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March 3, 2009 <br />Joint Elected Officials Meeting <br />City of Springfield <br />City of Eugene <br />Lane County <br />Page 9 of 11 <br /> <br /> <br />Board Chair Sorenson asked what staff was asking of the elected officials. <br /> <br />Mr. Ruiz said they were being asked to appoint a couple of elected officials from each jurisdiction to be <br />part of this subcommittee. <br /> <br />Mayor Piercy said she was very supportive and they had three councilors who were interested. <br /> <br />Mayor Leiken said they had not identified elected officials yet to serve on this, but he was interested in <br />pursuing. After discussion with the Council, they would identify two members to participate. <br /> <br />Commissioner Stewart said it was a good suggestion, especially in the current economic times. They did <br />need to be ready for any stimulus funding. <br /> <br />Commissioner Fleenor said he brought this before the Board a couple of weeks ago and received support. <br />He had volunteered to be part of this subcommittee, along with Commissioner Stewart. He was prepared <br />to move forward. They would like to try to answer some of the bigger questions and get the policy makers <br />engaged. <br /> <br />Councilor Clark said he was interested in participating. <br /> <br />Councilor Poling said this was far reaching outside of Eugene and Springfield. Any discussions needed to <br />address or involve leaders from the other communities in Lane County. He discussed the closure of the <br />motor home factories and the effect it had on the whole region. He also suggested inviting real business <br />leaders that had run successful businesses for years to the summit. <br /> <br />Councilor Ralston asked what this subcommittee would be doing that would be different than Lane Metro <br />Partnership or the Chambers. <br /> <br />Mr. Ruiz said the Chamber had more focused interest in supporting local businesses. The elected officials <br />represented the political leadership for the jurisdictions. Having them lead the charge was important. He <br />didn’t know if Lane Metro Partnership could change quickly enough to the changing landscape. <br /> <br />Councilor Zelenka said he liked the concept and thought an economic summit was a good idea. The Lane <br />Workforce Partnership had agreed to facilitate this summit and he felt they should be drawn in to help. <br />The smaller cities didn’t have staff available to participate, so this would most likely be metro driven. <br /> <br />Councilor Pryor said he supported Mr. Zelenka’s comments and bringing in people that had knowledge <br />and experience. The region’s workforce was what brought businesses to our area, so it made sense to <br />include the Lane Metro Workforce. <br /> <br />Commissioner Handy said the idea of being ready to go in the next 12-18 months as the economy <br />changed was important. He appreciated the last four comments and questions. He would like the Board to <br />have a more focused discussion on this topic. The County was also going through some changes and was <br />trying to focus the energy of their efforts and make sure they were clear where they were targeting their <br />efforts. They had been told recently that there may be 13-14 economic development functionalities of the <br />County. <br /> <br />