City Council - workshop

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Welcome to the June 30th, 2026 City Council Workshop. Thank you for joining us today in this hybrid meeting format. For sessions like this one, there is no opportunity for public comment, and those wishing to access the meeting can do so by watching the live stream available on our website, the broadcast on Comcast Channel 21, or by calling into one of the phone numbers listed for this meeting on the public webcast and meetings materials page of the City of Eugene website. Thank you again for joining us. today, and I now call the June 30th, 2026 workshop of the Eugene City Council to order. And I will turn it over to our city manager, Jenny Haruyama, to introduce the Raftelis team and today's topic, and to lead us through today's workshop, which is on long-range financial planning. Thank you.

All right. Well, thank you, Mayor. Good afternoon, Council. I just wanted to leave a few parting thoughts before we turn it over to Raftelis to lead us through our conversation today. And as you know, we've spent a great deal talking about the city's financial condition, examining service delivery models and discussing kind of the challenges, but both opportunities ahead. And today and tomorrow are really about taking that next step together. And this workshop is not about solving every problem that's facing the city. It's really about building a shared framework for decision making, one that helps align your priorities, connect resources to our goals, and really provide a clear direction and path forward. So today, as you know, we have a lot to cover, but we also have an important opportunity to work collectively as our governing body, focus on the long term, and also establish a foundation that's going to guide difficult but really necessary decisions in the months ahead. And so I appreciate your willingness to be here today and to think thoughtfully and to listen to one another, and more importantly, approach this work with both curiosity and a commitment to the communities we serve. So with that, I'm going to turn it over to Raftelis and have our representatives here introduce themselves to you and the community.

All right, I'm going to stand up because we're in a workshop and I want to make sure that we're good on the sound. So can you guys all hear me as well? Great. Good afternoon. Nancy Hetrick, also known as Raf Talos, here joined today, Jennifer Teal and Julie Giesecke. And we are here to help shape and guide the conversation today. Really, as Jenny just mentioned, building on the conversations you have had, the work that occurred in the work sessions, and also I want to extend appreciation for each of you giving some time to me in advance of our time together to help really shape the agenda and the content that we'll be discussing and reviewing together. So today is definitely... the evolution of conversations that we have had thus far. I'm hoping that you are energized by what we're going to spend time doing and recognize sort of the different setting, kind of the format we're using. Today and tomorrow, we really want to make space for conversation. We don't have to make decisions in terms of formality, but we do want to inform those next steps. And so we'll go through a whole series of different topics and content. I invite all of you to share your perspectives. And I will serve as the... master of ceremonies, if you will, to make sure we're moving along as we're navigating our way through. So just for the record and for a reminder, quick introductions. Raftelis, the firm that we represent, we work in local government. So that's our background. That's our shared passion with all of you. We work with elected bodies and cities and counties, some special districts across the country. And we're really pleased to be here with you today. My personal background, I began working in county government, and then I've been doing consulting, and today I lead strategic planning and facilitation engagements with elected bodies and executive teams in much of the work that I'm doing. Jennifer Thiel, who you also met during some of our work sessions, and helped to put together some of the materials and inform the conversations prior to today. Jen, you want to introduce yourself?

Sure. Jennifer Thiel, delighted to be here. My career prior to doing this type of strategic planning and facilitation work with Raftelis was as a local government finance director in a community working its way out of the recession. And so I'm very familiar with the types of very difficult conversations that have to take place and the value of having some shared neutral language to be able to have those good conversations in a productive way. I'm delighted to be able to be of service to you all as you do this work too.

Great. And Julie, far, far away. I'll ask Julie to introduce herself as well.

We get along really well. And so my role here today is to listen to your conversations, and I'll be creating a capture in a nonlinear way. It's really meant to both facilitate your conversations today, but also as we move forward through the content. If there's anything up here that isn't right or that isn't there that you want to see there, just let me know and I can add to it.

Thank you, Julie. And as she does that, as we kind of complete certain portions of it, we're going to move the sheets over here so we can move them around if there's anything you want to take a closer look at. But it brings in a different dimension to the conversation I think you'll find during our time together. So in advance of today, in addition to the interviews that we had together, we put together a packet of information to add to your packets of information, just for a little more light reading. We'll be referring to that as we spend our time together. Hopefully you've had a chance to take a look, so you have that available. Also at your seat, which I will be referring to during our governance portion, is a brochure that talks about bridging the gap. And so this is a resource that I invite you to take with you afterwards. We'll be referring to some elements of the content in here, but there's additional pieces too. So this is one of our gifts to you. So we'll refer to that in a bit. Okay, I think those are the logistics we will break when we feel like we need to take a stand up and move. So if you're feeling a little bit antsy, please let me know. Otherwise, we have that sort of built into our afternoon here today. All right, so objective for our time together today and tomorrow. And so we have the luxury of two days, but they're half days. And so we will have to be very intentional about our conversations because time will go by quickly. We have three main objectives we want to navigate during our time together. We're going to start off with some governance work, which is foundational to the other conversations, but we want to leave our time together with some guidance and direction on budget principles. Hopefully you had a chance to review the draft set. Also to affirm elements of a strategic framework, and this builds on some of the conversations you've had previously with the examples that were provided. So we will go through those. Each of those activities we're gonna be working on today. Then lastly, we want to align council around shared goals. These goals are gonna be instructive to the framework and instructive to the next couple of years through budget development. Our hope is that we will begin that conversation today and then we will really dive deeper into that conversation tomorrow. So that's where the pacing is for those. So those are our objectives for our time together. I want to make sure that we feel all included and at the table and do some introductions so that it's not just me talking at you, so if you will indulge. We have introduced ourselves, but if we could just do quick around the table with a few questions we're interested in hearing from. Obviously, you can share your name, but also how long have you been serving? The city is nice for the public also to be reminded of, but then I'm interested in how are you showing up today? How are you feeling about the work we have ahead? And then importantly, what are your hopes for our time together over the next two days? And so Julie will capture some of those comments as well. And so I will ask for a volunteer to get us started as we move our way through. All right.

Good afternoon. Randy Groves, City Councilor Ward 8, which is West Southwest Eugene. I'm, let's see, a year and a half into my second term, four years each. Prior to that, I was fire chief here in Eugene and then Eugene-Springfield, and I worked a over 36-year career doing that. And then prior to being on council, I was in the budget committee for a year. I'm optimistic about being here today. I think this is an important step we need and have needed to take, and I hope we're able to get into prioritization or at least the discussion of how we are going to prioritize So I'm optimistic about that. And I'm sorry, what was the last question?

Your hopes for our time together. I think you kind of, yeah, that's great.

I think I kind of touched on that too.

Love it. Yeah, it's great. Thank you.

Hi, so I'm Jennifer Gay. I'm the city councilor for Ward 4, which is northeast Eugene, and I was appointed in 2017, so I've been on for a while. I am also very optimistic about today. I feel like if we walk away with a general shared understanding of what we're going to be doing and where we're going to be going as a team, that this will be well worth the time we spend here today. Love it. Thank you.

Hello, I'm Lindsay Leach. I'm a counselor for Ward 7, which is Whitaker, River Road, Santa Clara, Bethel, Trainsong. I'm very excited today to, we've never really had this opportunity to have a much higher level conversation about our values and vision going into the budget. It's usually really talking about the nitty gritty and coming into a budget where most of the time we have to make a lot of cuts. And so really looking at this as a higher level, I'm feeling optimistic that we can come together and create some good planning for the future.

Great. That's great. I love that too. We're going to elevate up on the balcony, right? As my colleague always says, up on the balcony is how we're going to be exploring this today. There we go.

Hi everyone, thank you all for being here. I'm Mayor Karin Knudtson and I've been the Mayor of Eugene for about a year and a half. And showing up today, coming out of a lot of other community conversations where I do feel like despite all of the maelstrom sometimes swirling around our community, there is a lot of optimism. and hope for what we are able to accomplish here. And a lot of people who feel really about our steadiness and the way that we demonstrate our values through our work. So I'm also excited to have the opportunity for a workshop. A year and a half ago, we were really heading into a remarkable year of transition. And so this is the first time that I've been able to have a workshop with my closest colleagues at the city and our elected officials. And I'm just glad that this day and this time is here. And I'm really glad that we were able to all be here together in person today and tomorrow.

Exactly. Perfect. Thanks.

I'm Eliza Kaczynski. I represent Ward 1, which is downtown and sort of south and west of downtown. I've been on council for a year and a half, and prior to that was on the Budget Committee and some other boards and commissions for about seven years, and then a few years before that on other committees. I am looking forward to today and tomorrow. I think it's going to be a good opportunity to have some more in-depth discussions without a timer kind of saying like you have to stop talking after three minutes.

It'll just be Nancy saying it's time to move on.

And, you know, I'm really hoping that we can bring some different perspectives to our budget conversations. I feel like while it's been very good to have steadiness in these conversations and how we have these conversations, as we're trying to problem solve some very in-depth problems, coming at it with a little bit of a different perspective I think is going to be helpful. Thank you.

Let me hit the mic. Name is Greg Evans. I am city councilor for Ward 6, which is Northwest Eugene. The airport lives in my backyard, as well as a couple of other things that I think are critical to us moving forward as a city. How am I showing up today? I'm optimistic. I think that all of us have been through probably at least 200 of these kinds of workshops or kind of different pieces on this in various roles throughout our careers. I'm a retired educator, 29 years, and I'm just wanting to have deeper conversation about what our future looks like, most particularly in terms of our long-term issues that we have to address. And we're in a very interesting time right now with things going on at the national level and the state level that are affecting us on the municipal level.

Wonderful. Thank you.

I'm Alan Zelenka. I've been on the council for 19 and a half years. And I guess I start, unfortunately, I start disappointed in this, in a decision made by Jenny and Catherine in a narrowly bureaucratic fashion to exclude Jennifer Smith from just sitting here and not participating. I think that was not in the best interest of this body. You'll be working with her for four years and not having her feel welcome, and I think it was a mistake. But I'm looking forward to working with you all and other people to have that happen.

Retreat.

Thank you.

Hi, Nancy. Welcome to Eugene.

Thank you.

I'm Matt Keating, South Eugene City Councilor representing Ward 2. I'm Council's liaison to the Lane Regional Air Protection Agency. I serve as Board Chair of LRAPA, and I'm dispatched to be one of our two voices on the Human Services Commission alongside Council President Lindsey Leach. I am optimistic that we come out of this two-day workshop with a shared commitment around issues including but not limited to fire safety, public safety broadly, animal services, mental health, housing, behavioral health stabilization, and the critical need for traffic calming, pedestrian, bike, and vehicular traffic safety are on top of mind. around the corner, Independence Day this weekend. I attended a community event in South Eugene just yesterday, and it was a Firewise community event. There's nothing but praise I'm hearing in the community about what this council did to ban the prohibition, banning the use and sale of fireworks in our community, so please and I wanna appreciate our parks and open space team for the forward-facing messaging around firework safety and fire awareness not to set off fireworks this weekend, both on public property or on private property. Let's get to work. Look forward to working with you all.

Okay, Councilor Clark, and then I'm gonna invite the city manager and the city attorney to also make introductions. I got you off guard, sorry about that.

I'm Mike Clark, Ward 5, North Central, Eugene. Thank you so much for reminding me. I'm Mike Clark, Ward 5, North Central, Eugene. I have served just shy of 20 years, and two years before that on the Budget Committee. How am I showing up here today, late? I apologize. was beyond me that I was trying to conduct myself in a little while ago. My hopes are that we find a way to effectively move forward as a body recognizing a more effective way to live within the constraints of our reality. Financial constraints. how to do that and still deliver services effectively for our community.

Thank you. All right.

So I've been here a whopping two and a half months. And I think how I'm showing up today is to listen intently to the council. And I'm very encouraged by everyone's willingness to participate. And my hopes are that we identify where our alignment is around values and that the council comes out with clarity around their collective goals.

I'm not a participant. Catherine Brotherton, city attorney, just here for support.

So showing up to support and expectation is to support. All right, there we go. We're just going to round it all out. Also, we have other members of the executive team here listening in to hear the conversation live. And also, hopefully, we have others joining us virtually. What I would like to say is, first of all, thank you for showing up and for giving us the opportunity to kind of hear where you are and where you want to move forward. While there has been a lot of conversation over years and over months relative to the conversation of financial sustainability, this is sort of a milestone looking forward. And so I want to just invite you to kind of trust the process today and tomorrow. know that we are listening carefully and we will be returning on the 13th of July to bring that back. And so sometimes process is messy. I may say that two or three times during our time together and that's okay. Really we want the conversation to happen so that we can listen carefully and know where people are and the perspectives that you're sharing so we can bring that back to you. So trusting the process and recognizing that this is not going to be a two day check the box we're done sort of situation. This is setting you up for continued and future success. So thank you for all that. Because we are in a workshop, and here's our agenda. Sorry, I'm jumping ahead. Here's our overflow. And you saw this in the prep memo that we sent. We're going to do a little bit around roles and kind of the importance, which I know you recognize, of strong, good governance to be able to really achieve the results that you're all striving for and that your community deserves. So we'll talk about that first. Then we're going to dive into budget principles and the services framework. And again, we provided some advanced copies of the information we'll be exploring today, but really we want to make sure that it lands for all of you, it makes sense, it's clear, it feels intentional and workable to what's going to be necessary for having important conversations and making difficult decisions in the future. So we'll spend the majority of our time there. Then we will, time permitting, Wrap up the conversation today with the first part of our strategic planning, in quotes, conversation, which is around, you know, what are the big rocks? What are the things that are collectively shared and important to prioritize over the next couple of years as you are making choices for your budget, but also balancing that with where do you want to go long term? And that's going to be part of what we're going to have to navigate through our conversations later this afternoon is what do we need to do in the near term while not losing sight of where we want to go long term. And that's the important balance that we're going to need to strike. So that's our agenda. Pretty straightforward. some norms for our time together. You know, as was mentioned, I forget who mentioned, maybe a counselor, yeah, we're not going to be doing timed, you know, two minutes, three minutes conversations. We want to have a collective conversation. And I will do my best to be of an aid and to step back and let you do that as well during our time together. But this is your time. And so with that, we need to kind of agree collectively that we're gonna be able to move things forward because we got a lot we wanna cover. We could spend all of our time on probably any one of these topics and feel like we still had more to discuss. So we'll have to be real intentional about how we're navigating through the conversations. So some of the norms I would invite are, first of all, listening to one another. This is a chance to have a conversation. You can't do that at a typical council meeting. It's a different setup. It's a different setting. This is a luxury, and this is a nice opportunity to do that with your colleagues, along with your city manager, city attorney, and you have others in the room if you need them. So listening to each other, engaging. I mentioned we'll take breaks, but try to suspend all the things that are going on elsewhere in our lives because we're busy people. And be present for the conversations. Stay focused and share your perspectives. Differences of view, differences of perspective reflect differences of background and values. And that's part of what we want to lean into and really embrace during our time together so we can figure out where there is alignment and how to navigate the path forward. We'll be listening for consensus, particularly on those items that are on our objectives, so that we can bring those back to you. And lastly, I do always like to include this last norm, which is that we can also relax and engage in a way that is fulfilling and even perhaps a little bit fun. We're not going to be doing anything crazy, so don't get all worried about that. But enjoy the experience, lean into it, and I think we're going to have a very productive time together. Is there anything else that would be helpful to bring into the room? Sir?

Nancy, if we have a question, who do we direct that to? You, okay. Yeah.

So the mayor is going to be a participant. And so, yeah, please, if there's questions or you want to read, yeah, you can come through me. Thank you for coming. What's that? Are you singing? Oh yeah, no throwing things. That's also a good rule. We had a conversation about that over lunch. No throwing things. Be kind. Yeah, all of the basic virtues, those are presumed. We're going to take his candy away if he starts throwing things. Okay, so anything else that we need to be attentive to in terms of how we're showing up today? I also want to let you know that we use a tool that we call the bike rack. You've probably heard a term like that. Similarly, parking lot, whatever, a place to capture things that maybe need follow-up, more time, or just something that requires more than we have time for in our workshop today and tomorrow. So we have it back behind Jen. We have a place to capture those things. And so if we have a topic that's coming up that we don't want to lose the thread, we want to either come back to it, or it requires more effort, we'll make sure to write it down here. And I invite any of you, anybody to say, I think we need to bike rack that, you know, if we're getting derailed. I might suggest it, you also can suggest it. That will help us, just a basic facilitation tool to keep us moving forward.

