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HomeMy WebLinkAbout11/17/2014 Work SessionCity of Springfield Work Session Meeting MINUTES OF THE WORK SESSION MEETING OF THE SPRINGFIELD CITY COUNCIL HELD MONDAY NOVEMBER 17, 2014 The City of Springfield Council met in a work session in the Jesse Maine Meeting Room, 225 Fifth Street, Springfield, Oregon, on Monday November 17, 2014 at 6:00 p.m., with Mayor Lundberg presiding. ATTENDANCE Present were Mayor Lundberg and Councilors VanGordon, Wylie, Moore, Ralston, and Woodrow. Also present were City Manager Gino Grimaldi, Assistant City Manager Jeff Towery, City Attorney Mary Bridget Smith, Administrative Assistant Amy Jo Ripka and members of the staff. 1. Potential Lane County Vehicle Registration Fee. Anette Spickard, Deputy Development and Public Works Director, presented the staff report on this item. Lane County Commissioner Leiken and Senior Transportation Planner Lydia McKinney were also present from Lane County. Commissioner Leiken introduced Lane County Public Works Director Marsha Miller, and County Engineer Bill Morgan who were also in attendance. Commissioner Leiken said the Lane County Board of Commissioners is considering a vehicle registration fee. The County's Roads Advisory Committee (RAC) looked at several options for road funds and vehicle registration is the one they brought forward to the Board. The Board has heard from Dr. Manross who conducted a survey and from staff, but has not yet made a decision on this proposal. Tonight is an opportunity to share the proposal with the City. Local and rural streets are a $6 billion asset throughout Lane County. Lane County is responsible for maintaining 417 bridges located on county roads only. It is important to make sure the County has adequate road funds in place. He thanked Lane County staff for the commendable job they had done in maintaining the roads over the years. He feels a vehicle registration fee will take strong support from the County, but also the cities in order to be successful. Ms. McKinney said on August 5, the Board directed staff to go back to the RAC to discuss and bring forward a recommendation based on their evaluation on a number of revenue options. The RAC, a citizen committee of five Board appointees and two at -large members, met on August 27, 2014 and discussed a variety of revenue options. At the conclusion of their discussion, the RAC unanimously recommended the Board pursue a County Vehicle Registration Fee. The Board unanimously supported staff moving forward to do some additional research on this recommendation. Under a County Vehicle Registration Fee, a minimum of 40 percent of the funds are distributed to the cities within the County per statute. The Board heard and concurred with the RAC's recommendation on September 30th, directing staff to conduct research regarding the details of implementing a Vehicle Registration Fee, including public opinion information and specific data regarding the amount of the fee to be considered. Ms. McKinney provided a power point as part of the presentation. She referred to a slide showing the history of payments received by the County for roads, which has dramatically reduced over the last several years. There were times where they had a revenue sharing program with the cities, but with the reductions in funds, that program ceased. The State highway fund is made up of the fuel tax (47%), City of Springfield Council Work Session Minutes November 17, 2014 Page 2 registration fees (20.6%), weigh -mile tax (25.2%), and other (7.1%). Some of the corrective actions taken by the county to address the decrease in road finds include: 35% reduction in employees since 2000; 50% reduction in reserves since 2000; consolidated and re -organized departments for efficiency; used innovative technologies to lower costs; and aggressively sought grants and partnerships to leverage resources. Even with all of these corrective actions, the need to replace revenue has reached critical level. The current challenge at Lane County is a gap of $9M between annual expenses and annual revenues in the road funds. These funds are not only used for maintaining and preserving the roads, but also for disaster response for landslides, storms, etc. She referred to a chart showing the pavement life cycle and the cost of maintaining roads while still in good condition versus the much higher cost of repairing roads once they reach poor or very poor conditions. Road maintenance and preservation is a regional issue, as the public does not perceive the difference between a city and county road. Ms. McKinney said some of the revenue options staff, along with the RAC evaluated included: grant writer (complete), County road bonds; transportation utility fee; transportation service district; property tax local option levy; local gas tax; and local vehicle registration fee. Of those options, the vehicle registration fee was