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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCC Minutes - 05/14/07 City Council Meeting M I N U T E S Eugene City Council Regular Meeting Council Chamber—Eugene City Hall May 14, 2007 7:30 p.m. COUNCILORS PRESENT: Jennifer Solomon, Andrea Ortiz, Mike Clark, Alan Zelenka, Chris Pryor, George Poling, Bonny Bettman, and Betty Taylor. In Mayor Kitty Piercy’s absence, Council President Andrea Ortiz called the regular meeting of the Eugene City Council to order. She noted that a government class from Marist High School was in attendance and welcomed them. 1. PUBLIC FORUM Council President Ortiz reviewed the rules of the public forum. Pauline Hutson , 1025 Taylor Street, noted that she was also speaking on behalf of Jozef Siekiel-Zdzienicki th and the Residents for Responsible Rapid Transit (3RT). She opposed the potential EmX route on West 11 Avenue for numerous reasons, including the cost of moving Eugene Water & Electric Board (EWEB) utility lines and easements from property owners. She believed the additional costs such a corridor would incur would exceed $15 million. She felt the corridor, if built, would create a terrible impact on traffic in the corridor. She averred that the negative impacts on businesses and the community outweighed any benefit the th installation of an EmX corridor on West 11 Avenue might bring. th Bob Cassidy , 1401 East 27 Avenue, supported public investment in downtown development. He believed it would aid in the realization of future revenues. He said he was one of the people who had heard the “pitch” for city development for 30 years and expected future revenues. He was puzzled as to why the City was allegedly “going broke” while getting “all these revenues.” He asserted that the City did not seem to be able to handle the basics such as fixing potholes. It seemed to him that public investment was a gamble. He commented that when he gambled he did it on a small level. Mr. Cassidy expressed hope that the City would purchase the Butterfly Lot if it was put up for sale by the County. He noted that he had been surveyed by phone. He found the questions regarding the proposal for a new city hall to be difficult to respond to because there were few options for answers. He hoped the council would keep this in mind, should the survey results be brought to them for review. Jon Pincus , PO Box 422, Noti, thought any development, such as the proposed downtown project, that required a large subsidy should include public participation. He felt the best way to get the public behind a project was to involve them in the decisions that led up to it. He also urged the City not to prepare the site prior to having a firm commitment to construction. MINUTES—Eugene City Council May 14, 2007 Page 1 Regular Meeting th Drix , 307½ East 14 Avenue, averred that Eugene was a wonderful town. He believed every member of the community had “another little piece of the truth.” He said everyone had ideas and a good place to put those ideas would be in the two holes in the downtown area. He supported trying something new. He opined that a hole was a place that the wrong thing had not been built in yet and in that way was a good thing. th Jon Cline , 643 West 10 Avenue, advocated for the City Council to take action for quieter train crossings. He asserted that anyone who lived within a mile of the trains was affected by the noise of train whistles. He said trains “blast” through every train crossing. He related that he had overnight guests recently who were unable to sleep through because of the noise. He noted that he did not reside in the Whiteaker neighborhood. He felt sorry for Whiteaker residents as the summer was coming and people would want to open their windows to let in air. He recalled that the council had voted in June 2006 to direct the City Manager to take steps necessary to obtain State section 130 funding for crossing safety improvements to quiet trains. He stated that City Traffic Engineer Tom Larsen had attended many meetings with a variety of neighborhood and business groups and had made presentations regarding several potential options for altering the current situation. He urged the council to act to move the process forward and work to quiet the train blasts. He called it a significant quality of life issue. Council President Ortiz closed the public forum and invited comments and questions from councilors. Councilor Zelenka thanked everyone for coming. He specifically thanked the high school students for being there. Councilor Zelenka likened the work session vote on the potential downtown development to “getting engaged.” He said the council would follow up with a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the developers that would explain how the City wished to proceed and what its intentions were and included in this would be a public process over the next three