BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS

WORK SESSION

November 25, 2003

9:00 a.m.

Commissioners' Conference Room

APPROVED 12/10/03

 

Commissioner Peter Sorenson presided with Commissioners Bill Dwyer, Bobby Green, Sr., Don Hampton and Anna Morrison present.  County Administrator Bill Van Vactor, County Counsel Teresa Wilson and Recording Secretary Melissa Zimmer were also present.

 

1.  ADJUSTMENTS TO THE AGENDA

 

Sorenson stated there would be an emergency business item.

 

2.  PUBLIC COMMENTS

 

Susanne Jackson, 2140 Agate, stated she is an owner of the Piccadilly Flea Market.  She noted they have been operating out of the Lane County Fairgrounds for almost 34 years.  She said over the past 33 years there have been local businesses that got their start from the Piccadilly Flea Market.  She added sometimes it is the only way that people with limited resources are able to get a start.  She stated their season runs from September through June at each market they rent 300 to 400 tables.  She added during the season they have as many as 60,000 shoppers.  She noted that the Piccadilly Flea Market is the single largest continually operating flea market in the state of Oregon.  She said it was a jewel and it would be a crime if it were to disappear.

 

Peggy Ward, 2192 Suntrek, stated she is also an owner of the Piccadilly Flea Market.  She said they have about 2,300 people on a mailing list.  She added over 1,200 were out of the area.  She said that these people were bringing money into the community.

 

Fred Ward, 2192 Suntrek, commented he didn’t understand the logic of placing a multi-story structure in the middle of a vintage residential neighborhood.  He thought the impact would be tremendous.  He thought considering the fairgrounds for a hospital site was a huge mistake.  He wanted an impact study if this went forward on the traffic and how it would affect the neighborhood.  He noted a hospital would only require 30 acres to operate.  He wondered why they would need a hospital on a 50 plus acre site.

 

Dwyer stated the Fair Board met last week.  He said they voted unanimously not to sell any portion of the fairground.

 

Bruce Jackson, 2140 Agate, stated the Lane County Fairgrounds have been part of the community for the past 100 years.  He said it means many things to many people.  He said many of the events that are held at the fairgrounds are there because of the space and location.  He said if that were taken away, there would be a large ripple effect.  He questioned the morale of taking away the fairgrounds without a vote of the people.

 

Terry Connelly, 1401 Willamette, spoke on the behalf of the Chamber of Commerce regarding the road financing street maintenance for cities throughout Lane County.  He said the Chamber was strongly opposed to the transportation system maintenance fee because it was the wrong solution to a problem regarding street maintenance.  He thought there could be some intergovernmental cooperation to arrive at a better solution to this problem.  He hoped that would be a starting point to craft a better solution to resolve the street maintenance needs.  He said if street maintenance is a priority for the City of Eugene, then they have to demonstrate the existing resources to the problem.  He thought this was an important opportunity for Lane County and its jurisdictions to come up with a cost effective solution.  He thought it was an important role for the Board of Commissioners to play in solving the problem.

 

Helen Berg, 3235 Chambers, stated she is the producer of the Lane County Home and Garden Show and Home Improvement Show at the fairgrounds.  She thinks the financial problems will be solved if they all work together.  She didn’t believe the fairgrounds should be moved or sold, as it is a good location for community events that bring in money to the area that provides jobs.  She added they don’t charge admission. She wanted to provide the Board with economic impact studies of home shows that were conducted by Pittsburgh and Denver.  She suggested having user meetings at the fairgrounds.

 

Beth Little 1560 Grant, stated she lives near the fairgrounds and she is the general manager of the Holiday Market.  She commented the fairgrounds provide wonderful entertainment and a foundation for entrepreneurship   She added all her days and booths have sold out.  She stated the fairgrounds welcomes everyone equally.

 

Bob Morris, 2750 Ladera, stated he represents the people who live on Ladera Street.  He said the City of Eugene wants to annex their street and they oppose annexation.  He said they oppose street-by-street annexation that creates an island of property.  He hoped the Board would support their desire that Ladera Street not be annexed into the City of Eugene.  He said he has lived on Ladera Street for 50 years.

 

Dave Van Sickle, 2057 Grove Street, stated he lives in the River Road area.  He said he doesn’t know why the City of Eugene wants to annex a street when they cannot keep their own streets repaired.  He commented the residents were being held hostage.

