BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS

REGULAR MEETING

November 20, 2001

Following HACSA Meeting

Commissioners' Conference Room

PASSED 1/16/02

 

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

 

1. ADJUSTMENTS TO THE AGENDA

Under Commissioners Business, Item h. needed to be added, report back on market place changes in the medical plan coverage and g, on the 150th anniversary celebration. On the Consent Calendar E. 2. the old Board Order 01-9-26-5 would be used instead of the current one.

 

#2. PUBLIC COMMENTS

Bonnie Ulmann, 3350 Oriel St., Springfield, stated she was a member of the Game Farm Neighbors.  She asked the Board to consider the Game Farm Neighbors having one commissioner.  She wanted Scenario C or D.

Sue Klein, 3530 Game Farm Road, Springfield, represented the Patrician Motor Home Park.  She said there are 82 homes with 130 people and they wanted the Board to select Scenario D.  She wanted to keep one commissioner for her district.

Carl Perry, Chief, Junction City Fire Department, 175 W. 7^th, Junction City,  noted that he had sent a letter to the Board clarifying misunderstandings.  He said Junction City was in favor of Lane Rural Fire Rescue receiving an ASA for their own fire district and that of Lake Creek RFPD, but not of the Junction City Fire Department.  He said they still wanted to remain with Eugene and Springfield for life support transport.  He noted that Dwyer mentioned last meeting that he was in favor of local control.  He thought the best example of local control was letting the Junction City Fire District decide who to remain with.  He said if Lane Rural Fire Rescue were granted an ASA,  (including Junction City) they would work with Lane Rural to make it successful.  They preferred to stay with Eugene and Springfield.

Ann Westy, 84487 Murdock, Eugene, stated regarding redistricting, that she represented the Spencer Butte Neighborhood Association, consisting of 225 households from the Eugene City limits along South Willamette and Fox Hollow Road to McBeth Road.  She said they were concerned about the proposed redistricting plan that would change their area district.  She said her neighborhood had Cindy Weeldreyer and they were happy with her representation.  She urged the Board to support either Scenario C or D.

Thomas Wong, 82052 Mahr Lane, 82052, stated his property adjoins the property on Mahr Lane.  He tried purchasing it from the County in the past three years.  He said the property had been within his fence line and his driveway.  He said the zoning of his property is marginal lands that are more suited for development than his neighbors, zoned F2.

Marty Nelson, 85710 Doane Road, Eugene, represented Lane County Fire District One as the acting chief.  He was in opposition to immediate granting of the ASA proposal by Lane Rural.  The position of his Board of Directors had been that they should defer any change in the ASA that would significantly alter the provision of ambulances to their district or forces them into having to scramble for an alternate way of transporting patrons.  He noted they had not been approached with their opinion.  They were in opposition because they think there is a study that needed to take place prior to making an assignment, otherwise they were not against what Lane Rural was trying to do.

Frances Gabrielson, 3330 E. Howell Lane, stated the piece of property Tom Wong was describing went from $300 to $15,000.  He thought the County handled this poorly.

 

3. RESOLUTIONS

 

a. RESOLUTION 01-11-20-1/In the Matter of Recognizing Jack Miller for Outstanding Service to Lane County.

 

Morrison read the resolution into the record.

 

Van Vactor stated he was astounded by Jack Miller’s performance during his entire career.

 

David Suchart, Management Services, commented that Jack Miller was an amazing colleague.  He said his stewardship of resources was important.  He noted that Miller would retire on November 24.

 

Laurie Holland, Circuit Court Judge, supported the resolution.  She expressed her gratitude and appreciation to Jack Miller for his dedication to the court and the County.

 

MOTION: to approve RESOLUTION 01-11-20-1.

 

Dwyer MOVED, Weeldreyer SECONDED.

 

VOTE: 5-0.

 

4. EXECUTIVE SESSION as per ORS 192.660

 

To take place after the afternoon meeting.

 

5. COMMISSIONERS' BUSINESS

 

a. FOURTH READING, DELIBERATION AND ACTION/Ordinance 1-01/In the Matter of Amending Chapter 18 of Lane Code to Add a Northwest/Central Ambulance Service District, to Adjust the West/Central District, and to Update the Ambulance Service Area Plan.