months. He stated that this would create a plan which would then return to the City Council for its approval and this would turn into a development agreement in September. Councilor Solomon welcomed all of the youth to the council meeting. She said if any of them ever had any questions, the councilors would be glad to respond. She noted that some councilors would be willing to come and talk to a class. She especially wished to welcome Grant Gardino, a seven-year-old student at Buena Vista Elementary School. She explained that Mr. Gardino already loved politics and had a heart for social service. She related that he had “raided the kitchen cabinets” the previous weekend in order to put food out for the postal service food drive. Ms. Ortiz observed that a Boy Scout troop was also in the audience and welcomed them. 3. CONSENT CALENDAR A. Approval of City Council Minutes - February 26, 2007, Work Session - February 28, 2007, Work Session - March 12, 2007, Work Session - March 12, City Council Meeting - April 18, 2007, Work Session B. Approval of Tentative Working Agenda C. Adoption of Neighborhood Matching Grants MINUTES—Eugene City Council May 14, 2007 Page 2 Regular Meeting D. Approval of Brackenfern Right-of-Way Exchange E. Ratification of the Metropolitan Wastewater Management Commission FY08 Regional Wastewater Program Budget and Capital Improvements Program F. Amendment to City of Eugene Debt Policies Councilor Pryor, seconded by Councilor Taylor, moved to approve the items on the Consent Calendar with the exception of the minutes from the February 26 Work Session. Councilor Bettman pulled Item E. Councilor Taylor noted she had submitted a correction to the minutes. There were no objections. Councilor Ortiz pulled Item C. Roll call vote; the motion to approve the Consent Calendar, with the exceptions of the min- utes from the February 26 Work Session, Item C, and Item E, passed unanimously, 8:0. Councilor Ortiz initiated the discussion of Item C Neighborhood Matching Grants. She asked City Manager Dennis Taylor to discuss the grants. City Manager Taylor stated that after a four year hiatus for the Neighborhood Matching Grants, the council had a proposal for $50,000 in matching grants. Councilor Ortiz said she reviewed the grants and was pleased with what she had seen. She explained that the City allowed neighborhoods to apply for matching grants to enrich their neighborhoods. She felt it was one way the City kept its community engaged. Councilor Bettman asked how the membership of the advisory committee was determined. Neighborhood Manager for the Community Development Division Beth Bridges explained that nine people served on the advisory committee, three of whom were current or past neighborhood leaders, three were from the voter pool, and three were experts. Councilor Bettman asked for their names. Ms. Bridges said she would send Councilor Bettman a list. Councilor Bettman asked if the grants had been prioritized and asked if that meant that the ninth application on the list had not been funded. Ms. Bridges replied that the order the grant applications was listed in was alphabetical and not by priority. She stated that each member of the committee rated the applications according to certain criteria and from this a spread sheet was generated. She explained that the committee then ranked the projects and allocated the funding until the $50,000 was exhausted. nd Councilor Bettman stated that she had been impressed by the 22 Avenue and Garfield Street intersection repair project. She noted she had received a number of communications from the affiliated neighborhood organization in support of the project. She asked if that project would be first on the list in the next cycle of the matching grants. Ms. Bridges responded that this was not the process established. She explained that the organization could submit proposals and go through the process again. MINUTES—Eugene City Council May 14, 2007 Page 3 Regular Meeting Councilor Bettman surmised that the residents would have to “start from scratch with every cycle.” Ms. Bridges did not agree with that assessment but said they had already done all of the work of creating the proposal so it would not be from scratch. Councilor Bettman ascertained that the council could vote to change the process to allow a project that had met qualifications for a funding year to remain in the queue. Councilor Bettman, seconded by Councilor Taylor, moved to give priority to previously submitted qualifying grants. Ms. Bridges observed that this would mean that in the next cycle there would be only $25,000 to offer after funding the remaining projects from the previous year. Councilor Solomon expressed appreciation to Ms. Bridges for the work she did for the grant program. She indicated she would oppose the motion as she felt it would not be fair to tie the hands of the advisory committee. Councilor Zelenka asked