Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAboutCC Minutes - 02/13/08 Work SessionM I N U T E S Eugene City Council Work Session McNutt Room – City Hall 777 Pearl Street—Eugene, Oregon February 13, 2008 Noon COUNCILORS PRESENT: Andrea Ortiz, Chris Pryor, Betty Taylor, Bonny Bettman, George Poling, Mike Clark, Jennifer Solomon, Alan Zelenka. Her Honor Mayor Kitty Piercy called the meeting of the Eugene City Council to order. A. WORK SESSION: Non-Emergency Stretcher Car Transports by Private Providers City Manager Angel Jones introduced Fire Chief Randy Groves and Deputy Chief Denise Giard who would speak to the subject of transport by private provider. Chief Groves stated that the Fire Department was not opposed to subcontracting for non-emergency transports, but asked the council to consider the entire transport system before making any policy decisions. He gave a PowerPoint presentation highlighting the following policy questions: ? Is ambulance transport considered a core service? ? What level of pre-hospital care should be provided for the community? ? Who should provide ambulance transport services? ? How should ambulance transport services be funded? Chief Groves stated that the fee-supported Ambulance Transport System (ATS) was no longer self-supporting and the ambulance resource base was inadequate to meet current needs for a variety of reasons, including reduced Medicare/Medicaid reimbursements, unfunded mandates, an increase in demand of the costs of providing service. He provided an overview of the evolution of the ambulance transport system and how services were currently provided. He noted that fees for service were designed to pay for patient transport, not the response by paramedics. He said that County governments had the authority to establish ambulance service areas (ASA) and there were eight ASAs in Lane County. He displayed a map of ASA #4 (Eugene) and the three zones within the ASA. Deputy Chief Giard reviewed statistics related to calls for service and transport revenues and expenditures. She said that a rate increase was necessary to avoid operating in a deficit. She said that Springfield had recently raised its rate to $1,150 and that figure was used to illustrate the effect of an increase from the current rate of $900, which was estimated at slightly over $500,000. Chief Groves stated that trends towards increases in calls for services, rising costs, a growing senior population and larger numbers of uninsured and under-insured patients meant the system was no longer sustainable relying strictly on fees for service. He said potential short-term solutions included a rate increase, General Fund subsidy, imple- menting a tiered transport fee system and continuing to lobby for federal funds. He said in addition to those options, MINUTES—Eugene City Council February 13, 2008 Page 1 Work Session longer term solutions included creating an ambulance service taxing district, redistributing overhead costs, reconfig- uring ASA boundaries and developing an alternative service delivery model. He said the congressional delegation had been asked to support a five percent increase in payments. Ms. Taylor asked if the cost of transport was actually $1,150. Chief Groves replied that the cost would be half of that if everyone paid. Ms. Taylor commented that raising rates could increase insurance costs and make coverage less accessible to people. She asked if the City would place a lien on the property of those who could not pay. Chief Giard said the City would turn the account over to a collection agency. Ms. Taylor asked if transports could be done by taxi and if there was a fee if no transport occurred. Chief Groves said that some types of calls could be handled by taxi and there was no charge if there was no transport on a call. Ms. Taylor asked if a private ambulance service was feasible. Chief Groves said he felt that the Fire Department was in the best position to deliver essential emergency services and provide protection for the community, although a private service might be suitable for inter-facility and non-emergency transports. Ms. Ortiz said she was opposed to fully privatizing ambulance service. She asked if the Chief would recommend the council pursue possible ASA reconfiguration with the County or if that conversation should begin with the Fire Department. Chief Groves suggested that the department begin the conversation and said he had discussed the issue with other fire chiefs in the County to determine the best approach. Ms. Ortiz said she supported pursuing reconfiguration of the ASAs. Ms. Ortiz, seconded by Mr. Pryor, moved to extend discussion of the agenda item by ten minutes. The motion passed unanimously. Mr. Clark emphasized that ambulance transport was a core City service. He said citizens should be assured that when there was an emergency the most highly qualified personnel would respond. He would not support privatizing the system, but would be interested in exploring privatizing as an option for non-emergency transport. He was interested in how calls were triaged and how accurately calls were categorized over time. He asked if inter-facility transport included a return trip for the patient. Chief Groves said that often a