 

Rob Rockstroh, Health and Human Services, recalled they have over 1,000 pages of testimony.  He noted at the last meeting, the Board made tentative approval but wanted them to come back with a list of stakeholders and minutes from the City of Eugene,  and adjustments about the urban growth boundary issues.

 

Rockstroh added to the record a packet from Jan Mann and a packet from Lane Rural.

 

Trina Laidlaw, Assistant County Counsel, noted that part of the record was a letter that was passed around at the last meeting from Lane Rural and the City of Eugene clarifying things.

 

MOTION: to reopen the record for accepting documents.

Dwyer MOVED, Sorenson SECONDED.

 

VOTE: 5-0.

With regard to the stakeholders for the City of Eugene’s meetings, Rockstroh noted there were stakeholders listed but not a lot had been acted on.  He was not able to obtain the minutes and had nothing more to add on that. He noted what was important was a memo from Deputy Chief Grove to the fire staff relating to finance issues.  He said the committee’s recommendation was that the financial issues had been met.  He said the City of Eugene’s ability to handle this fiscally confirms to staff that there are ten full-time fire fighter positions available.

 

Sorenson asked if the Board approved a new ambulance service district if that would create a second reading for December 5 for the annexation provisions.

 

Laidlaw responded this was set up with an option to vote on Lane Rural’s contract.  She noted what the Lane Code does require that there be an advertisement in the paper and a public hearing if the code would be changed.  She said the automatic annexation issue caused them to have another hearing or a second reading and a public hearing.  She recommended they do that for that piece.  She noted it was possible to vote on the Lane Rural application today and then set the second one to follow.  She added if they wanted to be tied together, they could make a tentative decision. She said the language that was proposed to be added talks about annexation being contiguous to the city limits.  She noted currently there were some areas that were islands that would be in the new district.

 

Morrison requested minutes for outreach and participation.

 

Rockstroh stated he asked the City of Eugene to document through the minutes who had been active since May.  He noted there was not active involvement other than the Cities of Eugene and Springfield.

 

Rockstroh said the bottom line was response time.  He noted it was Eugene’s wish to get out of the rural ambulance business.

 

Green asked if the response time would be improved by eight minutes with this proposal.

 

Rockstroh said they went back to the maps and response times.  He said they have a narrative format where there was a run that gave timings.  He added they went back to LCOG’s records and it showed that was a reasonable argument.

 

Green asked if there was a cost to taxpayers by going in this direction.

 

Rockstroh responded they were not taxpayer issues, if a user uses the services, they pay for it.  It is not run by subsidies.

 

Dwyer had concerns that if the Medicare reimbursements go down and other payment schedules go down, they might not be able to continue with the services.

 

Rockstroh responded this was from an enterprise fund and there would be an ability to raise rates.

 

Dwyer wanted a reversion clause, and a clause on annexation that when things are annexed, they automatically accrue to those service districts that annex them. He gave tentative approval.  He didn’t see anything that would force him to change his mind. 

 

Sorenson wanted to roll both of these to December 5.  He added the money was not as important as the response time.  He was not in favor of creating the district if it would create problems with Junction City and the City of Eugene.

 

Green stated if this goes forward, it needs to be revisited.  He wanted to know what other criteria could be added as the governing body.  Response time was important to him.

 

Morrison asked if anything was done currently in monitoring the ambulance program that is set up on an annual basis.

 

Rockstroh stated there wasn’t anything done.

 

Morrison said they could take action and indicate the desired direction in their semi-annual report.

 

Rockstroh responded monitoring would be part of the new package.

 

Sorenson said if good public policy is served by the application process, the likelihood of future collaboration is reduced.  A sunset provision increases the likelihood that future collaboration would occur.  He asked if the Board wanted to set that into the second reading of the proposed ordinance.

 

Vorhes said it would have to be in connection with the first ordinance.  Also, it would set out the expectations that would be used as the measurement by this Board in determining whether the ordinance sunsets or doesn’t.  He noted the other changes that are part of the new ordinance (connecting the sunset concept to the action today or the final action) would be important.

