Item 2A: Approval of City Council Minutes

Home Browse Search

Charles Biggs , 540 Antelope Way, declared that the City needed more police officers and not more offices for police officers. He said if the patrol cars were in jeopardy they should be moved out from beneath City Hall. He questioned the likelihood of the entire patrol division being in the facility at the time of an earthquake. He felt the risk was miniscule; officers spent a very short amount of time in the facility. He opined that the possibility would not justify the cost of a new facility at this time. He noted that there was a lot of space in the old fire facility. He urged the City to “use a little initiative” and “break down some walls.” He said concerns about City Hall could be addressed by moving to the Centre Court Building, if the Beam project went through. He thought the Eugene Water & Electric Board (EWEB) facility could be utilized for the police department. He suggested that the Army Reserve building could be an option as well. He averred that getting more officers on the road, in lieu of building more offices, could get more drunk drivers off the road and avoid some of the tragedies that had recently happened. Mayor Piercy closed the Public Forum. She asked Assistant City Manager Sarah Medary to follow up on the issue that Mr. Brown had brought forward to the council for the second time. Ms. Medary agreed to discuss it with him. Mayor Piercy was glad that the City provided hearing devices for individuals who were hard of hearing. She had also been appreciative of the comments regarding the potential reuse of the EWEB headquarters building and steam plant. She also expressed appreciation for Mr. Laue’s comments on consensus. She added her thanks to Ms. Berg-Caldwell for her comments regarding the City Council Goals Setting Session. She thought it might be possible to do more work on the City Hall issues with stimulus package money. Councilor Taylor thanked everyone for coming to the council meeting and providing testimony. She thanked Drix, adding that she wished there were more people like him out in the neighborhoods. She thanked Mr. Brown for his advocacy on the part of the land owner with the transient camping issues and for holding the City responsible for homeless camps on public lands. She agreed with Ms. Berg-Caldwell that the current City Hall building should be retrofitted to life/safety standards as she believed this would only cost $2 to $3 million. She also agreed that it was unlikely that all of the police personnel and cars would be at City Hall at the same time. Councilor Zelenka clarified that his idea for a neighborhood “SWAT Team” had nothing to do with development. He explained that he had suggested forming a team that could go into a neighborhood without an active neighborhood association and help start one. He expressed appreciation for Ms. Berg-Caldwell’s interest in the goal setting sessions, noting that she had attended both sessions in their entirety. He added his appreciation for Mr. Laue’s comments encouraging the councilors to reach consensus on a police facility. Councilor Solomon thanked everyone for coming. She also wanted to follow up on Mr. Brown’s request. She said she had asked for a memorandum on the “double standard” of requiring private owners to clean up homeless camps but the City not cleaning them up on public lands, but she had not seen the memorandum on the list of councilor requests. She wanted to know the City’s policy on this issue. Councilor Poling clarified that that the City did not “find” additional money; the money was in the Facilities Reserve Fund and had been set aside deliberately by the Budget Committee and City Council for ongoing projects as well as long-time projects. He said the fund had been in existence for a long time. He underscored that this money was different than bond measure money as the reserve fund was money the City already had and a bond measure asked the community to spend more money on the City. He also clarified that the actual cost to retrofit City Hall would be substantially more than $3 million. He added that the concern the potential of a pancaked facility caused was not about losing officers, it was about the ability to continue to function as a police department in general. He stressed that vehicles and equipment were stored under the facility and until the City provided take-home vehicles for officers, the officers and vehicles would have to go somewhere to start the day. He disputed the notion that it was about politics or trust in the police MINUTES—Eugene City Council February 9, 2009 Page 3 Regular Meeting