Springfield City Council — October 16, 2023

0:04 I'm going to call the Springfield City Council special regular session to order with roll call May Gordon here councelor Weber here councelor Mo here councelor rodley here councelor Blackwell here councelor Doyle here councelor bisher here please for plge Allegiance flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation indivisible We Begin our meeting tonight there are du designated times for public testimony this evening under public

0:49 hearings and business of the from the audience if you are attending in person please complete the request to speak card located at the entrance of the library meeting room and give it to the city recorder if you're joining us online with the tablet smartphone or computer and wish to speak for either of those times please use the raised hand feature in Zoom the order of public testimony is as follows anyone in person in the library meeting room and then anybody who is raised their virtual hand first item please first item mayor is Stringfield upbe item one is mayor's recognition domestic violence awareness mon Proclamation now I'm and I know that um Kim's here to receive this from The Hope and safety Alliance I'll I'll read a portion of it and then we can present it

1:35 so where is home that your home should be s a safe and trustworthy VI uh place but for too many oregonians it is instead brought with Terror to domestic violence whereas the crime of domestic violence includes violates an individual's privacy dignity security and Humanity due to the use of physical emotional sexual economic and psychological control and abuse to children in the Elder elderly whereas domestic violence is not limited to physical or verbal abuse but includes intimidation and online abuse such as stalking humiliation doxing rape and death threats and these forms of Terror are often unrecognized by laws and Norms whereas the hope and safety Alliance continues to provide Public Safety hope

2:20 and healing for domestic violence Survivor survivors of all genders through advocacy and support and focus on educational prevention and has served thousands of people in Lane County for more than 45 years whereas too many oregonians have lost their lives due to domestic violence we remember those women men and children who've died and are taking a stance to prevent domestic violence whereas the impact in the cost of domestic violence is wide ranging and devastating directly affecting individuals children Society the community in the United States I Sean Van Gordon mayor of the City of Springfield for Lan October 22 2 three domestic violence Awareness Month in Springfield and urge all people to actively participate in scheduled

3:05 activities and programs to work towards eradicating domestic violence improving victim safety and holding perpetrators uh of domestic violence accountable for their actions against individuals victims in our society have a great setup okay I make sure itk you so much coming you're

3:50 welc next item please here the next item is the consent calendar i' like make a motion to approve the consent calendar second NE can you call the RO please yes councelor Weber yes councel Mo yes councel rodley yes councelor Blackwell yes councelor Doyle yes and councelor pisher yes thank you motion passes six yeses zero NOS next item please next item is public hearings you have one public hearing this evening that's the fiscal year 24 supplemental budget one and Appropriations transfer this is resolution number one a resolution adjusting resources and requirements in the following funds General Street special Revenue transient room tax Community Development building code fire local option Levy lease local option Levy Bond syncing development

4:35 assessment Capital development projects Regional Wastewater Capital Street Capital sanitary sewer operations Regional Wastewater ambulance storm drainage operations Booth Kelly Regional fiber Consortium Insurance vehicle and Equipment SDC Administration and authorizing the transfer of Appropriations within the general fund from the city manager's Office operating expense to inter fun transfer expense and Nathan Bell is here for this item good evening mayor and Council um the item in front of you this evening is a request to conduct a public hearing and to adopt not adopt uh resolution adjusting resources and requirements in essentially all the city funds I'm not going to read those again um this is the first of three supplemental budgets uh

5:20 in fiscal year 24 and are typically our largest uh that's due to adjustments to beginning c and reserves as well as carry forward on capital projects uh the CBM I try to call out supplemental budgets that I think are projects of High Council interest or new FTE or expenditure Appropriations uh so with that any questions this evening are there any questions right I'm going to open the public hearing you have any cards for this item um and if you're online and wish should speak to this item please raise your hand we have one hand raised um and that's June father Guild June are you on for this item the supplemental

6:05 budget you should be able to unmute your microphone try one more time Jan there we go no okay we will come back to you June thank you then I'm going to close the public hearing I'd like to make a not a motion to adopt resolution number one second you can you call a vote please yes councelor Weber yes councelor moan yes councelor rodley yes councelor black yes counc do I and councelor pisher yes thank you motion passes six yeses zero NOS next item please next item is business from the audience I've got a couple cards and

