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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCC Minutes - 10/26/98 Work Session MINUTES Eugene City Council McNutt Room--City Hall October 26, 1998 5:30 p.m. COUNCILORS PRESENT: Pat Fart, Tim Laue, Bobby Lee, Scott Meisner, Nancy Nathanson, Laurie Swanson Gribskov, Betty Taylor Betty Taylor, Ken Tollenaar. I. CALL TO ORDER The adjourned October 21, 1998, Eugene City Council meeting was called to order at 5:30 p.m.; His Honor Mayor James D. Torrey presiding. II. REPORT FROM THE COUNCIL COMMITTEE ON CITIZEN INVOLVEMENT AND ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE Warren Wong, Administrative Services Director, called on Ms. Nathanson to introduce the topic. Ms. Nathanson recalled that this was raised as a communication issue--how the City of Eugene works to communicate to and with citizens on a variety of levels. When the council identified as one of its goals "to work on community information, education, and involvement strategy," she said, the council had all of those things in mind. She highlighted other activities that focused on communication issues and led to the work of the Council Committee on Citizen Involvement and Organizational Change. Ms. Nathanson described the committee's process and said it last met in August 1998, concluding by saying that its work was complete and forwarding its report to the full council. Beth Bridges, City Manager's Office, described in detail the process used by staff in developing the citizen involvement strategic plan, including focus groups, citizen panels, individual council interviews, and staff input. She reviewed the six goals, noting that they are the framework for the plan. She then discussed the plan's six strategies, noting that they were not ranked in priority order: 1) public information; 2) collaborative input; 3) sharing decisions; 4) neighborhood program redesign; 5) volunteer programs; and 6) common purpose/improved processes. Mr. Tollenaar said that one of the most important ideas has been omitted under collaborative input-- citizens providing input do not get any feedback from the organization. He suggested developing an approach for council discussion after a public hearing. Ms. Bridges said the idea was included as a priority work activity within the next three years, but was not listed as an activity for the first year, pending the council's input. Addressing a question from Mr. Meisner about the goal "contribute to people feeling connected to the community," Ms. Bridges said one of the ways to help people feel connected to the community was to engage citizens in volunteering. Mr. Meisner said it would be useful to state the assumption that the City government is a part of the community. He expressed concern that MINUTES--Eugene City Council October 26, 1998 Page 1 5:30 p.m. public information disseminated now does not reflect contact persons or phone numbers and often uses jargon not understood by the general public. He wondered if the quarterly City publication/newsletter would include neighborhood columns. Brian Terrett, City Manager's Office, responded that the suggestion was to disseminate neighborhood information either through regular neighborhood newsletters or the City's quarterly publication. Mr. Meisner suggested as an objective under neighborhood redesign to improve the percent of citizens who receive notice (at their residence) of neighborhood meetings and issues. In many neighborhoods, he explained, there is publication but not delivery and in others, there is no publications for months at a time. Mr. Lee thanked the committee for its work, saying the document produced was very helpful to him. He said the topic deserves more discussion and hoped an additional work session will be held. Mr. Lee expressed support for the document as a template, adding there needed to be some refinement of the ideas. He suggested holding council meetings in the same room to avoid having the public raise issues that have just been discussed by the council during the work session prior to the public meeting. Ms. Taylor said she was not ready to vote on the report this evening and asked for more information on town hall meetings. Ms. Bridges said the model for the suggestion was the town hall meetings held for Ballot Measure 47 reductions. Ms. Taylor suggested assigning councilors to attend specific neighborhood meetings and not limit the scope to specific issues. She said the City newsletter should be mostly devoted to neighborhood news and announcements. Ms. Taylor added that her notion of a government academy was a session separate from the volunteer program that educated the public about how government works. She saw this as a way to encourage citizen involvement. Under "use of media" Ms. Taylor said Channel 11 should run at all times and the City should use it more. Mr. Laue arrived at the meeting. Mayor Torrey noted that the Metropolitan Policy Committee at its next meeting would take a position on Channel 11 and Ms. Taylor may wish to influence that process. Ms. Swanson Gribskov encouraged the City to work with existing volunteer organizations. Referring to Kathy Madison's letter, she said it makes valid points and good suggestions. She cautioned against increasing the burden on councilors' time/workload. And finally, Ms. Swanson Gribskov said she was concerned about the budget, adding she favored funding recreation