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HomeMy WebLinkAbout01/23/1989 Meeting e e e M I NUT E S Eugene City Council Dinner/Work Session BJs Restaurant January 23, 1989 4:30 p.m. COUNCILORS PRESENT: Ruth Bascom, Shawn Boles, Debra Ehrman, Freeman Holmer, Roger Rutan, Emily Schue. COUNCILORS ABSENT: Rob Bennett. The regular meeting of the Eugene City Council was called to order by Mayor Jeff Miller. I. WORK SESSION: HAZARDOUS MATERIALS ORDINANCE AND A BUSINESS LICENSING ORDINANCE FOR HAZARDOUS MATERIALS AND FIRE SAFETY BUSINESS LICENSES Fire Marshal Roger Cleland gave the staff report. He said the hazardous materials management program developed by the Department of Public Safety and other City departments was presented and adopted by the council in June 1987. Since then, staff has prepared a draft hazardous materials ordinance and hazardous materials response plan for review by industry, community groups, and City-appointed committees (i.e., Public Safety Advisory Committee and Building Construction Advisory Committee). Mr. Cleland said the key areas of the work plan included planning, education, regulation, enforcement, response, and council action. He reviewed the major work that has been done in each of these areas. Mr. Cleland said there are four issues still to come before the council with respect to the work plan. The Transportation Plan needs to address areas of the city where problems can occur with hazardous materials shipments. This should be addressed when the Transportation Plan is updated. The Zoning and Land Use Plan should be revised with the next Metropolitan Area General Plan Update to reflect performance standards adopted for uses and areas. The treatment issues will continue to be processed through the Metropolitan Wastewater Management Commission and the Public Works Department. Code amendments that will impose penalties for discharging, abandonment, and the illegal dumping of hazardous materials are still being reviewed by staff and have not yet been distributed to the community for review and comment. When that process has been concluded, they will be referred to the council for its consideration. MINUTES--Eugene City Council Work Session January 23, 1989 Page 1 e Mr. Cleland said staff is primarily hoping the ordinance will a1d efforts to prevent accidents involving hazardous materials. For this reason, heavy emphasis is being placed on inspections and education. Mr. Cleland introduced Fred Scalise, who has served as a hazardous materials consultant for the City over the past eight months. Mr. Scalise said the primary purpose of this ordinance is incident prevention. One recurring question throughout the planning process has been whether the City even needs to implement an ordinance. Currently there are approximately 200 businesses with hazardous materials in Eugene. Staff has analyzed 15 different businesses for their vulnerability; Mr. Scalise presented visual material showing how much of the city would be affected if these businesses were to have an accident. At least three or four businesses would affect major parts of the city if they had a significant accident. Mr. Scalise said this indicates the city is vulnerable and does have reason to be concerned about hazardous materials. Mr. Scalise said the Hazardous Materials Ordinance is only a single element of a comprehensive program to deal with hazardous materials. Two major elements included in the ordinance allow for inspection and data acquisition, and code enforcement. These elements have major implications for how the City could respond in case of an accident. They allow fire inspectors to make annual inspections of businesses and to get information about the types of chemicals each business is using and how those chemicals are being stored. Mr. Scalise said this type of information is invaluable because it allows the Haz Mat Team and emergency response crews to respond more safely and effectively. e Mr. Scalise said the emergency response plan remains to be implemented. This will require community education and staff training, and an experienced hazardous materials officer must be hired. In addition, the response plan must be tested. Greta Utecht, Permit and Information Center, explained some of the changes that will occur in Chapter 3 of the City's Business License Program as a result of this ordinance. She said the City currently issues approximately 600 fire safety licenses to businesses whose activities pose potential impact on public health and safety. If the Hazardous Materials Ordinance is adopted, 200 to 230 of the 600 businesses currently issued fire safety licenses would be issued hazardous materials licenses instead. The hazardous material license would be renewed annually. Applications for this license would be reviewed by both the Hazardous Materials Officer and the Fire Marshal's Office. Fees for this license would be based on the amounts and toxicity of materials a business deals with. Ms. Utecht said the ordinance would also change the way the remalnlng 300 to 370 fire safety licenses are processed. These licenses would be issued one time only and would remain valid as long as the business continued to meet the conditions cited in its license. Applications for these licenses would be reviewed by the Fire Marshal's Office and the businesses would be inspected annually. The fee for this license would be increased to $120. e MINUTES--Eugene