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HomeMy WebLinkAbout10/12/1988 Meeting . M I NUT E S Eugene City Council McNutt Room--City Hall October 12, 1988 11 : 30 a. m . COUNCILORS PRESENT: Cynthia Wooten, Ruth Bascom, Rob Bennett, Debra Ehrman, Freeman Holmer, Jeff Miller, Roger Rutan, Emily Schue. I. COUNCIL DISCUSSION WITH CLARA LOPEZ Ms. Wooten introduced Clara Lopez from Bogata, Colombia. Ms. Lopez was touring the United States to discuss human rights in Colombia and issues surrounding drugs in Colombia and the US. Ms. Lopez said Colombia is currently experiencing a human rights crisis. Sectors of the government and para-military death squads have been violating human rights in the process of trying to squash political dissent and social non-conformity. Ms. Lopez said she felt the City Council would be interested in this because of its ongoing interest in events outside the US. e Ms. Lopez said there is much misinformation about the drug situation in Colombia. Many US citizens have the impression that the Colombian government promotes drug traffic and believe that if drug production in Colombia could be stopped, there would not be a drug consumption problem in the US. Ms. Lopez said this is untrue. She said the Colombian government is committed to combatting the drug problem, but it is an impossible task because of the large amounts of money involved. There is a $120 billion drug market in the US each year. Ms. Lopez said the US government needs to make an effort to combat drug consumption in this country. Ms. Lopez answered several informational questions from the councilors on drug use in Colombia and the structure of Bogata's City government. Ms. Lopez extended an invitation from the Bogata City Council for the City to send a delegation to visit Bogata. The adjourned meeting of the Eugene City Council was called to order by Council President Cynthia Wooten. II. ITEMS FROM THE MAYOR, CITY COUNCIL, AND CITY MANAGER A. Lane Regional Air Pollution Authority Ms. Ehrman said the County has not yet made its funding contribution to the Lane Regional Air Pollution Authority (LRAPA). She said the Board of County - MINUTES--Eugene City Council October 12, 1988 Page 1 . Commissioners would be meeting soon to discuss the value of LRAPA versus a State-run program. The council expressed its interest in asking the County to use its road funds to fund LRAPA. B. 4J/City of Eugene Publication Mr. Holmer said residents within the City recently received a jOintly-sponsored publication from School District 4J and the City library. He asked the City Manager to present a report on how the publication was funded. C. Campaign Reports Mr. Holmer also asked for copies oJ the financial campaign reports filed by candidates for election to City offices. D. Airlines Contracts Ms. Bascom requested a report on the City's contract with the airlines. She also announced that 40 businesses will receive a City Pride Certificate for helping to beautify the city this year. III. WORK SESSION: DOWNTOWN DEVELOPMENT DISTRICT REVIEW GROUP--COUNCIL UPDATE e Development Specialist Scott Luell gave the staff report which had two goals: to update the council on the progress of the Downtown Development District Review Group (DRG) to date, and to develop a dialogue between the councilors on the group and those that are not. Mr. Luell said the Downtown Development District (DDD) was established in 1973 by the Downtown Development Board, the downtown merchants, and City officials. He said the district was established to deal with marketing, management, and parking in the downtown area. The three forms of tax used to support the development district in 1973 were the Ad Valorem tax, which taxed merchant property downtown, the gross receipts tax, which taxed retail sales, and the professional tax, which was eliminated in 1985. Mr. Luell said the DDD began to experience financial difficulties as well as design/tax equity and support problems. The financial problems were the product of 15 years of increasing costs coupled with fairly flat revenue. Mr. Luell said the DDD is projecting a $143,000 operating deficit for this fiscal year. Mr. Luell said one way to fix the financial problem is to try to cut expenditures. The DDD and the Downtown Commission have tried to do this through elimination of services (e.g., converting some free parking to pay parking). This causes a tax equity problem because people adjacent to the parking lots are paying the same tax as before although the service level has been reduced. Mr. Luell said tax equity concerns lead to a support problem e MINUTES--Eugene City Council October 12, 1988 Page 2 - because the downtown community is not as supportive of the DDD if it feels the system is not equitable. Mr. Luell said four to five years ago, the Downtown Commission