6:50 then I know it sounds like we have June um online uh Serita Leaf where do I go here that's right oh my name is Serita Leaf I reside at 174 West K Street Springfield sit if you if You' be more comfortable I'm fine St okay thank you okay so I'm speaking to the warming uh Center motion um I'd like to uh assist you by presenting uh uh some context that I found in this amazing

7:35 article from the Oregon public broadcasting dated October 9th and you can Google that and look it up yourself and read the entire two-part series The 2022 US Census Data Oregon has the highest rate of chronic homelessness in the country ja droing meaning homeless for more than one year or multiple times over several years Oregon has the fourth largest homeless population per capita in the

8:20 country Oregon has the fourth largest home or I got Oregon has the nation's highest percentage of homeless families that are living completely unsheltered aren't sleeping in a shelter hotel or other temporary housing Oregon is the fourth in the country in terms of under producing housing Oregon has become one of the states with the lowest supply of rentals affordable to people at or below property levels in the words of Marissa Zapata an urban planting professor at Portland State University and director of psu's homelessness research and action collaborative which studies the factors

9:05 that lead to homelessness quote it doesn't really matter what lens you look at it gr escalation of housing values and Rising rents is what causes homelessness and again I can urge you to read the astounding article it just goes on and on in that context what I see is that number one this is a such an amazing just crisis is beyond even considering it is just a total crisis and number two given the nature of the

9:51 crisis it is not going to go away very soon no matter what we try to do so that's the context I I think we should be looking at a very simple humble move on our part to lease the building again for the Eagan warming sunent I I would like to see more than that I would like to see it bought and you so that we could utilize it as a day Center year round we need okay your time's up okay thank you so much thank you aloh Aloha heart

10:36 really happy to see all of you again and yes I am Carol legal name Aloha the name I prefer heart h e t 2147 Centennial Boulevard and sping so first I want to thank you the council for supporting G Street Oasis which serves Children and Families thank you thank you thank you for that I encourage the council to support a shorttime lease with St Vincent dep Paul to use the memorial building as a shelter for the Egan warming Center this winter the well-being of many of our community members will be greatly served

11:21 by supporting the memorial building for the Egan warming Center and I trust that take this into your heart and that you will choose I hope to support that so thank you thank you thank you thank you next person I have is Julie hi Julie Sonam I live at 407 South Fourth Street in Springfield and I came tonight to talk to you guys about uh the love where you live campaign that was started for Springfield picking up the garbage it's been once a month I think we've done seven cleanups now the last one was the most successful we cleaned up 800

12:07 pounds of garbage it was our most biggest um garbage collection it was at the West End of the booth Kelly building and we didn't make it past the boo Kelly building it was it's the Waterway and it's under the bridges um down there so you it's kind of out of sight out of mind um and so I felt really excited uh that 23 people showed up to help clean up everybody's very enthusiastic there's lots of um joy and pride about our community and what's happening here all of us unanimously agree that it has gotten better and it's delightful and we love it but um going underneath and cleaning up was really disheartening um the most

12:55 disheartening part about it was the very next day it you could not tell that we had been there I mean I knew we had been there um but the very next day you could not tell and you can't tell now and each day it just gets worse and worse which is fine because we will not run out of things to do together as a community to clean up but there were um lots of places where fires were being burned and lots of burnt plastic so that concern for me is just the air quality and often times I do smell burning plastic I live in wam at he so I'm up above and you know smoke Rises um lots of burning plastic and things that should not be burnt um also there is a lot of waste

13:41 human waste and it's sad um and it's a lot it's not just like oh oh there's some one or two or you know it's not like that it's we're talking large scale so if you say I don't know I'm just making this up but say 15 people are living down along that Waterway spread out underneath the different Bridges and each one of them might be using that area you know 15 times a month and you multiply that it really adds up it's a lot it's very shocking so I'm concerned about that and I've a lost sleep at night trying to think of how it could be improved with like an open dumpster or open garbage can which I'm not sure if that would help um or having bathrooms brought in when we couldn't even have

