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HomeMy WebLinkAbout03/16/2009 Work Session City of Springfield Work Session Meeting MINUTES OF THE WORK SESSION MEETING OF THE SPRINGFIELD CITY COUNCIL HELD MONDAY, MARCH 16, 2009 The City of Springfield Council met in a work session in the Jesse Maine Meeting Room, 225 Fifth Street, Springfield, Oregon, on Monday, March 16,2009 at 6:00 p.m., with Council President Ralston presiding. ATTENDANCE Present were Councilors Ralston, Wylie (by conference phone), Leezer, 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 ofthe staff. Mayor Leiken was absent (excused), attending United Front in Washington DC. 1. Downtown Planning Professional Services Contracts. Planning Supervisor Linda Pauly presented the staff report on this item. Council directed staff to issue a Request for Proposals in July 2008 to select consultants to prepare the Springfield Downtown District Plan and Implementation Strategy. A screening committee comprised of staff and representatives of the Downtown Citizens Advisory Committee selected Crandall Arambula to prepare the Downtown District Urban Design Plan and Implementation Strategy, and Rick Williams Consulting to prepare a downtown Parking Management Plan (working closely with Crandall Arambula). The total cost for both projects, as negotiated, is not to exceed $257,928 for Crandall Arambula and $45,000 for Rick Williams Consulting ($302,928 total for both consultants). Potential additional services are identified but not included in the recommended scope. Attachments 2 and 3 detail the scope of services for the two consultants. Crandall Arambula is a nationally respected, award winning urban design fIrm that has produced plans for cities across the country, including many with issues similar to Springfield's. Crandall Arambula's products will include an opportunities and constraints analysis, an implementation strategy to maximize downtown retail, housing, employment and leisure/arts/entertainment opportunities, identification of the appropriate locations for downtown parking facilities, a proposal for infrastructure and utilities improvements and modifications, and a proposal for revisions to the Downtown Refinement Plan, Development Code, and other planning documents as needed to implement the plan. Rick Williams Consulting was selected because of its specialized expertise and accomplishments helping cities address complex downtown parking issues. The two fIrms will closely coordinate their efforts to produce a "whole" comprehensive parking management plan that will be greater than the "sum of its (two consultant) parts." The consultants will receive advice from the Downtown Citizen Advisory Committee and a Technical Advisory Committee consisting of city staff and staff from the affected agencies (SUB, ODOT, Willamalane, L TD, etc.). Staff proposes asking the Springfield Economic Development Agency to fund both contracts as they help implement the Downtown Urban Renewal Plan. Work on this project will commence City of Springfield Council Work Session Minutes March 16, 2009 Page 2 immediately after contracts are signed. Staff expects Plan adoptien hear.ngs to occur in Spring 2010. The adopted fmal product will demonstrate the City's commitment to the redevelopment of Downtown and provide a strategic action plan for decisions regarding prioritization of projects and funding. Councilor Woodrow asked what DKS stood for. Development Services Director Bill Grile said it was the transportation engineer that Crandall Arambula subcontracted to. Councilor Woodrow confirmed that this was something the Urban Renewal (DR) Plan would pay for if Council approved moving it to the Springfield Economic Development Agency (SEDA). Yes. Ms. Pauly said one of the fIrst things the UR Plan called for was planning and design services to be done to implement the UR district plan. They were proceeding in the correct order of business. Councilor Leezer asked if this would take eight months from the start date. Ms. Pauly said that was approximate. It was not clear when the consultant would begin. The original scope was a nine month process, so they were assuming it would take eight or nine months. They did want to time the adoption of this plan very carefully so it was coordinated with the land use inventory, which would be finalized close to January 2010. This plan would come to Council for adoption after the adoption of the inventory. Councilor Pishioneri asked if the consultant would be giving direction regarding design standards. Ms. Pauly said that was taken out of the scope of work due to costs, but they would be making some design standards recommendations. Staff could then make those changes for the Municipal Code with the expertise from existing staff. Mr. Grile said the City would get enough out of this to help. Councilor Pishioneri said he would like to look at all options regarding design standards downtown. I Councilor Lundberg said so many studies had been done of downtown. She asked what was unique about this one and if they would be looking at what was already done. Safety issues and crime issues were a primary concern and how those were addressed. Ms. Pauly said safety standards were part of the scope. She said this study would take all of the visioning that had already been done and put it into a plan that the Council would adopt that included a strategy for developing downtown. This plan was focused action and a strategic plan that would layout economic strategies regarding specific lots, uses, etc. It would be rolled out almost immediately upon plan adoption. The implementation strategy was an economic engine to get the ball rolling and investors interested in doing something downtown. City of Springfield Council Work Session Minutes March 16, 2009 Page 3 Mr. Grile said it would be an action plan to help Council prioritize the expenditures made by SEDA. Councilor Lundberg asked if a theme had been settled upon for downtown regarding redevelopment, lighting, etc. We needed to have something in the plan about how we wanted the downtown to look. Ms. Pauly said this would create a physical plan of downtown; what