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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCC Minutes - 07/28/08 Work SessionM I N U T E S Eugene City Council Work Session McNutt Room – City Hall 777 Pearl Street—Eugene, Oregon July 28, 2008 5:30 p.m. COUNCILORS PRESENT: Chris Pryor, Bonny Bettman, Andrea Ortiz, Mike Clark, Jennifer Solomon, Alan Zelenka, Betty Taylor, George Poling (via telephone). Her Honor Mayor Kitty Piercy called the meeting of the Eugene City Council to order. A. COMMITTEE REPORTS AND ITEMS OF INTEREST FROM MAYOR, CITY COUNCIL AND CITY MANAGER Ms. Piercy noted the recent resignations of Police Auditor Cristine Beamud and Assistant City Manager Angel Jones, both of whom had accepted positions with other cities. She thanked them for their service to the City and contributions to the community. She described a recycling project by the Friendly Area Neighbors in which residents had an opportunity to recycle among themselves, donate items to local agencies or send them to Next Step Recycling. Ms. Bettman expressed her gratitude to Ms. Beamud and Ms. Jones for their service. She said the Friendly Area Neighbors event and picnic was popular and well attended. She indicated she intended to offer a motion regarding ballot language, either at the end of the work session or during the regular meeting. Ms. Taylor also thanked employees who were leaving. She said a constituent had inquired about notifying the City of a problem on a weekend, such as the lights being out in a park. She asked who people should contact to report problems. She said another constituent asked if the City could clean up Amazon Creek in th the vicinity of 36 Avenue and West Amazon Parkway. Mr. Clark thanked those who organized the enjoyable and successful Cal Young Neighborhood Association picnic. He noted that Vicki Stewart, long-time employee of the City Manager’s Office, had retired last week and would be missed. He was sad to see Ms. Jones leave Eugene and hoped the citizens of Gaithersburg, Maryland appreciated what a dedicated professional she would be as their new city manager. Mr. Poling wished Ms. Jones and Ms. Beamud well in their new positions. He thanked Ms. Jones for her outstanding service to the City and her consistently positive and professional demeanor. Ms. Solomon congratulated Ms. Jones and Ms. Beamud on their new positions and echoed Mr. Poling’s comments regarding Ms. Jones. She reported on a meeting between the Housing Policy Board (HPB) and the Infill Compatibility Standards Task Team (ICS) to discuss the HPB’s concerns about the impact of infill standards on affordable housing in the community. She said it was an interesting and informative discussion and conversations would continue over the course of the ICS project. She attended the preview of the RiverBend hospital and said it was a wonderful regional complex. MINUTES—Eugene City Council July 28, 2008 Page 1 Work Session Ms. Ortiz described her experience as an employee at RiverBend and the mock runs being conducted to prepare for the arrival of patients at the facility. She attended an open house to obtain feedback from neighbors on the Elmira/Maple Road project. She said a grant had been obtained to study the built environment and childhood asthma and obesity in the Trainsong neighborhood. She said a meeting would be held on July 29 at the library to discuss the Beltline project from River Road to Interstate 5. She noted that Vicki Cox would be leaving the City Manager’s Office for a job with the police auditor. Mr. Zelenka thanked Ms. Jones for her leadership and service to the City. He also thanked Ms. Beamud and Ms. Stewart for their service to the City. He agreed with Ms. Solomon that RiverBend was a great facility for the region. He said a June 25 letter to the editor in the Register Guard from Mike Bogdanovich contained misinformation about the City’s expenditure of gas tax revenues for street repair. He assured the public that every cent of that money had gone to street repairs and asked staff to send a letter to Mr. Bogdanovich explaining that. Mr. Pryor thanked Ms. Jones, Ms. Stewart and Ms. Beamud for their service to the City. He represented the City at a reception for a Korean delegation and complimented Mary Walston of the City Manager’s Office for her participation. He attended a Lane Transit District West Eugene EmX corridor meeting to discuss alternative routes. He said more public input would be obtained as the designs were refined. Ms. Piercy conveyed the thanks of Acorn Park neighbors for improvements the City had made. City Manager Jon Ruiz also expressed his gratitude to Ms. Stewart, Ms. Jones and Ms. Beamud and congratulated Ms. Jones on her new position. He commended Ms. Beamud for her work as police auditor. He said he recently participated in an informative tour of the University neighborhood. Mr. Pryor, seconded by Ms. Bettman, moved that the council begin the recruitment and hiring of a replacement police auditor and that the council receive a draft time- line and framework based primarily on the previous auditor hiring process in time to consider before the council’s break. Ms. Solomon expressed surprise at the motion and hoped the council would take the time to resolve some outstanding issues regarding the police auditor position before hiring a new person. Mr. Clark