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HomeMy WebLinkAbout09/16/1991 Meeting e M I NUT E S Eugene City Council McNutt Room--City Hall September 16, 1991 5:30 p.m. COUNCILORS PRESENT: Roger Rutan, Shawn Boles, Ruth Bascom, Bobby Green, Paul Nicholson, Kaye Robinette, Randy MacDonald, Debra Ehrman. The adjourned meeting of September 11, 1991, of the Eugene City Council was called to order by His Honor Mayor Jeff Miller. I. EUGENE DECISIONS STRATEGIES Barbara Bellamy, City Manager's Office, provided the council with an update on the Eugene Decisions process and identified key dates in the next stage of the process. The purpose of this meeting is to conduct the first checkpoint in the Eugene Decisions process and to provide direction to staff on sample service and funding strategies to present to the public during the next round of citizen involvement. Ms. Bellamy said that at council's request, staff e has prepared six sample strategies: two reduction, two maintenance, and two expansion. In addition, Councilor Boles has also submitted a strategy for counc il rev i ew. She briefly reviewed the strategies. Mr. Boles explained that the intent of his strategy is to emphasize the li- brary, cultural arts/tourism, and affordable housing, which the council has identified as primary goals. In creating this strategy, he intended that funds for housing and cultural services would be invested and the interest payments would be used to sustain the programs indefinitely. He pointed out that the strategy only violates the sustainability criteria in that it does not address library overhead and maintenance costs or provide a sinking re- placement fund for replacement. Responding to a question from Mr. Nicholson, Mr. Boles said that it is his intent that the restaurant tax would have a mandatory sunset at the end of ten years unless it received an affirmative public vote to continue it. Ms. Bascom asked how the cost of central administration had been factored into the estimated costs of each service. In response, Tony Mounts, Finance Division, said that the central administration costs have been spread across each service category. Mr. Gleason emphasized that these are only broad estimates of the central administration costs for each program; the potential savings from closing a program would fall somewhere within this range. He cautioned the council that there may be some unforeseen financial consequenc- es to closing certain programs. e MINUTES--Eugene City Council September 16, 1991 Page 1 Dinner Meeting . e Responding to a question from Mr. Boles, Mr. Mounts said that prior to pre- senting the public with a list of services, staff will attempt to narrow the bracketed numbers to the nearest possible number. Responding to a question from Ms. Ehrman, Ms. Bellamy said that eliminating the Hult Center means that there would be no General Fund support of the Hult Center. Mr. Gleason said that the adoption of a strategy must be separated from strategy implementation. Once the citizens have chosen a strategy, it will be up to the council to decide how best to implement the strategy. Ms. Bascom said she is very concerned about the $500,000-$1,000,000 potential savings for closing the Hult Center because the public may mistake this num- ber as the General Fund subsidy of the Hult Center. She also expressed con- cern that the public may not be aware of the wide variety of community ser- vices that the public receives from Hult Center programs. Privatizing Hult Center operations would not serve the community well. Ms. Ehrman inquired about the Fire Service Availability Fee listed as a pos- sible source of revenue in strategy 1. Mr. Gleason explained that this is a fee for the availability of the City's public safety response. The fee would be calculated based on an evaluation of the risk of a structure to potential hazards. He said that the fee could be assessed on all structures at a rate set by council. Other cities have experimented with this type of fee. e John O'Connor, Human Resource and Risk Services, assumed the role of facili- tator at this time. He set a targeted 8:30 p.m. adjournment time. A. Reduction Strategies Mr. MacDonald inquired about the meaning of the term "capital savings addi- tional." Mr. Mounts explained that the potential capital savings from elimi- nating or reducing a service will vary based on what the council decides to do with the structure. Mr. Gleason pointed out that it will not be possible to know what the true cost savings will be until the decision has been imple- mented. If the decision was made to close the Hult Center, for instance, the public would then be faced with the decision to keep the facility and contin- ue to maintain it or to attempt to sell it. Depending on a variety of fac- tors, such as market conditions, the ultimate cost savings would vary. Mr. Nicholson commented that for these figures to have any meaning within the community, it will be important to provide the public with the underlying assumption about what will be done with property if it is no longer operat- ing. Mr. Boles agreed. Mr. Mounts responded that staff will need to conduct a preliminary evaluation on what the figures might mean under each circum- stance