Item 2A: Approval of City Council Minutes

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leadership. He also commended Finance Division Director Dee Ann Raile, and Budget Manager Kitty Murdoch and the Finance Division staff who had put months of work in on the budget. Mayor Piercy echoed Mr. Ruiz’s appreciation for the work of City staff, and the work of the Budget Committee. Councilor Ortiz also thanked all of the City staff. She said it would be a challenging year and it seemed that they were doing a good job of bringing the City through “some rough times.” She acknowledged everyone for the cuts they were making. Councilor Zelenka thanked everyone for the hard work put into the budget. He commended staff for finding almost $12 million in cuts to the budget. He remarked that the General Fund was “in a world of hurt” and reiterated his appreciation for the sacrifices made. Mayor Piercy observed that the City was facing a lot of fiscal uncertainty. She felt the budget process had been a demonstration of working together to get through the times. 6. ACTION: Approval of Minutes, Findings, and Recommendations from the Hearings Official and Adoption of Resolution 4984 Forming a Local Improvement District for Paving, Constructing Curbs, Side- walks, Medians, Street Lights, Stormwater Drainage and Water Quality Facilities on Crest Drive from Blanton Road to Lincoln Street, Storey Boulevard from Crest Drive to Lorane Highway, th and Friendly Street from Lorane Highway to 28 Avenue (Job #4546) City Engineer, Mark Schoening, stated that he had prepared a memorandum to the council that outlined the three recommendations to help mitigate the impact of assessments on the three LID projects, Chad Drive/Old Coburg Road, Maple Street/Elmira Road, and Crest Drive/Storey Boulevard/Friendly Street. He reviewed the three options: 1. Use the $500,000 in funds that had already been appropriated but were not needed by the City for the Crest Drive project, because of low bids received, to reduce assessments for all three projects by approximately 13 percent; 2. The City Code stipulates a 10-year payment period for those who finance assessments through the City – but the payment period could be extended to 15 years; 3. The City Manager could revisit the administrative order to possibly amend it to tie the interest rate, currently at eight percent, more closely to the market rate. Councilor Zelenka asked why it would not be fair to allocate the $500,000 savings only to the Crest Drive LID. Mr. Schoening replied that for the Maple Street and Chad Drive LIDs, which had also been bid at lower amounts than anticipated, the City’s portion of the funding was from SDCs which could not be used to reduce assessments. He underscored that the intent was to be fair and equitable to all three projects. Councilor Ortiz agreed that the distribution should be fair and equitable. She ascertained from Mr. Schoening that Maple Street and Elmira Road were classified as neighborhood collectors and Chad Drive was classified as a major collector. She said those streets had “taken a hit” in being classified thusly, whereas the Crest Drive area had not. Mayor Piercy noted that citizens were questioning why the City’s portion of the funding was discounted by a larger fraction than the residents’ assessment portion. Mr. Schoening reiterated that the funds that would have been used by the City were not fungible and could not be used for other purposes. He explained that the reductions in those particular areas could not be utilized to offset the assessments to the area residents. When the bids came in lower in a number of areas, the assessments to the residents and the costs to the City were reduced by different amounts. MINUTES—Eugene City Council June 22, 2009 Page 5 Regular Meeting