Item 2A: Approval of City Council Minutes

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outrage that the City’s money was being spent on something an attorney would describe in that way and something that also resulted in an immediate loss of service and could wind up costing taxpayers several hundred thousand dollars. She emphasized AFSCME’s willingness to work with management to come up with solutions. She said working toward a sustainable solution could not be achieved by violating the trust and integrity of the employees that “keep Eugene a great place to live,” nor could it be achieved by gambling tax dollars. Troy Kreger , 95 Alberta Lane, President of AFSCME Local 1724, stated that the Local had 680 members and was the largest union local in the City of Eugene. He understood that councilors could not engage directly in bargaining, but he wanted to make them aware of the mandatory furloughs being imposed on City employees. He noted that, like the councilors, he was elected to represent others. He found it unfortunate that AFSCME had been portrayed as unreasonable and uncooperative in the process. He disputed this and pointed out that AFSCME had been the first of the City’s unions to come to the table to discuss proposals. He said the members wanted to help the City find savings and had participated in the “Think Tank” and “Victory Garden” exercises and had offered input to their supervisors. He felt the City Manager was only focused on getting the money out of the members’ household incomes. He stated that AFSCME offered to conduct a mutual review of all City work operations in order to find more cost efficiencies, but had been turned down. He underscored that a contract was a contract. He averred that the City apparently thought the current economic situation constituted an emergency and that they could disregard the contract they had just negotiated in the previous November. He was concerned that City management was making decisions that would lead everyone in the City into a costly legal battle that would ultimately be a greater cost to the citizens that the AFSCME employees served and to the taxpayers the councilors were elected to serve. He asserted that decisions like the one made by the City had cost other communities millions of dollars and that the federal court system had found such actions to be violations of bargaining contracts and had been ordering agencies to repay furloughed employees. He considered it unfortunate that the City had chosen to pursue this path. Zachary Vishanoff , Ward 3, Councilor Zelenka’s ward, asserted that a $75 million dormitory that was proposed for the Fairmount Neighborhood would likely undermine the Walnut Station visioning process. He said a public hearing would be held on November 10 from 1:00 to 2:30 p.m. in the University of Oregon Longhouse. He felt the University failed to have a full conversation with the public about construction of such buildings. He had read an article in the newspaper that indicated that the University would have to find 300 parking places that the dormitory would displace. He opined that the Fairmount Neighborhood association had “failed” to adequately notify the public about the hearing. He said he was at the council meeting to give the Fairmount residents “fair warning.” He suggested that the Fairmount Neighborhood could become a historic district. He also suggested that the dormitory could be built on the old Joe Romania property, which he believed would create a “win-win” for the neighborhood. He listed a couple of other suggestions for locations for the dormitory. Sally Nunn , 1026 Jackson Street, Ward 1, Councilor Brown’s ward, said she represented the Sierra Club. She related that the board had recently approved a motion to adopt Amazon Creek because they believed that more needed to be done to protect the urban waterways. She stated that the group had planned in engaging the public about the Amazon corridor in order to encourage people to engage in greater participation in all that the urban waterways did for the community in terms of wildlife corridors and stormwater retention. She related that the Sierra Club had been especially concerned about LTD’s “plan” to establish an EmX route along the Amazon channel. She said they believed it ran counter to the City’s original plans to enhance the channel. She considered the option to be a poorly considered idea. She stressed that the club was not against mass transit, only the possibility of developing a thth route in that location. She conveyed the club’s preference for the other two options, along 11 Avenue or along 6 th and 7 Avenues. She said they hoped the corridor could be extended park status to protect it into perpetuity. Lisa Anderson , 1230 Arthur Street, Ward 1, Councilor Brown’s ward, related that LTD had met with the neighborhood in September. She remarked that there had “been fireworks” at the meeting because the neighborhood was furious about plans. She said it was the first that many neighbors had heard about these plans. She stated that neighbors were also angry about the possibility of losing portions of the greenway and/or bicycle path to the Amazon MINUTES—Eugene City Council October 12, 2009 Page 2 Regular Meeting