 

Jim Seaburry, 3294 Stark, stated the Board of Commissioners had received requests from the Santa Clara community as well as 700 members of the River Road Santa Clara Property Owners Association, to take a stand about street annexations in the unincorporated areas.  He asked that the Board take a stand in unity before the Lane County Boundary commission asking them to deny approval of CEU 03-54 until the applicant includes only that portion of Ladera Street directly in front of the home being annexed. He asked that Bobby Green and Anna Morrison make this request in person.  He said it needs to be done on Thursday, December 4 at the opening of the Boundary Commission public hearing on the same issue.  He added the hearing is at City Hall in Eugene at 7:00 p.m.

 

Al Philips, 89990 W. Lemming, Elmira, said they use the fairground facility and it is needed.  He said their dog clubs would appreciate staying at its current location.  He thought it would be a win-win situation to keep the fairgrounds where it is.

 

Dale Crawford, 503 E. 36^th Avenue, Eugene, recalled for the past two years he has been co-chairman for the Friends of the Library Book Sale.  He said he has been doing this for 25 years and all of the money has been donated to the Eugene Library.  He said they have been at the Wheeler Pavilion at the fairgrounds.   He said last year they took in over $60,000 and this year they took in over $65,000.  He noted all the money went to the library.  He thought it would be a shame to try to move something as stable as a book sale some place else.

 

Jamie Floyd, 1560 Jefferson, stated he and his wife bought a house on Jefferson and were  happy to buy it in the area.  He didn’t know if he would have bought the house if there were a hospital there.   He liked the neighborhood because it was old.  He thought if the fairgrounds were to go away, it would be a loss to the community.

 

Carol McKenney, 2780 Ladera, submitted a copy of her letter into the record. (Copy in file),

 

3.  PUBLIC HEARINGS

 

a.  PUBLIC HEARING AND ORDER 03-11-25-1/In the Matter of Adopting the FY 2003-2004 Supplemental Budget #1 Making, Reducing and Transferring Appropriations.

 

Dave Garnick, Senior Budget Analyst, explained this supplemental budget is to appropriate and adjust for things they did not know when the budget was adopted in June.  He added that because some funds changed more than 10%, they are required to have a public hearing.  He added they have one contract that has been given to the County Administrator to sign, the Siuslaw Outreach Services for energy assistance work.  He added there was also a change of transferring one position from Public Works  to Management Services for Sid Davis’ old position.  He noted the money is in Management Services and they are moving the FTE so the position will be with the funding.  He said that Health and Human Services had been buying services from the IS department and they wanted to have a full-time person dedicated to do the ongoing work they need to do for all of the database systems. 

 

Garnick noted the majority of the work that is being accomplished is increasing budgets for additional grant funding that came along after the budget was adopted.  He stated in one case Health and Human Services' budget actually was going down by $800,000 as a result of decreases in their funding from the state.  He said they are appropriating the money from the refunded bonds that were sold.  He added that they are appropriating the funding and transferring into the capital improvements fund the dollars necessary to buy and remodel the building for elections and to do the courthouse plaza remodel.

 

Commissioner Sorenson opened up the Public Hearing.  There being no one signed up to speak, he closed the Public Hearing.

 

MOTION:  to approve ORDER 03-11-25-1.

 

Dwyer MOVED, Morrison SECONDED.

 

VOTE: 5-0.

 

4.  EMERGENCY BUSINESS

 

ORDER 03-11-25-9/ In the Matter of Delegating Authority to the County Administrator as an Authorized Representative to sign Applications to Medicare and Medicaid relating to the  Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC).

 

Debbie Heezel, Health and Human Services, stated she reviewed Trina Laidlaw’s file note and based on her comments, it made sense.  She added they addressed both of her issues on what they were going to be doing with Medicare and Medicaid and changing the delegated authority to the County Administrator so this would continue to go through the review process.

 

Morrison MOVED, Dwyer SECONDED.

 

VOTE: 5-0.

 

5.  COMMISSIONERS' REMONSTRANCE

 

None.

 

6.  COMMISSIONERS' BUSINESS

 

a.  DISCUSSION/Planning Commission Vacancy Appointment Process.

 

Sorenson stated there are vacancies on the Lane County Planning Commission due to the resignation of two people.  He said the Board is required by code to appoint the members of the Planning Commission.  He noted in the past they have chosen people in different ways.

 

Kent Howe, Land Management, noted the Board has to appoint two vacancies.  He noted there have been past discussion with the Board and Planning Commission that resulted in recommending that a planning commissioner be part of the interview process.  He said it is not to provide influence, but for assistance and advice.

 

Mark Herbert, Chair, Planning Commission, said it was his understanding that there is a public application process and once there has been a review by the Board, that the Planning Commission would be invited to participate. 

