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HomeMy WebLinkAbout10/19/1977 Meeting . . - M I NUT E S EUGENE CITY COUNCIL October 19, 1977 Adjourned meeting from October 12, 1977, of the City Council of the City of Eugene, Oregon, was called to order by His Honor Mayor Gus Keller at 12 noon on October 19, 1977, at the King's Table, Oakway Mall, with the following Council members present: Eric Haws, D. W. Hamel, Tom Williams, Ray Bradley, Jack Delay, Scott Lieuallen, Brian Obie, and Betty Smith. I. Items from Mayor and Council A. Joint Housing Committee Recommendation re: Palace Hotel--Memo di~tributed to Council. Manager said JHC had set an October 24 deadline for receiving proposals regarding the Palace Hotel. Two requests had come from Lane County. In order to receive funding for proposed use of the Palace Hotel, the County has requested a proposed deadline change from October 24 to January 24. Manager said someone would have to continue subsidy for the Palace Hotel operation in the interim period. JHC was recommending that Lane County assume the subsidy of $3,000 to $4,500. The urgency of the request today arose because the proposal had been received Monday, JHC had met Tuesday, and a response was needed to Lane County Commissioners by 1:30 today. e Betty Niven, JHC Chairman, said the two proposals from Lane County had very good possibilities of getting funds after January 1, but neither proposal could be submitted by the Monday deadline. JHC felt the two proposals were good and should have an opportunity for perusal by JHC for future use of the Palace Hotel. In order to be more cooperative, it was suggested that Lane County recog- nize there are no funds in the City to subsidize the Palace Hotel and the County should be willing to underwrite the subsidy costs. Ms. Smith wondered if Lane County did not agree to pay the costs, then what the stautus would be. Ms. Niven replied JHC would stay with the October 24 deadline and see what happens. She felt there I was no real problem fo~ Lane County to provide the funding. Mr. Haws moved, seconded by Mr. Hamel, to approve the JHC report and recommendation to extend deadline for receipt of proposals for Palace Hotel from October 24, 1977 to January 24, 1978. Motion carried unanimously, with Councilor Williams abstaining. B. L-COG ESATS presentation--Manager noted the presentation had been scheduled for Wednesday, November 9, but a conflict in scheduling with the Civic Center Commission's public hearing for site selection e 10/19/77--1 I I~ . I . t necessitated changing the L-COG ESATS presentation to Tuesday, . November 8. This would be the presentation before the planning commissions, two city councils, and Lane County by L-COG staff on ESATS. C. Oregon Delegation (League of Oregon Cities) to White House Con- ference on Economic Policies and Growth--A request by Councilor Delay had been received by the City Manager; also staff and perhaps some citizens of the community might be interested in attending. Manager said the Oregon Delegation would consist of six members appointed by the Governor. The conference will be held the end of January and first part of February. Mr. Bradley said he felt it important to have City Council make a recommendation for a Councilor to be a delegate. Mr. Haws wondered if a staff person could be sent also, or if it were a limited audience. Betty Smith replied it included only 300 people from allover the country. She suggested Manager's office submit Mr. Delay's name and any staff members that City Manager feels should be included. Mr. Bradley wondered if there were any possibility of having a public official take a staff member as an assistant, not as a member of the delegation. Mr. Lieuallen said he would be more comfortable with that, and would like to request that procedure to the Governor. Mr. Lieua1len moved, seconded by Mr. Hamel, that City Manager e recommend Jack Delay asa ,member of the Oregon delegation, and request that the Governor also allow a staff member to accompany the Councilor. Mr. Williams felt the Council should be more concerned in making sure it had a person attend who had the expertise, and who would be in a more permanent position with the City, noting the trans- iency of city council. He felt also Council should consider the background of the person it sends, noting perhaps staff would have more expertise and would be available to future Councilors over a long time period. Mr. Delay said the reason the conference is being held was to ex- ~}o:re' this area in which experts do not know what to do. He said there would be many national problems and opinions addressed, and further, he did not know how Council would make a judgment as to who was the most expert. However, he said he did not want to com- pete with City staff. Ed Whitelaw noted he had already submitted his name for consideration. He said there would ,be six members for the Oregon delegation, four would be from interest groups, and two would be public officials. e : 10/19/77--2 18' -------- ~ e Mr. Haws felt the motion should include that the Council feels very stronglYt in fact expectst that someone from Eugene would be on that delegation. Mayor summed up the discussion by saying Council would go on record as suggesting Mr. Delay attend as Council IS representative, with a staff person (Ed