City Council Work Session January 23, 1989 Page 2 e Currently the fee is $35 annually. This fee reflects the cost of administering the license as well as the cost of the initial inspection. Dick Briggs, Eugene Chamber of Commerce, said the basic problem with hazardous materials in the past has been the conflicting directives from various organizations about how to deal with them. He said work began on the issue 18 months ago to try to simplify the process and make it more efficient. Mr. Briggs felt the City's Article 80 is better than the national model. He felt the major problem with the ordinance is that the State Fire Marshal is trying to implement it statewide without giving local jurisdictions the authority to do the work and keep the user fees. He felt this was a serious problem as it would result in a duplication of fees to the user. He felt strongly that the local jurisdictions doing the inspection and enforcement work should be able to collect the fees for their work. Mr. Briggs encouraged the council to direct staff to lobby for this position. Mr. Briggs also encouraged the council to consider fee levels in other areas when setting City fees. He felt if hazardous materials fees were high in Eugene, businesses would choose to operate in a city with lower fees. e Andy Poynter, Spectra Physics, said the Hazardous Materials Ordinance will have a large impact on local businesses. As a result, approximately 60 industry representatives have been involved in the review of much of the material included in Article 80. Mr. Poynter credited the Fire Marshal's Office for the fact that they actually go out to the industries and conduct annual inspections. He felt it would be very valuable when that inspection is expanded to include hazardous materials. Mr. Poynter suggested that when the ordinance is presented to the industry and community, staff should emphasize the capabilities of the Haz Mat Team and the benefits of the services it will provide. He felt this would persuade most industries that the increase in fees is worthwhile. Mr. Boles asked whether the licensing fees cover the costs of establishing and operating the Haz Mat Team. Mr. Cleland said these costs are born by the General Fund; licensing fees cover the costs of data acquisition and response planning. Mr. Gleason added that special teams (such as the Haz Mat Team) are composed of existing staff, specially trained to meet certification requirements. Mr. Holmer said he did not think the council has the knowledge to evaluate the administrative details that have been included in the ordinance. He did not think council should be adopting the Uniform Code and felt staff should be authorized to adopt this type of detail. Mr. Gleason agreed that the uniform codes tend to merge administrative and policy details. He said the problem is that this ordinance will apply to a large number of jurisdictions, so it must reflect the requirements of the various statutory relationships. Mr. Gleason said staff would discuss this issue with the City Attorney's Office to see if there is a way to separate the administrative details from the code design more thoughtfully. e MINUTES--Eugene City Council Work Session January 23, 1989 Page 3 e e e Mr. Boles expressed concern that the community has only a very small emergency contingency fund and no liquid reserves to address a disaster. He suggested modifying the fee schedule on hazardous materials licenses so that a reserve could be built. Mr. Holmer did not feel this was necessary. He said there are a number of funds from which the City could borrow in an emergency situation. Mr. Gleason agreed. Ms. Bascom stressed that this might also raise the City1s fees above a level that is comparable to other areas. Mr. Boles said the presence of chemicals in the community endangers the area and he felt businesses who present this type of hazard should be charged. He felt the City would be better off in the long run if businesses who are not willing to be financially responsible for the danger they pose decide to take their business elsewhere. Ms. Ehrman felt comfortable approving the ordinance in its current form, but thought the council should review it in a few years to assess the need for changes. Mr. Boles felt the fees were quite low in light of the expense of putting the hazardous materials program together. He felt the council should consider adjusting the fee schedule and increasing the initial application amount. Mr. Gleason said the fees suggested by staff are consistent with what the City has recovered from its fees in the past. He suggested that the council consider, in a separate policy workshop, what proportion of regulatory costs should be recovered through user fees. Mr. Gleason added that the problem with setting fees too high is that people try to get around them instead of paying them. He suggested that the council consider recovering costs by using a third-party recovery system similar to that used with the ambulances. Mr. Boles felt the one impetus for users at all levels of the state to obtain a hazardous materials license is that it should make it easier to obtain insurance at a reasonable rate. He felt the costs associated with insurance premiums would probably go down for businesses operating in a community that has a strong hazardous materials response plan and felt it would have been helpful to have input from an insurance representative