So, that will be helpful.

All right, I think those are all of our setup logistics. So in terms of the prep leading up today, Jenny mentioned it in her opening remarks, but this is not the first step. You had a series of three informational sessions, with outstanding presentations to kind of remind council and bring you all up to speed on the city's financial condition, introduce some ideas around service evaluation frameworks that could inform how you are moving forward, and the financial condition and the financial policies update. So a lot of good foundation. I know you have it in your thick binders with your information. This is building from that. And so just wanted to, for the benefit of those who might be listening, remind everybody that there's been some background that has been provided. So I hope it feels like an extension of that work. Okay, so I mentioned we had a conversation individually, each of us, in advance of here, and you'll see a couple places where I've tried to incorporate some of the feedback that I heard, and I want to bring back to you some of the themes that stood out. So these are high-level, high-level themes. We'll talk about the things, the priorities and things you care about. later in our time together today. But some of the things, first of all, an acknowledgement that the budget challenge is complex and it really demands a new approach. And so there's a lot of interest in not just continuing to do the same old thing in order to not resolve the problem. Also, it's complex. There are a lot of drivers, a lot of things that are not necessarily in your control that are things to keep in view. And so as we start to think about how to address those challenges, we'll have to explore that as well. So kind of the complexity and the long-term nature of the budget demands kind of a fresh approach, which is what we're going to do today. You also expressed an appreciation for not losing sight of the long-term as you're solving your budget, having a long-term vision, long-term view is important. There's a strategic plan in the city, and there were different degrees of participation and experience with that, and it's kind of coming to the end point of its tenure, so 2023 to 2026, but there's some agreement that will kind of build a bridge for two years as you are working through this budget conversation and budget challenges before doing a whole new strategic plan. So this is an opportunity today and tomorrow for all of you specifically to put your hands on what's gonna be most important to spend time on, invest resources in, to really give you some ownership in those goals for the next couple of years. And so kind of bridging that strategic planning pieces. Balancing the short-term solutions and the long-term goals that you might have was another theme, and really recognizing, and so we wanna be intentional about how we do that, and I think we've set up an agenda that will allow us to do that. And then lastly, really heard about the appreciation for your colleagues for working together, the civility and the respect. Differences of opinion, great, that's fine. But you all show up with Eugene in mind and best intentions and working together and that's important. And so kind of naming and acknowledging that I think is important and a great place to start from. So those were some of the kind of overarching themes that emerged in the conversations. If anybody has any reactions, I would invite that. Hopefully you're like, yeah, I agree. That would be the goal. Okay, so we want to start off on the subject of governance and recognizing that it is really important. It sets the tone. It provides direction to staff. And it's actually fundamental in long-term success. And when things are not functioning well, you can see the evidence of that in so many places. And so you have a great place to start from. I mentioned earlier this handout. I would invite you to take a peek when you have a chance, but we're gonna go through some of that content and have some conversation here this afternoon. So first of all, I'd like to begin with the reminder that governance is a team sport. No one is gonna be successful going it alone. As an elected body, you're a team. You have different players, different strengths, different experiences. All of those things together is what makes magic happen. It's also a team sport with staff, you know, through your city manager and with the leadership in the city, it's a team sport. And so kind of keeping that lens in mind and recognizing that no one gets to, you know, have the magic wand individually is important. So I wanted to give you all kind of an opportunity to reflect a little bit on your observations of when things have gone really well. So when council is at its best and humming, what are the things that makes that possible? What are the things that come to mind for all of you? Curveball. Go ahead.

Accomplishment.

Accomplishment, so getting things done. Okay, so you're moving your best, and are there things that contribute to that?

I think it starts with having a shared understanding of the problem we're trying to solve.

Okay, so clarity of the problem and then moving to action is when you're at your best, great. Ditto, all right. All right, clarity to action.

I'd add collaboration and communication early in the process.

Okay, yeah.

At the top of this, today's workshop, I mentioned the fireworks ban from years ago. That was, council was able to achieve that goal unanimously because of the early work with then Fire Chief Hepper and Police Chief Skinner and then City Manager Sarah Medary collaborating with council leadership and counselors who are interested in the subject and getting the important community engagement. So I would underscore bold and italicize the collaboration, the community early and that's when I've seen council operate at its best.

Okay, because it builds confidence and openness in terms of best solutions, potentially.

One way of saying it. Okay.

I don't mean to put words in your mouth.

You did a nice job of synthesizing.

Okay. And if I do that too much, you just tell me. You need to stop. Okay, what else? Please.

I actually think sometimes some of our best work has been when we've been willing to disagree with each other and to be open and honest about where our perspectives are different, and then we're able to work through that to get to, I mean, hopefully a better final conclusion.

Right. No, that's an excellent point. Yes, please.

Okay, here we go. In expanding on what my friend said, There have been times when we'll have, as a community and as a consequence, as a council at this table, disagreement on how to move forward on a particularly difficult decision. But sometimes, the ones, at least for me, that look like success are when we get through the first stage and make an agreement and then agree to move on to the next steps and work with, okay, well, everybody doesn't agree with that, but what are the next best choices as a result of that decision? When we, for example, agreed to move forward on the alignment of MX out west 11th and 5th and 6th, we had to decide whether we were going to go down one way or another way, right? When we finally decided to move forward with that project, this was many years ago, we had to go through a decision whether we go down 11th the whole way or go down 6th and 7th for part of the way. And we were able to get past the fight about whether or not we do it to which is the best alignment for the community. And the second decision was unanimous where the first was not.

Yeah, that's great. So a couple things I'm hearing there. So first of all, working through and troubleshooting together to hopefully come up with a better solution that addresses sort of the critical needs of different perspectives, but then also taking that and then moving towards action, not getting stuck in a way that can sometimes happen, right? If things are hard or there are differences of opinions, it's easy to get stuck. And so kind of the commitment to what's our best path forward And we're going to make forward progress if we need a correct course later. We can do that so forward momentum and Building policy through different experiences and perspectives.

I love that Okay This council does not work in just this council it takes so many different people every single person this room all of the departments and So our council works best when we all have kind of this shared vision and are able to come together so that by the time we get here, sometimes we might only be able to say what we have to say in a minute or two minutes. And like you said at the beginning of this, we don't have a lot of time to discuss. So we really depend on really quality operational support to be able to make those decisions. So I think like where we are right now is so important to be able to continue to have that shared vision together, even if we don't always agree every step of the way, but when we get to that end point, we can come together and say, okay, this is the next best step.

And really using the broader team, right? Kind of in the team spirit. Okay, good. If you want to.

I think even when there are disagreements or different perspectives about how to address the problems that we're facing and what the best methodologies are, there is sort of that genuine desire to do what is right for Eugene and to help Eugene be successful. And so even if we are disagreeing about what needs to happen there, there is that sort of shared value of trying to do what's best for our community. And so that can help make it feel like there's nobody in this room who has ill intent. And so being able to come at it from this perspective of we're all working towards the same goal even if we don't agree about how to get there. Those conversations are much more productive.

it allows for the conversation to happen, right? When you can have the shared problem that you're addressing, even though you're informing with different perspectives. Excellent. No? Okay. Mayor, anything you'd like to add?

I was just thinking about several different conversations in the last year and a half when I have seen this body do some really thoughtful discussion together to craft a policy solution. And I do think that there's, I mean, everyone around this table is very collegial, very oriented towards partnership and collaboration and problem solving. And also I think that sometimes it's very helpful when we have an understanding of the policy actions as being productive and useful for a whole variety of reasons. And that we might actually have different primary reasons for wanting to move forward with a particular policy, but if there's understanding of how that action reinforces different sets of concerns and different areas of concern across the diversity of our community. I think those are moments that also feel really positive in our community because a lot of different people can see their concerns reflected in the deliberation and the action from the council.

more broadly impactful. Yeah.

And then we might have different reasons for going down the same path towards the same goal. And one person's primary reason might be someone's tertiary reason or a distant secondary reason. But in a lot of cases, that's not as important as the fact that we're working towards that goal for the community.

Love it. That's great. Any other comments? Councillor Zlinka, Evans, anything you want to add? All right, well, thank you. I mean, I think that it's nice to be reflective about what has contributed to successful governance to date, and so bringing that into the room. You know this, but governing as a body, and it's important and maybe more critical in some other organizations than perhaps here, but it's a good reminder. When you're organized and elected by ward, that it can be, you're bringing the voice and the perspective of your constituents, but to the conversation around the city as a whole. And so the value is that you have a deeper connection potentially and can represent those voices, but always keeping in mind that you're governing for the entire city. And this has been, I think, alluded to a little bit in some of the conversations, but good governance is especially important when there are choices, right? When there are value propositions that are at play, which is something that is what happens in front of a council because it's the big messy issues that you get to tackle, right? If it was clear and easy, it would be disresolved. Good governance and the mutual respect that you show one another is that much more important when things get a little bit more tense and heated. It's just a helpful reminder. This is a diagram that we like to remind and bring into the room that really emphasizes both the roles and the importance of you as policy makers and the organization as delivering on the operations and where to focus and how to make things happen, right? And so in here you'll see the political acceptability, where there is agreement on policy, values, direction, these sorts of things, where there's consensus on council, that's political acceptability. There may be things that you all agree you want to do for the community, but then you also need to have the wherewithal in the organization, the capacity, the bandwidth to make it happen. And so the administrative sustainability is that capacity, right? the resources, the expertise that are available to deliver on those things. And so the combination of where there's administrative capacity coupled with politically acceptable overlap, that's where things are getting done. And so the goal here is always to try to overlap those as much as possible. And this is something, this kind of philosophy is something we're going to want to keep in view as we're thinking about the budget framework and the budget process that you are navigating because you bring a different perspective. an important perspective to the conversation, which is representing your constituents, the political lens, if you will, and balancing and bringing in the values that you see as important for your community. You may have a a thoughtful, well-reasoned, analytical recommendation from a professional, but you are bringing a different lens and it's together those two pieces that are going to move things forward. And so I wanted to bring this in because I think when we're talking about the framework that might become something that's important. So we talk about roles. This you know, right? This is sort of traditional council staff roles. And so council sets vision, provides direction. You'll be doing that with setting the guardrails around budget principles, providing guidance on the framework. And then staff is there to deliver on what you are asking, the vision and the goals that you have laid out. And so the connection between the two is your city manager that kind of builds the bridge between them. So specific steps. The how something is going to be accomplished comes through staff after it's been determined as important by council. So one of the things we wanted to spend a little bit of time with, and this I think will be helpful as we're navigating the roles that you perform relative to the budget, and that is, it's one thing to say, yeah, we set policy and staff implements. That's basic. That's important, but it's basic. But there are other hats that you wear as counselors for your community that are important to think of. And so Dr. John Nalbandian is an esteemed professor, public administration. He, along with Julia Novak, who now serves as the president of ICMA, which is the association overseeing... government and management together put together this framework around the six roles that council members wear. And naming them can sometimes be instructive because we all have things we naturally gravitate toward, things that are strong suits or that kind of motivate us, and you need to be able to really pull in all of them. So I'm going to go through these quickly. They're in your handout also if you want to review at any additional level. But the first one is just setting direction, right? This is what you do. So being strategic, thinking long term, what is the future vision for our community? What are the goals that we want to accomplish? setting that longer term view. And this can happen in any number of ways. Maybe it's about the capital program. Maybe it's about the climate. Maybe it's about community vision. So it hits a lot of things, but you put on that lens. This is the up on the balcony view of where you want to go. fulfilling a stewardship role. And so you are also allocating the budgets for the city biannually. Annually you're evaluating where you are and looking at these things. You're also honoring and stewards of prior decisions, right? And so that you can keep momentum and keep moving forward. And so collectively honoring where the city is and has been and where you're going into the future. So that's a hat that sometimes you have to put on and remind yourselves that you're doing that. A customer service representative, and this is a common one. This is when you have a constituent that calls you and says, there's a light out on my street. Can you help me? And so you receive those calls, right? And that's oftentimes a very natural go-to place for particularly newerly elected representatives, because you're close, right? You're close to the conversation, you're familiar, and so you get those calls, and that's an important role. Now, you're not going to go and fix the light, but you can help and be the champion to, you know, get the person to the right place to resolve the issue or put it into a system to get fixed, but that's a hat you wear, right? And as you're out at the grocery store, you know, you're buying apples and someone's asking you questions, you're engaging in a representative way. Community builder. So convening. Someone mentioned that in the opening comments too. That's another role you play. And so whether it's with nonprofit groups, other community organizations, the school district, the county, others, you are also conveners. And for some, this is what lights their fire. This is why I do this is so I can bring people together to solve bigger problems, maybe a regional focus. But it's one of many hats, right? It's just one of many hats that you have to wear. This next one is important, and particularly in light of the budget challenges ahead, and that's just making decisions, which sounds basic, but it's not. It's actually quite difficult in the types of decisions that you are asked to make. So it takes time, attention, and weighing perhaps competing values. We want to be efficient, but we want to be inclusive. There are always going to be some trade-offs. There are things that you need to think about. but we want to make sure we give independent rights. There are different lenses that you need to play into that make making decisions sometimes challenging, and that's why the collaboration and hearing those perspectives is really important. But it's an important hat, and councils that get stuck. Sometimes this is the one that's hard, because it's easier to just, I want more information, and if I can't quite get there, but what does that serve? It doesn't move things forward, which we talked about is important. And then lastly, you provide oversight. And so you are collectively the boss, right, for your city manager, and this is an important role that you perform when things are going well. Then this might not be top of mind all the time. You have a brand new, not brand new, pretty brand new, Jenny, city manager, and so there's still a learning that is happening there, but it's an important role, and certainly selecting a city manager is a very big deal for council, because it really sets the tone for so much of what's going on. I wanted to bring these different lenses in because chances are quite good that something comes more naturally to you. It's important to talk about that and think, where do you go? Where do you see your role? Because we want to make sure we're not missing out on the things that are important, particularly in moments like now when you're having to make difficult decisions. So curious to hear from all of you around, you know, what are the roles that you feel like come most naturally to you, where you're like, I feel like I'm in the zone when I get to wear this hat. I feel uncomfortable when I'm wearing this hat. And what's going to be important as you are navigating the budget discussion, financial sustainability, establishing goals? What are the things that you think are going to be important?

Can I take a crack at this without Matt-splaining?

Yes, please.

We also have a very important oversight role in regard to our other two employees, the municipal court judge and our police auditor. So on that slide number six, I'd be remiss. It's obvious, but I just want to underscore that. On slide number three, the BEA customer service representative and constituent advocate When I'm not on council, I'm chief of staff to Senator Manning, so that's a role I gravitate toward. But I have a wish list, and I think this is a bike rack piece. And if this city is ever flush, I would so long for and desire for the need for council support staff on our day to day. Our staff, who put together these meetings are stellar. They are A plus. You are awesome. I so wish that we could have an extra one or two FTE, let's say it's two, one for one set of four counselors, one for another set of four counselors to help us navigate and better master our schedule and our constituent responses in the email space. I make my cell phone public and that's not advisable. But I think the best constituent response I have is when someone just calls or texts me and I can just pointing them in the right direction. So I think that there's a gap of constituent services that folks are getting, and I would hope one day we can help fill that gap when this city is in a better financial position.

So at the top of that, you led with kind of the focus on customer service, right? And people bring to the table personal, professional experience, and it sounds like that's a driver because that's what you do routinely. So it's a go-to, and you're looking for solutions to do that better, right? And so that's helpful. So to keep in mind that your go-to is how do we service the questions that are emerging, right? Okay, others, what feels most comfortable? Thank you.

I'm comfortable with all of them.

Okay, all right, and you recognize, you see yourself in navigating each of those.