if Councilor Bettman meant the previously approved projects would automatically receive funding. Councilor Bettman affirmed that this was her intent. Councilor Zelenka did not agree with changing the rules at this point. He said if he had known that the rules would be changed in this way he would have encouraged the people from his ward to submit a lengthy list of projects and they would have used up the entire amount of available funding for more than one cycle. Councilor Bettman said she would accept a friendly amendment to make her motion effective for the next funding cycle. Councilor Zelenka indicated he was not interested in changing the process. He averred that all projects should compete in a given funding cycle on their own merits. Councilor Zelenka asked if there was consideration of geographic distribution of the grants. Ms. Bridges replied that there is the ability in subsequent years for the advisory committee to rearrange it as a ranking of the grants to achieve geographic distribution. Councilor Pryor opposed the motion. He supported having projects compete on their own merits every time. He said each round needed to be fair to all of the applicants. Councilor Bettman felt people get discouraged if they “keep coming back and keep getting burnt.” She asserted that there was no requirement in the operating procedures of the department advisory committee to provide geographic equity and this led to a concentration of projects in certain wards. Roll call vote; the motion failed, 5:3; councilors Ortiz, Taylor, and Bettman voting in favor. Councilor Poling asked when the Willakenzie Park tree planting project was slated to occur. Ms. Bridges replied that the park improvement was scheduled for summer, but would most likely occur in the fall because it was better for trees to be planted at that time. In response to a follow-up question from Councilor Poling, Ms. Bridges explained that the grant application for the Willakenzie Park project that had not been funded, a project to add artistic tiles around the MINUTES—Eugene City Council May 14, 2007 Page 4 Regular Meeting playground, was for $900, which would then be matched so that the total project would have $2,000. She said it would have been an added element to help explain the history of the park. Ms. Bridges affirmed, in response to Councilor Poling, that the City would do the tile installation if the funds to make that project happen were provided by a private party. Councilor Zelenka said he had been impressed by the grants. He asked when the deadline was for the next round of applications. Ms. Bridges replied that final applications were due February 22, 2008, with the deadline for the pre-review set at December 3, 2007. She stated that applications for the next round would be available in July. Councilor Zelenka asked that the Budget Committee be provided the Agenda Item Summary (AIS) attachment for the Neighborhood Matching Grant program. Roll call vote; the motion passed unanimously, 8:0. Councilor Ortiz initiated discussion of Item E Ratification of the Metropolitan Wastewater Management Commission FY08 Regional Wastewater Program Budget and Capital Improvements Program. Councilor Bettman asked if all of the costs that could be funded by Systems Development Charges (SDCs) were being funded by SDCs. City Manager Taylor asked Wastewater Division Manager Dave Breitenstein to the podium. Mr. Breitenstein invited Metropolitan Wastewater Management Commission (MWMC) General Manager Susie Smith to respond to the question. Ms. Smith explained that the MWMC embarked on $15 million in revenue bond financing for the Capital Improvement Program (CIP). She said the debt service payments had been scheduled out of SDCs and user rates in accordance with eligibility of those funds. Councilor Bettman interjected that she had read all of this. She repeated her question. Ms. Smith replied that for the present year, all of the costs that qualified for SDCs were funded from SDCs. Councilor Bettman asked if SDCs were recovering the full cost of capital construction. Ms. Smith replied that they were not. Councilor Bettman concluded that the ratepayers would have to make up the difference. Councilor Bettman asked what the projected outcome was on the SDC lawsuit filed in 2004. Ms. Smith responded that the lawsuit had been recently resolved in the Oregon State Court of Appeals and the decision had affirmed the MWMC and its two partner cities approval of the SDC methodology. She believed the time had expired for the Lane County Home Builders Association to appeal that decision to the Supreme Court. In response to a question from Councilor Bettman, Ms. Smith affirmed that the MWMC filed a complaint against the Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) regarding the establishment of the Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) rule for temperature and the manner it had been