BOARD OF
COMMISSIONERS'
REGULAR MEETING
October 1, 2008
9:00 a.m.
Commissioners’
Conference Room
APPROVED
10/22/2008
Commissioner Faye
Stewart presided with Commissioners Bill Dwyer, Bill Fleenor, Bobby Green, Sr.
and Peter Sorenson present. County
Administrator Jeff Spartz, County Counsel Liane Richardson and Recording
Secretary Melissa Zimmer were also present.
1. ADJUSTMENTS
TO THE AGENDA
Stewart noted the first item of Executive Session has been pulled.
Item 10 a) is a discussion item.
2. PUBLIC
COMMENTS
Sylvia Calderwood, Eugene, relayed that the Kennel Clubs of Eugene and
Springfield thanked the Board. She
reported that from September 4 to September 7 their clubs held dog shows at the
fairgrounds. She stated the Kennel
Clubs paid over $50,000 to the fairgrounds.
She added they had a professional survey analyst from their club prepare
the figures. She noted the average
person at the shows spent $469. She
indicated that with 1500 dog show entries, the total amount spent was over
$700,000 in Eugene and Springfield that weekend. She added that there was one exhibitor that bought a $90,000
motor home. She read to the Board
what they asked the Exhibitors to sign.
Jim Gillette, Eugene, thanked Stewart for meeting with him. He didn’t think the Board would change anything, but he
said he would keep trying. He
received a letter from Milo Mecham and he said it was full of untruthful things.
He said the letter stated he was out of compliance and he said he has
been in compliance. He said George Wingard had the wrong dates.
Stewart thought Gillette misunderstood what he was told. Stewart said they
have meeting minutes with the date the people were supposed to be removed from
the property and Gillette came in to say they were still living on the property.
Gillette said if the Board can prove it, he will drop his case and pay the
fine.
Stewart understood that Gillette was in the middle of appealing the
decision to Court. He said it
needed to be brought before the Judge.
Russ Noah, Florence, discussed lot 5300 on Second Avenue and Ocean Avenue.
He requested the Board review and consider the access issue.
He wanted it confirmed formally by Lane County in a process to establish
it. He said there were barriers in
place even though they were not physical. He
said there are a number of homes trying to be sold on the property and through
disclosures sales have been lost because of the issue.
He said they need Lane County to take a stand that there is public
access. He indicated planning
permits have been through the planning department and building permits have been
applied and approved through the building department of Lane County.
He commented that Lane County had promoted the development of Second
Avenue through the issuance of planning approvals and building permits.
He said the benefit of Lane County taking a stand in this would be the
damages to the property owners in losing sales or buying and selling property.
He said Lane County reduces its liability in the process of being active
in the development of Second Avenue and public access to the beach could be
confirmed and maintained. He
commented that this is one of the few access spots for Lane County residents and
it used on a daily basis. He
thought low cost solutions would be lot line adjustments or swapping property
portions that benefit the private property of 5300 and Lane County. He noted the
last idea is through Lane County’s ability through adverse possession.
He indicated the road had been utilized for the past 50 years as a public
access road.
Dwyer commented that when people have a prescribed right for than 10
years, he is in favoring of continuing. He
said the right can’t be taken away.
David Collier, Cottage Grove, said he has been trying to buy
County property. He said he had
been in touch with Jeff Turk, Management Services, for a year about a piece of
property. He thought things were
ironed out but transportation still has a concern about public access across the
property. He said if he was willing
to dedicate a permanent public access easement, they would be willing to go
along with it. He indicated that he
has a permanent public access easement already across the road that belongs to
the BLM for perpetual public access. He
noted there already is public access across the strip of land.
He said Turk thought one of his motives was to gate the property and that
was not his motive. His interest was financial.
He was against putting in a second public access easement over the top of
the first one. He said it would
lessen the value of the property, as it is another easement that will show up on
the title report when he sells it.
3. CONSENT
CALENDAR
A. Approval of
Minutes
September 17, 1008,
JEO Meeting, 6:00 p.m.
