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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCC Minutes - 05/29/07 Work Session M I N U T E S Eugene City Council Work Session McNutt Room—Eugene City Hall May 29, 2007 5:30 p.m. COUNCILORS PRESENT: Andrea Ortiz, Chris Pryor, Betty Taylor, Bonny Bettman, George Poling, Jennifer Solomon, Mike Clark, Alan Zelenka. Her Honor Mayor Kitty Piercy convened the Eugene City Council work session. A. COMMITTEE REPORTS AND ITEMS OF INTEREST FROM MAYOR, CITY COUNCIL, AND CITY MANAGER Mayor Piercy noted that City Manager Dennis Taylor had resigned his position effective July 26, 2007. She thanked City Manager Taylor for his service to the community. She said that the council would be developing a process for hiring a new city manager and discussing transition issues. Mayor Piercy reported that the Eugene Policy Department held an awards ceremony on May 16 and she commended those who were recognized during the ceremony for their contributions. Mr. Pryor looked forward to working with City Manager Taylor during the remainder of his time with the City and wished him well. He reported that the Human Services Commission was relieved that one more year of federal funding through the Secure Rural Schools and Community Self-Determination Act would be available to the County and the drastic cuts that had been contemplated were averted for the time being. He said the budgeting process that the commission had gone through would be useful in developing future budgets. Ms. Taylor passed along a complaint about buses and vans idling in front of the Hult Center and asked how that practice could be consistent with the City’s sustainability policies. She said she recently attended a meeting of the Human Development Steering Committee of the National League of Cities (NLC). She said the committee discussed immigration, education and health care and was supportive of the guest worker program. She said the committee passed resolutions recommending to the NLC Board support for immigration rights of same-sex couples and Federal Drug Administration regulation of tobacco as a drug. She was disappointed that support for the immigration rights recommendation was not unanimous. Ms. Taylor said that more cities were becoming involved in education and there was general agreement on the committee that education was necessary to achieve a healthy community economically and socially. She said that preschool was advocated for all children and the committee was discussing high school reform as well. She said that expanding health care to all children less than 18 years was strongly supported. Mr. Poling thanked City Manager Taylor for all he had done for the City. He hoped the council would hold a work session before proceeding with the hiring process for a new city manager as there were some MINUTES—Eugene City Council May 29, 2007 Page 1 Work Session members of the council who seemed to favor changing the form of government. He was not advocating change but thought that discussion should occur early in the process. Ms. Solomon echoed Mr. Poling’s request for a discussion of the City’s form of government. She indicated she was not in favor of a change, but she agreed there was a need for public discussion of the matter and would likely request a work session. Ms. Solomon reported that she attended Public Works Day with her sons and praised the event. She said there were many activities for children and adults and she planned to attend again next year. Mr. Clark expressed his sadness at City Manager Taylor’s departure and said it had been a pleasure to work with him. He had also attended the EPD awards ceremony and was proud of the force and impressed by the caliber of the awards recipients. He had also attended a Public Safety Coordinating Council subcommittee meeting on juvenile justice and there was much discussion of how the County’s financial problems would affect those services. He said the Convention & Visitors Association of Lane County (CVALCO) was also concerned about the County’s budget problems. Mr. Zelenka thanked City Manager Taylor for his years of service in the public sector. He displayed a plastic bag and plastic drinking cup that were made from materials that were compostable and biodegrad- able. He commended Rexius Forest Products and Market of Choice for their forward thinking in using those products and encouraged other businesses in the community to do so. He hoped that was an issue that the sustainability manager and commission would explore. Ms. Ortiz announced that the We Are Bethel Celebration would be held on June 2 at the Petersen Barn. She recollected that she originally met City Manager Taylor at the same event shortly after he came to Eugene. She thanked him for his service to the community and said he would be greatly missed by employees, who spoke very highly of him, and by the council. She said that a report would be presented later in the week by Union Pacific on contamination of ground water. She said there had also been a report on the J.H. Baxter plant and whether there was any relationship to the incidence of cancer in the area. She reported that Lee Mun Wah conducted a workshop for communities of color and it was well attended by people from across the spectrum. She commented that the communities of color were a very diverse group. City Manager Taylor remarked that while there was never a good time for a transition, he would be leaving at the end of a fiscal year and many