Item 2A: Approval of City Council Minutes

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ATTACHMENT A M I N U T E S Eugene City Council Work Session McNutt Room – City Hall 777 Pearl Street—Eugene, Oregon April 8, 2009 12:00 p.m. COUNCILORS PRESENT: Chris Pryor, Mike Clark, George Poling, Betty Taylor, Alan Zelenka (via telephone), Jennifer Solomon, George Brown, Andrea Ortiz. Ms. Piercy called the work session meeting of the Eugene City Council to order at 12:01 p.m. A. WORK SESSION – FY10 Budget Strategies to Maintain Road Fund Service Levels Public Works Director Kurt Corey presented information regarding the current status of the City’s Road Operations Fund and proposed FY10 budget strategies to continue the City’s operations and maintenance (O&M) efforts. As part of his presentation, Mr. Corey briefly described the nature of the City’s O&M concerns. Referring to his statement from the agenda item summary materials submitted to the council, Mr. Corey noted that the Road Fund was currently facing an annual deficit of approximately $4 million and was, absent of any intervention, in danger of becoming insolvent by the fall of 2009. Mr. Corey commented that the current O&M funding gap was the result of a multitude of factors including a 15% reduction in revenues over the last five years and a 23% increase in the cost of providing services over the same period of time. Mr. Corey noted that the state gas tax, which had historically been the primary funding source for O&M funding, had been flat for more than 16 years and that the Lane County partnerships payments that had also partially funded O&M efforts, had been exhausted. He further noted that the O&M reserve funds would essentially be depleted in the current fiscal year and $4 million in ongoing new revenue would be required to stabilize the O&M portion of the Road Fund, with $2.8 million in new revenue required to close the FY10 budget gap. Mr. Corey recalled the input by the City Council during previous work sessions and noted that staff had been directed to consider one-time solutions in order to address the FY10 budget gap, to consider new revenue sources to address budget gaps beyond, and to avoid any service reductions to compensate for the current, and any future, Road Fund O&M budget gaps. Mr. Corey proceeded to review the strategies suggested by the council in their previous work session meetings as reflected in the agenda item summary materials. Mr. Corey noted that while the previous staff recommendation had been for the City to implement a 10% surcharge on solid waste hauler fees, the current recommendation to address the FY10 budget gap called for only a 5% surcharge in addition to a one-time transfer of funds from available stormwater/wastewater funds and local gas tax revenues. He added that the staff recommendation to address the budget gaps in the long-term would be to revisit the transportation utility fee based upon parking spaces. Mr. Corey briefly restated the rationales behind the recommended 5% garbage surcharge for the benefit of the council and reminded them that a previous subcommittee had determined that there existed a clear nexus between solid waste collection and the City’s transportation systems, and that a garbage surcharge would be consistent with similar MINUTES—Eugene City Council April 8, 2009 Page 1 Work Session