HomeMy WebLinkAbout02/20/2007 Regular
City of Springfield
Regular Meeting
MINUTES OF THE REGULAR MEETING OF
THE SPRINGFIELD CITY COUNCIL HELD
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 20,2007
The City of Springfield Council met in regular session in the Council Meeting Room, 225 Fifth
Street, Springfield, Oregon, on Tuesday, February 20, 2007 at 7:03 p.m., with Mayor Leiken
presiding.
ATTENDANCE
Present were Mayor Leiken and Councilors Lundberg, 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 and members of the staff.
Councilor Wylie was absent (excused).
PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE
The Pledge of Allegiance was led by Mayor Leiken.
SPRINGFIELD UPBEAT
1. Proclamation for Lane County Family Caregiving Day.
Mayor Leiken read from the Proclamation. He said February 28 was Lane County Family
Caregiving Day, a day to encourage the support and recognition of volunteer family caregivers.
CONSENT CALENDAR
IT WAS MOVED BY COUNCILOR LUNDBERG WITH A SECOND BY COUNCILOR
WOODROW TO APPROVE THE CONSENT CALENDAR. THE MOTION PASSED
WITH A VOTE OF 5 FOR AND 0 AGAINST (1 ABSENT - Wylie).
I. Claims
a. Approval of the January 2007, Disbursements for Approval.
2. Minutes
a. January 29,2007 - Council Goal Setting Session
b. February 5,2007 - Work Session
c. February 5, 2007 - Regular Meeting
3. Resolutions
4. Ordinances
5. Other Routine Matters
City of Springfield
Council Regular Meeting Minutes
February 20, 2007
Page 2
a. Accept the 2005/2006 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report.
b. Approval of Liquor License Endorsement for Jasper's, Located at 5608 Main Street,
Springfield, Oregon.
c. Approval of Liquor License Endorsement for Ashley's, Located at 3125 Gateway Street,
Springfield, Oregon.
ITEMS REMOVED FROM THE CONSENT CALENDAR
PUBLIC HEARINGS - Please limit comments to 3 minutes. Request to speak cards are available
at both entrances. Please present cards to City Recorder. Speakers may
not yield their time to others.
BUSINESS FROM THE AUDIENCE
1. Jerry Ritter. 1865 Yolanda Avenue. Springfield. OR. Mr. Ritter said he was representing
Oregon Communities for a Voice in Annexations. He wanted to make the Council aware of
. three bills before the legislature that Council might want to support due to the impact they
could have on the City. His group was not always opposed to City government when it came
to dealing with the problems that the community faced. Two of those issues included the
twenty year land supply and the funding of schools. He discussed Senate Bill 335 which
changed the language of the twenty-year requirement to up to twenty years. He said most
cities didn't have a twenty-year supply, so this bill would encode into law what the reality
was around the state. He discussed the schools. In the Evergreen School District in
Washington, they were charging up to $7000 per household for school impact fees. Ten
miles down the road in the rapidly growing Clackamas District there were no impact fees. In
California, impact fees were as much as $100,000. Impact fees were not the answer, but
should be part of the puzzle to address the school problem. House Bill 2525 authorized, but
did not require, school impact fees to be among the things to which system development
charges (SDC's) were levied. This was designed to give communities flexibility to pursue
that. Cities were forbidden by state law to consider the impact on schools when evaluating
whether or not to permit new development pursuant to ORS 195.110. Senate Bill 336 would
eliminate and revoke that section oflaw to give communities more flexibility. He hoped
Council would look the bills over and find them valuable enough to merit further study and
support. He thanked Council for their consideration.
2. Star Holmberg. 937 D Street. Springfield. OR. Ms. Holmbert said she worked at the
University of Oregon (UotD) and served on the State Board for Service Employees
International Union (SEIU). She spoke regarding the Eugene/Springfield Solidarity Network
and Jobs with Justice. She said she had three purposes for attending Council. The first was
to present the 2006 Grinch Award to Councilor Dave Ralston. She said he was chosen last
December for this award based on comments regarding the Latino community. She said the
award was injest. The second purpose of her testimony was to stand in solidarity with her
Latino brothers and sisters who were part of the social fabric of our community. The third
purpose was to distribute information to the Mayor and Council regarding immigration. The
material was distributed to the Mayor and Council by the City Recorder. Ms. Holmberg
encouraged dialogue on this subject.
COUNCIL RESPONSE
City of Springfield
Council Regular Meeting Minutes
February 20, 2007
Page 3
CORRESPONDENCE AND PETITIONS
BIDS
ORDINANCES
BUSINESS FROM THE CITY COUNCIL
I. Committee Appointments
a. Historic Commission Confirmation.
City Planner Kitti Gale presented the staff report on this item. On February 12,2007, the
Council interviewed and re-appointed Roxie Metzler to her second term on the Springfield
Historic Commission.
Ms. Metzler is a retired teacher recommended to the Commission by Springfield School
District #19. She is a resident property owner living on Deerhorn Road near Walterville.
Metzler is an Oral Historian with a Master Degree from the University of Oregon in Special
Education. She is also a Springfield Museum Board member as well as a volunteer with Sand
Mountain Society and Friends of Huckleberry Mountain.
