Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAboutApproved Minutes - 2009-11-23 Special0 CITY COUNCIL SPECIAL MEETING MINUTES November 23, 2009 a�coM Mayor Jack Hoffman called the special City Council meeting to order at 6:30 p.m. on November 23, 2009, in the West End Building, Santiam Room, 4101 Kruse Way. Present: Mayor Hoffman, Councilors Jordan, Hennagin, Moncrieff, Olson, Tierney, and Johnson. Staff Present: David Donaldson, Asst City Manager; David Powell, City Attorney; Robyn Christie, City Recorder; Susan Millhauser, Sustainability Coordinator; Denny Egner, Asst Planning Director; Denise Frisbee, Planning and Building Director; Jonna Papaefthimiou, Natural Resources Planner Guests: Mayor Tim Knapp, Wilsonville; Lisa Nead, City of Wilsonville Environmental Education Specialist; Holly Brunk, Natural Step Network; Stephan Lashbrook, City of Wilsonville Assistant Community Development Director; Paul Shirey, City of Milwaukie Public Works Director; Justin Bates, AmeriCorps Sustainability Outreach Coordinator Commission Members: Eric Monahan, SAB; Paul Lyons, SAB; Bruce Brown, SAB; Dorothy Atwood, SAB; Grant Watkinson, Co -Chair, SAB; Julie Glisson, Planning Commission; Philip Stewart, Planning Commission Chair; Jim Gustafson, Planning Commission; Jim Johnson, Planning Commission Mayor Hoffman recognized Mayor Tim Knapp from Wilsonville. Mayor Hoffman introduced Duke Castle, Castle Group. He noted Mr. Castle's extensive experience in presenting the Natural Step to organizations in both the public and private sectors. He mentioned the Group's goal to show business and community organizations how they could move forward towards creating a sustainable society while maintaining a healthy economy. 3. WORKSHOP 3.1 Sustainability Leadership Training Mr. Castle gave a PowerPoint presentation (see packet). He asked the City Council and the Planning Commissioners what the issues of sustainability were that came to mind. Mayor Hoffman mentioned the issue of taking the concept out to the community and getting community buy-in/ownership of this way of thinking. Councilor Tierney commented about the need for a common definition of sustainability. He asked how sustainability worked into decision- making. Councilor Olson asked to hear about the economic sustainability of the City, as the discussions tended to default to the environmental issues. Councilor Jordan asked what activities or actions would see the greatest gain for the money invested in introducing the community to sustainability. Councilor Hennagin concurred with Mayor Hoffman's concern about public education and reaching those who did not pay attention to what was happening in City government. Mayor Knapp indicated that the questions raised by the City Council were the same questions that the Wilsonville City Council has started discussing. He mentioned engaging the business community in particular. City Council Special Meeting Minutes Page 1 of 10 November 23, 2009 Commissioner Glisson asked if there were any incentive -based programs to help encourage sustainability efforts. Mr. Castle mentioned a Portland program to help make homes more energy efficient. He spoke of a recycling program that paid people based on the weight of their recyclables. Mr. Lyons asked how to change the minds of individuals who saw no need for sustainability. Councilor Moncrieff asked about metrics and measurements for incentive programs and the like. Ms. Atwood asked for Mr. Castle's perspective on the different models for engaging the community. Mr. Castle recounted the story of how he, as a businessman, became involved with the Swedish program, Natural Step, after hearing a talk by Paul Hawkins about this program that helped businesses and organizations move towards true sustainability. He presented a definition of sustainability and an expanded definition from former Governor Kitzhaber (p.1, Slide 3). He noted that the expanded definition added the requirement of meeting environmental, economic, and community needs simultaneously, or the triple bottom line of a healthy environment, social system, and economic system. He read the definition of sustainability from Lake Oswego's Sustainability plan (p.1, Slide 4). He discussed the differences between the discussion on 'green' ecological practices and the tenets of sustainability (p.1, Slide 5). He mentioned that the language of the 'green' discussion implied that humans were the problem; if humans were not here, then everything would be fine. He noted that sustainability looked at things differently than simply doing the least damage and minimizing waste. He indicated that sustainability required a whole system focus on the interaction of all the system elements, which made it a complex and strategic issue that looked at the big picture. He commented that it was not that humans were consciously trying to destroy the planet but rather that humans did not understand the way that nature designed a sustainable planet. With that understanding came an alignment of practices with the principles, and the metrics to measure success. He discussed how sustainability has gone mainstream over the past three years, driven by global warming concerns (p.1, Slide 6, p.2, Slide 1). He