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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCC Minutes - 09/12/05 Mtg MINUTES Eugene City Council Regular Session Council Chamber-City Hall September 12, 2005 7:30 p.m. COUNCILORS PRESENT: George Poling, Jennifer Solomon, Bonny Bettman, David Kelly, Gary Pape, Chris Pryor, Betty Taylor, Andrea Ortiz. Her Honor Mayor Kitty Piercy convened the meeting of the Eugene City Council. 1. PUBLIC FORUM Mayor Piercy welcomed everyone to the City Council meeting and reviewed the rules of the Public Forum. Zachary Vishanoff, Patterson Street, suggested that the Human Rights Commission look into the "tazer issue." He opposed the use oftazers by the Eugene Police Department (EPD). Mr. Vishanoff asked if a parking garage was going to be built on the International House of Pancakes property and whether it would be designed by an architect employed by Nike. He suspected the City's Request for Proposal (RFP) process would be circumvented. Mr. Vishanoff asserted that the Broadway Place structure was a "failure." Mr. Vishanoffthought a mixed-use development on the property formerly owned by Joe Romania Chevrolet in the Fairmount Boulevard area was linked to the University of Oregon's proposal for a basketball arena. William J. Jones, 1660 Mill Street, spoke on behalf of himself and his neighbors. He said his neighborhood was fraught with obnoxious parties due to its proximity to the University of Oregon campus. He reported two incidences of fire in the last month and said that noise issues included fighting in the street, bottles breaking, and the use of a bullhorn. He related that the bicycle patrols helped, but he hoped that there could be more "party patrol." He heard that the Eugene Police Department (EPD) received a list of the beer kegs that were sold and wondered if police could drive by keg parties. He also heard that one tack used in the past was to charge a landlord who had three police calls to his or her building. He felt such a charge would be an effective way to address the problem. He noted that some landlords included a "no keg" clause in leases. James Crabbe, 2080 East 2ih Avenue, spoke of the significance of Civic Stadium as a local landmark for the citizens of Eugene. He thought selling the Civic Stadium site for possible development would be enormously short-sighted. He averred that Civic Stadium should be owned by the City of Eugene and protected as the cultural and historic landmark that it is. He felt its great popularity with the citizenry alone merited the stadium's preservation. He noted that the Eugene Emeralds minor league baseball team had MINUTES-Eugene City Council Regular Session September 12, 2005 Page 1 average attendance of 120,000 fans per summer for as far back as he could find attendance records. He stated that the "Ems" consistently had one of the top three attendance draws of the Northwest Baseball League, despite consistently having a losing record. He attributed this to the stadium which he called a "great place to sit back and enjoy a warm summer's evening." He related that Baseball America voted Civic Stadium one of the top ten places to watch a baseball game in the entire minor leagues. He proclaimed the view itself to be worth the price of admission. He underscored the diversity of the baseball audience. He said everyone in Eugene had a connection to the baseball stadium and needed it in order to remain connected with the City's history and to grow as a community that values its public places. He urged the City to purchase Civic Stadium, possibly utilizing public-private partnership or by forming a non- profit organization to restore the stadium. John Dotson, 2447 Canterbury Street, spoke on behalf of the Santa Clara Committee for Parks and Open Spaces (SCCPOS) which was pursuing the acquisition of the Santa Clara Elementary School property for a special use facility or a community center project. He thanked the Mayor, City Council, and City Manager for their support and insight. He also wished to thank the Parks and Open Space Division director Johnny Medlin and staff for accepting the work projects involving lands and acreage in the Santa Clara area. He stated that the committee was in the process of developing more pledges to work toward the purchase of the school. He said the committee was working with the hopes and dreams of Santa Clara citizens. Kate Perle, 4740 Wendover Street, also representing the SCCPOS, called the Santa Clara Elementary School the "cultural center of the [Santa Clara] community for generations." She said though a fire had damaged the building earlier in the year, much of it was structurally sound and usable. She stated that the site was made up of six tax lots, totaling a little over seven acres of which the school footprint comprised approximately three acres. The site was designated for government and educational purposes in the Santa Clara Refinement Plan, consistent with the Eugene-Springfield Metropolitan Area General Plan (Metro Plan). She underscored the community's desire to preserve the site, rebuild the structure, and create a special use facility for Santa Clara. She noted the site was surrounded by five Metropolitan Affordable Housing projects and three senior residence facilities with no other park options within one-half mile. The committee wanted to partner with School District 4J and the City of Eugene to "make a significant, positive difference in the community." She conveyed the committee's proposal to purchase the tax lot with the historic building, create the facility, and provide for its ongoing programming and for the City to purchase the other five lots to provide a neighborhood park in the area. She