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HomeMy WebLinkAboutItem 2A: Approval of City Council Minutes ECC UGENE ITY OUNCIL AIS GENDA TEM UMMARY Approval of City Council Minutes Meeting Date: January 25, 2010 Agenda Item Number: 2A 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 November 18, 2009, Work Session, December 7, 2009, Meeting of the Joint Elected Officials, and December 9, 2009, Work Session. ATTACHMENTS A.November 18, 2009, Work Session B.December 7, 2009, Meeting of the Joint Elected Officials C.December 9, 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\2010 Council Agendas\M100125\S1001252A.doc ATTACHMENT A M I N U T E S Eugene City Council Work Session McNutt Room – City Hall 777 Pearl Street—Eugene, Oregon November 18, 2009 12:00 p.m. COUNCILORS PRESENT: Chris Pryor, Mike Clark, George Brown, Andrea Ortiz, Alan Zelenka, Betty Taylor, Jennifer Solomon COUNCILORS ABSENT: George Poling Mr. Zelenka called the work session meeting to order at 12:00 p.m. and noted that Mayor Kitty Piercy and City Manager Jon Ruiz had conflicts and would not be in attendance. Assistant City Manager Sarah Medary noted that the Building our Next Economy: A Regional Prosperity Summit event would take place on November 19, 2009, at 7:30 a.m. at the Eugene Hilton and would include a keynote address by University of Oregon President Richard Lariviere. She encouraged the council members to attend and believed the event would be very successful. Ms. Medary briefly commented on the agenda items for the meeting and hoped that the discussion would be grounded according to the council goals that had been established at the council’s goal-setting workshop in February. She further noted that the council goals had been used to help launch the recent Eugene Counts initiative to help gauge and analyze community priorities with respect to local economic development. Ms. Medary also noted that staff would be presenting the initial information on the Eugene Counts initiative to the council on December 14, and that potential strategies related to the initiative would be rolled out in January after the council break. Ms. Medary commented that the Eugene Counts report would be presented to the council in a format different than the regular quarterly reports that had been presented regarding community priorities. Mr. Zelenka asked for further details regarding the new format. Ms. Medary responded that the specific parameters of the format were still being formed but that it was likely to be a combination of a City publication and various online resources. A. WORK SESSION: Equity and Human Rights Update Equity and Human Rights Manager Raquel Wells acknowledged the presence of several of her colleagues who had attended the meeting to show their support, including Ken Neubeck, Holly LeMasurier, Shawna Adams, Ibrahim Hamide, Linda Hamilton, Angela Soyazono, Doug Mozan and several others. Ms. Wells further noted that Councilor George Brown also served on the Human Rights Commission (HRC) as Council Liaison. Mr. Brown noted that he had attended the HRC meeting the previous evening and they had welcomed the new members to the commission. Ms. Wells presented an update on the City's equity and human rights efforts including information on the HRC and its Diversity and Equity Strategic Plan. MINUTES—Eugene City Council November 18, 2009 Page 1 Work Session Ms. Wells related a brief parable to the council which she maintained provided "a depiction of the impacts of crisis and the limits of reactive approaches, as well as to the relative inattention that is paid to the broad causes of social inequity." She further expressed the fundamental need of cities to address the various root causes of social inequity within communities. Ms. Wells directed the council members to their copies of a fact sheet she had distributed regarding the various goals and program areas of the Equity and Human Rights Center and the HRC. She proceeded to briefly elaborate upon the information contained therein for the benefit of the council. Ms. Wells reported that the current HRC structure had been in place for more than 20 years and had been a strong asset to the City organization and the community at large. She cited the recent passage of the City's mental health resolution as an example and directed the council members to their copies of a Human Rights Timeline which further outlined the HRC's accomplishments. Additionally, Ms. Wells briefly noted the HRC's more recent events and activities. Ms. Wells briefly highlighted elements of the HRC work plan and the Diversity and Equity Strategic Plan for the benefit of the council and provided a detailed breakdown of both the work plan and the six goals of the Diversity and Equity Strategic Plan. Ms. Wells noted the HRC was committed to providing the City with a strong community advisory system that could review and advise the City's various boards and commissions. Ms. Wells reported that one of the key priorities of the commission was to provide a successful orientation and development process for the ten new HRC members that had recently been appointed. She added that other key HRC priorities had addressed the commission's input on the City's accessibility levels. Ms. Wells commented on other key priorities of the HRC and noted the commission hoped to have a successful human rights summit event on April 10, 2010, at Lane Community College. Ms. Wells concluded her presentation and generally expressed her belief that basic human rights and dignities were essential to the creation of a healthy and thriving community. Ms. Solomon arrived to the meeting at 12:23 p.m. Ms. Wells referenced the council's "Vision and Values" statement approved in May of 2009 with respect to the DESP and directed the council members to their copies of the statement and outcomes included as Attachment C in the agenda item summary materials. Ms. Wells continued that the HRC's questions to council in that regard addressed: 1) the levels of support the council would need for its continued work on its priority goal regarding race issues; 2) the council's vision for the HRC and equity and human right staff in supporting its Visions and Values statement; and 3) the levels of support the council would need to help ensure diversity among the City's boards and commissions. Mr. Zelenka thanked Ms. Wells and her colleagues on the commission and expressed that any decisions made by the council with respect to the HRC and its DESP should incorporate the triple-bottom line assessment components of environmental sustainability, economic development, and social equity. He appreciated the HRC's efforts to address social equity issues and commended their efforts to coordinate with the City's Sustainability Commission as part of their work. Ms. Wells, responding to a question from Mr. Zelenka, restated that the Human Rights Summit was scheduled for April 10, 2010, at Lane Community College. MINUTES—Eugene City Council November 18, 2009 Page 2 Work Session Ms. Ortiz thanked Ms. Wells for her presentation and agreed with her statements regarding the proactive nature of the HRC's goals and strategies. Ms. Ortiz asked if, with respect to the social equity concerns of the City's own employees, any internal surveys at any level had been conducted to assess how adequately such concerns had been addressed. Ms. Wells answered that the HRC had conducted a climate survey several years ago, the results of which had been used to inform various elements of the DESP. Ms. Wells further noted that additional internal surveys would most likely be conducted in the future. Mr. Pryor appreciated the work of Ms. Wells and her colleagues from the HRC and hoped that the various external and internal human factors affecting social equity concerns in the community could be successfully addressed by the HRC in ways that would lead to measurable, constructive progress for the community. Mr. Pryor suggested that the HRC and its support staff figure out ways to get its work plan and strategies out to the community rather than to just the City Council. Mr. Clark expressed that his tenure as a member of the HRC continued to inform his work as a member of the Eugene City Council. He further noted his appreciation for Ms. Wells' ability to translate community and staff conversations regarding social equity issues into meaningful actions. He agreed with Ms. Ortiz’s earlier comments regarding internal surveys and noted that some sort of formalized HRC process or analysis tool for determining the effectiveness of the City's various boards and commissions