commented that they could solve global warming and still not be sustainable. He mentioned that the next big issue was likely water (p.2, Slide 2). He spoke of the increasing likelihood of the extinction of species (p.2, Slides 3-4). He presented the funnel metaphor to illustrate that the global trends of world population, affluence, and technology were on a collision course with the depletion of resources faster than they could regenerate themselves, and to show the margin for action available before they collided (p. 2, Slide 5). He commented that, while the world was seeing the symptoms of this collision, it was not at the collision point yet. There was still time to take action and avoid "hitting the wall." He discussed the genesis of the Natural Step system as developed by Dr. Karl-Henrich Robert, a Swedish scientist who believed that there had to be some fundamental science that determined if what people were doing led to a sustainable future. He mentioned Karl-Henrich's realization that it was not that the environment has changed but rather that man's understanding of the environment has changed (p.2, Slide 6). Karl-Henrich saw a need to understand what the fundamental principles were that drove the details of the environmental issues, and to identify the unalterable (non-negotiable) system conditions (p.3, Slide 1), which would lead to a shared mental model and a starting place to figure out a course of action (p.3, Slides 2-3). Mr. Castle referenced the paper written by a team led by Karl-Henrich that discussed a methodology using a model that included the various complementary sustainability tools/frameworks available (p.3, Slides 4, 5), which formed the Natural Step. He emphasized the importance of starting with the broader concepts of the system before drilling down to the details of specific actions, such as recycling programs, etc. City Council Special Meeting Minutes Page 2 of 10 November 23, 2009 He presented the metaphor that Karl-Henrich devised of a chess game (p.3, Slide 6) with its use of a variety of strategies that the players used to move the individual pieces in order to achieve the game objective of checkmate. However, the starting point was understanding the rules of the game. He reviewed the basic science principles of sustainability (p.4, Slide 2). He discussed the earth as an open system with respect to energy and as a closed system with respect to matter (p.4, Slide 3). He emphasized that humans could not actually throw anything away, as in things disappearing from the system. Instead, their actions simply redistributed matter eventually from one part of the planet to another part, similar to cream in a cup of coffee evenly distributing itself throughout the cup of coffee over time. He stated the conclusion that humans were consuming the concentration and structure of matter. He indicated that, upon consumption, structured matter returned to individual atoms no longer organized into the structure of matter but still in existence. He discussed Karl-Henrich's conclusion that what sustained life and restored order was the green cells of plants using photosynthesis to recombine the atoms into the structured matter of plants; animals ate the plants and people ate the animals. He described the zero net waste system in nature that utilized these basic science principles to maintain a sustainable planet. He commented that the current solar income drove this natural system. He mentioned Karl-Henrich's conclusion that what has happened in the past 200 years to begin to break down this natural system, which has been running fine for eons, were the things that humans did unconsciously. He discussed how humans influenced the natural cycle (p. 4, Slide 4) through the extraction of substances from the earth's crust, the introduction of toxins (foreign elements), and the breaking of the cycle by physically destroying the natural system's ability to restore order. He correlated these three actions to the system conditions of the Natural Step (p. 4, Slide 5), noting the fourth system condition relating to meeting human needs. He discussed the four system conditions (p.4, Slide 6). He indicated that the key to using the earth's resources in a sustainable fashion was to close the loop, which included recycling matter. He spoke of developing non-toxic synthetic substances, such as plastic made out of cornstarch instead of petroleum, in order to avoid the systematic build up of toxins in the environment. He spoke of maintaining a healthy ecosystem using sustainable harvest methods, instead of degrading nature. He referenced Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs in commenting that it was difficult to convince people to take sustainable actions when their basic needs were not being met. He explained that Karl-Henrich was saying that businesses and communities were free to do whatever they wanted to do as long as they did not violate the four system conditions. He indicated to Councilor Hennagin that he thought Karl-Henrich would say that if humans continued to mine copper (as an example) and systematically built it up in the atmosphere, there could come a time when that concentration would be life-threatening. However, because they did