Agenda - 07/10/12 Eugene City Council and EWEB Joint Meeting

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City of Eugene, Oregon Fiscal Year 2013 Budget Message The prospect of these changes to our services and our employees is unsettling, and will directly impact our neighbors and our City team. The Budget Committee heard from citizens who emphasized that the adjustments and reductions present difficult choices. The Budget Committee received public comment and deliberated the FY13 General Fund reduction strategies at several meetings. As a result, two motions were passed that I recommend the Budget Committee vote to be included in the adopted FY13 Budget: Move to recommend restoring $175,000 in funding of budget strategy #6 to the Human Services Commission on a one-time basis and identify Opportunity Eugene funding from another source (outside of the FY 13 Budget adoption process). Move to reallocate $65,000 from the unspent one-time money that was earmarked for Occupy Eugene back to animal services. I also recommend that the adopted FY13 Budget include the following motion: Move to restore $31,000 of LCOG funding by reducing council contingency by $3,000, sister cities by $10,000, council travel by $14,000 and council memberships by $4,000. Eugene’s LCOG dues for FY13 are $61,629, which represents a 16% decrease from FY12. $31,000 represents the first six-months of dues which allow a new LCOG Executive Director time to develop a financially stable organization in partnership with all members. Any future dues would be appropriated as part of a supplemental budget contingent upon the completion of the Director’s organizational review. The Budget Committee concluded meetings with a tabled motion that could potentially restore $317,000 to Fire Services for a second fire company at Station #2. My recommendation is to not restore funding for the second fire company. If, however, the committee chooses otherwise, I recommend the funding come from the following list of sources. Some were previously provided on the full list of alternatives requested by the committee as presented in Attachment C and a few of them are newly proposed options. The options are not listed in priority order, but are listed from largest to smallest. Dollar amounts reflect the three proposed motions above. Ongoing Reductions One-Time Funding Reduce Neighborhood Publications, $55,000 Reduce Creekside Park Development, Eliminate Mental Health Court, $50,000 $300,000 Reduce Neighborhood Matching Grants, $30,000 Reduce funds from Occupy Eugene, Reduce Contingency, $25,000 $85,000 (after Budget Committee Reduce Council Memberships, $18,000 motion) Reduce the Sister Cities Program, $10,000 Eliminate Portable Restroom Funding, $25,000 These reductions would minimize impacts to employees while achieving ongoing savings and maintaining reserves. I ask that you be mindful of the fact that this is the first in a two-year plan to make reductions to fill a $7 million General Fund gap. Strategies that do not move forward this year are likely to be presented as FY14 balancing strategies because other options to reduce our footprint have been exhausted.