Springfield City Council — April 12, 2021

0:10 um all right i'm going to call the a work session for the springfield city council to order with roll call mayor van gorden here counselors pitts here mo here bradley here here woodrow here pationary present all right the first item it looks like we have budget committee interviews um and i'm looking is it neil you're taking this oh there you are indeed good evening mayor and uh and council you're you're right tonight we've got uh budget committee interviews for uh the vacancies that we currently have in wards three and four we have five applicants tonight that are

0:55 here for interviews you've got the standard questions for budget committee interviews in your attack in your ais packet as attachment number one typically applicants are interviewed in the order that they're listed in the ais but the council can elect to interview in whatever order you would like tonight and so uh when the council is is ready um aj or neil will pull up the first applicant i'll drop off and will be available for questions um but can pop back up um once the interviews are complete all right um perfect so um the last few times we've done this it's worked pretty well we've started with sort of a round robin theory on asking the questions and we're gonna do that

1:41 going going through uh going through these applications um unless anybody's got questions i think we're ready does anybody have questions about the process nope what now what i was going to suggest mayor was that since we always start with ward 1 we start with ward 6 tonight well i'll i'll give them time to prepare or i'll do the first one and then we can do it in reverse order i'm ready oh you were born ready all right aj um you want to bring up the first

2:26 sorry my unmute was not working correctly um so our first applicant is darlene uh and i'm apologize if i pronounce your last name wrong race um and she should be able to show her camera and unmute her mic at this point hello darlene can you hear us okay am i unmuted now you are unmuted now we can hear you loud and clear we still can't see you though oh here we go i'm borrowing a computer so you can see me so my computer doesn't have a camera there you are let's see i can adjust it

3:12 you can see my face is that better that's perfect all right so um we're gonna go through um and read you a couple of questions um we're gonna i'm gonna read all the questions to you so as we work through this and everybody else is gonna take notes um and then we'll go from there you ready to get started okay why are you interested in serving on the budget committee well i i grew up in springfield i was raised i went to thurston high school and then i went away to work but then i moved back because after i retired this is where i wanted to live and i've i've seen the city grow and

3:58 expand over the time you know visiting my parents and i would just like to help shape the future of springfield i've been very um excited about the revitalization of downtown springfield making it a destination and also the gateway area so i rarely have to go to eugene anymore to do any business so i'm really sold on springfield all right thank you can you describe your professional and personal experience as it relates to your desire to become a budget committee member

4:43 um well i served four years on the willamalane budget committee and that gave me a little bit different perspective because i worked with military recreation this gave me a chance to see a more government type recreation [Music] with the different sources of revenue that they use for generating their budget income and i i learned about the team springfield concept where the um willamelain and the school district i think sub in the city all work together to um you know makes springfield a better place but professionally i was a recreation

5:29 director and i worked at the naval post graduate school in monterey california and i over saw the fitness program the special events single sailor program the information tickets and tours program the flying club the marina and the department's marketing department and i was responsible for preparing and consolidating the various budgets into one one budget for the recreation department and i would have to justify any renovations to facilities

6:16 and equipment purchases as well and uh i received a small purchase warrant so that i could sign purchase orders up to five thousand dollars and resale up to fifty thousand dollars so that's my background perfect um can you describe your familiarity with the city's budget well you know i really don't know a whole lot about the city's budget but i would hope that i could give some fresh eyes but i i do know certain elements that are required in the budgets for fire and safety and maintenance of the infrastructure and as

7:02 a property owner i'm well aware of my assessments by the city while all of springfield services seem to have strong support from different areas of the community it is often necessary to prioritize services for budgetary reasons how would you go about the task of establishing priorities among services well i would look first for any essential services that might be required by law or the city or the ca or excuse me the state or the county and then i would look at services that were needed or used by the majority of the residents to maintain their quality of life

7:47 and then i would look to see if there were ways that the city could help subsidize some of these services for low-income residents often times the members of the budget committee have different opinions on how the citizens money should be spent what is your experience with working as a member of a diverse group and helping to ensure that all opinions are heard and considered well my experience working with the military um provided me with experience of working with people of all different regional and cultural backgrounds and also people of various ranks from recruits to admirals and generals

8:32 and i worked overseas in south korea and i also worked in germany so i've i have done some ex i love my hobby is traveling so i love experiencing new places and new people and new food um so um i and i currently volunteer on three three boards myself right now um so i'm working with people you know in that situation and then at my last employment i was the coordinator for the navy wide

9:19 star service program which was a customer service program that was required of all employees in the moral welfare and recreation department if you were on the budget committee uh and we're looking at one of the city services to decide how much it should be funded through general taxes and how much should be funded through specific fees on customers what questions would you have to would you want to have answered in order to make your decision um well i would want to know who the beneficiaries of the service provided who would be benefiting and what would be the ability for them to pay

10:04 and then how necessary would this service be to the community and if there would be any grants or any other sources of revenue that would might be available also i would maybe look within the budget itself to see if there could be some money that could be reallocated and then how do you think the work of the budget committee will improve our community well i think having elected officials and members of the general public working together on the budget committee would help build trust and in the development and

10:51 execution of the city's overall plan and i really think it would aid in the transparency of government [Music] all right great um that was the last question um we are we are going to continue to interview for the night and then somebody's going to be in contact with you and let you know what our decision is thank you so much for coming okay thank you very much aj i think we are ready for the next person and the person is going to be joe

11:37 our next interview is going to be irene hennem and bear with me and i will get her pulled up here and irene you should be able to unmute your microphone and share your camera uh yeah i think so let me adjust okay i think i am visible and ready can you all hear me yes we can hear and see you thank you excellent okay so

12:22 uh thank you for coming and i'm gonna i'm gonna grill you now you ready oh definitely all right only because only because uh leonard told me i had to go first so that wasn't very nice of him i know oh he threw me under the bus quickly all right so um the first question i have for you is um why are you interested in serving on the budget committee um i think that me the government is the people and we are all government we are all part of the government um and i want to i've always been interested in politics and government and i think the budget committee is a great way to be involved in my community

