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HomeMy WebLinkAboutApproved Minutes - 2009-02-19 SpecialILA E OJk2 °sCITY COUNCIL SPECIAL MEETING MINUTES February 19, 2009 OoEw" Mayor Jack Hoffman called the special City Council meeting to order at 6:36 p.m. on February 19, 2009, in the City Council Chambers, 380 A Avenue. Present: Mayor Hoffman, Councilors Jordan, Hennagin, Moncrieff, Olson, Tierney, and Johnson Staff Present:Alex McIntyre, City Manager; David Powell, City Attorney; Robyn Christie, City Recorder; Brant Williams, Director of Economic and Capital Development; Bob Galante, Redevelopment Director 3. STUDY SESSION 3.1 Facilities and West End Building Decision — Next Steps Mayor Hoffman noted that the decision trees presented by Mr. Williams represented hundreds of hours of staff work but not an endgame. The endgame was up to the Council to decide, in consideration of the previously obtained community input. He indicated that he expected to get a sense of the group through the nodding of heads. He spoke to thinking about both the short-term and the long-term impacts as the Council went through the decision-making process. He pointed out that, in addition to the financial aspect, the decision-making process had a social aspect too, as buildings were part of the social fabric of the community. He described the interconnectedness of individual elements, such as City Hall, the Library, Foothills, or the WEB (West End Building), noting that everything had a ripple effect. Mr. Williams recalled that the fundamental question before the Council was whether to keep or to sell the WEB. He stated the process goal as the Council being able to make as informed a decision as possible, and one which the community could support. He referenced the staff summary of the background information collected on the six buildings over the last seven months presented at the February 10 Council study session (West End Building Decision Process report). He indicated that the purpose of tonight's meeting was to review and agree upon the next steps in the decision-making process. Mayor Hoffman pointed out that the next steps developed by staff were not necessarily the correct steps or the only steps. Councilors were free to add steps throughout this review. Mr. Williams reviewed the nine next steps identified by staff and listed on p. 27 of the WEB Decision Process report, presented to the Council at the February 10 study session. He noted that, while each step was important, the Council would need to prioritize them because staff could not take them on all at one time. He indicated that the first six were the key to moving forward with a decision making process. Councilor Tierney spoke to formulating guiding principles to use as a litmus test for any decision the Council made. He argued that a consensus on the Council regarding certain principles could help eliminate options and drive the decision-making. He suggested a guiding principle of "government belongs in the downtown." He described Mayor Hoffman's suggestion to consider both the long term and short-term effects as another guiding principle. He mentioned public engagement and public acceptance of the plan as other guiding principles. He indicated his preference that the Council take only one decision back to the community, but no more than three options. City Council Special Meeting Minutes Page 1 of 10 February 19, 2009 Councilor Hennagin stated that he disagreed that the City civic center be in one commercial district as opposed to another commercial district. He commented that City Hall has been downtown for 50 years. He wondered whether, it should be in the west side commercial district for the next 50 years. He agreed with Councilor Tierney that they could discuss the concept, and that reaching some agreement on it might be beneficial. Councilor Olson concurred. Councilor Jordan agreed that discussing concepts on which the Council had some consensus was a good idea. She compared this issue to a Rubic's Cube: she has been pushing the pieces around for two years and still was not certain she could solve the puzzle. She mentioned the siting issue of where to put police services. Should they locate police within City Hall or in a separate building? Councilor Tierney concurred that deciding which facilities were in the discussion would bring some clarity. Councilor Jordan mentioned her preference for bringing at the most two options (with their price tags) to the community. She commented that, while the Council has learned that just because someone said that he/she wanted an option did not mean that he/she was willing to pay for it right now, the public acceptance of one option over the other would give the Council an idea of which option to go for. Councilor Johnson proposed discussing how many options the Council wanted to have at the end of the process. She referenced her e-mail stating her preference for one option, two at the most. Councilor Hennagin recalled a suggestion from a few years ago about putting the Library on the Safeway block. He mentioned a possible combination of the Library and City Hall by locating the Library in the brick building next door to City Hall. Mayor Hoffman indicated that he was not comfortable setting a number of options at this time. He mentioned that he preferred going out with three or four options. Councilor Olson indicated