HomeMy WebLinkAbout02/26/2010 Work Session
MINUTES OF THE
JOINT ELECTED OFFICIALS OF
THE SPRINGFIELD CITY COUNCIL,
EUGENE CITY COUNCIL,
AND LANE COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
~ FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 26,2010
A joint elected officials meeting with the City of Springfield, City of Eugene, and Lane County was
held in the Library Meeting Room, 225 Fifth Street, Springfield, Oregon, on Friday, February 26,
2010 at 12:00pm with Mayor Leiken presiding.
ATTENDANCE
Mayor Leiken.welcomed everyone to Springfield City Hall and opened the meeting of the Springfield
City Council.
Mayor Piercy opened the meeting of the Eugene City Council and wished Springfield a Happy
Birthday.
Commissioner Fleenor opened the meeting of the Lane County Board of Commissioners.
Present from Springfield were Mayor Sid Leiken and Councilors Wylie, Leezer, Ralston, Simmons,
and Pishioneri. Councilor Lundberg was absent. Springfield City Manager Gino Grimaldi and other
Springfield staff were also present.
Present from Eugene were Mayor Kitty Piercy and Councilors Ortiz, Clark, Poling (12:43pm), Brown,
Taylor, Solomon, Zelenka, and Pryor. Eugene City Manager Jon Ruiz and other Eugene staffwere
also present.
Present from Lane County were Commissioners Dwyer, Fleenor, Handy (12:05pm), and Stewart.
Commissioner Sorenson was absent. Lane County Administrator Jeff Spartz and other Lane County
staff were also present.
I. Adjustments to Agenda
Commissioner Stewart asked if Item IV b could be moved up with Item II. All agreed to the change.
II. Economic Development - Follow-up to the Economic Summit.
Eugene City Manager Jon Ruiz presented this item. Mr. Ruiz said a power point would be presented
followed by discussion on this subject. The administrators were hoping the elected officials could
provide some approval on a couple of things. He referred to Attachment B in the agenda packet under
this item. This ~ttachment had been presented to the elected officials at a previous meeting and
included the Regional Economic Development Strategies and Tactics. He referred to strategy 4, Land
and Physical Infrastructure, Tactic 2. The County had some discussion on that item and had perhaps
taken action on that recently. From the perspective of the administrators, they would recommend that
item be removed from this document. Mr. Ruiz said the administrators' recommendation would be to
confmn Attachment B with the removal of Tactic 2.
Mr. Ruiz referred to Attachment A in the agenda packet, a draft document that came out of the
Regional Prosperity Summit. The administrators would ask the elected officials to approve this draft
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document so the JEO Economic Development Task Force and staff could move forward and begin
implementation.
Commissioner Dwyer asked if there was something related to the item removed that was illustrated in
the report in Attachment A.
Mr. Ruiz said there was one item that he would discuss later that may have some relevance. He would
point that out when he came to that part of the discussion.
Mr. Ruiz said a Regional Prosperity Summit was held in Eugene last November which was well
attended. A lot of input was received from that summit. He reviewed the Goal from the summit "By
2020, create 20,000 net new jobs in the chosen economic opportunity areas; reduce the local
unemployment rate to, or below the state average; and increase the average wage to or above the state
average". The economic development subcommittee formed of elected officials came up with basic
principles on which to base economic prosperity: Healthy Living; Smart Growth; Be Prepared; Local
Independence; and Regional Identity. He discussed those principles briefly.
Mr. Ruiz referred to the Economic Development Strategies from the power point: (1) Growing Local
Opportunities; (2) Creative Economy, including partnerships with the University of Oregon and Lane
Community College; (3) Talent for Tomorrow; (4) Basic Needs of Business, such as infrastructure; (5)
Live the Good Life; and (6) Key Industries. He further discussed how the region could continue to
support the development of sectors that had built a strong economic foundation for our community and
at the same time develop our innovative culture to support the emerging opportunities within our local
economy. Those were the overall strategies the elected officials had seen before. More detail was
within the document.
