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HomeMy WebLinkAbout09/28/1988 Meeting . M I NUT E S Eugene City Council McNutt Room--City Hall September 28, 1988 11:30 a.m. COUNCILORS PRESENT: Cynthia Wooten, Ruth Bascom, Rob Bennett, Freeman Holmer, Jeff Miller, Roger Rutan, Emily Schue. COUNCILORS ABSENT: Debra Ehrman. The adjourned meeting of the Eugene City Council was called to order by Mayor Brian B. Obie. 1. ITEMS FROM THE MAYOR, CITY COUNCIL, AND CITY MANAGER A. Highway 99 North Improvements Mayor Obie said that the State Transportation Department has announced its commitment to work in partnership with the City on the redevelopment of Highway 99 North from Garfield Street to Beltline Road in a manner similar to e 6th and 7th avenues. Mayor Obie said the cooperation of the County will be needed on this project and County Commissioner Elli Dumdi has agreed to take a favorable recommendation on this project to the commission. Mayor Obie said the project could run as high as $6 million and will require changes in the utilities, sewer system, curbs, gutters, sidewalks, and landscaping strips. The project is scheduled for the 1989 construction season and will hopefully be completed before the World Veterans Games. Mayor Obie said it took a lot of work to get the funding for this project and he complimented staff, individual council members, and others who have worked for this project on their success. City Manager Mike Gleason said the City will probably do the design work for the project and will be reimbursed by the State Transportation Department for its portion of the work. The City's portion of the design work will be assessed through the Bancroft process. Mayor Obie said he anticipates some difficulty with the project because it will place a burden on those businesses and property owners along Highway 99. He said he would encourage those property owners to cooperate in this project which he felt would redevelop that end of Eugene. Mr. Miller felt the property owners would be highly supportive of this redevelopment. Council members congratulated Mayor Obie on his work and success on securing the funding for the project. e MINUTES--Eugene City Council September 28, 1988 Page 1 e Mayor Obie left and Ms. Wooten, president of the council, chaired the meeting. B. World Veterans Games Mr. Rutan said planning for the World Veterans Game continues to move along well. He said there has been much participation from both the public and private sectors. Many inquiries about the event have been received and more people than anticipated may attend. II. RIVERFRONT PROJECT UPDATE Gus Keller, Chair of the Riverfront Research Park Commission (RRPC), said the planning process for the research park has taken longer than expected but the commission feels there is still a lot of potential for the park. Mr. Keller said the master site plan is currently being prepared for presentations to the public, the University of Oregon, and the City Council. He said the review process will begin in earnest in October. The Design Advisory Committee will be reviewing the technical aspects of the plan in October. The RRPC will review the plan in early November. It will then be forwarded to the council and the university for approval. Mr. Rutan asked if the first anticipated tenants of the research park will be e local or national companies. Mr. Keller said there is a high level of interest in the research park at both the local and national levels. Mr. Rutan asked if the council can do anything to help the commission. Mr. Keller said the commission needs help explaining the ballot measure pertaining to the natural resources zone to the public. Ms. Wooten said the original schedule was for the Design Advisory Committee to finish its work by late spring. She asked what happened to delay the process. Cathy Briner said there have been many reasons for the delay. The planning process was more complicated than anticipated, only one design person was assigned to the project by the developer and that person does not reside in the area. Ms. Briner said it also took a lot of effort to deal with site issues such as the rigarian strip. Mr. Gleason said a key component of the site plan revolves around public access issues; he said that discussion could not be resolved until the State1s commitment was known. Ms. Wooten asked whether the Carley Capital Group is still devoted to the project and beginning work on a marketing plan. Mr. Gleason said that negotiations with the Carley Capital Group are on hold until after the election because they are not willing to develop a project which is only 31 acres. Mr. Rutan requested that staff develop a resolution supporting a no vote on Ballot Measure 20-03 and that it be brought before the council as soon as e MINUTES--Eugene City Council September 28, 1988 Page 2 - possible. Ms. Wooten felt the resolution should provide information about the connection between the ballot measure and the Riverfront Research Park. III. WORK SESSION: HUMAN SERVICE PLANNING PROJECT Kappy Eaton, chair of the steering committee for the Human Services Planning Project, said the project is Lane County1s model of a community resources capacity building plan. She said the mission of the project is threefold: to improve Lane County's human service delivery system; to increase community awareness and knowledge about human service systems in Lane County; and, to set in place strategic planning and coordination of resource allocations for human services in the community. To accomplish the project the steering committee has undertaken the identification of community needs, its current resources, and ways in which the system's functioning could be improved. Ms. Eaton said the most important piece remaining to be placed is the commitment of government and private sector organizations to the continuation of strategic planning in a cooperative way, to give priority to the provision of services by areas identified by an ongoing needs assessment, and to creatively improve the allocation of resources (including