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HomeMy WebLinkAbout05/07/2012 Work SessionCity of Springfield Work Session Meeting MINUTES OF THE WORK SESSION MEETING OF THE SPRINGFIELD CITY COUNCIL HELD MONDAY, MAY 7, 2012 The City of Springfield Council met in a work session in the Jesse Maine Meeting Room, 225 Fifth Street, Springfield, Oregon, on Monday, May 7, 2012 at 6:00 p.m., with Mayor Lundberg presiding. ATTENDANCE Present were Mayor Lundberg and Councilors Pishioneri, Wylie, Moore, Ralston and Woodrow. Also present were City Manager Gino Grimaldi, Assistant City Manager Jeff Towery, City Attorney Matthew Cox, City Recorder Amy Sowa and members of the staff. Councilor VanGordon was absent (excused). 1. Springfield Economic Initiatives. Community Development Manager John Tamulonis introduce this item. Claire Seguin - Carpenter from NEDCO and Dan Egan from the Springfield Chamber of Commerce were also in attendance to provide information. Mr. Tamulonis said at TEAM Springfield on January 28, 2012, the Springfield Chamber of Commerce and NEDCO described each organization's activities and a desire to do additional programs in Springfield to help turn around the local economy in useful and effective ways. Ms. Carpenter, Executive Director of NEDCO, said they felt that between the two proposals, they had a comprehensive approach to economic development strategies for Springfield that were focused and with good measurable outcomes. NEDCO was initiating a Business Assistance Program. They would be focusing on businesses of about 30 employees or less who already existed and perhaps some start- up businesses interested in locating in Springfield. They were hoping to do some assessment on these individual businesses to find out their individual needs, how they were doing their business now, if they had good operations and capital, and what they needed to move to the next level of productivity. Ideally, they would be looking at job creation and increased revenues. They also had some strategies that could be combined with their Incubator Program to potentially fill up some empty storefronts in various parts of the City. This program would be targeted assistance based on the actual needs of the business. It would require some classroom work, one -on -one business coaching and counseling, and mentoring. They wanted to make sure the businesses that were more technically specific got exactly the type of technical expertise they needed. The program would provide industry specific training as well as general business practices to help people who were doing business in Springfield, or wanted to locate in Springfield, take advantage of market opportunities and grow. Mr. Grimaldi said this program would be funded mostly through TEAM Springfield ($20,000), with an additional $15,000 of budgeted City funds. Mr. Egan, Executive Director of the Springfield Chamber of Commerce, said their program was more focused on new businesses coming into Springfield. The Chamber had been very anxious to do this work for the City as they saw the growth and diversity of the economy. Part of that growth was businesses expanding and doing better, but part of it was to welcome new businesses to our City. Many of the businesses in the Gateway area had come from other states and cities, and they had added City of Springfield Council Work Session Minutes May 7, 2012 Page 2 energy and diversity to our economy. The Chamber of Commerce would like get started so Springfield would have a continual program of recruiting and welcoming businesses. There were three components to this program. The first two would be done by a university class from the University of Oregon. The Chamber had already contracted with the University and they would begin work in June or July to do an economic scan to show where Springfield was now, where the strengths and weaknesses were, and qualify clusters. Qualifying clusters was a common strategy to try to increase businesses within clusters that were already successful in cities. The students would be conducting interviews with people in all parts of Springfield where businesses could grow. Implementation would flow from the first two parts. It was likely they would start with two clusters to support and grow with new businesses coming into Springfield or expanding into Springfield. He and Mr. Tamulonis had met with a couple of businesses from Eugene that were trying to find a location in Springfield. They would meet with businesses such as that on a continual basis, but would also proactively reach out into the national development community and ask them to look at Springfield. Springfield needed to get to a place where we could compete and that took a lot of research. The end result of their activity would be more businesses from other areas coming to Springfield and adding jobs and investment in the land. The Chamber would self -fund this initiative by working with the University and also raising funds from the private sector. They would like the City to be involved in a small way when needed, but for the most part they believed the private sector would support this effort. Councilor Woodrow thanked them for the two- pronged approach. She asked if the students would identify future clusters for specific areas in Springfield, such as Thurston. Mr. Egan said clusters weren't necessarily location specific, but more industry specific. It might mean second or third tier businesses with