and then return to the council at a later date for an evaluation of each strategy. Ms. Ehrman said that all of the strategies should reflect the information received from the public during the first round of public involvement. e MINUTES--Eugene City Council September 16, 1991 Page 2 Dinner Meeting e Mr. Nicholson said that it should be made clear to the public at the outset that the ultimate goal of this process is to develop a sustainable funding package that incorporates service reduction, maintenance, and expansion strategies. The public needs to understand that these are only examples and they will be expected to create their own strategies during the next round of public involvement. Mayor Miller suggested that in order to encourage the public to develop their own preferred service and funding package, a list of service categories with their approximated funding costs, should be presented at the bottom of the reduction strategies. Mr. MacDonald offered his support to this "menu-ap- proach." Mr. Boles noted that the City's underlying financial management policies influence these figures and asked that a statement of these financial manage- ment policies be made available to the council. Mr. Nicholson suggested that the council present the public with an example of a single integrated service and financial package. Mr. Rutan disagreed and said that the council made a decision when it created this process that it would present the public with six basic strategies, receive public input from these strategies, and present the public with a single, integrated ap- proach based on that input. Mr. Robinette said that it is not important what examples are provided on the e strategies, and indicated that this part of the process was only designed to assist the public in forming their own strategies. Mr. Rutan asked that the "eliminate development services" category in reduc- tion strategy 1 be more specific. He suggested the phrase "eliminates all non-user fee supported services." Mr. Nicholson questioned how these strategies honor the "do things different- ly" message that the council received from the community during the initial round of public involvement. He said that it is important that the community believe that its input was seriously considered in creating these strategies. Mr. Gleason said that staff recognized from the first round of community input that there is a strong push within the community for reducing costs by doing things in different ways. While it is possible for staff to compile a list of possible ways to do things differently, it will be very difficult to assess potential cost savings until implementation. Mr. Nicholson suggested that the council either provide a poster that highlights certain "do things differently" strategies or that specific examples among the strategies be highlighted or printed in a different typeface. Mr. Boles suggested that councilors attempt to create a strategy themselves so that they are sensitive to what the public is being asked to do. Mr. MacDonald said that this would be a constructive exercise for a council sub- committee to undertake, but cautioned that the public may perceive wrongly that the committee is deliberating toward a final decision package. e MINUTES--Eugene City Council September 16, 1991 Page 3 Dinner Meeting e Responding to a question from Ms. Ehrman, Mr. Gleason said that potential cost savings associated with freezing wages has not been included because this is not a sustainable strategy. Ms. Bascom agreed with Ms. Ehrman that the public is frustrated that there will be no way to get at City personnel costs. She said that she is concerned that the end result of this process will be to eliminate any service that gives some vitality to the City. Under reduction strategy 2, Mr. Green asked what it meant to close Fire Sta- tion 7. In response, Dave Whitlow, Department of Public Safety, said that when evaluating the present system of fire stations, Station 7 would be the most logical station to close because of its relative proximity to several other stations and because it is a satellite station, not a master station. The council agreed that in order to eliminate any unnecessary public concern it would change "close Station 7" to "close a satellite fire station." (At 7:10 p.m., the council took a IS-minute break.) B. Maintenance Strategies Ms. Ehrman asked for an explanation of the "library fee" contemplated in maintenance strategy 1. Mr. Gleason explained that under this fee, a book could be checked out at no cost for three days. After the third day, a fee would be assessed for each day the book is not returned. The fee is designed to earn revenue for the library while at the same time recognize the need to offer a basic level of service at no cost to low-income persons. e Ms. Ehrman voiced concern that the effect of this fine would be to narrow the potential list of library users and significantly increase the number of library books that are not returned. She said she would rather pay more money for a library card than be limited in the number of days that she could use the book. The council agreed on the need to explain the fire service availability fee, potential recreation fees, and the library