 

Chris Clemow, Past Chair, Planning Commission, commented it was never their intent to influence the make up of the Planning Commission.  He didn’t want the Board of Commissioners to believe they implied that.  They wanted to make sure that the people who were selected for the group have a clear understanding of what was required.

 

Green thought the input from the Planning Commission regarding the level of commitment and the amount of work is helpful.  He wanted to continue the process with the Planning Commission’s input.  He added he would be willing to serve on the interview committee.

 

Dwyer thought the initial screening should come from the Board.  He thought as long as the process was working and the Board would do the screening, he had no problem with what they had done in the past.

 

MOTION:  to have the Board appoint Green and Hampton and to involve Mark Herbert, Chair, Planning Commission to screen and interview the applicants,  and then bringing the recommendation to the board.

 

Sorenson MOVED, Dwyer SECONDED.

 

VOTE: 5-0.

 

7.  COUNTY ADMINISTRATION

 

a.  Announcements

 

None.

 

8.  PUBLIC WORKS

 

REPORT BACK/Fern Ridge Dam Repair/Junction City Water Control District.

 

Sorenson explained the agenda team asked that this be referred to Lane County Parks Division so that they could take the lead in responding to the various issues at the Fern Ridge Dam.  He thought the impact was also to recreation on the lake and downstream economic losses to farmers and other water users.

 

Todd Winter, Parks, said they had been invited to participate with the Junction City Water Control District with regard to an engineering analysis of the methodology to repair the Fern Ridge Dam.  He said they would take the data from the Corps experts.  He noted that currently they have an environmental assessment for the Fern Ridge Dam interim operation.  He said they expected a conservation pool of 371 feet in 2004 and  they expect a nine-month drawdown to below 340 feet above sea level. for the summer of 2006.  He commented it would seriously impact recreation.  He said during the interim period they expect to take a reduction in revenue of about 13% in the low water years.  He noted the investigation into the nature and extent of the problem should be completed by February 2004 and a plan for repair will be presented.

 

Tony Bieda, Intergovernmental Relations Manager, recalled in the summer at the Board’s request they sent a letter to the congressional delegation, asking that they look for a way to come up with federal appropriations to backfill the impact on Lane County parks of $280,000.  He said they haven’t given an answer yet.   He noted what has changed is the ability to add the economic impact money to the Corps of Engineers budget for the repair of the dam. He said they would have to find a separate appropriation in the economic development portion of the federal budget and put together a package that details the impact on Lane County parks, the vendors at Fern Ridge and the agricultural community down stream.  He noted that LCOG listed this as a water project for the repair of the dam.  He added that the request was for $2 million.  He said in the conference report for the current funding year there is an earmark of $1.5 million for the first phase of the repairs.  He commented the question will be what above $1.5 million will be required to do the repair and how would they get it.  He stated the local congressional staff told them that this would be a good opportunity for Smith, Wyden and DeFazio to jointly sign a letter and send it to the White House to request that the additional money for the repair be put in the budget that they are preparing for the 04/05 fiscal year instead of being a stand alone earmark that would come to Oregon.

 

Dwyer asked what Lane County’s share would be and where the money was coming from.

 

Morrison responded the total cost that Branch Engineering came up with to review two reports and make an evaluation is about $7,000.  She said they were to have met with the Fern Ridge Chamber of Commerce to see whether or not they would be willing to participate and it would then be a three-way split of the $7,000.  She said  Lane County’s portion would have to come  out of parks.  She thought having someone do an analysis of the Corps’ work is a prudent expenditure of money.

 

MOTION:  to move to participate in the study to the extent possible and that whatever expenditure there is regarding cost sharing will come out of the Parks budget.

 

Dwyer MOVED, Morrison SECONDED.

 

Hampton suggesting finding out what the impact would be on recreational related tourism.

 

Sorenson asked what other money was available in Lane County government to help the Parks Division.  He didn’t want to  place any financial burden on the Parks Division.

 

Van Vactor stated that the Board had been clear about Economic Development money.  He noted there is a current vacancy in the division and there will be some lapse from that.  He thought $3,500 was a manageable amount of money.

 

9.  CONSENT CALENDAR

 

BEGINNING OF CONSENT CALENDAR * * * *

 

A.  Approval of Minutes:

June 11, 2003, Regular Meeting, Following HACSA

August 20, 2003, Regular Meeting, 9:00 a.m.

August 20, 3002, Regular Meeting, 1:30 p.m.

October 13, 2003, Joint BCC/Cottage Grove City Council Meeting, 7:00 p.m.

October 29, 2003, Regular Meeting, Following HACSA

November 5, 2003, Regular Meeting, 9:00 a.m.