good jobs locate in Springfield. Some clusters may fit better in a certain location, but currently they were looking at clusters of businesses where Springfield could compete. Councilor Pishioneri said he was pro business in both finding businesses and for existing businesses. He asked where Lane Metro Partnership fell into this plan and if there was redundancy. The City currently paid funds to Lane Metro Partnership. Mr. Egan said the Chamber had approached the City several years ago with a modest proposal to begin this type of work. In the interim, the things noted in phase one and two of their proposal did not occur in Springfield. He felt that unless the Chamber took on those tasks, it would not get done by another agency. The Metro Partnership's role was to do some of the things listed here, but he was convinced Springfield needed to take care of business in Springfield and the Chamber had a desire to take on that task in order to get it done. He didn't feel there would be a redundancy. The Chamber would meet with the Metro Partnership and gather information, but this would be breaking new ground that the Metro Partnership had not done. Mr. Grimaldi said the Metro Partnership primarily responded to leads from the State and a couple of other sources and were not doing active recruitment. The Chamber proposal would be actively recruiting businesses. That was a distinct difference. Councilor Ralston said he had thought of clusters as area specific, but it sounded like they meant more of a business cluster. Mr. Egan gave examples such as RV industry, health care and manufacturing clusters. The clusters were base on activity. City of Springfield Council Work Session Minutes May 7, 2012 Page 3 Councilor Ralston said it could also be based on vacant land available. Mr. Egan said that was true. Councilor Moore asked about the scan that would be provided by the University students. She asked if this was an inventory of businesses in Springfield. Mr. Egan said developers wanted information about communities such as the tax base, SAT scores, available land, etc. The students would be gathering that type of information. Councilor Moore said it sounded like it was more workforce, livability and tax rates, and not so much the businesses currently located in Springfield. Mr. Egan said the businesses here did come into play as well. Mayor Lundberg said she was very happy NEDCO was taking on small businesses because they were great champions of small businesses. Many small businesses didn't have the extra time or energy to focus on those types of things. She supported that partnership and putting funding towards that effort. She recalled when the Springfield Chamber came to the Council last time with a proposal to help take care of Springfield in their approach to businesses. The Council needed to think about what was provided by the Lane Metro Partnership, who benefited and what level of support should be provided by the City. The purpose of the Metro Partnership was economic development. She wanted to know what it would mean if the Chamber worked on bringing large businesses to Springfield in terms of funding. Mr. Grimaldi said during their upcoming budget process, Council would have the opportunity to discuss how much they would put into the budget. They could also look at their contracts with various outside agencies. Mayor Lundberg said the Council needed to determine what they wanted to see happen and who would participate. She said the two initiatives presented were great and could help bring jobs to Springfield. She thanked Ms. Carpenter and Mr. Egan for sharing their initiatives. 2. Scenario Planning Update. Planning Manager Greg Mott and Transportation Manager Tom Boyatt presented this item Mr. Boyatt said the Metropolitan Policy Committee (MPC) would meet on May 10 to review a draft work program for scenario planning. Attachment J of the agenda packet was a one page piece on the scenario planning framework, and Attachment 2 was the draft Scope of Work which the various metro area agencies had been putting together. Attachment 3 was a slide show that had been presented to the MPC by a representative from Fregonese Associates and was provided to the Council for information. He referred to page 3 of Attachment 2 of the agenda packet which included the three stages of scenario planning. This outlined how staff planned on proceeding. It included time to determine the choices, strategies and actions, and output measures. The next step would be designing and evaluating scenarios in 2013, and testing the choices in 2014. Their hope was to take this state - mandated activity which would be reimbursed by Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT), and investigate different pieces for the community and look at community livability to make things easier for people such as Mr. Tamulonis and Mr. Egan to bring businesses to the community. There was a lot of positive City of Springfield Council Work Session Minutes May 7, 2012 Page 4 in this process. There were benefits to Springfield that could be investigated through the scenario planning process. Councilor Woodrow asked if the scenario process determined realistic end results. Mr. Boyatt said it could do that as a second layer. He provided an example of reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions which was cost prohibitive. The first step was to dream big, then find ways through the process that were