Springfield City Council — November 21, 2022

0:02 Springfield City Council I'm going to call this Springfield City Council work session to order with roll call Mayor Van Gordon here councilor Pitts counselor Mo here councilor rodley here councilor stare here counselor Woodrow and councilor Pictionary and I'm here thank you counselor Woodrow's excuse for the evening we are expecting counselor pitched shortly we have three items in the work session today the first one is the bicycle and pedestrian advisory committee applicant interviews with Michael Lieber councils on hello Council I'm Michael liebler sees Transportation Planning and um engineer I'm here tonight for bicycle and pedestrian advisory committee applicants interviews

0:48 um tonight we have six open positions as of December 31st 2022 and four applicants to fill some of those positions so with that if you have any questions I'm here to answer them or we can just start interviews does anybody have any questions all right then we can bring up the first interview Michael I was not prepared to stand in front of everybody oh well it is not a great interviewing setup so it's okay um so I'm gonna ask all the questions partially because we have some people on zoom and some people are you know off um we are very glad to meet you even though

1:33 we're this isn't a a great great place to do some introductions so uh are you ready for your first question absolutely why are you interested in serving on the bicycle and pedestrian advisory committee a lot of time on my bicycle I commute back and forth to work most of the time I have for the last six years worked trauma surgery at Riverbend so I see myself going back and forth to work I see my fellow bicyclists going back and forth to work and for entertainment I see patients fortunately or unfortunately coming in through the emergency department as trauma patients on their bicyclists so bicycles are something that I'm very passionate about be that down a regular Road and a bike

2:19 path or or in the side of the road or on the bike path itself there's risks to both things so those risks I think are important for all of us to be aware of whether we're a driver or a bicyclist I also walked to pretty enormous dogs quite a bit and mount running quite a lot so I'm outside of the house probably as much as I'm in the house and and love the community and would like to make sure that people are safer than less safe foreign did you describe any additional professional or personal experience that you have as it relates to your desire to become a a Committee Member sure uh again I work trauma surgery for a long time um so uh seeing those patients coming in

3:06 and out of the emergency department and taking care of them after being struck by Vehicles I've also been hit as I have ridden my bike before so I've been a patient as well as a provider in that same setting um that's probably the the biggest thing that gets my attention is is being on the bike and making sure that that people are aware of what they are I've also been a driver and almost struck by cyclists before and that is a very sick and uncomfortable feeling it's terrifying to know that you can almost take somebody pretty quickly and as someone who bikes as well as drives if I'm gonna hit somebody there's some risks out there that we still need to address can you give us an example of or your work with any committee I have never

3:52 done a um a city or a governmental committee at all I've worked on several committees within the hospital um one of the one of the pieces that I think is interesting with city as well as hospital is that nothing moves quickly there's always 400 people making one decision um my husband went from I.T employed at the hospital to it in a in a small office and he said this is awesome I can make a decision to just do it the same day so I think that's a piece of it I like working with different groups and finding out different different sites the same story different different ideas and pieces and parts and how do you think the work of the bicycle and pedestrian advisory committee will improve our community I hope it improves it as a safer space I

4:39 hope it makes people more aware of bicyclists and Walkers um I I hope that we have more people out there than than less people and people get more excited about it every day especially as gas prices go up we've seen a lot more people biking a lot more people with motorized bikes on non-motorized bicycle ways and how does that affect the rest of us so how do we make sure everybody's safe in that same setting all right great that was my last question so thank you so much um we'll go through all the all the interviews and then we'll make a decision and then somebody will get back to you great thank you my apologies that was Patty Briscoe by the way um I didn't really announce you coming

5:25 in that's okay uh next applicant is Christopher Manuel hello hello Christopher I'm going Chris please I'm not in trouble not yet yeah right it feels kind of like it right now you know are you ready for the first question yeah why are you interested in serving on the bicycle and pedestrian advisory Community well like Patty um an avid cyclist I commute most every day to work I also work at Riverbend I work in the healthcare field uh um um I have an active family we use the bike and pedestrian pass um throughout the year I want to get involved um as a community member and give

6:12 insight and recommendation on planned an existing future pedestrian um plans I guess and could you describe any professional experience you have as it relates to your desire to become a member of this committee well like Patty I'm also in the healthcare field I see people I work in a recovery room I see people come through getting surgery and like Patty as well I've also gotten hit by a car so I've experienced both sides of that um as a health care provider and uh specializing in health promotion and Healthy Lifestyles I would like to promote the infrastructure that supports that in the community and personally I think it would be satisfying to get

6:57 involved in a governmental committee to give input on that could you give us an example of any experience you have working with the committee oh I also don't have any experience in government uh in government committees but I am a member of the Oregon Nurses Association I've worked in many committees through them uh one being a nurse staffing committee to promote safe Staffing levels for nurses inside the hospital I've also worked on the Ona pack board committee promoting interviewing candidates and endorsement of political agendas I also have worked on the Ona labor board which we work with other unions and to establish uniformity and

7:43 standardization between units all right thank you sir whoops one more how do you think the work of the bicycle and pedestrian advisory committee will improve our community my hope uh of being a member of the bpac uh is to get my input on policies infrastructure and programs uh that I will believe will can positive positively affect our community but by providing a safe convenient means of transportation for commuting for activity for families to use throughout the community uh community so um that's why I would like to become a member right thank you so much thank you Chris our next applicant is Keith Dickey

8:36 hello Keith thank you uh are you ready yep why are you interested in serving on the bicycle and pedestrian advisory committee uh well I live um on my my property butts the the corner of Westie and rainbow so the the bike path the Westy bike path is basically my backyard and um we've lived there for about six years now and over that time uh I've really you know and I'm on that bike path every day walking or riding my bike or you know whatever and then just driving up and down Westies so I'm very familiar with that neighborhood very aware of what's going on I kind of feel like I have a pretty good feel for for what's happening there and you know over the course of the last six years with the Advent of more technology with you know the uh new you know electronic

9:24 bikes and other things it's it's really changed and concerned me about the level of uh you know potential for safety hazards that's going on there um so uh so I'm you know I'm very very into just like you know Patty and Chris uh you know very and my concerned about uh you know how we can figure out how to make all this work you know because I think we're looking at an infrastructure that wasn't built for the technology that is all of a sudden is being used for so that's you know that that's uh probably my my biggest interest in can you describe any professional experience as it relates to your desire to become a Committee Member

