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HomeMy WebLinkAbout01/28/1991 Meeting e e e M I NUT E S Eugene City Council McNutt Room--City Hall January 28, 1991 5:30 p.m. PRESENT: Roger Rutan, Kaye Robinette, Shawn Boles, Bobby Green, Paul Nicholson, Randy MacDonald, Ruth Bascom, Debra Ehrman. The regular meeting of the Eugene City Council was called to order by His Honor Mayor Jeff Miller. I. OPENING COMMENTS Mayor Miller said he planned to read a statement at the 7:30 p.m. City Coun- cil meeting that night asking the community not to discriminate against those in the community of Mid-Eastern descent. II. TRANSIENT room tax Tony Mounts, of the Finance Division, said the Transient room tax is mandated by City Code to be used for recreational, cultural, convention, and tourist facilities and services. He explained the history of the tax. Mr. Mounts said Finance staff predict that there will be no growth in room tax revenues this fiscal year. He said Ballot Measure 5 may cause public organizations to reevaluate the desirability of sending staff to out-of-town conventions or conferences this year. Mr. Mounts said the goal of the Eugene Convention & Visitor's Bureau is to meet the same level of activity this year as last year. He said the bureau has noted an industry trend that organizations are holding fewer meetings, but that attendance per meeting has improved. Mr. Mounts said hotel and motel receipts for the first six months of this year are approximately the same as they were last year. Mr. Rutan pointed out that room tax revenues increased substantially last year, so 1991 re- ceipts were being compared to a landmark year. Mr. Mounts said the City hoped to be able to sustain the amount this year and in FY92. Mr. Rutan said the Northwest has a strong economy from a business standpoint and that it would be interesting to see how this affected the room tax. MINUTES--Eugene City Council January 28, 1991 Page 1 e e e Mr. Boles said it would be useful to review what proportion of the room tax was generated by independent travelers, and how much by conventions. Mr. Nicholson asked if the original intent of the room tax had been to fi- nance construction of the performing arts center. Mr. Mounts explained the purpose of the tax as stated in the Eugene Code. Mr. Nicholson asked how the public had originally perceived the purpose of the room tax. Ms. Bascom said performing arts groups had been the primary motivators for the room tax. Mr. Gleason said the tax was the foundation upon which the campaign for a new performing arts center was based. He said much of the publicity at the time stated that operating costs not covered by ticket re- ceipts could be covered by the room tax. However, he said that by the time the center was actually built, years later, the room tax Subcommittee had allocated the room tax funds in other ways. Mr. Nicholson asked how good faith would mandate that the tax be spent. Mr. Gleason said all the uses of the tax were legal. Mr. Nicholson said it was possible that good faith would limit the uses of the tax more than the word- ing of the City Code. Mr. Gleason said that, due to legal restrictions, it was not possible for municipalities to be specific about the intent of any given measure. He said campaigners tend to set the tone on issues, which is furthered by the media, and it is sometimes difficult to decipher the original intent. Mr. Mounts explained two spreadsheets on the room tax fund--version A, with- out funding for performing arts groups, and version B, with $67,500 in funds for performing arts groups, and a $7,500 addition to the cultural arts pro- gram. Bob Schutz, Director of the Cultural Services Division, detailed expenditures for the room tax for FY91 and projections for FY92. He said performing and cultural arts allocations are determined by the Cultural Arts Committee. In response to a question from Ms. Bascom, Mr. Rutan said the room tax would allocate $65,000 to Hayward Field for the next 20 years, in conjunction with Eugene, Springfield, and Lane County. In response to a question, Mr. Schutz said the Eugene Celebration had not exceeded its room tax budget, even though security costs are higher for years when the weather is good during the celebration, such as this year. Mr. Green said he questioned why the Community Center for the Performing Arts (the WOW Hall) is projected to receive no allocation in FV92. Mr. Schutz explained that $7,500 has been projected as the allocation for the cultural arts in FY92, and the Cultural Affairs Commission may choose to recommend that the WOW Hall be funded, but has not yet recommended an allocation of funds for cultural arts projects. MINUTES--Eugene City Council January 28, 1991 Page 2 e In response to another question from Mr. Greene, Mr. Schutz said that if the Cultural Affairs Commission chose to recommend the allocation of the $7,500 