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Home My WebLink About2014 03 04 CCICity of Springfield Work Session Meeting MINUTES OF THE WORK SESSION MEETING OF THE SPRINGFIELD COMMITTEE FOR CITIZEN, INVOLVEMENT HELD TUESDAY, March 4, 2014 The City of Springfield Committee for Citizen Involvement met in a work session in the Jesse Maine Meeting Room, 225 Fifth Street, Springfield, Oregon, on Tuesday, March 4, 2014 at 6:00 p.m., with Greg James presiding. ATTENDANCE Present were Chair Greg James, Vice Chair Nick Nelson, Commissioners Johnny Kirschenmann, Stacy Salladay, Denise Bean, Steve Moe and TimVohs. Also present were Current Development Manager Greg Mott, City Attorney Mary Bridget Smith, and Management Support Specialist Brenda Jones and members of the staff. ABSENT None STAFF REPORT 1. CHARTER AMENDMENT TO ALLOW FOR COUNCILOR COMPENSATION Niel Laudati with the City Manager Office presented the Charter Amendment to the Committee for Citizen Involvement. The Springfield Mayor and Council are volunteers. The Springfield Charter states: “No Councilor or Mayor may receive compensation for serving in that capacity. The Council may prescribe a plan for reimbursing Mayor and City Council for expenses they incur in serving the City.” In Springfield; however, reimbursement for mileage, technology fees, etc. is available. The Mayor and City Councilors typically spend 25-35 hours per week attending council meetings, answering constituent emails and reviewing the materials prepared for each week’s Council agenda. They are also asked to attend multiple city-related inter-governmental meetings during the week and events on nights and weekends on behalf of the community. It has become common practice for the Mayor and Councilors to use personal vacation time from their jobs in order to attend events and meetings on behalf of the city. They often pay for a guest to attend night and weekend events when they are asked to attend events as well. Items such as child care are not covered. Over the past year, a sub-committee of the City Council, assisted by staff from the City Attorney and City Managers Offices met on several occasions to discuss whether, and how, to amend the City Charter to allow for a reasonable monthly compensation. After discussion and reviewing council compensation from across the state, the sub- committee initially recommended a $300 per month stipend for each councilor and a $500 per month stipend for the Mayor. Enter here how this came to the CCI During a February 10, 2014 City Council Work Session, councilors decided to send the issue to the Planning Commission to coordinate the review of this proposal by all other city officials appointed to Springfield’s various boards, committees and commissions. These groups would conduct public meetings allowing interested parties to comment and then forward their recommendation back to the Council. Amending the Charter requires a vote of the public. The fiscal impact to the city is approximately $27,000 per year. Additionally, it is recommended that reimbursement for mileage and other charges that accrue to participation in city business continues as an added expense. Options They would like from this group to City of Springfield Committee for Citizen Involvement Minutes March 4, 2014 Page 2 1: recommend to vote 2: vote no 3: ask to open to a wider group Greg James: to combine many of the committee and commissions for the city and go from there Johnny K: reiterated what happened at the council meeting was that the CCI should handle the item and go from there Denise Greg James: What is the time line for election and when Niel – the City Council sent this to the CCI to make the decision on whether or not to send this onto the Planning Commission or make the decision as the CCI Greg James – Denise – what she needs to make a decision is, “The wording of how the charter would be changed”, to make a decision she needs more information MBS- Many jurisdictions have different ways to handle how it’s handled. Denise – are they wanting us to come up with the language or what are we suppose to do Greg James – personally what they have done, and has spoken to the Mayor personally, they want an outside group to come up with the language and present it to…………….it shouldn’t be tied to CIP, I think it will be a hard sell to the citizens, I think it will be hard for the CCI to come up with . Stacy, what kind of impact have on the city, and will it ………will the reimbursement be on top of what they receive already Greg James, that’s why of we get the Budget committee involved we Tim – who decided the impact of MBS – Stacy Greg James – you can do survey on-line, survey monkey, the city has a very large group of contacts that we can use to do a survey Johnny – At the meeting he believes that they would like the CCI to handle this and have the Planning Commission hold a public hearing … Everyone throwing out ideas Denise – joint meeting with the budget committee, survey cost a lot of money, the council wants us to come back with a decision and / or the wording for the language\ Niel – its inexpensive Tim – other cities that have been surveyed Neil – City of Springfield Committee for Citizen Involvement Minutes March 4, 2014 Page 3 MBS – at least half, league of Oregon cities say the language is very old Johnny – stipend to him means something smaller than something smaller than $43,000. Denise – explained the difference of what stipend…. Nick – asked if the whole council is in favor of this? Niel Tim- can the wording be…his personal opinion would be the option which would be subject to periodic review, this needs to be flexible Greg – doing some sort of survey, getting together all of the committee and commissions. We need to identify a couple of CCI members to start working on language to Denise asked if neil could help with putting a survey out Greg James – Tim – you don’t want to get to complicated on the survey Denise – would you like a sub group to work on language with Mary Bridget MBS –she has some professionals that can get the language down to Greg James – what is the population of Springfield; is it lock into the CPI; Stacy –if this needs to be Greg – public hearing in June ……do we wa Tim – how wasy is it to pull up language from other jurisdictions. MBS – gather more information , public input Steve Moe – disappointed that this comes up now, he is to old to run for council now. Greg – Steve do yo gave strong feelings about this Steve – yes – the city council was all business men. 10-15 year ago, why is there so much work now than prior years. MBS – now theres more regional work, joint committees, Stev – cities big enough, they put the hours in, they should James – Stacey and Steve will work with MBS to come up with the questions The CCI will meet again March 19th to here the results of what MBS, Stacy and Steve Moe. ADJOURNMENT City of Springfield Committee for Citizen Involvement Minutes March 4, 2014 Page 4 The meeting was adjourned at 6:30 p.m. Minutes Recorder – Brenda Jones ______________________ Greg James Planning Commission Chair Attest: ____________________ Brenda Jones Management Support Specialist