Item 2A: Approval of City Council Minutes

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 Holding Mayor’s one-on-ones with city councilors from each ward, going to a different ward each month to sit down at a grocery store, at five in the afternoon, to listen to the concerns of the people in those neighborhoods.  Improving city communication tools at all levels. These ongoing efforts, and others, have broadened our capacity to engage our community in decision-making and have built confidence that we can take diverse views and approaches and work together for the entire community. 2. People were deeply concerned about inequities and social justice. Over the last eight years we worked hard on this. With many community partners, we implemented internal and external diversity plans, developed policies and spoke out quickly and strongly against hatred and discrimination. We set an ambitious goal to become a Human Rights City and our council passed resolutions that support being a welcoming community for immigrants and access to educational opportunities for immigrants. Eugene established an independent police auditor and civilian review board to ensure a fair and responsive public safety system. We put in place a data-based police system to better respond to crime hot spots that brought positive results. We implemented new training opportunities for de- escalating public safety situations when dealing with people with mental health issues. We’ve helped build world-class, affordable housing projects, including housing for vets. We supported Cahoots, Buckley House, and other human services. We expanded our car camping program to include tents and Conestoga huts, supported Egan Warming Centers, and approved a micro housing pilot project. Most importantly, we developed a Triple Bottom Line tool so that all major city decisions would be looked at for their social equity, economic, and environmental impacts. 3. Too often, economic success was pitted against environmental protection. Eight years ago, the debates were frequent and emotions ran high. As I said then, I learned from listening to people that “across all sectors and political affiliations, our residents believe Eugene can and should have a strong economy and protect our beautiful natural environment. “ I suggested that “by encouraging businesses that are sustainable we can meet goals of environmental regeneration, social equity and profitability.” – the triple bottom line. I launched the Sustainable Business Initiative, to put these goals into action and since that time we have:  Established a Sustainability Commission and created a Sustainability Liaison position.  Adopted green building standards. MINUTES—City Council January 5, 2010 Page 3