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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCC Minutes - 01/26/09 Work Session M I N U T E S Eugene City Council McNutt Room—City Hall—777 Pearl Street Eugene, Oregon January 26, 2009 5:30 p.m. COUNCILORS PRESENT: Chris Pryor, Betty Taylor, Andrea Ortiz, Jennifer Solomon, Mike Clark, Alan Zelenka, George Poling, George Brown Her Honor Mayor Kitty Piercy called the work session of the Eugene City Council to order. A. Committee Reports and Items of Interest from Mayor, City Council, and City Manager Ms. Piercy commented on the excellent attendance at the Good Earth Home, Garden and Living Show over the weekend. She said Eugene was the first community in the country to have that type of event. Mr. Clark announced the opening of the Green Lane Network Group on January 15. He marched in the Martin Luther King event, as well as attended the Chamber of Commerce business celebration, the Fire and EMS awards ceremony and the Cal Young Neighborhood Association meeting. Ms. Ortiz noted the retirement of Mary Feldman and Mary Walston from the City Manager’s Office. She expressed her appreciation for their years of service to the City. She reported that Lane Regional Air Protection Agency (LRAPA) had elected new members from Cottage Grove and Creswell. She said the LRAPA board would be discussing how communities were represented at a future meeting. She said an Emergency Medical System Summit was scheduled on January 27, and would involve Eugene, Springfield, Lane County and Lane Rural Fire Department. She attended a Downtown Neighborhood Association meeting at which parking was discussed and those ideas would be presented to the council and she also participated in Martin Luther King Day events, including the unveiling of the Rosa Parks statue. Mr. Pryor said the West Eugene Collaborative was completing its work and hoped to have a draft report available soon. He attended the Chamber of Commerce dinners for both Eugene and Springfield. He said the Lane County of Governments (LCOG) appreciation dinner was held last week and retired City employee Jim Carlson received the Outstanding Public Employee award. Ms. Taylor asked what process would be used to replace Munir Katul on the Civilian Review Board (CRB) and how soon that would happen. She attended the unveiling of the Rosa Parks statue and noted it had been created by local sculptor Pete Holzer. She said that many people living in the University area neighborhood had inquired about tax exemptions for home improvements. She hoped the council would think about that when considering future tax exemptions for developers. Ms. Solomon was pleased to be able to take her children to the dedication of the Rosa Parks statue. She attended a Human Services Commission (HSC) meeting at which the plight of homeless people during severe weather conditions and the community’s response was discussed. She said there was a need for an organized, coordinated effort involving many organizations. The Governor’s proposed budget was discussed at a recent Public Safety Coordinat- ing Council meeting and she attended the final meeting of neighbors in the vicinity of the Fairfield Avenue/Maple MINUTES—Eugene City Council January 26, 2009 Page 1 Work Session Street improvements project. She commended staff for their work with the neighborhood group to develop a project that met everyone’s needs. Mr. Poling echoed Ms. Ortiz’s remarks about the retirement of Mary Feldman and Mary Walston. He attended the Chamber of Commerce dinners and the LCOG dinner. He commended culinary arts students at Lane Community College (LCC) for their food preparation. He announced there would be a February 10 forum on tourism sponsored by the Convention and Visitors Association of Lane County. He had received inquiries about the Creekside Park issue and referred those to the City Manager for a response. He congratulated the Sheldon Concert Choir under the direction of Nancy Anderson for taking first place at the Heritage Presidential Inaugural Music Festival. Mr. Brown remarked that he participated in the Martin Luther King Day march and had attended several neighbor- hood association meetings. He hoped to eventually attend meetings in all neighborhoods. He wished retiring City employees Mary Feldman, Mary Walston and Jim Carlson well. Mr. Zelenka commended Ms. Ortiz for her representation of the council at the Rosa Parks dedication ceremony. He also thanked Mary Feldman, Mary Walston and Jim Carlson for their years of service to the City. He agreed that LCC culinary arts students did an excellent job of preparing the LCOG dinner. He announced that the Police Auditor Ordinance Review Committee (PAORC) would hold a public forum on February 19 at the Eugene Public Library. He also noted that Project Homeless Connect would be held on March 6 at the Lane County Events Center. Mr. Clark added his well wishes to Mary Feldman and Mary Walston and appreciation for their years of service. He had also received a number of inquiries about Creekside Park expressing confusion about a letter to neighbors dated August 7, 2008, from Robin Hostick indicating the park project would move forward, which appeared to conflict with the current status. He asked for a memorandum explaining the change. Ms. Taylor remarked that the retirements of Mary Walston and Mary Feldman represented the loss of intellectual capital and institutional knowledge. City Manager Jon Ruiz commented that the Fire and EMS awards offered an opportunity to recognize people for extraordinary efforts. He thanked Mary Walston and Mary Feldman for their legacy of professionalism. He reminded the council that the budget season was approaching and there would be many topics to be scheduled for work sessions. Ms. Piercy