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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCC Minutes - 12/08/08 MeetingM I N U T E S Eugene City Council Regular Meeting Council Chamber—Eugene City Hall 777 Pearl Street—Eugene, Oregon December 8, 2008 7:30 p.m. COUNCILORS PRESENT: Chris Pryor, Bonny Bettman, George Poling, Jennifer Solomon, Mike Clark, Alan Zelenka, Betty Taylor. COUNCILORS ABSENT: Andrea Ortiz Her Honor Mayor Kitty Piercy called the meeting of the Eugene City Council to order. 1. CEREMONIAL MATTERS Mayor Piercy read a proclamation certifying the November 4, 2008, Election Results into the record. She thanked the voters for supporting the two citywide ballot measures. 2. PUBLIC FORUM Mayor Piercy reviewed the rules of the Public Forum. Zachary Vishanoff , Ward 3, handed out copies of articles from the New York Times. He said people should Google “New York Times Ohio arena district” to see the article. He asked that copies be passed out so that he could walk the councilors through the article. He believed the planning had been “fractured” in the Fairmount neighborhood. He was concerned that the University of Oregon would try to seize Hirons’ Drugstore and PC Market of Choice on Franklin Boulevard using eminent domain. He felt the article would help the council see the “big picture” in which “government had gone wild” and pursued privatization for a sports entertainment district. Drix thanked the council for their time. He reiterated his love for the City of Eugene. He averred that the world was changing and being flexible to change was healthy. He related that a friend who worked in advertising had shared with him that the most powerful words to use were ‘you,’ ‘new,’ and ‘now.’ He wanted to share his visions in honor of the upcoming holidays and recalled “Eugene past,” the days when the Eugene Hotel was in operation and there was a shoeshine business in front of it and the men of the day wore fedoras and smoked cigars. He pointed out that people no longer shined shoes or smoked cigars and now people wore baseball caps instead of fedoras. He wanted to figure out what the community wanted and then figure out how to get it. He related his new words: “canopy thinking” in which one rose above the trees and saw the bigger picture and “yaya,” the meaning of which he was not sure of but he had heard people saying it a lot. Mark Rabinowitz , P.O. Box 51222, Eugene, thanked Councilor Bettman for her years of public service. He especially appreciated her “leadership on many transportation and land use and democracy issues” in the community. He had suggestions about the economic crash. He averred that “close to a quarter billion dollars in public debt” was being spent on the University of Oregon arena. He opined that this money could MINUTES—Eugene City Council December 8, 2008 Page 1 Regular Meeting have been used to provide free tuition for all of the University students. He guessed that having the “world’s most expensive college arena for the Ducks” was more important than educating people. He alleged that the City and County were asking the Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) for “$100 million of our money” to rebuild Franklin Boulevard to “help subsidize the arena.” He hoped they would find a better use for that money. He asserted that the State and Federal governments were pushing for a “bailout” for the highway construction industry. He believed that traffic levels on the nation’s highways had peaked. He averred that Amtrak could go 124 miles per hour, but had to slow to 30 miles per hour to cross a bridge in Junction City because the bridge was “decrepit and should be condemned.” He preferred to spend money on “inner-city rail” than to spend it on “widening Interstate 5 between Canada and Mexico.” He felt Portland’s model of government was a more democratic form of government. He added that the Hood River prohibition on “big box stores” was more important now because it was important to fund local businesses. Pauline Hutson , 1025 Taylor Street, said she was speaking on behalf of herself and not as a member of 3RT. She wished to address the issue of eminent domain in regard to the expansion of the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT), the threat of which she believed to cause a devastating psychological impact. She asserted that a senior official of Lane Transit District (LTD) had brought up eminent domain as one solution to dealing with people who did not want to sell their property. She felt the senior staff had a “cavalier” attitude about it. She did not think there would be a need to utilize eminent domain to take land because there were ththth several alternative routes, such as the combination of 6 and 7 