City Council - workshop

Thank you. you you

September 16th, 2026 city council work session. Thank you for joining us in this hybrid meeting format for work sessions like this one, where there is no opportunity for public comment. 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 webcasts and meeting materials webpage. Thank you again for joining us. I call the September 16th, 2026 work session of the Eugene City Council to order. And I now turn it to our city manager to introduce our topic for today.

Thank you, Council President. Over the last several months, we have done a fair amount of work together around the City's financial future, our services and the strategic direction the Council wants to establish for Eugene. Our time today is really about bringing those pieces together. We will briefly discuss the work that got us here and then look at how that framework connects to the work happening across the organization and specifically how the tactics we are developing will advance the council's vision for Eugene. In short, our goal is to create a clear line of sight between where we want to go, the strategies we've identified to get there, and the work that moves us in that direction. So with that, I'd like to turn it over to Nancy Hetrick from Oftelis, who's going to guide us through our conversation today.

Good afternoon, council president, members of council. Is that working okay? Yes, okay, just checking. It's nice to be back and nice to see you all. And so we have a lot of information to share with you today. And actually your city manager and your CFO will be providing much of the presentation and updates. I'm here to help facilitate the conversation, the check-ins to review your reactions, your comments to each of the different elements we'll be walking through. So the objectives for our time together, there we go, are quite simple, but meaty, I do believe. So first of all, to provide an update on both the service and strategic plan frameworks. You have seen in your packet the work that has been achieved and accomplished over the last couple months since we were last together. Also to preview future needs and strategic lever options that are available as you start to step into your budget conversations. This is not a budget meeting, naturally. This is an update on the framework and the tools that are available, but to help to seed that conversation for future discussion. And lastly, we'll wrap up with next steps to be clear about where all of this takes us. So here is our, oops, here's our agenda. Oopsie. We're battling the remote and the other. There we go. As you can see, there are a lot of topics. Don't be concerned. It is two and a half hours. But a lot of this information we'll move through relatively quickly. We'll do a quick recap just to bring us back to the conversations we've had thus far without retreading overly, but just to ground us in that information. You'll hear an update on some of the feedback that has been received from key stakeholder groups, including the TAG and the Budget Committee. You'll also hear an update on communication engagement, which were both identified as key and important by this council for how to move forward with the budget process. Then we will pivot into the meaty parts of the conversation, which begin with the service framework update. And so you'll recall our last meeting or over our last several meetings, developing a framework that included the core services sorting. So that work has been accomplished. You have received an update on that, so we'll hear from their CFO on some of that work and we'll get your reactions and think about how that fits into the budget conversations that will follow. Then we'll shift to the strategic goals alignment, and so these really focus on the big buckets, the direction you have provided in terms of key strategic priorities, and how that then translates into tactics, into the work plan and the efforts of the organization. So you can see how those pieces fit together. We'll ask for your reactions, any areas of clarification or insight that you want to offer to staff who are here to listen to your conversation in that area. And then we'll close out with future considerations and strategic lever options, both of which will be instructive to your future conversations and then next steps. So like I said, it's a lot of topics. We have two and a half hours to move our way through all of this. Here's just a recap of the work for the benefit of all who may be listening and for us in the room to get us back to the journey to today, at least my participation in your journey. This began with a series of informational sessions beginning in June. sorry, in May, took us through June, that led up to a workshop, a financial sustainability workshop, and a couple follow-up work sessions that resulted in the tools that you'll be reviewing and reflecting on today. Since that time, updates have been provided and feedback has been received from both TAG and the Budget Committee, and the staff has been working on sorting the issues programs and services within the different areas of the service framework and have been identifying key actionable tactics to deliver on your strategies through the focus areas. So we'll be going through those this afternoon. On the next slide, these are the resources that you provided direction on and that are now informing all of the work that lies before you. And so just as a recap, the services framework, this was developed as a model for evaluating options and service levels, alignment to council priorities, these sorts of things for making informed budget decisions. You also adopted a set of budget principles that are guardrails and help to guide and inform those conversations. And of course, lastly, the strategic plan framework that provides direction on those things that are of great importance to this body and inform the tactics and the work of the organization, which will then lead to your budget conversations. So with that, I'm going to turn it over to your city manager, who will take us through each of these elements at a high level. Thank you, Nancy.

So I'd like to briefly connect the council through each of the frameworks and share how they work together as a budget decision-making lens. The first is the strategic plan framework. These strategic areas really determine where we're going. Council's five focus areas establish outcomes and issues that deserve particular attention over the next two years. Those are financial stability, community safety, thriving and livable community, housing and homelessness, and transportation and infrastructure. At the highest level, they help us answer the question, what are we trying to make progress on? For example, under financial sustainability, the strategies include aligning resources through the service framework, developing a long-term financial stability plan, and strengthening and diversifying revenue. The important distinction is that the focus area is the broader outcome that we are trying to advance, while the strategies describe how we're going to make progress in that area. This also gives us a way to look at the organization rather than thinking about the work through individual departments. And there's always gonna be work that doesn't sit neatly under each of these focus areas. The intention of the strategic plan framework isn't to capture every single thing the city does. Instead, it gives us a way to identify and connect the work that's helping to advance these longer term areas. So the service framework essentially is what we do. The service framework organizes the city's programs and services into four categories. Required services, essential, community, and strategic priority services. So required services are those that the city must provide because of law, regulation, and the charter or court order. Essential services are those that are necessary to protect public health, safety, critical infrastructure, and really the continuity of government. And community services are services that contribute to Eugene's livability, identity, and quality of life. Services that residents reasonably expect their local government to provide. And strategic priority services are those that directly advance council's strategic focus areas, those that respond to emerging needs or opportunities, they foster innovation, or they provide targeted community benefits. And importantly, these are not rankings. They describe the nature and role of a service. The framework helps the organization understand what each service is intended to accomplish and provides a common language for evaluating services. And at that bottom are the decision-making lenses, the ones that we look at when we're talking about budget, and that is how we evaluate tradeoffs. So when resources are constrained, those eight considerations, the community impact, the organizational impact, risk, strategic alignment, service level, cost and sustainability, alternative service delivery, and revenue slash cost recovery, they all help us assess whether a service should be maintained, changed, reduced, or potentially discontinued. Finally, we have budget principles, and these are how we make choices. The ten budget principles establish the financial guardrails for budget decisions. They're designed to protect core and essential services, maintain reserves, pursue efficiencies, connect spending to strategic goals, use one-time money appropriately, invest in the workforce, and make decisions with a long-term financial perspective. THE BUDGET PRINCIPLES ALSO RECOGNIZE THAT FINANCIAL STABILITY ISN'T JUST ABOUT CUTTING COSTS. IT'S ABOUT HOW WE ALIGN RESOURCES, IMPROVE HOW WE OPERATE, LOOK AT REVENUE, AND MAKE CHOICES OVER TIME. SO WHEN YOU PUT THESE THREE THINGS TOGETHER, STRATEGIC DIRECTION, THE SERVICES THAT WE PROVIDE IN OUR FINANCIAL PRINCIPLES, WE HAVE A MUCH MORE COMPLETE WAY ABOUT THINKING ABOUT HOW THE CITY WORKS. SO THE FRAMEWORK, WE GO TO THE NEXT SLIDE. There we go. The framework and the budget principles were also shared with TAG and the Budget Committee, and both groups expressed an enormous amount of appreciation for Council's leadership in this area. And in particular, they really appreciated how the approaches were integrated and how they built on each other. They appreciated the clarity around the service categorization, really understanding what is a required service and what is an essential service, and that there was room to look at service levels within each of those categories. They also appreciated the refinement of the strategic plan and that it has clear focus areas. They recognized that the process will be challenging, it's going to require difficult discussions, and more importantly, intentional trade-offs. And additionally, both groups really emphasized and they were speaking in tandem about the importance of community engagement and communications, as I know this is important to the council, around the city's budget constraints, and how this decision-making approach can really help align resources with the council goals, and more importantly, ensure the continuity of important services. Next slide. So here's a little bit on community and engagement, and then I'll start to wrap up. We've been sharing information about our long-range financial planning process through our city newsroom, Hey Eugene newsletter, and social media. The work also included the creation of a series of five budget educational videos featuring members of the community that will be a part of a targeted communications campaign beginning this month, in addition to a budget curious landing page, which is eugene-org.org. for those that are interested or curious, no pun intended, for community members that would like to learn more. Social media will continue to be used to communicate topics and point back to these resources. Our campaign will also include neighborhood engagement opportunities starting as early as November and after the new year ahead of the formal budget process. We're also actively partnering with members of the Neighborhood Leadership Council to inform and host neighborhood budget conversations. So next I'm gonna turn it over to Twyla Miller, our Chief Financial Officer. She's gonna tell you how that framework is applied to council policy from a staff perspective.

