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HomeMy WebLinkAbout02/11/1991 Meeting e e e M I NUT E S Eugene City Council McNutt Room--City Hall February 11, 1991 5:30 p.m. PRESENT: Mayor Jeff Miller; Shawn Boles, Kaye Robinette, Ruth Bascom, Randy MacDonald, Debra Ehrman, Bobby Green, Paul Nicholson. I. CONTINUATION OF JANUARY 31 WORK SESSION Mr. Gleason explained that the council would complete discussion of its work program for the year at today's meeting. He said Darcy Marentette, of the City Manager's Office, would facilitate the discussion. II. ANNOUNCEMENT REGARDING MARCH 2 SESSION Mr. Gleason said a three-hour Saturday work session to begin planning for the Strategic Financial Plan process was scheduled for March 2. Mr. Boles said the City has hired a consultant team to help the council work through the process of designing a plan. He said that after the plan has been designed the consultants will seek community support, including the approval of the council, the Citizen Involvement Committee (CIC), and various boards and commissions. He asked how the timing of the March 2 meeting corresponded to this process. Mr. Gleason said councilors Boles and Rutan, and Mayor Miller were on a task force appointed by the council to work on the initial stages of the Strategic Financial Plan. He said the task force would review an outline of the design content of the March 2 meeting. Mr. Gleason said the council would meet with the consultant group and execu- tive managers at this meeting to have a general-level conversation about planning technology as it applies to this issue. In addition, he said the council would view various options which have been presented for the Strate- gic Financial Plan; decide who needs to approve the plan; and decide which pieces of information must be gathered to explain the plan. Mr. Boles suggested the chairs of the Planning Commission (PC) and the CIC be invited to attend the March 2 work session. Ms. Ehrman said she was concerned that the time line of the Strategic Finan- cial Plan would be delayed by the need to seek the approval of boards and commissions. She suggested these groups might have to hold special meetings to accommodate the plan time line. MINUTES--Eugene City Council February 11, 1991 Page 1 e Ms. Bascom asked what role the Budget Committee (BC) would have in the Stra- tegic Financial Plan. Mr. Gleason said the March 2 work session was a public meeting and members of the BC could be invited to attend. However, he sug- gested the City Council might want to more clearly define the plan process before inviting others to participate in planning. In response to a question from Mr. Nicholson, Mr. Gleason said the primary purpose of the March 2 meeting would be to design a process by which to pur- sue the Strategic Financial Plan. Mr. Nicholson said the CIC had developed a public involvement process which might apply to this plan. Mayor Miller said the City Council had more awareness than other City groups of the issues involved in the Strategic Financial Plan and might want to get started with the plan before seeking input from others. Ms. Bascom asked Mr. Boles why he felt the CIC was more important to the Strategic Financial Plan process than other boards and commissions. Mayor Miller pointed out that the CIC was designed to ensure citizen involvement in City projects. Mr. Boles said the CIC traditionally reviews the citizen involvement process for City programs. He said the committee recommends changes if they are necessary in view of adopted policies. He suggested the council invite the chairs of the CIC, BC, and PC to attend the March 2 work session to provide counsel in their areas of expertise. e Mr. Nicholson pointed out that all City boards and commissions are advisory to the council, but that the CIC has particular pertinence to the Strategic Financial Plan. e Mayor Miller said the council has a different level of knowledge than other City groups and suggested that members of other groups who attend the meeting be asked for their comments, but not be asked to participate in the general discussion. Mr. Nicholson suggested these people be invited to attend and asked to provide their recommendations after listening to the discussion that day. Mr. Boles said the council should make it clear that the design for the plan will not be finalized at the March 2 meeting. Mr. Gleason said staff hoped that as the result of this meeting they would get some instruction about how to proceed with the Strategic Financial Plan. Mr. Boles said it would be much easier to proceed with the plan if those groups which are historically concerned about financial planning at the City attend the initial planning meetings. MINUTES--Eugene City Council February 11, 1991 Page 2 4It III. CONCLUSION OF JANUARY 31, 1991, CITY COUNCIL PROCESS SESSION A. Guidelines Mayor Miller referred to page 10, item 2, of the Council Ground Rules. He said the council needed guidelines and should refrain from making statements on global issues. Mr. MacDonald said the recent Persian Gulf War Resolution issued by the coun- cil had been the result of extraordinary circumstances. He said such state- ments would be an exception