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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCC Minutes - 11/10/08 MeetingM I N U T E S Eugene City Council Regular Meeting Council Chamber—Eugene City Hall 777 Pearl Street—Eugene, Oregon November 10, 2008 7:30 p.m. COUNCILORS PRESENT: Chris Pryor, Bonny Bettman, Andrea Ortiz, George Poling, Jennifer Solomon, Mike Clark, Alan Zelenka COUNCILORS ABSENT: Betty Taylor Her Honor Mayor Kitty Piercy called the meeting of the Eugene City Council to order at 7:40 p.m. She stated that the council had passed a motion during its work session to direct staff to continue to work with property owners affected by the Maple/Elmira Road project to further address their concerns with the goal of maintaining the 2009 construction start. She said they would still welcome input from concerned residents of that area. 1. PUBLIC FORUM Mayor Piercy reviewed the rules of the Public Forum. Robert Clemens , 590 Tyler Street, Apartment 7, suggested that the ten-foot width of grass by the Campbell Senior Center be converted to a garden from which anyone could pick vegetables. He thought county jail inmates could work in the garden under supervision. He felt it would give them constructive work to do and the new garden would serve more people. He noted that the area was already serviced by a sprinkler system. He did not believe such a garden would increase the work load for park personnel nor did he think a free garden would impact sales at the Farmers’ Market. Deb Frisch criticized the Hearings Official for approving the Conditional Use Permit (CUP) for the University of Oregon. She announced that she would not be filing an appeal with the Land Use Board of Appeals (LUBA), but she intended to file a complaint with the Oregon State Bar about the Hearings Official. She reiterated that LUBA would hold a hearing in Salem on the arena on November 13. She said if anyone took the council seriously they would no longer do so after the preceding work session. She criticized the interim Police Auditor for leaking information to the press. Drix thanked everyone for the opportunity to speak. He shared his love for the City of Eugene. He stressed the importance of doing things together. He hoped to inspire people. He recalled the history of Veterans’ Day, which had begun at the culmination of World War I with Armistice Day. He said Ken Kesey had died on Veterans’ Day. He related that he honored Mr. Kesey’s memory by playing a drum for eleven minutes at Kesey Plaza. He invited anyone who was interested to join him. He showed the shirt he was wearing, which had been worn by a crew chief on a helicopter in the first Gulf War. He said his friend, Andrew Cady, had died in that war and was honored on the memorial in Skinner’s Butte Park. Zachary Vishanoff , Ward 3, congratulated Mayor Piercy on her recent reelection. He presented her with a tee shirt that featured the emblem of a track shoe company and the slogan “Class War: Just Do It.” He MINUTES—Eugene City Council November 10, 2008 Page 1 Regular Meeting announced that there would be a Fairmount Neighbors Meeting on November 12 at 7:00 p.m. He felt it was an important meeting, noting that the schedule for the meeting was packed. He asserted that this was a tactic to make sure it was “too busy to talk about anything in detail.” He said the neighborhood could file an appeal of the recent CUP for the arena project to LUBA for $1,500. He averred that one of the co-chairs should resign as he was the chair of the University Architecture Department. He opined that he was trying to do too many things at once and should continue being an architecture professor and “skip hijacking the neighborhood.” He believed that the University would exercise eminent domain as it would want more land and the Oregon State Board of Higher Education would “basically rubber stamp anything the U of O decided it wanted to seize.” He reiterated his unhappiness with the chair of the neighborhood association. He averred that the current chair was “trying to tear the neighborhood apart.” Joe Donald , 3328 Elmira Road, said he and his wife had concerns about the proposed road construction on Elmira Road, including the money that had been diverted to Roosevelt Boulevard when it was built years earlier. He averred that the money that had been diverted should be returned to the Elmira Road project. He stated that maintenance on Elmira Road had been limited to pothole filling for the last couple of decades, though the residents had been paying taxes for its upkeep. He underscored that Elmira Road was a major bus route as well as a route for emergency vehicles. He felt that on that justification alone, it should be a priority project. He said there had been no maintenance on storm drains and no stormwater improvements. He wanted to see those types of improvements. He pointed out that Eugene’s other revenue sources included the gas tax, the bond measure that had just passed, and federal money Eugene received for road improve- ments. He suggested that the City ask the Lane Transit District (LTD) for a portion of the money the district received for improvements