Mr. Ruiz discussed some of the things that came out of the summit which were included in
Attachment I, pages 7 through 9. One of the themes was networking, such as creating a Birth to Three
network for businesses just starting up and providing mentorships and support. Another common
theme was to create a business assistance center to provide resources for businesses wanting to locate,
expand, or receive support.
Mr. Ruiz said one of the things that was talked a lot about was insuring we had a talented work force.
To do this, it was important to improve the basic and applied skills of young people in the region as
they prepared to enter the workforce. This effort must begin with school readiness for kindergarten,
ensure high school graduation, include vocationaVtechnical training, and internships and mentorships,
and provide paths to higher education.
Another focus was to create a regional economic identity, capitalizing on assets that would identify
our region as a significant economic center.
New investment coming to the region would be an important complement to the growth of local
business in providing for the region's future economic health. That could include developing and
sustaining a business expansion, attraction and retention program with emphasis on traded-sector
companIes.
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The Cities of Eugene and Springfield should continue and enhance their efforts to promote downtown
vitality through development and redevelopment. The third item under this section, to inventory and
assess adequacy of industrial land availability in support of expansion, attraction and retention in
conjunction with comprehensive land assessment processes, was tied to the current land assessment
occurring in both cities. This item could be affected by the removal of tactic 2 of Attachment B.
The last focus was creating a Regional Prosperity Council to act as the guiding coalition for the
implementation of the regional strategy. This council would be a decision making body, but not a
jurisdictional body, made up of elected officials, appointed officials, and business members.
Mayor Piercy said she considered this as an important moment for the joint elected officials. A lot of
these things had been discussed before, and now was the time to take action to move forward. She
noted that Commissioner Fleenor told her that the goal of creating 20,000 jobs would now be 35,000,
since 15,000 jobs had already been lost. This was an opportunity to replace those jobs withjobs that
paid more and set the community up for a better future. She was concerned that Birth to Three would
object to the use of that name for a business support, so suggested changing the name. She assumed
that the business assistance center would be an incubator type place.
Mr. Ruiz said that could show up in a couple of different places in the document. There were places in
Attachment B that talked about entrepreneurial infrastructure, partnerships, and opportunities. Part of
that network could be the incubator space.
Mayor Piercy asked if the schools had been brought into this discussion.
Mr. Ruiz said not formally.
Mayor Piercy said her only concern was how this could take the region beyond what we already had,
such as the Metro Partnership who went out to bring businesses into our community. She would want
to know what would be done differently with this and what would be the added value.
Councilor Zelenka said he liked some of the information, but felt like he ~. reading a rehash of what
was already being done. There was a disconnect between discussions in Eugene about the next
economy and getting positioned for the green economy. There was nothing about the Eugene Mayor's
sustainability efforts. This was not as much of a vision document as it was an economic development
tool document. He was disappointed that it didn't go far enough.
Commissioner Fleenor said there should be a commencement date regarding creation of new jobs by
2020. He was happy with the process and with the outcomes, and now it was time to get to work. They
needed to implement this. Although it was not a perfect document, it was a living document that could
be improved. He suggested the name Inception to Success instead of Birth to Three. He was pleased
and now it was time to roll up their sleeves and get to the business of creating jobs.
Councilor Ortiz said the part she felt didn't connect was the education piece. This was an opportunity
for Eugene to say what was important for them. The community already had a regional identity, but it
would be a question of how to encourage people to want to bring jobs here. She was curious about
how to address the basic skills of young people when the budgets for the schools were in trouble.
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Councilor Pryor' said there were still things that could be worked on, but this was a great document.
The Regional Prosperity Council could continue that work. It was important that the team be made up
of all the elected officials. The educational component was important. The last time they had gone
through this, one of the areas that was critically involved was a network with the community colleges.
That system was still in place and could easily be reinvigorated. They could learn from what had been
done before> but they needed to be careful of the steps taken during these tough economic times.
Things were going to be different when the economy improved.
