CC Minutes - 06/16/10 Work Session

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MINUTES Eugene City Council McNutt Room — Eugene City Hall 777 Pearl Street—Eugene, Oregon June 16, 2010 Noon COUNCILORS PRESENT: Alan Zelenka, Mike Clark, Betty Taylor, Andrea Ortiz, Jennifer Solomon, Chris Pryor, George Brown, George Poling, members. Her Honor Mayor Kitty Piercy called the Eugene City Council work session to order. A. WORK SESSION: Envision Eugene -- Project Approach City Manager Jon Ruiz recapped the process to -date, which had arisen from the Eugene Comprehensive Lands Assessment (ECLA). He stated that the consultant Bob Chadwick and Planning Division Director Lisa Gardner and her team had been spending time talking to people in the community. He said they were seeking to come to an agreement about the Urban Growth Boundary (UGB) and how the community should grow. He thought the council would potentially have some half -day meetings and possibly a joint meeting with the Planning Commission. He noted that this process would be labor intensive for the Planning Division and they would not be able to add anything new to their work plan at this time. Ms. Gardner recalled that they had discussed public involvement, the scope, and the timeline during the last work session on the topic. She related that one suggestion that had come from the council was that they look into televising Planning Commission meetings. She said they would begin doing so on June 28, holding the meetings in the McNutt Room. She recounted the workshop held from June 2 through June 4, which involved over 50 people of diverse interests. She stated that they had used Chadwick techniques, with both large and smaller group break -outs. She said they spent a lot of time challenging the stereotypes that people in the community had about one another. She applauded the Chadwick techniques. She felt they had created synergy and movement that for her was both "tangible and exciting." Mayor Piercy had come to the process with what she termed a "healthy dose of skepticism." She had found the work to be serious and saw the value in having people become engaged in the process. She was impressed with the confrontational exercises that they had engaged in, which she stressed had been voluntary. Mr. Clark said the people who attended the workshop had been some of the leading voices in typical conflicts in the community. He thought the exercises had led people to listen to one another and had encouraged trust among people. He had seen two people who tended to disagree on a lot of things and at the end of the workshop they agreed on about 80 to 85 percent of the decisions that needed to be made. He felt the process had been very worthwhile. Mr. Poling arrived. Mr. Zelenka had attended the beginning of the workshop. He was impressed by the number of people and their openness. He said they had built trust and created a basis for dialogue. The number of people in attendance had demonstrated to him how much the community really cared. MINUTES— Eugene City Council June 16, 2010 Page 1 Work Session