Item 3A: Approval of City Council Minutes

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averred that they were “always empty” and if the meters were removed, people could park there and walk downtown. She opined that the more people that were downtown, the safer it would be, and free parking thth would bring more people downtown. She also wondered if they could consider narrowing 6 and 7 Avenues in the downtown area in order to add parking spaces. Mr. Zelenka believed that if there was free parking in the downtown area, employees would park free. He had not seen any evidence that indicated that free parking would help the downtown area. He remarked that if he was going to spend $650,000 downtown, it would be related to helping increase development and improving downtown safety. He added that he liked the concepts Mr. Petry had highlighted on the slide Other Parking Improvements. Mr. Zelenka signed off at 12:49 p.m. In response to a question from Mr. Clark, Mr. Ruiz said staff would bring back options for the council to consider relating to the downtown area and consideration of the financial implications would be part of the budget process. B. WORK SESSION: Lane Transit District Service Reductions Mayor Piercy considered a reduction of Lane Transit District (LTD) services to be “extraordinarily vexing.” She felt that reducing services was the wrong direction for the community to be moving. LTD Board Chair Mike Eyster thanked the council for the opportunity to address this item with them. He noted the presence of LTD staff member Andy Vobora, LTD General Manager Mark Pangborn, and LTD Board Vice President Greg Evans. He recalled that one year earlier, LTD had been facing service cuts but had received one-time funding through the Stimulus Bill which had provided a one-year reprieve. Mr. Vobora provided an overview of the reasons for the proposed cuts. He said the challenge in their budget had come from the transit payroll tax, which had deteriorated to a negative 12 percent growth rate. He stated that LTD had experienced a 20-point shift in payroll tax revenue which had created a budget shift that was hard to absorb. He related that as they looked at solutions on the revenue side, they could control fares and had been more aggressive with that in more recent years. He showed a chart that delineated the costs of LTD fares among its peer groups, which indicated that LTD was in the middle. He said increases in fares were hard for people to absorb and they wanted to be sensitive to this, though the business community wanted people to pay their fair share. He observed that LTD could resolve its budget issue by doubling fares, but most likely it would lose a great deal of its ridership, which would be counterproductive. Mr. Vobora said the state did not provide much funding, except for para-transit. At the federal level, the reauthorization of the money had not happened yet, but if it did it would provide one-time money again for an ongoing problem. Regarding expenses, Mr. Vobora related that LTD had 70 administrative employees and approximately 250 employees who were union members. He noted that the contract would be up for renegotiation and they intended to work with the union representatives to manage personnel costs as best they could. He said some administrative savings were being found through wage freezes, unpaid furloughs, and in leaving vacant positions open. He stated that the materials and services budget was not large and was dominated by fuel costs. On the capital side, they had delayed projects as much as possible. MINUTES—Eugene City Council February 17, 2010 Page 5 Work Session