Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAboutCC Minutes - 07/25/11 Work SessionMINUTES Eugene City Council McNutt Room —City Hall 777 Pearl Street—Eugene, Oregon July 25, 2011 5:30 p.m. COUNCILORS PRESENT: Betty Taylor, George Brown, Andrea Ortiz, George Poling, Mike Clark, Chris Pryor, Alan Zelenka, Pat Farr. Her Honor Mayor Kitty Piercy called the July 25, 2011, work session of the Eugene City Council to order. A. ITEMS AND COMMITTEE REPORTS Ms. Ortiz reported that the Board of Directors of the Lane Regional Air Protection Agency ( LRAPA) postponed its evaluation of Director Merlin Hough to September because the board had a bare quorum at its July meeting. She noted that former City employee Jeannine Parisi had joined the board and had asked Commissioner Faye Stewart to ask the Board of County Commissioners whether Lane County would be willing to direct the fines imposed by LRAPA to the LRAPA budget rather than to the Lane County budget. That action could require legislative changes because of the manner in which LRAPA was structured. Mr. Zelenka arrived. Mr. Brown reported that the Metropolitan Wastewater Management Commission (MWMC) received an update on the poplar plantation at its last meeting. The MWMC had sent a Request for Information (RFI) to 34 wood products businesses in Oregon and Washington to determine their needs with the goal of finding uses for the trees other than pulp, which had a low return. The RFI sought out companies interested in using the materials for another purpose for which there was added value. Mr. Brown concluded by reporting that the MWMC had considered an appeal to a contract award for relining the sludge lagoons from the second low bidder and decided in favor of the low bidder. Mr. Pryor provided an update on the Sustainable Cities grant, reporting that the Lane Council of Governments (LCOG) used the feedback from those attending the May 26 Joint Elected Officials meeting to refine the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) establishing the Lane Livability Consortium. Springfield staff presented the revised MOU to the Springfield City Council, which declined to participate. Mr. Pryor acknowledged that put the grant in some jeopardy. He advocated for more discussion about what he believed was the main issue of concern, that of the relationship between LCOG and its other partners. He reported he intended to meet with both elected and executive members of some of the jurisdictions involved in the MOU to learn their perspectives and to discuss with them how the relationship could be improved. Mr. Pryor would share his findings with the LCOG Executive Committee and Board of Directors. Mayor Piercy reported that the City had reached out to its sister city of Kakegawa after the earthquake in Japan and received a letter from the mayor of Kakegawa thanking the City for its sympathy and indicating MINUTES— Eugene City Council July 25, 2011 Page 1 Work Session that Kakegawa was undamaged by the earthquake and was providing support to earthquake- affected areas. She shared the contents of the letter. Mayor Piercy noted that she met the previous week with Lynn Peterson of Governor John Kitzhaber's Office and Oregon Department of Transportation officials regarding rail issues. Reporting on the most recent meeting of the Human Services Commission (HSC), Mayor Piercy said that Ms. Ortiz had offered the HSC a motion to allocate the additional funds made available by Eugene to the Egan Warming Center, shelter beds, and culturally specific services for Latinos. Mayor Piercy had also met with Shelley Berman, the new Superintendent of Schools for the 4J School District, and reported that Superintendent Berman has his hands full with district business. She said she had also attended Carla Geary's "Young Scholars" Program. Mayor Piercy announced the next Mayor's One -on -One event would occur on July 26 from 5 p.m. to 6 p.m. at the Albertsons on Coburg Road. Mr. Poling also planned to be present. Ms. Taylor commended the recent free concert of the Eugene Symphony held at the Cuthbert Amphitheater. She appreciated that the City offered such concerts and believed that they brought out people who did not normally attended such events, which helped build audiences for the arts. Mr. Zelenka reported that the Sustainability Commission held the second part of its two -part retreat and continued to develop its work plan. The commission also held a regular meeting and the main topic was the Eugene Water & Electric Board (EWEB) Integrated Energy Resource Plan (IERP). He anticipated that the council would discuss the IERP with the EWEB commissioners at their joint meeting in September. Mr. Zelenka noted that the Fairmount Neighbors held an ice cream social at Washburn Park and there was a good turnout in spite of the rain. He reported that the owner of the historic Washburn House had passed away. He praised the Washburn House for its beauty and historic character, and