Item 2A: Approval of City Council Minutes

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ATTACHMENT B M I N U T E S Eugene City Council Work Session McNutt Room – City Hall 777 Pearl Street—Eugene, Oregon January 20, 2010 12:00 p.m. COUNCILORS PRESENT: Chris Pryor, Mike Clark, George Brown, Andrea Ortiz, Alan Zelenka, Betty Taylor, George Poling, Jennifer Solomon Mayor Piercy called the work session meeting of the Eugene City Council to order at 12:00 p.m. WORK SESSION – Functional Consolidation of Fire Departments A. Ms. Piercy noted that although a motion regarding the functional consolidation of the fire departments was included in the agenda item summary materials, the work session was only intended to serve the purposes of discussion surrounding the matter. Ms. Piercy noted that the council had not had any significant opportunities to discuss the fire department consolidation before the public. City Manager Jon Ruiz reminded those present that a second City Council goal-setting session had been scheduled for January 23, 2010. Mr. Ruiz noted the importance of the consolidation discussion to the community and noted that it represented an excellent opportunity to demonstrate to the public how the fire department services of Eugene and Springfield could be better coordinated. He further noted that the functional consolidation discussion was comprised of three distinct elements: 1) the ambulance fund; 2) the implementation of operational consolidation strategies designed to improve system efficiencies, and 3) the actual merger of the Springfield and Eugene fire department. Mr. Ruiz noted that staff was primarily interested in the council's feedback regarding the actual merger of the two entities. Eugene Fire/EMS Chief Randy Groves described the basis for the proposed consolidation of the Eugene and Springfield Fire Departments. He further noted that staff intended to continue the use of the Three- Battalion System which had been successfully implemented in June of 2007, for the purposes of a consolidation of Eugene and Springfield's respective emergency response capabilities. Chief Groves described how elements of the operational consolidation of the two departments had progressed thus far. Chief Groves reported that Emergency Services Consulting International (ESCI) had been commissioned in 2009 to perform a feasibility study on further consolidation efforts. Chief Groves briefly described the results of the ESCI study for the benefit and information of those present and noted that those results strongly endorsed the functional consolidation of the two fire departments. MINUTES—Eugene City Council January 20, 2010 Page 1 Work Session