HomeMy WebLinkAbout11/10/2008 Work Session
City of Springfield
Work Session Meeting
MINUTES OF THE WORK SESSION MEETING OF
THE SPRINGFIELD CITY COUNCIL HELD
MONDAY, NOVEMBER 10, 2008
The City of Springfield Council met in a work session in the Jesse Maine Meeting Room, 225
Fifth Street, Springfield, Oregon, on Monday, November 10,2008 at 6:15 p.m., with Mayor
Leiken presiding.
ATTENDANCE
Present were Mayor Leiken and Councilors Lundberg, Wylie, Ballew, Ralston, Woodrow and
Pishioneri. Also present were City Manager Gino Grimaldi, Assistant City Manager Jeff
Towery, City Attorney Joe Leahy, City Recorder Amy Sowa and members of the staff.
1. Lane Transit District (LID) 2009 Service Reduction Proposal.
City Manager Gino Grimaldi presented this item. LID is considering a series of service
reductions to deal with a budget gap created by several factors including large increases in
demand, fuel and paratransit costs and the more significant impact of a weakening local
economy. The Board authorized the use of operating budget reserves to allow LID to maintain
current service levels for Fiscal Year 2008-09 and has adopted sweeping fare increases to boost
revenues. In addition, District staff developed budgets that reduced staffing and cut materials and
services expenses. Capital projects were also dropped or pushed to future years. All these
actions mitigated but did not fully close the gap. LTD Staff have prepared a service reduction
proposal totaling approximately 15 percent of current service hours. Public outreach has
occurred through a variety of open houses, community participation events, community group
presentations, and public hearings. The comments received have helped staff make adjustments
to the proposal.
Mark Pangborn, LID General Manager, joined Mr. Grimaldi at the table. He introduced Service
Planning Staff Director Will Muller, Board President Mike Eyster, and newest Board Member
Doris Towery who also sat at the table.
Mr. Eyster said the good news was that ridership had increased thirty-five percent over the last
three years, EmX had exceeded their expectations, and the transit system was serving people that
were transit dependent, as well as people that were riding the bus by choice. The bad news was
that there were two factors causing loss in revenue. The first was the cost of paratransit service,
which was the service for elderly and disabled. The allocation for this service from the State had
remained steady, but the costs had increased substantially, causing LID to put about $2M from
their operating budget to subsidize this program. The second problem was the economy. LID's
primary source of revenue was the business payroll tax. As businesses suffered, the payroll taxes
were going down. LID was spending down their reserves. The Board directed staff a couple of
months ago to propose fifteen percent reduction in service in order to keep the entire system
fmancially viable.
Mr. Muller said he would be speaking on the service design goals, the timeline in the process and
the specific changes in Springfield. Their first goal was to maintain the mainline corridor service
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Council Work Session Minutes
November 10, 2008
Page 2
where ridership was the strongest and where most destinations existed. As part of that, they
maintained 15 minute peak hour frequency on almost all of their main corridors. The second goal
was to have the urban routes run at least once an hour. They needed to insure that any changes
made in service to low income and minority groups were not disproportionate. The fourth goal
was to maintain their current span of service, the hours they had run. This proposal maintained
those hours and number of days. They needed to be careful that no changes made switched
people over to the paratransit service, which was much more expensive to provide per trip. To
the greatest degree possible, they tried to minimize creating additional tran:;;[ers for riders, but it
was not always possible. They needed to achieve their budget goal of 15% reduction. The
proposal cut the budget by 14.5%. When they cut routes, they cut routes where riders had other
routes as alternatives. All express routes were eliminated, except the 79X service which served
the UotD student population at the Kinsrow complex off of the MLK. That service was strong
and the most productive service in their system.
Mr. Muller said as part ofLTD's community outreach, they had held thirteen meetings, open
houses and public forums throughout the community in September and October, three of which
were in Springfield. The first public hearing on the service changes was held on October 13 at
the Eugene Public Library. The second public hearing was happening this evening. The adoption
of the plan was scheduled for November 19, and changes would be implemented September
2009, with limited changes occurring as early as February 2009.