to the general guideline against making state- ments of a global nature. Mr. Nicholson said it would not be difficult to determine which issues di- rectly affected the City and which did not. Mr. Boles said he had brought the War Resolution to the council because there are events beyond the scope of the City which affect the welfare of Eugene. He said the council would be remiss if it did not comment on such issues as global warming. Mayor Miller explained that the ground rule against statements of a global nature was initiated because at one time the City Council was so immersed in such issues that it did not have time for local issues. ~ Mr. Robinette said the council could agree to recognize that there would be exceptions to the ground rule. However, he said campaigns should not be debated on global issues. Ms. Bascom added that the council should focus on issues which it could directly affect. Ms. Ehrman said she was receiving a great deal of mail on recent department cuts at the University of Oregon. She said one approach she could take to this mail was to redirect the writers to those more directly involved with this issue. Mr. Green said the City works with the University on an intergovernmental level in a loose partnership. He pointed out that the University and the City go together to Washington, DC to lobby for Federal funds. However, he said the City could not restore University programs. Mr. Gleason said ten years ago one quarter of the council's agenda involved wide-ranging issues. He said all the issues of the community came to the council and were dealt with before City issues. For this reason, a council ground rule was designed to eliminate global issues so the council could work on local issues. Mr. Boles said councilors should poll the whole council for the majority opinion when they wished to bring an issue outside the scope of the City to e MINUTES--Eugene City Council February 11, 1991 Page 3 the whole council's attention. He said a councilor should not sanction an ~ issue without the support of the entire council. It was decided that the ground rules on this issue would stand as written. B. Methods for More Effectively Processing Issues Ms. Ehrman said that the purpose of the facilitator's contact with the coun- cilors prior to a work session should be to compile a comprehensive list of concerns. Mr. Green said the last process session had been a good meeting, but agreed with Ms. Ehrman that he would like the issues raised in interviews with the facilitator to be part of an initial list of issues. Mr. Boles said the council should hold social events which allow the council- ors and their families the opportunity to get to know one another. He said the task force assigned to work on the last process session had approved a list of items compiled by facilitator Sharon Thorne based on her interviews with the councilors. He agreed that the next process session should consider a more comprehensive list. Mayor Miller suggested a round or square table should be used for process sessions because everyone would be equidistant from one another which facili- tates open communication. e Mr. Robinette said there was great value in the councilors getting to know one another. He said this helped them understand each others opinions. He suggested that council seating should change regularly so that councilors would have a chance to get to know one another. He said it should be possi- ble for the council to raise six votes for all significant issues. Ms. Bascom said the last process session had seemed less successful than the prior such meeting to her personally because: 1) it followed a very success- ful fall session; 2) a long, narrow table was used; and 3) and she had been fatigued by personal events at the time of the session. Mr. MacDonald said that at the last process session Ms. Thorne should have intervened more when discussion became difficult. Mr. Nicholson said interviews of the councilors by the facilitator prior to the process session should have been conducted in-person, not by phone. He said he did not feel that a more comprehensive list of issues would have helped, and might have had the opposite effect--by creating a combative situ- ation in which councilors defended their topics. Ms. Bascom said phone interviews have been helpful in the past. Mr. Miller said he felt it was useful to have initial lists of topics and Mr. Green agreed. Ms. Bascom added that the process session had provided a good orien- tation session for new councilors. e MINUTES--Eugene City Council February 11, 1991 Page 4 e e e It was decided that the council would continue to have an agenda for process sessions, but that it was appropriate to discuss items not initially on the agenda. It was further decided that phone interviews would be avoided if possible. c. Methods to Facilitate Good Working Relationships Ms. Ehrman said she agreed that the councilors needed to socialize in order to get to know one another, but said she felt it was important that they continue to hold structured meetings such as the process sessions in order to discuss issues. Mr. Green said it was helpful if councilors not only counseled new members, but continued to