budgeted for cultural arts projects in a manner other than it had last year, it could recommend that the funds be left in the cultural arts projects fund. He said local artists and art groups could apply for the funds. In response to a question from Mr. MacDonald, Mr. Mounts said non-departmen- tal expenditures for central service allocations has been held to less than full recovery, but an attempt is now being made for full recovery of the General Fund costs of providing services to non-General Funds. e Ms. Bascom said the council should set a policy for the funding of performing arts groups. She said these groups received regular allocations until 1990, at which time this practice ended. She said she, and councilors Freeman Holmer and Emily Schue, had worked to develop an arts funding program for the City on the premise that performing arts groups are a part of the foundation of the program and, as such, should receive funding from the City. Mr. Rutan asked how the City Council should process the information it was receiving on the room tax. Mr. Gleason said that when the Budget Committee passed a motion to add $75,000 to the room tax budget for the performing arts, $233,400 for the Convention & Visitor's Bureau, and a bonus challenge grant, the City Council had asked for a mid-year report on the room tax-- which was the nature of this presentation. Mr. Rutan said the council should review and prioritize items listed in the room tax budget. He said performing arts groups should not have to compete for funds with other interest groups. In response to a question from Mr. Boles, Mr. Schutz said the Cultural Af- fairs Commission made its budget recommendations in May. Mr. Boles asked if the Arts Funding Committee of Ms. Bascom, Ms. Schue, and Mr. Holmer had al- lowed those interested in the cultural arts and the performing arts to have an equal voice in the special events planning process. Ms. Bascom said this had been the case. Doug Beauchamp, executive director of Lane Regional Arts Council, said he had perceived this process somewhat differently. In response to a question from Mr. Rutan, Ms. Bascom said the Special Events Subcommittee had hoped to increase the room tax by an additional half percent to fund these activities. Mr. Mounts said the half-percent increase adopted by the council in 1987 had been used to fund improvements at Hayward Field. In response to a question from Mr. Nicholson, Mr. Gleason said the City has had an annual contract with the Convention & Visitor's Bureau since the 1970s. Mr. Nicholson asked if the publiC intended that the room tax should fund the bureau. Mr. Gleason said that when the City Council began working on economic devel- opment, it decided that construction of a performing arts center, in conjunc- e MINUTES--Eugene City Council January 28, 1991 Page 3 e tion with a convention center, were essential strategies for this kind of planning. He said conventions in Eugene had increased 300 percent since the construction of these two facilities. Mr. Nicholson suggested that the businesses involved in these services should be self-promoting. Mr. Gleason said the community did a good job of inte- grating cultural and recreational activities. He said there were several policy boards determining how room tax funds would be spent. He said several industries have emerged from local businesses, such as large track and field-related businesses. Mr. Nicholson said the City had an obligation to use the room tax funds as the public perceived they would be used. He said it seemed out of balance to allocate $233,000 to the Convention & Visitor's Bureau, and nothing to the WOW Hall. e Mayor Miller suggested there must be empirical data upon which these funding decisions were based, and which the council could review. Mr. Gleason said the City issues contracts based on public decisions. He said decisions are usually based on policy, not empirical data. Mr. MacDonald said he was concerned that even if the City did not fund the performing arts from the Transient room tax Fund, the fund would run out of working capital. Mayor Miller asked how the room tax would be integrated into the Strategic Financial Plan. Mr. Rutan said this question would be answered after the City had hired consultants and had begun working on the plan. Mr. Rutan said the City Manager could not supply much meaningful information on the history of the room tax. He said the council should decide if it wanted to place a higher priority on funding for the performing arts than on the Convention & Visitor's Bureau. Mr. Rutan said the public's perception of the purpose of the room tax, either in the past or at present, could be argued endlessly. He said the council has stated repeatedly that the purpose of the room tax is to generate more room tax revenues. He said the council should establish a criteria for room tax expenditures. Mr. Nicholson