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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCC Minutes - 09/28/09 Meeting M I N U T E S Eugene City Council City Council Chamber—City Hall—777 Pearl Street Eugene, Oregon September 28, 2009 7:30 p.m. COUNCILORS PRESENT: Alan Zelenka, Mike Clark, George Brown, Andrea Ortiz, George Poling, Chris Pryor, Jennifer Solomon, Betty Taylor. Her Honor Mayor Kitty Piercy called the meeting of the Eugene City Council to order. She welcomed the delegation of area high school students and their chaperones who visited Eugene’s Sister City Jinju, Korea during the summer. 1. PUBLIC FORUM Mayor Piercy reviewed procedures for providing comments. Ki Won Rhew , said that Jinju, Korea had been Eugene’s Sister City since 1961, and since 2002, there had been an annual exchange of high school students who stayed with host families during their visit. He said in August 2009, six Eugene high school students traveled to Korea and would speak to the council about their experiences. Dean Hale , Ward 4, Tandy Turn, Eugene, chaperoned the delegation to Jinju and reported that it was a very positive experience. He described preparations for the trip and said the students had conducted themselves with great poise, maturity, cultural sensitivity and personal warmth, and the community could be proud of them. He said the connections made through the cultural exchanges with sister cities brought many tangible and intangible benefits to the community. Kai Blumberg , Eugene, presented a gift to Mayor Piercy from the Jinju Sister City Commission. He described his experiences visiting market places and eating Korean food, which he found delightful. He said that the Korean people were very welcoming and kind. He thanked the Mayor and council for providing the students with the opportunity to visit Korea. Lydia Hale , Tandy Turn, Eugene, said her summer could be entitled “The Summer of Fish” because of her many experiences catching or buying, preparing and eating fish. She said that fish would be bought in the marketplace and taken to a restaurant to be cooked. She had a wonderful time in Korea and was thankful for the experience. Kaari Selven , Eugene, described her most memorable moments visiting a rock climbing gym and Korean school. She also visited a pottery studio and made bowls and cups using traditional techniques. She said teenagers had much in common despite different locations on the globe, although she was surprised that Korean students went to school 14 hours a day. She thanked the Mayor and council for providing her with the opportunity to travel to Korea. Lilia Pegeder , Eugene, said the trip had many scheduled activities, but she looked forward the most to spending time with her host sisters enjoying a variety of activities. She also took some traditional classes MINUTES—Eugene City Council September 28, 2009 Page 1 and tried to follow the movements of the instructors. She felt she gained sisters and a home-away-from- home during the trip and thanked the Mayor and council for the opportunity, which she highly recommended to other students. Calista Pegeder , Eugene, described her experiences in Seoul and said many people either walked or took the subway, which was always packed. She said one of the first activities in Jinju was tae kwon do lessons from an instructor who was training to become a master. She had a wonderful time and it was an once-in-a- lifetime experience for which she was grateful. Ari Hirschstein , Crest Drive, Eugene, said he was amazed at how modern Korea was as his previous travel experience had been in third world countries. He described his visit to one of the largest shopping malls in Korea, which contained skating rinks and a theme park. He said a presentation during the visit to Jinju stressed the importance of technology and interest in being known and having influence at the international level. He visited a museum with many beautiful objects and ancient artifacts. He thanked the Mayor and the council for making the experience possible. th Dennis Gabrielson , South 10 Street, Creswell, said he was a City employee and member of AFSCME (American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees). He spoke about the hostile work environment being created by mandatory furloughs. He asked if the council was aware of who City employees were out in the field. He said the combined years of service by employees who had been there five years or more totaled more than 7,000. He said the council did not see grievances, but the union was filing them. He felt the labor contract should be followed and as long as it was not he intended to file grievances. th Paul Conte , Ward 1, West 10 Avenue, Eugene, thanked the council for its action at the earlier work session. He was pleased with the invitation to members of the Citizen Advisory Committee (CAC) to the Eugene Comprehensive Lands Assessment (ECLA) process to provide input. Regarding the question about indeterminate designations, he would provide materials from the ECLA team that addressed the issue. He said that concerns about land deficiencies were not new and had been raised in fall 2008 when the process began. He said the planning director had assured the council there were experts on the ECLA team, but he questioned that expertise when redevelopment data was off by 200 dwelling units out of 722 on which the analysis was based. He said accurate data was easily obtained through building permits. Fred Hamlin , Eugene, expressed his admiration for the group of students who spoke. He spoke to the new program Eugene Counts and was encouraged with new revitalization efforts for the downtown area. He urged the council to return to the basics and clean up the downtown area first if the program was going to succeed. Laurie Rowe , Ward 4, Eugene, spoke to the agenda item related to approval of an affordable housing project on the Willakenzie site. She expressed concern that the zoning was residential - R-1, and calculated that