HomeMy WebLinkAbout02/05/2005 Team Springfield
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Minutes of the
Eighth Joint Elected Officials Meeting
February 5, 2005, 8:30 - 10:30 a.m.
Springfield Utility Board Board Room
223 A Street, Suite F
Springfield, Oregon
The TEAM Springfield group met on Saturday, February 5, 2005, at 8:30 a.m., in the Springfield Utility
Board Board Room at 223 A Street, Suite F, Springfield, Oregon.
ATTENDANCE
City of Springfield: Mayor Sid Leiken; Councilors John Woodrow, Ann Ballew, Tammy Fitch,
Christine Lundberg, Joe Pishioneri, and David Ralston. City Manager Mike Kelly; Cynthia Pappas;
John Tamulonis; Jerry Smith; Dennis Murphy; Ed Black; Dan Brown; Bob Russell; Bob Brew; Bill
. Spiry; Bob Duey; Carole Vnapel; Rod Lathrop; and Bill Grile.
Springfield School District: Board Members Laurie Adams, Al King, Garry Weber, and Bill Medford.
Superintendent Nancy Golden; Deputy Superintendent Steve Barrett.
Springfield Utility Board: Board: Ted Johnson, Virginia Lauritsen, Bobbie Adams and Joe Mathieu;
Interim General Manager Bob Linahan, Director of Resource Management Bob Schmitt and Judy Berra,
Executive Secretary.
Willamalane Park and Recreation District: Board: Greg James, Helen Wagner, Gary Ross;
Superintendent Bob Keefer; Chris Pryor, Jason Genck, and Pam Caples.
Others: Amber Fossen, Springfield News; Dave Carvo, Glenwood Water District
Facilitator: Mayor Sid Leiken, City of Springfield.
INTRODUCTIONS AND WELCOME
Mayor Sid Leiken called the meeting to order and welcomed all present to the eighth TEAM Springfield
Joint Elected Officials' meeting and facilitated self-introductions. All attendees introduced themselves.
REVIEW FY05 GOALS AND ACTION PLANS
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Willamalane Superintendent Bob Keefer updated everyone on TEAM Springfield's Action Plan for
FY05 (Exhibit A). He explained that the plan was to stay with the five-year goals that have already been
established and he did not recommend any changes. He made the following comments on the goals:
1) 5-Year Goal> EDUCATION:
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February 5, 2005
Page 2
a) Stabilize Public School Funding: Considered hiring a lobbyist to assist them at the Capitol, but
have now decided this may not be necessary and will not pursue unless they receive a request
later from the School District.
b) Increase Opportunities for Student Achievement: The School District has requested to change
this to a one-year target to build support for education by communicating the successes of
Springfield schools to our community. They will be looking to build partnerships with the
community, with an emphasis on the TEAM Springfield partnership.
He noted that the School District has acquired grants for promoting activities for kids.
Through a partnership with Willamalane, the University of Oregon and several others, the
School District just received a $538,000 per year for the next three years and a reduced amount
for the following two years to support after-school programs in Springfield with the purpose of
offering better programs and educational opportunities for the kids. They are looking at the 40-
Assets Program, what do kids need to be successful and what kinds of things are needed to
raise successful kids.
2)
5-Year Goal> ECONOMY:
a) Review & Update Economic Development Action Plan: Last year the Mayor formed M-BAT
(Mayor's Business Advance Team) and we are working toward that. This target reflects
TEAM Springfield working with M-BAT and having input into that action plan. He noted on
two of the six items listed below that (3) we will look at what things we can work on jointly in
the Jasper/Natron area of acquiring property, and (6) work through the Metro Industrial Land
Inventory.
3)
5- Year Goal> COMMUNITY LIVABILITY:
a) Assist with Phase 1 of the Millrace Project: We are waiting for the Corps of Engineers
authorization to proceed. A Trail Grant application for $100,000 is pending, which will
improve the trailhead and other infrastructure at the Millrace.
b) Support Cultural Festivals and Events: We helped support and completed Fiesta Latina last
September; we helped support and completed the Filbert Festival; we have set aside $7,500 for
event promotions that are going on in Springfield. The Summer Fun event calendar and insert
will be considered for publication and distribution June 2005.