recommended unanimously by the RAC and the Board because it is a regional solution to a regional issue, 40% collected will go to the cities, there is certainty in funding and is more stable than the decreasing gas tax, it will be directed to road use only and will be easy to administer. She referred to a slide showing the percentage to be distributed per city based on population. Springfield's projected share based on this percentage would be over $1M annually. Ms. McKinney spoke regarding how the vehicle registration fee could be applied. ORS specifies that, unless specifically exempted (i.e. farm vehicles, disabled veterans vehicles, recreational vehicles, and truck over 26,000 pounds), a vehicle registration fee must be imposed equally to all vehicle classes (motorcycles only exception). Ms. McKinney discussed the survey results on the polling work done by Dr. Gary Manross. A result of the survey showed that 62% of the population of Lane County preferred to pay a modest increase rather than addition cuts to services. After considering the amount of the fee based on an allowable dollar figure, they decided to test a fee of $35. The `likely support' based on Dr. Manross' formula, for a $35 fee was 53%. That figure rose to 57.5% after arguments regarding the need for the fee were explained. Dr. Manross recommended that if they move forward, they focus on maintenance and preservation in the message to the public. He also recommended a citizen oversight committee and performing an annual audit. Ms. McKinney said if the Board chooses to move forward, they would bring this to the voters at the May 19, 2015 election. The County is looking to hear the questions and concerns of the City, and get support for the Board to place the question of a modest vehicle registration fee on the May 19, 2015 ballot. Councilor Ralston said he knew something had to be done, but he feels this should be a statewide solution. He asked what would happen if the State did something in the future to solve the problem, and Lane County already put this into place. Ms. McKinney said the Board has talked about that possibility. They won't know what the State will do until after July. The Board would be interested in reducing the fee if the State did do something later in the year. Councilor Ralston said the State needs to increase the gas tax, but he does support this proposal. City of Springfield Council Work Session Minutes November 17, 2014 Page 3 Councilor VanGordon thanked County Commissioner Leiken and County staff for their presentation. He also supports the proposal. Councilor Wylie said it is a good idea and is not too large of an amount for individuals, but will help a lot where needed. Councilor Woodrow agreed. It seems to be the best option. Councilor Moore asked if the $1 M would be an annual payment. Ms. McKinney said it is an annual calculation, but would take about 6 months before the County could begin collecting and distributing. Councilor Moore asked if that amount is sufficient for the City to take care of some of the city's maintenance needs. Development and Public Works Director Len Goodwin said staff had identified needs in the amount of $4.5M, but a little over $1M will allow staff to begin the process and get positive results. Councilor Moore said she supports this proposal. Mayor Lundberg said she has always been a supporter of a fee that goes directly to the purpose it is meant for, so she does not approve transportation utility fees because they are added to people's utility bills. She asked if they are going to look for a formal endorsement and active campaigning from the City. Ms. McKinney said it would be great if they could get a letter of support from the City of Springfield to the Board of Commissioners. Council is supportive of the letter. Mayor Lundberg said we are far behind with bridges and roads and need statewide road funding. This will be local and can be controlled locally. She applauds the County for taking this step. Commissioner Leiken thanked the Council for their support. It is difficult to go out and ask citizens for additional dollars. He noted that about 65% of Lane County's residents live in Eugene and Springfield city limits. This is also a safety concern due to the need for funds to assist during emergencies such as slides and floods. Mayor Lundberg asked that the County let the Mayor know what the Mayor and Council can do and when. She thanked them for their presentation. 