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HomeMy WebLinkAbout01/29/2007 Work Session . City of Springfield Work Session Meeting MINUTES OF THE GOAL SETTING SESSION OF. THE SPRINGFIELD CITY COUNCIL HELD MONDAY, JANUARY 29, 2007 The City of Springfield Council met in a work session in the Jesse Maine Meeting Room, 225 Fifth Street, Springfield, Oregon, on Monday, January 29,2007 at 5: 10 p.m., with Mayor Leiken presiding. ATTENDANCE Present were Mayor Leiken and Councilors Lundberg, Wylie, Ballew, Ralston, Woodrow, and Pishioneri. Also present were City Manager Gino Grimaldi, Interim Assistant City Manager Mike Harman, City Attorney Joe Leahy, City Recorder Amy Sowa, Facilitator Margot Helphand and members of the staff. Dinner was provided to the Mayor, Council, facilitator and staff compliments of the Outback Steakhouse. Mayor Leiken welcomed the facilitator, Margo Helphand. . Mayor Leiken asked Community Relations Coordinator, Niel Laudati, to recap the news from today regarding a proposed new bill in Salem that Representative Beyer was working on to sponsor. Mr. Laudati said Representative Terry Beyer was drafting a bill to separate the urban growth boundaries of Eugene and Springfield. Many media calls were received at the Mayor's office this morning and the Mayor interviewed with a number of TV, radio and newspaper stations. The bill was still in draft form. Mayor Leiken said if Council had interest, Mr. Laudati would be monitoring this bill. He said the bill was being driven by the HomeBuilders Association (HBA) and Roxie Cuellar was a good resource. The draft would be submitted when ready. 1." Council Goal Setting. City Manager Gino Grimaldi presented the staff report on this item. He welcomed the Mayor and Council and introduced Margot Helphand, the facilitator for tonight's meeting. Mr. Grimaldi said the evening would be split into two segments. The first segment was an hour to discuss personality styles and would be somewhat entertaining. The second segment would be a chance to look back at some of the accomplishments of the City, look at five year goals and focus on targets. He said the agenda would be structured to allow the Mayor and Council to get their issues out on the table before the staff proposals were brought forward. . Ms. Helphand thanked everyone for doing the pre-work (personality survey). She gave a brief summary of her background and experience as a facilitator. She said the first part ofthis meeting would involve team building and she had chosen to use the LIFO tool for this exercise. City of Springfield Council Work Session Minutes January 29,2007 Page 2 . She said they would spend the next hour discussing their different styles and what it meant for this team. It was an opportunity to remind everyone what works and what got in the way. She distributed each person's survey results. Councilor Lundberg discussed the benefit of knowing each person's styles, but would like to see this last less than one hour. She really wanted to talk about the goals. Ms. Helphand said she would like to give them the opportunity to understand this exercise. She said the purpose was not to change anyone, but to understand your own style. Everyone was all styles. She handed out a chart for each participant to fill out using their scores. She said this reflected someone's preferences not strengths. She reviewed the different styles. Each person used their information to plot their scores to reflect their strongest style. Ms. Helphand asked everyone to split into the four groups for seven minutes based on their results. The groups were: · Supporting/Giving · Controlling/Taking · Conserving/Holding · Adapting/Dealing . Each group recorded answers to the following questions: 1. What do we contribute? 2. What do we need from others? 3. What are our blind spots? 4. Warning labels (too much of us =?) She went over the results of each group: She asked everyone to stand and form a graph based on their scores in different situations. Ms. Helphand handed out some additional materials that could be reviewed by the team at their convemence. A five-minute break was taken at approximately 6:00p.m. Ms. Helphand discussed the agenda for the remainder of the meeting: A. Confirm Council Goals and Consider Proposed New Goal B. Identify Past Accomplishments C. Confirm 2007-2012 Council Priority Targets D. Confirm Council 2007 Priority Targets Ms. Helphand asked Council to name some of the accomplishments of the City during the last year. . Council discussed some of the major events from last year such as increasing public safety, partnering with citizens, processing a large number of building permits, making a good start on . redevelopment in Glenwood and downtown, and continuing with some traditions, such as the City of Springfield Council Work Session Minutes January 29, 2007 Page 3 . Christmas lights in downtown. Councilor Pishioneri referred to the opening of the Wildish Theater and how that contributed to a home town feel. Ms. Helphand referred to the five-year goals that were set last year. She asked Council to review them and determine if the goals were still appropriate. Councilor Ballew said they were ongoing goals. She asked about combining Goal #7 with #2, "Utilize