would be helpful to the council. Mr. Zelenka expressed that the HRC might assist with the recruiting efforts for the City's various boards and commissions in a manner that would ensure that those groups maintained a high level of diversity with respect to social equity concerns. He further expressed that the HRC should work to keep the council well informed of opportunities to further the various diversity and human rights goals of the commission. Mr. Zelenka noted that the social equity component of the triple-bottom line assessment tool in various areas of the organization was often difficult to maintain compared to the environmental sustainability and economic development components since there was less quantifiable data available with respect to social equity issues. Ms. Taylor asked how the HRC planned to help protect and maintain the rights of ex-offenders in the community. Ms. Wells replied that the commission had indeed worked with the City's Human Resources and City Manager's offices to incorporate changes to the City's employment application process which would address Ms. Taylor's concerns. Ms. Taylor hoped that the commission would continue to address the needs of homeless and potentially homeless citizens in the community. Ms. Ortiz agreed with Mr. Zelenka's earlier comments regarding the inherent difficulty in adequately addressing the social equity component of the triple-bottom-line assessment tool. Ms. Wells, responding to a question from Ms. Ortiz, noted that the HRC had discussed the DREAM Act (S. 729 and H.R. 1751) during their meeting on November 17. She noted that further HRC discussions regarding the DREAM Act were expected to continue at their December meeting. Ms. Wells briefly noted the basic components of the DREAM Act for the benefit of the council. Ms. LeMasurier, responding to a request from Mr. Zelenka, thanked the council for the recent passage of the City's Mental Health Resolution and noted that the resolution had been the result of many years of work to provide more thoughtful and comprehensive mental health care to the community. Ms. Wells added that the Mental Health Resolution had been designed to empower community members to make better, more proactive decisions regarding their mental health. MINUTES—Eugene City Council November 18, 2009 Page 3 Work Session Ms. LeMasurier, responding to a question from Mr. Zelenka, noted that the City of Eugene was one of the first municipalities in the region to formally adopt a mental health resolution. She believed that other communities would soon look to Eugene as a model for how various mental health issues would be addressed. Ms. LeMasurier briefed the council on the history and development of the Mental Health Resolution. Ms. Medary thanked Ms. LeMasurier and Ms. Wells for their presentation and commended the HRC members and staff for their continued work on various social equity matters. B. WORK SESSION: Neighborhood Services Update Mr. Kinnison noted it had been some time since the council had been updated regarding Neighborhood Services and the Neighborhood Empowerment Initiative (NEI) and proceeded to update the council regarding the same. Mr. Kinnison briefly described the "Mission of Neighborhood Associations" that had been adopted by the council in May of 1999, as well as the various reasons neighborhood associations continued to be a viable strategy for positive community development in the area. Additionally, Mr. Kinnison recognized the immeasurable contribu- tion provided by neighborhood volunteers throughout the community, and cited volunteer contributions to the Infill Compatibility Standards Task Team as one such example. Mr. Kinnison noted the most recent developments to the Neighborhood Services division and reported that, most significantly, it had been placed under the City Manager's office in response to a recommendation developed through the Neighborhood Services Assessment process. Ms. Kinnison added that the Neighborhood Services program continued to maintain a strong connection to the City's Planning Division. Mr. Kinnison noted Neighborhood Services was currently comprised of three permanent staff members, Rene Kane, Cindy Clarke and him, and briefly described the various functions of each of them. Mr. Kinnison reported on various elements of the NEI that had developed since its inception in 2005, and further noted that a cross-departmental NEI Committee had been meeting regularly for more than two years to discuss and develop various neighborhood action items related to the NEI Action Plan. Mr. Kinnison further noted that a detailed breakdown of the NEI Action Plan progress had been included as part of the agenda item summary materials provided to the council. Mr. Kinnison briefly reported on various communications and public relations strategies currently employed as part of the NEI and noted that the NEI's online resources had been significantly enhanced as part of those outreach efforts. Mr. Kinnison noted that the Neighborhood Services division had worked with local neighborhood groups to find processes that might help incorporate the elements of the NEI more directly. He reported on the recent Neighbor- hood Services program assessment and noted that the collaborative implementation team reviewing the assessment results had provided several specific recommendations. He further noted that detailed information regarding the implementation team's recommendations had been provided in the agenda item summary materials as Attachment C. Mr. Kinnison briefly described the recurring themes he had identified that affected several areas of the Neighbor- hood Services program. He noted that he was seeking feedback from the council regarding their concerns and interests regarding the specific direction of the Neighborhood Services program, their suggestions as to how the Neighborhood Services program might improve effective communication within the organization, and their preferences as to how the council might receive future Neighborhood Services updates. MINUTES—Eugene City Council November 18, 2009 Page 4 Work Session Mr. Zelenka appreciated the revitalized leadership that Mr. Kinnison had brought to the Neighborhood Services program and further believed that the sense of community provided by the program and the various neighborhood associations had a variety of significant social and community benefits. He suggested that the Neighborhood Services program might be used to help the council understand the complicated processes involved in local land use practices. Mr. Zelenka asked Mr. Kinnison to provide more detailed information regarding the status of the various items listed in the Neighborhood Empowerment Action Plan. Mr. Kinnison replied that Neighborhood Services staff, in conjunction with other staff from the City's Planning Division, had been working over the last year to review the items in the action plan and research strategies from other communities that might be applied to the plan. He commented that staff was currently putting the finishing touches on a draft guide for the action plan processes and that after workshop meetings in December, one pilot strategy for one of the action plan items would be imple- mented in at least one local neighborhood after the first of the year. Mr. Zelenka asked how program staff would choose which pilot strategy would be implemented and in which neighborhood. Mr. Kinnison answered that the criteria used to determine such factors was still being established by Planning Division program staff Carolyn Weiss and Lorna Flormoe. Mr. Zelenka asked how the Neighborhood Services program might utilize additional funding beyond current levels. Mr. Kinnison replied that the while the program was adequately funded in the current budget cycle, it was likely that more funding would be needed later to help continue the Neighborhood Services' matching grant program. Mr. Kinnison, responding to a question from Mr. Zelenka, noted that the number of outreach publications published by the neighborhood association depended on each group, but that the council's output goal of four public information pieces had been generally met by most of the neighborhood association groups. Mr. Clark thanked Mr. Kinnison and his colleagues and appreciated how the Neighborhood Services program had helped improve the livability of the community. Mr. Clark believed that some elements of local land use practices and neighborhood development created various conflicts in the community and suggested that the Neighborhood Services program might help the City be more prescriptive