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HomeMy WebLinkAbout190724 WSMINUTES – Eugene City Council July 24, 2019 Page 1 Work Session M I N U T E S Eugene City Council Harris Hall, 125 East 8th Avenue Eugene, Oregon 97401 July 24, 2019 12:00 p.m. Councilors Present: Betty Taylor, Emily Semple, Alan Zelenka, Jennifer Yeh, Michael Clark, Claire Syrett, Chris Pryor Councilors Absent: Greg Evans Mayor Vinis opened the July 24, 2019, Work Session of the Eugene City Council. 1.Committee Reports and Items of InterestMayor Vinis proposed postponing the City Manager’s Performance Rating Average motion toafter summer break because of all the other items on the agenda. MOTION: Councilor Pryor, seconded by Councilor Semple, moved to reconsider Monday night’s Resolution Condemning White Nationalism and Alt-Right Activities and Groups. Council Discussion o Councilor Pryor – explained that he wanted to reconsider the resolution because it wouldbe nice if City Council provided greater and more forceful support for this particularresolution to demonstrate clearly that the City is opposed to the level of racism and activitygoing on. VOTE ON MOTION: PASSED 7:0. Council Discussion o Councilor Semple – said she was proud to have brought this resolution forward and hadfully intended to vote in favor of the resolution on Monday night, but was concerned thatthey might be condemning thoughts; noted it was against her values of freedom of speechand civil rights and wanted more time to consider this unintended path; said she would likeCity Council to pass a unanimous resolution consistent with their commitment to creating awelcoming and safe community and is grateful for the opportunity to change her vote toyes. o Councilor Clark – said he wanted to vote in favor of this resolution; talked about thecomments calling him a racist and wanted to be clear that he does not think any race isinferior to any other; said the problem with the resolution was that parts of it wereincendiary and factually questionable and he made edits that he sent to City Council thatwould create a resolution he would be happy to vote in favor of. MOTION TO SUBSTITUTE: Councilor Clark, seconded by Councilor Semple, moved to substitute the language that he emailed for those places in the resolution so that the council might have a unanimous vote. MINUTES – Eugene City Council July 24, 2019 Page 2 Work Session Council Discussion o Councilor Clark – clarified language proposed because he had put forth multiple options,choosing Republic in the first instance and emphasizing in the second; said he thinks it’simportant to make this statement and wants to vote in favor of the resolution afterremoving areas that are condemning people’s beliefs; read the proposed changes: o All mentions of us as a Democracy be changed to a Constitutional Republic. (or a Republic) o Item C - Replace “...the belief that...” with "...the promotion of the idea that…" o Item D - Strike “and alt-right” and “many of which have been emboldened by the nationalpolitical dialogue.” o Item E - Replace the word “maintaining” with the word “promoting” or “emphasizing”. o Item H - Strike all that begins with “For example……(begin again with)…..The State ofOregon also has…" o Councilor Pryor – said it feels as if the council will be saying that they want to condemnracism and racist actions, but that it’s okay to be a racist and that sits uncomfortably withhim because there are certain things that it’s not okay to be; said that in the current politicalclimate being a racist is very difficult to hide because it comes out in words and if you arethe group in power saying things about groups not in power, that in its nature isintimidating and needs to be condemned. o Councilor Syrett – said she could support the motion with all proposed changes except thestriking of the word “maintaining” because she believes the purpose and scope of whitesupremacy is to maintain that regime; said that we should not make space in ourcommunity to accommodate or tolerate the robust expression of beliefs such as whitesupremacy and does not want to be silent or timid in the face of these beliefs. o Councilor Clark and Semple accepted Councilor Syrett’s suggestion as a friendlyamendment. o Councilor Clark – said he would be willing to give up changing all mentions of “Democracy”to help meet in the middle. o Councilor Taylor –said that when people have to hide something, it becomes moredangerous. o Councilor Zelenka – said he was bothered by two of the changed proposals, includingstriking “many of which have been emboldened by the national political dialogue” notingthat this conversation is happening because of the national political dialogue; said he couldsee the problem with the wording in Item H implying that white supremacist groups calledfor the deportation of Japanese-Americans following Pearl Harbor. o Councilor Pryor proposed amending the substitute motion to read, “Extreme racialprejudice resulted in the deportation of Japanese-Americans following Pearl Harbor…” inItem H. o Councilor Clark and Councilor Semple accepted Councilor Pryor’s proposal as a friendlyamendment. o Councilor Zelenka – supported the friendly amendment but is still bothered by striking textabout the national political dialogue. o Mayor Vinis proposed rewording the sentence in Item D to read, “We recognize that therehas been a rise of white nationalist and white supremacist groups in the United States, andthat the national dialogue reflects that racist tension.” o Councilor Clark and Councilor Semple accepted Mayor Vinis’ proposed rewording as afriendly amendment. o Councilor Yeh – said she was not comfortable striking the sentence, “Today, whitesupremacy groups, including militias, are advocating for the apprehension, detention anddeportation of Central American refugees legally seeking asylum in the United States.” o Councilor Clark – said he had a problem with the statement that anyone who believes indeportation of illegal immigrants is a racist. MINUTES – Eugene City Council July 24, 2019 Page 3 Work Session o Councilor Yeh – reiterated her opposition to striking this sentence or striking reference to“alt-right” groups; proposed rewording the sentence in Item H to read, “Today, groups areadvocating for the apprehension, detention and deportation of Central American refugeeslegally seeking asylum in the United States.” o Councilor Clark and Councilor Semple accepted Councilor Yeh’s rewording as a friendlyamendment. o Councilor Taylor – proposed postponing this item because she objected to re-writing theresolution language in this way at the table. o Councilor Zelenka – asked clarifying questions about postponing motions to reconsider;said it was important that if they’re spending time amending the resolution, they’re doing itto get to a unanimous decision; shared concerns that Councilor Taylor’s suggestion topostpone the item might mean she won’t vote in favor of the amended resolution. o Councilor Taylor – said she would prefer to consider the amendments thoroughly and voteon the resolution after break because this process was messy. VOTE ON SUBSTITUTE MOTION (with friendly amendments): PASSED 7:0. VOTE ON MAIN MOTION AS SUBSTITUTED: PASSED 7:0. o Mayor Vinis – said this was an important conversation to have but encouraged councilors INthe future to make edits to a proposed resolution in advance and not during a City Councilmeeting. 