November 5, 2003, Regular Meeting, 1:30 p.m.

November 12, 2003, Regular Meeting, 9:00 a.m.

November 12, 2003, Regular Meeting, 1:30 p.m.

 

B.  Health and Human Services

 

1)  ORDER 03-11-25-2/In the Matter of Accepting Revenues from the Human Services Coalition of Lane County in the Amount of $78,000; to Increase Appropriations in the Amount of $78,000 in the Department of Health & Human Services (Fund 285) for FY 2003/04.

 

C.  Management Services

 

1)  ORDER 03-11-25-3/In the Matter of Authorizing the Sale of Surplus County Owned Real Property to Jan J. Wheeler and Mary L. Wheeler (Map # 21-02-00-00-00300, Located at the End of Keizer Creek Road, Cottage Grove).

 

2)  ORDER 03-11-25-4/In the Matter of Authorizing the Sale of Surplus County Owned Real Property to Jennifer Lehmer (Map #17-02-30-21-00100, Adjacent to 2246 32^nd Street, Springfield).

 

D.  Public Works

 

1)  ORDER 03-11-25-5/In the Matter of Awarding a Contract to Clyde/West, Inc., in the Amount of $104,335.00 with Trade-in, for the Purchase of One (1), New Integrated Toolcarrier, Contract FY03/04 FS-03.

 

2)  ORDER 03-11-25-6/In the Matter of Appointing Don McClure to the Roads Advisory Committee.

 

3)  RESOLUTION AND ORDER 03-11-25-7/In the Matter of Granting a Temporary Easement to the State of Oregon on County Owned Land (I-5 Bridge Crossing).

 

END OF CONSENT CALENDAR * * * *

 

MOTION:  to approve the Consent Calendar.

 

Dwyer MOVED, Morrison SECONDED.

 

VOTE: 4-0 (Green out of room).

 

10.  HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

 

a.  ORDER 03-11-25-8/In the Matter of Amending Chapter 3 of the Lane Manual to Add Provisions Pertaining to Establish and Maintain the Community Health Center Advisory Council.

 

Steve Manela, Health and Human Services, explained that as part of the Community Health Center grant they received from the federal government, there is a requirement that they have an advisory committee that has certain functions.  He said they set it up similar to the Community Action Advisory Council.  He added it operates in partnership with the Human Services Commission.

 

Manela noted the bylaws they put together for the advisory committee are modeled after Multnomah County and the federal government had approved them.  He said the committee is to be involved in providing advice around the types of services that are provided with the center in engaging the community in planning an evaluation of health center services.  He added as part of the requirement, the federal government requires that a majority of the members of the committee are consumers of the health center.  He said a challenge with the health center will be providing good services for the people who are served there.  He said the intent of the committee design is to ensure that the Community Health Center will be viable in the market place in being responsive to the consumers it serves.  He said the other half of the committee is the non-consumer representatives, half of which are people who are not employed in the health industry.

 

Manela said the federal government doesn’t want Lane County to open up a clinic in a community and have another corporation take over and operate the facility.  That is why they have to limit the number of members from the health care community.

 

Manela explained the responsibilities of the committee include selection and evaluation of the program manager, participation and planning, evaluation, selection of services and the hours of operation.

 

Manela mentioned as part of the committee they want participation from a parent who has kids who are receiving health care services through the Springfield Health Center on the advisory council.  He added they also want representation from the homeless youth community or people who work with them.  He noted the federal requirement of the committee is as few as nine or as many as 25.  He said from their experience, nine is too small and anything over 15 is difficult to manage.

 

Dwyer agreed that 15 members was a manageable amount.

 

MOTION:  to approve ORDER 03-11-25-8.

 

Dwyer MOVED, Green SECONDED.

 

VOTE: 5-0.

 

11.  CORRESPONDENCE TO THE BOARD

 

None.

 

12.  COMMISSIONERS' ANNOUNCEMENTS

 

Morrison commented that CVALCO did a wonderful job on the product tasting for AOC.  She noted that high school students made the food and the Board would acknowledge them next month.

 

Sorenson stated he was pleased with how staff worked with the Saginaw Trailer Park.  He announced the meeting on Monday, December 1 was to find a replacement for Tony Corcoran.

 

Dwyer announced that he and Morrison were prizewinners at AOC.

 

13.  EXECUTIVE SESSION as per ORS 192.660

(Commissioners' Conference Room)

 

To take place at 11:00 a.m.

 

14.  OTHER BUSINESS

 

None.

 

There being no further business, Commissioner Sorenson recessed the meeting at 10:40 a.m.

 

 

Melissa Zimmer