suggested that the community facility could house the Santa Clara branch of the library, a public safety station, after-school activities for youth, continuing education for adults, and meeting rooms, among other uses. She reiterated that the Santa Clara area was greatly underserved according to the Parks and Open Space Draft Comprehensive Plan. She noted the plan called for the creation of a community center in the area. She underscored that citizens of the area were ready to conduct the funding and outreach and already had a committed primary donor. She said the broad-based community-initiated effort was a great opportunity for the City of Eugene. Terry Connolly, 1401 Willamette Street, representing the Eugene Area Chamber of Commerce, expressed appreciation for the earlier work session on the downtown zoning regulations. He said the chamber thought constructive dialogue had transpired. He averred that in order to implement the Downtown Plan, it would take the commitment of the City of Eugene through either a regulatory approach or an enabling approach. He recommended the City take the enabling approach to "encourage good things to happen" downtown. He thought part of this conversation should include the need to align the land use code with the downtown plan and, perhaps, to align the Land Use Code with "market realities" for a city of Eugene's size. MINUTES-Eugene City Council Regular Session September 12, 2005 Page 2 Mr. Connolly expressed the Eugene Area Chamber of Commerce's support for adoption of the slogan "World's Greatest City for the Arts & Outdoors." He felt there were many themes from which a city like Eugene could choose, but this had been set forth with so much enthusiasm and with the wisdom of linking the theme to the socio-economic benefits to the community. It had taken no time at all for the leadership of the chamber to endorse the theme. Randy Prince, PO Box 927, recapped his previous testimonies regarding the Eugene area's emergency preparedness. He averred that fear interfered with the ability to do what was necessary. He did not believe the community was fully informed on the ramifications of a potential disaster, such as the possibility of a flash flood caused by a dam giving way after an earthquake. He asserted that the Army Corps of Engineers (ACOE) refused to study the specifics on whether area dams would stand up should an earthquake occur or whether seismic retrofitting was needed. He submitted an article from The New York Times regarding the extensive American Indian legend documenting the last major earthquake in this cycle. He suggested that January 25 should be set aside to think about the earthquake and how it affected the area. David Hinkley, 1350 Lawrence Street, #1, said the existing neighborhood program was the most successful citizen involvement movement in the city. He commented that too often there was an "us versus them" relationship between the neighborhood associations and City of Eugene staff. He called the council's Neighborhood Initiative another "top-down process." He urged the council to scuttle the initial process and start anew with a group that consisted of an equal number of neighborhood leaders and City staff. Kathie Brown, 2224 Lillian Street, supported the adoption of the "World's Greatest City of the Arts & Outdoors" as the slogan for Eugene. She noted the slogan was now being used by the Convention & Visitors Association of Lane County, Oregon (CV ALCO) in its visitor guides and Downtown Eugene, Inc. (DEI) on its banners, and had been referred to by Mayor Piercy in her State of the City address. She stated that the Hult Center for the Performing Arts was home to the Eugene Ballet Company, Eugene Concert Choir, Eugene Opera, Oregon Bach Festival, Eugene Symphony, Oregon Mozart Players, Oregon Festival of American Music, and Willamette Repertory Theater. She asked where else one could go and ski all day and then attend a world class arts event in the evening. She noted that Eugene was the birthplace ofNike and every year it hosted the Prefontaine Classic. She asserted that the downtown "pulsated" with arts activities and she listed some of the smaller venues for performing and visual arts. She related that the Rolling Stone Magazine called the city of Eugene one of the best live music college towns in America. She pointed out that Eugene had 105 parks and 250 miles of bicycle paths and one could drive in any direction to go fly-fishing or snowboarding among many other activities. Tom Jordan, 2110 Fairmount Boulevard, introduced himself as the Meet Director for the Prefontaine Classic track and field event. While he believed that Eugene was the track capitol of America, he declared that the city was more than a sports oriented town. He supported the adoption of the slogan "Eugene - World's Greatest City of the Arts & Outdoors." He urged the City Council to adopt this as Eugene's official slogan. He read the names of 29 community members into the record as being in support of official adoption of the slogan and asked them to stand as he recited their names. Greg Lerigo, 2224 Lillan Street, remarked that one voice could easily be lost in the "melees of the body politic." He indicated that he spoke on behalf of the community members whose names were listed by Mr. Jordan, adding that the group selected him in order to not have all 29 come and speak at the Public Forum. He related that he had found on the Web that the City of Eugene had approximately 105 venues for performing and visual arts. However when he had looked on the City Web site only one, the Hult Center for MINUTES-Eugene City Council Regular Session September 12, 2005 Page 3 the Performing Arts, had been listed. He called it