14:27 the nice bathrooms at the M race path because they got destroyed literally immediately after they were open so I don't know I don't have any good Solutions but on the positive note once a month that it's growing and more and more people are coming and helping clean up and I'm very concerned about that Waterway so thank you for your time thank you thank you thank you um next person June father I don't have any more cards in the in the building all right June you should be able to unmute your mic microphone hello I'm sorry I didn't come in in person but I'm back in town now and June father Gail I live at 31730 Street number

15:12 113c um just wanted to add my voice of support and using the memorial building for Egan warming Center um it's the best site I've have I've seen in the over 10 years I've been a volunteer at Egan um it provid a good place for everyone to sleep but also it provides opportunity for people to have Community um and to have bathrooms referring to the lady before um so I just really encourage you to to use the building for that purpose this winter um we will all be very grateful thank you very much thank you um do we have anybody else

15:59 online uh no one else online Okay um um before we get into Council response and maybe we can have uh City staff connect with you Julie you know like because I think there's a couple of issues that are there obviously concerned about the water quality that's down there as well as um you know just the environmental impact the other thing Neil if maybe we can look at fencing or or something like that or um if we can help guide them if they're out doing volunteer activities around Booth Kelly about maybe places where public would be okay and maybe places where Public Works would prefer that they call somebody from the city that would probably be helpful okay yeah Julie yeah and then there's the gentleman from Santa Pac here Julie when you guys

16:47 are they're always looking for volunteer activities on on how to support uh you know Cleanup in the city so I'm hoping that uh he can give you you guys can exchange information after we're done here like putting you on the spot all right Joe just a a quick note Julie I just wanted to extend my appreciation for the work you folks are doing it is very admirable and for you to be involved and give to give back to the community or I guess take back from the community is is commendable and much appreciated all right anybody else all right 100% Echo

17:37 next item please uh next item is uh res uh resolution that treatment Court Grant acceptance this is resolution number two a resolution accepting the fiscal year 2023 Bureau of Jus rant for adal treatment court and Nathan Bell is here for this item uh good evening mayor and Council again item in front of you this evening uh is a request to adopt uh not adopt resolution accepting the fiscal year 2023 Ral Justice grant for the adult treatment Court back in October of 2022 uh presiding judge James sty gave a presentation on the par can I was gonna mention that he was here in the audience evening

18:22 Council so uh judgey gave a presentation on the BGA uh grant program for funding treatment courts and the benefit of having such a program in Springfield Municipal Court uh we are recently notified that we awarded uh this grant it's 1.2 million there's a $300,000 match which we're able to do through existing budgeted uh staff uh so that brings $900,000 into the community over four years for the implementation and ongoing operations of this program uh we anticipate that we can with that 900,000 fund the majority of the expenditures related to it there might be a small shortfall which we think would qualify uh for the uh opioid settlement dollars if you remember that settlement was roughly a million and a half over 20 years uh some of those payments have been accelerated we've received

19:07 $440,000 to date those do have restrictions and this aligns uh well with those restrictions um judge is here uh tonight if you have any questions that I'm gonna turn it over to you goad jum I just want to comment I you've been dogging this at an amazing level for sever years now and I want to let you know your efforts are very appreciated I've walked been with him during this process we went and went to a conference learned a lot about it um and there's there's going to be some challenges you know recognize there's going to be some challenges getting this going and and having it being successful but I think we're on the right Road and it's going to be helping people in the long term hopefully we'll we'll see a significant

19:53 Improvement in the you know abuse that we're seeing the drug abuse that's happening in and the the illnesses people are suffering because of that and hopefully this will be a helpful to them for the community appreciate your work thank you coun yeah I doo want to say the same I was not actually on the council yet when this was brought before the council I was at the meeting and listened to your presentation and the the concern was about cost and you've done the work that needed to be done to get this funding secured and I just I commend you for doing that I think that it's a it's a program that's worth uh it's worth us supporting so thank you counselor we we hope that we can make the impact that this program through the years of

20:38 implementations had show some results here in the city Spring right we take the motion the uh yeah I'm I'm excited I'm glad that you got you know the works starting to pay off know we got a long way to go and like especially the folks that are on the finance and Judiciary Committee will learn a lot more is you know is you start to brief them and keep them updated but this equally is importantly when we the last time we had the police Levy out this was a big part of the conversation with the community you know Is our commitment to look for other other types of uh you know other paths for people and so I appreciate the fact the staff has really kind of put everything together and you know gotten us this far so with that I'd like to make a