established. She believed that Eugene staff would be bringing a work session to the City Council to review the TMDL with the council. MINUTES—Eugene City Council May 14, 2007 Page 5 Regular Meeting Councilor Bettman asked what the point would be to hold a work session given that adoption of the budget would allegedly result in a $75,000 increase in attorney fees to litigate with the DEQ. Ms. Smith responded that $75,000 was the level set for the generalized attorney’s fees. She related that the level for MWMC litigation expenses for the TMDL and for the suit brought against the MWMC by Oregon River Watch was set at $200,000. She could not give an estimate at this time of what it would cost to resolve the matter with the DEQ. She recommended that Councilor Bettman refer further questions to the legal counsel for the MWMC. Councilor Bettman expressed reluctance to support the budget. She asserted that it included approval of lawyer’s fees for the MWMC to pursue a claim against the DEQ. She alleged that the MWMC was lobbying for a lesser threshold of environmental quality. Councilor Bettman asked if the City of Eugene’s contribution of Full Time Equivalent (FTE) employees to the wastewater division was proportional to the City’s population. Ms. Smith replied that it was not proportionate; it was reflective of the services agreements between the cities of Eugene and Springfield and the MWMC. She stated that Eugene and Springfield work together to view and develop proposals for what activities were necessary for each of those functions. Councilor Clark asked if it would be fair to say that if the DEQ was successful in its action that it would cost the people in the City of Eugene tens of millions of dollars to build a cooling tower that could be scientifically argued to be unnecessary. Ms. Smith said she could not answer this directly. She stated that the MWMC had in its CIP a plant to address the TMDL. She explained that the MWMC was not trying to get out of implementing environmental improvements to address the temperature concern. She related that the MWMC had in its plans a $25 million reclaimed water program to remove discharge from the river itself. She declared that given the current wasteload allocation, the term for the amount of regulatory constraint that the MWMC had according to the rule the DEQ issued, the MWMC was looking at between $35 million to $50 million in additional capital expense that the MWMC would meet in a variety of ways. She stressed that the MWMC was moving forward with TMDL measures and reiterated that it was not its intent to avoid regulation to meet temperature constraints. Councilor Clark asked how Ms. Smith would characterize the MWMC’s response to the DEQ’s require- ments. Ms. Smith replied that the MWMC as a whole had taken a close look at how the rule was issued, how it impacted the MWMC, and how the specific regulation was derived. She stated that the MWMC took “very strong issue” with how the MWMC was treated in that TMDL. She said the issues were outlined in the complaint, which was public, and the City Attorney could supply additional information to the council should the councilors request it. Councilor Taylor asked if the council could approve the budget and exclude the portion of the budget that would pay for the lawsuit. City Attorney Glenn Klein responded that the council could not stop the lawsuit. He said if the council was interested in excluding a portion of the budget he would recommend postponement of the adoption of the budget in order to allow legal review of the intergovernmental agreements between the cities and the MWMC to determine exactly what those agreements require. Councilor Taylor asked if the council had no choice about whether the MWMC filed a suit against the DEQ. Mr. Klein replied that the MWMC was a separate legal entity and had the authority to file lawsuits. Councilor Taylor moved to table the motion until further information was available to the council. The motion died for lack of a second. MINUTES—Eugene City Council May 14, 2007 Page 6 Regular Meeting In response to a question from Councilor Bettman, City Manager Taylor stated that the work session Ms. Smith referred to was scheduled for June 25. Ms. Smith confirmed that final adoption of the budget for the MWMC was scheduled for June 23, in response to Councilor Bettman’s query. Councilor Bettman indicated she would oppose the budget. She believed that seeking a lower TMDL threshold was not consistent with “where this community’s values are.” She requested a copy of the complaint. Roll call vote; the motion to approve the budget and Capital Improvement Plan for the Met- ropolitan Wastewater Management Commission passed, 6:2; councilors Taylor and Bett- man voting in opposition. 