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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCC Minutes - 08/09/10 Work SessionMINUTES Eugene City Council McNutt Room — Eugene City Hall 777 Pearl Street — Eugene, Oregon August 9, 2010 5:30 p.m. COUNCILORS PRESENT: Mike Clark, Betty Taylor, Jennifer Solomon, George Poling, Andrea Ortiz, Chris Pryor, Alan Zelenka, George Brown, members. Her Honor Mayor Kitty Piercy called the August 9, 2010, work session of the Eugene City Council to order. A. COMMITTEE REPORTS AND ITEMS OF INTEREST FROM MAYOR, CITY COUNCIL, AND CITY MANAGER Mayor Piercy reported on the Whiteaker neighborhood block party held on August 7, saying it was an amazing event. Several thousand people attended. All the venues had been busy and many activities were held for both children and adults. Later that same evening she had also attended the 2010 Valley Brews and Blues Festival at Island Park sponsored by Springfield /Eugene Habitat for Humanity to celebrate the organization's completion of 43 houses in the Eugene - Springfield area. Mayor Piercy thanked Eugene Police Sergeant Lisa Barrong and the Volunteers in Policing organization for their work coordinating the local events associated with the National Night Out event. Councilors got to visit lots of parks and meet with residents. Mayor Piercy said the event clearly demonstrated that there were children in Eugene's neighborhoods. Mayor Piercy reported that she had also attended Mobility International's "Wild Women" dinner, put on by the organization's Women's Institute on Leadership and Disability (WILD), to welcome the women who were visiting from around the world to participate in leadership training. She observed that she had spoken to someone at the Whiteaker block party who came to Eugene from North Carolina because of Eugene's reputation for access to recreation. Mayor Piercy said that an Envision Eugene meeting was scheduled the next day. She invited all residents to participate. Mayor Piercy noted that the council recess started on August 11, and the council would reconvene on September 8. Mayor Piercy thanked Cottage Grove Mayor Gary Williams for hosting the recent Oregon Mayor's Conference held in that community, and commended the conference as fun and well- organized. Mr. Clark also thanked Sergeant Barrong and the Volunteers in Policing organization. He said they did a fantastic job with the event. He said the event was a fun and positive experience and he believed the police enjoyed the opportunity to visit different neighborhoods to discuss crime prevention. MINUTES— Eugene City Council August 9, 2010 Page 1 Work Session Mr. Clark said he attended the council's August 6 Center Court development tour to view progress on the project. He had learned that if the construction proceeded as planned and Lane Community College proceeded with its development proposal downtown, those efforts in conjunction with other downtown initiatives meant there would be about $80 million of new construction occurring downtown at the height of one of the worst recessions since the Depression. He thought that deserved more recognition, adding he was pretty happy about it. Mr. Clark acknowledged he spoke only for himself when he addressed the council's representatives to the Metropolitan Policy Committee (MPC), Mr. Zelenka and Ms. Ortiz. He said the Board of County Commissioners' actions to significantly change the parameters of a road project that the citizens of Coburg and past County commissioners had worked on for so long, was awful and he feared it would cost the County and many people a number of jobs. He believed the action would cause significant harm to the County if the County commission was allowed to have its way. He hoped that Ms. Ortiz and Mr. Zelenka, as representatives of Eugene to the MPC, which would discuss the project later in the week, would vote against the changes. Mr. Zelenka said the MPC would meet on August 12 at the Bascom - Tykeson Room at the Eugene Library to discuss the subject mentioned by Mr. Clark. He believed that an agreement had been reached on how to proceed without doing too much harm to anybody. Mr. Zelenka also toured the Center Court development and commended its quality. He suggested the building be returned to its original name, the McMorran Building, since it would be returned to more of its initial appearance. He commended the quality of the spaces in the building and noted that some commercial space in it was still available for lease. Ms. Ortiz also thanked Sergeant Barrong and the volunteers who rode in the caravan with the council. She reported that the caravan visited a neighborhood in the River Road /Santa Clara area composed of apartments whose residents were trying to organize. She thought the residents benefited from the event, which representatives of two neighborhood organizations had also attended. Ms. Ortiz reported that she attended a recent town hall on the Lane County Fairgrounds held by the Board of County Commissioners to discuss what could happen with the fairgrounds. She encouraged people to get involved in the issue because