HomeMy WebLinkAbout01/21/2014 Work SessionCity of Springfield
Work Session Meeting
MINUTES OF THE WORK SESSION MEETING OF
THE SPRINGFIELD CITY COUNCIL HELD
TUESDAY, JANUARY 21, 2014
The City of Springfield Council met in a work session in the Jesse Maine Meeting Room, 225 Fifth
Street, Springfield, Oregon; on Tuesday, January 21, 2014 at 6:17 p.m., with Mayor Lundberg
presiding.
ATTENDANCE
Present were Mayor Lundberg and Councilors Wylie, VanGordon, Moore, Ralston, Woodrow and
Brew. Also present were City Manager Gino Grimaldi, Assistant City Manager Jeff Towery, City
Attorney Lauren King, City Recorder Amy Sowa and members of the staff.
1. Council Goals Check -in.
Assistant City Manager Jeff Towery presented the staff report on this item. Last year the City Council
conducted a Goal Setting Session and established several short term goals. Tonight's session was to.
provide a progress report for the goals in advance of this year's goal setting, scheduled for March 10,
2014.
Council selected the following 10 goals and directed staff to analyze the items for cost, opportunities,
hurdles or other ways of approaching the goals listed.
One Year:
• Complete an intra jurisdictional agreement to reduce system development charges to stimulate
economic development.
• Explore incentives to encourage annexation of improved area developments just beyond the
city boundary.
• Identify two large (50 acres minimum) properties for near -term job development.
• Create a Springfield consortium of public and private interests to market our community.
Two Year:
• Hold a city-wide cleanup event twice a year.
• Explore the viability of a local voter's guide for Springfield.
• Move jail and police service off the levy.
• Form a partnership with TEAM Springfield to host a downtown multicultural festival.
Three Year:
• Complete a signature milestone in Glenwood such as NEPA process completion, engineering
of Franklin Boulevard, or acquisition of right of way for Franklin realignment, etc.
• Develop long -term plan to phase out mobile home parks in Glenwood by offering replacement
housing, counseling, and other options.
Mr. Towery reviewed the four goals that were pulled from the list last February: Complete an intra-
jurisdictional agreement to reduce system development charges to stimulate economic development;
Create a Springfield consortium of public and private interests to market our community; Move jail
and police service off the levy; and Form a partnership with TEAM Springfield to host a downtown
multicultural festival.. He discussed the status of each of those goals. He asked if the Council had any
questions or comments.
City of Springfield
Council Work Session Minutes
January 21, 2014
Page 2
The Council had no questions
Mr. Towery said during their interview with Stan Biles (the consultant who would be facilitating the
Council Goal Setting Session) he may ask how they want to incorporate discussion of the projects into
their Goal Setting Session. Mr. Biles would be meeting with Councilor Wylie this Friday before she
left on her trip and with the rest of the Council sometime in February. After those meetings, Mr. Biles
would propose an agenda for the March 10 Goal Setting Session.
Councilor Ralston said he didn't see a need to go over a comprehensive list of goals each year, but
rather maybe every other year. He didn't feel anything had changed and the City was on top of
everything.
Mayor Lundberg said they were checking in and refining the goals this year. They had overarching
goals and also specific tasks with timelines.
Mr. Grimaldi said new opportunities did come forward from time to time, as well as challenges. The
councilors may have also heard things from their constituents that they may want to include in their
goals. They were moving away from longer sessions to something more efficient.
Mayor Lundberg asked when they would be discussing the priority based budget.
Mr. Grimaldi said they would discuss that neat week during the work session. The Mayor would be
out of town so staff would meet separately with the Mayor before she left.
Councilor Woodrow said Council didn't have many opportunities to just talk as a group and share
thoughts and ideas because they were generally focused on something in particular. Things did happen
that could change perspective and she liked the annual check -ins. This was an opportunity to see how
well they were doing and relate it to the community. It continued the conversation and kept them
dynamic. If they weren't moving and talking about their goals, they could become stagnant.
Councilor Wylie said there had been movement on some of the projects. There were other things they
had talked about that weren't on the list, such as the mini- plaza. If they thought about the past year,
they would likely have new things to bring forward that could be folded into these goals. The Mayor
had folded some projects in with TEAM Springfield. This was a good process and gave them an
opportunity to express their thoughts and feelings and ideas.
Councilor Moore said it was great to talk about things they had accomplished as it refreshed their
memories of what they had done. She referred to the cat spay and neuter program and the success of
that over the last year. Goal setting helped celebrate the successes and look ahead.
Councilor Brew said when Council first came up with this list, it was before he had come onto the
Council. He wanted to make sure the timing of goal setting allowed newly elected officials to
participate.
Councilor VanGordon said he liked this format of the working goals and specific topics. He liked
hearing back about those tasks and felt the check -in was great. It was important to look back and see if
they wanted to add or subtract anything.
City of Springfield
Council Work Session Minutes
January 21, 2014
Page 3
Councilor Woodrow said there were times they did things that weren't scripted such as the cat
program, but that came about through things lining up. She would like to include that in the
discussions with Mr. Biles. She would like Mr. Biles to ask them questions during their individual
interviews to bring those things forward.
Mr. Towery said staff didn't see this list of goals as their only work plan, there were many other things
that staff worked on throughout the year. Ideally, they were connected with the Council's high level
goals and those were identified throughout the year. Along with the goals came flexibility in
responding. Regarding the timing of goal setting, historically they had not held a goal setting session
that created the potential complication that occurred in 2012. One of the reasons that session was
scheduled in December that year was in anticipation of getting ready for the Team Springfield Meeting
in January. Over the last seven years, the Goal Setting and Strategic Plan had occurred sometime
between February and May.
Mayor Lundberg said there were several things she would like to have provided to the Council prior to
their interviews with Mr. Biles: a compilation of the ideas on the boards in the Lobby; a list of the
Sustainable City Year (SCY) projects the University of Oregon students had done; information on
priority based budgeting (PBB); past year's accomplishments; and ongoing projects such as river
cleanups and graffiti cleanups. There were a lot of things that could be pulled together to get Council
thinking and generating ideas.
Mr. Towery said the Executive Team reviewed the PBB last week for half a day and invited Stan Biles
to that session so he would understand the process. Mr. Biles may ask questions about that during the
interviews.
ADJOURNMENT
The meeting was adjourned at 6:40 p.m.
Minutes Recorder —Amy Soma
Christine L. Lundberg
Mayor
Attest:
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City Recorder