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HomeMy WebLinkAboutItem 2A: Approval of MinutesEUGENE CITY COUNCIL AGENDA ITEM SUMMARY Approval of City Council Minutes Meeting Date: August 8, 2005 Agenda Item Number: 2A Department: City Manager's Office Staff Contact: Lynda Rose www. eugene-or, gov Contact Telephone Number: 682-5017 ISSUE STATEMENT This is a routine item to approve City Council meeting minutes. SUGGESTED MOTION Move to approve the minutes of the June 29, 2005, Work Session, July 13, 2005, Work Session, and July 18, 2005, Work Session. ATTACHMENTS A. June 29, 2005, Work Session B. July 13, 2005, Work Session C. July 18, 2005, Work Session FOR MORE INFORMATION Staff Contact: Lynda Rose Telephone: 682-5017 Staff E-Mail: lynda.l.rose~ci.eugene.or.us L:\CMO\2005 Council Agendas\M050808\S0508082A. doc ATTACHMENT A MINUTES Eugene City Council Work Session McNutt Room--Eugene City Hall June 29, 2005 Noon COUNCILORS PRESENT: George Poling, Jennifer Solomon, Andrea Ortiz, Chris Pryor, Betty Taylor, David Kelly, Bonny Bettman. COUNCILORS ABSENT: Gary Pap6 Mayor Kitty Piercy called the meeting of the Eugene City Council to order. She conveyed a request from Mr. Pap6 that the council not conduct a vote on the West Eugene Enterprise Zone if he was not present. She said it was her understanding that it was a courtesy request and the council could decide whether to grant it. City Manager Dennis Taylor concurred that the request was a privilege that councilors could ask of the body and the body could then determine whether the issue was too important to postpone action. He said the current situation might warrant such a decision. Ms. Bettman noted that Mr. Pap6 was aware the issue might be on the agenda. She said that in the current situation, not taking action was taking action by default if the council did not take definitive action. She recommended that the council proceed with purposeful action rather than by default. Mr. Kelly pointed out that council ground rules said the body could take action even if there was a request to postpone if a majority of councilors present wished to take action. He said the fact that the enterprise zone would go into effect on July 2, 2005, meant the council was in that situation. He asked if a motion was necessary or if a show of consensus would suffice. City Attorney Jerome Lidz replied that a show of consensus was acceptable. City Manager Taylor explained why the West Eugene Enterprise Zone issue was added to the agenda. He said the council directed staff at its June 27, 2005, meeting to bring the interim standards to the County for consideration and report back on the County commissioners' action, which staff would do at the beginning the of enterprise zone discussion. He recommended that the Neighborhood Initiative Priority Issue Action Plan work session be postponed to a later meeting. A. ACTION: West Eugene Enterprise Zone Application City Manager Taylor related that on June 28, 2005, the State approved the West Eugene Enterprise Zone application jointly submitted by Lane County and the City of Eugene. He said staff met with the Lane Board of County Commissioners on the morning of June 29 and recommended adoption of the interim standards that the council adopted by Resolution 4832 on June 27. He said that following a lively discussion, the County commissioners adopted interim standards that included all of the elements in MINUTES--Eugene City Council June 29, 2005 Page 1 Work Session Resolution 4832 except the $30,000 job cap. He said the joint application required both parties to agree on interim standards and, if there was a disagreement on interim standards related to j ob quality, the zone would revert to State standards. He said that award of an enterprise zone by the State made it unlikely that one jurisdiction could unilaterally withdraw the application and additional research, as well as additional conversations with the County, would be necessary in order to block implementation of the zone on July 1, 2005. He introduced Denny Braud and Mike Sullivan of the Community Development Division to review the situation and respond to questions. Mr. Braud noted that the City and County were awarded enterprise zone designation, to take effect on July 1, 2005. He said a consistent goal had been for the City and County to have standards in place on July 1; although agreement on those standards had not yet been reached as of July 1, and the zone would be subject to State standards and criteria related to job creation and type of business even though there were no local standards and criteria. He said it would be necessary for the City and County to reach an agreement in order to have local standards in place by July 1. Mr. Kelly clarified that the cap of $30,000 maximum tax exemption per job created was not actually part of the interim standards; it was an amendment to the resolution to apply to the State for an enterprise zone. Mayor Piercy acknowledged the arrival of Lane County commissioners Bobby Green, Anna Morrison and Faye Stewart. Mayor Piercy solicited a first round of council questions and comments. Mr. Poling thanked the County commissioners for their discussion of interim standards and particularly Commissioner Dwyer for his motion to accept the 1997 interim standards with a 25-percent benefit while continuing to collaborate with the City Council to develop permanent standards. He said that Commis- sioner Dwyer was clear in his comments that a per-job cap should be part of the permanent standards discussion with the City. Mr. Poling indicated he wanted the council to take action to accept the action by the County commission- ers to include the 1997 interim standards with the 25-percent benefit and immediately begin collaborative discussions about developing permanent standards to include a per job cap. He asked the City Attorney if that would bring the City and County into alignment. Mr. Lidz replied that it would be necessary to amend Resolution 4845, adopted June 27, 2005, to delete the section related to the per job cap if the goal was to bring the resolution into alignment with what the County had adopted. Mr. Poling, seconded by Ms. Solomon, moved to amend Resolution 4845 by deleting sub- section (c) of Section 1, related to the three-year tax exemption benefit limitation of $30,000 per new full-time j ob created. Mr. Poling said his understanding from the Lane County Board of Commissioners' discussion of the matter that morning was that by not adopting any interim standards, the State's guidelines would apply and the Board of Commissioners wanted to meet with the council to discuss community standards. He said commissioners' main concern was the per employee cap but they were willing to continue discussions on that and Commissioner Dwyer's motion was an effort to keep the City and County working together on the issue. MINUTES--Eugene City Council June 29, 2005 Page 2 Work Session Mr. Kelly said the council worked hard to find a collaborative solution that resulted in a 7 to 1 vote in favor of an application for an enterprise zone, which he felt was a factor in the State's approval. He said part of the solution was a per-j ob cap of $30,000 maximum tax exemption for each j ob created, which was generous and in line with benefits provided under the previous enterprise zone. He said the commission- ers' discussion did not include the per-job cap; rather, timing was the topic. He said if Mr. Poling's motion passed, months of consensus and commitments among the councilors would be "thrown out the window" and he would not support the motion. He said if the motion was defeated he would introduce a motion to withdraw or terminate the City's application and designate a representative to work with County commissioners over the next year on an application that could receive consensus at the onset. Ms. Bettman said she felt there were some circumstances under which an enterprise zone could be a benefit to the community and she was willing to support it under those circumstances. She hoped that the council was willing to honor the collaboration involved in the application. In terms of the cap in the resolution, she felt there were legal implications to adopting standards or granting an application for benefit to the enterprise zone that did not include the cap as it would be inconsistent with the resolution. She said without the cap, the enterprise zone benefit was based on property value and investment, not on jobs, and the whole justification for the zone was job creation. She said the cap the council put in place provided almost all small and medium business under the cap with generous room to succeed and there were perhaps one or two very large entities that would benefit from the enterprise zone without the cap. She questioned the County's willingness to so generously transfer tax dollars that could be used to pay for public safety patrols and jails when it was claiming it did not have enough money for public safety. Ms. Solomon acknowledged the compromises made during development of the application, noting that she had compromised on the exclusion of the railroad yards in the zone when she preferred to have them included. She was agreeable to continuing to compromise in order to have a zone. She said the council had not had a significant discussion of the job caps, yet she compromised on including them in the resolution because she was willing to have a discussion at a later date. She said the understanding at the council's June 27, 2005, meeting was that all of the standards and the j ob cap were temporary but she continued to hear councilors state that only under those circumstances would there be an enterprise zone in Eugene. She questioned whether the council really wanted public input to determine community standards. She expressed concern that the City was "cutting off its nose to spite its face." Ms. Solomon emphasized that the standards were temporary and in the interests of retaining an enterprise zone and maintaining a relationship with partners she was willing to compromise. She indicated she would support the motion. Mr. Pryor pointed out that the City was 90 percent of the way to an enterprise zone. He said the previous months had seen an enormous amount of effort, collaboration and compromise. He said that withdrawing from the application would be like traveling from Oregon to New York and turning around and leaving when the arrival date was Friday instead of Thursday as originally expected. He said that agreement had been reached on standards, size and scope, a joint application had been submitted and