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HomeMy WebLinkAbout11/27/2006 Work Session City of Springfield Work Session Meeting MINUTES OF THE WORK SESSION MEETING OF THE SPRINGFIELD CITY COUNCIL HELD MONDAY, NOVEMBER 27,2006 The City of Springfield Council met in a work session in the Jesse Maine Meeting Room, 225 Fifth Street, Springfield, Oregon, on Monday, November 27,2006 at 5:32 p.m., with Mayor Leiken presiding. ATTENDANCE Present were Mayor Leiken and Councilors Woodrow, Lundberg, Fitch, Ballew, Ralston and Pishioneri. Also present were City Manager Gino Grimaldi, Interim Assistant City Manager Mike Harman, City Attorney Joe Leahy, City Recorder Amy Sowa and members of the staff. 1. Library Board Application Review. Library Director Bob Russell presented the staff report on this item. The Library Board has one vacancy, due to the expiration of the term of Howard Coffm. Mr. Coffm's term expires December 31,2006, and he has elected not to reapply. To be eligible for appointment to the Library Board, applicants must be registered voters and live within the city limits. (One member of the board may live outside the city if he or she owns property within the city.) Both applicants are registered voters living within the city limits. There were two applicants for this position. The Library Board interviewed both applicants at its November 9 meeting. The Board felt that both candidates were well-qualified, but after lengthy discussion voted to recommend Mathew Bundy for appointment. The Board asked staff to encourage Ms. Woodrow to apply for the next Board opening, and/or to become involved with the Library Foundation or Friends. Mr. Russell discussed the two applicants and commended them both. He said Mr. Bundy had applied in the past and had re-applied during this process. 2. Discussion of Activities to Address Homelessness in Springfield and in Lane County. Housing Manager Kevin Ko presented the staff report on this item. Homelessness, and chronic homelessness in particular, is a national topic. The number of homeless individuals and families is growing, and the impacts they are having on a community's health and welfare are enormous. The City of Springfield provides many services that benefit homeless and at-risk populations. These services help to alleviate some of the problems homeless persons face in their daily lives, and also help to reduce the impact on the health care and public safety. The City also participates in regional partnerships that provide and advocate for homeless populations. What new tools are being implemented regionally to effectively address homelessness and its impacts in our community? City of Springfield Council Work Session Minutes November 27,2006 Page 2 Staff will present a PowerPoint presentation to Council on the 1 0- Year Plan to End Chronic Homelessness in Lane County. The presentation was created by the Intergovernmental Human Services Commission and is being presented to jurisdictions and interest groups throughout Lane County. The presentation will put faces to our homeless populations, quantify the costs of providing services, identify the goals of the Plan, and discuss current and future efforts to address homelessness in Lane County. This presentation is for informational purposes only; no action on the part of Council is requested. Staffwill also provide information to Council regarding Project Homeless Connect for Lane County (PHC). PHC is a multi-agency, one-day event to provide a variety of services to homeless persons in Lane County from a single location. It is scheduled for February 8, 2007, and will be at the Lane County Fairgrounds. The Human Services Commission is requesting that the City of Springfield match the City of Eugene's contribution of $5,000 to help support this event. Staff is proposing that Springfield contribute up to $2,500 of CDBG funds to assist the PHC. Staff is seeking Council support on the use of CDBG funds for the PHC. No Council action is required. Mr. Ko reviewed some of the programs currently in place by the City that address homelessness. He said homelessness was a big issue that affected everyone nationwide. Many jurisdictions across the nation had adopted plans to end homelessness. Councilor Ballew asked who at Lane County had drafted the plan. Mr. Ko said the Human Services Commission staff had been instrumental in drafting the plan. He named several key people in that process. Councilor Lundberg asked if Springfield had someone involved in the creation of the plan. Mr. Ko said he had been involved peripherally. He said there were other things Springfield had been involved in more directly. Mr. Ko gave a power point presentation on the Lane County plan. He noted that 94 percent of the homeless in our area were from Lane County. He discussed what constituted very low income and how people ended up homeless through certain situations. Ten percent ofthe homeless population was chronic homeless, which was the biggest drain on the system. The chronic homeless were the ones the plan tried to address. He discussed statistics of the different homeless populations and the services each group utilized. If chronic homelessness could be addressed, communities could save money and clean up their communities. . Mr. Ko reviewed the ten major goals of the plan: 1) create new permanent housing beds for chronically homeless persons; 2) increase success rate of homeless persons staying in permanent housing six months or more 3) increase success rate of homeless persons moving from transitional to permanent housing; 4) increase success rate of homeless persons becoming employed and staying employed; 5) ensure that the Continuum of Care has a data collection system; 6) coordinate regional efforts to end homelessness in Lane County by the year of2015; 