Item 3A: Approval of City Council Minutes

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the urban renewal district be terminated now so the City could take advantage of the benefits of increased property values. Mr. Zelenka agreed that future councils could change urban renewal plans at will and the council’s action was only stating intent, but would not have certainty. He liked the idea of a community review panel. He felt the major public safety issue in Eugene was property crime and wondered if that could be addressed along with downtown safety. He felt that dedicating nine police officers to downtown was too much without directing any of that effort to property crime. Mr. Zelenka moved to amend Item 1.d as follows: “…(i) Broadway Place Garage debt, thereby freeing up funds for additional police officers downtown and half for property crime, and…” The motion died for lack of a second. Ms. Solomon determined from staff that the urban renewal district was scheduled to sunset in 2024, but a proposal to amend the plan could result in an earlier termination date. Ms. Solomon, seconded by Mr. Brown, called for the question. The motion failed for lack of a two-thirds majority, 5:3; Mr. Zelenka, Mr. Brown and Ms. Taylor vot- ing no. Mr. Poling, seconded by Ms. Solomon, moved to postpone discussion and action on items 1.d through 5 until the February 22, 2010, council work session. The motion passed, 6:2; Mr. Brown and Ms. Taylor voting no. Mr. Poling left the meeting at 1:06 p.m. Mr. Brown objected to postponing the discussion. He felt the deadline for placing something on the May ballot would be missed and was concerned that the issue of urban renewal would result in an acrimonious disagreement with Lane Community College caught in the middle. He felt there were other tools for financing downtown revitalization and regretted that he was unable to discuss them until February 22. Ms. Taylor concurred with Mr. Brown. Ms. Ortiz observed that there was a lot of work yet to be done and cautioned against creating divisiveness in the community with inflammatory remarks. Mr. Pryor applauded staff’s efforts to present a comprehensive package that included terminating the urban renewal district within a reasonable timeframe. He could not worry about what a future council might do and wanted discussions to focus on the issues at-hand without becoming acrimonious and divisive. He agreed the urban renewal district should come to an end; the question was when and how to do that. He looked forward to a productive discussion at the next work session. Ms. Piercy said the question was whether the council wished to pursue projects that the community had identified as important. She pointed out that the package of strategies reflected what the community wanted and how those could be funded. She hoped to see a productive discussion of outcomes and the tools to achieve them. She urged the council to seek ways to come to agreement on how to meet the community’s expectations. MINUTES—Eugene City Council February 10, 2010 Page 6 Work Session