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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~