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HomeMy WebLinkAboutItem 3A: Approval of City Council Minutes ECC UGENE ITY OUNCIL AIS GENDA TEM UMMARY Approval of City Council Minutes Meeting Date: March 9, 2009 Agenda Item Number: 3A Department: City Manager’s Office Staff Contact: Beth Forrest www.eugene-or.gov Contact Telephone Number: 682-5882 ISSUE STATEMENT This is a routine item to approve City Council meeting minutes. SUGGESTED MOTION Move to approve the minutes of the January 7, 2009, State of the City Address, January 21, 2009, Work Session, January 26, 2009, City Council Meeting, February 9, 2009, Work Session, and February 18, 2009, Work Session ATTACHMENTS A. January 7, 2009, State of the City Address B. January 21, 2009, Work Session C. January 26, 2009, City Council Meeting D. February 9, 2009, Work Session E. February 18, 2009, Work Session FOR MORE INFORMATION Staff Contact: Beth Forrest Telephone: 682-5882 Staff E-Mail: beth.l.forrest@ci.eugene.or.us Z:\CMO\2009 Council Agendas\M090309\S0903093A.doc ATTACHMENT A M I N U T E S City Council Eugene Hult Center Lobby Eugene, Oregon January 7, 2009 5:30 p.m. PRESENT: Chris Pryor, Bonny Bettman, Betty Taylor, Jennifer Solomon, George Poling, Andrea Ortiz, Mike Clark, Alan Zelenka, George Brown, members. Her Honor Mayor Kitty Piercy called the meeting of the Eugene City Council to order. I. Welcome and Introductions Council President Chris Pryor opened the meeting and welcomed those present, including many elected officials of other Lane County jurisdictions. He also recognized students visiting from South Korea. Mr. Pryor thanked the staff of the City of Eugene for its excellent work. II. Musical Selections Those present heard two musical selections from the Oregon Festival Choirs under the direction of Director Peter Robb. III. Recognition of Outgoing Councilor Bonny Bettman Mr. Pryor recognized outgoing City Councilor Bonny Bettman for the thoughtful, conscientious, and deeply caring perspective she brought to City business. He noted her long service to the community, as evidenced by her participation on many community and civic groups and by her council service. He cited some of her accomplishments, including the establishment of the police auditor and her advocacy of the City’s neighborhood empowerment initiative. He presented Ms. Bettman with a plaque recognizing her service. Ms. Bettman thanked her fellow councilors and the Mayor for the time they committed to City work. She said it was an honor and a privilege to serve the City of Eugene. She thanked incoming councilor George Brown for his willingness to serve and thanked his wife Melissa. She thanked the activists of Eugene who kept informed and encouraged them to continue. IV. Administration of Oath of Office City Recorder Mary Feldman administered the Oath of Office to Mayor Piercy and councilors Taylor, Ortiz, Pryor, and Brown. Mr. Brown thanked his son George for allowing him to run. He also thanked his wife Melissa for her encouragement, support, and organizing skills, and thanked his campaign team, supporters, and contribu- tors. He thanked the voters of Ward 1 for their support and said he would work to meet their expectations. He would work with his colleagues, the Mayor, and staff to make the City a better place to live. Mr. Brown acknowledged the many challenges the City faced and said as a newly appointed member of the Police Commission, he would work on public safety funding and the changes being considered to the Police Auditor MINUTES—City Council January 7, 2009 Page 1 ordinance. He said encouraging sensible commercial, industrial, and residential infill and cost-effective public transportation improvements were high priorities. Mr. Brown thanked Ms. Bettman for her service on the council and said she would be a role model for him. V. Awards and Recognition Mayor Piercy presented the Mayor’s Community Service Awards to the below-listed representatives of the members of the Eugene Olympic Track and Field Trials ‘08 Local Public and Nonprofit Partners in recognition of their partnership with Eugene on the 2008 Olympic Trials. • University of Oregon—Jim Beam • Oregon Track Club—Mike Olson • City of Springfield—Mayor Sid Leiken • Lane County—Pete Sorenson • Lane Transit District—Mike Eyster • Eugene Water & Electric Board—Ron Farmer • Eugene Area Chamber of Commerce—Dave Hauser • Springfield Chamber of Commerce—Renee Jones • Convention & Visitors Association of Lane County Oregon—Tucker Davies Mayor Piercy presented the Mayor’s Employee Recognition Awards to the Airport Transition Team and Eugene Police Violent Crimes Unit, acknowledging the contributions of the following employees: Eugene Airport Terminal Team • Steve Nicholas, Supervisor • Dan Cullen • Jon Nelson • Jon Johnston • Greg Tucker • Lorre Sells • Jaylene Stevens • Dhram Prakash • Brian Anderson • Corrine Becker • Jon Ballew • John Franklin Eugene Police Violent Crimes Unit • Sergeant Kathy Flynn • Agent Tracy Belshee • Detective Ralph Burks • Detective Dan Braziel • Detective Jeff Donaca • Detective Matt Herbert • Detective Jeff Roth • Detective Mel Thompson • Agent Tony Veach • Detective Ted Williams MINUTES—City Council January 7, 2009 Page 2 VI. Musical Selection The council heard more musical selections by the Oregon Concert Choirs. VII. State of the City Address Mayor Piercy offered the following remarks: Good evening everyone. I am pleased to be here with you for my 5th State of the City address. Thank you for joining us tonight as we begin a year with great expectations and trepidation. We will all remember 2008 for the election of Barack Obama as President of the United States, the reengagement of millions of Americans in the political process, and the rebuilding of hope for the future of this country and the world. We’ll remember it as a pivotal year in our country’s history and one where truly all American children know they can aspire to be President. We will also remember it as a time of multiple and diverse challenges: huge financial uncertainty, economic recession, and a growing need to reduce our impact on climate change and our dependency on fossil fuels. Healthcare, jobs and housing moved out of the reach of many in our community. State revenues were down and the City budget was tight. Tonight I will propose the development of a progressive economic plan; but first I’d like to take a few moments to remember what we have managed to accomplish as a city in 2008, despite all the challenges. I invite you to join me in looking at where we are right now, what we hope to do in 2009, and what might be possible over the next four years. First of all, thank you for entrusting the City Council and me with the governance of this wonderful city. We are honored to work on your behalf and pledge to work together and with you to keep Eugene moving forward. If I were asked to define my vision of the New Year in the most simplistic terms, I would tell you that I approach 2009 with cautious optimism. Eugene has a strong foundation to build upon. City financial resources have been managed with prudence, skill, and common sense. We are facing budgetary challenges like everyone else, but we have seen them coming and have been preparing to manage our resources to provide the services the community expects in the most cost-effective way possible. To help guide this work, we welcomed our new City Manager, Jon Ruiz. He has stepped quickly and decisively into his job and is already demonstrating a “can do” attitude, a service orientation and a real enjoyment of our community. He got a real kick out of his first Eugene Celebration. Even in the midst of our budget challenges, a plummeting economy, and a heated election cycle, we still managed to get quite a lot done in Eugene in 2008. ? With our partners, we hosted an amazingly successful and green 2008 Olympic Track and Field Trials and regained our status as Track Town USA. Eugene fulfilled its promise to engage our young people in every facet of the Trials and provided them with a full range of activities. ? Voters supported two important City ballot measures to fund some of our street repair backlog and to ensure the integrity of our new police oversight system. You also funded 4J’s local option levy and the Lane Community College bond. Thank you, voters. ? Again with our community partners, Project Homeless Connect was held last February, providing one-stop services for 1,158 guests. While we all wish fewer people were homeless, over 600 wonderful volunteers donated their time and energy to help their neighbors. Eugene continues to MINUTES—City Council January 7, 2009 Page 3 reach out to the homeless and needy. This wonderful event will occur again in March and I encourage you to get involved. ? Downtown developments moved forward in 2008 and continue to inspire confidence that we will soon have a downtown we can all be proud of. Progress is already being made on plans to renovate the Centre Court and Washburn buildings and to fill the adjoining pit. Plans to construct a mixed-use development to fill the pit across from the Library are also progressing, and The WestTown on 8th affordable housing project was completed in 2008 and includes a mix of businesses. ? Our police, fire, and emergency services staff did outstanding work in providing Olympic Trials security, ensuring the safety of visiting national presidential candidates and overseeing a massive move of patients from downtown to the new RiverBend regional hospital. The crisis intervention training program for our police was initiated to better equip them with tools for dealing effectively with the mentally ill. This year, Eugene received recognition for being one of the safest communities in the country. ? Eugene continued to move forward with its “green” goals by adopting the priorities identified by the Sustainability Commission regarding climate change, transportation, land use, green building, business, food, and waste. A climate and energy action plan is under development to achieve zero carbon emissions by 2020. A City staff team is putting in place a triple bottom line analysis tool (social equity, natural resource protection, and a strong economy) to aid council decision-making. ? The new Pedestrian and Bicycle Strategic Plan is being implemented to grow Eugene’s commitment to alternative modes of transportation and decrease vehicles miles traveled. ? Despite the “uphill battle,” progress was indeed made in road repairs. The “pothole patrol” patched a quarter million square feet of streets and the gas tax paid for $5.5 million in major repairs. ? Following through on the Parks Bond commitment, the City has acquired more Ridgeline parkland, the Amazon headwaters property, park property in Santa Clara adjacent to Madison Middle School, and added parcels to Golden Ponds in Bethel/Danebo. In addition, the City partnered with Bethel and Eugene school districts to build athletic fields at Meadow View, Willamette High, Spencer Butte, and the Arts and Technology Academy. ? In October, Eugene’s Cultural Services launched the Arts and Business Alliance to build public/private support for our rich diversity of arts and culture and to boost its prominence in the economic life of our community. That’s just some of the work that has been accomplished in the last year. Our thanks to each and every staff member, and to every volunteer for their help in achieving City goals. As you can see, almost all of our City projects are done with partners. Together we make the City of Eugene. Together we provide jobs, services and opportunities. Together, we provide the means to achieve the community’s vision and goals. ? LTD has gained national notice with its very successful EmX and the key transportation it provides to our most vulnerable citizens. LTD is at the top of the list in reducing carbon emissions and vehicle miles traveled. ? EWEB has provided clean and increasingly diverse energy, helped many in need, and has been an essential part of our community response to climate change. This year, I had the honor of addressing the National Public Utilities Conference about how we work together to keep Eugene a national leader in sustainability. MINUTES—City Council January 7, 2009 Page 4 ? Bethel and 4J continued to prepare our children for success and we partnered on many recreational and cultural opportunities, safe schools, new playing fields and the green schools program. ? Our two largest post-secondary educational institutions, the University of Oregon and Lane Community College, have national reputations as leaders on many fronts. The University of Oregon is a significant economic engine with new buildings going up for education, science, housing, and sports. LCC plans a new presence in our downtown, adding to its reinvigoration. Both institutions have outstanding and nationally recognized leaders and both are out in front on addressing climate change and sustainability. It seems very appropriate tonight to recognize the years of leadership Dave Frohnmayer has given to the University of Oregon and our community, to thank him and wish him well. ? Lane County and neighboring cities are partners in the economy of our region. We share the water, air, and resources of this beautiful area as well as the opportunities that are before us as we look to the upcoming year. This is a crucial time for us all to work even more effectively together. We embarked on a number of land use and transportation planning projects, including participation in the West Eugene Collaborative, that will define the future of our region, and we in Eugene look forward to working with them to ensure the best for all our families. These are just a sampling of the partnerships we benefit from every day. The