focused on the parking problem. They formed a parking policy committee which forwarded a set of recommendations to the council. These recommendations were adopted in 1986. The redesign recommendations included an increase in the gross receipts tax. This recommendation was formulated in direct response to the merchants' requests that a pay-based program not be implemented immediately. Other recommendations were the development of a customer program supported by the ODD and user fees, increases in security, decreasing the cost of enforcement, and metering spaces in which a high turnover rate is desirable. Mr. Luell said the Downtown Commission hoped it would be possible to design a parking program (two hours free, pay thereafter) that would address the OOOIS deficit. Mr. Luell said if downtown parking is converted to this type of system, the tax rate would have to be reduced in order for it to be politically acceptable; however, financial projections indicated that this would not be possible. At this point, the Downtown Commission recommended the formation of a broad-based group to decide what the ODD should do and how its programs should be funded. Mr. Luell feels ODD Review Group has reached consensus on three issues: the solutions to ODD's problems must be financially stable, tax equitable, and palatable to the downtown community. e Ms. Ehrman said one additional area of consensus among group members is the need for a separation between the downtown parking program and a program which would take care of marketing and administration in the downtown area. She said the group is very diverse and has not yet been able to reach consensus on the type of program that should be pursued. Mr. Holmer said staff has provided an analysis of parking programs elsewhere in the state and outside of the state which has been very helpful to the group. There has been considerable interest in Salemls parking model, which creates zones of benefits as a basis for deciding how to levy taxes. Mr. Holmer added that the group is concentrating on the parking problem first because it feels it is very important to have a fully funded parking program that is acceptable to the various parties involved. Mr. Holmer said the group is seriously discussing the possibility of charging some amount for parking, but the retail representatives to the group do not feel this will work well. Ms. Wooten said the council did have a discussion prior to the formation of DRG that implied its willingness to move toward paid parking. Ms. Schue asked whether the council requested that at least part of the parking solution come from a fee-based system. Mr. Bennett said the council took no formal action, but that there was strong consensus that it was leaning in that direction, with some members favoring more of a transition to such a system than others. Mr. Luell agreed that this was the council's direction. - MINUTES--Eugene City Council October 12, 1988 Page 3 e He said he would send councilors a copy of their recommendations regarding the mission of the ORG. Mr. Rutan felt the DRG should operate under the premise that someone will pay for parking. He said the public will pay for parking in direct proportion to its interest in being downtown. As the downtown continues to become more vital, the 000 will be in a position to charge more for parking. Mr. Rutan felt this justifies a phased approach to implementing a user fee-based system. Mr. Bennett felt that if the council wants to see a transition to a user fee-based system, that should be expressed to members of the DRG. He asked Ms. Ehrman and Mr. Holmer to reinforce the councills position to the group. Ms. Ehrman said she is interested in direction from the council on issues of maintenance and security. She said the 000 contracts for security and the City has been providing maintenance. Ms. Ehrman asked if councilors felt these are properly General Fund items or not. She said the way the system is currently configured, the City finds it benefits by not including these items in its budget. Elaborating on Ms. Ehrman's point, Ms. Wooten said the question is whether it is necessary to fund maintenance through increased taxes. If the downtown image is to be shifted from that of a park-like environment to more of a business park, should maintenance costs be funded through taxes? Mr. Bennett said he would not support this direction although he is willing e to discuss it as part of a longer agenda item. Ms. Ehrman asked other councilors to contact her if they have an opinion on the subject. IV. WORK SESSION: PUBLIC CONTRACT LAW Mr. Miller left the meeting at 1:50 p.m. He said he would listen to the tape regarding this issue. City Manager Mike Gleason said the ordinance regarding the Public Contract Law is fundamentally a statement of exceptions from a formal