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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCC Minutes - 08/14/02 Work Session MINUTES Eugene City Council Work Session McNutt Room--Eugene City Hall August 14, 2002 Noon COUNCILORS PRESENT: David Kelly, Gary Pap~, Nancy Nathanson, Scott Meisner, Pat Farr, Betty Taylor, Gary Rayor, Bonny Bettman. CITY COUNCIL MEETING Mayor James D. Torrey called the meeting to order at noon. Ms. Bettman, seconded by Ms. Taylor, moved to switch the order of the agenda items so that the work session on downtown parking issues would be held before the process session. Mr. Kelly said he would support the motion because the downtown parking issue was more time- sensitive. Ms. Bettman expressed a desire for closure on parking issues in the downtown area before advertising was done for the Eugene Celebration. Mr. Fart said he would vote against the motion. He said it was a good opportunity for the council to exercise some discipline and make sure that it got to the downtown parking issues. Mr. Meisner said he would also oppose the motion. He noted that there was a possibility for a motion to extend the time of the meeting if it were necessary. The vote on the motion resulted in a tie; Ms. Bettman, Ms. Taylor, Mr. Kelly, Mr. Rayor voted yes, and Ms. Nathanson, Mr. Meisner, Mr. Fart, and Mr. Pap~ voted no. Mayor Torrey voted in opposition and the motion failed on a final vote of 5:4. Mr. Kelly, seconded by Mr. Pap~, moved to authorize $22,000 of General Fund contingency money for the Community Planning Workshop at the University of Oregon to conduct a business climate study. In response to a question from Mr. Meisner regarding whether there was enough money in the contingency fund to reasonably expect to pay for unexpected funding needs for the year, City Manager Jim Carlson said the fund had not yet been tapped except for previously approved election activities. He added that the workshop was a typical kind of project funded by contingency fund money. MINUTES--Eugene City Council August 14, 2002 Page 1 Work Session Ms. Nathanson raised concern over the cost of the plan. City Manager Carlson said it would cost more in the private sector. He said the workshop provided Iow-cost, high-quality services to governments in the state. He said that it was a reasonable cost. In response to a question from Mr. Pap~ regarding how the study would be different than the one done the previous year by the Metropolitan Partnership, Mr. Kelly said the difference was that the Contact Program by the Metropolitan Partnership only contacted manufacturing firms whereas the Community Planning Workshop would contact all types of businesses. He added that another difference was that the Contact Program was a self-selected sample program of firms willing to come forward and be interviewed. He noted that the Community Planning Workshop was also a professionally designed survey. Ms. Bettman raised concern over the cost of the plan. She said the project had not been identified as something needed and had been suggested by an outside entity. She stressed the need for other viewpoints than just that of business. She added that there had been no competitive bidding process. She said she would not support the motion. Ms. Taylor said she would not support the motion. She raised concern that the money would be better spent in human services. Mr. Fart said he would support the motion. He said he was astounded when people did not realize that businesses were providing the funding for human services in the community. He also raised concern that the council was already undisciplined in the use of its time during the meeting. Mr. Rayor said he would not support the motion. He said he wanted the matter referred to the council through the Metropolitan Partnership. He stressed the importance of following proper channels. Mayor Torrey said he and Mr. Kelly had discussions with staff from the University of Oregon School of Business earlier in the year about having the school assist the council in identifying problems or successes that existed in the community that could be analyzed from an economic development standpoint. He said the Community Planning Workshop would be an objective analysis of the business climate in the community. He said it was important to understand how businesses perceived the City. Mr. Meisner said he would support the motion. He said it would assist the contractor retained by the City to look at economic development opportunities. He said it was appropriate to undertake the study as quickly as possible. Mr. Kelly said the information in the study could make the existing businesses in the community more successful. Ms. Taylor raised concern over the amount of money that the council had already allocated to the Metro Partnership. She said economic health came from having a healthy community and the money could be used for other things to help the community become more healthy. She raised concern that money was being "thrown away" for no reason. Ms. Bettman said the economic downturn faced by the City was significant and profound. She commented that the businesses participating in the survey by the University would not be able to MINUTES--Eugene City Council August 14, 2002 Page 2 Work Session distinguish between bad business and good because of an economic downturn and blaming bad business on the City. She said the timing was