10:10 well I I'm retired now I was in uh in business for many years in Eugene Springfield Community uh I've worked for a numerous uh consumer product companies that do business all over the United States and and the world uh if you're out of Eugene um in Springfield and uh you know to that end I mean I've been on Executive committees managing businesses um you know budgeting responsibilities I've managed sales teams um so a lot a lot of uh that type of work I'm used to being an environment where you know you you work on problems solve problems in a collaborative way sorry

10:59 can you give us an example of your experience working with the committee uh well again I haven't been in in the governmental area I don't really have any I can't say I have any direct experience other than you know my experience has been again working in business environments uh I've also you know I've served on the churches I've gone to I've been on administrative boards working you know with folks like that um you know so uh just you know I think mainly you know in the business world where you're you know working in companies with you know different groups of folks um solving problems how do you think the work of the bicycle and pedestrian advisory committee will improve our community uh well I would be hopeful that it would

11:45 help to manage this transition you know and uh from you know and and make the and you know find to find a ways for all these different stakeholders to work together to be to build a safe space and to you know to let folks embrace the technology uh which is great you know I think it's great that people are getting out of their cars and on their bikes and um and that's all good and it's uh but I think uh hopefully the you know this this committee is a a way to um you know get input from the from folks like me you know users and uh

12:30 and help you know fashion A A Better Way Forward all right thank you so much thank you Keith um our last applicant is actually a current bpac um member and is uh the current bpac chair in fact um Kevin Campbell he's applying for another three years hi there hello um are you ready I'm ready all right why are you interested in serving on the bicycle and pedestrian advisory committee well there's a couple of different things that motivate me uh primarily I feel like we've got good motion on some existing uh agenda type items and I'd

13:17 like to see those have some continuity moving forward to the next uh a round of bpac meetings uh and then I think there's also a couple of really pressing uh safety concerns that need to be addressed by the city and by City staff uh namely picking back up on the Main Street Safety project I understand that that proposal has been uh reassessed uh at a recent city council meeting and I think it's important that we don't lose sight of those safety issues could you describe your professional and personal experience as it relate relates to this committee uh I have experience with this committee uh

14:03 as Michael mentioned I served the previous term I was the liaison to the Eugene's active Transportation committee or Council which is the equivalent Body in Eugene I was elected as the vice chair of the committee uh due to some absences and other extenuating circumstances have acted as chair and conducted the recent uh meetings in the chair role can you give any additional examples of your experience working with a committee this is the only formal governmental committee that I have been a part of uh prior to this I have worked with non-profit organizations uh worked as a

14:48 in a leadership role within uh businesses at a managerial level uh and those I think are transferable skills but this is the only formal committee I've been a part of how do you think the work of the bicycle and pedestrian advisory committee will improve our community I believe the committee can enhance bicycle and pedestrian safety I believe we can move towards a more ADA Compliant community and I believe that we can enhance some enhance economic opportunities for business by moving towards a Greener type of a transportation system

15:45 um that concludes our um interviews for the bicycle pedestrian advisory committee um I'm not too sure if um we're going to be waiting until the end now we're gonna we've got enough interviews we need to uh do it right now how many um how many openings do we have uh currently we have six open positions um bpac consists of nine voting members um right now we have three members who are returning to fulfill their final year of service um so six open positions four applicants tonight thank you Leonard um thanks Sean I um would get given that we have six vacancies I would um just uh suggest that we um Advance all four of our applicants

16:30 tonight to the committee and uh maybe we could uh reopen the nominations um for or reopen the applications as well that's all I got thanks Corey thank you um thank you to all of you for coming and applying and reapplying um I think even even if there were more I would want to advance these forks I think you'll have you know very um relevant interest and experience so I'm also say we move them all we put them to work is what I say Steve we have they're all qualified applicants and one I'm particularly interested in and I don't didn't get his name the one that lives on Rainbow is a front window

17:16 view of the West D Street situation and we really need that so you're going to be on the committee you're going to help thank you okay so anybody else all right Michael I think we prepare everybody um and then and you're putting out the the an additional call when we do when we do probably that February recruitment um yes AJ was signaling you with her mind that like to put it on the list yeah so I think we're good with these four um we're excited to have all four of you and we're looking forward to your great work thank you

18:05 all right second item is the Springfield police advisory committee applicant interviews with Tiffany Monroe with the um I'm the staff liaison for the Springfield police advisory committee we currently have two vacancies one for our local business community and one for our citizen at large representative we have four applicants two for each of the vacancies and we can get started with our first applicant is Cindy Koza hi hello all right well are you ready for me to start asking the questions yes I am why

18:50 are you interested in serving on s-pec I'm very comfortable working on advisory boards I have a lot of experience in it and I thought I might bring a unique perspective could you describe your professional and personal experience as it relates to your desire to become a member of espec yeah um my professional experience is well my background's in social work um and Community Health I am a local business owner in real estate and I have a caregiving agency as well and I have worked on dozens of different advisory councils over the years um and I was also aboard for the um director Board of Directors for the library

19:36 um in Veneta before I moved to Springfield can you give us an example of your experience working with committees yeah um right now I'm on some advisory committees for odds which is the Oregon state department developmental disability services and what we do is we help legislators write the oars for different programs that are implemented in our state um so I participated in that I was on the emergency Council as well and I worked closely with the Oregon Health Authority how do you think the work of s-pac will improve our community I think that social issues are something that

20:23 um I'm not quite sure exactly what comes up in these advisory committees but I think broadening the diversity of the approach on how we solve social issues would be helpful all right thank you so much thank you and our next applicant is Merle Wayne Hutton I believe is joining us via Zoom okay I think that might have worked we can hear you can you hear us I can thank you

21:08 all right um so tonight uh I'm Sean Van Gordon I'm the mayor um I'm because we're all remote and zoom we're not going to go through introductions but I will I'm going to ask all the questions uh are you ready for me to start asking questions yes I've been listening to the meeting since the beginning perfect why are you interested in serving on s-pac I have uh retired from law enforcement uh five years ago a little over five years ago my career started uh when I was in the Air Force I spent time as a deputy sheriff and my last assignment I was the supervising investigator for a district