Avenues and 7 Place. She thought the passing of the expanded boundary for the Multiple Unit Property Tax Exemption (MUPTE) redevelopment could coincide with LTD’s stated goal of expanding the BRT routes in connection with economic develop- thth ment. She believed that a proposal to use West 11 and West 13 Avenues as a route would be “the most destructive, disruptive, astronomically expensive” choices with numerous complications. She thanked Councilor Bettman for giving her time to the community. Jozef Siekiel-Zdzienicki , 1025 Taylor Street, thanked the councilors for their service to the community and Councilor Bettman in particular. rd Josh Schlossberg , 1765 East 43 Avenue, did not think the City of Eugene had a fully empowered and functional police auditor at this time and that it should as soon as possible in order to follow the democratic principles of government. He averred that a city “plagued by rapist cops, racist cops, and cops who had repeatedly violated constitutional rights” could not have the luxury of making any compromises to its police oversight. He said he had spent “half of [his] waking hours” for the past five years in efforts to create what he believed to be “positive change in the world.” He asserted that his trust in elected officials at “every level of government” had eroded. Nonetheless, he continued to try to encourage members of the public to communicate their opinions on issues to the “powers that be.” He opined that the will of the “vast number” of the public was ignored. He felt it would be “delusional” to “keep pretending” that most elected officials valued and considered input from the public. He declared that a “few shining lights in the gloom” had kept him from giving up on grassroots advocacy to encourage elected officials to create change and one of those “shining lights” had been Councilor Bettman. He spoke glowingly about Councilor Bettman’s work and thanked her. Carol Berg-Caldwell , 2510 Augusta Street, had been disappointed in the council vote against a motion submitted by Councilor Bettman to hire a law firm outside of Eugene with “expertise in municipal law” to guide the committee on external police review. She opined that the current firm that provided legal services to the City had its “fingers in many pies.” She supported the establishment of inhouse legal services. She asserted that the legal review provided by the City Attorney had made the external police review vulnerable to attempts to undermine it. She declared that police misconduct trials at which the City Attorney had represented the City, had cost the City “virtually millions” in settlements and legal fees. MINUTES—Eugene City Council December 8, 2008 Page 2 Regular Meeting She felt the Police Auditor’s Office was not being allowed to fully function. She averred that as soon as it was allowed to fully function there would be fewer such trials and the “cash cow milked by” the City Attorney’s Office would “dry up.” She believed the continued relationship with the current legal services had “worked against the voters’ interests.” She considered it “politically charged legal malfeasance plain and simple.” She asked the council to reconsider its decision not to hire the firm listed in the motion from its work session. She stressed her support for establishment of inhouse legal services, “whose sole focus and task would be to serve the City needs and not the agendas of a good old boy’s club and the law firm’s bank account.” She asserted that it had been in the interests of the current provider of legal services to maintain dysfunction “to the bitter end.” She added her thanks to Councilor Bettman for her service, saying that the work session had given her “just a hint of the swamp that [she had] slogged through” for their benefit. She welcomed anyone’s ideas on how the City could get inhouse legal services. Aaron Nelson , 1670 Alder Street, recalled that he had spoken out against the Downtown Exclusion Zone. He related that on November 29, the Eugene Police had served a search warrant at the Campbell Club, a student co-op at which he lived. He alleged that a lot of property had been damaged and among the nearly 30 residents of the co-op approximately $12,000 in fines had been levied. He also alleged that one officer told the residents that if they had allowed the police in when the police had first been called to the party and not demanded that the police get a search warrant, the police officers would have “been nicer” to the residents. He noted that the house had issued a press release. He said he would feel more comfortable about the incident if there was an “empowered Police Auditor” in Eugene. He encouraged the councilors to do what they could to create a “meaningful police