resources. . ." She also suggested adding "Maintain and improve city facilities". Discussion was held regarding where maintenance had come in on the priority of service list. Councilor Ralston said he felt that Councilor Ballew's suggestion was covered under Goal #2. Councilor Ballew said she didn't feel it was the same. She said the City needed to take care of buildings, roads and sewers. Both agreed it could be covered either way. Councilor Woodrow said he would like to combine Goal # 1 to Goal #2, by changing "utilize" to "by utilizing resources. . .". He said he felt that was providing fmancially sound stable government. . Councilor Ralston said # 1 encompassed everything the City did. Discussion was held regarding goal # 1 and goal #2. Councilor Lundberg said she would like to leave the existing goals as they were and look at adding a new goal. The existing goals were wordsmithed last year. Ms. Helphand said if the goals still resonated for the Council, that was the key. Mayor Leiken said goal #4 targeted the levies and that goal had been met. He asked if that goal should be changed from "increased" to "maintained". Councilor Woodrow said the City would need to continue to increase to fund the jail without the levies. Councilor Wylie suggested adding "and maintain infrastructure" to goal #2. Discussion returned to the goal related to public safety and how that could be adjusted to more accurately reflect current goals. Councilor Ballew discussed the goal related to maintaining and improving infrastructure. Mr. Grimaldi said the suggested goal from staff related to transportation and how it affected development, improvement and construction. . Councilor Ralston said he saw transportation as a core service, not a goal. City of Springfield Council Work Session Minutes January 29,2007 Page 4 . Ms. Helphand said sometimes things were pulled out to call attention to it. CounCilor Woodrow said he thought it should be called out. The Council needed to let the citizens know they intended to address transportation. Councilor Ballew said transportation was important, but equally important was maintaining sewers and stormwater. Councilor Pishioneri suggested adding, "meeting citizen needs by providing a sound infrastructure, including transportation" to goal #2. Councilor Lundberg said transportation cost so much money, took regional partnerships and utilized a lot of outside funding. She said the goals were guiding posts for what Council would prioritize for the next year. She said transportation continued to come to the top as a priority throughout the City. It made sense to have it separate and pulled out. Councilor Ballew said transportation was often funded by specialized dollars they wouldn't compete with General Fund dollars. Sewer and stormwater also came out of specialized funds. From a public standpoint, the City needed to take care of what we had and add what was needed. . Councilor Woodrow agreed that this item needed to be called out to let the citizens know the City needed to maintain what we already had. Councilor Ralston summarized by adding a new goal between goals #2 and #3 that read, "Maintain and improve transportation infrastructure and other facilities". Discussion was held and it was determined that it needed to identify the facilities that were City owned only. Ms. Helphand said the City would be doing these things and the Council was continuing to communicate their priorities to the citizens. Ms. Helphand referred to the priorities. She read each one to determine which to keep, delete or change. The following changes were suggested for the one year priorities: One Year Council Priorities (2007): 1. Glenwood Development (keep as is) 2. Gateway Development [Gateway Area Transportation Management] (keep as is) 3. Downtown Redevelopment · Work with TEAM Springfield to assess the feasibility of establishing nCVl public buildings or 8 Civic Center 8S 8 componcnt of downtown revitalization. . Council discussed this item and decided to remove the section "new public buildings or a Civic Center as a component of'. City of Springfield Council Work Session Minutes January 29,2007 Page 5 . 4. Mill Race: Redevelopment. ((keep as is) Mayor Leiken asked if funding for this project had already been received. Maintenance Manager Ed Black said the Corps had not yet given that funding for this project. 5. Provide urban improvements to South 42nd Street to address neighborhood concerns for pedestrian and bike safety. ((keep as is) 6. Complete review of Peace Health master plan (done - remove) 7. Support review of the feasibility ofa Conference Center (keep as is) Discussion was held on this issue. Councilor Ralston said the City didn't need to be in the lead role, but should be supportive. Councilor Ballew asked that the City not use a lot of staff time on this. . Mr. Grimaldi said there would be some staff time. He said the Springfield Chamber of Commerce had formed a foundation that would be looking at this and several City staff members were on that foundation. They would be involved during some work time and some volunteer time. 8. Identify and determine operations funding for the Jail (done - remove) Councilor Pishioneri suggested adding a new target regarding Justice Center - see below 9. Determine the future of a the Library District. This change was made following discussion of the Library and how it would be funded in the future. , 10. Implement remaining Nodal Development Areas in fulfillment of TransPlan. (keep as is) Discussion was held regarding this issue. 