to its system. He also wanted to know who decided which citizens paid for streets and which did not. He asserted that many municipalities do not charge citizens for improvements. He said many of the residents on Elmira Road were not able to afford the road improvements. In closing, he declared that the City should be responsible to its residents and roads accordingly. Suny Kim , 430 Gilbert Street, said she owned the convenience store on Elmira Road and it had eight parking spaces. She related that the current plan showed that a sidewalk would be placed along the road and this would curtail the ability of car drivers to park and turn around in her parking lot. She related that the purpose of the project was to upgrade and beautify the street and to make it safer. She averred that the first priority should be safety and convenience. She was also concerned that improvements to the bicycle and pedestrian amenities would affect property values in the area. She said one customer indicated to her that he would no longer come to her store if it became difficult to access. She reiterated that she wanted the City to permit open access to the parking spaces for her store. Joan Kelly , 3265 Elmira Road, stated that she had lived on Elmira Road for 29 years. She wanted to acknowledge all of the members of her neighborhood who had come to the meeting. She noted that they were wearing red because it was the color of stop signs and they wished to stop the project as it was currently planned. She thanked Councilor Ortiz for bringing the motion to the council to garner more neighborhood input on the project before putting it into motion. She added her congratulations to the Mayor and councilors who had been reelected. Ms. Kelly averred that a single-residence assessment of $8,000 to $15,000 was too costly. She felt it was an especially bad time to charge people this much given the current economic situation. She opined that there was no justification for the policy of assessing people for street improvements. She said the deteriorated condition of Elmira Road was attributable to more than 30 years of neglect by first the County and then the City and an increase of local traffic due to “ill-conceived infill with high density housing.” She said Elmira Road was a local street. She asserted that through-traffic should utilize Roosevelt Boulevard. Regarding the design, while she appreciated the efforts of City staff to save trees and significant vegetation, she believed the combined width of two ten-foot travel lanes, two sidewalks, two bicycle paths, and two MINUTES—Eugene City Council November 10, 2008 Page 2 Regular Meeting planting strips was too extreme and pushed the concrete footprint into existing front yards. She pointed out that there was a bicycle path with separate traffic lanes and eight access points two blocks south of Elmira Road. She related that residents would also lose their on-street parking unless they paid $650 per parking bay. She underscored that the majority of residents opposed the design as currently proposed. She opined that staff had not listened to the residents. Wes Palmer , 3320 Elmira Road, and his wife strongly opposed redoing the road. He averred that removing the mature trees would take away the appeal of their street. He said the mature landscaping had contributed to their decision to buy their house. He stated that the planting strips and bicycle lanes would take away the available parking. He related that even if they paid for a parking bay in front of their home they would still be losing parking capacity. He felt the mature trees gave the street a feeling of separation from the nearby industrial areas and property values would be lowered by their removal. He asked the councilors to help the neighbors maintain the unique appeal of their neighborhood. He added that the assessment represented approximately one-third of his annual income. He believed this was true for many of his neighbors. He felt it would be a burden in the face of a potential depression. His wife noted that one of their neighbors had been so opposed to the plan that he moved. Thomas Young , 3324 Elmira Road, said he had attended two meetings with City staff. He felt the staff had not listened “at all.” He did not feel he should have to pay for something he did not want in the first place. He was not against having road improvements but he believed current plans represented taking the maximum road allowance. He averred that the economic situation had changed and most of the residents were on fixed incomes. Laura Gillpatrick , 2350 N. Terry Street, #75 said, while she did not reside on Elmira Road, she was a member of the Active Bethel Citizens (ABC) steering committee. She related that the steering committee had voted to support the Elmira Road petition. She had spoken with many Bethel residents. She felt that continuing the discussion would empower residents. Kim Crieger-Goodwin , P.O. Box 2421, spoke in support of the expansion of the boundary of the Multiple Unit Property Tax Exemption (MUPTE) into the Trainsong neighborhood. She explained that she was a real estate agent; she had sold real