feasible. Councilor Woodrow said the graph going out to 2050 showed very few people in cars. She asked if they were realistically headed in that direction or if that was the big dream that could be brought down to something more realistic. Mr. Boyatt said the ultimate preferred scenario needed to be agreed to by the Metropolitan Policy Organization (MPO) members, but there was no requirement at this time for implementation. Councilor Wylie referred to the Sustainability Conference she just attended, and was excited about the scenario planning. Mayor Lundberg said she understood there was a lot of work to do and it was difficult to determine what was wanted and how they would get there. She asked if they would eventually be required to implement the planning scenario. Mr. Mott said the law didn't require it at this time, but Council could determine they would like to move forward with some of the plans. It was hoped that the values Council wanted to see enhanced in the community were consistent with what would be done whether or not they were required to go through this process. It could be something that was out of our reach financially or because of timing, but was now something they could move forward with. He would hate to see this effort taken without a product as an end result. This could be very beneficial and in the City's best interest. He also noted that the biggest investment the City had other than its citizens, was the transportation system. It was hard to imagine that infrastructure wouldn't continue to be shared. It was a good transportation system and would still provide efficient connections for everyone, including automobiles. Mayor Lundberg asked if the scenario planning was for Springfield, or Eugene and Springfield, and if it would then go to the State. Mr. Boyatt said this was a several year process. The MPO was charged with doing this by legislation, but the jurisdictions (Springfield, Eugene, Lane County) were charged with cooperatively selecting the preferred scenario. There was a report back requirement where the MPO would report to a State legislative committee. He was not sure what would happen from that point. Mr. Grimaldi said Springfield's scenario would be independent of Eugene. If something conflicted, that could be sorted out between parties. Mr. Mott said looking at the benchmark or measurement required by statute, it would be possible based on the work Envision Eugene had done, that they could make some changes to their number and location of town centers, mixed -use centers and transit ridership, and achieve the benchmark mandated by the State. He provided the example of Metro who had already undertaken this task. They had developed a number of different techniques to make changes to their land use and transportation plans. City of Springfield Council Work Session Minutes May 7, 2012 Page 5 As a result, they were able to meet the standard benchmark in over 80 of 120 scenarios. The local effort was to create two scenarios to select and agree upon. Mr. Boyatt said the different pieces of the scenario could be different in Springfield compared to Eugene. Councilor Ralston said the goal was to reduce greenhouse gases from vehicles under 10,000 pounds by 20% below the 2005 level by 2035. He asked if they had the benchmark from 2005. Yes. He asked for clarification of a 10,000 pound vehicle. Mr. Mott said that would include almost every automobile and most every pickup truck. When creating the legislation, the vast majority of vehicles on the road were personal vehicles. Freight was subject to State, and the State was trying to plan for a reduction of GHG emissions on the freight system, air rail, buildings, etc. It was a broader approach to GHG emissions. Mayor Lundberg thanked them for the information. 3. Police Special Levy Renewal. Finance Director Bob Duey and Police Chief Jerry Smith presented the staff report on this item. The current 5 -year Police Special Levy would expire at the end of the next fiscal year (June 30, 2012) and would require a successful vote, most likely in November 2012, to renew the levy for an additional 5 years. Essential services provided by the City relied on the $1.09 per thousand of assessed valuation levy for funding. This levy, first passed in 2002, added funding for the Municipal Jail in 2006 and now included police and jail services as well as municipal court and city prosecutor. Staff was asking Council to consider both service and funding level requirements in establishing the final ballot measure. Staff was recommending that the Council execute a request for a special levy election to be filed with Lane County Elections prior to any summer break. Mr. Duey said the questions tonight were regarding rates for a levy and what to put on the ballot. Tonight staff was looking to see what additional information Council would need for their second work session on June 4. During their June 4 work session, it would be best if Council could provide direction to staff about how to prepare a final ballot title that could be filed with the County. Mr. Duey explained the process of putting a measure on the ballot and submitting it to Lane County. There were requirements for the ballot title regarding number of words for the title, question and summary. Council would hold a public hearing on the ballot title and adopt it by resolution. The ballot title would then be submitted to Lane County and provided a number. Any informational