individuals, organizations, clubs, and programs we partner with are too numerous to name this evening – but your dedication and limitless enthusiasm is deeply appreciated by all of us. Did everything go perfectly in 2008? City life is inherently complex and we routinely faced challenges, but no one could have predicted the intensity of our national economic crisis. No matter the effort, some things just don’t go as we would wish. ? Controversy plagued the Independent Police Review/CRB process and the pilot taser program caused major community concern. Progress was made with the oversight process and the ordinance amendment committee began meeting this week with the goal of completing its work in March. We continue to be committed to the full implementation of the oversight system. ? Despite efforts, Eugene didn’t secure a full service hospital in Eugene this year. We celebrated the opening of the new regional RiverBend Hospital and Peace Health’s continued commitment to redevelop their downtown campus here in Eugene. We are grateful to the group of physicians who opened the Urgent Care facility on 13th to offer crucial services in the core of our city. ? The council did not move forward with a new city hall because of budgetary constraints and emerging priorities. While this issue is temporarily on hold, it remains a problem that the current facility does not meet seismic standards and has limited space capacity. We must also recognize the very real safety concerns for those who work in the building - an important issue for the council to address. ? Even with new housing and development prospects, too much of our downtown remained underutilized and uninviting. There was controversy over the best way to manage safety issues while we continued to move downtown reinvigoration efforts forward. There was also a challenge of staffing our police force and moving closer to community policing. We will continue to be vigilant in protecting the rights of all while attempts are made to improve downtown. ? The county’s deepening financial crisis and its inability to finance its part of the public safety system continues to be a major challenge. Lack of funds touches so many areas, including prevention, intervention, and treatment services, as well as the judicial process and incarceration. We are told that a few offenders are responsible for a lot of property crime (and now robberies) and that the lack of jail space keeps re-circulating criminals in our community, affecting the livability of Eugene neighborhoods. In addition, in 2008, metal theft became a huge and costly MINUTES—City Council January 7, 2009 Page 5 issue for public agencies, non-profits and individual homeowners. Finding an effective way to respond to these issues will be an important priority. ? Due to changes in technology, Hynix closed, leaving 1,000 unemployed people. The closure affects the City’s tax base as well as the financial picture for EWEB, the school districts, LTD and a number of other entities. It was also the first of a number of closures and hour reductions that have occurred in the wake of the economic crisis. These challenges will inform and influence the decisions we will make in the upcoming year. What course shall we set for 2009 and beyond? The Economy is Job #1. The people of our community need jobs to raise their families and care for their basic needs. Eugene should be a place where people choose to live because of its resources, values, and opportunities. It is impossible to predict the economic future right now. Here in Eugene, we have some experience with economic downturns; but this national crisis is on a scale we have not seen since the depression. We have been preparing. As I mentioned earlier, the City has managed its finances well and has understood the need for sound policies that respond to this rapidly changing world, climate change and finite resources. We understood well before the current crisis the need for Eugene to focus on jobs and on becoming a hub of the new green economy– to be bold and visionary. We have a wealth of resources to draw on: the ingenuity of our existing businesses and entrepreneurs, the beauty of our city and natural environment, the quality of our schools and public services, and the skills of our labor force. This is why people and businesses want to locate here. We have positioned ourselves for the future through growth management policies and planning, local purchasing, streamlining our processes, incentives to grow local business, investing in downtown housing and development and the arts, and adopting the Sustainable Business Initiative. We have worked with our partners on our education, transit and alternative energy investments and opportunities. We are recognized nationally for being a top green city and a top place in which to do business. We have laid the groundwork well on many fronts. There are a number of things we will focus on immediately to move us forward. ? The incoming Obama administration has indicated that it will quickly be putting forth a stimulus package to help this country’s ailing economy, and Eugene is ready to take advantage of what that might offer the working families in our region. We can do this if we are on the same page. Eugene has a list of over $200 million in “ready to go” projects that fit the stimulus criteria given for job creation and infrastructure improvement. We expect these projects, if funded, could create 4, 404 well-paying jobs by the end of next year – with an emphasis on green industry. These include jobs in development and construction, alternative energy, accessibility, pavement preservation, bike and pedestrian improvements, parks and trails, water reuse and pollution control projects. MINUTES—City Council January 7, 2009 Page 6 ? But we need to be sure that we are also aware of what other public institutions, our utilities, our private sector, and our legislators have prioritized. We want to be sure we maximize our potential by working effectively together at the state and federal level. That is our first order of business. ? In the short run, economists tell us that our local attention should be on finding ways to help our local businesses survive these difficult times. I have spoken to councilors and the city manager and we are ready to facilitate those discussions immediately with our regional partners, business community and other stakeholders. That is our second order of business. ? Moving from Hynix to solar is our community goal for the reuse of that facility in responding to current energy needs, green jobs, and the tax base. Let’s hope that is the big deal Astrologist Joanna Mitchell was predicting. There are a couple of other important related items that we must put our efforts behind. ? Lane Community College is key in job preparation, retraining, affordable education, and specific training for some of the green economy work sectors. It is essential that our state budget includes investment in our community college and we need to work with our legislators to ensure that outcome. LCC is always important but never more than now. ? LTD is key in carbon reduction, transportation access for many and jobs. LTD has been extremely successful and the EmX is recognized for its innovation at both a national and international level. It does not make sense for LTD to cut services just when we need more people to use it as a major source of transportation. We must find a way together to put our transit system together faster and with increased capacity to keep moving forward. I bring LCC and LTD up because of their huge impact on our city’s quality of life and economy. They are not under our governance; but are key to what we are trying to achieve. For the future we will boldly move forward a progressive economic plan; building on the foundation we have laid together. I invite our regional partners, both public and private, to join us in preparing for an Economic Summit early this year to lay the course for our future. We cannot wait for who shows up. We cannot wait for what will be allotted. We must go after what we want for our communities: more jobs that pay well, decrease our impact on climate change and finite resources, and take full advantage of the changing world economic opportunities. I have long believed that with crisis comes a moment to do things differently and better. The groundwork has been laid and now is the time for bold steps forward into the future. Keeping the City on track is essential. While being innovative, we also have to be steady at the wheel in these uncertain times, providing basic services. ? Collaboration and innovation are needed to restructure our public safety system with our county partners. We cannot have this revolving door in our jail, and a court system that cannot do its job. While our city is still rated one of the safest, this won’t continue if the system is not fixed. Eugene voters will support specific, balanced and accountable solutions that are not simply a forwarding of failed policies. We need to keep moving toward community policing and a successful and fully functioning police oversight program and we need to ensure that our police, fire and EMS services have the tools to keep up with demands. MINUTES—City Council January 7, 2009 Page 7 ? The City will have the opportunity to demonstrate accountability in how it implements the road repair bond and report back to the public. This gives us a step up in reducing our backlog and council will decide on the next step forward. We will lobby for the state to do its fair share as well. ? The City moves forward with sustainable traffic solutions for West Eugene. The West Eugene Collaborative has finished it work and is producing a report with recommendations regarding improving the flow of people and products, reducing traffic, and improving the livability of West Eugene. ? In tough times, Eugeneans often step up to meet the needs of the community. We already see an increase in those in need of food and shelter. The Mayor’s Blue Ribbon Committee to Finance Homelessness and Housing Programs will report its recommendations to the council on January 26. It will then be important for a larger community discussion to occur about the steps this community is willing to take to reduce the numbers and ensure that more of citizens have basic needs met, including treatment programs mental health care and shelter options. It will not be cheap. ? Beam's renovation of the Center Court Building is scheduled to start in late spring of this year. In addition, the EWEB riverfront master planning process is underway, offering us new opportunities for linking the city to our waterfront. Incorporating the growth and linkage of parks and the key role of visual arts is essential in all we do. Other important projects are being planned, such as Brian Obie’s boutique hotel at the 5th Street Public Market. ? Important community issues will keep on coming in 2009. The council will have a January work session to discuss the future of the venerable and historically important Civic Stadium. The City Manager has stated that he will examine whether or not an in-house city attorney makes good governance and economic sense for a city of our size and complexity, and will be seeking input from the City Council as part of his analysis. In summary, we have made much progress, seen some disappointments and have much to look forward to. Now Eugene is prepared to take decisive steps to respond to the economic, environmental, and social challenges we face while keeping us on course in providing basic services and good governance. This is the work we do together. Soon the new President’s inauguration will take place and in spite of all that is wrong, and all that we fear, we find ourselves hopeful for good changes at every level. We are asked to pull together, to help this country be what it should be - at home and in the greater world. We are asked to pull together – there is work to be done – serious work. We are asked to be audacious and to care for those beyond our own families and friends and border. We are asked to be prepared for the long haul and to recognize that such change will and does take time. As we work together here at home we will aim to live up to our potential, to be humble, bold, and generous - united with people across this nation and world to honor and respect differences, share the wealth of this planet and protect it for future generations. Every one of us is important in this work. I wish each of you the happiest of new years and I am deeply grateful to be here, in Eugene, Oregon, to work with you. MINUTES—City Council January 7, 2009 Page 8 VIII. Adjourn Mayor Piercy adjourned the meeting at 6:40 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Jon Ruiz City Manager (Recorded by Kimberly Young) MINUTES—City Council January 7, 2009 Page 9 ATTACHMENT B M I N U T E S Eugene City Council Work Session McNutt Room – City Hall 777 Pearl Street—Eugene, Oregon January 21, 2009 12:00 p.m. COUNCILORS PRESENT: Chris Pryor, Mike Clark, George Poling, Betty Taylor, Alan Zelenka, Jennifer Solomon, George Brown COUNCILORS ABSENT: Andrea Ortiz Her Honor Mayor Kitty Piercy called the work session meeting of the Eugene City Council to order at 12:01 p.m. A. WORK SESSION – Adoption of Federal Priority Project Lists Intergovernmental Relations Manager Brenda Wilson provided a brief overview of the federal budget appropriations process, which she noted was under a continued resolution until March 6, 2009, and explained that the City and its regional United Front (UF) partners—Lane County, the City of Springfield, Lane Transit District, the City of Cottage Grove, the City of Coburg, the Springfield School District, and the