approved and there was one piece left to negotiate. His impression was that the piece was still negotiable; yet the council was ready to walk away from the application and that was a waste. Mr. Pryor expressed concern that the council would look foolish to the State if the application was withdrawn after it was approved because one final piece could not be agreed upon. He urged the council to work on the issue of caps and his sense was that the County commissioners were willing to discuss job caps. He said so much had been accomplished on the enterprise zone that the effort should not be abandoned. MINUTES--Eugene City Council June 29, 2005 Page 3 Work Session Ms. Ortiz asked for an explanation of the County commission's action. Mr. Braud replied that the City and County were asked to act on two things relative to placeholder interim policy and interim criteria for the new enterprise zone scheduled to start on July 1, 2005. He said the first was re-enacting the previous enterprise zone's public benefit criteria, adopted in 1997, as placeholder criteria and the second was introduction of the concept of capping the tax exemption. He said the City and County had not previously discussed a dollar amount for the cap but at the council's June 27, 2005, meeting, staff proposed a cap of $30,000 over three years for each new job that was created. He said the council agreed to both the 1997 criteria and a $30,000 cap at its meeting; the County accepted the 1997 criteria, but not the cap. Ms. Ortiz expressed frustration that the County had not accepted the cap. Ms. Bettman moved, seconded by Mr. Kelly, to substitute the following motion: "I move to repeal Resolution 4832 and to direct the City Manager to withdraw the City's application for designation of the West Eugene Enterprise Zone or, if it is too late to withdraw the application, to take the steps necessary to terminate the City of Eugene's sponsorship of the West Eugene Enterprise zone and, in addi- tion, that the City Council designate a representative to contact the Lane County Board of Commissioners to begin working together to craft an application for des- ignation of an enterprise zone for West Eugene that can achieve Board consensus and City Council support, with the goal of filing the application at the next time the State accepts such applications. Mayor Piercy solicited council comments on the motion. Mr. Kelly stated that the motion made by Ms. Bettman reflected his feelings and he would support it. He agreed with Ms. Ortiz that it was disappointing the County commissioners were unable to accept a per-job cap on the tax benefit on an interim basis. He gave the example of an automated computer center that might have a large capital outlay while creating few jobs, but could be fully exempt from property taxes without the cap. He reminded everyone that during discussions of the enterprise zone, many people in the community spoke specifically about per-job cap. He disagreed with Mr. Pryor's statement that the City was 90 percent of the way to an enterprise zone as the per-job cap, unlike the other criteria, was a part of the application to the State because it was incorporated in the resolution. He objected to the statement that the council would look foolish. Mr. Poling asked if it was possible for a jurisdiction to unilaterally either withdraw the application or withdraw from the enterprise zone or if a joint resolution by both parties be required. Mr. Lidz replied that he did not know the answer as the issue had just been raised. His general sense, without having an opportunity to consult the statutes, was that if it took two parties to file the application and one withdrew, the application was effectively withdrawn. Mr. Braud said that termination might require both of the joint sponsors but thought the statutes were probably silent on withdrawing an application because it had never occurred. City Manager Taylor added that the enterprise zone designation was granted on June 28, 2005, by the State and did not go into effect until July 1, 2005. He said that staff would pursue whatever policy direction the council adopted; however, his recommendation was that in addition to that action, in order to ensure that an enterprise zone did not go into effect on July 1 with nothing but State standards, the council adopt the interim standards accepted by the County. MINUTES--Eugene City Council June 29, 2005 Page 4 Work Session Mr. Poling remarked that County commissioners had not indicated in their discussion that they were opposed to an enterprise zone. He disagreed with Ms. Bettman's statement that there was a transfer of tax dollars involved. He said there was an exemption for three years on the improvements only, after which period the City would receive full tax revenue from that property. He said that it was companies that would make large investments in their facilities, regardless of how many people were hired, that would most directly benefit the City through an increase in property tax revenues. He questioned whether the substitute motion could be legally accomplished. Mr. Lidz noted there were several procedural issues underlying the council's discussion and suggested that before voting the council pause and review whether the motions on the table accomplished what the council wanted. He said that one possibility was a vote to amend the resolution from June 27 to align the City with the County, even if the council then wanted to vote to withdraw the application so that if withdrawing the application was ineffective, there would be some standards in place rather than none at all. Ms. Bettman stated that it was better to have no interim standards so there was pressure to develop some type of consensus around what the community wanted. She said that weak interim standards could be there forever because the County had no incentive to change them and it would be counterproductive to vote to be consistent with the County. She said there was another application process in a year and the council had already discussed the possibility of not making an application until then; withdrawing the application would mean the City started with a "clean slate" and the County would have incentive to collaborate in order to have an enterprise zone. She said the resolution included the cap and questioned how the City could move forward with an enterprise zone that did not have a cap and was therefore inconsistent with the resolution adopting the enterprise zone. She said the City was not at 90 percent; it was worse off than being at "square one." She said that the council's ability to cooperate was destroyed if it went forward with an enterprise zone with County-dictated benefits. Responding to Mr. Kelly's objection, Mr. Pryor said he was not implying the council was foolish but rather suggesting that others might have that perception if the City submitted an application and then withdrew it. He said he had heard no disagreement between the City and the County with regard to having an enterprise zone, the value of the 1997 standards, or the timing or submitting of the application. He said it appeared the disagreement boiled down to one element, the job cap, and the perception that the council and County commissioners did not trust each other enough to do the right thing on a job cap. City Manager Taylor agreed with Mr. Pryor's assessment. He said the problem was that the County felt if it adopted the job cap it would be the default standard and there would be no incentive for the council to modify it through a community involvement process; conversely, the council felt if a job cap was excluded there was no incentive for the County to consider the concept. He said that lack of opportunities to discuss the job cap with the County had also contributed to the problem. Mr. Pryor said it appeared that while the County was aware there were discussions of a cap, the specific amount of $30,000 was new information. He asked if the sticking point was the job cap, the amount of the job cap or the timing of when the information was presented to the County commissioners. Mr. Braud said it was timing and the County's desire to take more time to consider whether a cap was a good idea and jointly work on the concept instead of putting something on the table late in the process. MINUTES--Eugene City Council June 29, 2005 Page 5 Work Session Mr. Pryor asked how the dollar amount of the cap had been determined. Mr. Braud replied that Ms. Bettman suggested the idea of a cap and her initial proposal was for $30,000. He said that amount seemed to be one around which consensus could be built. Mr. Pryor asked if there was a sense that if the council aligned with the County on standards at this point, there was agreement to establish a job cap in an amount to be mutually agreed upon at a later point. He said the only outstanding issue seemed to be the cap and there should be some way for the City and the County to address a cap without withdrawing an application that had already been accepted. Mayor Piercy solicited a second round of comments on the motion. Mr. Kelly said he watched the commissioner's meeting that morning and the merits of a cap were not discussed. He stated that the cap was intrinsic to the original application and asked for support for the motion before the body. Ms. Taylor said she was opposed to enterprise zones and felt that in addition to time for discussions with the County there should be time for discussions with the community. She was sad to hear the application had been approved by the State and felt it was the wrong thing, as more standards were needed instead of fewer. She said most people did not know what an enterprise zone was and were not aware of the City's application for one. She said that an enterprise zone should focus on sustainability and living wage, which the standards did not address, as well as a variety of jobs instead of restricting jobs to manufacturing and a different type of designation instead of geographical. She said all of those things needed to be discussed and more time was needed for those discussions. She would support the substitute motion. Ms. Solomon said that there had been many discussions to date and reminded the council that a majority of the beneficiaries of the prior enterprise zone were small, locally owned businesses that were able to expand operations and hire more people who stayed in the community and helped the economy grow. Referring to a lack of trust between the partners, she suggested that a sunset for interim standards be adopted that would require negotiation between the City and County