not appropriate for the survey and added that it was fiscally irresponsible. The motion passed, 6:2; Ms. Bettman and Ms. Taylor voting in opposition. Noting that he was not in a position to do so himself, Mayor Torrey urged a motion to reconsider the transportation utility fee vote and further urged that, if the motion to reconsider were passed, that there be a motion to table until December 1, to be able to discuss the issue again after both Lane County and the City of Springfield had also discussed the issue. He raised concern over the council divorcing itself from an option that could be potentially available at that time. Ms. Nathanson, seconded by Mr. Pap~, moved to reconsider the issue of the transportation utility fee. In response to a question from Ms. Bettman regarding whether the process of reconsideration would perpetuate the actual language that was voted on previously, City Attorney Jerry Lidz said that it would and added the vote that did not pass on Monday was a vote to proceed with the second reading of the motion by council bill number only. He said a vote to reconsider would take the council back to a vote to proceed with the second reading. He said the council did not need to proceed with the second reading of the motion if it did not want to discuss the issue that day, but noted that if the council actually wanted to discuss the merits of the issue then it would be appropriate for the council to unanimously vote to proceed with the second reading and then have a discussion on the merits of the ordinance. Ms. Bettman noted that she had made an amendment to the ordinance that failed and raised concern that if there was a vote to reconsider then the next step would be to vote the ordinance up or down as opposed to having an opportunity to introduce or reconsider other amendments. Mr. Lidz said amendments could be considered. Ms. Taylor raised concern that reconsidering the motion would delay consideration of alternative solutions. She noted that the ordinance could be considered again at a future date. The motion passed, 5:3; Mr. Fart, Ms. Bettman, and Ms. Taylor voting in opposition. Ms. Nathanson, seconded by Mr. Fart, moved to table the issue. The motion passed, 7:1; Ms. Taylor voting in opposition. MINUTES--Eugene City Council August 14, 2002 Page 3 Work Session A.WORK SESSION: Appeal of Two Charter Amendment Ballot Titles Concerning Department Head Hiring/Firing and City Attorney, as Prepared for the November 5, 2002 General Election City Manager Carlson noted that a charter appeal had been made by Ken Tollenaar. He said the City Attorneys and outside counsel he had retained were present to answer questions about the issue. He said the choice before the council was to consider the two appeals and decide how to proceed. Ken Tollenaar said the ballot title was the most important thing in informing the voters about an issue. He said his appeals were based on the belief that the proposed explanations drafted by the City Attorney did not clearly summarize the measures. Mr. Kelly, seconded by Councilor Pap~ moved to modify the ballot titles and explanations according to Mr. Tollenaar's recommendation. In response to a question from Ms. Nathanson regarding whether the new language caused legal problems, Jerry Lidz said legal staff had no objections to the suggested language additions. The motion passed unanimously. B.WORK SESSION: Council Process Session Mayor Torrey said the purpose of the discussion was to address ways to work more efficiently or think of ways to do things differently. He started the discussion by asking Mr. Meisner to talk about his idea of ending City Council meeting times at 10 p.m. Mr. Meisner, seconded by Mr. Pap~, moved to amend the City Council operating agreements Section 1, Time of Meetings, by revising the second sentence to read: "These meetings shall begin at 8 p.m. and shall end at 10 p.m." Mr. Meisner said he had staff review the times the meetings lasted until and expressed concern that discussion went on and on. He said the council had a habit of having more and longer meetings than any other city he had ever seen. He opined that the council was not effective after 10 p.m. especially since the work sessions began at 5:30 p.m. on the same evenings. He said that the council did not use self-control or self-discipline, and said that staff should design agendas for Monday meetings to end at 10 p.m. Mr. Kelly raised concern that the motion would not make the council more efficient. He opined that councilors would not alter their speaking patterns. He noted that the motion did not suggest ways to make up time lost from cutting meetings shorter. He noted that the motion did not suggest any means to make up the time needed to complete council work. Mr. Fart noted that the beginning of the current meeting was an example of how the council needed to discipline itself. He said that council members tended to restate their opinions over and over again. He said the council did not use any form of personal discipline when speaking and tended to reiterate points already mentioned by other councilors rather than just agreeing. He MINUTES--Eugene City Council August 14, 2002 Page 4 Work Session stressed the importance of exercising personal discipline and said that the extra time would come from councilors exercising that discipline. He expressed a desire to have the council be able to take care of business