unfair to suggest that this community only had one performing arts center. He added his voice to those in support of official adoption of the slogan "World's Greatest City of the Arts & Outdoors." He said this was a statement to make to the community, both resident and visiting, and that the City should make this its challenge to be the world's greatest city of the arts and outdoors. He averred that many people moved to the city of Eugene by choice and not because it was a career move. He declared that Eugene had "so much to offer" it needed to have the slogan as an umbrella. Robb Hankins, 3060 Hendricks Hill Drive, spoke as a private citizen. He pointed out that he was wearing his t-shirt that said "World's Greatest City of the Arts & Outdoors," as he had for the last 15 months. He said nine out of every ten citizens who read his t-shirt surmised this referred to the city of Eugene. He related that he would respond, "I think so, but it's still not official." He averred the slogan was flexible, because shy people could say "Eugene, City of the Arts & Outdoors" while those who were sure could say "Eugene - World's Greatest City of the Arts & Outdoors." He called Eugene a small city and opined that small was beautiful and that Eugene was the best and most unique for connecting the arts and the outdoors. He reiterated that CV ALCO had printed the slogan on 120,000 visitor guides, though it had yet to be official. He related that the Mayor referred to it in her State of the City speech, though it was still not official. He said he read the slogan in an in flight magazine in Chicago, but the slogan had yet to be officially adopted. He stated that the slogan had been flashing 720 times per day on the Hult Center for the Performing Arts marquee for the last year, though it was not official. He asserted that city departments were using this slogan to recruit employees, though it was not official. He related that he attended the concert at the Cuthbert Amphitheater the previous evening and someone had asked him where they could get a t-shirt like his and he had responded that one could not get such a shirt because it was "still not official." Mayor Piercy closed the Public Forum and called for questions and comments from the council. Councilor Kelly thanked everyone for their testimony. He asked, regarding the noise complaints from Mill Street residents, for a memorandum on the current status of the "party patrol." Additionally, Councilor Kelly agreed "100 percent" with Mr. Crabbe regarding Civic Stadium. He asked for reassurance by memorandum that the City was in regular touch with the School District 4J regarding a potential sale of the stadium. Councilor Kelly stated, regarding the Neighborhood Initiative, that the council had given specific direction to staff to be in contact with the Neighborhood Leadership Council (NLC) regarding the work. Councilor Kelly observed that the slogan "World's Greatest City of the Arts & Outdoors" had been under discussion for some time. Councilor Kelly, seconded by Councilor Solomon, moved to adopt the "World's Greatest City of the Arts & Outdoors" as the official slogan of Eugene. Councilor Bettman indicated her support for the slogan. Councilor Pape thanked Mr. Lerigo for coming. He commented that the slogan had "come up the right way" as it had come from the community. MINUTES-Eugene City Council Regular Session September 12, 2005 Page 4 Councilor Taylor expressed hope that the slogan would be aspirational and that it would cause the community to move toward making the arts more accessible. She suggested that one thing that could be done to further accessibility would be to reduce the parking fee at the amphitheater. She maintained that the city could do better with regard to open space and should make sure that prime open space would not be "eaten up by development." She asserted that the Nectar-Dillard forest and the West Amazon Headwaters should not be developed. Mayor Piercy said she was happy to see so many people present in support of adoption of the slogan. Roll call vote; the motion passed unanimously, 8:0. City Manager Taylor related that he had found stationery from the turn of the century that had referred the Eugene as "The City of Radiation." Councilor Taylor shared her admiration for the people from Santa Clara for sticking to their goals and working hard for them. She hoped the council would do what it could to help out. Councilor Bettman concurred with Councilor Kelly's comments regarding the "party patrol." Regarding the Neighborhood Initiative, she assured Mr. Hinkley that it was a council initiative and had not come from staff. She commented that had it been a neighborhood program revision she would not have supported it. She said the council would be presented a revised draft of the initiative that she did not think would be a revision of the neighborhood program. She underscored that her goal with such an initiative was to put on- the-ground improvements into place, such as increased bicycle patrols in urban parks and addressing the conversion of residential houses to commercial and office space adjacent to the downtown area. Councilor Ortiz thanked everyone for coming down. She said her concern lay with bringing a motion forward and passing it in the same night without opportunity for public comment. She did not want people to get the impression that the council was not treating all of its constituents the same when they were coming forward with such a request. She appreciated Councilor Taylor's comments about the need for more accessibility to the arts in the community. Councilor Pryor agreed that it should not be the normal practice to bring an item up and vote on it in the same night, but