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HomeMy WebLinkAbout03/06/2017 Work Session City of Springfield Work Session Meeting MINUTES OF THE WORK SESSION MEETING OF THE SPRINGFIELD CITY COUNCIL HELD MONDAY MARCH 6, 2017 The City of Springfield Council met in a work session in the Jesse Maine Meeting Room, 225 Fifth Street, Springfield,Oregon, on Monday March 6,2017 at 6:00 p.m.,with Mayor Lundberg presiding. ATTENDANCE Present were Mayor Lundberg and Councilors VanGordon,Moore, Stoehr,Woodrow and Pishioneri. Also present were City Manager Gino Grimaldi,City Attorney Mary Bridget Smith,City Recorder Amy Sowa and members of the staff. Councilor Wylie was absent(excused). 1. City-wide Work Plan/Strategic Initiatives. Gino Grimaldi,City Manager,presented the staff report on this item. The Mayor and City Council and staff have set in to motion a variety of strategic initiatives related to the existing City Council Goals. This is an opportunity to discuss and review the initiatives that will require policy decisions by the Mayor and Council in approximately the next 18 months. In the next 18 months the Mayor and City Council will be making a number of policy decisions that will have a positive impact the community and the citizens of Springfield. The efforts of the organization are driven by the City Council Goals. The strategic initiatives describe some of the actions that will be taken to implement the City Council Goals. Several of the strategic initiatives will require funding decisions during the upcoming discussions regarding the FY 18 budget. Mr.Grimaldi said in looking at the list of initiatives the Council started,he can easily say that this Council will probably have the most significant impact on the community than past Councils to shape the future of our community. Tonight's presentation is organized by department. The initiatives have been related to a Council goal. There are also Policy Decisions,but they are not asking Council to make those decisions tonight. Staff wants to make sure these are the initiatives the Council remembers putting forth. If they want to change or add anything,this is a good opportunity to do that.He provided an overview of each department. City Managers' Office—Council directed staff to focus more on economic development and legislative affairs,which brought about a reconfiguration of staff work in the City Manager's Office (CMO). The CMO is now fully staffed and the Council will see more efforts in the Downtown area, and also more work at the State level. One of the key issues is discussion about the urban renewal districts and the potential to renew those and extend the time period. When those were first set,the recession hit and slowed the growth at the beginning. It may take longer to achieve the plan originally set up. City of Springfield Council Work Session Minutes March 6,2017 Page 2 Councilor Pishioneri said it makes sense to renew the urban renewal districts now rather than waiting until they expire. Councilor VanGordon agreed. There are a lot of things the Council will be asking voters about in the near future.He is very supportive of the artwork as an economic development tool. He has enjoyed seeing information about how to tour Springfield and view the art,and the benefit from the art. City Attorney Mary Bridget Smith said it would depend on what type of change they wanted for the urban renewal district whether it would need to go to the voters or could be a Council or Springfield Economic Development Agency(SEDA)action. Councilor Moore said she appreciated the work being done on diversity and inclusion. She wants to be kept more informed on what is going on with that committee. She is in favor of updating the website and communication online: She would like to get more information out to community members. Councilor Woodrow said she would also like to see renewal of the urban renewal district come forward. She supported the arts projects with the option of partnership and grants. It is enlivening all of Springfield.People are now looking to see how they can be a part of it. She fully supports the CLT and CTE and considers it a priority. Mayor Lundberg asked about the 2018-2019 art project. Legislative and Public Affairs Manager Niel Laudati said they are still in discussions with the holder of the trademark. Mr. Grimaldi said staff will have discussions with the Council before selecting anything. Mayor Lundberg said consensus is to renew the urban renewal districts. She asked why the Diversity Committee was moved to the City Manager's Office from Human Resources. She liked it in Human Resources and it seemed to be a good fit. The City Manager's Office has a lot of other things they are working on. Mr. Grimaldi said they felt the Diversity Committee should be the responsibility of the whole organization. The committee is a high functioning group and doesn't take a lot of staffing. Mr. Laudati said both the City Manager's Office and Human Resources staff the committee, and Human Resources is very involved. Mr. Grimaldi spoke regarding the Police Department and that discussions with Council would begin soon regarding the Police levy.Another big project is the body cameras. The City is taking a very systematic approach and making steady progress. Hiring and recruitment remains a critical issue. The number of applicants for the Police Department is down significantly,which is a nationwide trend. The City needs to find ways to recruit enough high quality applicants. Councilor Pishioneri asked if line staff was still pushing back on the body cameras. Chief Lewis and Mr. Grimaldi confirmed that the union was now comfortable with the project. Mr. Grimaldi said it is a budget discussion whether or not to move forward. There is a significant cost for the storage,maintenance and management of the system. City of Springfield Council Work Session Minutes March 6,2017 Page 3 Chief Lewis said costs would be about$150,000-$160,000, including the body cameras and staffing to manage the program. Councilor Pishioneri said he thought the Council was interested in moving forward with this and would like to know the implementation date. Mr. Grimaldi said we will know once the budget is finalized. It will be a decision of the Budget Committee and