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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCC Minutes - 01/11/12 Work SessionMINUTES Eugene City Council McNutt Room —City Hall 777 Pearl Street—Eugene, Oregon January 11, 2012 5:30 p.m. COUNCILORS PRESENT: George Brown, Pat Farr, Betty Taylor, Andrea Ortiz, George Poling, Mike Clark, Chris Pryor, Alan Zelenka. Her Honor Mayor Kitty Piercy called the January 11, 2012, work session of the Eugene City Council to order. A. COMMITTEE REPORTS Mr. Brown had attended the last Civilian Review Board meeting and observed a case review. He commended the thoroughness of the board's review. He had also participated in some recent clean -up parties at Civic Stadium and commended the work of Ed Peara, a long -time volunteer. Mr. Clark commended the recent State of County event. He reported the Joint Elected Officials Ambulance Transport Task Force continued to work diligently and anticipated it would forward its recommendations to the council in four to five months. He recommended that councilors view the video Ambulance Service: Matching Resources to Needs on the City's web site for a better sense of the issues involved. Mr. Poling said that Travel Lane County's newly formed Issues Committee would discuss the proposed closure of the Gateway Postal Distribution Center. He reported that Harlow Serves, a partnership involving the neighborhood organization, 4J School District, Holt Elementary School parents, Willakenzie Evangelical Church, and North Park Community Church held a successful food drive. He commended Harlow Serves as a great example of what neighborhood partnerships could accomplish. He thanked Trader Joes for providing bags as well as all those who involved in the drive. Ms. Taylor commended Mr. Peara as a model volunteer. She noted the e -mails the council had received about a tree being cut to protect a sidewalk. She had also been contacted by a constituent regarding the removal of a tree near the Campbell Center and suggested that there should be a process in place that made it more difficult to remove trees because of their multiple values. Ms. Taylor had also been contacted by residents concerned about the intrusion of commercial parking at the development at 17 Avenue and Pearl Street into the street. She believed if the City granted the developer permission to block the sidewalk, the permission should be withdrawn. Ms. Taylor had attended a meeting of the Board of Directors of the National League of Cities and reported the board agreed to focus on things that affected cities of all sizes, such as unfunded mandates and secure Community Development Block Grant funding. The board also agreed it was important to keep immigration reform in front of Congress. Mr. Zelenka reported on the recent University Area Neighborhood Livability Summit, saying the impact from the University of Oregon (UO) was a unique issue for the neighborhoods surrounding the UO. He MINUTES— Eugene City Council January 11, 2012 Page I Work Session had called together the affected neighborhood organizations to discuss those impacts and possible solutions. He said residents agreed that uniform solutions did not work for all parts of the community and discussed the concept of establishing a UO overlay zone with regulations specific to the area. He said another meeting would occur soon. Mr. Brown asked to be informed of the next meeting date. Mr. Zelenka agreed, and said he would also provide the council with the notes of the meeting. Mr. Zelenka reported the City's Sustainability Commission had new members and he anticipated they would do very well. He said the commission had been implementing its newly approved and modified work plan, and was focusing on the Envision Eugene process, West Eugene EmX, and the Coordinated Land Use and Transportation Advisory Committee. Mr. Zelenka commended the work of commissioner chair Josh Skov and Sustainability Liaison Babe O'Sullivan. Mr. Pryor reported on the most recent meeting of the Lane Council of Governments (LCOG) Board of Directors, saying the work plan for the Sustainable Cities grant was in place. He commended the work of Stephanie Jennings of the Planning and Development Department for leading that effort and recognized that she was doing two jobs. The search for a new executive director to replace retired LCOG director George Kloeppel was underway and a committee that included City Manager Jon Ruiz had been formed to oversee that process. The board would make the final selection. Ms. Ortiz reported on a meeting that involved herself, Mayor Piercy, Intergovernmental Relations Director Brenda Wilson, representatives of Beyond Toxics, and representatives of Union Pacific Railroad regarding local concerns about the impact of diesel emissions from idled trains. She learned that the railroad had policies in places governing the practice and did not idle trains when the weather was over 40 degrees because it wasted diesel fuels. She and the representative of Beyond Toxics would contact other railroad companies about their practices. Mayor Piercy added that the railroad reported that 75 percent of its