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HomeMy WebLinkAbout12/07/1992 Meeting M I NUT E S . Eugene City Council McNutt Room--City Hall December 7, 1992 4 p.m. COUNCILORS PRESENT: Shawn Boles, Bobby Green, Ruth Bascom, Debra Ehrman, Randy MacDonald, Paul Nicholson, Kaye Robinette, Roger Rutan. The Eugene City Council meeting of December 7, 1992, was called to order by His Honor Mayor Jeff Miller. I. ITEMS FROM THE MAYOR. CITY COUNCIL. AND CITY MANAGER A. Restructuring of Boards and Commissions Mr. Boles called attention to a memorandum from Citizen Involvement Committee Chair Steven Barton with regard to the restructuring of boards and commis- s ions. He suggested that the memorandum be used by th~ counc il as a working document as it undertakes the restructuring. . . B. Joint Officials Meetina Mr. Green said he is unable to attend the Joint Officials Meeting on D~ember 9. Mayor Miller ascertained that the council will be represented by five other councilors. C. Pot-bellied Pies Mr. Green asked that when conducting the annual code review, staff address the issue of allowing the possession of pot-bellied pigs within city limits. II. IMPLEMENTATION PLAN FOR EUGENE DECISIONS SERVICE CHANGES A. Introduction Barb Bellamy, City Manager's Office, reviewed the council's agendas for this and its December 8 meeting on the implementation plan for Eugene Decisions (ED) service changes. She said this meeting would describe the service changes in detail, including approaches, time lines, assumptions, concerns, and the resources involved. She asked the council to flag any areas of concern to be discussed later. Ms. Bellamy said staff suggests that the council review progress on the implementation plan twice yearly. She reviewed the council's December 8 agenda which includes the six-year financial fore- . MINUTES--Eugene City Council December 7, 1992 Page 1 4 p.m. cast, FY94 budget, restaurant tax, implementation plan process issues, and . agenda control. Mr. MacDonald arrived at the meeting. City Manager Mike Gleason said it will be important over the next year that the senior management and the council have a complete view of the resource capacity of the organization, so the material presented will be quite de- tailed. He noted that last year non-compensable staff hours totaled 43,000. Mr. Gleason said that the implementation plan is estimated to require another 20,000 staff hours per year, and he is working under the assumption that the plan is the council's top priority. He said that the resource commitment by departments involved in program changes will be included in the details. B. Service Chanaes 1. Efficiencies Taraet Warren Wong, Administrative Services Director, recalled that the council asked staff to explore efficiencies in the following areas: consolidations, especially managerial or supervisory position; streamlining regulations and procedures to reduce workload and costs; automation; internal operations; and personnel costs. Mr. Wong described targeted efficiencies including merging the Library and PARCS departments, merging the Executive Department with Administrative Services, elimination of Centralized Text Production Services, the merging of . Parks Maintenance and Public Works Maintenance, and the elimination of the senior planner position in the Department of Public Safety. Savings in efficiencies thus far total $666,773 and potential savings for the remainder of the $800,000 have been identified and will be met by the time Executive Managers release the budget in the spring. Mr. Wong said that areas under consideration include adjustment to wages/benefits, contracting-out service delivery, establishment of fee-based service delivery, and work system analysis. The projected savings over a two- to three-year period is $200,000 to $500,000. Addressing a question from Ms. Ehrman, Mr. Wong said that the organization hopes to come in under the proposed budget's wage figure after negotiating with bargaining units. Mr. Gleason said all wage costs will be adjusted to within market. Mr. Wong said the City will also try to keep below projected staff growth. Mr. MacDonald expressed concern with eroding a base of quality employees by undercompensating them. Mr. Gleason explained that the standard of sustainability with which he is working ensures a quality base of employees. Mr. Wong described the City's Employee Transition Program which attempts to place employees affected by the Eugene Decisions strategy in vacant positions 6r retrain them for other positions. MINUTES--Eugene City Council December 7, 1992 Page 2 . 4 p.m. . 2. Central Business Function Mr. Wong recalled that the direct service components of General Fund services included a proportionate dollar amount for centralized administration. A percentage of that has been taken as the equivalent for the central business function reduction--approximately $110,000. The proposal calls for the elimination of the Excellence Through Involvement Committee, City support for Public Access cable television services, and the centralized Data Control position. Reductions are planned in financial and management analysis and City Council support, including a 10 percent reduction in meetings. Mr. Wong said the proposed eliminations and reductions in the central business function amount to $110,000. 3. Public Safety Services Mr. Wong described the Spay/Neuter Clinic as another administrative function. Fee increases were implemented on November 1 without a significant decrease in the number of surgeries conducted. In addition, the City contract with lane County Animal Regulation Authority has been reduced by $35,000. One of the four enforcement staff in the department's Animal Control section will be eliminated. 