Council. Councilor Pishioneri said he wants to make sure the City Attorney's Office is involved in the policies for housing female inmates. He noted that we have options(with Lane County)until the end of June so there is no need to rush. He asked if there was a committee reviewing the policies. Mr. Grimaldi said the City Attorney's Office was currently reviewing the policies. Chief Lewis said a committee reviewed the policies before sending them to the City Attorney. Councilor Pishioneri said he would like the information regarding the committee shared so he could see if there are any areas for comment. He recalled discussions about recruiting for Police Officers out of state. He wanted to make sure they were not focusing on out-of-state recruitment. Mr. Grimaldi said the City was not focusing on out-of-state recruitments. Councilor VanGordon said training and recruiting strategies seem to be needed for nearly all departments.He suggested putting recruiting strategies under one area for all positions as an organization. Councilor Woodrow asked if the vendor for the cameras would include the storage, or if it would be separate. Chief Lewis said most of them include the storage. Councilor Woodrow asked what was involved in getting the Explorer Program back. Chief Lewis said the department had looked at it and done quite a bit of work. It will take some staff time and they are looking at it as a long-term solution. They hope to do it next year when their staffing is back up. Councilor Woodrow said the sooner they could get it started the better. Councilor Stoehr asked if the full time employee overseeing the body camera program will perform ongoing monitoring of the cameras all at once. Chief Lewis said we won't have that capability. Councilor Stoehr asked what the employee would be doing. Chief Lewis said maintaining cameras, downloading footage for the prosecutors and public records request. He noted that for public records requests,the facial recognition needs to be removed,which City of Springfield Council Work Session Minutes March 6,2017 Page 4 takes a lot of time. If they find it doesn't take a full time employee,they will use that staff person in the property evidence room half time. Councilor Moore said she had talked with some citizens about using the officers at the high schools to do outreach to recruit applicants. She suggested they look for diverse populations to contact. Chief Lewis said they do encourage the School Resource Officers(SROs)to identify those students that might be a good candidate as an officer. Councilor Pishioneri said the Explorer Program is very important and he hopes they can bring it forward soon and fine a couple of officers that will volunteer to run the program.He said he started in the Explorer Program. He asked how many dash cameras the department had. Chief Lewis said we have one dash camera. Councilor Pishioneri said the dash cameras are less expensive than the body cameras and suggested adding more dash cameras in the interim until body cameras could go into place. Chief Lewis said the dash cameras are about$5000 each,but they don't have as much tape time and won't video when out of range. He thinks they are far enough along to go with the body cameras. Councilor Pishioneri said body cameras can have issues regarding the perspective depending on where they are worn on the officer.Dash cameras give a bigger picture and are a good supplement. He would like the cost of dash cameras brought to the Budget Committee discussion on this. Council agreed they would like those costs. Mr. Grimaldi spoke regarding Human Resources and noted that recruitment was also listed here. Managing health insurance costs is another topic for this department. They are hoping that partnering with the Springfield School District on the Wellness Clinic will be helpful. Councilor VanGordon said the clinic is great,but he would like to see creative solutions to continue to reduce costs. Mr. Grimaldi said the new Human Resources Director,Chaim Hertz, sees things with a new set of eyes. He also has the perspective of the private sector which is helpful. Councilor Stoehr asked about the expanded services in the Wellness Clinic. Mr. Grimaldi said they currently have a nurse practitioner who can provide prescription services,can manage some chronic issues, and perform wellness checks. It is a time saver for employees.He gave an example of a situation where he wasn't sure what was wrong with him and the nurse practitioner was able to provide direction for follow-up treatment. Mayor Lundberg asked if there were classes through the Wellness Clinic. Mr.Hertz said the Wellness Clinic has been focused on providing immediate care at affordable rates. Councilor VanGordon suggested looking into YouTube classes or presentations for employees.He will send some links to the City Manager. City of Springfield Council Work Session Minutes March 6,2017 Page 5 Mr. Grimaldi said some of the focus for Finance includes key performance indicators and long term fiscal health. Councilor Woodrow asked if staff could bring the multi-year plan check-ins to the Council. She felt the key performance indicators needed extra eyes,and wanted to know how they would do that. Mr.Grimaldi said during next week's work session, staff will ask the Council what level of involvement they want in developing parts of the Strategic Plan.The first time,Council involvement was limited which he felt was a mistake. He would recommend the Council is more involved so they are connected with the plan. Mr. Grimaldi spoke regarding the Library and noted that facilities is a big issue. The Library is also looking at doing a strategic plan. Mr.Everett said it has not been done since he started here nine years ago, and there have been a number of new employees providing the service. He has seen the City evolve in terms of the strategic initiatives and goals,and feels there needs to be a better alignment between Library service and the overall City Council goals and strategies. Mr. Grimaldi spoke regarding Development and Public Works. Some of the things going on in that department include coordinating Main Street safety and the EmX study; affordable housing strategy; update of the Development Code; Downtown design standards;UGB