estate and managed apartment rentals for 13 years. She related that her family had purchased a property on Aberdeen Street in the Trainsong neighborhood approximately ten years earlier. She said they wanted to create energy efficient, clean, livable multi-family dwellings with open space and garden space. She noted that it was an area with very few parks. She averred that the area’s potential for redevelopment was low as it would only support lower-priced rentals. She asserted that it was very difficult to break even on a project like that even if it was using federal support. She said the property her family owned was zoned R-4, residential. She related that quantity would help such a project break even but she did not believe high density development was practical given how much of the land would be taken up by parking and the building footprint. She wanted to develop something that would not be substandard housing. Carol Berg-Caldwell , 2510 Augusta Street, said her commentary in the Register Guard on the previous day primarily sought to commend the Eugene Police Department (EPD), the University of Oregon’s Department of Public Safety (DPS), and student groups for the successful pre-Halloween planning that had resulted in “far less tumult.” She recapped her commentary. She suggested that revenues from the approximately 248 citations for alcohol-related offenses issued on Halloween be allocated to youth drug and alcohol rehabilitation services. She also reiterated her concern that the police were not receiving adequate access to counseling. She felt the “psychic toll” on police due to what they witnessed in their work “must be immense.” She believed the City could avoid a certain amount of litigation if the police were less impacted by their work. She closed her comments by congratulating the Mayor on her reelection and commending MINUTES—Eugene City Council November 10, 2008 Page 3 Regular Meeting both Mayor Piercy and former-Mayor Torrey for their grace, her grace “in victory matched by Jim Torrey’s grace in defeat.” Mayor Piercy closed the forum. She related that the council had a moment of silence for Veterans Day during its work session. She thanked Drix for reminding people of the importance of the day. She also wished to thank everyone for voting for the two city measures. She appreciated the testimony from the residents of Elmira Road, saying she was glad they came out and let their voices be heard. She added that she had really appreciated hearing the comments of Ms. Crieger-Goodwin. Councilor Ortiz wanted to clarify that her motion was not to stop the project, but rather was to direct staff to go back and work with Elmira Road residents to come to an agreement. Councilor Poling noted that Mr. Donald had raised questions about where the gas tax went and how the assessments for upgrades were assigned. He asked the City Manager to make this a top priority to address for the residents of the area. Mr. Ruiz agreed to have someone from the Public Works Department contact Elmira Road residents and do so. 2. CONSENT CALENDAR A. Approval of City Council Minutes - July 23, 2008, Work Session - July 28, 2008, City Council Meeting - October 8, 2008, Work Session B. Approval to Tentative Working Agenda C. Ratification of Intergovernmental Relations Committee Actions of September 24, 2008 Mr. Pryor, seconded by Ms. Bettman, moved to approve the items on the Consent Calendar. Ms. Bettman stated that she had submitted corrections to the minutes via email. Mayor Piercy deemed them, without objection, approved. Roll call vote; the motion passed unanimously, 7:0. 3. ACTION: Follow-up on 2009 Legislative Policies Document Intergovernmental Relations Manager, Brenda Wilson, said that the City of Eugene had prepared a legislative policies document for at least the past two decades. She explained that the City provided the document to the legislative delegation and to its intergovernmental partners in order to outline its general policy direction and guidelines. She stated that in every even-numbered year the City updated the document prior to the start of the normal Legislative Session. She related that earlier in the summer the Council Committee on Intergovernmental Relations (CCIGR) had reviewed the document and made some revisions, with the primary goal to make the document more user-friendly so that a reader could look at it and easily distinguish the policy objectives. She noted that she would be updating the document to replace language referring to Ballot Measure (BM) 37 with language referring to BM 49. Councilor Clark expressed appreciation for the hard work of staff and the CCIGR. He said he had a V number of concerns, specifically with section . He did not think the council majority would accommodate the minority position. He said he would save time and not bother with the argument. He felt troubled by a couple of sections in the document. MINUTES—Eugene City Council November 10, 2008 Page 4 Regular Meeting Councilor Bettman declared that many of the items in the document were far-reaching and would not get passed by the council. She felt many updates had not been made to the