ride back was provided and those were trips that might be triaged out of the system. Mr. Clark said he would favor working with the County and other districts to reconfigure ASAs. Chief Groves noted that the department would still be bound by State law to continue mutual aid agreements with other ASAs. Mr. Zelenka said he was also opposed to privatization. He asked when the current transport rate of $900 was established and when Springfield raised its rate. Chief Groves said the current rate had been in place for two years and Springfield's increase went into effect in November 2007. Mr. Zelenka favored increasing the rate. He asked for clarification of the taxing district option. Chief Groves said a taxing district would be part of property taxes to subsidize the service and would be identified as a separate line item on tax statements. In response to a follow-up question, he said there was no General Fund subsidy of the service. Ms. Piercy suggested a future work session on the topic. MINUTES—Eugene City Council February 13, 2008 Page 2 Work Session B. WORK SESSION: Update on EWEB Roosevelt Operations Center Ms. Jones introduced Ken Beeson, manager of the Eugene Water and Electric Board (EWEB) Roosevelt project, to present an update in anticipation of requesting financing authorization from the council. Mr. Beeson presented an overview of the project to relocate EWEB operations and engineering functions to a new site at Roosevelt Boulevard and Beltline. He said that the relocation was necessary because current facilities at the downtown site needed replacement and the site was not adequate for long-term operations use. He said the Roosevelt site was 52 acres and would consist of three buildings—Operations and Engineering, Fleet and Warehouse—and there would be 250 employees at move-in. He said a variety of sustainability measures were incorporated into the site and EWEB's design goal was LEED gold. He said the project budget approved by the EWEB Board of Directors was $83.5 million, which represented a substantial cost reduction over prior estimates. He said it was an "all in" budget and included construction costs, owners' costs and a variety of contingency and escalation costs. Mr. Beeson reviewed the impact on water and electric rates of the full project cost of $83.5 million and a $55.5 million cost that assumed proceeds from sale of the downtown site. He said the average increase for water and electric combined was 1.14 percent, which equated to approximately $52 annually for the typical residential customer in Eugene. He said the public review process had been lengthy and extensive and feedback from customers and across the community demonstrated an interest in a project that was economical and incorporated sustainability measures and application of the downtown site proceeds to the cost of the Roosevelt project. He said there was also significant interest in what would happen with the vacated downtown property. Mr. Beeson said the proposed debt issue was $85.5 million, which included financing costs and debt service reserve, and would be accomplished under provisions of the Uniform Revenue Bond Act (URBA). He said a resolution requesting authorization from the council to proceed with financing under URBA had received unanimous approval from the EWEB Board of Directors on February 5, 2008, and would be presented to the council at its February 25 meeting. Ms. Piercy commended EWEB's work on alternative power, which had resulted in Eugene's designation as the fifth greenest city in the country. She was pleased with the prospect of releasing the waterfront property for uses that could benefit the entire community. Ms. Bettman expressed concern that the council had no oversight or authority with respect to its fiduciary role. She did not question the need for EWEB's move or reasonableness of the project cost estimates, but she had not had any ability to determine whether all of the costs should be bonded for or covered by internal reshuffling of priorities. She said there had been no opportunity to examine whether the assumptions on which estimates were based were appropriate. She wanted to make approval of the resolution contingent on voter approval. She questioned the projected growth and other calculations related to project costs. She was also concerned that the council had no authority over EWEB's rate-setting process or use of the proceeds from the downtown property. She said that some customers received special rates and others had to make up the difference. Ms. Taylor asked if there were other sources of funds for the project besides rate increases, such as a reserve fund. Mr. Beeson said there were reserves, but they were not adequate to fund the project. He said bonding a project of this size would benefit customers by leveling the costs out over a longer period of time. Ms. Taylor asked if some entities received special, lower rates. Mr. Beeson replied that all rates were based on cost of service; there were different classes of customers, but no one received special rates. MINUTES—Eugene City Council February 13, 2008 Page 3 Work Session Ms. Taylor asked how much a typical residential customer currently paid per month. Mr. Beeson said he would provide