HomeMy WebLinkAbout10/15/2007 Work Session
City of Springfield
Work Session Meeting
MINUTES OF THE WORK SESSION MEETING OF
THE SPRINGFIELD CITY COUNCIL HELD
MONDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2007
The City of Springfield Council met in a work session in the Jesse Maine Meeting Room, 225
Fifth Street, Springfield, Oregon, on Monday, October 15, 2007 at 6:00 p.m., with Mayor Leiken
presiding.
ATTENDANCE
Present were Mayor Leiken and Councilors Lundberg, Wylie, Ballew, Ralston, Woodrow and
Pishioneri. Also present were Assistant City Manager Jeff Towery, City Attorney Joe Leahy,
City Attorney Matt Cox, City Recorder Amy Sowa and members of the staff.
1. Barking Dogs, Continuous Annoyance Ordinance.
Animal Control Officer Tracy Sparks and City Attorney Matt Cox presented the staff report on
this item. Adoption of this ordinance would add to the existing Springfield Municipal Code
language regarding the offense of barking dog. Ms. Sparks believes that the ordinance as drafted
~i11 assist her in dealing with the public and in citing offenders who allow dogs to cause
continuous annoyance through barking.
Mr. Cox said they had talked to other local jurisdictions and their animal control offices. The
fifteen minute limitation was tailored from the Lane County and City of Eugene code.
Ms. Sparks did not believe there will be financial impact on the City but instead that the
ordinance will make her job regarding noise diswrbances due to barking dogs easier to manage.
Ms. Sparks said she had received a number of requests from citizens, both with barking dogs and
those complaining about barking dogs, to make the definition of continuous more clear. She
spoke with Lane County Animal Regulation about their code and how it helped to make it clear.
She said the issue had surfaced during court proceedings as well when the judge asked for a
definition of continuous barking. She noted the large volume of calls she received regarding
barking dogs.
Councilor Woodrow asked how the time was documented, by the owner or by Ms. Sparks.
Ms. Sparks said due to time constraints, she was not able to go and sit and listen to see how long
the dogs barked, and had to rely on the neighbor to document the time. That was how it had
always been. There were instances where she did go out to listen to dogs bark when requested by
a judge or if she knew it was an ongoing problem.
Councilor Woodrow also said he appreciated Ms. Sparks' work onthis item.
City Attorney Joe Leahy said that he was aware of people bringing tape recorders of barking
dogs to the Lane County Justice Court.
City of Springfield
Council Work Session Minutes
October 15,2007
Page 2
Ms. Sparks said the City of Eugene requested citizens record the barking dog in order to submit a
complaint. Ms. Sparks did not feel that was necessary because not everyone had a tape recorder.
Councilor Pishioneri asked how the time was calculated. He gave an example of a dog barking
for ten minutes, then stopping for five, then barking again for ten minutes, and so on. He also
discussed other noise ordinances and the distance from the house. He appreciated where they
were going with this ordinance. Barking dogs could be a nuisance. He asked how complaints
were received.
Ms. Sparks said the citizen filed a written complaint.
Councilor Ralston said he didn't see a distinction between barking for 15 minutes at one stretch
or a dog barking for five minutes off and on through the day or night. He would like to see the
time quantified, such as number of minutes per hour. He discussed whining versus barking and if,
that could be considered. He discussed dogs inside the home.
Councilor Woodrow noted that whining was included in the ordinance.
Ms. Sparks said barking complaints were not taken regarding dogs inside homes. She said part of
the complaint was to give a description of the dog and if they were in the home it was difficult to
give a description.
Councilor Wylie said she agreed with Councilor Ralston regarding continual barking. She felt
that it shouldn't be a complaint if a dog was barking for a specific reason, such as a wild animal
in the yard, and not just barking continually.
Mr. Cox said part of the ordinance included the phrase that an owner had to unreasonably permit
the dog to cause continuous annoyance. If there was an intruder or wild animal, that would be
reasonable. He said they would look further into quantifying the time within an hour and check
with other jurisdictions. He asked Councilor Pishioneri if he would like something included
about distance from home.