auditor position” in the City. He added that he had decided to apply to serve on the committee. th Majeska Seese-Green , 5 Avenue and Van Buren Street, believed it was important to get outside legal information for the committee on external police review. She also felt there was a great need for transpar- ency “about what’s going to happen in that committee.” She urged the council to make sure that it happened. She was pleased to see that there was some interest on the part of the councilors to get additional legal opinions. She hoped that they would find a way to do that as soon as possible. She averred that if the conflict of interest situation, whether it was perceived or actual, was not resolved, it would be the “kiss of death” for Eugene to believe it had an independent police review system. She thought a lot of her neighbors felt that putting time into something like external police review was a waste. She added that she was thankful for Councilor Bettman’s service, calling her a “fantastic role model” for herself and her daughter. th Rene Kane , 254 West 14 Avenue, wished to thank Councilor Bettman for her many years of service and for being “thoughtful, tireless, and tenacious.” Mike Quillin , 2735 Kismet Way, expressed gratitude to Councilor Bettman for her years of service to the community. He felt she would be sorely missed. He also wished to express his dismay that the council had not voted to seek different legal counsel in the matter of the police auditor. He sensed a “high level of resistance to independent review.” He wondered why anyone opposed to it was afraid of independent legal review if they had nothing to hide. He cited Eugene City Code 2.470 regarding City Attorney appointment and duties. He also read from the Oregon Rules of Professional Conduct, regarding the level of diligence a lawyer should demonstrate and communication between a lawyer and client. He asserted that the current provider of City Attorney services was neglecting its duty to the City. th Brian Michaels , 259 East 5 Avenue, said he was an attorney working in Eugene. He related that an email from Councilor Bettman had been forwarded to him concerning her response and correction of previously written ordinances recommending an independent legal counsel. He had been pleased to read it and also displeased that the council had not supported it. He remarked that everyone had been raised in a society of criminal justice that was “dependent entirely on deterrents.” He opined that the Police Department was MINUTES—Eugene City Council December 8, 2008 Page 3 Regular Meeting functionally without deterrents. He averred that when a police department failed to deter its own police force or investigate its own, everyone “failed.” He preferred to live in a City where police were “friendly, cooperative, and well-managed by themselves” but he believed that he lived in a city where the police were disrespectful of the Police Auditor. He felt they should strengthen the office of auditor in order to “inflict upon the Police Department” that they wanted the department to “behave better.” He felt that lawsuits against the department would be prevented if there were proper deterrents within the department to correct behavior “before it got out of hand.” He postulated that there would have been fewer victims in the Magaña/Lara scandal had there been external police oversight at the time. He felt that hiring another legal firm was the “best bet” to ensure that language written into the code would have consequences. th Samantha Chirillo , 157 East 27 Avenue, Apt. 3, expressed admiration for Councilor Bettman. She said she would not have come to the meetings she had attended if not for Councilor Bettman. She agreed with Ms. Berg-Caldwell’s disappointment that Councilor Bettman’s motion to hire another law firm to help with the committee on external police review had not been approved. She believed that having an inhouse legal service would save money. She stated that she was testifying in the capacity of her service on the steering committee for the Citizens for Public Accountability (CPA). She wished to convey the recommendation that Mr. Nelson, who had testified earlier, be appointed to the newly formed ordinance review committee. She felt he represented Eugene’s youth and its activist community, both sectors she thought had “bad experi- ences” with the law enforcement community. She said he had been an extremely reliable and conscientious volunteer for a variety of environmental and civil liberties causes. She averred that he had the experience to build “necessary bridges” and he had, as a member of the Campbell Club student co-op, also participated in consensus decision-making. Marina Hajek , 3703 Westleigh