concurred with Ms. Solomon’s remarks. He referred to the council’s recent discussion about the job description as a part of a performance evaluation in order to make the council’s expectations clear to potential employees. Ms. Ortiz felt that the council had been harsh in the past when evaluating employees and wanted to see the council resolve those issues. She did not feel that asking the staff for a timeline and framework would prevent that work from happening. Ms. Bettman asserted that oversight systems always had unresolved issues because processes were evolving. She was in favor of moving forward, as the council would never all agree on the issues. Mr. Zelenka was in favor of requesting a timeline and framework as the recruitment process had been lengthy when Ms. Beamud was hired. He understood that staff was going to develop a job description from existing material and thought that should not generate more debate. MINUTES—Eugene City Council July 28, 2008 Page 2 Work Session Mr. Pryor said his intent was only to obtain a draft of the recruitment process so the council would have a better idea of the timeline. Mr. Poling asked if the council would need to appoint an interim police auditor. Mr. Pryor said he would meet with current police auditor staff to ascertain their interest in an interim position and report back to the council. He said the council would need to formally appoint an interim director. The motion passed, 7:1; Ms. Solomon voting no. Mr. Ruiz confirmed that a work session on the draft timeline and framework would be scheduled prior to the council’s break. B. WORK SESSION: Annual Meeting with Police Commission Mr. Ruiz introduced Police Commission chair Tamara Miller and vice chair Joe Alsup. Ms. Miller presented the Police Commission Annual Report: Fiscal Year 2008, which outlined how the commission had met expectations with respect to its FY 2008 work plan by allowing for issues of community concern and furthered the mission and objectives of the Police Commission. She said work was begun on updating the Police Operations Manual (POM) to Lexipol standards, developing the foundation for a strategic response to family violence and reviewing police department use of force policies. Ongoing work included review of staffing levels, joint meetings with the Human Rights Commission and Civilian Review Board and providing forums for community input at every commission and subcommittee meeting. She said that work on the taser policy included an open public forum format that allowed participants to interact with commissioners and experts on various subjects. She said the forum was successful after people became comfortable with the new format. Ms. Miller said that commission members participated in a modified version of the police operations academy and she was grateful to the police department for its willingness to accommodate the commission with a shortened version of the academy. She noted that the commission had a number of new members and a new staff person during the past year, which made the academy and the boards and commissions training provided by the City very helpful. She said the commission had also gone paperless as part of the City’s sustainability initiative. Ms. Miller said much of the commission’s attention was focused on emerging community issues resulting from the Salisbury case, which generated a Mental Health Crisis Response Subcommittee to examine crisis intervention team (CIT) models. The subcommittee’s report was accepted by Chief Bob Lehner, who agreed to proceed with implementing CIT training. She said the commission also developed a draft Taser policy for a pilot project, which would be reviewed at six months and one year intervals to determine if it should be continued. Mr. Alsup commended the Eugene Police Department for its outstanding efforts on security for the Olympic Trials. He said the 2009 work plan was divided into four main components: ? police long-term staffing plan – facilitating a community conversation on police service levels and formulating police recommendations on ongoing staffing decisions; MINUTES—Eugene City Council July 28, 2008 Page 3 Work Session ? committee projects – ongoing policy work related to the mentally ill, crowd control, missing per- sons, and child abuse; new work on limited English proficiency, hearing-impaired/disabled and pol- icy work on medical marijuana; and ? work sessions and information items. Mr. Alsup remarked that there had been a number of public relations concerns during the past year and the commission was interested in trying to bridge communication gaps in the community and confusion or misunderstanding about the police department. He said the work plan also included intended goals and outcomes. He said the turnover in commission membership and staff meant a significant loss of institutional memory, but competent and knowledgeable individuals had filled those positions. Ms. Piercy expressed her appreciated for the commission’s significant public outreach efforts. She said the crisis intervention work was very important to many people in the community. She asked if the Taser policy recommendation included when and under what circumstances Tasers could be used. Ms. Miller said the policy was very detailed about when it was appropriate to use a Taser and when Taser use was not