Councilor Pishioneri said he didn't want to be unreasonable, but would like consideration taken
that this ordinance matches the other noise ordinances.
Councilor Wylie said regarding other noises, she was awakened often in the night from train
whistles and she hoped that could be addressed at some point.
Councilor Pishioneri asked if they would consider a person gone on vacation as a defense for a
barking dog.
No. Ms. Sparks said all dog owners received a warning from her before they were cited. If the
homeowner was not home when she came to the house, she would leave a doorhanger and they
usually called her back. She also encouraged the neighbors to talk to each other before filing a
complaint with her office.
City of Springfield
Council Work Session Minutes
October 15,2007
Page 3
Councilor Lundberg said issuing warnings was good. Some people had great dogs that barked
when the owner was out. The owners often didn't know the dog was barking if they were out.
She appreciated that Ms. Sparks was working with the owners and resolving it in a community
service way.
Mayor Leiken thanked Ms. Sparks for bringing this item to Council.
2. Review Options for Council Goal to Analyze Municipal WiFi as an Incentive for Economic
Development in Nodal Zones.
Information Technology Director Rod Lathrop presented this item. In January 2007 the City
Council adopted a goal to identify possible WiFi locations in nodal development locations. It is
estimated that as many as 400 municipalities through out the United States may be considering
municipal WiFi networks.
There are many reasons for considering a municipal WiFi network. One of the chief benefits is to
mobilize traditional municipal services, such as Police/Fire, Public Works, and Development
Services. Additional benefits for municipal WiFi networks include social inclusion by providing
Internet services at low or no cost to under-served populations, possible economic development
gains, and demonstrating to the world that Springfield is a contemporary, wireless-enabled
digital city. ~
Municipally owned WiFi networks can cost as much as $75,000 - $150,000 per square mile. Due
to the significant geographic distribution of our City and the associated high capital costs this
option is not presented here.
Many Cities such as Portland, Oregon and San Francisco, California are trying to develop
Municipal WiFi networks as PubliclPrivate partnerships. Four options are presented for Council
discussion, ranging in cost from little more than staff time up to $10,000 plus additional staff
costs for items such as Coverage and Interference engineering reports.
EarthLink, the dominant provider in the Public/Private partnership market space, has recently
suspended new projects after losing $30M in the most recent quarter. Due to other failures and
underperforming projects in the municipal WiFi market, coupled with pending technical
innovations such as WiMax, Option 4 "No action at this time" is the IT recommendation.
Mr. Lathrop discussed the municipal service and noted that the mobile data computer Police
Chief Smith used for his department was much more economical than any Wi-Fi service for
internal communications.
Councilor Ralston said he never liked this idea and this report just reinforced his opinion.
Mr. Lathrop said the one place this had been a success was in small rural towns because it gave
those that couldn't get access to the internet in their homes, a broadband choice. Most larger
cities were reconsidering this service because of the many issues and costs.
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Council Work Session Minutes
October 15, 2007
Page 4
Mayor Leiken said it was challenging for the government to get involved in something like this,
particularly when private carriers could provide the service and sell subscriptions. He asked if '
" that was what Clearwire was doing.
Mr. Lathrop said Clearwire was doing very well. That's what the City of Eugene was using out at
the airport.
Councilor Wylie said this should be left up to the private sector.
Mr. Lathrop said it originally made sense, but hadn't panned out.
Mayor Leiken noted that he thought there should be a way to capture revenue from things going
through the air, but realized that would be another discussion at another time.
3. City Property Naming Privilege.
Community Relations Coordinator Niel Laudati presented the staff report on this item. The City
currently has no official policy on the naming of buildings and facilities. Following a February
2007 City Council Work Session on the issue of naming, staff developed the attached draft
policy. The policy is separated into Honorary and Philanthropic naming opportunities. Staff
developed the policy with initial input from CounCilor Joe Pishioneri, the council liaison for the
project.
The attached document outlines a proposed process for both Honorary and Philanthropic naming
opportunities. Along with opportunities for public engagement, the policy stipulates thatthe final
decision in all cases rests with the City Council.