B. County
Administration
1) ORDER 08-10-1-1/In
the Matter of Approving the Transfer of $1,000 From the General Fund Operational
Contingency to Materials and Services to Support the Rosa Parks Sculpture Fund.
C. Children and
Families
1) ORDER 08-10-1-2/In
the Matter of Approving Membership Recommendations (LM 3.521).
D. Health and Human
Services
1) ORDER 08-10-1-3/In
the Matter of Adding One Full-time (1.0 FTE) Public Health Educator, One
Half-Time Temporary (.5 FTE) Community Service Worker and One Half-Time
Temporary (.5 FTE) Office Assistant 2 and Appropriating an Additional $194,046
in Revenues and Expenditures for FY 2008-2009 in Fund 286 Department of Health
and Human Services.
2) ORDER 08-10-1-4/In
the Matter of Appointing Nine Members to the Human Services Commission Community
Action Advisory Committee.
E. Management
Services
1) ORDER 08-10-1-5/In
the Matter of Acceptance of Bid LCB 2008-09, and Award of a Construction
Contract to Umpqua Roofing Co., Inc., for the Phased Re-Roofing of Buildings at
the Lane County Jail/Lane County Adult Corrections, in the Amount of $304,045.
2) ORDER 08-10-1-6/In
the Matter of Appointing Two Pools of Board Members Who May be Selected by the
County Clerk to Sit on the Board of Property Tax Appeals.
F. Public Works
1) ORDER 08-10-1-7/In
the Matter of Reappointing Six Members to the Resource Recovery Advisory
Committee.
2) ORDER 08-10-1-8/In
the Matter of Approving an Option Agreement with Pacific Continental Bank
Regarding the Lease of a Portion of County-Owned Surplus Road Fund Property
Located on River Avenue, Eugene, and Identified as Tax Lot 501 on Lane County
Assessor’s Map 17-04-13-22.
G. Public Safety
1) ORDER 08-10-1-9/In
the Matter of Delegating Authority to the County Administrator to Execute
Wireless Communications Site Sharing Agreement Between the State of Oregon and
Lane County.
Fleenor requested
that item 3 E. 2) be pulled.
MOTION:
to approve the balance of the Consent Calendar.
Dwyer MOVED,
Sorenson SECONDED.
VOTE:
4-0 (Green out of room).
3 E. 2)
Fleenor requested
this item be pulled because he was just given the information late last week.
He asked if the Board would entertain the possibility of a substitution
appointment instead of the recommended one by Marle Hoehne, Deeds and Records.
Green asked why he
was replacing the person with George Goldstein.
Fleenor said he was
not part of the process in making the selection.
Sorenson stated
that no commissioner was part of the process.
Fleenor was taken
by surprise and thought the Board had the responsibility of making the
appointments. He commented that
these were just staff requests and the Board ultimately makes the decision.
He wanted to participate in the decision making to make the determination
on his own
Stewart didn’t
support what Fleenor stated. Stewart
said that Goldstein had presented concerns several times before the Board on
property tax valuations. Stewart
asked if there was a conflict to appoint Goldstein to the Board.
Richardson said
there is a potential conflict but it could be an actual conflict.
She said they have had people with potential conflicts before and it was
difficult for staff to have a full board present because of the conflict.
Stewart asked if
there would be an issue if they appoint Goldstein to the Board.
Fleenor stated that
Goldstein might have an actual conflict. He
didn’t guaranty there won’t be one in the future.
MOTION:
to substitute George Goldstein for Don Thomas as appointment.
Fleenor MOVED,
Dwyer SECONDED.
Fleenor explained
the rationale for putting Goldstein in was to add an additional perspective.
He thought it was time to appoint a new citizen.
Stewart asked if
they could just add another person to the list.
Green asked if
Fleenor spoke with Thomas about his intent to replace Thomas.
Fleenor said he
hadn’t had the opportunity.
