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HomeMy WebLinkAboutApproved Minutes - 2001-01-12 Special OI LAC[03 ° CITY COUNCIL RETREAT MINUTES '* January 12, 2001 ��m Morning Session \O«� Mayor Judie Hammerstad called the City Council special meeting to order at 8:10 a.m. on January 12, 2001, at the Oswego Heritage House, 398 10th Street. Present: Mayor Hammerstad, Councilors Rohde (arrived at 8:25 a.m.), Schoen, Turchi, Graham, McPeak and Hoffman. Staff Present: Doug Schmitz, City Manager; David Powell, City Attorney; Robyn Christie, Deputy City Recorder; Joe Hertzberg, Facilitator Councilor McPeak asked what the order was for the roll call. Robyn Christie, Deputy City Recorder, said that it was in seating order. Mayor Hammerstad mentioned that it rotated every week but directed staff to call the Mayor first each week. 2. GOAL SETTING 2.1 Personal Introductions 2.2 Vision of Lake Oswego's Future Joe Hertzberg, Facilitator, asked each Councilor to list what three wishes he/she would like to see for Lake Oswego. Councilor Schoen discussed his vision for redevelopment in the downtown, eventually creating a pedestrian mall in the downtown core center surrounded by open space and sufficient parking to support a pedestrian mall. He spoke to maintaining the highest level of education that they could for the city, seeing greater citizen participation in the decision making process, and continuing to maintain a solid financial base for the City with responsible management of tax revenues and infrastructure. Councilor Hoffman discussed developing the concept of community or a sense of place, a sense of belonging to Lake Oswego. He argued that the concept of livability was key in developing a sense of place, and spoke to finding out what livability meant for Lake Oswego. He pointed out that, although Lake Oswego was a wealthy community, there was a disconnect, in that people were almost embarrassed to be from Lake Oswego. He spoke to developing a sense of pride in where they lived. Councilor Hoffman observed that people did not like change. He spoke to the Council's mission as thinking about change and developing a vision for the community with respect to what they would leave for future generations and towards developing a sense of community. He commented that this group was compatible and forward thinking, providing them with an opportunity to go through a visioning process on developing community. Councilor Graham commented that, although she took pride in being from Lake Oswego, she used that information on a pragmatic basis: a Lake Oswego mailing address meant higher prices. She spoke to having a city where the citizens could shop in town without having to go to Washington Square to get a pair of shoes. She mentioned moving forward aggressively on the acquisition of open space while it was still available. Councilor Graham spoke to the Council working to restore as much credibility as possible, not only to this Council, but also to government in general. She cited her experience working in a congressional office where people were surprised that the staff responded to their concerns. She commented that she was getting tired of the 'we' versus `they' mentality. She held that City Council Retreat Minutes—Morning Session Page 1 of 23 January 12, 2001 Councilor Hoffman's idea of the Council being as visible to the community as possible helped to do that because it made the people involved in government touchable. Councilor Turchi concurred with Councilor Hoffman's comments. He described Lake Oswego as a unique community in having geographical boundaries on four sides that gave a `contained' quality to the community, thus allowing them to define a geographic center along the lake and to create a sense of community. He observed that sometimes the residents did things to perpetuate the image of Lake Oswego as a very wealthy community where the high school kids owned Mercedes cars, which was not necessarily an accurate image. Councilor Turchi said that the work that Councilors and staff did to create Millennium Park inspired him to run for Council. He described that work as energizing a vision for the community, which they had an opportunity to extend and enhance. He spoke to first identifying the human aspects of living that they wanted for their community, and then moving to the physical characteristics of the community. He held that the Council should be working towards completing the downtown area, honoring and enhancing neighborhoods and trying to pull people together as a community. Councilor Rohde arrived at 8:25 a.m.. Councilor Turchi discussed the issue of the nature and extent of diversity in Lake Oswego, speaking to racial diversity in particular. He suggested reviewing the recently completed national census data to identify what they could do to create a more diverse community that was more representative of the rest of the Portland area. Councilor Turchi mentioned a stereotype of Lake Oswego that it was primarily white and unfriendly to Afro-Americans, which he did not think was true any more. He spoke to people who could afford to live here and who wanted to live in this kind of community feeling like this was an open and welcome place. He commented that he did not want it as a high profile issue but he did think that they needed to address it. Councilor McPeak endorsed the visionary statements about the future of the downtown. She commented that she disagreed slightly with Councilor Turchi's comments about a geographic unity in the community, and sensed a division in the community into east and west sides of town, caused, in a large part, by the lake. She spoke to expanding the vision of an improved downtown core to include the West side of town in a substantive way, especially the commercial aspects. Councilor McPeak mentioned that one area in which the residents on the west side of town sensed a difference from the other parts of Lake Oswego was in income level. She held that the reality was exaggerated. She spoke to the Council working to achieve a city in the future where the focus was not on the East End but on the city as a whole. Councilor McPeak mentioned an additional aspect to the problem of developing the sense of community described by Councilor Hoffman: the large turbulent population in Lake Oswego. She noted that there was a core of people who have lived in Lake Oswego all their lives and wanted nothing to change, while at the same time there was a large percentage of the population constantly moving in and out. She observed that in her neighborhood there were houses on their third and fourth owners in six years. Councilor McPeak commented that she did not think that that part of the city was strongly attached the community, which the Council might not be able to change. She spoke to making it easier for the computer literate professional people, who formed this turbulent group, to find out what went on in Lake Oswego. She cited the City website as one means of helping newcomers readily connect with the community. Councilor McPeak commented that, oftentimes, those who attended Council meetings on various issues had a vision of Lake Oswego in the past rather than in the future; they wanted to maintain the status quo, which was endemic to human nature. She expressed her hope that in the City Council Retreat Minutes—Morning Session Page 2 of 23 January 12, 2001 future the Council would take the lead in gradually expanding this view to a more forward looking view. Councilor McPeak said that she did not agree that they could take things like road maintenance for granted. She spoke to a vision of the Council leading Lake Oswego in developing an adult solution to stable road maintenance funding over the next 10 years. Councilor Rohde discussed the `fundamental responsibilities of government' model. He held that the first responsibility of government was public safety and the second was provision and maintenance of infrastructure; these were the reasons why government developed in the first place. He mentioned the development of additional government responsibilities over time, such as libraries and human services. Councilor Rohde described Lake Oswego's historic operation as a large engine held together with duct tape and string. He said that, during his first four years on the Council, he saw dramatic strides taken towards replacing the pipe covered with duct tape with a longer lasting pipe, and replacing the infrastructure with a better quality infrastructure. Councilor Rohde emphasized the need for the government to take care of the infrastructure. He mentioned his vision for the next four years of the Council committing towards achieving a level of infrastructure that did not require the City to run around constantly putting out fires. Councilor Rohde discussed his 'back to the future' vision for the community. He observed that two to three decades ago, Lake Oswego had more of a spirit of community than it did now. He mentioned the Lake Oswego Garden Club, which took it upon itself to landscape the median at the Lake Oswego entrance at Terwilliger and State. Councilor Rohde commented that, with the increased wealth in Lake Oswego over those decades, they might have become the victims of their own success. Instead of public involvement, people simply hired landscape companies to do the work. He spoke to the City providing opportunities for people to get involved and investing `sweat equity' in the community. Councilor Rohde discussed his optimism that this Council could do much to bring the community together. He argued that, although the watchdog of government aspect was valuable, one could work from a positive perspective to correct problems, as opposed to working from the negative perspective of government was bad and needed to be reigned in. He held that the positive thrust of this Council would reflect in the community, enabling them to take the vision they developed among themselves out to the community and to get the community to start believing in itself once again. Councilor Rohde referenced the Review's lament that this Council was too friendly with each other. He held that this positive attitude towards each other would be good for the community, although probably not good for newspaper articles focusing on negative comments made by Councilors. Councilor Rohde spoke to the issue of revisiting things, citing a comment he heard at his breakfast meeting this morning recounting an Eastern Oregon philosophy: You don't kick a cow pie when it's fresh and the weather is hot. He suggested that the Council consider that philosophy as it thought of issues it might want to reconsider in the next six months. Mayor Hammerstad described her sense that the Councilors' comments about vision indicated a healthy combination of people with a practical view of the world and of people with an aesthetics, community vision view. She said that she was in the middle; she operated from the pragmatic standpoint of what could they get done while working towards the larger vision issues. Mayor Hammerstad spoke to redeveloping the downtown over the next four to eight years in such a way that it stimulated the rest of the downtown redevelopment. She mentioned receiving a call from the owner of Bugatti's, a restaurant in West Linn, who wanted to relocate to City Council Retreat Minutes—Morning Session Page 3 of 23 January 12, 2001 downtown Lake Oswego. She spoke to the importance of a successful