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HomeMy WebLinkAbout06/05/1991 Meeting e e e M I NUT E S Eugene City Council McNutt Room--City Hall June 5, 1991 6:00 p.m. COUNCILORS PRESENT: Roger Rutan, Shawn Boles, Ruth Bascom, Bobby Green, Randy MacDonald, Kaye Robinette, Paul Nicholson, Debra Ehrman The adjourned meeting of June 3, 1991, of the Eugene City Council was called to order by His Honor Mayor Jeff Miller. I. PROCESS SESSION City Manager Mike Gleason introduced John O'Connor, Human Resource and Risk Services, meeting facilitator. Mr. MacDonald asked the council to consider funding for the Eugene Water and Electric Board (EWEB) mailout advertisement for the South Hills Fire Preven- tion Program that he has been piloting. Ms. Bascom moved, seconded by Mr. Nicholson, to authorize $550 in funding for the EWEB mailout. Roll call vote; the motion carried 7:0:1, with Councilor Boles abstaining. The council generated a list of process issues to be considered at this meet- ing. Included in this list were issues which have been flagged by the coun- cil since the last process session. Based on the list, the council decided that it would have approximately 10 minutes to discuss each item. Darcy Marentette, City Manager's Office, posted a list of council ground rules to which councilors could refer during discussion. A. Items from Council, Mayor, and Manager Ms. Bascom said that the time the council has been spending in discussion during the items from the City Council, Mayor, and City Manager has been out of control. As examples, she reminded the council of a meeting when majority of the time was spent discussing items brought by Councilor MacDonald and another meeting when the council spent the entire meeting discussing this agenda item. She suggested that the council find a way to structure this item so that each councilor has an equal opportunity to raise issues and recommended that councilors might do a more careful job of selecting agenda MINUTES--Eugene City Council Quarterly Process Session June 5, 1991 Page 1 e items that other councilors have not had an opportunity to hear about before- hand. Mr. Boles suggested that council set aside three minutes for each councilor to raise issues. This would force each person to choose only those items of greatest importance and to have discipline during discussion. Mr. MacDonald pointed out that the number of agenda items each councilor needs to raise becomes particularly unwieldy when several Wednesday work sessions have been cancelled in a row. This is the only forum for councilors to raise these important issues. Mr. Robinette said that some items brought to the council are very important and require more than three minutes for discussion. He recommended that the council set an overall time limit on this agenda item and that each councilor be allowed to present one agenda item at a time around the table, to ensure that each councilor has the opportunity to raise an issue. Mayor Miller observed that some of the items which are brought up at this time could be more easily discussed one-on-one with City staff, rather than seeking clarification during council meetings. e After discussion, the council agreed on the need to have more discipline in selecting items to come before the council. It also agreed to set a 30-minute maximum time limit for the items from the City Council, Mayor, and City Manager, and a 3-minute per person time limit. The council agreed to try this process until the next process session and then modify it, if neces- sary. B. Who Do We Represent When We Speak to the Media? Mr. Nicholson said that when a member of the council takes a position on an issue that does not represent the position taken by the full council, it should be made clear that the position taken is not the position of the full council. He said that instances have arisen recently when it has not been clear whether councilors were speaking on their own behalf or on behalf of the City Council. Mr. Rutan emphasized that the council should not use the media to debate an issue. Mr. Green agreed and said that when an individual councilor has a concern with a statement made by another councilor, he or she should talk directly to that person to eliminate potential misunderstanding. Ms. Ehrman noted that the council has a ground rule which indicates that all written material submitted to the press should first be submitted to the City Council. Mr. Nicholson voiced concern that sometimes the position taken by City staff on an issue is not neutral. e MINUTES--Eugene City Council Quarterly Process Session June 5, 1991 Page 2 e Mr. Boles noted that the City Council does not have to remain neutral on all issues. It is a council policy that when a councilor in the minority is taking a position on an issue, he or she must state explicitly that it is not the council's position. C. Council Working Relationships Mr. Rutan raised a concern that council discussion has been increasingly plagued by argument and debate, rather than productive discussion. Mr. MacDonald agreed with Mr. Rutan that some of the arguing that has taken place recently has been unproductive and said that