Item 2C: Ratification of IGR Committee Minutes

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ATTACHMENT A M I N U T E S Council Committee on Intergovernmental Relations McNutt Room—Eugene City Hall 777 Pearl Street—Eugene, Oregon June 30, 2010 1:00 p.m. PRESENT: George Poling, Chair; Andrea Ortiz, Betty Taylor, members; Brenda Wilson, Jessica Mumme, City Manager's Office; Kitty Piercy, Mayor; Mary Cronin, Brett Garson, Jim Smith, Smith, Dawson & Andrews. 1. Call to Order and Review Agenda Mr. Poling called the meeting of the Council Committee on Intergovernmental Relations (CCIGR) to order at 1:21 p.m. and asked if there were any additions or changes to the agenda. There were none. 2. League of Oregon Cities Legislative Priorities Ms. Wilson explained that in any odd-number year, the League of Oregon Cities (LOC) convened a set of policy committees, as follows: Community Development, Energy, Finance and Taxation, General Govern- ment, Transportation, Telecommunications, Human Resources and Water and Wastewater. These policy committees were made up of elected officials, city managers, city attorneys and other staff throughout their membership, which consisted of all 242 cities in the State of Oregon. The policy committees met for several months and discuss issues that faced municipalities across the state (both big and small), including legisla- tive actions that did and did not go well in previous sessions and other things that need to be changed. Each policy committee came up with a set of recommended legislative actions that could be taken by the LOC. This was a new process that had been started, and was the second attempt at this for a regular legislative session. After policy committees come up with recommended actions, the LOC sent out the proposed legis- lative priorities to all member cities and asks for prioritization. This year, the LOC requested that each member city send what they believed were the four priorities the LOC should concentrate on during the up- coming legislative session, which would begin in January 2011. This did not mean that the other priorities that were not on the list the LOC sent would not be taken care of by the LOC. It just meant that the LOC would not be looking for legislation to be introduced on their behalf. Ms. Wilson explained that she sat on five of these policy committees, to bring forward the City of Eugene (COE)'s priorities based on the direction provided to her. She also talked to staff about issues the COE was facing, and what would be helpful for Ms. Wilson to bring forward for the LOC to address. She related that as CCIGR members knew, the state was facing a huge budget deficit. With the last revenue forecast, the state discovered that the deficit totaled about $500 million. As a result, the state government had instituted across-the-board cuts to all state agencies in the amount of nine percent of their remaining budget for the 2009-2011 biennium, because of the constitutional requirement to balance the budget. This meant that the upcoming legislative session would be all about revenue – how to raise it, keep it and who to take it from. One of the challenges Eugene faced as a city was to hold onto any revenue tools or incoming revenue. MINUTES—Council Committee on Intergovernmental Relations June 30, 2010 Page 1