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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCC Minutes - 07/13/05 WS MINUTES Eugene City Council Work Session McNutt Room--Eugene City Hall July 13, 2005 Noon COUNCILORS PRESENT: George Poling, Jennifer Solomon, Andrea Ortiz, Chris Pryor, Betty Taylor, David Kelly, Bonny Bettman, Gary Papd. 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. MINUTES--Eugene City Council July 13, 2005 Page 1 Work Session 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 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 'Git's Hard to Put a Price on Some Land Deah'" 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. Papd 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. Papd 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 major projects was slated for 2007 and the preliminary work, such as the implementation 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 MINUTES--Eugene City Council July 13, 2005 Page 2 Work Session 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. Kelly noted there was no motion language included on the agenda though the agenda item summary (ALS) 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" to bolster the County's pursuit of a new convention center. 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. Pap~ 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 MINUTES--Eugene City Council July 13, 2005 Page 3 Work Session 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. Pap~ remarked that he looked forward to something with an 18-month time span that would be carried on into the future. 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 opportuni- ties 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. MINUTES--Eugene City Council July 13, 2005 Page 4 Work Session 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. B. Work Session: City Council Priority Issue - Develop a Strategy to Help the Homeless in Eugene City Manager Taylor introduced Director of the Library, Recreation, and Cultural Services Department (LRCS) Angel Jones and asked her to present the item Ms. Jones stated that homelessness was not unique to the city of Eugene. She related that staff had taken a three-prong approach in the 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 the 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 utilized to collaborate and have a sustainable impact in trying to help the 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 Magee, chair of the committee that worked on the action plan, to walk the council through the plan. Mr. Magee, Administrative Manager for LRCS, explained that he had been charged with the responsibility of leading the 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 the community. He had been energized by the level of knowledge and first-hand experience group members shared. Mr. Magee reviewed the 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 Piercy called on the council for questions and comments. Referring to page 19 of the agenda item summary (AIS), Ms. Taylor asked what had been meant by 'updating zoning.' Ms. Jones replied that the 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 homelessness 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 the City of Eugene do a good job of taking care of the homeless, it could attract additional homeless people to the area MINUTES--Eugene City Council July 13, 2005 Page 5 Work Session Ms. Taylor supported homelessness prevention. She said one could not tackle the 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. 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 %ast 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 %ome kind of handle" on the issue ofhomelessness. He said the plan implied the definition and understanding of homelessness without coming out and declaring a recognized definition of the nature ofhomelessness. 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 documenta- tion 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 ofhomelessness would be focused on and what the demographics of homeless people were. Mr. Pryor pointed out that there were many different MINUTES--Eugene City Council July 13, 2005 Page 6 Work Session 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. 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 ofhomelessness 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 AlS, 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 Home/ess EfJbrts 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. MINUTES--Eugene City Council July 13, 2005 Page 7 Work Session 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." 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 re- fined and focused plan for addressing homelessness in Eugene based on feedback from pro- viders 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, MINUTES--Eugene City Council July 13, 2005 Page 8 Work Session Dennis M. Taylor City Manager (Recorded by Ruth Atcherson) MINUTES--Eugene City Council July 13, 2005 Page 9 Work Session