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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCC Minutes - 02/24/99 WS MINUTES Eugene City Council McNutt Room--City Hall February 24, 1999 11:30 a.m. COUNCILORS PRESENT: Pat Farr, Nancy Nathanson, Scott Meisner, Betty Taylor, Gary Rayor, Gary PapS, David Kelly. COUNCILORS ABSENT: Bobby Lee. Mayor James D. Torrey called the council to order at 11:30 a.m. 1.CITY COUNCIL LUNCH WORK SESSION A. Items from Mayor, City Councilor, and City Manager Mr. Meisner passed. Mr. Farr reported that he had begun to serve on the Human Rights Commission the previous week and found it to be an interesting and thoughtful group. He further reported that the commission had voted by a vote of 8:3 margin to ask the Police Department to no longer have undercover police at the commission's meetings. He had voted in opposition because he believed there were potentially times when undercover police officers could legitimately attend such meetings. Mr. Farr said that the commission also heard a presentation on the current Eugene Police Department complaint tracking system. He noted that the City closely tracked complaints against the police and had a system to process complaints, but it had no compliment tracking system. Mr. Farr said that he had done some research and learned that the City received about five compliments for each complaint, but did not keep official track of such complaints. He suggested that the City find a way to track compliments. Mr. Rayor noted interest on the part of his constituents in addressing the root causes of graffiti and the youth on the mall problem. He said that some suggested that improvements in architecture downtown could help. Ms. Taylor reported that she had received several constituent calls about the downtown mall, and suggested that the City consider hiring some of those who hung out downtown to keep the mall clean. Ms. Taylor said the speed reader board had recently been in her neighborhood and she questioned whether periodic visits to neighborhoods was useful because it seemed to have no lasting effect. MINUTES--Eugene City Council February 24, 1999 Page 1 11:30 a.m. Ms. Taylor noted her continued support for a balance of day and evening meetings but said if the council choose to change its meeting times it might wish to consider adding two Monday night meetings and retaining one Wednesday lunch meeting. Mr. Pap~ said that some business constituents had contacted him about the potential of changing the schedule for the Coburg Road bed improvements to avoid further conflict with the bridge improvements. Mr. Johnson said that he and Mr. Kelly had attended the Harlow Neighbors' recent meeting, and the residents indicated by a ratio of 4:1 that they preferred to go ahead with the improvements during the upcoming summer. Mr. Lyle said staff was developing a letter to send to residents and businesses about the City's plan to move forward in 1999, and intended to meet with individual business owners and residents to discuss how it might be accomplished and their concerns. He said that he would provide the council with the proposed citizen involvement process, and indicated the council would receive a copy of the letter sent to residents and businesses. Mr. Kelly concurred with Ms. Taylor about the need to retain a mix of evening and day meetings but wanted to ensure that the first week of each month remained free of meetings and feared the addition of more Monday meetings would eliminate that possibility. Ms. Nathanson said that she had secured information from Kansas City about its Livable Cities Program and believed that there was some information the City could take advantage of. She provided the information to the City Manager for dissemination to the appropriate staff. Ms. Nathanson said that graduates of the Citizens Academy had written letters to the council saying that their new skills and understanding were not being used for the community's benefit. She provided staff with information on the Sioux City Police Department's volunteer program. Ms. Nathanson provided the council and youth leaders with an article from Nation's Cities regarding a collaboration between the City of Tualatin and Tualatin youth in constructing a skateboard park. Ms. Nathanson said she had read an article entitled Making Sure Teenagers Count, which described a Yuma, Arizona effort to develop a questionnaire about how youth connect with the community and their needs. The survey was developed in collaboration with youth, and youth served on a panel reviewing and analyzing responses. She provided the council and youth leadership with copies of the article. Mr. Torrey called the council's attention to some roses placed before him and said they represented his commitment to some developmentally disabled youth in the community. The rose represents a slogan: R = Respect; © = Others; S = Self; E = Environment. Mr. Torrey endorsed that message. Mr. Torrey requested staff comment regarding the City's progress on graffiti removal. Mr. Johnson said that the City was requested by an interested citizen to hire staff to do graffiti removal. Staff was responding to that request and would provide the council with a copy of the response. Mr. Torrey encouraged the council, as members of the Budget Committee, to give consideration to the request. He noted that window etching was a major cost for business owners. MINUTES--Eugene City Council February 24, 1999 Page 2 11:30 a.m. Mr. Kelly observed that swift removal of graffiti was most effective. He noted the location of graffiti at the 6th Avenue underpass at the Ferry Street Bridge viaduct and encouraged staff to have it removed. B. Youth Leadership Program Reports