Whitelaw)t and that Council expects an appointment from Eugene. Vote was taken on the motion which carried unanimously. D. Room Tax Committee--Manager requested Chainman Lieuallen set a meeting time for the Committee the latter part of next week. Ms. Smith noted 4 p.m. had seemed to work out well in the past and asked consideration for that time. E. Appointments to boards and commissions--Mr. Obie noted there would be many vacancies coming up and wondered how Council would be dealing with them. Manager said at October 26 meetingt a list of vacancies would be distributedt and publicized in order generate citizen interest throughout Novembert with the hope that appointments could be made by January 1. F. Planning Commission-City Council joint meetings--Mr. Obie said he had asked staff or City Attorney to prepare alternate choices to the ordinance regarding action taken contrary to Planning Commission action requiring a joint meeting. He wondered if that were being done. John Porter said Planning Department staff and e City Attorney were working on the problem and options would be presented to Council, hopefully at the joint Planning Commission- Council meeting November 1. He noted for Council it would be a change in the zoning ordinance and would have to go through the hearings process of the Planning Commission. G. Tri-Agency Spay-Neuter Clinic--Mr. Obie wondered what the status was. Manager said that would be on the agenda October 26 for discussion. H. Metropolitan Plan Policy Committee--Mr. Bradley reviewed action and discussion from two previous meetings. One issue discussed was the County's revision to the Work Programt and how it relates to the updating of ESATS and the 1990 Plan. Alsot the County wished to revise the language regarding "exceptions to ~tatewide planning goals. II Another issue dealt with LCDCls request for a more site specific Urban Service Boundary area.Staff will respond to the memoranda introduced by Mr. BradleYt distributed to Council, and will be addressed at a future meeting. I. Tri-Agency Policy Board meeting--Mr. Bradley reported on a meeting hel d Tuesday, at which time the Pol i cy Board approved in concept to allow Springfield participation in the policy and administration 4t 10/19/77--3 787 ~ portions, but not be included in the initial funding of the spay- neuter clinic. When the clinic becomes self-sufficient, then e Springfield would have the option to participate financially. The decision to allow Springfield to participate on this basis was made because the Policy Board felt there were higher goals for a joint effort and consolidated program. The balance between cooperation between the three jurisdictions in lieu of financial participation by Springfield was felt to be a satisfactory trade- off. The agreement will come before Council October 26 for dis- cussion, and Mr. Bradley noted the POlicy Board decision does not bind the three jurisdictions in any way. Mr. Delay said he would like to have time to explore the policy questions to be addressed, noting Council was working its way into a funding version of cooperation. Assistant Manager noted there were many examples where Council has participated in such cooperative efforts in the past. J. Sale of Krugerran~-Mr. Bradley expressed concern about financial institutions selling or offering for sale this gold piece from South Africa. He felt it went against the human rights policies of the City and asked Council to go on record as opposing this sale. Mr. Bradley moved, seconded by Mr. Delay, that City Council go on record as opposing the sale. Mr. Obie said he would vote against the motion. He felt City e Council should not become a "little United Nations," but should focus its attention on City business. Ms. Smith noted opposition for an item coming before Council without prior materials. She also expressed concern regarding the length of today's agenda. Ms. Smith moved, seconded by Mr. Obie to table the motion. Motion carried, with Haws, Hamel, Williams, Smith, and Obie voting aye; Delay, Lieuallen, and Bradley voting no. Mr. Bradley then asked staff to research the matter and bring it back as a future agenda item. Mr. Williams said he felt the issue had been tabled for any future discussion. Mr. Bradley re- quested clarification. Assistant Manager said it would take a majority motion by Council to removed the item from the table. K. Tree Preservation Committee--Mr. Bradley expressed concern about the composition of the Committee, noting an over-emphasis in real estate interests and developers. He expressed concern regarding the danger of City Council losing its right to make appointments and allowing Mayor to make those appointments. . 