that she preferred one option on which the Council could agree and two at the most. Councilor Johnson commented that a single option could be amended as the Council heard from the public. She held that they needed to have only one option in order for it to be workable and efficient in getting to an end of the process. Councilor Jordan discussed deciding the priorities with respect to the buildings first, as that would make it easier for the Council to have fewer options to take out to the public. Councilor Hennagin indicated that he was undecided. Mayor Hoffman noted that the majority of the Council was comfortable with one or two options as a guiding principle. Councilor Tierney suggested discussing Councilor Jordan's point about deciding what buildings were in the discussion, and where to locate police services. He spoke to talking only about the WEB and City Hall. Councilor Hennagin questioned leaving the ACC and the Library out of the discussion. Councilor Moncrieff concurred that they did not need a full facilities discussion and that they could concentrate on the WEB. She noted the Council goal to develop a facilities maintenance plan, into which the other facilities could fall within a priority order established by the Council. Councilor Olson argued that the Safeco property complicated the facilities discussion. She pointed out that the City would still have to deal with the existing facilities issues, whether or not it owned the building. She suggested leaving it out of the discussion. She noted that the City could lease office space to relocate City Hall temporarily at a cheaper rate than it would cost to remodel the WEB to house City Hall. She contended that it would be beneficial to consider making some of these decisions without the WEB in the equation. Councilor Jordan commented that, while she understood Councilor Olson's point, the WEB was what started the whole facilities discussion in the first place. They could not ignore a property that a previous Council purchased as a long-term investment for the community as a way to provide additional community service space. She acknowledged that the City might never use it but rather City Council Special Meeting Minutes Page 2 of 10 February 19, 2009 do something creative with it. She emphasized the importance of recognizing that it was a facility that the City owned, and that the Council had to address. She recalled that the community center study left 44,000 square feet empty at the WEB for the Library. She argued that if they did not include the Library in a discussion of facility needs, then they would be missing one of the key components that have been a facilities requirement for a long time. Mayor Hoffman pointed out that this was the WEB decision process, and therefore, they needed to consider the WEB. He mentioned Mr. McIntyre's admonition to the Council that it had to deal with this building that the City owned, as it was costing the City money. He spoke to discussing the WEB, City Hall, and the Library, as the need to increase Library space had been a driving reason behind the previous Council's purchase of the WEB. Councilor Johnson held that a crucial part of this discussion was looking at the facilities within the larger context of community needs. She indicated that she was comfortable discussing each facility and its needs individually (outside of the WEB) and then looking at how meeting those needs would fit into the overall plan, including the WEB. Councilor Moncrieff recalled that the reason that the WEB was purchased was that over a decade ago, City leaders and citizens decided that Lake Oswego needed a community recreation center. She held that that was the best use for the building. She spoke to taking a long-term visionary view with respect to City facilities, and asking questions such as, just because City Hall could fit into the WEB, was that the best place for City Hall? She held that they should not rush to fill the WEB with other needs simply because it had available space. Councilor Olson commented that that consideration was part of her point that because the WEB was sitting there, everything defaulted to it. She disagreed on its use as a community center, based on only 17% of the Hibbetts Davis focus groups wanting a community center. She stated that she was not saying that they should not talk about the WEB, given that the Council had a huge financial burden looming because of it. She spoke to looking for creative approaches to dealing with the facilities issues that went outside the box of the WEB. Councilor Hennagin held that he had an obligation as an elected official to look at all the options in order to determine which would be the most cost effective and efficient. He pointed out that, even if they looked at each facility individually, the Safeco building would always be the elephant in the room. He noted the possibility of selling the ACC, and the ACC, the Library, and Parks & Recreation sharing activity rooms and space at the WEB. Councilor Olson noted that there were strong majority opinions supporting keeping the ACC downtown. Mayor Hoffman returned the discussion to guiding principles, as opposed to options. Councilor Johnson suggested that another guiding principle be that the Council look at all six facilities, and decide in the one plan whether to address them. Councilor Tierney reiterated that