13:10 um i think that you know we all have these grand ideas of things that can get done in our community but the reality is that there is a budget and that things need to be paid for and that part of it interests me uh the practicality of the budget committee and also um i've lived in springfield um i did not grow up here but i have lived in springfield for more than 20 years and i love this community and i want to improve it in any way that i can um i like a lot of the improvements that have happened since i have moved here like darlene said the revitalization of downtown has been outstanding and i'd like to see that

13:56 spread throughout our great city here and i just want to contribute and make it a better place for all of us thank you so um could you please describe your professional and personal experience as it relates to your desire to become a budget committee member i have had a lot of different professions in my uh my life my working life when i first moved to oregon in 1987 i worked for borden chemical which i believe is now hynex down by um down by the river down there as a laboratory technician i have been a public school teacher i

14:41 taught third grade in lebanon oregon i have been a substitute teacher in the springfield public schools i now i work in the field of landscaping because i one of the things i learned about myself over the years is that i prefer to be outdoors and work with my hands i am the past uh com lane county softball umpires commissioner i officiated high school level sports uh in the community for around 10 years until i my knees wouldn't let me do that kind of thing anymore and i currently serve as the house district 12

15:26 chair for the democratic party of lane county okay and describe your familiarity with the city's budget please i read through the budget um boy that takes some work reading through the budget uh boy it's quite a quite a page turner uh but it from what i could see our budget seems to be well thought out well crafted nothing really stood out to me as being a glaring problem in the budget um you know just a few little minor things i know that the three main areas of the

16:11 budget are are public works and then police fire and safety those things take up the majority of the budget i noticed that health care costs for employees obviously is an issue and keeps going up and that's just something in our society in general that we need to address um anyway um i i was impressed with the efforts made to consolidate services whenever necessary and to um it just seems like it's it's a well thought out budget thank you and while all the springfield services seem to have strong support

16:56 from different areas of the community it is often necessary to prioritize services for budgetary reasons how would you go about the task of establishing priorities among services uh i think seeking public comment is really important communication with the public is important between government and well we are all the government but between citizens and those people who choose to serve in government and i would want services that have broad community support obviously would be a priority and also required services uh need to be a priority but you know sometimes uh councils and committees need to make

17:43 tough decisions and fun things that maybe don't necessarily have broad community support and i think in that instance you go ahead and do what is right and you explain you use your skills and communication to explain to the public why that is important and necessary to make the community better for all of us thank you excuse me oftentimes the members of the budget committee have different opinions on how the citizens money should be spent what is your experience with working as a member of a diverse group and helping to ensure that all opinions are heard and considered i too served in the military i was a

18:29 member of the um us army reserve so i think for me that was probably one of the areas in my life where i had the most opportunity to work with people from diverse backgrounds i also served on the springfield safety and respect for all committee at some point in the past in the year now i cannot remember but it was at a time in our city's history when um there was a lot of debate around protections for citizens from the lgbtq community and uh this committee was put together and it was a diverse group of people some from more conservative uh backgrounds more conservative religious

19:15 backgrounds and uh also members of the lgbtq community and just um just talking through issues and trying to find consensus and i thought it was one of the most rewarding experiences i've had my experience really is that most people agree on most issues we just differ on how to on the approach to take to solve problems thank you um so if you were on the budget committee and we're look we're looking for one of the city's services to decide how much should be funded through general taxes and how much should be how much through specific fees

20:00 on customers what questions would you want to have answered in order to make that decision or assist you yes and i know sometimes those decisions are really difficult um i think i would want to know um how fee increases would affect um low income folks people on fixed incomes people working people um i think sometimes we rely on fees when it's difficult to raise revenue in other ways but fees are uh you know they're hard on people with with they don't have much money but on the other hand if it's a service that isn't broadly used by the public i

20:46 i understand that using fees as a way to help support the you know um help support that is important um and i also uh think that sometimes it's important to look for other funding sources like grants and uh cooperation with other other governments and um other you know the uh the private sector yes thank you um so the last question is how do you think the work of the budget committee will improve our community well i i think the budget committee um it's kind of like the keystone uh for

21:32 how our city operates because like i said earlier the practicality of it is that you need we need money to operate uh the city and to have the city work for all of us and um you know what i want is i want there to be room in our budget to help with uh build affordable housing in springfield i want our city to continue to grow the way it has grown um so greatly in the downtown area i'm excited about you know the opportunities for glenwood and the gateway area in just all parts of springfield um and i just want to make

22:18 one of the things i really support the use of coots to help with people who are having um mental health crises it seems like right now in in in general in our society um we have a lot of issues with homelessness and mental health uh struggles and i think funding cahoots is very important and also um you know having resources available to help the homeless and i just want to improve the community for all members of the community and i want just to make it springfield a better place to live for all of us

23:07 okay thank you very much thank you appreciate it have a good evening we'll be in touch with you to let you know on our decision thank you so much we i really appreciate it thank you so much irene um so the next part the next uh interview is uh counselor woodrow's going to do and aj i think we're ready for the next person and that will be rosemary nord and rosemary you should be able to unmute your microphone and enable your camera

23:56 hi rosemary hello okay i thank you for coming and thank you for applying and we will start with a few questions why are you interested in serving on the budget committee well i'm going to be very candid that i had not really considered serving on the budget committee um um other than just after what our country has been through over the last four years i realized that the only good part of it was for me was that i learned a lot about government and i think i re i just always figured that running for senate running for mayor governor whatever was just something other people did and i had been thinking well shoot why didn't i ever do

24:41 anything like that maybe you know if i want to see changes in government or anything i should step step in the ring a little bit and that's about as far as i went with that and then my one-time neighbor leonard knocked on my door and knowing that i had kind of a lot of signs in my front yard and stuff showing my support for a particular candidate he figured i was fairly interested in government and so he asked me if i might be interested in joining the budget committee and i looked at him and said well that's interesting because i've had thoughts about wanting to throw a towel in there somewhere and so i i said yes so that was my interest

25:26 in the budget committee thank you describe your professional and personal experience as it relates to your desire to become a budget committee member okay well um i gret i graduated from san diego state university and my degree was in uh recreation administration with an emphasis in therapeutics so i did a lot of work with people with various disabilities and i did that for a while until i well i guess my first job out of college was working at the canejo valley park and recreation district which is down in thousand oaks california i'm i just recently i've been in springfield now for six and a half years but i'm kind of a lie for californian so i'm trying to become an oregonian to some degree