 

Sorenson asked if the Board wanted to apply the policy about annexation to make it equal between Eugene and Junction City, if Junction City could be excluded.

 

Vorhes responded the Board would determine the boundaries of the new ambulance service area and it would take changes to the proposed ordinance that deals with the application itself.  He said if that were done and the language in the annexation was written expressly to the extent it was necessary to deal with Junction City, it would be possible.  He noted there would be a number of steps that would necessitate additional readings on the ordinance.

 

Weeldreyer noted this was the twentieth time this matter had an airing in the public arena and the facts had been restated.  She hoped the Board would move forward and support the committee’s recommendation.  She was against adding a sunset provision. 

 

MOTION: to move to adopt Ordinance 1-01 with direction to staff for a mandatory review within two years.  She added the review should consist of everything they said they could do--in addition to how they would compare in service--not only with other rural fire districts but countywide, statewide and on a national level in meeting all standards and benchmarks.

Weeldreyer MOVED, Green SECONDED.

 

Dwyer said the part about Junction City didn’t make sense.  He would only support a sunset if it were stated on performance measures and goals.  He stated that would happen on the review.

 

Sorenson said the indemnity and annexation provisions would improve the ordinance.  His overall concern was improving ambulance service. 

 

ROLL CALL VOTE: 5-0.

Dwyer was in support of the indemnity and annexation provisions.  He said their movement to go forward would be contingent upon those provisions.

 

Vorhes explained the ordinance in front of the Board was intended to only submit the language on the annexation which is a paragraph in 18-6 of Lane Code pages attached to the ordinance. He said there was no change made to 18-5.  He noted the new 18-13 and 18-13 a. has the indemnification language.  Those were the only two changes that needed to be part of this ordinance.

 

Sorenson asked how the County would get the money for assessing the ambulance services.

 

Rockstroh stated they could do fees for applications and it could go to Finance and Audit.  He said they would have to do quarterly reports.  He didn’t want to  make it only a staff issue.  He wanted the ambulance service area subcommittee to determine how to audit the report.

 

MOTION: to approve the First Reading and Setting the Second Reading of Ordinance 13-01.

 

Green MOVED, Dwyer SECONDED.

 

Vorhes suggested waiting until the afternoon so they could clean up the ordinance.

 

Green withdrew his motion, Dwyer withdrew his second.

 

FIRST READING AND SETTING SECOND READING AND PUBLIC HEARING/Ordinance 13-01/In the Matter of Amending Chapter 18 of Lane Code to Add Indemnity and annexation provisions to the ambulance service area plan (LC 18.030 and LC 18.070(3)(h).

 

MOTION: to approve a First Reading and Setting a Second Reading and Public Hearing for Ordinance 13-01, the Public Hearing to take place on December 5, 2001, 1:30 p.m.

 

Green MOVED, Dwyer SECONDED.

 

VOTE: 5-0.

 

b. ORDER 01-11-20-2/In the Matter of Appointing One Member to the Metropolitan Wastewater Management Commission.

 

Morrison stated she was the Board’s representative on the commission and this was to reappoint Bill Inge for an additional term.  She asked the Board for  support as he had proven to be an asset.

 

Green MOVED, Weeldreyer SECONDED.

 

VOTE: 5-0.

 

c. SECOND READING AND DELIBERATION AND ACTION/Ordinance 6-01/In the Matter of Modifying District Boundaries for Election of County Commissioners (Scenario A).

 

d. SECOND READING AND DELIBERATION AND ACTION/Ordinance 7-01/In the Matter of Modifying District Boundaries for Election of County Commissioners (Scenario C).

 

e. SECOND READING AND DELIBERATION AND ACTION/Ordinance 9-01/In the Matter of Modifying District Boundaries for Election of County Commissioners (Scenario D).

 

Wilson explained the Board had all three ordinances with the scenarios that were moved forward for deliberation for redistricting.  She noted the lack of making a motion on the other ordinances would allow them to die.

 

MOTION: to approve Ordinance 9-01.

 

Dwyer MOVED, Sorenson SECONDED.

 

Green asked if there was a window to make any other adjustments.

