HomeMy WebLinkAbout05/23/2016 Work Session City of Springfield
Work Session Meeting
MINUTES OF THE WORK SESSION MEETING OF
THE SPRINGFIELD CITY COUNCIL HELD
MONDAY MAY 23, 2016
The City of Springfield Council met in a work session in the Jesse Maine Meeting Room, 225 Fifth
Street, Springfield, Oregon, on Monday May 23, 2016 at 5:30 p.m.,with Mayor Lundberg presiding.
ATTENDANCE
Present were Mayor Lundberg and Councilors VanGordon, Wylie, Ralston, Woodrow and Pishioneri.
Also present were City Manager Gino Grimaldi,Assistant City Manager Jeff Towery,Assistant City
Attorney Kristina Kraaz, City Recorder Amy Sowa and members of the staff.
Councilor Moore was absent(excused)
1. Planning Commission Interviews.
Greg Mott, Planning Manager, presented the staff report on this item.
Three candidates have applied for the Planning Commission vacancies created by term expirations of
the positions held by Commissioner Tim Vohs and Commissioner Steve Moe. Mr.Vohs is eligible for
and is seeking reappointment;Mr. Moe has completed his second(4)year term and is not eligible to
apply for a third term. The expiration date of both positions is May 5, 2016.
The City received three(3)applications for two(2)vacancies during a four-week recruitment process.
Grace A.Brown,who resides at 2308 15th Street, Springfield 97477 and is a Realtor with Re/Max
Integrity;
Suzanne P. Fenner,who resides at 328 Scotts Glen Drive, Springfield 97477 and is retired; and
Tim Vohs,who resides at 3708 Cherokee Drive, Springfield 97478 and is a Property/Rental Manager.
The Springfield Planning Commission is a seven member volunteer Commission appointed by the
City Council. Positions are"at-large", and do not represent specific geographic areas. The members
serve four-year terms that are staggered to avoid more than two positions expiring at the same time.
Of the seven members,two appointments may live outside the City limits and two appointments may
be involved in the Real estate profession. At present, only Commissioner Nick Nelson is involved in
the Real Estate profession; all commission members currently reside within the city limits.
Mr.Mott noted that Ms. Fenner withdrew her application so would not be interviewed.
The Mayor and Council chose the questions they would ask of the candidates. They introduced
themselves to the candidates and asked the following questions:
1. Why do you want to be on(continue to serve on)the Planning Commission?(Mayor
Lundberg)
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2. Please identify the top two or three land use issues facing the City of Springfield and what you
think the Planning Commission can do to help. (Councilor VanGordon)
3. How familiar are you with the laws and procedures that affect land use decisions made by the
Planning Commission? What would you say to your fellow commissioners if you supported
an application but you were concerned that the evidence and testimony submitted by the
applicant did not satisfy the criteria of approval? (Councilor Woodrow)
4. Growth,through development of vacant land and redevelopment of underutilized land, is the
single largest source of revenue for the City's property tax supported General Fund. However,
growth does have its share of costs, included new infrastructure and the permanent
maintenance of that infrastructure. As an official representative of the City,please describe
your position on growth and development. (Councilor Pishioneri)
5. What is your understanding of the relationship between the Planning Commission and City
Staff, and the Planning Commission and the City Council?(Councilor Ralston)
6. Many of the land use laws applied by the Planning Commission are state or federal mandates.
Do you believe the Planning Commission should have the authority to determine whether
these laws apply to a given application?Do you believe the Planning Commission should be
able to approve alternatives to these laws if the alternatives meet the spirit of the law?
(Councilor Wylie)
Council discussed the qualifications of the candidates and would move forward with appointments
during the June 6, 2016 regular meeting.
Mayor Lundberg discussed the Springfield Policy Advisory Committee(SPAC)and that member Jose
de Silva,who served as the cultural minority member,moved out of Springfield so was no longer
eligible to serve. Last summer when they interviewed, another person had applied. She asked if the
Council wanted to offer the position to the other person, or go back out and recruit for the vacancy.
