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HomeMy WebLinkAbout07/08/1991 Meeting . M I NUT E S Eugene City Council McNutt Room July 8, 1991 5:30 p.m. COUNCILORS PRESENT: Ruth Bascom, Shawn Boles, Kaye Robinette, Randy MacDonald, Bobby Green, Debra Ehrman (arrived at 6 p.m.). COUNCILOR ABSENT: Roger Rutan. The regular meeting of the Eugene City Council was called to order by his Honor Mayor Jeff Miller. 1. LEADERSHIP ISSUES ANALYSIS FOLLOW-UP A. Introduction Mr. Gleason explained that the council had requested this opportunity to further discuss issues of leadership at the City which arose at a SWOT (anal- ysis of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) meeting of the ~e council and executive managers. Mr. Gleason said the council had asked the executive managers to discuss their leadership role from a management perspective, which they had done. He said a report on this discussion would be issued and that one of the main concerns raised by the group was the lack of sufficient internal communica- tion at the City. In response to a question from Mr. Green, Mr. Gleason said communication between different departments at the City is difficult partly because employ- ees are busy with the specific tasks at hand. He said it is difficult for individuals to get an overview of the whole City organization. Mr. Gleason pointed out that it would be helpful if the City had a variety of methods for communicating information because people react differently to different sources of information. In response to a question from Mr. Nicholson, Mr. Gleason said that ideally 40-60 percent of all City employees should be conversant with the City budg- et. Mr. Nicholson asserted that, in terms of the City providing employees with information about City issues, there is a "fine line" between communicating and politicizing issues. Mr. Gleason said staff could be trusted to commun;- ,.. MINUTES--Eugene City Council July 8, 1991 Page 1 .- ..' -- . cate the issues honestly. Mr. Nicholson said it was difficult to say any- thing without communicating a political premise. Ms. Bascom said that at times each of the individual departments of the City find themselves "out front" requesting funds. She said it is important that the staff of such a department understand its place in the overall budgetary picture. Mr. Gleason said institutional decisions are important for employees to un- derstand. He said that if the employees of an institution understand an issue, they enable change to take place which could probably not occur with- out this involvement. Mr. Gleason said that if employees such as fire fight- ers understand the City's decision-making process, they will support such issues as the need for a new Library. Mr. MacDonald added that it was important that service-level employees commu- nicate with their supervisors. Mr. Gleason said some departments of the City facilitated this kind of communication and some did not. Mr. Gleason noted that the City makes decisions based on customer needs be- cause the community expects this kind of service. Mr. Nicholson said the character of communication was at issue. He asked if Mr. Gleason expected 40-60 percent of the City staff to understand the City's political process. Mr. Gleason said staff should know the role of the coun- cil and the executives. He said an autonomous institution requires increased e knowledge and that the City does not spend enough time educating its employ- ees about how the organization works. (Ms. Ehrman arrived at the meeting.) Mr. Gleason noted that the general public is uninformed about the services of the various departments of the City. He said it is ironic that the more the City becomes involved in intergovernmental relations with other jurisdic- tions, the more confused the public becomes, although these relationships are cost-effective. Mr. Gleason stressed that executives are in agreement that intergovernmental cooperation alone will not resolve all the issues raised by the Eugene Decisions process. B. Summary of the Council Leadership SWOT John O'Connor of Human Resources and Risk Services (HRRS) served as facilita- tor for this discussion. Ms. Bascom referred to an item listed in the Summary of Council Leadership SWOT which stated: "The City should enable the private/nonprofit sector to address social service needs rather than attempt to address these needs with limited financial capacity." Ms. Bascom said it was important for the City to remember that it could not offer substitute social services for the private/nonprofit sector. Mr.' Bol es e MINUTES--Eugene City Council July 8, 1991 Page 2 ~ -- said the City has long been an important part of the social services provided to the community. Ms. Bascom said many social service agencies have large budgets which reflect private-sector contributions. Ms. Ehrman said the City's contribution to these budgets is sometimes crucial. Mr. Miller said the changing role of the City would allow it to be an enabler for non-political groups, although it could not do the work of these groups for them. Mr. Boles said the City must decide which of the core of local pri- vate/nonprofit social service agencies to support and suggested the City stabilize these services through such measures as City-provided insurance for agency employees. Mr. MacDonald said the City's contribution to the Intergovernmental Human Services Committee (IHSC) provides the City leverage as to how IHSC directs the social service system. He said an IHSC policy subcommittee is working on devising methods by which both the group and the community can more effec- tively support social services. He said he hoped the City maintained current funding for the social services. Ms. Bascom said the City's role in the social service arena has grown in areas such as housing. She said the City provides interim solutions through such groups as the IHSC. e Mr. Gleason said that in the past the City's contribution to social services focused on block grants. He said that over the years, the City has changed its method of funding, due to intergovernmental contracts. He said the coun- cil should decide what social services the community needs to purchase by contract and that this could lead to Requests For Proposals (RFPs). Mr. Gleason said long range planning is needed in terms of master plans for the administration of funding for social service agencies. Mr. Boles suggested the Department of Public Safety (DPS) Long- Range Plan include a mechanism for administering the funding of social service agencies. Mr. Nicholson said the City needs to identify a process for relating to agen- cies outside the City which receive City funds. Mr. Green said he did not feel that the City was competing with social ser- vice agencies to provide social services, but agreed that the City needs financial checkpoints for its funding of these groups. Mr. Boles referred to another item in the Summary of Council Leadership SWOT which stated: "The community's leadership has not reached agreement about how limited our physical, fiscal, and personnel resources are." Mayor Miller said it was difficult for the council to agree on priorities and it might be just as difficult for the community to do