Councilor Wylie said it was painful to see businesses in our downtowns closing and suffering~ She
would like a segment in the plan to bring in a team with resources to resuscitate a business that was
starting to fail. It would be difficult to create new jobs when the existing jobs were failing. If they had
a system, they could send in a team to analyze the situation.
Councilor Clark said this may not be a perfect plan for all, but was a very good plan. It was not just a
Eugene plan, but a regional plan and respected the jurisdictional differences. He appreciated the
chance to serve on the subcommittee and the hard work of everyone at the summit. This gave them a
roadmap to begin and could be adjusted as they went. He was anxious to get moving and to act.
Councilor Taylor said she was concerned when they talked about attracting new business because she
wanted to sustain the homegrown businesses. What we had was good and we should focus on that and
assist local businesses that were in trouble. She was skeptical about creating 20,000 new jobs. They
needed to have jobs for the people here, but it wouldn't be a good life anymore if they attracted too
many people. Before creating a Prosperity Council, she wanted to be clear what that group would do
that no one else was currently doing. Once they created a group, it was difficult to remove.
Commissioner Dwyer said he was also skeptical, and 'was a proven skeptic. A well run business had
assistance from other sources such as the bank. Smart people could produce things competitively and
would succeed. We were now competing in an international market with low or no environmental,
labor, or wage standards and national companies were rewarded for working with them. Policies were
totally wrong. When things were tight, costs needed to be cut back. It was good to do something. We
had a great future and he was optimistic. He discussed technology advances. He thanked staff for their
effort.
Commissioner Fleenor said from listening to the others comments, there was some interest in moving
forward even though the document was not perfect. Entrepreneurs didn't quit after their frrst failure.
He would like to see this move forward. He asked Mayor Leiken what the process was to move
forward, such as a motion.
Mayor Leiken said there were still several folks waiting to speak. There were three suggested motions
in the packet for the elected officials to consider.
Councilor Pryor said he agreed they should move forward. For this body of policy makers, part of
what had slowed down their progress in the past was coming to a consensus of policy. As they moved
down the road to economic recovery, they needed to determine whether or not there was a way to
reach a collaborative agreement on the policies for economic strategies, such as whether the economy
needed an influx of dollars in and out, or if it could be self-sustaining by moving the same dollars
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around within the area. That issue had not been agreed upon in the past. The policy makers needed to
make those decisions.
Councilor Poling arrived. (l2:43pm)
Mayor Piercy reminded the group that one thing the joint elected officials could do was to leverage
their mutual abilities to move their communities forward. They had come to the conclusion that they
could continue to do things their own way or try to do better during these hard times by working
together. They had done well in that effort. Some home grown businesses would grow so big they
would go out of town and others would come in. How they tried to leverage those things to our
advantage was part of the discussion. Travel Lane County had done a lot of work in determining what
made our community attractive so she felt that could be removed from this work plan. Travel Lane
County, Lane Community College belonged to all of us and they were poised to become the green job
center and a place to move our economy forward. As the body of joint elected officials, they needed to
look at what the region had and leverage it to our advantage. Those things were already there in terms
of what could be done together. She reiterated that her only concern was that the group would be
another way of rewriting what was already being done. It needed to be scaled up in a way that moved
us forward.
Commissioner Handy said he was happy to support the two cities moving forward with their plans. He
referred to the Metro Plan Work Plan which was in the agenda packet as Item IV a and IV b. It
included Lane County's proposal for economic development for small cities. He acknowledged Mr.
McKenzie Barr for his work on this issue. The Commissioners were looking for ways to move
forward. There were fourteen or fifteen economic development entities in Lane County. He questioned
creating another entity when they could perhaps merge with an existing entity. He asked if they would
be looking for new funding for the entity.
Mr. Ruiz said they had not come up with a solution until they knew if the elected officials wanted to
move forward. If the joint elected officials supported moving forward, the administrators would put it
into action. They needed to defme what that meant.