instruct one another in areas where one person might be more informed than others. Mayor Miller said it was important for the councilors to communicate concerns in a timely manner, rather than keeping these concerns to themselves. He said councilors should be frank and direct. Ms. Bascom noted that Mayor Miller had taken the criticism'he received at the last process session very well. Mr. Boles said councilors should attempt to avoid unnecessary criticism of one another, but should also be able to accept criticism. Mr. MacDonald said councilors should not assume that they knew how the other councilors felt about given issues, but should listen to what the others had to say about these issues. Ms. Bascom said a City Council meeting was not the appropriate place for councilors to expound on issues. She said this kind of discussion should take place at the process sessions. Mr. MacDonald said his point was that councilors should not assume they knew one an others positions on issues without first allowing the councilors to state their opinions. D. City Council Goals for 1991 Mr. MacDonald said the council should make it clear that emergency housing would have to be an intergovernmental effort. Mr. Green said the council needed to shift its focus to permanent housing. He said the council had already done a great deal of work on emergency shelter. Ms. Ehrman said that because housing was expensive, the council could not afford to work on both emergency shelter and permanent housing. Mr. Boles said the Social Goals Committee had identified both emergency shel- ter and long-range housing as goals. He said Ms. Bascom was working on the issue of permanent housing and emergency shelter was on lithe back burner," although the City has sponsored emergency shelter programs. MINUTES--Eugene City Council February 11, 1991 Page 5 e Ms. Ehrman said the council would meet that week with an intergovernmental group. She said all jurisdictions had worked on their own emergency shelter programs--the City helped sponsor the Interfaith Emergency Shelter Program. Ms. Bascom said the City had provided funds for the six new units just com- pleted at the Family Shelter and for the Interfaith Program. She said empha- sis should be placed now on low-income, affordable housing. Mr. MacDonald said the need for emergency shelter would continue to be pre- sented to the council. Mayor Miller said the purpose of the Social Goals Committee had been to high- light the need for emergency shelter in the community. However, he said the council was now being chastised for its role in the overall situation. In response to a question from Mr. MacDonald, Mr. Gleason said staff would rewrite a transportation statement on council goals for promoting bicycle ridership in an attempt to more"closely reflect the councilors' intent for modifications to this document. e Ms. Bascom said bicyclists should determine what methods would be most effec- tive to encourage the use of bicycles. Mr. Nicholson said the council had given the staff clear direction on the modifications it wished to make to the document on methods for promoting bicycle ridership. He said he would like to review the original document. Mr. Boles suggested councilors be polled on which items they wanted on the work program for this item. Ms. Bascom said she would prefer that a subcom- mittee work on ways to increase bicycle usage. Mr. Nicholson said the council needed a method for ensuring that it was giv- ing staff clear direction. Mr. Boles said that after a list of work items on bicycle promotion had been compiled the council could debate which items should be added to or deleted from the list. Mr. Gleason said staff would produce the list and councilors could mark it as they wished, after which it would be redistributed to the council. Ms. Ehrman asked if the new councilors concurred with the City Council goals for 1991 as written. Mr. Robinette said he felt fire redeployment was an important issue, but that any goal set by the council now would be greatly affected by the Strategic Financial Plan. Mayor Miller pointed out that some goals from past years were still being pursued. e MINUTES--Eugene City Council February 11, 1991 Page 6 - e e -- Mr. Nicholson said that while there were many goals he would like to add to the council's work program for 1991, he realized it would not be practical to recraft the goals at this point in the year. Ms. Ehrman said the goals had reflected council consensus when they were selected. She said it was important that the goals continue to have the support of the whole group. Mr. Nicholson said his preference would be to wait on the council goal for downtown redesign until he had more information on this issue. Mayor Miller said that generally when the council lost on any given issue it was because it had proceeded too quickly. Ms. Bascom said that when an issue required community support it was impor- tant to have council consensus. However, she said some critical issues had been resolved in the past by an almost evenly divided council vote. The meeting adjourned at 7:20 p.m. (Recorded by Kris Sloch) mncc: 5: 30 021191 ~~~~1 MINUTES--Eugene City Council February 11, 1991 Page 7