of the council’s goals and activities would be completed or well under way. He said it had been an incredible honor and privilege to serve as Eugene’s city manager and he regarded it as the capstone of his 38 years of public service. He had never worked with a more dedicated and talented workforce and was overwhelmed by the talent and generosity in the community. He would provide full measure until his last day on the job. Mayor Piercy said she would present a hiring process for the council’s consideration and would speak to each councilor regarding appointing an interim city manager. Ms. Bettman thanked City Manager Taylor for his years of hard work and wished him well. Ms. Bettman, seconded by Ms. Taylor, moved to direct the police auditor to bring forward to the council for approval at the June 11 or June 13 work session a proposal for an admin- istrative investigation of the environmental factors surrounding the prolonged criminal acts of officers Magana and Lara. The proposal will include a scope of work, timeline and cost. MINUTES—Eugene City Council May 29, 2007 Page 2 Work Session Ms. Bettman said that an administrative investigation in such a situation was standard in every jurisdiction; some investigations were done in conjunction with and some occurred after the criminal investigation. She acknowledged that the City had conducted some studies and reviews, such as the ICM/PERF study, but those were not administrative investigations. She said now that police oversight had been implemented with the hiring of a police auditor, the council had the opportunity to finish the job by closing the record on what happened and moving forward. She urged the council to take its responsibility to ensure accountability seriously. She said the elapsed time since the criminal investigation had been orchestrated by the admini- stration and she was happy to grant immunity to personnel in the Police Department in order to complete an administrative investigation and close the book on the matter. Ms. Ortiz asked if the City Manager felt that no administrative investigation had been done yet. City Manager Taylor replied that he believed an administrative investigation had occurred. He had requested, when one of the officers had been indicted and the other was under investigation, that victims come forward and he and the police chief had reviewed information at every step along the way. He said that information developed during discovery was also reviewed. He felt that an administrative review had been ongoing since the day the officers were identified and there had been no evidence to warrant further disciplinary action, either administratively or criminally, against any individuals other than the two who were indicted and convicted. Ms. Ortiz related that she had worked on establishing the police auditor function along with Ms. Bettman and, while she understood Ms. Bettman’s purpose, she could not support the motion as she felt that it would not be in the interest of moving forward. She preferred to have the auditor focus on other issues that she felt would better serve the community. Ms. Taylor thought some members of the public and the council still did not understand how those activities could have occurred without anyone knowing about them. Ms. Bettman explained her motion would direct the auditor to bring back to the council a scope of work and costs. She said the ordinance establishing the auditor function granted the authority to contract out work and she hoped that was what would happen. She said the auditor could answer the question about whether an administrative investigation had occurred, instead of the City Manager. She pointed out that the council would be considering resource issues for the Police Department later in the meeting and she did not take her motion lightly. She felt that the department’s credibility had not yet been established with the community and questions about how two officers could have failed to perform their jobs and gone undetected had to be answered before addressing the issue of additional resources. Mr. Zelenka said he was interested in the police auditor’s opinion on the issue and was surprised that no other police personnel had been disciplined as a result of the Magana/Lara incident. He thought the Police Department should do a better job of informing the public about what changes had occurred since then. He felt there were many people in the community who were still unsettled about the situation and having the police auditor look into it and offer an opinion could help address those concerns. Mr. Poling thanked Ms. Ortiz for her comments. He said that his discussions in the community reflected the feeling that the department had handled the problem appropriately and people were aware of some of the changes within the department. He thought it was time to move forward instead of continuing to drag out the issue. He did not feel another administrative review was necessary. MINUTES—Eugene City Council May 29, 2007 Page 3 Work Session Ms. Ortiz clarified with Ms. Bettman that she was asking the police auditor to return with a proposal. She said she was not supportive of having the auditor reexamine everything that had happened in the department over the past ten years. Mr. Clark asked if there were any legal concerns with the review Ms. Bettman proposed and whether there were any potential costs to the City if the review went forward. City Attorney Glenn Klein said he would need to research the