Commissioner Handy urged the elected officials to look at ways to do that. He agreed with Councilor
Ortiz about the education component. This document didn't address educational issues. The
community needed healthy young people turning into taxpayers and contributing to our communities.
The County was interested in the priority of how to protect farmlands and resource lands. A couple 'of
decades ago, the region was producing 50-60% of its own food and now was only producing about
3%. The figure should be somewhere closer to 30%. He noted the amount of money that was being
spent that went out of our region for food that could be spent locally. He didn't see anything binding in
this document, but a lot of aspirational things. He would be supporting this with a couple of
amendments.
Mayor Leiken said he agreed with Mayor Piercy about Travel Lane County. When he had the
opportunity to sit as interim director of Lane Metro Partnership, a siting consultant had told them
every city claimed to have 'quality of life' . Having an identity would be key. It was fme for each of
the cities to have an identity, but the region needed to have an identity that would attract others. Travel
Lane County was instrumental in that aspect. He referred to the prosperity council and noted that other
communities had ambassadors, which could assist when companies wanted to expand or locate in our
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region. Many companies were concerned about the confidentiality when businesses wanted to come in
to our region. He referred to an example where a business chose not to site in a City that didn't use
confidentiality.
Councilor Clark said he agreed with Commissioner Handy about this being aspirational. He was
willing to make a motion to move this forward.
IT WAS MOVED BY COUNCILOR CLARK TO APPROVE THE REGIONAL ECONOMIC
DEVELOPMENT PLAN AS WRITTEN AND RE-CONFIRM THE ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
STRATEGIES FROM THE SEPTEMBER 2009 JEO MEETING; AND DIRECT THE JOINT
ELECTED OFFICIALS' ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT TASK FORCE AND STAFF TO
IMPLEMENT THE REGIONAL ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT PLAN.
COMMISSIONER DWYER ADDED A FRIENDLY AMENDMENT TO REMOVE ITEM 4,
TACTIC 2 FROM THE REGIONAL ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT STRATEGIES.
COMMISSIONER FLEENOR MADE A FRIENDLY AMENDMENT TO CHANGE BIRTH TO
THREE TO INCEPTION TO SUCCESS.
COUNCILOR CLARK ACCEPTED THE FRIENDLY AMENDMENTS.
THE MOTION WAS SECONDED BY COMMISSIONER FLEENOR.
Councilor Zelenka asked what was new in this document compared to what had already been done.
Mr. Ruiz named a few. He said he had heard that it was important to add value as they moved forward.
Staff would then return to the elected officials to sort it out.
Mr. Zelenka said the tools were good, but he didn't feel it went forward with the vision directed by the
elected officials.
IT WAS MOVED BY COUNCILOR ZELENKA TO MODIFY THE DOCUMENTS TO
INCORPORATE ALL THAT WAS IN THE SUSTAINABLE INITIATIVES AND
INCORPORATING THE FRIENDLY AMENDMENTS.
COUNCILOR TAYLOR SECONDED COUNCILOR ZELENKA'S MOTION.
Councilor Wylie said she still had an issue with business assistance and would like that addressed.
There were a lot of things the cities could do to assist. There should be a COORDINATION OF
RESOURCES AND PROGRAMS TO GET BUSINESSES STARTED AND KEEP THEM
RUNNING.
COUNCILOR ZELENKA SAID HE WOULD ACCEPT THAT AS A FRIENDLY AMENDMENT.
Commissioner Fleenor noted the motions and amendments on the table. He said this was a living
document and could be brought back to amend later. He would prefer to go back with the fIrst motion
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(Option 1) and make any modifications at the next meeting. Option,2 could also work, but there was a
lot of back and forth on this right now.
Councilor Pishioneri reiterated that organizations like Travel Lane County had supported many of the
businesses in this area. Creating jobs had been discussed, but the cities and County couldn't create
jobs; that was up to the private sector. Government could support the development of jobs, and the
elected officials could act as ambassadors to help them. He thought this was a good plan and very
thoughtful. He supported the plan.
Commissioner Fleenor asked for a restatement of the substituted motion.