Block 138 because it would serve as the catalyst. She mentioned that she and Mr. Schmitz would visit Charleston after the Washington, D.C. conference to look at its redevelopment, which functioned on the theory of using public funds to provide a catalyst for privately funded redevelopment. Mayor Hammerstad spoke to including the area between State Street and the Willamette River in the redevelopment. She held that it could be the impetus for the development of the commuter rail and the trolley that they needed to decrease the congestion on Hwy 43 and to increase the livability of their community. She commented that part of Lake Grove's deterioration came from people simply passing through that district, rather than spending time there. Mayor Hammerstad spoke to developing an identity for Lake Oswego with the focus on being an arts community. She mentioned arts community elements of aesthetic buildings and fostering the development of the arts. She suggested looking at the development of the downtown from the additional perspective of whether it furthered the goal of creating an arts community. Mayor Hammerstad observed that obtaining lake access for the public was not doable in four years but she encouraged the Council to work on it. She asked what was the Council's role in suggesting the relocation of some of the lakefront businesses, such as a theatre with no windows, a bank with no access and a motel visible from Millennium Park. She argued that this went to the community's pride in who they were and what they wanted to be. She held that with the values of this group of Councilors, they should be able to get some things done. Mayor Hammerstad spoke to ending the class warfare that they saw on the previous Council: the haves versus the have mores, the east versus the west, the lake versus the neighborhoods. She discussed working with the Lake Corporation to incorporate it into the vision, as it was part of the community. She said that she would take on the personal role of trying to work with those who held diverse opinions, and did not agree with the Council, in order to reach cooperation in achieving the vision for Lake Oswego as a great place to live. 2.3 Ongoing major projects: Level of priority Mr. Hertzberg distributed a green sheet, which updated the purple sheet from last week. He observed that the back of the purple sheet spoke to many things mentioned by the Councilors, including the balance between basic infrastructure and vision. Mr. Hertzberg reported that he spoke with Bill Beebe, Planning Commission Chair, after last week's meeting and asked if the laundry list the Commission presented was really what the members were concerned about. He said that Mr. Beebe indicated that the Commission's real concern was the dynamic between the Council and the Commission. He said that Mr. Beebe also mentioned their concern about neighborhood compatibility. Mr. Hertzberg reviewed the ground rules for the discussion. • East End Redevelopment Doug Schmitz, City Manager, reported that the Block 138 agreement, the City's primary focus, was on hold because of several changes at Gramor. He mentioned Gramor changing its architects; the adjustments made by the new architects impacted the pro formas and cost analysis. He indicated that the City needed that information in order to figure out the City's financial contribution. Mr. Schmitz said that Gramor came to realize that the parking proposal might not provide sufficient parking to satisfy their lenders; they looked at other alternatives for size and number of parking spaces, resulting in consideration of a change in marketing, type of clients and use of Building D. He indicated that he and David Leland have pushed for Building D as a small boutique hotel of 40-50 rooms with a restaurant, as opposed to office and retail. He observed that a hotel would not impact the day parking and would provide additional city revenues through the hotel/motel tax. City Council Retreat Minutes—Morning Session Page 4 of 23 January 12, 2001 Mr. Schmitz reported that the City has not yet received the pro formas because Gramor was still tinkering with the design. He noted that they did not know the number of spaces for the parking garage yet, which impacted the size and design. He said that Mr. Leland was in the process of analyzing the financial reports for Gramor, received yesterday. He observed that they were not where they had thought they would be at this point in time. Mayor Hammerstad discussed her concern about the financial aspect, citing The Round in Beaverton. She said that she met with Mr. Leland to learn the basic underpinnings of the financials, and told Mr. Schmitz that if the City did not have the financials today, then the Council's goals would be different. She commented that if the development was not doable in this form, then the Council needed another plan, because they needed to get this redevelopment done, as the community had redevelopment fatigue. She emphasized that they needed assurances that this would be a financial success as well. Councilor McPeak concurred that the financial part was the core. She asked for more information regarding Gramor's change in marketing philosophy. David Powell, City Attorney, indicated to Councilor Rohde that Executive Session was the appropriate forum for a discussion on this issue as a negotiating piece in the development agreement but not for the broad element issues. Mr. Schmitz indicated that Gramor's switch of agencies was a positive thing, as the new agency had the contacts and muscle to get the desired types of tenants, which the previous agency did not. Mr. Schmitz confirmed to Mayor Hammerstad that Gramor has developed a marketing plan for locating appropriate tenants. He explained that staff did not have the plan in its possession but Gramor did share it with the previous Council. Mayor Hammerstad asked about the criticism that the rents were too high. Mr. Schmitz said that depended on one's perspective on what the rents should be and what they have been. He observed that downtown rents have been abysmally low compared to other market standards. He concurred that the new standard set by this development would be unattainable for the mom and pop tenants. He noted that it was probably in line with what national retailers paid elsewhere. Councilor McPeak discussed her concern that this might be bad timing because of the state of the economy. Mr. Schmitz said that he and Mr. Leland have discussed this issue many times and spoken with Mr. Cain about it. He explained how the Lane Report, a national indicator of market trends, showed that for two of the three markets Lake Oswego was interested in, the cycle was on the downturn in the Portland area. He mentioned that Mr. Cain did not share his and Mr. Leland's concerns. Councilor Hoffman asked if it was possible for the City to develop a redevelopment master plan for the East End that did not focus all its energy on Block 138. He suggested a two track plan: one that tried to make Block 138 work, and one that did not depend on the success or failure of Block 138. He observed that many people were happy with Block 138 in grass. He commented that there were many other elements in the downtown, such as the park, Arts Downtown, the other blocks, the Lake Corporation, and the motel. Mr. Schmitz explained that the intent was to provide public expenditures as a stimulus for the other things to occur, citing mentioned the park, the A Avenue improvements, and the First Street proposed improvements as examples. He discussed the difficulty the Wizer block created in a redevelopment plan because it was an `unmovable fixture.' He said that, in the next 12 months, the City would have to do something or face having one side of the street look sophisticated and finished and the Wizer side looking the way it did today. Councilor Rohde recalled that he had thought that the City purchasing all of Block 138 had been a bad idea because it put control of the process into the hands of the Council; the process became inevitably politicized with the election of a new Council every two years. He held that City Council Retreat Minutes—Morning Session Page 5 of 23 January 12, 2001 Portland could do this kind of redevelopment because the Portland Development Commission was reasonably autonomous and not subject to the election cycle. He contended that if the City had given the East End Development Committee the decision making power long ago, the project would have been done. Councilor Rohde stated his confidence that Block 138 would be completed. He spoke to looking beyond Block 138 to the more traditional role of government in redevelopment, that of providing the public infrastructure, such as the streetscape, the water and sewer lines, and undergrounding the electrical lines. Councilor Rohde proposed revisiting the outdated redevelopment plan to revamp it to reflect what the Council wanted for the area, including down on the waterfront. He held that they were in for a political battle because many of the people in the waterfront area would not support the New Urbanism philosophy. He expressed his hope that the Council would have the political will to do this. Councilor Rohde spoke to the Council reconsidering the design guidelines. He mentioned his appreciation of many different styles of architecture, and his concern that the guidelines might create a"Disneyland Main Street"theme for the Lake Oswego downtown. He observed that the downtown did have a few good buildings in terms of architecture, although the majority was garbage. He discussed the Gemini Pub & Grill on State Street as an example of a Mediterranean style building that worked well yet did not conform to the Downtown Design Guidelines. Councilor McPeak characterized Block 138 as a necessary part of downtown redevelopment but not the only part. She spoke to being flexible but completing it. She endorsed Councilor Rohde's comments with respect to the design standards. She indicated that she wanted to encourage good architecture, not standard looks. Councilor Schoen discussed his concern with Councilor Hoffman's remarks on Block 138. He argued that Block 138 was the lynch pin of the entire downtown redevelopment; it had to be done in one form or another. He mentioned another concern with the design guidelines: meeting them might create an exceptional development cost, which in turn could create high rents that exceeded the realistic rents for a town center. Mayor Hammerstad observed the community had such redevelopment fatigue that the sense she heard now was 'just get it done.' She cautioned the Council that they needed to do Block 138 right, and to get something that they wanted. She commented that if the design guidelines resulted in something like the new façade on the Lake Oswego Review building, then she concurred with Councilor Rohde that the Council needed to revisit them. She said that she did not care about creating a 'Lake Oswego style' but she did care about creating buildings that were aesthetically pleasing, something they could foster with people's own ideas. Councilor Hoffman held that seeing Block 138 as the lynchpin of redevelopment, per Councilor Schoen's comment, was something that the Council needed to agree on as a group. He said that he was not certain that he agreed with that anymore, and that he would like discussion on the issue. He questioned putting all their eggs in one basket, as Block 138 