question and provide a written response to the council. Mr. Zelenka remarked that there were serious crimes committed by officers Magana and Lara and a large segment of the City’s population did not have confidence in the EPD because they did not have what they needed to move forward. He said the police auditor system now in place could help to identify the contributing environment that allowed the problem to occur and what changes had been made that would prevent a similar problem in the future. Ms. Solomon stated that it was not necessary to conduct an investigation in order to identify changes; the Police Commission and police chief were very capable of discussing those changes with the council and community. She saw no positive results from conducting another investigation and would not support the proposal. City Manager Taylor reminded the council of a number of studies and reviews of the Police Department that the City had commissioned over the past several years. He said the results of an independent review of the department’s progress on recommendations in the ICM/PERF report would be provided to the council shortly. Ms. Bettman asserted that the earlier reports and studies were not administrative investigations and questioned why there had been such a delay in conducting one. She thought the delay reinforced what she believed was part of the original problem: denial that there was a problem. She felt the community expected the police auditor to conduct an investigation and urged the council’s support. The motion failed, 5:3; Ms. Bettman, Ms. Taylor and Mr. Zelenka voting in favor. Ms. Bettman, seconded by Mr. Zelenka, moved to direct the City Manager to implement the qualified but unfunded Neighborhood Matching Grants projects #9 through #14, for a total of $16,125, to be funded using FY06-07 council contingency money. The motion passed unanimously, 8:0. Mayor Piercy adjourned the City Council work session and convened the meeting of the Eugene Urban Renewal Agency. B. WORK SESSION: West Broadway Preliminary Financing Plan City Manager Taylor introduced Financial Analysis Manager Sue Cutsogeorge to present financing plan options as a preliminary step to amending the Downtown Urban Renewal Plan in order to accomplish the West Broadway redevelopment project. Ms. Cutsogeorge used a slide presentation to illustrate the potential finance plan, the downtown plan amendment process, and proposed amendments. Ms. Cutsogeorge said that action on the amendments was MINUTES—Eugene City Council May 29, 2007 Page 4 Work Session being requested in order to adhere to the schedule established for the West Broadway project, as it took approximately 100 days to process them. She said that under the preliminary approach, the City would provide about $24 million of the $186 million project cost by assisting with land acquisition, purchasing a turn-key garage and providing a low interest housing loan. She noted that urban renewal was the most significant tool the City anticipated using for the project, for a total of $13.5 million or 60 percent of the public participation in the project. Ms. Cutsogeorge reviewed the downtown urban renewal plan’s history and the regulatory requirements for urban renewal plans. She described the process required for a substantial amendment, which was anticipated to take about four months to complete. She said staff was proposing three amendments: increase maximum indebtedness, extend termination date and expand boundaries. She said that increasing maximum indebtedness was actually increasing the spending limit; the current cap was $33 million, of which $4.6 million remained, and that would need to be increased to accommodate the West Broadway project. She reviewed the options for increasing maximum indebtedness, ranging from $40 million to $115 million. Continuing, Ms. Cutsogeorge said the recommendation was to change the termination date from June 30, 2024, to June 30, 2030, in order to allow for a 20-year debt repayment and maximize the financial capacity of the district to pay for the redevelopment effort. She said not extending the termination date could require looking for funding elsewhere in the City to compensate for a smaller financial capacity in the district. She reviewed potential boundary expansion options, but noted that it was not necessary to expand the boundary in order to increase maximum indebtedness; however, since the same process was required for such an amendment it was an opportunity for the council to consider what areas might benefit from tax increment financing in the future. She said that potential expansions included a north expansion, south expansion and a combined expansion that included both areas; staff recommended the combined expansion option. Mayor Piercy questioned why the council would move forward with a plan amendment before there had been a community debate on West Broadway redevelopment. City Manager Taylor replied that the staff proposals were consistent with the council’s earlier discussion regarding a timeline and would allow the City to move forward with the required actions to put in place a financial plan. Ms. Cutsogeorge pointed out that the council was not being asked to amend the plan, but rather to forward the plan with proposed amend- ments to the Planning Commission and overlapping taxing districts for consideration. She said feedback from those bodies would be provided to the council to inform its discussion and decision sometime in August. She said that