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heating and air conditioning that would not fall down in an earthquake. He did not think that was a <br />building to serve the community into the future. Mr. Pryor agreed it was important to get staff out of City <br />Hall. He suggested that relocating staff would "start a clock running" on a new structure. <br />Mr. Pryor acknowledged Mr. Clark's point about competition on the ballot, and reiterated his support for <br />renewing the City's street bond measure. <br />Ms. Ortiz did not think it was fiscally responsible to purchase the EWEB property and did not think <br />EWEB was being responsible in considering a move of its administrative functions, which would increase <br />rates. She said that now was not the time to ask the ratepayers and taxpayers to do more. Ms. Ortiz said <br />that the City needed to fulfill its commitment to downtown redevelopment. She considered EWEB's <br />riverfront property to be a pearl and prefer that it be retained as green space or redeveloped along the <br />model of the Portland waterfront. <br />Responding to a question from Ms. Ortiz about the first rights of refusal for the EWEB property, Mr. <br />Klein said that EWEB would first need to make a formal declaration of its interest in selling, and the City <br />would have 30 days to indicate interest, followed by five years to negotiate an agreement. If the City did <br />not express interest, EWEB could dispose of the property as it wished. <br />Mr. Poling concurred with Mr. Pryor about the importance of the street bond measure and feared that <br />placing renewal of that measure as well as a bond measure for a new city hall would be "treading on thin <br />ice." <br />Mr. Poling said he would not object to moving out all the employees now in City Hall to rented space <br />right away because of the poor and unsafe working conditions, but that left the question of what to do with <br />the structure. <br />Mr. Poling was willing to look at more information about the EWEB property to see which site was the <br />better financial choice. <br />Mr. Zelenka tied the issue of a new city hall to whether it was a good business decision to invest in the <br />current building, and he thought the question had already been answered. He was somewhat interested in <br />the EWEB property but thought the costs .of rehabilitating the site were understated. He also questioned <br />whether EWEB would chose to build a new administrative facility. He suggested the EWEB property <br />could still serve as a civic center under another scenario. <br />Mr. Zelenka requested a financial option included in the analysis that would allow the City to look at a <br />privately built and financed building that it could then lease. That would avoid the need to bond, and the <br />City could pay for it either out of existing operating revenues or through a new levy. <br />Mr. Zelenka said he would like to see the City move from the building sooner than later. <br />Mr. Zelenka did not favor staff spending much time analyzing the EWEB building. If Mr. Clark's <br />proposal moved forward, he wanted staff to do a quick preliminary assessment to see what was feasible. <br />Ms. Solomon preferred to invest in the current site but was willing to examine the data as a way to rule out <br />the EWEB site once and for all. She did not think the EWEB site was the better financial option. <br />MINUTES— Eugene City Council September 8, 2010 Page 6 <br />. Work Session <br />