Street, along with Josefina Hajek, Andrea Corbin, and Olivia Jennings presented $160 they had raised to help with the Bailey Hill Road improvements. Ms. J. Hajek presented the money to the Mayor in order to prevent Bailey Hill Road from “any future accidents.” Ms. Corbin said she had helped Ms. J. Hajek raise the money. Ms. Jennings added that she was happy to have helped raise this money to help fix some of the problems with the road. Ms. M. Hajek stated that she was here with her daughter and her two friends in order to present the money they had raised by selling lemonade and Christmas cookies to help improve the safety on Bailey Hill Road. She related that her daughter had been concerned when she read that it would cost a lot of money to fix the roads and had suggested that she give the City her savings. She had advised her daughter that they could organize something more efficient than that and she could keep her savings. Her daughter and friends had come up with the idea for the lemonade stand and the Christmas cookie sales. She remarked that she was very thankful to her daughter’s friends for their help raising the money. She said the children had been very concerned about the safety of all children around Bailey Hill Road. She related that they kept seeing the problems and they did not understand why it took so much time to make changes. She had told the children that if they spoke out the elected officials might listen. She said she would be very “cheerful” the day they saw the changes start to be implemented so that they would prevent any more casualties from happening there such as the accident that had taken the life of her son, Vaclav. She looked forward to seeing that job done in the next summer. Ms. M. Hajek said since they had seen that their voices had been heard, they also wished to address the issue of further education for young people to become safe drivers. She did not want to see 16-year-old drivers on the road. She likened it to giving weapons to children. She related that since her son’s death she had paid more attention to the news about how many teenagers were involved in accidents. She noted that a few weeks earlier a 16-year-old girl had been in an accident and two people in her car had died. She did not believe 16-year-old drivers were mentally mature enough to take the responsibility and to measure the risks and consequences of their actions. MINUTES—Eugene City Council December 8, 2008 Page 4 Regular Meeting Additionally, Ms. M. Hajek expressed unhappiness with the judicial system. She related that the young man who killed her son was being treated as a victim. She felt he was suffering the consequences of his action, noting that he had tried to commit suicide. She underscored that her son’s life had been taken away on the day he died, but the child who killed him still had a life to live. She averred that by not giving him the proper punishment for making the wrong decision to accelerate on a city street to a speed of 65 miles per hour at a place where children frequently crossed, he had not been able to learn from it. She did not believe he had paid his debt to society and she thought the judicial system should work on this. She said the young man had served four weekends in jail and was prohibited from driving for eight years. She thought he should do more community work that would put him in contact with people. Mayor Piercy closed the Public Forum. She thanked the young girls for making the effort to help pay for road repairs to Bailey Hill Road. She commended them for their work. Councilor Pryor expressed appreciation to the girls for coming. He called their efforts a “wonderful gesture from the heart.” He noted that he had bought some of the beverages and eaten their cookies and thought it had been very nice. He was committed to making improvements to Bailey Hill Road so something like the tragedy that had occurred would not happen again. He said the City’s Intergovernmental Committee (CCIGR) might want to bring something forward to Salem to try to make driving regulations a little better. He said the Hajeks had been an inspiration in their effort to be positive and productive in the face of the tragedy that had occurred to them. He thanked them for being an example for what could be good in the community. Councilor Bettman thanked everyone for coming, and especially the young girls. She called it a caring and resourceful action on their part. She added that she had always considered the Public Forum to be the “richest part” of the council meetings. She appreciated all of the people who took the time to come before their elected representatives. She also thanked the people who had given her their support during her terms. Councilor Clark