Approved Minutes - 2001-03-19 PM LAKE 02
07401
�2`° CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES
March 19, 2001
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Mayor Judie Hammerstad called the City Council information session to order at 4:05 p.m. on
March 19, 2001, in the City Council Chambers.
Present: Mayor Hammerstad, Councilors Schoen (arrived 4:15 p.m.), Turchi (arrived 4:10
p.m.), Graham, McPeak, Hoffman and Rohde.
Staff Present: Doug Schmitz, City Manager; David Powell, City Attorney; Robyn Christie, City
Recorder; Chip Larouche, Information Technology Manager; Bob Kincaid, Chief
of Staff; Jane Heisler, Long Range Planning Manager
3. INFORMATION SESSION
3.1 E-Government
Chip Larouche, Information Technology Manager, gave a PowerPoint presentation on e-
government. He pointed out that e-government was commonly defined in the industry as
providing services to the citizens using a variety of telecommunication methods. He noted its
difference from e-commerce, which was providing transactional services to the citizens (such as
ordering from an on-line company). He indicated that Lake Oswego wanted eventually to do e-
commerce.
Mr. Larouche explained that the City was part of a five-city government consortium based in
Washington County. He indicated that the Broadband Users Group (BUG) linked 14
jurisdictions in sharing the expenses involved in maintaining broadband communication with the
outside world and the Internet.
Mr.Larouche said that Hillsboro was the hub, where the web server and protective firewall was
located. He mentioned that Hillsboro provided many services, many of them free (such as access
to the Webmaster they were in the process of hiring). He emphasized that Lake Oswego was not
in this alone and could not afford to do this alone.
Mr. Larouche reviewed his department personnel: a network engineer and two computer
analysts. He mentioned the two Information Technology people who worked for the police
department, the two who worked for the library and the Web Committee of 18 people. He
emphasized that Lake Oswego did not have centralized control of the website; the decentralized
structure meant that each department was responsible for the content and maintenance of its web
page. He said that he had the overall responsibility for the technical operation of the site and for
maintaining continuity within the City's website.
Mr. Larouche confirmed to Councilor Rohde that generally each department had one person
assigned to maintain the website.
Mr. Larouche reviewed the e-government elements that the City already used He discussed the
City website with its search engine and department information pages (including the City Code,
current news and events, emergency information and job openings). He mentioned 150 to 200
uses of the search engine per week. He noted the Council and Board meeting agendas and
minutes archived back to 1999. He said that they knew that citizens were using the search engine
to search the minutes for a particular topic.
Mr. Larouche mentioned the neighborhood information page with points of contacts for all the
homeowners associations in the city, including a map showing association boundaries. He
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March 19, 2001
indicated to Mayor Hammerstad that approximately 50% of the neighborhood associations had
their own websites; the City website provided a direct link to those sites.
Mr. Larouche discussed the two examples of e-commerce available at the City website for
library and Parks & Recreation Department transactions. He said that a citizen could request a
book from the Library Information Network in Clackamas County (LINCC) for pick up at the
Lake Oswego library and renew material on line.
Mr. Larouche described the RecreationBiz transactional system that the City implemented a
year and a half ago to allow online class and event registration using a credit card as the means of
payment. He indicated that they had online registration available for three-quarters of the 1700
classes and events. He explained how staff used a lottery system for those classes that tended to
fill completely. He noted that the latest staff survey found that 52%of the participants signed up
online for the classes and events while the remaining 48% came in person or called.
Mr. Larouche reviewed proposed e-commerce elements. He discussed establishing a Web store
to allow the online credit card purchase of City memorabilia, such as logo t-shirts or logo coffee
cups. He said that they would begin with an e-mail environment and eventually graduate to the
fully functional database environment used by private online stores.
Mr. Larouche discussed the upcoming lien search capability to replace the current cumbersome
method of staff responding to mail-in requests from title companies and conducting the searches
themselves. He pointed out that this would automate a task that begged to be automated, and it
would free the Finance staff for other less time-consuming tasks. He said that he expected this
feature to come online in a couple of months.
Mr. Larouche mentioned utility bills, court fines, dog license renewals and planning and permit
fees as other tasks that logically lent themselves to e-commerce. He noted that these would
require a full database running behind the website, and thus were further out on the planning
horizon.
Mr. Larouche said that ultimately staff would like to have the same database used for all these
e-commerce transactions. He explained that doing so provided economies of scale, as the
information was all the same. He noted that, in a totally integrated system, staff could obtain
enough information on a citizen calling in to renew a dog license to find out if he/she had any
other City fees outstanding, such as building permit fees or library fines.
Mr. Larouche reviewed the issues that the City needed to consider before moving to e-
commerce for these various areas. He spoke to first deciding whether or not they actually wanted
to perform these transactions online using credit cards (and absorb the 3%transaction fee). He
mentioned determining whether it was cost effective to automate a system; it might cost$50,000
to set up a system for something that only generated $15,000 a year.