Good afternoon. So I'm Twyla Miller, your Chief Financial Officer. And we'll start here by talking about the service framework. At your workshop this summer, you discussed and approved the service framework to be used to categorize services into four tiers, which I'll review in a moment. This framework is used by staff to sort services and programs into the tiers and provide a consistent approach across the organization. The service framework will be incorporated into the budget process and the proposed budget that comes to council and budget committee next spring. The framework will be a foundational component of the budget as you have discussions and consider other policy and community considerations. Let's try this, is this better? Okay, wow. Okay. So next we'll start talking about the service framework. So the city manager already went through these a bit, but just as we think about how we apply these Required is very, very narrow in scope. So we're really looking at those programs and services that the city must provide to meet a federal or state law or a city charter shall. So not a may, but a shall. Court orders or other regulatory requirements. So these are services and programs that the city cannot take action on its own to change the requirement. Essential are those services necessary to protect the health, safety, critical infrastructure, and continuity of government operations. So this would include services that could be. Requirement. And next, the other two tiers here are community services, which the city manager spoke to. So those programs and services beyond required and essential levels. A community of our size and contribute to the quality of life and vitality of our community. And strategic priority services are those services that advance council's strategic focus areas and goals. This initial sort is the first step in a larger process and is meant to show the primary tiers that a program or service would live in. As part of our budget development process, we will review all services, regardless of tier, to understand the service level and consider how services are delivered. As we consider service level, there may be a service level that is provided that is above a required or essential service level that meets a community need or strategic priority. After this next step in the process, we will have that additional information. We will use the element of the budget decision lens, as Jenny described, to understand impact to service, and then we will incorporate all of these pieces as we develop the budget and bring it back to you in the spring. So on page 26 of your agenda item summary, you will find attachment B, which is the program and service framework sort. So on this document, services are organized by department and then through the program inventory. So the program inventory is our current iteration of programs. for the organization. So you'll recall over the last several years we've been developing a program view to communicate to the community how we deliver service. So this view is rolled up to a higher level than the previous versions you've seen and we'll use this program view AS WE DEVELOP OUR BUDGET AND COMMUNICATE WITH THE COMMUNITY. THE SUB PROGRAM AND PROGRAM COLUMN IS A WORK IN PROGRESS AND WILL CONTINUE TO EVOLVE THROUGH FUTURE CYCLES. THIS PROVIDES AN OVERVIEW OF THE TYPES OF SERVICE WITHIN A PROGRAM AND IS HELPFUL TO PROVIDE ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ON SERVICES PROVIDED AND HOW THE SERVICES FIT WITHIN THE FRAMEWORK. So this graphic shows the programs and services provided by Central Finance. As you can see, we have three areas where we have our required service. The first is budget development. There are Oregon State statutes around the budget and budget committee. And beyond that, there are additional components provided for budget management beyond the legal requirement that would fall into the essential service category as we think about that service delivery for the organization. For financial audit and reporting, there are state requirements around maintaining financial records and for the city to prepare an annual audit to be evaluated by an external independent auditor, as well as some federal requirements. There are a range of financial reporting activities to support the organization that are outside of these legal requirements and would fall into the essential category. Then for payroll, the majority of our payroll services are required under state or federal requirements, but there are some elements in that program that would likely fall into the essential category. All other service areas within finance do not have a legal requirement. They're in the essential category, as you can see here. And then we've also indicated where there's a tie back to the strategic priority. So this is very high level. As you look through the attachment, there are many programs and services that tie back to the council's strategic priorities and plans. As we have developed tactics and we get feedback from you today, we will be making a connection to the service framework and how they relate to the tactics that will be moving forward over the next two years. As we work through budget development, we'll be analyzing, again, the level of service and service delivery, and we'll do a holistic look of our services as we prepare our budgets. The attachment in your AIS provided the initial staff sorting for services under this methodology for the organization for this first initial step in this process. And with that, I'll turn things back to Nancy.

Okay, I'll try to speak deep into the mic so that we can make sure that it is all captured. So thank you Twyla for the overview and it kind of grounds us and gives you a glimpse into the tool, the initial sort and how it will be used. And so the question on this particular item is first of all for reactions, how you are observing the tool, but also if you have any clarifying questions about how it will be utilized or any concerns you'd like to surface for staff to hear this afternoon. And I know that we have a couple joining us virtually as well. So maybe you start in the room and to do kind of a quick round to hear your reactions and any clarifying questions that you may have, if you have them. And so I would open the table to whoever would like to get us started.

Great.

First of all, thank you for the reminder that this is a unidirectional mic and not an omnidirectional. So if I come over here, not good. Right here, thank you. I really appreciate kind of laying the ground for what's obviously going to be a very difficult and trying and challenging budget session. And on the service framework piece in particular, I envision that to be more of a Venn diagram and the overlaps. And yet it's laid out in a way that one could infer, albeit I believe incorrectly, that it's in an order. And I would... submit that I hope that it's not in a particular order, but if it is, that the strategic priority services would be higher on the list. But I would like some clarification about dispelling the notion that there's some sort of order here. And then second part of that question, ON SLIDE 13, COMMUNITY SERVICES, SLIDE 14, IT IS FRAMED AS CORE COMMUNITY. THAT IS A LITTLE CONFUSING. I WANT TO KNOW WHY THAT IS. IF I AM SOMEWHAT CONFUSED THERE, I SUSPECT SOMEONE WHO IS SLASH BUDGET CURIOUS MIGHT ALSO FIND SOME CONFUSION THERE. I WOULD LOOK FOR SOME CONSISTENCY ON THE COMMUNITY SERVICES, PLEASE.

I just want to say, this is exactly the sort of clarifying question that is very helpful. So thank you for that. I'm going to give it back to Twyla or to Jenny to weigh in on the prioritization.

Yes, thank you, Counselor. So the way you're seeing that it's just a sort right now of services. So there is no prioritization. We start with the first department, central services, and we're just going through each one. There is no implied order or prioritization through the services as presented on the attachment. It really is just going through each department, through each of their services, and having that first initial determination of what is the primary service area, primary tier that the service would fall in until we go through the budget decision making or budget methodology process. Does that help?

It does. Could you comment on the community services versus the core community framing, please?

This right here. So on the handout that you're referring to, it says at the top of the column, it says core community, and in the description, it says community.

That's actually, that's a typo. So it should be, it should, it should, these should tie back to community services as on a, so that we can fix that in the next round. But that's a typo, yeah.

I might just point out in the handout with the sort, my observation, they're just alphabetical order. And so that helps to point to that it's not weighted in any sort of way or there's no preference or prioritization embedded in there.

Great.

Thank you.

Councilor Clark. Oops.

Thank you. I appreciate the presentation so far. I wonder a couple of things. The categorization initially seems to be, and this is for the sake of those who may not have been involved in this much in the past in our budget process. That seems subjective a little bit. And so my question is, whom is doing the categorizing? Is that ultimately the manager? Is it within each department? How does categorization take place for each of the individual service levels?

Thank you, counselor. So the way we approach this is we worked with the executive team and their leadership teams. So each department took an initial pass on sorting. So actually, I'll step back. Finance, the strategic budget team did initial sort just to start the conversation. We sent that out to departments, so the executive leadership and their leadership teams went through and made some adjustments, and then ultimately the city manager and the assistant city manager and myself had a final review on the final sort. So it was actually throughout the organization with multiple layers of folks looking at this.

And I am assuming that we're going to get to the metrics of prioritization at some point in this process?

I would say that's part of the budget process. So this is the first step. We're gonna use all of these frameworks to work with the city manager to develop her proposed budget, and we'll bring that back. So that will sort out through that process, and we'll use the frameworks that the council has developed to have those conversations with council and community.

Thank you.

Thank you, Councilor. Councilor Christianski?

Yes, thank you and thank you for the work on this. It's very interesting to see how everything kind of played out and there were places where it was kind of as expected and so I had a couple of questions about it. First, when we have a situation where a service area sort of crosses these categories and maybe part of those service areas are required or essential and part of them are more just the level of service the community expects. Is that kind of handled as we're looking more in depth using the budget lenses?

Yes, that's exactly right. So that wasn't incorporated into this round, but as we develop the budget, we'll be using those budget decision lenses through this framework sort as we develop the budget. And so there'll be an analysis of service level as we think about programs and services throughout the tiers.

Yeah, because I just noticed some of these categories are pretty broad and contain a lot of sub-projects of various kinds. The second question I had was about how something being public health or public safety related was determined. Because there were a couple of things that I saw that were listed as core community services that at least from my understanding have significant public health safety components to them. So like for example, emergency management seems like it's a public safety and health issue, animal services, things like that, that it seems, how do we kind of get those questions answered about like why was this not seen as public health or safety related?

It would be helpful to understand where those questions are so that, again, it was a range of folks that looked at this through different lenses. And so we certainly could provide more detail on the why of why something ended up in a tier. But it would be helpful to understand where those questions are for folks.

Yeah, I'll say, and I can follow up once I, because I made some notes, but I'll say that definitely emergency management not being seen as part of public health and safety jumped out at me. There are some in the homeless services, which seems to have a public health and safety component, animal services, and some with the sustainability, which seems to have more of a public health component. particularly if you start getting into resiliency as part of that, so. Thank you.

Councillor Zelenka?

Thanks. I like the framework. The whole thing's very organized, thank you. And really well done in the retreat. I like the framework, but I think the most important part of the framework is that last sentence, or the sub-sentence that says, these are not for ranking. These are merely for information purposes, because when you look at these across the different categories, you can see that some of the community services can be more important and funded at a higher level, and are more important and funded at a higher level than some of the required or essential services. So that's why they're not intended to be a ranking. So you don't go across from left to right and fund them that way. It's much more of a subjective process. So that means that all the information that we're getting through the categorization of the services is for information for deliberation and discussion about how do we do that. And so I like that aspect of it. I think the key questions are really helpful in the framework, but I look at them as helpful guidance on how these are to be viewed, kind of rigid rules. And then for the focus areas, I like finally getting back to a council set of focus areas that we all agreed upon. And I guess we wordsmithed the italics portion of it, the sub-description of each one of the focus areas, the success statement. But we didn't really get to the strategy part. My question is about, I'm not sure what we're supposed to do with the strategy statements and what we're supposed to do with them. Are we approving these? Is this city manager's responsibility, council responsibility? How does this all kind of play out? And maybe that's second half of this retreat. So I can provide you with a segue. Okay.