they needed to focus on a limited number of buildings in order to reach a conclusion on this complex issue. He spoke to focusing on the inter -related buildings. He indicated that he was comfortable with including the Library, but that he saw no reason to include the South Shore Fire Station or the Maintenance Services Building, as they were tangential to the task. Councilor Johnson asked what the task was: to look at all the facilities and decide on a master plan, or to figure out what to do with the WEB, City Hall, the Library, and the ACC? Councilor Tiern y said that the Council goal was to deal with the WEB. Councilor Jordan suggested discussing the priorities within the facilities list in order to decide which ones were important for right now. The Council could build a package around the priorities and then deal with the lower priority ones later. She held that all six facilities merited attention within the next two years, but they did need to designate which ones should have the initial focus. City Council Special Meeting Minutes Page 3 of 10 February 19, 2009 Mayor Hoffman agreed that they should discuss all the facilities. Councilor Olson concurred, but acknowledged Councilor Tierney's point that the Council would have a hard time focusing and getting to a decision point. Councilor Hennagin agreed with Councilor Tierney that they should focus the discussion on the WEB, City Hall, the Library, and the ACC first. He hoped that they could get to the fire station and the maintenance building later on, as they also needed attention. Councilor Johnson clarified that she wanted all the buildings in the discussion, but not necessarily in the plan. Mr. Williams recommended keeping all the facilities on the table. He pointed out that, while the Council was not likely to discuss the fire station or the maintenance building very much, it might want to factor some of those buildings' needs into a bond measure or implementation strategy. Mayor Hoffman summarized the second guiding principle as the Council would discuss all the facilities at some level. Councilor Jordan commented that, while a decision about where to site a temporary City Hall was way down the road, she was not willing to concede that it would be cheaper to lease space around town than to place the staff in one facility that the City already owned. She mentioned a possibility of moving the Library to the WEB and City Hall to the Library; if they held only City Council meetings and hearings at the WEB, then they would not need to make temporary office renovations to the WEB. She observed that they clearly needed to make a decision about City Hall, and keep all the options on the table. Mayor Hoffman spoke in support of Councilor Olson's suggestion to be creative. Councilor Johnson suggested 'be creative' as a guiding principle. Mayor Hoffman indicated that they would set aside the guiding principle 'city government buildings belonged in the downtown area' in light of Councilor Hennagin's strong reaction to it. He commented that he did not want a guiding principle with a majority in favor and a strong minority opposed. He pointed out that it would come up during the decision making process anyway. Councilor Olson pointed out that if the Council did agree on that as a guiding principle, then it could dismiss the discussion of having City Hall at the WEB. Mayor Hoffman indicated that he was not comfortable making a decision on such a complicated concept right now. Councilor Jordan mentioned including private/public partnerships in the 'be creative' guiding principle. She suggested a guiding principle of making a decision on how to finance the options. Mr. McIntyre commented that, while a discussion on guiding principles was valuable, staff was ill- prepared to participate, as they based the presentation tonight on last week's meeting and the past six months of work. He suggested bringing a facilitator to help the Council work through the guiding principles, as it was a thoughtful and time-consuming process. He reviewed the question before the Council tonight: should the City keep the WEB? He commented that, while the previous Council might have purchased the WEB for a community center, that idea has gone away, and the City was left owning the building. He explained that the staff analysis showed opportunities for the Council to consider on how to integrate the WEB into the City's facilities needs. He pointed out that those facility needs were very real and occurring all at once. Mayor Hoffman concurred that the guiding principles discussion was premature. Councilor Tierney disagreed. He held that it was late, as identifying the underlying value statements that all Council members shared would help facilitate decision-making. He stated that he was comfortable with whatever decision the Council made, but pointed out that the decision trees would raise questions regarding guiding principles. Mr. Williams mentioned his expectation that the Council would not have much consensus on the different branches on the decision trees. He described the work tonight as testing the waters with the decision trees to see what principles came out. Afterwards, they could revisit the guiding City Council Special Meeting Minutes Page 4 of 10 February 19, 2009 principles and have solid discussions on them. Councilor Olson concurred that discussing the steps in the decision