distributions by the City or campaigning by a political action committee (PAC) could begin after that time. Staff would like to have the ballot title approved by resolution of the Council prior to summer recess to allow adequate time to provide information to the public. If Council was comfortable with a figure during their June 4 work session, staff would bring it to Council for formal approval on July 2. Mr. Duey provided some history on this levy for those councilors that were not here when it was first put on the ballot. In 2000, staff met with Council to discuss how to improve services. One of the highest priorities was to improve response time with a levy. Discussions were also held at that time about whether a levy for services or a bond measure to build a jail should go first. In 2002, Council decided to put the levy of services on the ballot. That first levy allowed Police to hire about 22 FTE, most in the Police Department, some in Court and some in the Prosecutor's Office. City of Springfield Council Work Session Minutes May 7, 2012 Page 6 Chief Smith said response times were cut significantly with the first levy. Mr. Duey said by the time the 2002 levy expired, the bond measure for the jail had been approved. Council was cautious about a levy for operations of the jail so construction of the jail was delayed until the City had funding for the first three years of operation. The levy that went forward in 2006 increased the amount to $1.09 to pay the increased cost of the existing police levy and operation of the jail. That was a five year levy that spanned six years as they did not collect during the first year of the levy. That period would be up June 30, 2013. Mr. Duey said the figures in the agenda packet were an attempt to renew the current level of service. The first figure was $1.34, but after using other factors they were able to bring that amount down to $1.22. This was still an increase over the current rate by $0.13. A community survey would be conducted by an outside firm to determine the tolerance for support for the different rates. Information from that survey would be available by June 4 for the Council's next work session. Chief Smith said the jail was accomplishing the goals intended and making people accountable for misdemeanor offenses. People were posting bail. He noted the figures of bail funds that had come in since the jail opened. Failure to appear which had been costing the department had been reduced substantially. He noted four members of the Police Planning Task Force (PPTF) who were in the audience and thanked them for attending. A letter from the PPTF had been distributed to the Mayor and Council, which stated the PPTF was comfortable with the $1.22 level and supported going forward with the levy. Mr. Duey said the jail budget was set in 2005 before the jail was fully designed. The jail had come in fairly close to those projections regarding revenues. Staffmg levels had decreased by one FTE and overall operational costs for the jail were in line with projections. The jail was a large operation and was fully operational. Councilor Moore asked if there was a Fire and Life Safety (F &LS) levy. Mr. Duey said there was .a F &LS levy that was $0.36 /thousand. That levy was first passed in 2006 at the rate of $0.36, increased to $0.40 in 2006, and then went back to $0.36 in 2010. That levy would expire in June 30, 2016. Councilor Moore. asked what we might expect to see if the County put a levy on the November ballot. Mr. Grimaldi said the Sheriff and District Attorney would likely do all they could to try to get something before the voters in November. It would, however, be up to the Board of Commissioners who had expressed some reluctance to put a measure on the ballot. Councilor Moore said that would have an impact on Springfield. Mr. Grimaldi said in the past, voters had voted independently. Last time the County and City had measures on the ballot at the same time, both passed in Springfield. Councilor Moore asked what other funding sources could be used so the levy would no longer be needed. She asked if it would be an increase from the General Fund to the Police Department. Chief Smith said it would most likely come from the General Fund, or less likely from a law enforcement district. City of Springfield Council Work Session Minutes May 7, 2012 Page 7 Councilor Moore asked how much General Fund money it would take to replace the levy. Mr. Duey said it would take about $6M per year, which was a very high percentage of the General Fund. There could be options to find funding for other non General Fund purposes, but those had been difficult to find in the past. When the committee looked at this before the Jail was built, they prepared a report on about a half dozen different types of funding sources. At that time, the committee recommended an income tax, but that did not have community support. If Council wanted to try something besides the levy, they would need to start looking at options now in order to have something in place by the time the next levy expired. Councilor Moore spoke regarding street funds and asked how staff was progressing with the community outreach. Mr. Grimaldi said Development and Public Works staff were starting conversations with a committee about the condition of our streets to look at possible solutions. They would bring those results back to the Council in the early or late fall for further direction. Councilor