10/19/77--4 1&8 . . . Mr. Obie said Mayor had asked him to request that neighborhood groups interested in this problem recommend representatives to the Committee. He had forwarded those names to the Mayor and those had been appointed. He felt that people who are just as concerned about the problem feel the Committee is very adequate, and asked if Mr. Bradley had had negative feedback from the community. Mr. Bradley replied no. Mayor said he felt it appropriate for Councilors to question the appointments, and noted the Committee had been structured pri- marily in the same manner as the last committee, and included basically the same interest groups, with the addition of citizen participants from neighborhood groups. Mr. Hamel noted that any time Mayor had the appointment power for a committee, Councilors had the opportunity to recommend names for Mayor1s appointments. L. Schedule for remainder of meeting--Mayor noted he would be leaving in five minutes. In pursuant discussion, it was determined that Items III, IV, VIII, and IX would be considered. Continuation of discussion of economic development would be scheduled for another meeting. Items V, VI, and VII would be held over to October 26. Mayor Keller left the meeting. President Haws presided for the remainder. III. Affirmative Action Report from Human Rights Council--Memo and report distributed. e Don Chalmers, Youth Commission, made the presentation in place of George Russell, President of the Human Rights Council. He said Council should note that the discussion was regarding the Affirmative Action Report for 1975-76, and there were some very important points to consider. He noted that the report was very much improved over other reports in its clarity, accuracy, and tone. It was a much better written report, with the format more readily understandable. However, he noted there was little or no progress in affirmative action made in the period considered. He cited minority employment in the city as backsliding, and noted this is a concern to the Human Rights Council. He said there were some pieces of information missing, noting Human Rights Council would like to see more information on employment of the aging or handicapped. He felt there should be a way of developing statistics that would allow comparisons in that area, even in the absence of national statistics for comparison. He felt those statistics would be available in the future and it would be prudent to start that process now. In regard to jOb applications, Mr. Chalmers said there was no method of establishing how the City recruits, in terms of drawing people into the recruitment pool. He said data on job applicants is of particular interest to the human rights commissions. It was suggested that a separate annonymous form be attached to the applications to allow the commissions to review who was hired and from what pool they were hired. Such forms could permit relatively easy data tabulation on protected classes each year, thus enabling the City to have a better idea of the success of affirmative action efforts and recruitment. e 10/19/77--5 -,8Cf , ,. In regard to inappropriate comparisons, he noted the comparison was . wi:th the private sector only, and the human rights commissions felt itr woul d be better to compare wi th other governmental bodi es as well as the private sector. In other remarks, Mr. Chalmers said the new staffing (page 3) is to be applauded. He said the 1981 goals at this point are somewhat short- sighted in terms of where the City should be, and in terms of how the population is growing. The human rights commissions felt there is a need to adjust the 1981 goals, in other words to accelerate those goals and objectives regarding affirmative action. Gary Long, Personnel Director, said the 1975-76 Affirmative Action Report had better information and City staff were trying to develop more. He felt staff should continue the discussion to get more agree- ment regarding ,who .is to develop what information, noting staff felt that commissions should take some responsibility. He said that 60 percent of the selection for employees had affected the protected classes, noting it seems to ~e a fairly open system. Regarding the negative side, he said, there had been little progress in affirmative action and he saw little option for substantial change; noting the difficulty with the labor market and not just with the employer. He al so said staff hopes to update the goal s thi s year. Ms. Smith said the procedure used last year of commissions meeting with staff and two Councilors worked very well, and she hoped that procedure would be used in the updating of the goals this year. ,- Mr. Haws wondered what the City was doing to encourage more female applicants for the .fire and police departments. Mr. Long replied he had approximately 500 applications for 17 openings in the Fire Department now, and two were female applicants. He said it was hard to find interested women, noting the staff had sent letters to various women's groups in the area to make it known the City was interested in women firefighters. Also, staff had sought information from other cities to see how they recruited. With regard to the Police Depart- ment, he said affirmative action for female employees was more positive. Mr. Hamel wondered how staff picked from 500 applicants the 17 employees, noting if the last two were women, would staff go to the bottom of the list just to hire women. Mr. Long said staff tried to balance between qualified applicants and affirmative action goals. He said they would go through the applications and look for targeted groups who were also well qualified for the job. ,Mr. Hamel moved, seconded by Mr. Williams, to accept the 1975-76 Affirmative Action Report and response from Human Rights Council. Motion carried unanimously. .e 10/19/77--6 1'10 . IV. Improvement Petitions . Res. No. 2780--Authorizing initiating process for street paving, sanitary sewer, and storm sewer construction