trees would help the Council define its guiding principles. Mayor Hoffman returned the discussion to the possible next steps. He noted that he did not hear anyone saying that they needed any other steps than those listed, or that these were not the correct steps. Mr. Williams concurred with Councilor Jordan that the steps were not in sequential order, but pointed out that they could revisit any of the earlier steps in this general order while discussing a later step. Councilor Johnson suggested moving directly to the decision trees (Step 4) to see where people were at on the various options, even without reaching a financial decision. • Step 1 Mayor Hoffman noted that Councilor Jordan answered 'yes' to the first step: there were other facilities options that needed to be considered. Councilor Jordan mentioned her earlier suggestion of moving the Library to the WEB and moving City Hall temporarily to the Library building. Councilor Moncrieff recalled an earlier suggestion to combine Parks & Recreation, Library, and ACC functions at the WEB. Mr. Williams cautioned the Council regarding proposing other facilities options. He pointed out that there were an infinite number of possible configurations, but if there were some that the Council thought were viable, then staff wanted to put them on the table. Councilor Jordan commented that there were other political options possible as well, such as a joint aquatic center with West Linn. She noted that Mountain Park was renewing its Recreation Center, and therefore might not support a pool, although that area was very supportive of the Library. • Step 2 Mr. Williams continued to answer questions raised by the Council last week. He indicated that staff estimated a $49 million cost for Councilor Moncrieff's suggestion to repair City Hall, to add a new main Library to the City functions already at the WEB, to build a new police/9-1-1 center on the WEB site, and to sell the Library property. He said that staff would proceed with hiring a consultant to provide updated City Hall cost estimates in order to answer the question of whether it really was cheaper to replace the building than to repair it. Councilor Hennagin disagreed, arguing that any new estimate would not be substantially different enough to justify the cost of the consultant. Mayor Hoffman acknowledged his point, but said that, given the public skepticism over a 23 -year-old building being obsolete, he would feel more comfortable with a peer review of the SERA Architects' work. Councilor Tierney concurred with Councilor Hennagin that hiring another consultant was not the best use of City resources at this stage. Mr. Williams said that he could get a cost estimate for doing a peer review of the SERA report, which he assumed would be much less than $20,000. Councilor Jordan concurred with getting a cost estimate for the peer review. Mr. Williams indicated that Police Chief Duncan and the LOCOM facility manager should have the citizen -requested analysis of contracting out 9-1-1 dispatch to Clackamas County completed in two weeks. He mentioned that contracting out the service had both cost implications and service level implications, as Clackamas County did not offer all the services that LOCOM did. The Council discussed whether staff should proceed with this analysis. Councilor Olson pointed out that the Council members agreed that providing the 9-1-1 service was more important than whatever the cost savings might be. Councilor Jordan recalled that seismic concerns about City Council Special Meeting Minutes Page 5 of 10 February 19, 2009 emergency services facilities were behind the request. Councilor Tierney described it as a question of benefits versus costs. Mayor Hoffman, Councilors Tierney, Hennagin, and Moncrieff supported staff finishing the report, while Councilors Johnson, Olson, and Jordan did not think it necessary. Mr. Williams commented that he thought that the information would be helpful in responding to citizens. Mr. Williams presented a corrected list of City -owned properties based on Councilor Olson's identification of several properties not listed in Exhibit R. He said that he would work with Ms. Gilmer to make sure that all City parks and open spaces were on the list. He presented a corrected list of funding options. He explained that he added on tax increment funding because it would be a good funding source for civic buildings located in the downtown redevelopment area. He noted that they needed to schedule the Council tour of City facilities. He directed the Council to the sheet providing answers to additional questions asked by Council members. He did not recommend including the interest costs on bonds sold and the line of credit in the estimated costs of purchasing the WEB because the time value of the money and the tax- exempt interest costs for GO bonds almost cancelled each other out. Mayor Hoffman concurred. Mr. Williams indicated that the Wells Fargo Bank line of credit came due this July. He said that Wells Fargo was interested in reissuing the line of credit with renegotiations. Mr. McIntyre explained to Councilor Olson that the loan collateral was not the WEB but rather the City's good faith and credit. Mr. Williams cited the work done for the community center planning effort in stating that the Library and Parks & Recreation could have some joint usage of meeting rooms, although