on new standards. Mayor Piercy expressed disappointment about the current situation as the council had labored hard to reach this point. She said the tipping point on reaching agreement was the job cap and understood why removing it jeopardized the council's support. She also understood why the County felt it was not included in the conversation about a cap, although commissioners were aware one was being discussed. She was concerned because the enterprise zone could be an innovative tool with community standards to target economic development priorities. City Manager Taylor noted that members of the Board of County Commissioners were present and suggested a caucus during a brief adjournment to determine if there was a solution to the impasse. Mayor Piercy expressed willingness to have that conversation if there was a possibility of reaching some type of agreement. Mr. Kelly raised a point of order that there was a motion on the floor. Ms. Bettman said that not only was there a motion on the floor, but by not taking action the council would be taking action and consequently bargaining from a position of extreme weakness. She said the council MINUTES--Eugene City Council June 29, 2005 Page 6 Work Session should act on the motion and then caucus later. She reminded those present that for every $7 in benefit the City paid, the County contributed $2, and when she brought forward the cap it was based on historic conversations by the Mayor's Economic Development Committee. The motion to substitute passed, 4:3; Mr. Poling, Mr. Pryor and Ms. Solomon vot- ing in opposition. The motion as amended passed, 4:3; Mr. Poling, Mr. Pryor and Ms. Solomon vot- ing in opposition. Ms. Bettman requested a legal opinion on the job cap being in the resolution and what impact that had when the County's action was inconsistent with the City's application. City Manager Taylor said that staff would report back to the council on how its motion could be implemented. He asked if discussions should be continued with the County regarding a way to accept the enterprise zone. Mayor Piercy said she had a sense that the council would be willing to work on the issue if there was a significant change on the part of the County regarding the cap. She said it was her intention to ask the commissioners if they were willing to reexamine the subject. B. Work Session: Neighborhood Initiative Priority Issue Action Plan This item was postponed to a future meeting. C. Work Session: Context-Sensitive Design Process for Crest Drive Neighborhood Streets City Manager Taylor introduced City Engineer Mark Schoening to continue the discussion of Crest Drive, Storey Boulevard and Friendly Street improvements. Mr. Schoening stated that his purpose was to respond to questions on the Crest Drive neighborhood transportation issue, share with the council some of the neighborhood outreach that occurred and outline some of the elements of a context-sensitive design process, particularly minimum design standards. He related that in January 2005 the council directed staff to address the issues surrounding street design prior to classification of streets. In response to an earlier question from the council, he said that the design processes for Ayers Road, Delta Highway and Garden Way were funded by transportation system development charges (SDCs) and the costs were carded forward into the local improvement districts (LIDs) that were formed for each of those projects. He said if the City fronted costs for the design process on Crest Drive and the other streets in that neighborhood, the costs could be rolled forward into an LID if the council decided to form one. If there was no LID the City would have to find another funding source for those costs. He said the cost estimate of $240,000 for the Crest Drive design process was determined by looking at approximately 1.25 miles of streets on Crest Drive, Friendly Street, and Storey Boulevard, the neighborhood's desire for very detailed information on impacts on individual properties and trees and the need to design an entire street that included surveying, engineering and design work and extensive public outreach. MINUTES--Eugene City Council June 29, 2005 Page 7 Work Session Mr. Schoening said staff took the approach in January 2005 to package all elements together and request funding to move the project forward; elements included developing a context-sensitive design process and initiating the surveying, engineering and design, and public outreach. He said that neighborhood feedback was to take smaller steps and begin with development of a context-sensitive design process and reach agreement with the neighborhood. He related that the neighborhood association board passed a motion to that effect last week. He said when agreement was reached on the context-sensitive design process, the City would move forward with implementing the process.. Continuing, Mr. Schoening said elements of a context-sensitive design process included: · Establishing the goals and objectives of the process · Identifying the boundaries of the process (minimum design standards for a street in the neighbor- hood) · Establishing a decision-making model with the recognition that the council would make the final decision on whatever project or design was proposed · Developing a public involvement strategy · Establishing a schedule and budget for the process Mr. Schoening said that minimum design standards were a "sticking point" and he used a schematic to illustrate three street design alternatives, noting that those alternatives could be modified depending on the interests and values of stakeholders. He reviewed each of the alternatives and noted that the sidewalk standard was to some extent outside of the City's purview, as the State Transportation Planning Rule required a sidewalk on either reconstructed or new streets and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) established parameters for sidewalks in terms of minimum width, surface and physical separation from the street. He said a major issue for the neighborhood association was the minimum pavement design width of ten feet. He said the association preferred a narrower width but was told that the two ten-foot travel lanes or twenty feet of pavement would remain the minimum. Mayor Piercy called for questions and comments. Ms. Taylor observed that the process would take time and while she was pleased that public involvement included the entire neighborhood, she reminded staff that those with abutting properties were the most concerned. She asked staff to stop referring to "benefiting properties" and use the term "abutting properties" instead, as she felt properties were sometimes hurt rather than helped and the use of the word "abutting" would be clearer. Mr. Schoening referred to State law governing LDs, which allowed assessment of benefiting properties, not abutting properties. Ms. Taylor said that she attended the neighborhood meetings and felt the last one was productive. She questioned whether everyone in the neighborhood understood that if the council paid for the context- sensitive design process it would be included in the LID and added to the assessments. She asked how many properties were involved and what the per person cost of the $240,000 process would be. Mr. Schoening said he could provide that information and pointed out that the normal cost of a capital project included engineering and design costs, which could vary depending on how extensive the process was. Ms. Taylor asked if there were exceptions to ADA requirements for sidewalks if the terrain was very steep. Mr. Schoening replied that if a car was able to climb a grade, a motorized wheelchair also could MINUTES--Eugene City Council June 29, 2005 Page 8 Work Session and there was no basis for an exception in that neighborhood. Ms. Taylor asked staffto look into the matter. Ms. Taylor asked how it would be determined which side of a street would have a sidewalk if there was to be only one sidewalk along the street. Mr. Schoening replied that would be part of the design discussion and one of the goals was to limit the number of times pedestrians would have to cross the street when walking from one point to another. Ms. Taylor hoped that stop signs could be added to the list of traffic calming strategies. Mr. Schoening said that traffic calming tools were included in the Arterial/Collector Street Plan and stop signs were a regulatory device to assign right-of-way rather than a traffic calming tool. Ms. Bettman commented that the City's position was that stop signs that were not warranted could open it to legal liability, which is why they were not used as a traffic calming device. Ms. Bettman stated that she had attended the neighborhood meeting and her impression was that the neighborhood's main concern over ten-foot lanes was off the table for discussion before the process began. She asked if the ten-foot standard could be flexible when there were extenuating circumstances, such as preserving heritage trees or a front yard, and the travel lane be narrower at that point. She pointed out that the ten-foot minimum lane width was the standard in the Arterial/Collector Street Plan for a collector street and the basis of the neighborhood's objection was that it did not want the street to be a collector. She said the City should be willing to make an exception to the ten-foot lane width where it was appropriate and reasonable and pointed out that there were many streets throughout the City that were very narrow and included parking on both sides. She thought it was unlikely that two fire trucks would be passing each other on a street, thus requiring a 20-foot width. Mr. Poling noted Mr. Schoening's remarks about ADA requirements for sidewalk surfaces and com- mented that during recent discussions of alley improvements the issue of a new technique with a pervious surface was raised. He asked if that type of surface would qualify under ADA requirements for a hard surface. Mr. Schoening said he thought it would, but one of the issues with pervious pavement was that underlying soils needed to be pervious. He said the soils in the Crest Drive neighborhood were clay soils and not very pervious. Mr. Kelly said he was pleased the last neighborhood meeting went well and the idea of designing a process made sense. He hoped that the process would be designed so that both the process and paying for the process would be broken into several phases with check-in points for the council and neighbors at the end of each. He indicated he was not opposed to eventual classification of the streets and what emerged