds relating to energy policies would come through in a manner <br />similar to community development block grants. <br />City Manager John Ruiz commented that City staff had begun having very productive conversations with CEO’s <br />from other public agencies about how best to request, receive and utilize federal stimulus funds. <br />Mr. Clark thanked Ms. Wilson for her efforts regarding the two lists before the council and asked if the lists indicated <br />the relative value of one project to another. Ms. Wilson replied that the projects on the lists had only been determined <br />not to compete with other UF regional partner projects and had not been prioritized any further. She commented that <br />such prioritization was not currently necessary as part of the SAFETEA-LU reauthorization process, but that such a <br />process could be undertaken if necessary. <br />Mr. Clark expressed that he was happy that the lists being presented by staff did not appear to change any of the <br />project priorities previously agreed upon by the council. <br />Mr. Clark asked how the $50 million currently requested for the Beltline Corridor project request might affect the <br />timeline of the project itself. Ms. Wilson answered that the Beltline Corridor was a phased project where the entire <br />or major amount for the project was being requested up front to then be disbursed over a six-year period. <br />Transportation Planning Manager Rob Inerfeld noted that the Beltline Corridor project was currently in the facility <br />planning phase and that it was not currently known how much of the project the $50 million requested would actually <br />cover. <br />Mr. Inerfeld, responding to a question from Mr. Zelenka, noted that the Environmental Impact Study (EIS) funding <br />requested by the council from ODOT was likely to be funded by the state as part of its draft Statewide <br />Transportation Improvement Program (STIP). <br />Ms. Wilson, responding to a question from Mr. Clark, reported that the Metro Waterways General Investigative <br />Study that was part of the federal priorities project list was designed to determine planning for the Metro Waterways <br />area. She did not know if the project was connected to any previous local waterway studies conducted by the City. <br />Assistant City Manager Sarah Medary added that the Metro Waterways study was intended to provide a <br />metropolitan-wide regional planning study that looked at all waterway projects in the area to identify priorities and <br />determine project feasibility before continuing to fund projects such as the Meadowlark Prairie. <br /> <br /> <br />MINUTES—Eugene City Council January 21, 2009 Page 2 <br /> Work Session <br /> <br />