the streets would look like, connections, signage, etc. Mr. Grile said it would include conceptual recommendations about design. Crandall Arambula had a nationally respected reputation of taking downtowns and turning them into something cohesive. Ms. Pauly said the City would get ideas and other things that could be used for branding. Councilor Lundberg asked about the parking consultant and if they would have their own committee, or if it would be part of the downtown consultant committee. Ms. Pauly said negotiations had not yet been done with the parking consultant regarding scope of work. Once Council directed staff to move forward, they would fmalize those negotiations. In Mr. Williams' proposal, a subcommittee was mentioned that would look just at the parking issue. A number of members from the existing Downtown Advisory Committee would most likely want to work on the parking issues. Mr. Grile said the parking consultant was amazing. He (Mr. Grile) was not involved in the selection of these consultants because his son was an engineer with one of the fIrms that was not accepted. The committee unanimously agreed that Rick Williams needed to be brought on board for the parking. Mr. Grile had past experience with Mr. Williams that was very positive. The combination of using Williams and Crandall Arambula would be a great mix. Councilor Wylie said it seemed like a lot of money, but it sounded like what we needed. We needed good people with great ideas. She was very excited about this prospect. Councilor Ralston asked if anyone was here from either firm. No. Councilor Pishioneri asked if they would be looking at the feasibility of South A and Main Street as one way streets, two way streets or different speed limits. Mr. Grile said they would look at that issue as a big picture. A detailed transportation study for South A would be very expensive. Council and TEAM Springfield had expressed considerable interest in the South A idea. Ms. Pauly said the findings of this report would help form our local transportation system planning work that was just starting. Councilor Ralston said the amounts did seem like a lot. He asked if this would be a loan from the City or funded through SEDA revenues. City of Springfield Council Work Session Minutes March 16, 2009 Page 4 Mr. Grile said the SEDA budget anticipated $52,000 during the first year, but the last figure he had seen was over $100,000. Mr. Tamulonis said this could be funded through some income, but some would be from borrowing this year and next. SEDA was also looking at purchasing some property in Glenwood. Councilor Ralston said 'parking facilities' sounded like parking structures. Ms. Pauly said this was a long range plan. Parking management would show today's needs as well as needs for the future. Mr. Tamulonis provided an example of how a parking structure in Bend was delayed to a time when it was needed and would be fully used once built. There would be checkpoints when that would occur. Councilor Ralston agreed with Councilor Wylie that this was necessary. He hoped Council would have the opportunity to provide feedback up front. He didn't like the parking meters in downtown Eugene and didn't feel the citizens would like that either. Mr. Grile said Council would definitely have input. He knew that from this study there would be a clear identified need for enforcement. Beyond that, there were many options. 2. Fire and Life Safety Department Update. City Manager Gino Grimaldi explained what the department updates involved. This was an opportunity to bring issues to Council that they didn't normally see. Many things going on in the departments didn't require Council action, but were useful for the Council to know. This was a time to highlight some of the major things in the department. These would be scheduled periodically. Fire Chief Dennis Murphy presented the staff report on this item. Fire and Life Safety will provide Council with brief updates on major department initiatives, programs, and projects. Topics of discussion will include: · Ambulance Summit - Post-Summit Update & Cooperative Services Feasibility Study status · Fire Station #16 project completion plan . Alternative Revenue Sources · Fire Marshal's Office - Community Partners Program concept · Process Improvement Efforts (Acct Services & FireMed) Chief Murphy said there were good things going on even during these tough economic times. He referred to the items listed above. Ambulance Summit: Councilors Woodrow and Ralston would be Springfield's representative on a subcommittee from that summit. This Tuesday and Wednesday were the first site visits from ESCI, consultants for the Cooperative Services Feasibility. One ofthe various potential solutions to the ambulance transportation issue was how Springfield and regional partners such as Eugene might work together more closely to provide more efficient and effective services. When looking City of Springfield Council Work Session Minutes March 16, 2009 Page 5 at ambulance transportation, one of the things identified was alternative delivery models. He explained this further. This time healthcare discussions were back with stimulus funding for healthcare reform. In the midst of that, services that included ambulance and emergency medical services were delivered in a way that was no longer reimbursed by Medicare or Medicaid. Eugene had taken steps to contract with a private provider for transport services. He discussed doctor house calls and said they would like to reinstitute those by delivering those services through special services that were available in Eugene/Springfield. MedExpress was a provider for that type of service for businesses. He discussed wheel chair transport services and other transport services. Mobile health services would combine those services to create a fail-safe response 24 hours a day. They had identified a major health care company and health care provider that were interested in this effort. Council would hear more about this as it came to fruition. Eugene and Lane Rural were on board with this effort as well. Chief Murphy said firefighters should be able to move into Fire