would allow 42 units on the site; the proposal before the council was for 56 units. She felt that was too many units for the site and subsidies should make fewer units financially feasible. She said the City had indicated a desire to have “eyes on the park” as an element of a project on the site, but the proposal selected had fewer “eyes on the park” than the competing proposal, which also had fewer units. She questioned how an affordable housing project could place many more units on an acre than it was zoned for. Zachary Vishanoff , Ward 3, Eugene, thanked Councilor Taylor for supporting his suggestion that Planning Commission meetings be moved to the Library and broadcast. He had not received any responses from the Planning Commission about why the meetings should not be broadcast. He said during the commission’s MINUTES—Eugene City Council September 28, 2009 Page 2 meeting that morning the issue of form-based code prohibiting development of car-oriented business in the Walnut Station area, which would force residents to travel out of the neighborhood for those services. He said parking reductions of 50 to 75 percent on new development was also discussed and that would exacerbate parking problems that would arise with construction of the new arena and student housing. He said using eminent domain to seize property along the north and south sides of Franklin Boulevard for a multiway boulevard was always discussed and all of those issues were important to the public and should be televised. Richard Herman , Eugene, executive director of Metropolitan Affordable Housing, thanked the Allocation Subcommittee of the Housing Policy Board (HPB) and the board itself for selection of the Willakenzie Crossing affordable housing project. He said the review and selection process was very thorough and the questions being raised about the project had been addressed through that process. He said that 16 of the units in the project would include support services for those with developmental disabilities. He stated his organization’s commitment to working with neighbors and the Willakenzie Grange Hall and being sensitive to the historic significance of the grange. Design concepts honored the grange hall and the site and were responsive to neighbors’ concerns. Metropolitan Affordable Housing had been a good neighbor with all of its previous projects. He thanked the Mayor and council for their continued support of critically needed affordable housing. Kevin Matthews , Eugene, president of Friends of Eugene and Southeast Neighbors, said it was exciting to see the council engaged in the ECLA process. He hoped that the framework of collecting advisory committee comments within the next five days would not be misinterpreted as limiting future comments from the CAC. He said the consultant team was still in the process of working on accounting for actual mixed- use - commercial and residential - development and even though the CAC was not scheduled to meet again he hoped they would be able to review and comment on that work. Mayor Piercy closed the public forum and called for comments from the council. Councilor Clark thanked the students for sharing their experiences. He said there was no intent to limit future citizen input. He appreciated the comments regarding cleaning up downtown and intended to request a work session to discuss strategies. Councilor Zelenka thanked the students for being ambassadors from Eugene. He said the council was aware of the employee furlough situations; very difficult decisions had to be made to address the $12 million budget shortfall and it was a choice between impacting a few people deeply or affecting everyone a little bit. Councilor Poling thanked the students for representing the community so well. He said questions about the affordable housing project were raised at a recent Harlow neighborhood meeting and hoped those could be addressed when that agenda item was considered. He did not view the request for comments as limiting public input; it was an effort to obtain clarification on a very specific and complex issue. He understood the impact of budget cuts on employees, but current financial conditions required tough decisions. Councilor Ortiz applauded the students who visited Korea and their articulate descriptions of their experiences. She would support a request for a work session regarding how to address problems in downtown and was aware of the concerns of businesses in the area. She said other organizations were also experiencing financial problems and shared her family’s experience with budget cuts. She supported the City Manager’s difficult decisions. MINUTES—Eugene City Council September 28, 2009 Page 3 Councilor Taylor said the students illustrated the importance of the Sister City program and its contribution to world peace by bringing cultures together. She did not think that time limits should be set on comments from the ECLA advisory committee. Councilor Pryor echoed councilors’ comments about the students who visited Korea. He said visiting a Sister City was the experience of a lifetime. He agreed with the need to address problems downtown and would support a request for a work session. He said he did not expect sacrifices of people he was not willing to make and had cut his own salary because of budget problems in his organization in order to make ends meet. Mayor Piercy was pleased that students used the public forum to discuss the value of the Sister City forum. She expressed on behalf of the council, appreciation for the work of City employees and recognized how difficult it was when hard financial decisions had to be made. She assured the community that work was being done about problems with the downtown area and those efforts would continue to make it a safe place for everyone. 