at this meeting. Mr. Briggs pointed out that in many cases insurance companies are not aware that a company uses hazardous materials. II. WORK SESSION: AIR QUALITY ISSUES Don Arkell, Lane Regional Air Pollution Authority (LRAPA), made a presentation on air quality issues. He said this presentation was in response to a request by the City Council Legislative Committee to provide a brief overview of air quality program areas which affect the city. He said LRAPA considers the three most significant air quality issues in this area to be PM10 and wood stoves, field/slash burning, and automobile air pollution. MINUTES--Eugene City Council Work Session January 23, 1989 Page 4 e Mr. Arkell explained that PM10 is particulate matter that is less than ten micrometers in diameter. He said the problem with these small particles is that they penetrate deeply into respiratory passages of the lung. PM10 is present in high concentrations in smoke, fine dust, and aerosols. In July 1987 the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) adopted a new Federal Ambient Air Quality Standard for fine particulates (PM10). The standard is based on human health effects. Federal law requires areas which do not meet new health-related standards to develop plans which demonstrate emissions reductions to the point where the new standards are attained. The demonstration must include enforceable rules as needed and any other measure which produces verifiable, quantifiable emissions reductions sufficient to reduce air pollution below the standard. Local air quality data and model results predict that Eugene-Springfield which presently violates the Federal standard will continue to do so. LRAPA is the lead agency for developing this plan and is in the process of doing so. LRAPA is also in the process of verifying the predicted violations through supplemental air sampling and source testing. Beyond the public health implications, there are also economic issues. If local or State plans are not developed or are inadequate, Federal plans may be instituted which could include limits on new industrial growth. e Mr. Arkell said there are a number of strategy alternatives available for dealing with this problem. He listed the following options: Do nothing, or adopt an inadequate plan, and deal with the consequences of State or Federal mandates. Improve the level of control on selected industrial sources. Institute indirect local measures such as fuel moisture restrictions, building code regulations governing, or prohibiting new wood stove installations. Require additional dust abatement measures. Adopt mandatory wood burning curtailment programs by ordinance. Seek change in State law to remove the home heating exemption, thus providing other options including DEQ- or LRAPA-operated mandatory curtailment program. Establish financial incentives, funded by local grants, to encourage individuals to switch to other conventional forms of heating or to replace their old-technology wood heaters with new-technology wood heaters. Seek home-weatherization programs. e MINUTES--Eugene City Council Work Session January 23, 1989 Page 5 ~ e Mr. Arkell discussed several options and recommendations relative to residential wood heating. He said LRAPA believes wood stove air pollution is a statewide problem affecting a number of communities throughout Oregon. Wood burning is the largest source of air pollution in the state and yet it cannot be regulated because options for dealing with the problem locally are constrained by the exemption in the statute. LRAPA recommends that the City support removal of the wood-heating exemption from the air pollution control statute. Mr. Arkell said LRAPA also recommends that the City encourage the treatment of wood burning as a state problem and support the institution of statewide mandatory curtailment programs (or a local equivalent in Lane County) in non-attainment areas. Mr. Arkell said that although new-technology stoves are capable of better performance than pre-1986 stoves under laboratory conditions, the in-use performance of many models is much lower. For this reason, LRAPA is uncomfortable with incentives which encourage people to continue using wood. Mr. Arkell said LRAPA recommends that the City support other reasonable strategies such as fuel moisture certification or restriction, timely implementation of Eugene1s weatherization ordinance, and ordinances restricting installations of wood-burning stoves. e With regard to field/slash burning, Mr. Arkell said LRAPA recommends that the City support the view that field burning in any form should be for sanitation purposes and that it should no longer be considered as an acceptable means of waste disposal. In that regard, LRAPA recommends that the City support the following measures: Reduce by a large amount the number of acres burned for a period of several years. Monitor the effects of not burning as frequently on disease incidence, and adjust the amount of burning allowed within prescribed limits, based on the need to sanitize, not on the need for waste disposal. Add to the number of monitoring sites to effectively enlarge the protected zone to include the fringes of the urban areas. Accelerate the search for viable alternatives. Increase registration fees substantially to support the additional monitoring and accelerated research. Regulate propane burning as if it were open field burning. Mr. Arkell gave