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HomeMy WebLinkAbout11/09/1992 Meeting M I NUT E S . Eugene City Council McNutt Room--City Hall November 9, 1992 5:30 p.m. COUNCILORS PRESENT: Shawn Boles, Bobby Green, Ruth Bascom, Debra Ehrman, Randy MacDonald, Paul Nicholson, Kaye Robinette. COUNCILORS ABSENT: Roger Rutan. The regular City Council meeting of November 9, 1992, was called to order by His Honor Mayor Jeff Miller. Before proceeding with the regular agenda items, Mayor Miller announced that two councilors had items to share at this time. Mr. Boles distributed the text of the address of the Deputy Mayor of the city of Kathmandu, from which the City's delegation recently returned. He also displayed a scroll given to the council and said that a written report on the trip is forthcoming. . Ms. Ehrman said that the Intergovernmental Human Services Committee and the United Way have similar interests and wondered if, as a way of doing things differently, the City might explore sharing administrative resources with that organization. There was consensus to explore the possibility. Mayor Miller explained that the council will hold a total of three consecutive meetings today. This meeting, he said, would serve to review the process for the ongoing implementation phase of Eugene Decisions, and will be facilitated by John O'Connor. He acknowledged councilors-elect Nancy Nathanson and Kevin Hornbuckle, saying they would be invited to give input. The second council session will be held in the council chamber and deal with public business. The last session will reconvene in the McNutt Room and include executive managers, and be facilitated by Mr. O'Connor. Mayor Miller said the discus- sion will revolve around how to work together to implement Eugene Decisions. A. EUGENE DECISIONS IMPLEMENTATION Mr. O'Connor said that the task before the council is to decide how and when to address the implementation issues resulting from Eugene Decisions. He invited councilors to share their views. Referring to the list of issues, Mr. Boles said that once the council decides how it wants to process the items, it can be fleshed out. He said that council officers discussed adopting a process similar in spirit to that used . MINUTES--Eugene City Council November 9, 1992 Page 1 5:30 p.m. - ---- ---- ---- ------- in the planning phase of Eugene Decisions. It involves convening subgroups of . council~rs to work issues to be presented to the full council for final decision. Mr. Boles said that multiple groups would have built-in protection against subgroups closing on issues, as councilors will be both recipient and presenter of group work. Mayor Miller felt it important to begin implementing the service cuts and user fees portion of the strategy. He said this would add clarity to what is at stake in the community. The Mayor noted that one of the issues is "What does it look like, if there are no additional revenues?" Mr. Green said he is most concerned with the transition from planning to implementation. He said the community has yet to feel the impact of the service changes. Mr. Green expressed concern with how the council presents new revenue sources to the public, saying it should unite around a source or rethink its position. Mr. MacDonald said he was frustrated that the reality that City government is changing dramatically has yet to be understood by the public. He said it . requires developing a process to manage those changes. He supported the multi-group process for working issues, provided staff can accommodate the work plans and there are regular council check-in points and an understood time line. Mr. MacDonald described implementation as processing elements as discrete components that are also viewed as a whole. Ms. Ehrman supported the multi-group model. She expressed concern that the council was losing the focus of the community. Ms. Ehrman is also concerned . about the uncertainty involved in the organizational change, saying the City could lose employees unnecessarily. She felt it important to prioritize the list of issues. Ms. Bascom said the council's next assignment should be to implement the $5.2 million in service changes. She added that if a revenue stream cannot be identified in a timely manner, the council may have to consider the Eugene Decisions Committee's Strategy C. Mr. Robinette supported the multi-group model, saying the task before the council is more difficult than that just accomplished. He said his primary concern is that the council, as a whole, feel ownership for the decisions it makes. Mr. Robinette said that the media and community also need to under- stand the decisions the council makes. Mr. Nicholson pointed to the Revenue Committee as a good example of a focused work group. He expressed concern about Ms. Bascom's hesitancy to put the restaurant tax to a vote, saying a "no" vote will provide important informa- tion that will move the work forward. Mr. Nicholson said he needs to have a clear sense that the full council supports the process as a whole before going forward. Ms. Bascom reiterated her lack of support for a restaurant tax, saying the MINUTES--Eugene City Council November 9, 1992 Page 2 . 