Perfect. That's good. But just as we will move into that as a whole separate topic of conversation, it's an important one, and how the pieces fit together. We'll have some images to remind us about kind of the roles and how the parts fit together, which is very important. the focus areas through the strategy level were approved by council. And so the handoff at that point was to staff to think about, you know, what are the tactics? What are the things that the staff would be working on internally to operationalize the direction of council? And so we'll come back to that, but just to kind of emphasize the roles and the point that we left off on the conversation.

Do you consider the success statements approved by council I do, too. Okay. And then picking up off what Eliza was talking about, the different servicers, you start to categorize them. You start to break them up, and you go, oh, well, it fits here, and it fits here, and it fits here. And so are we being able to see that certain aspects of a service are going to fit within different categories? So it'll be a little bit more nuanced, so it won't be just each one is in a particular place. Very rigid. Yes, that would be- Which makes it much more simple to do.

Well, and we wanted to start somewhere to say primarily where would we think these services fit within the tiers, understanding that there's a nuance with level of service that you could check multiple boxes. But as a starting point to to really hone in on the service and the intent of the service to say which tiers are they primarily in, and understanding we're gonna have another pass at this and have those more nuanced analysis and conversations.

So yes. And so what's the next step on that part? We're not gonna talk about all that today.

No, that will be part of budget development. So we're starting that process here this fall, and so there'll be an opportunity and time for staff to actually have thoughtful analysis and conversations as they apply this new framework across the service system. So that will be developed and become part of your proposed budget next spring.

Last question is about what's the role of the Budget Committee in all of this? I served on the Budget Committee for 10 years before I got on Council for 20. You want to have that be a valuable use of your time, so having some significant sense. How does the Budget Committee fit into all of this stuff?

So we will be engaging with the budget committee this fall, primarily to talk about financial policies and then give you all an update on budget methodology. So we'll talk about that a little. We agreed with you. And then we're bringing them along in this process. So we met with the community members early to talk about the frameworks. And then this will really be embedded in the proposed budget and the budget process that comes back to council and the budget committee this spring. So this really will be woven throughout. the budget document, how things are presented, how we talk about trade-offs, all of those pieces. So we'll make sure that we bring them along along the way so that they can participate in the conversations with you at the table.

I did actually have one more question, more like a statement. So when we were doing this back in the day, we did it service level budgets and we shifted from departmental budget to service budget and kind of migrated that forward and then it kind of migrated back. But then we also, and so I think we're shifting back. So it's this tidal shift that's happening with regard to how we perceive our services. The other part of it was the triple bottom line analysis that was embedded for a while in our AISs about the economic environment and equity. The three E's are people, planet, and prosperity, if you will. We've gotten away from that. That's not so much in vogue. And I kind of see it in here, and I don't. In some ways, it's embedded in some of the focus areas. How do you guys think about that?

I would agree, it's in the focus areas, and I also think through elements of the budget decision lens that will be applied also. So when you think about those pieces, there's variety, there are elements of the triple bottom line in those different areas as we think about impact to the community and organization and sustainability and some of those pieces. So I would say in this process, that's how I would see some of those elements coming through in our analysis and when we share things back with council.

Great, thanks.

I'm done, can I go now?

Thank you, council.

I'm gonna put myself in the queue before moving on. My question is for Twyla. As we've created all of these mechanisms, principles, frameworks, obviously we're not done, and I really appreciate the work that's happened so far. You've gone through many budgeting processes for the city of Eugene, and I'm sure you have your own sets of Things that you go through to get that. How do you really see this changing your process as you build the budget? How do you see, I'm sure as you're going through this, the wheels are turning and you're already starting to make those mental shifts. How do you see that changing for you in real time? And do you think that at the end of this, the product that we have is going to be different or better, or I just want your thoughts.

Thanks for the question. Yes, I think the outcome will be different and better. I say that because we've used a very traditional kind of incremental approach where everything rolls forward. We haven't had the connection to the focus areas in the strategic plan. We haven't been able to articulate our services through a framework like this where we can actually say what's required and essential, what are those things we do that benefit the community, the vitality of the community. So I do think that this is a very good direction to go in. The team is working really hard because this is a big change. And so the team is working hard on understanding, you know, not only these first steps that we've taken, but also thinking about how we budget and not roll forward, you know, with a service level budget and apply these frameworks and principles to that process. So I think it will look different. The other thing I think about is it gives us a common language, and it helps us also maybe talk about trade-offs in a different way than we've been able to in the past. So I think there'll be more clarity about trade-offs and why things are being proposed maybe than we've been able to provide counsel on the Budget Committee in the past. So for all of those reasons, yes, I think this is an excellent direction to head in.

Thank you. I'm likely to continue checking in with you on this process. I think I'm a big fan of the work that we've done so far. I think that common language and the ways that we can structure this is really important. So I appreciate you and all of the staff that are working extremely hard on all of these. And I'm looking forward to seeing how the next step happens that It says questions about how the sort will be applied. Yeah, I have a lot of questions. But I think those will continue to unravel as we move forward. So thank you. And with that, I'll turn it to Councilor Ye.

Thank you. So my questions were already asked, so I will just share. I have been very hopeful about this process, but you always worry about what's going to come next. I really like this. I really appreciate how it gives us a way to explain the why for everything. That's how I kind of look at this. We're answering the question of why do we do these things, right? It is a fairly simple way that I think the average person could look at this and understand that. You could still dig deep and get more information, but it gives you a general sense of why does the city do what it does? So I think that can be really valuable for us, but also for the community. I do think using the word tier is not the best, because I think tier implies that things are ranked. So I think maybe category or some other word, because I do think making sure the community is aware that these are not ranked is an important first step in them buying into this process and not arguing about things that, like focusing on what really matters and getting the information from them that matters rather than arguing about what category things are in. right, because they're worried that it's some kind of ranking. So yeah, that would be my only feedback for the future, but I'm really excited about the next steps, because I do think this is going to be a better process for us. I really think this is gonna work, and so it's good to be at this stage to see that, so thank you.

Councilor Groves?

Thank you, Council President. Thank you for the presentation and all the hours that you've put into this, which I'm sure is significant. I'm comfortable where we are so far, but I'm an outcomes person, so I'm eager to start walking through an issue through the process, and that'll help me better determined from my perspective whether it's working well or needs improvement or whatever that is, but I need to see the actual before I'm fully comfortable with it. Councillor Zelenka asked a lot of the questions I was thinking about, so that's good. Appreciate those responses. And I liked hearing how you feel about it, Twyla. I'm curious, are your team, are the budgeteers embracing this direction, or do they have concerns that would help us to understand what those are?

I would say the budgeteers are excited about this. And I actually do call them the budgeteers sometimes, our core group there. But I think doing something different than we've done for many, many years so that we can achieve a different outcome and just having a different analysis of the services we provide in a way to talk about it. So generally, you know, yes, anything new, right, anything new in any organization is always change. But I would say generally, not only from the budgeteers, but even from when we've talked with many of the division managers and others across the organization, there's a desire to do something different than we've done the last few cycles, and they can see the value in this.

Thank you for sharing that and I agree with you. I think we're beyond time of trying something different. We keep going at the budget the same way with the same outcomes and we always start the next year thinking it's going to be different and it's not. So I think that's the only way we're going to get to where we need to be is to try something and if for some reason it doesn't work, I think we need to try something else. But we've got to find a path forward. I'm also really grateful to hear, at least the colleagues that have spoken so far, that this side of things is embracing it as well, because, you know, if we're not all on board and committed, it's not going to have the same level of success as it would if we were all in the same, at least embracing the process and willing to give it an honest try. So with that, thank you, and I look forward to hearing from the rest of you.

Thank you. Mayor, would you like to speak?

Thank you, Council President. Good afternoon, everyone. Just a couple of observations at this point, reactions and reflections stage of the presentation. want to say that this conversation and the materials that came out with this packet, with this AIS, and the work that the council did in July, I think it's a really great example of continuous improvement being a value that is held within our city organization and by our serving elected officials. I think So I like hearing you describe your confidence and the confidence of our team in this approach that will allow us to do something different and something better is fantastic. But I think just the fact that we are in the midst of doing this work is a great sign. And I want to express my appreciation to City Manager Hayama and our executive team and all of the staff have been working on this because it takes a lot of energy to do things differently. And this is important to our success in the future as a community. I also just want to highlight that I really appreciate the way in which we're clearly communicating that this is the beginning of creating change. the language that will allow us to have a better conversation about our community's investments and that that will be a holistic look at our services and that this work will continue to develop in ways that reflect the complexity and the strategic goals and the needs of our community over the coming months. And I know that this work is going to be challenging. This is going to be a very challenging budget cycle in challenging context in our community and the way in which we're preparing for that work, I think is important and admirable. We're doing, I think with this step, a really good job of, again, embodying and walking the talk of the first principle listed in the adopted budget principles. It's not the first principle, but it's just enumerated as number one to promote transparency and shared understanding. And I really do feel in this conversation and the way we're approaching the work that we are doing that in our process, which gives us the best chance possible of accomplishing that in the outcomes. Thank you.