7) improve continuum of homeless services; 8) increase permanent affordable housing in Lane County; 9) stop discharging vulnerable populations into homelessness due to a lack of safe City of Springfield Council Work Session Minutes November 27,2006 Page 3 options (including permanent housing); 10) increase services to homeless youth to prepare them for independent living. Mr. Ko discussed the Housing First Model which had been used in other jurisdictions and noted those, that were currently in place in Lane County: Safe Homes for Youth; The Inside Program; Vet Lift; and Latino Housing Project. The next steps included getting the community input and support, adopting a plan (which the County did on November 8, 2006), and implementing the plan. Mr. Ko discussed Project Homeless Connect, a one day event scheduled for February 8, 2007 at the Lane County Fairgrounds. Mr. Ko was in charge of the logistics of the event. The goal of this event was to try to get as many homeless or at risk families in one place to offer a wide variety of services, including a meal. This program had been run very successfully in other cities across the nation. They were trying to get support from Eugene City Council, Springfield City Council and Lane County Board of Commissioners. The request from Springfield was $2500 in Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funds. Those funds could be allocated for this event administratively, but Mr. Ko would like Council's support. Mayor Leiken asked about the President's plan to eliminate homelessness, and if Mr. Ko could provide the Council with more of the specifics of that plan. He would be interested to see how that plan fit with Lane County. He asked if the President's plan incorporated his faith-based' initiative. Mayor Leiken referred to Goal 4, about creating jobs for the homeless. He asked how many private companies were engaged in that goal. Government funds could provide assistance, but private companies needed to be involved as well. He would like information on how many companies were engaged as far as setting up training opportunities and ongoing support. He asked if Council could receive that information before February 8, 2007. Councilor Fitch thanked Mr. Ko for his work and acknowledged the importance of this. She said the challenge would be to get the people to the fairgrounds. She questioned the statistics listed in the power point regarding which were for chronic and which were for both. She asked if anyone had been out there talking to the chronic homeless to see if they were willing to be helped. She said she knew of several business owners who had given out business cards and offered jobs to some of the homeless people rather than money, and none had taken the offer. She would like to know how much emphasis was being put on those that wanted to be helped. She discussed some of the issues in providing housing for those that chose not to abide by rules of such housing. The one day event was a good thing, but said she did not believe the County could end homelessness. Mr. Ko said he could only bring back national statistics. There had been other jurisdictions that had held similar events and there were results. Councilor Fitch said Lane County had the highest number of non-profits per capita in the state and attracted a lot of people because of the help they could receive. She said it was great to help those that wanted the help. Councilor Woodrow thanked Mr. Ko for his involvement in this work. He said he was in favor of helping our own before putting money out to other countries. He said we currently had trouble keeping prisoners and the criminal element coming out of jail in rehabilitation programs due to lack of space and funding. He asked how funds would be obtained to keep homeless City of Springfield Council Work Session Minutes November 27,2006 Page 4 addicts in the programs. He also asked where the funding would come from to build and maintain the housing. Tenements and projects were devastating to neighborhoods. He asked if there was a plan for location of housing. Councilor Lundberg said it was important that the policy makers in charge had the foresight to put a plan into action with the funding identified. She discussed group homes and said she would like to look at other options for permanent housing (group housing, one room rentals, etc.) that could be provided at a lower cost. There was a place for businesses to step in, such as hiring developmentally disabled people with a caregiver. People needed to be evaluated prior to hiring, but the business owner needed to be willing to be part of that support system. Some people chose to be homeless, but a huge impact could be made in creative ways for those that wanted to work. She asked what the longer term results were from events such as the Project Homeless Connect event. She said she did support the event. She thanked Mr. Ko for his part in this project and noted the amount of work it entailed. Councilor Pishioneri agreed with the other councilors and thanked Mr. Ko for his work. He acknowledged that there were those that chose the homeless lifestyle. There were also a significant number of homeless persons that were mentally ill. Our system couldn't provide housing without the other support for the mentally ill. He asked if Lane County Mental Health had received additional funds to accommodate. Mr. Ko said Lane County had a stream of federal funds for continuum care, specifically for creating a ten-year plan. He ~id not know the exact figure. Councilor Pishioneri said until that care increased, there wasn't a remedy. He discussed the cycle of those that didn't have continual care. There was a prisoner re-entry program administered by the Department of Justice that had several grants available that required local agencies