specification bid process. He stressed that if a contract is exempt from a formal bid, this does not mean the process is not competitive. The City tries to make all of its procurements competitive. Finance Director Warren Wong said the council passed an ordinance establishing the Public Contract Law for the City on August 8, 1988. In late August the City received a letter from AFSCME detailing the group's concerns about the ordinance. The purpose of this work session was to respond to the concerns expressed by AFSCME and others. Mr. Wong said the Public Contract Law covers the procurement of non-personnel items including materials, supplies, and services. It essentially represents State law with the exception of some modifications for local circumstances. The law does not cover the procurement of personal services at either the e MINUTES--Eugene City Council October 12, 1988 Page 4 e State or local level. As a matter of practice, however, the City does go through some form of competitive selection process. Mr. Wong said as the Public Contracts Review Board, the council has chosen to exempt classes of contracts from the Public Contract Law bid process (e.g., library materials and objects of art). Mr. Wong said in Chapter 16 of the City Charter, the City Manager is given the authority to conduct the City's business in terms of procuring materials, personnel, etc. . . He said the council can be directly involved in the contract process through its involvement in the budgeting process, by establishing policies, and by requesting an audit to check compliance with the Public Contract Law. Mr. Wong said the audit recently requested by the council will occur for FY89 activities. Mr. Wong said the issue underlying the AFSCME letter has to do with whether services provided by corporations are done by staff or by contractor. He said the issue of whether a service is provided in-house or contracted out is a management decision and a budgetary decision. Mr. Wong said as part of an agreement with AFSCME, if the City were to consider contracting for a service currently being provided by staff, the City will notify AFSCME and discuss the consequences of the change on employees with the group. He said there have been very few instances of this in the last several years. Mr. Wong said before this step is taken, a detailed cost-benefit analysis is undertaken and staff looks at the quality of services. e Mr. Holmer asked if there is a City standard used to determine whether a particular service should be performed by staff. Mr. Wong said there is not a specific dollar threshold; staff does look at the margin between providing the service in-house versus contracting for it. He said if the margin were greater than 10-15 percent, staff would look seriously at the options. Mr. Gleason said staff constantly conducts cost-of-service analyses. Mr. Wong said liability issues as well as State and Federal regulations are also considered when deciding whether to provide a service in-house or contract for it. David Biedermann, Finance staff, said there are five major steps in any procurement process no matter how formal or informal cit is: defining the need, defining the marketplace, selecting the appropriate process for the procurement, carrying out the procedures, and executing the contract. Mr. Biedermann described the steps in a formal bid process. He said the first step is to define the need. This is done by meeting with those who will be using the product or who will be affected by procurement of the product. This helps ensure that the product will meet the needs of the users. Next, staff refines the wording of the specifications to be certain it reflects the type of product wanted. When the wording is refined, a requisition is issued. Mr. Biederman said that staff continually consults with suppliers at this stage of the process to find out what is available in the market and what products would best meet the City.s needs. e MINUTES--Eugene City Council October 12, 1988 Page 5 e Mr. Biedermann said staff continues to research the market by looking through the City's database, which currently has 20,000 vendors on line covering approximately 8,000 commodities. Staff also reviews any departmental contacts made during equipment or trade shows. This information is compiled into a bid list; staff actively solicits responses from the parties on this list. Mr. Biedermann said that if a highly specialized piece of equipment is needed, the City will advertise in trade magazines to promote a competitive market. For very large projects, staff will advertise in other cities. Mr. Biedermann said during the selec~ion process, a formal bid proposal packet is developed. This packet includes bid forms, specifications, an affidavit of non-collusion, and the standard contract provisions of the City. In