thanked Mary Feldman for instituting many procedures that helped organize the City Recorder’s office. She said that a request for applications for the CRB vacancy and a timeline for filling it would be posted on the City’s website. Mr. Clark asked staff to determine whether an applicant for the CRB vacancy had to be a resident of the City. B. WORK SESSION: City Council Goal - Update on Homeless Initiative Action Plan Assistant City Manager Sarah Medary introduced Richie Weinman, Community Development Division, to present information on the council’s homeless initiative. Mr. Weinman gave a slide presentation on progress on the council’s goal of addressing homelessness, a proposed action plan, homelessness in the community, services that were currently in place, past accomplishments, challenges and the Mayor’s Blue Ribbon Committee’s recommendations. He stated there were two factors that typically MINUTES—Eugene City Council January 26, 2009 Page 2 Work Session resulted in homelessness: inadequate income for housing and a disability or health problem that hindered the ability to earn a living. He said homelessness could be situational or chronic and represented a significant cost to the community. On any given night at least 2,111 Lane County residents were homeless and 94 percent of the homeless were from the local area. He reviewed the services available and the benefits of early intervention to prevent homelessness. He described the enhanced services to families, youth and single adults that were now available as a result of the council’s goal. He explained the challenges involved in providing affordable housing in the community and introduced Tracy Lampman and John Van Landingham, chair and vice chair of the Mayor’s Blue Ribbon Committee to discuss the committee’s findings and recommendation. Ms. Lampman identified and thanked those who served on the committee. She said the committee determined that there was a good network of services in place and while providers were talented and worked collaboratively to provide services, those services were inadequately funded. Mr. Van Landingham said the committee’s primary tasked was to identify a new, stable, sustainable funding source for addressing affordable housing and homelessness problems. That did not happen, but the committee did have recommendations for approaching the problem at the regional level: ? Conduct an environmental scan of the issue to identify a specific set of goals, actions and strategies that would provide a good road map for addressing the problems; could be done in conjunction with a scan au- thorized and funded by Lane County, and would require a commitment of staff resources but not funds. ? Short term – five-year serial levy to fund affordable housing, homeless prevention and homeless services. Mr. Van Landingham acknowledged that the committee’s recommendations represented a pragmatic approach. He said there was no recommendation for more emergency shelter for single adults because of a lack of consensus among committee members. Ms. Ortiz thanked those who worked on the committee. She asked if there was an estimate of the amount of staff resources that would be required. Mike Sullivan, Community Development Division, said those discussions were currently occurring with Lane County and the contractor that would perform the scan. Ms. Ortiz asked that the council be kept informed on those discussions. She said there had been community input about the lack of accessible bathrooms for people in areas with a high concentration of the homeless, such as along the river and in the Whiteaker and downtown areas. Ms. Ortiz, seconded by Mr. Zelenka, moved to direct staff to study the feasibility of placing accessible bathroom facilities in areas where the homeless population was concentrated. Ms. Ortiz added that the challenge was not only paying for the bathroom facilities, but also where to locate them. Mr. Ruiz said he was agreeable to having staff conduct the study if that was the desire of the council. He anticipated an initial survey that would provide information to the council; a more in-depth study could be done if the council determined that was warranted. Ms. Piercy added that hazardous material disposal receptacles could also be considered during the study. Mr. Clark agreed that lack of bathroom facilities in downtown was a significant problem, but was not certain the motion was the best approach. He asked for more background on the statistics that indicated over 90 percent of the homeless population was from Lane County. Mr. Weinman replied that the Human Services Commission collected MINUTES—Eugene City Council January 26, 2009 Page 3 Work Session that information. He noted that the homeless individuals in downtown represented a very small percentage of the total homeless population. Regarding the committee’s recommendation to local governments to examine codes and policies that could contribute to the problem, Mr. Clark thought that the City kept housing unaffordable intentionally by the nature of its policies. Mr. Van Landingham felt there would be value in examining local policies and ordinances and choices between livability and affordability. He said the inability of families with children to afford housing in Eugene had a direct impact on schools, which relied on student enrollment levels for funding. Mr. Pryor supported the motion because of the public health concerns involved in waste management. He asked that a study of the issue include scope of the current problem with human waste, the degree to which providing bathrooms would address it and how those facilities would be guarded and maintained. He was interested in more details about the statistical data used to determine the percentage of homeless people indigenous to