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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCC Minutes - 07/22/09 Work SessionMINUTES Eugene City Council Work Session McNutt Room – City Hall 777 Pearl Street — Eugene, Oregon July 22, 2009 12:00 p.m. COUNCILORS PRESENT: Chris Pryor, Mike Clark, George Poling, Betty Taylor, Alan Zelenka, Jennifer Solomon, George Brown, Andrea Ortiz. Ms. Piercy called the work session of the Eugene City Council to order at 12:30 p.m. A. WORK SESSION – City Manager Annual Performance Review Ms. Piercy stated that the work session discussion of the City Manager's annual performance review was to serve as a formal follow -up to the informal discussions held during the council's executive session. Ms. Piercy was pleased to see that the results of Mr. Ruiz's evaluation had indicated that he had either met or exceeded the expectations of the Mayor and the City Council. Ms. Piercy further noted that she appreciated Mr. Ruiz's efforts to connect with a wide variety of community members as well as his efforts to improve the City's overall relationships with its community partners. Ms. Piercy appreciated Mr. Ruiz's ongoing work regarding the City's budget gap as well as the values that he had brought into that process. She further maintained that his approach to shrink the City's financial footprint rather than to eliminate services was the right course of action to take. Mr. Zelenka felt that Mr. Ruiz had done an excellent job as City Manager over the past year and appreciated how he had dealt expediently and forthrightly with a number of crucial issues the City had faced during that time. He further noted that the level of communication between the council, staff, and executive team had improved greatly during Mr. Ruiz's tenure. Mr. Zelenka looked forward to Mr. Ruiz's continuing work regarding matters related to the new police auditor as well as a variety of issues pertaining to the Eugene Police Department and the EPD's interac- tions with the community -at- large. Mr. Zelenka hoped that Mr. Ruiz would continue to focus on a variety of issues regarding transportation funding throughout the City. Ms. Solomon arrived to the meeting at 12:36 p.m. Ms. Taylor spoke favorably of Mr. Ruiz's performance as City Manager and noted that she appreciated his attitude as well as his sense of humor. Ms. Taylor believed that Mr. Ruiz should have been more supportive of the interim police auditor and shown a greater level of concern regarding the mistreatment of citizens involved in public demonstrations. MINUTES— Eugene City Council July 22, 2009 Page 1 Work Session Ms. Taylor appreciated that Mr. Ruiz had been working to find ways to ensure the success of the Beam development project downtown but felt that he might have been more conscientious in how he had relayed certain elements of the progress of the Beam project and other projects to the council. Ms. Taylor appreciated that Mr. Ruiz had made himself very accessible to the council and the community since taking over as City Manager. Ms. Ortiz agreed with several comments in support of Mr. Ruiz's performance as City Manager made by Ms. Piercy, Mr. Zelenka, and Ms. Taylor, but hoped that he might be more proactive in bringing items of concern to the council's attention. Ms. Ortiz cited the recent Human Rights Commission office relocation from their Willamette Street location to the Atrium Building in this regard. Ms. Ortiz felt that the public did not generally understand much of the managerial language or culture that Mr. Ruiz employed in his position, such as the notion of using triple bottom -line assessments, and hoped he would endeavor to address such deficiencies in the future. Ms. Ortiz appreciated how Mr. Ruiz had looked "outside the box" with respect to the investigations into a new police facility and other matters. Mr. Pryor was glad to see that Mr. Ruiz possessed both the temperament and the skill set to succeed and prosper in his position. Mr. Pryor hoped that the levels of trust, communication and interaction between the City Manager, the staff and the council would continue to improve. Mr. Poling appreciated the relationships and the communications that Mr. Ruiz had developed during his tenure as City Manager and believed that his involvement in community issues such as downtown development and the City's budget had been highly admirable. Mr. Poling felt that the manner in which the City Manager's evaluation had been conducted had been very efficient in that it had employed a variety of information and feedback from City employees, the executive team and community members. Mr. Poling further noted that he appreciated that the evaluation process for Mr. Ruiz had been specifically based on issues related to the City Manager's office rather than on personal attacks or political agendas as Mr. Poling believed had been done in the past. Mr. Brown appreciated that Mr. Ruiz had been proactive in reaching out to various areas of the community and also how it appeared to be much easier than before to obtain information from the City staff. Ms. Solomon appreciated the work that Mr. Ruiz had done regarding the police facility as well as the fact that Mr. Ruiz and his staff had made significant headway regarding local transportation funding issues. Mr. Clark believed that certain areas of Mr. Ruiz's communications could stand improvement but also wished to compliment Mr. Ruiz on his efforts to increase the quality of communication in the City's government on a number of levels. Mr. Clark noted that Mr. Ruiz had done an exceptional job at recognizing very important issues for the City and addressing them before they became significant problems. Mr. Ruiz felt that Eugene was a great community and appreciated the "talent- rich" staff for their efforts. MINUTES— Eugene City Council July 22, 2009 Page 2 Work Session Ms. Piercy recognized that Mr. Ruiz had addressed certain open space acquisition issues immediately upon assuming his duties as City Manager and had been very proactive with respect to matters related to the EPD and the City's police auditor hiring process. Ms. Piercy asked Mr. Ruiz to set another set of goals for himself as the City Manager over the next year and further requested that he communicate those goals to the council. Ms. Piercy recognized Mr. Ruiz's recommendation that the compensation discussion regarding his position be waived for the current year. Mr. Zelenka, seconded by Mr. Clark, moved to accept the City Manager's rec- ommendation and waive the compensation discussion this year. Ms. Piercy, responding to a comment from Mr. Zelenka, noted that the goal- setting language and the date certain regarding same as listed in the agenda item summary materials was not being included in the