trains were equipped with emissions control devices and that it paid for the devices without government assistance because it helped with fuel costs and because the railroad wanted to do the right thing and respond to community concerns. She said the railroad planned to equip all its trains with the devices. Ms. Ortiz thanked the Eugene Police Department for arresting the two gang leaders who had been impacting her neighborhood. She reminded the council of the upcoming Martin Luther King, Jr., march and called attention to an immigrant rights meeting scheduled for January 24 at First Methodist Church sponsored by CAUSA. Ms. Ortiz, seconded by Mr. Zelenka, moved to have staff draft a letter in support of keeping the Gateway Postal Distribution Center open. The motion passed unanimously, 8:0. Ms. Ortiz reported the Human Services Commission (HRC) planned to hold a Hate Crimes Conference and a planning group was overseeing that effort. Mr. Farr noted his son had been married the previous Monday and he and his new wife were going to Brazil for a year so she could study there under a Fulbright scholarship. He congratulated Alicia Hayes of Lane County Health and Human Services for her appointment to oversee the newly reorganized department. Mr. Farr said the HRC appreciated the recognition it received for its Listening Project at the State of the City address. He recognized the time spent on the project by Chair Toni Gyatso and Vice Chair Ken Neubeck and thanked Mayor Piercy for honoring the commission. Mr. Farr recognized the extensive volunteer work of Mr. Poling and his wife Glenda. MINUTES— Eugene City Council January 11, 2012 Page 2 Work Session Mayor Piercy thanked City staff for its effort in the State of the City address. She said the event went very smoothly. Mayor Piercy reported that the Metropolitan Planning Committee passed the Regional Transportation Plan with minor amendments. She acknowledged there was little funding for the projects in the plan but it was important to have such plans in place so the community was prepared when money was available. The MPC continued to work on greenhouse gas planning and on scoping projects for land and transportation scenarios. Mayor Piercy said she also attended a meeting of the Regional Solutions Committee, which discussed the role of Goshen in satisfying the industrial land needs of Eugene. Mayor Piercy commended the redevelopment of the Taco Time Building at Broadway and Willamette Street. City Manager Ruiz announced several upcoming community events, including the Martin Luther King, Jr. Day march, the Martin Luther King, Jr. Community Celebration at the Hult Center, and a presentation by Dr. Joseph White at the UO. B. WORK SESSION: Boards and Commissions City Manager's Office Division Manager Keli Osborn and Council Coordinator Beth Forrest joined the council for the item. Ms. Forrest solicited council feedback on the boards and commission selection process. Mr. Clark, Mr. Farr, Ms. Ortiz, and Mr. Poling expressed specific concern about the geographic diversity of City boards and commissions. Mr. Clark was particularly concerned about geographic diversity as it regarded the Budget Committee and advocated for ways to enhance the recruiting process so the council had a diverse range of opinions on that committee. Mr. Farr believed that wards 4, 5, 6, and 8 in specific were underrepresented on City boards and commissions. Ms. Ortiz acknowledged the challenge of volunteerism for many residents and encouraged the viewing audience to apply. Mr. Poling advocated for better outreach. Mr. Zelenka believed there were many complicated reasons, including demographics, which resulted in some wards being unrepresented. Ms. Taylor did not think geographic diversity mattered. Mr. Brown concurred Ms. Osborn emphasized the challenge of getting people to apply. She suggested councilors think of additional roles they could play in publicizing openings in their wards, such as providing people with applications, and invited suggestions. Mr. Pryor pointed out that when asked how they heard about a commission opening, the majority of respondents indicated it was word of mouth. He suggested the City would not know why certain wards were more represented than others unless it asked. He believed geographic representation should be a factor in appointments. He said that he had made random calls to residents of his ward encouraging them MINUTES— Eugene City Council January 11, 2012, Page 3 Work Session to apply with little success. He suggested that people became involved in civic affairs because they were very dissatisfied or very satisfied with City government. Mr. Brown agreed with Mr. Pryor. He thought it would be useful to know where all applicants came from. He acknowledged that for whatever reason, the City received more applications from residents of wards 1, 2, and 3. He looked for the best applicant when reviewing applications and tried to avoid looking at ward numbers. He did not know how to address the lack of geographic diversity. Mayor Piercy agreed that geographic diversity was important but so were other types of diversity. She