that information to the council. Mr. Zelenka agreed that the relocation was necessary. He asked what EWEB's total reserves were. General Manager Randy Berggren said EWEB had $75 million in reserves and those funds were committed to other uses and did not include a capital contribution to the Roosevelt project. Mr. Zelenka asked how the project would comply with recent legislation related to solar energy requirements. Mr. Beeson said that 1.5 percent, or $900,000, of the project construction costs would be spent on solar energy and the details would be determined during the design phase. Mr. Zelenka expressed disappointment with the lack of a solar photovoltaic (PV) aspect to the project. He said even though the design would allow for retrofitting, he could not support the project unless a PV system was a part of it from the beginning. He felt that EWEB should serve as a sustainability model and the public would support the inclusion of solar PV. He asked if the EWEB Board had discussed taking the bond to the voters. Mr. Beeson said the Board preferred to use the URBA process for financing the project. Mr. Zelenka asked Ms. Bettman to include a PV system requirement when she made her motion. Mr. Poling commended EWEB for incorporating sustainability measures in the project while striving to manage costs. He asked how much sustainability features had added to the cost of the project and how long it would take to pay off the bond. Mr. Beeson said it was difficult to separate out specific costs, but estimated that sustainability added several million dollars. He said the bonds would be on a 25-year term. Mr. Poling asked if proceeds from the downtown property would be used to pay down those bonds and how much of the project budget represented contingencies. Mr. Beeson said the Board's discussions indicated intent to use downtown property proceeds for that purpose. He said contingencies were 12 to 13 percent, but only the amount needed would be bonded. Ms. Solomon said it appeared that EWEB had done due diligence on the relocation, selected the appropriate site and made a good business decision that would ultimately benefit the City. She said the council was elected to make this type of decision and there was no need to refer the issue to the voters. Ms. Ortiz asked what EWEB's plan would be if the voters defeated the bond measure. Mr. Beeson said EWEB would need to reconsider what was needed in order for operations to remain at the downtown site if there was no funding for the Roosevelt relocation project. Ms. Bettman, seconded by Ms. Taylor, moved that the Eugene City Council's approval of the EWEB bond resolution was contingent upon approval by the voters and the project in- corporated a solar photovoltaic system; and refer it to the May election. Ms. Bettman commented that EWEB brought the request to the council knowing that the council had no oversight of the EWEB organization. She said that EWEB should review the project, anticipate and deduct the proceeds from the sale of the downtown site, reexamine other priorities, use some reserves and allocate funding from the internal budget to reduce the amount of the bond request. She said the case should be made to the voters. MINUTES—Eugene City Council February 13, 2008 Page 4 Work Session Ms. Ortiz, seconded by Mr. Clark, moved to extend the meeting by 15 minutes. The motion passed unanimously. Mr. Zelenka asked if financing was structured to allow prepayment of the bond from the proceeds of the property sale. Mr. Beeson said prepayment could be made without penalty and that was the Board's intent. Mr. Zelenka felt that EWEB's status as a public agency and the size of the bond warranted asking the voters for approval. Mr. Clark appreciated EWEB's extensive work on the project and would like to have a specific guarantee about use of property sale proceeds to pay down the bond. He was concerned about placing the bond on the ballot when the voters would be confronted by competing priorities, such as street repairs. Mr. Beeson noted that if the council did not refer the matter to the voters the public still had a 60-day period following authorization of the bond during which a petition could be submitted to refer the bond to the ballot. Ms. Piercy pointed out that EWEB's Board, like the council, was an elected body responsible to the public. She said EWEB had engaged in a lengthy, public planning process and unless the council could determine the request was unreasonable or represented a bad business decision it should be approved. She urged the council to approve EWEB's request, which would make available a valuable piece of property that was essential to realizing the vision for connecting the river to downtown. She felt the public was eager to have the opportunity to increase access to the river. The motion failed, 5:3; Ms. Bettman, Mr. Zelenka and Ms. Taylor voting in favor. C. EXECUTIVE SESSION: Executive Session Pursuant to ORS 192.660 (2)(f) Ms. Piercy adjourned the work session at 1:30 p.m. and called the council into executive session pursuant to ORS 192.660 (2)(f). Respectfully submitted, Angel Jones Interim City Manager (Recorded by Lynn Taylor MINUTES—Eugene City Council February 13, 2008 Page 5 Work Session