to integrate with faith-based organizations. Those grant funds covered the basic needs of those re-entering society following incarceration, and provided a mentor program to follow the person for one year after exiting the system. He said the one day event was a great idea, and could benefit many of the homeless people. He supported what Mr. Ko was doing. Councilor Ballew said $2500 of CDBG funds was a good use of funds. She said money was the issue in resolving homelessness. If the federal government, the state and county were not financing this, the City didn't have a budget to address this issue. There was clearly a need, but the City still had a number of other obligations. Councilor Ralston said he had brought up this issue during a recent Council meeting because he knew there were implications. He discussed the statistics regarding chronic homeless. Indirectly, the cost to society for the homeless was huge. He explained. He compared the costs of housing the homeless and treating them. He said it was a great plan, but there were no funds for this. A lot of housing was needed. Affordable housing targeted a different demographic than the homeless population. To create the kind of housing to solve this problem would take a lot of money, and the City and County didn't have it. He noted the funds being requested from Springfield for the Project Homeless Connect. They had originally asked Springfield for $5000, which was the same as Eugene. He noted the short-term success in other cities with this program. He said he struggled with rationalizing making people rely on public funds. That may not motivate them to take care of themselves. City of Springfield Council Work Session Minutes November 27,2006 Page 5 Mayor Leiken noted the shortage of residential land and how that affected low-income housing. Councilor Ralston agreed and said he had pointed that out during Human Services Commission discussions. Councilor Lundberg said it depended on where the money would be spent. It must be determined where the money would be spent. Councilor Fitch asked if there was a plan to convene the non-profits after the Project Homeless Connect event. Mr. Ko said they would be collecting data and preparing a report following this event. Councilor Fitch asked if Lane County requested input for this plan from the non-profits in the area. Mr. Ko said they were seeking input from agencies and jurisdictions. It was a living, changing plan. Councilor Fitch said it was important to get input from those that worked closely with the homeless, and find out the number one priority. Councilor Ballew said there were a number of issues that needed to be addressed with the homeless and not all funding could go to one item. Discussion was held regarding which services could be provided and how to balance those servIces. 3. Median Treatments for Martin Luther King. Jr. Parkway. Transportation Manager Tom Boyatt presented the staff report on this item. SUB Power poles in the soundwall section of the new Martin Luther King, Jr. Parkway may justify installation of crash protection. Staff has identified several options and requests direction from Council. In October, 2006, the City of Springfield and Lane County opened the Martin Luther King, Jr. Parkway to traffic. The project was designed and constructed as a joint effort by the City and Lane County. Concerns have recently been raised about the proximity ofthe Springfield Utility Board power poles to the traffic lanes. Staff has researched methods to provide protection around the poles as a means to reduce crash severity if a pole were struck by an errant vehicle. The analysis and options are included in the attached Council Briefing Memorandum. Staff is seeking Council direction on this issue. If Council chooses to install crash protection for the poles, the most effective and feasible option would be concrete median barrier rail along the entire length of the pole line, and on both sides of the median. A photo simulation of this alternative is provided on page 6 of the Council Briefing Memo. Cost for this alternative is estimated between $175,000 and $250,000. The current project budget is adequate to fund this expenditure. City of Springfield Council Work Session Minutes November 27,2006 Page 6 Councilor Fitch asked how many accidents had been reported in the roundabout. Mr. Boyatt said only a couple of minor accidents with no injuries. Mr. Boyatt gave a power point presentation which showed the area with the power poles that were a concern. Councilors Pishioneri and Lundberg had expressed concern for safety near those poles. He noted many of the issues that affected the design of roadways. He referred to the table on page 5 of Attachment A included in the agenda packet. He reviewed the diagram showing the power poles in that area. He showed a photo simulation of concrete barriers along that stretch of roadway. The concrete rail made the most sense to staff. He reviewed the other options, which were less desirable and explained some of the issues with each option. If the concrete barriers were used, the concrete poles would not be raised, but the light standards could be raised to sit on top so the bases weren't buried, allowing access. Councilor Ballew asked why dirt had to be put between the concrete rails. Mr. Boyatt said the dirt was placed between the barriers to keep them apart. There was a way to do it without soil, but staff showed them with dirt so Council could imagine the landscaping that could go back on top. He discussed another option for placing the barriers. Staff had spent a lot of time reviewing these options with Councilors Lundberg and Pishioneri and getting their direction. All options met minimum safety requirements. Councilor Ballew said the concrete barrier was the least unattractive. She