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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCC Minutes - 06/08/09 Work SessionMINUTES City Council McNutt Room — Eugene City Hall 777 Pearl Street — Eugene, Oregon June 8, 2009 5:30 p.m. PRESENT: Chris Pryor, Betty Taylor, Jennifer Solomon, George Poling, Andrea Ortiz, Alan Zelenka, George Brown, members. ABSENT: Mike Clark. 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 Mayor Piercy introduced new Police Auditor Mark Gissiner, who introduced his wife Cheryl. Mr. Gissiner thanked the council and Mayor for their confidence and expressed appreciation for the welcome he had received from Eugene residents. He was pleased to be in Eugene and looked forward to embarking on the work of the Police Auditor's Office. He expressed admiration for the community's activism and the council's engagement. Mayor Piercy reported that a bill addressing the problem of metal theft had recently passed the State legislature. She thanked Representative Nancy Nathanson and Senator Floyd Prozanski as well as City staff for their work on the bill. Mayor Piercy announced her upcoming attendance at the Whiteaker Community Council meeting. She commended the recent First Friday Art Walk and said that as a result of that and the Bite of Eugene event, downtown Eugene was very busy. Mayor Piercy thanked Scott Olmos and the Eugene Fire Fighters for the opportunity to participate in the "Fire Ops 101" event held June 6. She also thanked the residents of the Trainsong neighborhood for their successful neighborhood cleanup. Mayor Piercy reported that she had talked to Valerie Jarrett of the Obama administration about health care and would share the information she received with the council. Mayor Piercy concluded by reporting that at the last City Club meeting, she had presented the 2009 Arts Foundation of Western Oregon's Bishop Arts & Letters Award to Emerald City Jazz Kings Artistic Director Stephen Stone. Ms. Solomon reported that June 17 was the next general meeting of the Active Bethel Citizens (ABC) at 7:00 p.m. at Petersen Park. The ABC had a full agenda and she anticipated it would be a good meeting. She said the ABC newsletter was very informative and she shared an item from the newsletter regarding the establishment of a community veterinarian service established in partnership with St. Vincent de Paul intended to serve low- income clients. Ms. Solomon noted the upcoming grand opening of Golden Gardens Park on June 25. Mr. Brown thanked Fire Chief Randy Groves and members of Local 851 of the International Association of Fire Fighters for providing the council with the opportunity to participate in "Fire Ops 101" and said his admiration and respect for the job they did, which was already strong, had gone up several notches. He said participants had learned in tiny measure what the fire fighters did every day. MINUTES —City Council June 8, 2009 Page 1 Mr. Poling congratulated the Thurston High School men's baseball team for winning the Oregon State Athletic Association (OSAA) Class 5A baseball championship, and also congratulated the Marist High School women's softball team for winning the OSAA Class 4A softball championship. He recognized Kayla Brand of Marist for a hitting streak of 103 consecutive baseball games. Mr. Poling noted his attendance at the May 28 reception honoring the service of outgoing University of Oregon President David Frohnmayer and his wife Lynn. He also noted his attendance at the recent Fire EMS graduation class and thanked the new class for its decision to work for the City. He regretted his inability to attend Fire Ops 101 and hoped to get another chance. Mr. Poling said he recently received a call from a resident of the south hills about banning fireworks and asked if the City planned to do anything in that regard. Mr. Poling reported on the most recent meeting of Lane Transit District's EmX Steering Committee, saying the committee heard that LTD received $3.2 million in federal stimulus money for capital improvements. The Gateway EmX station recently served its first bus for training purposes, and the grand opening of the station was June 14. He said that Wildish was the general contractor for the Gateway EmX route extension. He said the project was on schedule and the new buses for the route would be delivered in late summer or early fall ahead of route completion. The steering committee also heard an update on a council and LTD Board of Directors work session and a report on BLIMP (Bus Lane with Intermittent Priorities), a bus signalization system. Mr. Poling reported on a meeting that occurred at the Willakenzie Grange on June 5 for the purpose of discussing an affordable housing project being built. He said that 15 -20 people attended to discuss the Request for Proposals process. Residents had expressed their concerns and there was dialogue between staff and residents. He thanked Planner Bill Almquist for updating him about the event. He advised the residents of the area to stay involved to ensure the historic character of the