21:54 attorney's office in that role um I've I've been a trainer been a teacher I've taught uh college level um criminal justice classes and having moved to Springfield five years ago I saw this opportunity pop up and thought that with my experience my background I might be able to help the department in the city where I now live um and you've kind of answered some of this already so it but if you could add any additional information about your professional and personal experience as

22:39 it relates to svac um I I I'm not sure if this is going to answer the next question as well um as I wrote uh policy manual for um one of my departments and that was eventually shared and used by five or six other departments before they went to something different um I've also been very involved in uh legislation I guess I was part of a uh the legislative committee for a Statewide uh police Union

23:27 um and then along with my just overall training and experience I guess that's probably answered the next question as well well then I'm going to go to question number four for you how do you think the work of s-pac will improve our community uh law enforcement is in most instances um the very real face of government um it's the arm of government that most people see um and you want that to be a good good face of government when I was just starting as a even as a reserve deputy sheriff I started the first law enforcement citizens Law

24:13 Enforcement Academy in the county where I was working um as a way of understanding that the the police aren't the ones that can explain or uh answer the questions from the community when something goes wrong you need the community to have those answers already uh or at least as much of the community as possible so what I'd like to be able to do is be a resource for the community resource for the chief and the department and a resource for the city council as well in in that law enforcement role I've as best I can

25:11 our next applicant is Teresa Dillon and she's also on Zoom oh that might be better oh we we can hear you now Terry thank you I apologize for not being there in person but I'm out camping at the moment so we'll we'll make it work okay thank you are you ready for your uh I am thanks why are you interested in serving on S back oh well I'm interested in the surveillance back I've been on S pack for the last four years

25:56 uh currently as Vice chair um I'm I'm learning throughout these years I've learned how the police and the community interact together and I want to continue to help that interaction become more and more positive all the time um I'm also going to be moving up to the chair in January if you guys approve me could you describe your professional and personal experience as it relates to your desire to become a member of s back um professionally I I was with the Boeing Company for 25 years um the most recent job I had there was as Chief of Staff to our average site manufacturing leader that involved about

26:43 24 000 people under that particular person um I helped with Union negotiations and finance um sorry I'm I'm forgot what the original question was about then unless that involved and answered it for you uh it was asking you to describe your professional existence yeah so that's my professional experience um personally I'm from a law enforcement family I had an uncle who was Sheriff of Lane County for many years I have a nephew that's on the Eugene police force I've had cousins on the police force so I've been involved with

27:28 police activity for many many years can you give us an example of your experience working with a committee yes um I've worked with with the neighborhood watch board committees and their activities I've also become been involved with Springfield Utility Board finance committee I'm involved with the um SPAC policy committee on your on the sbd's policies and I was involved in the pac-2327 committee and how do you think the work of s-pac will improve our community well I'm hoping that we can um some of it some of the goals that we

28:13 have started and that we're getting finalized now is how do we become a better liaison between the the committee or between the police department and SPAC and and the citizens of our community how do we help that communication become more solid

29:00 all right Ben are you ready to go uh well after the last three I hope so but why are you interested in serving on s-pac uh personally I have a an interest in criminal justice having come from a criminal justice background family my mother served with the Alaska District Court uh growing up and I've always had a personal interest and passion in how we interface with our community Through uh legislation and of course applying that legislation through the police could you describe your professional and personal experience as it relates to your desire to become a member of s-pac sure most of my professional experiences based around customer service about 25 years of working with people building relationships in different customer

29:45 service environments um you know whether they be large organizations of 350 500 people not 24 000 but uh or small organizations like the solopreneur business that I run here in downtown Springfield so um additionally I should I should note that professionally I do operate a business here in Springfield and have done for about four and a half years now and recently was finally able to make the jump and and land a home here in Springfield officially happy to be on this side of the river so I'm happy to be a part of our community and and my investment is in this community so I was looking for additional opportunities to invest in in our city can you give us an example of your experience working with a committee sure uh you know I worked for the University of Oregon I had the opportunity to participate on multiple

30:31 hiring committees obviously liaising with classified staff and or permanent and exempt staff to pool applicants and and move them through the process in an efficient productive and Fair Way and educating the next hires whether they be entry level positions or higher level management experience and then also safety communities and that sort of thing again experience related to the customer service Food Service environment but very much relationship-based committee based work and how do you think the work of aspac will improve our community again I think it's it is about relationships it's about building trust and communication I'm relatively new to The Forum so I would be looking to listen and to learn for the committee and and hearing about the good work that's being done already by current committee members and also ways in which we can move the

31:16 conversation forward because I think transparency and opportunity are there for that conversation particularly in Springfield in ways that I haven't seen in other communities that I've had the chance to live in okay great thank you so much of course yeah thank you and that concludes our applicants okay uh just uh reminding everybody there's two vacancies and then I had Cindy and Ben down for the business uh spot correct and then I had Wayne and Terry down for the citizen spot correct okay great uh Joe

32:04 well I think Kerry's already been working hard on our committee I've seen her work on the committee and I'm very satisfied with her uh presence so I would support her staying on the committee and then um on the others you had Cynthia and Merle I think uh for the other position that's correct me if I'm wrong um but it was Cynthia or Ben Ben I apologize uh Ben's last one okay so I'm missing some applications in my packet so I'm a little bit scattered here so I was impressed uh just now with Benjamin's responses um to the questions and he articulated himself well that I think that would based on my work on that committee he would be a good fit to offer some

32:50 perspective coming in at a different angle and I think it would add some actually some uh diverse thinking that that I think would be beneficial to the uh to that committee so I would support Benjamin and uh Teresa Dillon uh Leonard thanks uh mayor I um was uh I was taken with uh Cindy's background in the social work and uh with disability services I think it might be an angle and a perspective that we haven't often had with the um with the police advisory committee so I would back uh Cynthia and uh for the existing

33:36 um for uh I'm sorry for the uh the the other uh the other slot I um I actually like Merle um he seems to have a um a very strong background in law enforcement and also having been a member of a Citizens Law Enforcement Academy I think his uh his perspective would be very useful so uh Cynthia and Merle for me thanks well I think everyone for applying I think it was another great round of applicants um my two are Cynthia and Terry okay

34:25 you're all good hey I wish we could appoint them all but uh Cynthia stood out very well for me but but uh Harry is very important she she headed up the pack we got the bond measure passed he's a leader and she'd be very important he's very important in the committee very important to the community so I recommend her and Damian uh Cynthia and Terry please all right it was a great set of interviews and thank you guys so much for uh coming down and joining us that you've in person and remotely the two