those coming forward with proposals were not necessarily current users of the fairgrounds. Many in attendance had expressed a sense of disconnection from what was presented. Ms. Ortiz said the Trainsong Neighbors were happy to have the slurry seal surface on their street. Mr. Pryor noted the dedication of the new Sponsors' facility on Highway 99, which provided services to parolees, a population which had been ignored for a long time. He said those services helped such individuals to integrate back into society. Mr. Pryor had been pleased to take the Center Court tour, saying it was a great building, many exciting things were going on, and he thought people would want to be there when it was complete. Mr. Pryor said there were exciting things happening downtown that had not happened for a long time. He said the pace of street repairs and renovations was unbelievable. He recalled that transportation had been a key issue for him when he was first elected to the council. Since that time, the council had worked very hard to make conditions better, and he thought the council should be proud of both the downtown improvements and the street improvements that were occurring. MINUTES— Eugene City Council August 9, 2010 Page 2 Work Session Mr. Poling reported he had also participated in the National Night Out caravan and enjoyed the experience. He also commended the work of Sergeant Barrong in coordinating the event. Mr. Poling agreed with Mr. Clark's remarks about the Coburg interchange project and said he shared his concerns. He suggested any major changes to the project should be reviewed by the council. Mr. Zelenka pointed out to Mr. Poling that the council generally did not take positions on other jurisdictions' projects. He anticipated the MPC would get more clarity about what was proposed for each phase of the Coburg project. He reported that he and Mayor Piercy had prepared a proposal for the MPC suggesting a review of projects in today's context for the next update of the Regional Transportation Plan to avoid such situations as the Coburg project. Currently, only the first phase of the interchange was under consideration. Mr. Poling hoped that the MPC's actions did not adversely affect Coburg or its long -term planning for the project. He said the project was badly needed. Mr. Brown reported that he also attended the Center Court building tour. He had also attended National Night Out and had a good time. The neighbors and kids seemed to enjoy the event. Mr. Brown had attended the fairgrounds town hall and agreed with Ms. Ortiz that people interested in the fairgrounds should get involved. He believed that community support would be needed to keep the fairgrounds functioning. He noted that he had also attended the rally at the federal building in opposition to the immigration laws adopted by Arizona, and there had been a good crowd in attendance. Ms. Taylor said the Lane Workforce Partnership luncheon was scheduled for August 26 and encouraged the council to support it. She had enjoyed the tour of the Center Court development. Ms. Taylor called the council's attention to an article in The Register -Guard by Elsie Benson, who wrote a tribute to Eugene that was published after her recent death. She commended the article as worth reading. City Manager Jon Ruiz said he attended the Shakespeare in the Park event the previous evening and expressed appreciation for Recreation staff for their support on such events throughout the summer. City Manager Ruiz reported that the City partnered with Upstream Public Health of Portland to conduct an assessment of the public health elements of Eugene's Climate Action Plan. He said the assessment recognized that the recommended actions in the plan would also provide public health benefits. He commended the work of City staff Matt McRae. Returning to the subject of the Coburg interchange project, Mr. Clark said he understood that the Board of County Commissioners made substantial changes to the project and were taking the unusual and unprecedented step of asking that the Regional Transportation Plan also be changed. Speaking to the Center Court development, Mayor Piercy noted that two floors of the development were already leased. Mayor Piercy noted the reported algae bloom at Golden Gardens Park that could potentially harm people and pets and reiterated the City's recommendation that no one enter the water. MINUTES — Eugene City Council August 9, 2010 Page 3 Work Session Mayor Piercy assured the council that the City's representatives to the MPC would not take any position on the Coburg road project that was at odds with City policy. B. WORK SESSION: PROCESS SESSION The council was joined for the item by Keli Osborn and Jan Bohman of the City Manager's Office for a process session. Ms. Bohman provided a PowerPoint presentation describing how contacts were received on the Internet and improvements that had been made to the process. Councilors asked questions clarifying the information presented. The council agreed to the following: 1. Process for handling constituent correspondence complaints issue -1) for service issues, staff