Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAbout01/08/1990 Meeting e . ~ ~ M I NUT E S Eugene City Council Community Conference Center January 8, 1990 Noon COUNCILORS PRESENT: Ruth Bascom, Robert Bennett, Shawn Boles, Debra Ehrman, Bobby Green, Freeman Holmer, Roger Rutan, Emily Schue. The regular meeting of the Eugene City Council was called to order by His Honor Mayor Jeff Miller. I. WELCOME AND INTRODUCTIONS Mayor Miller commended Spencer Whitted, Hilton Manager, for helping to make the State of the City event possible. He thanked Jane Allen, harpist, and Marcia Whittier, flutist, for their musical entertainment. Mayor Miller introduced former mayors Ed Cone and Brian Obie, State Senator Peg Jolin, State Representative Carl Hosticka, and Lane County Commissioners Jack Roberts and Steve Cornacchia. Eugene City Councilors were introduced and took their places on the podium: Emily Schue, representing Ward 1; Ruth Bascom, representing Ward 2; Debra Ehrman, representing Ward 3; Rob Bennett, representing Ward 4; Freeman Holmer, representing Ward 5; Bobby Green, representing Ward 6; Shawn Boles, representing Ward 7; and Roger Rutan, representing Ward 8. Mayor Miller presented plaques to four individuals whom he described as typical of the community's many volunteers. Fred Merten, principal of Irving School, was recognized for his community leadership in protecting children by working toward the paving of Taney Street while he was principal of Malabon School. Marion Malcolm was recognized for her community service in raising awareness of human rights issues by working toward the identification of the community as one that does not tolerate racial intolerance. Edwin Coleman, University of Oregon professor of English since 1971, was recognized for his many achievements in the area of racial justice. Ki-Won Rhew was recognized for his commitment to furthering international understanding and friendship as demonstrated by his work toward strengthening Eugene's sister city relationship with Chinju, Korea. MINUTES--Eugene City Council January 8, 1990 Page 1 e - e III. STATE OF THE CITY ADDRESS Mayor Miller presented the 1990 State of the City Address, a transcript of which is attached. IV. ADJOURN The meeting adjourned at 1:10 p.m. to January 10, 1990. Respe. c~Jy~.~ub~~;t~,~ /7 ,..,.-.,.~ - $)i'~ ?/. ;t:;.&'?/ ;' ?:'~~~~F- Micheal Gleason~' . City Manager (Recorded by Mary Feldman) mncc 010890 MINUTES--Eugene City Council January 8, 1990 Page 2 e State of the City Address Mayor Jeff Miller January 8, 1990 noon A year ago, I indicated that serving as your mayor was one of life's great opportunities, and so it is turning out to be. Just as when I started my first job in Cleveland, Ohio--it was a great opportunity and learning experi- ence. Being mayor has given me a very rich personal education. It has given me very many lasting friends. It has also given me a few interesting phone calls, letters, questions that look at my ancestry, and some interesting headlines as well. I enjoy being your mayor, I really do. I enjoy seeing what the city is capable of doing, and right now we have more to do than ever before. This afternoon, I want to present to you a summary of where we have been over the last year, and some of the accomplishments we have had, and then present to you three new challenges. First, a review of last year. last year we talked about the need for improved public safety, and your City Council responded. This council responded and developed a Community Response Team, which marries the Eugene Police with the social service agencies Whitebird, looking Glass, and Buckley House, so that when we find people who need professional treatment because of drug abuse or mental illness, they can have it. But it also allows us to have time, when we find people who are violating the law, to make sure that they can be prosecuted that way. We reduced aggressive panhandling on the mall; drinking and harassment in our parks; and we've eliminated graffiti which gangs use to communicate, making it very difficult for gangs to infiltrate our community. If people are ill, we want to make sure they receive treatment. If people choose to commit crime, we want to make sure they are prosecuted. We also launched the Chronic Violator Program, which guarantees jail time for those few people who commit most of the crimes. This frees up officers to do their duties. We increased our traffic team. We have hired the equivalent of ten officers over this past year. It is not by accident that we have avoided some of the problems that other communities on the west coast have faced. It is because this council took a chance with decisive action with regard to public safety. This month we will be looking at a master plan for public safety and this area will need to continue to be a time and budget priority so that we can continue to have the livability in this community that we have had and that we want. Livability that comes because we are able to deal with people who need treatment in a humane way and can confront people who want to commit crime and they know that they are going to have a hard time doing it in the city of Eugene. ~ We also said a year ago that we need to continue working on having a competi- tive economy. And we have responded there as well. We have dedicated the e STATE OF THE CITY ADDRESS: MAYOR JEFF MILLER January 8, 1990 Page 1 e e e Mah10n Sweet Airport, where already, since it has been open, we have in- creased ridership by ten percent. There is 30 percent more activity dealing with air freight, and more is still to come. The next phase is the new master plan of the airport which includes the extension of the runway, allow- ing us to get the second, or new, generation of jets into this community and attracting other carriers. We