Item 2A: Approval of City Council Minutes

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agencies. He explained fire service authorities were in place in Washington and California, noting Livermore and Pleasanton, California, which were very similar to Eugene and Springfield, with the exception that their populations were closer in size, was a consolidated agency. The Livermore-Pleasanton Fire Department was an unqualified success. Chief Murphy said Lane County had a unique opportunity facing it. Many veteran Fire and EMS personnel were reaching retirement age presenting an opportunity to combine services while not requiring service reductions. While none of the solutions would be easy or fast, he asked the BBC, the City Councils, and Fire Boards to collaborate on developing a solution. He opined he and Chiefs Borland and Groves were dedicated to developing a slate of options for the JEOs to achieve consensus. Mayor Leiken said although the JEOs were talking about costs, the public was demanding highly trained professional paramedics who saved lives on the scene and transported people to the hospital, compared to 30 years ago. Costs continued to rise with training and equipment. He looked forward to continued conversations on Fire and EMS and believed it was a core service. He asserted this issue was about peoples’ lives and the elected officials needed to continue to hammer on the federal delegation. The federal government had been turning its back on the cities for decades. Commissioner Stewart, as a member of the MWMC, concurred with Chief Murphy that there were successful models in place for a fire authority. He hoped all of the elected officials came tonight with an open mind to solve problems for the community. Commissioner Sorenson said one of the advantages of a small group was it could make decisions quickly. He said the ambulance transport service issue would be placed on an upcoming BCC agenda. ASA options would be reviewed by the County’s Public Health Advisory Committee and BCC. There was not much “buy in” from the public if it perceived a district levy would benefit the County government in some way, so it would be important to have sufficient support from all jurisdictions for placing a measure on the ballot. Fire and EMS were among the most popular services provided by government so it might be easier to pass as a ballot measure. He said compression was always a concern and it would impact many taxing districts. Ballot Measures 5, 47 and 50 would not be modified until the Legislative Assembly referred a measure to the voters or the citizens initiated something that modified those measures. Councilor Clark clarified his statement that identifying Fire and EMS as core services identified those services as ones people wanted to see funded first and thoroughly. He saw it as a core service that the elected officials could not afford to get wrong. He thought establishing a special district would be difficult because the public would have a difficult time with additional tax obligations for something they perceived should be funded with the first dollars they paid in taxes. He averred additional support from the General Fund was in order. VII. FOLLOW-UP/NEXT STEPS Chief Groves thanked everyone for taking their time to discuss important issues. The issue had been called out for many years, and the agencies could not continue if a viable path was not identified. He suggested that each of the jurisdictions appoint one or two elected officials to begin working with the chiefs and labor to formulate a series of proposals to bring back to either the JEOs or individual elected bodies to discuss and act upon. VIII. CLOSING REMARKS Mr. LeDuc thanked everyone for coming tonight and wished them success in addressing the issues before them. MINUTES—Joint Elected Officials— January 27, 2009 Page 13 Lane Board of County Commissioners, Lane Rural Fire/Rescue Board of Directors and Eu- gene and Springfield City Councils