CCMinutes - 05/10/04 WS - Laserfiche WebLink

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Mr. Pap~ noted that the suggested service district presented a compression problem. Assistant City Manager said there were compression problems in some incorporated parts of the County and that a special district would still be subject to the structural problem of Oregon's property tax system and eventually experience expenses increasing faster than revenues. Mr. Meisner expressed appreciation for the proposed solution, but noted that eventually, the same budget crisis would occur. He encouraged the County to consider solutions that were not property tax-based. He agreed with Mr. Harcleroad's prioritization strategies and commented that the community's top concerns related to ;;quality of life" issues and perception of safety issues such as neighborhood petty crimes and traffic enforcement. He asked if there had been a public involvement process as part of the prioritization. Mr. Harcleroad replied that the public had not been involved. Mr. Meisner asked if Eugene police would respond to an emergency call during the County's non-service hours. Police Chief Bob Lehner responded that he had already discussed the issue with Mr. Clements and Eugene would provide assistance. Mr. Meisner noted that a district attorney had recently been hired by the City at higher pay and said that seemed inconsistent with assurances given to the council that Eugene's legal costs were lower and that contracting out was necessary. He expressed concern that the City was attracting staff from other agencies because it paid substantially more. Mr. Harcleroad responded that he was involved in an assessment of municipal prosecution functions and had recommended that the City could save money by either contracting out services or having the district attorney's office provide them. He said the City was saving significant money by contracting out; the problem was that his office was far beneath where it should be in terms of salaries. Ms. Bettman referred to elimination of the County's participation in the Interagency SWAT Team under the proposed cuts and asked what would happen if there was an armed hostage situation in the County. Mr. Clements said if the situation was stable and there was only a standoff, he would secure the perimeter and wait for the Oregon State Police SWAT to respond. He said if the situation was aggravated and hostages were being injured, he would invoke mutual aid and other law enforcement agencies would respond. He said, however, that mutual aid could not become a pattern because then City taxpayers were subsidizing law enforcement in greater Lane County. Ms. Bettman reviewed the list of cuts and the extent of services that could be obtained for $1.3 million. She said public safety should be a higher priority and noted that $1.6 million was spent by the County to rebuild the Frank Parrish Bridge. She observed that although those dollars were from a different fund, all the money was coming from the same pocket. She said that reprioritizing should be done before a service district was considered, and hoped that there were other options available. Mayor Torrey asked what percent of the crimes that would no longer be prosecuted were handled by indigent defense and what percent of the crime were associated with drug use. Mr. Harcleroad estimated that between 75 and 80 percent were handled by indigent defense and drugs were involved in at least 80 percent of the felony crime that occurred. Mayor Torrey asked whether it was likely that County residents outside of Eugene would support a public safety service district. Mr. Clements said that a coalition of criminal justice stakeholders and elected officials could convince the public to support a service district. He said there were several options for MINUTES--Eugene City Council May 10, 2004 Page 3 Work Session