Mr. Larouche discussed outsourcing versus staffing. He explained that the Parks & Recreation
system was semi-outsourced, in that it ran on a server and database managed by another
company. He said that they would likely do the same thing for the lien search. He pointed out
that if they did not outsource, then they had to have staff to do that same work in-house, which
raised questions of cost effectiveness, staff workload and staff training.
Mr. Larouche mentioned the need for marketing these e-commerce components, such as
convincing the title companies of the advantage of using the online lien search. He discussed the
issue of timing this transition properly so that the right resources were falling into place as they
were needed. He commented that currently they were on a good `glide path' in getting things
ready to allow e-commerce transactions. He noted Hillsboro was upgrading Lake Oswego's web
server and putting a sequel engine behind it, which was the kind of thing that the City needed
done in order to allow e-commerce transactions.
Mr. Larouche reviewed the challenges to implementing e-commerce. He explained that the
utility billing system and the court system were on very old, albeit still working, technology that
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was not compatible with a Windows-based system; it would cost between $25,000 to $50,000 to
upgrade each system. He said that he had budgeted money for those projects this year and next
year but it would still take a while to get these areas up to speed for e-commerce.
Mr. Larouche discussed how their backup strategies would change. He explained that hourly e-
commerce transactions required more frequent file backup routines than the current process of
backing up every file in the City every night. He observed that doing so would cost more
money.
Mr. Larouche reviewed the costs of the elements he presented. He said that outsourcing and
applications (such as utility billing) ran at $30,000 for initial setup and $15,000 for each
additional piece (such as dog licensing and court fines). He indicated that technical support and
upgrades typically ran at 20% of the initial cost.
Mr. Larouche said that a new server cost $15,000 while a T-1 line directly to the Internet cost
$18,000 a year(which was why Lake Oswego was part of a consortium of 14 government
agencies sharing that cost). At Councilor Rohde's request, he described a T-1 line in greater
detail; it was a larger data line allowing more information to flow at a higher speed. He
mentioned that the Broadband Users Group owned three T-1 lines but was sized for five T-1
lines; one line was dedicated to the Washington County library system while the cities used the
other two for Internet access.
Mr. Larouche explained that a user needed a protective firewall with a T-1 line, which was
provided by BUG and cost $20,000 with a management cost of$15,000 a year. He mentioned
that a Webmaster cost $60,000 plus benefits.
Mr. Larouche noted that backup systems cost$30,000 to $50,000. He commented that their
current backup system was not exactly an antique but it would require upgrades in a year or so in
any case. He said that consultants cost $200 an hour, and that he did use consultants when
necessary. He pointed out that he did budget for a number of these items already but not for
things like an extra T-1 line or a firewall.
Mr. Larouche reviewed the next steps in implementing e-government. He mentioned the City
notebook computers that they were in the process of making available to all Councilors; the
Mayor already had hers and the rest should be available over the next couple of weeks. He
discussed creating an e-mail account for each Councilor at the City; staff would automatically
forward all e-mail to the Councilor's home e-mail address.
Mayor Hammerstad commented that it would be nice to be able to automatically delete e-mails.
Mr. Larouche concurred but mentioned considerations of public record law that would preclude
that from happening. He indicated that he could delete a-mails from the City accounts on an
exception basis.
Mr. Larouche said that he and Ms. Christie were still ironing out the kinks for electronic
Council packets. He mentioned the options for e-mailing packets using a PDF format or making
them available on the website. He pointed out that making the packets available on the website
ran the risk of citizens reading them and asking questions before the Council has read them. He
commented that he thought they would choose the e-mail option; the City notebook computers
would have the ability to download and print hardcopies to a printer.
Mr. Larouche mentioned that in the electronics world, they needed to take into consideration the
public records law, as public documents now encompassed e-mail. He explained how he
captured e-mail through the backup system, which meant that it was available to any judge who
wanted to see all the e-mail on a particular day.
Mr. Larouche discussed the need to develop policies and procedures to comply with the law and
to make sure that things made sense. He said that the City was giving the Councilors a city
computer to do their City business on. He mentioned the responsibility the Councilors had not to
mix personal business with City business on those computers. He said that he would give them
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some tips on how to keep personal and City business separate, when he installed the system at
each of their homes. He emphasized that there were a lot o gray areas.
Councilor Rohde asked if paying directly out of a checking account was a separate method of
payment from a credit card. Mr. Larouche said that it was, and one that utility billing lent itself
to. He observed that not many online stores allowed people to use their checking accounts on
line. He questioned whether one would want to do so, as the Web was pretty secure but not fully
secure.
Councilor McPeak asked if they could join with other jurisdictions to achieve economies of
scale in areas beyond use of the present server. Mr. Larouche said that there were ways of
doing that, such as centralized billing (a method of outsourcing). He confirmed that a sufficient
number of transactions should lower the cost of operating the system. He mentioned the initial
$30,000 set up cost plus the 20% of the initial cost to pay for maintenance. He estimated that
they could save two-thirds of the price if they outsourced under the right circumstances.
Mr. Larouche confirmed to Councilor McPeak that the time to decide to join with other
jurisdictions was at the beginning of the process. He commented that staff would present the
Council with the advantages and disadvantages of both in-house processing and outsourcing for
any transactional system prior to making the change.