their programs both tended to occur in the evenings. He concurred with Councilor Hennagin that the ACC would use those rooms during the day. He indicated to Mayor Hoffman that there was not a good answer to the question of how low the City reserve funds could go before jeopardizing the City's AAA bond rating. He explained that the rating depended on a number of factors, of which the reserve fund balance was only one. However, if the City started dipping into its reserves, staff would wonder how the bond raters would respond to that action. He noted that, while the ACC property could address some of the Library's space needs, they would have to adjust the services provided at the ACC in order to do so because the ACC was currently used to its capacity. The ACC itself would most likely use any extra space on site, and the Library preferred to keep all its services under one roof, although it could always use extra collection storage space. He indicated the City could purchase or lease the new office building right across the street from City Hall to help address space needs at City Hall. He said that about half the building was still unleased. He pointed out that, while leasing office space in the city would address the overcrowding issues, it would not deal with the fundamental problems of City Hall. He said that staff has not spent much time looking at whether partnering with the School District on common functions could help address the deficiencies with the City's maintenance yard. He indicated that the City already partnered with the School District on a number of maintenance functions and shared a fueling system. Also, the District's maintenance facility sat on a constrained site behind the Lake Grove Elementary School. He indicated to Councilor Jordan that staff could look into the costs of upgrading the WEB kitchen to provide the meal preparation services currently handled at the ACC. Councilor Hennagin asked staff to research whether tax increment funding would reduce the cost of facilities to the City if they were able to use tax increment funding to construct the facilities. Mayor Hoffman recessed the meeting at 8:06 p.m. for a break. He reconvened the meeting at 8:20 p.m. City Council Special Meeting Minutes Page 6 of 10 F bruary 19, 2009 • Step 3 Mr. Williams responded to the question of which facility issues needed to be addressed and which could be eliminated. He reviewed the significant facility issues for each of the six facilities, as presented in detail at the February 10 meeting (West End Building Decision Process staff report). • Step 4 Mr. Williams indicated that he would review the options and public opinion research for each facility individually in terms of how the City might use the WEB to address the significant facility issues (West End Building Decision Process staff report). • City Hall The Council discussed the decision tree for City Hall. Councilor Olson observed that an updated peer review of the SERA report would help with the question of whether to repair or to replace City Hall. Mr. Williams explained that if the Council did not want to address the issues with City Hall (the do nothing option), then staff would take a reactionary approach and deal with the issues as they came up. The Council agreed by consensus that it wanted to address the problems at City Hall. Mr. Williams clarified to Councilor Tierney that the choice to repair City Hall over time as needed intended a more aggressive repair program than has occurred in the past. Councilors Johnson and Jordan said no to repairing the building over time. Councilor Tierney said yes, but commented that it was annoying to have to spend so much money to repair a 23 -year-old building. Councilor Olson concurred with Councilor Tierney. Councilor Jordan pointed out that City Hall was not in this condition because staff has neglected it, which was the public perception. Staff has done maintenance on the building over time, but some systems have reached the end of their life cycles and needed replacement. She emphasized that the building problems came from the way the building had been built and the use of the wrong materials. Councilor Tierney commented that one of his guiding principles was if the Council agreed on one option, then that would be the best decision; the best decision would then be sellable to the community because it was sellable to the Council. Mr. Williams mentioned that there was no timeline associated with the City Hall options. Staff conducted regular air quality tests and they were doing fine. They could stay here for another few years. Councilor Johnson spoke to having more discussion of the different options involved in the 'repair or replace' fork. She commented that deciding what stayed in City Hall and what left City Hall was an important element in the discussion. Mr. Williams noted that the 'yes' fork of repairing the building had two options: repairing it in its entirety or repairing it over time. Councilor Hennagin spoke in support of doing the repair work all at the same time. Councilor Jordan asked to include another option for the temporary facility needed if they either repaired the building in its entirety or replaced the building. Councilor Olson indicated that, while she could not decide at this time, obtaining accurate cost estimates through the peer review of the SERA report, and