3. ACTION: Ratification of Intergovernmental Relations Committee Actions of March 22, 2007, April 5, 2007, April 12, 2007, and April 19, 2007 Councilor Pryor, seconded by Councilor Taylor, moved to ratify the Intergovernmental Re- lations Committee actions as set forth in the minutes of the March 22, 2007, April 5, 2007, April 12, 2007, and April 19, 2007, meetings of the Council Committee on Intergovernmen- tal Relations. City Manager Taylor noted that Intergovernmental Relations Manager Brenda Wilson was available to respond to questions. Councilor Pryor asked Ms. Wilson to indicate which of the pulled bills were already “dead.” Ms. Wilson stated that Senate Bill (SB) 758, House Bill (HB) 2934, HB 3063, and SB 701 were effectively dead. Ms. Wilson reported that HB 3264 was still alive and was currently in the Revenue Department. At Councilor Pryor’s behest, Ms. Wilson summarized the bill. She noted that the staff member who reviewed the bill felt it would create an unfunded mandate to collect a lot of data that might not necessarily be used. She related that he thought it would be unfriendly to small businesses. The staff recommendation had been to oppose the bill and the Council Committee on Intergovernmental Relations (CCIGR) had, by a 2:1 vote, changed the recommendation to support the bill. Councilor Bettman indicated that she had thought HB 3363 was the bill that had more to do with contract- ing. Ms. Wilson responded that both bills were being handled by a work group that was being led by someone from Minnesota who had enacted these types of provisions. She said the work group was supposed to create a report to submit back to the legislature. In response to a question from Councilor Bettman, Ms. Wilson affirmed that it was likely the bills would be combined. Councilor Bettman averred that the bill would create accountability with enterprise zones or other economic and community development money. She believed it covered many of the issues that the council wrestled MINUTES—Eugene City Council May 14, 2007 Page 7 Regular Meeting with but had been hamstrung by the State statute. She asserted that the bill would tie the money to the jobs. She urged the council to support the existing CCIGR position on this bill. Councilor Clark asked what committee the bill had been assigned to and what Ms. Wilson thought the Governor’s inclination was with regard to it. Ms. Wilson responded that the bill had been assigned to the Revenue Committee, which meant it did not have to meet the May 31 deadline. She stated that Minnesota had a similar program that was working very well. It was her understanding that the recommendation was heavily supported. She speculated that the Governor would support the recommendation of the work group when it was completed. Councilor Solomon stated that all of the information the bill would require was already part of the West Eugene Enterprise Zone. She declared that the City received the information and tracked it. She said the bill seemed like an attempt to add bureaucratic layers. She could not see anything the bill would require that the City was not already doing. Ms. Wilson stated that the two bills that were introduced were an attempt to mirror the Minnesota law. She noted that the law was working well there. She said once the report was completed she would provide copies of it to the council. Councilor Pryor recalled that such information would be collected upon application in order to gain reauthorization in the Enterprise Zone. He surmised that the concern lay in that the information was not necessarily tracked through the whole process. He underscored that the reason to oppose it was that it was an unfunded mandate; it would require a significant amount of money, time, and effort for the City of Eugene to begin compiling and collecting the information to report back to the State. Councilor Taylor averred that the bill would lead to more accountability and transparency. She also believed it would eliminate a subsidy based on the types of jobs provided. Councilor Bettman reiterated her support for the bill. Councilor Zelenka said he would support the recommendation of the CCIGR. He believed the bill would increase transparency. Regarding a potential unfunded mandate, he felt the City could find some creative ways to get the money back. Councilor Pryor, seconded by Councilor Poling, moved to amend the position of the Coun- cil Committee on Intergovernmental Relations on House Bill 3264 to oppose the bill. Roll call vote; the motion failed, 4:4; councilors Solomon, Poling, Pryor, and Clark voting in fa- vor and councilors Ortiz, Bettman, Taylor, and Zelenka voting in opposition. Councilor Ortiz called for the vote on the main motion. Roll call vote; the motion passed, 6:2; councilors Clark and Solomon voting in opposition. The meeting adjourned at 8:36 p.m. Respectfully submitted, MINUTES—Eugene City Council May 14, 2007 Page 8 Regular Meeting Dennis M. Taylor City Manager (Recorded by Ruth Atcherson) MINUTES—Eugene City Council May 14, 2007 Page 9 Regular Meeting