CC Minutes - 01/24/07 Work Session

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M I N U T E S Eugene City Council Work Session McNutt Room—Eugene City Hall January 24, 2007 Noon COUNCILORS PRESENT: Andrea Ortiz, Chris Pryor, Betty Taylor, Bonny Bettman, George Poling, Alan Zelenka, Jennifer Solomon, Mike Clark. Ms. Ortiz called the meeting of the Eugene City Council to order. She acknowledged Her Honor Mayor Kitty Piercy was participating telephonically from the United States Conference of Mayors in Washington DC. A. WORK SESSION: Ordinance to Create Sustainability Commission City Manager Dennis Taylor introduced Council, Public and Government Affairs Manager Mary Walston to discuss implementation of one of the primary recommendations from the Sustainable Business Initiative (SBI): creation of a Sustainability Commission as an advisory committee to the City Council. Ms. Walston gave an overview of the SBI, which began in the spring of 2005 and culminated with a report approved by the council in October 2006. She said the report contained 11 recommendations for the City, including a public commitment to sustainability, creation of a sustainability manager position within the organization and formation of a sustainability commission. She noted that the council had made a public commitment by resolution and the City was in the final process of classifying and posting the sustainability manager position, with hiring anticipated in March 2007. She said implementation of the third recommen- dation for a commission was reflected in the proposed ordinance. Ms. Walston said that much of the language in the proposed ordinance was based on the ordinance that created the Police Commission. She noted that the draft reflected the council’s discussion of a 12-member commission with one citizen appointed by each councilor and four citizens appointed by the full council. She said staff recommended a smaller body composed of seven or nine members similar to the Civilian Review Board, with the mayor nominating and the council appointing members. She said staff also was suggesting that the council wait to appoint a commission until the sustainability manager was hired and could have an active role. Mayor Piercy stated her preference for modifying Section 2.380(1)(b) of the ordinance as follows: b) practices to grow and create sustainable business and jobs in the city publicly committing the City of Eugene to sustainable practices and to businesses that produce sustainable products and services. She did not have a preference regarding the size of the commission as long as the members represented a broad range of interests. She wanted to discuss whether proceeding with hearings on the ordinance before the sustainability manager was hired would be a problem. She thought the appointment process should be as uniform as possible across boards and commissions. MINUTES—Eugene City Council – Work Session January 24, 2007 Page 1