Council chose to go back out and recruit for the vacancy.
2. Changes to Paid Leave Program.
Greta Utecht, Human Resources Director,presented the staff report on this item.
Council directed Human Resources staff to develop a recommendation for a Paid Time Off(PTO)
program that will replace the existing traditional vacation plus sick leave benefits. In addition,
Council asked that caps be implemented for vacation accrual schedules in order to decrease the City's
long term liability.
Currently City of Springfield Non-Union(NU)and SEIU employees earn separate banks of vacation
and sick leave. The maximum amount any employee is able to have in his or her vacation bank on an
annual basis is 500 hours,and the maximum amount most NU or SEIU employees may accrue of sick
leave through the life of their career is 960 hours,although non-union management employees have no
cap on their sick leave accrual. Other time-off benefits to NU and SEIU employees include one
floating holiday each year and when needed,up to five days of paid bereavement leave.
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At retirement,the maximum pay-out of vacation is the value of one year's total accrual plus 80 hours,
assuming the employee has that amount in their bank. As a substitute for participation in the Oregon
Public Employees Retirement System's sick leave conversion benefit, employees are also either paid
out or have up to 480 hours of their sick leave bank put into a health care VEBA trust account.
A 30-year NU exempt employee now earns 392 hours of vacation annually. At retirement,the total
possible vacation hours to be paid out are 472, and with the additional 480 hour possible sick leave
payout,the grand total is 952. Calculated at the current average salary for all non-union employees,
this amounts to a potential$41,392 payout. Under the proposed PTO program,the maximum payout
is twice the annual accrual rate, or at most, 688 hours,amounting to $29,914, for a savings of$11,477
per employee.
A 30-year employee accrues a total of 120 hours more in vacation between their 25 and 30 years of
service. Most employees feel the need to"use it or lose it"once they have over 500 hours in their
bank. If accrual rates are capped at the 25 year level,that equates to an additional 120 hours of time
on the job. We currently have 19 NU employees over the 25 year mark. If all work a full 30 years,we
could theoretically gain 2,280 productive hours,which at today's average rate of pay, equals
approximately$100,000.
Ms. Utecht referred to charts in the agenda packet regarding accrual. She noted that any existing
employee that moved to the PTO plan would save the City money.
Councilor Ralston said the figures in the packet were indicative of all employees moving to the new
plan. He asked why existing employees would want to move to this system.
Ms. Utecht said it is a personal choice and is dependent on their current balances. She explained some
of the advantages and disadvantages of the PTO Plan for current employees.
Councilor Ralston asked if there was an incentive to move longer term employees to this plan.
Ms. Utecht said if current employees convert,they can put their sick leave that's above what they can
roll over into a Catastrophic Leave Bank(CLB). They will also allow them to take an additional 80
hours of sick leave and put it into the CLB.
Councilor Ralston said he was supportive of the new program.
Councilor Pishioneri asked how many banks each employee would have.
Ms. Utecht said those moving to the PTO Plan would only have the PTO bank and possibly the CLB.
The CLB cannot be paid out, and will have strict criteria of when it can be used.
Councilor Pishioneri said currently people have sick and vacation banks. Correct. He asked if the
accrual on the comparison chart was the combined total of sick and vacation.
Ms. Utecht said employees moving to PTO would accrue 25 days which includes vacation, sick leave,
bereavement and floating holiday. The current includes the vacation plus sick leave only, and does not
include the floating holiday or bereavement leave.
Councilor Pishioneri asked about if the employee gets their full bank when they leave.
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Ms. Utecht said they get their maximum accrual of PTO when they retire.
Councilor Pishioneri asked how it compared to other agencies.
Ms. Utecht said it was not a straight comparison because of how other agencies allow payouts. She
explained the payout amounts with the current program and with the PTO Plan. There is substantial
savings to the City with the proposed plan compared with the current plan. Someone who has been
with the City 25 years would have a maximum of 952 hours.At most, under the PTO Plan,they would
get paid out for 688 hours.