26:14 um i worked uh in that recreation and parks district and i was the league manager so i ran the various sports leagues for men and women and such in that and then i worked with uh the individuals with various disabilities in a community setting the organization was called friends of handicapped children which at this point in time would not be pc but that's what it was called back then and i was a supervisor for the parent house parents and the other workers that came in to do things with the kids and i did a lot of things we took them bowling and water skiing and snow skiing and just lots of good stuff and then i heard that the l.a city fire department was looking for women

26:59 candidates to have as firefighters they didn't have any female firefighters yet so i started going through the process and the next thing you know i was in the drill tower and i made it out into the fire out into the field of the l.a city fire department and so um i you know as far as how that relates to the budget committee i mean i've been a single working woman and and i'm a mother um and i've always been able to manage my own budget and i've never lost my home or anything else due to lack of finances so it's kind of surprising to me sometimes but i've been able to manage it so um i i do have an understanding

27:44 of you know how many works and where it needs to go for what it needs to pay for so thank you describe your familiarity with the city's budget well that's an interesting question because um my first thought is i don't have any familiarity with the city budget other than i did go on the website and i found the city of springfield fiscal year 2020 proposed budget the 298 page document and i i will see that i have not yet completely read that and um it's uh so there's a lot for me to learn i i really am not at all uh connected to how the budget operates and

28:30 that for me it would all be a learning experience while all of the springfield services seem to have strong support from different areas of the community it's often necessary to prioritize services for budgetary reasons how would you go about the task of establishing priorities among services well um you know being that like i said i haven't ever been involved in budgetary management i i guess i not knowing what all the parameters are um i would just from my own vantage point of how many i feel my money should be used as that has to go to the most necessary things first like you know any immediate needs in the

29:16 community any safety hazards um so you know i mean bottom line it would be something that i would learn as i as i went and i'm i'm a good learner so i know that i can learn how to uh how to prioritize those things i mean i have interest in you know health services for children and seniors and food programs and safety for our roads and obviously an interest in police and fire services and so i'll just learn as i go but i do have some understanding i believe of where priorities might be but that's something i would be discussing with the people in the committee

30:01 thank you oftentimes the members of the budget committee have different opinions on how a citizen's money should be spent what is your experience with working as a member of a diverse group and helping to ensure that all opinions are heard and considered okay well as one of the first female firefighters in los angeles city i will say that i was a part of the diversity in every fire station i worked at that was completely men eventually there might be one other woman on one of the other platoons but i worked with all men and it was great in los angeles i mean there we there was asians there was latinx there was all all the bipoc people that you could

30:47 think of that um are hired on the fire department so um it was it was uh a refreshing place to work in that um i wasn't just around all white people all the time i would have liked to have been around a few more women but that that's that's developing more and more now so um um different opinions are what makes the world go around i think and um open discussion is the only way that adults can figure out uh what uh which direction we want to go and i just lost the questions i got it which one do you think the last one did did anybody else lose the questions i lost the quest wait a minute here comes

31:34 okay i was going to read it to you okay that if you were on the budget committee and we're looking at one of the city services to decide how much should be funded through general taxes and how much specific fees on customers what questions would you want to have answered in order to make your decision well you know as i'm going ahead and being totally honest with you all i just have to say that um i really never thought about the fact that there are general taxes for things and specific fees um for other on customers for things until i thought about the fact that well wait a minute i understand that

32:19 when i pay my taxes i'm paying for fire and police and public schools and i don't know what all else i mean i'm that's automatic in uh my uh feelings that paying taxes are bringing the community good things and then i also have been assessed fees for things like the city managing easements or sidewalks or street sweeping and various things to keep the the area um looking safe and secure and good and stuff so i i will just have to kind of um be guided and not just learn about where uh certain things uh you know i don't know if there's a standard where these types of things get

33:04 budgeted by tax dollars and these types of things get budgeted by uh customer assessment so um that will be another big learning experience for me and um i'm i'm ready for it thank you how do you think the work of the budget committee will improve our community well you know my my main thing is i mean obviously proper handling of the funds of the city is uh imperative to any community and you know none of us want to see anything get forgotten and um there's there's i'm certainly bet that there's constituents constituents that are putting in their bids for things that they want to have improved on and and i'm sure that never stops and and there are needs everywhere so um

33:52 i think that the proper fiscal management of the money of the city is what any city needs in order to make the city a place where people feel safe and secure and they want to live thank you you're welcome thank you you will you will be contacted um as to what our decision is tonight but thank you very much for putting in your application and doing the interview okay thank you thank you rosemary okay thank you aj i think we are ready for the next person leonard is going to ask the questions our next applicant is victoria doyle

34:45 and victoria you should be able to unmute your microphone and share your camera all right i'm on can you hear me yes i can excellent hi how are you victoria good how's everybody doing tonight good um well you've done this before so um i'll just uh go right into the questions if it's okay sure i've got my answers already written out so that i wouldn't get off track oh yeah all right well that's good i've got mine in writing here in front of me too so we ought to get along fine um why are you interested in serving on the budget committee um well um in 2010 i was living in cottage grove and i was sitting in a local hangout i was

35:31 complaining about something that uh the city had uh budgeted and had done spent money on and one of the folks who was near me who was a local business owner overheard me and it was a friend of mine and he said well you can't really complain if you're not involved um and the city has spots for local residents to serve on the budget committee and they can barely fill the positions they had with 9 000 people in town and i realized that he was right that if i'm going to complain about it i should probably know what the heck i'm talking about and maybe i should be involved and and you know i feel like as rosemary had mentioned there's a lot that was going on in the political spectrum but the truth is is that we don't have a whole lot of control over what happens in washington and we almost don't really have a lot of