not know what the tipping point was, they should not continue to do such things systematically. He noted that the mining of abundant minerals, such as aluminum and iron, has increased those metals in the atmosphere by 4%, while the mining of the heavy or rarer metals has increased those atmospheric levels by a higher percentage, such as copper, which has increased in the atmosphere by 2400%. Councilor Jordan observed that even with replacing known toxic substances with other substances that did the same thing, they could not know whether those new substances would eventually prove to be equally or even more toxic. She asked if this model looked to meeting individual's basic needs for food, health, and shelter, or did it look to everyone acquiring a certain standard of living beyond the basic needs. City Council Special Meeting Minutes Page 3 of 10 November 23, 2009 Mr. Castle pointed out that the system conditions were not prescriptive; they did not address what kind of lifestyle or level of education any individual should have. The idea was to not suppress people from fulfilling whatever their destiny might be. He recounted the story of Interface Carpet, whose CEO decided to make his company the first restorative company. He explained that restorative went beyond the threshold of sustainability to putting back more than one took out. He argued that a business that did not move to sustainable practices would eventually hit the wall of the funnel. However, the question was how to do so in a strategic manner and still make money. He spoke of reaching for the low -hanging fruit of savings through waste reduction and re -investing those savings into the other actions that the company wanted to do. He indicated that Interface Carpet identified $50 million in waste; after recovering $50 million in the first three years, they recovered $400 million last year. He mentioned Interface's efforts to close the loop on carpeting through promoting carpet made out of cornstarch instead of petroleum and leasing carpets rather than selling them. He discussed the second strategy of substitution, such as cornstarch plastic for vinyl. He stated that the key was to create a vision of what the business would look like if it met the four system conditions, and then to make decisions based on whether that action moved the company forward in achieving that vision. He gave an example of a paper written by a group of architects and builders discussing what a building would look like if it met these system conditions. He mentioned that the Living Building Challenge came the closest of anything to that white paper, including LEED certification. He emphasized that the system conditions defined winning the sustainability game, as opposed to prescribing what actions to take. He indicated that when they added in the economic component, then they had the ability to measure the triple bottom line, once they developed the metrics to do so. He gave an example from his years at Hewlett Packard, where the number one objective was to make a profit. However, it was that profit, or financial health, that allowed the company to do the things that it really wanted to do. He reiterated that if any organization did not align itself with the system conditions, it would hit the wall of the funnel (p.5, Slide 2). Although he could not say when that would happen, he did know that if an organization waited until it happened, the cost would be exorbitant. He gave the example of Nike, which took on the Natural Step, and banned PVC from its shoe designs as one of its first actions. Their Norwegian suppliers then began working with Natural Step and were now moving to change their industry to start to align with the system conditions. He cited several other businesses who saved money by changing to more sustainable practices (p.5, Slide 3). He commented that, in Oregon, businesses, the State, and others were using the Natural Step to differentiate Oregon around the issue of sustainability. He mentioned the Association of Oregon Industries feature magazine articles on sustainability, including an article last spring about using the Natural Step (p.5, Slide 4). He noted the Oregon Business Council's support of sustainability as the cornerstone of economic development in Oregon (p.5, Slide 5), and the large grant that Portland State University received centered on researching sustainability practices (p. 5, Slide 6). He discussed what he has seen as one of the biggest differentiators in this field: the generation gap (p.6, Slide 1). He mentioned that young people have come up to him and said that if their company did not deal with this issue, then they would leave, which they did. He emphasized the interest and concern of young people centering on sustainability, to the extent that they chose jobs based on this issue. He mentioned that many cities were using the Natural Step (p.6, Slide 2). He discussed the City of Corvallis as an example of a city working over time (they began in 2000) with the community to develop visions of what the different aspects of the community would look like as they moved towards alignment with the Natural Step system conditions (p.6, Slide 3). City Council Special Meeting Minutes Page 