reminded the council that the owner of the house had donated Washburn Park to the City with the caveat that no buildings be placed on it. Mr. Zelenka also commended the recent free concert at the Cuthbert Amphitheater. Mr. Farr commended the Cuthbert Amphitheater as a performance venue and noted his own attendance at the recent Jethro Tull concert there. Mr. Farr commended the work of Superintendent Colt Gill at the Bethel School District. Mr. Farr encouraged residents to visit the reclaimed wetlands area adjacent to Greenhill Road and Royal Avenue to view the wildlife and enjoy the beauty of the wetlands, particularly near sunset. He said Bethel residents wishing to access the bicycle path in the area could reach the wetlands via a bicycle path down Terry Street. Mr. Poling reminded the council of National Night Out, scheduled for August 2. Mr. Poling reported that he and resident David Sonnichsen planned to walk from the Alton Baker Boat Ramp east to Leisure Lane to view the section proposed for paving. He requested information about the City's plans for the area and how long they had been in the making. Mr. Poling reported the Cal Young Neighborhood Association decided to divide into three separate neighborhood associations. He looked forward to meeting with the new groups. MINUTES— Eugene City Council July 25, 2011 Page 2 Work Session Ms. Ortiz thanked the City of Eugene for the "Fun for All" program being held in City parks and reported that her grandchildren had enjoyed the activities. Speaking to Mayor Piercy's report on the HSC, Ms. Ortiz said Eugene representatives were asked to comment on the additional money the City provided, and she was forceful in asserting the money must be spent on services and should not be held in reserve. Additional cuts, if needed, would be made on a percentage basis. Mayor Piercy concurred. She acknowledged that Lane County faced budget shortfalls and expected additional reductions, and County staff wanted to know if Eugene supported holding money in reserve for future needs. The HSC had gone ahead and allocated the funding. Ms. Ortiz commended a recent article in The Register -Guard regarding the migration of Latinos to Lane County. She said she recently spoke to a young doctor of color who indicated she had moved to Eugene from Barbados because Eugene seemed safe, which Ms. Ortiz considered a compliment. Speaking to the division of the Cal Young Neighborhood Association, Mr. Clark noted that the residents living north of Beltline would be in one organization, residents living south of the Beltline would be in another organization, and residents living west of North Delta Highway would be in a third organization. City Manager Jon Ruiz recognized the contributions of City employees on the planning team for the new police headquarters at 300 Country Club Road, including Police Chief Pete Kerns, Central Services Director Kristi Hammitt, Design /Construction Section Manager Mike Penwell, and Operations Support Division Manager Lynn Reeves. He believed the community would appreciate the team stewardship on the project. He anticipated the ribbon cutting for the new facility would occur during the first quarter of 2012. Mayor Piercy reported that the council had received inquiries about whether it would take up a plastic bag ban, as well as an inquiry about the potential of the City assuming control of abandoned properties. Mr. Zelenka anticipated he would poll the council on a plastic bag ban. B. WORK SESSION: . Ward Redistricting The council was joined by Keli Osborn of the City Manager's Office and Jason Dedrick of the Planning and Development Department. Ms. Osborn requested council direction to place the two draft ward scenarios prepared by staff before the public for comment. She noted a public hearing was scheduled for September 19, followed by a council work session on September 26 or September 28, with formal action scheduled for October. Ms. Osborn recalled that at the last work session on the subject, the council directed staff to prepare draft ward scenarios that considered geographic and neighborhood features, relative compactness and contiguity, and which did not protect or punish incumbent elected officials. The two draft scenarios based on that direction were included in the packet as Attachment C. Mr. Dedrick highlighted changes to the ward boundaries reflected in the two draft scenarios. Ms. Osborn provided a brief overview of the public outreach done by the staff team to this point, reporting that residents could request the data underlying the draft scenarios so they could draw their own MINUTES— Eugene City Council July 25, 2011 Page 3 Work Session boundaries. Staff also planned to provide data on the Web site that allowed people to compare different ward scenarios. That information would be available soon. While several councilors expressed an inclination for Scenario 1, they expressed general support for forwarding both scenarios to the