Green thought it
would have been in Fleenor’s best interest to have notified Thomas instead of
bringing it out in a public session.
Annette Newingham,
Elections, explained that they only use six members in a limited capacity.
She said they try to bring alternates into some of the hearings to gain
experience. She commented that
there is no harm in bringing another member in.
She added that it is in everyone’s best interest because they never
know when illness or attrition happens. She
said they have two pools and they pick which members will be used.
Hoehne’s
preference is to have an additional person.
He anticipated over the next couple of years there will be some attrition
and the more people trained the better off they are.
Fleenor withdrew
his motion, Dwyer withdrew his second.
MOTION:
to approve ORDER 08-10-1-6 with the addition of George Goldstein.
Fleenor MOVED,
Dwyer SECONDED.
Sorenson
recommended that in the future that this item gets sent to the Agenda Team in
early August.
Fleenor said that
this in no way was to reflect poorly on Thomas, he has outstanding credentials.
VOTE:
5-0.
4. EMERGENCY
BUSINESS
None.
5. COMMISSIONERS'
REMONSTRANCE
Green thanked Ron Bellamy from The Register Guard on
his article on Milt Davis. Green
said that Davis was from Elmira and he had just passed away.
Green said Davis was a long time football starter.
Green said he met Davis when Green was a city councilor and Davis was a
mentor to Green and other people in the community.
He was saddened by the loss. He
passed on his condolences to the family
Stewart attended a recognition for Congressman Jim Weaver on Monday.
He said it was great to honor his service.
He indicated that they named the 22 mile loop for Weaver.
He noted for the federal government deal with the government buy out, it
would take for all of the citizens of the United States over the age of 18,
about $425,000 per person to resolve the problem
Sorenson said on Monday September 29 he attended the ceremony for the Jim
Weaver dedication of Waldo Lake.
Dwyer said on the bailout they have to stop the hemorrhaging in the
banking system. He said businesses
can’t get money and people can’t borrow money.
He thought most of the money needs to be directed to the people and they
need to be careful about the golden parachutes the CEO's are taking.
He said if they run the company into the ground they shouldn’t be
rewarded for making bad loans and mismanagement.
Fleenor commented that the trail weaves so it was appropriate to be named
after Congressman Weaver. He said
they can’t solve a problem if they don’t understand what created it.
6. PUBLIC
WORKS
a. ORDER 08-10-1-10/In
the Matter of Approving Changes to the K-12 Waste Reduction and Recycling Grant.
Sarah Grimm, Public
Works, said they were asking to slightly change the criteria of the grant. She
indicated the City of Eugene and Lane County went together on this grant for
many years. She said their goal is
to get more participating schools in the Oregon Green Schools program.
She explained that it is a statewide program that encourages and supports
schools in becoming more sustainable through waste prevention methodology.
She recalled that over the years many grant recipients have not pursued
becoming Oregon Green Schools even though it was part of the grant agreement.
She indicated that they found a way to streamline and make it easier for
staff time and for the school to become a Green School by changing it to an
incentive grant. She said when going through the process, they will receive a
$500 grant and they will use it towards waste reduction efforts described in
their grant application.. She
indicated the goal is to get more schools to participate in the program.
MOTION:
to approve ORDER 08-10-1-10.
Dwyer MOVED,
Fleenor SECONDED.
Green noted that
Meadow View was listed twice.
VOTE:
5-0.
7. PUBLIC
SAFETY
a. ORAL
REPORT/Earthquake Hazard in Lane County.
Linda Cook,
Sheriff’s Office, noted that in July, the Department of Geology and Mineral
Industries released an earthquake hazard report on six counties in Oregon and
Lane County was one of the counties. She
gave an overview of the report.
She explained that
liquefaction was the great hazard and causes most damage.
She discussed what would happen if an earthquake hit in Lane County.
Green asked when
they would declare Lane County a disaster area in an earthquake.
Cook responded that
when federal and state government look at when Lane County has overwhelmed local
resources, then a disaster area is called. She commented that Lane County would
be quickly overwhelmed and they could quickly be able to declare a local
disaster.