with "the rules of the game" in order to minimize such conflicts. Mr. Clark asked if neighborhood organizations were a specific legal entity under the direction of the City of Eugene or if they operated independently of the City organization. City Attorney Glenn Klein noted that while neighbor- hood organizations were not officially part of the City of Eugene, they were recognized in the City's charter as separate entities not subject to certain public laws. Mr. Pryor said that while the neighborhood organizations were not officially part of the City of Eugene their recognition under the City's charter carried a certain amount of value with respect to the responsibilities and advisory duties assumed by those groups. He hoped that the City would provide assistance and training to the neighborhood groups to ensure that the groups adequately represented the people living in their respective neighborhood areas. He further maintained that people satisfied with the state of their neighborhoods did not generally become active in their neighborhood organizations and that that it was often a challenge to motivate community members to become actively involved in local neighborhood groups. Mr. Kinnison responded to Mr. Pryor's comment and noted he knew of no neighborhood organizations that did not want to get more people involved. MINUTES—Eugene City Council November 18, 2009 Page 5 Work Session Mr. Pryor asked for a status update regarding the neighborhood leaders group and asked if that group would be an official part of the City. Mr. Kinnison responded that the neighborhood leaders’ council was not formally recognized by the City, but that the NEI Action Plan and the Neighborhood Services assessment had helped to clarify the role of that group. He noted that further determinations regarding the neighborhood leaders’ council and its organizational structure still needed to be made. Ms. Taylor agreed with Mr. Zelenka that the neighborhood groups could provide invaluable input regarding local land use issues. She believed that the neighborhood groups needed to increase the size and frequency of their newsletter publications. Ms. Taylor noted that Planning & Development staff member Steve Norris had at one time attended nearly every neighborhood association meeting and further believed that the City similarly needed to maintain an official presence at the meetings. She further suggested that the City might impose a requirement that neighborhood meetings last between 60 and 75 minutes with refreshments to be provided afterwards. She noted that such a strategy would encourage more thorough discussions and engagement between the neighborhood meeting participants. Ms. Taylor hoped that reports from the 2009 Neighborhood Summit events would be provided to the council and to the individual neighborhood associations. Mr. Kinnison, responding to a question from Ms. Solomon, noted that the Neighborhood Services program workshop on December 2, was intended to educate community members about the NEI Action Plan process. Ms. Solomon noted she had concerns regarding the accountability of those persons overseeing the publication of neighborhood newsletters. Mr. Kinnison responded that the Neighborhood Services program staff had spent a considerable amount of time reviewing and revising the guidelines for newsletters circulated by the various neighborhood associations and further hoped that such efforts would generate the most fair and objective materials possible. He further noted that Ms. Clarke would routinely fact-check the newsletters circulated by the neighbor- hood groups. Ms. Ortiz, seconded by Mr. Clark, moved to extend the work session meeting by an additional ten minutes. The motion passed, 6:1. (Ms. Taylor voting in opposition). Ms. Ortiz thanked Mr. Kinnison for his presentation and agreed with earlier comments reflecting the potential benefits of the Neighborhood Services program on local land use matters. Mr. Kinnison, responding to a question from Ms. Ortiz regarding the funding available for the River Road and Santa Clara neighborhood newsletters, noted that such funding was based on the number of postal addresses within the neighborhood boundaries rather than by the number of people living in each neighborhood. Mr. Kinnison briefly discussed the manner in which the River Road and Santa Clara neighborhoods had been funded. Ms. Ortiz, referencing Mr. Kinnison's earlier request for input as to the best manner for the Neighborhood Services staff to communicate with the council, noted that she appreciated the email links to the neighborhood newsletters and materials that staff had provided. Ms. Ortiz believed that although it might be beneficial to standardize the process by which neighborhood information was collected and distributed, it was important that the unique qualities of each individual neighbor- hood not be negatively impacted by such efforts. MINUTES—Eugene City Council November 18, 2009 Page 6 Work Session Ms. Ortiz was pleased that the Trainsong neighborhood association, with the assistance of grant funding from Health Policy Research Northwest, had been reactivated. Mr. Kinnison, responding to a request from Mr. Brown, briefly noted the primary differences between the NEI Action Plan and the Strategic Neighborhood Action Plans (SNAPs) and suggested that Mr. Brown attend the December 2 Neighborhood Services workshop in the Bascom-Tykeson Room of the Eugene Public Library for more detailed information in that regard. Mr. Clark was concerned that certain neighborhoods had a tendency to print opinions and sometimes even blatant falsehoods as facts and asked how the Neighborhood Services program planned to address the conflicts created by such misrepresentations. He further noted that such matters might present serious liability issues for the City and asked which entities were most likely to be named in any lawsuits involving the neighborhood associations. Mr. Klein noted that, while it was generally unclear as to what legal interpretations might be used, courts would most likely hold the newsletter authors or publishers most responsible for any instances of slander, libel or misrepresen- tation. Mr. Zelenka asked why the Fairmount Neighbors association had been prohibited by the City from putting up a welcome sign for the University of Oregon's arena project in that area. Mr. Kinnison replied that he would investigate the matter and get back to the council with more information. Mr. Zelenka hoped that a shorter council work session format would allow the Neighborhood Services program representatives to provide more frequent information and updates on the program. Mr. Zelenka noted from his travels that Eugene's neighborhood associations had served as a good example to many other communities across the country. Ms. Medary thanked Mr. Kinnison, Ms. Kane, Ms. Clarke and their associates. Ms. Medary also introduced Park Operations Manager Kevin Finney and noted that he would be filling in as Interim Sustainability Manager for the City. Mr. Kinnison noted several neighborhood organization participants in attendance at the meeting including Jan Wostmann, Steven Adair, Majeska Seese-Green and Coleen Riley and noted that they had all made significant contributions to various neighborhood efforts. Mr. Zelenka adjourned the meeting at 1:45 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Jon Ruiz City Manager (Recorded by Wade Hicks) MINUTES—Eugene City Council November 18, 2009 Page 7 Work Session ATTACHMENT B M I N U T E S Joint Elected Officials Eugene and Springfield City Councils Bascom-Tykeson Room—Eugene Public Library th 100 West 10 Avenue—Eugene, Oregon December 7, 2009 Noon PRESENT: Eugene City Council: Mayor Kitty Piercy, Mike Clark, Jennifer Solomon, Betty Taylor, George Poling, Andrea Ortiz, Chris Pryor, Alan Zelenka, George Brown, members. Springfield City Council: Mayor Sid Leiken, Hillary Wylie, Dave Ralston, Terri Leezer, Joe Pishioneri, Fred Simmons, members. Board of County Commissioners: Peter Sorenson, Faye Stewart, Bill Dwyer, Rob Handy, members. Lane Rural Fire/Rescue District: Pete Holmes, Kevin King, Ray Brown, John Baxter, board members. ABSENT: Springfield City Council: Christine Lundberg, member. Board of County Commissioners: Bill Fleenor, member. Lane Rural Fire/Rescue District: Larry von Moos, member. Also present were County Administrator Jeff Spartz, Eugene City Manager Jon Ruiz, and Springfield City Manager Gino Grimaldi; Chief Randy Groves, Eugene Fire & Emergency Medical Services Department; Chief Dennis Murphy, Fire & Life Safety Department, City of Springfield; Chief Dale Borlund, Lane Rural Fire/Rescue District. Board Chair Peter Sorenson convened the December 7, 2009, Board of County Commissioners meeting. Board Chair Pete Holmes called the meeting of the Lane Rural Fire/Rescue District to order. Mayor Sid Leiken called the meeting of the Springfield City Council to order. Mayor Kitty Piercy called the meeting of the Eugene City Council to order. 