have made progress in a competitive economy. We have made progress through our permitting program and process. Turnaround time is improving, even though the work load is higher. We are having a different attitude, or so I am told by many who are out in the development community, when it comes to the city of Eugene. And it's not that we are there yet, because we still have much work to do within our permitting pro- cess, but if anybody is having problems out there, you've got to let us know because we are determined to make sure that people who want to do business in Eugene and with Eugene know that we are truly open for business, and we are serious about this. We can protect the public interest and still be positive for business. We are making progress here. Other successes include the developments at the University of Oregon, at Sacred Heart Hospital, the Riverfront Research Park that is moving on and should have construction assume this year, and we're talking about the an- nouncement we had just last week of Rohr Industries, a window into the poten- tial for economic development in our future that is diversified, that pays a good salary to the employees. This is typical of what could occur in our community as we continue our efforts in the economic realm. Now these things would not take place were it not for people like John Lively at the Metro Partnership, Bill Sloat of the BATeam, or Doug Eveleth: individuals who are typical of people who recognize the importance to keep our economy growing and thriving. And together, we will continue with these endeavors, and we have to because in Lane County, 25 percent of the people still live below the poverty level, or at it, and that is unconscionable. Our per capita income is lower than other parts of the state, and having a thriving economy can help our citizens have a far better standard of life. We must continue this route together. A year ago we talked about the need to have a vibrant downtown. And this has not occurred. We have not succeeded here, and I'll be saying more about this a little bit later. We talked last year about ensuring that this community is open for all of its citizens, where equality and human rights applies to everyone, and I am happy to say that we are making progress in that endeavor. Part of the recogni- tions today acknowledge that this community's awareness is higher now; now we must work together to make sure that we are not part of the problem, that we can recognize when there is bigotry in our area and we can do something to eradicate it. I have met with minority groups and heard many tremendous ideas and we are incorporating them into our agendas. I hope you can incorporate them into yours as well. We are looking at having a more effective human rights pro- gram and we hope to present to the community and the council a look at that this March. We have a substantial increase in minority representations on STATE OF THE CITY ADDRESS: MAYOR JEFF MILLER January 8, 1990 Page 2 e e e City boards and commissions. We now have six percent of all those on boards and commissions represented by minority groups. Our target is at least eight percent, and I am confident that we will make that. The Eugene police respond to hate crimes and do not dismiss them, because we recognize that we have to be on top of these things because if we are not, we open the door for hate groups coming into our community. Ed Coleman gave us a challenge at one meeting: he said, "Jeff, we need more minority police officers. Hire ten." Ed, I appreciate your doing that: we have hired one and we're on our way. We said we needed to do this respecting the pocketbook of the taxpayers, and so we have done this while living within our means. And the council is to be commended, along with the community, for giving energy into these areas. But that was the past, and we could say many more things, but time would not allow us to do that. I want us now to focus on some new challenges, three challenges to be specific, for the future. Challenges dealing with housing, sports and recreation, and downtown. The first of these is, I believe, to be our number one social concern. And that is the issue of housing and homelessness. As you may recall, housing and homelessness has been the council's number one goal for the past two years. It is time that we finish that work and get under construction in 1990. And who are the homeless? These are people who cannot improve their situa- tion without proper help, and they are often invisible--the people we see on street corners are people who often need professional help, they need treat- ment, but for them housing is not a priority. We're talking, when we talk about the homeless, of the 12 percent who are families with children; the 20 percent who are working but cannot afford housing; the 30 percent who have some mental problems but they still can function, but they're just poor because of that. Many are just poor folks trying to make it in life, trying to cope. It may surprise you, but in Lane County, nearly one living unit in 12 has two families in it. Two families living together. Also, more than one in five low-income Lane County families pay 75 percent, 75 percent of their income for housing. This is indeed America's disgrace and we cannot allow it to continue. But we must say no to the suggestions that we can solve the homeless problem by allowing people to sleep in their automobiles, or to camp in our parks, or that somehow the Federal government will come to our rescue, or somehow rent controls will build more houses in this community. Because these will do nothing to solve the problem. We need both a short-term and a long-term solution. I am proposing that as a community, we work together in a short- term solution and support a long-term solution