Mayor James Torrey welcomed the youth leaders to the City Council meeting, and invited them to present their reports. Courtney Barta, a senior at Marist High School, said that every student in Eugene attending any school, public or private, had the same needs: an education, an area of special interest they could rely on to expand in, new opportunities, and safety. Those requirements were satisfied through strong relationships between teachers, students, parents, and community. Ms. Barta said that special interest clubs and community involvement in activities with one's peers were vital to an education. Knowledge gained from such activities was immense. She briefly described her activities as a members of Marist's Human Rights Alliance, Key Club, and Students for Political Action Club. Ms. Barta said that worldwide issues and concern affected all Eugene high school students. Efforts made to educate students about those issues would strengthen and unite Eugene. Ms. Barta cited issues of concern to Marist that the City Council might be able to address: 1) vandalism; 2) bus transportation; and 3) student internships. She suggested that Eugene Police could do routine parking lot checks to cut down on vandalism. Ms. Barta said that Marist also needed bus service at about 3:25 p.m. to give students time to attend club activities after school. She said that internships for seniors in the field of government and business would help students both broaden their horizons and narrow their future career choices. Ms. Barta thanked the council for the opportunity to speak and suggested it represented a bridge between Eugene high school students and the City government. Lindsey Rogers, a junior at Willamette High School, said she was pleased by the opportunities that Willamette High School offered through the CIM (Certificate of Initial Mastery) and CAM (Certificate of Actual Mastery) programs. Students choose an area of interest and receive a certificate of advanced mastery when they complete their studies. Ms. Rogers said she was in the health careers cam and would have an opportunity to work with athletes as she considered a career in sports medicine. She said that other schools do not offer such opportunities and she felt fortunate. Ms. Rogers said that the student-teacher ratio at Willamette High School was a problem. Students suffered from overcrowding. Willamette High School was too small for the number of students currently enrolled. She said that students needed the council's support in that and other areas of education to prepare them for the 21st century. Jeff Quindlen represented the New Roads School. He described New Roads as a collaborative effort between the 4J School District and local business community. The school is operated by LookingGlass and includes middle school and high school classes as well as a GED program. The school served homeless youth and runaways. Mr. Quindlen said that he had spoken with other students about their concerns and interests, and they indicated that they were affected by issues such as the need to stay away from drugs, alcohol, and tobacco when under strong peer pressure to use them, the need to avoid unsafe sex, stealing, cheating, and lying. He said that the issues affecting students at New Roads were different from those at other schools. Mr. MINUTES--Eugene City Council February 24, 1999 Page 3 11:30 a.m. Quindlen said students needed to say yes to going back to school, rebuilding their lives, working, living for tomorrow instead of for today, and getting off the streets. New Roads students were interested in fixing the problems of youth today, wanted to finish their education, and wanted to change and rebuild their lives. He said that New Roads students were trying to get back on their feet, and that opportunity was provided by the school. He thanked the council for inviting the youth leaders to speak and share their concerns about issues affecting students. Alex Habliston, North Eugene High School, said that the major concerns among students at his high school were class overcrowding and a shortage of teachers. He said that increased funding would help relieve that problem. Mr. Habliston said that students were also concerned about new housing developments in the River Road area as more students would be added to the schools and they would not receive the education they deserved. Students believed the City Council should apply stricter regulations on developers of such developments by mandating larger yards and more space between the houses, or by adding more money to the school for more teachers. He thanked the council for the opportunity to speak. Marshall Clement of South Eugene High School thanked the council for listening to the voice of youth. He discussed his work with Youth Voice, an organization he had founded to get the voices of youth into the community. Mr. Clements believed youth needed more involvement in the decision-making process. He said that Youth Voice was interested in working with the mayor to form a committee of the youth leaders that would meet periodically with the City Council to discuss the issues that were under consideration by the council to provide a youth perspective on those issues. He offered to help coordinate that effort. Mr. Clement said that Youth Voice employs surveys and forums of youth to find out what issues are of concern to students. Youth Voice was planning a forum on the environment with the intention of bringing youth togther to develop legislative proposals to address environmental problems. Youth Voice was also holding a leadership seminar for freshmen and sophomores to give them the skills needed to make their voices heard in the community. He hoped that