2. Community Survey. Niel Laudati, Community Relations Manager, presented the staff report on this item. Earlier this summer, the City conducted a telephone survey of the community to check perceptions on the importance of established community values and city services. Advanced Marketing Research conducted the survey using 400 telephone interviews with Springfield residents between Aug. 1 and City of Springfield Council Work Session Minutes November 17, 2014 Page 4 Aug. 14, 2014. People were asked about what was important to them and how they felt the City was performing in those areas. Similar to our 2010 survey, Safe Neighborhoods ranked most important followed closely by Quality Education and a Healthy Environment. Mr. Laudati discussed the demographics of those surveyed regarding gender, age, homeownership, families with children, and ethnicity. The survey also included some people from Glenwood. He reviewed the rankings and noted that all of the community values were extremely important to respondents. Compared to the 2010 results, the values have remained nearly the same or slightly more important. He reviewed the rankings regarding performance by the City of Springfield. The figures showed room for improvement, yet also showed an increase in the City's performance from the 2010 figures. Other charts showed the comparison from 2010-2014 regarding the importance of city performance and community goals. He noted that one of the goals in 2005 was to clean up downtown, and they had gotten past that and are now into the redevelopment stage. Mr. Laudati referred to a chart showing what the respondents are most proud of about Springfield and noted that Hometown Feel is the highest ranked. Although this ranked a little lower on the community values chart, it is an important aspect for citizens and needs to be considered. The survey also asked respondents what one thing the City could do to improve quality of life. Development and jobs ranked highest, followed by drugs and safety. He reviewed the response to the question how safe people feel downtown. The percentage of people that feel very safe and somewhat safe has increased since 2010. Safety in neighborhoods has remained close to the same as the 2010 figures. Nearly 70% of the respondents feel the jail is contributing to the safety of citizens. Mr. Laudati reviewed the key findings from the survey: • All tested community values are between "very" and "extremely" important • Most important community values ✓ Safe neighborhoods ✓ Quality education ✓ Healthy environment • City's performance rated between "average" and "good" • Highest ratings were for ✓ Healthy environment ✓ Good access to social services • Lowest ratings were for ✓ Economic Development • Most important 5 -year goals: ✓ Economic development downtown ✓ Diversity and tolerance • Residents are most proud of community values and hometown feel • One thing Springfield could do is work on economy/growth/development/jobs • People feel safer downtown after dark than in 2010 • People feel strongly that the jail contributes to safety in the community Mr. Laudati noted that as the City moves forward to address any of the items on the survey, they should check to make sure they fit within the City goals. Councilor Woodrow said she feels people didn't rank Hometown Feel as high as some other things because they are comfortable with that aspect of the City. Sometimes people may rank things high in importance when they see a need for improvement. People ranking "Hometown Feel" on the things they are proud of, indicates that Springfield has it and doesn't need a lot of work. City of Springfield Council Work Session Minutes November 17, 2014 Page 5 Councilor VanGordon asked if the survey included cell phone numbers. Mr. Laudati said it did include cell phone numbers. In 2010 a specific piece of the survey was with Latino contacts, but did not need to do that during this survey. Councilor VanGordon asked about the question used to rank the most important values and if they were open ended, or with choices. Mr. Laudati said it was a ranking of choices. Councilor VanGordon said that explains the close rankings, but spoke well of the community. Councilor Wylie said it was very interesting and she appreciate that Mr. Laudati framed the information in a very understandable format. Councilor Moore asked if the "Healthy Environment" was specific in what it included, such as food, environment, or economy. She asked if they could get more definition for each question. Mr. Laudati said there are more specifics on each survey question and he can pull those together and provide them to the Council. For that question, it included air, water, wastewater, etc. Mayor Lundberg asked for a memo with that additional information. She likes how close the numbers are and that what is important remains the same whether during a recession or growth. They work hard at those values, but it is a good reminder that people choose to be in Springfield for the Hometown Feel and the City needs to continue to maintain that value. Councilor Woodrow said Hometown Feel also reflects the attitude of the community. Councilor Wylie said there have been so many changes downtown that has enhanced our Hometown Feel. ADJOURNMENT The meeting was adjourned at 6:45 p.m. Minutes Recorder — Amy Sowa Christine L. Lundberg Mayor Attest: "" an4fwGZ-- Amy Sow City Recorder