a brief background of air-quality problems surrounding transportation in Lane County. Carbon monoxide standards have been met for the last four years, but motor vehicles continue to playa major role in local air pollution concerns and there are some indications that mobile e MINUTES--Eugene City Council Work Session January 23, 1989 Page 6 e sources of pollution will again become a concern in the near future. Mr. Arkell stressed the importance of continued attention to transportation- related air pollution so that the area does not enter into another situation of non-attainment. Mr. Arkell said LRAPA recommends that the City continue to support dealing aggressively with air quality impacts of new development and to encourage developers to mitigate adverse effects that are identified to avoid problems. Mr. Rutan asked Mr. Arkell how LRAPA proposes to balance air-quality concerns against agricultural concerns with regard to its field burning recommendations. Mr. Arkell said the main reason for regulation of field burning is health protection, but unfortunately there is not much reliable data related directly to the health impacts of field burning. He said it is quite clear that the existing burning practices have a negative health impact on some people; there is much more data on the negative impacts burning restrictions will have on the grass seed industry. Mr. Boles noted that the economic impact of imposing burning restriction on the grass seed industry seems high only if one ignores the high costs the industry is imposing on the environment. e Answering a question from Mayor Miller, Mr. Arkell said that LRAPA's position is that wood-burning poses the most significant health threats to the community because of the long exposure period and the close proximity of this type of pollution. He felt the health dangers posed by transportation posed the second-largest problem for the community and that field burning posed the least hazard because of its relatively short, albeit intense, burning period. Ms. Bascom was not supportive of an outright ban on field burning. She felt the stricter controls the City pursued in the 1970s had a positive effect and suggested that the City pursue stricter controls again, rather than an outright ban. Mr. Holmer agreed with this position. Mr. Boles said he would favor an outright ban on field burning. Ms. Ehrman was not in favor of a ban during this legislative session, but felt a ban should be imposed in three to four years. She felt that until that time, burning should be restricted for sanitation purposes only and that incentives to stop burning should be pursued. Mr. Boles and Mr. Holmer both felt they could support this position. The council consensus was that it would pursue legislation to lessen the amount of field-burning smoke and that this legislation should propose a ban on field burning, provide some measures to deal with the most immediate problems, and encourage future research to resolve the sanitation and disposal problem. With regard to wood stoves, the council agreed to support legislation which would remove the home-heating exemption on wood stoves. Mr. Arkell said there are two options: a statewide removal of the exemption, which would e MINUTES--Eugene City Council Work Session January 23, 1989 Page 7 e e e make it possible for DEQ to implement programs for local governments unwilling or unable to implement their own, or lobbying for removal of the exemption at the regional level. The council agreed to direct the City1s legislative delegation to lobby for a statewide removal of the exemption first but to leave open the possibility of a regional exemption. Deputy Director of Public Works Terry Smith gave a presentation on the Oregon Fire Marshal's proposed regulation of field burning along highways. He said the Oregon Fire Marshal has proposed adoption of permanent rules to increase safety along Oregon Highways affected by field burning. These rules govern both open burning and the use of propane flamers along highways. The proposed rules prohibit open burning within a half-mile buffer zone of Interstate 5 and a quarter-mile buffer along other major State highways. Minimum requirements for fire breaks, fire fighting equipment requirements, and the equipment used to ignite an open burn are specified. Propane flaming and open burning of baled straw would continue to be permitted within the buffer zones. In addition, the rules would revise the meteorological conditions under which the Fire Marshal completely bans all burning. Under the proposed rules, field burning would be banned when the temperature is 95 degrees or above, or the relative humidity is 30 percent or below, or wind speed is 15 miles per hour or more. Mr. Smith said these rules are an improvement over the past, but they still have serious flaws. He said it is not clear that the buffer zones are large enough, and continuing to allow propaning and bale-burning in the buffer zone will pose a substantial risk of future traffic accidents caused by smoke. Mr. Smith said the establishment of buffer zone will result in the need to dispose of 250,000 tons of straw. The proposed rules allow this straw to be burned in stacked bales adjacent to highways. There is currently very little regulation of stack burning by DEQ and the Fire Marshal's proposed rules provide no additional regulation. This represents a substantial increase in stack burning