Mr. Muller spoke regarding the Springfield service changes. He referred to Attachment 1, page 3
in the agenda packet, a map of the 2009 Reduction/Redesign Proposal and page 9 of the same
attachment. He discussed some of the changes to routes in Springfield, including the proposed
deletion of the 7X and 8X express routes.
Discussion was held regarding Route #11 that also served the Thurston area, and how that route
could still be used for those that currently rode on the 8X route.
Mr. Pangborn said the riders on the 8X were often riders that chose to ride the bus, rather than
those that needed to, and were quite vocal about losing this route. The X routes were duplicating
some other kind of service, but were popular to a certain rider because they were faster and more
direct.
Councilor Ralston asked if Route #91 did the same thing.
Mr. Muller said it did, but there were different trip times. He discussed both routes.
Councilor Pishioneri asked about ridership on the 8X.
Mr. Muller said last year they averaged about 24 riders per hour and this year it is at about 34
riders per hour for productivity. To put it into perspective, the 3X route had 43 riders per hour.
The #11 averaged about 66 boardings per hour, including late night service. The system averaged
55 boardings per hour. He further discussed the #11 bus and the heavy ridership.
Councilor Pishioneri referred to the 8X and said reducing the route with the least amount of
subsidy didn't make sense.
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Council Work Session Minutes
November 10, 2008
Page 3
Mr. Muller discussed the 8X ridership. He explained the routing of the express service that made
it expensive. The bus had to travel to a place to start the trip versus other routes which were
always circulating through the system. The express was a more expensive service, due to down
time.
Councilor Wylie said it was sad to see so many routes taken away. She noted that fuel costs were
now dropping.
Mr. Pangborn said if the fuel prices hadn't gone up as high as they did, LID wouldn't be in quite
as much ofa bad situation, but because the economy had gone down, the major source of
revenue had gone down. LID lost $400,000 a year from the loss of Hynix.
Councilor Wylie said it was difficult. She asked if there was a sense things could change.
Mr. Pangborn said there would likely be a stimulus package that could include some funding for
transit, but it was unclear how much. They should know by mid-summer. Also, the Governor
released a transportation package that Mayor Leiken worked on, and would be asking the
legislature for additional funding for transportation, including transit. That mayor may not go
through. He didn't see much relief in the short term. Our local recession could be as severe as
that in 1979 and 1980. Looking long-term, LID came out of the last recession and could do it
again. Ridership in October 2008 was 10.5 percent higher than last year.
Councilor Woodrow asked what type of ridership was on Routes 18 and 19.
Mr. Muller said the ridership on routes 18 and 19 averaged about 27 or 28 riders per hour. They
were cutting out two segments of that route. Currently, they were two long one-way loops, and
the proposal was for two different loops. The Q Street ridership was about 60 boardings a day,
with 27 trips, which averaged about 2.2 boardings per hour. He explained how they would
accommodate that area. People had come to speak at all of the meetings to express their
concerns.
Mr. Pangborn said it tied together the Fairview neighborhood. There was still a connection to the
Willamalane Adult Center and back to all the major shopping such as Winco, Walmart and
Albertsons, which was of particular concern to the neighborhood.
Councilor Ballew said there was a lot of information provided. She asked if there were logical
points used to determine how to prioritize.
Mr. Muller said they fIrst wanted to keep the main corridor service intact as much as possible, so
they changed frequencies from 10 minutes to 15 minutes. They then looked at a segment analysis
of the other corridors. The factors they looked at were boardings and ridership.
Mr. Eyster said they also looked at the people riding the bus. It was not a linear process. They
took factors into consideration simultaneously.
Mr. Pangborn discussed Routes 18 and 19 and explained what they looked at when making the
proposed changes in order to balance productivity and needs.