staff would also schedule a public hearing on the plan before the council in July 2007. Mr. Poling was pleased to see the recommendations from staff to move the process forward and obtain the information the council needed to make a decision. He felt the timing was opportune and favored forward- ing the proposal to the Planning Commission. Ms. Bettman said she did not believe that anyone outside of the isolated groups of the Eugene Area Chamber of Commerce and City Hall would regard the proposed increased spending limit of $128 million as a justifiable expenditure or support the transfer of funding from the General Fund, community colleges, and schools to private developers. She perceived it as an admission that the redevelopment proposal would not be a cure-all and more development would be necessary at astronomical costs to the community. She questioned why the amendments were not proposed when the urban renewal plan was modified in 2004. Mr. Zelenka said he understood the efficiency of including a boundary expansion, but felt the expansion issue would muddy the waters and make the process more confusing. He felt that amending the urban renewal plan and developing a financing plan were complicated enough without including a boundary MINUTES—Eugene City Council May 29, 2007 Page 5 Work Session expansion. He recommended moving forward with the minimum necessary to accomplish the West Broadway project. He asked how the $10 million for administration would be used. Ms. Cutsogeorge said the funds would be used for all of the administrative functions necessary to support the district over the life of the plan. Mr. Zelenka asked what type of activities would cause the City’s financial role in the project to increase. Mr. Klein replied that one thing might be the need for the urban renewal agency to acquire the property for resale to the developers. Mr. Zelenka asked for an analysis of activities that could increase the City’s financial involvement. He asked how much was currently available in the Downtown Revitalization Loan Program. Ms. Cutsogeorge indicated the current balance of unexpended loan funds was approximately $2.1 million. Mr. Zelenka asked for clarification of the reference on page 19 of the agenda packet to the urban renewal agency taking on a higher level of debt to be guaranteed by the City’s full faith and credit. Ms. Cutsogeorge explained that it involved capturing a future tax increment for properties not actually on the tax roll at the time the project was implemented and backing that with the General Fund. She said that had occurred with the library project. She said that the finance plan would evolve over time as the project moved forward. Mr. Clark thought the City was either growing or dying and he realized that the term “growing” made many people uncomfortable. He wanted the project to move forward in a manner that engaged as many members of the community as possible. He was reluctant to expand the boundary as a part of the plan amendment and preferred to focus on creating the necessary tools for redeveloping West Broadway. He asked if eliminating the boundary expansion would in any way imperil the West Broadway project. Ms. Cutsogeorge said it would not. Ms. Taylor expressed concern with extending the termination date for the plan and wondered when the tax revenues would be available for other purposes. She felt the project was being presented as a “done deal” and questioned the purpose of the committee if a decision had already been made. She liked KWG Development Partners’ work and supported their project at the Sears site, but was not willing to turn over to them the fate of existing businesses on West Broadway, the future of downtown and huge amounts of taxpayer money from current and future taxpayers. Mayor Piercy reiterated that whatever decisions the council made regarding amending the urban renew plan did not commit the City to a particular course of action; it would simply provide tools and options in a timely manner. Ms. Ortiz, seconded by Mr. Pryor, moved to forward to the Planning Commission and over- lapping taxing districts the proposed amendments to the Downtown Urban Renewal Plan, consistent with the draft plan and report included in attachments D and E, except that the amendments shall include an increased maximum indebtedness of $40 million, for a total of $73 million and an extension of the termination date from June 30, 2024, to June 30, 2030. Ms. Bettman asked why a hearing on the specific West Broadway projects would be held in July before the advisory committee had presented its work. Ms. Cutsogeorge commented that similar to the urban renewal plan amendment process, significant lead time was required in order to use the HUD Section 108 loan. She said in order to preserve that option, some information about the project for which the loan might be used MINUTES—Eugene City Council May 29, 2007 Page 6 Work Session would need to be presented in July. She said that did not mean the entire project; it could simply mean property acquisition. Ms. Bettman asked what costs were not included in the maximum debt calculation. Ms. Cutsogeorge said that interest on debt was not included and that amount would depend on how much debt was involved for the project. She estimated that could be approximately $8 million. Ms. Bettman asked if the BEDI grant and HUD Section 108 loan were also in addition to the $40 million in increased indebtedness. Ms. Cutsogeorge replied that the BEDI grant was a City