was only one out of 20 blocks. Councilor Hoffman asked what were the other components of the East End, and did the entire success of redevelopment depend on reaching an agreement with Gramor. He wondered if the entire vision of their community depended on one block. He reiterated his idea to work on other components in addition to Block 138. Councilor Rohde concurred with Councilor Hoffman that they needed to diversify their efforts in order to have backups, should this one effort fail. Mr. Schmitz held that they did have backups. He mentioned a street design project for First Street between A and B Avenues, a plan for the Foothills Road Corridor and the lower industrial area, staff work with private parties to redesign buildings, and a redesign project for the City Council Retreat Minutes—Morning Session Page 6 of 23 January 12, 2001 streetscape on B Avenue between First Street and Hwy 43. He noted the amount of money and number of staff people assigned to redevelopment. Mr. Schmitz spoke to listing what to do about the Lake Shore motel and the boardwalk issue under the visioning category. Mayor Hammerstad commented that she spoke to Dave Schultz and found that there was more support for the boardwalk from the Lake Corporation than she ever thought the City would get. Councilor Graham concurred with Mr. Schmitz that the City needed to decide what it was going to do about the Wizer property. The Council discussed the issue. Councilor Rohde observed that what motivated Mr. Wizer was the ownership of land. Councilor Rohde mentioned his interest in doing something about the Lake Shore motel. Mr. Schmitz recounted the staff plan to site a hotel on Block 138 and let the Wheatleys, who leased the Lake Shore motel property from someone else, run the Block 138 hotel. He indicated that the City could then purchase the land from the property owner. Councilor Rohde commented that he was not sure that destruction of the hotel was the only option, as a better architectural design could create a nice element out of it. • Open Space Master Plan Mr. Schmitz recalled that staff hired MacLeod Reckord to update the Parks and Recreation Master Plan per Council's direction two years ago. He said that the consultant bifurcated the project into a parks and recreation segment(handled by Tom Beckwith of Seattle) and an open space segment (a vision of what the community should look like over the next 20 years). He noted that the Natural Resources Advisory Board(NRAB) recommended approval based on the last draft it saw, which was not the final draft. He mentioned his direction to the Board to look at the final product before forwarding their recommendation to Council. Mr. Schmitz confirmed to Mayor Hammerstad that the Plan discussed the funding mechanism but it did not identify specific target properties in order to avoid upsetting the property owners. Mr. Schmitz confirmed to Councilor Rohde that the Open Space Master Plan was the umbrella plan under which individual open space plans fell, such as the Canal Acres Master Plan. He indicated that the plan identified the larger open space areas that should have their own master plans. Councilor Hoffman argued that they had an opportunity in the next five to six years to make a difference for future generations in terms of major acquisitions. He encouraged the Council to decide whether it wanted to spend significant dollars purchasing open space in the Stafford area or wherever. He held that they would see more pressure from those moving into Lake Oswego than from the Stafford area. Councilor Rohde spoke to this also providing the Council with an opportunity to develop public involvement and volunteer opportunities. He pointed out that they could spend the $2 million outlined in the Canal Acres Master Plan by hiring contractors to do the work or they could minimize the expense by dividing the elements into community projects. Councilor Graham agreed that doing so would create buy-in from the people very quickly. Councilor Hoffman pointed out that these were two separate issues: acquisition and development. He agreed that the development portion led to a sense of community through the volunteer efforts but reiterated that the first step was acquisition. He asked how much did the Council want the community to spend on open space acquisitions. He wondered what was the bonding capacity psychologically and economically on the part of the resident households. Councilor Graham observed that if the City did a good job with the purchases it made with the 1998 bond money, then the community was more likely to approve another bond for more purchases. City Council Retreat Minutes—Morning Session Page 7 of 23 January 12, 2001 Mayor Hammerstad suggested that the Council have a bi-weekly article in the newspaper to inform people of what it was working on. She noted that there was discussion in the community that the Council has not moved on the bond measure. Councilor Rohde concurred with Councilor Graham that a successful example would foster further dollars. He spoke of having access to the open space as an important element to the people, which would encourage them to authorize more money to do more on accessible public open spaces. Councilor Graham suggested that the Parks & Recreation Advisory Board (PRAB) set up tours of the City open spaces. Councilor Hoffman pointed out that this was a visioning issue; the question was how to get to the goal of a $15 million bond in 2006. He agreed with providing information on what the City has done and on the volunteer efforts, as well as working with different groups and getting a sense that this was what the community wanted. • Parks and Recreation Master Plan Mr. Schmitz confirmed to the Council that the Master Plan addressed the community center, the swimming pool and the athletic fields. He said that it did not address a golf course at Luscher Farm because that was overwhelming rejected in the survey last year. He mentioned that if the consultant, Tom Beckwith, came back with a recommendation that they could attain sufficient field capacity if the sports teams restructured their practice schedule, he thought it likely that it would become a political issue, as the team sports people had the mindset that they needed more fields. Councilor Rohde asked if the master plan discussed opportunities for private funding for facilities, given the expense of building facilities such as a community center or a pool. Mr. Schmitz said that he did not recall talking about that for capital, maintenance or operations. Councilor Rohde asked what comparatives did the plan look at in terms of cities of similar size and wealth to Lake Oswego. He mentioned hearing the philosophy from the team sports groups that they should not look at what other communities did because Lake Oswego did things its own way. Mayor Hammerstad spoke to keeping in mind that Lake Oswego did not attract non-profit funding, such as the YMCA building the Sherwood Community Center; they needed to look at private funding. She commented that while she was not certain that it did much good to compare themselves to other communities, she did not think that it hurt either. Councilor Schoen discussed his concern with the attitude that Lake Oswego, as a wealthy community, could afford anything it wanted. He described Lake Oswego as an economically diverse city with lower income people living on the west side and a large contingent on fixed incomes who were very concerned about taxes. He questioned whether they could afford all these programs, especially in the short-term. Councilor Schoen spoke to using a long-term visioning process as opposed to a vision for the next two to four years. He suggested looking at alternatives, such as improving existing fields as opposed to buying more fields. Councilor Turchi observed that it was counterproductive when someone achieved one goal at the expense of another goal, referencing the changes in property taxes that Oregon has gone through. He held that they might be able to build beautiful recreational facilities using property tax dollars and then not be able to fund public education. He spoke to being careful in the use of the property tax, as it was starting to drift back up and was potentially vulnerable to the passage of more limitations. Councilor Turchi concurred that a recreation center like the Tualatin Valley Recreation Center in Beaverton would be a great resource for the community but he did not know how they could make that happen. He spoke in support of Mayor Hammerstad's efforts to find a way to make City Council Retreat Minutes—Morning Session Page 8 of 23 January 12, 2001 the maximum use of the current facilities. He agreed that having made the best use of what they already had provided a basis to ask the community for more money. Councilor Rohde concurred with Councilor Schoen about the skewed perspective about Lake Oswego. He wondered what impact eliminating all the properties on the lake from the value of Lake Oswego would have on the average home price in Lake Oswego and on the average income. Councilor Graham recalled the abject poverty she saw at Lake Grove School, which no one expected in Lake Oswego. She concurred with Mayor Hammerstad that they did have a golden opportunity to work with the School District. She agreed with Councilor Turchi that the City stretching the taxpayer dollars as much as possible made people more receptive to future requests. Councilor McPeak observed that wealthy people had as strong an anti-government spending bias as poor people did. She expressed her hope that they did not spend too much of their time resources on a `pie-in-the-sky' element that would be nice but was not what the community should be brought to. Mr. Schmitz indicated to Councilor Rohde that the Master Plan did not address the District bond measure, which included field renovations. Councilor Rohde questioned what impact the $85 million bond would have on the City's Parks & Recreation Master Plan. Mr. Hertzberg recessed the meeting at 9:45 a.m. for a break. He reconvened the meeting. • City/School District Common Interests Mr. Hertzberg noted that Erin Campbell, the District's Government and Community Liaison, was present. Mayor Hammerstad informed the Council that a Council Subcommittee (herself, Councilor Schoen and Mr. Schmitz) met with School Board Chair Marcia Donnelly, Jim Zupancic and Superintendent Bill Korach to set the agenda for the joint Council/School Board meeting scheduled for after the regular Tuesday evening Council meeting. She mentioned getting the City's interests on the table early enough in the District's design phase to make a difference. Mayor Hammerstad advised the Council that the District wanted two Council members to attend their all day design symposiums: the Lake Oswego High School symposium on January 31 from 8 am to 9 p.m. with a follow up meeting on February 1 from 4 PM to 6 P.M., and the Lakeridge High School symposium on February 7 and 8. Ms. Campbell described the process proposed to gather public input on the design for the high schools' improvements. Mr. Powell explained that his review of the law resolved Councilor Turchi's conflict of interest because the conflict arose only when a Councilor worked for a for profit company, and not for a not for profit company. He mentioned informally discussing the issue with the Government Standards and Practices Committee, which agreed with this circumstance. He