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Council Work Session Minutes
November 10, 2008
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Mr. Muller said they would be putting service back to the Willamalane Adult Activity Center
and would try to make it work.
Councilor Ballew asked if travel time was another factor. Yes.
Mr. Muller said service in Springfield had its own issues that had to be considered. He explained
some of those issues. It was especially important that things worked in a time frame.
Councilor Pishioneri asked if the roundabout on MLK had a positive or negative influence
regarding time for the buses.
Mr. Muller said the roundabout was faster.
Councilor Pishioneri asked ifthere would also be a 15 percent reduction in drivers.
Mr. Muller said there would be about a 12 percent reduction in pay hours. They would lose some
efficiency when cutting 15 percent of the service. He explained.
Mr. Pangborn said they had put a freeze on driver hiring, and when a driver left, they were using
more overtime. He referred to the timeline and noted that the majority of changes would occur in
September 2009. He explained the timeline needed for the redesign and implementation. This
would also give L TD time to communicate with the ridership. They were hoping they could stick
with this, but if the economy continued to drop, they may have to go to tier two reductions. He
gave an example.
Mayor Leiken said he hoped these were short-term issues. In the near future, he would like to
hear what they had planned for the long-term and how the City could partner with LTD. This
area was in a unique position with Representative Beyer and Congressman DeFazio in their
respective positions. There was a strong discussion in the Transportation Committee about
people changing their habits regarding transportation. There was an abundance of funding
coming in for capital projects that couldn't be used for operations. The question was how the
City could partner with LTD, such as in a United Front effort, to talk with state and federal
representatives about converting capital funds to operations. The rules would need to be
changed. The public was having a hard time with these reductions when there were funds for the
EmX project, but it was due to the rules from the government about capital and operations
funding.
Mr. Pangborn said the City had been a strong partner with L TD in United Front. The EmX and
Gateway Extension was 21 st century transportation and the current EmX proved that. He noted
the benefits from that service and felt it could be an extraordinary connection and the City had
been supportive. There was a significant amount of money in their budget that was set aside for
when EmX opened. They still believed that was the future.
Mayor Leiken noted how Springfield was moving ahead on public transportation and
sustainability and he was proud of that.
Councilor Ralston asked about the cost to ride the bus.
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Council Work Session Minutes
November 10, 2008
Page 5
Mr. Pangborn said they had recently raised the rate to $1.50. The middle and high school
students had passes, UofD students paid an incidental fee, City of Eugene employees received
bus passes as did employees of Peace Health and Symantec. Low-income bus tokens were
provided to private non-profits. In looking at all people the busses carried on their fixed route
system per year (about 12M), divided by LTD's budget, it came out to about $3 a ride, of which
about 18 percent was recovered. He said that was about normal for public transportation.
Councilor Ralston said if he was using the service and felt it was valuable, the fees should be
raised to cover the cost. If it was valuable to citizens as a whole, they should raise their rates.
Mr. Muller said there were a number of people in the community that could afford that, but those
that actually paid cash fare were the most vulnerable and didn't have good jobs at those large
companies that provided passes.
Mr. Pangborn said the Board had looked at fare increases and would again. He noted that when
the Board raised the fares, ridership did increase so it was a valid economic model.
Mr. Muller further discussed some of the issues of increased ridership and raising the fees.
Mr. Pangborn discussed pass-bys, when the bus was too full and had to pass by a stop, causing
the rider to wait for the next available bus.
Councilor Ballew asked if the bus passes were discounted, and if those were raised at the same
time the fares were raised.
Mr. Eyster discussed the rates for passes.
Mr. Pangborn said they were looking at everything to make sure everyone was paying their fair
share.
Mr. Eyster said several from L TD went to the American Public Transit Association Meeting.
There was a lot of discussion regarding fares. It was a national issue and transit was looking at
ways to transfer funds from capital to operational.
Mayor Leiken said he had heard of similar issues at the State level.