Well, I've been in all those roles for a lot of years. So, I mean, it wasn't always comfortable.

That's good. Yeah. It raises an interesting point, too. I do see kind of a pattern of new council members versus those who have been serving for a long time, even where the focus is, it changes over time, too, depending on the need, depending on, you know, where your motivations might reside.

I will add this. Collectively, I think right now community building is – really important where we are as a world, as a country, as a state, and a lot of divisiveness right now. So I think we need to find ways to bring people together and focus on our commonalities.

Okay, great.

I guess kind of bouncing off of Councilor Keating's comments that if I look at this list, if I was doing all of those extremely well, that would be more than a full-time job. This is a part-time situation because y'all, most of us, have to have a full-time job on top of it. So if I'm focused on one area heavily in a moment, it means some of these other pieces get left behind. We do not have time to address every single one well all the time. I mean, yes, and that I think is what he's referring to in terms of if we had support staff or a structure that helped us manage some of those pieces, it might help us be more effective in each area. I can't be out in the community 40 hours a week. I can't be on council looking at strategy 40 hours a week, right? So I've been thinking of that in a lot of ways these past few years. that I want to show up in the absolute best way I possibly can for my constituents, but also for the whole city, also for staff. So how do we manage that, and where is our focus, and how are we working together as a team to be able to do those things? And I think about that in even from, Mayor and I were talking about this a while back of we often sponsor as a city certain events in the community over the year and we don't necessarily even have a strategic direction of where are we showing up and how are we making that equitable across the community? Where are we putting our budget for some of that community building? How does it feel? when, you know, even our boards and commissions, the Human Rights Commission sponsors some of these events, and so we show up to some of those, and the Chamber of Commerce, and so I've been to ones where it's like, it's just me, but the whole council is invited, or the whole council is invited and almost all of us show up, and where do we actually see that? So I would love to continue talking about, you know, even fine-tuning those pieces when we're talking about overall strategy in each of these areas.

Well, I think you raised so many important points. And that is, just enumerating all those, it's almost like it's overwhelming, right? Because it's like, yes, we have to do all those things. And how can we do all those things when we're just a small but mighty group? And so part of that is recognizing the broader team, but also really being thoughtful and intentional around, in this moment, what do we need to do? So we need to focus on being strategic. We need to take a long view. Okay, we're gonna put that hat on. And there may be some on the team that naturally wanna go there, and so they're gonna wanna step in quite easily. And maybe there are others that it's, you know, I know that that's going to be something that, you know, someone else is going to be really driving for. I can focus on these other areas that I can contribute. And so, you know, you can play different positions, right, and still kind of cover collectively. But I think the important part here is to, A, recognize the universe of different hats because they serve different purposes, and to recognize when you need to lean in on one versus the other, right? Sometimes it's, you know, you have the – kind of the personality of those who want to do long-term brainstorming, right? And it just, it feels good. Like I want to do those sorts of things, right? And have those conversations. That needs to be perhaps balanced with someone who's going to be able to support and help decision-making, right? And all right, that's great.

Now how do we move that forward?

And it's together that you actually can benefit from both. And so, you know, no one's suggesting that you're doing all of these all the time. Impossible. But I think being alert and aware and flexing, right? Over time, what is going to be useful to the conversation, useful to that moment, can be helpful. So that's sort of the reason for bringing this in is to just acknowledge that you do have a lot on your plate. And how do you manage that?

I was just going to say all of our executive managers sitting here, they work in that arena all the time. I mean, and you've got to be able to flow back and forth. You may be more comfortable in some areas than others, but you have to be a level of proficiency in all of them.

Yes. I agree with what Randy said. You have to be comfortable with all of them, otherwise it's going to be a really long four years. But as a counselor, especially a working counselor, you've got family, you've got work, and you've got counsel. and you're trying to balance this thing, and one's always out of balance. And you're always feeding one to the detriment of the other two. The same is true with these six, which is, some of them will pop up and they need to be the ones that you focus on. But, Number five, decision-making is kind of what people think as the traditional role of the council, but that's only kind of the beginning of the role of the council. Everybody thinks they're gonna make all these profound decisions about the future of the city of Eugene, and we spend a lot of time talking about parking, partly a joke, but not really. The important part comes after the decision gets made. And once the decision gets made, then you have to be thinking about the other five things and what becomes the best interest of the community and the institution, too. How do you make this the best policy possible, like for instance, I don't like Mufti, I lost that vote. I don't like our renewable disc, I don't like, and I lost that vote. But after those votes were taken, then it's the process of how do you make them the most and best policies that we have so that they work and create real benefit.

And that's the move forward part you were talking about earlier, right? And so once a decision has been made, all right, now let's go make it the best, right? Make it work for the most people, so, sure.

Yeah, I focus more on number three out of the six because our day-to-day interactions with our constituents is something that happens, you know, I remember, man, do I want to use this? Yeah, I'll use this example. Several years ago, I ran into an old neighbor of mine. You know, I've lived in just about every part of this city over the last 40 years. And neighbors said, well, you know, I ran into so-and-so and such-and-such, and, you know, that's my, you know, counselor. And, you know, I was talking to this counselor about, trying to talk to this counselor about this particular issue that, I was having and the counselor said, no, I'm off the clock. And my response to that was, we're never off the clock, okay? Trust me, you go to the store, you drive down the street, somebody is always got an issue. And most of the time, it's because they're pissed off about something. So you have to be able to navigate and negotiate multiple constituencies. There are constituencies that may approach me separate from what they would approach other counselors because of other relationships that we have within the community. So then the question becomes, you know, how do you manage that? How do you balance that? And then how do you give an effective response to somebody? People do not want to be told no. Okay. Especially if they've got a problem or say, look, this is not my area of expertise. This is not what a city councilor does. This is what a county commissioner does, or this is what, congressperson does and we have had a lot of people over the years who either have not learned civics or pretend that they don't know civics and they come to us and they're like they want us to fix you know everything that we do not have the jurisdiction or the power to be able to fix and it's really hard You know, explaining that to people who want, see you, you're their elected official, and they want you to fix it.

Well, and that just goes to show, I mean, the customer representative role, I mean, that's out and about. And that's not always easy. And sometimes you're out there and, you know, part of that role might be attempting to successfully or unsuccessfully educating, right, and helping to support knowledge for solutions. And sometimes it's referring them to right places.

Well, you know, like, you know, I'll go to the grocery store and then, you know, I'll pull a card out. And I see Mike's face looking up at me. People say to me, well, who do you want? And I say, see that dude there. Okay?

But what I would say here is that when you are out and about, you are naturally... put into that role, right? And some will like, that's great, right? Bring it. And others are like, oh, here we go, because they're not going to understand. And that's fine. That's, you know, different personalities. But then when you come back and you're sitting here and you're contemplating policy, a decision, then you weigh those comments in. But ultimately, you're making the decisions. And so you have to kind of change out of the in-the-field perspective and bring it back to a strategic perspective or a decision-making perspective. And so... Yeah, it's the switch, and it's really easy to stay positioned in a hat, with a hat, right? Because that's what happens most often. And so I'm just suggesting the idea that sometimes you need to intentionally say, now we're gonna switch hats and do something a little bit different. All right, any other?

I do see a role that's missing from this list.

Tell us.

Holy pulpit. The mayor might have a much larger microphone than the eight of us, and you could make an argument that that's being a community builder, but calling out actions of other layers of government, though it might not be on our agenda, though it might not be a decision that's in front of us, staying silent, one can make an argument, means that we're complicit or we're not taking, we're not seizing the moment to rise to the occasion of the day. And so I'd like to hear from you if that, is that a stewardship role? Is it being a community builder? Where does that, way off base.

I think that how you engage with the community, you know, broadcasting or engaging can touch each of these things, right? And so it's how are you using it? If you are thinking about strategic direction, maybe it is championing and being out there with other layers of government or others in order to inform strategic direction. So it's a method. Is it a... Maybe. I mean, that could be something that is important. Certainly, how you show up and how you engage and how you bring messages out to the community is really important. I mean, you all know this. And customer representative is certainly another avenue where that can show up and happen. So, yeah. That was good. All right, should we take a quick stand up break and then we'll get to business on principles? Or do you wanna keep going?

Council, any requests for a brief break?

Let's do a five?

Okay. It's up to you. Then the City Council is now gonna take a five minute break and we'll be right back. We'll be back at 2.10.

you you

back over to Nancy and Rathalos. Thank you.

Okay, so we are going to shift gears and start talking about, first of all, budget principles. Budget principles being kind of high-level council directed around kind of the guardrails of how to approach budget as it's being developed, some kind of underlying principles that will help to inform staff. So we're going to do that, and then we're going to talk about the framework. But I wanted to give it over to Twyla to talk a little bit about the principles.

Thank you.

Good afternoon, Mayor and Councilors. Twyla Miller, your Chief Financial Officer. So the budget principles that we drafted for you for your consideration and conversation today are really a couple of pieces. Some of them are key financial policies that are currently in your financial policies. As we think about financial management and budget development for the city, they're really important. So when we think about things like maintaining strong reserves, using one-time resources for one-time purposes and some of those pieces. And then others are not necessarily a financial principle, but they're pieces that as we think about long-term financial sustainability and thinking about the decisions we need to make in the short, mid, and long-term timeframes, kind of key principles or tenets that we think are helpful as we look particularly towards the next two years. As I think about budget principles, it's really a framework or a piece of the framework that we use in conjunction. So we'll have financial policies, we'll have our budget principles, and then we'll also have the framework. And we'll use all of these pieces together. So I'm not gonna go through each one. The one on the top, the prioritization of core and essential services, you'll talk more about that as we talk about the service framework. kind of key part as we talk about the categories in your service framework. We could even change that to reference the service framework that you ultimately give us feedback on there. But we'll talk a little more about what we mean by core and essential services when we talk about the framework here shortly. But these are really some of those key pieces that are helpful to guide the city manager and the executive team and staff as we think about What are kind of the guideposts as we think about developing a budget?

And some of the trade-offs too. Having clear budget principles is something that many governing bodies put into place. It helps to kind of set the tone and also to evaluate choices when they come before you and you're getting pressure through constituents or whatever, you can use the principles to help guide your conversations. So in your packet, there's additional detail. This is the shorthand version of the 10 principles that were proposed. So we want to get your thoughts, get your reactions, questions that you might have, changes, deletions, things that would strengthen them, and then we want to talk about how these could be useful to all of you as elected body. I'll go back to the other one so we have more for us. Thank you, Twyla. So comments, reactions? Yes. Yes, it's turned on. Are you guys hearing me better? Okay.

Maybe a clarifying question to begin. So as proposed budget principles, but a numbered list, is this understood to be a collection of dynamically balanced principles or a ranked order of budget principle from sort of top to bottom?

They are not numerically sequenced. They are a collection of principles that could use bullets, perhaps. Sometimes it's easier to refer to them as, you know, on principle number seven as we're talking about this, but that would be entirely up to you how you want to present them.

Thank you. I just wanted to add that clarifying note.

How would you recommend us look? On microphone. Thank you. Sorry about that. How would you recommend we reconcile item number seven with the natural reality that we work in biennial budgets? It is my opinion that we have for a very long time been extremely short term in our thinking about our budgeting. and not as long-term strategically thinking about all the decisions we make. How can we reconcile that?

I think that's precisely why having a principal like this might be helpful. Because what it does is it shines some light into the conversation. As you're making decisions, are you thinking about the long-term infrastructure needs? Which is a long-term problem, potentially, in many jurisdictions. Are you thinking about those rather than short-term fixes? Are you imagining a vision or set of goals that you will collectively come to to help inform one of the budget decisions within a two-year cycle that helps to move you forward? Some of the things that you want to work on take multiple years. but you need to fund them on a shorter time frame. So that's that balance that we mentioned earlier of keeping a long view in sight while informing what are we going to accomplish in the near term. So it's that balance.

I'll add, Nancy, that part of that long-term view or long-term perspective on those what feel like short-term decisions is thinking about Yeah, we got, and I'm making things up, so I hope I don't accidentally say something that is real. We got a grant to make this really cool thing. It's not, it doesn't even cost us money. It's grant funded, right? But how much will we spend in staff time and maintenance and will we have to replace it? And now do we have to have a special attachment to do maintenance around it? You know, there's those things that sort of play into, it feels like a short-term decision, but it really has now we own it forever long-term implications. And so that... Trigger around asking what are the long-term things we should be thinking about if we make this decision is a great way to bring that long-term focus into the conversation.

If you will forgive me, item number seven seems like one ought favor the longer-term implications over the short-term implications. Is that what's intended with number seven? In other words, one might consider it's wiser to prioritize the long-term implications than it is the short-term fix. Not that I agree or disagree with either of those points. I'm asking the question, are you suggesting we always favor the longer-term implications?

There are choices that you need to make, well-rounded decisions, obviously, that consider the long-term implications but also address the short-term need. Maybe what we need to do is clarify the intent here in terms of the description so that it is not... interpreted in different ways. And so, you know, currently, if you go to your handout, we have it defined as consider the future operational financial service impacts of decisions made to address near-term budget challenges. Maybe there needs to be something that speaks to the long-term goals, right, that you're pursuing and the short-term investments that are required. And so, I mean, this is why we have this conversation. These are not set in stone.

Well, and forgive me, I'll just end by saying that our entire budget is unsustainable long-term in its current form. So could you be more detailed about what that goal intends to do?

Well, so it's a principle that, I mean, if it's something that is going to harmfully impact the ability to resolve a short-term issue, a budget, if that's the concern, then we need to talk about what is the principle then that's going to address that. And if this one somehow feels like it is overreaching and not sustainable, then that's a problem that we need to talk about.

I wonder, too, Councillor Clark, and if you want to change this language, it could be about balancing short-term decisions with a long-term perspective is kind of what I hear you saying.

I think that's important for this whole process. That's why I highlighted it.

I know. This is the whole point. We want you to highlight it. Absolutely.

I've got a couple of quick questions. Oh, go ahead, Councillor Kishore.

So I wanted to talk a little bit about items four and six, which are aligning ongoing commitments with sustainable funding and using one-time resources for one-time purposes. I feel like ever since I joined Budget Committee, the refrain has been one-time money for one-time expenses. I'm sure those who have been involved with budget longer than I have have heard have heard it for about a decade or two longer than I have. What I've kind of seen with that is that a lot of times what that means is not like we're making a capital investment where we buy one thing and it's done, but we're using that for pilot programs or to fill gaps that have been created so we'll use some one-time money to sustain something for another year or two. And then we run into a challenge when the pilot period, the one-time expenditure for the pilot is done, of now that this service that the community has come to rely on, Discontinuing the one-time funding, saying, well, we spent this one-time money on that, feels like a service cut because the pilot was successful. It did the thing we wanted it to do, and we would like for it to continue going, but we don't really have the resources for that. And some of this is particularly in the times where we are facing such budget challenges. I feel like we are going to need to get... creative and we are going to need to try new things and see if there are new ways to meet community challenges and how do we sort of balance that one-time money piece being able to do pilots with the sort of avoiding adding ongoing new programs because I feel like that's going to create a lot of because we can solve the budget problems by saying, okay, really strict with the one-time money, really strict with not adding new things, but then that doesn't necessarily give us the space to address some of the community problems that we're trying to use the budget to solve. And so I'm not sure what the answer to that is, but kind of thinking about how do we navigate that piece better so it's not a, okay, we've invested one-time money in piloting a solution for downtown cleanliness or whatever, and then we're saying, like, okay, now we've got to pull that back because we've budgeted for three years. Yeah.

Yeah, I mean, that probably needs to be part of the consideration when you're piloting a program, right, in terms of identifying long-term solutions, if that's something that's going to be successful. Let's stay on this topic, and then I see Councilor Keating. Reactions or comments?