Cook noted that
Lane County has nine dams owned and maintained by the Corps of Engineers.
She indicated that the dams re-evaluated and considered safe are Cougar,
Blue River and Hills Creek. She
said the ones needed to be re-evaluated are Dexter, Fall Creek, Cottage Grove
and Dorena. She said there is vulnerability with Fern Ridge because of
liquefaction. She noted that
because Lane County is close to the coast, that Fern Ridge is the biggest risk
for the area. She thought they
should do outreach to the Cheshire area that is downstream from the Fern Ridge
area. She noted there are 34 dams in Lane County and 22 privately
are owned dams. She thought that
was something that could be looked at ahead of time. She thought to help reduce
the risk, they could provide local input for estimates. She added that they could adopt a steep hillside protection
ordinance similar to the City of Salem. She
said it could be in place to regulate zoning, rezoning and development on
hillsides, reducing the threat of earthquake induced landslides.
She added that they could do more evaluation planning as they do not have
that planning in place. She thought
they could dedicate resources. She said they need to do continuity of government
planning in case water or power is out. She
said there needs to be public education in outlying areas.
Sorenson thought
they should pursue the steep hillside and flooding protection ordinance. He
added that they have to be mindful for the source of money for this.
Cook wanted to tap
into some of the resources that Public Works has in their mapping division.
She thought this project could be put on a work plan for Land Management.
Green thought Cook
needed to do everything mentioned in her report. He commented that public education and outreach can’t do
enough and he strongly supports it. With
regard to funding, he said he was supportive wherever they could leverage their
own resources to make this happen. He thought Public Works was the proper area
for the funding.
Fleenor said his
goal is to bring in citizen involvement. He
said there are retirees who have experience.
He thought part of the outreach would be to bring in people who are
stakeholders. He thought a task
force should be put together to ask the community help them draft the evacuation
plans. He didn’t think there
needed to be staff all the time.
Stewart commented
that all items are important. He agreed that they should get residents or
volunteers in areas they think are high risk to put together a plan.
He was also supportive of looking at an ordinance about building in the
floodplain or floodways.
8. COMMISSIONERS'
BUSINESS
a. ORDER 08-10-1-11/In
the Matter of Recognizing Darin D. Norman in Sheriff Fiscal Services a S.A.V.E.
Award of 12 Hours of Time Management.
Chris McCoy,
S.A.V.E. Committee, explained this proposal dealt with replacing the 1-800
number that allows people from the correction facility to look for jobs.
She said using the 1-800 number was costing between $1,200 and $1,800 per
month. He suggested getting ten
limited restrictive cells phones at a cost of $36 per month.
MOTION:
to approve ORDER 08-10-1-11.
Green MOVED, Dwyer
SECONDED.
VOTE:
5-0.
b. RESOLUTION 08-10-1-12/In
the Matter of Support of Oregon Ballot Measure 56 and Opposition to Oregon
Ballot Measures 58, 59, 60, 61 and 63.
Fleenor read the
resolution into the record.
MOTION:
to approve RESOLUTION 08-10-1-12.
Fleenor MOVED,
Dwyer SECONDED.
VOTE;
5-0.
c. REPORT/Lomakatsi
Restoration Project. (PULLED)
9. COUNTY
ADMINISTRATION
a. Announcements
Spartz reported the
Senate is in the process of deliberating their version of the bailout bill to
unlock the financial markets. He said Alex Cuyler, Intergovernmental Relations
Manager, said the Senate has amended in the content of what has been House
Resolution 6049, the tax extenders bill, including Secure Rural School payments.
10. MANAGEMENT
SERVICES
a. DISCUSSION/In
the Matter of Whether to Accept a $25,000 Offer from David and Linda Collier for
County Owned Property Commonly Known as Blue Mountain School Road or to Retain
Said Property for Dedication as a Local Access Road (Assessor's Map No.
21-02-30-00-00700).