Lane County. Mr. Clark clarified that he meant the City maintained a shortage of land intentionally as a policy decision and that caused housing to be more expensive. He was in favor of a thorough examination of existing codes and policies to help determine why land and housing costs were so high and what could be done to change that. Ms. Ortiz commented, regarding the demographics of the homeless population, that who they were and where they came from did not matter to her. She said people went where they had an opportunity to make their lives better and regardless of where they were from they were human beings who deserved to be considered. Mr. Zelenka agreed that not enough was being done to address the problem and he would support the motion. He thanked the members of the committee for their work. He asked if the City Manager needed more direction from the council with respect to the scan. Mr. Ruiz said that he expected to consider many of the report’s recommendations within the context of the council’s goal setting and budget discussions. Ms. Taylor supported the need for bathrooms, especially in the downtown area. She said other communities had addressed the problem with self-cleaning restroom and ones that only accommodated one person. She felt that housing was unaffordable in part because of subsidies to companies that did not pay a living wage. She said there should be state-supported shelters for the homeless. Mr. Poling indicated he would support the motion as he was interested in obtaining information, particularly with regard to how other communities had dealt with the problem, including costs of installing and maintaining public bathrooms in certain locations. He said in his personal experience many homeless people came from outside the area, but with the current economic crisis it was likely that more members of the community would become homeless. He said if it was not possible to serve everyone, it was important to take care of local people first. Mr. Brown said he would support the motion. He noted that there were public restrooms downtown, but some closed around 6:00 p.m. and others were in locations, such as a parking garage, that people felt were unsafe. Mr. Clark said he had been convinced by the discussion and would support the motion. He asked that part of the research look at potential liabilities that might be involved if public bathrooms were provided. Ms. Taylor said there should be a focus on services to prevent homelessness and Eugene Water & Electric Board (EWEB) should be involved because the high cost of utilities was often a factor. The motion passed unanimously, 8:0. MINUTES—Eugene City Council January 26, 2009 Page 4 Work Session Mr. Zelenka, seconded by Mr. Clark, moved to accept the report and recommendations from the Mayor’s Blue Ribbon Committee to Finance Homelessness and Housing Programs. Ms. Taylor pointed out that accepting the report did not mean the council agreed with it. Mr. Solomon asked what the next steps would be. Ms. Lampman said the report and recommendations would be presented to the Springfield City Council and staff would work with Lane County on the scan. Mr. Clark offered a friendly amendment to allow staff to proceed with cooperating with Lane County on the scan of homeless issues. Mr. Zelenka accepted the friendly amendment and added language to have staff follow up on the five recommendations in the Agenda Item Summary. Mr. Clark accepted the added language. The motion passed unanimously, 8:0. Ms. Piercy hoped that part of the discussion would address the issue of laws that prevent people from sitting or lying down in public. She clarified that the council’s discussion was not implying that homeless people necessarily engage in criminal activities. She emphasized that the community was not prepared with an emergency shelter plan to take care of people during severe weather incidents. Ms. Ortiz, seconded by Mr. Zelenka, moved to work with community partners to address an emergency plan for shelter. The motion passed unanimously, 8:0. C. WORK SESSION: Civic Stadium Mr. Ruiz stated that the Ems had indicated that Civic Stadium no longer fit the needs and requirements of profes- sional baseball and to bring the stadium up to those standards would cost between $10 and $15 million. He said the Ems were in discussion with the University of Oregon about use of the University’s new baseball facility. He asked for an indication of the council’s wishes with respect to Civic Stadium. He said the City was not in a position to make an investment of that magnitude given its current budget situation, but could play a role in facilitating an ongoing discussion of the reuse of Civic Stadium and the property on which it was located. Mr. Clark said he had met with the Save Civic Stadium group and thanked them for their efforts. He said the stadium was an asset to the community and the City should help find creative ways to save it, but those could not be at the expense of the City or the 4J School District. He believed there was an opportunity for the City to partner with other organizations to find another use for the stadium, such as a regional youth sports facility, but whatever use occurred had to be at a minimum revenue neutral with a plan to create a revenue stream that would benefit the school district as long as it continued to own the property. He did not want the district to have to choose between closing a school and keeping a sports field open. Mr. Pryor was encouraged by the proposals coming forward, which were creative, flexible and visionary. He recognized that declaring the property surplus and selling it was an effort by the financially strapped school district to take advantage of an opportunity to improve its fiscal circumstances. He envisioned a