both restructuring of resources and seeking additional funds). Bryan Downes, a professor in the Department of Planning, Public Policy and Management at the University of Oregon, said Part One of the assessment investigated perceptions of serious human needs in Lane County. In order to e obtain a wide range of perceptions, directors of human service agencies, key informants or community decision makers, citizens, and clients of human service agencies, were either interviewed or surveyed through a mailed questionnaire. He said the interviews and surveys were conducted over a 12-month period and the response format was open-ended. Mr. Downes gave an overview of the major findings from the analysis. He said there was surprising agreement about serious human needs in Lane County among the respondents. Basic needs, employment needs, health/mental health needs, and family needs were identified as most serious needs by all groups sampled. Key informants and community residents also identified substance abuse related needs as serious. Although each group's rank ordering of these five serious human needs varied somewhat, they were consistently and repeatedly identified as the most serious ones in Lane County. Mr. Downes said clients throughout Lane County overwhelmingly identified basic needs and health/mental health needs (with the emphasis on health as opposed to mental health needs) as the most serious ones in their households. There was no variation in client perceptions of most serious household needs in different Lane County communities. Mr. Downes said an examination of information about the needs of particular populations at-risk or potentially at-risk in Lane County provides further support for the seriousness of the needs perceived by key informants, agency directors, community residents, and clients of human service agencies. e MINUTES--Eugene City Council September 28, 1988 Page 3 e The economic dislocation caused by changes in the industrial structure of Lane County have placed many individuals and families at-risk. Unemployment and underemployment, more limited incomes from available jobs, and a lack of health/mental health benefits have all served to place increasing numbers of Lane County residents at-risk. Limited assistance from current welfare programs place recipients of this assistance at-risk and force them into a constant struggle to meet basic needs. Mr. Downes said although de-institutionalization and community programs for the mentally ill should lead to more humane and caring treatment for clients, constant underfunding of programs and nonexistent services have placed substantial numbers of chronically, severely, and moderately mentally ill individuals at-risk. Mr. Downes said the fact that over 60,000 Lane County residents are living at 125 percent of the federal poverty threshold, is great cause for concern. He said that as a community we confront an interrelated and increasingly serious set of human needs that must be dealt with. Mr. Downes said that in this initial effort to identify serious human needs in Lane County, it has become apparent that a number of significant gaps exist in the human service delivery system. These are areas where serious needs have been identified, but no (or only limited) programs and services are accessible to households with limited resources. Mr. Downes reviewed some of these gaps including: the lack of transitional and permanent affordable housing for low- and moderate-income households and the homeless; the lack of jobs that pay a living wage and provide health insurance e benefits; the lack of accessible health care for individuals and households with limited incomes and/or no health insurance; a lack of preventive mental health programs; a lack of programs to deal with families in crisis, and to prevent violent acts against spouses and abuse/neglect of children; a lack of comprehensive care systems for adults and youth addicted to drugs and alcohol; and, a lack of adequately funded preventive substance abuse programs. Mr. Downes said there are several ways in which the citizens, public officials, and others influential in community affairs can participate in this capacity development project. These include: enhancing cooperation between jurisdictions; changing the formal legal rules and procedures that impede service delivery; improving the management of private nonprofit human service agencies; improving the oversight capability of agencies funding human services; increasing human and fiscal resources; and forming an effective coalition capable of achieving needed changes in the planning, financing, production, and delivery of human services. Mr. Downes said the three major local agencies funding human service programs--the United Way, Lane County's Department of Health and Human Services, and the Joint Social Services Fund budget and advisory committees--are committed to using the information in the needs assessment to set funding priorities, allocate resources, and to help in the process of improving human services in Lane County. Mr. Downes stressed the importance of other private and public agencies making a similar commitment. e MINUTES--Eugene City Council September 28, 1988 Page 4 e Mr. Downes said in the past two years, the steering committee has been attempting to build the community's capacity to deal with the significant need for human services. Continuing this community capacity development effort will require developing a permanent structure--an organization with adequate funding to provide needed leadership for human services in Lane County. The steering committee would like to see the creation of the Lane County Human Services Coordinating Council. Mr. Downes said the coordinating council would be governed by a volunteer board of directors with a limited staff, and would continue to update needs assessment information as necessary, undertake additional information-gathering activities, assist agencies funding human services in Lane County in setting funding priorities, sponsor management training