HomeMy WebLinkAbout07/07/2008 Work Session
City of Springfield
Work Session Meeting
MINUTES OF THE WORK SESSION MEETING OF
THE SPRINGFIELD CITY COUNCIL HELD
MONDAY, JULY 7, 2008
The City of Springfield Council met in a work in the Jesse Maine Meeting Room, 225 Fifth
Street, Springfield, Oregon, on Monday, July 7, 2008 at 6:03 p.m., with Mayor Leiken presiding.
ATTENDANCE
Present were Mayor Leiken and Councilors Lundberg, Ballew, Woodrow, and Pishioneri. Also
present were Assistant City Manager Jeff Towery, City Attorney Joe Leahy, City Attorney Matt
Cox, City Attorney Bill Van Vactor, City Recorder Amy Sowa and members of the staff.
Councilors Wylie and Ralston were absent (excused).
1. City Attorney Office Evaluation.
Acting Human Resources Director Ardis Belknap presented the staff report on this item. The
results of the annual evaluation have been received, tabulated and are now ready for Council
review and discussion with the City Attorney's Office,
The firm of Leahy, Van Vactor & Cox LLP received high marks recently during the annual
review of its performance of the city attorney duties which are summarized on attachment I in
the agenda packet. Thirty evaluations were distributed; of those, seventeen were returned
indicating ratings of excellent, good and did not observe.
Ms. Belknap said there were two changes to the contract for the City Attorney's office: the
percentage increase of2.9% in fees; and the City Attorney's office providing primary back-up to
the City Prosecutor. The City Attorney contract renewal would be on the Consent.Calendar
during tonight's Regular Meeting for Council's formal action.
City Attorneys Joe Leahy, Matt Cox and Bill Van Vactor joined Ms. Belknap at the table.
Mr. Leahy thanked everyone for the good evaluation. It had been great for Mr. Leahy and Mr,
Cox to be able to bring Mr. Van Vactor into their office. His knowledge was an asset to their
firm and the comments regarding Mr, Van Vactor were positive on the evaluation.
Mr. Leahy noted that the work flow in the contracts area had been tremendous during the last
month and a half. The City staff was very busy. He acknowledged Leslie Wilson and Terri White
for their great job monitoring contracts. He felt his office could always do a better job in
timeliness. They had done a better job with Mr. Van Vactor's assistance.
Mr. Cox agreed. It was great having Mr. Van Vactor in the office and he had been a wonderful
help, Mr. Cox planned on gaining as much knowledge as possible from both Mr. Van Vactor and
Mr. Leahy as long as they remained at the office.
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Council Work Session Minutes
July 7, 2008
Page 2
Mr. Van Vactor said it was a privilege to join this staff. Both Mr. Leahy and Mr. Cox had been
excellent mentors to him with the new laws. He thanked the City for the opportunity to serve on
behalf of the City in this legal capacity.
Councilor Woodrow thanked the attorneys for their professionalism, They worked in a very
friendly manner with the Council and he appreciated that.
Councilor Ballew said the responses were all positive.
Mr. Leahy said he was still working on some information for Councilor Ballew and he
appreciated the Council's patience. He commended Mr. Van Vactor for doing a great job on the
ethic reform. Some of the issues related to the new laws had no answer. If the Council had
questions, it was best to askthe City Attorney's office or the State,
Councilor Lundberg said she was comfortable knowing the City Attorneys were doing their job"
and keeping the councilors and the City on the right track. Council could be bold in their
decisions because they knew the City Attorneys were there to cover the legal issues, She thanked
them for their recent presentation to the editorial board at the Register Guard on a difficult
situation.
Councilor Pishioneri said when he thought of the City Attorney's office, two words came to
mind: prudence and practicality, The attorneys had a difficult job selling to others what was
prudent to others. They were always looking at Springfield as a whole picture and chose their
battles well. He had a lot of confidence in the attorneys, They had a lot of integrity and a lot of
respect from him.
Councilor Ballew said she would like periodic seminars to the Council on their responsibilities.
Mayor Leiken said he appreciated what the City Attorneys did, He thanked Mr. Leahy for not
only being the City Attorney, but also taking time to meet with him personally. His wisdom went
beyond that ofa City Attorney. Mr. Leahy understood the City's culture and had formed a
relationship with the elected officials. He had helped the Mayor grow as a public official and a
person. The City had been fortunate to have senior staff and the City Attorney's office in place
over a number of years. The secret of Springfield's success was teamwork between elected
officials, City staff, the City Attorney and the citizens. Over the years, he had heard Mr. Leahy
talk about the citizens, and that's the way it should be, They should receive glowing evaluations.
He thanked Mr. Van Vactor for his help with the new Ethics Laws. He appreciated the counsel,
the work they did, and felt the team would continue to move forward.
Mr. Leahy said the City Council was the City Attorney's client, as well as the citizens because
the Council was representing the citizens.