indicated that he and Mr. Schmitz thought that a formal letter in the file explaining the circumstance would be appropriate. He said that, as long as the discussion did not deal with personnel issues impacting Councilor Turchi or his wife, there should be no problem. Councilor Rohde emphasized that it was important to remember that the District was a separate government from the City. He acknowledged that the community might not understand that separation but it was important to recognize in the decision making process. He argued that the City had no business telling the District what to do with its $85 million bond. He agreed that they could work together to the best of their ability but the City had to be very careful not to dictate to the District. City Council Retreat Minutes—Morning Session Page 9 of 23 January 12, 2001 Mayor Hammerstad agreed that that was an important element. She mentioned their separate missions also. She argued that, even so, they had common interests, which they could pursue to the benefit of both agencies. She held that if the City asked for something from the District without being willing to give something in return, then they would see the division. Mayor Hammerstad stated that she thought that they could have a productive discussion on their common interests. She mentioned hearing in the Subcommittee meeting that the District had a high level of recognition that, although they were separate governments with separate missions, they had the same source of funding; therefore, maximizing the outcome would benefit the entire community as well as the two agencies. Mr. Schmitz recalled that the City and the District had a long history of working cooperatively with respect to their common interests, and that the two staffs knew each other well. He mentioned a joint fueling facility/storage and maintenance yard for big equipment. He spoke of cooperating on storm water management issues, such as the District giving the City land a few years ago in lieu of the storm water management fees. He said that they worked on joint maintenance opportunities and joint use of facilities. He noted that the District was a mutual partner in the City's Emergency Operations Planning and Responsiveness. Councilor Rohde asked what Councilor Turchi perceived as the school community's thoughts of the City using the school facilities that were used for one third of each day in the half a year they were in use. Councilor Turchi said that he has tried to facilitate community use of the available space, mentioning the use of rooms and the gym at Rivergrove almost every regular weeknight by community groups and the City Recreation Department. Councilor Turchi said that community use did not place a strain on their facilities, as they have been reducing the time allotted to custodial maintenance as the facility use increased. He observed that it was becoming increasingly difficult to maintain the facilities, given the school resources available. He held that they had a nice match between their facilities and potential community use. Councilor Turchi observed that high schools were different because the gyms were used from early in the morning to late at night, which he thought would continue even with the addition of new gyms. He commented that the high school library had a greater potential for joint use than the gyms. He discussed his concern that often joint responsibility meant that no one was responsible, which was an issue that he felt needed resolution. He confirmed to Councilor Rohde that there was a positive attitude in the school community to allowing the joint use of facilities but reiterated that they needed to take care of certain issues, such as unsupervised children after school doing things that they knew were inappropriate, like bouncing balls against the walls. Councilor McPeak observed that allocating the cost of operations and maintenance would spell out who was responsible for what. She mentioned reading a newspaper article about a strong movement to change the school calendar to a year round session with a longer day, which could potentially impact the use of joint facilities. Mayor Hammerstad commented that she thought that the District wanted a classic design that would be useable in almost any circumstances and able to accommodate future changes in curriculum and use. She observed that, in their field trips, the School Board has looked at schools with community rooms, which would be a positive thing for the community. She mentioned that the Board seemed receptive to the library. She held that the management and responsibility of the library was a management decision, which could be accomplished through an intergovernmental agreement. Mayor Hammerstad held that any shared facilities were best shared using both City and District staff, so that there was not a single ownership. She mentioned the probability that the City would need to pass an operational levy to contributed the additional funding. She recalled that, during her campaign, she had talked about building the library on the outside of the school in order to City Council Retreat Minutes—Morning Session Page 10 of 23 January 12, 2001 minimize security problems and to allow public use. She commented that the District would probably restrict the library use to its students during the day, observing that the District had the right to make that decision. Mayor Hammerstad argued that building a high quality research library available for use by the students and the community was the best possible situation. She held that the Council's role was to decide if the City needed a facility that it could share to meet a recognized community need. She noted that the Library Board said that there was a need and proposed a solution. She pointed out that the Library Board wanted more program and storage space; if they partially moved the computer research component out of the public library to the research library, doing so would free up space in the public library that might address the Board's interests, and still meet all the other interests without encroaching on the District's mission. Mayor Hammerstad posed the question: Did the Council want to enter into the discussion with the District about a library for community and District use to benefit both? Mr. Hertzberg compared the discussion to a funnel: the top of the funnel was all the possibilities, which the Council worked through to reach the bottom of the funnel. He noted that at the bottom of the funnel there needed to be an agreement between the City and the District. He directed the discussion to identifying what the possibilities were. Councilor Schoen commented that he had been impressed with the District's level of interest. He speculated that one of the District's concerns was the City reaffirming the City/School partnership. He held that the District recognized that the broad support it received from the Council for the bond issue (although a couple of Councilors did not support it) was important in passing the bond. He spoke to redefining the intergovernmental agreement, given the new facilities and that it has not been updated for several years. Councilor Hoffman discussed the common interests the City and the District had in sharing facilities on different levels. He described the joint use of facilities as developing a connection between the school community and the rest of the community. He observed that the children were the only group in a community that was segregated into their own little community. He argued that having something like the library facility at the high school would facilitate interaction between children and adults. He mentioned a possible interaction between adults and high schoolers at the Adult Community Center based on a mutual interest in computers. Councilor Hoffman spoke to the importance of identifying the community's needs in terms of community rooms, library rooms, recreational facilities and classrooms. He argued that the schools were the ideal location because they already had the infrastructure. He mentioned the frustration that they had no land left, citing former Councilor Lowery's frustration with having no place to put a community recreation center. He indicated that, while he did not want to tell the District what to do, he did want to be more cooperative and to see where they could work together with the District. Councilor Hoffman mentioned the Council prior discussion on enhancing and strengthening neighborhoods. He pointed out that generally the focus of a neighborhood was the schools. He asked how many neighborhood associations met in the school or knew who participated in the PTA. He argued that they could use the $85 million facility bond to encourage these linkages, including relating the neighborhoods to the schools. Councilor Rohde commented that most neighborhood associations did meet at the schools. Councilor Graham asked if the Parks & Recreation Master Plan discussed the school facilities, observing that the plan might have identified resources of which she was unaware. Councilor Rohde spoke to bringing the District into the discussions on that master plan in order to take advantage of the opportunity now available with the potential of the facilities bond. The Council agreed by consensus to look into a shared library facility with the School District. City Council Retreat Minutes—Morning Session Page 11 of 23 January 12, 2001 Councilor Hoffman spoke to working this issue carefully, given its importance. He noted that the Library Board and people in the community wanted a library facility. He spoke to the Council knowing what it was getting into before shifting the focus to services from the focus on a facility, as that was a major philosophical shift from the direction of previous Councils, the Library Board and the library volunteers. Mayor Hammerstad commented that she thought there was a change in attitude at the District, as two years ago, Superintendent Bill Korach would have said 'no' if asked about a joint library. She argued that the community effort it took to pass the school bond measure was a positive thing. She concurred with Councilor Hoffman, as the Library Board was still at the solution rather than looking at what the problem was. Mayor Hammerstad spoke to fostering understanding that what the community needed was more interest-based decision making; looking at the interest first and then finding a solution to the problem as opposed to going directly to a solution that might or might not satisfy the interests. She pointed out that the City did not have land available. She held that the Council would run into a firestorm if it tried to relocate the library to a neighborhood, the downtown or some other place that would come off the tax rolls. Councilor Hoffman noted that Mr. Hertzberg has worked with the Library Board. Mr. Hertzberg mentioned that the Board said that its concern was for adequate facilities rather than a new building, which they were not locked into. He indicated that the Board was uncertain whether the two sets of interests were compatible. He noted the Board's suggestion that it meet with the school library people to discuss the issue. He emphasized that the Board clearly stated that its interest was in providing the facility that the community needed Councilor Schoen pointed out that this cooperative effort with the District had the potential to remove several issues from