HomeMy WebLinkAbout05/13/2002 Work Session
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MINUTES OF THE WORK SESSION
OF THE SPRINGFIELD CITY COUNCIL
HELD ON MONDAY, MAY 13, 2002
The Springfield City Council met in work session at Springfield City Hall, 225 Fifth Street,
Springfield, Jesse Maine Meeting Room, on Monday, May 13,2002, at 5:30 p.m., with Mayor
Leiken presiding.
ATTENDANCE
Present were Mayor Leiken and Councilors Ballew, Fitch, Hatfield, Lundberg, Ralston and
Simmons. Also present were City Manager Mike Kelly, Assistant City Manager Gino Grimaldi,
City Attorney Joe Leahy, City Recorder Kim Krebs, and members of staff.
Guests: Jan Childs, City of Eugene
1. West Eugene Parkway and Associated TransPlan Amendments. and Exceptions to Statewide
Planning Goals 3. 4. 1 Land 14.
Planning Manager Greg Mott was present for the staff report. He introduced J an Childs, City of
Eugene. The purpose was to primarily give the council an opportunity to review the materials
and ask questions about the process.
Ms. Childs said she circulated a procedure list that had been developed for the joint hearing. It
highlighted the ground rules, and procedures. Mayor Torrey requested that the cards be sorted in
favor, neutral and against. She said she knows that Springfield normally adjourns its public
hearings at 10 p.m. and that has been agreed upon for this hearing. She highlighted the balance of
the information contained in the handout. The public hearing will be on May 29 in the Eugene
City Council Chambers at 6:00pm.
Ms. Childs highlighted information contained in her Memorandum, which was attachment 1 to
the Agenda Item Summary (AIS). She highlighted all the information in the packet and
additional information council would receive prior to the hearing. She discussed the
responsibilities of each jurisdiction regarding certain amendments. Tom Schwetz circulated a
copy ofthe adopted December 2001 TransPlan.
Ms. Childs responded to questions of the council.
Councilor Ballew asked for a timeline.
Ms. Childs said the public hearing would be held May 29; the close of record one week after that,
and the Eugene City Council was scheduled to hold a work session and possibly take action on
June 19. There is a back-up date for the work session of July 8. It looks like the week of July 15;
the other three groups are scheduled to take the matter up again. Assuming all four groups agree,
there could be final action by the end of July. If there is a LUBA appeal, it would be difficult to
predict that time frame.
2. ATT Broadband/Comcast Merger.
Technical Services Manager Len Goodwin was present for the staff report. He said the purpose
of this work session was to discuss the proposed merger of A TT Broadband with Comcast to
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Springfield City Council
Work Session Minutes - May 13, 2002
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form a new company, ATT Comcast. That company will own TCI Cablevision of Oregon, our
current television franchise agent. There are no changes in the franchise, in the operation of the
franchise, or ofthe identity of the franchisee. It is a second level merger involving the acquisition
of the owner of the company holding the franchise. Under the existing franchise, the consent of
the city is required to approve the transfer of control.
Mr. Goodwin said the information contained in the AIS and attachments included a number of
issues that were raised by staff of the City of Eugene, City of Springfield, and Lane County
relating to the implementation of the current franchise. He said staff of all three agencies met
with ATT staff to discuss this transaction. From that meeting, ATT presented them with a
"Proposed Memorandum of Agreement" (Attachment G), which addresses franchise compliance.
He said there is adequate comfort by staff to consent to the transfer of control. He said just
recently it became public knowledge that ATT Broadband had filed a change to the merger plan.
He circulated a letter dated May 13 from AT&T, which states that there have been no substantive
changes in the terms of the merger. Staff is prepared to bring this forward to the council at the
next regular council meeting with a resolution recommending consent. He introduced General
Manager of ATT Broadband for the local area, Sanford Inouya, who will also be available for
questions.
Mr. Goodwin responded to questions of the council.
Councilor Simmons said upon reading of the whole document, the implications to the city are
neutral, but to the ratepayers they are not. It is his perception that the transition will allow a
potential of the burden to be born by the ratepayers. He is not opposed in spirit, but is opposed as
it relates to the ratepayers.
Mayor Leiken asked Mr. Goodwin if the FCC oversees those issues.