with an increased probability of accidents and seriously degraded air quality. Finally, Mr. Smith said the rules used to ban all burning have a serious loophole. It is possible for weather conditions to exist that would almost, but not quite, exceed any of the three criteria in the proposed rule. Mr. Smith cited an example in which the temperature is 92 degrees, the humidity is 32 percent, and there are 12-mile-per-hour winds, and yet burning would not be banned. He said from a fire-hazard perspective, such a condition is just as dangerous as a day when one or even two of the criteria are exceeded. Mr. Smith said the use of a flame-spread criteria would be a more comprehensive approach since the spread index takes into account all three weather factors simultaneously. Mr. Smith recommended that the council request that the Fire Marshal undertake a study in conjunction with the Oregon Transportation Safety Commission to determine the size of buffer zones needed; apply smoke MINUTES--Eugene City Council Work Session January 23, 1989 Page 8 e management regulations to the use of propaning and stack-burning within the buffer zones; and use a flame-spread index for imposing a burning ban. The council directed staff to advance this position at the Fire Marshal's hearing on January 27, 1989. III. FY90 BUDGET UPDATE Mr. Gleason provided an update on the preparation of the FY90 budget. He said progress has been made on the budget issues and he felt that the budget will be balanced in approximately three or four years. Mr. Gleason said the council cut $642,000 from the operating side of the FY89 budget and $550,000 from the FY88 budget. He said another $500,000 needs to be removed from the FY90 budget. In preparation for the FY90 budget, almost $200,000 has been removed in incremental cuts (e.g., holding positions vacant and position consolidations). Mr. Gleason said the council should be prepared to maintain its existing priorities in order to produce the FY90 budget. This essentially means setting program priorities, using 50-percent revenues and 50-percent cuts to handle the deficit, focusing revenues on user fees related to service, and maintaining the fiscal integrity of the City based on the financial plans. e Mr. Gleason said projections indicate that in FY90 there will be approximately $1.7 million more in expenditures than in revenues. He said that using one-time resources (e.g., cash adjustments in equipment rental funds, sinking funds, risk funds) and $400,000 to $500,000 in forecasted revenue adjustments (e.g., increasing EWES fees, increasing franchise fees to five percent) will reduce the $1.7 million shortfall to approximately $700,000 to $800,000. Mr. Gleason said he would like to take approximately $400,000 to $500,000 in cuts and generate $400,000 to $500,000 in user fees to make up this difference. Mr. Gleason said that as a team the staff and council has done well in its budgeting process, but he would like to modify the process somewhat this year. Mr. Gleason said he would like to hold council work sessions during the year to discuss major policy decisions, rather than having these debates during the middle of the budget-review process. Mr. Gleason cited several areas in which he feels the council should have a policy work session. These included discussions of the following issues: whether certain recreational programs should be completely fee-supported; the desired proportion of fee recovery to the General Fund for regulatory areas; how the City should handle special events; and the potential for third-party recovery in public safety areas. Mr. Gleason said discipline will be required by both the council and staff to address the budget issues. He felt the budget will work by following the policy of trying to add $500,000 in revenues through user fees and making $500,000 in cuts from operational costs over each of the next three years and by making deliberate choices about adding costs to the budget. Mr. Gleason e MINUTES--Eugene City Council Work Session January 23, 1989 Page 9 e said in the interim he will have to continue to propose tier-one and tier-two levels in the capital budget. Mr. Gleason said it is very important that the council and staff demonstrate frugality in their own operations. In keeping with this view, staff is limiting expenditures in a number of areas, including travel and training, the elimination and/or consolidation of publications, and used equipment purchases. Mr. Gleason said that while many of the measures may be largely symbolic, symbolism is important in an organization the size of the City. He felt these measures help stress the importance of frugality within the organization. Mr. Boles asked for preliminary notes summarlzlng the budget information Mr. Gleason presented. He also requested that the council hold a discussion about whether it still holds the same vision for the budget after the new councilor is appointed. The council agreed to follow Mr. Gleason's suggestion to hold work sessions to discuss policy issues rather than use the budget review process for this purpose. The council also supported the general budget direction proposed in Mr. Gleason1s presentation. The meeting was adjourned at 7:20 p.m. Resp~ctfully submi;~ed, A',~~' .",....('.... (M';cheal 'Gl~'~~on- City Manager /~. (Recorded by Tanya Northman) MNCC 012389-530 e MINUTES--Eugene City Council Work Session January 23, 1989 Page 10