36:16 control over what happens in salem but we do have a voice in our own community and i and that's why i feel very strongly about getting involved and so i joined the budget committee in 2010 and in um 2009 and in 2010 i actually ran and was elected to the city council and spent a full term as a city councilor in cottage grove the only reason i didn't run again was because i did know i was going to be moving back to springfield it's the only time in my life i haven't lived in springfield and i didn't think that it was fair to be elected and have people who voted for me knowing that i was going to represent them and then know that i wasn't going to do that so i uh opted to not re-run and after getting here in springfield once again i decided

37:02 to get involved and joined the budget committee here and i've served a couple of terms on the budget committee here in springfield so i just feel like it's really important to be involved in your local local town describe your professional and personal experience as it relates to your desire to become a budget committee member um i've always been interested in budgeting i help my my family and different friends who have had trouble with their own personal budgets and um i found that to be really um it was really fun to help them figure out how to do things and how to make their money stretch and their things work after being on the budget committee for city council basically 2010 to 2014 um

37:51 did you um that really gave me a lot of experience with budgeting and you know coming from the private sector into the public sector you find out that there are unfunded mandates there's just so many rules that don't that aren't the same as in the private sector and there's rules that you have to work within and so it was it was an incredible learning experience for me knowing um that there's reasons why we make the decisions that we do and reasons why you guys make the decisions that you do and i feel like that helps me um be better at making suggestions and and offering my input um so that you guys can make a more informed decision as well um i'm also i work for a local municipality i work for public works engineering for the city of eugene so i'm already involved in a a public

38:37 position so i understand the difference between the general fund and specific funds and fees and what we have to do with unions and social services and so i have a pretty well-rounded view of those different things and can really keep an open mind on that thanks describe your familiarity with the city's budget um so i pretty much have covered that i i've been involved with the city budget for a while um i really appreciate the tight ship that our um that our city runs i think that they make really good and fiscally sound decisions and that even through those really tough times back in 2008 2009 where

39:23 um you know municipalities were really scrambling because the dollars were falling off and things especially with you know taxes and that kind of thing and they had to really tighten stuff up i understand that that was a difficult time and so i'm not really familiar with the new city manager because it was the previous city manager and we had a different mayor although i do i know sean um having worked with him in the past as well so i'm looking forward to learning um how uh things are still chugging along i'm hoping it's still showing along just as well as it has been in the past let's all hope so i i have full confidence though while all of the springfield services seem to have strong support from different areas of the community it is often necessary to prioritize services

40:08 for budgetary reasons how would you go about the task of establishing priorities among services so this is a tough question um everyone who comes to the table with a budget item feels that their their item is important right it's important to them and um so making those tough decisions although they're necessary um they're important for the budget to succeed and for us to be able to meet the budgeting um that we need to do i'm a huge proponent of having reserves for future projects and because unplanned costs and you know i also believe in funding our police and our fire um and i have a very personal interest in public works making sure that um the primary costs

40:53 are met first um the things that are most important i believe in a community which is safety security having good roads um i think we as a community and i say this from having not been involved is that we just take it for granted that our toilet's going to flush right when we push the when we push the lever and i think that people don't realize that there's a pipe underneath the road and there's there's infrastructure that has to work properly and so um i'm a real advocate for making sure that those main things are uh are taken care of and then we start looking at libraries and social services and the things that really enhance the livability of our community but i just i think that's a really strong basis that we need to start with

41:39 and then we move from there great oftentimes the members of the budget committee have different opinions on how the citizens money should be spent what is your experience with working as a member of a diverse group and helping to ensure that all opinions are heard and considered i really like this question and i thought about it a lot because i'm i sometimes come in and i i have an idea of exactly what i think something should be and having served on committees like i was on the community development uh committee with the city of springfield where they their job is to um use the funds the federal funds that come in and try to dole those out for different

42:24 services and there was a person on the committee who had actually been homeless and who had a a really unique perspective and so i don't think that diversity necessarily has to do with race as um i mean of course it does but it also has to do with ideas and your personal experiences and things that you've you've done in your life and so her you know giving her opinion and and her insight and that really changed the way i had come in thinking and so um i really try you know on the city council in cottage grove we had a private business owner we had the um director of head start um we had just a really unique group

43:10 that had totally different ideas sometimes about things and hearing that it may or may not change how i feel about it but having that can really make a difference on um on a decision that i make and so i just think it's absolutely essential um one of the things i'm really happy about is to see how many people applied for these two positions because oftentimes we don't get that diversity in people that apply for the budget committee and so it's really exciting to sit here and hear these other folks that are coming in that have such a you know diverse background it's really neat i think you guys are going to have a really good a tough choice but some really good options to choose from this time i think that's awesome thanks if you were on the budget committee and you were looking at one of the city services to decide

43:56 how much should be funded through general taxes and how much through specific fees on customers what question would you want to have answered in order to make your decision or what questions okay so the questions that i came up with with that i would ask is um twofold one for the general and then one for um if it was going to be fee based how does the service relate to the general community meaning is it for the benefit of the entire community or is it just certain areas of the community um and then what condition what is the condition of the general fund like is there enough money to take it from there and if there's not well then what program or service are we planning to cut to pay for this one because i know there's only so much to go around so we need to kind of look at

44:42 what you know what needs to go to what um what service um when's the last and then when it comes to fees when's the last time we raised a fee um if we for that particular service okay and um it could have been 10 or 12 years since we changed the fees and the cost of living has gone up and that might be a way to look at that and how much is the percentage of the fee increase and how did we decide that percentage i'd want to ask the staff how they came up with that um and then the other thing is if we increase the fee will it in well it didn't actually cause a lower usage which would then do the opposite of what we were trying to do by increasing the fee to begin with so those are some of the questions that i would probably ask of um staff when

45:30 this type of a decision would come to the budget committee how do you think the work the budget committee will improve our community since the money being spent is tax dollars and community funds this is a responsibility that i personally take very serious and i wish more people would get involved because um the committees and the council can really only make recommendations and make decisions based on the information that they have um that i think that the council uh has the best intentions and trying to make those decisions and so they can only do what they can with what they've been given um you know i know that none of you are getting rich being counselors right and being on committees and stuff