Mr. Goodwin said that there is limited oversight ofthat part ofthe transaction as part of
deregulation. The debt to asset ratios do look very high and Councilor Simmons concerns could
be founded.
Councilor Hatfield said the questions raised by Councilor Simmons have been raised at Metro
Planning Commission level. He is reluctant to grant the change in franchise without the
information. He wants to be assured that we will still be provided the same service at the same
price to the consumer.
Councilor Ballew said the Communication Act of 1996 was intended to remove barriers and
provide service. She asked if there is anyone that can compete with A TT in the same market.
Mr. Goodwin said the penetration of satellite services has grown remarkably in the past few years
and in some cases, the satellite use is competing effectively. He said unfortunately the 1996 act
stripped the local governments of regulation with the exception ofthe fundamental services.
Councilor Simmons said this is no longer just an entertainment service. They haven't completely
submitted the adequate information in order to complete the decision process. He believes it
ought to be denied until they fulfill the response. Right now a lot of pieces are missing and it is
not appropriate to proceed.
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Councilor Fitch said because attachment G is present, she would support going forward. This
document allows negotiations for the next 120 days to resolve the issues. If the issues are not
resolved, it will come back before council, but service will not stop in the meantime.
Councilor Hatfield asked what leverage we have to enforce that 120 days once we have consented
to the merger.
Mr. Goodwin said we could either terminate for cause for failure to comply, or cancel the
franchise. In either event it removes the franchisee's right to operate, but does not require them
to remove their facilities from the public right of ways or cease providing service to the citizens.
It may be necessary for the city to determine if there are other options. He said staffhas already
begun the process of termination of franchise by giving them notice with respect to the failure to
placate fees on cable modem service and by their unilateral change in speed resolution. Ifthey do
not comply with the franchise within 60 days, whether or not we consent to this transfer, we can
take action to terminate the franchise.
Mayor Leiken asked ifthe franchise were terminated, what would be the next step.
Mr. Goodwin said hypothetically, if we terminated for cause, the franchise provides the option for
the city to acquire the assets and sell them to another- provider of services. He would not suggest
that as a positive alternative.
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Mr. Leahy said Mr. Goodwin has shared the non-compliance letters with him. The letters outlined
what they would do if ATT doesn't comply. The idea would be to come back to council in an
executive session and discuss what the options are either to the city by itself or to the city in
concert with other cities to reduce the cost. There may be some options appropriate for an
executive session.
After further discussion, council consensus and direction to staff was to bring this item back for
further discussion in 7 days in regular session.
3. Staffing Information in Aid of Levy Decision.
Police Chief Jerry Smith was present for the staff report. Mike Harman Management Analyst for
Police Department and Springfield Municipal Judge James Strickland were also present to answer
questions.
Chief Smith said the department is experiencing an increase of calls for service. These calls take
precedence over other calls, but that in turn causes a back log of the other calls. Crime rates have
continued to increase. All crimes went up by 7% and about two thirds of crimes are property
crimes. Some of the challenges and service gaps the police face include number of calls, young
officers needing more supervision, and decisions on sentencing based on jail space. Patrols are
becoming reactive instead of being able to work on preventative measures. He is concerned
about the deterioration of response times and the significant reduction in public satisfaction.
Chief Smith highlighted the different options that he has provided in the Council Briefmg
Memorandum (Attachment 1).
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The National Institute of Corrections has confIrmed their willingness to provide research and
analysis information relative to jail needs. He said we expect that product to be completed by
August 1,2002.
Chief Smith said the City has an opportunity to apply for grant funding for police officers through
the Universal Hiring Program offered by the Department of Justice. The filing deadline for
priority consideration is May 24, 2002. The funding would be for 3 years, and the expectation
would be to keep them up for an additional year after the funding cycle. By receiving these
grants, we could substantially lower the amount we would ask for in the levy.
Mayor Leiken asked the chief about using the pods at the Juvenile Justice Center as part of the
j ail system.
Chief Smith said the answer initially was that it would not work. He said we do know there are
two pods available, and he has talked to the sheriff about lost revenue because there is no place to
keep criminals until they can post bail. The only way to make this work is to make people post
bail.
Mayor Leiken asked if Eugene had the same problem. It seems there may not be support for a jail
right now, but we need to continue looking at it for the future. Springfield will continue to grow.