will process without council direction and copy the council; for policy issues, staff will await direction; 2) stamp correspondence with routing of where it went and who processed it to ensure follow -up; 3) Public Service Officer (PSO) reports of web -based complaints and inquiries and the staff response were desired; 4) add link to system or report to facilitate follow -up and communication between PSO, elected officials, and staff person receiving and responding to Web -based complaint or inquiry; 5) City Manager Ruiz to ensure that council e -mail contacts to him and Assistant City Manager Sarah Medary involving constituent issues were entered into system; 6) request that PSO reports include names and locations if possible; 7) request that resolution of complaint or inquiry be more comprehensive and explanatory than "closed." 2. Process for addressing requests for Contingency Funds —staff to return with additional options. 3. Including work session polls as part of regular council business — addressed by motion, below. The council agreed any changes to the operating agreements would come back in the form of a resolution. Mr. Clark, seconded by Ms. Taylor, moved that by council agreement, the council was required to respond to council polls. Ms. Taylor questioned how the motion would be enforced. Mr. Clark suggested that it was the same as other process agreements in that the council agreed to follow the adopted process. The motion passed unanimously, 8:0. C. WORK SESSION: Eugene Sustainability Commission Work Plan Ms. Osborn introduced Chair Josh Skov and Vice Chair Josh Bruce of the Eugene Sustainability Commission and recently hired Sustainability Liaison Babe O'Sullivan. Sustainability Commissioner Shawn Boles was also present. Mr. Skov acknowledged the support of Ms. Osborn as well as City staff Matt McRae through the transition to a new sustainability liaison. Mr. Skov provided a PowerPoint presentation on the commission's work plan. Copies of the work plan were included in the council meeting packet. Mr. Skov emphasized the plan's major focus on land use and MINUTES— Eugene City Council August 9, 2010 Page 4 Work Session transportation and anticipated that the commission would focus on issues that were related to decisions coming before the council in the coming year. Mr. Skov called the council's attention to the joint work planned by the commission and Eugene Planning Commission due to the many overlapping themes and issues addressed by the two bodies. He hoped that effort would produce a joint statement of guidance to the council on issues such as the West Eugene EmX corridor decision. He invited questions. Mr. Clark anticipated that when the commission weighed in on the issues it had identified for review, his concerns would be centered on cost. He wanted an analysis that looked beyond the long -term benefits and spoke to the tradeoffs involved. He cited as an example, the commission's goal for a 50 percent reduction in the community's use of fossil fuels by 2020. He said that would mean the reduction of a certain number of jobs because gas stations would go out of business. He wanted an analysis of the costs of the commission's recommendations for both the City and the community. Mayor Piercy recalled that the Oregon Department of Transportation was looking into "least cost planning" and suggested the commission look into that. Mr. Clark hoped that the commission looked into what the State was doing. He said he did not consider vehicle miles traveled (VMT) as representing the best level of analysis on which to base decisions about where the community might or might not go with electric cars, for example. Speaking to Mr. Clark's points, Mayor Piercy anticipated that at some point the council would have to make some decisions about the type of measurement tools it wanted to use to make such decisions. She thought that would also be useful to the commission. Mr. Zelenka suggested the cost analysis would be complicated, that there might be fewer jobs in gas stations in the future, but there could be more mechanics working on electric vehicles and people would have more disposable income from driving such vehicles. The model was not a simple model. He said that cost planning could get at the complexity of the issues by employing the triple bottom line (TBL) analysis. Mr. Zelenka commended the quality of the commission's discussions and its outreach to the community. He also commended City staff Kevin Finney for his work as commission liaison and thanked Ms. Osborn for her support of the commission. He looked forward to working with Ms. O'Sullivan. Mr. Zelenka noted that the commission had a rule about when members could speak on behalf of the commission and when they were speaking as individuals. Responding to a question from Ms. Solomon about why the City decided to move forward with Upstream Public Health to partner on the Climate and Energy Action Plan as opposed to other plans or elements of the Climate and Energy Action Plan, Ms. Osborn reported that the organization contacted the City to ask if it could do a public health analysis