Councilor Clark said this was larger scope document and was not meant to be that descriptive. If
Councilor Zelenka would like to throw out his motion and receive further information regarding the
sustainable business initiative, he would take that as a friendly amendment.
Mayor Piercy said if it was handled that way, it would all be in the first motion.
Councilor Clark said he would take all of Councilor Zelenka's suggestions as friendly amendments.
COUNCILOR ZELENKA WITHDREW HIS MOTION.
THE WITHDRAWAL WAS SECONDED.
Councilor Pryor agreed with the suggestion to go back to the first motion with the amendments.
RESTATEMENT OF THE MOTION: TO APPROVE THE REGIONAL ECONOMIC
DEVELOPMENT PLAN AS WRITTEN AND RE-CONFIItM THE ECONOMIC
DEVELOPMENT STRATEGIES FROM THE SEPTEMBER 2009 JEO MEETING; AND
DIRECT THE JOINT ELECTED OFFICIALS' ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT TASK
FORCE AND STAFF TO IMPLEMENT THE REGIONAL ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
PLAN;
AND TO REMOVE ITEM 4, TACTIC 2 FROM TH~REGIONAL ECONOMIC
DEVELOPMENT STRATEGIES (FRIENDLY AMENDMENT);
. AND TO CHANGE BIRTH TO THREE TO INCEPTION TO SUCCESS (FRIENDLY
AMENDMENT);
AND TO INCORPORATE ALL THAT WAS IN THE SUSTAINABLE INITIATIVES
(FRIENDL Y AMENDMENT);
AND PROVIDE A COORDINATION OF RESOURCES AND PROGRAMS TO GET
BUSINESSES STARTED AND KEEP THEM RUNNING (FRIENDLY AMENDMENT).
Councilor Taylor asked if the Eugene City Council could vote on this if they were not in Eugene.
Mr. Ruiz said it was not a binding vote, but provided guidance to staff. It was an advisory vote.
THE MOTION PASSED WITH A VOTE OF 16 IN FAVOR AND 1 OPPOSED.
IV b Lane County's Proposal for Economic Development with Small Cities.
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Mayor Leiken said this item had been moved to this part of the meeting per Commissioner Stewart's
request.
Community and Economic Development Manager Mike McKenzie- Bahr said this memo addressed
how the County would be taking a piece of the economic development plan and immediately
implementing it by hiring a contract person to move forward. The contract person would be starting on
April 5. He noted Councilor Zelenka's reference to renewable energy, which would be included in the
County's plan as well. He thanked the joint elected officials for their action on the economic
development plan.
Councilor Taylor left 1 :05pm.
Councilor Fleenor confmned that no further action was required on this by the County.
III. Animal Control.
Lane County Administrator Jeff Spartz presented this item. The current facility that housed Lane
County Animal Services (LCAS) and the Eugene Spay/Neuter Clinic was built in the late 1970s, and
was at the end of its useful life. Commissioner Dwyer had helped to shepherd the original facility from
its inception to development and could answer additional questions. The County had identified that it
would cost about $8M to replace the facility. They thought it would be appropriate for the joint elected
officials and others in the community to look at this in a broader perspective for the total needs for
animal services in the community, and the alternatives to meet those needs. Those alternatives could
include private sector partnerships with the public sector.
Lane County Health and Human Services Assistant Director Karen Gaffney presented a power point
and provided additional information on this topic. She said Animal Services had been moved to the
Health and Human Services D~partment.
Ms. Gaffney said there was a long history of this facility with the three jurisdictions working together
to make a big difference for the animals of our community. Animals resonated with the public and
they cared deeply for animals, and for the safety of our citizens from dangerous animals. The .
community standards had evolved significantly since the partnership began thirty years ago regarding
euthanasia, spaying and neutering animals, and saving adoptable animals. Those standards created a
need for a different type of facility.