1. AMBULANCE TRANSPORT FUNDING Commissioner Sorenson stated that the materials for an item that would not be discussed, regarding the MINUTES—Joint Elected Officials—Lane County, Springfield, December 7, 2009 Page 1 & Eugene Metro Plan work plan report, were included in the packets. He requested that the elected officials review the report. He also wished to thank the staff for all of the agencies for the work that had gone into the organization of the present meeting. He asked the fire chiefs to speak to the first item on the agenda. Eugene Fire Chief Groves stated that the issue had been discussed widely among the elected officials. He wanted to review the report and recommendations that had come out of the work of the Ambulance Transport System Joint Elected Officials Task Force. He noted that the fifth recommendation in the Agenda Item Summary had included outdated language and asked that they refer to the language in the report, on page 2. He asked the members of the task force to speak to the recommendations. He said the task force had included Eugene Councilors Andrea Ortiz and Mike Clark, Springfield Councilors Dave Ralston and Hillary Wylie, Lane Rural Fire/Rescue District President Larry von Moos, and County Commissioner Rob Handy. Councilor Ortiz thanked the chiefs and staff for the time they had put into the report. She said the issue concerned her because the ambulance service had been able to pay for itself at one time and could not now because of declining revenue. She understood that Medicare reimbursements were declining. Chief Groves confirmed this. He said the reimbursements had been declining and would decline by another 10 percent in urban areas and 20 percent in rural areas in January. He underscored that Medicare was already compensating ambulances at a rate that was between $200 and $400 per call, which was not even at the break-even point. He indicated that the departments were looking for short, medium, and long-term solutions to the problem. Councilor Ralston considered this to be a difficult issue, given that there were certain services the public believed they were entitled to and had paid for already and this was one of them. He averred that ambulance service was a core city service. He felt that the first three recommendations should “certainly” be looked at. These were recommendations that all three jurisdictions be prepared to provide some support for the service from general fund money, that the Cities of Eugene and Springfield authorize initial steps toward a merger of the two fire departments, and that more sustainable funding options be explored. Regarding the third recommendation, he observed that the funding options included a fire service district or a levy. He noted that Springfield already struggled with two levies, one for fire and one for police. He underscored his support for a merger of the two fire departments. Councilor Wylie stated that the task force had held a number of bi-monthly meetings and had considered all aspects of the issue in as much detail as possible. She said they had reviewed the complex material and tried to come up with ideas to solve the shortfall. She stressed that the task force had worked the recommenda- tions carefully with the information available to them in mind. She reiterated that if Medicare and Medicaid paid just what it cost for ambulance transportation, the jurisdictions would not be experiencing a shortfall. It seemed to her that the jurisdictions needed to be as frugal as possible and this would mean that the fire departments should merge and that they should work on the development of a proposal for a fire district “down the road.” Mr. King said Lane Rural was a special district dedicated to providing fire and rescue services. He noted that they did not distinguish between fire rescue and ambulance service, which was why the district did not hesitate to commit general funds to the service. He stated that because of being a special district, the general fund revenue could only increase by three-percent in a year, but expenses were rising at a rate that was closer to 15-percent which made it challenging to continue to rely on general fund support to maintain their service. He related that they had looked into consolidation with other fire districts locally and this could be MINUTES—Joint Elected Officials—Lane County, Springfield, December 7, 2009 Page 2 & Eugene of potential help, but it would take a similar amount of time to do this as it would to form a new district. He noted that to put a fire district into place would take approximately three years. He believed that if they had a more comprehensive solution, countywide or regionally in Central Lane County, they could potentially solve the problem. Commissioner Handy thanked the members of the task force. He had found the process to be informative. He also thanked the fire chiefs and the presidents of the two unions for participating in the conversation. Councilor Clark thanked the fire chiefs and their staffs for their participation, as well as the other elected officials. He believed the recommendations they had arrived at were a very good way to address the challenge presented by an ever decreasing reimbursement. He said the seven recommendations prioritized the service and set out the clear expectation that ambulance service was a core service that the general public expected the jurisdictions to provide, even if this meant applying some general fund support toward it. He thought the recommendations would provide them the opportunity to make the operations more efficient and to move forward with new innovations that would help to address the challenges at hand. He hoped that everyone could support the recommendations. Commissioner Sorenson wanted the seventh recommendation, which suggested that the public ambulance service provider agencies to continue to lobby the Oregon Legislature and United States Congress for larger- scale long-term solutions, to be reworded. He wanted more nuance. He did not like the word ‘lobby’ and preferred to say that they needed to “educate them on the effects of their current state and federal policies” on the local jurisdictions. He also wished to clarify that Lane County would not provide any general fund support and the first recommendation should pertain only to the two cities and Lane Rural. Chief Groves explained that the first recommendation pertained to the units of government that represented the three service providers. He believed it should be of concern to the Lane County Commissioners that all of the local ambulance service providers were experiencing the same challenges, as were all ambulance service providers across the country. Commissioner Sorenson asked what the other service providers that did not participate in the task force were doing to address the problem. Chief Groves replied that they were watching the task force and were interested in what the elected officials would do to take the next steps, as was the whole state. Mayor Piercy understood that the general fund support was intended only as a short-term solution to the funding shortfall; in the long-term the public would be better served if ambulance and fire services were supported by a combination of fees for services, Fire Med membership fees, and some form of dedicated tax support. Chief Groves clarified that the recommendation for the short-term general fund support was in recognition that the establishment of longer-term funding mechanisms could not be accomplished in the short-term. He added that the ambulance service deficit for the City of Eugene was projected to be approaching $900,000 in Fiscal Year (FY) 2011. Commissioner Dwyer thanked the task force for their work. He considered it commendable that the jurisdictions were willing to look at consolidation. He said the problem in the past had been who would “rule” a consolidated district. He was happy, though, that the recommendation appeared to be a real effort to consolidate. He remarked that the problem with a public service district was that the people already felt they were paying taxes for these services and would perceive the district as a second tax for the