Mayor, I am about to open a second round, but I want to remind everyone we have two more rounds of discussion after two more presentations. So if you can have a specific question for this, please feel free to ask, but keep in mind our time. And with that, Councilor Keating for a second.

Thank you, Council President. I'll lightning round this second round then. I wanted to just reiterate and amplify and say I stand solidly in Councillor Kuczynski's camp in the observations that Councillor Kuczynski made. I didn't want you to be on an island of one. I wanted to make it really clear that Councillor Kuczynski's observations are shared by me wholeheartedly. And because you brought up animal services in particular, Councillor, it made me think of our contracted obligations with providers who might not be necessarily a program or service within the municipal apparatus, but might be a contracted partner. when we solicit feedback from programs and services, what is our engagement like with our contracted partners who are doing some vital core services for our community as well? Part one. Part two, what, if any, feedback are we soliciting from our intergovernmental partners or what we as a municipality get out of our relationships or partnerships with intergovernmental entities such as the League of Cities, the National League of Cities, the United Front Partnership, the Lane Regional Air Protection Agency, Human Services, ELCOG, etc. Are those partnerships and or are our partnerships with our contracted partners, our relationships with our contracted partners, part of this overall deep dive service framework as well.

So this initial process has really just been to sort the services and not have broader conversation. So it's really just the start of the process. I would say a couple things. Managers and staff are always working with their partners whether it's a contract partner or another jurisdiction. So we have those conversations frequently. We will start the budget process and there'll be a range of conversations internally. And then depending on, there'll be a range of of conversations over time, and then at certain points in the process, we do reach out and have conversations with our partners. But this first part of the process, as we think about now into kind of this fall, is really an internal process to evaluate and think about a range of service delivery. I don't know if city manager would say that.

I will add that conversations with our intergovernmental partners has already occurred and is ongoing with respect to the framework that you've adopted and the work that you've done over the past three months. It's also happening with our business partners as well beyond the TAG. So I've also had a toe in the water with neighborhood groups as well. So anytime I get an opportunity to speak about the why in which we're doing this and how we're categorizing services and how that helps us understand our strategic focus, I'm taking that step and that will continue to ramp up. You'll see in late fall and then moving into the new year. But just know that those conversations are underway and I think like many of you have spoken today, it's basically being received very well and people are finding it very logical and I think to Councilor Yee's point about understanding kind of why we do what we do, that's starting to kind of come to the surface where it's raising questions for residents and they're beginning to understand how we do our work and what we're trying to shift towards. So I think that those conversations will continue but For me personally, they've already been underway for some time.

Councillor, Councillor Zelenka.

Go to slide 13. To Randy's point, you know, the nature And the structure of the budgeting system or process does not easily lead to doing things differently. I haven't gone through 30 of these. There's required services, there's dedicated funds that can't be used over here and over there. They have to be used here. And we're already providing all these services. So we get this very siloed picture of the budget. And there's not much left in that category of discretionary funding to do things differently with. with the exception of infusion of state or federal dollars. We don't really get to see that very much. And if you look back, 16 of the 18 last budgets have been cut budgets, not ad budgets. And then built-in constituencies and the inertia behind the existing services, there's a reason they all exist and provide these services. So I kind of look at this more as a different way of labeling the services and communicating about the services, which I think adds a great deal to clarity and understanding about how the budget works. But I'm a little skeptical that this is going to result in wholesale change of how we're doing business. Hopefully what we end up with is, yes, after we've got this clearer understanding and different categorization of it, The services that we're providing are the right set of services and they get a lot of bang for their buck for the city of Eugene. Some of the services are just fabulous, spectacular services that we get a lot for our tax dollars. And hopefully if that's one of the messages that comes out of this process, that will be a real win for the city. Oh, on 13. So that bottom row there, I didn't, you may have talked a little bit about this, but budget decision lenses. How did, is that to do the categorization and how do you use that? And what does, whatever all those mean? Don't go through each one of them, please.

No, but these are the, these are the lenses that as we develop budget strategies and options, we'll be looking at each of these categories. So what is the impact either on the community or to the organization if it's a, or both? You know, what is the risk of changing a service, service delivery? You know, alternate service delivery models, you know, all of those pieces, you know, can we partner differently? Is there, Can we use technology differently? Are there a range of things we could do differently to provide service in a different way at a different level? So each of those, how do things align with your strategic plan and the focus areas and the tactics that staff are going to be moving forward for the next two years? So they'll be part of the evaluation process as departments and programs are putting their budgets together.

So more along the lines of, if we're gonna do something different, how do these impact these things? Or what are these things to consider in making a different proposal, as opposed to categorizing them into these categories?

Both the categorization process, the initial sort that you're looking at combined with the budget lens review, which would be next in that process, really is about the discipline of putting fresh eyes on each of the services and programs that are being delivered. And so this gives a framework and the tools to think those things through. And so to your point, you're right. Some things are hard to change. And it's hard because you're locked in for requirements or others. The discipline of spending time and using the tools in a way that OPENS UP THE CONVERSATION ALLOWS FOR A DIFFERENT DIALOGUE POTENTIALLY.

THANKS.

YES, THANK YOU. SO I THINK THERE WERE A COUPLE OF COMMENTS ABOUT MAKING SURE THAT THIS ISN'T VIEWED, THE CATEGORIZATION ISN'T VIEWED AS A PRIORITIZATION OR A RANKING. AND I THINK ONE OF THE THINGS TO KEEP IN MIND AND BE TRANSPARENT ABOUT IS THAT WHEN YOU label something as an essential service or a required service, people are going to immediately start putting their own prioritization. When you say this is a safety or health-related service versus a community service, people are going to immediately start putting their own prioritization of, well, of course we're going to prioritize safety over these other things. And so I think how I think we need to sort of keep repeating, hey, this isn't a priority, and really highlight how we actually are gonna be doing the prioritization, because I can definitely, my understanding, and correct me if I'm wrong, and I think you touched on it a little bit just now, based on the last question, is that these budget decision lenses are really where that prioritization is gonna happen, and as you go through that, you may have something that's categorized as essential that we're actually like, well, it's essential, but it has very little impact. It impacts our safety, but only a tiny, tiny bit. And so that's going to, is that really where that prioritization is going to come in?

Yes. And I'm really glad you brought this up because it also came up in our budget committee overview conversation. And what's really important is that just because something is required or essential is doesn't mean that that service can't be done differently to create capacity so that we are not having to cut or reduce another program. And so there's a symbiotic relationship here I think that needs to be taken into consideration. That's why those lenses are so important and that helps kind of debunk that you're up here if you're required or here in an essential because, yes, we have to do those, but we can do those differently to either save costs or to be able to build capacity so that we can salvage and elevate some other equally important programs. Thank you.

Gonna turn it back to our presenters for the next section.

Perfect, thank you. We're gonna move into the discussion around the strategic framework, the focus areas and strategies that were developed previously. Which is, of course, an important lens that is being applied to decisions coming forward. And so at the last meeting of this body, these were formalized and then handed off to staff to think through and to identify what are the actions, what are the tactics to work on, so I'm gonna give it back to your city manager to walk through and introduce those elements.

Thank you, Nancy. So what I'd like to do is just spend a brief moment back on the five focus areas and just remind you that this is telling us where we're going and where we want to make progress and that the strategies are how we intend to move in that direction. And if we move to the next slide, you can kind of see this at a very high level. if we can get to the next slide, there we go, a little delay there, on delivering the council goals. So what brings the framework together and delivers council-directed goals are the tactics. And you can see that the strategic focus area and the strategy are really the council-directed body of work that we've done together. And now staff has taken the time to put some tactics together that we will go over with you. And also you have it listed in attachment C. And this is the work that's led by staff to put strategy in action. So the slide I'd like to spend a little bit more time on is the next slide, and really talking about how the strategy leads to results. And to do that, we're gonna start with the council direction and the strategic focus areas. And this is the broad priority that we're trying to advance. And then from there, we'll define the strategy, which again is the approach that we take to make progress in that focus area. And then we identify the tactic, or the specific work that staff undertakes to implement the strategy. So these three elements work together, and they accomplish two important things that I wanted to highlight for you. One, they lead to results that can be evaluated, measured, and refined each year, and they also help shape and inform the budget development process, which ensures that the resources are aligning with council direction, which is what you set forth in identifying those five strategic goal areas and the strategies that roll up into that. So this slideshow shows just a small selection of strategies and tactics. And as I mentioned, your AIS has a full set of tactics. But what I'd like to do is just at a very high level, go through each of the five focus areas and kind of walk you through what that tactic is and then what those potential results could look like. Because that's the next step in terms of developing metrics and measuring the outcomes of the tactics that we're recommending. So for financial stability, obviously the strategy is to build a long-term financial stability plan, and then we're developing that plan and presenting it to Council. That's the tactic. But what are the results? So the results are clear, long-range financial forecasts and decision-making tools. You actually have some of those before you today that you've helped inform. better alignment between ongoing revenues and expenses, and then earlier identification of structural challenges and policy options. So that's an example of fiscal stability. Moving into community safety, of course the strategy here is timely, effective emergency response. The tactic is to complete a renewed standard of coverage plan. So what does that mean? Data-driven recommendations for station locations, staffing levels, and response patterns, improved reliability and consistency of fire and medical response, and identification of gaps in targeted investments to improve outcomes. These are just a few, if many, of potential results of that particular tactic. thriving and livable community, again, sustained library parks and cultural programming, and this tactic is to evaluate the long-term funding mechanisms. So what does that look like as a potential result? More stable funding to protect essential services, reduce volatility in service levels during economic downturns, clear paths for maintaining or expanding community programming. Housing and homelessness, so here we've gotta increase and accelerate the production of diverse housing types, and then we can do that by developing a new housing action plan and put into motion that specific strategies for expanding housing supply and reducing production barriers, targets and timelines for delivering diverse housing options, and then better coordination across departments and partner organizations. And moving into transportation and infrastructure, Again, this is advancing transportation safety, and then the tactic is exploring data-driven traffic enforcement. So think about automatic or automated red light and speed enforcement as an example. So potential results around that, reduce serious and fatal crashes at high-risk intersections, more efficient and consistent enforcement, better use of data to inform future safety investments. So while those aren't spelled out for you because that's the next step is to develop some of those metrics, I wanted to make sure that you could visualize what those results look like and how they're attached to the tactics. So that was kind of a very high level. I know you may have some questions, but I'll turn it over to Nancy.