partnership between the City and school district to explore options and endorsing use of the property was a good start. He agreed with Mr. Ruiz that the City was not in a financial position to acquire the property, renovate it or undertake a long-term maintenance obligation. He was mindful that the property was donated to the school district for recreation and educational purposes and efforts to save the stadium needed to take that into consideration. MINUTES—Eugene City Council January 26, 2009 Page 5 Work Session Ms. Taylor observed that Civic Stadium had historical significance to many people. She said the City should make it clear it did not have the power to keep the Ems at the stadium. She was not averse to spending some of the “people’s” money to help save the stadium. Mr. Poling wanted to see Civic Stadium saved, but the City could not afford to do that. He was in favor of a public/private partnership to preserve the stadium and was interested in ways the City could help the Save Civic Stadium group’s efforts. Mr. Zelenka remarked that Civic Stadium was an historic structure and was built in part with donations of land, materials and labor. He thanked those who were working to save the stadium and endorsed their efforts, but pointed out that the school district owned the property and was not in a financial position to keep the stadium without the Ems, or to incur the costs of renovation. The City likewise was not in a financial position to purchase or renovate the facility, but should help facilitate ideas for its preservation. Mr. Brown asserted that Civic Stadium had to be saved. He said the facility was too important to the community and the region to allow it to deteriorate. He recognized the obstacles involved, but felt the City did have a role and perhaps Parks and Recreation could facilitate discussions with the school district. Ms. Piercy determined there did seem to be consensus on the council to look at options for saving Civic Stadium. Mr. Pryor observed that only half of the ten acre site was used by the stadium, leaving the remainder available for other uses. He said the concept of mixed uses could be the key to saving the stadium. Mr. Clark said saving Civic Stadium presented a good opportunity for many people in the community to work towards a common goal. Mr. Clark, seconded by Mr. Zelenka, moved to direct staff to work with either the Save Civic Stadium organization or the 4J School District, or any other organization involved in planning for the potential of any community use of the facility. Mr. Zelenka offered a friendly amendment to substitute the following language: Move to di- rect staff to engage with the community in developing creative ideas to save Civic Stadium. Mr. Clark accepted the amendment. Mr. Clark said his intent was for the City to do more than engage in discussions; it should actively provide assistance to any group pursuing a plan for the facility. Mr. Ruiz cautioned that the school district owned the property and while it was a community asset, the district had a stake in the process. Mr. Poling felt the council was being premature as the school district had not yet made a decision regarding disposition of the property. He questioned why the motion, which essentially directed staff to do their jobs, was necessary before any decisions were made by the district. He was unable to support the motion. Ms. Solomon concurred with Mr. Poling’s remarks. Mr. Clark agreed it was necessary to be mindful that the school district might have other plans for the property. His intent was to have staff be proactive in plans for the facility. MINUTES—Eugene City Council January 26, 2009 Page 6 Work Session Mr. Zelenka said it was important for the council to acknowledge that Civic Stadium was a valuable asset that the City should participate in saving. Mr. Ruiz pointed out that the process was at the very early planning stages and he did not see staff engaged in efforts to master plan the site. Mr. Pryor indicated he was reluctant to support the motion at this point in the process. He was willing to demon- strate support for saving Civic Stadium, but did not want to hinder the City Manager’s ability to react flexibly as issues arose. Mr. Brown said he was not certain he would support the motion until the next steps were better defined. He asked if staff was being directed to bring all interested parties together to discuss options. Ms. Ortiz said she was a former school board member and understood that school districts view property as a financial asset banked for the future. She supported efforts to find creative ways to preserve the stadium, but did not expect the school district to give away any of its money. She was not certain a motion was necessary to continue those discussions. Mr. Ruiz said staff leads on the project were being identified and he had clearly heard the council’s interest in moving towards solutions. He would contact interested parties to continue conversations about the future of Civic Stadium. Ms. Solomon expressed concern that the motion could hinder the school district’s efforts to make best use of its property and felt it was premature for the City to be involved in the process at this time. Mr. Clark withdrew his motion, but stressed that his intent was for the City to aid in the process of creating a plan that would help the school district to find a financially viable out- come. Mr. Zelenka withdrew his second. Ms. Piercy stated that no doors had been closed and the council had expressed a real interest in preserving Civic Stadium in some manner, if possible. The meeting adjourned at 7:17 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Jon Ruiz City Manager (Recorded by Lynn Taylor) MINUTES—Eugene City Council January 26, 2009 Page 7 Work Session