neighborhood was preserved. Mr. Pryor said he enjoyed Fire Ops 101 and it was a way to get a small sampling of what the fire fighters really do. He said that Ms. Ortiz was also in attendance and had helped to get things organized. It was a great event. Mr. Pryor said he planned to go on a police ride -along soon. Mr. Pryor had also attended the event for President Frohnmayer and thought that the community was fortunate to have him as a resident. Ms. Ortiz had also attended President Frohnmayer's reception and had been impressed by the work both he and his wife had done. Ms. Ortiz said that she had been unable to attend the last meeting of the Lane Regional Air Protection Agency but had some concerns about that agency's budget process. She had hoped for a more inclusive and open process, but that had not occurred, and she wanted the council to be aware of her concerns. Ms. Ortiz had also attended the Fire Ops 101 event and said the fire fighters took pride in their work and enjoyed sharing what they did with the council. Ms. Ortiz said she had attended the We Are Bethel Celebration the previous week, which had grown over the eight years it had been in existence and was a really family- focused event. Ms. Ortiz said the Trainsong "Clean Sweep" was a very successful event. She looked forward to anything the MINUTES —City Council June 8, 2009 Page 2 manager could share about the follow -up to the event. Ms. Ortiz had attended the groundbreaking for the Sponsors house on Highway 99 and it had been a good event with much community support. She said it was good to see the dreams of those with the desire to help others come to fruition. She commended the Sponsors Board of Directors and staff. Ms. Ortiz invited the council to a barbeque celebrating the Trainsong Neighborhood on June 13 at Trainsong Park. Ms. Taylor recalled her own participation in a previous Fire Ops 101 and said she would have attended again had she been in Eugene that weekend. However, she had a family conflict. Ms. Taylor noted the upcoming Southeast Neighbors meeting at Spencer Butte School on June 7. Ms. Taylor noted that Wade Hicks of the City's Minutes Recording staff was appearing as the lead in Humble Boy at the Very Little Theater. She encouraged people to support the arts in Eugene. Ms. Taylor spoke to the subject of street assessments and said she was glad to hear the City had received lower bids. She hoped to find ways to help people pay those assessments this year. She observed that she had talked with an engineer from St. Louis who had never heard of assessing abutting properties for such improvements. Ms. Taylor reported on her recent attendance at the National League of Cities Human Development Steering Committee. She said the committee had heard that the National League of Cities lobbyist and staff were very pleased with the new administration and were being invited to meetings at the White House and their opinions on issues solicited. Ms. Taylor said that the committee had appointed a subcommittee to track health care legislation and its focus this year was on reauthorization of the Work Force Reinvestment Act. She had heard interesting ideas, such as co- locating the work force investment board with unemployment offices. The committee was also working to get local work force investment boards more flexibility in how they spent money. Ms. Taylor said the committee was also working on efforts to reintegrate veterans into their communities and the prevention of unplanned and teen -aged pregnancy. Mr. Zelenka had also attended the Fire Ops 101 and thanked the fire fighters for attending on their own time. He said their work was hard, dark and dangerous to a greater degree than he realized. He said as a result of his participation, he had come to the realization that fire fighters' work was equipment- intensive and having good equipment was very important, that repeated training was extremely important for fire fighters and that firefighters depended on team work to save lives. Mr. Zelenka noted that many donated materials went into fire fighter training and said that spoke well both of the community and the resourcefulness of the fire department. Mr. Zelenka said he attended the West University Neighborhood meeting, which included an extensive discussion of the future of City Hall and how the neighborhood organization could be involved in any future planning processes. Mr. Zelenka announced the Glenwood Hazardous Roundup on June 13 and reported the Amazon Neighbors also planned a recycle -reuse roundup. Mr. Zelenka said he heard a statistic that indicated 60 percent of individual bankruptcies were due to medical costs, which was a number he found surprising as well as a reason to change the nation's health care system to a more universal system. MINUTES —City Council June 8, 2009 Page 3 For the benefit of those who were unemployed or laid off, Mr. Zelenka shared the Lane Workforce Partnership assistance line, 682 -7200, and encouraged residents to call for help to take advantage of the federal grants the agency received