without having to listen to the same points over and over again from the same people. Ms. Taylor raised concern that a time limit would rush agenda items without giving enough time to properly consider issues. She opined that a time limit would further limit the time allowed for people to speak at the Public Forum. She expressed a desire to listen to everyone who wished to speak no matter how much time was involved. Ms. Nathanson said the quality of discussion and relationships between councilors deteriorated after 10 p.m. She added that the council did poorer work after that time. Ms. Bettman said she would not support the motion. She said she could only support the motion if there was a companion motion to replace the time lost for deliberation. She raised concern over constraining the council's time to deliberate in the "public eye." Mr. Pap8 said if things needed to be done in the "public eye," they should be done before 10 p.m. He said that many of the statements made by councilors were superfluous and just added time to meetings. He said if more official time needed to be dedicated to meetings he would support moving the start time of regular sessions back to 7:30 p.m. Mayor Torrey said he was absolutely convinced that the council could work more efficiently with less time per item if councilors had their facts ready to be presented when they arrived at a meeting. He added his opinion that no matter how much time was allotted for a meeting the council would fill it up. He went on to say that there were work sessions scheduled by three councilors that should never have been scheduled because there was no interest from the majority of the council to proceed on those issues. Regarding allowing speakers at the Public Forum, Mayor Torrey noted a suggestion he had received from a concerned citizen that those who wished to speak should be sorted by city of residence, with Eugene residents given preference. Mr. Meisner opined that council work could be completed even if meeting times ended at 10 p.m. if agendas were planned more carefully. He said he agreed with the Mayor's statements and added that because of the councilors' "obsession" with more and more talking, the council had marginalized itself in the eyes of many of the public. He stressed the need for the council to impose self-discipline and urged the council to support the motion. Mr. Farr noted that when he had first started on the council the Public Forum was only held once a month. He had been a member of the Citizen Involvement Committee when it forwarded a recommendation to the council that the forum be held at every regular meeting. He said the council was currently way ahead of where it had ever been in terms of facilitating public input. Mr. Kelly noted that, occasionally, there were public hearings after the Public Forum and Consent Calendar items that went as long as 90 minutes. He questioned whether the council would end a meeting when people were still wishing to speak. He opined that such a policy would show disrespect to the electors of Eugene. He added that staff had done a good job of agenda planning in the previous year and opined that the planning could not get much better. MINUTES--Eugene City Council August 14, 2002 Page 5 Work Session Ms. Taylor said agenda planning was important but noted that it was impossible to predict what issue would be important to the public. She said limiting meeting time would be destructive to the public input process. Ms. Bettman agreed with the idea of prioritizing public forum speakers according to residence in the City limits. She noted that the first 30 minutes of the current meeting had been spent on items that were not listed on the agenda. She stressed that council discipline meant sticking to the agenda items that were listed. She said that limiting meeting times would undermine deliberation and encourage "sound bites" but would not help those councilors who were really trying to serve their constituents. Ms. Nathanson said she would support moving the start time for Monday meetings back to 7:30 p.m. City Manager Carlson said staff would support moving the start time back to 7:30 p.m. if the number of work sessions could be limited. He noted that the council had shown discipline in keeping the Public Forum to 30 minutes but added that the action and comments resulting from the forum were taking a lot of meeting time. Regarding agenda management, City Manager Carlson noted that staff had tried putting a number of items on the Consent Calendar and observed that items that seemed noncontroversial kept getting pulled from the calendar for discussion. The vote on the motion was a 4:4 tie; Mr. Kelly, Ms. Taylor, Mr. Rayor, and Ms. Bettman voting no, and Ms. Nathanson, Mr. Meisner, Mr. Farr, and Mr. Pap8 voting yes. Mayor Torrey voted in support of the motion, and it passed on a final vote of 5:4. Mayor Torrey moved the discussion on to City Council committee term limits. He said there would be a one minute limit on speaking as there were only five minutes left for that particular agenda item. Mr. Kelly, seconded by Ms. Taylor, moved to appeal the Mayor's decision on the one-minute time limit. Mr. Kelly said that if the fundamental way the council did business was being discussed then three minutes for a speaker was more appropriate. The motion failed, 6:2; Mr. Kelly and Ms. Taylor voting in favor. Mr. PapS, seconded by Mr. Farr, moved