35:11 folks that I have I have Terry for the citizen uh in the citizen spot and then Cynthia for the business spot and um I see that and for uh Wayne sounds like he's a wealth of knowledge so I don't know if there's something else we can find for him to volunteer for at the at the PD but he sounds like he's got a ton of experience all right um thank you everybody um last item is the willamalane comprehensive Plan update I see half the willamalane staff in the background hi I'm Chelsea Hartman I'm a new senior planner here just started a couple weeks

35:56 ago and I'm excited to join you tonight to introduce the willamal lanes comp plan update so willamalan Staff last attended council's March 7th work session of this year to introduce the project and to determine council's desired level of involvement heard that direction at your March meeting well Lama Lane and its Consultants are here tonight to provide a progress update on the initial findings of their needs assessment phase of the project which is nearly complete well lamolene and its consultant team will also seek input from Council on whether the analysis research and engagement efforts they've done so far are adequate to move forward with the final project phase the findings will inform the next 20 years of priorities in William's comprehensive plan which is estimated to

36:43 be complete as a draft in late spring of next year to incorporate their updated plan as the recreation element of the overall Springfield comprehensive plan the city council and Lane County Board of Commissioners must co-adopt willamalan's plan and that process will involve public hearings and eventually adoption of an ordinance the city has been dedicating staff time to stay informed provide input in the planning process and to manage the adoption process coming up so I'd like to introduce the project team here tonight uh Michael Wargo from their executive director of lameline Eric Adams the director of planning parks and Facilities Christina Beau the landscape architect and project manager

37:28 and Kenny weigandt the community engagement director and then lastly we have Jeff milkus who will be joining us virtually and there that's their consultant from very done working on the project and so I'll turn it over to Christina or Jeff online if he's there good evening Council I'm Michael Wagga executive director willamalane um so to the city council distinguished staff Neil um it's really an honor in all seriousness here um staff has spent a lot of time and we are very very proud to be Springfield's of Park and

38:13 Recreation District input and feedback is so valuable so we're really excited to share what we've been working on and some of the great feedback that we've heard from our community but again thank you for this opportunity this evening so without further Ado is there anything else all right we will pass it to our consultant Jeff milks from our uh from Barry Dunn who will take you through our presentation and where we stand thank you executive director Wargo thank you mayor okay thank you uh good evening my name is Jeff melkus and I'm calling in today from Gresham uh I am a Portland Gresham resident and actually a former Springfield resident many years ago so again good evening mayor Van Gordon and Council I'm very pleased to be able to

38:59 present to you tonight um just uh some of the uh findings and the process that we're going through uh in order to create the comprehensive Plan update for the district um we started this yeah um do you want us to save our questions or do you want us to ask them as they go because if I let these this group jump in we'll get you off track in about 30 seconds okay well then I think in that case we might wake the questions all right happy to answer any questions you have though of course so let's start um comprehensive Plan update started in January and um I'm not driving the slides there we

39:44 go so why update the comprehensive plan well basically for this gold medal winning accredited organization meaning that they are really the the top of the top in terms of being nationally recognized as a parking and Recreation agency um they last did their plan in 2012 and the best practice is really suggest that you should do one every five to ten years it kind of is at an outlying uh you know kind of an outlier um there's been significant population growth as you know and the district has really grown over the last 10 years since the last plan in fact adding over 850 Acres of new Parkland and as a

40:30 result of that in order to create this road map we're not only updating the the current plan but really diving in a little deeper into many other areas next slide so our timeline started in January we expect to be done in June there's an awful lot of information that has been presented to the community and it's online at willamalane.org Future and I would encourage everyone who's watching the meeting and such to go check out some of the survey findings and such the project is about 50 done and uh for uh the process we're going through these are some of the the items some of the tasks that we're working on

41:16 um it's important to start with a good demographic analysis understand Regional National Trails look at the level of service of your parts um what kind of a um experience do your Park users uh get then we look under the hood in terms of the financial and organization uh what kind of funding and how effective and efficient the maintenance and operations are next slide so a good plan like this really needs to be rooted uh in community engagement in order to really understand the needs and desires and to provide a plan that um your community will not only get behind but a plan that they'll benefit and prosper from in terms of delivery of

42:02 Parks and Recreation services so you can see we used a multimodal approach in partnership with the district everything from stakeholder interviews and focus group meetings to a survey statistically valid we looked at intercept events and then we thought well after everything that we've learned we really need to do some special focus on specific groups so we looked into uh what is the tribal Community think in the latinx and what do teenagers think since they'll be um inheriting this plan overall we've seen just around 4 000 people now uh in terms of actual touches of Engagement so not just folks that are attending a

42:48 particular meeting but these represent uh folks who have taken their time or provided US Direct input who have completed the survey next speaking of the survey we randomly sent four thousand five hundred or so um surveys out to the community and we we carefully monitored and carefully controlled for the first part of the survey to see that there was a um a specific link that was available and or the paper copy to return of the survey we wanted to protect the uh Integrity he can go back to the slide here for a moment please thank you we wanted to protect the Integrity of the survey itself and so we know that it that the results are statistically valid as soon

43:35 as we reached that point we opened up the survey for everyone in the community keeping the two the two sets of survey responses separate all in total we ended up with a thousand five hundred and ninety eight survey responses which allowed us to do some things that that you know we're really happy we're able to do and we'll be presenting some of that uh here in the next few moments in other words we've got enough respondents where we can kind of slice and dice the data to tell you about particular users uh desires or non-users desires or wishes next so here are some of the areas when we ask our community members what about your areas of improvement uh we started with the strengths of the district in a

44:21 SWOT analysis and we've got lots of those that we'll present in the plan but for tonight to be brief our areas of improvement included um communication with non-users was important um different times for classes and activities more pool access although the The District offers two large very very high quality aquatic facilities there still is a need for greater access some of that we believe came out of unfortunate temporary closures due to the covid uh pandemic next barriers that might link access we ask folks about what is it that could keep you from participating in District Recreation and District Parks programs