So that's a lot, and there's a lot in that document in particular to digest, and what we don't want to do today is to go through the detail of all that, but to kind of zoom out. If there are clarifying questions, if there are reactions, either to how the parts and pieces fit together, or any of the content that has been provided in your packet that you're unclear about. What does that look like? What does that mean? That would be instructive for staff to hear in the conversations. And so on the next, here we go. So on this next slide, for purposes of conversation, prompts we can use as our guide. First of all, do you have questions about how the tactics, which again are the actionable efforts that would be delivered by staff and budgeted in the upcoming budget cycle, how they advance the focus areas and the strategies you all came up with when we were together. So kind of the framework questions. But then if you have any clarifying questions around specific tactics that you reviewed as you were preparing for our time together today, that would be helpful to get into the room as well so that there's opportunity to clarify those things.

I also have phone a friend back there in case you have detailed questions.

So we want to be, before we open it up entirely, I want to be attentive to the fact that we do have a full data section we want to preview for, so I want to make sure we allocate sufficient time for that. So if we just, we'll monitor our time with the ability to still, of course, provide your feedback and comments.

Thank you. I'm going to just make a quick comment because I don't have a particular question at this time. But just that it's really refreshing. Sometimes I get a lot of question marks in my head because I'm from a nonprofit background. And so the way that this is structured is how I've always operated in that there is a plan and there's goals and there's tactics and then the expected results and metrics. And not that we've not had those, but it's not always as clearly outlined as this and then tied to budget. And I just really, really appreciate seeing it like this. So thank you for this work. And I assume that we will be able to dive into the specifics of those at a later time, but the way that it's structured, very approved. So thank you. And then Counselor Zelenka.

We actually do have those and had various iterations of those over the years. But then they get stale, and then we do it again in a different way. That's what this is. I read through this, especially Attachment C, the tactics, and I kind of went through them pretty quickly when I was preparing for this, so I didn't. do that in the context of asking questions or being able to comment on them. So what's the process for after this retreat or after this work session to ask questions about that and how does that get filtered back into the process and how do we end up with a final product?

Yes, you will certainly have an opportunity today to provide feedback on the tactics that we have put together. I think it is important to understand that the tactics, as we learn through this process, will be refined. and can change and also the budget outcomes and the conversation that you have during budget can also further inform those tactics based on what you're determining is important to put resources towards. We have plenty of touches through the budget process and you'll be able to put your fingertips on this. Right now, today, if there are things that are standing out to you where I'm not understanding why this is here or what did you mean by this, this is the time to kind of ask so that we can explain. And if there's something that we missed, we obviously want to hear that so that we can make those adjustments and pivot and then move forward. I don't know, Twilight, do you have other points of the budget milestones that maybe I'm missing?

No, I think that captures it, really, because the hope is that we use this as an integral part of the system as we begin budget development, which is happening very soon. So yes, I would agree with your approach.

Keeping in mind that a work plan is a living, breathing document, that's how you keep this alive in conversations, and so you don't actually want it to be entirely static, right?

Are there, oh, Councillor Kishinsky. Yes, this is kind of a, Higher level question. So if I recall correctly, when we were doing our retreat, there was a sixth strategy that we didn't talk a lot about because it was more internally focused, and that was the organizational excellence strategy. What happened to that?

So that's actually still going on. We're working through that.

Tomorrow we have an executive team retreat.

and there'll be some topic of conversation, and then we'll be folding in our leadership team into more of that dialogue. So that is definitely a work in progress, and you're right, that is kind of like an umbrella or overlay over this.

So perhaps in future graphics?

That will come back to council, absolutely, yeah.

So in future graphics, we might have six strategies as opposed to five? Yes. Okay, thank you. I was like, did that just disappear?

It's just faded in the background.

Okay. And it sounds like we will continue to have some discussion about these tactics, that they are evolving. But one of the things that stuck out to me with some of these tactics, and I think particularly the one where it jumps out to me the most is strategy three, number two, and I think as well in some of the others. Which focus area? That is financial stability. Thank you. Sorry. One, three, two?

I have to work on the numbering system. Yeah.

Tactics are also influenced by sort of your strategy and your philosophy and what you think is gonna work. And embedded in some of these tactics, I see sort of assumptions that I don't think council has made strategic determinations on. Is that the assumptions we wanna be going on? And it jumps out for me with this one because it's evaluate short-term revenue options that can bridge funding until long-term economic development is realized. And underlying that is the assumption that long-term economic development will create a sustainable financial underpinning for us, which That has been discussed and there are certainly some members of council who think that that is gonna be the magic bullet that sort of solves this for us in the long term. But I don't think that that has been a full council sort of determination that that's the assumption that we want to go on is that we just need to bridge the gap until its economic development happens. And so I'm wondering how do we kind of work with situations like that where we've, I can't see the clock, so I don't know if I'm going over, but how do we sort of work with situations like that where we're sort of seeing tactics that have underlying assumptions that I don't necessarily think we've clarified as a council yet?

I think that's an excellent point. And we also have additional information to you, for instance, for the community safety payroll tax and economic analysis that will actually further inform some of this conversation. And it kind of lent itself to this dialogue when we had the the projects in the pipeline conversation where that kind of laid out a certain level of assumption on building development and whatnot, but overlaid in that is economic data that hasn't yet been presented to the council that can further clarify assumptions around what our local economy is looking like. And then that again can shape these tactics. So I think to Nancy's point that these are fluid and can be adjusted. This is what we are determining at this moment in time, but I think council has to keep this top of mind because it will shift as you get more information presented in front of you. I don't know if there's another set of forecasting beyond the community safety payroll tax that we'll be presenting other than the forecast for the budget itself and the general fund. Do you have more information to present maybe either on the distressed funds as well?

I would say there are a number of things as we think about, and I'll talk a little bit about it in our next section, but we have the distressed funds. We also have things, even if it's not this strategy of longer-term economic prosperity or economic development. For example, we have the temporary stormwater fee. that we need to understand how we're going to move forward with. There are a range of things that we might want to bridge strategy if it's not this exact piece, but there are a range of issues, I think, as we look to the future, and I'll talk about those in just a bit.

Thank you. Thank you, Councilor. I'll turn it to our Mayor.

Thank you, Council President. I just wanted to add my reflection at this point that I think attachment C is an area that reminds me of many conversations that I've had around our community. People are often trying to understand what this work looks like on the ground and tactics are in some cases the clearest way that our work can be seen by members of the community who are every day wanting to know how the city is working, what we are doing to support their needs and to support opportunity here and the long-term sustainability of our community. So I just wanted to observe that in reading this document and preparing for the meeting today, that there is a lot that is expressed here even just in this draft about the ways in which the strategic focus areas established by council are guiding and then can specifically point to interventions that I think community members are quite interested in. And that's true in the examples related to financial stability. It's absolutely true in the areas related to community safety and some of the specific tactics identified to ensure timely and effective emergency response. I think that in the case of thriving and livable community, it's the level of information that makes that strategic focus most legible to people. So I just think it's a very strong beginning point to have these almost 60 different tactics to look at and then to continue to refine and discussion. And I know that a lot has gone into creating this clarity. So I just appreciate that and I'll appreciate the continued work that we're going to do on this front.

Thank you, Mayor. Is there any other questions from Council?

Thanks, Council President. Just a quick, I guess, observation slash clarification question. I have a little heartburn when I hear that these decisions are my interpretation. I didn't read it this way, but I'm interpreting just data-driven, just objective decision-making. I'm going to use for an example a... hot potato issue in South Eugene or whether it's our Amazon pool or Echo Hollow or Sheldon, our aquatics system or program, if you just objectively look at how many people are utilizing said service, you might make a black and white decision that doesn't necessarily recognize the health and thriving component of it, the subjective component Yet I recognize that there might be partners in the community, like the YMCA, who might be able to embrace the daily operations even better than our municipality does. How does this kind of strategy, leading to results through staff tactics matrix. How do you envision doing that dance, that objective, subjective dance, and then ultimately finding how we preserve some of our beloved program services and institutions, but maybe even empower and embrace a partnership that elevates and betters that program service and delivery?