46:16 none of us are making a ton of money doing this um any money um and so it's it's more about springfield and it's about how we feel about this community i was born at mckinsey willamette i graduated from thurston high school i love this community and i'm so excited about what's happening with the revitalization downtown and the fact that springfield is just freely changing things it's so cool um and so i want the future of springfield to be bright and vibrant and so um i hope that my recommendations and my suggestions reflect that that feeling thanks so much that's all i got okay thank you thank you all for your time i do appreciate what you do for the city thanks victoria we'll be in touch okay thanks

47:05 all right aj we've got one more it looks like um and then cory will do the questioning our last applicant is steven schmunk and steven you should be able to unmute yourself and share your camera hear me hear you we can't see you but we can hear you sorry you're a little new at this so bear with me just a moment let's figure out okay you should be able to i guess see me now welcome steven all right i'm going to ask the questions while everyone else jots furiously

47:51 why are you interested in serving on the budget committee uh well um as victoria doyle said uh i i don't want to be one a person that gripes about what's going on with without having a perspective i i think the budget committee is a good way for me to get involved in the city understand the challenges that you know you all have to deal with and um and and you know sort of help with you know my experience to um uh perhaps uh you know make the city better um and then and then i you know in in that vein i really am interested in in downtown i remember

48:38 when downtown was a vibrant shopping center um so you know i'd like to be that way again whether it's all restaurants or uh you know small shops and whatnot but i think it can be vibrant but you know obviously that's a challenge thank you so describe your professional and personal experiences as it relates to your desire to become a budget committee member well i was i was on the springfield uh school district budget committee a 2010 time frame and so i became familiar with the different fund sources and needs of the budget um and uh i've been in business for over 50 years in springfield and

49:25 i you know i in that time i learned how to prioritize how to uh you know work with folks and you know make things happen um sometimes on a limited budget um so i i think and i think that that background hopefully would be a benefit to the to the committee thank you so you touched on this a little describe your familiarity with the city's budget yeah so i've done this superficially i i've looked and i you know i understand the um you know some of the different budget categories clearly i don't know where they go i you know and i know that public safety

50:10 and administration obviously the largest uh largest ones um but you know i can't tell you that i understand any of the details beyond that right well all of the springfield services seem to have strong support from different areas of the community it is often necessary to prioritize services for budgetary reasons how would you go about the task of establishing priorities among services yes so um you know i think the council was elected um to set the the agenda and set the um

50:55 direction of the city and i would hope that i could help um try to flesh out those priorities in terms of both you know the fiscal responsibility and the needs of the citizens also all the citizens thank you oftentimes the members of the budget committee have different opinions on how the citizens money should be spent what is your experience working as a member of a diverse group and helping to ensure that all opinions are heard and considered uh well i i've always well always i'm a younger man i probably wasn't as tolerant but i've grown to learn that you really have to put yourself in

51:41 someone else's shoes try to think about where they were that morning and why they might be you know in a particular mood or what have you and and try to cut to the core issue try to help them um understand the important issues but you know people are not all the same but we all should be respected and we all should uh respect others and um i just think it's uh you know no matter who you are you have something to contribute um and we we should always listen uh you know we we're not gonna agree always but um but we certainly shouldn't make it clear why we disagree

52:26 and uh i think better decisions come from that thank you if you were on the budget committee and we're looking at one of the city's services to decide how much should be funded through general taxes and how much through specific fees on customers what questions would you want to have answered in order to make your decision well of course that's always difficult but i think the i think the overriding issue is is you've got to see what the you know what it is what it's providing i mean if the city is going to provide services that are frivolous if you will um then that's more of a user fee the person should pay for what what they're doing um

53:12 and but if it's a if it's a generally used and the scale is such that the city can provide it but not any individual can provide it then then i think that's something to consider um but uh you know it's all about you know how much resources you have and the importance of the particular thing i i'm i'm usually for user fees but but i do understand that you know that's not always possible and uh and and again the council would sort of be my direction you know what what are you looking for and then and then i would try to help decide how we get it done

53:57 thank you how do you think the work of the budget committee will improve our community well i think if the citizens know where their money's being spent and why um you know that's a fundamental of the budget committee and and the you know the public needs to better understand where the money's being spent why it's being spent what the expectation is for the money being spent um so i think the budget committee has the unique role of of making sure that the community's priorities are allocated properly given the parameters that the council would provide thank you that's our questions and you

54:43 may have heard um you'll be contacted and folks will let you know staff will let you know um after this meeting so thank you very much thank you thank you for your service all of you all right um so now we're gonna move on to deliberations and if before we get sort of started talking about where people's preferences are remember we are making two appointments today um historically they have been award appointments but we can defer that it's not that something that is sort of a rule that we've followed but it's not sort of locked and written in stone

55:28 um so with that i don't know if anybody wants to start by listing their preferences or if it would be easier just to go buy the award okay can you hear me now i can hear you now okay uh just a clarifying question who do we have who who is who is assigned currently on the budget committee that is not in their own ward councilor woodrow i've got the list here and the only individual that's not currently residing in their award is holly bauer shaper

56:14 if i recall correctly she resides in ward 2 but serves uh for ward 5. okay so we just have one in that in that situation okay thank all you all right so going down dave i don't see anybody jumping into this so maybe we'll go and reverse go ahead leonard [Music] well um we're i i think um i i guess i've got a question too um so the two openings are for ward 4 and for ward which one three uh for for wards four and three

57:00 um i i think am i remembering correctly that irene is from ward three yes irene and darlene i think irene and darlene are both highly qualified if i were to have my wish um i i would um i i would probably uh cast my life for irene um i know victoria has served with the distinction in the uh budget committee before and i uh it certainly wouldn't break my heart if she got to the ward 4 appointment although i think

57:46 that um i think that rosemary was a fine now it was a fine applicant okay anybody else you ready to go joe okay sure so um i can i uh concur with a partially concur with with leonard my esteemed colleague um so i think darlene has got a great background very well experienced with budget um probably more so than a lot of folks here um so i would recommend her for the ward 3 appointment and then for the um ward 4 appointment i think that um i was very impressed with both well victoria's got a great uh resume

58:32 and she would be um in her rightful ward so to speak uh as opposed to like holly was in replacing ward five so she would be a automatic word five representative so to speak and that that makes any sense but i like victoria and my other choice should be with steve he's got a a very analytical mind you can tell by the way he answered his questions and that he's got a great background as far as a business sense which makes sense on a budget committee um so i would i would recommend darlene for ward 3 placement and then as a coin toss with mr schmuck and victoria doyle for the ward 4

