Item 2A: Approval of City Council Minutes

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Mr. Fleenor said that the private sector was where job creation took place. He endorsed a focus on getting more private jobs into the community. He said that private capital moved into and out of locations on the basis of profitability, and companies were willing to take advantage of public investments and tax subsidies to increase their profits and would then “cut and run” once the tax subsidy ran out. He believed that the community needed to prevent that from occurring again in Lane County. Mr. Fleenor urged a focus on the retention of local businesses and jobs and assistance to struggling business people in Lane County that allowed them to stay in Lane County. He also encouraged a focus on the removal of regulatory barriers and providing business a helping hand whenever possible. Mayor Leiken expressed appreciation for the staff work. He agreed with Mr. Zelenka. He believed that the region had been trending toward a green economy for a while now and noted his own experience with a green business many years earlier. He recalled Springfield’s adoption of a Groundwater Protection Program in 1999, which required businesses to be greener or to relocate. Mayor Leiken believed the upcoming governor’s election would be a key element in economic recovery given the Governor’s role in economic development. He pointed out that Eugene-Springfield was the second largest metropolitan area in the state and the elected officials should capitalize on that, as well as on the area’s great transportation system and first rate education system, including resources such as the University of Oregon. Mayor Piercy believed that the community’s location was a strong positive and it should continue to leverage what it had. She pointed to Lane Community College’s plans to offer education in green technology as an example of an existing resource that could be leveraged to greater advantage. Mr. Clark endorsed the concept that Eugene-Springfield gained an identity as a center for green manufacturing, but said given the community’s level of unemployment, he did not care about the color of the jobs as long as the jurisdictions were moving toward a model that allowed them to tackle unemployment. He saw no “magic bullet” for the County’s funding issues and no federal or state solution in sight, and maintained that the region would have to work on its own to grow its tax base and economy as the only way to keep government vibrant and able to serve its residents as they deserved. Mayor Piercy agreed with the remarks of Mr. Clark as they regarded the lack of a “magic bullet,” and with the remarks of Mr. Fleenor as they regarded companies seeking to relocate to Eugene-Springfield. Mr. Zelenka averred that people thought Eugene was a great place even when they had visited it, and he thought residents underestimated what a great place the region was to live. He did not disagree that the private sector created jobs, but added the caveat that small businesses created most jobs. He expressed gratitude for the public spending that had occurred lately in the form of public works projects and said he did not know where the community would be without those expenditures in the absence of private expenditures. Mayor Piercy adjourned the meeting at 1:40 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Jon Ruiz, MINUTES—Joint Elected Officials—Lane County & Eugene June 17, 2010 Page 9