Willamalane Parks and Recreation District—would be determining the regional project priorities to be addressed as part of the federal appropriations process. She noted that the City’s prioritizations were the result of discussions between City staff and the City’s federal lobbyists Smith, Dawson & Andrews and they were designed to not compete with similar federal funding allocations sought by the City’s partner agencies. Ms. Wilson additionally provided a brief overview of the federal government’s reauthorization of the Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users (SAFETEA-LU) and described how the reauthorization would be used to allocate funds in accordance with the City’s recommended Federal Transportation Reauthorization Project List. Ms. Wilson noted that, because the federal allocations process was currently under a continuing resolution, Congress had not made any appropriations for FY09 and that subsequently the UF project lists for 2008 had gone unfunded. Ms. Wilson had very high expectations that several of those projects, particularly the Delta Ponds project, would eventually be funded once federal appropriations budgets had been passed. Ms. Wilson reported that all of those 2008 projects that had gone unfunded due to the continuing resolution were being carried over to the 2009 list with the exception of the West Eugene Environmental Education Center project, which had been removed due to the lack of supplemental funding for that project from the Willamette Resources and Educational Network (WREN). Ms. Wilson, responding to a question from Ms. Piercy, noted that not all of the projects listed on the 2009 Federal Priorities Project List and Federal Transportation Reauthorization Project List would necessarily qualify for federal economic stimulus funding. MINUTES—Eugene City Council January 21, 2009 Page 1 Work Session Ms. Piercy commented that she had recently attended the Mayors Innovation Project and the United States Conference of Mayors conferences in Washington, D.C. and felt that those conferences had communicated a clear message that city governments would be instrumental in executing programs that would be funded by a federal economic stimulus package. She noted that the City of Eugene would need to be prepared to take advantage of the federal stimulus package and implement programs extremely rapidly. Ms. Wilson noted that there would be no earmarks included with any upcoming federal budget stimulus packages and that the stimulus funds would flow through traditional funding mechanisms. Ms. Wilson commented that she had received an email from the League of Oregon Cities that it had investigated what policy would be used in distributing federal stimulus funds through the Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT). She expressed that City staff had been diligent in communicating to state and federal agencies that Eugene had people and projects that were ready to be put to work once the federal stimulus package had been approved. Ms. Piercy noted that it appeared that stimulus funds relating to energy policies would come through in a manner similar to community development block grants. City Manager John Ruiz commented that City staff had begun having very productive conversations with CEO’s from other public agencies about how best to request, receive and utilize federal stimulus funds. Mr. Clark thanked Ms. Wilson for her efforts regarding the two lists before the council and asked if the lists indicated the relative value of one project to another. Ms. Wilson replied that the projects on the lists had only been determined not to compete with other UF regional partner projects and had not been prioritized any further. She commented that such prioritization was not currently necessary as part of the SAFETEA-LU reauthorization process, but that such a process could be undertaken if necessary. Mr. Clark expressed that he was happy that the lists being presented by staff did not appear to change any of the project priorities previously agreed upon by the council. Mr. Clark asked how the $50 million currently requested for the Beltline Corridor project request might affect the timeline of the project itself. Ms. Wilson answered that the Beltline Corridor was a phased project where the entire or major amount for the project was being requested up front to then be disbursed over a six-year period. Transportation Planning Manager Rob Inerfeld noted that the Beltline Corridor project was currently in the facility planning phase and that it was not currently known how much of the project the $50 million requested would actually cover. Mr. Inerfeld, responding to a question from Mr. Zelenka, noted that the Environmental Impact Study (EIS) funding requested by the council from ODOT was likely to be funded by the state as part of its draft Statewide Transportation Improvement Program (STIP). Ms. Wilson, responding to a question from Mr. Clark, reported that the Metro Waterways General Investigative Study that was part of the federal priorities project list was designed to determine planning for the Metro Waterways area. She did not know if the project was connected to any previous local waterway studies conducted by the City. Assistant City Manager Sarah Medary added that the Metro Waterways study was intended to provide a metropolitan-wide regional planning study that looked at all waterway projects in the area to identify priorities and determine project feasibility before continuing to fund projects such as the Meadowlark Prairie. Ms. Wilson, in response to a question from Mr. Pryor, noted that most of the other funding for the West Eugene Environmental Education Center (WEEEC) from sources besides the City of Eugene and the WREN had been MINUTES—Eugene City Council January 21, 2009 Page 2 Work Session withdrawn, including the funding that had been dedicated by the 4J School District. Ms. Piercy noted that the 4J School District had recently indicated that they might restore funding to a portion of the WEEEC should economic conditions prove favorable. Mr. Zelenka noted that the Beltline Corridor project and the funds requested for the project would most likely be affected by the results of any EIS conducted to determine the environmental impact of such a project. Ms. Wilson, responding to a question from Mr. Zelenka, noted that additional project priority lists from LTD and other UF regional partners would be made available to the council for review on January 23. Ms. Wilson, responding to a question from Mr. Zelenka, reiterated that the projects in the two lists being presented to the council had not been prioritized relative to one another and that any projects considered competitive with other regional partner project prioritiy lists had not been included. Mr. Inerfeld, responding to a question from Mr. Zelenka, described the differences between the projects being presented as part of the Federal Priorities Project List and those highway projects that had been prioritized as part of the Metropolitan Policy Committee’s efforts. Ms. Wilson briefly described the different processes involved in seeking funding at the state and federal levels, and noted that funding for the Beltline Road and Corridor Study was being sought at both levels. Ms. Wilson, responding to a request from Mr. Zelenka, noted descriptions of the current projects in the Federal Priorities Project List and the Federal Transportation Reauthorization Project List; descriptions for the newer projects had not yet been written. She added that full descriptions of those newer projects would be written up once the City’s congressional delegation process had been initiated. Ms. Taylor suggested that the City communicate with EWEB with regard to any local weatherization or energy efficiency initiatives that might take advantage of federal stimulus funding. Ms. Wilson, responding to a question from Ms. Taylor, reported that the City’s economic stimulus illustrative lists included several road preservation and maintenance projects that were ready to go and this had been communicated to ODOT to investigate how federal stimulus money might be distributed for such projects. Ms. Taylor hoped that the council would be given more opportunities in the future to make suggestions for projects to be included on the Federal Priorities Project List. Ms. Wilson, responding to a comment from Mr. Brown, reiterated that the federal funding appropriations process was under a continuing resolution that expired March 6, 2009, and that, as such, no City projects had received federal funding in 2008. Ms. Wilson, responding to a request for clarification from Mr. Brown, noted that the executive department staff to which the Federal Priorities Project List and the Federal Transportation Reauthorization Project List would eventually be presented, referred to those federal agencies that would best be able to make funding determinations regarding the City’s project priorities. She added that the City’s congressional delegation would also be presenting the lists to other potential federal funding sources such as the federal office of the U.S. Army Core of Engineers. Ms. Wilson, responding to a request for clarification from Mr. Brown, noted that the City’s congressional delegation would not be seeking funding for any projects from the Federal Priorities Project List and the Federal Transportation Reauthorization Project List from the federal stimulus or any other economic recovery plan but would rather be seeking funds as part of the normal fiscal year federal appropriations process. She added that the projects from the MINUTES—Eugene City Council January 21, 2009 Page 3 Work Session lists would all be considered earmarks and as such could be funded only through the normal appropriations process and not as part of the economic stimulus package. Mr. Ruiz suggested that certain individual projects from the lists might be funded through federal stimulus grants outside of the normal appropriations process. Ms. Wilson noted that City staff and the council would be kept apprised of any such initiatives. Mr. Brown said that he saw no immediate public benefit from the City’s Franklin Boulevard project and suggested that any funding for such a project might be better used to fund local homeless shelters. Ms. Piercy replied that the Franklin Boulevard project was something that the City of Eugene had been working on for a long time in association with the City of Springfield and was part of long-standing efforts to increase the economic viability of the area. Ms. Piercy noted indications that proposed federal stimulus funding for cities would be categorized for environmental restoration, wastewater upgrades, inter-modal transportation, watershed development, housing, homelessness, law enforcement and several other concerns. She maintained that the guidelines for requesting and receiving federal stimulus funds had not been finalized yet, but that the City should be ready to act immediately once such funding became available. Mr. Inerfeld, responding to a question from Mr. Clark, noted that it would not be possible to expedite the timeline for the Beltline Highway projects in order to take advantage of federal funding assistance. Ms. Wilson, responding to a question from Mr. Clark, noted that the Air Quality Monitoring Station project included on the Federal Project Priorities List was partially contingent upon funding commitments from the Lane Regional Air Pollution Authority (LRAPA) and that it was currently unknown if the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) would fund the continued operation of such a project should LRAPA cease to exist. Mr. Clark was concerned that the City might be saddled with the responsibility of funding the operation of the project should the DEQ not step in. Mr. Clark restated that he would like the City to seriously consider using the EWEB administration building as a new city hall for Eugene once EWEB had relocated to its new administration building. He commented that the City should investigate the use of any available federal stimulus funds for such a purpose. Mr. Ruiz responded that the timing of such a project might be difficult to incorporate into any upcoming federal stimulus packages as it was his understanding that stimulus funds would be directed to more shovel-ready projects. Ms. Wilson suggested that it might be possible to add such a project to the City’s federal appropriations process for next year. Mr. Zelenka, responding to Mr. Brown’s previous comments regarding the Franklin Boulevard project, clarified the history of the project for Mr. Brown’s benefit, noting that as a joint enterprise between Eugene and Springfield it had been designed to address a variety of economic and community development concerns for the two cities. He added that there had been a significant amount of public input to the project. Mr. Zelenka asked Ms. Wilson to provide a brief written summary to the council regarding the funding situation surrounding the West Eugene Environmental Education Center project and WREN. Ms. Wilson answered that she would be happy to provide such information. Ms. Wilson, responding to a request for clarification from Mr. Zelenka, noted that the 2009 Federal Priorities Project List consisted of projects that would be added to the list from the previous year. Ms. Wilson, responding to a request for clarification from Mr. Zelenka, described the nature of the Eugene Airport AIP FAA Reauthorization project. MINUTES—Eugene City Council January 21, 2009 Page 4 Work Session Ms. Wilson, responding to a comment from Mr. Zelenka, maintained that it would be important for City staff to be ready to take advantage of any federal stimulus funds that might be made