document. She did not know whether the council supported the “Big Look.” She did not know whether the City really wanted to “further gut” the land use system by amending BM 49. Ms. Wilson said the Big Look Task Force was currently meeting and would present its recommendation to the Legislature shortly. Councilor Bettman observed that the Legislative Document indicated council support before the council had seen it. Ms. Wilson affirmed this. She explained that the document was general and was not usually used by lobbying staff except in an emergency. She stressed that it was important to remember that the CCIGR would review all bills that pertained to the City on a case-by-case basis. She said while the City might support the Governor’s transportation funding bill, which called for a two-cent per gallon state gas tax increase, if it preempted the local gas tax the City might have a different position on it. She reiterated that they reserved the right to look at every bill because the “devil is in the details.” Councilor Pryor appreciated the work done on reformatting the document. He commended the CCIGR on the work they had done to make it more understandable. He said the reason he did not feel a need to go into great detail on it at the current meeting was that, as the legislative session progressed, the individual bills that would be proposed would be discussed at length in the CCIGR. He stated that overall he supported the document as written. Councilor Zelenka also appreciated the format, calling it easy to follow. He asked if Ms. Wilson knew how the two-cent gas tax would be allocated. Ms. Wilson responded that a 50:30:20 split was being recom- mended that should put an additional $91 million into local government. She said the City of Eugene’s share was based on its percentage of the population of the State of Oregon, estimated to provide the City with $5.3 million. She noted that there were other funding mechanisms in the package such as doubling the state titling fee and doubling the registration fee. She related that the House Transportation Committee had authorized the drafting of a bill that would eliminate the need for counties to go out to voters to increase their registration fees. She called it a “tool box of funding options” for the State. She said a committee would be convened under the Governor’s recommendation to look for a long-term permanent replacement for the gas tax since they believed it was a diminishing funding resource. She added that the Senate also authorized a bill to be drafted that would eliminate the gas tax based on a dollar amount and replace it with one based on percentage of sales. Councilor Zelenka asked if there was any word from the gas station lobby. Ms. Wilson responded that they would tend to support an increase in the gas tax at the state level as long as local governments were preempted. Councilor Zelenka recalled that when the Transportation Committee had been convened they had been “stymied” because registration fees could only be increased at the County level. He asked if it would be possible for the City to look at a registration fee at the local level. Ms. Wilson replied that they could look at it. She noted that Representative Beyer served as the Chair of the House Transportation Committee, and might be amenable to allowing an amendment to allow cities to also collect registration fees. She said whether there was the political will to do so was a different question. In response to a question from Councilor Zelenka, Ms. Wilson explained that every property tax exemption reduced the amount of money that went into the General Fund. She said in every session there were so many tax exemption bills on the table it was hard to keep track of them all. She averred that as the session progressed it was not the best exemptions that were passed, but rather the first exemptions that were passed. MINUTES—Eugene City Council November 10, 2008 Page 5 Regular Meeting She declared the number of existing tax exemptions to be “mind boggling.” She clarified that the first bullet point under B2 Exemptions under the heading of FINANCING STATE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT meant that the City supported looking at tax exemptions that were granted in the past in order to determine whether they were still good public policy on a case-by-case basis. Councilor Zelenka asked what was meant by opposition to mandating that a portion of urban renewal funds be spent on particular types of projects, in the second bullet point under B3 Urban Renewal Districts. Ms. Wilson responded that this section had been revised by staff because it had, at one time, been very wordy. She explained that the policy statement declared that the legislature should not mandate for which projects local governments used their urban renewal funds. Mr. Ruiz felt the statement supported maximizing local flexibility in such projects. Councilor Zelenka felt that the second bullet on page 10 under TRANSPORTATION A. Funding for Streets, Highways and Transit should be called out separately. He averred that given the enormity of the City’s backlog of street repairs the desire to