the table, such as locating a facility on the west side. He observed that there was no consensus on location. He recounted the three views in the community: 1) we need a dramatic building located on a property taken off the tax rolls, 2) we need branches, and 3) a major facility should be on the west side. Councilor Schoen argued that there was no way to build consensus on this question. He spoke to the Council providing leadership and working something out with the District, which people would see as synergistic and an advantage to the community and to the school. He mentioned the need to educate the community on this issue, while recognizing that some people would not accept it. Councilor McPeak suggested deferring their thinking to the library discussion. She held that the sooner they could have an open and frank exchange of communication between the library people, the staff, the Library Board and the Council on what the facts and the prospects were, the better. She mentioned her hunch that the end result of the Council's position would be 'bad news' to the Board but argued that an open discussion would allow more focus on how the joint use of school libraries could satisfy the issues mentioned by Councilor Schoen. Councilor McPeak observed that the Council's description of the library so far focused on research, and not on a wide addition to the services for the community. She suggested discussing with the District whether the high school library could serve as a West side pick-up point for books requested over the Internet, which would add a service to this facility without adding much space. Councilor McPeak characterized this as a delicate situation. She referenced Colleen Bennett's letter to the Review this week, which she thought more encouraging in that Ms. Bennett spoke of looking 20 years down the road. She emphasized that this was a political question that would require much discussion. Councilor Turchi mentioned his skepticism that the high school library could become a community center. He spoke to using it to relieve the pressure at the public library by providing City Council Retreat Minutes—Morning Session Page 12 of 23 January 12, 2001 a place for the high school students to do their research during the regular school year, and thus reducing the number of people using the local library. He argued that not many community people would go to the high school library because they found it intimidating. He commented that over time, they might develop a culture that would make the school library a community gathering place for research but held that, initially, it would be hard to make it work. Councilor Turchi discussed the question of whether there would be sufficient community use of the research facility during the summer to justify staffing it. He held that there were real issues surrounding this possibility but reiterated that it did have the potential to reduce the pressure on the local library, which might postpone the building of a new library. Mayor Hammerstad recounted a conversation she had a former School Superintendent living in Chandler, Arizona, whose community dealt with this situation. She mentioned that the primarily adult community of Chandler initially opposed a joint library facility but now the Superintendent described it as a 'boon to the community.' She noted that Parkrose has done something similar. She held that the success depended primarily on what they put into the library. She concurred with Councilor Turchi about the intimidation factor but argued that this would be an opportunity for people to get over that. She observed that the kids were human beings, commenting that the presence of adults in the library might make a difference to the kids also. Councilor Rohde concurred with Mayor Hammerstad about this being an opportunity for adults to lose their fear of kids by being around them. He observed that kids often behaved more like adults when they were around adults. He discussed his concern about the size of the library, noting that most high school libraries were 2,500 to 3,000 square feet, which was not a large facility. He spoke to research facilities at Lake Oswego and Lakeridge available for both student and community use. He commented that such a facility might require 5,000 to 7,000 square feet, which was also a cost issue. Councilor Rohde spoke to the Council sharing the cost if it intended to share the responsibility and achieve this community interaction. He held that if the Council doubled the size of the facility from the District's expectation of what it needed to meet its needs, then the Council needed to be there with the money. Councilor Graham commented that if the community paid for part of the library, then she wanted more than only after school access. Mayor Hammerstad pointed out that Lake Oswego had no place now to do extensive research; people had to go down to the Multnomah County Library. She argued that this would be an addition to the community, and not a subtraction. She conceded Councilor Rohde's point and spoke to investigating the size issue. She observed that they did not have enough information yet to know if they could make this work but reiterated that it had great possibilities. She commented that, since the Council was in agreement on investigating this option, they had a framework for their Tuesday discussion. Mr. Hertzberg directed the discussion to other common interest areas. Mayor Hammerstad mentioned hearing from Marcia Donnelly at the Subcommittee meeting that the District intended to put several hundred thousand dollars into upgrading the swimming pool, which would not solve its problems. She wondered whether it would be better to close the pool and put that money in a fund for a new swimming pool that would form the basis for a new community recreation center in a different building. Mayor Hammerstad observed that installing artificial turf on the fields scheduled for renovation would double the usage on those fields by extending their lives for another five months. She pointed out that if they doubled field usage, then they did not have to purchase more land for fields. She mentioned using the Rassekh property across from Luscher Field for an aquatic recreation center, instead of for sports fields (its current designation). Mayor Hammerstad mentioned that West Linn had a developer interested in privately funding an aquatics center on the property across from its City Hall in Urban Reserve 30. She held that City Council Retreat Minutes—Morning Session Page 13 of 23 January 12, 2001 Lake Oswego using cooperative interests to achieve something greater than they were thinking of was a possibility. Councilor Rohde discussed his perception that the schools throughout the country have, to a large degree, abandoned teaching civics to students. He mentioned the two primary reasons that Thomas Jefferson had advocated public education: to teach children how to read and to teach them how to be citizens. He contended that the schools have failed in their responsibility to teach children how to be good citizens, citing the disappearance of general civics courses that were replaced by technology courses. Councilor Rohde suggested that the District implement a community service requirement for graduation, something that some school districts already did. He spoke to using a City community involvement program to integrate students into participating in the community. He observed that citizens did not realize how much good the community did or how great the staff was until they started working with them. He commented that students might develop a better attitude towards government if they interacted with the government. Councilor Hoffman spoke to exploring with the School District how to create opportunities for children and adults to interact. He pointed out that one way to teach children to be good citizens was to interact with adult citizens. He mentioned his concern with Councilor Turchi's comment that giving high school students their own research library could take the pressure off the public library. He stated that doing so was contrary to his desire to intermix adults and children. He spoke to the City and the District exploring the assets and needs of both the District and the community and seeing where they matched. Councilor Schoen asked if there was an opportunity for cooperation with the theater. Councilor Turchi responded to Councilor Rohde's comments. He said that education in Oregon has gone through cycles in the last 35 to 40 years, depending on what was going on in society. He noted that when society had had environmental, anti-war and civil rights movements, many students were interested in civics. However, by the 1980s, society no longer had those movements and the students' focus changed to what they needed have in order to be successful in a competitive environment. Councilor Turchi commented that what was happening now was a reversion back to students being more involved in the community, citing the required Lake Oswego High School civics class that was now taught separately from a history class. He disagreed that they were at a low ebb in terms of student involvement and interest in civics; rather, they were on the way up. He said that he did not think it was a bad thing to involve students and adults in the community. Councilor Turchi held that, although a community service requirement for graduation was worthy of discussion, it was an area where the City would be infringing on the right of another government agency in terms of what it did. Councilor Rohde clarified that he had not meant that the City would demand such a requirement, but rather than the City would work with the District to provide those opportunities, if the District wanted to impose that requirement. Councilor Graham suggested exploring partnerships to build an aquatics center with other agencies, such as West Linn and the School District. She spoke to the Shadow Council as a way to get students more involved. She commented that Mr. Schmitz's idea about honoring the unsung heroes of the community should include kids. Mr. Schmitz pointed out that if the City suggested installing more synthetic fields at Lake Oswego Junior High(per Mayor Hammerstad's comments), the District would ask if the City was willing to pay for converting the grass fields to synthetic fields. He reported Superintendent Korach's information that the District did not put money for synthetic fields in the bond, and therefore they could not spend the money on synthetic fields. He indicated that he would like to know before Tuesday night whether the Council supported paying for the conversion so that he could find out from Finance whether or not the City could afford it. City Council Retreat Minutes—Morning Session Page 14 of 23 January 12, 2001 Mr. Schmitz indicated to Mayor Hammerstad that the cost of artificial turf would be approximately $1 million per field, which was $300,000 to $400,000 more than renovating the grass fields cost. He commented that he did not want to lose the opportunity because he agreed with Mayor Hammerstad that preserving the nine acres out by Luscher Farm for some other use in the future created other possibilities. Mr. Schmitz discussed the options for funding the synthetic field conversions: dropping one or two projects in the City fields & open space bond, and reallocating City budgeted funds for other park projects over the