and senior programs over public information programs. Mr. Fart commended Ms. Nathanson for her role on the committee. He emphasized the importance of community involvement and said the money for the program would be well-spent, adding that his main concern is getting a broader range of people involved in government. Mr. Fart said that, in general, the broader perspective will not come to the council so the City must reach out to these people. He said he was prepared to accept the report and its recommendations as a template, with refinements yet to be made. Ms. Nathanson referred to specific suggestions about volunteer programs and suggested two other strategies: 1) develop new citizen volunteer opportunities; and 2) capitalize on existing and new participation programs. She also suggested looking at the recruitment process for council- appointed committees as well as departmental advisory committees. Ms. Nathanson agreed that the council probably needed another work session, noting that some of the recommendations have already been introduced and others will require council action. She said one of the things MINUTES--Eugene City Council October 26, 1998 Page 2 5:30 p.m. she wanted to review was the Citizen Involvement Committee's matrix for the organization's responses to issues, from Iow to high controversy. With regard to neighborhood meetings, she said, she is not interested in "business as usual," adding she believed in neighborhood organizations. Ms. Nathanson said there was an invaluable connection that needed to be made between the City organization and the community. Too many people, she continued, have expressed a lack of confidence in the existing neighborhood organization structure. She cited some of the problems: boundaries that do not make sense; neighborhood meeting agendas; and role definition/clarification. Ms. Nathanson also cautioned against micro- managing or the perception of micromanaging. Mayor Torrey said he would like to see more creative approaches than were reflected in the report; one specifically for public hearings that includes equal representation for opposing sides of an issue. He urged future councils to find creative ways of making public hearings more meaningful. With respect to newsletters, he said they should never be mailed but should be disseminated as inserts in local newspapers. Mayor Torrey identified several committees that "really worked," saying that spoke to the need for a shod-term, issue-oriented, "sunsetted" committee structure. Finally, with respect to neighborhood groups, Mayor Torrey expressed much concern, noting that there were only about five active groups but they seemed to be composed of the same people. Ms. Taylor said she was in favor of setting aside a few meetings to respond to issues raised by the public to demonstrate to people that they are listened to. She said it was important to people to feel that they influence outcomes. She also suggested delaying final decisions until people have had an opportunity to comment. Ms. Taylor ascertained that the budget for the City newsletter was $22,000. Ms. Bridges noted that the largest one-time cost item was the pilot matching grant program at $100,000. Ms. Taylor expressed reservations about spending large sums of money given recent City services cuts. Mr. Tollenaar said he was not prepared to accept all the recommendations, although he would vote to accept the report. He highlighted some of his concerns: 1) sharing decisions, which he described as sharing power-something that should include accountability; 2) the matching grant program, which he felt should be preceded by doing the work required in revitalizing neighborhood organizations; and 3) the quarterly newsletter, which he wanted to discuss further. And finally, Mr. Tollenaar asked for an explanation of "common purpose/improved processes." He asked the council to accept the report and have staff bring back the recommendations in batches for council discussion, followed individual recommendations. Mr. Meisner said he also was not prepared to accept some of the recommendations, specifically the matching grant program without first revitalizing the neighborhood program as suggested by Mr. Tollenaar. He agreed with Ms. Nathanson's comment about councilors' participation in neighborhood meetings being seen as micromanaging. He also agreed that some neighborhood boundaries needed to be reviewed and also with Ms. Madison letter's criticism about the length of processes and the lack of follow-up. Mr. Meisner also agreed that council meeting formats should be improved on and the report should be accepted but not the recommendations. Mr. Farr moved, seconded by Mr. Tollenaar, to accept the report and direct the City Manager to schedule subsequent work sessions to discuss specific elements of the plan. MINUTES-Eugene City Council October 26, 1998 Page 3 5:30 p.m. Addressing a question from Mr. Lee, Mr. Wong said that staff now had a sense of the council's wishes and there were some administrative activities that would improve processes and unless any objections were raised, staff would proceed with those using existing resources. Anything that required additional resources would come back for the council's approval in December as Supplemental Budget #2. Mr. Wong said additional work sessions would be scheduled as requested. Mr. Lee requested that first year's activities would include "revise