 

Wilson responded a significant adjustment would not meet the charter requirement of having the boundaries in effect six months prior to the election for which they are to take effect.  She said they could choose to not proceed, in which case they would be working with the old district boundaries for the primary election.  She said it would put them at risk of a challenge under the charter because it requires the County to review the district at least every ten years and it had been a full ten years since the last review.  She said in order to make a change in any of the three ordinances, a change that causes a variation in the percentages by more than three percent would be significant.

 

Green asked if there was an effort to move Dwyer into the Harlow area, giving Glenwood back to Weeldreyer.

 

Morrison responded they had done that but the percentages were off about six percent.

 

Dwyer said his effort in moving Scenario D was in response to concerns that were expressed by former Commissioner Cornacchia, about the fracturing of the River Road area and the Harlow and Willakenize neighbors.  He said his was a compromise between Scenario A and C.  He noted Scenario D only deviated one percent.

 

Morrison submitted a letter into the record from Oakridge.

 

Green noted that under Scenario D, the rural commissioners become more urban.

 

Weeldreyer asked if Scenario D avoided splitting precincts.

 

Annette Newingham, Elections, responded the precincts are done after all of the legislative lines had been drawn.  She noted once everything is done on city precincts, then she could start defining the precincts.  She said the precinct considered is where the commissioner and legislative lines had been redrawn.  She has a statutory deadline to complete it by January 31, 2002.

 

Weeldreyer regretted that the process had become so political.  She was disappointed that there wasn't the same level of commitment that the committee put into Scenario A in developing and objectively critiquing another scenario.  She stated the process that Lane County had used has remained unchanged.  Her concern about Scenario A is that it didn’t take into account the fast growing North Springfield area.  She noted the plan needed to look forward ten years.  She said it made sense to keep Glenwood in her district, as it is more in tune with their community of interest.  Keeping the North Springfield area in the Springfield commissioner district made sense to her.  She supported Scenario D.

 

Green was opposed to Scenario C.  He noted it was brought to the Board in a way where the person who developed it, accused the committee of gerrymandering that was illegal.  He said if he were to support C, he would be condoning the allegation.  He didn’t want to do that.  He said that Scenario D went against the common national trend as most communities are having lay citizen members to this type of work, not politicians.  He couldn't support D.  He supported A as it was a recommendation given to the Board from a committee the Board picked.  He was for Scenario A. He said the process was for the citizens, not the commissioners but it had been couched as a political process and that is what was unfortunate.

 

Morrison concurred with Green on the comment about a citizen process, not the  Board’s process.  She could not Support Scenario C or D.

 

Sorenson said the Board unanimously sent a message to the committee that they had to have more than a single option.  He said Scenario A had problems.  He noted Scenario D had clear lines.  He noted the Board was better served with the multiple option approach and thought it would be better in the future to have multiple options.  He thought the work the committee did was valuable in creating Scenario A and C.

 

Dwyer said it wasn’t about commissioners, it was about the citizens from the neighborhood associations.  He said from a political point of view he had no problem with Scenario A.  He responded to the people who were concerned with the continuity and the issues he was involved with.  He noted Scenario A would make his life easier with issues because it would take him out of important decisions that were about to be made.

 

Weeldreyer said the result of a citizen committee (even doing its best work) still required a public process.

 

Green said he still had to represent the citizens no matter what configuration was designed.  He was willing to live with whatever happens.  He said it was bad how the committee’s work was couched and how it came to the Board.  He could not support either scenario.

 

ROLL CALL VOTE: 3-2 (Green, Morrison dissenting).

 

f. FIRST READING AND SETTING SECOND READING AND PUBLIC HEARING/Ordinance 11-01/In the Matter of Amending Chapter 2 of Lane Code Regarding Procedures for Maintenance of Lane Code and Declaring an Emergency (LC 2.005, 2.020, and 2.025).

 

Wilson explained this was an effort to get the code ready to be placed on the Internet.  She learned the best practice was to have the history per section of the code.  She said when a history is at the end of the section (once it goes on the Internet), an user would be able to click on the ordinance to view it.  She said the process is complicated and takes staff time.

 

MOTION: to approve the First Reading and Setting Second Reading and Public Hearing/Ordinance 11-01.

 

Weeldreyer MOVED, Dwyer SECONDED.

