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had status as a guardian. He proposed that the City erect construction lamps for increased night time <br />safety. <br />City Manager Ruiz spoke to Occupy Eugene's desire for open fires, saying that request could be <br />accommodated immediately if the council unanimously agreed to consider an ordinance changing the <br />code. Such an action required a public hearing and six councilors must vote affirmatively for the <br />ordinance to take effect. He called attention to a staff - prepared ordinance provided to .councilors that <br />amended the code to allow open fires at the Occupy Eugene site. City Manager Ruiz recommended that <br />the council allow fires for humanitarian purposes if it decided to grant the extension. <br />City Attorney Klein called the council's attention to another staff - prepared ordinance amending the code <br />to allow a tent to be defined as a vehicle for purposes of the Car Camping Program and indicated the <br />process to move forward was the same as described by City Manager Ruiz for the ordinance regarding <br />open fires. <br />City Attorney Klein then discussed the legal requirements for establishing a permanent camp in Eugene, <br />reporting that such a camp could only be established using the City's conditional use permit (CUP) <br />process, which took about 120 days in the absence of appeals to the Land Use Board of Appeals. He <br />estimated it would take four months from the date of the completed application to approval. Such a use <br />could be located only on C -4 or I -2 property. The existing site was zoned Public Lands. It would require <br />a code amendment to change the zoning. City Attorney Klein estimated that process would take four <br />months. <br />City Manager Ruiz contrasted the staff - prepared motion to Mr. Zelenka's motion of December 12. <br />Chief Kerns responded to a question previously asked by Ms. Ortiz regarding the City's costs for the <br />events of June 1, 1997, reporting that the police response cost $20,000, which would be $32,000 in <br />today's dollars. Ms. Ortiz requested the cost of associated lawsuits for a better a sense of the overall costs <br />associated with that event. <br />Mayor Piercy solicited council comments and questions. <br />Mr. Clark suggested it was not productive to discuss a transition when Occupy Eugene was not interested <br />in such a transition. It was clear to him that the community that had been created was the protest, and in <br />its absence the organizers were unwilling to do anything else; the encampment was the point. It would <br />require a lengthy process to establish a permanent camp if a site could even be identified. Mr. Clark was <br />unwilling to wait for months while Occupy Eugene developed a solution it found acceptable. <br />Mr. Farr said if the proposed motion passed he would support both staff - prepared ordinances. He was <br />concerned about amount of money the council was being asked to spend on the transition. <br />Mr. Poling indicated there were elements of the motion he could support but acknowledged the <br />considerable constituent feedback he received demanding the camp be relocated or shut down. He <br />understood the issues involved and sympathized with both the homeless and the original intent of the <br />Occupy movement. Mr. Poling agreed there things that were wrong. Some of them the council could <br />address locally and others it could not. <br />Mr. Poling expressed support for maintaining the December 15 deadline while the council continued to <br />work on issues the City could address without taking money from the parks, Buckley House, and the <br />Road Fund. He believed there were more residents counting on those funds than there were camping in <br />MINUTES— Eugene City Council December 14, 2011 Page 2 <br />Work Session <br />