45:06 or activities again District Outreach to non-users pedestrian walking routes that we'll show you in a moment accessibility for individuals with disabilities next so one of the things that I really um appreciated about the survey results was we asked folks about feelings of welcomedness in the Parks um been in your facilities how welcome do you feel do you feel like um the service level is appropriate for you you're treated you know respectfully and such overall on a scale of one to five uh the district scored extremely high at 4.4 but something to point out was that when we looked at the individuals that reported Hispanic or Latino background

45:51 or latinx background they also felt very very welcome at 4.3 keeping in mind that this is one data set one small data set um in terms of the overall Community but I think it gives you a picture into successes and and some what cause for celebration with the district for the district next so then we ask folks about importance of facilities and amenities and in the survey folks told us Park safety and maintenance natural areas and trails and then restrooms and Parks and we asked the same question in a sense a few different ways and on the scale of one to five when you when you ask people tell us your top ten you can

46:36 see where there's a bit of a drop off but still the top but top items were consistent in this than other forms of Engagement next at the end of the day Trails Pathways areas for walking for exercise and pleasure really really Rose to the top in in our research so these are the priorities for improvement soft service hiking trails and Scenic settings we know within the uh within the area there's Eugene Springfield area there are many really nice Buttes and opportunities for Scenic hiking but in a lot of sense they're they're kind of loved to death and as a result there are folks here that are telling us they're in priorities for improvement

47:21 really are soft service hiking trails connectivity between some of those and the parks and then access to to more paved or flat walking trails and walking paths were very important next so we also were really pleased within the survey to see that there were so many people who were passionate about the district to the point where they they didn't just check the box they they came up with many many survey comments in fact we ended up with with about 600 survey comments these are some examples of very repeated comments they're not in any particular order but they are important um an outdoor pool is important to folks access to you know greater access to

48:06 swimming lessons um more restrooms you can see that um some of the some of the themes tend to come across the engagement in the survey uh just to show you one of the areas of feedback we received many many comments about again the job that the district does in terms of meeting the needs of um of District residents next so we'll kind of shift gears for a moment move over to our level of service in park so we asked the question uh what do the parks provide you and and within the community what kind of experience is that and we use a system that we call a component based level of service meaning

48:51 we went into each Park in an inventory of every single component what did every drinking fountain every bench every uh every ball field and what we wanted to do was to get an idea in terms of what that experience is and how far people are from those experiences and so there are a number of these uh observations that we made um you know there's some playgrounds that need to be uh need to be replaced or need to be not repaired but just their lifespan you know over the next couple of years or five years we probably weren't um good standards for trailheads Park signage and you can see the list next so we provided an inventory of each and

49:38 every Park that listed each and every one of those components the score for those components why this is important is that we can map these and in comparison to population comparison to diversity Prime index household income and we can score each Park and say where are the parks provided for for each of the uh you know each of the categories of uh residents we can look at walkability we can look at how easy it is to drive to parks and what that experience is next and that gives us these scores that allow us the opportunity or will allow the district the opportunity to prioritize about where they'd like to make future Investments which Parks they can look at

50:25 either the overall score which we'll do in terms of recommendation but also by amenity or by component so if if the community is really in need of say diamond ball fields we can literally provide a list of of where they are what their scores are and which ones to prioritize next so when we start to look at walkable access we realize that on the map here you've got purple yellow and gray and these um align with population so we looked at the total percent of population that has an experience that includes three possibly four components

51:11 sometimes three components and a trail a component is something that you'd go to the park to use a restroom isn't a component it's a it's an amenity that helps you with a greater experience but a ball field open Turf area a picnic shelter these kind of things and so we realize now that 32 percent of the community live within walkable access to a park that has met that standard of three or four components we call the Yellow area low service area and there's about 45 percent of the population that lives in those areas and they could live right across the street from a park with the components however

51:57 if there is a a barrier like a large road or a railroad that can be um can be something that that would keep folks from access we use the 880 rule meaning that if a child if you have an eight-year-old child or you have an 80 year old parent if you're not comfortable with them Crossing that street then there is a barrier and so we we look at those two to to be a really really realistic about it and we we see that in the city within the urban growth boundary which is a study area 23 of the population um lives in an area where they don't have service um to Parks and Recreation opportunities within a 10-minute walk of their homes

52:43 something that's important just to point out is that there is a correlation between median household income diversity index and crime index and where um higher scoring parks are and that's something that is not uncommon uh but I'm sure it's something that the district will be prioritizing next so the good news is that when we take the barriers out we say well maybe if folks have have um bikes or cars and and the roads aren't really too much of a problem or the the the walk uh up to a mile 99 virtually the entire Community lives within a mile of a park that provides that really really good service

53:30 next okay so those are just some of the highlights I know we don't have have a lot of time with you tonight but uh we wanted to make sure that we could give you a little bit of information on the process and a little bit of information just kind of the high points of of what we found the project timeline again goes through June it's November and we held a public meeting last week um that was virtual that um a lot of attention was paid to make sure that the people throughout the community had access to I was in person at the same time and I'm pleased to say that the project is um uh right on schedule if not a little

54:15 bit ahead next so uh we wanted to point out that again last week we had the um the findings town hall meeting where we presented uh all of the information that you can find on that web page um going for next steps we have some visioning workshops we've done some of it already we'll be working with the board uh the The District board at the end of the month um we will then review all the findings begin to put the draft plan together for adoption in June and this plan then will also be available um for uh your your board in Lane County uh as a uh opportunity to accept it

55:00 and I think that's it next so there's my contact information but you can catch me through Christina if you'd like and and we're happy to present or provide any additional information you'd like this is an important project and um we're feeling uh you know really good about where we are with engagement feeling really good about kind of where the uh where the Project's heading at this point so if you have any questions I'm I'm happy uh uh to answer them I'm sure as uh District staff would be as well Corey thank you um thank you very much for this I really appreciate it uh and just a few things and again I'm not the boss of lameline but since we get to co-adop this baby this is a good

55:45 time for me to have a little bit of input um so one of the things I just want to highlight is I appreciate the slide 17 um the sort of walkable access demographics and I'm I think there's an opportunity for us to kind of poke into that a little bit more um and I appreciated sort of that overlay with the median household income and I think one of the things as um as we sort of have the community conversations about where do we want to invest like do I'm not one of those people I'd love to see an outdoor pool right where do we want to see um making improvements and I live in the heart of Springfield and I am in one of those low service areas because of what's around me and what I can get my grandkiddles to so as we think about