same MINUTES—Joint Elected Officials—Lane County, Springfield, December 7, 2009 Page 3 & Eugene services. He said the concept of consolidation was sound because it reduced administrative costs. He underscored his feeling that the public would accept consolidation but would not accept “paying twice” for services. Councilor Ralston said the intent was not to double charge, but to find out what the funding shortcoming was and to figure out a fair taxing system spread out over Lane County, if that was the model they ended up using. He believed that to do so could free up general fund money to be spent on something else. He pointed out that if everyone in Lane County subscribed to Fire Med, the problem would be solved. Councilor Ortiz wanted to ensure that the Joint Elected Officials (JEO) accomplished what they set out to accomplish. She wanted to move on the fourth and sixth recommendations, which sought to enhance and expand the marketing of Fire Med subscriptions and to move work forward as rapidly as possible regarding provision of a regional mobile health care system with a report to elected officials by the end of 2010 respectively. She thought the seventh recommendation could move forward with the suggested language change and including that they would use the United Front lobbying effort to convey their message. Regarding the first recommendation, she had already made a motion in the City of Eugene to look at how general fund dollars could be accessed and used in the short-term. She said the City of Eugene would need to have a work session to discuss the fifth recommendation, which sought to have the City of Eugene and Lane Rural analyze the possibility of reconfiguring the boundaries of the county’s Ambulance Service Areas (ASA), because a change in the ASAs would have financial impacts on the City. Eugene Councilor Poling thanked Councilor Ortiz for taking the lead on the work and said she had done “an incredible job.” He agreed that the seventh recommendation could be reworded to assign it to the United Front to “educate and lobby” on the issue. The only recommendation that gave him pause was the third one, in regard to finding more sustainable funding sources. He recalled the time he had worked for Lane County, during which only one of numerous serial levies that had been put forward had passed. He related that the levy had passed to augment funding to law enforcement, but the Board of Commissioners had taken the exact amount of the money passed in the levy out of the funding for law enforcement and placed it elsewhere. He advised the elected officials to be careful when putting forward serial levies or special districts; they should be researched thoroughly. He supported Councilor Ortiz’s recommendations on all seven items before them. Commissioner Stewart thanked everyone for their hard work. He observed that though Fire Med was only $52 per year, it could be considered expensive by some people. He wondered if there would be a way to set up payments. He also wondered if one area they could lobby for would be for Medicare to pay the Fire Med costs. Commissioner Stewart asked Mr. King if something could be done to reduce the 15-percent cost increase. Mr. King replied that the increase was primarily attributable to personnel costs. He said firefighters wanted Cost of Living Adjustments (COLAs) and health care costs had increased dramatically. He added that a 15- percent increase from year to year had become the norm. Chief Groves stated that Eugene firefighters were not receiving COLA’s anywhere near 15-percent. He also said they were experiencing an increase in uninsured people who were unable to pay their bills due to the economic downturn which was attributed to the revenue decline along with reductions in Medicare and Medicaid reimbursements. Commissioner Stewart commented that it might be easier to pay $10 per month. MINUTES—Joint Elected Officials—Lane County, Springfield, December 7, 2009 Page 4 & Eugene Councilor Ralston pointed out that a person could sign up for Fire Med insurance when being picked up by an ambulance for transport. Councilor Clark looked forward to the opportunity to help support more Fire Med memberships. He supported the sixth recommendation. He believed that they could fundamentally change how the response system worked. He was not ready to “state flat out” that he was in support of creating a special district. He said this was why the wording in the first recommendation indicated that they were in agreement that ambulances provided a core service, that no one wanted to cut the service, and that they were willing to provide some support from the general fund. He underscored that this was why they wanted to indicate the willingness to study the idea of a district and to be educated about what could be possible. Eugene Councilor Betty Taylor opined that if ambulance transport was a core service, there should be national health care. She averred that because it was a core service, the funding should come from the general fund. She said they needed new sources of revenue and they needed to be more creative in looking for them. She expressed concern that a special district would be more removed from the people and would be “too much to keep track of” for citizens. Eugene Councilor Zelenka ascertained from Chief Groves that the fire department had received no general fund contributions and had been solely supported by fees for service through an enterprise fund since 1981. He said the projected deficit could change; the numbers were analyzed from month to month and lately ambulance usage had been down. He stated that the ambulance service had been stable and it had not been impacted until the federal Balanced Budget Act had been enacted in 1998. He said it had been further exacerbated in 2003 by the Medicaid Modernization Act. Reserve funds had been exhausted. He stressed that they had adjusted their model a number of times in an effort to reduce and/or avoid costs. He noted that they had brought in a private provider for non-emergency transport. He added that they had not put any money into the Ambulance Replacement Fund for the current year because of cost-cutting efforts. Councilor Zelenka considered the recommendations to be “pretty generic.” He said Eugene was facing a $7.5 million deficit and it was going to be challenging to balance the budget. He favored exploring more sustainable public funding options but he was not in favor of forming a special district. He supported an increase in marketing for the Fire Med subscriptions. Regarding the fifth recommendation, he shared Councilor Ortiz’ concerns about the potential cost impact a change in the ASA would have. He also agreed that the seventh recommendation should include the United Front. Mayor Piercy understood that Councilor Ortiz had suggested moving forward on the fourth and sixth recommendations. She noted that the JEO had been working on the economic summit and on creating more jobs, which would add revenue to the general fund. She thought they should take the rest of the recommen- dations back to their individual jurisdictions for further consideration. Mayor Leiken thanked the task force for their work and, in particular, Councilor Ortiz for her leadership on this issue. He noted that Springfield Fire Med had launched an ad campaign that underscored the cost difference between an ambulance ride and a Fire Med subscription and asked if it had generated results. Springfield Fire Chief Murphy responded that they had seen a five-percent increase in subscriptions since the last ad campaign. He said they were now working on a fundraising campaign meant to close the gap between the current economic conditions and the future economic conditions. He related that the greatest market penetration observed nationwide was 48 percent. He advised them not to bet on doubling the membership. He stressed that they were enthusiastically pursuing an increase in membership and they MINUTES—Joint Elected Officials—Lane County, Springfield, December 7, 2009 Page 5 & Eugene intended to keep doing so. In response to a follow-up question from Mayor Leiken, Chief Murphy said “virtually all” ambulance transport services across the country were engaged in this type of conversation. Mayor Leiken believed that the public was mostly unaware that ambulance transport services were experiencing financial difficulty because they believed their taxes were paying for it. He said until the issue resonated with the public, they could be challenged to get this message to the elected representatives in Washington, D.C. unless