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HomeMy WebLinkAbout220615 WSMINUTES Eugene City Council Work Session Eugene, Oregon 97401 June 15, 2022 12:00 p.m. Councilors Present: Claire Syrett, Matt Keating, Jennifer Yeh, Mike Clark, Randy Groves, Emily Semple, Alan Zelenka, Greg Evans Mayor Vinis opened the June 15, 2022, work session of the Eugene City Council in a hybrid in-person/virtual format. 1. Work Session: Police Auditor Councilor Syrett introduced the topic, Permanently Filling the Police Auditor -Next Steps, giving background information regarding the vacancy and introduced Becky DeWitt of the Employee Resource Center, who presented information regarding options for recruiting for this position. Council Discussion: • • • • • • Councilor Syrett -noted that she and Councilor Keating reviewed options and the suggested motion provided to Council is their recommendation and similar to the process used during recruitment of Judge Gill. Councilor Zelenka -stated that this process was used for recruiting the judge to allow Council to get to know Judge Gill and see how he was doing in the interim role; noted this is like the current situation since Leia Pitcher has been the interim Police Auditor; said getting a full review of Leia is a good idea for first steps moving forward to fill the role; said he will support the suggested motion. Councilor Groves -asked staff what the cost inflation for a national search would be; noted that he is very satisfied with the work he has seen from Leia Pitcher thus far and would be comfortable with the proposed motion. Councilor Semple -stated her agreement with Councilors Zelenka and Groves and said she believes Council should move forward with the suggested motion. Councilor Groves -asked if there is a timeline attached to the requested motion . Councilor Syrett -stated that staff discussed having an outside entity perform the review process; said Brenda Wilson from Lane Council of Governments would be recommended to perform the stakeholder interviews and has confirmed her ability to do so. MOTION and VOTE: Councilor Keating, seconded by Councilor Groves, moved to obtain feedback from internal and external stakeholders regarding Interim Police Auditor Leia Pitcher to help inform Council decisions regarding how to proceed filling the Police Auditor position. PASSED: 8:0 MINUTES -Eugene City Council Work Session June 15, 2022 Page 1 2. Work Session: Community Survey City Manager Medary introduced the topic of a community survey and introduced Jason Dedrick, Policy Analyst in the City Manager's Office, who provided a presentation on the upcoming community survey, the timeline and planned process for gathering community input. Council Discussion: • Mayor Vinis -noted her excitement for the upcoming survey and thanked staff for their work and the presentation. • Councilor Keating -said he looks forward to helping get the survey out into the community; asked staff how Council can best assist in promoting the survey to the public; asked if there are measures in place to prevent or note when or if someone completes multiple surveys that could skew the results; noted his preference to change the language to ask what ward or neighborhood a respondent lives in; stated appreciation for the various in-depth demographic data points included in the survey; suggested adding a faith-based demographic question into the survey; asked if Council members have the ability to parse out information from their wards and see how their constituents responded; asked if respondent information would be available for councilors to follow up on. • Councilor Yeh -expressed appreciation for the opportunity to discuss the survey before it is sent out; asked if there will be a way to highlight historically under- represented groups and if it would remain statistically valid; noted that it would be worth extra effort to ensure that under-represented groups get enough focus in the survey to have statistically valid data. • Councilor Groves -expressed appreciation for the opportunity to discuss the survey before it is sent out; stated that every survey that is sent to the community should be presented to Council first; asked if Council will see a final draft of the survey prior to launching it to public; noted that he does not want to review surveys question by question but does want Council to review for possible holes prior to launching into the community; said he appreciates some of the open-ended questions in the survey and believes that some multiple choice options may help to hone in on what the true issues or opinions are; noted that there are businesses and employers in the community who may not live within Eugene but could have valuable feedback in a survey like this; expressed agreement with Councilor Keating regarding individuals completing multiple surveys to skew the response data; stated he likes the process and it is well thought out. • Councilor Zelenka -noted he would also request that Council get a chance to review all surveys prior to community launch; noted issues during the middle housing code process and asked staff if those high-impact issues would be resolved with this survey; said that the survey responses are useful for councilors to know what key issues need to be addressed. • Councilor Clark -expressed appreciation for staff using previous experience to help form the new survey; said he hopes that the output of the survey helps councilors make decisions to best serve the community; stated that Council has some heavy, potentially controversial decisions to make soon and he would like to know what the public thinks regarding those topics in advance of voting; MINUTES -Eugene City Council Work Session June 15, 2022 Page 2 • • • • • • • noted that some ward and neighborhoods overlap and he would not support adding the ward or neighborhood option to the survey; asked staff if questions regarding all upcoming large, controversial Council topics will be in the survey; asked staff what they would need to include these referenced questions in the survey; asked staff to confirm that it would require a majority vote to have these controversial topics covered in the survey. Councilor Syrett -stated that items on the Tentative Agenda would be discussed before the survey is sent out; said that it is important to note that this survey is meant to be a broader gathering of information, and could still inform on specific topics but is not meant to be topic specific; stated the survey is meant to gather information on an overall lived experience of community members; said she would not support trying to put topic specific questions into this survey but would consider using Council contingency funds to do some polling around controversial topics. Councilor Keating -noted his request was to adjust survey language to ask for ward or neighborhood if ward is unknown to help narrow down respondent location; said that a values-based survey would be most informative and a populous poll per issue is not feasible and not staff responsibility to poll by issue; noted his appreciation for the survey question 'What makes Eugene special?'; stated he would like to see the survey include questions asking to describe Eugene in two or three words and how Eugene can be better; noted that the same three issues are always in the top three; said he would like to see what the next issue of concern is after community safety, housing, and homelessness; asked if staff have or can get the next issues of concern. Councilor Clark -said he would like to see pointed topic questions in the survey because emails from constituents state Council has a misperception of the community on particular issues, not in a broad sense; noted that Council misinterpreted the results of the 2012 survey regarding downtown; said he would like the survey to include the question 'What frustrates you about Eugene?'; asked how much, if any, drilling down will take place after the survey to ensure that the results are understood. Councilor Groves -agreed with Councilor Syrett that there is not enough time to include upcoming controversial agenda items on the survey; said he would like to see a poll specifically on the natural gas/electrification topic. Councilor Yeh -agreed with Councilor Groves that getting this type of information would be helpful; noted that she is not a fan of surveys and that there are tools that get at the information much better than a survey, like focus groups; noted she would like to see issues of concern beyond the top three; said that she likes the promotion schedule for the survey; asked if there will be an equal promotion of the results post-survey; noted she would like to see the statistical data provided to the community when it is available so that the community can see the data that is informing Council decisions. Councilor Syrett -outlined the option to clarify the survey question to state 'besides housing, homelessness and crime; what are your top concerns?' to get information on issues of concern. Mayor Vinis -said she is very happy to hear that focus groups are planned as a follow up to the survey; noted that surveys help educate Council and can be used MINUTES -Eugene City Council Work Session June 15, 2022 Page 3 to educate the community as well about what Council is doing; noted that during recent Youth Advisory Council interviews she explained to applicants that the Council is forming a community that will impact the quality of their lives now and in the future and it is important to understand what their experience is; noted that the demographic and qualitative data is very important; noted that as a result of the Youth Advisory Council interviews she questioned Council's capacity to serve the youth of Eugene; said that she would like to consider creating a youth survey. Mayor Vinis adjourned the meeting at 1:11 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Katie LaSala City Recorder {Recorded by Sara McKinney) Webcast of meeting available here. 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