56:32 that is there a way to like just like get the data overlay these maps with sort of the historical economic Investments or not Investments or the under-resourced areas because if we're going to be building new things if we're going to be putting in new shelters if we're going to build new pools or whatever or however we do it to really think about you know that's where that Equity perspective comes in of like what what have we where have we not invested and how can we make sure that we target those areas so this one I particularly really care about um just thinking about how do we just really dig into that even more to say now that we're starting to think about this how do we think about what the future Investments look like um and I think there's also an

57:17 opportunity and this is something for us as a city as well as you know the county or whatever to really dig into what data do we have and what do we not have like what stories are we not telling about who lives there or whether kids are able to walk to school or who's using the parks and do they have to drive there to use them or things like that and I'm sure you're all thinking about that as an opportunity for me to kind of dig into that too and say oh yeah well let's yeah let's have more shelters yeah let's have more things and where should they go as opposed to leaning into where we're you know the parks that have been resourced already okay thank you Damien hi uh good presentation I do have

58:04 two questions so my first one is that why were only the latinx and Indigenous Community why were they the only minoritized identities that were mentioned in any shape or form uh to uh when you had up the Democrat the the layout of uh quartz park or Saudi or some whatever park it was uh I saw that there were some you know things you have one of this and zero of this and and one of the things that I saw and I've been a big proponent of this was there was Zero grills and and just thinking about community and bringing people and having events and stuff what are the chances that sooner or later some of these Parks will have larger pavilions with larger grills that people can use to have family reunions social events and things like

58:51 that because I think that you know parks are great but you have to bring in everything and not everybody has like trucks or whatever to bring in things like grills and stuff like that and I also think that grills can be a source of Revenue 4011 Lane potentially and so uh yeah those are my two questions slash comments okay well if you'd like it I'm sure I can kind of respond to each of them uh you know right away yeah that would be great okay we did a demographic study and the demographic study looks to see um ethnic backgrounds and also um Hispanic latinx um percentages within the population as

59:36 well as number of individuals with disabilities and although we weren't able to we didn't have the time and I I realized I went fairly quick through the presentation but um we realized that the state of Oregon state has 14 individual disabilities but within your Auburn growth boundary you're at 19 in some percent so there's some prioritization that needs to take place there we know that in the latinx community has been growing and in fact I think it's 14 and it's going to continue almost a 17 by the time that we finish the um kind of the the period of study at the end um uh or the the the the the the area of implementation of the plan um in terms of other ethnic backgrounds

1:00:21 uh we didn't rise to the top on those in terms of presenting but it doesn't mean that they won't be represented within the within the data set or within the recommendations if that if that makes sense um in terms of of amenities and grills and the like and and social opportunities those will all be outlined um in the plan as recommendations for the different kinds of experiences that can occur and um I I appreciate the input we'll record it and it will become part of the kind of part of the the consideration that we go looks like Christina might have a response

1:01:06 uh yes um I just wanted to add to that that in the community conversations that we've been having um we've been reaching out to different groups in the community and have been fortunate to find some really great partners that have helped us with this and that's been a priority to have these kind of Community Driven conversations and so we have been doing and we'll continue to do some engagement I think throughout the process and as we Implement these plans um we have been trying to reach out to the NAACP um and there are other organizations that we have been trying to connect with and reach with um with varied levels of success and so that's not something that we plan on stopping I think at this point it's going to be an ongoing process Glenn Michael all right it's me again hi I just wanted to also respond about

1:01:53 um the grills uh counselor Pitts I mean I've heard you loud and clear uh in Prior meetings as well as some of the feedback we've got from the community so we've already purchased uh four grills that we plan on installing this winter for use in the spring um so we're really excited about that so we'll make sure that um you're all aware and can enjoy a nice day out and barbecuing in our parks and I think when you do a ribbon cutting for those counselor Pitts should be there we're going to actually do rib cuttings a rib cutting for those grills I'll sit down now thank you I'm don't leave your day job Michael all right Leonard

1:02:39 Leonard oh Leonard yep sorry thank you mayor um thanks for this presentation very informative I wondered if there had been any thought given to even um adding on to the parks to make them even more of a destination say um public art topiary shade trees things that would bring people out to the park and make them more of a social venue um had uh had had will Emeline given any thought to any of that um I I can tell you in terms of the of the master plan or the comprehensive point I'm sorry is that uh we take all

1:03:25 of the uh all of the amenities and concerns issues opportunities more or less for each Park area we look at what the population is that will be affected we look at the diversity the household income the crime index we put all that onto a map and tried to determine if we do X the result will be Y in a particular area affecting the most people in other words it'd be really easy to complete a park infill project um but but if it only affects a half a dozen people that live in a community not to say their desires and needs aren't important but given the difference between a half a dozen or three thousand you see so we want to make sure that we provide as much data

1:04:11 and as much information to the district to make the best decisions possible so um art for areas in the Parks shade opportunities those kinds of elements restrooms we call them Comfort amenities drinking fountains they've all shown themselves we have a list by each Park remember that we were able to inventory and so we will be able to show in this particular Community uh walking distance of a quarter mile say or up to a mile where do they not have these or where do they have them when we can cross-reference those with the population and say well you know these are all younger people or these are people with dogs so that's where really the off leash area in the future may need to go

1:04:58 great thank you Joe so there's a question for Mr Wargo so what date is the barbecues supposed to be installed at Jesse Maine oh go ahead Eric counselor great to talk with you sir uh we have as Michael said we have four sets of grills uh we have a pair of accessible and just regular grills I I'm unfortunately sad to report that Jesse Mane is is not one of the initial pilot project parks that we've identified uh just given our desire to space those out throughout the community for Equitable

1:05:43 access but we'd be happy to talk with you if you feel there's a desire for those uh in your uh in District neighborhood well you know been thinking about that I kind of figured that would be the answer so I really can't support your plan so um you may think about and I and I think Damien's got a great point because because I got to tell you barbecues are awesome for bringing people together because food is is a common denominator we all need it um but have you considered thinking about a neighborhood that uh would if the money was raised by the local neighbors and say hey we want a barbecue in our Park how much money do you need hand it over and say install it so it's