I mean, I really think that we're going back to the budget lens conversation again because that work starts there. So you brought up the YMCA. I mean, if we're going to look at contracting options, that's clearly... in alternative service delivery? Can someone do it better? Should it be us providing that service? Those are questions that we should ask. I think part of the challenge is making sure that if we have things that pull at our personal heartstrings, we need to be aware of that, right? Because we have to be objective in looking at everything, and I think that's part of the executive team's job and working with staff, that no rock is left unturned. And then we have to look at all options. I think the trick is, and this is the art of it versus the science, is understanding what those things are. And I'm sure as part of the budget process, some of the things that we get right will come to the surface, as will some of the things that maybe... We didn't miss, and we are also human, so we might miss some of those. But going back to why we did the strategic focus areas, that's so that we know what your vision is, and you've laid that foundation for us through that document. You've also laid that foundation through giving us clear direction on strategy, which will help inform how we're looking at that budget lens. And so it's gonna be my job, Twyla's job, and the executive team's job to make sure that staff understand those assumptions and build that into that budget lens perspective. I hope that's helpful.

Thank you, City Manager. Who's the final arbiter? Go ahead. Go ahead.

Sorry, I was going to go to a different question. Adding on to what the city managers mentioned, I think that what I'm hearing in your comments are is also a sensitivity to what are you measuring in terms of what constitutes results. And so, you know, working through the strategies, developing and implementing tactics, you know, that's a work plan, right? That's delivering certain things. But then how do you quantify and can you appropriately develop metrics that, you know, kind of reflect the investment and the outcomes and developing what those are is a full activity that's intentional and important on its own, right? So that you're not aiming for things, aiming for result metrics that somehow signal a priority that may be out of alignment with other elements. And so I think that there's lots of layers. There's the budget conversation and the lenses you're gonna be using for making these choices, but then also how you're evaluating the impacts down the road and the metrics you use can be an important part of that conversation as well. And that's a future thing.

Thank you. In developing those matrices, who's the final arbiter? If a particular program or service is put into a particular bucket, I'm gonna go back to animal services just because it's like a broken drum, a broken record rather, about my enthusiasm for preserving any programs or service delivery relating to animals in our community. Who's the final arbiter if they're put into a particular bucket and they're making an argument that they're actually checking off boxes in more than one bucket? And if they do check off a box in more than one bucket, is that a stronger argument for preservation than a particular program or service that just falls under one bucket?

I mean, potentially. But we're not in that process at this moment. So that's a hard one for me to answer.

Ultimately, the budget that you all drop together is going to be the arbiter of the investment.

We give you a recommended budget. I'm presenting you a recommended budget. It is a starting point, but it is your policy document. The budget is a numerical representation of council's goals and priorities.

Hopefully that helps to clarify it with lots of to be determined.

Great, thank you.

Thank you, and I think we are now ready to move on to our final section of our presentation. Thank you, Nancy.

Okay. Okay, so this is our final portion of the presentation for today. So this is really thinking about being proactive, what are those things kind of coming down the pike, all the range of things we look at. So at your June 8th work session, we provided a financial condition update, and we also talked about a lot of these needs. They're shown here. So just to walk through them quickly, so capital, so that's infrastructure, so bridges, streets, roads, buildings. This includes taking care of current assets, but then also as we think about our community growing, needing to expand and add new facilities to serve our community. Operational includes the resources to function effectively and provide service to the community, including future growth and needs to respond to future state and federal mandates. Equipment includes a wide range of equipment across services, including public safety, recreation, radios, just all across our organization, the tools people need to deliver service to the community. And then we continue to have technology needs as we look to the future, not only core infrastructure, so servers, switches, routers, but also thinking about changes in software and things we can implement to be more effective and efficient in doing our job and providing service. We know we have limited duration funding through a variety of sources, bonds, levies, and other fees that we'll need to address as we look to the future. And also a range of distressed funds. We went through a number of those at that work session, but many of the typical funds that we talk about, so road, parking, ambulance, transport, and the like. So we have a range of things as we think about looking to the future. So we have taken an organizational scan looking to the future across these categories to get an updated understanding of needs across the organization. And these are kind of the four focus areas or themes that we're seeing as we kind of look across. So staffing needs, equipment replacement and technology, large facility capital needs and deferred maintenance. So each of these has a number of different pressures as we look across the system. So when we look at staffing, the theme here reflects a wide range of needs including state mandated requirements and adjustments needed necessary to meet service levels. This may mean right sizing existing operations or responding to new service demands. Some examples here include state mandated housing planning and planning and development or forest and fuels reduction work in public works. For equipment and technology, some of the major items to note include some major equipment for our community safety partners, so the replacement of accident equipment and EPDs, so we're required to have body-borne cameras, in-car video, and a range of things to support that service. Traffic signal system upgrades as we think about the system and transportation is another area that we'll be looking to address in the future. And then there's other equipment needs that range across like fire service, safety gears such as turnout, and self-contained breathing apparatus. There's a range of equipment across other service funds as well that we'll be looking to address. Then when we think about large facility capital needs, this category includes a wide range of infrastructure. So things that we know about, like so streets and bridges and things like that, but also facilities. So new fire stations to respond to current needs of a growing community. The need for a new fleet facility building to support that service. A police substation to serve additional areas of the community. airport expansion, library fourth floor expansion. So some are expansion needs and some are just really taking care of existing infrastructure. And then there's also deferred maintenance, which is that last area. And so when we think about the system we already own and maintain, we have some deferred maintenance where we need resources to take care of the assets we already own. This includes things like wastewater deferred maintenance and rehabilitation, parks deferred maintenance for the parks we are building and maintaining across the city, and then also parking garage deferred maintenance as we think about the parking system and the garages the city owns. When I think about approach, really a lot of times over the last few years, we're really focusing on the short term. So what's coming up in front of us in the next budget cycle? So when I think short term, it's really that next, for us, the next two-year budget cycle, so the next biennium. That's the budget we'll be building this winter and bringing to you in the spring. Midterm is just beyond that through the end of the forecast period. So that kind of three to six year period, kind of 2029 to 2033. And then long term is really thinking out beyond. So past that six year, we think six, 10, 15 years out. What are those things coming down the pike as we develop our financial stability plan? And so really trying to proactively understanding the needs of that are facing the organization and the changing environment that we're living in and developing strategic levers. We'll start by walking through the considerations we're thinking about for the next biennium. As we prepare the proposed budget, we'll be using the frameworks and budget principles that we've been talking about today to develop the budget while we also consider the following considerations. So the first is general fund stability. We know we have an almost $5 million annual gap in the general fund. We will be updating the forecast this fall. We'll get property tax information and other assumptions. And so we'll update our forecast and see how the general fund is looking at that point in time. Distressed funds, we have a number of funds that are experiencing pressures. We've talked about those before. Road fund, parking, and a number of others. Those fund managers are actively looking at either legislation when we look at the road fund for the next legislative session or what are other service considerations that we might think about for that fund and others as they try to right-size looking to the coming budget cycle. We do have two limited duration funding sources that will expire mid biennium unless we take further action. The first is the Community Safety Payroll Tax, or CSPT. We have two work sessions coming up in the near future, one on September 28th and the other on October 14th, where you will receive more information on the service area, including economic information and services provided within the system, and we'll discuss next steps. And then we also have the park and recreation local option levy that will also expire halfway through the biennium. So FY28 is the last year of levy collection. So if a levy were to move forward to continue that service, a measure would be needed on the May 28 ballot in order to ensure continuity of service if that were the direction that council desired to go. Then we have a range of future needs that we'll need to consider as part of this budget. I talked about some of them on the last slide, but others are funding for items such as the Human Service Commission or HSC funding, safety equipment for equipment needs across the organization and mandated work such as public health standards and state mandated planning. and develop parks maintenance needs among other needs looking to the organization. And then finally, any additional considerations in relation to strategic investments, including for funding for unhoused services, economic prosperity work, or other areas that tie back to the council focus areas and tactics. So next we'll look at the midterm considerations. So looking out past that biennium, we will continue to work on stability, both in the general fund and across all funding funds across the city. As we think about limited duration funding, there are some more things for us to think about and consider. The library local option levy, so that's about $5 million a year annually, would expire in FY31 without further action. So again, those local option levies are five-year measures. And so the other piece there is the temporary stormwater fee. So as part of our budget this biennium, we have a six-year stormwater fee that raises almost $5 million a year for eligible park services. So at the end of that six-year timeframe, so that's FY31, so just past this current forecast period, action will need to be taken. Without further action, those services would either revert to the general fund, we would need to find an alternate source, or take other action, or perhaps reduce services. So that'll be an area that we'll need to look at as well. And then we have street and park bond funding. So street bonds, we've been going out on a cycle every five years. Our last bond amount was $61.2 million. And if we stay with that five-year kind of cyclical cycle, FY29 would be the last year of the street bond. So new bond authorization would need to be in place at the beginning of that biennium for continuity of service. And then on the parks side, we've gone out for parks bond. Recently, about every 10 years or so, we've been going out for a parks bond. Our last bond was $39 million, and so that would need to be a consideration as we look into that midterm cycle, as we think about some of the capital needs across the organization. And then again, we're always in a changing world, so understanding what those future needs are, or new things are coming. down the pike and then also thinking about the strategic investments as council continues to have conversations. Okay, so long-term considerations. Again, all of the similar pieces. If we continue to fund some of our services through limited-duration funding, such as a local option levy, that's, again, a five-year cycle that we would need to consider as we look to the future. And then to understand other capital needs through bonding process. And again, all of that range of needs, all the things I've just talked about as we look to the future. So proactively understanding the needs of our organization and the community to develop short, mid, and long-term actions really are what long-range financial planning is all about. So through our work this spring and summer, we've talked about all of these elements and how they all need to come together. So developing a financial stability plan that builds on the work while working with our community and regional partners is critical and is a key strategy as we move forward. Next, we'll look at potential levers. Sorry, we have a style issue here on this slide. Oh, nope, okay, not sure what happened. Okay, so we'll talk about levers. You've seen a version of this before. There are a range of levers that can address needs over time and can be combined for a strategic approach. So when we look at revenue approaches, these include local option levies, potentially property tax reform, which would need to happen at the state level. And then there are also always the option of taxes and fees. For the last two, these can be ongoing in nature or, as we discussed earlier, they could be temporary to provide a bridge to something else as we look to mid and long-term strategies. Debt is another lever as we think about our capital needs, and so we can take care of existing infrastructure and think about future expansion through issuing debt. So general obligation bonds, of course, would have to go to the voters. Revenue bonds could be issued for... for items that have a revenue that helps pay the debt service. So for airport expansion, potentially, we could have revenue bonds. And then a newer toolbox in the last five years is affordable housing bonds that are now allowed by the states for municipalities. Service delivery or service changes are also another lever. So efficiencies and reductions to align with existing resources. Again, we've already talked about this a bit today, but looking about how we provide service, are we providing service at the level we need to? Can we partner differently? Can we use technology differently to change how we deliver service and stay within our existing resources? And then through all of this really is kind of that investment trade-off. So as we think about different choices, what are those investments? What goals do they help us achieve? And what are the trade-offs and the impacts of those pieces? And then the last column there is really those long-term opportunities, so things that we can start to take action on, but we don't see the results right away. So those could be things around economic prosperity and job growth, so really thinking about the vitality of the community and creating jobs and infrastructure, and then also annexation, potentially, as we grow and the city grows over time. And so there are many considerations, all of these pieces we need to think about as we think about long-range financial planning and proactively developing financial stability. We have some tactics identified for staff over the next two years to move us from our reactive state to our proactive state. So again, this is one of your strategies, or one of your focus areas, financial stability and the strategies. So you have your tactics in your strategy, Agenda materials, but really, again, that first strategy, sorting services into the framework and aligning with available resources using the tools, the frameworks and budget principles we have. And also incorporating framework considerations into your deliberations as you move throughout the year. So we're, this isn't just a budget exercise, but we're really embedding this through the conversations and the topics that come to you as they come to council. Developing that financial stability plan. Again, looking beyond that next two year period, but really starting to develop plans and tactics and strategies to think short, mid, and long term so we can be proactive instead of reactive. And also as part of that, really taking another look at our general fund reserve levels and understanding if we're right-sized with our reserves. And then again, that third strategy about strengthening and diversifying revenue, where appropriate as we think about what are the strategies to develop a financially stable system. So as we think about developing a financial stability plan, there will be a need for many organizational conversations along with conversations with our partners in the community and our region. have done a lot of work to date. So we've had many, many revenue conversations over the year. Many of you have been part of those conversations. Our most recent group was our revenue advisors in fiscal year 24. Coming out of that budget process, a revenue advisor team was established that included counselors, budget committee members, and community members To learn about financial and funding issues facing the city and to provide advice and community perspective to the city manager in relation to new revenues So this group looked at a range of issues including our general fund gap limited duration funding areas such as and house services HSC funding levies and our CSP team community safety payroll tax and also looking at areas such as new or expanded services needed for the city and So that report and the work done to support that work is a really rich resource that we can start with if there's a desire to look at a range of revenue options. In FY26, the Technical Advisory Group on Fiscal Stability was formed, so they did that work last fall and presented a report to council in February. They looked at operational efficiencies and reductions, revenues and economic development and had a lot of recommendations and many of those recommendations staff were doing as part of these processes and thinking about our long-term stability. And then you also, as council, finished phase one of this work. All the work you've done over the spring and summer to develop the framework and budget principles are foundational to us moving forward. Today we're really regrouping to discuss our work to date and receive your feedback as we prepare for budget committee meetings this fall, which I'll talk about shortly, and budget development. There's a TAG 2.0, so that group is coming together to meet again. They're meeting on a quarterly basis to continue discussion on economic prosperity and strategies. And then, of course, staff will be using the frameworks we discussed today and your budget principles to develop the 2027-2029 proposed budget, which we will present back to you in the spring. Staff will also be developing the financial stability plan, so all of the elements I was just talking about, and to shift us into a more proactive approach as we look not only to the next budget period but beyond, and we'll bring that plan back to council for input and feedback. One more slide. So next steps, we have two budget committee meetings this fall, October 28th and November 18th. The October meeting really will focus on financial policies, so we haven't had a comprehensive review of our policies. And so we'll start that on the 28th. If it spills over, we don't quite finish. We have a little time on the 18th. We can finalize that. We'll also be reviewing budget committee bylaws because we haven't reviewed those in quite some time. And the staff will also be providing an update on our budget methodology, so thinking about moving away from that incremental budget and how will we change our budget methodology to incorporate the frameworks and the principles that we've talked about today. We are holding December 2nd for a potential budget committee meeting on the supplemental budget. We will only have that if we need to, so if it's more administrative in nature, so if we're processing grants and other things, we won't need to bring that group together. If there is something that's more substantive, we would have an informational meeting for the budget committee prior to your December 14th city council meeting. And at that meeting, you'll adopt the supplemental budget, the December supplemental, and then also adopt financial policies that will serve as a financial kind of framework as part of your long range financial planning and budget development. So with that, I'll turn it back over to Nancy.