Councilor Ballew said she learned early on in civil service, that if the Councilors didn't follow
the attorney's advice, they were on their own.
Discussion was held regarding the increase in wages, Mr, Leahy noted that the City Attorney's
office had worked about 600-800 hours over where they should be, about 600 of which were law
clerk hours. He said they would talk to Council next year about the number of hours.
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Council Work Session Minutes
July 7,2008
Page 3
Mayor Leiken said land use issues alone were very complicated. Issues that came before the
Springfield Council were the same as those in larger cities.
Mr, Leahy acknowledged the great work on tonight's liquor license issue from Bill Van Vactor
and Matt Doden, law clerk. Mr. Doden had done an excellent job in putting the presentation
together.
2. Request for Proposals: Springfield Downtown District Urban Design Plan and
Implementation Strategy.
Planning Supervisor Linda Pauly presented the staff report on this item. Page 2 of 2 was
distributed as it was missing from the agenda packet. DSD and Public Works staffhave
identified key Downtown planning and revitalization work tasks which will require contractual
services. Staff has prepared an RFP to seek proposals from qualified consultants to prepare a
Downtown Urban Design Plan and Implementation Strategy to guide and coordinate
revitalization and redevelopment initiatives within Springfield's downtown core. The project
will include a focused citizen involvement program and public review process. The selected
consultant will work with staff, Downtown advisory committees, Historical Commission,
Planning Commission and the Council to generate work products which will provide the City
with:
I. an adoption-ready vision for Downtown;
2. an adoption-ready plan to give physical form to that vision;
3. an adoption-ready implementation strategy which identifies short and long term
initiatives and catalyst projects.
Key elements:
· an illustrative Downtown District Urban Design Plan
. Downtown Design Standards
· a comprehensive parking management program and identification of the appropriate
locations for downtown parking facilities
· a proposal for infrastructure and utilities improvements and modifications
· proposed revisions to the Downtown Refinement Plan, Development Code, and other
planning documents as needed to implement the plan
Once proposals are received, the Scope of Work will be adjusted to match available funds. It is
also expected that this project may need to be phased. Once proposals are received, the Scope
of Work will be adjusted to match available funds, It is also expected that this project may need
to be phased,
Councilor Ballew said it seemed comprehensive, but difficult to know what to do first. Without a
vision, it was difficult to know what would work.
Ms. Pauly said a lot of visioning had been done over the years and significant steps had been
made; however, no overall strategy had gone through the public process and been adopted by
Council. The purpose was to bring together all the things that had been done in one package.
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Council Work Session Minutes
July 7, 2008
Page 4
Everyone would be brought to the table, such as the parks district, utilities, etc, A plan was
needed to include things such as signage, streets, etc, to market the downtown.
Councilor Woodrow wanted to make sure they were not stepping on the toes of the Downtown
Urban Renewal Advisory Committee (DURAC). That committee had made a lot of progress
already and he didn't want them to feel like their work was not valued.
Ms, Pauly said she was scheduled to meet with them on July 16 to get their comments and let
them know the direction Council wanted them to go. Several members of that committee could
be stakeholders on this project.
Councilor Lundberg asked why they didn't just use that entire committee.
Mr. Tamulonis said the DURAC was set up to advise the urban renewal agency; If the Mayor or
Council wanted to add responsibilities to that committee, it could be done. Staff was hoping to
give that committee about three or four months of background material and then suggest they
provide input for this larger process and playa role, There were thirty other people that were
interested in the downtown committee and some of those people could be brought in as well.
Councilor Lundberg said over the years a number of studies had been done on downtown. All of
that information should be used as well as new information, As much as possible, she wanted to
use those that were interested. The charge of the advisory committee could change somewhat so
they could be used. She didn't want to alienate the advisory committee and was comfortable
using the advisory committee members with expertise in this process. It could save time.
Councilor Ballew said the DURAC had more specific tasks than this visioning project.
Ms. Pauly said her understanding ofthe (DURAC) was to deal with the funding mechanism for
downtown urban renewal and making recommendations on how the money was spent. The
process she was proposing would involve someone with' expertise in downtown revitalization in
Oregon to give us pointers on how to get all these groups to work together. The DURAC was just
one group. There were many groups interested in downtown.
Councilor Ballew said it may not be a duplication of the DURAC.
Ms, Pauly said this group would make policy recommendations that would go through the
Planning Commission and then to the Council. They would relate to design standards downtown
and would help the City evaluate the best sites for different uses.
Councilor Ballew said it could be like a super committee that drew from the Planning
Commission, DURAC, and the Historical Commission, She asked about the time commitment.
Ms. Pauly said it would be similar to the Commercial and Industrial Buildable Lands (CIBL)
Committee, meeting monthly for about six to nine months.
Councilor Woodrow said he agreed with Councilor Lundberg. The DURAC had different agenda
items they needed to look at, but the members of that committee were talented people and
Springfield citizens. He didn't want to see a consultant from another city telling us how to
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Council Work Session Minutes
July 7, 2008
Page 5
rebuild downtown Springfield. A cohesive interaction was needed with the talent of the DURAC
members.