available for projects from either of the lists being discussed. Mr. Ruiz added that it would be important to communicate effectively with the City’s regional partners to determine the best manner in which to use federal stimulus funding. Ms. Wilson and Mr. Ruiz noted that it was still to be determined precisely how any federal economic stimulus funds would be distributed to local governments. Ms. Wilson reminded the council that the lists for any federal stimulus projects would be separate from the lists presently being discussed and which were part of the normal federal appropriations process. Mr. Pryor said that he would like staff to provide the council with a better sense of where specifically the federal funding for each of the projects on the two lists would be coming from and in what amounts. He expressed concern that without such information, the City might seek funding for competing projects or interests. Ms. Wilson reiterated that City staff had already determined that none of the projects on the lists before the council were competing with one another for federal funding sources. Mr. Pryor indicated that such a factor needed to be made more explicit for the council. Ms. Wilson, responding to a request from Mr. Pryor, noted that she would be able to provide a summary of any applicable funding restrictions regarding the project lists as well as any restrictions that might apply toward federal stimulus funding. Ms. Taylor expressed that the council should make saving Civic Stadium a high priority. She said she would be against any ODOT- related initiatives that would build new roads in the area. Ms. Taylor agreed with Mr. Brown’s assessment that a homeless shelter should be a legitimate priority for the City, but noted that the process surrounding the Franklin Boulevard project was too far along to consider disposing of it. She maintained that the Air Quality Monitoring Station was an important project and was confused by statements that indicated a concern about LRAPA commitment to the project. Ms. Piercy recognized that the council had combined a discussion regarding stimulus funding with a discussion of the normal yearly federal appropriations process for City projects, but felt that it was important to do so. Mr. Zelenka, seconded by Mr. Clark, moved to adopt the Federal Priority Project List and the Federal Reauthorization Project List recommendations. The motion passed unanimously, 6:0. Ms. Wilson reminded the council that she would be traveling to Washington, D.C. in March to push for the projects on the lists that had been adopted by the council. Ms. Piercy commented that she had recently spoken with Congressman Peter DeFazio who had indicated to her that he would continue to pursue earmarks for projects that would be beneficial to the City of Eugene and surrounding areas. Ms. Piercy reiterated her concern that the City make itself prepared to take immediate advantage of any economic recovery stimulus package that might become available in the near future. She added that she and the City Manager had begun organizing staff level meetings with the University of Oregon, Lane Community College, PeaceHealth, Eugene Water & Electric Board, Lane Transit District and other agencies to begin discussions on how best to use federal stimulus funds. Ms. Piercy noted her strong support for saving Civic Stadium as well as her concern for how efforts to improve or MINUTES—Eugene City Council January 21, 2009 Page 5 Work Session maintain the stadium would meet any applicable carbon emissions reduction criteria. Ms. Piercy adjourned the meeting at 1:18 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Jon Ruiz City Manager (Recorded by Wade Hicks) MINUTES—Eugene City Council January 21, 2009 Page 6 Work Session ATTACHMENT C M I N U T E S Eugene City Council Regular Meeting Council Chamber—Eugene City Hall 777 Pearl Street—Eugene, Oregon January 26, 2009 7:30 p.m. COUNCILORS PRESENT: Chris Pryor, George Brown, Andrea Ortiz, George Poling, Jennifer Solomon, Mike Clark, Alan Zelenka, Betty Taylor. Her Honor Mayor Kitty Piercy called the meeting of the Eugene City Council to order. She noted that the information regarding applications to serve on the Civilian Review Board was available on the City’s website. 1. PUBLIC FORUM Mayor Piercy reviewed the rules of the Public Forum. John Brown , 101 East Broadway, indicated that he was commenting on behalf of himself. He thanked the councilors and mayor for their service to the community. He stated that The Register-Guard had printed an article regarding an illegal homeless camp located in Councilor Zelenka’s ward. He explained that a 20-acre property on Moon Mountain Drive owned by an 80-year-old woman who did not live in the area had become inhabited. He related that she had tried for approximately a year to get a response to the illegal camping and it had finally been addressed. He said a very aggressive group of people had lived at the camp; one had stolen a wheelchair from someone in the neighborhood, there had been a lot of drug activity, and a warrant had been issued for one person for sex offenses. He stressed that even City staff would not go to such a camp without police escorts. He explained that the situation had been addressed on the previous Monday, and on Tuesday, the owner of the property had been given a Notice to Abate, requiring her to clean up the mess within 10 days. He reiterated that she had tried for one year to get the City to respond. He said the City had revisited the site earlier in the day and found nine more camps and issued three more citations. He related that staff estimated there to be over 40 cubic yards of debris. He stated that if the owner did not remove the debris, the City’s practice was to have the debris removed and then put a lien on the property for payment. He had identified a number of illegal camps on City and County property. He felt that if citizens only had ten days to clean up such camps then the City should abide by those same requirements. He stressed that if the intent of the law was to protect the environment, it should not discriminate between publicly- and privately-owned land. He hoped the council would give consideration to a potential double-standard, and if the private sector had to clean up this type of mess in ten days, the City should do so also. He provided pictures of the camps located on public lands. Zachary Vishanoff , Ward 3, stated that he had given $1 to Councilor Taylor to purchase Civic Stadium from School District 4J. He related that university students had purchased a house on Moss Street and made it into a center of sustainability and had installed photo-voltaic (PV) panels. He said there were approximately 74 more vacant houses in that area. He urged the City to streamline the permitting process for the Moss Street house and to launch an inquiry into the rest of the houses. He suggested that the university could allow a forum where other student groups would be allowed to do adaptive reuse in a way that would be a complement to the Fairmount Neighborhood. He had also noticed that the university was proposing the construction of an indoor track. He was concerned that the university would want to build it on the Mac Court site. He felt the university was getting “reckless” and “a little ahead of themselves.” MINUTES—Eugene City Council January 26, 2009 Page 1 Regular Meeting Lauren Doxsee , 2136 McMillan Street, stated that Civic Stadium was one of her family’s favorite places to go. She thought having Ems baseball games at the University of Oregon would make it too quiet in their neighborhood. She felt that everyone loved Civic Stadium and urged everyone to bond together to keep Civic Stadium. Drix said his purpose was to trigger thought. He averred that the City needed to figure out what it wanted and it seemed to him that they needed to figure out the City’s identity. He suggested that they come up with a “Eugene accent” that would identify people as being from Eugene. He noted that the British sometimes left out the word ‘the,’ such as going “to studio” or “to hospital” and he thought Eugene could adopt this. He said his gift was “the present.” He felt that when he came before the council he made moments “odd and exciting” and this was a present of sorts. He shared some new words, including “canopy thinking,” i.e. rising above the canopy of trees to see the bigger picture. He suggested that they could shorten the word citizen to “cit” and then they could say “cit Drix.” nd Don Dickman , 190 East 32 Avenue, noted that he was a local attorney in private practice locally. He stated that he was a board member of Save Civic Stadium. He felt that everyone involved in saving the stadium had their own personal reason to do so. He explained that he was not a baseball fan per se, but he enjoyed going to the stadium because it was a wholesome experience. He averred that the stadium was very unique and should be saved; the benefits to children, youth programs, and the community were “almost immeasurable.” He shared the board’s belief that a plan was being put together that would provide jobs and economic benefit. He said they wanted to look for the highest and best use of the facility and they were hoping the City would consider assisting in some areas of planning and possibly connecting the group to grant opportunities. At this point, he noted, they were projecting that the cost to the City would be far outweighed by the potential benefits. Jerry Smith , 5041 Saxon Way, averred that most homeless people in this area were people with disabilities. He felt they had been dumped into the City’s neighborhoods by Social Security and Supplemental Security Income (SSI). He related that when he had processed applications for the programs in his former work as a social worker, it had taken six months to process; now it took up to five years with everyone being initially denied. He noted that he had been a community organizer in the past. He stated that the State Food Stamp program figures showed that one year earlier there were 12,500 people on food stamps who listed zero income, 3,793 listed monthly income of $350 or less and 3,776 listed no known shelter. He urged the council to review the statistics. He felt that if one looked into the homeless around the City, there were some people from out of town who had not found a place to hide yet. He stressed that there was no legal place to park a vehicle nor was there a legal place to lie down in Eugene. th Jonathan Brandt , 57 West 20 Avenue, was pleased to see that the council was in support of keeping Civic Stadium. He said it was time to think about a vision for the stadium. He underscored that the stadium was too big an asset to the community to have it languish. He invited everyone to “come to the table and see what we can put together.” Tom Halferty , 4510 Manzanita Street, spoke in support of Civic Stadium. He appreciated the council’s input on the item during its earlier work session. He knew that Dave Hauser of the Eugene Chamber of Commerce was interested in hosting a stakeholder meeting. He noted that the chamber had been important in 1938 when the original money had been raised. He believed they would save the stadium. st Scott Landfield , 29 West 31 Avenue, spoke regarding Civic Stadium. He noted that the council had said that the process was in its second inning. He related that Terry McDonald, director of St. Vincent DePaul, had said the clock would begin ticking the day the Eugene Emeralds left the stadium because a building not in use “wore out quickly.” He supported maximizing School District 4J’s return on the stadium, but he felt there were other ways to see a return. He said when discussing it with Superintendent George Russell, the idea of selling a portion of the property and the school district continuing to use the stadium for sporting events, had been raised. He pointed out that the school district’s generosity could translate into easier passage of school bond measures. Dean Papé , 2088 Bedford Way, acknowledged that it was not easy to be a city councilor, noting that former-Councilor Gary Papé sent his best to the council. He was speaking as a concerned citizen about Civic Stadium. He thought they MINUTES—Eugene City Council January 26, 2009 Page 2 Regular Meeting could be placing the cart before the horse given that the City did not currently own the property. He related that he had practiced in Civic Stadium and had attended many games, both minor league baseball and high school. He averred that because of the condition of the school system and the funds the district needed to improve the stadium, he hoped the City did not spend too much time and energy on it, because this could potentially get in front of the needs of the school district and the future benefit of the children of the community. Richard Larson , 2590 Central Boulevard, supported the City’s effort to find some solution for the “wonderful ten- acre site” that was positioned in one of the “best development locations.” He said the stadium was one of the few places one could go and watch an event for $4. As such, he called it a place for citizens. He felt that it would be a shame to lose the resource. He recognized that the solution to it was not on the table at this time, but if the stadium was torn down, there would not be the opportunity to find it. He encouraged the council to take its time and to seek a solution. He thought there could be a development to which the stadium would be an asset. th Dennis Hebert , 850 East 38 Avenue, stated that he was the President of Save Civic Stadium. He said he had been to almost every game in the past two years and had talked to thousands of people. He related that the overwhelming