5:30 p.m. . community will not accept it. Mr. Boles reminded the council that it unanimously approved Eugene Decisions at the end of the planning phase. He said that there may be sequencing issues, but the package was approved as a whole and it will be implemented as a whole, with community input. At Mr. O'Connors invitation, Ms. Nathanson shared her view that the community wants closure. It would like to have an indication of what is happening by the end of the year--not just that committees are working on it. She said people are skeptical and need to know that efficiencies and cuts are in place. Ms. Nathanson said it is not clear out in the community that the City has done anything yet. Summarizing the discussion, Mr. O'Connor said that councilors are in agreement on the following: the multi-group model can be successfully used to process the issues; the issues need to be prioritized; the "no-revenue" strategy is a priority; to move forward on the $5.2 million service changes (and that it is a community trust issue); implementation is more difficult that the question- ing part of Eugene Decisions; implementation will greatly impact staff and council work plans, requiring many changes; tax is not a top option, although it ;s often seen that way; that the council needs a clear sense of where it is; and that the council must proceed in agreement as it works out these issues. B. Council Process and Work Plan Issues . The council generated the following list of issues without priority consider- ation: Budget re-design Implementation of $5.2 million service changes Implementation of $3.8 million portion of strategy Boards and commissions/citizen oversight of government Review Financial Goals & Policies in light of Eugene Decisions Downtown/DEI/Staffing No-Revenue strategy Library Revenue Strategy Time line Implementation of DPS Long-Range Plan - Fire Redeployment Organizational systems change - Compensation policy - Volunteers - Contracting-out Communication - with public - with intergovernmental partners Performance measures . MINUTES--Eugene City Council November 9, 1992 Page 3 5:30 p.m. Agenda control . The council decided to get input from executive managers before grouping the issues further or prioritizing them. There was a brief discussion about whether there was council consensus with regard to the tax. Several councilors expressed frustration at the suggestion of revisiting the issue. Mr. O'Connor observed that the council reached consensus on what it needed to talk about next and the tax was not on that list. Mayor Mill er sa i d he sensed that the counc il was not ready to move forward because of the tax. He said that councilors are willing to refer a tax because it is consistent with Eugene Decisions, but they are not willing to go out and campaign for it. Mr. Boles said that the council is in the implementation phase and so long as it keeps that in mind, it will move forward. He said the kinds of questions he hears around revenue sources will be addressed by whatever group is assigned to it. Ms. Ehrman reminded the council it had put off the discussion pending election results, and asked to hear from councilors-elect. Mr. Hornbuckle said he appreciated the council's work and respected the need to maintain the integrity of the package. However, ,he expr.esse( a l.~Ck of . support for a restaurant tax, describing it as a ,sales tax~-a ,re"gres'sive form of tax. Mr. Hornbuckle favors a personal income tax. "He expre~sed ~ willing- ness to work with the council in maintaining the integrity of the package, provided that integrity can be maintained'without there being a regressive tax in the new revenue. Ms. Nathanson said she would support whatever the council puts forth, although she is not convinced that all possible cuts have been made. She said the council must demonstrate that that has been done before there can be support for any revenue option. Ms. Nathanson noted that most people view a restau- rant tax as more of a luxury tax, so long as a restaurant is defined more along traditional lines. Mr. Gleason drew similarities between the budget process and Eugene Decisions, saying they are planning tools. He noted that the new council will need to affirm the process as a strategic plan, which has been completed. The implementation phase, he said, requires a different type of focus and expecta- tion, realizing that implementation may require more planning. He suggested the council move forward by forming work groups. Mayor Miller asked councilors Bascom, Boles, and MacDonald to flesh out the list of issues in the next week and suggest work group items for the council to process. At Ms. Ehrman's suggestion, councilors agreed to initial issues MINUTES--Eugene City Council November 9, 1992 Page 4 . 5:30 p.m. on the list that they are interested in. . The meeting adjourned at 7:15 p.m. Following a 7:30 p.m. public hearing in the Council Chamber, the council reconvened in the McNutt Room for a meeting with councilors-elect Nancy Nathanson and Kevin Hornbuckle and the Executive Management Team. Members present included City Manager Mike Gleason, Deputy City Manager Linda Norris, Administrative Services Director Warren Wong, Municipal Court Administrator Sandra Franklin, Public Works Director Christine Andersen, Acting Director of Recreation and Cultural Services Bob Schutz, Acting Librarian Carol Hildebr- and, Planning and Development Director Abe Farkas, and Marilyn Nelson (for Department of Public Safety Director Dave Whitlow). Mayor Miller explained that the purpose of this meeting was to discuss the implementation of Eugene Decisions, including the future of the council's relationship with executive managers. Seating was arranged in a large circle to create an informal atmosphere. John O'Connor facilitated a round-robin discussion in which each person was asked to share his/her feedback concerning the implementation of Eugene Decisions and work load as the City reduces service capacity. The meeting adjourned at 9:30 p.m. .. (Recorded by Yolanda Paule and David Straub) cc53009.112 . MINUTES--Eugene City Council November 9, 1992 Page 5 5:30 p.m.