59:18 appointment all right who wants to go next steve i like darlene for ward 3. i can go into details but everybody else is going to do that victoria she's got lots and lots of experience i really wasn't impressed with mr schmunk who comes to my business for a little bit different view of things yeah he's got a good handle on things and i'd like to see him there too but we can only select two so those are the three that really stood out to me do you have a reference order for victoria and steve are you saying it's kind of a coin flip here it's kind of a coin victoria

1:00:06 okay come here lee um i i pretty much echo steve um i had darlene for ward three and i had a toss toss-up between victoria and stephen the one thing i did want to say was how much i appreciated rosemary's application and interview and i would love to see her apply for other committees and to be involved because she has she has an interest she has a passion and i'd love to see her energy um involved in another committee so i hope that um that by people not mentioning her that she doesn't get discouraged because i'd love to see her apply for something else so same side i'm i'm pretty much lining up with steve i have darlene for ward three and i have a toss-up victorian steven and i i it really is toss-up i don't know that

1:00:53 i've got a preference because i like i like the comments that steve made as far as having a business person um we have we haven't necessarily had somebody that's been a business person we've had we've had a lot of volunteers um that are oriented towards serving but we haven't had a business person and i like i like the fact that steven has that business background so i probably would slightly lean towards him but i would be comfortable with either victoria or stephen okay um corey so i have a preference for folks being from their ward i know i'm new and i just think i i just would i just would prefer that um uh i also just appreciate everyone applying in word three which is my word i thought

1:01:38 darlene and irene were both great um i'm feeling a little stronger about irene like leonard um and then since rosemary's from ward 4 i realized that she hasn't done budget committees before but the fact that she stepped up to serve in that ward that's would be my preference um and so those are those are mine irene and rosemary perfect okay that demon uh let's go with irene and steve okay so if i'm kind of counting noses and keep me honest here neil i see enough people to move darlene forward and then really it's a toss-up between

1:02:23 stephen victoria cory i think there were three for irene and leonard had darlene as a two mary lee had him as a one fish atom is a one i have three for i have three for um irene which is demian corey and leonard actually sean what i what i intended i mean if we were going to go by by ward i i preferred irene for ward 3 and then i preferred victoria i think for ward 4. okay

1:03:09 so then okay but in the okay i am so that would leave us unsure between irene and darlene um and then all right and then uh victor between victoria and steve i think i've got i got enough for victoria but that's assuming that people are that there's a lot of coin flips here so go ahead you know i've got i've actually kind of got three and four um with victoria and steve four with uh steve having four yes that's why i want to

1:03:55 verify where everybody's asked i heard a lot of sort of coin flips between like right between you it's kind of like i kind of the leaning towards votes as kind of a steven in the same thing so okay that's kind of where i'm at okay so we can't go wrong with either one as far as i'm concerned but but i think that the the the breath that i'm getting is is leaning towards steve okay so i'm looking around we're green steve and then anybody and then we're and then we're a coin flip between uh between darlene and irene um if i'm gonna give people a chance to change any preferences they have my preference is darlene um between the two of them yeah that's mine yeah okay

1:04:42 so then then if you guys can bring forward darlene for ward three and then steam for ward four we'll do we will uh we'll bring this back for appointment on the 19. perfect uh any questions before we leonard you look quizzical yeah i i was just wondering i mean was there a tie breaker for ward 3 that i wasn't aware of yeah that sean just no all right noted thank you i'm a person too he just did it very surreptitiously okay perfect neil thank you so much thank you

1:05:29 all right the next item looks like it's jeff in the capital improvement plan all right good evening mayor and counselors uh and we'll try and keep this in 15-20 minutes i think given the time so be respectful of your time i'm here tonight to discuss the city's capital improvement program and get feedback and direction regarding the update of the document from the city council just as a little background so no one has to dig into the almost 200 page document it's just a reminder that the cip is a tool that projects or private

1:06:15 prioritizes projects and programs forecasted revenues for those projects and then really starts with master planning so those 20-year plans and then ultimately culminates with the capital budget one thing to note which is in the documentation provided is that the traditional schedule for the update of the cip you know no longer really syncs up with the annual budget update the draft cip or the draft capital budget is usually finished in february which is before the public review process is completed for the cip so it kind of cuts that out similar to this year we're already the budget's prepared everything's done

1:07:00 and we would have you know we're supposed to be in front of you guys the council this month for updating and adopting the cip so it's kind of missing that link so one of the proposals for council discuss and give direction on as regarding the update of that calendar to better align with the budget calendar and then another thing is given the eventful year we've had this see uh update hasn't really followed the traditional path and so it's also given an opportunity to kind of take and look at it with fresh eyes and potentially update the document the schedule those sorts of things and really looking to get feedback from council on that update of the document and that sort of thing

1:07:52 merrily just have a clarifying question um please please identify the relationship or the difference between the street level the street bond and the cip so the the levy or the i said the bond was revenue yeah the bond is just capital revenue that then was programmed in the cip so like we've been working on an update and one of those updates is just kind of truing up the cip with current condit you know current projects so projects completed projects that are ongoing like the two that the council awarded at the previous uh meeting and so in essence the bond was just additional revenue that went into the street fund that was programmed towards

1:08:37 those specific projects were which were identified in the bond what i'm looking for is mill street mill street mentioned anywhere mill street is my favorite yep and so actually i have good news so one of the things we have been working on is um i just heard uh from christy kruger who's managing that is that odot just put the rfp for consultant services on the street so that is one of the things that we've been waiting for is we've had all of our stuff done the iga council's approved that and we were ready to go and so we should start seeing some momentum some things moving on that project very soon great that was that's my pet street and

1:09:23 so i went i was looking for and i didn't see it now wait a minute i know every time i walk out there i just think ah we should have been out here a year ago or you know when we've gotten this program but we've kind of been held to you know with the federal process we're kind of you know at odot's schedule relying on odot hey i'm thrilled you had an answer for me that's you know that's a plus that you had that you had an answer so i'm good i'm glad i had good news answer jeff i'm pretty sure that everybody here is would make any call we needed to to make sure mill street got done since we commit like we made it important commitment to the community that it would get done so feel free to keep going