response was that the stadium should be saved. He recalled that he had brought a petition before the council when testifying previously. He presented the council with a list of the people who had signed it divided by zip codes and countries. He stated that there were overwhelming numbers of people from the City of Eugene and environs, but the names also included people from Ohio, Florida, and Ireland, among others. He declared that they had a treasure in the stadium, not only to Eugene but “to Lane County, America, and the world.” He stressed that it had been a Work Project Administration (WPA) project built in 1938 during hard times. He believed that in spite of facing hard times again, the community could preserve the stadium if it worked together. Joyce Berman , 2440 Charnelton Street, advocated for taking “thoughtful and visionary” action about Civic Stadium. She related that the owner of the Eugene Emeralds had sent a letter letting the Save Civic Stadium members know that if they could come up with $15 million by January 31, to restore Civic Stadium, the Ems would remain there. She said just in case there was “an avid Ems fan with $15 million” she would make this public. She hoped they would retain the stadium with or without the Ems. She noted that the group had contacted other baseball teams regarding the stadium and there were other interested parties. She hoped that with stakeholder involvement they could find a creative way to develop the property that would make the current landowner happy and would still provide smart uses for the community. She averred that the stadium was located in a gateway area. She said 4-J School Superintendent George Russell had indicated his interest in transferring or selling the acreage to the right set of public, private, and non-profit partners who could transform the area into a “mixed use treasure” while still providing important field space for 4J students. She believed it was important for the City to act proactively given that some zoning and use changes would be required. She said it was important for the leadership to begin the process of steering the development in a smart and useful direction for everyone. Majeska Seese-Green , P.O. Box 1214, expressed appreciation for the unanimous decision the City Council had made during its work session to support staff looking into making restrooms available for homeless people. She related that the Whiteaker Community Council board had also supported having rest rooms available in the neighborhood for people who need them. She averred that the problems would not go away. She said they looked forward to helping however they could and possibly involving businesses in the neighborhood to help as well. Steve Sylvester , 2390 Jefferson Street, related that he had written a letter to the Eugene Weekly in September, 2005, suggesting that the Civic Stadium site become the new site for a hospital. He noted that McKenzie-Willamette Hospital had been owned by Triad at the time and it was now owned by Community Health Systems. He recalled that in his letter he had pointed out that two hospitals had been rebuilt after the earthquake in Los Angeles, the Santa Monica Hospital and the Westwood Hospital. He said the Santa Monica facility had been built on 3.2 acres and the Westwood Hospital had been built on a four- acre site. He opined that the people in this area were “nuts” because RiverBend Hospital was situated on 181 acres. He remarked that McKenzie-Willamette Hospital also “had this notion” that a large acreage was needed. He suggested that it would be beneficial to check out the two Los Angeles MINUTES—Eugene City Council January 26, 2009 Page 3 Regular Meeting hospitals in order to see what an urban hospital looked like and “could look like.” He thought they should make an effort to sell this idea to McKenzie-Willamette Hospital. Mayor Piercy closed the Public Forum. She thanked all of the supporters of Civic Stadium for coming. She especially wanted to compliment Ms. Doxsee for her testimony. Regarding Mr. Sylvester’s suggestion, she clarified that the City had tried to get an urban hospital in the downtown core, not unlike the examples he cited, but the hospital was not interested in a “vertical hospital,” preferring a campus-style hospital instead. She also thanked Mr. Smith for sharing the statistics regarding food stamp clients. Councilor Poling supported saving Civic Stadium, but he wanted to emphasize that School District 4J was the owner and would ultimately decide what they would do with it. He encouraged the Save Civic Stadium group to maintain contact with Superintendent Russell. He had liked Mr. Hebert’s comment regarding the future. He said children were the future and they could not shortchange them. He averred that if the school district decided to dispose of the property for something other than Civic Stadium, it was important to remember that they were doing so for the future. Councilor Taylor wished to make it clear that she had given Mr. Vishanoff’s dollar to the Save Civic Stadium representatives. She thought it was very important to try to save the stadium. She declared that school property and City property were all property of the public. She felt they should do what they could to facilitate the best possible use of the property for the public. Councilor Taylor said Mr. Brown was “absolutely right” in his testimony. She added that she also had appreciated Ms. Doxsee’s testimony and the testimony provided by Drix. Councilor Clark thanked Mr. Papé for his testimony, noting that residents of Ward 5 did not often come to testify before the council. He related that he had received a lot of input regarding the Civic Stadium issue from the residents of Ward 5. He acknowledged that the chances of keeping the Eugene Emeralds at the stadium were slim. He was willing to work at finding a solution as long as it did not cost the City more than it could afford and did not cost the school district an opportunity to get money needed for the district’s operations. Councilor Solomon asked for a response from the City Manager regarding the double standard in terms of cleaning up illegal camp sites on privately-owned land and on publicly-owned land. 2. CONSENT CALENDAR A. Approval of City Council Minutes - November 19, 2008, Work Session - December 8, 2008, Work Session - December 8, 2008, City Council Meeting - November 12, Work Session B. Approval to Tentative Working Agenda C. Approval of Resolution 4963 Annexing Land to the City of Eugene (Koester/Haggard/Carroll [A 08- 4]) D. Approval of Reprogramming of Community Development Block Grant Funds E. Ratification of Intergovernmental Relations Committee Actions of January 21, 2009 Councilor Zelenka, seconded by Councilor Clark, moved to approve the items on the Consent Calen- dar. Councilor Clark pulled Item C. Councilor Taylor pulled Item B. Roll call vote; the motion to pass Items A, D, and E of the Consent Calendar passed unanimously, 8:0. MINUTES—Eugene City Council January 26, 2009 Page 4 Regular Meeting Councilor Taylor did not see the planned work session on street assessments in the Tentative Agenda. City Manager Jon Ruiz responded that it was scheduled for March 9. Roll call vote; the motion to pass Item B, the Tentative Agenda, passed unanimously, 8:0. Councilor Clark noted that due to the findings of compliance, lack of testimony received, and non-controversial nature of Resolution 4963, annexing land to the City of Eugene, no public hearing was suggested. He asked if staff was certain this was the best way to go. Assistant Planner for the Planning Division, Bill Almquist, replied that the City Council had the option of modifying, denying, or approving annexations in a Consent Calendar in lieu of going to a public hearing. He said it was staff’s position that no public hearing was necessary for the reasons that Councilor Clark had listed. Councilor Clark observed that the City was requesting that a portion of Beaver Street be included in the annexation. He acknowledged that this did not create island annexation issues but he had not seen in the background material whether or not this was an improved road. He did not think the City should annex an unimproved road given the current road conditions. Steve Nystrom, principal planner for the Planning Division, stated that the street was not fully improved, but the City had an intergovernmental agreement (IGA) with Lane County that it would maintain some of the roads in that area and this was one of the roads that the City was already responsible for in that IGA. Councilor Clark remarked that the IGA could go away and, if annexed, the street would be permanently the City’s problem. He was uncertain he could support it because it caused him concern that the City would intentionally take on roads that were not improved. He thought the City should find a way to motivate the County to bring the road to an “improved status” prior to taking on responsibility for it. Councilor Taylor shared Councilor Clark’s concern regarding the annexation of a substandard road. She also wanted to ask if the water and sewer pipes were adequately sized for a potential increase in development. Mr. Almquist replied that the Public Works Department had determined the wastewater pipes were adequate and the Eugene Water & Electric Board (EWEB) had made no comments to the contrary. Councilor Taylor asked if staff knew what the owners intended to do with the property. Mr. Almquist responded that he did not know their intentions and the property was currently zoned R-1, residential. In response to a follow-up question from Councilor Taylor, Mr. Almquist clarified that if the owners of the property wished to change the zoning they would have to apply to do so and it would be heard by the Hearings Official. Councilor Brown asked if the church was occupied and active. Mr. Almquist replied that it was vacant and not currently being used. In response to a follow-up question from Councilor Brown, Mr. Almquist said he was not aware that the property had been tax exempt. Roll call vote: the motion to approve Resolution 4963, annexing land to the City of Eugene, passed 7:1; Councilor Clark voting in opposition. The meeting adjourned at 8:19 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Jon Ruiz City Manager MINUTES—Eugene City Council January 26, 2009 Page 5 Regular Meeting (Recorded by Ruth Atcherson) MINUTES—Eugene City Council January 26, 2009 Page 6 Regular Meeting ATTACHMENT D M I N U T E S Eugene City Council McNutt Room—City Hall—777 Pearl Street Eugene, Oregon February 9, 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 thanked councilors and staff for their participation in the recent goal-setting work session. She announced that on January 16 the City issued the first over-the-counter permit for an entire house, which would also be the first LEED-certified single-family dwelling. She noted there would be an economic forecast on February 10, the Police Auditor Ordinance Review Committee (PAORC) would meet on February 10, there would be a town hall meeting with Lane County on February 11, the Asian Celebration would occur over the coming weekend and February 14 was Oregon’s sesquicentennial celebration. She said a recent report showed an increase in use of the Eugene Public Library. Mr. Clark also thanked all who participated in the goal-setting session. He attended the Santa Clara Community Organization meeting where the discussion focused on participation in the Infill Compatibility Standards/Opportunity Siting work, restoration of neighborhood waterways and increasing the number of community gardens in the Santa Clara area. He congratulated City Attorney Jerome Lidz for his recent selection as Oregon’s Solicitor General with the U.S. Department of Justice. Ms. Ortiz expressed her appreciation for the goal-setting session and thanked jurisdictions who participated in the recent Emergency Medical Services (EMS) summit. She looked forward to representing the council, along with Mr. Clark, on the newly formed EMS work team. She was supportive of the City’s approach to a new skateboard park in Washington/Jefferson Park, which would combine public and private resources. Mr. Pryor said he was pleased with the results of the goal-setting session. Ms. Taylor stated that she had received calls objecting to the skateboard park and asked if the City was paying for it. Mr. Ruiz said he would provide details of the project. Ms. Taylor said she also received complaints about the Crest Drive/Storey Boulevard/Friendly Street assessment. She said some people were being forced to sell their homes. She hoped the City could do something about the situation. Mr. Poling said the Convention Visitors Association of Lane County Oregon (CVALCO) was unveiling its new logo and branding work at a tourism forum on February 10. He noted that reconstruction work had begun at the intersection of Beltline and Coburg Road to add turning lanes and extend off-ramps. He had MINUTES—Eugene City Council February 9, 2009 Page 1 Work Session received inquiries from neighbors along Coburg and Harlow roads about the possibility of resurfacing Pioneer Pike similar to the project on Arcadia Drive last year. He understood that project was funded with a one-time allocation for street repairs from the Facility Reserve. City Manager Jon Ruiz said the one-time allocation was intended to be a two-year program and he would check on whether Pioneer Pike was on the project list. Mr. Brown indicated he had also received email regarding the Crest Drive area assessments and noted the council was holding a March 9 work session on the subject. He had been attending PAORC meetings and looked forward to the committee’s report. He said he was