public. Ms. Taylor suggested that the entire downtown area should be included in Ward 1. She also thought moving the boundaries of Ward 3 across the Willamette River to include the students living in Ward 4 would be appropriate. Mr. Zelenka expressed concern that both scenarios exacerbated the impact of the fact that students did not generally vote in local elections. Scenario 2 exacerbated that problem by removing a portion of the Amazon neighborhood with high voter turnout from Ward 3. The number of people would be the same, but the number of voters would be lower. He suggested one way to address the issue would be to retain the Amazon neighborhood in Ward 3, and add the area between Hilyard and Oak streets to Ward 2. Mr. Zelenka suggested the ward boundaries for wards 4 and 5 should be established with consideration of the new neighborhood association boundaries, which could also require adjustments to the boundaries for Ward 7. Mr. Clark expressed interest in further discussion of Ms. Taylor's suggestion about downtown and Mr. Zelenka's comments about the boundaries for wards 4 and 5. Mr. Poling wanted a scenario that affected as few people as possible. He shared Mr. Zelenka's concerns about the number of student voters in Ward 3. He noted that while Ward 4 contained many students, that area of the ward also included some single - family and multi - family development and speculated that the number of people who lived in that area did not turn over as often as the number of people in Ward 3. Mr. Pryor supported the scenario that presented the least change. He indicated he would resist segregating a particular population in any one ward and thought there was a benefit to having two councilors who needed to think about the needs of the university student population. The same was true for downtown; a downtown divided into two wards meant there were two councilors specifically concerned with downtown issues, although Mr. Pryor believed downtown was of concern to all councilors. He perceived the same advantage in having the River Road/Santa Clara area in two different wards. Ms. Ortiz supported Mr. Pryor's comments. She liked the use of significant geographic features, such as the river, for ward boundaries, and did not want to see ward boundaries cross such features if that could be avoided. Mr. Farr expressed interest in Ms. Taylor's suggestion about downtown as he did not see it as segregating any particular population. He preferred to retain the airport in Ward 6 because of the likelihood the urban growth boundary could be expanded in that area to accommodate industrial development. He thought it made sense to retain the airport in Ward 6 for that reason, and pointed out the lack of voters in the area would make that easy to accomplish. Mr. Clark emphasized the importance of creating boundaries that did not divide communities of common interest. He believed that to the degree the University of Oregon campus area was an area of common interest, it was best not to divide it. MINUTES— Eugene City Council July 25, 2011 Page 4 Work Session Responding to a question from Mayor Piercy as to how she interpreted the council's input, Ms. Osborn indicated that depending on the council direction, staff would present the two draft scenarios to the public but would begin to prepare some alternate scenarios that reflected the council's feedback. Mayor Piercy questioned how one could determine which community of interest might predominate in a particular area if more than one such community existed. Ms. Taylor thought it would be good if each ward could include part of downtown but that was not physically possible and so supported keeping it in one ward. She also believed that the Amazon neighborhood mentioned by Mr. Zelenka should be included in Ward 2 as it had been previously. Ms. Taylor suggested the council should also consider residents' routes of travel to and from their homes in establishing the boundaries. Ms. Ortiz believed all councilors were committed to serving all parts of the city, not just their own ward. Mr. Pryor concurred. Mr. Brown was also interested in further council discussion of including downtown in a single ward. Ms. Taylor, seconded by Mr. Brown, moved to proceed with Option 1 to obtain additional public input on ward boundary scenarios, with council action on final boundaries in early fall. The motion passed unanimously, 8:0. II. CONSENT CALENDAR A. Approval of City Council Minutes - June 8, 2011, Work Session - June 13, 2011, Work Session - June 15, 2011, Work Session - June 20, 2011, Public Hearing - June 27, 2011, Regular Meeting B. Approval of Tentative Working Agenda Ms. Taylor, seconded by Mr. Brown, moved to approve the items on the Consent Calendar. The motion passed unanimously, 8:0. Mayor Piercy adjourned the meeting at 6:45 p.m. Respectfully submitted, B C;(A J OVJA Beth Forrest City Recorder (Recorded by Kimberly Young) MINUTES— Eugene City Council July 25, 2011 Page 5 Work Session