4. Cultural Services Bob Schutz, Director of Cultural Services, described service changes in his division, saying they include reduced support for the Eugene Celebration and . the Sister Cities Program. Other changes include increasing revenues by charging for custodial services to shows, changing the telephone service at the Ticket Office, eliminating lunches for the Cultural Affairs Commission, and reducing administrative clerical support. Mr. Schutz said that the institution of a membership program for the Hult Center will be undertaken after the hiring of the new Director of Marketing and Programming. 5. Recreation Services Mr. Schutz reviewed the council's directives with regard to Recreation Services: to maintain the programs but reduce tax support by increasing user fees, to explore ways to reduce the cost of operating programs to offset the fee increases, to preserve low-cost youth activities and tax support for youth programs, and to increase scholarships for low-income residents. Mr. Schutz reviewed the following as assumptions used in developing an implementation strategy: static demand, implementation will take three to five years, services are maintained, no increase in recreation costs, scholarships are not subsidized by increased user fees, and the standards for facility maintenance remain high. He said that research on user fee increases included a customer groups feedback form distributed at recreation sites and an informal pricing survey. Mr. Schutz said that the only exception to the youth fee increase, which has been allowed by the council, is a 15 percent increase in the Aquatics Program. He said that the fee increase may have resulted in fewer teams registering for the program. Staff will conduct a survey and determine . MINUTES--Eugene City Council December 7, 1992 Page 3 4 p.m. if the fee increases are related to participation in the program. Mr. Schutz . said that Recreation Services cannot reduce tax support by $690,000 as directed without raising youth program fees and/or senior programs. He noted that the Parks and Recreation Commission expressed strong opposition to increased fees in the Aquatics Program. Mr. Schutz said fees will be closely monitored and marketed. Although expensive, he said it may be worthwhile to do a price tolerance study. 6. Planninq and Develooment Abe Farkas, Planning and Development Director, reviewed the guiding principles (council directives) used by the department in designing an implementation plan. He recalled that the department was asked to reduce tax support by $2 million over the next two years, to reduce and simplify regulations and seek alternative types of enforcement, to retain some capacity to respond to community development opportunities, to pay more attention to customers and focus remaining resources on neighborhood issues, and to continue to improve efficiencies. Mr. Farkas described changes in the following areas: code revision/enforcement, business licensing, BCAC costing recommendations, the annexation program restructuring, and the Business Assistance Team phase-down, the downtown phase-down, establishment of a contractual services fund, and the establishment of a neighborhood enhancement team. Mr. Farkas said that reducing and simplifying regulations involve Chapters 6 and 9 of the code, the nuisance code and zoning/land-use code. He said staff will develop alternative enforcement mechanisms to deal with the nuisance code. These will be presented to council for adoption by April 1993, with . implementation by FY94. With regard to Chapter 9, staff will simplify the code and shift it away from discretionary reviews to codified standards, and will seek alternative enforcement mechanisms. Mr. Farkas said changes to this chapter are estimated to take two to three years. Mr. Farkas said the goal in the business license area is to increase solid waste handling fees, and also to reduce monitoring of business licensing. He said some elements of the business licensing plan are already on the council's March agenda. Changes in pre-development conferencing are forthcoming, but it is clear that the department will not be able to continue ongoing consulta- tions that consume large amounts of staff time. The practice may be continued if customers are willing to pay for consultations. Mr. Farkas said staff is analyzing contracting-out of some plan checking services, and it may be possible to implement a program by spring 1993. Mr. Farkas said the goal with annexations is to eliminate the annexation program incentives and assistance to other agencies and special districts. He noted that the Planning Commission developed a report for presentation to the council in the near future. With regard to the BATeam, the goal is to eliminate most of its functions including the following: counseling to small businesses, support to trade and business associations, preparation or distribution of economic development publications, and partnership with the Chamber of Commerce in the business visitation program. Mr. Farkas said staff MINUTES--Eugene City Council December 7, 1992 Page 4 . 