11. TEAM Springfield (keep as is) Ms. Helphand noted that Springfield was very unique in having the cooperation of TEAM Springfield. Council Lundberg reiterated that she felt TEAM Springfield CAO/CEO meetings only needed to occur once a year in January. . 12. Conduct council discussion of service priorities (done - remove) City of Springfield Council Work Session Minutes January 29,2007 Page 6 . 13. Identify possible Wi-Fi locations in Nodal Development. (keep as is) Discussion was held regarding what it meant to be a Wi-Fi location. Council asked staff to schedule this to come to Council during a work session for further discussion. 14. Enter into an agreement with BLM/Forest Service to construct office and warehouse space in Springfield. (keep as is) 15. Commercial- Industrial-Residential Buildable Land. Council asked staff to reword this to reflect that discussions took place and Eugene and Lane County were not interested in moving forward. Springfield would continue moving forward with studies. 16. Develop/Revise and Implement an Emergency Management Plan (keep as is) 17. Establish External and Internal Communications Interoperability (keep as is) Councilor Ballew asked for clarification on this and if it related to the AIRS system. It was noted that this was slightly different from AIRS. AIRS was a data system and the internal communications interoperability was the means to communicate. . 18. Update the IT Disaster Recovery Plan (keep as is) Ms. Helphand asked Council if there were other targets they would like to consider. Councilor Ralston asked if expanding the urban growth boundary (UGB) was included in one of the proposed targets. Goal # 15 related to that issue. New One Year Council Priorities (to be wordsmithed and finalized by staff) I. Facilitate expedited timeline for Justice Center construction tobe completed on schedule. This was a new target suggested by Councilor Pishioneri. Discussion was held regarding this item. It was noted that the project was moving forward and staff was doing a great job, Council just wanted to ensure it was included as a target. Councilor Pishioneri wanted staff to use whatever resources were available to help expedite this project. Councilor Ralston said it was a natural progression from the previous target. Council agreed to add this target. 2. Downtown Urban Renewal. · Initiate the development of processes, time lines and costs associated with establishment of an urban renewal district for downtown Springfield. . Development Services Director Bill Grile discussed this new goal with Council. City of Springfield Council Work Session Minutes January 29,2007 Page 7 . Councilor Ballew said she would like to see a financial analysis on creating an urban renewal district (URD) Downtown and how that would affect the rest of the community regarding the taxes. Discussion was held regarding any benefit in setting up this district. Councilor Pishioneri said he supported this completely. He noted the positive changes coming to Glenwood due to the URD being in place. Mayor Leiken said he supported this because it encouraged redevelopment. He discussed other benefits of an URD. He noted the impact the City could have in making this type. of redevelopment successful. He commended staff on the model for the Glenwood URD and would like to see the same planning go into the Downtown URD, and perhaps put it out to the voters in November 2008. An URD is another catalyst to encourage development to occur. Councilor Woodrow agreed with the Mayor. He said there wasn't a lot of interest from developers to do anything in Glenwood until the URD was in place. . Councilor Lundberg would like all previous plans for downtown redevelopment to be consolidated and summarized for consideration during this process. She suggested letting citizens know that an urban renewal district would show up on their tax bill. She would also like to know the status on the property purchased by the private developer at Island Park when the URD is considered. Council agreed to add this target. 3. Library Operations Funding. · Initiate identification and development of possible funding streams to address the staffmg and materials acquisition needs of the Library. Library Manager Debbie Steinman discussed this issue with Council. Councilor Lundberg would like to see the Library Foundation take on the acquisition of materials through grants. She suggested the Library Board consider making the current number of Library hours more user-friendly, rather than focusing on adding hours. She suggested being open on Saturday and Sunday. Mayor Leiken asked how outside funds could be used to fund employee time. Mr. Grimaldi said it could fund employees but would be routed through the City's budget. Councilor Ralston discussed using volunteers for the FTE being requested. Council agreed more discussion on this topic was needed and added it as a target. . City of Springfield Council Work Session Minutes January 29, 2007 Page 8 '. 