pleasantly surprised with the council’s goal- setting session. He thought it was very productive. Mr. Zelenka reported on his participation in the Biking/Walking Summit. He was pleased with the goal- setting session and found it very useful. He met with members of the Lane County congressional delegation during a recent trip to Washington D.C. and said the focus was on the federal economic stimulus package. He urged the Lane County delegation to assure that dollars went to the local level. He said the PAORC had worked on 10 of its first 12 items and ordinance modification language was being drafted. He said the next six issues to be discussed represented more substantial changes. A public hearing on PAORC recommenda- tions was scheduled for February 19. He congratulated Mr. Lidz on his appointment. He also had received letters about the Crest Drive assessments and pointed out that the process used for those assessments was used throughout the City and the State to bring streets up to urban standards. He said the Crest Drive process was modified to make it more compatible with the neighborhood’s wishes. Ms. Piercy said she was pleased the sandy area at Washington/Jefferson Park was being replaced with a skateboard park. She reminded everyone that the funds used for parks did not come from the same funding stream as money for road repair and maintenance; if they were not used for parks they could not be reprogrammed to road repair. Mr. Ruiz said he would be meeting with agency directors and executive staff to develop a coordinated package for economic stimulus funds. He said the package could come before the council on short notice to address some of the issues. B. WORK SESSION: Sustainability Commission Recommendations Mr. Ruiz introduced Sustainability Manager Felicity Fahy. Ms. Fahy said the Sustainability Commission would present its next three recommendations, which built on the recommendations presented to the council in October 2008. She thanked Mr. Zelenka for his participa- tion as the council’s representative on the commission. She introduced Will Shaver and Josh Bruce of the Sustainability Commission to present the recommendations. Mr. Shaver briefly reviewed the two recommendations adopted by the council in October 2008, and said work on these recommendations was in progress and updates would be provided later in the year. He said those recommendations and the next three being presented had emerged from a subcommittee tasked with identifying sustainability initiatives that the City could move forward with quickly. Mr. Bruce provided background information and discussed the development of the following recommenda- tions: MINUTES—Eugene City Council February 9, 2009 Page 2 Work Session 1. The City of Eugene shall increase the volume of waste diverted from landfill from internal opera- tions and facilities from current levels of an estimated 45 percent to at least 75 percent by 2014 and 90 percent by 2020. 2. By August 2010, develop a community action plan that aims to reduce total, current community- wide fossil fuel consumption 50 percent by 2030 (as an absolute not a per capita reduction) by (1) establishing targets for achieving that goal; (2) identifying strategies to achieve those targets; (3) identifying necessary adaptations; (4) developing measures for tracking success; (5) identifying financial impacts, and (6) including periodic progress reports back to the community with annual reports of progress to the Sustainability Commission. 3. By January 2010, return to the council with a scoping and resource plan for developing a food security plan which will (1) identify community partners and form a project advisory committee, (2) review existing policies and food system assessments, (3) develop a market analysis plan, (4) identify benefits and barriers, and (5) determine the budget and timeline to complete the plan and identify resources available, including external funding sources. Ms. Piercy asked if the commission had discussed the impact of successfully achieving the goals for waste reduction on businesses engaged in recycling in the community. Mr. Bruce said that had not been specifically discussed, but there would always be a need to have that material processed and that could provide other opportunities. Mr. Shaver noted that the local recycling industry had experienced considerable growth and was a part of Eugene’s economy; expanding it would benefit the community. Ms. Piercy said the City could support efforts to get more local produce to residents and expand community gardens, which were complementary to the third recommendation. Mr. Clark thanked the commission and staff for their work. He felt a 90-percent waste reduction in 12 years was a challenging goal, but could support it as an aspirational goal. He said that it would be difficult to agree with the goal if there was a regulatory component, but it did not appear there were regulatory efforts attached to any of the three recommendations. He found the reduction of fossil fuel consumption by 50 percent even more challenging based on his observations of the market place and would certainly be opposed to any regulatory efforts for that goal. He could support the goal in terms of providing opportunities and education about the wisdom of reducing consumption. Mr. Clark said food security was a very important issue. He had concern with the County’s discussions of rural reserves and the related legal issues, but was in favor of the City operating as a clearinghouse for local efforts. He wanted to see expansion of local community gardens by the City and hoped the market analysis could identify ways to expand market opportunities to sell local produce. Mr. Zelenka commended the efforts of the Sustainability Commission and City staff. He said the goals were well crafted and challenging, but achievable. He said the goals all created work plans and included financial impacts to be brought back to the council. He said they also represented job creation and cost saving opportunities for the community. With respect to the reduction of fossil fuel by 50 percent, he noted that Denmark and the United Kingdom were already there. The goal was consistent with Portland’s plan and the U.S. Conference of Mayors’ agenda. He was disappointed that the agenda item summary (AIS) did not incorporate the triple bottom line in its analysis. Ms. Fahy said a staff team was developing a triple bottom line tool that would be useful in future analysis and decision-making. She hoped to have a draft available within a few months that could be incorporated in future council materials. Ms. Taylor said she was pleased with the commission’s work and would support all of the recommenda- tions. She saw a real connection between energy use and food security and both goals could be helped by MINUTES—Eugene City Council February 9, 2009 Page 3 Work Session controlling urban sprawl. She liked the County’s idea of rural reserves to preserve food production resources. She recommended that the City discontinue charging the Farmers’ Market for parking. Mr. Poling asked how the City determined the amount of waste that was diverted from the landfill. Ms. Fahy explained that it was part estimate and part hands on work “dumpster diving” to determine how much garbage was produced and how much could still be recycled. She said the City worked with Sanipac to identify the amount of material that was recycled. She said the most difficult thing to measure was the amount of waste that was not created by changing practices. Mr. Poling noted that the second and third recommendations referred to a wide variety of community partners, but only the third identified those partners. He asked if there were different partners associated with each goal. Mr. Bruce said there were different groups associated with each goal and there was less specificity in recommendation #2 because there were many potential partners and it would be necessary to determine which ones were willing to be involved. Ms. Fahy added there would be overlaps between the two groups of partners. She said identified partners were those that had already expressed an interest. Mr. Poling asked if the goals of achieving 90-percent waste reduction by 2020 and 50-percent fuel consumption reduction by 2030 were really achievable and how those goals were identified. Mr. Bruce said that the second recommendation relied heavily on the Portland task force report and efforts at the interna- tional level; the goal could be tied to the estimate of the reduction of fossil fuel availability in the future. He agreed that the first recommendation to establish a goal for waste reduction was challenging, but the commission recognized that all of the goals were aspirational in nature. He stressed the importance of setting specific goals to provide guidance for the community’s efforts. Mr. Pryor appreciated the emphasis on a non-regulatory approach. He said he had been able to divert almost 90 percent of waste in his personal business because it was primarily paper, but that goal would be challenging in other work environments like the maintenance yard. He recalled that demolition of the Williams Bakery diverted 95 percent of the material. He supported the second recommendations because it was desirable to reduce dependence on fossil fuel, but there was also an economic benefit if the cost of fuel skyrocketed. Mr. Brown asked for clarification of the market analysis plan. Mr. Bruce said a market analysis would be part of the scoping document for food security to understand the dynamics of the local market. Mr. Brown said the City should do all it could to increase food security, including expanding community gardens. He agreed with Ms. Taylor about the importance of preserving the urban growth boundary as long as possible and no longer charging the Farmers’ Market for parking. Mr. Zelenka, seconded by Mr. Clark, moved to direct the City Manager to adopt the goal of increasing the volume of waste diverted from landfill from internal op- erations and facilities from current levels of an estimated 45 percent to at least 75 percent by 2014 and 90 percent by 2020 and report back to the council with a work plan for implementation that includes fiscal impact implications. The motion passed unanimously, 8:0. Mr. Zelenka, seconded by Mr. Clark, moved to direct the City Manager to report back to the council by August 2010, following the development of a community en- ergy action plan in conjunction with the community climate action plan that will aim to reduce total, community-wide fossil fuel consumption 50 percent by 2030 MINUTES—Eugene City Council February 9, 2009 Page 4 Work Session (as an absolute not a per capita reduction) by (1) establishing targets for achieving that goal; (2) identifying strategies to achieve those targets; (3) identifying neces- sary adaptations; (4) developing measures for tracking success; (5) identifying fi- nancial impacts, and (6) including periodic progress reports back to the community with annual reports of progress to the Sustainability Commission. The motion passed unanimously, 8:0. Mr. Zelenka, seconded by Mr. Clark moved to direct the City Manager to under- take a scoping and resource plan for the development of a food security plan in con- junction with community partners and report back to the council by January 2010. The motion passed unanimously, 8:0. C. WORK SESSION Use of Facility Reserves – Next Steps on Police Patrol Facility Mr. Ruiz referred to the extensive discussion over many years about a City Hall complex and police facility. He said the council’s last policy guidance in 2007 was for staff to develop a patrol facility concept design for the Lane Transit District (LTD) site on Garfield Street and continue to explore acquisition of other potential sites in the area. He said last year the Budget Committee had made recommendations about the use of Facility Reserve funds, but the council did not act on those. He requested policy guidance prior to spending any money from the Facility Reserve. He introduced Facilities Manager Mike Penwell to discuss a patrol facility. Mr. Penwell said concerns related to the current City Hall had been studied and well documented, including space, aging systems and seismic vulnerability. He said there were a number of decisions to be made about the City Hall facility, but staff recommended proceeding with a police patrol facility in order to get first responders into a safe, adequate space. The Facility Reserve had been established for just such a purpose. He said progress had already been made with the move of 9-1-1 and property and forensics to other facilities and a patrol facility seemed to be the next logical step in moving public safety services out of the building. Ms. Piercy felt the best outcome for the council’s discussion was taking the time to obtain all of the information necessary to make a good decision before taking sides on the issue and passing a motion. She wanted to know how dangerous City Hall was to all those who worked in the building, not just patrol functions. Mr. Penwell said the types of earthquakes that occurred in Western Oregon were subductions where one plate slid beneath another. He said based on geological and historical records those earthquakes occurred every 300 to 600 years and subduction zone earthquakes tended to be 9 to 9.5 on the Richter scale and last four to six minutes; the City Hall building would not withstand such an event. He said codes established two safety levels for structures: one was a life/safety level that meant people could get out of a building after an earthquake even if the building had to be demolished later; the second was a central facility level applicable to fire