CC Minutes - 12/07/09 Joint Elected Officials

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Eugene Councilor Solomon supported “this opportunity.” She averred that the elected officials would be doing their communities an “enormous disservice” to not follow through. Councilor Ralston called it a “no brainer.” He said it presented an opportunity to save needed general fund dollars. He felt there were only two options – to either authorize consolidation or to authorize the City Managers to take the initial steps toward consolidation. He wanted to move forward on one of those two options. Councilor Wylie noted that Chief Murphy was retiring in June and this added some pressure to move forward. She had spoken with both of the chiefs and a union representative and all of them had indicated strong support for the merger. This had eased her reticence. She understood that the City Managers could move forward with Intergovernmental Agreements (IGAs) that would put the merger together piece by piece, and would allow them to “test the water” and not fill some of the vacant positions. She underscored that this was a way to save $1 million and pointed out how much the JEO hated to go to the voters for more money. Councilor Pryor felt that the 3- Battalion System had worked very well. He had heard some sentiment in the room that the operations had become so efficient that it had gotten ahead of the policy makers. He said the policy makers needed to work as fast as the fire agencies had. He agreed that the elected officials needed to discuss it more and to seek more input from the community. He supported Councilor Zelenka’s suggestion to do this. Mayor Leiken stated that the Springfield City Council had engaged in initial conversations with representa- tives of the Springfield Fire & Life Safety Department. He thanked both fire chiefs for their work, calling it “true leadership” and “thinking out of the box.” He said the concept for the merger was valid, especially given that it was based on the 3- Battalion System. He had heard support from the firefighters and from their leadership. He was prepared to move forward on this. Mayor Piercy expressed appreciation for the work that had gone into it. She averred that as much as she cared about the money savings, it was the provision of services she was most concerned about. She wanted to talk to the community in order to hear from them what best thing could come from a merger and what they were worried about. She said they needed to listen to the questions about what they would be losing and what essence of the communities they might lose. Chief Groves said they had tried to garner this kind of input in their nine public forums. He related that people were supportive in general and he, personally, had received no negative feedback about the proposal. He said the fire and life safety services between the two communities lined up “perfectly.” Commissioner Sorenson remarked that they could look for other efficiencies in roads and transportation and in law enforcement and corrections. Councilor Zelenka thanked the Chiefs. He noted that the Eugene City Council was talking about the ambulance service in January and requested that a discussion of a potential merger be placed on a work session agenda. Councilor Zelenka, seconded by Councilor Clark, moved to accept and forward the report and recommendation to the Eugene City Council for a work session and action. The Eu- gene City Council passed the motion unanimously, 8:0. MINUTES—Joint Elected Officials—Lane County, Springfield, December 7, 2009 Page 9 & Eugene