4 of 10 November 23, 2009 He spoke of the importance of having a systematic method for keeping the work moving forward, such as the sustainability management system that Corvallis was developing. He looked specifically at how they implemented the system in the Police Department and eliminated waste that saved enough money to help finance the program (p.6, Slide 4). He mentioned that eliminating waste was the most common method of finding money. He discussed Corvallis' action plan for water (p.6, Slide 5). He discussed the public sector's response (p.6, Slide 6), on the local, regional, state, and national levels. He mentioned the counties working with the cities to coordinate efforts. He spoke of Metro's intent to achieve zero waste, citing a Portland company that already sent nothing to the landfill. Ms. Atwood indicated to Mayor Hoffman that achieving zero landfill waste need not put Allied Waste out of business, as the company could shift to being a resource manager, as opposed to a waste manager. Mr. Castle mentioned the recent State legislation on energy efficiency buildings and achieving zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2030. He discussed the City of Portland's programs promoting sustainability (p.7, Slide 1). He described the Oregon Sustainability Center being built on the PSU campus based on the standards of the Living Building Challenge (p.7, Slide 2). He presented the concept of 'eco -districts', which applied the concepts of the Living Building Challenge to neighborhoods (p. 7, Slide 3). He mentioned the Porltand/Multmonah County greenhouse gas plan (p.7, Slide 4). He discussed other examples of sustainability efforts (p. 7, Slide 5), such as the BuildSmart program in Boulder, CO, which required deconstruction of homes and forbade demolition of homes. He described the AIA 2030 challenge to eliminate fossil fuel usage in buildings by 2030. He pointed out that a weakness of the Natural Step was that it was not prescriptive: it did not tell organizations what to do. He discussed the four -step process that they devised, the A -B -C -D process, to guide the strategic implementation of the Natural Step (p.7, Slide 6). He indicated that the first step was awareness training while the second step was conducting a baseline analysis, or an inventory of existing conditions. He explained that the third step was to envision what the organization or community would look like in the future if it were fully sustainable. The fourth step was called 'backcasting,' in which the organization determined what it needed to do now in order to change the existing conditions into the future vision (p.8, Slide 1). He described how the City of Whistler in Canada followed this process on a community basis (p.8, Slide 2), following the advice of Karl-Henrich to take manageable steps in achieving their goal. He mentioned their development of the Early Adopter program and other tactics (p.8, Slide 3) as part of a detailed sustainability plan, which was available on the Web (p.8, Slide 4, p.9, Slide 1). He indicated that Whistler signed up over 40 different organizations in the community to help implement the plan (p. 8, Slides 5, 6). He mentioned that the Canadian federal government was requiring all municipalities to have sustainability plans, and provided funds to do so. He discussed the five person team funded by the City of Whistler to launch the program, which the City was transitioning over to the Whistler Center for Sustainability (p.9, Slide 2). He mentioned that, after the Olympics, the Olympic Village would become affordable housing with 100% renewable energy. He returned to the five -level model for sustainability (p.9, Slide 3). He explained that, while the key planning tool was the backcasting process, one had to start with first understanding the science and the principles behind the sustainability game. He discussed Metro's strategic goals coming out of their use of the Natural Step (p.9, Slide 4). He mentioned that the Army was also using the Natural Step and requiring all army bases to have sustainability plans based on the Natural Step. He noted that everyone tended to come up with the same goals. He commented that Metro had an RFP out for help in putting their goals on a timeline, similar to what Ft. Lewis did. City Council Special Meeting Minutes Page 5 of 10 November 23, 2009 He discussed the sustainability work done in Lake Oswego since 2002 (p.9, Slide 5). He mentioned the importance of actively managing the City's sustainability plan, which included funding it. He argued that if the City did not deal with these issues, then it would hit the funnel wall. He commented that the City's goals were good goals and lined up with Metro's goals (p.9, Slide 6). He discussed the strategies that he has seen other communities use successfully in working towards sustainability (p.10, Slide 1). He emphasized that it took time to achieve success, which required a long-term plan. He reviewed the benefits to Lake Oswego of working towards sustainability (p.10, Slide 2). He suggested looking at Stafford as a possible eco -district. He commented that the community would look to the City for leadership in continue to build a community attractive to