 

VOTE: 5-0.

 

g. DISCUSSION/Time Capsule

 

Morrison stated to wrap up the year, Tony Bieda, Intergovernmental Relations Manager, suggested placing items in a time capsule to be opened in 150 years.  She asked each Board member to place an item in the time capsule.  She said letters would be going out to cities requesting they submit something.  Also, a resolution would be placed in the time capsule that would be incorporated with the plaza.  She noted this would take place with the State of the County address.

 

h. REPORT BACK/Market Place Changes in Medical Plan Coverage

 

Jerry Eisland, Willis of Eugene, reported that Willis put out a publication on employee benefits and insurance as a result of the World Trade Center insurance problems.  He said it would become more of an issue all over the world.  He predicted for 2002, they would see an increase of about 14% in health care premiums.  He added there would be a larger increase in prescription costs.  He noted with the HMO plans, providers were pleased with the environment and are seeing a movement away from managed care.  He explained defined contributions was a new concept, where people are given so much money and they buy the plan that would best fit their family’s needs.

 

Karen Artiaco, Management Services, explained that Lane County was close to being self-insured without actually being self-insured.  She said they work with Regence Blue Cross and they come up with the premiums.  She said the County pays 85% each month of what Blue Cross thinks it would cost for the year and at the end of the year is an accounting and if the claims they pay plus administration is less than the 85%, the County gets money back.  She noted the last time that took place was in 1995.  She added if the claims are more, they have to pay the difference up to the 100%.  This year for the first time they exceeded the 100% premium.  She noted that Lane County employees were using more benefits by more employees, resulting in higher costs.  She explained that half of the current workforce of Lane County is between 45 and 55 years old.  She noted there had been an increase in the number of doctor visits up from 3.2 per person to 3.7 per person.  She added the number of prescriptions per individual went from 6.8 to 7.8. and in the current fiscal year, they are paying $650 per employee or $10 million.  She said more could be done in employee education

 

5. COMMISSIONERS' BUSINESS

None.

 

6. COUNTY ADMINISTRATION

 

a. Announcements

 

Van Vactor wished everyone a Happy Thanksgiving.

 

b. ORDER 01-11-20-3/In the Matter of Approving an Extension of Property Tax Exemption under ORS 285.605 to Symantec Corporation and Delegating Authority to the County Administrator to Execute the Agreement

 

John Tamulonis, City of Springfield, explained Symantec Corporation had been constructing a building in Springfield for some time.  He said they anticipated 750 employees, up from 575 to an anticipated growth of about 1,100 in this facility and they could possibly do an expansion.  He said their interest in the $36 million project is to have an extended enterprise zone exemption.  He noted what the exemption does in the first three years is to exempt all property taxes from the firm’s development on new investment they make in the County.  On the extended enterprise and exemption, he asked the Board what requirements they wanted with the firm during the additional two years as well as the first three years.  He said the employees hired for the firm  have 1.5 times on average the compensation that Lane County has as an average for the community.  He said it would be compensation over $42,750 and that is a requirement over the entire five-year period. 

 

Tamulonis stated the City of Springfield had asked the company pay $175,000 in years four and five to the City of Springfield and in addition, to pay a $25,000 one-time up front fee before the end of June 2002 to Willamalane Park District.  He noted the City of Springfield wanted to complete its skateboard park and this gets them within $25,000 of the whole project.

 

Tamulonis stated the County agreement in 1999 determined that the County was to have payment of 25% of whatever the City of Springfield would receive during this period.

 

Morrison noted that this came before Finance and Audit and was recommended for approval.  She said economic forecasts indicate they need to move forward.  She said keeping jobs and Symantec was an important issue.

 

Van Vactor noted that by this extension, the action doesn’t hurt other taxing districts, specifically school districts, because the school formula comes in back fills.

 

Towery said it would be $50,000 if there were two payments of $25,000 for Willamalane and it ends this fiscal year.  He said they were looking for .25 of $25,000 by the end of this year and two payments of $43,750 in the subsequent years.

 

MOTION: to approve ORDER 01-11-20-3.

Dwyer MOVED, Weeldreyer SECONDED.

 

VOTE: 5-0.