2. CONSENT CALENDAR A. Approval of City Council Minutes of July 27, 2009, Work Session; August 10, 2009, Work Session; August 10, 2009, City Council Meeting; September 14, 2009, City Council Meet- ing. B. Approval of Tentative Working Agenda C. Approval of Funding for Housing Project Affordable to Low-Income Persons D. Call for Public Hearing on Amendment to EC 4.035 – Citation Authority of University of Oregon Department of Public Safety Officers Councilor Zelenka, seconded by Councilor Clark, moved to approve the items on the Consent Calendar with the exception of Item C. The motion passed; 8:0. Councilor Clark asked if the fact that his business partner served on the Housing Policy Board (HPB) posed a conflict for him with respect to a decision on Item C. City Attorney Emily Jerome said there was no conflict with respect to his decision. Councilor Clark commented that the HPB had worked very hard on selection of a project for the Willakenzie site. He said the issue of historic significance was recently raised and asked if a decision on the project was time sensitive or could be postponed for two weeks. Stephanie Jennings, Community Development Division, replied that staff had already responded to the individual who had raised questions regarding the site. She said staff was seeking to align the project with the application process for State resources and that the timeline was imminent and every moment was needed to assist the developer. Councilor Pryor said he served on the HPB, along with the design review committee that made recommenda- tions to the HPB and agreed that it was a difficult decision as both proposals were very good. He said the service to people with disabilities eventually tilted the decision toward the Metropolitan Affordable Housing project because that population was under served. He said the decision could be delayed, but thought the HPB had done an excellent job of reviewing the proposals and making a selection and was comfortable moving forward with the project. He doubted that a delay would change the outcome. Councilor Poling asked how the number of units per acre could be increased in R-1 zoning. Ms. Jennings replied that the City’s land use zoning contained a provision called the “controlled rent and density bonus” that allowed affordable housing developments to be increased by up to 50 percent over the base zoning. MINUTES—Eugene City Council September 28, 2009 Page 4 That would raise the number of units per acre from 14 to 21, allowing for 63 units on the site; the project proposal was for 56 units, which was below the maximum. She said the purpose of the provision was to enable financing for that type of development and increase its feasibility. The City had very limited resources for subsidizing affordable housing and sought ways to benefit the most people in the community while producing a compatible project. Councilor Poling stated that the council had long ago decided to take the Willakenzie School site and divide it into parcels for a park and affordable housing. He was originally opposed, but the issue of historic significance had been raised several times and thoroughly researched; it was not an historic site and the state grange director was supportive of the proposed housing project being built adjacent to the Willakenzie Grange. He did not think historic significance was a valid concern and thanked the HPB for making a difficult decision. He was willing to move forward with a decision by the council. Mayor Piercy said she was impressed with the innovative nature of the affordable housing proposals. The motion passed unanimously, 8:0. 3. ACTION: An Ordinance Concerning Boards, Commissions and Committees; Amending Section 2.012 of the Eugene Code, 1971; and Providing for an Effective Date Councilor Zelenka, seconded by Councilor Clark, moved to adopt Council Bill 5005, an ordinance concerning boards, commissions and committees. Beth Forrest, City Manager’s Office, explained that the ordinance would change the expiration dates, at the request of the council, of terms on boards, commissions and committees from October 31 to June 30, effective in 2010. Councilor Clark commented that the Police Commission was recently reviewing its bylaws and it was noted that the bylaws referenced a section in the City Charter requiring members of the commission to be residents of the City of Eugene. He said there was a discussion of the implications of that requirement and asked for a memorandum from staff clarifying whether someone had to be a resident of the City of Eugene in order to serve on its boards and commissions and how that was addressed in the Charter. Councilor Zelenka said the council had discussed whether the council interview process for boards and commissions applicants should include an opportunity for candidates to discuss why they should be selected. He hoped the council would agree to modify the process to give applicants three minutes to speak to that issue. Mayor Piercy said that was a policy decision that should be discussed at another time. Councilor Solomon said she was agreeable to Councilor Zelenka’s suggestion, but felt that applicants should be made aware of that opportunity and not asked to make a presentation at the last minute. Councilor Ortiz pointed out that the current process did provide an opportunity for applicants to speak to the council following the question and answer portion of the interview. The motion passed unanimously, 8:0. MINUTES—Eugene City Council September 28, 2009 Page 5 Councilor Zelenka, seconded by Councilor Solomon, moved to adopt a presentation from the applicant as part of the council’s interview procedure. The motion passed, 5:3; councilors Clark, Poling and Taylor voting no. 4. EXECUTIVE SESSION: Pursuant to ORS 192.660(2)(f) and ORS 192.660(2)(h) Her Honor Mayor Kitty Piercy adjourned the regular meeting at 8:35 p.m. and called the Eugene City Council into executive session to consider an exempt public record and to consult with counsel concerning legal rights and duties regarding current litigation or litigation likely to be filed. Respectfully submitted, Jon Ruiz City Manager (Recorded by Lynn Taylor) MINUTES—Eugene City Council September 28, 2009 Page 6