Okay, yeah, I can open it up to rounds of questions from council and Councilor Evans.

Thanks, Council President. A couple things that come to mind at the beginning. I really appreciate the work that all of you folks have done on this, and one of the reasons why I've held back from commenting earlier is because this is the area I really wanted to get to. How we are planning for our future and what are we doing right now to be able to point the ship in the right direction, for lack of a better metaphor. I think we are going in the right direction now, and I think that one of the things, the conversations that I've had with both Chief Kaven and Chief Skinner is about the structural needs that our fire department and our police department are gonna need. When I had my conversation with Chief Kaven last month, we talked about the need for facilities specifically. A new fire station down here that would be right here in the same vicinity as City Hall. A new or retrofitted station out in Ward 6 in my ward. Also, station needs in Ward 8. So we're talking about three more fire stations and definitely an upgrade in facilities and technology and all of that that's going to come through a bonding process. So, again, we're going to have to borrow, go to the voters, ask the voters to... Pass a bond so that we can be able to consistently fund the needs that we need to have over time and some of the things that we are basically sucking wind on right now that we need to play catch up with. And trust me, I'm getting to a question here, so you'll have to forgive my stream of thought on this. One of the things that when I was growing up in Ohio, and at that time in the 70s, and in the early 80s where municipalities were going bankrupt and facing insolvency because of not doing the long-range planning that needed to be done. And I think that what we're doing right now is critical to the future that we're looking at down the line past 2039 into the 2040s and 50s. and being able to understand that the facilities that we need to build and construct are for 50 and 100 year horizons. And we need to have a way that we can effectively communicate that with our constituencies so that we can get their support to move forward. Particularly in a time now and down time in the future where people are saying to me, look, we can't afford an increase in our taxes. Gas prices, food prices, everything else is hitting us and you're going to have to explain to me in very clear detail how and why we need these things and tell us why we need to make these investments so that we don't end up in an insolvent future. That's not a question, but it's a statement, but I just want to kind of wrap our heads around the fact that these are things that are not going to go away, And we are going to have to have continual serious conversations about how we create more revenue opportunities. And also I appreciate the other piece of this is that we have not integrated into this conversation the dependency that we've traditionally had on state and federal resources, because we can't depend on them now. This state is broke, like 38 other states are, and the federal government is in, I don't know what it is, free fall, magic trick or whatever, but I'll stop there.

Thank you, Councillor. Councillor Kuczynski?

Yes, thank you. I will want to second, I guess, one of Councillor Evans' points, which is as we're having these long-term financial stability discussions, I think including as part of that serious consideration about the increased lack of reliability in our federal partners in particular, but also some of our state partners, and the way that's impacting some of our community partners and creating needs gaps in the community, because it's not just us as a city who's being impacted by this, it's our nonprofit partners and service providers in the community who are providing services It's other local governments who provide services that we don't. And so really looking at that bigger picture of community need beyond just what the city is doing and how that need is being impacted by some of these Challenges that are outside of our little area here. I would be, if I'm understanding correctly, sort of the fiscal year, like the next nine months, eight months, ten months plan involves these next steps that are on that last slide going through December 14th. And then the budget development, additional meetings with TAG 2.0, and the start of the development of the financial stability plan, is that kind of the plan for the next, to like end of the fiscal year, this fiscal year?

Yes, that's correct. So budget development will be starting using all of the tools that we have. And we'll be meeting with budget committee. Tague will continue to meet and discuss with the city manager. And all of those pieces will come together with your budget in the spring.

Okay. And so as you probably remember, I've been like chomping at the bit to be like, let's talk about what we're going to do about revenue. What is this? And is a lot of those sort of what are the next steps for those discussions that's going to come out of that financial stability plan? Is that correct? That's correct. Can I get a sense of what the process for developing the financial stability plan is going to be? Like, is there going to be an engagement committee with citizen members? Is it going to be, you know, staff driven? Is it going to be, like, how much feedback can council give on it once it is drafted? Like, a better picture of what that process looks like.

I would say at this point, we'll need to come back with more. We've been working through all of these pieces to get to this point, and that is definitely something we're going to be developing. It definitely will be staff-initiated and led, but thinking about what are the touch points with other... other bodies or partners or things and how that comes back and we get feedback. I don't have a clear plan to lay out in front of you today, but it's something that as the organization starts working on budget development, our team will be pivoting to and working with the city manager on, and so we can provide more information in the future.