We need to continue to look at some ways to be creative and look at that option because the cost
recovery is there.
Councilor Hatfield said we could also look at the pods in another way. We don't have to look at
them as temporary, but can use them for the intermediate term prisoner in the 3-12 month range.
Judge Strickland said he has concerns that would require the cooperation of Lane County and the
city of Eugene. He can see the Sheriff wanting to put the class C prisoners there. He thinks we
need to build a ship that we can control ourselves. He said November may be too soon, but he is
willing to volunteer his services to speak about the issue. He said an education program is
something that needs to begin.
Councilor Hatfield said it is the general populace that we need to educate. We need to do
something with the staffing issues. He said initially if we followed the recommendation of
Councilor Ralston to get the levy down to about one million dollars, we might be able to solve the
staffing issue. Then we can move toward the broaderidea of a public safety building with police,
jail and possibly incorporating the fIre department.
Councilor Simmons is supportive of the levy for operations, and the universal hiring program as a
short-term fix. He is also supportive of Springfield taking a lead in the corrections area. We need
to go forward with the correction's study. In addition, we need to work towards the operational
levy and work constructively towards getting a fmancing mechanism.
Councilor Hatfield said PSCC is looking at different fmancing options.
Councilor Simmons feels we need to move forward independent of Eugene and the county. We
still need to have discussions about how we can collectively use the pods.
Councilor Fitch said she is supportive of safety and the police department; however we have a
problem with reoccurring crime. The only way she will support this is if we are extremely honest
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with the public that it is only a band-aid. It will continue to reoccur until we have a place to
incarcerate people breaking the law. The public will not see a vast improvement because it truly
is a temporary fix. She thinks that you can only cut so much and she does not want the illusion
that ifthis is done we will solve the big picture, because we won't.
Councilor Lundberg said this might not be a perceived issue from the citizens. It is not
necessarily coming from the public that there is a sense that we need to do something. rfthere is
a 3rd jail we will then be paying for three jails; the city, the county, and the juvenile. By paying
for additional jail space, we are not reducing crime in the same sense as having folks graduate
from programs such as Drug Court. There is a huge public piece we have to look at seriously.
Do we want to be in the corrections business? If we build a facility, we would need to have a
way to staff it. We need to look at where some options are that currently exist in terms of officers
that can be pulled. We then need to take a look at what we would put out in a levy.
Mr. Kelly said in a perfect world we would have determined the 1 O-year vision for the city of
Springfield. We would then have that general view whether or not there is going to be a
police/court and fire administrative facilities. Is 2002 really the best time for a levy, and if not,
what do we do for the next four years regarding crime? The pods could be used as an interim
process as one option. If we put it in our levy for money for staffmg and the operations cost to
run those two pods, and we asked Eugene to come up with part oftheoperational costs, he
doesn't know if the county could come up with their portion ofthe money. He knows that Lane
County indicates there could be discussions about the pods. It is not necessary for us to have a
decision tonight, but they can direct staff to pursue some kind of a police levy. Staff can report
back to council in the next month or two.
Mayor Leiken asked what the timeline was for the ballot measure filing.
Mr. Kelly said Lane County Election filing deadline is September 5. He said if there were
consensus of the council to proceed, staff would like council to authorize the continuation of the
interim discussions.
Councilor Hatfield said the best way to approach this is to continue discussions regarding the
pods at the intake center. He said he personally is not ready to make a decision on what the best
route to take is. He said if staff would bring more information back to the council in June for
further discussion, that would give the council plenty of time to discuss and decide how best to
proceed. Staff could prepare ballot title wording prior to council recess. He said key information
needed is whether or not the School District and Willamalane plan anything at all for the
November election. He said coordination with the TEAM Springfield partners is essential.
The council discussed the grant application process, and when the grants would be awarded.
After further discussion, council consensus directed staff to proceed with the COPS grant
application and continue discussions with the County regarding jail space. This item will be
scheduled to return to council for further discussion in June and July to make final decisions on
levy proposals prior to council recess.
4. Unused Olympic Right of Way vacation agreement.
Traffic Manager Nick Amis and Civil Engineer Ken V ogeney were present for the staff report.