IT WAS MOVED BY COUNCILOR LUNDBERG WITH A SECOND BY
COUNCILOR WOODROW TO RE-APPOINT ROXIE METZLER TO THE
SPRINGFIELD HISTORIC COMMISSION, WITH A TERM EXPIRATION DATE
OF DECEMBER 31,2010. THE MOTION PASSED WITH A VOTE OF 5 FOR AND
o AGAINST (1 ABSENT - Wylie)
2. Business from Council
a. Committee Reports
I. Councilor Lundberg said an Open House was held for the Gateway/Beltline
Intersection at the PeaceHealth annex. Because it involved mostly businesses, it was
not real well attended, but once the stakeholder working group became active again,
there would be more attendance and interest. She said the Open House was very
nicely done and she thanked staff for their hard work in planning the event.
2. Councilor Pishioneri said the McKenzie Watershed Council Coordinator, Megan
Finnessy, submitted her resignation. The Council was now looking for a new
coordinator.
3. Mayor Leiken said the Springfield Chamber sponsored the Town Hall meeting with
Senators Wyden and Smith, which was broadcast on KEZI and in Medford and Bend.
The Secure Rural Schools w~s in major jeopardy of not being reauthorized. The
hope was that there could be a one year extension on those funds and a change to the
formula. Oregon received a lot of funding from that source, especially Lane and
Douglas Counties. Lane County was running two budgets; one with the Secure Rural
School funds and the other without. He suggested Council contact County
City of Springfield
Council Regular Meeting Minutes
February 20, 2007
Page 4
Administrator Bill Van V actor for more details. Public safety would be an issue and
also a loss of services for those really in need. Removal of this fund source would
remove about $40-45M out of the County's budget. He noted the impacts on other
counties such as Jackson County, which was ready to close their entire Library
system.
Mayor Leiken noted that during the upcoming United Front Trip, he would be
discussing this issue to try to get the funds reauthorized as well as other community
issues. The legislators needed to hear from the community regarding the impact this
loss of revenue would have. Springfield's City government was looking pretty good
compared to other jurisdictions around the State because of policies put into place
here. He said both senators were working together on this issue as well as our
members of Congress.
Councilor Ballew asked if Lane County had the two proposed budgets online.
Mr. Grimaldi said there was a spreadsheet that was available. He would get a copy to
Councilor Ballew.
Councilor Lundberg asked for infomiation 'on what the State logged and what we
didn't log. She would like to see if there was something that could be done regarding
logging to receive timber receipts.
Mayor Leiken said prior to 1990, the State was harvesting about four billion board
feet oftimber annually, and we were now harvesting about two hundred million. The
State with the largest timber production was North Carolina. Oregon was importing
lumber from other countries. The State was losing money that was supposed to
replace that to our local County governments.
Mayor Leiken suggested contacting Peter DeFazio's office and other organizations
regarding this issue. The partnership with respeetive governments was injeopardy.
BUSINESS FROM THE CITY MANAGER
1. Bond Sale Approval Resolutiol1.
RESOLUTION NO. 07-09 - A RESOLUTION OF THE CITY OF SPRINGFIELD. LANE
COUNTY. OREGON AUTHORIZING THE SALE OF THE CITY'S GENERAL
OBLIGATION BONDS TO FINANCE A PROJECT. AND TO PAY COSTS OF ISSUING THE
BONDS.
Finance Director Bob Duey presented the staff report on this item. The City Council is requested
to approve issuance of general obligation bonds in the principal amount not to exceed
$24,650,000 in order to finance construction expenses for the police, court and municipal jail
facility and other costs related to the project.
In November of 2004, the voters of Springfield approved a general obligation bond issue in the
amount of $28.65M for the construction and related expenses for the proposed police and court
facility to include a municipal jail. In July of 2005, the City sold the first $4M ofthat
City of Springfield
Council Regular Meeting Minutes
February 20, 2007
Page 5
authorization to finance preconstruction expenses. The construction phase of the project is
scheduled to begin in March of 2007 and it will be necessary to sell all or part of the remaining
$24.65M in March to meet our obligations.
It is possible to sell all of the remaining bonding authority in a single sale or to structure the
financing over two sales. Factors in making the determination to conduct one or multiple sales
are most commonly the increase of issuance costs for multiple sales and length of time that the
proceeds from the sale will be held during the time of construction. In this case both of these
factors indicate that a single sale would be to the City's advantage. The current construction
schedule calls for the completion of the project by spring of 20 I 0, which would put the length of
time between the sale of the proceeds and the fmal payments an appropriate length of 3 years.
Mr. Duey said the resolution before Council was prepared by the City's bond counsel, Preston,
Gates, in Portland. He said the preliminary statement was nearly complete and he could email a
copy to anyone interested. The final draft would be finished closer to March I. He described the
normal process in moving toward sale of bonds, including applying for a higher rating. He said
staff did not feel it was the time to up the City's rating as it was already very good. The sale was
scheduled for March 21 and he noted it was a good market at this time and the City could sell the
bonds for a premium. He explained. Staff decided to do one sale rather than two to generate
additional interest earnings.
Councilor Ballew asked about the limitation on how much could be borrowed based on debt ratio.
Mr. Duey said the City was very far under that rate. We could issue about 4 times the debt the
City currently had under the limitations. He explained.
Councilor Pishioneri thanked staff.
IT WAS MOVED BY COUNCILOR LUNDBERG WITH A SECOND BY COUNCILOR
WOODROW TO ADOPT RESOLUTION NO. 07-09. THE MOTION PASSED WITH A
VOTE OF 5 FOR AND 0 AGAINST (1 ABSENT - Wylie)
BUSINESS FROM THE CITY ATTORNEY
ADJOURNMENT
The meeting was adjourned at approximately 7:25 p.m.
Minutes Recorder Amy Sowa
Attest:
CitY~