councilors need to be aware of the distinction between making a speech and stating a perspective. Mayor Miller noted that councilors usually know when something that they say or the manner in which they say it will irritate another councilor; the coun- cil should make a better effort to avoid this. Mr. Robinette also noted that it is the responsibility of the person speaking to ensure that the message he or she communicated was received as intended. Mr. Boles pointed out that a variety of philosophical positions exist on the council. However, it is possible to attack another councilor's position on an issue without attacking the person. e Mr. Nicholson said that he does not feel that the debate which has taken place has, for the most part, been unproductive. He concurred with Mr. Boles that it merely represents the wide variety of positions that exist on the council. Mr. Gleason reminded the council that this issue was raised during recent process sessions, from which it created a ground rule: We speak for our- selves. He noted that making jokes about other councilors' comments has been the source of hard feelings recently and asked the council to be more re- spectful of this. After discussion, the council reinforced the need to respect other council- or's opinions and positions on issues. It recognized that there is a place for humor during council discussion, but that councilors should be sensitive to other councilor's feelings. D. Council Protocol on Close Votes Ms. Ehrman said that she is concerned about the process that the council followed on the Blue Water Boats Metro Plan amendment. She said that the Mayor violated the ground rule "we speak for ourselves" when speaking for Councilor Rutan on the issue. In doing this, the council lost any bargaining ability it might have had at the Metro Policy Committee (MPC). Mayor Miller explained that in stating Mr. Rutan's position on the issue, he was simply trying to save costly and unnecessary staff work. He said that he had discussed the issue with Councilor Rutan and was aware of the position he e MINUTES--Eugene City Council Quarterly Process Session June 5, 1991 Page 3 e e e would take on the issue. Because of the importance of this issue to the City of Springfield, he believed that Mr. Rutan would have asked that this item be reconsidered when he returned. Mayor Miller said that it is his understanding that any councilor can request reconsideration of an item in the month following action and asked whether this was true. Mr. Gleason agreed to get clarification on this issue from the City Attorney's Office. Ms. Bascom said that she realizes now that voting against the first motion was the wrong way to stop final action on this issue. However, she reiterat- ed the importance of this issue to Eugene's partner jurisdiction, the City of Springfield. The council discussed this issue at length and acknowledged that it would not be able to resolve this issue completely. It reviewed its ground rule that any two councilors can request that an item be postponed to the following meeting. The council agreed that any request for postponement should be made before a motion is made and before councilors declare their position on an issue. The Mayor is excluded from this because he is a non-voting member of the council. (At 8:30 p.m. the council took a ten-minute break.) E. Committee Reports to Council Ms. Bascom expressed frustration with the difficulty she is having in keeping the council updated on committee reports. She noted that the council has moved away from allowing committee reports during process sessions and said that this will be especially difficult in light of the council's new three- minute per councilor limit on items from the City Council, Mayor, and City Manager. The council discussed this issue and made several recommendations. While some members of the council favored updating the council on committee reports in a memo, others favored periodically having a Wednesday agenda item specif- ically for this purpose. A suggestion was made that councilors continue to bring committee reports during Wednesday work sessions as a part of the items from the council, mayor, and manager. F. Council Work load and Council Compensation Mr. Boles indicated that compensation for councilors and the Mayor would allow some persons to serve on the council who are not otherwise able, for financial reasons, to devote the time necessary from their jobs. Mr. Robinette acknowledged the need to reduce individual councilors' work load, but felt that maintaining a purely voluntary council service is vital to the public process. He noted that the council is a policy body, not an implementation body, and suggested that the workload could be reduced by removing the council from implementation tasks. MINUTES--Eugene City Council Quarterly Process Session June 5, 1991 Page 4 e e e Mr. Rutan noted that the council has been working on reducing its work load for the past year. Although a Council Committee on Committees review of committee assignments last year did reduce some of the council's work load, he believes that more could be done. He suggested that the council might