those youth would be able to participate in implementing the mayor's youth agenda. Mr. Clements identified large class sizes as a major problem. He said that the average class size in his school was 37 people, and it had required people to drop out of his Spanish class for students to receive individual attention from the teacher. He said that Portland subsidizes local schools to some degree and asked the City Council to consider looking into that issue. Angela Martin, Sheldon High School, thanked the council for its interest in what youth had to say. She said she was a senior involved in the International High School program. She had talked to students of many ages and backgrounds to find out what they wanted the council to hear. The biggest concern mentioned to her regarded class size. She noted that there were too few desks for the number of students enrolled in three out of four of her classes. Ms. Martin said students that need personal attention were not receiving it, and those who excelled did not receive further encouragement because they were not perceived as needing extra assistance. She said that violence in the school was another concern to students, particularly in light of the homecoming incident at Sheldon some months previous. Ms. Martin suggested that programs, including recreational programs, were needed to address the issue of violence. Courtney Bowman and Tori Luke of Churchill High School thanked the council for inviting them to speak. Ms. Bowman said that an issue that affected many teens at many schools was teen pregnancy. They had been thinking of ways to stop such pregnancies before they happened. Ms. Luke cited statistics regarding teen age pregnancy in the United States and said it was an MINUTES--Eugene City Council February 24, 1999 Page 4 11:30 a.m. economic as well as social problem. Ms. Bowman discussed risk factors that lead to teen pregnancies. She said that Churchill High School operated a child development center for children ages 2 to 5 that served teenage parents. There were also parenting classes and support for the mothers to help them graduate. Ms. Bowman said that such programs helped to prevent a second teenage pregnancy; national statistics indicated that one-fourth of teenage mothers have another child within two years of their first child. Ms. Luke said that sex education and health classes currently offered to students were inadequate and did not educate teen-agers or provide them answers to the questions they had about their sexuality. She said that Linn County had established a task force to address the issue of teen pregnancy. Ms. Luke quoted from the task force's mission statement: To focus on prevention, pregnancy, and parenting issues of Linn County, Oregon by improving access to available resources, developing community awareness, and a better understanding of issues related to teen pregnancy, and facilitating development of needed services and resources with community involvement. Ms. Luke suggested a similar effort could be undertaken in Lane County with the same areas of emphasis. She did not think the community wanted to think about the issue and merely labeled teenage mothers. Ms. Luke said that there should be plenty of resources to deal with the problem, which had many impacts beyond the girl involved. She said that early intervention was the key to solving teenage pregnancy. Ms. Luke said that the Multnomah County's STARS (Students Today Are Not Ready for Sex) program was an effective program that Eugene could model. Ms. Bowman said that the issue of teen pregnancy was too big not to address. Eugene prided itself on its openness to diversity but the lives of teen mothers were overlooked. Aggressive and progressive programming would take time and money, but compared to the money spent on teenage pregnancies it would be a very wise investment. Mayor Torrey thanked the youth leaders for their remarks. He said that during his discussions of the daytime curfew proposal with young people many other important issues had come up. He did not believe there was a better way to get an understanding of the issues facing youth and how they might be approached than by listening to young people. Ms. Nathanson assured the youth leaders that the council was listening to them but it sometimes took a while for ideas to germinate and programs to evolve. She expressed the hope the council could write a letter to the different Eugene school districts describing what it had heard today. She also supported writing a letter to the Intergovernmental Human Services Commission about some of the issues raised by the students, and suggested that further consideration would reveal other agencies the City should work with on solutions to the problems of youth. Mr. Kelly thanked the students for their presentations. He said he was glad the item was a monthly agenda item and suggested it should be scheduled for a longer time to allow for more discussion. He asked the youth leaders to consider the issue of whether youth were treated differently by the Eugene Police and to provide feedback on the experience of young people's interactions with the police to the council. Mr. Kelly recommended that Ms. Barta contact the Lane Transit Board soon to provide input on bus routing. MINUTES--Eugene City Council February 24, 1999 Page 5 11:30 a.m. Responding to the concern raised by Mr. Habliston, Mr. Kelly said that Eugene was legally precluded by the Legislature from collecting systems development charges from developers to pay for schools. Mr. Kelly endorsed Mr. Clements' suggestion that a committee of the youth leaders be formed. Mr. Rayor observed that one of the largest costs to taxpayers resulting from development was for