This is building on Councillor Kuczynski's point, and so I'll just add it even though it connects to another principle in that some of what I hear you saying is that when we have the opportunity to do a short-term pilot or a one-year pilot of a program with one-time funds, we then might find ourselves with a very effective program. And I think that maybe a question to consider with the group would be to look at evaluation of all services, evaluate all services and pursue efficiencies. Number three, that speaks to the desire for efficient utilization of resources, which I think is the heart of that principle. But I think we're also seeking effectiveness. Like we're not only seeking efficiency. And so when there is something that we might do that is a very effective program with one-time funding, it could be that that's an opportunity to sort of mill through in the next budget cycle. And there's a natural question about the runway and the aspect of the how in this, but Is it always just a one-time program or might it be a better approach than something else that we are doing and is a transitional program? So I just want to leave open that opportunity because I think that in looking at other jurisdictions and thinking about other communities and how they've utilized one-time funds, it is a challenge and that sometimes the one-time funds are tiny and they don't come even close to covering the cost of a full program. Other times they're meant to overcome the capital construction associated with something and to allow for a different path to exist. I think one of the reasons for this workshop is to be able to open up some of these bigger picture questions about how we assess our effectiveness as well as our efficiency and that we get to learn as a community and then do things differently based on what we learn that's positive or what we learn that's negative.

and setting expectations of thinking differently is what you've described. Trying different ways, trying different paths, and giving permission to staff to look at evaluating programs with fresh eyes.

Yeah, it's a very good point, Eliza. When I vote yes on a pilot, I'm thinking, the reason it's a pilot in the first place is because we're not sure. We're not sure about whether or not it'll work. We're not sure if it's a good idea or how effective or Or the last part of that, will it maximize value for the community? How much value does it provide the community? And so we try these things. And sometimes we find that they really work. And then we have to, then it's the trade-off game. And somewhere in here is probably trade-offs about, okay, that worked better than we thought. Now we have to either fund it or let it go. And we have to make a trade-off with something else because the budget's zero-sum. and we have to balance the budget, every budget. So you either add this and take something away or don't add it. So it always comes back to us as a decision, but pilots are intended to give us the information that we don't know, because we're not going to go out of the chute and say, okay, let's make that decision now, because we don't know what the effectiveness or the outcomes are or whether they'll even work.

That's a stop.

They're supposed to set us up.

And this may be a piece that I may have missed as being relatively new on council and so being involved in the budget discussions, but not necessarily the council discussions. But I feel like a lot of times those pilot conversations come back to us as through the budget process. So it's not necessarily an explicit conversation of this program was super successful, and we wanted to continue, and let's talk about those trade-offs outside of the budget conversation, but it comes back as part of, well, here's the line element of one-time funding that's not continuing, and does that mean the program's not continuing or not? And so maybe that's a piece of that is pulling out Some of those discussions if it isn't happening already, and I've just missed it to be separate from budget discussions and more programmatic discussions Obviously including the budget component in them but but really having that be a more proactive decision about the the program and Not separate from, but with more context than just the, okay, this costs $30,000 a year or whatever the number is.

...as a part of the funding adjustment, right? If there is a program that works or doesn't work, either direction, and the next budget that comes through, you know, what is the trade-off? But explaining, you know, we piloted this last year. We were very successful, so therefore we want to recommend a budget that expands on this but then removes this. Like, to be explicit in that funding adjustment. Or we tried it, turns out it didn't touch as many people as we expected it would, and so now it's getting removed. So it's not just the dollars, but the adjustment is around the solution.

Yeah, kind of coming off of that conversation, you and I have talked about this pretty extensively of the value, in my mind, of prevention work and how hard it is to measure preventative work that, you know, you can, it can be very efficient and very effective at cost savings long term, but you don't necessarily know unless you have many years of tracking, sometimes these things, what is the value of preventing a fire? What is the value of addressing mental health before it becomes extremely costly downstream? For me, the value really is in that preventative work, and we should be focused on that even when it's not super apparent in the budget at all times, and that's really difficult as we sit down and we say we have to make these cuts, I'm always gonna advocate for that preventative work to continue because you take it away and a few years from now you're gonna see drastic cost increases because of the need raising. So I don't know how to fit that necessarily into a budget priority, but I would like to see us talking about it and have it somewhere in there.

I see the one-time resources and one-time purposes as being more than just pilot projects. These are often emerging or emergency issues, matters of life and death, emergency shelter, animal services, how we got really creative with CSI dollars and reallocating or allocating in a more creative manner for our contract partner, Greenhill. which I would argue is a core and essential service, so it has a strong public safety component. Which brings me to a question. On our handout, essential services is an asterisk. It is here. Are we denoting services that we have to deliver by statute?

So the reason for the ASTRIC tier is because that principle might need to be revisited after we've looked at the framework, which is what you're looking at. And so that talks about prioritizing core and essential services, those that are... required, mandated, and we'll talk about those definitions, but it's also possible that that principle could be, you know, something to reflect on the whole of the framework, basically to use that as a tool and a guide to inform decision-making.

Okay, helpful.

That's why that's asterisked.

Great. On the number five piece, diversify revenue sources, do I, do my interpreting that wrong if I read that as improving and increasing revenue generating opportunities. For example, last week staff brought to us a home energy score concept that council gave the thumbs up for staff to bring back a plan to operationalize. And there were more than one counselor around the table, myself included, who asked for some revenue-generating pieces from that work, like a percentage or a fee of the $150 to $250, whatever it is for a home energy score, going toward stabilizing that staff work, but also looking at a small percentage that could go toward other pieces. ameliorating the climate crisis locally or putting dollars toward the affordable housing trust fund, is if we were to amplify a need for any time that the staff, let's say, comes to us with a project in mind that we would want to see a revenue generating component to that, would that fall under your strengthen and diversify revenue sources bucket?

So I think that what we're seeing here, what I'm hearing in your words is, so the short answer is that would be a lens, like to look at what are the revenue sources. Some of these, I think, as we're talking about kind of the strategies and actions towards fiscal sustainability, which is the goal, right, or a goal that you have. Some of these are strategies to pursue those, and that is looking at additional revenue options and revenue sources. And so it can come from different places. It can come from different, you know, Programs or whatever, maybe it's through grant funding, maybe it's through fees, maybe it's through some other method, right? That's a strategy for increasing revenue. As a principle, it is also here suggesting to always keep in view the opportunities for strengthening and improving the revenue side of the ledger. And that's how I interpret this. I don't know, Twyla, if you want to speak to that anymore or...

I would agree, Nancy, with what you were just saying. It's really that lens, particularly when we're thinking about the general fund and property tax revenue being such a high component of that, of just being open as we think short, mid, and long term to what are other opportunities that may make sense as we're considering a range of strategies.

And one of the things we can do, you know, this is obviously a first at bat at a set of principles that might need some refinement, clearly does need some refinement. But maybe once we have gone through the conversations around the framework, and even as we've looked at, you know, the goals that you want to pursue and make sure our named and defined, which we'll be doing today and then into the day tomorrow, put fresh eyes on this afterwards, because maybe some of these things are going to fall into the what are we going to do actionable items, and maybe other things need to be refined just to reflect the framework that you all land on. And so we can always come back to the conversation of principles with fresh eyes and making maybe some adjustments based on this conversation.

And there's also the point of not all of these end up being maximized. There are a set of principles to work off of, you know, like the last one, connecting the budget to strategic goals, advancing the city's most important long-term goals, and then seeing the tangible impact of every dollar spent. That never actually happens. There's over 40 services, and they're not all attached to our long-term goals, but their goals are the city of livability. the things that occur that are very important and need to be maintained to our strategic goals.

If I could add, as we look at budget principles and how you will use them, you know, beyond today while we're talking about what they are, but thinking about, you know, the next time you have a budget adjustment in front of you, or the next time there's a big conversation where you have to make hard choices and a fiscal component is on the line. Just like you said, not every decision is going to, there's not like a perfect checklist and a one-to-one, like, did it do this? Yep. Did it do that? No. But if you have consensus as a body that you believe that you should be strengthening and diversifying revenue sources and aligning one-time resources with one-time expenditures and promoting transparency, yada, yada, when something comes in front of you, you now have a vocabulary, whereas previously you might have each had different ways of saying those things that were important to you. Now you can be like, you know what, this one just doesn't sit right with me because it doesn't quite align our ongoing commitments. It gives you a vocabulary. It gives you a good starting place for a conversation. You might make a decision that runs counter to a budget principle, but at least you've talked about how it runs counter and you've made the choice that that's important in this moment. rather than just making the choice and not talking about how it aligns with your principles. And so I think the operationalization of these, how they will come into play later, is there are no perfect decisions, but here's how we talk about decisions. And can we agree that this is how we talk about decisions? And if that helps, I don't know, it might sort of help clarify some of those points.

I'm wondering where in here considerations around personnel's life experience would fall into. I mean, budget numbers often tell a story of how someone's work experience will be. Will they have money to be able to do the thing that they have been asked to do? Will they have enough coworkers to do the thing that they have been asked to do, or will they not? And I think as we make budget decisions, that's something we sometimes talk about, because we care about our employees. They are one of our biggest assets, right? But I don't know that that's reflected in here somewhere. Because it's not just about, that's not really an efficiency. I don't know if it's already in here somewhere, but I would hope that that is something that we consider as we're making choices.

I did like kind of the rewrite. When Mike was talking about number seven, I think somebody said balancing the short-term decision-making with long-term perspective. I think that's a good rewrite.

Others agree with that change? I think we're making the notes on that. One more time?

I'm sorry, I didn't hear all of it.

Balancing short-term decision making with long-term perspectives.

Say more. That's what you were talking about.

Mike, Mike. Mike, Mike.

Mike, Mike.

Sorry about that. I was saying that, no, I don't agree. I was asking them to clarify if they thought that. the perspective we should hold while doing it, and you're saying like this, I actually think we need to be thinking about long-term consequences more frequently and more than we currently do.

That's what this says, that when you make a short-term decision, you have to be taking into consideration the long-term perspective. Right.

Right, I would not say that it's a principle that we should always balance the two. I should say it's a principle we should do more consideration of the long-term implications. Yeah, I guess. The subtle difference, I get it, but.

Yeah, right, right. I guess in balancing doesn't always mean to me that it could be like this.

So for bringing us back then, I just want to make sure that we have your perspective in the room. So as written, to make decisions with long-term perspectives, if that means we need to do more of that, then you're saying yes, please.

YES.

I FEEL LIKE A LITTLE OF THIS MAY BE CAPTURED UNDER

Item three, we're gonna talk about redundancies. But one dynamic that I think it would be worth exploring in these is how our expenditures relate to those of other jurisdictions. We have other governmental jurisdictions with sort of overlapping geographic space that have explicit responsibilities for different items. than we do. So like for example, the school district is in charge of schools and we're not really in charge of schools. And many of those jurisdictions are facing budget challenges as severe or more severe than we are. And so how do we kind of navigate that question of if when are we duplicating services and doing things that we really shouldn't be doing because it's someone else's role versus when are we supplementing because if we don't supplement, the thing isn't gonna get done and it's gonna have a negative impact for our community and make perhaps other services on our part more expensive because we're having to deal with a gap somewhere else. So sort of how do we navigate the potential for redundancy between jurisdictions. Because I also think there's a level of our constituents ask us to do a thing, and we want to do that thing. And so making sure that we're considering how that falls in the broader context of all the different state, county, school districts, U of O, LCC, how all of those pieces are working together for the purposes of providing the totality of the services our community needs.

I agree entirely. I was going to actually say, could it be a subcategory of number one?

when we come back to the framework we can look at the questions that are there and think about whether or not it starts to you know point to the direction of evaluating roles capacity delivery you know all of those sorts of things and ownership right who owns different responsibilities to the community and

I'm trying to wrap my head around number five, and that is strengthen and diversify revenue sources.

some really clear limitations going back 35 years ago when ballot measure five passed and then later 47 and a couple of other things as a state level that took, um, took away local control of our budgets, um, and has put more responsibility in the hands of the state. And in other cases in the hands of the federal government, that we have limitations that we can't work around. And so the question is, is how do we get creative about building or expanding our revenue base at the same time also understanding that those limitations affect our constituents, you know, whether they are individual homeowners or, uh, businesses that own property, but most of everything is being paid out of the property tax pool. And in some cases, like we're not in a situation like bend or Medford is with, with transit. Their transit is paid out of property taxes. Our transit in Eugene and in Portland is paid out of payroll tax. That was done back in 1970 specifically to be able to fund a sustainable and robust system for the two largest areas in the state. what we have now is no way of changing, um, without, you know, uh, state action, the governor, the legislature saying, okay, you know, we have to do things differently and we're not the only, uh, jurisdiction or municipalities are in this situation is true across the state of Oregon is true across the country. And now we are continually being told by our states and by our federal government, no, you have to assume these responsibilities that we were partnering with, and we're no longer your partners.

The burden falls to you now. Thank you very much.

Yeah.

I mean, I think that the conversation around revenue, around solutions to the financial challenge is complex, and there are things that are going to require, you know, obviously where you can control and what you can manage internally, that's one part. There are other things that are critical drivers to, you know, how you're going to resolve the issue, and not just Eugene, right? These are broader problems, and so within that, and we're jumping ahead a little bit on some of the strategies and things to do, there may be a need for really deliberate, intentional advocacy for changing directions. Maybe that's something that is pursued. Now, it's not a budget principle, but it might be something that is going to be warranted given that you have less control currently than you would have otherwise.

Because we're kind of toggling back and forth between the slide deck and the attachments, which kind of, they're all at your desk, colleagues. They expand on these concepts. It just caught my attention that one of them is written in the negative. And I don't think it's as powerful or it's certainly not as palatable to me when I read number four about our commitments with sustainable funding. My suggestion would be, rather than have it be the only one of these 10 that says we need to avoid doing something, would be to clearly identify sustainable funding sources for ongoing programs, services, or positions related to new or ongoing services. rather than just right out of the gate say we should avoid doing something, it's inevitable. We're going to, as times change, we're going to have to get creative and find new ongoing programs or services or positions. We just did that with the economic development position. I don't think we're voting on this today, but my suggestion would be to find a way to more positively say what I think it's trying to say is that we just need to identify ongoing sustainable funding. Please, yeah.

I think that if you flip the sentence and just begin with clearly identify sustainable funding sources prior to adding new program services positions, you've done that. Yeah, thank you.

Great. And then at number one, when we're talking about core and essential services, that really is... It's somewhat subjective. There would be eight of us with eight different opinions about what our core and essential services are. Nevertheless, I want to recognize and respect that they are core and essential services, and I would submit that removing the word available makes that sentence stronger, that we should focus resources on services that are legally mandated, critical to community health and safety, and foundational to the city's mission, not do it as an afterthought and focus available resources. I'm inferring that that would mean that we would prioritize other things first and then whatever's available we put toward our core and essential services. So my suggestion would be just strike the word available and cut right to the chase is focus on resources.

I think the intent was, you know, to suggest limited resources, but I think your point is strong, is that, you know, it's like, you're not doing other things first, and then whatever's left over, help buy. Yeah, that's a good point. Did you have a comment?

Oh, sorry. She was just trying to help me understand the conversation.

Oh, keep it moving. Okay. Okay, any other kind of big ideas? Mayor, did you have a comment? And then...

Well, I just want to share a couple of thoughts and taking notes and how we've been discussing this. And one is thinking about how this will be useful to us and to others into the future. And with that in mind, I had a bit of a thought experiment of myself of how would I walk into this information if I wanted to clearly express the values of our city through our budgeting principles. And so I took promote transparency and shared understanding to the top of the list. because I think that every budget conversation we want to begin with a shared understanding of what our, to Councilor Keating and others recent points, what our required and essential services are and how else we are strategically aligning our efforts. So I would move that to the front and then I think prioritizing those required and essential services and focusing resources on those and then evaluating all services and pursuing efficiencies or effectiveness. However, that is reworked. and then thinking about how we're connecting our budget to strategic goals, that those, that quartet of points at the outset I think draws really clear links between the strategic planning documents and the other policy setting conversations of council to the budgeting principles, and I think for anyone else coming to this information for the first time, that could be helpful. And then from there, there's a set of principles aligning ongoing commitments with sustainable funding, strengthening and diversifying revenue sources, using one-time resources for one-time purposes, making decisions with a long-term perspective, those really speak to a stewardship responsibility that the body holds. And then wrapping with the points about maintaining strong financial reserves and advancing financial sustainability, those are overarching components that go along with our responsibilities as elected officials, but for other people coming to this work, they might not say as much about the values of the organization and the body that these principles are related to.