remarked that his son was nearly 9-years-old and he had a little daughter as well. He said he could not imagine what the Hajeks had gone through. He echoed Councilor Pryor’s admiration for the Hajek’s strength to turn the tragedy they had experienced into something that would help others. He said he tried to teach his children how powerful they could be. He told the girls that they had just shown everyone that someone could make a difference to the world if they tried. Councilor Zelenka thanked everyone for coming to the meeting. He thanked the three young girls for coming and for the work they had done. He encouraged them to keep it up and told them what they had started would “come to fruition.” He also wished to add his gratitude for Councilor Bettman’s service. Councilor Poling said he would break council rules and led everyone in a round of applause for the girls for their efforts. Everyone applauded. Councilor Taylor thanked everyone for coming. She said they would make sure something happened to improve Bailey Hill Road. She agreed that the Public Forum was the best part of the meeting. She added her appreciation for Councilor Bettman. Mayor Piercy thanked Councilor Bettman for her service. She observed that eight years was a long time. She said Councilor Bettman was very resourceful and dedicated. Councilor Bettman received a round of applause. MINUTES—Eugene City Council December 8, 2008 Page 5 Regular Meeting Mayor Piercy announced that the following people would be appointed to the Police Auditor Ordinance Review Committee: herself, councilors Pryor and Zelenka, current Police Auditor Dawn Reynolds, Police Chief Pete Kerns, Eugene Police Employees Association (EPEA) representatives Erik Humphrey and Willy Edewaard, Citizen Review Board (CRB) representatives Norton Cabell and Rick Brissenden, Police Commission representatives John Ahlen and Joe Alsup, Citizens United for Better Policing representatives Ron Chase and Angie Sifuentez, and representing citizens-at-large would be Claire Syrett and Tim Laue. 3. CONSENT CALENDAR A. Approval of City Council Minutes - August 11, 2008, City Council Meeting - October 13, 2008, City Council Meeting - October 15, 2008, Process Session B. Approval to Tentative Working Agenda C. Resolution 4958 Authorizing the Sale of General Obligation Bonds to Fix Streets and Off- Street Paths D. Appointment to Historic Review Board E. Sale of Property to Oregon Department of Transportation Councilor Pryor, seconded by Councilor Bettman, moved to approve the items on the Con- sent Calendar. Roll call vote; the motion passed unanimously, 7:0. 4. PUBLIC HEARING and ACTION: Resolution 4959 Adopting a Supplemental Budget; Making Appropriations for the City of Eugene for the Fiscal Year Beginning July 1, 2008, and Ending June 30, 2009 Mayor Piercy opened the public hearing. John Barofsky , 2010 Hubbard Lane, thanked staff for presenting the Supplemental Budget to the citizen members of the Budget Committee. He had found it helpful in understanding what was being presented to the council for approval. He said as the council knew there was a policy that dedicated the first $900,000 of the marginal beginning working capital to the capital budget for preservation and maintenance. He stated that the present year’s transfer would be short by $533,685. He was troubled by this because the City was already on the low side of funding this need. He thought the City Manager and staff should find a way to put this important obligation into the regular budget. He averred that the City’s capital preservation and maintenance should not be allowed to “go the way of our roads.” He declared that capital preservation was a core service that must be recognized in budget form. Councilor Bettman asked if the transfer he was referring to was in addition to allocated capital funding. Budget Manager for the Finance Division, Kitty Murdoch, confirmed that it was in addition to the existing capital budget. Councilor Bettman averred that a big portion of the backlog of maintenance lay in the current City Hall. She said there was $30 million in a reserve fund to build a new City Hall that included police services. She recalled that when the council decided not to move forward there had been a decision to utilize the vast portion of it to upgrade and maintain the existing facility. She was uncertain what would happen in the next budget cycle in that regard. Mayor Piercy asked when they planned to hold the City Hall discussion. City Manager Jon Ruiz replied that it would occur in the spring. MINUTES—Eugene City Council December 8, 2008 Page 6 Regular Meeting Councilor Pryor, seconded by Councilor Bettman, moved to adopt Resolution 4959 adopt- ing a Supplemental Budget; making appropriations for the City of Eugene for the Fiscal Year beginning July 1, 2008, and ending June 30, 2009. Roll call vote; the motion passed unanimously, 7:0. Mayor Piercy adjourned the meeting of the Eugene City Council at 8:30 p.m. and convened a meeting of the Eugene Urban Renewal Agency. 