grant and the agency would not expend those funds, and the HUD Section 108 loan would be a City loan repaid from urban renewal funds and counted against the $40 million. Ms. Bettman asked why staff did not propose that the urban renewal district sunset in 2024 and allow those properties within the district to return to the tax rolls. She said a new urban renewal district could be created for other redevelopment in the downtown area. Ms. Cutsogeorge said the 2030 termination date was proposed to accommodate the West Broadway project, not a future project. She said the intent was to accommodate the 20-year debt and maximize the district’s ability to pay for the West Broadway project. Mr. Poling commented that expanding the boundary would be an opportunity to move forward but he was willing to eliminate that amendment if it meant the West Broadway initiative could proceed. He said modification of the urban renewal plan in 2004 was done before there were specific plans and proposals for downtown redevelopment. He would support the motion. Mr. Zelenka wanted to have all of the financial tools in place to proceed in September and recognized there were significant lead times required for some of those tools. He was supportive of the minimal increase in indebtedness for the West Broadway project only, but questioned the extension of the termination date. He preferred a shorter timeframe for repaying the debt so that the benefit of redevelopment could go to the City. He asked what the impact would be of not extending that date. Ms. Cutsogeorge said that urban renewal would be the primary financial tool used to pay for the redevelopment project. She said that the longer the repayment period was, the larger the financial capacity of the district would be. She said that $13.5 million in urban renewal debt was at the high end of what the district could accommodate using a 20-year repayment schedule on the debt. She said that a shorter period would reduce the amount that could be borrowed. Mr. Zelenka asked for calculations on the decrease in district capacity with shorter repayment periods. Mr. Zelenka offered a friendly amendment to include financing options if the termination date was not extended. Ms. Ortiz asked for clarification of the amendment. Mr. Zelenka explained that he wanted the benefit of the tax increment to return to the entire City as soon as possible and extending the date would delay that for six more years. He wanted to understand the financial impact of shorter repayment period. Mr. Klein said that staff would perform that analysis without an amendment to the motion. Mr. Zelenka withdrew his amendment. MINUTES—Eugene City Council May 29, 2007 Page 7 Work Session Ms. Bettman cited language in the agenda packet that indicated urban renewal borrowings were more risky than general city borrowings. She said she had supported an earlier proposal to begin work within the City’s existing means on downtown redevelopment and would not support the motion. The motion passed, 6:2; Ms. Taylor and Ms. Bettman voting in opposition. Mayor Piercy adjourned the meeting of the Urban Renewal Agency and reconvened the City Council work session. C. WORK SESSION: City Council Goal – Police Initiative City Manager Taylor introduced Police Chief Robert Lehner to discuss the Police Initiative Council Goal and seek further guidance as the Eugene Police Department (EPD) action plan was developed. Chief Lehner discussed the first draft of an action plan to address the council’s strategic priority goal of increasing police staffing with a special focus on supporting community policing and reducing property crime. He provided a brief overview of earlier studies intended to determine the department’s staffing needs to provide policing services to the community and noted that a report from the Magellan Corporation, which addressed those staff issues, was included in the agenda packet. Chief Lehner said the first item on the action plan was to examine the Magellan Report in depth and gain an understanding of how various activities affected staffing needs. As an example, he said that while response times did have an impact on staffing, it was not as great as the impact of the types of calls to which the department responded. He said the department had not responded to routine traffic accidents for a very long time and that was a service expectation that existed in most other communities. He said the initial work would identify those policy decisions that needed to be made on behalf of the community and present them to the council. Chief Lehner stated that the County’s financial situation had a dramatic effect on the types of calls to which EPD responded and the nature of the response and that would be a major consideration in staffing decisions. He said the report also included a comprehensive discussion of the University of Oregon issue and its effect on the department’s ability to provide community policing services. He said the situation in Eugene was unique, and worse, than almost any other university jurisdiction in the country. He had begun a discussion with the University about policing services and shared costs. He said all of those issues would be presented to the Police Commission and the City Council for discussion and decisions about the level and mix of policing services to be provided. Mayor Piercy asked how the Police Commission interfaced with the report recommendations. She understood that the goal would be achieved incrementally over