businesses and residents. He discussed the next steps for Lake Oswego (p.10, Slide 3). He noted that one of the country's experts on sustainability management systems lived in Lake Oswego. He reiterated that looking towards the low hanging fruit (usually waste reduction) was the way to finance sustainability efforts. He discussed the work that McMinnville has done in finding energy savings to fund their sustainability plan (p.10, Slide 4). He mentioned other ways to save energy in building and vehicle use (p.10, Slide 5), such installing solar panels with batteries to run trucks. He spoke of improving employee productivity and reducing employee absenteeism through these practices. He discussed the keys to success in sustainability (p.10, Slide 6). He spoke of a shared mental model, such as the Natural Step system conditions, backcasting to keep a plan/program moving forward towards the vision, and education to shift the community's thinking to a sustainability framework. COUNCIL DISCUSSION Councilor Jordan recalled her conversations with Mr. Egner regarding the Council's discussions about how the region would support urban reserves with today's infrastructure, rather than looking ahead to future infrastructure technologies that would not require the pipes, etc. She questioned whether all the interested parties could come together to discuss what was the best way to develop urban reserves 20 years out without looking at the billions of dollars cost of installing today's technology. Mr. Brown discussed Damascus as going through that issue right now. He mentioned the probability that Damascus would not be able to impose SDCs or other fees without a popular vote. He spoke of discussions with the City and the farmers in the area about developing an agra, or a fully sustainable agri village. He argued that if they could make a downtown block sustainable, then they should be able to create livable acres and still preserve farmland. He noted that the 2009 Department of Agriculture report for Damascus look at water and energy conservation and transitioning family farms into a community. Mr. Castle suggested taking that approach and envisioning what Stafford would look like under that model. Councilor Johnson spoke to discussing Foothills as a sustainable community that would then draw the younger people to the area. She commented that Foothills was probably the most doable in creating an example that could be duplicated elsewhere. Councilor Moncrieff suggested using the upcoming Comprehensive Plan update as a time to run the Natural Step test against each section of the Plan. She wondered whether there was a way to integrate the sustainability strategic management plan into the Comprehensive Plan. Mr. Castle mentioned that in the workshop that he held for the Planning Department, the afternoon exercise had been to envision what the housing component of the Comprehensive Plan would look like if it were fully aligned with the system conditions. Mr. Castle indicated to Mayor Hoffman that the sustainability management system could be scaled to any level, either to the City as an organization or to the community as a whole. He clarified that the system was simply a process to manage an ongoing plan. He emphasized the City Council Special Meeting Minutes Page 6 of 10 November 23, 2009 need to start with something manageable, such as training City personnel in this different way of thinking. From there, the City could start to spread it out to the community through programs like the Early Adopter program. Mayor Hoffman asked whether the Clean Streams plan was sustainable. Mr. Castle clarified that the question to ask was what framework did the Council use in making its decision. Councilor Jordan observed that if all the City departments were thinking about how their operations could be more sustainable, that would filter out into the community as staff asked people to do things to help support the City's work on sustainability. She argued that until they figured out what would make a difference to the City, they could not know what they were asking the citizens to do. Councilor Johnson mentioned a citizen question of why should I conserve water if the City kept the Safeco lawn green all summer. Ms. Atwood spoke to training City staff first in sustainability because the City operations had the greatest influence on the behavior of Lake Oswego citizens. The City could integrate sustainability into its Code through Code updates. She described the Comprehensive Plan update as a great opportunity to integrate sustainability for implementation as policy. She concurred that the City did not have to stop there but it could start going out to the community by whichever path it chose. She suggested leading by example. Mr. Castle commented that the question was where the Council went from here. He reiterated that starting with what one could manage and expanding outward was a viable methodology. Councilor Johnson pointed out that their conversation still focused on the green side of sustainability. She spoke to addressing the economic development and societal aspects as well, and what the City could be doing to attract the young professional demographic to the city. Mr. Castle mentioned