Ms. Gaffney said the different jurisdictions participated in the animal facility in different ways. Lane
County Animal Services did the licensing for Lane County and the City of Eugene. Springfield did
their own licensing and code enforcement. Animal care and sheltering for all three jurisdictions was
done by Lane County, as were adoptions of the animals. Those services had provided an important
adjunct to the humane society, Greenhill. The way those services differed was that Greenhill was
focused on people who needed to relinquish their animals. Lane County did not do those types of
servIces.
Ms. Gaffney referred to information in the power point regarding licensing sales from 2004 to the
current date. She noted the increase in 2004 and 2005 which was largely due to the implementation of
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the rabies reporting on licensing. There was a renewed push over the last year and a half which pushed
those numbers up again. The figures were for Eugene and unincorporated Lane County.
Councilor Ralston asked when the dog limit was increased from two to three in Eugene.
Ms. Gaffney said it was last August.
Councilor Ralston noted an increase in 2009 and thought it might be from that change.
Ms. Gaffney said they had done a canvas to promote licensing in 2009, so that may have attributed
more to the increase. She referred to a chart in the power point showing the number of dogs entering
the shelter from all three jurisdictions. Those numbers were going down, which was intentional. The
focus was that if the sale of licenses increased, the dogs went home without going into the shelter.
They also charged the officers in the field to work with people to find out what type of resources they
needed to care for their animal. Last fiscal year, about half of the animals at the shelter were from
Eugene, about a quarter from the County, and about 19% from Springfield. She referred to information
regarding the field calls, citations and number of abuse and neglect cases in FY09.
Councilor Poling asked if they had the breakdown of how many were in Eugene and 40w many in the
County.
Ms. Gaffney said she had those figures at her office, but not in the power point. She said she could get
that information for him. She referred to the chart on Live Release Rate, a tool used at shelters to get a
euthanasia rate. Lane County had an overall rate of over 94%, which was very good for an open door
shelter such as Lane County. Greenhill was a closed door shelter that could turn away dogs that had
significant health or behavioral problems.
Ms. Gaffney discussed the issues with the current facility: aging and too small; inadequate segregation
in lobby and animal areas; not supportive of animal evaluations or adoption processes; and inefficient
for maintenance and workflow. She displayed photos of the facility and noted some improvements that
had been made to the facility and the signage.
Ms. Gaffney described t~e kenneling at the current facility that had been designed thirty years ago, and
how designs for kennels had changed since that time. She said the policy questions for today were how
the costs of a new facility might be shared publicly and privately, how best to leverage the LCAS and
Greenhill sites, and if there were opportunities to better serve the public through code changes,
licensing, etc. The County Administrator had convened a small group made up of representatives from
all three jurisdictions to focus on what it would take to finance and operate a new shelter. A report
would be issued from that group on some of the options regarding financing.
Mayor Leiken asked if every County in Oregon provided animal services.
Ms. Gaffney said she had not contacted all counties, but she believed that most provided dog control.
Commissioner Dwyer said Ms. Gaffney had done an excellent job. What made the program work was
the dedication of the people to the mission at hand. He said there were a lot of politics involved in
building the current facility. He did what he had to do to make it happen, and that was what it would
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take to make this work today. He felt a different model was needed other than the Tri-Agency model.
There were places and land available for a new faciFty which the County already owned. There were .
tremendous opportunities with the private sector that needed to be explored. Ms. Gaffney was asking
the elected officials to explore the different models and the financing options. He noted that he and
Commissioner Stewart used their own funds several years ago to have an architect from Denver come
out to Lane County. He felt the City of Eugene needed their own entrance for the spay/neuter clinic.
There were other things they could do in the near future to alleviate some of the issues. The Board was
committed to fixing animal regulation. He thanked Commissioner Fleenor for his assistance with this
even before he was on the Board. Commissioner Fleenor had a background in veterinary medicine and
had been a tremendous help. He would like the joint elected officials to work together for the common
good. There wasn't anything they couldn't do collectively if they were committed.
