BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS'

REGULAR MEETING

October 15, 2003

9:00 a.m.

Commissioners' Conference Room

APPROVED 10/29/03

 

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

 

Morrison requested that under Commissioner Business they take up the items on the Blachly merger and the Council on Forest Trust Lands.

 

2.  PUBLIC COMMENTS

 

None.

 

3.  EMERGENCY BUSINESS

 

None.

 

4.  COMMISSIONERS' REMONSTRANCE

 

Sorenson thanked staff for their help in putting on the Swearing In ceremonies.  He welcomed Don Hampton as the new commissioner.

 

5.  RESOLUTIONS

 

a.  RESOLUTION AND ORDER 03-10-15-1/In the Matter of Proclaiming the Week of October 13-19, 2003 as Prenatal Care Week in Lane County.

 

Karen Gillette, Public Health, explained that Lane County was the only county in Oregon that had designated any particular week for Prenatal Care Week.

 

Sorenson read the resolution into the record.

 

MOTION:  to approve RESOLUTION AND ORDER 03-10-15-1.

 

Morrison MOVED, Dwyer SECONDED.

 

VOTE: 5-0.

 

Green suggested that Public Health work with Melinda Kletzok to set up a public service announcement to be aired on Metro Television on prenatal care.

 

b.  RESOLUTION AND ORDER 03-10-15-15/In the Matter of Proclaiming the Week of October 20-24, 2003 as Medical Assistants Week.

 

Sorenson read the resolution into the record.

 

MOTION:  to approve RESOLUTION AND ORDER 03-10-15-15.

 

Dwyer MOVED, Morrison SECONDED.

 

VOTE:  5-0.

 

6.  COMMISSIONERS' BUSINESS

 

a.  ORDER 03-10-15-2/In the Matter of Amending Order 03-1-15-1 Appointing Representatives to Various Committees and Agencies to Replace Tom Lininger with Don Hampton.

 

Sorenson noted that the board order was to appoint Hampton to the committees that Tom Lininger previously served on.

 

MOTION:  to move ORDER 03-10-15-2.

 

Dwyer MOVED, Morrison SECONDED.

 

VOTE: 5-0.

 

b.  DISCUSSION/Blachly/Lane Electric Co-op Merger.

 

Morrison noted that last Friday morning Public Works brought over two ballots.  She stated that Lane County has service through Blachly Lane.  She brought them to the Board for a vote.  She noted there were pros and cons to the merger.  She said it was tried once before in 1991 between the two entities and Blachly pulled out before it went too far.  She commented there is controversy in the Junction City area but there is no problem in the Lane Electric Co-op area.  She was supportive of the Blachly merger.    

 

Dwyer requested taking one ballot to vote yes with the other ballot as a no vote.  He thought the customers should make the choice, not the government.

 

Hampton stated there wasn’t any problem with Lane Electric, but he received calls about people not being sure of all the consequences.  He asked what the effect would be to the ratepayers.  He thought the ratepayers of both electric co-operatives would be the winners.

 

Sorenson hadn’t seen the ballots.  He asked what the County’s recommendation should be.  He asked why the County would play a role of voting in an election.  He was open to receiving the information.

 

Morrison explained the reason why this was an item that was just brought to the Board was because Friday was the deadline to submit ballots.  She didn’t receive it until yesterday morning.  She stated Lane County gets to vote because co-ops have memberships and Lane County is a member of the Blachly Lane Co-op.  She said Lane County is allowed one vote on an issue.  She added that the vote was by meter and Lane County has two pieces of property.  She suggested bringing this back in the afternoon so the Board could review this.

 

Dwyer didn’t think Lane County should get involved.

 

(This came back after the morning break.)

 

Morrison said Lane County was a co-op member and they should be concerned about expenses in running their facilities.  She said if they could get a benefit out of this for the taxpayers then she thought they should support the merger.

 

Dwyer didn’t think Lane County should get involved.  He thought the utilities should do what they want to do.

 

MOTION:  to move to vote in the affirmative for the Lane Electric Co-op and the Blachly merger.

 

Morrison MOVED, Green SECONDED.