schools, and indicated his interest in working through the City's Intergovernmental Relations Committee to change State law. Mr. Pap~ asked how health care clinics in the schools could contribute to decreasing the rate of teenage pregnancy. He said he would like to know more about how such programs contributed toward solving the problem. Mr. Fart asked the youth leaders to seek feedback from their peers on how well the Cops in the Schools program worked and how it could work better. C.Proposed Amendments to Local Wastewater System Development Charges City Engineer Les Lyle provided background on the Public Works Rates Advisory Committee (RAC) and reviewed its recommendations regarding the local wastewater systems development charge (SDC). Mr. Lyle said that following extensive analysis, the RAC and staff recommended changes to the local residential wastewater SDC; those changes were outlined in the meeting packet on page 156 and would result in a reduction in the rate from approximately $560 to $390 for an average residence. He said that the committee also considered Growth Management Study Policy 14 regarding infill and development and recommended that there continue to be full cost recovery for all development types except for Iow-income housing, and that if the council choose to subsidize certain types of development (in-fill and re-development), the SDC should be paid by the City through the General Fund or another source. Mr. Lyle said the RAC also recommended that the existing time limit be eliminated for an eligible demolition credit. Expanding the credit would provide an incentive for redevelopment projects. Mr. Lyle reviewed next steps, and indicated that the SDC would be implemented in July following the public input process associated with an administrative rate adjustment process. He said that needed code changes would be considered by the council within the next few months. Responding to a question from Ms. Taylor, Mr. Lyle said that the reference to an outbuilding referred to a living area rather than a shed. He said that currently the City charged residential development on a flat rate basis, and the existing methodology did not charge for additions or alterations. Incremental residential additions will be charged an incremental amount for each square foot of living space added. Mr. Kelly indicated his pleasure with the recommendations of the RAC and staff. He noted the diversity of committee membership and asked if the committee's vote was unanimous. Mr. Lyle said that the committee used the consensus process and consensus was reached on the topic. Mr. Kelly asked what constituted an exceptional user. Mr. Lyle said that a high water user was considered an exceptional user. Mr. Rayor said he was pleased with the recommendations and glad the basis of the SDC was examined. He questioned how long the review process would take. Mr. Lyle said wastewater would be completed in March and the committee was eager to move on. The determining factor MINUTES--Eugene City Council February 24, 1999 Page 6 11:30 a.m. for how long it took to work through each system depended on the level of detail the committee wished to go into. If the local wastewater system was an example, he believed each system would take six months or more of committee work. Mr. Meisner was supportive of the RAC's recommendations. He asked if the drop in the single- family residential rate reflected the fact costs were being allocated more precisely, or if the total revenue base was being reduced. Mr. Lyle said that the formula basis review had caused the drop. Mr. Meisner asked Mr. Lyle if the proposed methodology would have recovered the same amount as the current methodology for the year 1998, for example. Mr. Lyle said the City would have collected less. He attributed the reduction in the rate to a revision of the City's capacity calculation and problems in the initial assumptions established for the methodology in 1991. Mr. Meisner asked if that implied the City had previously been over collecting for the system. Mr. Lyle said yes. Mr. Pap~ agreed with Mr. Kelly regarding the diversity of the committee and said that it had reached consensus added credibility to its recommendations. Responding to a question from Mr. Pap~, Mr. Lyle clarified that the local wastewater SDC was only focused on the City's collection system. The regional SDC was focused on the treatment plant and regional pump stations. The Metropolitan Wastewater Management Commission had recently made modifications to the regional SDC, which the City collected on its behalf. He assured Mr. Pap~ that the City did not duplicate those rates. Mr. Farr congratulated Mr. Lyle on the work of the committee. He asked where the funds collected to this point were spent. Mr. Lyle said that those funds were spent on capacity- enhancing projects approved by the council in the Capital Improvement Program, and on reimbursing the user fee for components of the existing system. Mr. Fart said that it appeared the City had an over funding situation if it had overcharged in the past and continued to charge for the current cost of the system. Mr. Lyle did not think an over-funding situation existed, stating that the need for the infrastructure existed in the community and would continue to exist for many years. He believed the funding would be appropriately used for capital needs. Mr. Farr asked if Mr. Lyle envisioned needs beyond what the funds would cover. Mr. Lyle said no. Mr. Farr asked how much had been over collected. Mr. Lyle was not sure, saying he would have to do some research to find out that information. He said that the rates were adjusted to ensure they covered the value of the existing system and captured the cost