Mr. Amis introduced Mr. John Hammer. He said Mr. Hammer has subdivided the property on
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the west side ofN 42nd Street between Olympic Street and the Weyerhaeuser rail line (the old mill
pond) He is requesting vacation ofthe unused Olympic Street right of way, which is located
primarily on his property. Mr. Hammer is making infrastructure improvements to the site such as
constructing a new street, which provides access for the proposed Mt. Hood Beverage office and
distribution center. His subdivision approval requires him to create a 25 foot wetland setback and
next to that a 10 foot public utility easement for a total of 35 feet in easements. Vacating the right
of way allows better flexibility for developing the site including the street system.
Mr. Amis said staff recommends initiating an agreement that accompanies the street vacation and
includes Option 3 from the Council Briefing Memorandum (CBM) (Attachment A), with the
following provisions:
. Add a 15 foot easement to the 35 feet of easements for a total 50 foot easement
. Construct to City standards an asphalt multi-use path
. Realign two driveways onto 42nd Street to vacate right of way
He said there would be a multi-use path, and the owner would contribute funds for improvement
of the vegetation along the corridor, and two driveways would be closed, and the multi use path
would be built by the owner.
,Mr. Amis referred to an overhead map and highlighted the area in question. He also highlighted
two additional options in the CBM.
Councilor Hatfield said he is agreeable to Option 2, but said he has a problem withthe 50-foot
setback. He said there is not a need for that; he believes the 25 foot setbacks with a 10 foot public
utility easement is adequate for storm water sloughs. He said this is already part of the agreement
currently in place with Mr. Hammer. Given the time constraints Mr. Hammer has to get the road
in place for Mt. Hood, encroachment permits need to be processed as quickly as possible.
Mr. Amis highlighted the on street bike lanes on Olympic on the overhead map.
There was discussion regarding the need of a multi use bike path in this area.
Councilor Simmons said it is important that the city clearly understand what its responsibility is,
and what Mr. Hammer's responsibility is. He said an agreement is necessary in order to clarify
all of these responsibilities. He also agrees that this needs to be expedited in order to allow the
development to proceed. He asked a question regarding the landscape buffer, and whether or not
that can be integrated as part of the setback.
Development Services Director Cynthia Pappas said yes she believes that could be done.
After further discussion council consensus was to proceed with the encroachment permits in order
for Mr. Hammer to meet his agreements to Mt. Hood, and provide any feedback staff may have
on any grant funding available. Staff will return with an agreement, as well as checking on the
planning commission action that has occurred to date.
Mr. V ogeney responded to questions of the council related to the process of encroachment
applications and permits. He said staff would be meeting with Mr. Hammer quickly in order to
discuss the encroachment process.
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5. Business License Program.
Finance Director Bob Duey was present for the staff report. He said staff has completed
extensive research and has drafted a proposal to alter the City's current business license program
from a specific business license to a general business license. The Business Tax Ordinance
would require that all businesses located inside the city limits of Springfield, unless specifically
exempted, be subject to an annual business licenses charge for the privilege of doing business in
Springfield. The charge would be comprised of a set fee to recover the administrative costs ofthe
program and an additional tax based upon the number of employees at each business.
Mr. Duey highlighted very quickly the information contained in the Agenda Item Summary and
attachments. He said the program would pay for itself from a fee standpoint.
Mr. Duey responded to questions related to the possibility of exemptions of foster care homes,
day care providers, and home occupations.
Staff is prepared to begin soliciting the public and business community's input on the proposed
Business License Program. Staff would like to receive any [mal direction and authorization from
Council prior to soliciting this input for probable presentation at a subsequent public hearing. He
said the public information campaign would be conducted during the fall of 2002 for
implementation in January 2003.
Mr. Duey responded to questions of the council related to the Draft Business Tax Ordinance
(Attachment B).
After further discussion, council consensus was that staff should check with the state to determine
how many day care providers are in the city, and provide that information to the council in order
to determine whether or not they should be exempt.
City Attorney Joe Leahy said there may be a lot of requests coming forward for exemptions, and
would suggest placing them in different classes in order to determine whether or not they should
be exempt.
ADJOURNMENT
The meeting was adjourned at 7:51 p.m.
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Minutes Recorder - Kim Krebs
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Kim Krebs, City Recor er