1:06:29 not a matter of like a cost issue for the parks but it may be something where you would gather a couple different things if you had the neighbors kick in for a barbecue those very same neighbors are going to watch that barbecues because they've got a personal stake in that barbecue and they're not going to really like to have anybody mess with them you know what I'm saying that it's they've got their own they've got a dog in a fight and um I'm by myself I'm close to Jesse main Park and whatnot and I would be part of a group that would would be more than willing to see what it would cost to put one in and and go from there you could be a good Community program yeah I think it's certainly an idea worth considering I would be happy to talk with you about it further

1:07:15 great I'd I'd be happy to talk about that Steve the one thing that isn't talked about much and yet I know the staff has heard a lot about it bathrooms they're a problem and they're both and and to solve that problem you make them inaccessible for the public and they're vandalism the security the homeless I don't know what the solution is but you talk about all these Assets in the Parks people come to use the parks and there's no bat there's no bathrooms or often no bathrooms to use and uh I don't know what the solution is but I but I hear I hear about that a lot from

1:08:00 a lot of people yeah we certainly heard about that in both the engagement and the survey really the top ranked Comfort amenity um Eric thanks Jeff yeah councilman I couldn't agree with you more I certainly are aware of the issue it is a huge challenge uh and not just for willamaline but for parking record agencies really across Oregon and in the country uh having just gone to the National Park and Recreation conference annual conference there were numerous sessions on that topic and we're regularly um trying to learn and share with each other of our colleagues in City of Eugene Lane County Parks and strategies that are effective and I don't know that we've we've found an ideal solution yet

1:08:46 it's frustrating for us to invest that amount of public dollars and then not have those amenities available for the community to use um but it's also frustrating to see the amount of continued vandalism damage graffiti and to be expending the amount of funds that we have to to keep them open and safe for the public to use so we are continually looking at different strategies different design lines different placement different fixtures different ways to operate them and make them open keep them open for the public and that will continue to be a focus through this plan as well I realize and understand that okay thank you all right thank you I had a couple of things

1:09:31 um what when this is a this is a great start to the presentation I know that we're going to get the actual plan at some point and see some of the details that go behind it um personally I'm interested in actually seeing this survey in the in the statistics behind it when I followed the presentation I'm not sure that I could like I was getting confused about you know because there's two sort of survey choices there and it seemed like uh the results were sort of getting mixed and matched at the same time I would really be interested in seeing the the statistics behind it um you guys have had a challenging last couple of years but a really productive last couple of years and I'm really grateful for for what you guys are doing from from uh from a Parks and Rec perspective um I will second the bathroom

1:10:16 conversation as a user of your Parks um you know and with the family that is a tough tough situation um the other thing that I consistently hear uh is class times and availability um and I and I heard you guys bring that up so I'm sort of just secondly in tripling um and I guess lastly uh I I we won't see it until you guys actually see the comp plan but one thing I'm really looking for is that sense of partnership that comes through about how you collaborate with schools how you collaborate with the city how you collaborate with sub and the reason that this one's so near and dear to my heart is um the neighborhood I live in at Skylee right and Kylie has got property that

1:11:03 the city owns and um the school district owns and what lamb Lane owns and it always is an abrasion point with um the neighbors and how they use and access access the park because there's no real clear owner for any of that and that sort of impacts like if you if you pulled my neighbors people would be not sure what the Coalition of the park was and a lot of it sort of compounded by the fact that it's a patchwork of ownership and you kind of have to get everybody on the right page right so when I read the actual comp plan uh I'm really going to be looking for just how do you connect all the dots right because it's a very challenging operating environment and how you partner with everybody is going to be helpful

1:11:51 okay and keep doing amazing things Jeff did you have anything else yeah I just would mention again uh well emelaine.org uh backslash I think future and you can find all of the uh all the data from the survey there's a survey report and if there are things in there that you would be curious about that you know data that isn't there if you you talk with Christina um uh I'm sure that we can uh we can figure out how to find those cross-tabulated um answers yes I can provide you with the I'll send the report your way so you can look at it but it is available for anybody who wants to see it on the website right now um we want to make sure all our findings are getting posted as we go forward too so people can read and review what we're

1:12:38 learning along the way um and wanted to uh thank especially your staff who have been really supportive through this process and will continue to engage with us on the way um as far as thinking about the Partnerships um we're we're going to be scheduling some meetings with staff and other agency partners to review the findings that relate and how we do overlap in a lot of ways so making sure that people are on board and we're capturing things that are in your plans and making sure we're responding to everything adequately before before we get a draft to our board or to you all to look at so what are the what's the next steps as far as timing goes I know this was sort of a check-in just give us you know you want to hear some of our feedback based on what you've done so far you're going

1:13:23 back you're working it like when are we going to see this again so it'll go from here we go forward with priorities we kind of start looking at drawing conclusions from what we've learned and so we're still learning a little bit right now and starting to transition into that um making some conclusions and prioritization um and so we expect a draft um Jeff has promised me the draft will be ready at some point in January or December or january-ish time and we'll start working through that there'll be multiple iterations so we'll again be coordinating with your staff through that entire time and then our board will hopefully adopt it by June and then we'll be bringing it to you after that oh great thank you yeah all right anything else from T-Mobile

1:14:08 ameline right we're going to adjourn uh the work session thank you everybody um if you're staying for the regular session we're going to stay on this meeting link and we will start here momentarily thank you

1:15:08 are you ready AJ yeah oh I'm gonna call the regular session of the Springfield City Council to order with roll call Mayor Ben Gordon here councilor Pitts here and sermon here councilor Bradley here councilor stare here sponsor Woodrow and councilor Pictionary here thank you please join me for the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you and councilor Woodrow is excused for the

1:15:54 evening as we begin our meeting tonight I would like to ask members of the audience who are joining us by phone or online to please keep yourselves on mute until you are called to provide public testimony there are two times designated for public testimony this evening under public hearings and business from the audience we have a small adjustment I'm making to the script if you are attending in person please complete the request to speak card located at the entrance of the city council chamber and give them to the City Reporter if you are joining us from online with a tablet smartphone or computer and wish to speak either of those times please raise your hand feature in Zoom the order of public testimonies is as

1:16:41 follows anyone in the council chambers and then anyone who has raised their virtual hand and Neil how many people are joining us this evening mayor we have 16 online and approximately 14 here in the castle Chambers great um first item was first item is Springfield upbeat item number one mayor's recognition 2022 small business Saturday Proclamation and mayor this is your item whereas Springfield Oregon celebrates our local small businesses and con the contributions they make to our local economy whereas small business employs 46.8 percent of employees in the private sector in the United States whereas 58