Councilor Woodrow referred to the timeline to implement these proposed cuts and asked if the
time line would be the same to add services back in if fmances turned around.
Mr. Pangborn said it would probably take about a year for that process as well.
Mr. Muller thanked Civil Engineer Kristi Krueger and other City staff regarding their facilitation
to run on Prescott Street. He noted other changes in Springfield service, such as no more direct
service from LCC to Springfield in the summer. The total service deletions in Springfield came
to 2.17%. Given the system-wide cut was 14.5%, that meant the Springfield portion of the cuts
was 15%. They estimated that Springfield services were 25-27% of the total system.
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Council Wark Session Minutes
November 10, 2008
Page 6
Mr. Pangborn said Springfield took less than their proportion of service because of high rideship
and valuable connections.
Mr. Pangborn thanked the Council for their time.
2. Intergovernmental Agreement with Lane Transit District Concerning Operations and
Maintenance of the Gatewav Extension of EmX.
Assistant Public Works Director Len Goodwin presented the staff report on this item. City staff
and Lane Transit District (L TD) staff have completed negotiations on the terms of an
Intergovernmental Agreement (Agreement) governing the operations and maintenance of the
facilities associated with the Gateway Extension of the EmX system. Staff seeks direction on
whether or not to bring the Agreement forward for formal Council action.
Possible terms for this Agreement were reviewed with Council on June 25, 2007 and in
Executive Session on November 19, 2007. Since that time, staff from the two agencies have
continued to meet and confer regarding the potential terms of the Agreement. The current draft is
agreeable to both City and L TD staff. Both City and L TD staff are desirous that the Agreement
be finalized before L TD begins construction of the Gateway Extension route. Staff review of the
proposed construction plans is continuing. City staff are now reviewing 90% plans. The
agreement sets the terms under which L TD may use City rights of way and property, and obliges
L TD to fund the full cost of operations and maintenance of the facilities. With the exception of
the facilities within the various station footprints, the City will perform all maintenance at LTD's
expense. L TD will provide all maintenance of the station facilities at their own expense. The
Agreement provides that for the first three years L TD will prepay an amount estimated to cover
the costs of maintenance and that thereafter an annual payment will be fixed, subject to price
escalation at the level of change in the Consumer Price Index. L TD will pay that amount in equal
quarterly installments. If Council is satisfied with the other terms of the Agreement City staff
will confer with L TD staff to determine the amount of that contribution and present the
Agreement for approval by the Council.
Mr. Goodwin noted one last-minute change in the agreement to address LTD's informational
material on their stations without considering it advertising. That was clarified in the agreement.
The agreement provided that for the first three years, L TD would be making an advance payment
to the City in anticipation of the additional expenditures in maintenance and preservation.
Calculations were now being made to determine the exact amount. City staff and L TD would
work together to fmalize those calculations and the agreement would be brought back to Council
in a regular meeting for formal action.
Councilor Ballew said she understood L TD had license to use the right-of-way, but had no
interest.
Mr. Goodwin said that was correct. The only thing they had an interest in was the footprint
within the transit stop, or the station itself.
Mayor Leiken thanked Mr. Goodwin.
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Council Work Session Minutes
November 10, 2008
Page 7
3. Systems Development Charge Issues for Citizen Advisory Committee.
Assistant Public Works Director Len Goodwin presented the staff report on this item. City staff
are updating the Systems Development Charge methodologies for storm water and local
wastewater to reflect changes in the law since the charges were last updated in 2000 and updated
lists of projects to be funded by SDC revenue. The Council has appointed a Citizen Advisory
Committee to consider those policy issues where the Council has determined public input is
appropriate. That Committee held its fIrst meeting on October 15 and will meet again on
November 12 to receive a briefing on the newly adopted Stormwater and Local Wastewater
master facility plans. These plans will form the basis for project lists which will be evaluated by
the SDC methodology as part ofthe process to set SDC fee levels. Staff have, based upon a
review of the current methodology, changes in the law, and comments received from the
Committee, developed a list of potential issues where the Council might choose to seek
recommendations from the CAC.