carrying out the procedures of the formal bid, a pre-bid conference is often held. This allows staff to explain the various specifications to the potential bidders and gives the bidders an opportunity to ask for clarifications or point out errors in the specifications. Minutes of pre-bid conferences and amended bid packets are sent to all respondents who have indicated interest in the bid. Mr. Biedermann said the City holds formal, public bid openings. After bids have been received, the responses are analyzed and the bid is awarded. The final step is contract execution during which the final contract is developed and signed, and the City verifies that the contractor meets all requirements (e.g., insurance requirements, verification by the State of minority status, etc.). Mr. Biedermann said the whole formal bid process may take between e four weeks and four months to complete. Executing the process typically costs between $200 and $1,000. In response to a question from Ms. Wooten, Mr. Biedermann said the City re-bids when all contractors' bids exceed budgeted amounts, when the specifications need to be redesigned, and when no satisfactory bid has been received. He said in some instances, no bid is awarded because the needs have changed or there are budget constraints. Answering a question from Ms. Bascom, Mr. Biedermann said the City is not able to disqualify a contractor from the bidding process because of the quality of their previous work. He said if the City wants to ensure a product of certain quality, the specifications to attain that quality level must be written into the bid specifications. This is one reason staff meets with the user and attempts to define exactly what is wanted. Mr. Gleason added that it is possible to put a warranty in the contract to ensure that the product is maintained for a certain time period. Mr. Rutan said the presentation had been helpful, but that there was information he would like to discuss which has not been presented. Mr. Holmer agreed, saying he had expected the council to discuss the actual Public Contract Law as requested by Mr. Miller. Mr. Holmer distributed a memo encouraging the council to discuss the seven specific amendments he had e MINUTES--Eugene City Council October 12, 1988 Page 6 \ -- e proposed earlier to the Public Contract Law. He added that he would not pursue a discussion of the amendments unless other councilors indicate a desire to discuss them. Mr. Rutan said he would like to address the question of whether the City Manager has too much authority and whether departments are contracting for services too arbitrarily, even if it falls within the law. Ms. Bascom felt the issue had been satisfactorily addressed by the memo from the City Manager and by this work session. Ms. Ehrman and Ms. Schue both felt satisfied with the information presented at this work session. They agreed that other councilors should propose specific amendments to the Public Contract Law as they see fit. Mr. Bennett said he has confidence in the City Manager, City Purchasing Manager, and City lawyers. He said while he respects Mr. Holmer1s point of view, he feels the existing purchasing process is adequate and that the proposed amendments might interfere with the day-to-day operation of the City. Mr. Holmer did not feel this was true. He said he is concerned that the City comply with the law and is bothered by the council's reluctance to discuss the amendments. Mr. Rutan said he would like to discuss the relationship of the City Manager to the council at an upcoming quarterly process or goals session. Mr. Bennett asked why Mr. Rutan continues to press this issue when there is no support for it from the rest of the council. He said he does not feel the e council can accomplish much more on this issue. Mr. Bennett said he is willing to discuss the council.s relationship with the City Manager, but does not want to do so in the context of the Public Contract Law. Ms. Wooten said the issues are separate. She said the council would discuss the broad issues of its relationship to the City Manager and issues of authority and spheres of influence at a quarterly process session. She said the council1s discussion has indicated that the amendments proposed by Mr. Holmer have no future at this point. Ms. Wooten asked AFSCME representative Stefan Alan Ostrach if he was satisfied with staff1s response to the concerns he had raised. Mr. Ostrach said the response is a good start and that he would follow up on other concerns as needed. The meeting was adjourned to October 19, 1988. Respectfully submitted, \ . ,v~..". ...~ ...-~~,,'''\ ,st.!' .,1~,..~v?,"~ Micheal Gleason City Manager e MINUTES--Eugene City Council October 12, 1988 Page 7 e (Recorded by Tanya Northman) MNCC 101288 e e MINUTES--Eugene City Council October 12, 1988 Page 8