current motion. Ms. Piercy called for a vote on Mr. Zelenka's previously stated motion. The mo- tion passed unanimously, 8:0. B. WORK SESSION – Eugene Comprehensive Lands Assessment (ECLA) Planning Director Lisa Gardner noted that the staff update to be presented regarding the ECLA process would emphasize a review of residential lands in order to establish the full set of information needed to determine the overall demand for land in the area. Associate Planner Jason Dedrick presented information regarding the ECLA process which he noted helped demonstrate and determine Eugene's need for residential, employment, and public /semi - public land over the next 20 years. Mr. Dedrick briefly reviewed the baseline assumptions of the ECLA process. Mr. Dedrick reminded the council that the review of public /semi - public land needs data through the ECLA process had been presented to them in April of 2009. Mr. Dedrick commented that the figures demonstrating the employment redevelopment land need as demonstrated in his presentation materials were based on the forecasts of other cities for their redevelop- ment. He noted that this was primarily due to the City's lack of extensive data regarding the redevelopment of lands for employment purposes. Mr. Dedrick noted that the City's total employment land need for the next 20 years was approximately 900 acres, but noted that number was likely to be adjusted based on reviews of special land needs and the current available land supply. Mr. Dedrick briefly described the various components of the City's residential redevelopment land needs determined through the ECLA process including the estimates for population growth and housing density in the area. MINUTES— Eugene City Council July 22, 2009 Page 3 Work Session Mr. Dedrick reported that the City's total residential land need for the next 20 years was approximately 2,400 acres but noted that number was likely to be adjusted based on a review of the current available land supply. Mr. Dedrick noted that further information regarding the City's land needs was expected to be presented to the council in September of 2009 in order for staff to make the final ECLA determinations by the end of the year. Mr. Dedrick, responding to a question from Mr. Clark, noted that the City's currently available supply of both residential and employment land would potentially be affected by infill compatibility standards reviews. Ms. Gardner anticipated that final recommendations regarding the infill compatibility standards would be presented to the council in November or December of 2009. Ms. Gardner, responding to a question from Mr. Clark, noted that PSU population statistics recently adopted by Lane County had been used in the City's ECLA process rather than "safe harbor" population statistics and that the joint elected officials from Eugene, Springfield, and Lane County would be holding a public hearing on September 21 to discuss population statistics relating to land development in greater detail. Deputy City Attorney Emily Jerome commented that safe harbor population figures were used in the absence of any coordinated population forecasts from Lane County Mr. Dedrick, responding to a question from Mr. Clark, noted that the number of bedrooms in residential dwellings had not been incorporated into the statistical analysis of the residential development land needs but did not rule out the use of such data as the ECLA process progressed. Mr. Clark asked if the staff presentations to the council regarding the ECLA process in September would include any discussion of restrictions placed on particular parcels of land. Mr. Dedrick answered that staff would be presenting further information on committed and protected lands which were considered separate from developable lands. Mr. Dedrick, responding to a question from Mr. Zelenka, noted that further information regarding the infill compatibility standards could potentially affect some of the baseline assumptions of the ECLA process. Mr. Zelenka maintained that it might make more sense to initially assume flat employment growth with respect to the ECLA process rather than the 1.4% listed in the ECLA: Baseline Assumptions report. Ms. Taylor hoped staff would continue to consider the City's sustainability goals and policies with respect to the land needs specified in the ECLA process and further hoped that staff would work to include input from the community advisory committee. Ms. Taylor hoped staff might also consider supply -side issues related to residential redevelopment lands. Mr. Dedrick responded that such analysis would be highly speculative in that it would need to consider how much redevelopment might occur in a given area. Mr. Dedrick, responding to a question from Ms. Taylor, noted that staff was requesting council to accept the information included in the ECONorthwest report included in the agenda item summary as the baseline assumptions for further investigations into the City's land needs. MINUTES— Eugene City Council July 22, 2009 Page 4 Work Session Ms. Taylor noted that she would like to see a minority report to counter the ECONorthwest report and felt that the community advisory committee had been too heavily weighted with members of the business and land development community. Mr. Dedrick, responding to a question from Ms. Taylor, noted that staff was not necessarily seeking a formal adoption of the ECONorthwest report from the council but rather an indication as to whether or not the staff's interpretation of the findings of the report seemed reasonable. Mr. Pryor expressed that it was important for the ECLA data to be accurate, clear and justifiable with respect to the City's future land needs. He noted that he was comfortable endorsing the current trajectory of the staff's interpretations of the ECLA report but only with the caveat that staff continued to make those interpretations as reasonable and supportable as possible. Mr. Dedrick, responding to a question from Mr. Pryor, noted that staff was currently investigating the statutes whereby restricted lands might be classified as buildable and would return to the council with further information in that regard in September. Mr. Zelenka suggested that the discussion regarding the ECLA process be continued to a future work session meeting before taking any of the actions that had been proposed or recommended. Mr. Clark agreed with Mr. Zelenka's suggestion. Mr. Ruiz commented that he would try and have staff present more information regarding the ECLA process to the council before their next break. Ms. Piercy adjourned the work session meeting at 1:31 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Jon Ruiz City Manager (Recorded by Wade Hicks) MINUTES— Eugene City Council July 22, 2009 Page 5 Work Session