 

Hampton didn’t think there would be enough agreement from the Board to send a clear message.   He thought the Blachly Lane people would vote this down. 

 

Dwyer said they had to support any legitimate effort to minimize the payment to the ratepayer.  He said the message they need to send is for the electric companies to work together for the common good whereby the ratepayer is the winner.

 

Sorenson was opposed to the motion.

 

VOTE: 2-3 (Dwyer, Sorenson, Hampton dissenting). 

 

c.  Council Forest Trust Lands

 

Morrison said the Council Forest Trust Lands met last Friday regarding the legislature raiding $10 million from the forest development fund that is created from County receipts.  She said it is to be used for specific purposes, not for the general fund of the state. 

 

Morrison reported that during the legislation session, AOC was aggressive in trying to keep this from happening but they were not successful.  She said the Council Forest Trust Lands’ board did approve going ahead with an investigative approach to see whether or not they could win if they filed a lawsuit against the state.  She said it came to the full AOC Board on Monday and they approved the recommendation.  She passed out the outline of what was presented.  She added in order to keep costs down, there was the possibility of having County Counsels do research on whether it would be valid to move forward in a lawsuit against the state.  She explained if the Board wanted Lane County’s County Counsel to participate, it would take more than 15 minutes and there would have to be concurrence from the Board to have Lane County’s County Counsel work with other county counsels of County Forest Trust Lands to do this research work.

 

Green was supportive to let Counsel Counsel move forward on this.

 

Dwyer suggested contacting the legislators regarding this matter.

 

Sorenson also supported contacting the legislators.  He was hesitant to go beyond the 15-minute rule.

 

Hampton asked what the monetary value meant to Lane County.

 

Morrison didn’t think they made a breakdown per county, but rather in volume of lands, and fees paid are based on a formula.  She said Lane County’s was low as it only has 27,000 acres.  She noted that of all the trust land counties, Lane County was number five with the number of acres.

 

7.  COUNTY ADMINISTRATION

 

a.  Announcements.

 

None.

 

b.  DISCUSSION/Goal Setting.

 

Sorenson reiterated that yesterday the Leadership Team met to review some of the crucial problems facing Lane County government.  He said that led to a discussion on goal setting.

 

Van Vactor reported that in the past in January, the Board had conducted a goal setting to set an outline of objectives for the organization for the short and long term.  He passed out a packet from the League of Oregon Cities on goal setting. (Copy in file.)  He thought it was a good idea to receive input from department managers as to what the major goals and objectives of the organization should be.  He thought it should come from the Board.  He suggested receiving suggestions from departments in writing that the Board could consider in goal setting.  He said they could have another leadership meeting where the Board would receive the input from the department heads.  His recommendation was that the Board set goals after they receive the feedback.  He suggested having a low-key facilitator  run the meeting.

 

Sorenson noted the Board received a recommendation from County Administration (about Lane County’s financial picture) to re-activate the Lane County Revenue Task Force to review a variety of revenue options.  He suggested taking the public members of the Lane County Budget Committee and charging them with a recommendation for the Board on goal setting.  He didn’t want to have a facilitator leading the meeting.

 

Dwyer said it was important to have goals.  He said Lane County’s goal is laid out by the Constitution. He said Lane County’s primary goal is to run government efficiently and effectively.  He wanted to see a plan on how they would get to a goal and the time expectations of reaching the goal.

 

Green stated the message from the Board of Commissioners needs to be consistent and is a collective message.  He agreed that there needed to be a plan to give to the organization.  He was interested in having a facilitator for the meeting.

 

Hampton wanted to have goal setting without a facilitator.  He said they could always use a facilitator in the future.  He thought staff wanted more concrete ideas so they have direction on the preparation of the next budget.  To give them guidance, he wanted departments to indicate what programs various levels of law mandated.

 

Van Vactor explained that Lane County performs many mandated services.  He said they could cut all non-mandated services, but they would still have to cut more.  He said the Board needs to provide guidance whether they want to save services with regard to youth, prevention services, animal regulation, adult corrections or patrol services.  He said the Management Team thought the best group to give that direction is the elected and appointed representatives of the citizens.