the United Front could join with American Ambulance Association, the fire chiefs, and the unions and “put a full court press” to stress that Congress needed to take care of the Medica- id/Medicare reimbursement issue. Eugene Councilor Pryor commented that it was “too bad” when a policy discussion had to be driven by money. He observed that at one end of the continuum they had to determine how to prioritize limited resources and at the other end they needed to determine what optimal level of service they should provide and at what cost. He agreed that they should move the fourth and sixth recommendations forward because he felt that it would keep the momentum going. Commissioner Dwyer said they needed to be creative. He suggested that they consider issuing multiple year subscriptions for Fire Med, for one thing. He observed that tax forms had a box to check to give a deduction to the democrats or republicans and suggested that they see if it would be possible to allocate such a deduction to Fire Med. He thought this could be lobbied for at the state level. Councilor Ortiz, seconded by Councilor Clark, moved to approve recommendation Nos. 4 and 6 as is; No. 5 to be approved with the words ‘upon direction of the Eugene City Coun- cil’ added to it; No. 7 worded to indicate that the Joint Elected Officials would work with their respective agencies to use the United Front to educate representatives about and to promote support for long-term stable funding of Medicare reimbursement for ambulance transport. Councilor Ortiz acknowledged that the first recommendation regarding the use of general funds as a short- term funding solution would need to be worked out by the individual jurisdictions. She did not want to leave the meeting without having made any progress, however. She noted that the task force had discussed privatization of the service and determined that it would not be prudent to give up the jobs the cities had and that raising rates was also not an option they wanted to discuss given how expensive it already was. Mayor Piercy suggested, given the time left in the meeting and the length of the agenda, that the JEO say as a group that they believed the seven recommendations were worth pursuing and then refer them back to the individual jurisdictions for their buy-off. Eugene Councilor Brown said they had not discussed the recommendations at a Eugene City Council work session. He could not support the second, third, and fifth recommendation without more exploration. Councilor Clark agreed with Councilor Ortiz – the JEO should move something forward. He reiterated that the task force and staff had spent many dozens of hours studying the options in order to put the recommen- dations forward. He said if they could not approve the recommendations, then the body should move to accept the recommendations. MINUTES—Joint Elected Officials—Lane County, Springfield, December 7, 2009 Page 6 & Eugene Councilor Taylor felt that the word ‘accept’ was sometimes turned into the word ‘approve.’ She thought they should move on to the next agenda item. Councilor Zelenka offered a friendly amendment to accept the recommendations and to refer the seven recommendations to the three jurisdictions for further discussion and action. Councilor Ortiz accepted the friendly amendment. Councilor Ralston underscored that the task force had spent four hours a month working on the report and recommendations. He likened this to having the Planning Commission do the leg work on a planning issue so that the council would not have to delve into it. He believed that the recommendations were stated vaguely enough that it would tie no one’s hands. He supported moving the recommendations forward to the next step; the JEO should accomplish something. Mayor Piercy called for a vote of the Eugene City Council. The council voted unanimous- ly, 8:0, to approve the motion. Mayor Leiken called for a vote of the Springfield City Council. The council voted unanim- ously, 5:0, to approve the motion. Mr. Holmes called for a vote of the Lane Rural Fire/Rescue District. The district board voted 3:1 to pass the motion, with Mr. Brown dissenting. 2. PROPOSED MERGER OF FIRE DEPARTMENTS Chief Murphy stated that the departments were before the JEO to recommend a functional consolidation of the Springfield and Eugene fire and rescue departments. He explained that the employees of the two cities would still be employed in the same way and a system that crossed geo-political boundaries had already been in place since 2007 and had operated daily without incident. He cited training and the fire marshal’s office as examples of areas in which consolidation could mean cost reductions. He related that they had engaged a consultant, brought this before the Eugene Chamber, Springfield Chamber and the City Club, and had convened public forums to gain input on the potential consolidation. They had heard a lot of support for beginning the process in order to determine whether a merger was something they should pursue. He stated that because of the vacancies that already exist and anticipated vacancies, some major functions would be done under the direction of Eugene and some under the direction of Springfield; they were seeking joint leadership on the merger. He noted that the suggested timeline was something the elected officials could modify at will. Chief Murphy pointed out that maintaining the current vacancies would save $600,000 in FY10/FY11 and $850,000 in the following fiscal year. He said if they failed to deliver the savings, this would be evidence that the merger was not working well. He stressed that they were only recommending that they initiate the process, with phase one serving only to analyze and develop the proposal. If there was a phase two, which was a plan to implement the merger, it would be at the direction of the elected officials. Councilor Zelenka felt a need to discuss the proposal in a City of Eugene council work session as they had not engaged in this conversation yet. He was not prepared at the present meeting to say yes or no. Councilor Clark agreed that it would take future study at the City Council level, but he believed the merger was a good idea from what he had learned so far through the task force work. He thought making people MINUTES—Joint Elected Officials—Lane County, Springfield, December 7, 2009 Page 7 & Eugene safe with the money at hand would be an efficient use of resources. He averred that the 3-Battalion System was proof positive that the first “baby steps” had worked well. He was willing to move it forward. Councilor Taylor said she would support a motion to refer the merger back to the individual city councils for consideration. Springfield Councilor Leezer had a lot of faith in the fire captains and everyone who had worked hard on this proposal. She observed that the joint effort in the Metropolitan Wastewater Management Commission (MWMC) had worked well. She supported whatever they needed to do to move the proposal forward. Springfield Councilor Pishioneri supported a merger. He had a few reservations, but acknowledged that the 3- Battalion System had worked well. He said he would like to see a merger occur, but he would want to closely monitor it by the week or month to understand the implications and benefits. He expressed some concern about the “hundreds of years” of experience the two departments were losing through attrition. He felt that if the merger did not work it would take a lot of resources and time to replace those individuals. Chief Groves said his department was holding some critical vacancies open and Springfield was realizing some vacancies and all of them would need to be filled one way or another. He stated that the vacancies were also creating the opportunity to give a merger a shot, adding that they would not be making a recommendation they did not believe would be beneficial. Councilor Poling supported the recommendation “100 percent.” He indicated he would reluctantly support a motion to send a merger proposal back to the individual councils for further discussion. He felt that they were hearing the result of indepth thinking by people who had years and years of experience. He believed they would pass up a great opportunity if they did not move forward on a merger, given the present circumstances. He hoped they would continue to allow the fire unions some level of participation in the discussion, if it was referred back to the councils. Chief Groves noted that the unions had been involved in the process and both the International Association of Fire Fighters (IAFF) and