CC Minutes - 09/23/09 Process Session

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M I N U T E S City Council McNutt Room—Eugene City Hall 777 Pearl Street—Eugene, Oregon September 23, 2009 Noon PRESENT: Alan Zelenka, Betty Taylor, Chris Pryor, George Poling, Jennifer Solomon, Andrea Ortiz, Mike Clark, George Brown, members. Her Honor Mayor Kitty Piercy convened the process session of the Eugene City Council. She reviewed and revised the order of the agenda. A. WORK SESSION: City Council Process Session Topic: Council Officer Succession Mr. Pryor observed that the current officer succession process worked one way if there was frequent turnover in councilors and another way if there were councilors who served more than one term. He wanted to ensure that there was a policy for officer succession that would not create any acrimony. He believed the current practice for rotation was unclear for councilors who had longevity on the council. Mayor Piercy thought the officers were elected on a rotation basis, with the exception of councilors who had served for less than two years. Mr. Pryor stressed that his desire was to establish a formula and avoid a “popularity contest.” Ms. Ortiz commented that she did not want to base a policy change on a situation that happened prior to her tenure on the council. City Attorney Glenn Klein stated that the council could structure the code so that it was formulaic and then if a future council did not like it, they could change it. Mayor Piercy ascertained that there was general consensus to retain the current formula. Mr. Pryor added that he also would prefer for officers not to be elected based on their political orientation. He thought it would be better to maintain a strictly formulaic approach to officer elections. Topic: Attending Council Meetings Via Conference Phone Ms. Solomon stated that there had been times when various members had attended meetings via telephone. MINUTES—City Council September 23, 2009 Page 1