Item 2A: Approval of City Council Minutes

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September 14, 2009 Joint Elected Officials Meeting City of Springfield City of Eugene Lane County Page 10 of 14 Subsequent to the June 1 JEO meeting, staff from Springfield, Lane County and Eugene met with their respective elected officials to determine if additional issues should be included in the work program. The Springfield City Council had no additional issues to add when this question was discussed during a July 13, 2009 work session; the Lane County Board of Commissioners added no additional issues when the matter was brought forward during an August 26, 2009 regular meeting of the Board; and the Eugene City Council met on September 9, 2009 (too late to be included in this packet). Based on these final instructions from the elected officials, staff will develop a work program, including identifying the text of the Metro Plan that will be included in the analysis; evaluating if any of this work can be merged into the ongoing HB 3337 or TransPlan update work tasks; and determining what other implications to the Metro Plan may result from the changes brought about by this assignment. Staff will present the draft work plan to the JEO on December 7, 2009. Councilor Ortiz said she served on this subcommittee with Councilor Clark and Commissioner Handy. Originally, there was a move to want to throw the Metro Plan out, but they were able to get to a place where they were able to address the issues. 3. Cooperative Services Report Feedback. Assistant City Manager Jeff Towery said the key question on this item was what information the elected officials needed from staff to make informed decisions on the issue before them. He pointed out that although they were interconnected, at this point, this topic and the Ambulance Transport Summit (ATS) work were not combined. The ATS work would come to the elected officials in December and discussion on how the two related. As needed over next couple of months, each jurisdiction would meet at the policy and staff level as necessary to move this issue forward. Springfield Fire Chief Dennis Murphy said on July 2, 2007, a landmark decision was made to provide better fire protection with the initiation of the Third Battalion. He explained how emergency crews responded to calls in the fastest response times without regards to the boundary separating the cities. That system resulted in improving the quality and quantity of resource and response without costing the cities. This achievement sparked an interest in joint efforts to make further improvements culminating in a Cooperative Services Study which was distributed at the July 21, 2009 joint elected officials (JEO) meeting. The recommendation of the study was to merge the two departments into a new combined department serving both cities. The purpose of the merger was to save money by eliminating unnecessary duplication in support, administration and management, while continuing to improve service delivery. The fire chiefs of Eugene and Springfield supported this concept as a means to address the financial challenges facing both cities now and in the future. Today’s meeting was to determine if the councils of Springfield and Eugene wished to proceed with an implementation plan to merge the departments. If that was the case, a more detailed plan would be developed and delivered to councilors prior to the Thanksgiving holiday. A December 7 JEO meeting had been scheduled to go forward with the plan. Eugene Fire Chief Randy Groves said the ATS was separate from this, however, they felt it was important to give a brief update on the ATS. Starting tomorrow night for a consecutive three weeks, a series of public forums would be held to receive feedback from the members of the collective communities to