Councilor Hennagin's tax increment funding information, could help answer the question. Councilor Jordan pointed out that using tax increment funding would effectively locate City Hall in the downtown because that was the only redevelopment district the City had at this time. Mr. Williams indicated to Councilor Tierney that the current information indicated that it was less expensive to replace City Hall in its entirety on its present site than it was to repair it. Councilor Ti rn y observed that, from a financial perspective then, replacing City Hall was the better idea. City Council Special Meeting Minutes Page 7 of 10 February 19, 2009 Councilor Hennagin indicated that he concurred with Councilor Tierney that replacement was the better option. He pointed out that if they repaired it, they would need to add on to the building in order to address the overcrowding issue. Councilor Olson commented that adding on space depended on whether they left police and the 9-1-1 Center in City Hall; if they moved it out, then other City functions could move into the second floor. Mr. Williams indicated that the space needs analysis found that City Hall was the right size in the long term if police and the 9-1-1 Center moved out. Councilor Jordan agreed that the location of police and the 9-1-1 Center was an essential element in their decision. If they decided to separate it out, then they had to build a Class 4 seismic facility on a different site, and those costs should be included in both the repair and replace estimates. Councilor Hennagin reiterated that he wanted to know whether they could save money by using tax increment funding to keep City Hall in the downtown area, as opposed to relocating it to the WEB. Councilor Jordan questioned whether there was a third site for City Hall, other than downtown or the WEB. Mayor Hoffman mentioned Foothills as a possibility. Councilor Hennagin recalled that the Urban Land Institute recommended looking at sites other than the WEB, such as the Providence Medical Center site, and doing comprehensive planning for that area. Councilor Johnson commented that, for her, determining the location would depend on what made the most financial sense. She said that, while she preferred a downtown location, she was not opposed to moving City Hall out to the WEB if that made the most sense. She asked to see the different financing options. Mayor Hoffman indicated that financial sense was also his primary criterion, but he saw financial sense in terms of financial repercussions. He mentioned a theory of place that hypothesized that when civic buildings left the downtown, that action sent a message to developers and to retail businesses. He cautioned the Council to consider carefully in the decision-making process both the long-term (economic development) and short-term financial costs of moving an important civic building out of the downtown, which was, by definition, the City's commerce and retail center, Councilor Tierney concurred with Mayor Hoffman that the primary driver was what option was the most financially prudent. He commented that, while he preferred a downtown location, his preference should not stand in the way of an intelligent decision. Mr. Williams indicated that staff was looking for general direction, and no commitment because they needed to explore more thoroughly the financial issues. Mr. Williams asked if the general direction from the Council was for a downtown location with some caveats about financial situations. Councilors Olson and Moncrieff each indicated that she agreed with a downtown location. Councilor Hennagin argued that the proposed Foothills development, along with the Wizer block development, could provide sufficient residential support for the downtown economy to render negligible the impact of City Hall employees on the economic vitality of the downtown businesses. He suggested taking a poll of City Hall visitors to see how many used other facilities downtown when they came to City Hall. Mayor Hoffman acknowledged the Councilor's point about multiple visits in the downtown on a trip to City Hall. He argued that there were other issues involved, including the symbolism of the downtown as the center of Lake Oswego, and sending a message to the private sector. He commented that if the City sent the wrong message to the private sector, then there was a danger of returning to a 1980s Lake Oswego, with a falling tax base and assessed values. Councilor Johnson suggested including in the next discussion the option of splitting up City services, and identifying which ones were critical to have in the downtown. She commented that she saw the Library as more of a draw in terms of economic development than some City Hall functions. City Council Special Meeting Minutes Page 8 of 10 February 19, 2009 Councilor Olson concurred with Mayor Hoffman's remarks about the heart of the downtown and economic viability. She mentioned a fourth consideration, that a vast majority of Lake Oswego citizens have expressed interest in keeping City Hall in the downtown area. She commented that they could not ignore Lake Grove, and that public safety services were not necessarily needed in the downtown. She spoke to looking at the Mercantile property as a creative option. Councilor Jordan pointed out that the majority of the Lake Oswego population lived on the west side of town. She held