possible appeals and additional work to make the area development ready;traffic issues in Gateway;Franklin Boulevard;Virginia- Daisy bikeway; and Downtown lighting. The County wants to develop property in Goshen as an industrial site which will require providing sewage treatment. One of the options is whether or not it should connect to the Metropolitan Wastewater Management Commission(MWMC)treatment plant. Discussion was held regarding the process when Coburg wanted to connect to MWMC. Councilor Moore asked if the line would connect through Springfield. Mr. Grimaldi said it would connect in Glenwood. Councilor Moore asked if it would increase cost to our users. Mr. Grimaldi said if it is done properly, it could be beneficial.He explained the policy decisions that could affect the costs. Councilor Pishioneri asked if there was someone designated to continue to look how traffic is evolving and moving on our current system based on future development. Ms. Spickard said a group of traffic engineers who monitor and look at where adjustments are needed. Councilor Pishioneri said as they change signalization, it affects traffic. He asked if the existing poles are strong enough to hold the updated signals with additional lights. He asked if the City has plans to improve those poles. He noted a pole at the intersection of 18th and Olympic that appears too weak to extend the light out for the protected left turn. He asked if there was a list of things that need to be changed out. City of Springfield Council Work Session Minutes March 6,2017 Page 6 Tom Boyatt, Community Relations Manager for Transportation, said they are hoping to apply for signal software and hardware through the Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality(CMAQ)funds to look at whole corridors to reduce congestion and have a positive impact on air quality. The City hasn't been able to invest much to this point and our signal hardware is outdated. Councilor Pishioneri said the traffic in Springfield is getting heavier. Ms. Spickard said staff is working with a very old software system. Councilor Moore asked if they knew a start date on the Oregon Department of Transportation(ODOT) ARTS Program. Mr. Boyatt said the next thing on the calendar is meeting with the Main Street Governance Team to talk about the interrelationship with the transit study and the safety piece. Mr. Grimaldi said although that is a start date, improvements are likely three to four years out. It is a land use process. The challenge is to see how we can move it along quickly, and how to bring EmX and the ARTS Program together. Mr. Grimaldi spoke regarding the Fire Department. They are looking to revisit the discussion about relocating Fire Station#4 currently located on 5th Street to a location closer to downtown. The locations of the other fire stations are good and we no longer need the site the City purchased on 57th Street for service to the Jasper Natron area. It appears the Cahoots funding will continue through June 2019,which is good news for the City. We will continue to track that in case something changes. Councilor Woodrow asked if the City would continue to work towards the model outlined in the agenda packet even if Cahoots funding continues. Fire Chief Zaludek said when they evaluated whether or not that model could be managed by Fire staff, it was not easily answered. The Cahoots team is very specialized with a high level of mental health, including masters degrees and high level clinical vocations. The department was not well positioned with present staffing to deliver that level of service and would have to go outside to post for that type of position and team them up with someone in their organization. Fortunately,they now have until 2019 to find a path towards taking on that program. Councilor Woodrow said she would be curious to see the comparison in cost and time involved between the two models. The specialized personnel would be of higher level of care and assessment, which could refine the process and be less costly.Having Cahoots for longer is great;they are a great asset for the community. Councilor VanGordon referred to Internet Protocol Alerting and felt it was a good investment. Once implemented,he would like a memo showing the value of the system. He asked how the department would use the extra time saved with this system. He would also like to see the non-tangible benefits such as how it could save lives or produce better outcomes for patients. Chief Zaludek said the time savings doesn't impact every instance,but gives the department a better response time. The department is held to the Health Advisory Committee(HAC)requirements to meet timelines for medical responses to keep our ambulance service area. He will get additional information. 49- City of Springfield Council Work Session Minutes March 6,2017 Page 7 Councilor VanGordon said a couple of bullet points will be sufficient. He referred to the fire station relocation and said he has a lot of questions about that topic. If we are moving the station,there needs to be a big benefit to the community. If everything goes as planned,they may want to add how to address frequent users into the work plan. Councilor Pishioneri said he is a big supporter of Cahoots.He referred to the fire station move and asked if they could consider the feasibility of partnering with the Library to place a station on the same location as a new Library. That could appeal to more people when going out for a measure. Mayor Lundberg said have talked about putting a fire station in downtown for a long time. She thanked staff for putting the address for Fire Station#4 to help Council identify its current location. Mr.Grimaldi spoke regarding Information Technology. Staff is working on catching up on infrastructure and there is more to be done, such as a new phone system. Our existing phone system is over 20 years old. Security becomes more important every day with people developing new ways to hack systems and extort organizations. Security will be discussed more during the budget presentations. Mayor Lundberg thanked everyone for their work. ADJOURNMENT The meeting was adjourned at 6:55 p.m. Minutes Recorder—Amy Sowa • Z/4„. Christine L.Lundberg Mayor Attest: Dac? h Oi� Amy Sowa City Recorder