of the plan. She said the City did not contract with or pay the organization. She anticipated that the council would hold a work session on some of the long- and short-term costs related to the plan in September. Mr. Skov added that Upstream Public Health was attempting to quantify health care savings and benefits with the actions contemplated in the plan. Mr. Pryor was pleased with the work of the commission and indicated his support for the work plan. Speaking to the financial costs of increased sustainability and how that could be made positive instead of negative, he said he MINUTES— Eugene City Council August 9, 2010 Page 5 Work Session thought in terms of the benefit. He perceived the TBL as an attempt to create more clarity about the benefits of sustainability. He believed it was important to have greater clarity and understanding about the benefits. of the TBL approach to gain community support for sustainability and a commitment of resources. Mr. Zelenka referred the council to the matrix in the plan that lists the different actions and pointed out where costs would be addressed by the commission. He said that information would help the commission establish implementation priorities. Mr. Zelenka thanked Mr. Skov and Mr. Bruce for their hard work leading the commission over the past year. Mr. Clark observed that one of the things he appreciated about the Mayor's Sustainable Business Initiative was that it brought together professionals from different industries to talk about what sustainability meant to them on a daily basis. He said the commission's work plan mentioned several partnerships with entities such as the Planning Commission, Human Rights Commission, and Solidarity Network, but lacked mention of the Eugene Area Chamber of Commerce or other organizations that might provide the commission with another point of view. He encouraged the commission to look to other groups and organizations to connect with and ensure that it covered all the concerns that might arise when it offered its recommendations. Mr. Skov expressed appreciation for the discussion. He said in the future, the commission had the goal of coming to the council with what he termed "smaller bits of guidance" that would provide more of an opportunity to engage in conversation. Mr. Skov expressed appreciation for Mr. Clark's comments about the analysis and said he shared his dislike for VMT as a sole metric for the transportation system and agreed about the need to consider the overall effectiveness, including cost, as part of the commission's discussions. Regarding the TBL as an analysis framework, Mr. Skov reported that the commission was working with City staff that had used the tool for some type of analysis. He anticipated that the council would see more examples of its use in the future. He said the commission was working with staff to make it feel safer in bringing such analyses out into the open, which Mr. Skov believed would lead to more of the analysis the council sought, saying it would not be exclusively long -term or environmental, but rather something much more holistic. Mr. Skov indicated the commission planned to engage with the Eugene Area Chamber of Commerce, the Joint Elected Officials, and Lane Metro Partnership during the coming year. Responding to a question from Ms. Solomon about the questions that staff was asked to answer before presenting options to the council, City Manager Ruiz said the council would see the list on September 29 when it discussed the TBL tool. City Attorney Emily Jerome reported that the City Code required any committee established by the commission to be identified in the annual work plan and approved by the council; the commission's work plan included a description of the Coordinated Land Use and Transportation Action Committee, a joint committee of the Planning Commission and the Sustainability Commission. Ms. Jerome said the committee would review policy and investment recommendations coming before the council to provide guidance and ensure sustainability issues were being considered and prioritized by the council. She anticipated the committee would meet over the course of the fiscal year and would likely be included in the next work plan as well. MINUTES— Eugene City Council August 9, 2010 Page 6 Work Session Mayor Piercy suggested the commission might also have questions on Envision Eugene and was encouraged to refer these to the council at appropriate times. Mayor Piercy reminded the council that work on the issue of obesity was occurring in the community and around the state, and the decisions the council made in regard to transportation affected the health of the community's children. She suggested the council had the opportunity to make progress on that goal within its planning framework. Mr. Clark, seconded by Ms. Taylor, moved to approve the Sustainability Commission Fiscal Year 2011 Work Plan. The motion passed unanimously. Mayor Piercy adjourned the meeting at 7:20 p.m. Respectfully submitted, &CL Beth Forrest qk �* City Recorder (Recorded by Kimberly Young) MINUTES— Eugene City Council August 9, 2010 Page 7 Work Session