to support job training. Responding to a question from Mayor Piercy about the follow -up to the Trainsong neighborhood clean -up, which was not completed because the clean -up exceeded the tipping fee waiver the neighborhood had received, City Manager Jon Ruiz indicated much of the debris had been picked up by residents and the remaining debris would be picked up by the weekend. City Manager Ruiz announced that the City had a booth at the last First Friday event to commence public discussion on a new police facility and announced that several more would occur, on June 22 and June 25 at the Atrium Building and one on June 22 at the Sheldon Community Center. City Manager Ruiz thanked Petersen Barn staff for their work on the We are Bethel Celebration, saying it was a growing and fun event that residents enjoyed. He had also attended the Fire Ops 101 event and thanked the fire fighters. He said that the department was a good one with excellent leadership from the chief down to the captains. He thought that was demonstrated during the event. He believed that it was comforting to the community to have such well- trained fire fighters. City Manager Ruiz said he had attended the last Santa Clara community organization meeting, which enjoyed a good turn-out. He had also attended the Sponsors event mentioned by Ms. Ortiz and commended the good work the organization was doing. City Manager Ruiz noted his recent attendance at the Prefontaine Classic and commended the quality of the event, which was nationally televised. He said it was a great way to bring the community together. City Manager Ruiz noted the Eugene Police Department's recent three -day workshop, which he termed a worthwhile investment in time and resources. Ms. Ortiz thanked Dr. Gary Young of PeaceHealth for his recent letter -to- the - editor, published in the June 7 edition of The Register -Guard entitled EMS System Needs Support. She said that Dr. Young's letter encouraged people to get involved. Ms. Ortiz also noted the Mayor's recent op -ed piece on the Seneca biomass project and the accidental omission of the last sentence, which she asked Mayor Piercy to share. Mayor Piercy said the article omitted that she planned to ask Seneca to work with other local businesses and with the neighborhood groups to get the air quality monitoring system in place that everyone had wanted to have in place for such a long time. B. WORK SESSION: Boards, Commissions, and Committees On behalf of the City Council, Mayor Piercy thanked the many volunteers who served on City boards and commissions. City Manager's Office Division Manager Kell Osborn and Council Coordinator Beth Forrest joined the council for the item. Ms. Osborn indicated the work session was an opportunity for staff to solicit feedback on several issues from the council. She indicated staff was seeking council direction in three areas: 1. Representation; 2. Board, commission, and committee member development; and MINUTES —City Council June 8, 2009 Page 4 3. Recruitment and selection. Ms. Osborn noted the outcomes identified by staff in the Agenda Item Summary (AIS) related to the three topic areas. The outcome for representation included that the makeup of advisory groups should, over time, represent the richness of the community's perspectives, neighborhoods, and population demographics. The outcome for member development spoke to the provision of additional training and support for existing members as well as through the community to develop more potential members for boards and commissions. The outcome recruitment and selection spoke to continued refinement of City communication procedures to help ensure that outreach, recruitment, interviews, selection, and appointments were fair, transparent, and civil. Ms. Osborn invited feedback on the suggested outcomes, noting the pending boards and commissions recruitment season. Ms. Solomon, who had requested the work session, recalled the last boards and commissions interviews process, which had served as an impetus to her request. She hoped the council had a discussion of specific process improvements rather than a general discussion. She thought the current process could be improved considerably. Ms. Solomon identified her areas of interest as 1) an improved computer application process, and she noted the progress that had been made and suggested that the council needed to further refine the questions; 2) a different start date for the terms of board and commission members of July 1, and she suggested that the council extend the terms of existing members to accommodate that change; and 3) a change to the application process based on the system used by School District 4.1 that allowed each applicant three minutes to speak to convince the council of their suitability for the job, with the decision to happen the same evening. She suggested that would be a shorter and more efficient process. Ms. Ortiz was intrigued by Ms. Solomon's suggestion for the process. She thought the application forms and interview questions were redundant and, given that each