recommended, such as against the elderly and very young, pregnant women, people who were disabled or medically fragile, or when there was risk of injury from the physical environment. Ms. Piercy asked if the policy specified the Taser was to be used in lieu of a weapon. Mr. Alsup said the intent was to give the police another tool that was short of deadly force. He described several incidents since the policy was implemented where the subjects were armed and deadly force would have been justified if Tasers had not been available. Ms. Ortiz thanked the commission for its work. She agreed that the public forum format used for the Taser issue was innovative and effective. She asked to see data on Taser use when it became available. She encouraged the commission to continue to include experts on the topics that would be under review during the coming year. Mr. Clark also commended the commission for its work and said it served the community well. He appreciated the opportunity to participate in the police academy; it helped him to better understand the job of a police officer. Mr. Zelenka thanked the commission for its work. He asked when Taser use information would be available. Ms. Miller said that the pilot project would be reviewed at six months and that information would be available in August 2008. She said a full year of data would be compiled and reviewed in January 2009. Mr. Zelenka asked if there would be sufficient data at six months to review the project and perhaps recommend changes. Chief Lehner said the six-month information would be limited to data that described the circumstances under which Tasers were used, the capacity of officers and subjects involved and the success rate. He said there might be some earlier indicators of injuries, but it was important to wait for the annual report because the purpose of the Taser was to add a tool to the police department arsenal that would allow it to take subjects into custody who resisted with various levels of violence and minimize the risk of injury to officers and subjects. He said the body of data would be too small at six months to base evaluative conclusions on because of the limited number of deadly force incidents. Mr. Zelenka remarked that Tasers had also been used on unarmed individuals and wanted to review the policy aspects at the six-month point. He asked for an explanation of the new committee work that was being proposed in the work plan. Mr. Alsup replied that policy language in the POM was outdated and the MINUTES—Eugene City Council July 28, 2008 Page 4 Work Session commission was involved in a multi-year approach to reviewing components and determining if they required revisions in order to reflect community values. Ms. Miller said it was not the commission’s charge to continuously review all POM policies; it selected subjects based on emerging community issues or identified risk. She said the Lexipol review would screen all policies against Lexipol standards. Ms. Bettman thanked the commission for its public service. She suggested that the commission provide any draft policy recommendations to the council. She was concerned that being paperless would create problems for those without computer access. She understood that the impetus for moving forward with Taser was to use them in lieu of lethal force, based on an incident involving the fatal shooting of a mentally ill man. She wanted to see the six-month data and a report on how to reach the objective of limiting Taser use to cases of lethal force instead of facilitating an arrest. She was concerned that it appeared the technology problems with in-car video had not been resolved. Chief Lehner said most of the technical problems were resolved early in the process. He said the evaluation was delayed, not eliminated. Mr. Pryor saw the Police Commission as a valuable support mechanism for the interface between the police department and the community. He said the availability of reliable data could prevent misinformation from circulating and he hoped that the preliminary data in six months on Taser use would be helpful to the council and the community. Mr. Pryor, seconded by Ms. Bettman, moved to approve the Police Commission’s Fiscal Year 2009 Work Plan. Ms. Taylor said she understood the Police Commission’s role was to advise the council on policy. Mr. Alsup and Ms. Miller agreed that was the commission’s primary charge. Ms. Taylor remarked that the council had not been involved in setting Taser policy. She asked about a recent incident involving Taser use. Mr. Alsup said it would be inappropriate for him to speculate on that matter. Chief Lehner reminded the council that the incident was still under investigation and all of the facts on which to base a decision were not yet known; any discussions of the incident should be delayed until the investigation was concluded. Mr. Poling was in favor of a six-month initial review of the Taser project, followed by a full annual review, instead of a “knee-jerk” reaction to recent incidents. He said when the Taser policy was being developed, the commission discussed both use in lieu of lethal force and including Tasers as another step in the use of force continuum. He said the intent was not to limit Tasers to use only in lieu of a deadly weapon. Ms. Ortiz said she also was concerned about the ability of people