 

Morrison thought the Board would need a facilitator.  She said they have to make choices and stick with them.  She said the Management Team and citizens of the Budget Committee shouldn’t be giving recommendations.  She thought the Board of Commissioners should establish those and then those two bodies could go forward to help implement what the Board decided.

 

Sorenson thought the public should be involved in decision making.  He said if Lane County is facing another round of massive cuts, they have to get down to the direction of preparing the next budget.  He didn’t think that was goal setting, but giving budget direction.  He added he thought the majority of the Board wanted to get a paid facilitator with goal setting being focused on the budget.

 

Van Vactor recommended that Dave Garnick give a briefing for the citizen members of the Budget Committee so they know what is happening.  He added there should be one or two sessions where the Board meets with department heads and citizen members of the Budget Committee to be able to convey to the Board their goals and objectives for the budget.

 

Hampton asked what the five scenarios would mean to services to Lane County.

 

Van Vactor noted what they did last year was prioritize 400 programs in rank order. He said it could give the sense of the seriousness of programs that are cut.  He added they could also sort that information with regard to mandated programs.

 

Sorenson stated the agenda team would be scheduling this item. 

 

8.  PUBLIC WORKS

 

a.  ORDER 03-10-15-3/In the Matter of Designating the Use of $114,417 for Construction of Road Fund Eligible Improvements to Assist the Santa Clara Glen Affordable Housing Project.

 

Green wanted the Board to be aware of this matter.  He said this was an allocation from the road fund to decrease the cost of the project.  He said it was for a road on Green Lane.  He noted the project was being performed by NEDCO.  He added it was consistent with actions they had taken in the past with community service agencies.  He commented it was another good project that the Board could be proud of.

 

MOTION:  to approve ORDER 03-10-15-3.

 

Green MOVED, Dwyer SECONDED.

 

Sorenson asked what Lane County could do to help with economic development.

 

Sandy Halonen, NEDCO, responded that they were putting more interest in helping small businesses.  She said they have to look for more opportunities for self-employment and entrepreneurs on a small scale that could grow big and have an investment in the community.  She thought one way Lane County could help facilitate is by buying and rehabilitating old buildings to be made available so a business could have an affordable space in a neighborhood where services could be provided.  She added when they are doing housing, they are putting many people to work in the construction process. She noted that this year they started the Mercado Latino that focused on Latino entrepreneurs.

 

VOTE: 5-0.

 

b.  ORDER 03-10-15-4/In the Matter of Appointing Two Members to the Lane County Planning Commission.

 

Sorenson explained that Jacque Betz and Vincent Martorello are currently serving on the Planning Commission and they have applied to serve again.  He said they fulfill the same slots they previously held.  He noted there are now two new vacant positions available and he thought they should have a more thorough and open process for those two positions.

 

MOTION:  to approve ORDER 03-10-15-4.

 

Dwyer MOVED, Green SECONDED.

 

VOTE: 5-0.

 

9.  CONSENT CALENDAR

 

A.  Approval of Minutes:

April 30, 2003, Regular Meeting, Following HACSA

September 8, 2003, Special Meeting, 8:50 a.m.

September 8, 2003, Regular Meeting, 9:00 a.m.

September 24, 2003, Regular Meeting, Following HACSA

September 24, 2003, Regular Meeting, 1:30 p.m.

 

B.  County Administration

 

1)  ORDER 03-10-15-5/In the Matter of Transferring $1,000 from the General Expense Contingency Fund to General Expense Materials & Services for the FOOD for Lane County Gardens Program Grass Roots Garden Large Greenhouse.

 

C.  Management Services

 

1)  ORDER 03-10-15-6/In the Matter of authorizing the Sale of Surplus County Owned Real Property to Richard M. Miglioetto for $30,000 (Map #16-06-27-00-00900, Adjacent to 23988 Highway 36, Cheshire).

 

2)  ORDER 03-10-15-7/In the Matter of Modifying the Terms of an Access Easement Authorized Per Order #02-5-1-9 Granted to John and Laura Maitland Over County Owned Real Property Identified as Assessor's Map #18-12-34-42 Tax Lots 1200 and 1299 (Glenada Area) and Authorizing Temporary Access Over County Property.