within Crescent Moon - Subdivision was read by number and title. Mr. Hamel moved, seconded by Mr. Delay, to adopt the resolution. Roll call vote. Motion carried unanimously. Res. No. 2781--Authorizing initiating process for street paving on McKinley Street from approximately 200 feet north of 20th Avenue to 250 feet south of 20th Avenue; and 20th Avenue from McKinley Street to City View Street was read by number and title. Mr. Hamel moved, seconded by Mr. Delay, to adopt the resolution. Roll call vote. Motion carried unanimously. V. Approval of Minutes Mr. Hamel moved, seconded by Mr. Delay, to approve Council minutes of October 12, 1977. Roll call vote. Motion carried unanimously. VI. City Government Opinion Survey Proposal--Memo distributed. Manager said Budget Committee had asked staff to explore the feasi- bility of conducting a citizen opinion survey in regard to City services and revenue allocations as a guide for budgeting decisions. The Budget Committee discussed such a need for input to get indications and preference for budgeting City monies. Discussion by Council today e would be whether there was a need for the survey, and how it should be done. Alice Rutter, Community Relations Director, made the following comments: 1. The request for an opinion survey had come from the Budget Committee; 2. Such a survey must be understood as providing only another tool for added infonmation; 3. This would be another avenue for including citizen input; and 4. The survey would require consultants for their expertise, credibility in the community, and staff was not presently equipped for handling such a project. Ms. Rutter introduced Peter and Ann Schneider, John Howard, and Jane Burkhart of the Institute of POlicy Analysis, with whom she had been working in preparation for the survey. She also introduced Mr. Bryan Downes, Chairman of Instructional Programs for the U of 0 School of Community Service and Public Affairs, who has offered to serve as coordinator of a staff-consultant survey team. Mr. Obie wondered if the final questions would be approved by Council. Ms. Rutter replied the topics would be reviewed by both staff and Council, but the final wording of questions would have to be done by the experts. She said the topics and ideas had come from Council a year ago, and she had made additional refinements on those. She noted, also, the quoted price of $10,000 for this survey was very much under cost. e 10/19/77--7 /91 . . Mr. Williams said he would like to see such a survey done, but he had e some concerns authorizing the expenditures without knowing the method- ology and the structure of questions to influence the results. He cited examples such as what the questions would look like, what kind of response would be expected, and the distribution of the question- na i re . Ms. Schneider replied the mode of the survey would be by person, telephone, or mail. She could not answer to his concern as to the results until the questions were written. She noted the difficulty of agreeing on wording of questions, but the function of the consul- tants waul d,be to try to mi nimi ze all di fferent ki nds of bi ases and conduct the survey as to the best accepted techniques. Mr. Williams wondered if there were going to be some form of specific questions with multiple-choice options, to which Ms. Schneider replied yes. Ms. Rutter clarified further that questions would revolve .around City services, how citizens would assess the effectiveness, whether they wanted more, the same, or less services. She said, for instance, citizens might be asked to prioritize services in order of importance to them as far as allocating of City monies. Also, questions regard- ing responsiveness of City staff would be included. Mr. Williams wondered if any research had been done on how the general public is able to respond to such questions. Ms. Schneider reported no work had been done in Eugene, and reviewed noting the problem of people being able to answer some kinds of questions. However, if questions are worded to seek information about which citizens have had experience, such as bike paths or streets, the general public is e able to answer those questions. She said they would try to word each question i~ such a way that people would be able to respond. Ms. Smith wondered if the timing of the survey was such that the results would be utilized by staff and Budget Committee for next year's plan- ning. Ms. Rutter replied the time schedule would allow for the pre- liminary analysis to be done between December 15 and January 1, so staff would be able to use those results in budget preparation. The final report would be ready for Budget Committee at its sessions next spring. She also noted that 1,000 questionnaires would be a represen- tative sample for this city. The questionnaire would most likely be mailed or hand-delivered, with follow-up by phone and personal pick-up. The consultants would distribute 1,200 surveys to allow for unreturned questionnaires. Mr. Hamel moved, seconded by Mr. Williams, to direct staff to prepare resolution to draw funds from the operating contin- gencies. Motion carried unanimously, with Mr. Delay abstaining. Upon motion duly made, seconded, and passed, meeting was adjourned to October 26, 1977 . ~ Charles T. Henry)~. City Manager -e CTH:DT:ml/CM12a1 10/19/77--8 lq~