so. - July 8, 1991 MINUTES--Eugene City Council Page 3 -- e Mr. MacDonald said he felt setting priorities was the heart of the Eugene Decisions process. He asked how community leaders could ask the public to reach agreement about priorities for Eugene when Eugene Decisions could not. He noted that community groups have not been able to reach agreement on Eu- gene's priorities either. Mr. Boles suggested the council attempt to list the three or four most impor- tant issues for leadership in terms of the Eugene Decisions process at this meeting. Mayor Miller questioned whether the council could set physical limitations on the size of the city. Mr. Nicholson said the carrying capacity of the city was at issue. He said a trade-off existed between the quality of life in Eugene and the population, degree of development, etc. Mr. MacDonald said the City had reached and exceeded its fiscal resource level and personnel was therefore being stretched. He said the city also had physical limitations. Mr. Boles added that the scenarios created for the Eugene Decisions process would be affected by council consensus on the exter- nal constraints placed on the City. Mr. Nicholson said that although the council could not directly limit popula- tion, it could change technological processes which affect population, such as transportation. Mr. Gleason said many forms of technology affect the quality of life in a e city, including water quality, sewer services, and fire services. He said the quality of these services depends on increased collective behavior, but that most of the public is not aware of the potential trade-offs in terms of services. He said the City has difficulty conveying this information to the public because of inadequate software. Mr. Boles suggested the City let the public know the multiple solutions to service problems. Mr. Nicholson said Mr. Gleason had listed institutional processes which af- fected the carrying capacity of the City. He said roads are paid for by the public and pointed out that most people choose to use their automobiles rath- er than trains, even though the actual costs of using a train are less. He suggested the City charge actual costs rather than subsidized costs. He said the issue of true costs should be discussed. Mr. Gleason said externalities were mostly funded by user fees. He pointed out that the City has never considered investing one to three percent of the total cost of a project in communications so that a public discussion of the trade-offs involved in the issue can take place. Ms. Bascom said the City is not fully utilizing the carrying capacity of its parks. e MINUTES--Eugene City Council July 8, 1991 Page 4 .......... . Mr. MacDonald theorized that if Councilor Rutan were present he would point out that some projects pass the scrutiny of the public even without an in- vestment in public communication. He noted that the Eugene Water & Electric Board (EWEB) did an excellent public relations job on a recent issue which required a public vote. He said the public perception of the council and City government is cynical and this perception needs to be overcome. Mayor Miller pointed out that the council and City government got a high approval rating in a recent citizen survey. He said the City needs to act like a financial adviser with no product to sell. Mr. Boles said adequately staffed citizen advisory boards could help staff communicate ideas to the public. Mr. MacDonald referred to an article in the weekly newspaper, What's Happen- lQg, which was critical of the first leadership meeting held in the Eugene Decisions process. Mr. Green said there was no way to separate politics from a cynical public perception. He said the council should reach consensus on its priorities for Eugene Decisions and attempt to accomplish these goals. Mr. Gleason said he agreed that there was a latent level of cynicism about City politics in Eu- gene. He said this will become a problem if it paralyzes the community and incapacitates its decision-making abilities. Mr. Gleason noted that some departments of the City do better than others at e communicating with the public. He said DPS has done very well in this regard recently, but the process leading to this communication was lengthy. He said the communication skills of the organization have improved, but the overall process requires patience. Mayor Miller said DPS was effective in finding approval for its long-Range Plan because of the plan's public involvement process. Referring back to a comment by Mr. MacDonald, the Mayor said the article in What's Happening was a disservice to the community. He said the writer called community leaders "fools" and did not give the council credit for expanding the citizen in- volvement process for Eugene Decisions. He said the council is a diverse group which represents many elements in the community. Mr. Boles noted that a recent citizen survey showed that a majority of people are not cynical about either the councilor City government. Ms. Ehrman referred to an item in the Summary of the Council Leadership SWOT which referred to "high expectations." She noted that the council also has high expectations. Ms. Bascom said she felt that the community had just "scratched the surface" of what it could do in the field of special events. Mr. Boles suggested that if the Joint Parks Committee chose to change its name, it be called the Parks, Recreation, and Culture Committee. e MINUTES--Eugene City Council July 8, 1991 Page 5 ---- e Mr. MacDonald said one of the reasons he appreciated Eugene was because its citizens placed a high value on culture. He said the City has a number of commissions dealing with this subject, all of which need to be coordinated with one another. Mayor Miller noted that the Eugene Decisions process may address this subject. Mr. Gleason asked if the council wished to hold a previously planned one- and-a-half-hour dinner meeting on the shared responsibility of leadership. Mr. Robinette said he felt such a meeting would be useful. Mr. Nicholson said he had found this discussion helpful, although the issue of the public's cynicism was still unresolved. Ms. Bascom commended Mr. MacDonald for a letter he had written to residents on lorane Highway. Mr. Green said he would favor another discussion of leadership because there were issues he had not yet been able to raise. Mr. Gleason said he envisioned an unstructured meeting. Mayor Miller said there was value in sharing ideas in this way. Mr. Boles said that although the process of discussing issues in an unstruc- tured manner was educational, he had hoped that the council could make cer- tain decisions. He noted that Eugene Decisions is under way and said he was concerned that the council was running out of time before decisions had to be made. e Mr. Nicholson said that because the Eugene Decisions process had begun, the council should review responses to the process thus far. Mr. Gleason pointed out that the tactics of the Eugene Decisions process might change many times, as they had for the DPS Long-Range Plan. The meeting adjourned at 7:25 p.m. R~~. Micheal Gleason (Recorded by Kris Bloch) mncc 070891-530 e MINUTES--Eugene City Council July 8, 1991 Page 6 """"---~-