Reactions, comments on that? That's great. And I appreciate also bringing in the word of stewardship because that is part of what's embedded in all of this, right? And so it's in order to be able to do that, you're providing some guardrails on how you're going to approach these conversations. Okay. Well, with that, then, why don't we pause this conversation, but we'll bring back, we've been taking some notes, and so, you know, we can bring back some fresh ideas. If not during this workshop, certainly on the 13th. And so we can bring the pieces together to make sure that we have reflected adequately the intent of the conversation here and that it's going to be a useful tool. I mean, at the end of all this, it needs to be something you will look to and use and that staff can then also use as a lens that's important to you instead of the budget. All right. Can we just keep going? Move this right directly in then to the important next conversation. And I'll bring you back a couple informational sessions before where we brought some models, just as kind of food for thought, around how some other organizations have approached evaluating programs and kind of thinking through budget proposals, budget decisions, and so we had some conversation and there was, I think, agreement, and I heard a little bit about this in the interviews as well, to not overcomplicate it, to make it a useful tool to inform the conversation and to allow some time to kind of test drive it, and maybe it evolves and you tweak it over time to make sure that it's serving the proper need. And so with all that in mind, kind of with the budget principles kind of setting some overarching direction, now moving into the framework, this allows us to think about how to operationalize the conversation around looking at budget choices. And so, here we go. You're thinking about kind of the purpose and the why, just to kind of get us back into this conversation. There was agreement that having a framework and a shared language about how to approach this, and clear definitions are going to be important, for sure, is going to be valuable to how the conversation among counselors, but also between counsel and staff, can proceed. It also is a tool, a really important tool, that staff at the department level, at the executive team level, will use and apply to make sure that they're kind of honoring the approach that you lay out. Also, I think that this is an opportunity to build that bridge between the conversation around political acceptability that I mentioned before and those things that are important to you all as for strategic goals, for vision direction, with the resources that are available administratively. supporting long-term financial sustainability and also to the transparency question Mayor that you were just raising you know having a framework like this allows for the conversation of trade-offs keeps it visible explains the reasons behind recommendations that are before you now you may decide to to go with them as they are laid out or you may provide another lens that will be your decision at the time of adopting a budget but largely informed by the work that comes before you. So removing the ambiguity and the lack of visibility into the decision is important for the public, for sure. This is just the same slide you saw before. Again, we're trying to get everybody into the same tent to think about how to navigate these problems. So the framework that you have in your packet, and it's the same, it's the next attachment that came in the prep work, laid out a framework that has two key components. The first is really just categorizing, looking with a critical eye at the programs and services that are delivered by the city, not with ranking or priority, but as objectively as one can to define and categorize the programs. This is not about this one's better than this one, it's just what is required or not required, what's driving it. So the categorization, and then the softer lens, but equally important kind of considerations that need to be incorporated. Those are the budget decision considerations, things like impact, the number and volume of people served, right? The organizational impact to deliver the service, if there's a risk that's involved. And so these additional important criteria would be applied after the programs and services have been sort of categorized. And so our charge today is to walk through the framework and think about the questions that could be considered when looking at how to categorize something, the definitions and the questions, each of those, to make sure that it's clear, it makes sense, there's not something critical missing. It's not going to be a science project, right? There's going to be an element of assessment that has to be involved, but it can be at least an analytical tool. that staff can initially review and then have, you know, some additional eyes from the executive team before it comes to you so it's adequately informed for delivery. So we want to walk through, please.

So this is a categorization tool, not a higher...

Correct. That's really important. It's really, you know, looking at, well, we'll look at the definitions, but looking at what is being provided and what is driving it, right? And so how do you characterize it? Not saying, not placing a judgment of better or worse. It's just driven by. Right.

Yeah.

We're depositing them into, you know, different buckets that then can be applied with the decision criteria. We're not applying scoring or any of those sorts of tools at this point. Again, trying to keep it simple and allow it to be a discussion evaluation tool and a discussion tool. So four categories. Have these, I don't know if Jenny or Twyla, if you want to make any comments before I'll just walk through kind of what we have put together. All right, I'm going to keep this closed. Okay, so four categories. that are included. And these are not dissimilar from the models that we looked at together in May. The Toronto model was one that you might recall we had the most energy around it. It's probably most similar to that, but relatively simple, easy to follow framework. So the first one are the required services. with a definition here that says programs and services the city must provide to comply with federal state law, city charter requirements, court orders, regulatory requirements. And so there's a defined backbone to how these would be categorized to put them in here. Considerations, you know, so thinking about, you know, how to evaluate, the question is simply, is the service required by law, regulation, charter, or court order? Some of them have a little more nuance. This one's pretty cut and dry. It is or it isn't. And so that is the first category. Maybe I'll go through each of these, and then I'm going to ask us, we'll zoom out, and we can kind of do broader reflections on them. So the second category we had we call essential services. with the definition here, reading programs and services necessary to protect public health, safety, critical infrastructure, and continuity of government operations. But we have some questions here that we would ask staff to go through to evaluate that definition. So does the service protect life, safety, health, critical infrastructure? Would significant service reductions create unacceptable community or risk, organizational risk? And is the service necessary for the city to effectively function? So this is where, you know, these are... These are qualitative questions that will be evaluated, and so there's going to be some need for deliberate conversation around what those are, why things are categories one way or the other, but it's a jumping off point that helps to sort some of the programs initially. The other considerations obviously would help to inform where programs and services ultimately are categorized. The next category we have we call core community services. The definition here, programs and services that residents reasonably expect their local government to provide and that contribute to community livability, identity, and quality of life. So, oops, thermal safety, something's happening over here. Okay.

Just to make sure. Just roll slightly to the left.

It doesn't say it on my computer screen. So these are things, you know, maybe this is, you know, programs that have been, that are unique to Eugene or have been developed over time, library cultural services, some of those programs that people have come to appreciate and expect within that, within the community. And so, you know, for each of these, we could have conversations and questions around level of service and these other sorts of dimensions, but the initial sort is by these four buckets. Some questions that would be asked then... Does the service contribute to community livability, identity, and quality of life? And is the service typically offered to residents of comparably sized cities? And so not with judgment, but just an observation. And so where there is something that is unique and specific, kind of a core community service, maybe that falls here. But also you bring in the lens of is this a typical service that you would see in other communities? Another point of information, right? A lot of this is point of information for evaluation and conversation. Last, we have the strategic priority services, and this really starts to speak to the alignment element with council goals, which we'll be spending more time on. So the strategic priority services, programs and services that advance council goals, respond to emergency community needs, foster innovation, and create targeted community benefits beyond core service expectations. So that extra level. So if you're really, as a council, focused on moving forward, moving the needle in some specific area that maybe has created a program or a service level beyond what is typical, it would fall here. And again, this is not a better or worse. It's just a category for evaluation and discussion. So does the program service, does the service directly support and adopt a budget goal? Does the service address a significant emerging need or opportunity? And does the service create measurable benefits that will exceed core service expectations? So some guidance through those questions. So that is the draft of the framework with those budget considerations accompanying them. I want to open up for conversation and reaction. Again, recognizing this is not an empirical formula, model, but it's a tool to really assess and inform the conversations.

I like this. I like that it's simple. I like that it's well-defined. And it doesn't have, like, 15 steps in it. I mean, you can just get this done. And I like the definitions, especially between essential and core services, which I think accurately capture some of the work. We've gotten wrapped around the axle many times over the years on what's a core service. And all of a sudden, everything's a core service. And that doesn't help with prioritization. So this makes a lot of sense to me. I'll be interested to hear what my colleagues say. Thank you.

Great. Ditto. Okay. Turn that over.

I've got so many questions, so I'll probably want a second round, I guess, if that's what we're doing today.

Why don't we start off with kind of an idea, and we can let there be discussion. Other people have similar ideas.

So I think, you know, sort of broadly as a grouping, it makes a lot of sense to me. I do, I think that the LHINs decisions are going to be very important when we start getting into service levels and risks and things like that. That's almost maybe more important than where it falls in these four categories. just as some sort of clarifying questions, sort of organizational needs, things that people in the community may not think of something that we should be spending money on, but, you know, like payroll, you know, running payroll. That would have probably fallen under the essential services because we wouldn't be able to run the city without having payroll. Okay, that answers that. And then what... Are we ultimately gonna see sort of a list of the services and where they are with us? I know a couple years ago we had service lists through a different kind of program and lens. Is that sort of the ultimate goal of this is for us to sort of have that list of services?

Thank you, Counselor. Yes, so once we have this conversation here, staff would take the draft framework and we take our current service set and sort into these categories, and we would hopefully bring that back to you in the fall so you could see how that would be operationalized.

That's very exciting to hear. And I feel like this is kind of a silly question, but what happens if there's a specific service that doesn't really fall under any of these things? It's something that we've been, I mean, everybody's gonna say that their service is a core service, but if we start looking at it and we're like, You know, this isn't really a central service. It doesn't really meet this sort of core service. Expectation, right?

And that category of we've been delivering it. Should we? Should we? Don't know. But if it's not core or essential and it's not strategic priority aligned, it might be something that some portion of the community has just come to expect.

Maybe it warrants a question, who else in the community can deliver this service? maybe there are already not-for-profit or for-profit partners who are doing a similar service. And that's a question that I don't see asked In any of these buckets.

Oh, it's under the decision lens. Right. Alternative service delivery.

Oh, alternative. Okay, thanks.

Yeah, the first, so I'm sorry. The first step is the categorization. The second step would be applying those budget decision criteria, which includes, you know, relative service level. Are there others that are other ways to deliver the service? Is there revenue recovery options that we should be considering? So there are other dimensions that after they have been categorized would be applied. And I think you had a comment.

I just wanted to respond. I thought Eliza asked some good questions. I would say on payroll, and I would add the budget office, wouldn't those be required services as opposed to a core or essential? I mean, there's legal mandates that we have.

Yes. So there are certain things, so payroll, budget, our annual comprehensive financial report, anything that would have some sort of legal requirement would be required. But there may be other things such as accounts payable, right? We have to pay our vendors. That would be essential because we're required. We need to pay our vendors, but there's not a legal mandate, correct?

I mean, they get mad.

Well, yeah, but there's not a statutory, the same statutory requirements such as preparing a balanced budget under ORS.

And that's the explicit nature of the definitions, right? And so, again, not judgment, just the source of how they're being categorized.

Yeah. That question has come up over the years many, many times, actually. And when we've actually looked at it, very, very few if any, actually I think there's none that fall into that category, and where it comes into play, but it depends on where you sit and what your opinion is. So if you think there's a lot of waste and inefficiency in government, there may be numerous things that the city government does that you don't think fit in any of these categories, and you don't think they should be done. But on the other hand, there's another constituency that absolutely thinks that this should be occurring, which is why all these services are in the budget in the first place, because they all have built-in constituencies. And a lot of that waste and inefficiency has gone by the wayside over the last 15, 18 years. We've cut $94 million out of the budget. And so the staff went through and figured out all those things and got rid of them. Whether or not you like the service or not doesn't mean it doesn't fit in one of these categories. So the question I had was, what about the ones that are cross-cutting? across different ones. There's lots of things that, you know, the budget process, it's a requirement, but it's also an essential service, but it's also a community service, and it's also a strategic priority service, because that's how I identify them and implement them. So how do you deal with where you're going to have, to me, it's perfectly fine to have that show up in four places. Doesn't need to be have every single service has to be fit in one of these categories because parts of it are over here, parts of it are over here. That's the complex nature of what we do. So many different things that we end up doing.

It also sort of speaks, I'm sorry, it sort of speaks to if you have broad service areas that have different dimensions to it, right? Maybe you have, you know, different units that kind of deliver the same type of program, but it's a little bit different or it's funded differently, that might be, you know, an ad, you know, a community ad, if you will. And so I can see where they would fall in different buckets. The first sort is just to kind of get clarity around what do we have, and then the important considerations is like, well, okay, what should we be doing?

We can argue about where they fit when we get to see the list, because that was my question, too. There are charter requirements. We have charter requirements. Well, yes, we do, actually. The police auditor is a perfect example of that. I don't know about any court orders. There's regulatory requirements all over the place that we are...

yeah Mike Mike how would we characterize self self-imposed mandates In other words, the cities created ordinance about programs we're going to do, and we're by golly going to do it. So how do you categorize self-imposed necessities?

So the way we're looking at this is the required would be very narrow, but if there's something like code or an ordinance, something that this body could change, it would fit into the appropriate category, whether it's essential service or core community service, because that's something, for instance, you don't have to go to the vote of the people and change the charter, or we don't have to change a state or federal regulation. This body could make those changes. So we were trying to keep required very narrow as to those things outside of our control. So we would just sort those as appropriate by the other definitions.

OK.

So it's technically required by an outside body. Or the charter. Or the charter. Thank you.

Being the people.

I didn't hear you.

The outside body being the people. Right, yeah, yeah.

Nancy. Thank you for defining the alternative service delivery earlier. I'm better able to wrap my head around that. The question under the essential services, number three, Is this service necessary for the city to effectively function? Is it a difficult one, but an important one? And I would submit that that question can and should be asked as a number three in our core community services as well, and here's why. Before my time on council and before Joshua's time leading the library and cultural services team, the city actually did something called cart racing.

Yeah.

And I believe it was parked under the cultural services budget. And I know this because at the time I was working in radio and we partnered with the city to promote the cart races. The cart races, if it was parked under the aforementioned cultural services budget, it would fall under the core community services, the library being a core value, a core function. But that service clearly at least from my perspective and point of view, isn't necessary for the city to effectively function. So I think we could benefit from asking that difficult question beyond just the quote-unquote essential services and asking it of our core community services as well without cutting into the mission of the core community services. But we're not, you know, 26 years into the new millennium, we're not in the same financial place we were yesteryear. As hard of a question as that is, I would want us to ask that question as well.

That's kind of the level of specificity with which you want to evaluate some of the programs or services, how they get categorized perhaps.

How would one treat the argument that a councilor might make that while a service might not be core or required, lack of providing it would necessitate another core service to be more expensive to take place.

Well, I want to take us back to This slide, right? There is a different lens that you bring to the conversation. After this activity, this exercise has been completed, the services are categorized, you know, additional analysis has been applied through lens. Ultimately, you're going to be looking at other variables as well. And so, you know, staff is trying to anticipate those lenses you might be bringing, but ultimately you're going to have to bring that community perspective to the decisions that are ultimately made.

We do that all the time, and I'm asking for the resolution, I guess. It's a typical argument that we will get into in a circular nature, in my opinion, that, well, we have to do that because if we don't do that, this will be a lot more expensive. And I want to avoid those arguments. Is there a structural way to avoid those arguments? That was the better question.

I think that might be where this budget decision lens piece of the framework comes into order. It's not so much which category does it fall in. Is it a required service or a core community service? But as staff and the executive team are evaluating items before they even come before you, they are asking questions like, where it's listed as community impact or organizational impact, those are the types of questions and the types of conversations that they should be having. It's like paying insurance premiums. If we don't pay our insurance premiums, we have this higher risk of X, Y, and Z happening. These are, in this proposed framework, part of those budget decisions that are being applied before a proposal would come before you, and those conversations should be had so that the good information is available to help you all.

Jenny's job. Cool. All right.

Thank you. As kind of a follow-up to that, just to make sure I'm understanding, so when we're looking at these categorizations, we're not just going to get, like, oh, this is a required service. We might also get some information about these budget lenses, which might include something like there's a risk if you stop providing fire prevention services that you'll have a lot more fires and you'll have to pay a lot more money.

Firefighters and that might be included as part of the information we're getting Well, so I think of this as two steps So the first is just sorting all of our programs and services into this framework And that's what we would anticipate bringing back to you in the fall so you could see how does this you know? what is the operationalization of the framework, but then there's the budget lens and that we would apply kind of what Jen was just saying, where the organization would go through a process, and as part of the budget that comes back to you in that spring timeframe, that's where we would be able to use this framework and this language we're creating with you to bring this back to you and help you understand some of the trade-offs and the decisions that are being proposed for your consideration.