noted growing participation from the Cal Young and Trainsong neighborhoods and said the City should keep working on the issue without getting bogged down. Mr. Clark pointed out that geographic diversity was mandated by City policy. He wanted the City to do more to effectively achieve such diversity. He said the issue was not a shortage of applicants from other wards but the council's decision - making process. When the council had a chance to choose a qualified applicant from Ward 4 it selected a qualified candidate from Ward 3. Mr. Clark wanted to find new ways to find residents to participate and suggested that the City employ the newsletters of the school districts and local community agencies to announce vacancies. He thought the councilors could do more as individuals. He asked staff to communicate with the council regarding the deadlines for applications. Mayor Piercy observed that information provided by staff indicated that the lowest levels of participation were in the downtown, Trainsong, Far West, Jefferson - Westside, West University, and Laurel Hill neighborhoods. Ms. Osborn pointed out the discussion was complicated by the fact that neighborhood organizations were different sizes. Ms. Ortiz expressed general satisfaction with the current process and thanked staff for its work. She suggested that the City could explore the approach used in Salem, where a subcommittee of the council rather than the full council interviewed candidates. Mr. Zelenka believed the City needed to get more gender diversity on the Planning Commission and noted the lack of younger and older applicants as well as applicants of color. He did not want to "trump" those things for geographic diversity. He did not want to see geographic diversity "quotas." Mr. Zelenka also supported the current process and recommended that candidates should receive coaching on their opening statements. He did not think the format the City currently used extracted the most relevant information about life experiences. Mr. Poling pointed out that one -third of applicants did not respond to the question regarding ethnic background, which skewed the numbers. He supported Mr. Zelenka's suggestion that applicants be coached in preparing for their interviews. Mr. Clark posited the idea of an ordinance change that provided for individual councilors to appoint individual Budget Committee members. Ms. Taylor did not dislike Mr. Clark's idea. She did not want to limit councilors' appointments to residents of their wards, however. She suggested that after the applicant's opening statement, the councilors ask questions based on the statement. Ms. Ortiz recommended that the City hold more open houses to inform residents of board and commissions vacancies and share information about the duties and responsibilities of the positions MINUTES— Eugene City Council January 11, 2012 Page 4 Work Session involved. She believed it was the council's role to get people not normally involved in government to apply for such vacancies. She further suggested the City's current process was "too process- oriented" for some as well as a little threatening. Mr. Brown was generally satisfied with the process. He recommended that staff prepare an informational packet for applicants that included an estimate of the time commitment involved. He welcomed more suggestion of Mr. Clark's idea but pointed out it had been tried before. He believed that all wards were equally represented on the Budget Committee because of the presence of the council. Mr. Brown liked the idea of interviewing from a wide pool and selecting the best candidates. Speaking to Ms. Taylor's concern, Mr. Pryor believed the council needed consistency in the questions it asked of applicants for the purposes of comparison but suggested the potential of an open question and answer session following the prepared questions. He noted that currently, there were no job descriptions for positions and recommended that the council consider establishing the minimum qualifications for service on City boards and commissions. He thought geography as an element of diversity should be considered. Mr. Pryor wanted to look at mechanisms for engaging ordinary residents who were not motivated by concern about a City decision or position. Ms. Taylor regretted the demise of the Citizen Involvement Committee, which had fostered citizen involvement through use of a random voter pool for applicants. She suggested something similar to the Citizen Police Academy be established for City boards and commissions. Mr. Clark said that while residents of a geographic area would not have uniform positions, he believed that geographic diversity ensured that everyone would be heard. Mr. Zelenka suggested that all interviews be scheduled for one week with follow -up interviews the next week for applicants unable to attend interviews the previous week. Ms. Forrest noted that tentatively, two interview dates were scheduled. Mayor Piercy adjourned the meeting at 1:28 p.m. Respectfully submitted, ,&A :J� Beth Forrest City Recorder (Recorded by Kimberly Young) MINUTES— Eugene City Council January 11, 2012 Page 5 Work Session