21:23 motion to adopt resolution number two second can you call the bo please yes councelor Weber yes counc Mo yes councel rodley yes councel Blackwell yes councel Doyle hi and counciler yes thank you motion passes six yeses zero NOS uh next item please any business from the city council any other business people want to bring up just really quick I wanted to mention that um councelor uh rodley and um Beth and I all attended the um League of Oregon cities conference this past week and um it was I thought we got some a really good speaker that talked to us on that first morning um and there was one line that he mentioned in there and he

22:08 was talking about what we need to consider as counselors and that we need to be looking beyond the election cycle and looking to the next gen instead of looking at the next election we should be looking at the Next Generation and that our decisions should reflect those type of um those type of decisions and I thought that was pretty profound and um yeah I got a lot out of it and then we also got to uh Beth and I got to tour both night Campus which was phenomenal and amazing to know what they're doing there um um being able to shorten the timelines of the production of drugs getting from being created to actually hitting the market is usually about 14 years and here right here in Eugene we're helping reduce that amount and then we're drawing in people from all

22:53 over the country that want to come specifically because of the type of of equip that we have available and then also getting to tour Hayward the next day and getting to go down into the into the the the back yeah the BS of it and see all the stuff in there that you don't that people don't normally get to see and then actually getting to go up to the tower it was like raining and they said well you know we don't have to go and we were all like yeah we want to go we want to see what it looks like so it was a really neat experience and I appreciate having that opportunity so it sounds amazing was the first Speaker WR

23:39 puty if you're keeping track at home Ron was the recruiter that recruited Nancy Newton to the uh to Springfield he a CE CEO of sgr sgr and just to build on that I think it it was wonderful to have everyone from so many different cities and municipalities here in the area and I did not go on a tour but I spent all of day Friday um on talking about housing and homelessness and it was a you know eight plus hours of one panel after another and lots of conversations about all of the different ways that we're experiencing it and I really appreciate the sort of the the drawing of um you know folks who are unhoused to the

24:25 affordability of Housing and all they issue that are keeping people from being able to stay in their house so as many folks know that's a that's been a lane that I have been in since before I was on Council and so it was really great to be able to workshop with people and talk about what's working what's not working at Springfield and how it looks different in different municipalities and just to build those coalitions because I think it's so important for us as cities and as I said in a meeting earlier today you know cities were not built and it's not part of what our our mandate is is to do human services and yet we're all trying to find ways to make it more livable in our communities for people so I appreciated that and I my brain is full of all sorts of new ideas so stay tuned um that's fantastic

25:12 news um The One update I have is tomorrow there will be a tour of the 42nd Street Levy a lot of staffs and um part of the legislative delegations are coming down to start walking around and looking for it there's there's discussions to have at least three different probably three different tours right because we got to take the county out there um there's a couple Representatives we missed I know there's a couple folks on the council that uh you know are really interested in getting out there and seeing the for uh 42nd Street Levy and just having the engineers kind of talk through some of the issues related to it so stay tuned there will be plenty of there will be plenty of opportunities the first tour just filled up quicker than expected all right anybody else all right next

25:59 item next item is business from the city manager short-term lease for emergency warming Center and this is my item so good evening mayor and Council um St Vincent dep Paul provides warming services in Springfield in Eugene they do that about 15 to 31 nights depending on the weather from late October until April um historically uh these warning sites are in a church setting um St Vincent to Paul did Outreach to area churches um over the summer and didn't have any luck securing a site so on October 9th the city received a letter from St V dep Paul which is in your packet asking for use of ca's

26:44 memorial building um so that's what we're bringing to you here tonight as you know the Ceda CA owns the memorial building and so in the past when we have done this um CA is asked to um allow St pul to use the building and then it goes to the city and the city leases the building um we had so little time and your schedule is so packed we went a little backwards we're coming to the city first and then believe it's October 23rd we have a meeting with Ceda to ask the same question the contract would be similar um to past uh contracts where the city is responsible for the lease with St