stations, police facilities, schools and hospitals. He said that level was intended to increase the likelihood that the building was operational after a seismic event. An analysis of City Hall by several engineers indicated it would not withstand even a moderate earthquake. He said it had been slightly over 300 years since the last subduction zone earthquake and the State estimated the risk of another one at approximately two-percent per year. Mr. Zelenka expressed concern with fracturing the community if the council placed a police patrol facility as the highest priority. He hoped to gain community support for efforts to address problems with the City Hall building and felt the staff recommendation was premature and reflected the wrong priorities. He suggested slowing down, investigating what should be done with the current building and developing a comprehensive MINUTES—Eugene City Council February 9, 2009 Page 5 Work Session plan that would address a potential move to the Eugene Water & Electric Board (EWEB) facility, renovation of the current building, a police patrol facility and Municipal Court needs. He said the plan should also identify options and costs for renovating the current City Hall building, the possibility and potential cost of moving to the EWEB building, cost and location of a patrol facility, cost and space needs of Municipal Court and options for shifting various administrative functions if patrol officers were moved to another location. Mr. Clark pointed out that New Orleans knew in advance of Hurricane Katrina that systems would not hold in a catastrophic event. The council was fully aware that if there was an earthquake of any size, leadership of the City would be incapacitated by the collapse of City Hall and emergency response capability would be impaired at a time when it was most desperately needed. He said council discussions had not educated the public about the safety aspects involved in the need for a new City Hall and police facility. He was interested in investigating the EWEB building as a site for City Hall on a parallel track with discussions of a patrol facility. He noted that master planning for the EWEB site was underway and asked that any motion include an official inquiry to EWEB about the potential of including use of its administrative building as a potential City Hall site in the master planning process. Ms. Taylor felt it was too soon to make decisions. She was interested in knowing the cost of a seismic retrofit of the current building to the life/safety level before proceeding. She agreed that another police facility was needed, but did not understand why the Police Chief could not be located with patrol officers. She said a new police facility should be located downtown. She also wanted to know how much money would be left for a basic seismic retrofit and maintenance of City Hall if a new patrol facility was built. She suggested relocating Human Resources to a rental facility, such as the Beam development. She said services the public needed to access should be located close together and a police facility should be nearby. Mr. Poling pointed out that the council had been planning for a new City Hall for ten years and it was a previous City Council that wanted to separate the patrol facility from the City Hall complex because of concerns that the presence of officers might deter some citizens from coming in. He asked if it would be appropriate to build a complete police facility that included administration and patrol if there was sufficient money in the Facility Reserve and a site available close enough to the downtown area. Mr. Ruiz said a complete police facility was the best outcome, but he understood that would double or triple the cost of just a patrol facility and there was not enough money for that. Mr. Poling stated it was important to take action swiftly as the current patrol facility was inadequate and there were seismic concerns. He said the problem with retrofitting the current building was that the cost would be much greater if the police function was included because the code would require retrofitting to the central facility level. He said sites for a patrol facility had been discussed, including the LTD property and sites that were already owned by the City. He agreed that any funds remaining after construction of a patrol facility should be invested in retrofitting City Hall to make it safe for the remaining employees. He encouraged consolidating as many City functions as possible into City Hall once patrol was relocated and the building retrofitted. Ms. Ortiz agreed with Mr. Poling that a patrol facility had been under discussion for many years and was not a new subject. She supported taking a comprehensive look at City Hall and the functions that should be nd located there, but felt it was time to take action on a patrol facility. She was in favor of the 2 Avenue and Chambers Street site, but realized it would have to be purchased. She said the council should lead by example by investing in downtown. This was a good time for construction projects that would generate jobs as there were many people looking for work. She said a patrol facility was a matter of equity for the police MINUTES—Eugene City Council February 9, 2009 Page 6 Work Session department as the City had already provided new facilities for fire and library services, as well as new offices for councilors. Mr. Brown requested a copy of the most recent engineer’s report and asked if it included cost estimates for retrofitting the building. He expressed concern that the public would perceive building a new patrol facility as paying too much attention to the police and neglecting the other functions housed in City Hall. He thought the issue was too complex to act without more consultation and perhaps a public vote. Mr. Penwell said he would provide the report. He explained that cost estimates for renovating the City Hall building to address all of the issues, including a seismic retrofit, had been developed as part of the master planning process. He said that cost was approximately $50 million in 2008 dollars. He reminded the council that it had spent two and a half years and $2 million on a master planning process that included extensive public involvement. The overriding public sentiment was that something needed to be done and a patrol facility was the logical next step; that information was available on the project website at www.eugenecityhall.com. Mr. Pryor questioned whether it was reasonable to delay when there had been so much discussion and public input. He asked if the $6 million remaining after a patrol facility was constructed would be adequate to significantly improve the existing City Hall building. Mr. Penwell said a central factor was the elimination of EWEB’s steam facility, which would require installation of boilers in the building that could not be connected to old equipment, necessitating an upgrade of the entire heating and ventilating system. He said that would not be feasible with an exterior envelope that needed a full upgrade and if that was done then a seismic retrofit should also be done. He estimated the cost of those improvements at $30 million. He advocated for moving patrol officers into a safe facility as a first step, regardless of what decision was made about reinvesting in the current building. He said all employees in City Hall were important, but relocating patrol functions preserved the ability to respond to the community in a crisis. Mr. Pryor said the discussion was about City Hall components and relocating patrol functions to a new facility was a critical component for the welfare of the community. He was willing to support the recommendation as the most logical approach. Ms. Solomon agreed with Ms. Ortiz that it was time to make a decision following the extensive master planning process of the past two years. She thought the council would be liable if the police were unable to respond to the community in an emergency situation and it would be a dereliction of duty to fail to make a decision to move forward. Ms. Piercy said her intent was to avoid a tie vote and obtain the support of a majority of the council for a decision. She did not want to slow down the process but favored having additional discussion and information to achieve that level of support from councilors. She preferred a downtown location for patrol functions and noted that there was a vacant lot currently available to which patrol vehicles could be moved. She said the possibility of staggering retrofitting and renovation work should be explored. Mr. Ruiz asked if the council was willing to explore a full police facility instead of a patrol facility or preferred to keep police administration in City Hall. He asked for direction on whether to explore the EWEB facility as a potential City Hall and the amount of money the council was willing to ask the community for in terms of new dollars for the project. Mr. Clark thought the council needed to take action and favored the idea of moving forward with a separate patrol facility, but was not certain how to proceed. He agreed a patrol facility should be in the general downtown area. He could support suggested motion B to explore potential patrol facility sites and report back to the council with recommendations on how to proceed. He also wanted the motion to include MINUTES—Eugene City Council February 9, 2009 Page 7 Work Session exploring with EWEB the possibility of including in its master planning process the use of its administrative facility for City Hall. Mr. Zelenka agreed that something needed to be done about patrol functions, but City Hall and Municipal Court were also long-standing issues that had to be addressed. He felt that passing suggested motion A would be a political mistake and the council should investigate in parallel a patrol facility and what to do with City Hall and Municipal Court and develop a comprehensive plan for all of them. He said if the building was unsafe for police it was unsafe for everyone. He doubted that $16 million would be sufficient to construct a patrol facility, leaving little left to address problems with the City Hall building. Mr. Poling, seconded by Ms. Solomon, moved to direct the City Manager to in- clude an appropriation of $16 million from the Facility Reserve in the FY 10 budg- et to fund the design and construction of a police patrol facility. Mr. Poling objected to characterizing the action as political; it related to the safety of police officers. He said construction and materials costs were down and jobs were needed for people in the community. He said it was the right time to move forward with building a new patrol facility and Facility Reserve funds should be preserved for that purpose. Ms. Piercy encouraged the council to allow itself more time to discuss the matter before taking a vote. Mr. Ruiz suggested continuing the discussion at the February 11 work session. Mr. Poling withdrew his motion. Ms. Solomon concurred. Ms. Solomon asked for additional information about the Beam project. Mr. Zelenka asked for information about plans for the current building and associated costs since it would continue to be occupied for the foreseeable future. He also asked for information about Municipal Court needs. The meeting adjourned at 7:25 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Jon Ruiz City Manager (Recorded by Lynn Taylor) MINUTES—Eugene City Council February 9, 2009 Page 8 Work Session ATTACHMENT E M I N U T E S Eugene City Council McNutt Room—City Hall—777 Pearl Street Eugene, Oregon February 18, 2009 Noon COUNCILORS PRESENT: Chris Pryor, Betty Taylor, Andrea Ortiz, Mike Clark, Alan Zelenka, George Poling, George Brown, Jennifer Solomon (via telephone). Her Honor Mayor Kitty Piercy called the work session of the Eugene City Council to order. A. WORK SESSION: FY10 Budget Strategies to Maintain Road Fund Service Levels City Manager Jon Ruiz stated that the goal of the work session was to discuss the matter, but he was not asking the council to take any action. He said funding for road preservation, as well as operations and maintenance, had been the subject of difficult budget discussion over the past several years. He noted that the City was trying to fill an $8 million gap in the General Fund and there were gaps in other funds as well, including the Road Fund. He said that meant there was no money in the General Fund to help provide services in other funds and in order to develop a sustainable budget the organizational footprint would be reduced. He introduced Public Works Executive Director Kurt Corey to present the topic. Mr. Corey described the three-pronged approach to transportation system funding: operations and maintenance (O&M), capital preservation and construction of new streets adding capacity to the system. He said there were no funding concerns with new streets, but there was a $170 million backlog of deferred preservation projects. With respect to the preservation backlog, he said that $9 million annually was needed to prevent the backlog from increasing and $18 million annually would eliminate the backlog in 20 years. Mr. Corey explained the activities that comprised O&M and said revenue to support them was somewhat limited; the primary source historically had been the State Highway Trust Fund, which was derived from the State’s gas tax. He said the gas tax had not been adjusted in 16 years and during that time the yield on the tax was down. He said $2.5 million had come to the City annually from Lane County for roads, but was no longer available and the loss of revenue, coupled with increased operating costs combined to create a funding gap of approximately $4 million. Mr. Corey reviewed the work of