next couple of years to supplement the bond measure. He commented that he did not think that they would have any surplus money in the bond because Westlake came in over the estimate. Councilor Schoen mentioned another option of charging fees for field use, which he held were relatively moderate or minimal at this time. Councilor McPeak commented that, while she would not reallocate funds in another category that she considered more important(such as road maintenance) to fund synthetic fields, she would discuss reallocating money from other parks and recreation spending to pay for synthetic fields. Councilor Hoffman reviewed the course of the conversation: if the City wanted to use the Rassekh property for something other than fields, then it needed to replace Rassekh as a source for fields, which it could do by extending the life of the existing fields. He commented that if the District closed the pool, then the City would have to find an immediate replacement somewhere because the political pressure would be too great. He mentioned the Rassekh property as a possible location; Councilor Rohde mentioned the Armory. Councilor Hoffman said that if the idea was to use the Rassekh property for a community center, then he would be willing to discuss installing artificial fields at Lake Oswego Junior High with the anticipation of doing something at Rassekh in 2004 or 2006. Councilor Rohde spoke to looking at the Armory as a potential recreation facility, as he believed that the current users were pulling out. He speculated that it was a five-acre parcel with room for a pool, fields and community meeting space. Councilor Rohde spoke against transferring money from other bond projects to fund the synthetic fields, although he supported the synthetic fields if they could find the money somewhere else. He argued that the City had the same responsibility to complete the list of parks projects it presented on the ballot as it did when it completed the road projects listed on the street maintenance bond ballot. Councilor Schoen argued that greater field usage made financial sense if they amortized the costs of the maintenance of the grass fields to see if they could get a return on the $1 million. He commented that doing so gave them some options down the road. Mayor Hammerstad commented that it was difficult to give Mr. Schmitz an answer without knowing what the other parks projects were. Mr. Schmitz suggested that he assemble the information over the weekend, and the Council discuss it at the Tuesday morning meeting. Councilor Rohde spoke against postponing the George Rogers Park project, as that park has been neglected for two decades and was in dire need of work. He pointed out that it was at an entrance to Lake Oswego. Mayor Hammerstad commented that it would be difficult to justify synthetic fields if they left out a community use park. Mr. Hertzberg recessed the meeting at 10:55 a.m. for a break. Mr. Hertzberg reconvened the meeting at 11:00 a.m. City Council Retreat Minutes—Morning Session Page 15 of 23 January 12, 2001 • Library Mr. Hertzberg asked what did the Council want to accomplish this year with regard to the library. Councilor Graham spoke to getting some hard facts detailing the exact nature of the increase in library usage. She questioned what exactly did they need more of. Mayor Hammerstad pointed out that, although the statistics shows that library usage was up, they also showed that the number of people going into the library was down. She said that she would be interested in seeing what happened in the first quarter of this year in order to determine whether or not that was an anomaly. She indicated to Councilor McPeak that she thought the drop of 100 or so people was significant. Councilor Rohde reviewed what happened in the library siting process a year ago July. He said that he had talked with John Broderick about the need for community support behind the Council's library siting process, as the Council was hopelessly mired in the site selection process, which was actually a political issue. He indicated that Mr. Broderick was going to organize the community support while he would work with the Council to select a site. Councilor Rohde recalled that he discussed the issue with other Councilors and they agreed on the Second Avenue site but Councilor Lowery, to whom he had not spoken, decided to make it into a controversial issue. He noted that Mr. Broderick did not organize sufficient community support for the Council, and the whole process failed; the Council dropped it, as it threatened to turn into a campaign issue. He observed that what really came out of this situation was the fact that there was no consensus in the community as to what was needed for the library. Councilor Rohde spoke to the need for a visioning process to establish what the people needed and expected from a library in this community. He mentioned Barney Worth, a consultant firm for livable communities that had experience in doing libraries in communities. He expressed his hope that the Council would commit to a visioning process,using consultants, in order to find out what the community really wanted. He held that the Council did not get an idea of what the community wanted from the Library Advisory Board. Councilor Schoen observed that one of the problems that the Council ran into last year was the lack of a public process. He commented that the Council selected a site and not even the people who owned the property knew about it, let alone the general community. He characterized it as falling apart from the beginning. Councilor Schoen noted that the consensus of the Council was to talk with the School District about the possibility of obtaining additional library resources in cooperation with the District. He spoke of two questions facing the Council today: whether it could get expanded facilities and how soon they could move on it. He emphasized the need for public input on the possibility but questioned whether they would run out of time if they pursued Councilor Rohde's visioning process. Councilor Rohde clarified that he was thinking of the long term, and not the immediate process. Mayor Hammerstad indicated that the School District did have an extensive public process planned for the design phase, noting the upcoming symposium in particular. She reported that the Coordinating Council, at their meeting last week that she attended, discussed including the Library Advisory Board in discussions on the library. She commented that she had thought of including the library users in a visioning process about the likely outcome of a cooperative venture between the City and the District. She pointed out that doing so would identify what would not be part of the school library, which would then become part of the next process in looking at a future community library. Councilor McPeak summarized the situation as the Council looking at the overall library question but within that question it had the joint use possibilities with the School District. She noted that the future of the Lake Oswego Public Library was a separate issue. She spoke to City Council Retreat Minutes—Morning Session Page 16 of 23 January 12, 2001 working the joint use issue first, in the hopes of getting many solutions out of it. She held that bringing the Library Advisory Board into that process should help a great deal. She suggested including another group from the non-library community. Councilor McPeak spoke to completing the joint issue sometime during this year, such as by September; at that point they could move into Councilor Rohde's visioning idea. She indicated that they would not talk about the future library possibilities. She explained to Councilor Rohde that, with the downtown and infrastructure needs already before the Council, she did not think that the Council would find the resources to build a new library for some time. She argued that talking about the future library possibilities would only serve to raise the hopes of a very motivated small group of people that the City intended to build a new library soon. Mayor Hammerstad spoke to first seeing how a joint facility with the School District might work before proceeding to identify needs through a visioning process. She expressed her concern that they might discover after the process that those needs changed based on how the new facility worked. Councilor Rohde said that he did not object to putting the Library Advisory Board's desires on hold but spoke to the Council keeping in mind that that was what it was doing. He held that they were not putting an idea on hold; they were putting the strong desire of seven people on hold. He argued that those seven would not be satisfied with the Council telling them to wait two years while it found out whether or not the possibility with the School District worked. Mayor Hammerstad indicated that she did not want to do that either. She spoke to meeting with the Library Advisory Board soon. Mr. Hertzberg discussed his perceptions of the tone of the Library Advisory Board discussion that he facilitated for one day. He noted that Mr. Schmitz had been present for most of that day. He indicated that the tone of the discussion was significantly different from the letter and the presentation the Council received from the Board. He observed that Mr. Schmitz concurred with him that the tone of that discussion had been consistent with the Council's current discussion. Mr. Hertzberg recalled that the Board said at that time that it recognized that a new library was not a front burner issue but it wanted to make sure that it stayed on the stove. The Board held that people recognized a need for a library and that the City was moving towards filling that need, although there was a long lead time involving community visioning, siting, funding, design, etc. He indicated that he thought that the Council had a willing partner in the Board for the most part; the presentation gave a misimpression. Councilor Hoffman agreed with working with the School District to explore opportunities for library services. He spoke to not forgetting that the library was one of the most symbolic facilities in their community (along with City Hall, the schools and the parks). He argued that, although provision of services was important, the visioning process was also important, as sooner or later they would need a new facility somewhere. Councilor Hoffman spoke in support of Councilor Rohde's visioning process, and letting the community decide if it needed a community facility. He held that there were a significant number of people in the community who wanted a new facility, citing the surveys that found people wanting either a new library or a branch library. He indicated that, without the visioning process, he was not certain if most of the community found the present facility inadequate, although he thought it likely. Councilor Hoffman said that he saw no harm in pursuing both tracks. He observed that the community, not the Council, would go through the visioning process and make the decision. He referenced the use of blue ribbon task forces by other communities for these kinds of issues. He spoke of selecting leaders from the community to serve on the committee, staffing the committee and working with consultants to move the process forward. City Council Retreat Minutes—Morning Session Page 17 of 23 January 12, 2001 Mayor Hammerstad commented that the City survey did