4 p.m. is working to transfer some of these responsibilities to other entities. He . said the department will retain the business loan program and will continue to carryon the enterprise zone program as well as responsive siting assistance. Mr. Farkas said that the downtown phase-down will reduce the City's proactive role outside the urban renewal district and support to the Downtown Commis- sion. He said mall regulations will either be reduced, eliminated, or contracted-out. Mr. Farkas said that a Contractual Services Fund would be established by charging for planning and development services that the department is now providing without charge. He said the configuration would also be used to more aggressively pursue discretionary funding from Federal grant programs as well as private foundations to support neighborhood and community agendas. Mr. Farkas described the Neighborhood Enhancement Team as a multi-department network working with existing resources to better meet the needs of neighbor- hoods and the community. Describing the department's capacity and demand, Mr. Farkas said that for the current year it had 170,000 hours of regular work time and 5,000 hours of uncompensated overtime. The department services 12-15 boards, commissions, and major committees. This amounts to 20,000 annual staff hours. Mr. Farkas gave the following as examples of staff's time commitment to sample projects: BCAC task team report, 1,750 hours; LTD station siting, 4,400 hours; Parking conversion program, 5,500 hours; . Commercial Lands Study, 4,050 hours; and Willakenzie Plan, 7,400 hours. Mr. Farkas said that the Eugene Decisions process will reduce the department's available staff resources to about 150,000 regular hours. He said it would add about 10,000 staff hours to the department each of the next three years to implement Eugene Decisions. There was a brief discussion about how to manage staff hours. Mr. Gleason said the organization needs to experiment with the changes, record and evaluate them. He suggested carefully describing the problem, choosing an intervention, and measuring it with experience. With regard to scope analy- sis, Mr. Boles said council will need a general policy for ranking the issues. 7. Public Works Chris Andersen, Public Works Director, described the strategies used in her department to address the shortfall including physical consolidations, moving eligible services to non-general funds, identifying opportunities for in- creased efficiencies, and reducing service levels where feasible. Ms. Andersen said the consolidation of Parks Services with Public Works Maintenance allowed the department to eliminate the Lincoln site, including consolidation of purchasing/warehousing activities and the rough-mowing . MINUTES--Eugene City Council December 7, 1992 Page 5 4 p.m. program. The consolidation also identified ways for more efficient use of . equipment. Other changes in the department include reduction to minimum maintenance to landscaping and park trees, Riverside Parks/Owens Rose Garden, turf and grounds, and street trees. C. Wrao-Uo Ms. Bellamy said there are only two follow-up issues that require further discussion: the room tax issue and setting priorities for Planning and Development projects. The council agreed that its discussion of agenda control on December 8 would i dent ify pri orit i es. Ms. Bellamy described the checkpoint process, saying financial and service ramifications of the implementation plan will be reported to the council in the spring and fall. Mr. MacDonald said he wanted to revisit the checkpoint process after the council December 8 discussion. The council decided to entertain the following items from its evening (7:30 p.m.) agenda at this time. III. COUNCIL FUNDING REQUEST CONCERNING TRAINING VIDEO FOR INTERFAITH EMERGENCY SHELTER PROGRAM . Mr. Boles moved, seconded by Mr. Green, to direct the City Manager to enter into a contract to produce a training video for use by members of the Interfaith Emergency Shelter network. Roll call vote. The motion passed unanimously, 8:0. ' .- Ms. Ehrman suggested charging private convnunity groups for use of the video: IV. CONSENT CALENDAR Mr. Boles moved, seconded by Mr. Green, to approve the items on the City Council Consent Calendar. Roll call vote. The motion passed unanimously, 8:0. Mayor Miller adjourned the meeting of the Eugene City Council and convened the Urban Renewal Agency. V. LIBRARY PROJECT: SEARS BUILDING OPTION EXTENSION Mr. Farkas said this is the council's opportunity to extend the option on the Sears building for an additional three-month period beyond December 31, 1992, MINUTES--Eugene City Council December 7, 1992 Page 6 . 4 p.m. . at a cost of $34,000. The council may also wish to drop the option and let it go back to private ownership. Mr. Boles moved, seconded by Ms. Bascom, to extend the option to buy the old Sears building for an additional three-month period. The motion passed, 7:1, Ms. Ehrman opposed. Saying that the Urban Renewal Agency previously decided to buy the property, Ms. Ehrman said she favors showing leadership by moving forward with the purchase. Mayor Miller adjourned the meeting of the Urban Renewal Agency and reconvened the meeting of the Eugene City Council. VI. BALLOTING FOR APPOINTMENTS TO THE BUDGET COMMITTEE AND PLANNING COMMISSION Mr. Boles moved, seconded by Mr. Robinette, to reappoint Janet Anderson and to appoint Jim Torrey, Howard Bonnett, and Mary Hudzikiewicz to the Budget Committee. Roll call vote. The motion passed unanimously, 8:0. Mr. Boles moved, seconded by Mr. Green, to reappoint Ellen Wojahn and to appoint Vern Ho to a four-year term and Robert Belknap to the remaining year of Nancy Nathanson's term on the Planning . Commission. Roll call vote. The motion passed, 7:1; Mr. MacDonald opposed. The meeting adjourned at 7:25 p.m. Ro/~ Micheal Gleason City Manager (Recorded by Yolanda Paule) cc40007.122 . MINUTES--Eugene City Council December 7, 1992 Page 7 4 p.m.