2.WORK SESSION: Implementation of Construction Excise Tax and Use of Affordable Housing Trust FundsCommunity Development Director Michael Kinnison, Grants Manager Stephanie Jennings, andBuilding Permit Services Director Lydia Kaye provided an update on the Construction ExciseTax (CET), a timeline for its implementation, and the outcomes and potential focus areas for useof CET funds.Council Discussion o Councilor Clark – asked staff about the pilot assistance program; talked about his challengeswith the Construction Excise Tax because it makes housing more expensive and generatesmore rental housing instead of home ownership; said he would prefer to make it easier forlow-income folks to buy homes and would support 15 percent or more of residential CETrevenue set aside for down payment assistance. o Councilor Syrett – said she liked the makeup of the proposed committee; asked who thecommittee would be making recommendations to; said her priority focus areas are includedon the proposed list, including both renter and homeowner assistance; asked if this fundingcould be used for permanent supportive housing; said she supported this fund because ofits flexibility and will be looking for creativity in the recommendations from the advisorycommittee and staff to make the best use of CET dollars. o Councilor Zelenka – asked about the status of the renter protections task force and surveyand how that gets integrated into this process; talked about the affordable housing taskforce group and their focus on more affordable housing, noting very few people in thatgroup were renters so the focus was not on renter protections; said he thinks this moneyshould be focused on people not losing their homes with assistance to renters andhomebuyers, including help with down payments, rental deposits, housing navigators, and asingle rental application process. o Councilor Yeh – agreed that the money should be focused on the three proposed potentialfocus areas and that the City should be looking at setting aside more than 15 percent of the MINUTES – Eugene City Council July 24, 2019 Page 4 Work Session residential revenue for down payment assistance; asked what a housing consumer advocate is; said that it would be helpful if the recommendations were created within some context related to other programs. o Councilor Pryor – said his main interest in approving the CET was to provide flexibility andoptions for spending the money; however, more options means having to decide where thatmoney is and isn’t going; said he wanted the fact that housing needs in Eugene are not staticor one-size fits all to be considered; said one of his intentions is that the CET funding couldbe leveraged with other sources of funds to create a bigger impact. o Councilor Taylor – pointed out that no additional money would be coming in for the firsttwo years; said that helping with down payments and first and last month’s rent is crucial. o Councilor Zelenka – clarified that the SDC offset with general fund money is only temporaryfor two years and additional money will come in the third year; talked about how manypeople are housing burdened in Eugene and the need to educate people about helpfulhousing programs; said he thinks this money should be a source for the renter protectionscommittee recommendations. o Councilor Syrett – asked about additional outreach and engagement happening with rentalhousing fund money; agreed with Councilor Yeh that it would be helpful to have context forrecommendations that are proposed, including existing programs and how they connect. o Mayor Vinis – said part of the pressure on renters is that the short supply of housing isdriving prices up; said that remediation and protection for renters is critical, but so is thesupply and the need to build more affordable housing. o Councilor Zelenka – asked if there was a method in place to track the number of housingunits built since the implementation of the CET; said he wants to be able to point to theincremental changes made by implementing the CET; supported making it clear what theCity Council priorities were. MOTION: Councilor Zelenka, seconded by Councilor Clark, moved that the vast majority of the CET funds be used on direct assistance to renters and homebuyers with at least 15 percent of the residential CET revenue set aside for down payment assistance. o Councilor Syrett – shared concerns about precluding the advisory committee from comingback with recommendations that might not line up with this motion; asked if City Councilcould change the spending ratio with a future motion o Councilor Clark – talked about wanting to increase assistance for low-income individuals tohelp people buy homes rather than rent them; said the community is skewed towards a highnumber of rentals and HB 2001 will make it even more skewed; noted that prices won’t godown as more units are created. o Councilor Pryor – said the flexibility of the CET funds is one of its strong suits andsupported going thorough more of a process and getting more feedback before narrowingdown the focus area for the money. o Councilor Zelenka – clarified that his motion directs a majority of the money in onedirection but leaves flexibility for the rest of the funds; said he wants to give the committeethat will be formed in August some clear direction from City Council. VOTE ON MOTION: PASSED 4:3, Councilors Semple, Syrett, and Pryor opposed. MOTION AND VOTE: Councilor Pryor, seconded by Councilor Yeh, moved to extend the meeting by 10 minutes. PASSED 5:2, Councilors Zelenka and Clark opposed.