not show that the citizens thought that the community needed a new library or that getting one was a high priority; the survey showed that they were satisfied with the library. Councilor Rohde explained that the survey question asked which of five things would citizens spend City resources on; the library came in at number one. Mayor Hammerstad mentioned her concern with sending a mixed message about the library. She held that it was confusing to the citizens for the City to have more than one process going on at the same time. She summarized the Council discussion as looking at a two step process: working immediately with the School District on a possible joint use of the high school library, and a separate process to look at the future of the library. Mr. Hertzberg summarized the three ideas he heard in the discussion: Councilor McPeak's suggestion for a community library visioning process, and Councilor Hoffman's two-step process. Councilor McPeak clarified that she thought they should bring the Library Advisory Board and a group of other citizens into the discussion that the City would have with the School District on shared library facilities. She indicated that once they had a firm idea of what they could achieve through a joint use facility, then they could decide whether it was appropriate to end the Council's work on the library for this year(because they achieved some solutions) and tell the Library Advisory Board that they would not address the new facility this year or to address the new facility this year because they did not achieve much with the School District. Councilor Hoffman indicated that he heard Councilor McPeak and Mayor Hammerstad describing a two-step process, in which the Council first explored the option with the School District and gave it some time to see how it worked out, and then went into a visioning process. Councilor Rohde recounted a possible interpretation of the message of that Council action. "We understand that there is a need for a library. We have identified a way to satisfy that need, and we are going to move forward with seeing if the School District and the City can work together to do this. We do not think it is necessary at this point to do a community visioning process on the needs of the library because we already understand what they are and we think that we can solve some of the problem just by doing this. And at some point in the future, we will ask the question of the community as to what they really wanted from a library." Mayor Hammerstad agreed with Councilor McPeak that that was a stark interpretation. She argued that it was not quite accurate, as the Council was trying to maximize this opportunity without minimizing the need for looking at the future of libraries. She pointed out that the City would not drive the school library; the school would build what it wanted to build. Councilor Rohde commented that they were maximizing an opportunity, which they have not asked the community if it wanted to take advantage of Mayor Hammerstad indicated that she assumed that the community passed the school bond measure for the betterment of the whole community. She held that the message was that the community wanted those dollars maximized. Mr. Hertzberg reviewed three steps in sequence: determining what the needs were, exploring with the School District the potential to meet those needs through collaboration, and a longer term visioning community process (depending on how many needs were met through collaboration). Councilor Rohde said that the first step mentioned was the community visioning process. Councilor McPeak said that that did not describe her thought. She agreed with Councilor Hoffman that the library was important but noted that the existing library did serve the community well. She spoke to the Council admitting that it was not the right time to go to the taxpayers for bonding for a new library facility. She held that, in that case, they should see what City Council Retreat Minutes—Morning Session Page 18 of 23 January 12, 2001 they could achieve in Step 2, and then, in the next year, proceed with the visioning process and looking at the library needs overall. Councilor Schoen held that, once they got through Step 2, then they did have a public process. He argued that the community would be ecstatic if the City could get additional facilities at the lowest possible cost to the City, thus allowing the Council to address other needs, as opposed to the City trying to pass a $12 to $15 million bond issue in four years. He conceded that these additional facilities might not eliminate the need for a new library in 10 years but he did think that the public process involved in Step 2 would answer most of the Council's questions. He commented that at that point, they could determine what Step 3 needed to be. Councilor Turchi concurred with Councilor Rohde that if they used the high school opportunity for a new library, essentially they removed from the library discussion a number of features that would have been incorporated in a new library, and thus altered the conditions under which the City would build a new library. He agreed that the decision to partner with the School District made a lot of difference in terms of whether the City built a library. Councilor Turchi argued that if the School District was willing to do a design process for their library that included public input on the specifics of a library and how it met the needs of the community relative to a community library, then the two issues worked together; the joint use did not necessarily preclude a new library. He commented that if they went only with exploring the joint use possibility, then they would have a problem with the Library Advisory Board. Mayor Hammerstad pointed out that a new library in Lake Oswego, even at $15 million, would never be the Multnomah County Library; it would never be a research library. She argued that the component that the high school library brought to the mix was the research component that probably would not be part of a new community library anyway,just as the school library would not have the community program elements that the public library offered, such as pre-schooler programs. Mayor Hammerstad spoke to maximizing what the school library would design for its use with the additional sources gained through public input, knowing that it would not satisfy all the needs of a community library. She observed that the current community library did not satisfy all the needs either. Councilor Rohde said that he supported the idea of the responsible government model, in which they were elected to make decisions for four years, after which the community decided whether or not to continue this Council's decisions. He spoke to the importance of the Council recognizing that in making a decision to partner with the school to create a research facility as one answer to the library need, they were doing so without involving the community. Ms. Campbell* mentioned that the library had been a big issue during the bond campaign. She said that people were interested in it. She held that the community was expecting something with respect to a library. (*Erin Meadors was previously listed incorrectly in the minutes) Councilor Rohde clarified that he did not think that this was the wrong decision to make but he did think that the Council needed to recognize the decision that it was making. He recounted an analogy of asking children what they wanted to do on the weekend—an open ended question—or telling the kids that the family was going skiing and asking where they wanted to go skiing. He argued that the Council was making the fundamental decision by itself and allowing the community to come in afterwards and make some decisions. Councilor Rohde concurred with Mayor Hammerstad that doing so was part of leadership but he reiterated that the Council needed to recognize that that was what it was doing. Mr. Hertzberg summarized the discussion as they would begin by exploring the potential of the partnership with the schools, which might lead to a broader visioning process sooner rather than later but the visioning would occur after the discussion. Councilor Graham commented that City Council Retreat Minutes—Morning Session Page 19 of 23 January 12, 2001 involving the public in the planning during January might stimulate more meat on the skeleton of the high school library. Councilor Rohde clarified that he did support the idea as a good idea and he would back the Council 100% on its decision. He spoke to being prepared for the decision, as he has seen the process go awry in the past when the Councilors did not all agree. Councilor Hoffman agreed with Councilor Rohde that they needed to understand what they were doing. He referenced Councilor Graham's point, commenting that they should emphasize to the School District their concern that the community's input on library services become an important part of the District's process. Mayor Hammerstad indicated that the Coordinating Council discussion made it clear that the District wanted the community to have an opportunity to talk about what it wanted, especially with respect to the library. Councilor Hoffman spoke to being flexible and communicating that they were not committing the community to the joint use possibility as the sole solution to the library issue. Mr. Hertzberg recalled Councilor McPeak's suggestion that the conversation with the School District include people from the library, the Library Advisory Board and others. Councilor Rohde asked if the Council had any interest in putting research facilities at both facilities or only at Lake Oswego High School. He indicated that he would like to see facilities at both high schools. Mayor Hammerstad commented that she thought the Lakeridge students would prefer to go to Lake Oswego rather than traveling to Multnomah County Library. Councilor Rohde observed that, as an alumnus of Lakeridge High School, he did not believe that that was necessarily the attitude of the students. Councilor Graham referenced a concern raised earlier by Councilor Rohde about how much would the City dictate to the schools. She questioned whether telling the District to look at another research library at Lakeridge was too much of an incursion into their territory. Councilor Schoen indicated that the answer to Councilor Rohde's question about two research libraries was no. Mr. Hertzberg observed that the Council has reached agreement on the path. He noted the Council's recognition of a long-term need for a library, and asked if the Council wanted to meet with the Library Advisory Board. Mayor Hammerstad said yes. Councilor Turchi noted the difficulty with the short timeline between this meeting, the school symposium and getting the Library Advisory Board members to attend the meetings. Councilor Rohde commented that the Library Board was enthusiastic enough that they would meet with the Council at the drop of a hat, especially to discuss this issue. Councilor Rohde presented a request from Jan Marto and Sharon Miadich with respect to the criteria for Library Advisory Board membership. He explained that the criteria required a Board member to agree with the Library Bill of Rights. The question was, if the Council wanted a diversity of opinions on the Board, would it allow the opportunity for members to serve on the Board who disagreed with the Library Bill of Rights. Dave Powell, City