that the council has recom- mended already. The short term solution I propose is that we open to the homeless families in our community our churches, our synagogues, and our lodges, to one homeless person at a time. Where we can limit the hours of their being there to the evening, where we can staff them with volunteers, where we can coordinate them through many different areas. We cannot inflict the people who have STATE OF THE CITY ADDRESS: MAYOR JEFF MILLER January 8, 1990 Page 3 e e e mental problems or alcohol problems or drug problems on the churches, syna- gogues, and lodges, but instead can open them to people who need warmth, shelter, rest rooms, protection--to Eugene families who need help and need to be plugged into the system, not to be isolated in parks or streets, out of sight, and out of our compassion. If we will do this, you can put me down as one of the volunteers, and I am sure all the political leaders would be willing to take their turn to give the people who are homeless a chance to get help for right now. Now this is not a new idea with me. This idea has been talked about by clergy who have been in my office and by other concerned citizens who have been in my office talking about how we come together to help people right now, immediately, with the limited resources that are there. There has even been a letter to the editor saying that we ought to do something like this. I agree with that. I think that we ought to do something like this for a short-term solution. But this will only solve us in time, not the problem. There is no way the churches, synagogues, and lodges, we volunteering our- selves, will be able to solve the problem in this way. This is strictly a short-term way to buy us time until we can get the long-term solution in place. The long-term solution is not a new one because the council has been working on it and it is before the County right now. The County is pulling its staff together to look at it again. It would provide housing to people so they would not have to pay more than $250 a month to be able to make ends meet and so they could get on with their lives. It would do this by establishing a nonprofit development corporation so that we could develop permanent, low- cost housing. We would start constructing 30 to 50 new apartments each year over the next five years. We would establish a loan fund to assist with construction of single-room occupancy housing. We would create home owner- ship programs to assist low- and moderate-income families in purchasing their homes; and we would expand our existing housing rehabilitation program. It is time for us as a community to support these recommendations because they can work and they can make a difference. Now to be sure, there is going to be a price to be paid, and that price has not been agreed upon yet. That's why we're going to be getting back togeth- er, to see if we can have agreement on how we pay for it, because I'm telling you, there is going to be a price to be paid no matter what we do. Either the price of providing the dignity of decent and affordable housing to our less fortunate neighbors, or the price we'll pay for the social consequences of children who are not fed, of students who are not educated, and of fami- lies who are not sheltered. Remember, prevention always costs less than the cure. We need to support these recommendations this year, and get underway this year, and you'll be hearing from us that we've got to do that this year. A second challenge comes from what I hear expressed by our young people, and maybe you have heard it also. That is when they say, "We don't have anything to do, or enough to do in our community." They have come before the council saying, "We need a place where we can skateboard," and the council is looking at dealing with that need in the very near future. But right now, there is more need than we can handle with the facilities on hand. If we look at our STATE OF THE CITY ADDRESS: MAYOR JEFF MILLER January 8, 1990 Page 4 e e facilities, we don't have enough! And the ones we do have are not well maintained; in fact some of them aren't even in existence, like the old Jefferson Pool. We have many needs today. That's why I am proposing that we create a task force, put together of people throughout the community, from all aspects of this community, to come up with a recommendation for the building and mainte- nance of sports and recreation facilities. The largest map on my left is a reflection of what could happen if we would do this. That map is merely a compilation of the needs that the City has already identified through the Parks Master Plan; what School District 4J has said they would need for sports and recreation facilities; what the Bethel District said they need for sports and recreation facilities; what we hear coming from Emerald Kidsports; and there are many others that would need to be added to that list. On that list are things such as swimming pools, ball fields, soccer fields, the various amenities that make a community highly livable. We need to look at this and come up with solutions and pool our resources in a united way where we work together and not separately; where we become creative; where we involve private business, volunteers, and even the military reserves to help meet the awesome challenge that is before us when we look at the needs we have for facilities in this community. Now let me give you an example of how this could work. We get together and determine that there is a need in a given area. There is a company, the XYZ company that is willing to invest in this community; or groups of companies that say, "yes, we'll pool our resources," and we have something that could be dedicated to those efforts of those businesses who want to see this hap- pen. We use