Springfield City Council — June 23, 2025

0:03 I'm going to call the Springfield City Council special regular session to order with roll call. Mayor Van Gordon here, councelor Weber here, councelor Mo here, councelor Bradley here, councelor Blackwell here, councelor Doyle here, and councelor Stout here. Thank you. There is one time designated for public testimony this evening under public hearings. If you are attending in person, please complete the request to speak card located in front of the council chambers and turn it into the city recorder. If you're joining us online with a tablet, smartphone or computer and wish to speak during those times, please use the raise hand feature in Zoom. The order of public testimonies is as follows. Anyone who has raised uh any person in the council chambers and then anyone who has raised their hand on Zoom. First item, please. First item is

0:48 fire and life safety special operating levy renewal. Nathan Bell is here for this item. Uh good evening uh mayor and councel. Um to provide some brief background on this item in a May 27th work session discussed the renewal of the city's move the microphone closer. Sorry about that. Start from scratch. All right. To provide some uh brief background on this item. Uh in a May 27th work session discussed the city's fire levy renewal. Uh council directed staff to move forward with the levy rate that would fund the full cost of a fire engine crew. Uh the original intent of the levy. Uh this worked out to be a rate of 50 uh 53 cents uh per thousand assessed value. Uh the resolution and proposed

1:33 ballot and title ballot title in front of you this evening uh reflects that rate. Uh staff is requesting that you conduct a public hearing and take action on this item. Are there any questions? Go ahead, Victoria. Is this a time for questions or comments or do we wait till later? Um, if you have qu clarifying questions uh for Nate then um otherwise you can wait till after the public hearing. All right. Go ahead. Um just refresh me one more time. The total uh total dollar in revenue we expect to see as a result of this levy is going to be how many dollars again? Let's see. Um, so 3.2 million the first year. It's

2:20 going to grow. So I think it's about uh 17 million in total over the five years. Maybe a little less. Thank you. All right. I'm going to open the public hearing. I don't have any cards. No hands for this item. All right. I'm going to close the public hearing and then we can discuss the item. Councelor Doyle. So my question to you is a vote for this is that affect in any way the fact that the the decision that's trying to be worked out regarding the fire departments um you know the the situation with Eugene and Springfield and what have you. I'm just I'm a little frustrated that we're moving this to getting more money through the voters when we haven't resolved over the last

3:08 years um the issue that's going on with them. Yeah. So, and I'm going to look to Nant as well, but this is on its own path independent of the governance conversation. Uh, this is a uh fire engine crew that we've now had in place since 2002, and we're just at another renewal. Uh, and the question really was whether we wanted to do the full cost because we were losing ground on that levy. But it regardless of what happens with the fire governance uh and the merge uh departments, this is something we want to have a fifth engine crew that we got to move forward with. I don't know if you want to add to that. I would thank you for the question uh councelor Doyle. Um regarding the governance uh structure of the fire department, you're correct that you know there are still details to be worked out among our two

3:54 councils uh both Springfield and Eugene. this particular uh levy is separate from that discussion in that irrespective of the outcome of that conversation. It is it is still funding a portion of Springfield's fire coverage that is needed and necessary and would continue to operate in in whatever governance structure may be selected. It's still an essential uh service that is beunding. So really the question at hand before council this evening is um to try to recover it uh through the levy pro process the actual costs of providing that service. Any other questions or comments?

4:46 I move to adopt a resolution referring to the voters of the city a ballot measure authorizing a 5-year local option levy for fire and life safety services in the amount of 53 cents per 1,000 assessed value beginning fiscal year 2026 2027 second can you call the vote please councelor Weber yes councelor Mo yes councelor Rodley yes councelor Blackwell yes councelor Doyle yes and councelor Stout yes thank Motion passes. Six yeses, zero nos. Next item, please. Next item is a jurisdictional surrender of portions of Lorest Street and Menloop to the city of Springfield. Stan Petro is here for this item.