Okay, so we would probably definitely get that more in-depth information where we were looking at changes, perhaps. Maybe not for like, okay, here's the risk if you stop running payroll, but like... It would be correct. Yeah, okay.

The recommendation is being made, a proposal is before you, here's the justification.

Okay, thank you.

Yeah, and again, almost, well, all of the services have a justification for them, that's why... you end up having that as kind of the basis. I guess one of the questions I had where the budget lens, maybe the way I was thinking about the budget lens is you get all these, you categorize these and put them and name them, but it doesn't talk about how much. You can meet a court order with this much or this much, right? That's the budget lens. It's like how much are we going to put in that bucket for that particular service? And having this nomenclature is helpful in describing it, but it's not helpful in the political decision about how much for each of these different things. And that's the tricky part of budgets. But when we do budgets, we end up taking what we've done before and carry it forward. And there's a little bit of wiggle room. Most of the time, we're actually making cuts, 15 out of the last 18. And so there's not very much discretionary changing our minds about this or that. That actually happens within our budget on a year-to-year basis. This is my 30th. and see a lot of that. That doesn't really happen because institutions don't work like that. People don't work like that. You don't start and recreate the budget every single year and ask questions about everything you do. You kind of move it forward and then you have this placeholder that is the starting point and you tweak it. And that tweaking part is really, really small. And one year we argued over $7,000 for three hours at budget committee.

No, you've expressed exactly why this is hard. Because there are choices that are being made. And so starting with a language and a shared approach, I think, helps to alter the conversation a little bit. So you give a different starting point. And the decision criteria considerations, that's the analysis that has to happen internally. That has to happen through staff. understanding, okay, we may be required to deliver X, Y, or Z to provide a service, but there's nothing that speaks to the how much, right? And so other considerations are going to have to be brought in. Are there long-term consequences of not funding at this level? Are there providers that are doing this as well? There are lots of variables that are going to need to surround the conversations after they've been categorized. But that work has to happen at the staff level and kind of come up and through. And I don't want to put words in your mouth while I look back.

No, that's correct. I think the other thing when we think about long-range financial planning and the puzzle pieces, one of the puzzle pieces is budget methodology. And so you're correct in that we've used kind of a baseline incremental budgeting approach generally for many years. But staff are looking at alternate approaches this cycle. in conjunction with the budget principles and the framework and the strat plan refinement that you're gonna be working on today and tomorrow. And so we're hoping to apply this lens to perhaps a different budget approach that will, when we bring the budget back to this body in the spring, we're able to talk about choices and some of the layers of this in a different way than we have before.

Yeah, and the fact that the budget's actually a zero sum, makes you do that if you want to add or subtract anything. You have to.

I see three hands. I'm not sure the order of what, maybe can we just come around the horn this way? Is that okay? I've spoken. I'll go last. Okay. We'll go the opposite direction. Okay. Councilor Evans.

So we're in this conversation about services do we get to strategic investments? And I go back to strategic investments because when we start looking at the longer term sustainability of the budget, the sustainability of our service delivery, We have to continually invest in certain things to make sure that we are operational. So for instance, if the fire chief says, look, we need to make an investment in ladder trucks or whatever the case may be, or BLS or ALS ambulance services, how do we really look at factoring in the long-term implementations and impact of those investments? And going back to what Councilor Leach said earlier is, you know, prevention is probably the best cure, you know, for maintenance of a lot of these things. And what has happened to us And what has continued to happen was, I'll give you a quick example. This is not long. My daughter-in-law worked for FEMA for 10 years. Last year, she got laid off. And she was one of the people that she would go from her base in Tampa to Louisiana to Texas to all these places, other places in Florida that have natural disasters. We're sitting here on a potential national disaster as far as earthquakes are concerned, or even tsunamis. But we have done some of these investments, but I don't think that we have done enough of these investments to ensure the kind of public safety that is expected by our constituents across the board. So my question goes back into how do we align those strategic investments with the services that we continually need to invest in over the short term and eventually over a longer period of time, over the long term, so that we can have some assurity that we have a realistic and appropriate response to those kinds of disasters and other things that happen. that nobody expects but you have to anticipate because they are going to happen and they have happened.

I think this is the long view and the importance of talking about what are the strategic priorities, goals, whatever they're called, so that you don't want to lose the long view, right? Because A, it might cost more, but also you're not equipped to respond to community needs that you can anticipate potentially. Categorizing it, it fits into the strategic priority services to be sure, but it's a part of the conversation around What do you want to fund? And are you finding alternate methods to offset those costs, right? And the thing is, what do you have to fund?

We know that we're going to have to have vehicle replacements. We know that we have to have equipment replacements. We know that we're going to have to upgrade certain areas of certain things because technology has changed and continues to evolve. and change. And so how do we, you know, strategically plan for those investments that are ongoing? Not only do we have to make those investments for what we're doing currently and what we do day to day, but we have to look at those investments over the longer, broader term of how do we sustain those as we move forward? How do we pay for stuff that we need to pay for?

Those are, going back to the principles, a lot of what was described there, the necessity of identifying how you're going to manage those going forward. In the conversation around strategic goals, what you want to focus on next two years and beyond, I mean, these are the things that need to be identified because if there is a strategic investment or a goal that you want to pursue collectively that is high need and critically important, that means there's probably trade-offs, right? And so how you fund that, if you don't have additional revenue, means trade-offs perhaps for something else. And so that's a broader budget discussion, but it needs to be a part of the equation when you're figuring out how you're going to adopt your budget.

I think what I would add to that, Councillor Evans, is, again, as part of that long-range financial planning, looking at kind of unfunded needs and emerging issues is part of the work we're doing in the organization. So we've done a scan. We will be bringing that information back to the executive team and some high-level information, most likely when we bring you the CIP in the winter as well. So we are looking at, you know, what is the range of needs across the organization and and then what are also potential levers, depending on what the need is, there might be a different lever or strategy. So I think the organization is looking at all of those things, and this will be incorporated both into our internal process and then what we bring back to you as part of the budget.

And I appreciate that, Twyla. The thing is, and again, is when we start talking about you know, funding these unfunded needs over time, those unfunded needs keep evolving and changing, you know, to the point where I don't think we are in a position to keep up with those changes right now. And that's a big concern for me because, again, you start looking at

you know, okay.

You know, chief Skinner, you know, we're not asking you to, to, you know, keep driving the same police cars you had in 1970. Um, but you're going to get, you know, the SUVs and the other vehicles that you need, um, to keep up with, uh, the changes in the community and keep up with the criminals. Because they have needs, too, and they plan as well.

Well, I imagine a lot of these conversations, when you have budget proposals before you that have come from staff and are identifying and recognizing what the needs are, that there are going to have to be discussions around capacity to fund and priorities of investment, and that's going to be ultimately...

One thought is that there is a connection between some of our strategic planning work and other advocacy and I think Councillor Evans, a lot of you just raised, reminds me of how important it is that our goals and our strategies and the framework that we're using to approach the work that we do is important for that to be transparent to our partners because a lot of the examples that were just shared are enormous multi-jurisdictional challenges that there needs to be coordination in order for us to effectively address. And as we were speaking about earlier, there is a particular type of pressure that cities are under in that we we sort of catch all of the other layers at every other layer of government that isn't meeting needs. We catch the unmet responsibilities. And that presents a particular type of challenge. But in that context, I do think it's really important in looking at other jurisdictions, other cities, and the way that they approach these types of opportunities, that as we're looking back at this last 20 years, and then we're thinking about this next 20 years, how do we want to situate the cities service categorization framework and budget principles so that we can be positioned to be more responsive to context and our community's needs. We want to be responsive to our constituents and also responsive to context that is larger scale and changing. And I do think it is possible for the city to be more responsive to think a little bit bigger in terms of how we might approach some of the challenges that we're facing in ways that are different from an idea that we're beginning every year from a budget and we're just barely adjusting around the edges of that. That may not be the way that we have done it, in several previous cycles for very good reasons. I get to tell people all the time about how well run the city of Eugene is and offer an abundant number of examples of that work. But it does seem as we are looking into this next 20 years that there are different opportunities and areas of strategic focus where this council and other future councils might want to say, we really want to make progress in this area or in these areas, or we really want to see ourselves reflecting this value much more clearly in these three interrelated bodies of work. And this type of process, I think, is a way to bring that forward and not just feel as though, well, it's as it's always been and that's how it shall always be and We'll just do our best to keep paddling with the currents. That's an important part of this work, but it's not all of the work that we have to do.

that strategic hat of thinking about the future and how do we get there? And maybe the model looks different depending on what it is you're talking about.

And not a wholesale change. I think that's another piece is that sometimes we get into thinking like it's either this way or it's this way and it's black or it's white. But there are ways to think about as we do other things, testing innovation or testing change and then working on it iteratively. That would be innovative to work on it iteratively.

Thank you. I first want to start by saying I appreciate what Councilor Evans and what the Mayor just said around services. You know, our fire department, for example, and I'll get into more detail as we get deeper into this. It hasn't grown in staffing since 1981 by well over 80,000 since that time. And so that's something we need to address. So I want to put a Bike rack. I'm going to start to say put a pin in it.

Is there a budget bike rack over here? Right on that.

And I can go into more detail later because I certainly have a good understanding of what it means on those bad days. But what I really wanted to ask, I appreciate this process that we're in right now. I can see that you're trying to help us build a toolkit to take into the process and hopefully help our effectiveness and be efficient in doing so. My question, and I don't know if this is for our city manager or our CFO, but this is great that we're getting this information, but when we actually get down to the budget process, there'll be the eight councilors that are part of the budget committee, but we also will have eight community members. Is there a plan to at least give them an abbreviated version of this so if we're starting to use terminology, they're gonna understand what we're talking about?

Thank you, Counselor. Yes, we'll talk about next steps more tomorrow, but one of the things we were hoping to do, staff was going to, we're hoping to meet with the citizen members this summer to take the principles and the framework that you developed here as well as your refined strat plan focus and just share that with that group. And it'll be an informational meeting where they could give feedback, but an informational meeting to bring them along.

Thank you. That's been going through my mind on this going, well, we're only going to be halfway effective if we don't bring them along too.

If I could add one point too, I think when we design the budget presentation, we're going to collectively design it in a way where you can see this work presented to you. And I think that's really important so that the community understands the methodology in which You've provided guiding principles to us to be able to develop a budget, a recommended budget for you. So I think that that will be important and then also see how the budget lens was applied. And then you also get to do that work as well because that's where the Venn diagram comes into place.

Thank you, City Manager. And I do see the value in this, so I appreciate it.

I had a couple questions. So I'm wondering what level of detail you were intending to break things down by category. Like at the level of the cart races, would that be its own line item, or would it be like cultural services?

It would... it would be some level in between, right? So there was a comment earlier about within a program or a service, there may be multiple layers. You may have a requirement, you may have something that's essential, and then you may have some more. So our team has been thinking about how would we take the framework that comes out of this and help sort those. And so it'll be not at the cart race level, at a higher level, but it won't be at library or cultural. It'll be at a lower level, some kind of mid-range. Yeah.

Okay, that's helpful. Okay, so if I understand this right, these categories are not hierarchical. Essential services are not better than core community services. They're buckets. They're buckets. And therefore, in a sense, maybe it does not super matter which category it falls into so that I would not need to argue that something was an essential service or a core community service because we might see those things differently. Because they're going to be looked at in bunches irrelevant to really what category. Like how they get ranked, if they were ranked. It will not matter which bucket they fell into. Yes? It's instructive, right?

It's a jumping off point for some of the conversations. If something is required... Well, besides the first one, right.

Obviously required is a separate bucket that's different from the other.

The decision criteria, the lenses that are applied in that, that is essential, right? Into understanding comparability and staffing levels and risk and all these other factors. But it is a lens. And it's going to be helpful for all of you to know also when we go through the conversation around kind of highest need priority, like the things you want to focus on, like how does that sit in here, right? How does it fit? And the conversation, you know, you have the executive team here listening because they want to also understand how you are approaching this and how you're understanding it because this is, at the end, it's a team sport, right? While you're setting some framework to be used, staff will be developing the recommendations and informing the conversation that then comes back to you ultimately to decide.

Yeah, I mean, if we can all agree on that and that we're not going to start arguing, well, my thing is an essential service and your thing is a... I can buy into this. Like, this makes sense to me and I can move ahead and feel confident that collectively we will make good decisions. But historically, we have spent a lot of time arguing about what bucket things fall into and that being super important somehow. And if we can move away from that and that this is going to help us do that, then I think it's going to be what we need.

The bucket is not the shorthand for the answer, right? There's more that goes to it.

Okay, excellent. I was kind of following up on Councilor Light. Maybe just from what that conversation was, maybe now more the way I'm thinking about these are, again, setting aside required services because that's a different thing, but like the essential and the core is almost what questions are we asking about that service? which community members for the core community services are going to maybe really miss this service or really value this service for the strategic priorities. It's the things that maybe we're not doing now, but we won't accomplish our goals if we don't do them. And so it's almost like the set of questions surrounding them is different. based on what category they're in, but the category itself is just helping us guide maybe what questions are the most relevant? Is that, that's maybe how I started thinking about it as soon as you brought up your comment. Yeah.

Yes, and some of those required services, as was alluded to earlier, could be drowned by underfunding. They're required by statute, but the fiscal amount isn't determined by statute. That's why some of these tools are so critically important to be able to articulate why investing or investing greater or reinvesting in said services that are required and not let them just die on a vine is paramount.

But then it gets to the hard part, which is how much. And then you get to the point where if you don't use the service and you don't like the service, then you you think should be lowerly funded, when this person thinks it's incredibly important. I've run into people that don't think the library is important at all. That's kind of a superfluous service that would be nice, it's nice to have. I think that's ridiculous, but I've come across those people. And so that's where the council comes in and has to determine where they, where all that fits. And to me, all of those end up being important. all end up being funded and that the whole institutional inertia of the budget moving forward helps keep them in place. To tweak it and make it change it, I've never seen in 30 years of doing this, really never wholesale change the way we've looked at the budget. Tried to numerous times, but it's never actually taken. Budget kind of cruises along in the same fashion and it gets tweaked. hashing of it, that's what Mike would like to see.

And just for clarification, this is a public meeting being memorialized that any budget committee member or any community member could review. So to Councilor Grove's point, we have eight budget colleagues. I don't suspect they'll be watching eight hours of council workshop sessions. Nevertheless, these meetings are memorialized and available to the public, including our budget committee members.

We'll talk about next steps in terms of how the communication and those pieces will happen.

One of the things that I also thought was really helpful in one of our work sessions leading up to this workshop was the observation that with the framework and also the budget decision-making lenses, that one of the test cases, and Jennifer, I think you might have presented this, was that two different people who actually feel differently about an investment would use these tools and would likely come to the same agreement or the same conclusion or much closer to the same conclusion. And I think in our process and how we're working through so many choices about how the city invests our resources, just having that support in the process could eliminate a lot of the energy spent where agreement is actually easy to find and then we can focus in on the areas where we really have to spend more intensive conversation.

Well, and keeping in mind, you know, a lot of the analysis, the conversation, the recommendations that will be done will be, you know, grounded in the framework that you are all talking about today. And so you can have confidence in the discipline that has been taken to bring this forward to you for your own conversation.

That's really helpful. So done not just by this council, but done by staff who are preparing our budget, who are working with our vendors, who are, by some, by statute, we're obligated to fund, but it's not determined at what level. So this helps fund what's going to come to us without us having to have that fight every biennium.

you guys don't need to go out and do all, meet with everybody, like this, let staff, you know, do that evaluation. Then ask the questions, right? And understand why the proposal, what the consequences or trade-offs might be, but informed by that, kind of that rigor.

Okay. Yeah, please. Once we kind of settle on this structure, I mean, moving forward, the budget itself And in particular, the online budget that will be available to the public, will it be restructured as well into some of this framework so that one of our guiding principles becomes transparency and that can be reflected in this framework?