In response to a question, Mr. Keefer listed the current events scheduled for the summer 2005:
Just-for Kids Talent Show in June; from mid June through mid August, will start the Island
Park Concert Series; the July 4th Celebration that is sponsored by SUB; on July 9th
Willamalane has the Children's Celebration at Island Park; July 16 we'll have the Springfield
Cruise; the first weekend in August is the Filbert Festival; at the end of August, Willamalane is
continuing with a new event they started last year called Willamalane Games at the park;
around the second weekend in September the Fiesta Latina will come back; and September 23-
25 we'll have the Living History Festival-we'll have a Civil War reenactment at Dorris
Ranch with over 700 players.
One of the things they would like to recommend to TEAM Springfield is how can they, as a
group, help support the events, and look at whether they are spreading themselves too thin.
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February 5,2005
Page 3
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c) Expand Arbor Day Celebration: This event will be scheduled for the first week of April.
Willamalane has ordered the trees. We've already formed a committee. This event will be at
Volunteer Park, behind the old Mount Vernon School. We would like to have elected officials
there to assist the kids in planting trees at Volunteer Park.
d) Youth Day of Caring Downtown Clean-Up Project: TEAM Springfield agreed to sponsor this
event. We are putting our committee together, working with the School District to do some
downtown cleanup. Perhaps we can we work with the Downtown Association with some of
the beautification projects that they've already got linked up.
e) Support the Wildish Community Theater Project: Three of the agencies has supported and the
other one has guaranteed to support this event and are also looking at other ways to help the
Wildish Theater project move ahead. They are continuing to raise funds for this project and
solicit additional grants.
4) 5-Year Goal> PUBLIC SAFETY:
a) Bike Patrols: The summer bike patrols did occur and they will occur this spring.
b) Peer Court: We funded in 2004; have encouraged them to look at other available funding for
this program.
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5) 5- Y ear Goal> LOBBYING: Decided not to hire lobbyists this year. There were no specific
actions anticipated in 2005.
6) 5-Year Goal> PUBLIC INFORMATION:
a) TEAM Springfield Newsletter: We produced the newsletter last October and will be doing
something this spring.
7) 5-Year Goal> COOPERATIVE AGREEMENTS:
a) Actions noted were: (1) Glenwood Urban "Renewal; (2) After-School Grants; (3) Gray
Property; (4) Energy Conservation/Credits; (5) Fiber Optics; (6) July 4th Celebration; and
(7) United Front.
Mr. Keefer noted there was currently $20,000 in the Opportunity Fund and encouraged anyone who was
aware of a project that would support the goals of TEAM Springfield and provide matching funds to
contact one of the TEAM Springfield administrative officials.
He asked if there were any suggestions for projects that TEAM Springfield should consider over this
next year. It was recommended that they look at the cost and timing for establishing wireless technology
in Springfield. It was also suggested that a monthly TEAM Springfield calendar be published in the
Springfield News.
Virginia Lauritsen noted for those who were interested in telecommunications that SUB would be
lobbying heavily in Washington, DC, February 8-11, to open up legislation to allow municipalities to do
this.
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Joe Mathieu added that he, Virginia and Bob Linahan would be meeting individually with Northwest
senators and representatives who are on the Energy Committee, spending from 30-60 minutes each.
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February 5, 2005
Page 4
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Mayor Leiken asked Cynthia Pappas to give a quick update on the Wildish Theater. He noted that
Walley Shue, one of Gordon Smith's legislative aides, visited Springfield.
Cynthia Pappas reported that the Springfield Renaissance Development Corporation hosted Walley Shue
and updated him on the fund-raising. The theater is about $800,000 short of its $2.3 million goal to
complete the project. She noted that there were a number of different fund-raising fronts.
Joe Mathieu, speaking as an individual, said that he would like to see more of Springfield Utility
Board's goals and priorities reflected, as a member of the TEAM.
SPIDNGflELDTOMORROW
City Manager Mike Kelly reviewed the Springfield Tomorrow Update Proposal (Exhibit B). During the
recession of the 1980s, there was a lot of uncertainty around Springfield's future. At that time there was
no common view of Springfield's future. The City began to invite the CEO from Springfield Schools,
SUB and Willamalane to sit in on the City's goal-setting sessions so they could talk about what their
agencies were doing and the City could talk about what they were thinking about doing. This evolved
into TEAM Springfield.