Formal action by the Council is not required, although informal direction to staffwill form the
basis for future presentations to the CAC.
Mr. Goodwin said Council had an extensive memo on the issues staff would bring to the CAC.
These were policy issues that the CAC would make recommendation on for Council
consideration. Council would be making the final decisions. Tonight, staff hoped to get Council
feedback on whether or not they were comfortable with the list of topics that would be discussed
at the CAC meeting. They could add or remove any of the items from the list they chose. He
wanted to do a presentation so Council could think about these issues in the context of the entire
process. A couple of weeks ago, a work session was held regarding the update to the project list
for the Transportation System Development Charges (SDCs). That was one part of the process,
and this was the part that related to the other SDCs imposed for local wastewater and
storm water. This was all separate from a process Council considered in 2004 to update the
regional wastewater SDCs. Willamalane Park and Recreation District also imposed SDCs, but
those would not be discussed this evening as they were set by Willamalane.
The following documents were distributed by Senior Management Analyst Lou Allocco:
· The power point presentation on SDC Update
· A chart showing Stormwater SDC's and Stormwater Fees by City
· A chart showing Wastewater SDC's and Wastewater Fees by City
· A chart showing Storm Drainage Capital Spending
. A chart showing Local Wastewater Capital Spending
Mr. Goodwin said the City had a limited source of revenue for building capital infrastructure,
such as wastewater and storm water systems. The two main sources were user fees and SDCs.
Currently, particularly with stormwater and wastewater, our users were paying a relatively large
portion of the cost of capital construction compared to the development community. Council had
asked staff to address this balance in past meetings on this issue. In the past, cities received a
large amount of Federal funds for infrastructure and wastewater facilities. That was no longer the
case and the responsibility was now on local governments. Mr. Goodwin introduced Deb Galardi
from Galardi Consulting.
City of Springfield
Council Work Session Minutes
November 10, 2008
Page 8
Ms. Galardi referred to page 5 in the power point presentation. SDC methodology was cost
divided by a unit to come up with a cost per unit, which was then assessed to each new
development that came in based on the impact of that development on the system. She discussed
growth costs, which could include improvements or existing facilities, and how those were
determined. Whatever SDCs didn't recover needed to be recovered by user fees or some other
funding mechanism. She discussed the growth equivalent units. Some issues with that factor
included how the impact of development was measured. Decisions would need to be made for
these issues in order to have the SDCs cover the costs needed to fund the improvements and also
to help the City meet its development goals. Because Council was faced with considering
changes to the project list for transportation and the potential impact any changes to that list
would have on the SDCs, staff wanted to remind Council of how the growth cost was
determined. Anything adopted on the SDC project list needed to be part of the plan the City
adopted. A portion of the project must be for capacity for growth. Some improvements were
shared benefit for existing development and growth. There was the issue of existing facilities
with available capacity and the reimbursement fee. Staff was recommending that a
reimbursement fee be used for the storm water methodology where appropriate. The law did not
allow SDC funding to be used for operations or maintenance, but only capital improvements.
The methodology established the maximum allowable fee, and the City Council was the filter to
determine what fee was established. The CAC would provide feedback on the methodology and
types of cost to include, and a public hearing would be held before Council made their decision.
The methodology would establish, at least on a project basis, what the maximum SDC eligibility
was, but Council could choose to adopt something less. If they did choose something less, they
would need to prioritize how that funding would occur. In considering that fee level, there was a
need for balance between existing development and new development.
Mr. Goodwin said Council discussed sQme ofthese issues during their work session regarding
the transportation project list. Staff would bring that discussion back to Council on November 24
and they could discuss it again when the storm water and wastewater methodologies were
brought back to Council in January. At or about that time, Council would also be able to discuss
other policy issues that were unrelated to the SDC methodology. Not only did they have policy
decisions to make on whether or not to impose the maximum fee possible, but they also had the
power to impose reductions to stimulate development or do other things, such as the downtown
credit on SDCs to encourage redevelopment.