That's a great question. Yes, I would imagine as the city manager just mentioned, this would become all of these threads, right? The principles, the framework will be kind of woven through our process and we would articulate the budget and have things in the budget document itself that would be reflective. I don't know exactly what it looks like, but we'll get there, yeah.

Sounds like a lot of work, so thank you. But it's always a lot of work regardless.

On Councilor Leach's point, though, and to the Mayor's point earlier about taking that transparency piece and putting it to the top and promoting transparency and a shared understanding, this council, this city, used to have a budget tool by which community members could go online to dash or dot gov and play with the budget. That's wholly transparent and We see us going down that path Again in this restructuring of this budget framework. Is that is that what I'm hearing? Is that on the like is that kind of level of engagement on the table?

Counselor Keating what I would say is the tool we had before is All of the functionality where you can do some drilling and look at different cuts of the budget, that's in our new digital budget book. It looks and feels different, but I would say substantively the same functionality in the old tool as in the new tool. You know, staff will be looking at our digital budget book to see how we can align this work so that it's clear. We're also working just generally on education to the community and other tools either through our website or budget videos or different things. So there's probably a variety of ways we can use different tools to help bring the public along.

All right, so what I'm hearing, and I'm going to check my assumptions here, is that the definitions of framework kind of as laid out today seems to be okay. Like no major modifications. Really the questions are around what next. How does it show up? How do you apply it? How does staff use it and bring it back to you? Which is a lot to be determined, right? And so the work that follows next. Is that thumbs up around that we're comfortable with where we are today with the framework? Go with yes. I didn't see all the thumbs, but I'm going to go with yes. Okay, then let's do this. Let's take a short break, figure out what's happening with the computer and the presentation, and then we'll come back. And what I want to do today related to goals is to kind of share back what I heard in the conversations and how that fits in with the community survey and other pieces, really just to talk about the big rocks today. We're going to go much deeper tomorrow. But I want to make sure we can kind of tee that up this afternoon before we conclude, if that works for everybody. Okay, so it's 3.49 on that clock at the top of the hour. Does that work? Okay.

Thank you. Eugene City Council will now take a 10-minute break, and we will resume at 4 p.m.

you you you

We are back at our city council workshop, and I'll hand it back to Rev. Tellis.

All right, are we on?

Okay, great.

So that was a great conversation. Thank you, thank you for all the input. Reminder that we're listening, we're gathering all the notes. The framework seems pretty solid. The budget principles, just to recap, we've got some adjustments we'll want to make. We will be bringing these back to you when we're together on the 13th of July. And so with fresh eyes, revisited, and with some refinements. based on the conversation. So that's when those will come back. So we want to switch gears. And for today, what I'd like to do is really just open up the conversation around kind of the key areas of interest and focus for the body, for the council today. So kind of naming the big rocks, kind of the, to use Jen's talk, the kind of headlines we want to explore tomorrow. where we will go in deeper around what does success look like, what do you want to accomplish over the next two years as it aligns to the budget, so that balance between the long-term, where do you want to go, but also what do you want to prioritize for the next two years. So today, big rocks. So I wanted to bring back to you, first of all, the things that I heard in... in our conversations. And before I walk through this, I just want to acknowledge that you have a strategic plan that is, and I mentioned this in my opening comments, but I want to, you know, we're talking about strategic planning. This is really the bridge from your strategic plan to a future strategic plan. And so giving counsel, all of you, the opportunity to say these are the things that we care about collectively that are important to focus on until that time of a new strategic plan. So lots of alignment with the urgent needs in this current plan, a lot of alignment to the things that were identified through the community survey, but let's walk through those. So in the interview themes, here are some of the things that stood out to me as sort of mentioned multiple times. And so maybe in some cases it was a couple times, and sometimes it was universal, like that first one. Addressing the budget gap was on everybody's mind. I mean, surprise, surprise. We've had three work sessions, and we're having a financial sustainability workshop, so I'm not surprised that would be top of mind, address the budget gap. Identifying long-term revenue solutions also came up, and that obviously ties back to the budget conversation, but that was one of the areas that came through, and in different ways. That looks different. That can be planning for future economic development revenue long, long term, or it can be other revenue solutions in the near term. And so that was something on people's minds. Talk about the details and the gray between these tomorrow. Improving housing affordability on people's minds, also availability, access to housing is a big problem, big challenge. Public safety, heard about funding. The next one there below that, fire governance, was a specific area, and I know that's something that has been an area you've been exploring and working on. But public safety, traffic safety, heard about related to that also. But the capacity and the response perceptions of safety, preparedness, so that kind of area. Cyber governance, I mentioned. Homelessness, also an area of concern, an issue that is important to address. Not losing the quality of life amenities around the library, cultural services, and so how to manage that, also important. And then increasing economic development and growing the tax base, recognizing that that takes time. But if you don't start and have a plan and move forward, that you're missing potential future opportunities. How do you really start to put the pieces in place or maybe remove barriers that could be getting in the way of economic development? And then road infrastructure, so kind of brass tacks basics, fixing road infrastructure, so some of that investment need. So those were some of the things that came through the interview conversations that I had with each of you. So I wanted to kind of bring them back, but I also thought it might be helpful to see from these themes how they align with some of the themes that came through the community survey that was administered last year. And it was in 2022 prior, a lot of similarity in terms of the areas of urgent needs. Some more things. on community members' minds, homelessness, housing, public safety, the budget, also transportation. Those were all in their urgent needs, short-term priorities. From the community perspective, livability was in that three- to five-year horizon, longer horizon, but still something that's on people's minds. And so those were the things that emerged. through the community survey that was delivered, and I'm sure you've had a presentation about that. Probably not a surprise, but always helpful and a little bit affirming when I see the similarities between what I'm hearing in council interviews and what I'm hearing or what I'm seeing in the community survey. So lots of alignment there. So with all this, as we were thinking about the process and how to tee up an appropriate and a meaningful conversation for all of you in terms of what does success look like, long term you want to pursue, what are the short term areas of need and investment you want to make, those priorities over the next two years. Looking at all this, it seemed like there were some natural kind of buckets, if you will, that started to take shape. And so I wanted to pose these to you. And today, what I really want to do is take a look at those and see if they feel like, yes, they cover the areas that we care about, recognizing that beyond the categories, if you will, to continue that same nomenclature, what that looks like is going to be important. That's what we will talk about tomorrow. Here are some potential areas. I'm using areas of interest because, you know, in the strategic plan, there's lots of word language that comes with different meanings. So for purposes of today, these were the areas of interest. We can talk about how they get defined later. Hopefully you can all read some of those. And so there seem to be a pretty clear set of buckets from those. The first one being financial sustainability. Not a big surprise. Over there to the right on the slide, you can see where the themes that we heard, that's where they're reflected. So we have some guidelines as to what we might want to talk about in those areas. So with financial sustainability, revenue options, cost containment efficiencies, service delivery alternatives. And so those some of the things that might show up as what you would want to prioritize in that area. Public safety, another big bucket, and that includes all safety. So fire governance, which of course is going to take time to work on, emergency preparedness, community trust building, so working through how to engage effectively through safety with the community, and traffic, kind of addressing the concerns people have around traffic safety. What's that?

Animal services.

Animal services. Could easily fall in there. Sure. Exactly. Yeah, we're thriving. They could be thriving, too. Thriving services. Thriving all friends. So the next one is thriving community. And this is kind of that broad sort of quality of life area of focus. But really speaks to kind of some of the principles and the values that have been expressed through your current strategic plan and some of the things that you're focused on in the interviews we had in the way. So this includes things from economic development and making sure that you have a vibrant, thriving economy to those cultural amenities, low library, cultural services, climate action could be a part of a thriving community, and then belonging and engagement, that connection that people feel. Seem to be the areas that might resonate within that category. Housing and homelessness, arguably these could be separate or together. You can kind of put them together here, but that includes affordable housing, peer navigation, how to get people to the services that they need or are available, whether it's through the community or nonprofit groups or whatever, and then kind of that continuum of care. Next one we had transportation infrastructure. So this is roads. Also looking at the infrastructure of technology and modernizing technology and general asset management. So this is looking at the long view and replacement of facilities and other amenities. The last one there didn't come up as strongly through the conversations other than what I have heard around the importance of customer service, getting to yes, like breaking down the barriers that might get in the way of success. and the importance of partnerships. And so thinking that that sort of bucket maybe is something that would be helpful and useful for staff to spend time on and think about, what does organizational excellence look like? How do we prioritize or look at that, if that's something that council believes is important? So in my little brain, anyway, it seemed like those were broad brushstrokes that kind of reflected what I had heard. I don't want to oversimplify, and I want to make sure that you feel comfortable with that framing, and if there are things you need to change or concerns you have, we'd love to hear them.

One that seems missing to me is environmental stewardship. That got lost in the shuffle over the last couple of strategic times. It might fit under thriving community if you don't Baxter's a great example of that. If you don't have good environmental stewardship or a clean environment... Well, the original kind of is climate action.

Maybe it needs to be reframed a little bit.

I think they're complementary. They're different.

Okay.

Yeah.

Okay, good.

Not to be the bad guy here by any stretch of the imagination, but I think that... Library Cultural Services, though, it is its own bucket. Back to the CART conversation we had earlier. In front of us, it's library and cultural services. Like, they're different. It's not the same delivery. Like, one is library, one is library staff.

You probably should have been missed on my call there.

But yet.

And recreation. Right, and recreation. Right, they're just different categories within the same budget. Overall overarching budget by them and then you know, I kind of off mic, you know Pardon the snark asked for animal services in the public safety. That's an important piece That's that and yeah, I hear what you're saying about the thriving community piece, but there's It goes back to, by statute, what we're delivering. And yes, we're delivering with a not-for-profit vendor, but it's an integral part of the delivery model, or the services that the municipality delivers. And it's a core value of mine. I would like to see animal services in that public safety.

Yeah, and keep in mind, thank you. I made a note of that. And the buckets are really intended to inform a conversation around kind of what's important. What are the priorities of this council? And does not necessarily need to capture all of the services that are being provided or reflect a kind of departmental structure. We really want to focus on the outcomes. And we're talking about these things tomorrow. Other reactions?

I think this kind of falls up a little bit on some of these other comments. I'm interpreting the sort of No hierarchy. I don't have my microphone on, sorry. I think this follows up with some other comments. I'm kind of interpreting the tiny blue text as being representative examples of the types of things that might fall in those buckets while recognizing that, for example, affordable housing is different from housing affordability, right? And so that these are not trying to capture everything that might fall into those buckets. but just sort of representative. Is that correct there?

Well, let me just foreshadow how I'm imagining the conversation tomorrow. Would that be helpful? Yes. And so looking at the large buckets first, right, to use that in the framing, the writing to the right Those were the things that I made note of in the themes and that were in the survey. And so they illustrate some of the things that you have heard about. It's not intended to be the answer. It's just these are the things we heard. They seem to nest in these areas for tomorrow. Using the frame, the buckets, we'll call them buckets because why not, we would then walk through, OK, well, if we're talking about public safety, let's just use that as an example. Long term, you know, what does success look like? What are you striving for? And have some conversation around that first, and then have a conversation about, okay, well given that, when you think about the two year horizon, right, and so kind of the short term to the long term, What does success look like? What do you want to accomplish? What do you want to work on? And that may be elements of this. There may be things that you can move forward on. So if you're talking about economic development, maybe there are steps that you are interested in pursuing over the next two years in order to achieve that long-term goal. So that's the balance we're trying to navigate. So the conversation tomorrow within whatever framework we use is what does success look like for this area? What does that mean to you? And then what are the things you want to prioritize and work on and then we'll talk about you know how that shows up and depending on on where there's energy we can do some prioritization or we can understand where you all sit and what seems to be bubbling up so does that help

As long as what tomorrow is starts with the very broad category and allows the conversation to naturally narrow down. The only reason I say that is because a lot of my first reaction when I read the blue side of this was that this was a set of prescriptions. or how to talk about or how to move forward with these subject matter. And I disagree very strongly with this as a blueprint for... Not a blueprint. And that's what I wanted. So it's better to hear this.

All I was trying to do was honor what I had heard and show that how it kind of represents itself in terms of major buckets. And we will define that in the interviews. It's not the answer. It's the framing for the conversation, which we will have to work through tomorrow to define what does success look like, and that's going to inform then what do we want to do. Some of these things may bubble in, some of them may not, and they may be very specific elements of some of those areas. And when I say those areas, I'm talking about the blue areas. That's all TBD.

I will look forward to that conversation. Thank you.

Right now, what I want to do is I want to know if on the left, the black categories, do those cover?

Broadly? Yes. Broadly. Broadly. Yes. Every counselor here, I believe, has been a renter at one point. I'm the only current renter on council, and I would be remiss. Yes. Yes. Counselor Clark, we should fix that. Yes. I would be thrilled to do that. I would be remiss if I didn't note that under the housing and homelessness piece, recognizing this is not an exhaustive list. Yeah, yeah. But renters' rights, more than half of our community do rent, so rental availability. We have moved the needle in my time on council from about a 2% vacancy to north of a 4.5% vacancy. There are some successes that we can point to, but naturally we go to the light blue about what are our priorities within these areas of interest, and I think that having a robust conversation around rental access, rental affordability, and renters' rights should be part of the conversation tomorrow and beyond.

And I think the conversation about housing affordability versus affordable housing also broadens that a little bit. And so I appreciate that comment.

How do we get anything built at all? That's the first question.

We're going to be narrowing into the next two years. What are we going to do?

Yeah, with the clarification that there's going to be more discussion about sort of what's on the tiny blue letter side, I do feel like these buckets... capture most of what I see as the priorities coming forward that we need to be focused on and sort of how we focus on them and like what are the subcategories I think is going to be subject to much debate.

That's why you're all here.

But as a broad framework, those six categories seem like they would capture most of the things that we would see as priorities or I would see as priorities. I won't speak for others.

I agree that the categories that are here capture a lot. I'm trying to think about the circumstance in which I were to take these to another partner, organization, agency, jurisdiction, place in the world and say this is how the City of Eugene strategically positions itself. And I just have a couple of thoughts about that. One of them is I'm not sure. I mean, sustainability, it's a word and it means a lot of things. Using it in the categorization with financial sustainability is, I think, a particular type of choice. And it's accurate that we are seeking financial sustainability. And also, that just doesn't quite hit right for me, because I think we're thinking about stability. We're thinking about stewardship. We're thinking about responsibility. We're thinking about a lot of things that relate to good governance and being a well-run organization that serves a whole breadth of community needs. And sustainability is part of that, but why it's in my mind is that if I were to be talking with other people right now, and I do all the time, some of the areas that I would want to spend time talking about where we're doing really interesting and important work, obviously in housing and addressing the needs of an unhoused population, Housing and homelessness, that's of course central, but so is the work of thinking about sustainable development and economic development and the future of wages and job opportunity in this community and thinking about where that fits into this picture as we have conversations with other stakeholder groups and different areas of concern in our community who are really hoping that we can step forward in a very thoughtful and meaningful way in our economic development work, but that that has a whole host of impacts. I guess I would just expect that to lift up some, and I would also expect for parks and recreation and climate work, climate-related work, and resilience to just be stronger. Because it does feel to me like these areas are critical as a companion to the other development work that we're doing. And that has to be a part of how we're thinking of our strategic goals that we're, I mean, these will help to guide strategic investments. And these are just my observations and looking at this group and thinking, how is the city of Eugene show up here in a way that is different from 50 other cities? And those are areas that we are, I think, quite distinct and I would want to see us be stronger in our positioning at this level so that the descriptive work that follows can also be stronger.

Great, great input.

All right, while we're adding some other wish list pieces.

We're going to work on it tomorrow. You're going to wish, and then we're going to narrow. Exactly. Now is the time.

An area of interest of mine, Nancy, that I do see as a potential gap here that can and maybe should be woven into these conversations are ensuring living wage and workers' rights and supporting the local workforce. So that kind of... overarching community benefits piece. I recognize that I'm making this argument holding the world's most voluntary invasion of privacy in my hand, but privacy, AI, and data concerns possibly in the thriving community or in the public safety space. We just had a detailed work session on the matter, but it's clearly on top of mind. We're talking about council, interests, I'd be remiss if I didn't mention those two pieces.