the Army volunteers, the volunteers from the community, to help construct and build it, and then the school districts or the colleges come together with the City and we have found a funding source to make sure that what we build does not deteriorate but is maintained at an adequate level. I am asking the council to take a step when we don't have all of the answers to what this community needs and what we could to do respond to this need of improving our facilities and building more. I am asking the council to appoint a task force that will set priorities for sports and recreation facilities, communitywide, that we will look for creative ways to build the needed facilities within this task force, and then that task force will recommend the funding and the financing, for not only the building, but for maintaining them in a cooperative effort, so we as government entities do not waste dollars that are so limited in providing the same kind of service. If we are creative, this approach will give us improved facilities for less money than we would otherwise pay. We need to create a vision, a united vision, that will challenge our communi- ty. . . a vision supported by funding that is creative in its approach, acceptable to our citizens and from which we can build and maintain our facilities. Let us commit ourselves to making the decade of the 90s a decade in which we build a lasting legacy to our community and to our youth. ~ Now these are two challenges that are critical to the future of our community and to us as citizens, I believe: providing housing that is decent and STATE OF THE CITY ADDRESS: MAYOR JEFF MILLER January 8, 1990 Page 5 e e e affordable, and to begin work on needed sports and recreation facilities to give our young people alternatives to drugs and deviant behavior. The third piece of my agenda for 1990 cuts into the heart of this community. That is the renaissance of downtown. Now some people may think I have an axe to grind, and they're right, I do. It isn't that I own property downtown, because I do not. It isn't that my office is downtown, because it isn't. It's not even that I go downtown shopping a lot, because I don't. I have no vested interest in downtown, and yet as a citizen of this community, I have a heavy stake in the future of Eugene's downtown, and so do you, and so do all the citizens in Eugene. The downtown is the centerpiece of Eugene's civic, economic, and cultural future because the downtown is where 15,000 people come and work. The down- town is where tourists will spend time and spend money. Downtown is where investors go to take a community's pulse. Downtown is where you should find the largest buildings; your best shopping; your finest restaurants; your premier entertainment; and your greatest density of people, traffic, and transit. When offices, retailers, and other residents leave downtown for outlying areas, two things happen. First, we all pay an in visible tax for the increased expense of providing police, fire, and infrastructure to the outlying areas. Second, we contribute to urban sprawl, and create the danger that Eugene could become a city like Los Angeles. What are we going to do with our downtown? It's really our decision, but believe me, we have problems: the Tiffany building, empty; Sears, empty; poor vehicle access; The Bon building at Valley River; the Guard buying property out in north Eugene; Pankow project withdrawing; retail vacancies are up; in constant dollars there is less profit downtown than there happened to be a decade ago; and the urban renewal referendum creates uncertainty about our downtown's future. Have you ever wondered about the phrase, "Nero fiddled while Rome burned?" I have thought of that in working on this speech because watching what is happening downtown helped me understand what that means. You see, we cannot fiddle as the future of our downtown burns. Now Nero got a bum rap. The fact is, the legend about Nero fiddling while Rome burned was trumped up by his enemies, but still people ask, "Where was Nero?" As mayor, I'm not going to fiddle while the future of our downtown burns. I'm not going to do it. I'm not going to have people asking, "Where was Miller?" I want people to remember that Miller was saying, "Stop arguing. Start agreeing. Stop argu- ing. Start agreeing. Save downtown while there is still a downtown to save." If you think I'm being alarmist, take a walk downtown. Walk past Sears--va- cant. Center Court, Lerner's, the old Equitable building. And as you walk, think about this: until recently, the center of old downtown at Broadway and Willamette had vacancies on each corner, and the Equitable building has been empty for six years. And then ask yourself, "Doesn't each new vacancy give the retailers who remain one more reason to leave?" If we allow the trend to slowly erode downtown, we could easily have a downtown that looks like Akron, Ohio, where I have been and lived. You don't want it to look like that. Or Shreveport, Louisiana, where we walked around there seeing all the boarded up shops and the deserted areas. STATE OF THE CITY ADDRESS: MAYOR JEFF MILLER January 8, 1990 Page 6 4It We have a huge task, but we still have a choice. Just as homelessness needs to be job one socially, I believe that downtown is job one economically. Downtown needs to be job one economically for 1990. No question about it, it is going to cost us money. It costs money to pump life into a downtown, but we can invest a manageable amount right now, or a future council will be required to invest an extremely large amount later on. And there are really three ways we can pay for development downtown: we can continue to use tax increment financing which takes the growth of the devel- opment downtown, ploughs it into downtown so that we can have less of