for a maximum two-year span on council committees. Mr. Pap8 said it would serve the community better if there were a two-year maximum on service on council committees so more councilors could gain more experience in different areas. Ms. Bettman supported the motion. She noted, however, that the longer a councilor was on a committee the more knowledgeable and effective that councilor became on those particular issues. MINUTES--Eugene City Council August 14, 2002 Page 6 Work Session Mr. Meisner said he would not support the motion. He said the mayor tried to do a very good job of rotating councilors to different committees and the City Manager faced hard appointment decisions as well but had the authority to make those decisions. He noted that some councilors were not willing to serve on some committees. Ms. Taylor said some committees took longer to learn about than others. She also said that councilors who wished to be on a certain committees should be taken into consideration. She expressed doubts about the effectiveness about an arbitrary two-year limit on committee service. Mr. Kelly said he would not support the motion. He said he would have supported the motion if it had a contained a small and specific list of committees. He encouraged Mr. Pap~ to think about what such a list would contain. Mr. Fart said he would not support the motion. He said there were some committees that had a steep learning curve and needed longevity in membership. The motion failed, 5:3; Mr. Pap~, Ms. Nathanson and Ms. Bettman voting in favor. Mr. Meisner, seconded by Mr. Pap~, moved to extend the agenda item by 10 minutes. The vote on the motion was a 4:4 tie; Mr. Kelly, Ms. Taylor, Mr. Rayor, and Ms. Bettman voting no, and Ms. Nathanson, Mr. Meisner, Mr. Fart, and Mr. Pap~ voting yes. Mayor Torrey voted in support of the motion, and it passed on a final vote of 5:4. Mr. Meisner, seconded by Mr. Fart, moved to amend Section 2 Item 4 of the City Council Operating agreements to read: "Alternatively an item may not be placed on the council agenda by councilor request. A councilor may ask council support for a work session and staff shall then poll all councilors in writing to ask if the item should be placed on the council agenda. If, within ten working days of distribution of the poll, a majority of the council respond in the affirmative, the item shall be placed on the council agenda. A majority of the council, in this instance, is five councilors or four councilors in addition to the mayor." Mr. Meisner noted that, at the current time, three councilors could request and get a work session on any item. He said that the rule of three councilors that had been "massively abused" and added that the entire group was not informed of requests and raised concern that there was a minority control of the agenda which was resulting in items that were inappropriate for work sessions. He said the motion would allow the council more control of its agendas within the boundaries of a majority council process. Mr. Kelly raised concern that control of agendas was being ceded to the rule of the majority. He said the whole point of having a minority request was that there was a chance to convince the majority of councilors on an issue. Ms. Taylor was opposed to the motion. She said a requirement of five councilors to request a work session would mean that a vote was already passed before an item was officially discussed and voted on. MINUTES--Eugene City Council August 14, 2002 Page 7 Work Session Ms. Nathanson supported the motion. She expressed a hope that those who requested a work session would state the purpose of their intended work session and whether it would take a full hour to discuss. She raised concern that some work sessions took up many hours of staff time, analysis and reports when the topic only really needed an hour or less of work session time. Ms. Bettman opposed the motion. She said the motion would give council majority total control of the agenda, which meant that she would have no way to present the concerns of her constituents if the council majority did not favor the issue. She said the passage of the motion would be tyranny of the majority. Mayor Torrey stressed the importance of councilors communicating on a one-on-one basis regarding issues that they wished to bring to the table. He said the motion made legitimate sense. The vote on the motion was a 4:4 tie; Mr. Kelly, Ms. Taylor, Mr. Rayor, and Ms. Bettman voting no, and Ms. Nathanson, Mr. Meisner, Mr. Farr, and Mr. Pap~ voting yes. Mayor Torrey voted in support of the motion, and it passed on a final vote of 5:4. Mr. Kelly, seconded by Ms. Nathanson, moved to add a sentence to Section 10 of the City Council Operating Agreements that would read: "... the reimbursement for bicycle milage as permitted in Resolution 4375 shall be 15.1 cents per mile as of September 1, 2002, and shall be adjusted each year at the same rate of increase as automobile reimbursement." The motion passed unanimously. In response to a question from Ms. Taylor regarding whether the mayor was allowed to vote on council process issues in the event of a tie vote, City Attorney Jerry Lidz confirmed that he was allowed to do so. C.WORK SESSION: Downtown Parking Issues City Manager Carlson introduced Parking Services Manager George Jessie. He said staff recommended no action at the current time. He said a lot of work had been done