from the design process would help with that discussion. Referring to the ten-foot lane width, Mr. Kelly said that requirement was also in the Local Street Plan and applied to streets in general. He was unaware of any improved streets that were less than 20 feet in width although there were some old substandard streets that might have less than 20 feet of pavement left. He was comfortable with the ten-foot lane width standard, which was very narrow by national standards, but agreed with Ms. Bettman's comments about the need for flexibility in some situations. He said if flexibility was allowed it should be reflected in both street plans. MINUTES--Eugene City Council June 29, 2005 Page 9 Work Session Ms. Bettman commented that the street plans did provide that flexibility. Mr. Schoening agreed and said there were two aspects to the neighborhood's discussion of lane width; one related to the lane width for the entire length of the street and the other related to an extenuating circumstance such as a heritage tree. Ms. Bettman asked whether lane width flexibility under very specific circumstances would be a part of the discussion with the neighborhood and could be a part of the ultimate design. Mr. Schoening said it could be part of the discussion and said the council could see that element in the design, but there could be a minority opinion from Lane Transit District or Fire and Emergency Medical Services on how that would impact service delivery. Ms. Bettman asked if a motion was necessary to direct the City Manager to imbue staff with the ability to be flexible where appropriate with lane width. City Manager Taylor replied that the City's standard design guidelines included criteria for exceptions and Mr. Schoening had indicated an understanding of that and a willingness to work with the neighborhood. Ms. Taylor reiterated her request that staff stop using the term "minimum" to refer to lane width when meeting with neighbors as it indicated there were no exceptions. Mayor Piercy thanked everyone for their work and adjourned the meeting at 1:30 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Dennis M. Taylor City Manager (Recorded by Lynn Taylor) MINUTES--Eugene City Council June 29, 2005 Page 10 Work Session ATTACHMENT B MINUTES Eugene City Council Work Session McNutt Room--Eugene City Hall July 1 $, 2005 Noon COUNCILORS PRESENT: Oeorge Poling, Jennifer Solomon, Andrea Ortiz, Chris Pryor, Betty Taylor, David Kelly, Bonny Bettman, Gary Pap& Mayor Piercy convened the meeting and welcomed those who were present and those watching the council meeting on Metro Television. A. WORK SESSION: City Council Priority Issue - Push "Arts and Outdoors" as Theme for Eugene City Manager Taylor explained that the issue before the council was a draft action plan that resulted from the council's eight priority issues identified during the council's retreat held in February. He asked team leader for the project, Susan Muir of the Planning and Development Department, and key staff person, Andrea Riner of the Parks and Open Space Division, to present the team's recommendations on how to proceed with the council priority area. Ms. Muir related that a dynamic staff group worked on this priority area. She said the team focused on how to strengthen and promote the assets of the community as an economic development tool. She acknowledged that much work was going on in both the arts and the outdoors at this time and felt this created a dynamic synergy. Ms. Riner underscored that the economic development strategy sought to emphasize both tourism and the livability of the community. She observed that this tied into the work of the Mayor's Sustainable Business Initiative (SBI) Task Force. She felt the plan attempted to determine what the community already had and what its values were. She wished to make sure it was clear this was a community effort and that the team hoped the City would be a "player with partners," such as the County. She reviewed the action plan (Attachment B Arts/Outdoors Action Plan Timeline). Ms. Muir conveyed staff's recommendation that the council approve the action plan. City Manager Taylor noted that he attended a concert by the Chieftains the previous night at the Cuthbert Amphitheater, which exemplified the value of Eugene's arts and outdoors scene. Mayor Piercy called on the council for questions and comments. Ms. Taylor agreed that the arts and outdoors were of primary importance but questioned the emphasis on making it an economic development tool. She did not believe it should be something to market, rather she MINUTES--Eugene City Council July 13, 2005 Page 1 Work Session averred it was something to aspire to. She agreed there were financial implications, should the City truly be focusing on the arts and outdoors and when the budget was developed more money would be allocated to such things. Ms. Taylor cited the Nectar Way/Dillard Road property and the Amazon Headwaters property as examples of purchases that should be made. She cited an opinion piece, printed in The Register-Guard on June 21, entitled "It's Hard to Put a Price on Some Land Deals" and offered to provide copies to the councilors. She said it related to a purchase of land during the Depression in the 1930s. She averred that if the City really aspired to be a place that valued the outdoors, it should think about what was needed in the future. She opined that it was more urgent now to save land. Continuing, Ms. Taylor felt Eugene already had a wonderful arts "scene." She did not think the City contributed enough toward it. She thought more should be done for youth art and arts in general. She hoped it would be the City's goal to develop, to preserve, and to cherish the arts and the outdoors and that it would not be something to make money from. She felt it was "sort of embarrassing" to say that Eugene was the "greatest" city for the arts and outdoors. Mr. Pap6 pointed out that the Hendricks family had donated much of Hendricks Park and that Alton Baker Park had been purchased through efforts spearheaded by Alton Baker, former owner of The Register- Guard. Mr. Pap6 thanked the City Manager for expediting this priority issue. In reviewing the timeline, he noted with a little consternation that it spoke of a longer period of time than he had hoped for. He wished to have something to show for it within a year. He also noted that there would likely be some resource needs other than staff time and wondered if some of it could be moved into the cycle of the budget process starting with the next year. City Manager Taylor responded that staff hoped to get feedback on the action plan and to gain council approval for it and then the resource needs would begin to be better understood. He said the bulk of the work would result in decision packages for fiscal year (FY) 2007. Ms. Riner concurred, adding that the implementation of maj or projects was slated for 2007 and the preliminary work, such as the implementa- tion of the resource assessment, meetings with community partners, and development of marketing strategies, would be put into place within six to nine months. In response to a question from Mr. Pap6, Ms. Riner said a program and funding request would be presented for the marketing program. She stated that long-term costs would depend on which projects from the Parks and Open Space comprehensive plan and from the Cultural Services comprehensive plan came to the forefront as key to meeting City goals for the arts and outdoors. Mr. Pap6 hoped the council could review each one of the priorities before the January goals session so that the council could be confident that definite budgetary allocations would occur within the process and not be special allocations made outside the budgetary process. Mr. Kelly was happy that "arts and outdoors" was a strategic priority issue because these elements brought personality to the community. He averred that the combination of a rich and accessible arts and outdoors scene made the City of Eugene special and this was worth marketing. He felt the accessibility and variety of outdoor amenities was unsurpassed. He thought the plan looked good at first cut and approved of looking at it both as a way to improve community livability and as an economic strategy. Mr. MINUTES--Eugene City Council July 13, 2005 Page 2 Work Session Kelly noted there was no motion language included on the agenda though the agenda item summary (AIS) suggested the council could approve it. City Manager Taylor indicated that if the council was comfortable with the plan, adoption at the present meeting would expedite the plan. Mr. Kelly commented that there were a few things he could "quibble with," but because there were points at which the plan would return to check in with the council, he felt it could move forward as a draft. Mr. Kelly recommended inclusion of venues from the private sector when identifying community partners. Ms. Bettman echoed Mr. Kelly's comments. She wanted to focus on the enhancement of livability in Eugene. She did not believe the primary goal to be an increase in tourism. Regarding the timeline, Ms. Bettman said the historic intent of council goals had been to take on something achievable within a councilor's lifetime on the council. Because of council turnover, she pointed out that this was a two-year threshold. She felt the implementation became almost regional and would take the goal beyond being a council goal. She wished to see a more focused effort; one that leveraged the most benefit with the investment that made sense for Eugene and one that maximized the assets Eugene already had. She approved of the marketing strategy, but had concerns that the City was joining the efforts of the County. She did not want to see a council goal "get co-opted." Mr. Poling also had some questions about the timeline but recognized the magnitude of the project the City faced. He agreed that it would be nice to compress the timeline and said it would be beneficial to fold some of the City's efforts into a regional effort. He averred that private involvement was an important piece of the goal. He cited a recent youth soccer tournament that brought people from all over the United States to the area. He underscored the importance of involving all of the private venues to find out what events they were planning so that the City could build upon them and try to blend in some of the activities of the natural surroundings and the local talent. In this way, he felt people would have something else to participate in other than their specific event. Mr. Poling, seconded by Ms. Solomon, moved to approve