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The original Springfield Tomorrow document, which was begun in 1991 soon after forming TEAM
Springfield, was a view of what the four agencies saw and wanted the community of Springfield to
become over a 1 O-year period. They originally wanted a collective community view, so they formed a
45-member steering committee that spent a year discussing the community's collective future. They
developed Springfield Tomorrow, the original blueprint for Springfield's future, on a value basis rather
than a project-oriented basis. After they agreed on the values, they established goals, strategy and action
items. He passed out the Springfield Tomorrow Value Statements, which contained the original 13 key
values developed by the committee, in the current order of priority (Exhibit C). Two major things came
out of the Springfield Tomorrow document-(l) concern for education; and (2) concern for
Springfield's economy.
As a result of these two major items, in 1991 the four members of TEAM Springfield backed a bond
issue to build three new schools. And to diversify Springfield's economy, the City Council agreed to
spend $900,000 to purchase 40 acres in the Gateway area and search for new industries. That purchase
led to the industrial use development in that Gateway-McKenzie area. The original document was to
last from 1990 until 2000. In 1999 TEAM Springfield decided to update Springfield Tomorrow. This
effort was made in-house among the four member agencies and took four months to complete. They
held focus groups, conducted community surveys, telephone calls to research firms, etc., to ask for
feedback on what has changed in the community's views and what are the primary community issues.
He reviewed the unaided and aided responses they received. The item that turned out to be the biggest
concern in 1999 was public safety. It was third on the list in 1991. In response to this, we currently
have two public safety levies-we funded extra police officers and extra fire fighters. Last November
the voters approved $28 million to build a new justice center in Springfield.
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The City Council feels it's time to have another effort to update Springfield Tomorrow between 2005
and 2015 to determine the next important community objectives and projects for Springfield to take us
where we want to be in 10 years. We would like to begin a condensed process this spring, like the one
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February 5, 2005
Page 5
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in 1999, and update Springfield Tomorrow. We want to focus on our accomplishments, summarize
community accomplishments as a result of the past two efforts; identify pending issues and expected
trends; rank the 13 key community values; discuss opportunities; and discuss a confidence and vision
statement for the Springfield community that would include enough detail to determine the next
important community projects. Put a group together to look back at the values in 1991 and 1999 and
determine what has changed and what should change by 2015.
He asked that each of the four TEAM Springfield agencies would select 5 or 6 people to make up a
combined committee of around 24 people. Out of that number, there would be no more than 1 or 2
board/council members from each agency. Then this committee will hold 3 or 4 meetings over the next
3 months or so and they would rank the key community values, discuss what we've accomplished and
what we can become, and talk about what the next important projects are. Each agency would select one
or two members from their board/council and their choice of people from the community. They would
come back to the full TEAM Springfield in July or August and report their findings and conclusions,
answer questions, etc., and make their recommendations. Then each agency can go back to discuss and
determine whether to adopt their recommendations.
BREAK: The group took a short break from the meeting.
Mike Kelly introduced Chris Pryor to discuss the process for this focused update of Springfield
Tomorrow.
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Chris Pryor said this proposal is for Springfield Tomorrow Phase IV. We are proposing this phase
because what they learned from 1992 to 1999 was that the order of things hadn't shifted that much, so
they felt they probably would not need to do a full-scale 400-person survey in three or four years.
Although they felt it was important to determine if the values were still in the same order of
importance-are they still on track; are they still reflective of the community. The process we're
proposing is that each agency, through whatever method they choose, would determine some members
to put into the current Phase IV process. We would then evaluate that information and determine
whether we needed to test that against the public as a whole or whether it looked like it was following
the trend that we were already beginning to establish after having done three earlier phases. We are
going to test to see if we need to do a larger survey later this year.
He listed the decisions that needed to be made at this meeting to move forward with this project:
1. Does the plan that has been recommended seem reasonable to get us through Phase IV;
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2. How many members do they want to designate from each agency to make that happen?
Joe Mathieu said that since the 1999 survey, energy costs have skyrocketed and this issue would need to
also be considered, even though it was not part ofthe current 13 value statements.
Chris Pryor responded that that would be included in the process, to see if the energy crisis is an issue
that has resonated and grown in importance. Part of this process is whether there are new issues.
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He asked the group if they feel comfortable with the Phase IV that is being proposed.
There were no objections.
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February 5, 2005
Page 6
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He and the group discussed the process and reached consensus on the following agreements for the
Springfield Tomorrow Committee:
1. The Committee will be comprised of 20 members, 5 appointed by each agency, as follows:
(a) each agency will appoint five members; (b) one of the five members will be a
board/council member; (c) each agency will designate a non-voting alternate from its
board/council; and (4) each agency will try to include a business representative on the
Committee, although this is not a requirement.