27:29 Vincent dep Paul St Vincent dep Paul has added in their letter um a promise to do additional Outreach to the neighbors and businesses that live in that area and um to do as good a job as possible for the nights when they are not active but there still might be folks hanging around the building which causes some concern for neighbors and we made that clear that that's something that we don't want to happen in the businesses and residents there certainly don't um but I'll take any questions are there any questions Tor is that the same location where the eert where they were doing meals no the eert site is where they used to hold the St Vincent to Paul warming site the memorial building is across from the post office the post office okay and I know there was a lot

28:15 of people a lot of people sleeping in the doorways and a lot of stuff going on there I don't know if that was during the time that it was being used in the past for other things but um is there you know is there some issues around safety for that because for the people who do need to use it that they can get that they can feel safe in that because I've even wanted to volunteer but I'm I just want to know what the concerns are you know what kind of things we might see there Council Doyle it's an excellent question and you hit on a point that we've talked to St Vincent to Paul about and it mostly is around when they are not in use is when they don't have eyes on the building and so we've asked them to do some additional work and work with their volunteers to keep eyes on the building

29:01 when they are not activated and that's the challenge that we ran into that you the one you touch on is the one that caused issues for people for sure and in your issue statement it says the sea board approved a short-term lease to the city on October they're meeting October 24th so a mistake on my part the the bottom the discussion is correct it's that thanks for catching y so on the I'd like to see is some feedback in regards to that very same issue um it's come up multiple times and there seems to be a lack of that communication getting back to Council in regards to issues that are brought forward or there's complaints um

29:46 because I want to recognize that if folks are being negatively impacted then they need to be heard by Council and so we can respond appropriately and be able to make a decision with a clear conscience knowing that okay we're doing this and we're not negatively impacting people in a big way but I'd like to know if we are neg if negatively impacting folkses to to what degree I hear you councelor pisher um if the council is open to it I would be happy um as we track the complaints to include that in kind of the end of your memo uh when we talk about how many nights it was activated written some sort of written response is fine too it

30:32 doesn't need to be a an agenda item or anything like that in my mind unless say Council wants it some sort of informational memo um um the only question that I had about it is really just getting and and and this can come to Cay if it takes a a little bit of a time it's just getting confirmation I know that you've asked them specifically to you know what the operating plan is around you know when they're not activated um if they actually see that in a written you know some sort of written operating plan that takes into account the feedback that you've given them which is essentially you know that they've got to bring people by the site you know some reasonable amount of time yeah while they're not activated the second thing that I think is worthwhile and I think

31:17 we've told this that sort of St VES and the volunteers um to begin with it is it is really you know these are anytime they activate it's a tough operate you know tough night um just the importance of flawlessly executing right like and you know I know that it impacts the neighborhood and I know that sometimes it's not may not necessarily be from you know the the warming Center but just importance of them being a good a good neighbor and making sure that we try to work through and you know address any any sort of open concerns um I'm comfortable with you reporting back as far as how many you know how many complaints they have but I think we just need to just remind them of that up front is they've got to flawlessly

32:02 execute in the neighborhood I'd like to make a motion C my question sorry I'm behind you so you can't see um is that something that you are proposing be included in the subase from the city to St Vincent depal to have that operating plan or is that just direction to Neil on how to manage the lease uh that's just direction to Neil on manage okay thanks make easier when we're in our normal room and you're normal eyesight just wanted to make sure I understood whether we needed to make some make any edits to that before we get some ping pong balls back right okay I'd like to make a motion to authorize the assistant city manager to enter into a short-term lease with the Springfield Economic Development Agency for the Ceda owned property at 765 a street and enter

32:50 into a subas with St Vincent mall of Lane County to facilitate use as an emergency War Shelter by St Vincent depal second Neil can you call the vote please yes councel Weber yes councel Mo yes councel rodley yes Council Blackwell yes councel Doyle I and Council fer yes thank you motion passes six yes is zero NOS next item please uh only other business from the city managers we wanted to make sure we thank the council for coming in and doing a special session and have a special C the session coming up on the 23rd so we appreciate the extra time um the next item we have is apparatus replacement plan and that's Chief Cav's item for a minute you were going to tell us to wind it up