in this case he felt it was fair to make an exception. Regarding Civic Stadium, Councilor Pryor remarked that he understood it to have a deed restriction dictating that it had to be used for educational purposes and could not be sold for another purpose. He said the stadium was only being used by the Eugene Emeralds because the school district also used it for games. He thought it would be interesting to see what sorts of opportunities there were within the restrictions on the property, but he did not believe that it would be possible to build condominiums on the property. Councilor Pape observed that the Mayor's Art Show was free and accessible to the public. Councilor Pape shared that he had an uneasy feeling when hearing the concerns about campus parties. He related that the City had experienced troubles in the past with fires and some riots. He wanted the City to "get its hands around" the situation before any serious problems arose. MINUTES-Eugene City Council Regular Session September 12, 2005 Page 5 Continuing, Councilor Pape said he was glad to hear from Santa Clara parks supporters. He said the elementary school and the baseball stadium were "quasi-publicly owned." He reminded everyone that the school district's mission was not to subsidize local property but rather it was to educate the community's children. He observed that the district was experiencing financial challenges and would need to get "top dollar" for its properties should it opt to sell. He thought if the City could accommodate buying those properties given its limited budget, it should certainly do so. He hoped the SCCSPOS was successful in its fundraising endeavor. Mayor Piercy commented that one result from the country's experience with Hurricane Katrina had been that she had consulted with staff regarding the City of Eugene's disaster preparedness. She was informed of regular disaster exercises the City undertook. She asserted that more education of the public in disaster preparedness should occur. She thought the one lesson learned from the disaster in the south was that the City should have a plan for moving those who did not have the financial means to leave. She felt the City was taking steps in that direction. 2. CONSENT CALENDAR A. Approval of City Council Minutes July 18, 2005, City Council Meeting July 20, 2005, Work Session July 25, 2005, Work Session July 25, 2005, City Council Meeting July 27, 2005 Work Session August 8, 2005, Work Session August 8, 2005, City Council Meeting August 10, 2005, Work Session B. Approval of Tentative Working Agenda Councilor Poling, seconded by Councilor Solomon, moved approval of the Consent Calendar. Councilor Kelly stated that he had submitted corrections to the minutes electronically. Mayor Piercy deemed them, without objection, approved. Councilor Bettman said she previously submitted minutes corrections. Mayor Piercy noted the corrections and deemed them accepted. Councilor Pape wished to pull the September 13 process session from the Tentative Agenda. City Manager Taylor responded that the latest iteration of the Tentative Agenda did not include the cancelled process seSSIOn. Councilor Pape reiterated the discussion from the earlier work session regarding postponement of the joint elected officials meeting, scheduled for October 11, due to Mayor Piercy's and his absence. Councilor Taylor stated that she had submitted a correction to the minutes. Mayor Piercy accepted the correction, without objections. MINUTES-Eugene City Council Regular Session September 12, 2005 Page 6 Roll call vote; the motion to approve the Consent Calendar passed unanimously, 8:0. 3. PUBLIC HEARING: City Hall Complex City Manager Taylor introduced Principal Facility Project Manager for the Facilities Division, Mike Penwell, and asked him to frame the issue prior to the public hearing. Mr. Penwell stated that the hearing marked the beginning of a community-based master planning process to determine the future of City Hall. He underscored that the Eugene City Hall was approaching the end of its useful life without significant capital reinvestment into the building. He said the building was completed in 1964 and contained approximately 78,000 useable square feet of space as well as parking for 200 vehicles. He noted that it had originally housed all of the city's downtown functions but now only housed the Eugene Police Department (EPD), Municipal Court, City Manager's Office (CMO), and Human Resources and Risk Services (HRRS). Mr. Penwell said the problems with the building lay in the millions of dollars worth of deferred maintenance. He underscored that major reinvestment would be required to continue using the building well into the future. He stated that the building was inefficient to operate and maintain and had well-known structural deficiencies that left it vulnerable to earthquakes. He stressed that even a moderate earthquake would flatten the building which had real consequences in terms of emergency response, given that EPD was housed there. Mr. Penwell asserted that the building had outlived its usefulness. He said related issues included that city offices were now spread all over the downtown area. He explained that approximately 100,000 square feet of office area was outside of City Hall in a combination of owned and leased space. He thought better service delivery would result from consolidation. In closing, Mr. Penwell reiterated that the hearing was the first step in a community-based master planning process and would provide an opportunity to listen to what the community had to say about the issue. He said the process of hiring an expert consultant team had been undertaken and three finalists would be interviewed on September 