Item 3A: Approval of City Council Minutes

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ATTACHMENT B M I N U T E S Eugene City Council Regular Meeting Council Chamber—Eugene City Hall 777 Pearl Street—Eugene, Oregon November 24, 2008 7:30 p.m. COUNCILORS PRESENT: Chris Pryor, Bonny Bettman, Andrea Ortiz, George Poling, Jennifer Solomon, Mike Clark, Alan Zelenka, Betty Taylor. Her Honor Mayor Kitty Piercy called the meeting of the Eugene City Council to order at 7:32 p.m. 1. PUBLIC FORUM Mayor Piercy reviewed the rules of the Public Forum. She wished everyone a happy Thanksgiving. Carol Berg-Caldwell , 2510 Augusta Street, hoped that the councilors who allegedly opposed the 11 proposals to “improve” the City ordinance for external police review would reverse their decision. She reiterated that 65 percent of the voters had supported the charter amendment. She asserted that a four- month delay would “subvert the will of the people.” She related that she had stood out on street corners prior to Election Day holding a sign saying “yes on 20-146/yes on external police review.” She said many times police officers had driven by and there were “no unfriendly looks” and several officers had smiled and nodded. She felt the police were “weary of community division.” She accused some councilors of giving “lip service to public support while working against external review.” She declared that this did not serve the police and community’s interests. She recalled that former Chief Bob Lehner had disallowed the Police Auditor free access to the Internal Affairs office. She averred that this had hindered the auditor’s work. She disagreed with the former Chief’s decision to withhold information about a case involving criminal allegations against an officer. She opined that “even the District Attorney ruled against an attack on the auditor” when the Eugene Police Employee Association (EPEA) had filed a complaint against the auditor. She asserted that the complaint was baseless. She stated that the council had the power to implement the 11 “reasonable steps … to codify external police review.” She urged the council not to impose more process on external police review. Jozef Siekiel-Zdzienicki , 1025 Taylor Street, related that he had attended the West Eugene Collaborative (WEC) October 1 outreach workshop. He said they had drawings of the plans they were focusing on at th present, primarily focused on West 11 Avenue between Garfield Street and Bailey Hill Road, and on West th 7 Place between Garfield Street and Bailey Hill Road. He stated that the plans only showed the Bus Rapid th Transit (BRT) on West 11 Avenue. He had questioned this and the answer he received was that it had been th assumed that the future line would traverse West 11 Avenue. He had asked them if they should not include some of the wider plans that had been included by the Lane Transit District (LTD) and it appeared that the WEC representatives had “already decided” on the plan. He wanted to remind the council that he knew th business and property owners on West 11 Avenue who had not heard of the WEC. He felt that if the WEC was a collaborative that was supposed to make a recommendation to the City Council, they should speak to the people that would ultimately be affected by the BRT traversing their street. He averred that the council should “be wary” of a recommendation from that group. MINUTES—Eugene City Council November 24, 2008 Page 1 Regular Meeting