the proposed "Arts and Out- doors" Action Plan. Mayor Piercy called for further questions and comments. Mr. Pap6 surmised that the council liked the way the plan was organized but was less favorable to the timeline. He asked that it be compressed if possible. City Manager Taylor commented that staff saw working with all of the City's partners, both intergovern- mental and private, as integral to the process. He averred that the cross-departmental work provided an additional focus and more work to consider. He heard, however, council feedback to get the work out faster and provide specific steps that were achievable within a councilor's lifetime as well as development of a longer term strategy so that the "Arts and Outdoors" focus would be maintained. Mr. Pap6 remarked that he looked forward to something with an 18-month time span that would be carried on into the future. MINUTES--Eugene City Council July 13, 2005 Page 3 Work Session Mr. Kelly agreed with staff that the Parks, Recreation, and Open Space comprehensive plan and the Cultural Service comprehensive plan were important components of the strategic goal. He thought the role of the City government should be to provide visibility in order to get the word out and also to serve as a coordinator that would convene different "outdoors folks" and arts groups that had not worked together before to find the synergy among them. Mr. Kelly noted that the councilors received a letter from Greg Larago which suggested that the City endorse "Greatest City for the Arts and Outdoors" as Eugene's official slogan. He supported moving on this soon because it had already become a de facto slogan. He asked staff to relay in a memorandum how this could be made official. In response to a question from Ms. Bettman, Ms. Riner said staff planned for the resource assessment to take six months and it would likely be accomplished with existing resources. In response to a follow-up question, Ms. Riner stated that some funding would probably be needed after the marketing strategy was developed when the City was ready to implement it. Ms. Muir interjected that a six-month check in with the council would provide an opportunity to keep the council and staff in contact with budgetary needs. Ms. Bettman was happy to hear this. She opposed, however, a council goal having to do with Eugene that sought to maximize and promote the unique attributes of the arts and outdoors being "co-opted" into a regional strategy or something used to help build a convention center. Mr. Poling hoped there was an automatic check-in built into the plan so that the council remained apprised of progress made on the priority goals. City Manager Taylor hoped that once the action plans were adopted, the City Council would see a regular report on how all of the eight goals were progressing. Mr. Poling asked that staff bring news of any major stumbling blocks to the council's attention as well as progress of a more positive nature. Mayor Piercy shared her enthusiasm for the amount of commitment on the part of the council to the arts and outdoors theme. She noted that she had seen the City represented as a place for the arts and the outdoors while traveling earlier in the week. She expressed hope that the council and staff would look for opportunities that might arise for the arts and the outdoors across the board and to move quickly on them. She remarked that the arts and outdoors theme was tied to the priority for supporting redevelopment of the downtown area. She also thought this would provide opportunities to "connect" with the University of Oregon and those opportunities should be taken advantage of. Additionally, Mayor Piercy voiced her support for a Eugene focus. She stressed, however, that Eugene was a part of a region and the region had an interest in this and was already engaged. She said it would not be in the City's best interest not to take advantage of this. She commented that there were plenty of opportunities and it was up to the City to "run fast enough" to take advantage of them. The motion passed unanimously, 8:0. MINUTES--Eugene City Council July 13, 2005 Page 4 Work Session B. Work Session: City Council Priority Issue - Develop a Strategy to Help the Homeless in Eugene City Manager Taylor introduced Director of thc Library, Recreation, and Cultural Services Department (LRCS) Angel Jones and asked her to present thc item Ms. Jones stated that homclessncss was not unique to thc city of Eugene. She related that staff had taken a three-prong approach in thc proposed plan by looking at the government's role in the process of setting ordinances or creating policy, looking at the internal processes and determining what could be done differently to remove barriers to be able to assist thc homeless population, and to look at the external environment including stakeholders, current resources available, gaps in services, and best practices in other areas and how they could be ntilizcd to collaborate and have a sustainable impact in trying to help thc homeless. Ms. Jones said a number of key stakeholders had been contacted to discuss the "plan to plan," recognizing that there had not been time to truly engage them. She reiterated that this issue was not germane to the city of Eugene alone. She asked Mike Magcc, chair of thc committee that worked on the action plan, to walk the council through the plan. Mr. Magce, Administrative Manager for LRCS, explained that he had been charged with thc responsibility of leading thc group who were assembled to develop the action plan. He underscored that it had been a broad-based group, many of whom had worked and interacted with homeless members of thc community. He had been energized by the level of knowledge and first-hand experience group members shared. Mr. Magcc reviewed thc six strategic areas on which the council should focus, as outlined in Attachment A: ~Strategic Priority Issue - Develop a Strategy to Help the Homeless in Eugene Action Plan. He stressed that it was still, at this point, a "plan to plan." He pointed out that Eugene had a history of trying to help homeless people. Mayor Picrcy called on thc council for questions and comments. Referring to page 19 of thc agenda item summary (AIS), Ms. Taylor asked what had been meant by 'updating zoning.' Ms. Jones replied that thc list of items Ms. Taylor was referring to were examples of practices in other cities and that particular one was in regard to zoning to either include or exclude certain types of behaviors. She mentioned loitering and camping as examples. Ms. Taylor agreed that homelcssncss was not just a local problem. She hoped that the Council Committee on Intergovernmental Relations (CCIGR) would discuss this issue because the problem of finding shelter should be a State concern. She opined that should thc City of Eugene do a good j ob of taking care of the homeless, it could attract additional homeless people to thc area Ms. Taylor supported homelcssness prevention. She said one could not tackle thc problem while fostering policies that made other people homeless. She felt helping people with their utility bills was a good activity. She asserted that those who do not pay the utility bill would have their electricity cut off and before they could be reconnected they had to pay a "huge deposit" they could ill-afford. Ms. Taylor asked if people "graduated" from subsidized housing. She averred that people who moved out of subsidized housing made room for others in need of shelter. MINUTES--Eugene City Council July 13, 2005 Page 5 Work Session Mr. Kelly stated that there was a lot of background information that showed that people did move on from subsidized housing. He also thought there was something in the literature that demonstrated that having a better program to help homeless people did not bring an onslaught of them. He said the homeless population in a community tended to already be there. Mr. Kelly called homelessness an important and basic issue. He supported having the CCIGR look into opportunities for State and federal involvement. He averred that the cost of doing nothing was greater than the cost of taking action. He liked the focus on collaboration the proposed plan took. He encouraged staff to "cast the net wide." He noted that the Human Rights Commission (HRC) had a lot of passion for the issue. Ms. Solomon looked forward to addressing the issue. She wanted to better understand the needs of the homeless population and she wished to do what she could as a City Councilor to help improve the situation. She hoped to spend as much energy as possible on homeless families in order to keep children from going without shelter. Ms. Solomon also hoped that one result from the council's efforts would be a reduction in panhandling. She wished to fold in some strategies that would help to address this issue. Regarding Ms. Taylor's concern about people needing to "graduate" from subsidized housing, Ms. Solomon pointed out that one way to do that would be to improve their quality of life through the attainment of employment. She said the council played a key role in making sure that jobs were available in the community, especially for people with a low skill level. Mr. Pryor shared his excitement at the notion of getting "some kind of handle" on the issue of homeless- ness. He said the plan implied the definition and understanding of homelessness without coming out and declaring a recognized definition of the nature of homelessness. Mr. Pryor suspected that each of the human services providers had a different definition of the nature of homelessness, noting that this was exemplified by some of the questions being posed by councilors. Mr. Pryor commented that the question of whether the homeless population was local or from out of town and whether doing a good job of service provision would bring more homeless people to town had "been around for years." He stated that he had been trying to get information on the issue and some of the figures provided to him by agencies that track this sort of statistic indicated that only a small percent of the people who sought services were not Lane County residents. He conveyed his interest in having more documentation on the causes, the demographics, and the characteristics of homelessness so that he would be better able to develop effective strategies. He wished to determine what causes of homelessness would be focused on and what the demographics of homeless people were. Mr. Pryor pointed out that there were many different kinds of homeless people, including families, singles, people who were homeless by choice, and people who