Okay. Yeah, because I definitely think One of the things that I remember, because I was on the 2024 Revenue Advisors Committee and the one before that too, and I know there was a really intense effort to try and get a wide diversity of community voices involved in that group. And the groups that are convening now, I see less of that diversity, especially as we move into that financial stability plan, making sure that we're hearing from a broader section of the community, I think would be very helpful. And then I think I know that we kind of group things into short, mid, and long-term, but just looking at the length of time it sometimes takes to do something like develop a revenue option. I am getting nervous about our medium-term limited duration items, and so I think that's a little bit of the motivation for me being like, hey, because I want to make sure that we're getting, that we're not in sort of a crisis point where it's like, okay, this is going to disappear and we don't have a thing to fill it.

Yes, I would say it's a yes and, and I think staff are also, you know, we're, Again, trying to move into this more proactive space where we're dealing with the budget coming up in front of us, but by putting this plan together, we can have a more clear roadmap so we can start these conversations and be prepared. And so we're not reacting, but we're more proactive. So I would agree.

Do you think that that will also help, you know, when we identify a need or we're trying to implement a new revenue option at that process going more efficiently, more speedy-like, so we're not like, okay, we started talking about this in 2023 and...

Hopefully things are more efficient because we are being proactive and we're designing strategies, kind of looking over that long term. Some of these conversations just do take some time, right? Both at this table and with the community. So I'm not sure about the speedy part, but being more proactive and more intentional and maybe starting earlier than we have in the past.

And I just want to close up because like I this work in general has been amazing and I want to thank you and everyone on staff and the city manager and everyone who's been involved in this because I think this has been some amazing work that's going to help us really tackle I think one of the most difficult challenges that's facing us because this challenge is Solving all of our other challenges a lot harder. So thank you.

If I could add one reminder, we are working on developing a schedule so that there's a regular cadence for this body to meet at a retreat level, like we did before, to capture some of those more timely emerging issues. And that will also allow us to weigh in on some of where we're at with some of the stability planning. So just to let you know, we are gonna develop that and I'll need to work with Twyla and her team as to when is the best time to engage you in alignment with the budget process. And then that would be an annual engagement with the council. Councilor Keating.

Thank you, Council President. I appreciate on the slide 31, the path forward, the putting on the revenue hat and considering the revenue teams or some in part considering revenue team suggestions from FY24. But I would submit that fiscal year 24 was a different time. Autonomous vehicles like Waymo were less of a reality coming to Eugene. artificial intelligence concerns, data center privacy concerns were far less ubiquitous. It was a time where we had a different city manager and were under the leadership of a different mayor. I would be very interested in resurrecting, reshaping, and resuming a robust revenue advisors group 2.0. For the reasons that have been mentioned, bringing a wider array of voices to the table, a more diverse set of voices, having at least three counselors and at least three budget committee members just to start would be welcome. But I think we are doing the process a disservice if we're just looking back and not finding a way to embrace the revenue conversation as it evolves moving forward. I'd love to hear your thoughts.

I guess one of the things I think about when I say to start there is part of that work was a very comprehensive staff report on a range of options that we've looked at over time. And as we've had these conversations, depending on what problem we're trying to solve, many of the options are somewhat limited to be able to raise the revenue needed to solve the problem. So I guess that's why I was suggesting to start there, not that we can't include more diverse voices and have another conversation. So I guess that's why I was suggesting we start with that work that's already been done today. I don't know if the city manager has other thoughts.

No, I would agree. I think that we have more ground to cover with you, and I'd like the opportunity to present that information, but ultimately that's going to be a council decision.

Great, thank you. I hear you, and I would just reiterate my longing to find revenue solutions that are long-term, that might cost something in the short term in order to provide that long-term stability. I've made a baseball reference at this dais before and I'll do it again. I think that government all too often wants to swing for the fences and go for the big home run. rather than do the small ball approaches to get them on and get them over and get them in. And those small ball approaches, those small revenue approaches or doing a little incremental bit is what I suspect will win the day. We can't just always swing for the fences. Thanks.

Thank you, Councillor. I have Councillor Clark and then Grubbs.

Thank you very much. I suppose what I'll do is tag on to my last two colleagues by saying I like very much the work that we've done so far here that gives us a medium term at least and the beginnings of a long term. solution set or at least a different way to think about it and different language to talk about it and how to structure it. I think that'll make budgeting a better process as we go through into the future. That's good. The longer term solution set, I'm less concerned with creating a more diverse set of voices as I am about the outcome. I'm wondering if we have a strategy or if if manager can give and financial staff can give a thought to a different kind of outcome. And by that, I mean, I appreciated the creation of the tag in the first place, because you put a group of financial experts in a room and say, here's the nature of the problem. What do you see? And what do you think about what you see? That gives a different set of thoughts and a different set of solutions. I wonder, is there a method or is there a strategy you're thinking of for how to come up with more creative out of the box potential future long term solutions? In other words, the mechanism by which creativity can about the long term future can happen more effectively. I'm not sure what that is, but I just throw that out there and wonder the manager's thoughts on that.

Oh, I have so many. That was a really, I appreciate that question. I think that that is a million dollar question. I also think that we're in a place, and it's a sobering statement for me to make, that we need to be also asking our community what they're willing to live without. and what they're willing to fund if they are not willing to live without that. And I think that that is the candid conversation that we are building to. And that would be my recommendation is to start those conversations so that we can enter this discussion understanding what people are willing to do and tolerate.

I see us having... The same needs everybody sees when they look at the slides that were presented and not knowing intuitively, oh, here's the easiest path. And so these are difficult decisions in the days ahead. And any help structurally, I think, is a good thing. So thank you for that.

Thank you. Thank you, Council President. I think we finally just got to the point I've been wondering how we're going to get there. But I do have another question, and this is probably more for the city manager, and I recognize this is a sensitive subject, a sensitive topic, but is there a space in this process, maybe just the council, I don't know, it needs to be the full budget committee, but looking at how do we do some services, deliver some services differently? And there's a bunch of ways we could get there, but it would just be nice to have as a comparison to what we're already spending and see if there's things we can do in the way we deliver the services to reduce costs.

Are you asking for that question in advance of the budget process? Because it's a little tricky in that way.

Well, I think it's something I personally would like to know going into the budget process so that we have, because I don't think this is something we can do on the fly. I mean, this is going to take some staff time and some research and some really out-of-the-box thinking. But it does seem like an option that we Lisa, I can't recall that we've looked at.

So I will say that while the budget lenses that we talked about, decision-making lenses, has that noted in there, if this body would like to give some consensus direction that, hey, we really would like you to do a concerted effort, we certainly can do that. without getting into detail. We probably know where the largest bang for the buck is, but council would, I think, if they specifically want us to do a larger undertaking on that, we can look and see how we can build that into the process. I just think it's a little hard to have that conversation outside the budget process because we're kind of dancing on a thin line there. But if there's a consensus here that you want us to do a little bit more on that, we certainly can give it our best shot. It will be a part of the conversation, though. It won't not be a part of the conversation. Let's just be clear.

I'm fine doing it as part of the budget process, but I don't think we can get halfway or three-quarters of the way through the process and say, oh, yeah, let's look at this. I think this is something there needs to be some preparation going into it. And I don't have a good feel for where my colleagues are. But, you know, just... kind of looking at alternatives to having full services going away. If there's ways we can streamline or reconfigure or in some cases, dare I say, even outsource. Just saying it. Thank you.

Councillor, I have Councillor Evans next. Okay, to Councilor Kuczynski for a second round.

Yes, thank you. And I think this goes to both points that Councilor Keating and Councilor Groves made about sort of smaller scale revenue as well as I guess service review of how we could do things differently. And my understanding is that a lot of that work happens incrementally below the council level that you know when we're looking at do we need to raise the fees for this that or the other thing you know staff doesn't let work we get a memo gets put in the register guard and then it kind of happens and that's that's what kind of happens there and I get the impression we've had several projects recently where like there's been a like deep dive look at some of you know, library, recreational and cultural services and things like that. I think, and I bring this up because I think one of the things, and it may have come up before you actually took the role or if it came up after you became city manager, it was like two days after you became city manager, is that I think we had talked a little bit about trying to tie more of these financial discussions into our AISs and having a little bit more of that clear line within the AIS and within the conversations we're having these work sessions in there and I think that would actually be really helpful for both of those items because you know we had the work session last week regarding the development and like that has a clear nexus of with some of these conversations because that impacts our property tax revenues. And like one of the questions I had with that was, is this a level of development that is factored into the 3.5% property tax rate that we're getting or not. And so I think being able to draw some of those connections from our work sessions of, hey, this is a change in our service delivery, or hey, here's how this is impacting revenue, would be really helpful. And so just because that came up a while ago, I figured I'd mention it again, so.

If I could add to your first point about fee increases, one of our tactics on our strategies for strength and diversified revenue, so strategy three under financial stability, is to evaluate our current fee structure across services and consider a master fee schedule or a couple of fee schedules so that we can systematically review fees and charges and have a systematic approach. and have it be more transparent also. So instead of 100 administrative orders, we have a master schedule or two or three master schedules. So that's part of that as well as we look to the future.

Thank you. Are there any other comments or questions from council? Thank you so much for that presentation. I'm now closing the floor for council and that concludes our agenda for the day. And I close the September 16th, 2026 City Council Work Session. We are adjourned.