1:10:09 in any way we could support that steve did you have a question yeah i did and by the way i think this go around the mill street will be the third one that i've seen i've really been around i actually went through all 147 pages on this thing today can you believe that but it seems like there's some projects in there that no longer need to be there so and i can't tell you which ones now but why would that be so um that and that happens every update especially when we're on a biennial update process because we'll complete projects they'll be in there or things get reprioritized some projects get postponed for other priorities and i think that's the one thing when i look at the schedule that's missing because you know pretty much staff has the

1:10:55 capital budget prepared but then we're not getting in front of the planning commission or the council for a cip review until a month and a half after that happens and so especially in the last couple of years there's been a lot of dynamic things going on and so that that is one of the things so if the council chooses to move forward with the current update that's one of the things that we've done is we haven't really had the traditional public process with solicitation of projects and things like that but it's been truing up the cip to what projects have been completed what projects have kind of slipped due to funding issues or you know with the bond projects jumping in front of the line and in the queue and so that would be what you would see and so that's why the proposal is to do a comprehensive update for a 2327 cip

1:11:43 and align that with adoption um in december before the capital budget or before the budgeting process starts yeah this this proposal product whatever it is is really well done i went through many many of the items on it very easy to understand so you've done a good job thank you one of the updates i'm looking at what i've been reviewing some other agencies who get a lot of federal funding as i think one of the struggles is trying to figure out how we earmark money for match because a lot of the federal aid projects that we have require a local match and so tracking that and in looking at how they utilize their cips for tracking when we commit funds to match federal agency funds and and better representing that in the cip

1:12:28 i think that's one of the things i i just get questions internally from staff as well that are working on projects it's like how do we understand where the match is coming from how much is the match and then in essence there's kind of a fence around that funding so it can't be used for another project or you know in those priorities and i just don't know that the cip is very clear on that right now so jeff i've got a question here um so when is the cip it how much of a working document is it so after we go through this sort of approval approval process is it sort of if we walked into public works is it off the shelf you know marked up right like how much does the staff rely on it

1:13:14 so i think there's there's there's some critical things for a working document what what i utilize it for what capital pro staff utilizes for is really um getting that you know approval on a scope of a project from council so when council sees those projects we get kind of that big scope so that when we seek funding or we go and we actually have the funding to move a project forward we kind of have that that publicly approved scope of the project so we have this boundary around what we're going to do and then how do we feed that into the budget so i i use it on an annual basis when i'm updating the capital budget i use it um when we initiate projects and we we start those projects in the process

1:14:00 of design we utilize the document for um the scope of that project when we fine-tune that scope and that sort of thing and so as in every day i i mean i have a hard copy that sits here on my shelf that i utilize quite a bit but it's not like it's sitting out on my table all the time and sometimes i'm marking it up as we do things so that when we get to these updates or i get to that annual or biannual update i kind of already have an idea of things that have been done and i'm not just starting from scratch but those that's kind of really the key is how's the council want to prioritize the projects you know we present a laundry list of projects we have a lot of need and and what does the council with the

1:14:45 resources not just funding resources but staffing resources how does the council want to prioritize those projects and then what kind of scope do we want to you know how in depth do we go on certain projects and trying to keep that in line so that way i also know the one thing i use it for is that way if there's a change a big change i want to come back to the council to make sure that hey if the scope is getting is creeping a lot it's getting really out of control we need to go back and make sure we touch base with what was really publicly approved or publicly adopted as a scope of a project i hope that answered your question other questions or comments i don't know jeff did you have more

1:15:30 good jill hey jeff just a quick question i know that the it looks like we're borrowing money from the wastewater reserves to start the projects knowing that bond money is coming in subsequent to that to pay those back and um and i'm sure it's probably come across my desk before because i'm i'm a commissioner on the mwmc but i don't i don't recall that arrangement so we were borrowing from local funds and in actuality we never moved that that funding source forward so we had come to council so the bond was approved and no or voted on and and the voters approved the bond in in november of 2018

1:16:15 and in order to get a jump on the projects like consultant services and things like that before we could sell the bonds we came to the council with the proposal to borrow local wastewater funds so that as a through mwmc you wouldn't have seen that but it was just really a interim loan to the street fund and then what happened is far finance staff was able to get all of that work done really quickly and so we didn't really need the loan in the first place we were able to get the revenue pretty quickly by the time we had started signing contracts so that money was that money didn't need to loan it also but on the document it has it is in there so i'm just wondering if it's appropriate to have that

1:17:00 struck from there or made made more current in an update yes we would update that to show that that revenue or that language wasn't we would take that language out okay refresh it so that's where i that's where i was going with the council regardless of when we choose to update it whether it's we update it here now because i would propose that we come back and get a full update for the 2023 capital budget that we would go through and do a complete refresh and so if you have so if i were to present you so what you're looking at is the document that the council adopted in 20 2019 ahead of jeff yeah and ahead of fiscal year 20. and so that was the plan at that time okay um and so it kind of is a snapshot

1:17:47 in time that only gets updated every couple of years but internally we are still like doing in updating it on a daily basis or on an annual basis i get i'm just you know concerned about people picking it up and seeing it for the first time which is not we've seen it before but people picking up for the first time may may be giving a skewed glance at it and and um may take issue with some of those items so i just thought i would bring that up publicly at this point okay thank you very much all right any other questions or feedback specifically about updating the schedule although there were two parts to this [Music]

1:18:35 yeah and just as a reminder so the current the way the schedule is laid out now that we typically follows we would start in october with council ultimately adopting a new cip in april um traditionally now with the evolution of the the budgeting process i'm working on the capital budget and and um department budget with the staff in january with finalizing that in february and then so it just isn't an alignment with getting that public feedback is is where i'm coming from on the update of the schedule and so i think it would be better to realign the schedule with an adoption by council before winter recess which would then just dovetail and go line up