of the true share of new development. Mr. Pap~ indicated his hope that the reduction to the wastewater SDC would not be politicized. Mr. Fart said that he did not want the council to lose sight of the need to discuss Iow-income housing subsidies and their funding source. Mr. Kelly requested that staff prepare a recommendation regarding a new mechanism by which the council could provide relief to Iow- income housing from SDCs. Mr. Fart encouraged the council and staff to look at sources outside the General Fund. Ms. Nathanson suggested that the City could demonstrate its support for Iow-income housing without waiving fees. She preferred to subsidize SDCs for Iow-income housing from another source rather than waive the SDCs. Mr. Johnson recollected that over the past five years the General Fund had contributed $300,000 to $500,000 for fees associated with Iow-income housing; only recently had the council begun to waive fees outright. MINUTES--Eugene City Council February 24, 1999 Page 7 11:30 a.m. Mr. Torrey suggested that funds to offset SDCs and other development fees for Iow-income housing be included in the General Fund as a specific revenue line item. Mr. Farr noted that the RAC had stipulated that the SDC revenues should not be reduced, but also called for the SDC to be fully funded. He suggested that gave the council an "out" in case something exceptional occurred; the council "should not" waive the fees, but it did not preclude the council from doing so. Mr. Lyle agreed. Mr. Meisner moved, seconded by Ms. Nathanson, to approve the recommendations of the Public Works Rates Advisory Committee regarding the local wastewater SDC methodology and Growth Management Study Policy 14. The motion passed unanimously, 7:0. D.Year 2000 Update Administrative Services Department Director Warren Wong introduced the topic. He reported that Mr. Johnson had established a Year 2000 management team that included representatives from nearly all departments. He introduced team members Phil Weiler of the City Manager's Office, Ruth Obadal of Fire and Emergency Medical Services, Myrnie Daut of Human Resource and Risk Services, Jeff Kurtz and Sue Cutsogeorge of Administrative Services Department, and former Maintenance Director Bob Hammitt. Mr. Wong provided background on the City's efforts to become Year 2000-compliant and described progress on that effort both at the City level and intergovernmental level. That effort included cooperation with Eugene Water & Electric Board staff. Mr. Wong briefly discussed the City's emergency plan and noted its focus on natural disasters. He said staff was working to integrate the Year 2000 plan with the emergency plan. Staff would discuss the emergency plan and the role of the mayor and council in more detail at a council meeting on April 28, 1999. On April 29, there would be tabletop exercise focused on Year 2000 for City staff. In September, staff would participate in a disaster preparedness exercise largely focused on Year 2000 with other agencies. At that point in time, the emergency operations center at Station 6 would be fully equipped and the council would be offered a tour of the facility. Mr. Wong discussed how the City would address potential blackouts in City facilities and noted the difficulty of getting power to a specific facility when power was lost. Mr. Wong noted that staff was recommending that $75,000 of the $250,000 Year 2000 reserve be allocated to develop communications information and purchase generators for the fire stations to provide a limited amount of back-up power. Mr. Kelly said he was very pleased by the management team's response to the Year 2000 situation. He asked that the next briefing include a table listing the remaining noncompliant objects and when they were expected to be compliant. Regarding the emergency plan, Mr. Kelly asked that when it was revised a copy be placed in the council office for its review and a copy placed in the public library. Mr. Kelly suggested that the emergency plan include specific language that addresses self- sufficiency preparedness for Iow-income residents who are not actually prepared to be self- sufficient for an extended period of time. MINUTES--Eugene City Council February 24, 1999 Page 8 11:30 a.m. Responding to a question from Mr. Kelly, Mr. Wong said that identification of critical services should be completed in the next two weeks. The contingency plans for each service would take one to two months to complete. Mr. Kelly expressed the hope the two-week back-up plan was sufficiently fleshed out to ensure that it could be effectively implemented. Mr. Wong responded that the ICS system was a dynamic system. It was part of the incident commander's responsibility, containing the best information available regarding how long an event would be, so it was somewhat of a "rolling target." The City was working very closely with the other jurisdictions and would continue to do so. Mr. Wong pointed out that under the City's emergency plan the establishment of shelters and food kitchens was provided by the American Red Cross, not the City of Eugene. Responding to a question from Mr. Kelly, Mr. Wong said that the 9-1-1 Center would not be relocated to the Chambers Street site until 2000. Mr. Kelly asked that staff provide the council with the statutory reference of the current emergency ordinance. Mr. Kelly referred to the Communications Plan and endorsed the many forms of outreach it discussed. He suggested it did not include outreach to businesses, and although he believed businesses should have been prepared by now, it was important to reach out to those businesses to minimize the financial impact of Year 2000 to the degree possible. Phil Weiler of the City Manager's