that the Whistler plan addressed social aspects as well. Mayor Hoffman mentioned receiving an e-mail from a Lake Oswego college student asking why Lake Oswego did not forbid plastic bags or charge for them, as Canada did. Mr. Castle commented that mandating things was probably not the best way to do this, as the community would only push back. He said that what he liked about the Natural Step approach was that no one was telling an individual how to live his/her life; an individual could live any life he/she wanted to as long as he/she did not violate the four system conditions. He indicated that the place to start to build consensus was to look at the science, which argued that they lived in a closed system. He spoke of working with businesses to figure out how to make a business work without violating one of the four system conditions. He discussed how Lake Oswego might work with Allied Waste to implement a zero waste goal. Mr. Brown commented that the marketplace has never imposed the true cost of doing the wrong thing. He spoke to municipalities taking on the role of recognizing those true costs by providing financial disincentives to do the wrong thing, such as using tiered water rates. He recalled that when Metro increased the cost of construction waste tipping fees at the landfill, the construction marketplace started pushing towards construction recycling on its own, without a government mandate. Councilor Olson asked whether mandatory regulations or education worked best. Mr. Castle indicated that he found that education worked best. Ms. Atwood noted that Portland banned Styrofoam, which influenced the market. She concurred with Mr. Brown that there were strategic places where a municipality could create disincentives and thus influence the market. Councilor Jordan mentioned another example of a higher fee for a building permit to demolish than for one to deconstruction. Mayor Hoffman recessed the meeting at 8:30 p.m. for a break. He reconvened the meeting at 8:40 p.m. 4. COUNCIL BUSINESS City Council Special Meeting Minutes Page 7 of 10 November 23, 2009 4.1 Proposed Joint Statement on Stafford Area Mayor Hoffman indicated that he had felt uncomfortable with the language and tone of the joint statement from Tualatin and West Linn, and, therefore, he returned it to Mr. Coffee. He stated that he made it clear at both MPAC and the Metro Reserves Steering Committee that Lake Oswego was neither interested in asserting jurisdiction over Stafford Basin nor in seeing it urbanized. He mentioned that the Core 4 was trying to adjust the maps at this time. He noted the presence of Jim Johnson, a Planning Commissioner whose knowledge about the soils in Oregon and work on the urban and rural reserves with the Department of Agriculture drove much of the discussion. He explained that the urban and rural reserves discussion had a 50 -year horizon, and represented Metro's efforts to meet State law using a different way of expanding the UGB other than at the edges every five years. He indicated that, even if Stafford came in as urban reserves, that did not mean immediate development, as there were certain steps that had to be taken. He mentioned the likelihood of an appeal if Metro designated Stafford as urban reserves. Councilor Tierney indicated that he had thought that tonight the Council would discuss whether to sign the letter or not. Mayor Hoffman asked if anyone wanted to sign the letter. Councilor Hennagin indicated that he would not mind doing so if he could reword it. Councilor Jordan mentioned giving her edits of the letter to Mr. McIntyre, which she thought sounded more like the tone of Lake Oswego's original submission with regard to its position on Stafford. Councilor Jordan discussed her concern that Stafford coming in as an urban reserve meant that it would be urbanized using current definitions, whereas leaving it as undesignated allowed for more forward thinking planning, such as making it an eco -district or having some form of density without the infrastructure used today. Mayor Hoffman indicated that leaving Stafford undesignated maintained the status quo of its Effective Farm Use and Rural Residential zoning and the limitations under ORS 197. It would take State legislative action to change the underlying zoning to urban farming, which the legislature might not be inclined to do. He explained that an urban reserves designation for Stafford meant that some jurisdiction had to take control of it and do the concept planning and all the usual planning documents. He speculated that someone would have to annex it because he doubted that Metro would allow a city to be created there. He indicated that Metro has not mandated 10 units per acre but it has required an urban form; this allowed some creativity, such as creating an eco -district in Stafford. He pointed out that whoever did the planning would have to get the funding from Metro because it would be very expensive. He said that Lake Oswego has already sent one letter to Metro detailing its aspirations and making it clear that the City was not interested in Stafford. Councilor Hennagin commented that the policy of the City was for Stafford to remain undesignated, a policy that the present