without computer access to receive information about the commission. Ms. Miller said that the commission itself had gone paperless, but materials were still available in printed format, as well as online. Mr. Clark thanked Mr. Poling for his remarks on the use of force continuum as part of the Taser policy. He encouraged councilors to attend the modified academy to gain a better understanding of the types of situations and decisions that officers were faced with. He was concerned about discussing the Taser pilot project before data was available. He asked if there was a reason to consider the use of force continuum instead of a policy that limited Taser use to in lieu of lethal force. He also asked if adequate data for a review would be available at six months. MINUTES—Eugene City Council July 28, 2008 Page 5 Work Session Chief Lehner said Taser operational policy was guided by State law and training criteria and guidelines. He said the department received and took into consideration policy recommendations from the Police Commis- sion, but the policy was the department’s policy. He noted that EPD was one of the last departments in the country to implement Tasers as a tool and had drawn on a vast body of experience from other communities. He said EPD had one of the most restrictive Taser policies in the nation. He did not feel that there would be adequate data, including information about the recent incident, at six months, but that information and data would be available for the annual review. Ms. Bettman asserted that the council could discuss anything and there was nothing to divulge since the council did not have any information about the Taser use incident. She asked when the review of the in-car videos was due as it was not in the commission’s work plan. Ms. Miller replied that it was not included in the work plan because it was not a policy issue; however, a program review was on the commission’s list of activities. Ms. Bettman offered a friendly amendment to include in the work plan a report to the council on the in-car video program. Mr. Pryor accepted the friendly amend- ment. Ms. Bettman thanked the commission for including organization of a hate crimes conference in its work program. She asked how many of the Tasers were equipped with cameras and whether that information would be included in the review. Chief Lehner said that four of the Tasers were equipped with cameras as it was a new, untested and expensive technology. Ms. Miller noted that the cameras did not have audio capability. The amended motion passed unanimously, 8:0. WORK SESSION: Community Survey on Street Repair C. Mr. Ruiz introduced Dr. Gary Manross, who would present the results of a needs analysis and feasibility study based on a community survey conducted in early July. He said the information was being presented to help inform the council’s decision at the regular meeting regarding options for funding street repairs. Dr. Manross reviewed the research methodology used to survey 400 voters. He distributed a Needs Analysis & Feasibility Study and used a series of slides to illustrate the data obtained in the survey related to local issues of concern; perceptions of quality of life in Eugene, taxes and waste in the City budget; spending priorities; awareness of street maintenance problems; willingness to pay additional taxes; and preferences for funding street repairs. He emphasized the importance of including a mechanism for monitoring all expenditures from any tax measure approved by the voters to assure funds were spent as promised. Based on the survey and analysis, Dr. Manross recommended placing a five-year General Obligation (GO) bond on the November 2008 ballot at a rate below what voters were willing to pay, such as $5.00 to $7.00. Mr. Clark asked if the November election could be considered a “change” election in terms of voters’ willingness to solve a problem on their own instead of waiting to see what change would bring. Dr. Manross said the survey was the voice of the electorate and meeting voter expectations was the key to success. Mr. Clark asked how much revenue would be generated by a rate of $6.00 or $7.00. Mr. Ruiz said the survey determined voters would be willing to pay a rate of $15.00 per month and the recommendation was MINUTES—Eugene City Council July 28, 2008 Page 6 Work Session approximately half of that amount. Dr. Manross said there was some controversy in the community over trust in elected officials and the bond measure was an opportunity to take a smaller step by asking for a lower rate and demonstrating success in order to build confidence and support for future requests. Mr. Clark said people who answered the survey question related to waste in the City’s budget likely had different definitions of “waste.” Dr. Manross agreed, but said that did not matter as the issue was the perception of waste, which was real regardless of the reason for the perception. Mr. Zelenka asked why the survey posed a question about a stormwater fee instead of a street utility fee. Dr. Manross said that typically people had a much more negative reaction to the term “utility” associated with taxes. The meeting adjourned at 7:22 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Jon Ruiz City Manager (Recorded by Lynn Taylor) MINUTES—Eugene City Council July 28, 2008 Page 7 Work Session