Councilor Pishioneri said it is a step in the right direction, but was only a small step.
Ms.Utecht discussed the payout amounts through Lane County.
Councilor Pishioneri said he feels Lane County is fair,but this proposal is too much.
Ms. Utecht said one of the challenges was that when Lane County went to their time management
system, sick leave did not have a financial value. Under the new system,they offered employees cash
value for half of their sick leave, something they had not received before. The City has given cash
value for sick leave for a number of years, so reducing that is seen as a financial take-away if done
without an optional system that is attractive enough to have employees roll over to it.
Mr. Grimaldi said some unions and other jurisdictions allow a sick leave rollover,which increases
your final PERS amount. That is not available to this group. It is difficult to do a comparison.
Ms.Utecht said they would not be able to negotiate this as a forced change. The idea is to try to get the
union to agree that starting in October all new employees would be on the new system. It is also
negotiating adding caps to their vacation, which they have not had in the past.
Councilor Pishioneri said he appreciated the work they have done.
Councilor VanGordon said he feels there is a huge gap between public and private sector benefits. He
asked why they can't just move people over.
Ms. Utecht said it is subject to bargaining with the union. If they forced the non-union it could be
perceived as trying to balance the budget on a very small group of employees rather than the majority
of employees.
Councilor VanGordon said the difficult part is that many people may not choose to move over to the
PTO Plan so the savings would not be seen for many years.
Ms. Utecht noted that 54% in this employee group are eligible to retire now so the City is seeing a
transformation of the workforce.
Councilor VanGordon said he supports going to a PTO program and feels it is a better tool. He is
concerned if no one signs up for the conversion so he would be open to try to get people to join the
new program.He would also be open to shrinking the cap for new employees. That is still relatively
high for new employees. He asked if employees were required to take a certain amount of time each
year. He would like to look at making people take a minimum of vacation each year. That should be
part of the wellness discussion.
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Councilor Pishioneri agreed with taking a minimum amount off each year, such as two weeks.
Mayor Lundberg said this is an important issue for Council. There is a limited amount of vacation in
the private sector, and there is a big discrepancy with the public sector. She feels this is a huge step in
the right direction,and there is still an opportunity to tighten it in the future. She asked if they could
have the discussion about using time and still complete it in time.
Ms. Utecht said part of this is to draft administrative regulation about how to take time, etc. They
could add a minimum usage piece to the policy.
Mayor Lundberg said the PTO Plan is less paperwork and simplifies it for everyone.
Councilor Ralston asked how many people don't take vacation.
Ms. Grimaldi said longer term employees have larger banks, and may not take as much time. Younger
employees tend to take more time off as allowed.
Councilor Wylie asked about a program where people could donate time to those in need.
Mayor Lundberg said that is allowed in this plan.
Mr. Grimaldi confirmed that Council wanted staff to look at incentives to move current employees to
the PTO Plan.
3. Downtown District Design Standards(File No. TYP414-00001).
Mayor Lundberg said the meeting was going longer than anticipated and asked about time constraints.
Mr. Grimaldi suggested allowing the consultant to make her presentation, and come back at a future
work session for questions.
Mayor Lundberg said it is important to look at this very carefully and discuss any issues. There was a
downtown committee that worked on this plan,but she would like to run this by the Development
Advisory Committee(DAC)to get their input.
Linda Pauly, Principal Planner, presented the staff report on this item.
Staff is here to share the early draft of some Downtown Design Standards and to get Council input.
The Council is seeing the same draft that went to the citizen committee,technical committee, Open
House and Planning Commission. Those comments have not yet been filtered into this presentation.
Staff wanted to get direction from Council before giving direction to the consultant. It is challenging
to create a new code with an existing downtown. We have an amazing downtown with our block
layout, so they are trying to take advantage of that. She introduced the consultant,Marcy McInelly
who presented a power point presentation.
