CC Minutes - 10/11/10 Work Session

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City and University of Oregon to provide more activities for students the weekend prior to the start of school. Mr. Zelenka also suggested the amount the University of Oregon had allocated to substance abuse was still "just a drop in the bucket" even though it was recently significantly increased. Mr. Pryor reported the Housing Policy Board met the previous week to do a status check and had reviewed some of its funding sources and planning documents. He had also attended the Emerald Awards and acknowledged all those who were recognized for their efforts to make Eugene a better place. He said the event was nice and there was a great crowd. Ms. Taylor said she had attended the Emerald Awards, which she agreed was a nice event, and had also attended the Neighborhood Summit, which she thought was better organized this year than last. She had attended the Toxics Alliance's Ten - Year Anniversary celebration on October 10 and said it was great to see how successful the organization had been since its founding. Ms. Taylor thought it was rather sad to see the balcony closed at the Farmers Market and pointed out that meant people could not get out of the rain. She said youth downtown needed a place to gather out of the weather, such as a youth center. Ms. Taylor noted two recent letters to the editor about pedestrians being hit downtown. She was aware of similar incidents and expressed concern about unsafe pedestrian conditions downtown. She hoped that the City could do something about that. City Manager Jon Ruiz thanked Neighborhood Services Program Manager Michael Kinnison and his team for putting together the Neighborhood Summit. He thought a lot of value came out of the event. Speaking to Ms. Taylor's remarks about the closure of the balcony at Saturday Market, Mayor Piercy said the closure of the area in question was done at the request of the Saturday Market and was done because of the level of drug dealing going on in the area. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) was brought into the discussion and did not seem to think the closure infringed on the Free Speech Plaza. Mayor Piercy said she believed the community faced a growing problem with homelessness and reported she had been talking to the City Manager about the status of the City's current intervention activities and possible options for the future. She thought the problem would continue to be bad given current economic conditions. B. WORK SESSION: Funding Gap for Maintaining Current and Future Parks and Recreation Facilities The council was joined for the item by Parks and Open Space Division Director Johnny Medlin, Recreation Director Craig Smith, Facilities Division Director Mary Beth Perkins, and Design and Construction Manager Mike Penwell of the Facilities Division. Mr. Medlin presented a PowerPoint presentation on the subject of the funding gap for parks and recreation facilities. He provided information on new City parks and recreation facilities built in the last 12 years and briefly overviewed budget data that indicated current operation and maintenance (O &M) funding was at 1998 levels, leaving a $1 million funding obligation that the City was unable to meet. Even though many new facilities had been brought online recently, many facilities, including some of the relatively new ones, were in need of repair. Increasingly, staff was having trouble keeping up with maintenance, MINUTES— Eugene City Council October 11, 2010 Page 3 Work Session