1:19:20 really nicely with the budget process and yeah and that makes sense yeah i'm good with that uh anybody got comments yeah that makes sense all right what else do you need direction so the other question would be does the council want me to bring back a update for 2024 to 2026 or would you rather just uh start the process and have a have council adopted 2023 2023-2027 version given that the budget is already the draft budget is already produced and ready for the budget committee which you'll be seeing here you know the videos and all that other stuff are already done and you'll be seeing that as part of the budget committee here and

1:20:05 then towards the end of this month um and then so my proposal would be that just start a full update and and have a new fresh cip and so because we've already got a cip through 2024 that's adopted and that's what was used for the current budget and so anyway i'm saying update the schedule and basically start that new schedule now i i think that makes a lot of sense yeah unless something substantive changes and i would say move forward [Music] okay so we'll probably plan on being back in front of the council in november with a work session to look at the new cip update for the fy 2023 budget yeah that would be perfect all right that is everything i need

1:20:50 great thank you so much jeff um we have a special session at seven o'clock so we're in the same uh same meeting link so please come back it's seven o'clock and we will do that mayor i apologize we are not on the same link it is a a whole new link i apologize and i was just i wanted to let everybody know so christy's listening so she wanted everybody to know that we've updated our web page so if anybody wants to see updates on current capital projects our web page you can go click on the button see the project see what's awarded and where they're at on the city's web page great thank you i actually had that used it the other day somebody had a question about one of the street bond ones so it was very easy to use

1:21:36 all right perfect thank you have a great evening thank you in a while quick in eight minutes we're just going to sign off of this and come back on with a different link i assume so that is correct that's spooky i'll try to find it now

0:07 all right aj you let me know when you're ready i am ready thank you i'm going to call this uh regular session of the springfield city council to order with roll call mayor van gorden here councilor pitts here councillor moan here council rodley here councillor stare here councillor woodrow here and counselor pictionary here all right neil can you uh call the first item please yes you have one item tonight and this item has a motion uh item number one gateway area property sale courtney griesel is here for the staff report evening appreciate you all meeting in a special session this evening we are here to request your

0:52 authorization to draft and execute a purchase and sale agreement for property which we purchased from odot in february of this year located at gateway boulevard and beltline we're requesting the authorization to form the agreement between boav llc and the city boab owns the properties immediately surrounding the tax slots and identified in attachment one of the packet just for a little bit of background there's two tax slots that we purchase from odot tax lot 1200 which is the piece to the north is the home of the flame sculpture and then there's tax lot 1300 immediately south this is the tax lot that we're talking about this evening just tax lot 1300

1:39 although we are in the process of expanding the footprint of that tax lot our goal is to create the most square footage that's redevelopable without compromising our ability to do some future landscaping around the sculpture this also helps us recoup more effectively the costs of acquiring the property from odot we purchased both parcels in total for 345 000 that purchase price was based off of an appraisal with deductions because the tax slots do not have access off franklin boulevard it's actually why they were purchased by odot and the tax lot 13 on the south actually has some very low levels of contamination left from when there was a gas station on the site

2:25 they are low enough that the site's able to develop to sort of highest best use under its current zoning so we are asking for this authorization with a value of the sale to be equivalent to 10.31 cents per square foot so that's what we paid odot for about a month ago and we would pass that price forward to boev and we would apply it to the final square footage of the site we think that final square footage is going to be around 22 000 square feet it'll go from about 20 400 square feet up uh to 22 000 and that then comes to a purchase price of about 226 thousand dollars that's a lot of twos and thousands of

3:11 numbers um but that's kind of the high level nuts and bolts of what we're asking for this evening do you have any questions counseling no you say franklin boulevard you know what you might have because that's top of mind for me but i would i put them at this gateway um boulevard and beltline leonard i this is just for my information the so the the transaction is the uh the property that we just bought from odot is now where we're gonna turn around and sell to the uh to the investors and the developers um so um why was it necessary for us to be the intermediary here was uh is there a law not a law

3:57 necessarily odot was um there odot is a good partner to the communities on this case they were they took a little extra process and were hesitant to sell to anyone but the city but even more importantly we did want to acquire the property that the flame sculpture is on and these parcels were only for sale together um so it was beneficial for us to purchase and then keep our flame property all right that makes sense i have a question go ahead damian uh so i understand that you know the potential for any type of contamination is low uh but i'm curious what will happen if during the development phase

4:45 uh contamination can potentially become more prominent is there any way to be able to contin either us or the developers to continue to reassess what the uh contamination could potentially be yeah so it's a great question and we're actually um we're about two years into a pretty lengthy process with the environmental department of environmental quality on the site so we have taken this through multiple phases of testing boring and right now there's actually monitoring wells on this bite where they have been sparging so they're pushing air into it to try and create organic matter to sort of mitigate and it really has done most of

5:31 that work and brought it down below contamination levels that deq is concerned about there is a contaminated media management plan a lot of syllables in there on the site but simply what that just means is it's instructions to anyone in the future who might dig about how they ought to dig and what they ought to watch for but at this point deq has issued a letter of no further action on the site that includes that contaminated media management plan they're doing a second review because they actually think it doesn't even need it may not need that level um but we we are working through that and we're getting formal documentation with the eq so that we have that confidence that it's a healthy site

6:24 all right any other questions tell me when you're ready for motion i think we may be ready i would like to move that this is long i'd like to move that we authorize the city manager to negotiate and execute a purchase and sale agreement with b-o-e-v llc for sale of city-owned real property located at the corner of gateway boulevard and beltline map 17-03-22-20 tax lot 1300 and a total sale price of 10.31 cents per square foot is there a second i second it's been moved and seconded uh neil can you call the role please yes counselor pitts all right counselor

7:09 mo yes counselor rodley yes counselor stare woodrow yes and counselor pissionary hi all right the motion passes 6-0 um thank you staff for bringing this so quickly because i know that's a pressing need for uh the developer i'm glad we got it done all right and that is it for our special session we can stall for a couple more minutes if you guys want to make sure that we're right on time for the second session and i apologize to everyone um with the adjournment of this meeting not that anybody wants to but we're testing your skill at jumping links we are heading to another link for the sita meeting uh this this uh meetings adjourned we'll

7:55 see you on the other side