and other staff development activities for human services agencies--particularly for nonprofit ones--provide technical assistance, advocate for needed changes in the human service system and for additional resources, and so on. Ms. Bascom said there is emerging research that distinguishes between those human service programs which are effective and those which are not. She asked how the City can get this type of information. Mr. Downes said one way to get effective services would be for the agencies funding human services to put out Requests For Proposals which specify how the program should be run. He felt this would be a more effective way of allocating funds. Ms. Bascom said it is not realistic for the coordinating group to ask for more funding; she stressed the importance of carefully assessing programs and increasing productivity. e Mr. Rutan said he found the report very helpful. He asked how Lane County compares to other counties. Mr. Downes said that formal research on this question has not been conducted. He estimated that Eugene is probably in better shape than most counties, but there are probably areas in which we are worse than other communities as well. Mr. Downes said in many counties it is typical to have large human service areas that are completely ignored. Mr. Rutan suggested that the high number of people with substance abuse problems are escalating the number of people who cannot meet their basic needs. Mr. Downes does not feel this is the case. He said drugs are no longer expensive and did not feel there are a high percentage of people who spend money on drugs rather than food. In response to a question from Mr. Holmer, Ms. Eaton said the steering committee feels no single agency has been able to, or will be able to, accomplish the agenda for action set forth in this report. For this reason, committee members are hoping the Lane County Human Services Ccoordinating Council can be formed. She said the steering committee is not proposing that allocations be made by this entity, but that there would be a regular, ongoing discussion of needs and that funding agencies would set priorities based on needs identified in the report. Ms. Eaton felt the exact parameters of the coordinating council should be set by agencies funding human services. e MINUTES--Eugene City Council September 28, 1988 Page 5 . Ms. Bascom said one of the strategies is to begin multi-year funding. She asked if this would be a problem. Mr. Gleason said this could be undertaken as a council strategic policy, although future councils cannot be bound to funding decisions made by a previous council. He stressed that the steering committee's contention that it is possible to put out a Request For Proposals and actively select the type of service programs desired is a subtle but profound change in perspective. He said the council could not undertake this within its current framework, but felt it would be possible to develop an integrated Lane County strategy. Mr. Bennett felt it would be a good idea to implement a strategic plan as suggested by the report. He felt it would yield a more coordinated effort and would make it possible to address on a continuing basis those issues which the council currently addresses on a periodic basis. The council chair, Ms. Wooten, thanked Ms. Eaton and Mr. Downes for the report and said the council would be using this study during the funding policy discussion of the Joint Social Services Fund. V. RESIDENCE REQUIREMENTS Cathy Freedman, City Manager's Office, said Ms. Schue raised the issue of allowing nonresidents to serve on advisory boards. She said a rationale for opening membership on some committees, boards, and commissions to nonresidents is that Eugene is now accountable for a large part of the e planning and all zoning and building permit administration in River Road, Santa Clara, and Glenwood. Direct representation would help residents in those areas acquire a more positive attitude about Eugene city government. Ms. Freedman said if the council decides that nonresident membership is worth considering, staff recommends that it first be pursued on a limited basis beginning with two to four of the key advisory bodies. She said staff also advises that nonresidents be required to live inside Eugene's portion of the urban growth boundary. Ms. Brody, Planning Director, added that this change would require a code amendment. The amendment would give the council flexibility to appoint nonresidents to all boards and commissions. Mr. Rutan said he would like to discuss the option of having Springfield residents serve on Eugene boards and commissions as well. Ms. Schue said she raised this issue because of the urban transition agreement which makes Eugene responsible for planning and other services out to the urban growth boundary. Residents living in those areas do not have the ability to serve on citizen boards and commissions which make decisions affecting them. Ms. Schue felt the situation with Springfield residents is much different. A majority of council members indicated a desire to have more discussion at a later date about allowing residents of Springfield to serve on Eugene boards and commissions. e MINUTES--Eugene City Council September 28, 1988 Page 6 e Ms. Bascom moved, seconded by Mr. Miller, to extend membership on Eugene citizen boards and commissions to nonresidents that live within Eugene's portion of the urban growth boundary. The motion passed unanimously, 6:0, with Ms. Wooten abstaining as chair. The council decided the amendment should be piloted with the Citizen Involvement Committee and the Eugene Bicycle Committee. Council ors a 1 so agreed to add a position to the Joint Parks Committee which could be occupied by a nonresident of Eugene living within the urban growth boundary. The meeting was adjourned to October 10, 1988. Respectfully submitted, ."M. :1...-' .";'7; ";'~y.;9' ;- 'l'~"''''-V' .~;'.,r {~......, Micheal Gleason City Manager (Recorded by Tanya Northman) mncc 092888 e e MINUTES--Eugene City Council September 28, 1988 Page 7