13. He indicated that the consultants would explore and quantify the technical issues such as space needs, operational requirements, remodeling options, compliance with adopted plans, and estimated costs, among others. He added that finalists were also expected to be experts in public participation to help explore the values in the community. Mayor Piercy opened the public hearing. Bob Cassidy, 1401 East 2ih Avenue, invited the City Council to attend the Eugene City Club presentation on the subject of the City Hall building planned for September 16. He recalled that the main thrusts of the arguments for a new building were that the existing building was overcrowded and that it would not survive an earthquake. He was puzzled by the former, given that the Fire Department and a portion of the EPD had moved out. As for the threat of an earthquake, he was not worried. He commented that there were all kinds of emergencies that could come up. He suggested that City Hall could be somewhere other than the center of town where land was most valuable. He thought the Eugene Water & Electric Board (EWEB) building would make a good site for the city hall should EWEB choose to sell it. MINUTES-Eugene City Council Regular Session September 12, 2005 Page 7 Dan Herbert, 1913 Potter Street, thanked the council for opening up the citizen participation process so soon. He asked the council and staff if they were familiar with the Public Participation Spectrum published by the International Association of Public Participation. He said Mr. Penwell provided copies of it for the group that had interviewed the consultants, which included himself. He wished to recommend that public participation include collectively pitching such participation to the "mid-level of those involved," in which the public participation goal was to work directly with the public throughout the process to ensure that public concerns and aspirations were consistently understood and considered. He underscored the need for transparency in the process. Zachary Vishanoff, Patterson Street, opined that the public notice for the hearing was short. He also opposed holding a hearing before the university year had begun as he averred students should have the opportunity to weigh in on this. He did not think a big building project should be undertaken in the face of the $93 million backlog in street repairs. Mr. Vishanoff opposed any public/private partnerships. He also opposed siting a new City Hall near the riverfront. He reiterated his concern with the excessive use of video cameras for surveillance. He likened placement of the City Hall in proximity of the new courthouse building to an "Orwellian overdose." Gary Rayor, 2373 Washington Street, stated that he had worked as a structural engineer for 32 years. He said he designed highway bridges, water storage reservoirs, buildings, and other large projects. He averred that there were political and structural aspects to consider when looking at the current City Hall. Regarding the political realm, he recommended showing the public that good due diligence had been conducted for the current City Hall before abandoning it. He said the biggest selling point in leaving the building was that it was going to pancake and destroy all of the police vehicles and other things stored beneath it. He stated that in 1964 the building had been designed to a six percent lateral load while the current design criteria was that the base shear was approximately 19 percent of gravity and the 1,000 year return interval was about 25 percent. He declared this to be equivalent to a subduction zone earthquake or a nearby crustal earthquake and such earthquakes would destroy the building. He thought whether the consultants would recommend ')unking" the building depended on what questions were asked. He felt that basing questions on only structural aspects would lead to the answer that the building could work and be serviceable. He averred that the main reason the "soft story" below the Council Chamber was not repairable was because the perimeter columns were only half of the height of the other columns and would receive the brunt of an earthquake causing a progressive failure. He suggested isolating the perimeter footings and making them full height and adding steel x-bracing in the downstairs with either some "high-tech" dampers, similar to those used in the DeFazio Bicycle Bridge main span, or some basic plates bolted together tightly, though not so tight that they would not absorb some of the movement energy generated by an earthquake. He felt the columns could be rounded out and carbon-wrapped and the base shear of the columns could be prevented by mounting x- braces to the slab using the entire slab as a "huge diaphragm on grade." He indicated he had read all of the reports and had not seen the questions asked correctly so that consultants would consider how they would go about saving the building. He submitted his testimony in writing. David Hinkley, 1350 Lawrence Street, #1, averred that the public needed to know from the beginning what their level of participation would be. He opined that the quickest way to ruin public participation would be to give the public greater expectations of their participation level than would actually be granted. He recommended inviting the public to comment early and often. He wanted the structure to be designed for reasonable growth, for sustainability and to be built economically. He thought the current City Hall was MINUTES-Eugene City Council Regular Session September 12, 2005 Page 8 "possibly one of the ugliest buildings in the City," but nonetheless it was one of the few surviving examples of this architectural style. He felt it