Mr. Laudati thanked Councilor Pishioneri, council liaison on this committee, and City Attorney
Joe Leahy for reviewing the many versions of this policy. He said the policy was split into two
sections: Honorary Naming and Philanthropic Naming. He explained the honorary naming part
of the policy. He discussed some of the highlights of the policy. Council would have the fmal say
on any recommendations that came from this policy.
Councilor Ralston said he recalled when a citizen came and asked that a street be renamed. He
asked if this policy related to this type of request. He didn't see any mention of naming streets in
this policy. He said he had objected to the name change because there was no process in place.
Mr. Laudati saidthis policy was generated from a January meeting regarding naming of a public
building.
Mr. Leahy said this policy did not relate to streets. Renaming a street involved coordination with
the post office, Public Works Department, regional partners and the Lane Council of
, Governments (LCOG).
. Councilor Wylie asked if there was a policy for naming a street. She said she lived on South E
Street and there was a lot of confusion related to that name.
City of Springfield
Council Work Session Minutes
October 15,2007
Page 5
Mr. Goodwin said the City standard was a rectangular grid where all east/west streets were
named for letters in the alphabet, and all north/south streets were named by number. Within
subdivision, however, the developer of the subdivision had the right to apply for a naming
convention for naming the streets within the subdivision, as long as those names didn't involve
inappropriate words, did not duplicate names in Eugene, and did not create confusion. Those
could be rejected by the Council, but he had not seen Council reject subdivision naming
conventions.
Councilor Wylie asked about her situation of trying to rename a street.
Mr. Goodwin said it would be an action of the Council to change that street name.
Mr. Leahy said Council had avoided those because it could cause confusion for the Police and
Fire departments and not all neighbors would be agreeable to a change. There was a name
change sometime back for a development to try to promote that it was high end housing, but
since then Council had been reluctant to get into street renaming.
Mr. Laudati noted that two of the things Councilor Pishioneri wanted included in this policy had
been included: I) The proposal must be in writing; and 2) The final approval must be made by
Council. Mr. Laudati reviewed philanthropic naming.
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Councilor Lundberg said' in the past, Council had often had a chance to review and provide input
on the make-up of committees appointed for different tasks. She would like Council to have the
opportunity to review any naming committees the City Manager may appoint. She felt it would
also give the public an opportunity to see the make-up of the committee. She also noted that
there could be a situation when something needed to be unnamed.
Councilor Pishioneri said the policy was well written and was what he wanted and what he felt
the Council would feel was important. He didn't completely agree with Councilor Lundberg's
suggestion to have Council's input on the committee because he felt it added more steps to the
process. He said he would trust the City Manager's office to choose an unbiased committee.
Councilor Lundberg said Council approved all committees that gave Council recommendations.
Mayor Leiken asked for further clarification on committees.
Mr. Towery said this policy did allow other committees to take on the responsibility of
recommending a name. He gave the example of naming a meeting room in the Justice Center and
using the Police Planning Task Force (PPTF) as the naming committee. There could be language
in the policy that the City Manager runs the committee membership by the Council for review.
He as].<:ed if they wanted it noted in the policy that if a new committee was formed by the City
Manager, that the Council have a chance to review and provide input, but if a standing
committee was used, there would be no need for Council review.
Mayor Leiken said he liked having the City Manager bring the names of the proposed committee
to the Council either way. It would also give Council a chance to appoint a Council liaison to the '
committee.
City of Springfield
Council Work Session Minutes
October 15,2007
Page 6
Councilor Lundberg said she would just like to see the category of people that would be on the
committee. The'Council had to make the final decision and she wanted to have input regarding
the committee.
Mr. Towery said staff could add language to reflect that in the policy.
Council commended Mr. Laudati and Mr. Leahy for their work creating this policy and thanked
Councilor Pishioneri for serving as liaison.
ADJOURNMENT
The meeting was adjourned at 6:47 pm.
Minutes Recorder - Amy Sowa
Attest:
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Amy so~
City Recorder '