Councilor Ralston asked if the downtown SDC credit program ran out soon.
Mr. Goodwin said the current version ran out December 3,2009. He said Council would have an
opportunity to discuss other things that were unrelated to the SDCs, but would have an impact. In
the near future, Finance Director Bob Duey would be bringing a resolution to Council
authorizing the issuance of revenue bonds for local wastewater projects. That didn't have
anything to do with the SDC update, but was another vehicle for funding. They were all part of a
'comprehensive package. He said staff was looking for direction from Council on which policy
issues they wanted staff to take to the CAC. When these methodologies came back to Council,
staff would be asking Council to consider the current five percent administrative fee that was
imposed on SDCs. At that time, staff would bring a report showing exactly how much money the
City was spending on SDC administration, now that it had been segregated into its own fund.
City of Springfield
Council Work Session Minutes
November 10, 2008
Page 9
Councilor Ballew said when making these difficult choices, they needed to remember that it all
cost money. Before making those decisions, they needed a clear idea of what the costs were and
who was paying.
Councilor Woodrow said he appreciated the information and he liked staff s recommendation. It
was important to have the public's input on the SDCs. They needed to find a happy medium
between SDCs and user rates. He didn't feel the public should finance growth completely. As
growth occurred, the overall became more expensive so they did have a part of a more expensive
unit. He did not want to impose a hardship on development, but felt they should pay more.
Mayor Leiken said the costs would be transferred to the public from the developer.
Councilor Ballew said there was a lot of sentiment that growth should pay its own way,
particularly among senior citizens. When starting, they needed to do a straightforward SDC
package and then make decisions on influences.
Councilor Ralston asked who was on the CAC.
Mr. Goodwin said the committee consisted of Councilor Ballew as Council liaison, with
Councilor Lundberg as alternate if this went past January. Other members included Dan Egan
(Chamber of Commerce), Laura Potter (HomeBuilders Association), Kate Ferschweiller
(citizen), Fred Simmons (citizen), Lisa Emerson (citizen), Lane Branch (professional engineer,
Branch Engineering), Steve Moe (Glenwood resident and business owner), George Grier
(citizen), and Roy Burling (City's former budget officer). They were scheduled to meet again
next Wednesday.
Councilor Ralston said he was pleased to hear about the knowledge of the members of the CAC
because this was very complicated. He was confident staff knew what they were doing and could
direct it in a way that was efficient. The bottom line was that someone had to pay.
Mr. Goodwin said staff would be giving this same presentation to the CAC, taking additional
time because they were not as familiar with the subject.
Councilor Pishioneri asked staff to check with the following four cities that had combined
wast.ewater and stormwater rates higher than those proposed for Springfield to see what
experience they had with the backlash with those increases: McMinnville, Veneta, Portland and
Creswell.
Mr. Goodwin said it was worth exploring and staff would do that. He said they also needed to
know what those cities were planning for the future. He noted that staff and Ms. Galardi often
consulted with other cities.
Councilor Ballew said some of those cities had already increased their fees to pay for the costs.
Springfield was somewhat behind.
Mayor Leiken noted the high water rates in Creswell. He said he understood the issues, but felt
the City needed to be clear that the public would ultimately be paying because that was the
nature of business. We were in a tough time, but needed to plan for the recovery of the economy.
City of Springfield
Council Work Session Minutes
November 10, 2008
Page 10
He asked staff to take this presentation to the CAC. He felt they were a very impressive group.
He appreciated Councilor Ballew serving as the liaison.
Councilor Ballew said the only way to influence the SDC was by the capital project list chosen.
ADJOURNMENT
The meeting was adjourned 7:25 pm.
Minutes Recorder - Amy Sowa
Attest:
~imm-
Amy So
City Recorder