a burden on each individual taxpayer to have a vital downtown. Or, two, we can get rid of tax increment financing and finance the needs downtown through general funds or raising taxes, which puts a greater burden on a fewer number of people. Or we can do as some say, "Do nothing, just let it happen as it happens." Now folks, that's a mistaken notion, that we can have a downtown and do nothing and it will develop and grow, because the evidence says that is not correct. If we do nothing, if we refuse to pay a manageable price now, our downtown will die. And I don't believe you want that to happen. I know this council doesn't want it to happen, and I don't want that to happen. Therefore I am calling on you to affirm the council's plan for downtown by voting yes on this spring's election on the Eugene renewal plan update. This council did good work on the downtown update--the downtown plan is a good plan. You need to read it to see what it says. The referendum is consistent with this plan. All it is saying is, "Let's build major office buildings downtown." And isn't that a good idea? "Let's have housing downtown." Isn't that a good idea? "Let's have more specialized shops downtown." Isn't that a good idea? "Let's have a possibility, the possibility of a library downtown." We don't have to do it, we could keep it where it is, but let's at least open it up to have a possibility of a library being downtown. Or a transit station being downtown, or good open spaces being downtown. That's all the council did in their update, was allow those things to happen down- town, consistent with the plan. The Planning Commission, the Downtown Com- mission, the council, and hundreds of volunteers have worked on it to accom- plish it, and believe me, folks, this deserves your support. e But I have another vision for downtown that I believe needs to occur in 1990. That is the opening of the streets downtown. And I want to call on you and the community to support the opening of Willamette Street in 1990. To open Willamette Street this year. Now I'm going to talk about opening Willamette Street and what it could look like. I asked for a rendering from the Miles study that we had a few years ago, and I have that, which is the smaller rectangle that is over to my left. If you look at what that downtown looks like, you find that it is strongly oriented toward the pedestrian: two narrow lanes for traffic, U-turnouts, a lot of trees, a center area that is broad and that could be used for all kinds of activities, a design that is designed in such a way that we can close the street off for the Eugene Cele- bration, and have a downtown in the heart of the city. A design that is put together in such a way that if opening the street doesn't work, we could merely put planters up and the mall is recreated. ~ People, the evidence is overwhelming that opening the street will allow the private sector to come in and revitalize our downtown. The evidence is STATE OF THE CITY ADDRESS: MAYOR JEFF MILLER January 8, 1990 Page 7 e e e overwhelming. Give it a try. Let us work together and open Wi11amette Street, strongly pedestrian in orientation, and if it doesn't work within three years, let's just close it back up, and at least we tried, and we didn't waste money, we were very cost effective in making our downtown safe and a place where people want to go. Now this is my vision for downtown and it doesn't have to be yours, it doesn't have to be the council's. If you've got a better one, that's great, let's hear it. But we need to build a con- sensus downtown. Now I was going to propose that we have a series of forums to talk about this, but then I found out that the Chamber of Commerce is ahead of me with this one. They're already thinking of proposing a series of forums, and I welcome that and I support them. As a community, let's go to the forums that the Chamber will put on. Let's talk about the various issues. Let's talk about the different visions, and then let's come to consensus and let's get on with it. Let's do it this year, while we still have a downtown that we can save. Again, let me say, downtown needs to be job one economically in the 1990s. We have entered into a new decade. Let us make the 90s the decade that we focused on preventing problems we can solve, rather than solving problems we failed to prevent. Now think about it. Let us focus on preventing problems we can solve now, rather than solving problems we failed to prevent. We do this when we are willing to move ahead and take decisive action; when the 90s will be the time when we complete a public safety system that focuses on prevention and is based in our neighborhoods; when we produce an economy that is both diversified and thriving; when we mold a community that guarantees equality for all its citizens; when we substitute an environment of housing and hope for one of homelessness and despair; when we build adequate and well maintained sports and recreation facilities for our young people; and when we shape a renaissance of downtown Eugene because we the people of Eugene refuse to let our downtown die. Now these challenges are not Jeff Miller's challenges. Like it or not, these are the challenges the future holds for this community. I'm ready to roll up my sleeves and go to work, as are these people on the council who spend many hours seeking to give leadership to this community, who are willing to work; but we need your help and we need your support. So let's agree on a way to get the jobs done that need to be done. Let's make the sacrifices that are demanded of us; and I promise you that when we, as a community, work together, there is nothing, there is nothing that we will be unable to accomplish. Thank you very much. STATE OF THE CITY ADDRESS: MAYOR JEFF MILLER January 8, 1990 Page 8