should be protected. He wished for the building to be retained as much as possible. He suggested that the north side of the building be razed and replaced by a multi-story building and that the perimeter be maintained. He cited, as an example, a building built in San Francisco that was an exact replica of a temporary structure that the public wished to retain. He thought the City Hall could be copied. In closing, he felt another option would be to sell the building to the hospital. William Ivanoff, 1810 Harris Street, #328, asked that the City Hall be kept or rebuilt on the current site. He supported leaving the City Hall close to the County, State, and federal buildings. He said any new construction should be built according to earthquake standards and that while the construction was underway a partnership should be formed with the firm of Conner and Woolley so that the City could utilize space in buildings the partnership owned that were largely empty. He recommended that a new City Hall should include the CMO, that Planning and Development Department (PDD), the Finance Division, Municipal Court, the City Council and Mayor, and possibly the EPD. Charles Biggs, 540 Antelope Way, opposed the construction of a new city hall. He observed that the police facility had been voted down three times and the city was yet unsure of whether the centralized model or the decentralized model, i.e. precincts, was the most prudent distribution of public safety services. He asked why the City of Eugene would want to build more office space given the abundance of empty office space in the downtown core. He questioned the sustainability of this. He maintained there were higher priorities such as road repair or the need for more police officers that the $29 million the project was estimated to cost could be used for. He read his written testimony into the record and submitted it to the council. He felt it had been difficult to find information on the master planning process. He expressed concerns that consolidation of City offices into one location would vacate large portions of the downtown and have a negative impact on the downtown economy. Kevin Matthews, PO Box 1588, Eugene, 97440, stated that he was president of the Friends of Eugene, president of the Southeast Neighbors, and editor-in-chief of Architecture Week Magazine. Additionally, he declared he had a Masters Degree in architecture from Berkeley and had much disaster review experience. He agreed with comments on the cultural significance of the building and opined that comments on the real estate issues were worthy of consideration. He felt the City was working hard to improve its public process. He asserted that in order to include the promise that the public could influence the final decision on the potential City Hall the first two phases of the process should be readjusted. He thought the first phase, six months for policy input, included "minimal" public input and this phase could include the decision on whether to retain the current building. He urged the councilors to give up some of their "flat legal ability to call the shots." He thought the result would be a city hall that everyone believed in and would vote for. Mayor Piercy closed the public hearing and called for comments from the City Council. Councilor Kelly noted that the City Council would be adjourning to an executive session. He said he would not comment at this time given that there was a work session scheduled on this topic in the near future. Councilor Taylor commended the comments. She felt another public hearing was warranted. She liked Mr. Rayor's comment that the questions needed to be asked correctly. She encouraged everyone to attend the City Club presentation on this topic. MINUTES-Eugene City Council Regular Session September 12, 2005 Page 9 Mayor Piercy appreciated the effort made to publicize the public hearing, noting it had been advertised twice in the newspaper. She looked forward to more opportunities to move this issue ahead. Councilor Solomon noted that a four-hour work session had been scheduled for October 19 on this topic. She asked the Mayor to outline what the meeting sought to accomplish and whether she wanted input on it at this time to help prepare for that. She also wondered if there could be a public input component added to it. City Manager Taylor asked Mr. Penwell to respond. Mr. Penwell averred that four hours was a limited amount of time. He noted that he had listed ten issues in the action plan but he expected more issues to arise. He hoped to get an indication of where the council was leaning individually and collectively on certain issues in order to use it as the "kick off' for the public participation process and engage the community in the value-based issues with some inclination from the council. City Manager Taylor thought narrowing the possibilities would help to engage the public. Mr. Penwell expressed his preference for documenting the work session well in order to get that information out to the public and offer them the chance to respond. Councilor Bettman stated that she had asked for this hearing because she believed it was good to identify any issues that could be out there that were overlooked when putting the process together. She thought doing general scoping beforehand would help gain public input up front. She opined that it was not fair to go out to the public and declare that anything was possible. Rather, she felt it was prudent to define the boundaries of the issue. The meeting adjourned at 8:55 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Dennis M. Taylor City Manager (Recorded by Ruth Atcherson) MINUTES-Eugene City Council Regular Session September 12, 2005 Page 10