5:32 Hello counselors, Mayor Stan Petro, city engineer here. Um this is a request to initiate resolution or request surrender of jurisdictional portions of Laura and Menllo loop. Um this comes as the final action of an IGA with Lane County that was authorized in January of 2022. Um we currently have projects going on in both Laura Street. Laura Street is being run by the county and paid for by the county and we have our bond project on Aspen and Menllo. So upon completion of those and completion of the an uh annexation of those streets, um we're asking to take um jurisdictional ownership of the streets and basically take on the long-term maintenance of those streets. Um Lane County is on board with this. they will need to go to their um commissioners to get approval, but they've they're on board with transferring them over to us. Um, one

6:18 thing to note is that you don't see Aspen Street here because it's a local access road. So, the county doesn't really maintain those access roads. They're up to the homeowners that those streets to pay for it. So, that's the reason why you don't see Aspen in here. That might have been a question of why you see it in the IGA, but not in the um jurisdictional transfer. So therefore, um, staff recommends council approval of the resolution requesting that Lane County surrender jurisdiction of those portions of Laura Street and Menlo Loop to the city. With that, I can take questions. Are there any questions? Uh, councelor Doyle, sorry, I'm going to be the question answer. So, is there a lot of um I know why we don't do local access roads because the maintenance would be ridiculous, but is there going to be a lot of maintenance costs to

7:03 taking over these roads or are they pretty are they built to city standards or to standard? Yeah, they'll be be built to city standards by the time that they're done. And um Laura Street's actually going in concrete. So, you know, longterm it's going to be pretty low maintenance, especially for the first, you know, 50 60 years. Um Aspen and Menllo are going to be asphalt, but they'll be all done. sidewalk improvements, you know, everything will be good there. Um, we're extending wastewater as well down through there, so the wastewater will be good and new. And so, yeah, long term there will be maintenance costs, but they're going to be out there a ways. Okay, fantastic. Thank you so much. Uh, I had questions about Laura Street. So, um, so I think there's two two sets of questions. The the city's side of Laura Street, is that that's phase two, right? Um, I haven't

7:50 heard of phases. I I thought we were doing it all in one big chunk, but I could be Well, it's only torn up from uh basically the Moose Lodge north. Yeah, correct. So, they're it's all one big project, but they're phasing it one side and then the other side, similar to um how we're doing Mil Street. So, is the county responsible for um sort of the I guess the southern portion of it or are we taking over project delivery of of that portion? cuz I think the se the southern half is actually a city street at this point. Yeah. So this won't happen until the actual transfer won't happen until the street's completely done and the project's done. So we're talking like a this is just to kind of initiate the jurisdictional transfer. Yeah. This is Yeah, I I have no concerns about

8:37 the jurisdictional transfer. I think I'm trying to find out more information about that specifically to that project. Okay. And um and maybe this is something that you know that somebody can take away, right, is because right now, right, like it, you know, they've closed they've closed Laura Street essentially to one way, right? And I think that is an update question that I keep having like for for that area. And then the second portion that that I'm I guess have got questions about is if we if the county didn't do a great job communicating the north side of it, right? that by far is the easier side of it because all that industrial traffic doesn't come in that side. It's the south side portion of it. And so I'm think I'm I'm asking for I guess an

9:23 update on you know timelines for how long the project's going to be and then more broadly like when we do the hard part from a communication perspective and I know I can see Neil taking a couple of notes here is like how are we going to tell that you know all those businesses on Shelly that move very very large equipment you know through there how are we going to get them the information so that they can continue to operate on something that is likely to run, you know, you know, a multi-month building season. Gotcha. So, you're just more of the scheduling of the project when that's going to happen and then how the notification is going to happen. And in my experience, a lot of the bigger driveways, they end up figuring out a way to keep keep them moving all the time. They'll do like half the driveway and then, you know, with traffic coming in and out on the other side and they'll