the American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) had weighed in on the proposal. Councilor Ortiz thought it was a good idea to discuss a merger. She had some concerns about the net effect and felt they needed to hear from a bigger part of the community. She was not “100 percent certain” she could support it and wondered if it was something they should take to the voters. She was concerned that people were not aware that this was happening. Chief Groves cited several examples of municipalities that had merged departments, including Tualatin Valley and Clackamas County # 1 which had both been in operation in excess of 20 years. Springfield Councilor Simmons supported moving forward with the merger. He had asked questions of both Chief Groves and Chief Murphy regarding possible indirect public works costs and capital fund issues on buildings and equipment, as well as a full and complete explanation of what could happen if there was a compression issue. He said the firefighters were respected “on both sides of the river” and did a great job, but they needed to ask questions about how the per capita costs would be allocated and how they were allocated in the other models Chief Groves cited. Chief Groves said they had tried to put this information into the templates, but it was difficult to build a MINUTES—Joint Elected Officials—Lane County, Springfield, December 7, 2009 Page 8 & Eugene budget before the model for the merger had been decided upon. Eugene Councilor Solomon supported “this opportunity.” She averred that the elected officials would be doing their communities an “enormous disservice” to not follow through. Councilor Ralston called it a “no brainer.” He said it presented an opportunity to save needed general fund dollars. He felt there were only two options – to either authorize consolidation or to authorize the City Managers to take the initial steps toward consolidation. He wanted to move forward on one of those two options. Councilor Wylie noted that Chief Murphy was retiring in June and this added some pressure to move forward. She had spoken with both of the chiefs and a union representative and all of them had indicated strong support for the merger. This had eased her reticence. She understood that the City Managers could move forward with Intergovernmental Agreements (IGAs) that would put the merger together piece by piece, and would allow them to “test the water” and not fill some of the vacant positions. She underscored that this was a way to save $1 million and pointed out how much the JEO hated to go to the voters for more money. Councilor Pryor felt that the 3- Battalion System had worked very well. He had heard some sentiment in the room that the operations had become so efficient that it had gotten ahead of the policy makers. He said the policy makers needed to work as fast as the fire agencies had. He agreed that the elected officials needed to discuss it more and to seek more input from the community. He supported Councilor Zelenka’s suggestion to do this. Mayor Leiken stated that the Springfield City Council had engaged in initial conversations with representa- tives of the Springfield Fire & Life Safety Department. He thanked both fire chiefs for their work, calling it “true leadership” and “thinking out of the box.” He said the concept for the merger was valid, especially given that it was based on the 3- Battalion System. He had heard support from the firefighters and from their leadership. He was prepared to move forward on this. Mayor Piercy expressed appreciation for the work that had gone into it. She averred that as much as she cared about the money savings, it was the provision of services she was most concerned about. She wanted to talk to the community in order to hear from them what best thing could come from a merger and what they were worried about. She said they needed to listen to the questions about what they would be losing and what essence of the communities they might lose. Chief Groves said they had tried to garner this kind of input in their nine public forums. He related that people were supportive in general and he, personally, had received no negative feedback about the proposal. He said the fire and life safety services between the two communities lined up “perfectly.” Commissioner Sorenson remarked that they could look for other efficiencies in roads and transportation and in law enforcement and corrections. Councilor Zelenka thanked the Chiefs. He noted that the Eugene City Council was talking about the ambulance service in January and requested that a discussion of a potential merger be placed on a work session agenda. Councilor Zelenka, seconded by Councilor Clark, moved to accept and forward the report and recommendation to the Eugene City Council for a work session and action. The Eu- MINUTES—Joint Elected Officials—Lane County, Springfield, December 7, 2009 Page 9 & Eugene gene City Council passed the motion unanimously, 8:0. Councilor Pishioneri, seconded by Councilor Ralston, moved to authorize the City Mangers to take initial steps toward functional consolidation with follow-up reports to determine the future direction of it. The Springfield City Council passed the motion unanimously, 5:0. Commissioner Sorenson adjourned the meeting of the Lane Board of County Commissioners at 1:54 p.m. Mayor Piercy adjourned the meeting of the Eugene City Council at 1:54 p.m. Mayor Leiken adjourned the meeting of the Springfield City Council at 1:54 p.m. Board Vice Chair Pete Holmes adjourned the meeting of the Lane Rural Fire/Rescue District at 1:54 p.m. (Recorded by Ruth Atcherson) MINUTES—Joint Elected Officials—Lane County, Springfield, December 7, 2009 Page 10 & Eugene ATTACHMENT C M I N U T E S Eugene City Council McNutt Room—City Hall—777 Pearl Street Eugene, Oregon December 9, 2009 Noon COUNCILORS PRESENT: Alan Zelenka, Mike Clark, Andrea Ortiz, Jennifer Solomon, Chris Pryor, George Poling, George Brown, Betty Taylor. Her Honor Mayor Kitty Piercy called the work session of the Eugene City Council to order. A. WORK SESSION: Eugene Comprehensive Lands Assessment Planning Director Lisa Gardner provided an overview of the Eugene Comprehensive Lands Assessment (ECLA) process to date. She said the Community Advisory Committee (CAC) had been reconvened and met several times. She introduced Jason Dedrick, Planning Division, to present the resolution to accept the draft products associated with ECLA. Mr. Dedrick stated that the resolution and attachments were the same documents presented to the council in October 2009, and constituted the City’s compliance with House Bill (HB) 3337. He said the resolution was an acknowledgement of the work that had occurred to-date and the fact that further work would continue until April 2010, which was why it was draft in nature; further work would address data issues that arose late in the process. The CAC had reconvened to continue that effort, but wished to recognize the amount of work that had already been completed by the CAC and staff to produce a baseline land need of approximately 2,200 acres. Based on guidance by the CAC, he said a range of 33 percent higher and lower than the baseline had been created. He said CAC members indicated they were comfortable with acceptance of the draft land need by the council as long as it was acknowledged that the ongoing process would likely change that number. Mr. Dedrick said the broader objective was to produce the data needed by the community to understand its land need in the future. He said the process could require involving additional stakeholders and partners and forming work groups to meet as needed on specific topics. He said there was no one right answer to the land need question and the statute spoke to holding the data to a reasonable level of precision. He said the data should be the foundation for a community-wide discussion around the larger policy issues. He said data would continue to be refined and a final land need determined in April 2010. Ms. Piercy was pleased that stakeholders were in agreement on the process for moving forward. Ms. Gardner described a recent training session attended by many throughout the community, including representatives from the CAC, which helped participants develop skills related to exploring hopes and fears as part of the visioning process. MINUTES—Eugene City Council December 9, 2009 Page 1 Work Session Ms. Ortiz agreed that the training was insightful and a valuable tool for finding common ground. She was pleased to have been able to participate. Ms. Piercy noted that the ECLA work was