4. City Hall Space Needs · Initiate an evaluation of needs for present City Hall operations and a strategy to address those needs, both in the immediate/short term and the longer term. Public Works Director Dan Brown discussed this issue with Council. Councilor Ballew asked staff not to spend too much money on hiring a consultant. Councilor Pishioneri asked if funds from an urban renewal district downtown could be considered for some of these needs. Mr. Brown told Councilor Ballew that there were no plans to hire a consultant. Staff would take on the work at this time. Mayor Leiken suggested Council take a tour of City Hall to see how hard the staff worked. He said last year, each employee accounted for about $IM related to the investment in the City. The City ran a lean machine. Councilor Lundberg discussed the new Willamalane office facility and asked that staff look at private/public partnerships when proceeding with this. Council agreed to add this target. . 5. Promoting Community Image · Initiate an invitation to TEAM Springfield to join in a collaborative effort to promote the community's image through the development ofa branding strategy. Development Services Director Bill Grile discussed this issue with Council. He noted the many accomplishments in Springfield and how a positive image of our community should be promoted. Discussion was held on this subject. Branding was identified as what the City wanted to promote that was positive that could be put into wording. There continued to be negative images of Springfield that were out there, and it was important to present a positive image. Mayor Leiken said it was not only a written image, but the image at the entryways into the City. Royal Caribbean and the hospital were both landmarks when entering Springfield. Councilor Wylie asked if the Springfield Chamber of Commerce or Convention and Visitors Association of Lane County (CV ALCO) were also working on something like this. Council agreed to add this as a target. 6. Reduce Reliance on Special Levies · Develop options to bring to Council regarding possible targets for reducing reliance on special levies. . Finance Director Bob Duey discussed this issue with Council. City of Springfield Council Work Session Minutes January 29, 2007 Page 9 . Discussion was held on this item regarding where funds would come from to alleviate reliance on the levies. Councilor Woodrow noted the number of businesses that would be coming off of the Enterprise Zone and would generate more tax dollars. It was determined that staff should begin looking at options now. It was more ofa long-term goal. Councilor Lundberg asked Mr. Duey if the increased tax dollars as the businesses came off the Enterprise Zone had already been factored in and if the levies would still be needed. Mr. Duey said those had not been factored in to immediate plans because they would not come off the Enterprise Zone for another four or five years. He said the question was whether or not Council wanted to put their two most important services out on temporary levies or if these services should receive more emphasis on permanent funding. He gave some examples, such as setting aside a small percent, perhaps one percent, of the funds coming from growth set aside for public safety. He explained how those funds could be used. . Discussion was held regarding planning options. Council agreed to add this target. . 7. Building Maintenance Needs · Initiate, identification and development of alternative strategies to address the immediate, short term andthe longer term building maintenance and preservation needs. Public Works Director Dan Brown discussed this item with Council. He discussed current needs and future needs including the new Springfield Justice Center. He noted the amount of funds that had been used on Fire Station 1, and the need to examine alternative funding for the purpose of maintaining the buildings. 8. Growth Demands on Current Service Levels · Initiate multi-year budget and department level operational plans that anticipate the organizational growth required to match increased service demands. Finance Director Bob Duey discussed this item with Council. Discussion was held to include this during the Budget process rather than including it as a target. Mayor Leiken asked Mr. Duey if it had been easier to budget out several years prior to Measures 47 and 50 passing. Mr. Duey said it was about the same, for different reasons. He explained. . City of Springfield Council Work Session Minutes January 29,2007 Page 10 . Council asked that the item of Growth Demands on Current Service Levels be brought forward during budget discussions with the Budget Committee. Councilor Lundberg wanted to see the Priority of Services used for this discussion. Councilor Ballew said she would like to see it presented in a column separate from the other factors. Ms. Helphand reviewed tonight's discussion. Mayor Leiken thanked' Ms. Helphand for facilitating this meeting and he thanked staff for bringing forth good issue papers. Councilor Ballew thanked the Outback Steakhouse for the excellent dinner. ADJOURNMENT The meeting was adjourned at 8:01 pm. Minutes Recorder - Amy Sowa t . Attest: ~ .