10:08 do the other half. So, that's my guess is they've already worked through a lot of that staging. But, I can look into that and get back to you. Yeah. And and I think Neil, the the concern I've got is that everybody out there was surprised when it got shut down one, you know, going one way on the county side, right? So it would be much more challenging um economically, right? If they get surprised on, you know, I guess phase two, I just added phases to the project apparently and nobody We can look into the communication plan for the next step and get a memo to council. That would be great. Thank you. I move to adopt a resolution requesting surrender of jurisdiction of portions of

10:53 Laura Street and Menllo Loop. Second. Can you call a vote, please? Councelor Weber, yes. Councelor Mo, yes. Councelor Bradley, yes. Councelor Blackwell, yes. Councelor Doyle, I. And councelor Stepp, yes. Thank you. Motion passes. Six yeses, zero nos. Next item, please. Any business from the city council? Any announcements that people have? Councelor Stoke, I just want to thank the police department for being great to accompany a group of marchers from St. Mary's to St. Alice Catholic Church. Your service is very much appreciated. Any business from the city manager? No business. Thank you. And we have business from the city attorney.

11:40 Mayor and council tonight. Um, you're asked to sign authorize the city manager to sign the contract for prosecution service with Ley Cox. Um, and this is a 4-year term for prosecution of criminal violations and misdemeanor in the Springfield Municipal Court for a 4-year term ending in um the end of fiscal year 29. The um city attorney's office manages this contract. I'm obviously here for Mary Bridget tonight. And uh our office issued a request for proposal for municipal court prosecution services back in the end of March and not the one of the reasons for that is just to um it's a good it's a best practice to sort of regularly or semi-regularly put out a a request for um proposals just to make

12:25 sure that the services that we're getting are consistent with what the market could provide and that we're getting a good value. Ley Cox was the only respondent to that RFP, although it was advertised um pretty broadly in the state and that response was reviewed and evaluated. Um and Ley Cox obviously meets the minimum qualifications and that RFP for providing service. Um subsequently they negotiated a new 4-year contract that has a no increase in costs for the upcoming fiscal year and then a 2% increase after that per year for four years. Um, and then additionally, we negotiated an hourly rate of $150 for any add-on services. Um, for example, weapons red flag hearings were something that was not anticipated at the time of the prior contract, but um, is something that the prosecutor's office has been providing.

13:10 And so, um, this is a good I think this is a good package for you to approve and I'm happy to answer any questions. Aren't there any questions? Answer. Sorry, I tried to do my homework. Um, there were some concerns. I know that we talked about with an attorney that we were contracting with and I thought it was the district attorney. Am I mistaken in that that I know that there were some concerns brought up about um the person being available when we needed them. Is this a totally different thing? Am I thinking of I'm not aware of concerns about um the city prosecutor other than there were negotiations previously about whether the city prosecutor would cover hearings extra court processes like the red flag

13:58 um hearings. And so this guarantees that they'll be available for those in exchange for hourly compensation. Otherwise, I'm not party to those details. I'd have to have Mary Bridget get back to you. Okay. Yeah, because that was it was something that councelor Pushineri had brought up and we had an entire conversation about um some of the the absences and things that were having to be covered and I I'm just not sure if it was district attorney or if it was more on the um you know local stuff. So So the district attorney is um funded by the state that's through Lake County District Attorney's Office. We don't have any agreement or contract with them. The Springfield prosecutor's office is um what Ley Cox provides to us um which is for municipal court cases and then that would be it. Do you

14:43 remember offices in Link County? Um I believe that conversation may that you're referring to may have been an executive session topic. I move to authorize the city manager to sign the contract for prosecution services with Lehey Cox LLP for prosecution services in Springfield Municipal Court for the 4-year term of July 1, 2025 through June 30, 2029. Second,

15:29 please. Councelor Weber. Yes. Councelor Mo. Yes. Councelor Bradley, yes. Councelor Blackwell, yes. Councelor Doyle, no. And councelor Snout, no. Thank you. Motion passes. Four yeses, two nos. Next item, please. Any other business from the city attorney? No other business. All right, we're returned. I believe we are meeting back here for CEDA at 7 o'clock.