CC Minutes - 01/11/10 Meeting - Laserfiche WebLink

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Rick Henson, 317 South F Street, Springfield, AFSCME Local 1 724, noted the City's decision to contract out ten maintenance jobs at the Eugene Library, and said AFSCME believed it was a bad decision with a long- term negative impact on the community. He suggested the community looked to City for leadership in creating, family -wage jobs. He asked the council to reverse the decision and restore the jobs. Mr. Henson also expressed concern about the relationship between the City and its unions and suggested the City did not partner in good faith given its tendency to act unilaterally, sometimes in violation of contracts. He said AFSCME had volunteered to collaborate with the City and would continue to do so to get the situation back on track, which was important for the future of the relationship when economic times improved. Lou Sinniger, 25416 Irene Street, Veneta, a former AFSCME 1724 representative, provided some background on the negotiations that occurred between the City and AFSCME in 2005 -2006 in regard to contracting out services under former City Manager Dennis Taylor, which resulted in the development and mutual adoption of a competitive service assessment tool to determine whether contracting was appropriate. City Manager Taylor had endorsed the tool. Mr. Sinniger said the City did not use the tool when it decided to contract out services at the library, which surprised him after all the work that had gone into it. Cindy Clark, 1620 Coburg Court, represented AFSCME Local 1724. She expressed concern about the relationship between AFSCME and the City and asked the council if the decision was consistent with its goals and the community's values. She asked how eliminating ten family -wage jobs and replacing them with minimum -wage jobs met the council's goals. while she applauded the fact the contracting firm hired disabled individuals and veterans, and noted the City did the same, she also questioned how hiring a disabled person at a lower wage than other people doing the same work fit the council's goals and the organization's diversity goals. She asked if it was prudent to risk the asset represented by the library to a firm that was not doing a good job at the other facility it maintained, the Atrium, and asked how much it would cost to restore the library when the damage was done. Ms. Clark also questioned the City's expenditure on a new City Attorney and management positions in a number of areas at the same time it was reducing family -wage jobs. Josh Skov, 2036 Willamette Street, a member of the Sustainability Committee, discussed the City's use of federal Surface Transportation Program (STP) funds and recommended that they be prioritized for bicycle and pedestrian investments. He suggested the use of money for transportation other than those purposes was at odds with other council goals. Mr. Skov recommended that the council direct staff to favor bicycle and pedestrian investments in its lobbying for federal funding, direct staff to "level the playing field" in terms of alternative modes planning, and to direct staff to seek "win -win" investments that benefit the automobile as a "side effect" of pedestrian- and bicycle- related projects. Vic Sabin, 1 895 Columbia Street, objected to the fact that a City employee installed signs for university permit parking along his street without notice to residents. He acknowledged the University of Oregon owned many of the properties along the street, but there were private houses bordering East 19 Avenue, so he had felt relatively secure until he saw the signs. He had submitted photographs of the signage to the council and questioned its logic. He pointed out that such restrictions were worse for families with children, and for families without direct access to Columbia and Moss streets. He asked that the signs be taken down from the front of privately owned property. Mel Oberman, 1 S95 Columbia Street, shared Mr. Sabin's objections to the signage installed by the City of Eugene. He said that the situation would be made worse by new apartment construction that would displace existing parking. Dennis Gabrielson, 300 South 10" Street, Creswell, objected to the mandated furloughs imposed by the City on its AFSCME employees and predicted they would be found unlawful. He objected to the expenditure of MINUTES --City Council January 11, 2 410 Page 2