Ms. McInelly said the staff and consultant were working on two high level drafts for two documents
having to do with the streetscape and the zoning. When looking at the Development Standards,they
first looked at all of the zones and standards that currently apply to downtown, and create a matrix to
compare them. It is quite complicated and difficult for developers to understand,and the City to
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administer. The goal is to create a simplified system that is more user friendly and consistent with the
Council's vision of the downtown. Currently,there are some conflicting portions of the zoning code
making it difficult to determine which to apply. They divided the standards into three subareas of
downtown and organized some standards that apply to certain street frontage properties. One of the
primary subareas is the Mill Plaza/Island Park area to the west of downtown. This area includes larger
blocks and could see larger development in this area,with a 6,000 square foot lot minimum. That
standard currently applies in all areas, but they suggest retaining that minimum in this area,while
setting smaller minimums in other areas. The second subarea is the Downtown Center. The focus in
this area it to extend and amplify the kind of retail already downtown to make it work better, and also
allowing housing. The third zone is everywhere else the other two don't apply, called the Downtown
Flex zone. This is aimed at encouraging more infill development.
Ms. McInelly spoke regarding the building envelope which is a space in which development could
occur. The Building Envelope is defined by the lot size, lot coverage, setbacks, building height,and
step backs. She explained the standards suggested in each envelope for each subarea. She discussed
the different types of building step backs which are based on different heights to ensure light and air
are able to get to the street. They are proposing a 45 foot height and a 10 foot step back on Main
Street. It would not be too big of a burden, but would make a higher quality Main Street environment.
Ms. McInelly spoke regarding building frontage and facade design by street type. The proposal is to
increase current codes on facade articulation and window height. The 2nd type would focus on a retail
character,but also permit indentations such as four courts, and entry courtyards. It wouldn't be as
strict on being retail. All of the other streets would be more flexible, allowing residential and
courtyards. She described the building frontage of each area and displayed some samples currently in
Springfield. She referred to a map showing the whole downtown area and discussed the northern area
near the historic district. The boundary zig-zags along the edge of the downtown area. She displayed a
drawing of what that area might look like with single homes on one side across from development.
Ms. McInelly spoke regarding the streetscape standards which is the space between the property lines
and the street. This is intended to update the Engineering Design Standards and Procedures Manual
(EDSPM)to make it more user friendly. As with the design standards process,they first looked at
what was currently in place and what they wanted in downtown based on the Downtown Vision. There
were areas where those two were in conflict. The goal of this project is to bring the standards and
goals more into alignment. They developed four template street types to demonstrate how the
proposed standards would look and work. She described the four templates:
• Street Type One—North-South Livability Street: They chose 5th Street as an example and laid
out the requirements for discussion purposes.
• Street Type Two—Retail Main Street: One of the standards is to retain the on-street parking
since that is important for retail. They also looked at the sidewalks and how they perform.
• Street Type Three—East/West Mobility Street: They chose South A as an example and
applied the proposed standards. It was reliant upon where the bus would go based on the
transit study.
• Street Type Four—North/South Special Street: They chose 8th Street from A Street to C Street
as an example. This type is for streets not expected to carry a lot of traffic. She displayed a
photo of a street with these types of standards.
Ms. McInelly spoke regarding the Sidewalk Zone and how it would apply to a typical retail street
sidewalk and to a typical residential street sidewalk. Sidewalk zone extensions could also be used
giving options for uses besides parked cars. She provided examples including parklets. The parklet is
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driven by the business owner. The standards could include allowing those,what types of materials
were used, and where they could be located. There could be different treatments for the four street
types. The goal is to provide a list of allowable activities by street and by subarea.
Mr. Grimaldi said Council could send their questions to staff ahead of time before the next work
session. Staff could then be prepared to address those questions and hear more.
ADJOURNMENT
The meeting was adjourned at 7:18 p.m.
Minutes Recorder—Amy Sowa
Christine L. Lundberg ,
Mayor
Attest:
Amy Sow
City Recorder