asked if those poles transmitted electricity to the hospital. Councilor Fitch said it was a transmitting line. Councilor Ballew said it was probably built to withstand, an impact, but it was a good idea to do as much as possible to protect the power source. Mr. Boyatt said in addition to the barrier protecting the poles, it would prevent crossovers and head-on accidents. Councilor Ralston said he felt the concrete barriers were the best option. He asked why the City had to pay for the barriers if they were Springfield Utility Board (SUB) poles. Mr. Boyatt said Public Works Director Dan Brown discussed that issue with SUB. Mr. Brown said he spoke with Bob Linahan, General Manager for SUB. He said suB didn't fear the poles getting knocked down or liability in the case of an accident. SUB was not willing to share the cost. Councilor Fitch asked if there was an issue with the limited right-of-way in that area with the addition of the barrier. She asked if it would create another unintended consequence. City of Springfield Council Work Session Minutes November 27,2006 Page 7 Traffic Engineer Brian Barnett said the two foot shy distance had already been incorporated from the yellow stripe to the existing curb line. That would be maintained with the barriers. The lanes were the eleven foot standard width. Councilor Lundberg discussed the dirt between the barriers and other options to ensure there was access to the light poles rather than lifting them up. She would like them to compare costs with different options. Councilor Pishioneri said they did discuss this with SUB and agreed they were covered. The City had approved of SUB putting the poles in that location. He discussed the responsibility of the City to protect the citizens and said something needed to be done. Staff did a great job in providing options. He said he was fine with the concrete barriers, but would recommend coloring the concrete to match the soundwall and adding vegetation between the barriers. The funding was available in the budget and it was important to make the City safe. He noted that the junction boxes for the street standards would need to be raised anyway, so it may make sense to bring the bases up, too. Mr. Rodolf explained the why the soil was placed between the barriers. The narrower rail required soil behind it and that was what was being recommended because of space available. For long term maintenance and life of the electrical facility, lifting them up would be a good economical choice. Mr. Barnett said the only reservation he had in lifting the poles was that it would put the luminaries two more feet in the air. There was a conscious effort to minimize glare beyond the soundwalls into the backyards. That particular fixture was more prone to that the higher it got. He asked Council to allow staff the flexibility to analyze the situation and make a decision. Councilor Woodrow said that was a great idea. He asked about an electric wire that was down in that area. Mr. Boyatt said it had been taken care of. Councilor Lundberg thanked staff for their effort and for finding good options. The barriers would make it better and there was still money in the budget to do this option. She said it was the best option within the budget. Mayor Leiken thanked Councilors Pishioneri and Fitch in representing the community and staff for a job well done. Mr. Boyatt noted that the slide show was available in paper if Council wanted a copy. 4. Review of Design Development Plans and Budget for the Justice Center - P50434. Mayor Leiketi acknowledged the passage of the Police Levy with Jail Operations, which will allow staff to move forward with the jail portion of this project. Project Manager Carole Knapel presented the staff report on this item. On July 17,2006 the City Council approved the Schematic Design and Cost Estimates for the Justice Center project. Based City of Springfield Council Work Session Minutes November 27,2006 Page 8 on this approval, the project team has worked with staff and the Citizens Advisory Committee to further develop the building design and site layout. A cost estimate has been prepared to reflect the construction cost for the facility. Since July 17,2006, the project design team has been working with representatives of the Police Department, Municipal Court and Prosecutor's Office to continue the development ofa building design which incorporates the Functional and Space Program as approved by the City Council. Final design development review meetings were conducted with these User Groups in November 2006. In addition, the project team has worked with the Community Advisory Committee (CAC) to develop an exterior design which reflects the character and values of the community and the downtown neighborhood. In addition to these sessions, the CAC hosted an Open House on October 18, 2006 in order to provide the community an opportunity to review the design progress. In order to ascertain that the project can be constructed within the approved budget, a new cost estimate has been completed. To obtain the best estimate, the project architect and the construction manager/general contractor (CM/GC) each completed a separate estimate. These estimates were reviewed and discussed with the project team. The final reconciled estimate indicated that the proj ect was over budget by approximately $1.34 million. Attachment A is the Reconciled Design Estimate. This document represents the collaboration of the architect, CM/GC and the City staff. Following this reconciliation, the project team agreed to identify approximately $1.34 million in project cost reductions in order to bring the construction cost back to the $24,066,305 approved budget. The project team worked to develop a list of value engineering items which would reduce the cost of construction. The