on the downtown parking issue since Ms. Bettman had requested the work session and noted that Ms. Bettman had communicated with many downtown businesses as well since that time. He said staff was working on marketing the changes that were currently underway, such as having all parking structures implement free parking on Saturdays. He said staff's intent was to make the information on changes in parking policy more available to the public. Ms. Bettman said she was pleased with the progress that had been made. She noted that the public was not yet aware of how much free parking there was in the downtown area on Saturdays and said she would endorse any efforts to publicize that information. She suggested making the parking lot on 8th Avenue and Pearl Street free on Saturdays as well or providing signage at the Saturday Market directing customers to where the free parking was located. Ms. Bettman went on to say that Parks and Open Space bond money was being used to build a boat launch in west Alton Baker Park at a significant expense and suggested that fees could be charged for the parking at that boat launch, and the revenue recovered could be used to offset MINUTES--Eugene City Council August 14, 2002 Page 8 Work Session free parking programs in the downtown core. City Manager Carlson responded that the boat launch was not a downtown parking issue and was part of the Parks and Open Space implementation. He said, however, that he would forward the suggestion to the responsible department staff. Regarding free Saturday parking at 8th Avenue and Pearl Street, City Manager Carlson noted that the lot was a major revenue generator for the City since it was one of the most heavily used lots in the downtown area. He said signage seemed like a reasonable option to help the public understand where free parking actually was available. Mr. Kelly stressed the importance of marketing the idea of free parking in structures on Saturday and Sunday. He also said that marketing the fact that the first hour of parking in the Overpark and the Parcade was free would be a good idea. He suggested extending that rule to all of the City parking structures. Ms. Nathanson expressed her appreciation of the letter received from Downtown Eugene, Incorporated regarding parking issues. She commented that many citizens were "put off" by using parking structures. She noted that she had used a parking structure in Boston which had piped in classical music. She suggested that Eugene parking structures could do the same thing and change the style of music on a regular basis or to correspond with events that were happening in the City. Ms. Nathanson requested information on how the City managed its parking contracts with private lots. She raised concern over the number of complaints received each year regarding parking enforcement in private lots. Mr. Meisner also expressed his appreciation of the analysis included in the letter from Downtown Eugene, Incorporated. He stressed the importance of having very clear signage at the Saturday Market regarding the location of free parking areas. Mr. Pap8 commented that some citizens were concerned with their safety when using parking structures. He questioned how safety in those structures was considered by City staff. City Manager Carlson suggested that security in parking structures would always be an issue and it was one that was constantly being worked on by staff. He noted that there were some specific problems related to the Parcade and people parking overnight. In response to a question from Mr. Pap8 regarding how parking structures would be developed in the future, Planning and Development Department Director Tom Coyle said there was not a lot of money to allocate to parking structures. He said one parking venture could be leveraged with a private company for one more structure project but noted that there was no money for any additional ventures. Ms. Taylor said the demise of free parking helped put downtown in its current situation. She opined that parking downtown should be free all the time. She commented that the reason why people shopped elsewhere was because of the parking hassles associated with the downtown area. Mr. Rayor noted that parking fees added a significant amount of revenue to the general fund budget and urged caution when making decisions that would affect the flow of revenue coming to the City. MINUTES--Eugene City Council August 14, 2002 Page 9 Work Session Mayor Torrey stressed the importance of effectively marketing the changes that had been made in downtown parking policies. He raised concern over drug dealing in parking structures. He stressed the importance of police patrols in parking structures to help citizens feel more safe when using those facilities. Mr. Kelly raised suggestions from his constituents regarding making parking in the downtown area free at 5 p.m. rather than 6 p.m. Ms. Bettman raised concern over the use of parking meters in residential areas west of downtown. She noted that residential use was being encouraged in that area but observed that the existing residents were being forced to use metered spaces. City Manager Carlson suggested a parking permit system such as was used in the University area. The meeting adjourned at 1:30 p.m. Respectfully submitted, James R. Carlson City Manager pro rem (Recorded by Joe Sams) MINUTES--Eugene City Council August 14, 2002 Page 10 Work Session