Council has not rescinded. He acknowledged that Metro might designate Stafford as urban reserves over the adjacent jurisdictions' objections. He argued that the West Linn and Tualatin's letter simply reinforced what Lake Oswego has already said. He held that the tenor of the letter could be negotiated to where it was acceptable to all three jurisdictions. Councilor Johnson commented that she was hearing that there was not much room for negotiation on the letter's language. She questioned whether they needed to state their position in a different way than they have already stated it. Mayor Hoffman concurred. He voiced his uncertainty that what the cities said carried much weight. City Council Special Meeting Minutes Page 8 of 10 November 23, 2009 Councilor Olson interpreted Councilor Hennagin's concern as Lake Oswego not signing the letter presented the appearance of divisiveness and weakened the perception of Lake Oswego as a staunch opponent of urbanizing Stafford. Councilor Jordan commented that Lake Oswego not signing the letter might look like Lake Oswego was saying that it would take control. She questioned whether the Council has discussed whether the City was willing to do that. She speculated that if Stafford came in as urban reserves and no one took control, then the land would just sit there. Mayor Hoffman stated that someone had to take control of it. Councilor Hennagin mentioned talking with Tom Coffee, who informed him that the West Linn City Council has approved the wording as it now stands, which meant that it might be too late to negotiate the tone of the letter. He noted that another option was for Lake Oswego to send a second letter saying that it agreed with the West Linn/Tualatin letter but using a different tone. Mayor Hoffman suggested sending copies of Lake Oswego's previous letters with a transcript of his public testimony at Metro, and emphasizing that the Council really meant its position. Councilor Tierney observed that there were several audiences involved. He commented that he thought that the Council has been clear to the Metro audience about its intentions. He discussed the second audience of their neighboring cities, and the perception that by not signing the letter, Lake Oswego was leaving its neighbors out there by themselves. He agreed that the letter was too harsh in tone, although he was sympathetic to signing it simply to show support for their neighbors. Councilor Johnson asked why they had to do the letter at all. Councilor Tierney described it as a political situation and working within the community. He mentioned that he was not certain in his own mind whether Stafford should be urban or rural but he would support the City policy. Councilor Hennagin commented, given the perception mentioned by Councilor Tierney, that it would be diplomatic for Lake Oswego to send a letter that supported their neighbors' position. Councilor Jordan described the factors that she saw as the driving force in this situation. All three communities made their positions very clear prior to the Metro Executive's letter and recommendation. However, the Executive's letter made it clear that Metro was not listening to what the local communities and Clackamas County were saying about Stafford, that in order to balance the acreage that might be needed over the next 30 years, Metro needed to bring in a composite of urban reserves. She argued that this West Linn/Tualatin letter answered the Executive's letter and reiterated the original position of the three jurisdictions. Mayor Hoffman suggested that Mr. Egner take his edit of the letter, in which he edited out the offensive language, paraphrase the West Linn/Tualatin letter in stating that Lake Oswego generally supported West Linn and Tualatin in their opposition to the urbanization of Stafford, and enclose copies of Lake Oswego's earlier letters. The Mayor would then circulate the letter among the Council for feedback. Mr. Powell indicated that he heard that the Council had consensus on the content of the letter and has essentially delegated to the Mayor the authority to write the letter; the rest was just wordsmithing. Tom Coffee informed the Council that, upon the West Linn City Council's adoption of the letter, Councilor Kovash expressed the hope that Lake Oswego would find a way to express its unanimity with the fundamental position of West Linn and Tualatin. 5. EXECUTIVE SESSION Mayor Hoffman recessed the meeting at 9:02 p.m. to Executive Session under authority of ORS 192.660 (2)(e) to conduct deliberations with persons designated to negotiate real property transactions and (h) consult with attorney regarding legal rights and duties of a public body with regard to current litigation or litigation likely to be filed. Mr. Pow II reviewed the Executive Session parameters. City Council Special Meeting Minutes Page 9 of 10 November 23, 2009 5. RETURN TO OPEN SESSION Mayor Hoffman reconvened the meeting at 9:50 p.m. 6. ADJOURNMENT Mayor Hoffman adjourned the meeting at 9:50 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Jane Mc Garvin -fket�er- Deputy City Recorder APPROVED BY THE CITY COUNCIL: ON Margh 2. 201Q— Hoffman, City Council Special Meeting Minutes Page 10 of 10 November 23, 2009