goal was to prioritize the potential reductions in order to minimize the impact to the functions and space requirements. Working together, the project team has currently identified $1,299,871 in cost reductions which minimize the impact on the building functions. The team is continuing to value engineer these and other potential items to bring the construction cost to the approved budget amount. Attachment B is the proposed Value Engineering list. These items include reductions which have been selected as preferred by the project team and User Groups. Other items were reviewed but not selected. The project team met with the CAC on November 15, 2006, to review these proposed reductions and obtain their input and their recommendations to City Council regarding these reductions. The CAC generally agreed with the selected items, but requested that the City reconsider the change in the site fencing and the deletion of the covered walkway between the Police/Court and Ancillary buildings. Ms. Knapel referred to drawings displayed of the buildings for this project and noted the areas where square footage was reduced. Randy Nishimura from Roberts and Sherwood said the plan showed the full size of the ancillary prior to the reduction. He pointed out the reduced size. Ms. Knapel discussed reduction in an area of the jail facility that supported police function. Mr. Nishimura referenced that area. Ms. Knapel discussed the ancillary building and noted that the City may need to come back in the future with additional funds to add that space back in. The footprint would remain the same so that could be added back in. She referred to Attachment B in the agenda packet, which identified the items selected for reductions by the project team. She City of Springfield Council Work Session Minutes November 27,2006 Page 9 reviewed some of the major reductions. Discussion was held regarding whether or not the reductions would keep the building up to Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) standards. It would remain compliant. She noted that some of the figures would be refined further. Councilor Pishioneri asked for cost estimates of how much it would cost to add in items that were removed at this time. Ms. Knapel said she could ask the CM/GC for those figures. If additional funds came available as the project went along, some of those things could possibly be brought back. She reviewed some other reductions listed on Attachment B, including those in site design, the ancillary building, the police/courts building and the jaiL Mr. Nishimura pointed out on the picture display other proposed changes. Some items were reduced due to rechecking costs and finding they had been originally overestimated. Ms. Knapel said the group hoped to bring the figures down to the amount budgeted by Council. She distributed a list of other possible reductions that could be considered. She reviewed some of those options. Staff would bring back to Council final designs and costs in January of 2007. Councilor Ralston said they had done a good job and the charts were easy to read. It appeared they were only $50,000 over budget. Ms. Knapel said they wanted to firm up some of the figures to get a more accurate cost. Councilor Lundberg agreed staff had done a great job. She was concerned that they maintain the street appearance for the surrounding neighborhood. How this looked would be reflective of the community. She would prefer spending a little more on the fencing for aesthetic purposes. She discussed the benefit of using sealed concrete. She discussed things, such as the millwork on the judges' benches, which was not as important as other things. She suggested spending money on areas that were more important to the critical functions. She said to listen to the CAC suggestions, especially in terms of overall appearance. Councilor Pishioneri thanked staff for their work. He would like Council to decide what items could be added in if there were unanticipated savings allowing that. He asked if the sunshade acted as a rain gutter. No. Ifpossible, he would like to make the sunshade some type of water shade if it could be done at the same cost. Councilor Ballew asked about the purpose of the ancillary building and if it was only for storage. Ms. Knapel said it did provide storage for many functions. She gave examples, including vehicles. Chief Smith said currently the police rented covered storage facilities. Anything exposed out on the lot was subject to theft and vandalism, which occurred routinely. Councilor Ballew said they could only fit one or two cars in the ancillary facility. Chief Smith said one ofthebays was to process vehicles under investigation in a controlled environment. It would not be used for storage, but rather for processing. City of Springfield Council Work Session Minutes November 27,2006 Page 10 Councilor Ballew asked about the parking across B Street. Ms. Knapel said it was for police vehicles and staff. Councilor Ballew said no one else in the City got special parking and she didn't feel it was necessary. Councilor Woodrow noted the higher risk of police employees vehicles being targeted and vandalized, simply because they worked in that department. Councilor Fitch said the group had done a good job in maintaining the functional value. Ifthere was money to add things back in, she recommended the CAC have part in prioritizing those items before bringing them back to Council. Mayor Leiken asked how well we were locked into construction costs. Ms. Knapel said after the first of the year, early February, staff would bring a proposal from the CM/GC for guaranteed maximum price. That would be the construction price. ADJOURNMENT The meeting was adjourned at approximately 7: 19 pm. Minutes Recorder - Amy Sowa Attest: AmY~4trw~ City Recorder