Station #16 the last week of April. There would be a grand opening on May 18. With this new facility, firefighters would be getting out of the door 30-60 seconds faster. The Standards of Cover study identified this area as a critical target for improvement. Chief Murphy talked about alternative revenue sources. There were funds in the stimulus package for fIre station construction. One of two targets identified in the Standards of Cover study was themoving of Fire Station #4 to downtown. The second target was a future station, which would be located near Jasper Natron. The Bob Straub Parkway had been built and when the economy rebounded, growth would occur in that area. The City needed to be ready to serve those outlying areas. Work was being done to bring these concepts to reality. He talked about the return on the dollar for the stimulus funds. Chief Murphy spoke regarding the Fire Marshal's Office. Fire Marshal Al Gerard and Deputy Fire Marshall Melissa Fechtel were in the audience. The Fire Marshal's office had worked with the new hospital at RiverBend to p~t smart systems in that facility that made Springfield capable of serving that large facility. Several years ago the Council established a fee to support keeping up with business inspections required for Fire Code compliance. Deputy Fire Marshal (DFM) Fechtel came up an idea to create a community partner program to partner with businesses to do some smart self-policing between City inspections, lengthening time between inspections. That would enable the current Fire Marshal staff to accomplish the outcome without adding staff or raising fees. The Springfield Chamber was interested and about fifteen businesses were ready to implement this program. They would start with a trial group that would have no fees, no code violations, and fIre safety. They had looked at partnering this with the FireMed program by offering the Job Share discount to those businesses. There would be no marketing expense. This was a bright spot when looking at the budget. He credited Ms. Fechtel for this great idea. Chief Murphy said the ambulance billing staff were serving 19 jurisdictions in the state. FireMed was now in five jurisdictions and staff was handling thousands of bits of information. They were going through process improvement in this area, and that would be an ongoing process. They were looking at how things were done so they could improve processes. Chief Murphy said when any of these items became something the Council would need to take action on, staff would bring them back. City of Springfield Council Work Session Minutes March 16, 2009 Page 6 Councilor Woodrow asked if Eugene had approached Springfield about doing their Fire Marshal's work. Chief Murphy said in the cooperative services feasibility study, two ofthe most targeted areas would be the Fire Marshal's office and training. Currently, Eugene had vacancies in both areas. They had asked Springfield to consider administrative oversight of the entire system. Councilor Woodrow asked ifthat would be a revenue source or a wash. Chief Murphy said Eugene was interested in implementing the community partner program. With their staffing level, this program looked like it had good potential because of the issue of keeping up with good business practices and visiting businesses enough to make sure fIre safety was happening. Not all things government did had good indicators, but this program did. The fIre loss for businesses in Springfield was ten percent of the state average. They wanted to protect that outcome. Councilor Pishioneri referred to the time span between inspections for those businesses that joined this program. He asked how those businesses would be selected. Ms. Fechtel said it was based on criteria of about seven or eight items, including frequency of violations for the last two years and working relationship with the Fire Marshal's office. If they were able to educate them and see a reduction in fIre violations, that would be a factor. They needed to show competence of doing an inspection. Currently, when she did an inspection, she walked around-with the business owner and taught them what she was looking for. Fire protection systems (sprinklers, fire alarms, etc.), had to be maintained annually without prompting from the Fire Marshal's office. She could provide that criteria to Council if they would like. Councilor Pishioneri asked if it would be based on a subjective or objective matrix. Ms. Fechtel said the business would fill out an application based on the criteria, which would be reviewed and approved by the Fire Marshal's office. They were looking for partners in all businesses. Chief Murphy said no one would be barred from applying. They were first looking for those people that were always interested in fIre safety and looking to be proactive. They wanted to build a success model and teach others. They would like all businesses on this program. The more inclusive, the better for everyone. ' Councilor Pishioneri commended Ms. Fechtel for this idea. Mr. Gerard asked Ms. Fechtel to explain the situation at the PeaceHealth annex. Ms. Fechtel said the PeaceHealth Annex had not been inspected for a number of years because of change of occupancy, building and remodeling at the site. The first time she did the inspection, it took 13 hours. The next year, based on education she had provided to staff, it took only 9 hours and they had reduced their violations by 75%. That was what this program could do. Chief Murphy said it was a reward program. City of Springfield Council Work Session Minutes March 16, 2009 Page 7 Councilor Leezer asked if this would be owner occupied buildings only. Ms. Fechtel said they would work with the responsible party for occupancy. It could be either the owner or the tenant, whoever was responsible for the business. Councilor Ralston appreciated the way their department thought. They came up with innovative ideas and our Fire Department did an outstanding job for the City. ADJOURNMENT The meeting was adjourned 6:41 pm. Minutes Recorder - Amy Sowa () Nt- ~ SWiG! W:-f.;eiken Dave Ralston ~ Council President Attest: ~,~ Amy Sow City Recorder