Commissioner Fleenor thanked Commissioner Dwyer for his comments. Pets were very important to
their owners and when the subject of animals was discussed, citizens came out to speak in large
numbers. He said he spoke with Mayor Piercy and Mr. Ruiz a few weeks ago and asked that this topic
be added to today's agenda. He felt this meeting could be the forum in which they launched a
subcommittee to work together with the County to try to develop this community vision, rather than
the County packaging something they presented to the cities. The purpose of this on the agenda was to
see if there was interest.
Commissioner Handy said Lane County received many phone calls regarding animals. There was a lot
of passion from the community on this subject. The three jurisdictions had some challenging areas to
face in the next twenty to thirty years,.but he felt this was one area for a common vision. There were
some revenue generating opportunities worth looking into. Cost was a driver, but in the interest of the
public, it was important for the jurisdictions to find the funding. Ms. Gaffney could attend the City
Council meetings for Eugene and Springfield to discuss this further. It came down to accountability to
the public sector involved in these support services. This was a great area to come together.
Councilor Ralston asked what Greenhill did differently than the County, and how the County could
partner with them.
Ms. Gaffney said they did partner together in some ways now, and there could be other opportunities
to explore. Greenhill did some spay and neutering services, as did the County, but their focus was
adopting animals out to families. Greenhill didn't do any of the animal control function. The County
worked with Greenhill on feral cats now, and could partner with them on community education. The
animals that came into the County's care were stray and homeless and the County did adopt those out
to the public. Some of them were transferred to Greenhill.
Councilor Ralston said that could be a way to continue to partner. He pointed out that the Springfield
City Council sent a letter to State representatives asking that the State of Oregon create a license plate
in which the proceeds would benefit animal welfare. That would be an opportunity for animal lovers
to buy a license plate, generating funds that could funnel back to the local level.
Councilor Poling said he would like to further investigate the non-profit/public partnership, giving
both organizations the opportunity to save some money. He didn't want to get too bogged down in a
community vision process. This was something that needed to be addressed soon. He and his wife had
been doing volunteer work for an animal rescue support group for the past few years, and had visited
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many animal shelters in Oregon and Washington that were fine facilities. He suggested looking at
those facilities when considering a new facility in Lane County. There were a lot of people in the
community that would likely step forward to support this effort. He would like to hear more during a
work session. He wasn't aware that the City of Springfield had suggested the license plate, and he
thought it was a good idea. He would like to continue the discussion on this subject.
Councilor Simmons said he met with Ms. Gaffney in September and he noted that Springfield had a
need that was a cost issue so we needed to proceed carefully. There was a perception difference.
Springfield had an attitude of containment and movement to the shelter, and Eugene had a more open
process of getting the animal taken care of and adopted. He noted his past experience as an animal
control officer and some of the dangerous animals he encountered. He was supportive of this, but it
would be important to balance the differences between the jurisdictions. His predecessor, Council
John Woodrow, would have been very supportive of this effort. He wanted to be sure this was looked
at seriously.
Commissioner Fleenor said LCAS was not a no-kill facility. They recognized that some animals did
have to be euthanized. One of the things they were looking for was standardization of codes within the
jurisdictions. They would also ask for permission to work with the cities to canvas the jurisdictions to
get more licensing. License fees could possibly help in putting forth a levy. Building a new facility
could take longer than taking some of these other steps.
Councilor Pryor said he agreed to finding ways to partner for a solution. Operationally, some things
could be done now, but the challenging issue was regarding the building. He agreed that the facility
was at the end of its useful life, but he noted that Eugene's city hall and street lights were also at the
end of their useful life. Eugene had deferred maintenance on an entire infrastructure, so this was not a
unique problem. The jurisdictions needed to fmd ways to get out of all of the challenges. This building
was something that was used regularly by the public and needed to be addressed soon.
Councilor Zelenka said he liked the idea of a partnership and he also like the license plate idea. A
couple of years ago Eugene talked about what would happen if animal services were not provided, and
those outcomes were much worse. He asked how they paid for the original building.
Ms. Gaffney said she was not sure. She has documentation of how the three jurisdictions divided the
land, but not on the construction cost.
