CCMinutes - 07/26/04 Mtg - Laserfiche WebLink

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Councilor Nathanson recalled that there had been a public meeting on this topic very recently. She supported the measure for the same reasons she had previously cited and declined to repeat them. She asked the City Manager to state once again the purpose of the bond in order to dispel any public confusion. She noted others had spoken as though the bond measure was only intended to pay for building a police station. Mr. Taylor stated that the bond was slated to pay for a 92,000 square foot building, including 77,000 square feet for housing the police services and 15,000 square feet for general office space to provide the opportu- nity for collocation of victims' services. He said it would also make improvements along 8th Avenue and would make the previously discussed improvements to the Park Blocks. He called it another step in the phased implementation of Civic Center vision, using the policy principles adopted at the last meeting. Councilor Nathanson underscored that the public was being asked for a relatively small amount of money in the perspective of what the entire project would cost and the money would pay for public amenities, for public improvements downtown, to make the downtown area greener, and to add a new approach for social services and public service. She felt it was a very different proposal from merely saying it was to build a police station. She called it an ;;incremental step to achieving everything we need." In response to a question from Councilor Kelly, Mr. Carlson assured him that, should the bond fail, staff would come before the council to determine how to proceed. Councilor Kelly commented that from conversations with constituents it was clear that the public was not supportive of the bond measure. While he strongly supported the need for new facilities and the other components of the measure, he would oppose placing the measure on the ballot. He expressed concern that the measure only provided adequate space for the next ten years. He called it short-sighted. He acknowl- edged that the structure was planned with future expansion in mind but speculated that building codes could change in the interim and prevent this from happening. He was concerned regarding the legal risk of the telecommunications money and felt there should be a ~Plan B" for financing the project. Councilor Meisner said this had been discussed at length during the previous week. He concurred with Councilor Bettman about how the whole vision and the whole set of needs could best be implemented. He supported the motions before the City Council and stated that he would campaign for the bond measure. He commented that he missed the days when the City Council would have a divided vote but then, once decided, would speak with one voice. Councilor Meisner shared the previously voiced frustrations regarding building for the needs of the year 2018. He was not persuaded that the building would be too small or too large and believed the measure before the council made sense. Councilor Papd also wished that the City could embark on the whole project. He stated that this would involve $70 million in a bond measure, which would push the City up against well-conceived and well- founded City policies with regard to bonding and debt incursion and would prevent the City from achieving other needed goals for some time. He felt it sensible to %ite it off in chunks" rather than to try to gain the whole project at once. He asked Chief Lehner to discuss how the building would be expanded in the future. Chief Lehner stated that the proposed size of the building was based on several assumptions, one of which was that the entire patrol operation would be staged out of this building. He said this may not be the model that the City of Eugene would move toward in the future. He thought that, should the City decide to move toward a precinct or substation model in terms of police patrol service delivery, the major growth aspect of the proposed building was potentially entirely mitigated. He underscored that he was not advocating for a precinct model for police services at this point in time. However, he said Eugene was poised at a unique