were homeless through unfortunate circumstances. He asked for as much information as possible from those who were most familiar with the issue. Mr. Pryor noted that outcomes versus output had been a major focus of the human services providers. He said there were many measurable things, such as meals delivered and roofs provided, and asked how to translate this output into an outcome. He was pleased with the direction the plan was headed. MINUTES--Eugene City Council July 13, 2005 Page 6 Work Session Ms. Jones indicated that the "education piece" was one of the first steps in the action plan. She sought to define some of the aspects of homelessness that Mr. Pryor and the councilors had raised. She indicated that part of the charge to the group gathered to work on this was to identify the population the City should target or whether the City should target all of them. She noted there were a number of myths about homelessness and part of the early work sought to dispel those myths. Ms. Ortiz appreciated the "quick work" from staff. She acknowledged her need to learn more and conveyed her support for the plan. She was uncertain that one population could be chosen over another. She stressed that all homeless people were human beings. She supported a broad-based approach, adding that it was important to remember that some of the homeless population had mental health issues. Ms. Bettman cited page 20 of the AIS, on which it was suggested that resources to abate homelessness could cost between $5 and $20 million and said she would not like to engage in a lengthy process that would result in a recommendation for a large expenditure that could not be sustained. She averred that much of the material was recycled from past work. She opined that the council would never be experts on the issue and should refer to the experts in the community and the programs already in existence that were effective. Ms. Bettman felt the council should prioritize the programs and then it should fund those deemed most important. She preferred utilizing the expertise and accomplishing something over engaging in a lengthy discussion. Ms. Bettman recommended a focus on homeless youth because she felt at that point intervention could break the cycle. She agreed that mental health issues were a contributing factor. She agreed that keeping people who were on the verge of becoming homeless in their homes was good prevention. She averred that the problem had been well-defined and the City did not have a wide universe of options because of limited resources. She felt continuation of funding for the Safe & Sound Program and for the beds at Station 7 should be a high priority. Mr. Pap6 expressed appreciation for the work staff had done on the AIS. He especially appreciated Attachment B: Chronological History of Homeless Efforts and Actions. He encouraged every councilor to serve one term on the Housing Policy Board (HPB) as it provided a great education. He commented that one could not address homelessness only through housing as there was a strong mental health aspect to the issue. He thought a place to start would be to provide for a networking service that had one number that all people could call. Mayor Piercy solicited a second round of comments and questions. Mr. Kelly noted that local history featured a series of pilot programs that had experienced some degree of success but had not received ongoing funding. He wanted to avoid this. He stressed that the solution or initiatives resulting from this endeavor needed to become incorporated into ongoing City practices. Mr. Kelly asked for more information regarding the County's request for funding from the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). Ms. Bettman asserted that one strategy she wanted to see in the plan would be a focus of State and federal money to help the homeless "instead of diverting it to capital projects or improving alleys." She averred that the latter had been "immortalized in the Consolidated Plan." MINUTES--Eugene City Council July 13, 2005 Page 7 Work Session Ms. Bettman conveyed her endorsement for training police officers in social service skills and suggested that this sort of training would be useful to parks employees. She did not believe the entire organization needed such training. Ms. Jones stated that there were two phases to that the training proposal: 1) that all City employees were ambassadors in the community they served and the more educated and sensitive to these sorts of issues in the community, the better prepared people would be as individuals to address them; and 2) the second piece of training would target only those employees who had direct contact with this population. She noted that library staff was also very interactive with the homeless population. Ms. Bettman liked the Safe Parks Proposal. She said while it did not substitute for the patrols that were now keeping an eye on the parks, it augmented them by using a nominal amount of money to place people with a background in social services in the parks. Mayor Piercy thought the Safe Parks Proposal was creative and humane and that it connected well with the work that the City was doing. She said when talking about what goal the council had, it would be good to connect it with something already in motion, such as community policing. She felt it made sense to make such a connection. She recommended meeting several goals at one time and declared this to be an opportunity to do so. Mayor Piercy noted that she and Mr. Kelly would be attending the Public Safety Discussion later in the day. Ms. Bettman suggested that the plan be more focused and that it be something that could be accomplished within two years. Ms. Bettman, seconded by Mr. Kelly, moved to direct the City Manager to bring back a refined and focused plan for addressing homelessness in Eugene based on feedback from providers and stakeholders. Mr. Pap6 said he would like to see timelines with benchmarks incorporated into the plan. The motion passed unanimously, 8:0. Mayor Piercy thanked everyone for their work and adjourned the meeting at 1:13 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Dennis M. Taylor City Manager (Recorded by Ruth Atcherson) MINUTES--Eugene City Council July 13, 2005 Page 8 Work Session ATTACHMENT C MINUTES Eugene City Council Work Session McNutt Room--Eugene City Hall July 18, 2005 5:30 p.m. COUNCILORS PRESENT: George Poling, Bonny Bettman, David Kelly, Betty Taylor, Gary Pap6, Andrea Ortiz, Chris Pryor, Jennifer Solomon. Her Honor Mayor Kitty Piercy called the July 18 work session of the Eugene City Council to order. A. COMMITTEE REPORTS AND ITEMS OF INTEREST FROM MAYOR, CITY COUNCIL, AND CITY MANAGER Mayor Piercy reported she had a wonderful experience at the Sundance Summit on Climate Protection. The purpose of the summit was to discuss the causes and solutions to global wanning and identify tools and actions for meeting emission reduction targets. Event sponsors included Local Governments for Sustainability, actor and activist Robert Redford, and Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson. She noted that 45 mayors from around the country attended and they heard excellent presentations and interesting ideas for adaptation to the local community which she would share with the council in the future. Mr. Poling reported he recently attended a meeting at the Garden Way Church about the formation of a local improvement district (LID) on Arcadia Street. The meeting was a first step in the process. Staff shared three proposed ways of developing the street as a starting point for discussion, and would next poll property owners regarding their interest in participating in the LID. That response would dictate the next steps. Mr. Poling called the council's attention to an event scheduled for July 20 at 7 p.m. at the Spiritual Growth Center about the traffic calming proposals for Sorrell Way. Ms. Taylor said the City's Web site was more difficult to access and council information more difficult for people to find. Ms. Taylor shared a constituent complaint about the fact there was no longer an ambulance at Fire Station 5. She asked who made that decision, and how it could be changed. Ms. Taylor expressed concern about the fact Amazon Pool would be closed to the public to accommodate a swim meet the following week. Ms. Taylor reported that the Lane Regional Air Pollution Agency (LRAPA) had an interim director who was a former operations manager from the Department of Environmental Quality, and everyone seemed happy about him. MINUTES--Eugene City Council July 18, 2005 Page 1 Work Session Ms. Taylor shared a complaint from neighbors of Cascade Manor about noise from the new fans on the roof of building. When the neighbor called the Permit and Information Center to lodge a complaint, she was told that the City Council had withdrawn any objections to noise at the facility in August 2001. She said staff had not been able to find any record of the discussion. She asked for more information and if there was any thing the council could do about the situatiOn. Mr. Papfi arrived at the meeting. Ms. Taylor indicated she had a motion to offer the council to ensure that City Manager Dennis Taylor had clear direction to purchase the Nectar-Dillard property. Ms. Taylor, seconded by Mr. Kelly, moved to direct the City Manager to a) attempt to ne- gotiate a purchase price for the Joe Green property on Nectar-Dillard; b) contact the neighborhood as to the willingness of residents in the neighborhood or other groups to contribute funds for the purchase and the amount of such contributions; and c) bring the matter back to the council for discussion of sources for the balance of funds necessary for the acquisition. Mayor Piercy called for discussion on the motion. Mr. Pap6 determined that the motion included no funding amount. He said if funding was available, there were needs in the northern area of Eugene with regard to open space and parks that needed to be met. He could not support the motion until the City had equivalence in the number of parks and open space areas throughout the community. Mr. Kelly agreed there was an unequal amount of park space between the north and south parts of town. However, he believed that natural open space features should be acquired where they exist, and he had not heard anyone call out a significant natural area for preservation in north Eugene. He thanked Ms. Taylor for the methodical aspects of the motion, which called on the City to work with the neighbors and property owner on the purchase. He said the motion offered residents an opportunity to "put