Councilor Zelenka asked if this would be right for stimulus funding.
Ms. Gaffney said she hadn't seen an opportunity for this type of project through stimulus funding.
They had looked at other possible grants, which were challenging for the public sector to receive.
They didn't qualify for some grants because their euthanasia rates were low. In doing research of
shelters, they found that there was a lot of participation from private organizations and individuals.
Councilor Clark asked about the revenue sharing formula with the City of Eugene for licensing.
Ms. Gaffney said the contract with the City of Eugene had a base of general funds that came to LCAS.
LCAS kept 100% of the licensing revenue up to a cap that was recently raised by $100,000 (total of
about $260,000). Any licensing revenue above that amount went back to the City of Eugene.
February 26,2010
Joint Elected Officials Meeting
City of Springfield
City of Eugene
Lane County
Page 12 of 13
Councilor Clark asked if changing that fonnula would affect how many dogs were licensed.
Ms. Gaffney said increasing it by $100,000 was critical because it gave LCAS the opportunity to let
the public know that 100% of the license fee went towards animal services. Until last year, LCAS had
never come close to that cap, but last year they did get closer to that cap. Being able to sell more
licenses and use that revenue to support animal services had made a big difference to the services they
could provide.
Councilor Clark asked if raising the cap increased revenue.
Ms. Gaffney said it did. It provided an incentive to the County.
Councilor Wylie said there were gas taxes for roads and alcohol and drug taxes for treatment. She
asked about a nickel a bag tax on dry dog food. It could be a state initiative. Pet owners wouldn't mind
spending the extra nickel for additional services.
Ms. Gaffney said that idea had been raised in the past.
Commissioner Fleenor said that had been tried, but met with resistance. It was a good idea. An
LCARA task force looked at that as a possible revenue source and heard from lobbyists all the way
from Washington DC in opposition.
Mayor Piercy said she was willing to look at short term solutions, and was amendable to looking more
broadly at all animal services. She felt this had to be in the context of everything else that needed
attention and prioritized. She appreciated today's conversation because it was a good illustration of the
jurisdictions working together, but these conversations were two way streets. The larger conversation
was about purviews and responsibilities on all fronts. Because of the shortfalls in funding, the
jurisdictions had to look at things differently and carefully. There were areas in which the County was
no longer able to provide services, and cities had to step up to cover those services. She thought the
license plate was a great idea. She agreed with private/public partnership. They needed to look
together at cross-jurisdictional goals and the order of these projects.
Councilor Poling said if they had a work session on this subject, 4e would like to see the brea~down of
the enforcement ordinances in Eugene, Springfield, and Lane County.
Commissioner Fleenor asked if this could go to each City Council for a work session frrst, then report
back to the full JEO.
Councilor Ortiz said it would be good to have a broader conversation about this before getting down to
the specifics. She said the Parks Foundation and Library Foundation used public private partnerships
and she liked that idea, similar to the Birth to Three concept from the economic development
discussion. She would like that to be part of the conversation.
Mr. Spartz left the meeting - 1 :54pm.
February 26,2010
Joint Elected Officials Meeting
City of Springfield
City of Eugene
Lane County
, Page 13 of 13
Mayor Leiken said Springfield would discuss whether or not to have a work session on this topic
during their next Agenda Review meeting.
Commissioner Fleenor discussed the Secure Rural Schools funding to the County.
Mayor Piercy said there were many issues on the table that had a need.
IV a. Update on Metro Plan Work Plan.
Mayor Leiken asked if there was time to discuss Item IV a.
Mr. Grimaldi said it was there for the elected officials' information. There was no need for further
discussion.
ADJOURNMENT - 1 :55 p.m.
Mayor Leiken adjourned the Springfield City Council.
Mayor Piercy adjourned the Eugene City Council.
Commissioner Fleenor adjourned the Lane County Commissioners.
Minutes Recorder
Amy Sowa
City Recorder
Attest:
City~~JtM "-