1:17:26 percent of Shoppers reported they shopped online with a small business and 54 percent reported they dined or or are ordered take out from a small restaurant bar or Cafe our small business in 2021 whereas the City of Springfield supports our local businesses to create jobs and boost our local economy preserve our communities I Sean Van Gordon mayor of Springfield proclaimed Saturday uh November 26 2022 small business Saturday and I urge residents of the community and the communities across this country to support small businesses and the merchants on small business Saturday throughout this year I believe the chamber is here to receive this

1:18:43 next item please mayor the next item is the consent calendar ready I make them I make a motion that we approve this consent calendar is there a second second you know could you call the vote please yes counselor Pitts aye councilman yes Council Radley yes counselor stare aye answer Woodrow and counselor Pictionary hi motion passes five yeses zero knows one absent next item please next time is public hearings you have one public hearing tonight that's the Justice assistance grant and chief Shear is here for the staff report

1:19:28 good evening mayor council I'm Andy Shearer chief of police for the City of Springfield so the City of Springfield Police Department is proposing the use of grant funding uh to make an unbudgeted purchase to replace 20 gas masks that have exceeded their useful life and to support installation of a secure wi-fi system inside the Springfield Justice Center that would allow us to adhere to the criminal justice information system requirements um we'll take an inventory of existing gas masks of which every police officer has issued one it would determine the department had approximately 20 of them that were beyond their serviceable life they've deteriorated in quality since the last inventory the new masks would support safety requirements and provide the officers important and effective tools the event of personal protective equipment if necessary installation of a secure wi-fi system within the SPD Justice Center that

1:20:15 adheres to sieges requirements to provide efficiencies for use of department-issued cell phones in areas of the facility with poor cell reception which is a problem as well as provide backup options for body worn camera footage upload which happens every day and completion of mobile field reporting duties Via mobile computer terminals sieges is the compliance standard at the state local and federal level to ensure data security and currently the Springfield Justice Center has a publicly accessible Wi-Fi solution that is not utilized by law enforcement because it can't be used with our cell phones our laptops for any kind of data transfer because it's not secure

1:21:01 and I'm going to open the public hearing I don't have any cards for this item Neil do we have any anybody wanting to testify online mayor I didn't see any hands online for this item and I'm going to close the public hearing and it does not look like we need any action on this we just is that correct all right next item please next item is business from the audience I do not have any cards for business from the audience you know do we have anybody online that's raising their hand uh mayor it appears we have no hands for this item next item please next item is any business from the city council

1:21:50 Corey thank you um I just wanted to take a moment to um first of all yesterday was transgender day of remembrance also over the weekend I wanted to acknowledge the the trauma and the mass shooting at Club Q and just call out the how that impacts folks in our communities and just know that I am thinking of anyone who may be impacted by that um transgender day of remembrance and the month of November is to um draw attention to our transgender neighbors and um to sort of mention that transphobia is a systemic discrimination against transgender gender diverse people and affects those around us all the time

1:22:35 every day thank you all right the one thing that I saw it is in your email from shame we still have we still have several City attorney evaluations that are out in fact none of us have completed them at this point um so the deadline to get your city uh your City attorney evaluation done it's Monday 11 28 so it's at the end of the uh Thanksgiving holiday so we got to get those done it's pretty hard deadline because AJ's got to pack it up and uh get it turned in um so please get that done and I'm sure AJ will let me know how many people have turned them in so I can start calling

1:23:21 you on Wednesday yeah all right next item please may our next item is business from the city manager um you have a few items under this uh topic item number one is acceptance of project p21152 that's the high Banks and Thurston overlay that's resolution number one a resolution to accept city project p21152 ibanks and Thurston overlay Jeff Pascal is here for the staff report thank you uh good evening mayor counselors Jeff Pascal Community division Development Division director I have the pleasure of representing the Engineering Group the capital group who delivered this project with the consultant and the contractor um second to last project you'll see for acceptance one last project that they're

1:24:07 finishing up the final things I haven't seen the final payment come in but Centennial so this one was completed uh two summers ago finally have all the paperwork done and all of that one note I would make that is really the success story here and helped us complete all of the projects as you see in there a significant reduction in the contract that was actually a proposal from the contractor to kind of change up how we were preserving it in in the final product and that actually with the inflation we were seeing allowed us to pencil out and finish the Centennial without having to add a lot of other funds from some other areas so

1:24:53 anytime you come and talk about the road Bond project I mean it is nothing but good news stories and every time um that I that we said that I drive any of those words they look absolutely beautiful contractors have as much knowledge of those as you do so working with them being information from them is helpful both ways yeah no this was that was a positive I mean it we it was slightly different evaluated by our engineer and we basically got the same structure without having to do the full depth Reclamation added a little more asphalt all right Steve okay I I make a resolution to accept city project p 21152 High Banks and Thurston overlay second

1:25:39 Neil could you call a vote please yes counselor Pitts all right councilmo yes Council Rodney yes counselor stare aye answer Woodrow and counselor Pictionary hi thank you motion passes five yeses zero knows one absent next item please mayor the next item is city property purchase and Sam Kelly quattroqui is here for the staff report he's online it'll just be a moment checking for this quick property purchase uh to authorize city manager to sign the purchase sale agreement this is

1:26:25 for Ace trading company 369 uh 3697 Franklin pardon me it's just over a quarter of an acre this will be slated for future phase three Franklin Redevelopment at this time the property owner came forward and by entering into this process now on their terms we can avoid future relocation costs there will be a five month lease back um and then we would go from there that is not accurate we're actually avoiding eminent domain attorney related costs they will if they voluntarily shut down operations um then they won't okay be relocated but if they continue in operation they would be relocated pursuant to the uniform relocation Act okay

1:27:12 um other than that any questions or comments all right Steve I make emotionally authorize the city manager to enter purchase and sale agreements for one parcel of real property at the Glenwood tax lot 17-03-34-31-00300 upon the terms has substantially provided in attachment one second Neil could you call the vote please yes councilor Pitts aye concermo yes councilor rodley yes Council stair aye Esther Woodrow and cancer Pictionary hi thank you motion passes five yeses zero knows one absent next item please any other

1:27:57 business from the city manager no additional business thank you any business from the city attorney no business thank you all right thank you everybody we are adjourned for the evening