that they needed to put some kind of civic function on the west side. She said that she favored leaving downtown City services, such as finance and building permits, or the kinds of things people came from outside of the city to utilize. She agreed that the heart of the business district was the downtown and that they could not forget the other side of town. • Police/9-1-1 Center Mr. Williams reviewed the options for locating police and the 9-1-1 Center. The Council discussed the decision tree. Councilor Johnson spoke in support of locating these functions outside of City Hall, citing the seismic concerns. Councilor Olson concurred. Councilor H nnagin commented that it would make more sense to locate these services more centrally to the population for better response times. Councilor Jordan concurred, but questioned whether the public supported moving police/9-1-1 Center out of City Hall in order not to have to improve the whole building to the higher seismic standards required for emergency services. She wondered whether the public had seen moving these functions out as simply making it easier and cheaper to repair City Hall. Councilor Tierney commented that he would not discount the option of keeping police/9-1-1 Center with City Hall because the public might be willing to fund a City Hall that included public safety but not a City Hall by itself. He said that he had no preference on the question, although he thought the idea of allocating civic resources to different parts of town had some value. Mr. Williams reminded the Council that a significant issue with the police was security and the post -9-11 security issues. He indicated that, even pre -9-11, employee and citizen safety had been a concern when combining typical City Hall functions with police. He said that, while he could not say why the focus group respondents responded the way they did, the security issues were probably a major consideration along with the seismic issues. Councilor Moncrieff concurred that security was an issue as well as the seismic concerns. She observed that a stand-alone police/9-1-1 Center facility was easier to keep up to code. She described the public survey response as clearly identifying public safety as a priority. Councilor Jordan suggested obtaining more information on the options of keeping police/9-1-1 Center with City Hall in the downtown or separating it out and putting it on the west side. Councilor Tierney suggested asking the Police Department to weigh in on the issue. Mr. Williams asked if there was a preference about the WEB property as a police station site versus another site on the west side of town. He recalled that the Urban Land Institute felt strongly that a police station was not the best use for the West End property. Councilor Olson agreed that it was not the best site. Councilor Jordan noted that, based on the information that it currently had, the sense of the Council was to separate police and the 9-1-1 Center from City Hall. She mentioned that that could change as they received more financial information. She commented that the financing information would also affect the decision on locating police in the downtown versus the west side. The Council discussed whether to continue the discussion tonight or to continue it to another meeting. Councilor Tierney observed that this discussion has not yet gotten to original question of what were they going to do with the WEB. He indicated to Mayor Hoffman that he did not think that the Council was prepared to discuss that question right now. City Council Special Meeting Minutes Page 9 of 10 February 19, 2009 Mayor Hoffman indicated that he was not opposed to discussing the WEB with respect to City Hall, although he preferred to keep City Hall in the downtown. He commented that an expert on downtown revitalization might hold Councilor Hennagin's position that a City Hall was not necessary in a downtown any more because of other economic generators. Councilor Johnson commented that the Council has discussed City functions as opposed to City facilities. Councilor Jordan pointed out that Lake Oswego was a unique community in that it was located by a lake and it had two distinct business districts, representing the two original towns. She held that part of what they were trying to achieve was how to keep these two joined cities functioning as one. She commented that she would like to see a second downtown centered on Boones Ferry Road. She wondered if that happened, whether they would ask about these same drivers in order to keep this second downtown going. Councilor Hennagin observed that relocating Parks & Recreation, the Library, and the ACC to the WEB and leaving City Hall in the downtown could provide economic drivers at each end of town. Councilor Jordan recalled that the original Boones Ferry plan called for locating a public function at the end north end of Boones Ferry, which the previous Council thought it fulfilled with the purchase of the WEB. The Council decided to continue the discussion to another meeting, which the Mayor and Mr. McIntyre would schedule. 4. ADJOURNMENT Mayor Hoffman adjourned the meeting at 9:20 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Robyn hristie City Recorder APPROVED BY THE CITY COUNCIL: ON April 7, 2009 Kristin Jo son, Presiding Officer City Council Special Meeting Minutes Page 10 of 10 February 19, 2009