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MINUTES Eugene City Council City Council Chamber —City Hall 777 Pearl Street Eugene, Oregon November 9, 2009 7:30 p.m. COUNCILORS PRESENT: Alan Zelenka, Mike Clark, George Brown, Andrea Ortiz, George Poling, Chris Pryor, Jennifer Solomon. COUNCILORS ABSENT: Betty Taylor. Her Honor Mayor Ditty Piercy called the meeting of the Eugene City Council to order. 1. PUBLIC FORUM Mayor Piercy reviewed procedures for providing comments. Dennis Gabrielson, South 10 h Street, Creswell, speaking - as a City of Eugene employee, clarified for the Budget Committee that many employees were opposed to the mandatory furlough and it was causing productivity and morale issues. He questioned why a new manager position at the library had been created if the City was in such dire financial straits and why programs such as the Sister City were being continued. He said pet projects should be cut along with employees' wages. In response to a question. raised at the Budget Committee meeting, he said that vesting changed from 10 years to five years in 1986. He hoped the union won its grievance against the City for the maximum amount. Alison Gregory, Eugene, introduced Cub Scout Pack 402, members of which were attending the council meeting to learn about their duties as citizens. She said the pack also took part in a national community service project the previous weekend and collected food for local food banks. Mike McCallum, Garfield Street, Eugene, said he lived within a mile of Amazon Creek near 18 Avenue and Chambers Street and was opposed to a proposed route for EmX along Amazon Creek. He said the area was heavily used by the neighborhood and the cost of changing that use would be significant. The scale of the EmX bus was huge compared to a pedestrian. He noted that not all trips and public transportation were destined for downtown Eugene and most people did not work there. He suggested routing the EmX westside system from Broadway and Garfield Street into the core of Eugene and using that location as a hub to connect to other transportation. He said that would retain the Amazon Creek corridor, and some day the value of that waterfront property would be recognized. He hoped the Amazon Creek route would be taken out of consideration in the planning process. Brandon Rishel, Garfield Place, Eugene, spoke in support of car - sharing. He had recently moved from Victoria, B.C., where a similar arrangement was in place with local municipalities. He said there were seven car - sharing agreements in place and each car served about 40 members, and surveys indicated that about half of the members decided to stop owning a car or purchase a car because of the car -share program. He said that car - sharing benefited developers, neighborhoods and the surrounding community. Eugene Drix, East 14 Avenue, Eugene, expressed gratitude in recognition of Thanksgiving for his neighborhood and a recent clean -up project, and to the City Council members for their service and MINUTES Eugene City Council November 9, 2009 Page 1