public hearing rules to allow more feedback and questions" and under "Active Listening--when issues complex, hold work session with public right before the public hearing." One of the best ways to improve public involvement, Mr. Lee added, was to have paid councilors. That, he said, would ensure councilor attendance at neighborhood meetings and individual responses to citizens. Ms. Taylor said she cannot vote to direct further work without more discussion. She said she was opposed to sharing decisions, adding that only the council are mandated by voters to be decision makers. Mr. Laue suggested basing neighborhood boundaries on community schools and providing ongoing training for neighborhood leaders. Mr. Farr noted that his ward is the most populous but only has one active neighborhood group. He agreed with Mr. Laue's comments. Mr. Meisner agreed that if citizen involvement was expected to involve more of the councilors' time, remuneration should be considered. The motion passed, 7:1; with Ms. Taylor opposed. III. WORK SESSION: EUGENE AIRPORT TYPE I METRO PLAN AMENDMENT AND CONCURRENT AMENDMENT TO AIRPORT MASTER PLAN DIAGRAM (MA 97- 3) Kurt Yeiter, Planning and Development Department, distributed a corrected ordinance and indicated that no council action was required this evening. He noted that this was a refinement plan amendment to the Airport Master Plan diagram, with no text amendment. The other action that Lane County would be taking unilaterally was a zone change. He explained that the changes were requested by Airport Operations because the air cargo facilities were all located and active in the same space and more room was needed so it would require moving into an area called "the airport reserve" in the Metro Plan. The planning commissions have reviewed the ordinance and amendment, with varying responses. Mr. Yeiter said the Eugene Planning Commission approved of the ordinance, 4:1; with Art Farley calling for more open space as an environmental buffer and delay pending results of the Airport Master Plan update. Mr. Yeiter indicated that Airport Manager Mike Boggs was in the audience to respond to questions. Ms. Swanson Gribskov noted Lane County's Planning Commission's 0:6 vote against the ordinance and wondered if the divergent issues had been resolved. Mr. Yeiter said the acquisition issue was not settled at the time the County's commission voted and staff was unsure if the County would continue to challenge the changes. Ms. Swanson Gribskov asked staff to provide an update on the County's position before the November 16 council meeting. Mr. Yeiter MINUTES--Eugene City Council October 26, 1998 Page 4 5:30 p.m. called attention to his October 17 memorandum about the issues raised by the commissioners and said some of those remain issues, particularly whether the plan be changed "piecemeal" ahead of the Airport Master Plan update. Addressing a follow-up question from Ms. Swanson Gribskov, Mr. Yeiter said the draft update was due in January or February 1999, followed by a formal adoption process involving Lane County and the City of Eugene much later in the year. Ms. Nathanson said the update of the master plan was a serious issue. She asked for more information about the environmental buffer. Mr. Yeiter referred her to page 111 of the Planning Commission Record contained in the meeting packet, noting that the term "environmental buffer" was not clearly defined in the Airport Master Plan. AirTech, the consulting group that worked on the previous airport master plan and update, said that the buffer was to keep non-airport uses from encroaching near the runway, but also to expand airport operations. Addressing a question from Mr. Lee, Mr. Yeiter said the conflict of interest was raised when the airport asked to proceed with the changes application and the County agreed and delegated the analysis work to City staff. The property owner claimed that the project was being "railroaded through" and the City was in affect "judge and jury" in this instance. Mr. Yeiter said, in fact, it was not that different a situation as occurred in planning for the City and happened in all jurisdictions where one department reviews and analyzes applications from another department. He said the County's delegation to the City is well-documented. Mr. Tollenaar said the only issue of merit is the timing issue as it relates to the master plan update. At Mr. Yeiter's invitation to comment, Mr. Boggs indicated that a there was a recent meeting between the Master Plan Advisory Committee and the airport consultants and no change in the location of the air cargo area is being recommended. Mayor Torrey said there seemed to be consensus to proceed with the process and address differences with the Lane County Board of Commissioners as the project moves forward. IV. INFORMATION ON TAX IMPACT OF BALLOT MEASURES Ms. Swanson Gribskov provided the report and applied the tax rates of proposed tax measures to the average Eugene home. She noted that all the proposed measures amount to less than the amount property taxpayers saved from Ballot Measures 47/50. Mr. Laue reminded the council of the "bond burning" next month, saying "we ought to make that point as we are talking about these tax measures." The meeting adjourned at 7:25 p.m. Respectfully submitted, James R. Johnson City Manager (Recorded by Yolanda Paule) MINUTES--Eugene City Council October 26, 1998 Page 5 5:30 p.m.