 

3)  ORDER 03-10-15-8/In the Matter of Authorizing the Sale of Surplus County Owned Real Property to Larry A. Brown and Janet D. Brown, Former Owners of Record, for $12,200 (Map #17-04-24-34-07200, 104 Bauer Lane, Eugene).

 

D.  Public Works

 

1)  ORDER 03-10-15-9/In the Matter of Withdrawal of County Road Status (But Not the Public Road Status) From Duncan Slough Road (County Road Number 499), Located off Bernhardt Creek Road Near Karnowsky Creek, in Sections 15, 22 and 23, Township 18 South, Range 11 West of the Willamette Meridian (18-11-15, 22 & 23) (NBA & PM 7/16/03 and 9/10/03).

 

2)  RESOLUTION, NOTICE OF HEARING AND ORDER 03-10-15-10/In the Matter of Setting a Public Hearing to Consider the Proposed Legalization of a Portion of Hulbert Lake Road (County Road No. 160), Being Located Within Sections 11, 13, and 14, Township 15 South, Range 5 West of the Willamette Meridian (15-05-11, 13, and 14) (Public Hearing: December 10, 2003, 1:30 p.m.).

 

3)  ORDER 03-10-15-11/In the Matter of Amending Chapter 60 of the Lane Manual to Exclude Annual Subscriptions for Requested Notice from Additional Fees (LM 60.851(15)).

 

4)  ORDER 03-10-15-12/In the Matter of Withdrawing the Lingo Lane at Highway 99E Improvement Project  from the Capital Project Partnership Program (CaPP), Making the Funds Available for Other Projects, and Removing Said Project from the Public Works 2004-2008 Capital Improvement Program (CIP).

 

Sorenson noted that the minutes of September 8 had him listed as President instead of Commissioner.

 

MOTION:  to approve the Consent Calendar with the correction of the minutes.

 

Dwyer MOVED, Morrison SECONDED.

 

VOTE 4-0 (Green out of room).

 

10.  HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

 

a.  ORDER 03-10-15-13/In the Matter of Appointing 11 Members to the Community Action Advisory Committee.

 

Steve Manela, Human Services Commission, explained that annually the Human Services Commission reviews and interviews its recommendation for appointment to the advisory committee.  He noted the advisory committee serves two purposes.  He said the County receives anti-poverty funds from the federal government and said in order to receive those funds; they have to have a committee like this one.  He added since the early 1980’s this committee served as the budget planning committee for the Human Services Commission.  He said they try to have a diverse group of representatives from health care, community and representatives from the low-income community.  He recommended approval.

 

MOTION:   to approve ORDER 03-10-15-13.

 

Dwyer MOVED, Morrison SECONDED.

 

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

 

11.  MANAGEMENT SERVICES

 

a.  ORDER 03-10-15-14/In the Matter of Creating a Classification and Salary Range for Physician.

 

Cindy Tofflemeyer, Management Services, explained this was a new classification for the Community Health Center.

 

MOTION:  to approve ORDER 03-10-15-14.

 

Dwyer MOVED, Morrison SECONDED.

 

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

 

12.  CORRESPONDENCE TO THE BOARD

 

None. 

 

13.  COMMISSIONERS' ANNOUNCEMENTS

 

Dwyer thanked the Board for the flowers that were sent to his wife who was in the hospital recovering from knee surgery.  He announced on Saturday there is an LCOG meeting at the Greenwater Park on Highway 58.

 

Hampton thanked the Board and staff for the Swearing In ceremonies.

 

Sorenson announced that NEDCO’s annual dinner meeting was on Thursday.  He noted that there was going to be an AARP meeting about state and local issues on October 22.

 

14.  EXECUTIVE SESSION as per ORS 192.660

 

To take place at 1:30 p.m. 

 

15.  OTHER BUSINESS

 

None.

 

There being no further business, Commissioner Sorenson adjourned the meeting at 2:45 p.m.

 

 

Melissa Zimmer

Recording Secretary