time, but wanted to see a “map” of how the department would move toward providing community policing. Chief Lehner said much of the Police Commission’s work over the last few years had been to provide input to the department’s strategic plan and those assumptions were built into the model Magellan Corporation used for its work. He said the depart- ment was at a substantial staffing deficit to reach its goals and the commission could play a critical role in focusing community discussion on what was important, as the appetite for services was greater than the department’s capacity. He felt the commission could help to manage public expectations. MINUTES—Eugene City Council May 29, 2007 Page 8 Work Session Ms. Bettman asked if the Police Commission would have an active role in analyzing data and identifying issues. Chief Lehner said the commission had not yet seen the data, but felt it was appropriate for the commission to discuss and prioritize services. Ms. Bettman asked if references to staffing meant staff in the entire department or only in the model components. Chief Lehner replied that meant staff in the whole department, as even the administrative components were affected by changes in staffing and service levels. He said an example was the effect of certain types of police staffing on the courts and other parts of the system. Ms. Bettman asked how comparisons were done with other jurisdictions when the study only looked at certain components of the department. She asked if the comparison included police personnel per capita or police personnel total resource per capita and how those were incorporated in the assumptions. Chief Lehner replied that police per capita and similar measures were very broadly used for comparison, but were not a good way to determine actual staff requirements because of the considerable variations among cities. He said it was a broad indicator of resources necessary to address the public safety issues in a community. He said Eugene had a very high property crime rate compared to other cities and one of the lowest officers per population ratios and, while that was useful from a broad perspective, actual staffing needs were workload-dependent, not ratio-dependent. Regarding the University of Oregon issue, Ms. Bettman asked if the department would consider a legislative remedy if discussions with the University were not productive. Chief Lehner said a legislative remedy would be preferable and he was working with the University on what legislation might be needed to provide the necessary capacity. Ms. Bettman requested clarification on how comparisons were made when the department only looked at certain components. She asked if ICMA (International City Managers Association) would only look at those components as well. Chief Lehner said that comparison had not yet been done; Magellan had compared staffing that was workload driven rather than support staff. He noted there were major discrepancies that would need to be better understood. Mr. Pryor expressed his appreciation for the department’s efforts to understand staffing needs, service levels and community expectations. He said those should be identified at three levels—optimal, minimal and functional—and the functional level could be defined by the community’s and City’s perspectives, along with the cost. He felt the department’s work would be extremely helpful to the council’s decision-making process. Mr. Clark thanked EPD for its work and for the Magellan report. He had been concerned for some time about the department’s ability to meet basic needs and agreed that increasing staffing was a substantial goal. He was stunned by the comparison to staffing in other jurisdictions and commended the department for doing a great job with current resources. He wanted to have policy discussions at the Police Commission and council levels about the type of policing that was expected prior to the next round of budget priority setting. Mr. Poling indicated he was pleased the University of Oregon issue was being discussed. He questioned whether there was something else the City could do to move the matter forward. Chief Lehner said it was a political issue in the State that would require a long discussion and serious work. MINUTES—Eugene City Council May 29, 2007 Page 9 Work Session Ms. Ortiz thanked Chief Lehner for his presentation. She said her concern was that no matter what staffing levels the apartment achieved, there was still a problem with the capacity of jails and the ability of the system to deal with drug addiction, which was the cause of most property crimes. She hoped that the discussion would expand to include how to address those issues. Mr. Zelenka agreed with Ms. Ortiz’s remarks. He asked if the University paid for the EPD officers policing the campus area. Chief Lehner said there were contracts in place to pay for policing costs, but that did take away from the department’s capacity. City Manager Taylor said the discussions with the University involved the nature and level of staffing through their Department of Public Safety, transition issues and legislative strategies involving sworn officers in the university system. He said it was unique for the City’s officers to be the sworn officers who responded to incidents on campus. Mayor Piercy adjourned the meeting at 7:22 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Dennis M. Taylor City Manager (Recorded by Lynn Taylor) MINUTES—Eugene City Council May 29, 2007 Page 10 Work Session