said he continued to feel that the council should review the context in which the room tax was created and act in good faith accordingly. Mr. Rutan said this was an attempt to recreate something which did not exist. Mayor Miller pointed out that the room tax could be raised or reallocated. Ms. Bascom said the passage of a one dollar tax per ticket was a major commu- nity success. e MINUTES--Eugene City Council January 28, 1991 Page 4 e Mr. Boles said the room tax should be part of the Strategic Plan with alloca- tion to be adjusted by the council based on the constraints in the code and following information from the community. III. ALTERNATIVE TRANSPORTATION WORK PROGRAM Christine Andersen, Director of Public Works (PW), introduced Dave Reinhard, of PW, Brian Churchill, Chair of the Bicycle Committee, and Mark Pangborn, of the Lane Transit District (LTD). Mr. Reinhard said a work session of the City Council and the LTD Board had been scheduled for March 4. He said that prior to this jOint meeting, a work session with the council was scheduled for February 20 to discuss transporta- tion issues. e Mr. Reinhard said results of an employee survey taken last fall indicated that employee ridership has doubled from about 300 trips for the average week to 700 trips per week since free bus passes were made available. Kay Kronholm, of PW, said most of these trips reflected round-trip commuter use. Mr. Reinhard said both the City and LTD are interested in pursuing a study of land use/transportation interaction and that this was the only item on the City Council's work plan for transportation which was not already under way. Mr. Reinhard said Transportation staff would like to hold a special work session with the council to discuss the Central Area Transportation Study (CATS), with particular emphasis on how parking policies might be developed to help promote alternative transportation. Mr. Reinhard said Transportation staff has suggested that market research be conducted to help determine where resources for alternative transportation should be targeted. Mr. Rutan said that he, Mr. Green, and Mr. MacDonald had been at an Intergov- ernmental Relations meeting that day at which it had been suggested that the LTD Board should decide whether it wished to work in concert with the City and take the issue of funding a new transit site to Washington, DC He said, alternatively, LTD could decide to delay a decision about placement of the transit site for a year. Mr. Rutan said the transit site is a high-priority project and encouraged LTD to determine its funding plan and go to Washington, DC, with members of the council in an attempt to raise Federal funding for the $10.6 million estimat- ed cost of the new station. Mr. Boles asked if the LTD Board had considered using payroll tax differen- tial funds. Mr. Pangborn said the payroll tax could be raised, which would generate about $1.5 million a year to cover a portion of the local share of the cost of the transit station. e MINUTES--Eugene City Council January 28, 1991 Page 5 e e e Ms. Ehrman said she agreed that a new transfer station should be given high priority. Mr. Boles said he would support seeking Federal funds for the transfer sta- tion during a trip to Washington, DC, if he had assurances that improved transit service to the fairgrounds and Autzen Stadium would be included, and that a larger scale transportation system (i.e., high-speed rail) would be an integral part of a future mass transit system. Mr. Boles suggested that these two items from the list of the "Bicycle Mar- keting Plan" prepared by Transportation staff be added to the bottom list: 1. Identify areas at City facilities and install lockers and/or se- cure parking for bicycle commuters. 2. Update, enhance, and print new bicycle map. He further suggested that these two items from the bottom list of this plan be deleted: 1. Begin placement of freestanding "Commuter Info Centers II in banks, government buildings, University of Oregon, Lane Community Col- lege, and other areas. 2. Develop videos--"How to Ride" and "Bike Safety." Mr. Boles suggested that the recompiled list become a list of work items ready to be initiated. Mr. Green suggested the two lists in the Bicycle Marketing Plan be reversed, so that the second list of items would be undertaken first. Mr. Nicholson said the City could not continue to support an infrastructure designed for automobile drivers. He said the focus should be on how much automobile infrastructure can reasonably be supported by the community with- out compromising quality of life, and the City's goal should be to achieve this level of automobile traffic. He said the City should be encouraging people to change their attitudes about transportation by changing the infra- structure to promote alternative transportation. Ms. Ehrman said it was important to work with the schools to educate