their money where their mouth was." Ms. Taylor said that natural open spaces should be purchased where they exist because they could not be recreated. She thought the purchase was urgent. Mr. Pryor indicated a potential conflict of interest as a family member owned property adjacent to Nectar Way. He said the motion seemed out of place when the council had not worked through the remainder of its acquisition priorities. He believed the purchase was worthwhile and noted that staff had been working on the purchase, so he questioned why necessary the motion was. He was concerned about a focus on a single piece of property without any discussion of other properties. He thought the motion was premature. Mr. Pap6 agreed with Mr. Pryor. He said that he was aware of other natural areas in his part of the community in Santa Clara and Gilham that the residents of those areas would probably like to acquire. He did not want to focus on the property in question without examination of other natural resources lands that could prioritized on a citywide basis Speaking to the issue of prioritizing acquisitions, Mr. Kelly suggested the council keep in mind the balance between methodological planning and opportunities that arose. He maintained that the City had MINUTES--Eugene City Council July 18, 2005 Page 2 Work Session an opportunity to purchase the site, which was "in play." He noted that several portions of the property were identified by staff as a natural resource priority. The motion passed, 4:3; Mr. Pap6, Mr. Poling, and Mr. Pryor voting no (Ms. Solomon did not participate in the vote because she had not yet arrived). Mr. Kelly reported that a public safety task force which included representatives of the County, Eugene and Springfield, and all other incorporated cities in Lane County was meeting to discuss everyone's perceptions of the County's public safety needs, identify shortcomings, and work on a strategy to overcome those shortcomings with the goal of developing a ballot measure. Two meetings had been held to this point to share background and discuss the various jurisdictions' public safety needs. A total of six meetings were anticipated; the next was scheduled for July 28 at the John Serbu Center. Mr. Pap6 noted Eugene's recent mention as a wonderful fishery in an article in Northwest Fly Fishers magazine because of the local steelhead run. He said he could verify the facts in the article because he recently caught a 12-1/2 pound steelhead. Ms. Ortiz indicated she was working on a report to the council regarding her recent visit to Puerto Rico. Ms. Ortiz reported that she had attended a McKenzie Watershed tour and had found it interesting and eye- opening to learn about projects in the watershed. Ms. Ortiz said she went to the River Road community organization to discuss the proposed River Avenue project. She said that the community needed options from which to choose, such as the project Mr. Poling discussed. She did not think anyone would be happy with the ultimate solution given that taxation was involved, but it appeared from her observations that the improvements were needed. Ms. Bettman asked Mr. Kelly to let the council know when the working group meeting to discuss public safety had identified a funding amount. Ms. Bettman said she was contacted by a constituent who objected to the fact that access north of the tracks had been cut off. The constituent maintained the access had been in place for more than 100 years and it was one of the few access points in the area. She requested a memorandum with more information. Ms. Bettman spoke of large sites in the city, such as school and stadium sites, that were in transition. Rather than wait for a proposal to be made on those sites, she suggested the City be proactive about identifying the highest and best use for those sites so it could consider what she thought was in the best interest of the city, which was more housing. Mr. Pryor discussed the Forest Service tour he and Ms. Ortiz attended, which had started at H. J. Andrews Experimental Forest. He said the tour was very interesting with regard to what happened in the forest, and those conducting the tour had a lot of pride and passion for the work they did. Mr. Pryor noted that he and Ms. Ortiz also attended the Human Services Commission meeting earlier that day for a post-budget review. He said that contrary to some reports, funding for several agencies, such as Whitebird Clinic, had been maintained. MINUTES--Eugene City Council July 18, 2005 Page 3 Work Session Mr. Pryor said he toured the Westside neighborhood recently, which held many examples illustrating the balance between infill and growth. He said the tour provided much food for thought on how to strike that balance in other neighborhoods. Mr. Pryor noted a recent article in The Oregonian article regarding homeless practices instituted by that City over the last few years. He noted that some of those practices, such as eliminating the areas where the homeless traditionally gathered, had an adverse impact on the homeless by making them more visible and seemingly more problematic. Mr. Pryor thanked staff for its assistance with constituent questions. B. EXECUTIVE SESSION The council entered into executive session in accordance with Oregon Revised Statute 192.660(2)(i). Mayor Piercy called the council back into regular session. C. WORK SESSION: CITY MANAGER EVALUATION Human Resources and Risk Services Director Lauren Chouinard and City Attorney Glenn Klein were present for the item. City Manager Taylor thanked the councilors for the remarks they made during the earlier executive session. He took them to heart. City Manager Taylor said he was proud and honored to be the City Manager of Eugene. He acknowl- edged that the job was a challenge. One challenge was the long interregnum between the council elections and the seating of councilors in January 2005. City Manager Taylor said staff used that time to orient new councilors to the organization. City Manager Taylor noted the council's commitment to its goal-setting retreats and said he and the rest of the organization appreciated that commitment and the resulting goals. He said the goals gave the organization an opportunity to focus on council priorities, an opportunity to work as teams across departments, and an ambitious purpose to work toward in addition to day-to-day work. He said the council's goals would be used in daily decision-making and budget development. City Manager Taylor said he would continue to update the council with regular status reports on the action plans implementing those goals. City Manager Taylor indicated he believed he could do more to improve his communication skills and had contacted consultants Peter and Susan Glaser for assistance in that. He would work with individual councilors to address and clarify the concerns they had raised in their evaluations. City Manager Taylor perceived an opportunity that existed in terms of council leadership and the neighborhood initiative. He said that all the important work of the City occurred in the context of relationships; his relationship to the council, the staff-council relationship, the City's relationship with its individual partners, and the City's relationship to individual citizens. He acknowledged a need to do better in this area. MINUTES--Eugene City Council July 18, 2005 Page 4 Work Session City Manager Taylor said when he used the term "we" he did so because he tried to work in the context of shared team responsibility. While he took responsibility for outcomes, he attempted to work in a team context, particularly around the council's goals. Mayor Piercy called for a round-robin of council comments. Mr. Poling said he was pleased with the manager's overall performance. He believed the manager was taking steps to address the criticisms that had been offered regarding his performance. He believed the manager needed to continue to improve communications between council and staff and the council and the citizens. Mr. Poling was glad to see the manager stay on top of the council's priorities, and hoped the council could implement as many of its action plans in the next year as possible. Ms. Taylor agreed the manager's job was difficult. Councilors had different points of view. She noted suggestions in the executive session that more public relations staff were needed, while she believed that such individuals produced propaganda. She said the community needed correct information. Ms. Taylor thought the manager's strengths lay in public relations, his work with the general public, and in his resilience. However, she thought that the manager often made excuses, which was perfectly normal behavior. She hoped the manager did meet with individual councilors to discuss their evaluations. Ms. Taylor said one of her biggest problems with the manager was his resistance to ideas he believed might compromise his authority as City Manager. That was a problem for her. She cited the idea of a performance auditor as an example. She also perceived that he attempted to influence council policy rather than merely carry out policy. Ms. Taylor expressed concern that the council had not heard about the renewal of the City's legal contract until she had received a constituent inquiry. She wanted to see the manager report to the council on what he had been doing and what he was thinking about doing. She believed the manager should solicit the council's input into changes he was contemplating. Mr. Kelly thought City Manager Taylor strong in some areas and believed there were significant problems in other areas. Ms. Solomon arrived. On the positive side, Mr. Kelly said the manager was energetic and a very hard worker. He liked him personally. He thought the manager did a good job of community outreach to different groups and interests. He appreciated his positive oversight of financial matters, noting the very smooth recent budget process, for which he believed the manager deserved recognition. Mr. Kelly said that the manager and staff had also done some very good and hard work in difficult circumstances related to the council's priority for a hospital in the central core. Speaking to comments about the need for public relations made earlier, Mr. Kelly said that it would be nice to have a single public relations officer, but it did not have to be a single employee. He believed that every manager knew he or she was working in a fish bowl, and half the success of any project was the public's perception of it. For example, Mr. Kelly thought every lead staff or manager should have it in their mindset to respond to