commission had its own criteria for membership, she did not think the form should include any questions. She wanted only information about the individual's ability to satisfy the time commitment required. She suggested that each board and commission could recommend selection criteria that were relevant to their body. Ms. Ortiz wanted to include youth in the categories for outreach. She also suggested the potential of a boards and commissions "boot camp." Mayor Piercy said she was bothered that applicants did not get information about the outcome of the application in a timely fashion. She thought the City should send each applicant a thank -you note for applying, and that should be done even if the applicant was not chosen for a position. Mayor Piercy noted the mention in the AIS of a Citizens Academy, which was of long- standing interest to Ms. Taylor, and thanked staff for acknowledging Ms. Taylor's interest. Ms. Taylor thought that changing the start time for all new terms would be appropriate, although she had been going to suggest January as the new start date. Ms. Taylor emphasized her interest in a Citizens Academy. She suggested that the City's former Citizen Involvement Committee (CIC) had served as a useful "training ground" for residents who later went on to serve on other boards and commissions. Ms. Taylor wanted to have interview questions well in advance so the councilors could make revisions and address the redundancies mentioned by Ms. Ortiz. MINUTES —City Council June 8, 2009 Page 5 Mr. Pryor appreciated Ms. Solomon's suggestions. He agreed that all members of boards and commissions should start at the same time and endorsed the July date mentioned by Ms. Solomon. He also supported holding a Citizens Academy or orientation of some sort and suggested that could occur in July as well. He believed an orientation was crucial to new members' success and their ability to serve effectively. He said the school district's system worked because by the time the council got to the three - minute presentation, it had considerable information from the application, making the application itself more critical. He believed the presentation merely solidified the application. Mr. Pryor wanted to ensure that applications were made available as widely as possible and commended the current display ads in the newspaper. He suggested that parent- teacher site councils could also be used to spread the word and stressed the importance of making the application process easier. He said the on -line process could be critical to realizing that goal. He thought the council should fine -tune the existing process to make the recruitment effort as broad as possible. Mr. Zelenka spoke to the recruitment process, calling for more and different outreach. He noted the narrow demographics of City boards and commissions but acknowledged it was difficult to secure more diversity when applicants were self - selected and some areas of the community were more inclined to apply than residents of other areas. However, he did not want to change that because he did not think it could be changed. Mr. Zelenka liked the idea of having people making short presentations. He did not get much value from the questions currently being asked. He thought all candidates should appear at the same meeting. However, that required more homework on the part of both the council and the applicants. He suggested that the council could require a resume or the City could provide a one -page form for applicants to complete that served the same function. Mr. Zelenka thought the council needed to notify applicants more quickly in regard to whether they had been selected. Mr. Zelenka spoke of the council's interaction with its boards and commissions, suggesting that the current level of interaction was unsatisfactory. He proposed that the council might want to schedule regular quarterly half - hour work sessions with all its boards and commissions, as well as require more regular written reports. Mr. Poling determined from Ms. Ortiz that her remarks about the criteria had been focused on the application forms and her concerns about redundancy, but she envisioned the same type of voting process the council currently employed. Mr. Poling suggested the council could modify the questions on the application forms but he did not envision a significant change in the current preliminary screening process. He supported the idea of a three- to five- minute applicant presentation but did not think the council should vote on the applicants that same evening. He wanted more time to think about the applicants and perhaps compare notes with other councilors before making a decision at the next meeting. Mr. Poling agreed with Mr. Zelenka that the time for making a decision needed to be shortened. He agreed with Ms. Solomon's recommendation for a July 1 start date for all terms, particularly for Budget Committee members, pointing out that in the current system, they were "thrown right into the fray." He also concurred with Ms. Solomon's suggestion that the terms of current