prioritize funding for a system of maintenance and preservation should stand out on its own. Councilor Bettman opposed the document. She explained that bullet points under B3 Urban Renewal indicated that Eugene supported disallowing public schools the opportunity to create urban renewal. She opined that this was counter to every policy the City supported. She said the finance page indicated that Eugene would oppose anything that reduced jurisdictions’ local taxes and local revenue. She believed the two were contradictory. She averred that any special projects should go to the ballot. Councilor Poling asked what was meant by “reasonable replacements to Measure 49” on page 15 under D1 Ballot Measure 37 [to be corrected to say Ballot Measure 49]. Ms. Wilson replied that it was her feeling that they should reword that sentence, because they were not just looking for a reasonable replacement for BM 37 or additional fixes for BM 49. She explained that the State was considering a whole new way of looking at the land use planning system. In response to a question from Councilor Poling, Ms. Wilson clarified that the second bullet point under D3 Twenty-Year Land Supply referred only to the impact of rural residential development within the Urban Growth Boundary (UGB). Councilor Poling was uncertain whether he was ready to move the document forward. Councilor Zelenka was unclear what was meant by basing the buildable lands inventory on actual past development, as referred to in the third and fourth bullet point under D3. Ms. Wilson explained that the two policy directions had been included in the past several documents; staff had not updated the policy directions that the council had previously adopted and the council was free to change them. In response to a question from Councilor Zelenka, Ms. Wilson confirmed that the City supported the use of polygraphs in police hiring, as referred to on page 21 under C9 Use of Polygraph for Police Officer Hiring. Councilor Clark thought he likely had a number of problems with the Legislative Document. He stressed that this was no reflection on Ms. Wilson’s work. He believed the document deserved more time. He did not wish to oppose the document, preferring instead to table it. He was especially concerned with the bullet points on page 16 under D3 Twenty-Year Land Supply. MINUTES—Eugene City Council November 10, 2008 Page 6 Regular Meeting Mr. Ruiz expressed concern that not moving forward with the document could make Ms. Wilson’s job more difficult. He reiterated that any bill that could affect Eugene would have to come back for consideration by the CCIGR. He thought the council could spend five or six hours on the document, but was not prepared to do so at this meeting. He stressed Ms. Wilson’s need for some guidance, adding that Eugene did not want to be “impotent up at the Legislature.” He encouraged the council to move forward with the Legislative Policies Document. Mayor Piercy averred that no one wanted to sign off on the document because it implied that the council might support some things it did not necessarily support. Councilor Pryor asked if they should take the document back to the CCIGR. Mr. Ruiz suggested that the council use some work session time going through it rather than going back and forth with the CCIGR. Councilor Ortiz stated that Ms. Wilson had brought the document to the CCIGR several times. She did not see huge issues in it. She thought holding a work session was a good idea. She apologized to Ms. Wilson for the delay. Councilor Bettman commented that this was not a reflection on Ms. Wilson. She related that she had envisioned a “lengthy process” with the council actually bringing forward legislation they felt was needed and also vetting the document. Councilor Zelenka suggested that the councilors pull out the sections they felt were controversial. He felt this would give Ms. Wilson a document that was 90 percent complete. Councilor Poling related that when he and Councilor Ortiz had first been appointed to the CCIGR he had thumbed through the document. He said at that time he found some things that “raised an eyebrow” and he had been told they were things the council had voted on and could not be changed without a council vote. Ms. Wilson clarified that the document had been changed to remove some things that were already completed. Mayor Piercy said there was direction to move forward with a work session. She noted that there was one more piece of work to complete at the current meeting: the designation of who would serve on a council committee to work with the Civilian Review Board and the Police Auditor. Councilor Pryor, seconded by Councilor Clark, moved to appoint councilors Zelenka, Clark, Ortiz, and Solomon to serve on a subcommittee of the council with the Civilian Re- view Board and Police Auditor. Roll call vote; the motion passed unanimously, 7:0. The meeting adjourned at 8:59 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Jon Ruiz City Manager MINUTES—Eugene City Council November 10, 2008 Page 7 Regular Meeting (Recorded by Ruth Atcherson) MINUTES—Eugene City Council November 10, 2008 Page 8 Regular Meeting