Item 4 - Ord./Metro Plan Amend. - Laserfiche WebLink

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MWMC staff essent'iall.y relies on tWo things to support the public process that was used. The first is that required meeting notices were placed in the local newspapers informing the public of the hearings. However, today's Register Guard is an example of the type of notice provided for the public hearings. Under the Calendar Section in the local section of the Register Guard, page D2, residents of Eugene would read: Joint Meeting of Eugene City Council, Springfield City Council, Lane County Board of Commissioners - 6 p.m., Library Meeting Room, Springfield City Hall, 225 N. 5th Street. 682-5017. Residents who checked under Lane County in the Calendar would find: Board of Commissioners - 5:30 p.m. joint meeting with Eugene and Springfield City Councils, Library Meeting Room, Springfield City Hall, 225 N. 5th Street. Presentation of ACTSO certificates; work session and public hearing on amendments to Metropolitan General Plan public facilities element. Residents who checked under Springfield would receive no notice at all of the public hearing or that their council was meeting. Eugene residents would know there was a meeting but have no notice of its subject or the fact there was a public hearing. Residents who checked to see what the county commissioners had on their schedule would receive the most information, but certainly not information that would alert them to the proposed approval of $160 million of wastewater projects. Other than tWo limited references to the proposed projects (one in the Springfield Beat .and one in the similar section for Eugene) in the Register Guard, there has not been a stow in either of the local papers discussing the proposed projects. The wastewater projects proposed by MWMC are of a monetary scope that has never been built with lOcal money in the metro area before. A good,sized article in the local papers or other media coverage would be appropriate given the size of the proposed projects. The public can not be expected to provide comments if they don't know there is something to comment about. MWMC staffhas indicated that MWMC itself has held public meetings and public hearings on the projects. MWMC holds its meetings and hearings at 7:30 A.M. On more than one occasion, the General Manager of MWMC has justified holding the meetings and hearings early in the morning because no one attends MWMC meetings. Again, the public has to know there is a reason to attend before they are going to show up. However, another reason that people do not show up is that the public does not follow the activities of MWMC in the same way that they follow the activities of the planning commissions and the elected officials. A large segment of persons active in the community follows the land use process diligently because it knows that that is where the public discussion of community projects typically begins. 1-2 2