erroneous statements made in the press, for example, and immediately pick up MINUTES--Eugene City Council July 18, 2005 Page 5 Work Session the telephone and call the reporter as part of project management. That did not require public relations staff. Mr. Kelly expressed appreciation for the manager's acknowledgement of the big issues mentioned by councilors during the executive session. However, that only went so far for him, because many of the same issues had come up the past year and nothing had improved. In fact, some things had gotten worse. He cited the issue of council support as an example. He said the majority of the questions he posed to the manager in their monthly one-on-one sessions were not answered unless he asked them again. Mr. Pap6 thought the manager did a good job of leading the organization and managing the staff. He was concerned about certain aspects of the council-manager relationship and looked forward to work on those issues over the next year. Mr. Pap6 expressed appreciation for the manager's attempts to get the council to sit down and establish some high-level goals. He wanted to see the action plans associated with those goals sooner than the council seen them. He looked forward to regular review sessions to keep the council informed. He hoped that set a future pattern. Mr. Pap6 thought the manager had done a good job in his hires, which spoke to his managerial skill. Ms. Ortiz expressed general satisfaction for the manager's performance. She hoped she continued to feel good about it. She expressed her interest in getting sufficient and accurate information that allowed her to make a good, educated vote. Ms. Ortiz had observed that people seemed to be happy to be employed at the City of Eugene and she was glad to be a part of the organization. She looked forward to continued work with the manager. Ms. Bettman expressed regret that she had to write such a critical evaluation of the manager. She said the only recourse the council had when it perceived something wrong in the organization was through the City Manager. She expressed appreciation that the manager had acknowledged her comments were not new to him, but said she had seen no change in his approach. Ms. Bettman also expressed appreciation for the manager's strong management philosophy, but she saw a disconnection between that and how the council's policy was implemented "on the ground." She said it was important to her to know how City policies impact residents. Ms. Bettman expressed disappointment at the minimal amount of feedback into the manager's evaluation from employees as opposed to management and questioned why more employees did not participate. Ms. Bettman said the way the manager interpreted the charter provisions defining manager/council roles and function was so strict that it became an obstacle to the manager and council working together. Mr. Pryor discussed the relationship between the manager and council. He touched on the issue of communication, and said a trusting relationship was a product of better communication. He said the council's needs must be at the "top of the food chain" if the relationship was to work. Mr. Pryor emphasized the importance of the manager being responsive to the council. He said the more informed the policy makers could be, the more focused and effective they would be at their jobs. Mr. Pryor noted his own employment as a public relations officer for a government organization and said he did not think he was a propagandist. He thought that information was extremely important to MINUTES--Eugene City Council July 18, 2005 Page 6 Work Session informing the public about what it needed to know, so the more effective the City could be at conveying what it was working on, the more effective it would be. He thought public relations an important function. Mr. Pryor was pleased with the relationship he had developed with the manager and looked forward to building an even better relationship. He appreciated the high priority the manager assigned to improved communications with the council. Ms. Solomon acknowledged City Manager Taylor interest in building relationships with the council and his interest in being accountable to the council. She believed he took the concern seriously. She said she had personally found City Manager Taylor to be accountable. Ms. Solomon expressed appreciation for the enthusiasm the manager brought to the job and said she did not know how he maintained it. She appreciated his leadership style and thought him an excellent manager, as demonstrated by the response he received from staff and to the council. Presentations were tighter and better and the agenda item summaries had improved, which she attributed to the direction of the manager. Ms. Solomon said the manager was remarkable in helping her address constituent requests, and she relied on him for that purpose. She expressed appreciation for the work he did to help her "navigate through the system" to assist her constituents. Mayor Piercy called for a second round of comments. Mr. Kelly said some of his lower evaluation scores were attributable to the fact some issues continued to exist. He acknowledged that individual councilors had no individual policy power, but once the council had passed a motion or resolution, he felt that on occasion its intent was not followed through and the final product was not what was requested. He said he wanted the manager's professional advice on operations and his professional advice on policy issues, but only once. There had been occasions on which he felt that Mr. Taylor had crossed the line to become the "ninth councilor." Mr. Kelly thanked the managers and line employees who took the time to write evaluations. He found them interesting and valuable. He thought an interesting trend could be detected in that the most critical reviews were from employees at the line level, and the most positive were from the executive staff. Ms. Taylor believed the council's goals had been twisted when they returned in the form of action plans. For example, the goal for arts and the outdoors seemed to have become a marketing campaign, which was not what she envisioned. She thought the manager should ask the council what it wanted rather than present a completed program. Mr. Pap6 agreed the council was a diverse group. For his own part, he did not perceive public relations as being propaganda and said he did not see a problem with a marketing campaign in regard to the goal for the arts and outdoors. Mr. Pap~ believed the manager had done a good j ob of communicating the council's goal to the organiza- tion. He believed that the goals process demonstrated that if council acted as a policy body, gave clear direction to the manager, and monitored his performance, the organization ran more smoothly than if councilors attempted to act as "little city managers" or department heads and try to micromanage it. Ms. Bettman returned to her complaint regarding the manager's strict interpretation of the charter. She believed there was a national tension between the functions of the manager and the council. However, she had seen more examples of where the council was circumvented in its policy making by processes that MINUTES--Eugene City Council July 18, 2005 Page 7 Work Session precluded it from making a policy decision or by situations where issues came to the council so fully developed, with so many stakeholders and momentum, that its choices became very circumscribed. That minimized the council's input. Ms. Bettman said another issue of concern to her was that of respect for the democratic process. She said each councilor was elected and represented people in the community. The council's voices were important for that reason. It was not about specific personalities, but rather about the specific values and principles each councilor brought to the table. She thought there should be an attempt to incorporate all those values and principles in the direction of the City without finding the broadest base for policy support. Mayor Piercy said City Manager Taylor had been very helpful to her as she assumed the role of mayor. She enjoyed working with him and had benefited from his years of experience. She acknowledged the tension that existed between the council and manager functions and said that everyone was trying to "get the most out" of the position they were in. Mayor Piercy observed that as she attended meetings around the country, she found that many people knew the manager and respected his work and career. She thought Eugene was fortunate to have him. She believed that, overall, the manager's evaluation scores were high, although there were some significant things that needed to be worked on, such as creating better relationships between the council and staff. Mayor Piercy was also pleased to see how well-respected the manager was by his employees. She expressed appreciation for the manager's openness to criticism. She felt good about the council's goal- setting process and the successful budget season, and hoped the City improved in its ability to engage the community in decision-making. Mayor Piercy said she had enjoyed her experience as mayor, and a great deal of that had to do with working with the manager. Mr. Poling noted the council would discuss the issue of manager compensation on July 25 and invited councilors to provide input to him or Ms. Solomon. Mr. Pap6 thought City Manager Taylor had one of the most difficult city manager jobs in the country. He said Eugene was very diverse and a diverse council that was difficult to serve. He would not want the job. City Manager Taylor said he did want his job and was hopeful he could keep it longer. He had come to Eugene with very high expectations, and after two years and four months on the job, he found the community and organization to exceed his expectations. He said the organization asked tougher questions and came up with more elegant solutions than other communities. People across the country acknowl- edged the work done by Eugene, which had a well-known tradition of excellence and commitment to improvement. He acknowledged it was easier for him to serve the council when it spoke with one voice. He continued to be excited about the council's goals, which he thought would energize both the organization and community. City Manager Taylor thanked the council for its evaluation. The meeting adjoumed at 7:13 p.m. Respectfully submitted, MINUTES--Eugene City Council July 18, 2005 Page 8 Work Session Dennis M. Taylor City Manager (Recorded by Kimberly Young) MINUTES--Eugene City Council July 18, 2005 Page 9 Work Session