I appreciate what Councillor Keating is saying. I guess my thought would be let's be careful about getting too granular in general statements as we're going. There's going to be, I'm guessing, space for the granular approach discussion later, but I mean, I can look at the climate piece, and I agree with Councillor Zelenka. We had a J.H. Baxter contamination problem that's now on its way to being a Superfund site. So environmental protection is really different than climate. But at some point, we've got to narrow it back down.

Don't go as deep as carts.

Don't go as deep as carts. Or the wheels on the carts. Thank you.

This might have to be a motto. No more carts.

Carts aren't pulling well.

Yeah. Wait, we're in carts, guys. We're in carts. Right.

Okay. Okay. I'm just wondering if public safety shouldn't be public health and safety. throw that out there because we do think public safety is a certain if I'm trying to think of myself as a you know this engine I just read this public safety means a certain very specific thing in our community in our culture and how we you know use that term but I think we're trying to build into that other things besides police and fire right maybe crisis services maybe animal services maybe other things and so I that concept, that health. It's not just your physical, like, someone's going to stab me. It's more than that. But I don't know. I also am okay with giant buckets, and we'll just work it out.

Yeah.

Hold that thought. Yeah, I would actually agree. Maybe not that it's part of public safety, but that it's an element that, again, it's not traditionally under Eugene's umbrella, but it's being... hold it into more and more of our work in various ways, and it doesn't quite fit into public safety. I see some of the things like the peer navigation and continuum of care under housing and homelessness, but it's not, it's one of those things that is sort of an underlying piece for a lot of these different topics that isn't really being, it's hard to figure out where it quite fits, that sort of health piece beyond just the safety side of it.

I respectfully disagree on that one. We already have... Lane County is our health and human services provider. And one of the things that we've gotten, in my opinion, we've gotten in trouble with over the years is being able to be the backfill for the county... not being able to meet its obligations and responsibilities as far as health and human service is concerned, and understanding that these services cross over from the municipal side to the county to the state, and we have to have better, stronger partnerships with our partners than what we currently have right now. But that also requires things that are already out of our control. We don't control our partner at the county. We have to figure out how we navigate a very interesting relationship that we have with our you know, our public partner in that respect. We really can't afford to get them angry at us or we can't afford to be angry at them or whatever the case may be, but we have to keep that line of communication open. I mean, it's like, you know, your spouse gets mad at you and says, look, I don't want to look at you right now. You can go sleep on the couch. Well, we haven't been able to get to that point with some of our partners. And that's one of the things that I think part of this is that we have to figure out is how do we improve the relationship that we have with our agency partners to be able to deliver the highest level and best quality services that we can to our constituents.

Oh, I'm sorry. Okay. Go ahead. THANK YOU SO MUCH.

THANK YOU. I DEFINITELY AGREE. WHETHER WE CALL IT PUBLIC HEALTH AND SAFETY OR PUBLIC SAFETY, I DON'T REALLY, THAT WORD ISN'T MY MAIN CONCERN. AND I UNDERSTAND THAT THE COUNTY IS, HAS THE UMBRELLA OF PUBLIC HEALTH IN OUR COUNTY, BUT WHO RESPONDS TO A SUICIDE? IT IS OUR TEAM RIGHT THERE WHO RESPONDS TO SOMEONE IN CRISIS. our police and our fire. So we are operating in public health every single day. So by denying that that is not a part of our umbrella is incorrect. We are the first people who arrive on every scene, not the county necessarily, right? So we have to think about how are we addressing that? How are we being efficient? We know we just lost a huge element of our community last year in cahoots. We have a lot of really innovative and amazing alternative response models already embedded in our teams. I think it's incredibly important that we continue having that conversation and have it very deeply because our community is really communicating to us and demanding from us that we address that. Because the person that is the right person to respond to each level of crisis means that we can address it the right way and we can address it the wrong way. And the right way will be more cost effective. We're looking at the budget, it's gonna be more cost effective. We address it the wrong way and it's gonna lead to way more cost down the road. I've worked in mental health in this community for 15 years and I know this. What are we doing to make sure that we're protecting our budget, protecting our departments, making sure that the right person shows up at the right place and at the right time? And I think we could really look at all of those pieces and determine that, because right now we have a one-time funded program for peer navigation, and we don't know what's going to happen next. And the community is really, really asking us to give them answers about what's going to happen next with that. So I would like us to make sure that that's embedded in these six items.

Well, and as we are tomorrow, defining what does success look like, right? So we have the broad conversation around what do we want to do that, and then what are you going to pursue? What are you going to do? And maybe that's strengthening partnerships. Maybe that's building on successful programs, whatever, and how they get framed and communicated. I appreciate your comments, Mayor, because it does matter because it sends a message around what are we focused on, But we can kind of have the conversations and see what sort of emerges in terms of what represents and is comfortable with the conversation. But I think that the final approach, kind of that visual, is really important. We want to start off with the big conversation and then we're gonna really want to keep that in view and think about, okay, reasonably, what does success look like two years from now? Like, what do we hope to accomplish? Maybe we build a relationship with the county that we didn't have before, I don't know. But whatever it might be, we can start to name those things, and that gives her a bit of a road map. Well, we had lots of questions. Did you have a quick follow-up on that one? Because I know he's been waiting. Okay, perfect, thank you.

I think public safety should be its own thing, three things. Public safety should be its own thing. Thriving community, I don't know if I like that one as much as I think of that as quality of life and livability issues, or enhancing that. community and then I really like the idea of this public health is not the right word but maybe it's a healthy community is it as a separate category and you put climate change action in their environmental stewardship environmental safety prevention services human services that all creates a healthy community that's something that we all do within our regulatory parts or our partnerships so I adding a healthy community and maybe changing quality of life or livability.

Thank you. Yes, I just wanted to say, I understand, yes, our people respond to health calls and medical calls, but I think there's already so much confusion in the public of what we do and what we don't do. If we start putting titles down, as health as one of our missions that's not funded, all we're doing is making our budget problem worse. I agree with what Councilor Evans was saying. It doesn't change what work we do in the field, but if we get too far down this road, it's just going to create more expectations from the public. And I think that we need to be cautious about that. We can't afford what we're already doing. And if we're taking on more, we also aren't a housing authority. That's also with the county. And health is actually county and state, not just county. And we've seen with some of our partners that are more than happy to let us take on responsibility when we step up and do it. And then it never goes away. And that's part of our budget problem.

Thank you.

So I saw hands.

I think part of this conversation isn't just about what are these goals and what are these categories, but also what are sort of the overlying values about how do we deliver some of these services. because I think about the municipal court and the community court programs in there, which is a conscious choice on the part of Eugene to say, okay, we're going to go with, where appropriate, because it's not always appropriate, but where appropriate, we're going to go with a more restorative justice view for minor offenses than a punitive view. And that is sort of a value that we see in lots of different places through the way that we deliver these services. And I feel like that's one of the pieces that maybe is being, is maybe like missing from some of this is how do we kind of capture those values of how we approach these problems and these services. Because sometimes living those values is going to be short-term more expensive, while maybe long-term more efficient. Sometimes it may be something that has a short-term efficiency, and sometimes it's gonna be like, okay, we're gonna do this thing in a way that costs more because it's helping us live a value, and that's a conscious choice. And I don't necessarily see and hear kind of where we're capturing some of those values. Community engagement is another one where we're really we do a lot more community engagement around lots of things than I've seen in many other communities. A lot of times, it's like, OK, we're making this change, and we're going to slap it on the website, and no one's going to come to public comment because no one knows it's happening. And I feel like that adds expense to some of our processes. And so how do we kind of capture that in this process?

Right, and I think we need to be A little bit careful around expectations for this point in process. Because I think that if you are embarking on a full, fresh strategic plan, it opens up a lot more conversation for kind of values and kind of some of those guiding principles. I don't want to say that because that's the principle of something else. But there's like a bigger conversation. And I think in this moment, what we want to try to do is name what are the critical, to bridge to that next strategic plan, what are the things you want to really hone in on and focus in, and then define, okay, well, what are we going to do within the next two years? And so I think we're really going to have to zero in a little bit more narrowly. in terms of what we're able to accomplish for this point in time. And I appreciate the desire to have bigger conversations. They're important and I don't want to discount that at all because they are. I think it just might have to happen at a later date when there's a full strategic planning process underway.

You said that very well. I was going to say that the last 20 minutes have done a wonderful job of illustrating what I think the problem is. which is that we don't have a clear unifying vision of what the right jobs for the City of Eugene are. We all have different ideas about what the most important services are. We don't have a shared vision that I think we can all point to and say, yeah, I agree we do that. And that's most important. I'm not sure we could say that. Everybody has their own different opinion of what we should do, and in my opinion, that's part of why we're in a budget position, because with respect to my friend Alan, we are in fact trying to do too much, more than the city should be doing, and can't afford to do. and doing some of the roles of other municipalities and other governments that we shouldn't do. So this is, in my opinion, the important priority discussion to have.

So... Recognizing the conversation over the last 20 minutes has even exhausted our awesome note taker. Yes. Thank you for the... I've been taking pictures. I hope that's okay. I love the work. It's... It's inspiring. Piggybacking off of what some of my colleagues are saying, I do think that keeping the public safety bucket, public safety, and broad, and yet putting things that we all feel should be in that public safety bucket is more appropriate, but I'm picking up on what Councilor Zelenka is putting down, and what I've heard from others is this thriving community piece is so vague, and I hope that kind of my suggestion It's not just my suggestion, but what I'm hearing, I hope that this helps better define and allow for more flexibility in that bucket. It is a livability bucket. It's a livability and investments in community bucket, the economic development piece in particular, the climate action, the sustainability conversation. The library and cultural services, those are investments in community. So kind of reframing or rethinking this one bucket that we all kind of seem to have some consternation over, wellness can and I think should be in that livability or thriving community bucket. We can debate about the details of what's in it, but I don't think that thriving community is cutting is cutting it is what I'm hearing.

Okay. Well, I mean, what we'll do is this evening, kind of reflective of this conversation, you know, we can come back and provide some guidance on here's what this might look like and start fresh. But are we comfortable with the idea of framing the conversation from broad buckets? And this is very instructive. I mean, we can try to wordsmith it right now together. I think it's probably going to be more productive for us to say, here's what we've heard. What do you think? Livability. I mean, I think there's some words here. But I think when we start to define it, we can adjust. We can do some shape-shifting if we need to in terms of what does success look like. Maybe that signals like, gosh, I think this is the word that we need to describe what we're trying to accomplish. That could happen, and we want to make sure we're open to hearing that. But I'm hearing that we're okay with a construct. We'll do some refinement. We'll bring that back in the morning. And then what you can anticipate is that we will talk about these. We'll start off by doing some individual kind of reflections on what does success look like if we talk about public safety? What does that mean? Write it down, right? And then have some group conversation around, all right, let's define that. And then we will narrow it in and really try to give a shorter horizon about what do you want to do? Given the authority, the capacity, the resources, the priority, what does success look like in two years? Knowing you can't do everything, we'll put those up there, and if we need to do some dot voting or something to kind of find out where there's consensus, we'll do that. And we'll see how we're moving our way through during our time together. Does that sound comfortable to everybody in terms of process for tomorrow? You're going to sell the photographs and it's going to all be there. I'm not doing the editing. I'm going to do the framing and let you guys work through those and arm wrestle and throw paper and stuff. I don't know. Just kidding. We're not doing that. Okay. Well, then, if we could just, I mean, to close out today, to kind of give us a closure for today, if we could just do a quick around the table, how you feeling about where we are, knowing what we have coming still tomorrow. And if there's any course correction you think could be important, I would love to hear it. That would be terrific. And then we can wind down. We'll stop for today, start fresh with fresh morning vigor and breakfast and get going then. So who wants to get us started with just kind of how are you feeling about where we are in the day's work today?

I'm feeling reflective.

Lots to reflect on from this conversation. Right.

Looking forward to tomorrow.

Okay.

Okay, we're coming back. We're coming back, so think about it.

That was a good start. Oh, and the time is going to happen after, so.

Yeah, that's right. Exactly. That's right.

I'm deeply appreciative, and I want to say thank you to you and your team, and thank you to my colleagues for an engaging first day, and I hope you got to get a good feel for our priorities, our collegiality, congeniality, collegiality?

Right.

Thank you. Thank you. And our personalities, and our priorities, and I've already said priorities. And I want to thank staff. You know, there's a whole E-team here and staff behind the scenes that make this happen, and you all don't get thanked enough. So thank you, staff, for keeping us afloat, keeping us on the air, and keeping us legal. So thank you.

Say legal. That's good.

Legal, legal. Ditto on everything Matt said in the thank yous. I agree with that. I'm a little apprehensive. I was feeling good, but I felt like all of a sudden we backslid, and one of my biggest fears is that we're gonna end up with 100 number one items, and we can't do that. And I'm concerned that we're gonna take on more responsibilities than what we have as a city, and that's gonna cost money we don't have. I'm worried about that. But I'm trusting the process, and I'm hoping that get on your horse and steer the herd back another direction. Thank you.

I appreciate the honesty of concerns.

I feel like he does in a very similar way.

I feel like we have lots of patterns here.

Yeah, and I will say I was feeling very optimistic at first and now I am in more concern, but I'm saying that out loud as a challenge to you fine folks, because I think we have, as a group, identified the issue for you to see very clearly. So I'm looking forward to the help you will be able to provide us tomorrow in how to structurally think of solutions.

We will do our part, do our best. Also, we're saying this for everybody in the room, for us as well as everybody to be accountable to what we're able to reasonably prioritize.

Excellent.

I think this was definitely worth taking a half day off, thinking about all the work I didn't get done today. I think that at the end of the day, when you drill super down to what does success look like, there is a lot of agreement at this table. We might not always agree on how to get there, but the goals at the end, I think we have a lot of agreement. And if we start there and we go backwards, I think that we will have a lot of success in finding things that we can all be proud to support in our community. And at the end of the day, we have to balance our budget. So we don't get to spend more than we have. So there are guardrails to help guide us along the way in some ways. So that is also helpful, I think. But yeah, I believe that this team can do this.

Thank you. I am really appreciative of you that it's not easy to facilitate something like this. I really appreciate all of the work that has led up to this moment to make us sit and have this conversation. And I'm grateful for the opportunity to actually have good, deep conversations. Every group has to go through the same process. You've got to storm a little bit, you guys. We're in storming. That's a good thing. It's natural. Then we start to norm, okay? And tomorrow, I think we have plenty of time to do that, and I'm looking forward to the end of the process and optimistic, more optimistic now that we will come out of this with a product, with products. I was like, okay, eight hours is not enough time. to get all of the deliverables that you said you were going to bring us. And I was like, I don't know about this. But now I actually have a lot of optimism. So thank you.

Well, process is messy. Process is messy. And we get to come back on the 13th. So we have a window to clean things up for you. Let's polish them up. Counselor Evans, are you going to share anything?

You know, I need more time to canoodle this than anything else, but I think it, you know, basically my initial observations are that I think that this is a good process. I appreciate the way that you have laid out the framing for this, and I'm looking forward to our conversation tomorrow.

Continuing to noodle on things is a great place to be at this point, and being reflective, to be sure. I would say that I'm very inspired by listening to you all today, although it does seem a little murky, right, to your kind of storming point. But this is the process, right? So trust the process, hold the vision is where I would encourage you all. But it's very inspiring. This is a meaningful first step for this council, and you took it bravely and boldly, and I'm really proud to be a part of this team. So thank you.

Okay, so we will conclude. We reconvene, I believe there's breakfast at 8.30, is that right? And the start time is at 9.30.

Yes.

Okay, just confirming, making sure it's all in the room. All right, you guys have a wonderful evening. Get some good rest, because we're going to come back and work hard again tomorrow.

Thank you everyone for joining us. I now close the June 30th, 2026 City Council Workshop and we will be back here tomorrow morning starting at 9.30 on Wednesday, July 1st. We are adjourned.