Moore asked if one of the options could include a tax levy. Yes. Councilor Woodrow summarized the discussion from the PPTF meeting. The group discussed various levy amounts between $1.09 and $1.34. The basic amount of providing the current levels of service resulted in the $1.22 figure which was the recommendation of the PPTF. The community had been very responsive to the success of the Police levies and had seen the results. That positive outlook and sense in the community would help the levy be marketable at $1.22. At $1.09, the department would need to cut what was being provided. The PPTF felt citizenry would understand costs had risen over the last five years. Mayor Lundberg asked staff what they were looking for tonight from the Council. Mr. Duey said if staff knew which figures Council wanted staff to look at further, they could address those figures when doing the community survey. If Council wanted staff to look at the $1.09 figure, more discussion would be needed on the impacts on other services in the City. Staff wanted to make sure that they brought back information on June 4 that responded to Council concerns. Councilor Pishioneri said the increase in assessed valuation in FY11 was .95% and 3.6% in FY 12. The increase from the 2006 levy of $1.09 to the proposed figure of $1.22 was about a 12% increase. He asked what type of positive impact would occur on the levy. Mr. Duey said when he started with the FYI 2 valuation, he increased it by 3% over the next 6 years. Councilor Pishioneri said those were low figures. Mr. Duey said there should be some increase, but if we didn't receive the assessed value (AV) expected, services could be adjusted during some of the years. Assuming no growth for five years, the dollar rate became so high it would not have been worth pursuing. He tried to find middle ground to propose a rate that was reasonable for growth, but was still manageable. Councilor Pishioneri asked how much of the funds from the levy went to court and prosecutor services. City of Springfield Council Work Session Minutes May 7, 2012 Page 8 Mr. Duey said in the proposed budget for the next year, the prosecutor would receive about $69,000 and the court would receive about $334,000. Councilor Pishioneri said he was comfortable with $1.22, but they would need to explain to citizens why it was being increased by 12 %. He asked if there was a plan if the funds weren't adequate. Mr. Grimaldi said they would try to make up for any shortfall with the General Fund if needed. A shortage during the first year could likely be absorbed. Councilor Pishioneri said he appreciated the work. Councilor Moore asked if the City could make up for the loss of services we received from Lane County, such as the medical examiner and prosecution services, with this levy. Mr. Grimaldi said Lane County was still exploring some options regarding the medical examiner and were making some progress. Councilor Moore asked if it would be worth looking at increasing the $1.22 rate another $0.03 to have some funding available to provide some of those services if needed. Mr. Grimaldi said staff would bring that back to the June meeting for more discussion. Councilor Woodrow said it was important to have this ready before recess to allow time to get information out to the citizens. Councilor Wylie said she would like to have talking points if they moved ahead with the levy to address questions when talking with citizens and community groups. She would like information regarding the increase and how much it would cost for an average house. Councilor Ralston said it was fair to say it was a 12% increase over six years. Mr. Duey said the rate was going up 12 %, but there had been some revenue decreases and expense increases. Councilor Ralston said that was only an increase of 2% per year. The City's budget had gone up more than that. Mr. Duey said he felt they had managed the cost on the levy well. It wasn't that the costs were out of line, but that costs were going up and the AV hadn't gone up as much as anticipated six years ago. Discussion was held regarding the 12% increase being effective the first year. It was noted that it had taken 6 years to build to the 12 %. Councilor Pishioneri asked about other measures that might go forward in the November election. Willamalane Superintendent Bob Keefer said Willamalane may have a 20 year bond that would be on the ballot. It could cost the average home about $48. Councilor Pishioneri asked about compression. City of Springfield Council Work Session Minutes May 7, 2012 Page 9 Mr. Duey said the Willamalane bond measure would be outside of compression. Our additional $0.13 would get us closer to compression, but still below. If the County went forward with a levy for public safety, it would affect compression. The County had the compression figure, but it was around the $9 mark. Councilor Pishioneri said if we reached compression, the City would get less than our levy amount. Mr. Duey said each levy that was in place would receive less equally. Mayor Lundberg said Councilor Moore had a good point about the County and the loss of services. People would want to know if the City was trying to make up for the loss of County services through our levy. How that would be addressed with the public needed to be discussed. ADJOURNMENT The meeting was adjourned at 6:58 p.m. Minutes Recorder — Amy Sowa Christine L. Lundberg Mayor Attest: (11, J � �- City Recorder