Jeff
Turk, Management Services, indicated that the County owns Blue Mountain
School Road. He said part of Blue
Mountain School Road to the north of Tax Lot 700, (which the County owns,) is
dedicated right of way, as opposed to local access road.
He added that Tax Lot 700 was acquired through tax foreclosure in 1971.
He said in 1961 the BLM acquired an easement from the owners of the
property to access their lands. He
added that the BLM also acquired easement over private property.
He said it gives the BLM the right to control, regulate and provide
access to the citizens of the United States.
He noted the County has owned the road since 1972 and there are issues
whether it should be made a public road. He
said its status has remained as County owned property through tax foreclosures.
Turk indicated he
spoke with Collier a year ago. He
said Collier owns Tax Lot 701 and 702 and he was interested in purchasing the
property. He said it is not a
dedicated public road, it is County owned property.
Collier said there was value in the road because it is a legal lot of
record. He said it might give
Collier the ability to proceed with a lot line adjustment to create enough area
for an additional building site. He
had negotiations with Collier and agreed on the price and they agreed to secure
access easements for all of the adjoining property owners.
He said it wasn’t an issue for Collier.
He said in August things were becoming finalized and Collier submitted an
official offer for the property along with the deposit and the agreed upon price
of $25,000. He sent an e-mail to transportation planning.
He said at that point in time transportation planning decided it might be
in the public’s best interest to retain this and dedicate it as a public road
with access to BLM land.
Dwyer asked if
Collier was okay with Option 3. He
said Collier’s idea was to expand his parcel so he could have two parcels and
Option 3 doesn’t achieve that.
Turk thought it
did. He spoke with Steve Vorhes,
Assistant County Counsel, because he had the same question.
He said if they reserve the easement, it doesn’t necessarily make it a
public road because there is not an official dedication by the Board.
He said if the BLM cuts off access to its land,
then the road goes nowhere because it ends in private ownership.
He said if the BLM gated the property, the public wouldn’t be able to
get past Weyerhaeuser.
Dwyer said later
they would be asked to vacate the public easement and then the property owner
would get the public easement free. He asked how they preserve the right for the
value of the easement they vacate.
Richardson said the
question could come up at the time they are asked to vacate the easement.
She said if they still have citizens using the road, the question is if
they want to vacate it. She thought the Board would want to keep it available for the
public.
Dwyer wanted to put
in the agreement that the Board would consider the easement to be public access
and if the easement is vacated, there is a value to the easement.
Turk said if it is
a dedicated public road, then there are statutes that deal with the vacation of
a dedicated public road.
Dwyer wanted the
contract to say the value of the easement is not part of the consideration.
Richardson
indicated that they could put language in that says the value of the easement
could be determined at some later point, if they were ever asked to give up the
easement.
Fleenor asked if
they could have an easement that would only be effective if the BLM were to
vacate this easement.
Dwyer was concerned
about the public and wanted them to know about it.
MOTION:
to adopt Option 3, with the caveat given counsel’s direction to address the
concerns that were expressed about the future vacation of the easement.
Dwyer MOVED, Green
SECONDED.
VOTE:
5-0.
Turk indicated he
would present the counter offer.
11. COMMISSIONERS'
ANNOUNCEMENTS
Fleenor announced
he was hosting a community dialogue with Mike Clark.
Sorenson announced
that he is having an opportunity for the public to tell him what is on their
minds on October 29 at the Hillyard Center.
He said he was working on a questionnaire.
Stewart said he
would be at the Creswell Community Center tomorrow listening to the community
and their needs to answer questions. He
reported that he had a meeting in Lorane and 18 people had attended and it was a
big success.
12. EXECUTIVE
SESSION as per ORS 192.660
Per ORS 192.660(2)(h) for the purpose of consulting with Counsel on
litigation.
13. OTHER
BUSINESS
None.
There being no further business, Commissioner Stewart recessed the meeting
into Executive Session at 11:30 a.m.
Melissa Zimmer
Recording Secretary