fee. It also indicated its skep- ticism about the possibility of generating $500,000 in revenue from the li- brary fee, as described, and asked staff to revise the amount of potential revenue to a more realistic number. The council agreed that it would remove the cat licensing fee from the list of potential user fees. It agreed that the list of potential user fees that has been provided by staff would be attached to the maintenance strategies. Responding to a question, Mr. Whitlow said that fire redeployment has not been funded out of the Public Safety Long-Range Plan. The council agreed that it should explain to the public that the council would not be able to proceed with council-adopted goals, such as the creation of a new library or fire redeployment, if a service maintenance strategy is adopted. Ms. Bascom suggested that the City find a way to tap bicycles as a potential source of income. e MINUTES--Eugene City Council September 16, 1991 Page 4 Dinner Meeting e C. Enhancement Strategies and Councilor Boles' Strategy Mr. MacDonald suggested that the $8 million shortfall be classified as "funds required to maintain existing service levels," rather than "existing target. II Mayor Miller said that the council's adopted goals should not be competing against each other for funding in the enhancement strategies. He suggested that the library, public safety, and affordable housing be combined into a single enhancement strategy. Ms. Bascom said that she is encouraged by Mr. Boles inclusion of cultural services/tourism in a package because these are the types of activities that add vitality to Eugene and make it a destination point. She also said that the $.7 million figure is too high for affordable housing and suggested that $250,000 better resembles the amount of money that could be spent wisely on affordable housing. Mr. Green said that he appreciates the inclusion of tourism in Mr. Boles sample strategy and suggested that it be included in one of the enhancement packages. Mr. MacDonald felt that funding for cultural services/tourism should be com- bined with the library in enhancement strategy 1. Ms. Bascom indicated that the community gave clear support for the library e during the first round of public involvement and said that she would not support an enhancement package that did not include the library. If the council did not include the library, it would be ignoring the clear direction from the community. Mayor Miller disagreed. He said that the council should wait for the results of the next round of public input to get a clear direction on a more inte- grated funding package. Ms. Ehrman suggested that an enhanced list of capital projects be provided to the community for review. She also suggested that the list of alternative revenue sources which could pay for the enhanced packages be lppended to the two enhancement packages. Responding to a question from Mr. Ehrman, Mr. Whitlow explained that the $4 million specified for "community policing" includes community policing, human service networking, prevention activities, and the community service special- ists. The money for fire redeployment would not include any additions to the public safety inventory. Under this scenario, only the basic public safety needs are being met. The council agreed that staff should explain exactly for what types of services the fire redeployment funds would be used. Ms. Ehrman said that either the social services emphasis should be dropped from enhancement package 2 or the council should agree on an increased con- tribution to the social service component. e MINUTES--Eugene City Council September 16, 1991 Page 5 Dinner Meeting e Ms. Bascom pointed out that the City does not have to rely on the infusion of additional public money to increase public safety. The community could privatize some of the public safety operations and seek additional assistance from volunteers. Mr. MacDonald agreed that the City should examine new ways to meet its public safety needs. When referring to a sales tax, Mr. Green said that it should be made clear that this refers to a local sales tax, not a state sales tax. The council discussed the possibility of combining the two enhancement strat- egies into a single package and using Councilor Boles' strategy as the other enhancement package. Mr. Nicholson pointed out that Councilor Boles' strate- gy is not simply an enhancement strategy, rather it is an integrated strate- gy. It is important to maintain consistency between the three types of strategies as decided upon by council when it was first developing the pro- cess. After lengthy deliberation, the council agreed to include $.7 million of enhancements for Cultural Arts/Tourism in enhancement strategy 1, as outlined in Councilors Boles' sample strategy. It also agreed to drop the "social services" emphasis from enhancement package 2, which would then emphasize: 1) the Public Safety Long-Range Plan, and 2) affordable housing. Mr. Gleason reminded the council that the next stage in the process, building community consensus, will be very challenging. e The meeting adjourned at 8:35 p.m. - (Recorded by Traci Northman) mncc 091591-530 e MINUTES--Eugene City Council September 16, 1991 Page 6 Dinner Meeting