boards and commissions members could be extended to accommodate the change. MINUTES —City Council June 8, 2009 Page 6 Mr. Zelenka thought July 1 was a logical start date but he was somewhat concerned about the timing of the date given its proximity to the budget process. He suggested that the selection process could occur in a compressed period after or before the budget process. Mr. Zelenka also liked the idea of a Citizens Academy, and endorsed the idea of resurrecting the CIC. He thought the CIC had helped to secure "more and better" citizen involvement from those not generally involved in government affairs, which was something the City and every government agency struggled with. He suggested that "throwing some smart people" from a perspective different than that of the bureaucracy or the council at the problem could be useful. Mr. Zelenka reminded the council of the requests for interaction the council received from its different commit- tees on a regular basis. He noted the council's existing work load and said it was impossible for the council to add more meetings, and reiterated his previous suggestion for a more formalized quarterly meeting process. Ms. Ortiz proposed that the council adopt Ms. Solomon's proposal for the upcoming boards and commissions process, and that the change in dates be shared with the candidates. Ms. Ortiz suggested that the City condition funding for newsletters on the publication of City openings on boards and commissions. She suggested that a City staff person could attend neighborhood organization meetings and encourage residents to apply for City vacancies. Ms. Taylor said that she envisioned a Citizens' Academy as a place where people could learn about local government and perhaps become motivated to apply to serve on a board or commission. Ms. Taylor recalled that the former CIC had included residents from the Voters' Pool, and many were individuals who had never before thought of getting involved in City government. They had remained involved after their service on the CIC. Ms. Taylor thought that was a valuable aspect to that committee. Mr. Pryor suggested that the council could take advantage of existing programs such as the Eugene - Springfield Chambers of Commerce Leadership Program. He described the program and noted that it had graduated more than 400 people. He suggested the City could provide some support for additional people to be trained through that program, which could be modified to give volunteers the program essentials. Ms. Solomon noted her own participation in the chamber program and thanked Mr. Pryor for mentioning it. She also thanked Ms. Ortiz for her support. She asked if councilors were interested in changing the interview process before the next application cycle. Mr. Zelenka indicated interest in changing both the start date and process but continued to be concerned about the proximity between the budget process and suggested start date of July 1. He also liked the idea of shorter interviews, perhaps including one or two questions from the council, with a short presentation for applicants. He also thought that required the candidate to provide more information in the application. Ms. Solomon concurred. She said the council needed a fuller application with better questions and asked staff to look into the school district's process as a starting point for future discussion. She suggested the possibility of eliminating the scheduled October recruitment to avoid the problem of terms that expired in June, and postponing the recruitment to the spring. Ms. Osborn indicated that some ordinance changes would likely be required to accommodate the council's suggestions. MINUTES —City Council June 8, 2009 Page 7 Ms. Taylor suggested that if terms were to begin in July, recruitment should begin in January. She questioned whether anyone would bother applying in October if they knew their terms would expire in June. She preferred to extend the current members' terms. While he continued to support the July 1 start date, Mr. Zelenka believed that recruitment and selection should start in the winter and be complete by the time the budget process started. Mayor Piercy hoped that any new member orientation included discussion of the goals and strategies of the City so that members were "in sync" with where the City was going, no matter what commission they served on. Mayor Piercy agreed with Mr. Zelenka that the council could have shorter conversations more often with members of its boards and commissions. She thought that both the council and its advisory groups would benefit. C. WORK SESSION: City Manager Annual Performance Review The council was joined by Alana Holmes and Denise Smith of Central Services -Human Resources, who were present to discuss the process for the upcoming evaluation of the City Manager. Councilors shared feedback about the proposal. Mayor Piercy adjourned the work session at 7:20 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Jon Ruiz, City Manager (Recorded by Kimberly Young) MINUTES —City Council June 8, 2009 Page 8