children about alternative transportation while they are still young. Mr. MacDonald suggested that a study of alternative transportation as it relates to land use/transportation interaction could be included in discus- sion of the Retail Task Force. He referred the group to an article published in The Register-Guard which he had distributed. He said the article listed Portland as one of the foremost cities in the nation in terms of innovative transportation systems. MINUTES--Eugene City Council January 28, 1991 Page 6 e e e Mr. Green said he felt the education of bicycle riders was important, as well as increased enforcement of laws pertaining to bicycle riders. He said cy- clists often disobey red lights and stop signs. Mr. Gleason said staff had recommended bicycle marketing research to find out which ideas the community favored to promote bicycle ridership before the City invested limited resources in any of these areas. Ms. Bascom said the ideas detailed in the marketing plan were good, common sense ideas. She said research would not reveal new ideas, but might help show how best to spend funds. Ms. Andersen said staff was ready to proceed with the first list of items, but wanted to research the second list. She said the City had initiated the Ride/Share Program without researching the level of interest in the program first, and it had not had much impact. She said the City did not have ade- quate funds to finance plans which were not necessarily favored by the commu- nity. Mr. Boles said it seemed inconsistent of staff to say that it wished to re- search the community's opinion of some ideas, but that the level of accep- tance for other ideas could not be determined by any amount of research. He said all of the items listed in the Bicycle Marketing Plan seemed like common sense ideas. He said that if the City planned to invest in an infrastructure for alternative transportation, it should begin to do so immediately. Mr. Nicholson said the end object was to succeed in increasing alternative transportation. He suggested the City could tax large institutional employ- ers if they did not achieve a certain amount of alternative mode employee transportation, or the City could initiate a gas tax. He said any plan should be based on an understanding that it is imperative that the mix of transportation uses be changed. In response to a question from Mr. Green, Mr. Reinhard said comprehensive bicycle marketing research would cost about $50,000, but could be conducted incrementally for as little as $10,000. Ms. Ehrman said alternative transportation is an experimental area. She suggested staff proceed with some ideas for increasing bike ridership, and then survey the success of these ideas. Mr. Boles pointed out that free bus passes, in addition to decreased parking, has helped promote alternative transportation at the University of Oregon. Mr. MacDonald said successful alternative transportation systems exist in Palo Alto and Davis, California, as well as Amsterdam, Holland, and suggested the City might want to study these programs. Mr. Churchill said the Bicycle Committee has discussed many approaches to increasing bike ridership. MINUTES--Eugene City Council January 28, 1991 Page 7 e e e Mr. Nicholson said market research would not help. He said the City should start experimentally with some ideas for increasing bike ridership. Mr. Gleason suggested work be started on those items of the Bicycle Marketing Plan which were recommended by Mr. Boles earlier in this meeting. He further suggested that staff return with a marketing research plan for larger capital investments after these initial projects are under way. Ms. Bascom suggested that market research collected over the past 15 years on bicycle use be reviewed. Referring back to a comment by Mr. Green on en- forcement of traffic violations by bicycle riders, Ms. Bascom said she had received several calls from college students who had received $70 citations. She said that if cyclists disobeyed red lights, they should pay their fines. However, she said stop signs should be treated as yield signs for bicyclists. Mr. Boles pointed out that many other communities give pedestrians the right-of-way, followed by bicyclists and automobile drivers. Mayor Miller said this was a State issue which could be pursued by the Legislative Commit- tee. Mr. Nicholson said that while more enforcement of traffic violations by bicy- cle riders was needed, the nature of their offenses were different than those of automobile drivers because bikes are not as harmful to others as cars. Mr. Gleason said staff would write a memo to the council on the direction it had received from the council at this meeting. The meeting adjourned at 7:25 p.m. Respectfully submitted, ~,fI~.rl Micheal Gleason, City Manager (Recorded by Kris Bloch) mncc 012891-530 MINUTES--Eugene City Council January 28, 1991 Page 8