responding to a legislative mandate that Eugene and Springfield establish separate urban growth boundaries. She asked for a summary of Springfield’s progress. Ms. Gardner replied that the results of Springfield’s land study changed based on correction of an error in the slope assignment of buildable and non-buildable land. That changed the result from a need to a surplus of residential land. She understood that the Springfield City Council had accepted the revised result. Mr. Dedrick added that Springfield’s data problems had prompted Eugene to closely examine its own calcula- tions to assure their accuracy. He said it underscored the need for the extensive amount of data generated by ECLA to be reviewed by as many people as possible. City Attorney Emily Jerome said that Springfield’s resolution, like Eugene’s, was intended to address HB 3337 and therefore specific to residential land need. She said the council had provisionally adopted a non- final preliminary step with respect to housing only. Mr. Zelenka pointed out that the range of 1,500 to 3,000 acres was referenced in the agenda item summary, but not in the resolution or Exhibit A and associated reports. Ms. Jerome said the range applied to all three types of land and she had some concern about adopting it because the resolution only addressed residential land. She said that Section 1 of the resolution specified it was adopting the draft inventory of buildable land supply and determination of housing capacity and there were portions of the attachments related to public, commercial and industrial land that were not being accepted as part of the resolution. She said the resolution also acknowledged in Recital D the additional work that would be done on the documents. Mr. Zelenka said that adopting a range would avoid the conflict that came with adopting a number. He was concerned that adopting a number, even though it was draft, would be taken out of context. Mr. Clark commented that there had not been an agreement by the council to accept a range. He asked why commercial and industrial land needs were not being accepted simultaneously, as the council had decided to inventory those lands along with residential land. Ms. Gardner said as a result of the council’s October work session, there was direction to develop a preliminary draft that would be accepted for purposes of meeting the requirements of HB 3337, with acknowledgement that the period January through April 2010, would be spent addressing technical and methodology issues and producing results for all land types. By addressing the legal requirements of HB 3337 now, the remainder of ECLA became a local process. She noted that Portland Metro had adopted a range for its housing need. Ms. Taylor was concerned that ECLA estimates did not consider under-developed land, the trend toward multi-unit housing, the prospect of changing policies, or growth in outlying smaller communities rather than expansion of Eugene. She questioned why the council was required to adopt the resolution by the end of the year, and was hesitant to vote in favor. Ms. Jerome explained that by law the City was required to complete certain steps by the end of 2009, and that achievement was being documented through adoption of the resolution, rather than an ordinance. She emphasized that the adoption was only of the resolution, which was clear that specific numbers were not being adopted at this time. Mr. Pryor remarked that the City was legally bound to have a product by the end of 2009, and the resolution was accepting a product that was crafted with the intent of being revised and updated in the future. He felt it was appropriate for the council to accept only what was necessary to meet the requirements of HB 3337 and continue to pursue final numbers. MINUTES—Eugene City Council December 9, 2009 Page 2 Work Session Mr. Zelenka said John VanLandingham, chair of the Land Conservation and Development Commission (LCDC), had indicated that adopting a range rather than a specific number was acceptable and had pointed to Portland Metro as an example. He asked staff to provide a memorandum explaining the Portland Metro process that resulted in an adopted range. Ms. Gardner said that while Portland Metro adopted a range, policies had to be based on a specific number and adopting a range allowed the technical process to move forward without second-guessing what the policy outcome would be. Staff would provide a summary of the Portland Metro process. Mr. Zelenka read a proposed motion drafted by Ms. Jerome. Ms. Jerome explained that the implication of the motion was that the range would be used as the “bookends” for work by the CAC and others in all three land categories—public, employment and residential—and assure that all three categories were addressed within the January through April 2010 time period. Mr. Zelenka, seconded by Mr. Clark, moved that the City Council accept, for the purposes of continued review and refinement, to be completed by April 2010, a 20- year land need for employment land, public land and residential land that falls with- in the range of 1,500-3,000 acres. Ms. Solomon reminded the council that staff had indicated the final numbers might be outside of that range. She was not certain how identifying a range was to the council’s advantage and concerned about putting limitations on the CAC’s work. Mr. Dedrick said staff did not spend time trying to quantify a range; it was intended to be illustrative of the fact that additional work had to be done. Ms. Gardner said the range was the most reasonable one that could be provided based on the work to-date, but would not limit future work and could be shifted if necessary. Mr. Clark said the work was about providing a minimum number of acres for appropriate planning. He would support the range as preliminary, but not constraining future work. Mr. Zelenka restated his motion: I move that the City Council recognizes for the purpose of continued review and refinement, to be completed by April 2010, a 20- year land need for employment land, public land and residential land that is likely to fall within the range of 1,500-3,000 acres. Mr. Clark accepted the restated lan- guage. Mr. Poling observed that the phrase “purposes of continued review and refinement” provided the authority to change the range if necessary. The motion passed, 6:2; Ms. Taylor and Mr. Brown voting no. Mr. Zelenka, seconded by Mr. Clark, moved to adopt the draft resolution enclosed as Attachment A that accepts the draft inventory of Eugene’s buildable land supply, determination of the housing capacity of that land, analysis of housing need and de- termination of the number of units and amount of land needed to meet Eugene’s 20- year housing needs that have been prepared through the Eugene Comprehensive Land Assessment project with the intention of concluding City Council review and MINUTES—Eugene City Council December 9, 2009 Page 3 Work Session refinement of those materials in April 2010. The motion passed, 7:1; Ms. Taylor voting no. City Manager Jon Ruiz stated that the council would be reviewing several broad policy issues during the coming year related to economic development, full spectrum public safety and budget. He said ECLA would be one of the significant projects that the council would continue to discuss as a priority and consider alongside other competing needs in the community. Mr. Zelenka asked if the council wished to select additional Budget Committee members through a ballot or conduct interviews. He determined the consensus was to review applications and conduct a ballot; if there were no clear choices from the ballot, interviews would be conducted with the top three candidates. Mr. Clark asked when the report from the Downtown Safety Task Team would be provided to the council for review at a work session. Mr. Ruiz replied that the task team was advising the Police Chief on recommendations for public safety in downtown and those recommendations would be considered within the context of the budget process. He did not anticipate that the council would conduct a work session or formally accept the task team’s report. Mr. Clark said he understood from previous conversations that the task team’s report would come to the council and had therefore not made any specific motions to that effect. He was concerned if there was no intent to hold a work session on the subject. The meeting adjourned at 12:50 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Jon Ruiz City Manager (Recorded by Lynn Taylor) MINUTES—Eugene City Council December 9, 2009 Page 4 Work Session