5. PUBLIC HEARING and ACTION: Resolution 1049 Adopting a Supplemental Budget; Making Appropriations for the Urban Renewal Agency of the City of Eugene for the Fiscal Year Beginning July 1, 2008, and Ending June 30, 2009 Mayor Piercy opened the public hearing. Zachary Vishanoff averred that the University of Oregon arena project had hidden urban renewal costs. He felt that urban renewal was an unmitigated disaster. He suggested that the City have a “backlog clock” located somewhere in the public’s view to track the mounting costs of the backlog of street repairs. He added that he thought former Mayor Jim Torrey had done a good job of getting the word out about the pothole issue during his recent campaign for mayor. Continuing, he asserted that the urban renewal budget could be diverted into historic preservation. He believed that they would not have had the “political train wreck” in the Fairmount neighborhood if there had been discussion of preserving the Joe Romania building. He wanted to disarm the urban renewal process for the next couple of years and put the money into historic preservation and potholes. He asked that form-based codes and the possibility of a future multi-lane boulevard on Franklin Boulevard be put to a public hearing. John Barofsky , 2010 Hubbard Lane, supported adoption of the budget as proposed. He expressed concern regarding the WG Development taking place in the Urban Renewal Agency (URA). He alleged that City staff and URA funds for legal services were being used to find ways for a developer to avoid state law that would require the developer to pay prevailing wages if a threshold of public/private partnership was met. He said if the council felt this requirement was unnecessary, there should be a focus on changing the state statute through the CCIGR rather than on finding ways to circumvent “the letter of the law.” He had heard the Mayor and councilors advocating for a living wage but he felt that when it stood in the way of filling a pit they would look the other way. He suggested that if this was the course they would take, they should let WG Development pay the City the actual value of the property rather than letting the City subsidize it. He averred that this would take the public/private partnership out of the mix. He noted that WG had indicated that paying prevailing wage would increase costs by 30 percent. He thought paying the City the full price would only increase costs by one to two percent. He thought if WG was having trouble gaining tenants the City could be involved as a guaranteed tenant. Mayor Piercy closed the public hearing. Councilor Bettman agreed with Mr. Barofsky. She objected to urban renewal and indicated she would oppose the motion. Councilor Pryor, seconded by Councilor Bettman, moved to adopt Resolution 1049 adopt- ing a Supplemental Budget; making appropriations for the Urban Renewal Agency of the City of Eugene for the Fiscal Year Beginning July 1, 2008, and ending June 30, 2009. Councilor Taylor reiterated her opposition to urban renewal. MINUTES—Eugene City Council December 8, 2008 Page 7 Regular Meeting Roll call vote; the motion passed 5:2; councilors Taylor and Bettman voting in opposition. Mayor Piercy adjourned the Eugene Urban Renewal Agency at 8:38 p.m. and reconvened the Eugene City Council. 6. ACTION: Approval of Minutes, Findings and Recommendations from the Hearings official and Adopting of an Ordinance Levying Assessments for Concrete Alley Paving and Constructing Wastewater and th Stormwater systems on 6 Alley between Tyler Street and Polk Street; and Providing an Immedi- ate Effective Date (Contract 2008-28)(Job #4527) Councilor Pryor, seconded by Councilor Bettman, moved that the council adopt Council th Bill 4993, an ordinance levying assessments for improvements on 6 Alley and providing an immediate effective date. Councilor Bettman ascertained from City Engineer, Mark Schoening, that only one of the affected property owners had provided comments. Councilor Bettman asked if the petition had been supported by 100 percent of the neighbors. Mr. Schoening responded that the area residents had all understood the petition but it had not been initiated by 100 percent of them. Roll call vote; the motion passed unanimously, 7:0. The meeting adjourned at 8:39 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Jon Ruiz City Manager (Recorded by Ruth Atcherson) MINUTES—Eugene City Council December 8, 2008 Page 8 Regular Meeting