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