Office reviewed the objectives and key messages of the Communications Plan, and information on the methods staff would use to disseminate the information in the plan. Ms. Nathanson said that people need a simple Year 2000 checklist they could put on their refrigerator. She asked which was the most appropriate organization to develop a citizen's checklist for how someone could prepare: the City of Eugene or the Red Cross? Mr. Weiler responded that the Fire Department had a good list of emergency preparedness supplies, foodstuffs, etc.; he had placed a link from the City's Year 2000 web site to that information. He agreed that it was a good idea, and hoped the information provided was sufficient and practical. Ms. Nathanson said that she would prefer to have information from a single source rather than multiple sources and encouraged City collaboration with other agencies. Mr. Wong responded that the public information officers for Springfield, Lane County, and Eugene were meeting to coordinate efforts. He said that it was yet to be determined if a single brochure would be produced because of the rural nature of County residents. Ms. Nathanson asked what was the earliest time of what day that the Year 2000 problem could manifest itself. Mr. Wong said that the Emergency Operations Center would begin monitoring activity on the east coast at 8 p.m. on December 31. He said that one threshold point could be in August when the communications satellites would be realigned. He added that several dates had been mentioned, but in terms of City systems, any glitches would most likely occur on January 1, 2000, and if any problems were experienced it was likely to be in the AIRS system, which would be operational December 31, 1999. Mr. Meisner said that the council needed to do a better job in managing its agendas. He said it was unacceptable to him that there were five people wishing to speak and two minutes left to go MINUTES--Eugene City Council February 24, 1999 Page 9 11:30 a.m. in the scheduled time. He said that if the Year 2000 issue was a serious issue, the council needed time for discussion. Mr. Meisner said that the City could not rely on the Neighborhood Leaders Council to communicate the City's's information about preparedness given the limitations of the existing Neighborhood Program. He said that if the issue was serious, the City must take responsibility. Mr. Meisner said the City needed to communicate what the City as a government was responsible for, how it could assist individual citizens, where the interface between government and the citizens exist, and where other support services could be found. He said the City also needed to reach beyond those who owned computers or called staff for information to overcome rampant rumors. Mr. Weiler responded that the City would not rely solely on the Neighborhood Program to communicate the information; there was more than a dozen avenues of communication that would be used. He said that Mr. Meisner's points about responsibility were well-taken, and the plan was focused on those things that the City had direct control over. Mr. Meisner emphasized the need for continued clear communication "where people are." Mr. Farr thanked staff for the presentation. He said that the City needed to educate people to make reasonable and prudent plans. He asked if the City could provide a template for meeting and action to smaller, informal neighborhood groups that could be made available at the Lane County Fair or mailed to residents. Mr. Pap8 said the City needed to communicate in a balanced way what it was doing to both avert and prepare for disaster. He encouraged staff to communicate with the residents in conjunction with EWEB given that citizens were probably more concerned about EWEB's ability to deliver power and water than the City's ability to deliver some of its services. Mr. Farr and Mr. Rayor left the meeting at 1:34 p.m. Mr. Pap8 asked about testing schedules for Year 2000. Ms. Nathanson left the meeting at 1:35 p.m. Ms. Taylor said that unlike some, she believed that residents were being "over communicated" on the subject of Year 2000. She did not think there was anyone who was not aware of the problem and possibly more frightened then they needed to be. She believed that residents would be "bombarded" with messages about Year 2000 from a variety of sources and expressed doubt that the proposed funding for City communications was necessary. Ms. Taylor agreed with Mr. Pap8 that the majority of citizens would be more concerned about EWEB than the City. She encouraged staff to pursue a practical and cooperative approach to the Year 2000 situation. Mr. Torrey agreed with Ms. Taylor that residents would be inundated with information. He said that did not mean the City should not be involved in communicating with citizens, but it was not unreasonable to go to the electronic and published media and request that those organizations join the City in a meeting to develop a means of communication with residents. Mr. Torrey said that he would like to see a statement from Lane County as to what it would specifically be responsible for given, that every resident of Eugene was a resident of Lane County. He also wanted to know what the State of Oregon would be responsible for. He wanted to ensure that the National Guard was on alert in case it was needed. Mr. Torrey asked what the federal government was responsible for. He encouraged staff to bring all those parties together. The meeting adjourned at 1:38 p.m. MINUTES--Eugene City Council February 24, 1999 Page 10 11:30 a.m. Respectfully submitted, Jim Johnson City Manager (Recorded by KimberlyYoung) MINUTES--Eugene City Council February 24, 1999 Page 11 11:30 a.m.