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City. <br /> <br />Ms. Piercy recognized the importance of having the EPD and other public safety “first responders” <br />centrally located in order to efficiently respond to public safety concerns. <br /> <br />Ms. Piercy noted recent scientific findings had revealed that the City of Eugene was likely to experience a <br />serious seismic event sometime within the next 30 years rather than the next 100 years as had been <br />previously determined. <br /> <br />Ms. Piercy noted that while she had not come to a final decision on her position regarding the best use of <br />the facility reserves, it made sense to recycle an appropriate building for City use rather than to build a <br />completely new facility and that it was also important for the City’s major government and public safety <br />entities to be located on the south side of the Willamette River. <br /> <br />Ms. Piercy recognized the need for a new city hall facility but also recognized that to go as much as seven <br />years without an established city hall might be troublesome. <br /> <br />Mr. Clark reiterated his belief that the current EWEB building should be re-purposed for the City’s use as <br />a new city hall and wanted to see staff’s investigation into such a plan continue. <br /> <br />Mr. Clark had recently learned that there were plans to potentially demolish the old federal courthouse <br />th <br />building at 211 East 7 Avenue and asked staff to investigate potential City uses for that building. <br /> <br />Mr. Clark maintained that the City had not wisely managed its real estate transactions in recent years and <br />noted that if there was not a strong enough consensus among the City leadership to purchase the Country <br />Club Road building outright, the City should attempt to purchase an option on the property so that the <br />building might be secured for the City at a favorable price. <br /> <br />Ms. Taylor appreciated that Mr. Ruiz had postponed the action regarding the facility reserves and felt the <br />agenda and the suggested motions presented therein had come out of nowhere. <br /> <br />Ms. Taylor expressed that a retrofit of the existing City Hall to life safety standards should be the primary <br />concern for the City and that the concerns of the community should be considered at a level that was at <br />least commensurate with the input provided by City staff. <br /> <br />Ms. Taylor did not like that the other City divisions apart from the EPD had been referred to as “remaining <br />elements” during the meeting. <br /> <br />Ms. Ortiz appreciated that Mr. Ruiz had postponed the action regarding the facility reserves and asked <br />what, as a part of the plan to potentially utilize the Country Club Road building, the City’s plans for a <br />downtown police substation would entail. Mr. Ruiz replied that an EPD police substation might be built <br />into or near the Beam Development site in order to maintain an appropriate EPD downtown presence. <br /> <br />Facility Division Manager Mike Penwell, responding to a question from Ms. Ortiz, commented that there <br />were no currently available downtown buildings that met the criteria for a new police facility at the level of <br />the Country Club Road building. <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />MINUTES—Eugene City Council April 22, 2009 Page 3 <br /> Work Session <br /> <br />