33:43 before I got it under control good evening H thanks for allowing the time to talk about this vehicle purchase U what we're asking for tonight is to replace three of our aging fire apparatus what to you all seem like uh a little ahead of schedule but through some research and work with our local vendor on lead times with fire apparatus we learned that um instead of planning a fiscal year at a time uh that we need to be prepared up to four years ahead at a time and so we've been working with our staff and then with the internal budget team to re identify the health of our vehicle Reserve fund fund 713 and understand what options do we have to try to get apparatus in the

34:30 queue um appreciate time uh on agenda review with May Gordon and council president pisher to kind of go over what we were looking at and with a big purchase like this how best to organize the information and provide it to you some of the feedback there our regional look was the fund's not healthy enough to buy $5 million worth of fire apparatus all at once today um and so we went back back to a tool that had been used in the past and explored a leasing option um ultimately in exploring all the options before us our request is that you authorize the city manager to enter into a contract to purchase three separate types of fire apparatus in three

35:16 separate ways uh all done in this fashion to ensure the overall health of fund 7113 as we move through the forecast period so that in any unanticipated c circumstances we have sufficient fund should something break significant or you know who knows and that you guys have been doing this for a while you know that things change um so what we're what we're requesting to purchase is a replacement of the tower three which is our largest most expensive resource Station 3 at 28th in Centennial one thing that's different about the replacement is when Tower 3 was purchased in 2012 um it was purchased without a fire pump or fire hose uh anticipating that we would move to a similar model across the the Eugene Springfield Fire

36:01 boundaries which would have required Staffing an engine to support that that ladder truck um obviously uh just challenges in Staffing and funding and that all of us are experiencing uh we won't be able to achieve that second company anytime soon and so what we've done is added a fire pump and hose back to that apparatus so it can be used for anything that it's requested for um kind of a multi-roll that previously was we'll be also replacing an engine with an engine and then one of the engines with a ladder that if you guys recall up to 2016 uh we had a ladder deployed in Springfield but due to the budget constraints at the time weren't able to replace that ladder with a ladder but we're able to bring that back and really

36:47 that's an anticipation for uh the growth that you're all planning for in the downtown Springfield area taller buildings and the the backup for Tower through so that's a little bit of a mix uh what we're proposing is to purchase the Tower with current funds in 7113 receiving a prepaid discount leasing the ladder through the forecast period and then purchasing the engine and paying that one upon delivery so no prepaid discounts associated with that u in the attachment you'll you saw a little bit of health of fund 713 in particular the ending fund balance U really the only challenge that's highlighted in yellow was um in 2033 when we have to purchase some more engines and apparatus there might be a

37:33 negative balance however um at your request we looked at what's the value of the tower ladder should we uh be able to sell it once it's there and what we're anticipating is potentially the current market holds where it's at about half a million dollars and so we're anticipating that through some sales upon receipt of those vehicles in fy2 7 uh that we'll be able to restore 713 in a way that we won't see a negative balance in there lot of discussion fire driving what's Tower what's Tower um so that really big one with the big bucket on the front the big ladder on top of it that's the tower some of the others are put names on or

38:18 numbers on them we're not completely sure what they are but that one's one yeah that's the big one at 28th in Centennial the latter will most likely live here either at the Gateway station or um on Fifth Street and then the engine that will be replaced is uh for the engine out there you very much well first thank you and I appreciate the creativity of trying to figure out how to get us the most and the most creative way um I'm just curious what's the anticipated like lifespan like how long should these new apparatus last us so typically our Frontline engines uh do Frontline service for um 10 years and then another five years in reserve Service uh and then the tower ladder is is the same

39:04 usually 12 to 15 because those don't as frequently go into Reserve service we've got three truck companies across Eugene Springfield area and with our U agreements we're able to move those around and so balance between who holds a reserve when um and then you know who sells their Surplus assets any other questions all right I would like to excuse me authorize the city manager to manager to sign for ordering three replacement fire apparatus second Neil could you call vote please yes councelor Weber yes councelor Mo yes councelor rodley yes councelor Blackwell yes councelor do I and councelor pisher yes thank you

39:49 motion passes six yeses zero NOS thank you all for the continued support any business from the city attorney Chief thank you all right thank you everybody for coming in and staying late for the special session we are ajour have a great evening