be more efficient if each councilor adopted an area of expertise and served as the sole council representative on those committees dealing with the area. Noting that some councilors have very different positions on issues, Mr. Boles said that it is often valuable to have more than one councilor working on an issue to ensure a full level of discussion and deliberation. He stated that the council's work load is likely to increase, not decrease, in the future. Mr. Green said that he believes the community would not support council com- pensation. He agreed with Mr. Rutan on the need for councilors to specialize in certain areas of local government. Mayor Miller pointed out that this community has voted three times in the past against council compensation. The committee that was previously formed by the council to discuss the possibility of compensation, stated that to institute paid council positions, Eugene would have to change to a commis- sioner form of government. Mayor Miller noted that because he does not be- lieve that citizens want to change the form of government, the committee was disbanded. Mr. Gleason said that staff has taken seriously the importance of USing the councilor's time effectively and said that it is possible to continue to examine what actions could be taken to reduce council work load. He does not agree with the committee's answer that council compensation would require a new form of government, and said that the two issues should be separated. Mr. Gleason said that the present form of government is very effective and noted that it might be possible to make public office more financially feasi- ble for some if the council was willing to look at compensation for expenses incurred during council business, rather than direct compensation per se. G. Boards and Commissions Process for Re-Interviewing Ms. Bascom said that she has been embarrassed recently when the council has called applicants back to interview for a position for which they had recent- ly been rejected. Mr. Gleason suggested that staff submit a recommendation for a revised pro- cess and bring the suggestion back to the council for approval. H. Council Process for Providing Input on lane Transit District (LTD) land Use Issues Mr. Boles pointed out that the lack of coordination between the City and lTD has been an on going concern and the source of much frustration. local gov- MINUTES--Eugene City Council Quarterly Process Session June 5, 1991 Page 5 e ernment needs a forum for local jurisdictions to discuss and plan transporta- tion policies and address long-term mass transit needs. Mr. Gleason pointed out that the lTD board has also raised a concern with its lack of input into local land use policy decisions. He agreed on the need to have a single committee with representatives from all of the jurisdictions to discuss these types of long-term planning issues. Ms. Bascom noted that the Metropolitan Policy Committee (MPC) is presently the only forum where all three governmental jurisdictions and lTD have the opportunity to be together at the same time. She said she would continue to raise the concerns expressed today by the council at MPC. I. Public Hearings Mayor Miller said that the council has received information with respect to the new process that will be followed for public hearings in which a large number of persons have asked to testify. He asked the council to continue to think of ways to make testifying less intimidating. Mr. MacDonald said that there is a need to make the transition between public hearing items more smooth) particularly for items with a lot of public testi- mony. At Councilor MacDonald's request, Mayor Miller agreed to inform the public after public hearing items about the next step in the process for that item in cases where the decisions is not to be made immediately after the public hearing. e J. Council Support for Consistent Citizen Input Process Mr. Boles said that the Citizen Involvement Committee (CIC) is exploring ways to ensure that public participation is adequate and consistent for all is- sues. Public participation should be broad and should occur early in the process. Mr. MacDonald commented on the need to prevent what often appears to be last minute access to an issue by special interest groups. Specifically, he said that the Planning Commission's recent decision to form a Commercial lands Study Task Force to allay concerns raised by the Eugene Chamber of Commerce might be perceived as unfair by those that have been involved throughout the entire process. Mr. Rutan noted that the Eugene Chamber of Commerce has been involved throughout the Commercial lands process, but had some specific concerns about some of the conclusions that were made at the end. He noted that committee work is a dynamic process and said that the City's public involvement process should be flexible enough to allow this type of activity to occur, when nec- essary. e MINUTES--Eugene City Council Quarterly Process Session June 5, 1991 Page 6 ~ The meeting adjourned at 9:40 p.m. e - (Recorded by Traci Northman) mncc 060591-600 MINUTES--Eugene City Council Quarterly Process Session June 5, 1991 Page 7