2. Each agency will appoint its members by March 1,2005.
3. Each agency will assign a staff member to the Committee; the appointed staffwill be
encouraged to participate beyond answering questions, but not assume the same status as a
Committee member.
He encouraged all the agencies to designate their five members to the Springfield Tomorrow Committee
by March 1,2005.
It was also recommended that once this committee is formed, its members receive an update on
Springfield's demographics.
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Chris Pryor indicated that he had put a list of 12 issue areas and he asked everyone to look at the areas
and each person pick three to six issues that they think the TEAM Springfield group need to make sure
is included in their discussions. In the essence oftime, he said he would gather up everyone's choices
and report back to the group later on the issues selected.
ELECTED OFFICIALS REMARKS
Springfield Public Schools:
Nancy Golden encouraged everyone to attend the February 11 Celebration of the School District's first
One-to-One laptop computer initiative at Springfield Middle School, made possible through a
partnership with Apple Computers. The initiative gives access to personal laptops 24-7 for students and
teachers at the middle school, she explained. Steve Barrett said that this program was not just about
students and teachers having computers. Apple has an entire curriculum on a web site with a software
and education program that's very advanced, he said. This is the beginning of schools going digital for
this state. Laurie Adams noted that Springfield is the first school district in Oregon to have an entire
school outfitted with laptop computers.
Nancy Golden said that Springfield School District was one of eight school districts chosen to make a
presentation on education in front of the legislators. She also said the School District is very concerned
about their aging school buildings.
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Springfield Utility Board:
SUB's Board Chairman Ted Johnson complimented TEAM Springfield and all the things the agencies
have accomplished working together. He said that the members of the SUB Board and their new
General Manager, Bob Linahan, all look forward to the on-going partnership with TEAM Springfield for
the betterment of this community.
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February 5, 2005
Page 7
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As SUB's general manager, Bob Linahan said the Utility's goal is to work toward maintaining stabile
rates and continued reliability. He noted that he and some of the SUB Board would be in Washington,
DC, next week, lobbying to keep control over our power in the Northwest region and for other energy-
related topics that will impact Springfield. We are also lobbying for legislation that is being drafted in
Salem to give us the ability to protect our water rights in Springfield, he said.
Virginia Lauritsen said the cities, working through the League of Oregon Cities, are the powerhouses on
the water rights issue and stressed the importance of working together. Mr. Linahan said he is also
looking forward to putting more Springfield Schools on SUB's dark fiber ring, and in the future to add
Willamalane to the ring.
Willamalane Park and Recreation District:
Superintendent Bob Keefer said the City received some grant dollars from the State's Lottery to
complete Phase II of the 32nd Street Sports Complex.
Our bond issue on the ballot was not successful for the Memorial Building Community Center
replacement, he said; however, we are looking at other options and will talk with the other jurisdictions
as those plans come together.
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Willamalane is very supportive of the School District's After School Program, he said, and feels
fortunate to work with the School District on that program.
Willamalane's 20-year Comprehensive Plan has been adopted, and Mr. Keefer thanked the Mayor,
members of the City Council, and all the other jurisdictions for their support through that process.
Mr. Keefer said he was honored to be part of a community that has a shared vision.
City of Springfield:
Christine Lundberg said she felt this was the forum to address the need for measures for the Springfield
school buildings, which are very old, and the Willamalane Memorial Building, and other measures that
will be needed for the community. She hoped the agencies could work together and coordinate timing of
measures to give each other the best chance of success.
Mayor Leiken asked Bill Grile to speak briefly on a proposal by the President that would affect the
Federal Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). Mr. Grile spoke briefly about a
proposal the President has that would essentially eliminate HUD. The proposal would consolidate HUD
and about sixteen other major programs into the U.S. Department of Congress and would include major
cuts to the Community Development Block Grant Program (CBG). As a result, Springfield stands to
lose about a million-dollar block grant.
Mayor Leiken said he would send out information on this matter to all elected officials. He introduced
John Woodrow as the new President of the Springfield City Council. John Woodrow said he appreciates
the Mayor and members of the City Council. He also appreciated the ability of all the agencies to work
. well together.
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February 5, 2005
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ADJOURNMENT
Mayor Leiken said he appreciated being a part ofthis community and a member of TEAM Springfield
and looked forward to everyone working together for the betterment of Springfield.
The meeting was adjourned at approximately 10:40 a.m.
Minutes Recorder:
Executive Secretary Judy Berra
Springfield Utility Board