the council’s Subcommittee on Transportation Funding and the status of its recommendations. He said the proposals now before the council were twofold: a right-of-way use fee on stormwater and wastewater utilities and a transportation surcharge on solid waste haulers. He said both could become locally controlled sustainable components in a broad package of transportations system funding mechanisms. He said the proposals would fully fund the O&M gap in perpetuity. He said next steps would be to move forward with public hearings on each of the proposals if the council wished. He said there was a clear nexus between providing utility systems and garbage service and having a viable transportation system. MINUTES—Eugene City Council February 18, 2009 Page 1 Work Session Mr. Corey estimated the monthly assessments for standard residential customers at $1.44 for the combined right-of-way use fee and $1.97 for the garbage surcharge. He reminded the council that the recent bond measure was very prescriptive in terms of how those funds could be used on specific road projects; O&M costs were excluded. He said federal economic stimulus funds could be available for capital preservation and transportation enhancement, but it also excluded O&M as a use, and legislative action on transportation funding was uncertain. Ms. Piercy assured the public that the council was committed to road repairs and preservation of the investment represented by the transportation system. She said traditional funding for road preservation was no longer available and cities across the State faced the same problem with lack of resources. She welcomed the opportunity to discuss all options before moving forward. Mr. Clark indicated he was willing to consider all options. He saw the O&M funding gap as a short-term problem in the current year that had to be addressed, but solving the long-term institutionalized O&M deficit by increasing revenues should be delayed until later in the year when there was a greater sense of what was happening in the local economy and how the City could respond to those conditions. He said the recent bond measure carried the implicit message that the City would prove worthy of the public’s trust in how it used those funds. He felt the City should earn some of that trust before trying to solve the systemic deficit. Ms. Taylor liked the concept of shifting some funds to O&M if the City received economic stimulus funds for preservation projects. She objected to the garbage haulers fee and felt it would discourage people from having garbage service. She thought the City should provide garbage service. She said the right-of-way fee sounded like a transportation utility fee. She said the General Fund should support street maintenance and if all the tax exemptions were halted funds would be available. She noted that many users of the transporta- tion system were not local residents and there should be at least a county-wide revenue source, such as a vehicle registration fee. She hoped that cities could collaborate on a regional funding mechanism. Mr. Pryor remarked that the conversation about long-term, stable and secure transportation system funding needed to include the public. He recognized the need to move more quickly to fill the 2010 funding gap. He noted that the subcommittee had agreed that a combination of funding solutions would be needed and he was willing to consider a range of options including a solid waste fee at some level, structural cuts and a transportation utility fee, which other communities were already using. He stressed the importance of involving the public in the discussion of long-term solutions. Mr. Poling said, based on inquiries he had received, it appeared the general public was still somewhat confused about transportation system funding and did not understand why there was still a shortfall when a bond measure had been passed in November 2008. He said ongoing education was an important part of involving the public. He would not support a surcharge on garbage haulers as it singled out one industry unfairly when other heavy vehicles were using the roads. He said a surcharge should be more broadly distributed. Mr. Brown asked about the financial impact of a garbage hauler surcharge on businesses. Mr. Corey replied that commercial service was typically a 2- or 3-yard container. The monthly rate for a 2-cubic yard container was $127.20 and for a 3-cubic yard container was $186; monthly surcharges would be $12.72 and $18.60 respectively. He said the estimated monthly surcharge for a typical “big box” store would be $288 and for a medium-sized commercial store it would be $55. Ms. Solomon echoed remarks about the importance of educating the public. She asked why the proposed surcharge was almost double what the subcommittee had recommended and what next steps the council should be considering. MINUTES—Eugene City Council February 18, 2009 Page 2 Work Session Mr. Zelenka commented that the State’s gas tax was last increased in 1993. He said that revenue was declining, as was other revenue from the County, State and federal levels while at the same time material and labor costs were increasing. Given that help would not be forthcoming from either the State or federal governments, he said funding solutions would have to be found at the local level. He stressed that the bond measure addressed only a small percentage of the backlog of road maintenance projects. He said most of the City’s revenue was subject to restrictions on how it was used, in part because the public insisted that certain funds be used for certain purposes, typically related to how the revenue was generated. Ms. Piercy wanted to see a clear direction for solving the entire transportation funding problem, not just pieces of it; that would require a conversation with regional partners. She was not certain how to deal with the immediate short-term funding needs, but felt the public wanted to see what package of long-term solutions the council would propose. Mr. Clark thought the public did not clearly perceive the differences between O&M and preservation institutional deficits, which complicated the council’s efforts to find solutions. He said it was a problem not only of communication, but also of priorities, and the community needed to discuss that as part of solving long-term problems. He was not interested in a garbage surcharge at a time when people were struggling financially. He felt a gas tax was the most equitable approach; a creative approach might be a large, short- term increase instead of a permanent increase at a lower rate. Mr. Pryor remarked that there were two core concepts: increasing revenue or scaling back services. He said any of the options for increasing revenue ultimately took money from the pockets of local residents and it was essential to clearly demonstrate the need and benefits to obtain public support. He underscored the need for a permanent source of funding to preserve and maintain the transportation system and the importance of involving the public in that discussion. Mr. Zelenka agreed with Mr. Pryor about the need for a permanent solution as the City could not cut or reprioritize its way out of the problem; it was too large and long-standing. He said funding solutions should demonstrate a nexus with street use, have low administrative costs, capture non-resident usage, reduce greenhouse gases and consist of a package of options, not one funding source. He supported a gas tax and garbage hauler fee. He would lower the garbage surcharge to $1 per month and felt that amount would not cause people to halt their garbage service. Ms. Solomon asked for additional information about a potential transportation summit. Ms. Piercy said there had been discussion about the need for a summit to discuss the broader issues of transportation for the entire region, including transit. She agreed that some of the funds for transportation came with restrictions on use and those could not be changed by the City. Regarding prioritization, she noted that much of the General Fund was used for public safety and many other services important to the livability of the community were also supported by General Fund dollars. She said to this point the public had indicated a desire to have a basic level of service in those areas and there would need to be a discussion of tradeoffs if funds were diverted to the transportation system. She reminded the public that the bond measure included an audit process to assure accountability. Mr. Zelenka agreed with Ms. Piercy that there were General Fund tradeoffs and he preferred to avoid cuts to those services. Regarding the garbage surcharge, he said it was not singling out garbage haulers at random; those vehicles used the system at a far greater level than other users and there was a direct nexus with damage to streets. He said there was no practical way to assess other heavy vehicles, plus those vehicles paid a fee to the State that was contributed to the City’s road funds. He felt the street utility fee was the MINUTES—Eugene City Council February 18, 2009 Page 3 Work Session most equitable and captured government agencies, the University of Oregon, commercial and residential users and non-residential commuters. He hoped that option would be further explored. He said the connection between a stormwater/wastewater fee was not as clear. He urged involvement of the public in any discussion of transportation funding. Mr. Clark agreed the public needed to be involved in the conversation about a long-term permanent solution. He said the City could not prioritize or tax its way out of the problem; the City could not afford to be all things to all people, especially during difficult economic times. He thought that setting priorities was the council’s job and the public expected it to make difficult choices with limited resources. Ms. Piercy concurred that setting priorities was the council’s job and the services the City provided were reflective of the community’s direction on how to spend revenue. She asked councilors to provide direction to staff on the next steps to be taken. Mr. Ruiz asked the council to consider ways to fill the FY10 O&M gap on a one-time basis instead of reducing services, preliminary to the more comprehensive discussion of long-term solutions. Mr. Clark said his best outcome would be to find creative solutions to filling the short-term gap, followed by a longer term process that involved the public after the City had demonstrated its accountability for the bond measure. Ms. Ortiz did not want to reduce existing services. She agreed with the need to educate the public, but was not certain how to provide information in a useful way. She said the community wanted to see a clear direction for solving the problem and earning the public’s trust by completing projects funded by the ballot measure was a step forward. Mr. Pryor indicated he was interested in seeing what reductions might be used to fill the FY10 funding gap if additional revenue was not available. He wanted to see a broader involvement from the community in discussions of long-term solutions. Ms. Taylor said the council should be educated by the public about what services it was willing to give up. She said it was never possible to engage the entire community. She urged the council to seek a County-wide solution. Ms. Solomon suggested using the stormwater fund to fill the short-term gap. She said the council had been discussing for some time going back to the community for a reprioritization of budget issues; that had not yet occurred and therefore it was not entirely accurate to say spending currently reflected the priorities of citizens. She hoped hearing from citizens about what their budget priorities were would be a key element of future discussions. She strongly supported providing some General Fund dollars for roads. Mr. Poling joined Mr. Pryor’s request for information about what cuts might be necessary to fill the short- term funding gap. Mr. Zelenka commented that a street utility fee was based on the number of parking spaces, not on property taxes. He was also interested in what specific cuts would be made in order to fill the short-term gap and other options for generating revenue. Ms. Piercy was in favor of hearing the public’s priorities for spending and encouraged finding creative means to engage people, particularly using the internet to provide information and solicit feedback. MINUTES—Eugene City Council February 18, 2009 Page 4 Work Session Mr. Clark suggested using the media to more heavily advertise construction projects and better communicate that work to the public. Mr. Corey thanked the council for its discussion. He emphasized that the FY10 budget could not be completed without filling the revenue gap or reducing services. He was supportive of searching for creative options to address the long-term problem with a package of solutions, but the need to address the FY10 budget shortfall was immediate and if there was interest in either of the revenue sources in the proposal the deadline for holding public hearings on ordinances was March 9. He was not certain there were any easier solutions to the short-term gap than those presented. Mr. Pryor suggested bringing back for the council’s review a $4 million one-time strategy that included whatever combination of items staff felt were necessary to fill the FY10 budget gap. Mr. Ruiz said staff would reexamine all options and return with one-time strategies for filling the FY10 gap and a road map for moving forward. The meeting adjourned at 1:25 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Jon Ruiz City Manager (Recorded by Lynn Taylor) MINUTES—Eugene City Council February 18, 2009 Page 5 Work Session