Councilor Lundberg agreed. The people that had come forward for the DURAC loved downtown
and were local. She suggested laying out the tasks that DURAC would be doing and that this
other committee would be doing. The members from DURAC believed they had the ability and
desire to create a vision. Once those tasks were outlined, it could be determined which group
would take on which of those tasks, and then the bigger group could be brought together. She
suggested capitalizing on the interest level of those people.
Councilor Ballew said there was a separation between the City and the urban renewal agency.
Using the DURAC was asking the urban renewal agency to make plans for the City, but that
needed to be separated.
Mr. Tamulonis suggested trying to mesh the meetings with the DURAC group to involve them in
this process. Staff could come back to Council with a way to line that up, using a subset of the
DURAC for this process and bringing back a proposal.
Mr. Leahy said ifCotmcil was going to instruct staff to communicate with the DURAC, that was
fine, Assigning responsibilities to that committee needed to be done through the SEDA Board,
There was nothing legally wrong with the SEDA Board assigning this additional responsibility to
the DURAC.
Councilor Ballew felt a consultant was needed to pull this all together, whether the City or
SEDA paid for it.
All agreed,
Councilor Lundberg said she would prefer the consultant was a local company and asked that
more weight could be given to a local firm.
Mayor Leiken said some consultants that weren't local knew Springfield. He gave examples.
Mayor Leiken said he agreed with Councilor Ballew, It sounded like they were trying to put
together a package for developers. There could be some separation between the City and SEDA.
Some members of DURAC had background and could be involved, but perhaps not the entire
group, Ifthere was an opportunity to check into the DURAC membership to see which of those
members could be part of this process, that could be a good start, He referred to the Smart
Growth Conference and said he hadn't been interested to see what they were doing in Portland
and Atlanta because that wouldn't fit with Springfield. We had some momentum in the
downtown and were ready to look into putting a plan in place. It would help to have a whole
package that was consistent for developers.
Councilor Pishioneri said it made sense to use some of the DURAC members. When they sent
out the request for proposals (RFP) for the consultant, it should note that the DURAC would be
integrated into this project. That committee would be a sounding board. The members of
DURAC had a lot of investment in downtown.
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CouncirWork Session Minutes
July 7, 2008
Page 6
Councilor Ballew said Council agreed to go forward with an RFP for a consultant. She asked if
staff could give Council a memo regarding what the consultant would be doing and who would
be advising them. The City should be the one to issue the RFP. Many tasks did take expertise and
special training. The consultant would do the heavy lifting for the advisory committee.
Ms. Pauly said the consultant could focus the DURAC on things the city could do. She asked if
Council wanted the consultant selected by an internal committee or Council.
Council said staff could choose the consultant. They asked staff to provide a list of those they
were considering in a Communication Packet.
3. Strategic Plan Update.
Assistant City Manager Jeff Towery presented the staff report on this item, For the past several
weeks, the Executive Team has been working with Rhonda Costanza and Suzanne Durhiem of
the Change Agency to create a strategic plan based on the results of Council Goal Setting and an
Executive Team planning session each held earlier this year, The larger Management Team has
also been working on defining the various outcome and process measures that will be used to
measure progress toward the Council's goals.
When fmished, the plan will clarify our:
Mission - what business we are in
. Vision - what we want to become
Values - operating principles which guide all decisions
Key Processes - what we must do well
Goals - what we will do this year
Staff will continue to refine the plan over the next few weeks, Upon completion, the plan will be
brought back to the Council for review and ultimately, adoption.
Two of the motivations for this effort were to create an opportunity to demonstrate progress
towards the Council goals, and to provide staff with an opportunity internally to prioritize the
many projects that staff deals with, He provided slides showing the draft mission statement,
vision, values, key processes and goals, He showed a schematic of the process so far.
Councilor Ballew asked who had been working on this plan.
Mr, Towery said the Executive Team (ET) using the consultant. Department heads had also been
working with their perspective management teams on details such as processes, Most of the
management team had also convened in a half day session to put together the measures.
Councilor Ballew asked if this would be a template for each department in the City.
Mr. Towery said it would. He explained.
Councilor Ballew asked if each department would have information on who would help them
accomplish the goals.
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Council Work Session Minutes
July 7, 2008
Page 7
Mr, Towery said they would, Each key measure would have an owner and supporting roles
identified in the strategic plan, There could be multiple owners on several measures.
Councilor Ballew said this would be valuable to the organization and hoped this would be used.
Mr. Towery said this was easier than some of the other processes because they had collected all
that had been used historically and brought it together in a central location. It would be
accessible and easy to use.
Councilor Ballew said it would be important that everyone in the organization knew the policy.
ADJOURNMENT
The meeting was adjourned at 6:55 pm,
Minutes Recorder - Alny Sowa
Attest:
AmY~
City Recorder