Attorney, said that the Code stated that the Board would make recommendations to the Council that were consistent with the principles of the Library Bill of Rights. He observed that those were very broad principles. He stated that he told those two ladies, when they asked, that there was no litmus test for board membership; members could hold whatever view they wanted to. Mr. Powell observed that the Council was asking the Board to use the principles in the Library Bill of Rights as guidelines for administering the library and for making recommendations to Council. He concurred with Councilor Rohde that someone opposed to those principles would not want to be on the Board if the City required the Board to make recommendations based on those principles. City Council Retreat Minutes—Morning Session Page 20 of 23 January 12, 2001 Councilor Hoffman questioned if any other boards had that kind of requirement. He commented that he had forgotten that the requirement was in the City Code, not the City Charter. He indicated that he was not interested in changing the Code. Councilor Graham commented that if the Council decided to let the Advisory Boards recommend their own members, that might solve the problem. Mayor Hammerstad said that they had the same thing at the County and had appointed people with a more conservative bent to the County Library Board. She agreed that the principles were broad but not a litmus test. Councilor Rohde pointed out that there was no requirement that members of the Natural Resources Advisory Board agree with the principles of the Sierra Club. • Sister Cities Mr. Schmitz recalled that the assumption behind Lake Oswego entering into its second Sister City relationship with Yoshikawa, Japan, had been that the Sister Cities Organization, the private group, would facilitate and financially underwrite the activities. He said that the Sister Cities Organization no longer existed; the City and its staff have kept it going, largely due to the efforts of former Mayor Klammer who enjoyed the work, and often paid for expenses out of his own pocket. He indicated that there was little interaction with Pucon, Chile, the other Sister City. He suggested revisiting the City's involvement with Sister Cities at this time. Councilor Rohde confirmed to Councilor McPeak that what lay behind the Sister Cities concept was the promotion of trade and tourism. He said that Portland and Beaverton both had active organizations that were operated by the Chambers of Commerce because of their trade activities. He observed that Lake Oswego has emphasized the cultural exchange aspect because the nature of its business environment was not conducive to trade. Councilor Rohde recalled his meeting with the Sister Cities organization a year ago as the Council liaison, and their preference to abandon any efforts rather than put together a budget request for the Council. He mentioned that their relationship with Pucon, Chile, had begun in the 1970s when there was greater interest in South America; the pattern was that Lake Oswego sent things to Pucon, an impoverished community, and received nothing in return. Councilor Rohde said that Chris Hoffmann at the Chamber was interested in participating but not as the lead organization. He mentioned that interacting with the Yoshikawa representatives has been a great deal of fun, and that Yoshikawa would like to interact more with the community. He noted that this was a good use of hotel/motel tax revenues in terms of promoting tourism and community building activities. Councilor Rohde indicated to Councilor Graham that there were other members of the Chamber interested. He explained that the Chamber had been waiting for the dysfunctional Sister Cities group to die before starting anew. He spoke to this as an opportunity to start a fresh and positive relationship. He suggested dropping Pucon as a Sister City. Mr. Schmitz said that he would contact the International Sister City Program for their protocol on doing so. Councilor McPeak commented that this was one way Lake Oswego could pretend to have some diversity. She indicated that she did not see this as a high enough priority to continue. Councilor Graham said that she tended to agree with Councilor McPeak. She mentioned hearing a comment at the League of Oregon Cities November meeting from the Mayor of Cascade Locks who suggested a sister city program within the state. Mayor Hammerstad summarized the discussion as the Yoshikawa relationship might be worth continuing, especially if they could infuse new interest in it, but they should drop the Pucon relationship. Councilor Turchi said that he was willing to be the liaison, mentioning the sister school relationships he had been involved in. Councilor Rohde disagreed with Councilor McPeak that the Yoshikawa people had the capacity to visit Lake Oswego but Lake Oswego people could not visit Yoshikawa. He City Council Retreat Minutes—Morning Session Page 21 of 23 January 12, 2001 explained that the only cost was airfare because once there, the Yoshikawa hosts took care of everything. Councilor McPeak commented that if they used the hotel/motel tax revenues for visiting Yoshikawa, that removed the money for use on something else. Councilor Rohde observed that priorities of using the hotel/motel tax money were a larger budgetary question. • Highway 43 Mr. Schmitz said that the concern was the congestion during the peak hours. He indicated that ODOT had no plans to do anything, other than the minor improvement at the Terwilliger implemented last summer and the City's street improvement projects. He explained to Mayor Hammerstad that ODOT dropped the signal project because of cost. Mayor Hammerstad commented that this was a possible topic for discussion with their Congressional delegation in Washington, D.C., especially with the objective of getting federal dollars. She asked for an update on the legal possibilities for the trolley and on the participation of Lake Oswego's partners. Councilor Rohde indicated that the line was eligible for an extension of the Portland Central City Streetcar but it was unlikely to be considered as an extension of MAX or for a commuter rail project because there was already a commuter rail line that would cross the river from Milwaukie to Lake Oswego, Sherwood and beyond. He said that, although there were still right- of-way concerns, there was nothing to prevent an extension of the Central Street Streetcar. He mentioned current plans to route the Central City Streetcar into the Macadam district with a southern termination point at Who-Song & Larry's or OPB. Councilor Rohde explained that if the line was used for MAX, then they needed to make significant purchases of right-of-way to accommodate the dual tracks. He mentioned Dunthorpe in particular as a hotly contested area. He indicated that they expected opposition from the Dunthorpe residents over intensification of the use, as they already did not like the trolley, but Lake Oswego legally had the right to use the line. Mr. Powell asked what was the status of the study that the Coalition was going to do on these issues. Councilor Rohde said that the preliminary estimates to extend the Central City Streetcar south to Lake Oswego was $65 to $75 million, which was cheap for a rail transportation project at less than $10 million a mile. He indicated to Councilor McPeak that the extension project was an excellent candidate for federal funds. Councilor Rohde confirmed to Councilor Hoffman that the question was whether to upgrade the electrical line from OPB to downtown Lake Oswego. He mentioned support on the Portland City Council, at Tri-Met and at Clackamas County for doing so. He said that ODOT was interested but not enthusiastic. He indicated that they also had good support from their Congressional delegation. Councilor Rohde confirmed to Councilor Turchi that the intent of the project was to move people off Hwy 43 for transport to Portland. He said that the water transport studies found three reasons for failure: the unpredictability of the river, the cost of the sites to stop and pick-up (including parking) and the right-of-way, and the probable lengthy time it would take for the entire trip (including loading and unloading). He mentioned concerns raised by the Army Corps of Engineers: the river was a navigable shipping way and also carried recreational traffic. Mr. Schmitz mentioned that, due to Councilor Rohde's efforts, the consortium members each agreed to invest between $18,000 to $20,000 a year for the next five years in the line maintenance. He noted the trestle rehab project scheduled for 2002/03 using a T-21 grant of $500,000 with a local match of$50,000, which they still needed to find. Councilor Rohde discussed the shift in support from Multnomah County starting this year. He said that the primary opponent was Commissioner Serena Cruz who held that any available City Council Retreat Minutes—Morning Session Page 22 of 23 January 12, 2001 money should go to human services. He noted her other arguments that Portland could not afford to maintain their own bridges and that it should not invest any money in a line that was not their responsibility. Councilor Rohde mentioned his belief that through appropriate political pressure, Lake Oswego could get Multnomah County back to where it were before but at this time, the County was pulling back from the table. He said that Commissioners Diane Linn and Bev Stein both expressed strong support for the idea. He pointed out that if Multnomah County pulled out, then the whole thing fell apart because the other partners have all stated that they would not participate unless everyone did so equally. Councilor Turchi asked what legal resources did the Dunthorpe residents have to stop the line. Mr. Powell said that the residents would have a hard time filing a suit because, although the easements and deeds along that section of the line were a mishmash, they all allowed rail type uses, which the trolley was. He noted that if they tried to convert the line to a walking or bike path, then they would have legal issues. Councilor Graham asked if there was a consortium of merchants along the trolley line in the Macadam area and Riverplace who might be willing to contribute funds to make up for anything lost from Multnomah County. She noted that the Astoria Trolley seemed to do well with its combined City/merchant funding. Councilor Rohde said that he did not know the strength of the business community in the Macadam area, as to whether they could afford to contribute. Mayor Hammerstad asked Mr. Powell to develop an information sheet for the Council on the legal status of the trolley line. Mr. Powell said that he could provide a synopsis of a general analysis of the topic done several years ago. Mayor Hammerstad observed that the only part of the line in unincorporated Multnomah County went through Dunthorpe. Councilor Rohde reported that Tri-Met has said that it would put more money into the line and money into a major Lake Oswego transit center if Lake Oswego would commit to redeveloping the Willamette Waterfront area into mixed use with intensified housing and employment. Mr. Hertzberg recessed the meeting at 12:05 p.m. for a lunch break. Respectfully submitted, Z )(;1)4.-ItZ 6 Robyn Cli�istie City Recorder APPROVED BY THE CITY COUNCIL: ON May 15, 001 ...4" udie Hammerstad, City Council Retreat Minutes—Morning Session Page 23 of 23 January 12, 2001