Councilor McPeak asked if they might see a reduction in the 3% credit card fee if they joined
with other jurisdictions. Bob Kincaid, Chief of Staff, explained that that rate was set in the
agreements between individual cities and their banks.
Councilor Schoen asked what the maximum size of an electronic Council packet would be. Mr.
Larouche said that he told Ms. Christie that they would need to break up a packet bigger than 1
MG. He mentioned his suggestion of an advance e-mail warning the Councilors that the next e-
mail would have the Council packet attached, and estimating the time required for downloading.
Councilor Schoen explained that he did not want to print out the long reports on his computer,
and he thought that there should be some limit. Robyn Christie,Deputy City Recorder,
confirmed to Councilor McPeak that the Council could still request a hard copy. Mr.
Larouche said that he understood that the Council would receive a hardcopy at the meeting; the
electronic packet was for advance reading. He mentioned possibly doing an Executive Summary
of the longer reports.
Councilor Rohde suggested deleting the City logo and other formatting elements from the
documents, as those added significantly to the size of the document. Mr. Larouche concurred.
He reiterated that he and Ms. Christie were looking into what made or did not make sense in
developing an electronic Council packet. He mentioned that Lake Oswego would not get access
to DSL or the other kinds of fast Internet service until Christmas because they were at the end of
AT&T's fiber line.
Mr. Larouche indicated to Councilor Graham that he thought it likely that the participating
jurisdictions would have access to Hillsboro's new Webmaster,just as they had access to
Hillsboro's Network Engineer. He estimated that they might get 20% of the Webmaster's time.
He explained that Hillsboro felt that BUG was their baby; they were happy to share their
resources with the other jurisdictions. He noted that Lake Oswego would have to pay its fair
share of certain costs but probably not the cost of the intangibles, such as personnel.
Councilor Turchi asked if staff could work with the School District to improve its web page and
to share costs. Mr. Larouche said that that was possible; he needed to talk with the Information
Technology people at the District. He mentioned that they did provide a link at the City website
to the District website.
Councilor Rohde asked if Mr. Larouche knew of any attempts to attack their system. Mr.
Larouche said that he knew of some attempts to attack the overall system; so far the attempts
(two to three a month) have not penetrated the firewall. He mentioned some virus problems, and
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March 19, 2001
the need to protect e-mail in particular. He indicated that a month ago they had to shut down the
City's e-mail for four hours while waiting for Symantec's updates on a new virus.
Patt Thomas asked if the City could set up an FTP site with zipped files for the citizens. She
argued that making the Boards and Commissions information readily available to the public
would increase citizen involvement. Mr. Larouche said that they could set up a secure FTP site
for the Council but noted that using an FTP site did require additional training for the
Councilors. He said that an FTP site for the public would require a different server that was
located outside the firewall. He reiterated the concern with making the packets available to the
public before the Council had the chance to read them.
Mayor Hammerstad spoke to the Council receiving information as soon as it was available,
instead of waiting two weeks for the Council packet. She said that she preferred a printed
hardcopy packet delivered to her because it was in the right order.
Mayor Hammerstad asked where the City went from here. Mr. Larouche referenced the
roadmap he presented earlier. He clarified that that roadmap was not all-inclusive; any ideas and
suggestions on how to improve the website and help the citizens were welcome.
Councilor McPeak mentioned her view that, in the long term, whenever they saw electronic
methods justified by cost savings and not having to 'slot fill' personnel, they should move in that
direction. Mr. Larouche concurred. He observed that most decisions to move towards e-
commerce would be policy decisions made by the Council.
Mayor Hammerstad discussed how being so technologically connected could be a burden. She
noted that she had four telephone voice mails, a cell phone, two computer names and two
computer sets. She mentioned that having everything forwarded to her home meant that she
received double e-mails; she would delete an e-mail at home but it was still at the office. She
said that this was a problem that they had to work out individually but she would be interested in
any solutions to it.
Mr. Larouche explained that one reason they did things in this clumsy way was because
governments, from a cost and security perspective, were not ready to do some of things IBM
could do today, such as virtual private networking. He said that private networking allowed a
user to log into the City network from his/her home and view e-mail live, as opposed to seeing a
copy of it. He indicated that it would happen within the next 12 to 18 months.
Mr. Larouche discussed the security problems with private networking, including access by
unauthorized family members, such as children; it was a problem because networking let traffic
through the firewall. He noted that this system did not work well without DSL, as it needed a
sufficient bandwidth to log directly onto the City network and to do things live.
Mr. Larouche indicated to Councilor Hoffman that GroupWise was a middleware similar to
the software he was discussing, which also required a greater bandwidth and access through the
firewall. He concurred that this was not new technology but reiterated that the council of
governments to which they belonged was still 12 to 18 months away from implementation. He
observed that if the Council wanted this software within six months, they could do it but it would
cost more.
Councilor Rohde mentioned a presentation by Newsweek.com at the November League of
Oregon Cities meeting. He described a feature of clicking on a picture of the person in an article
and linking to a full motion video of that person talking. He spoke of clicking on a picture of the
Mayor and hearing a message from the Mayor. Mr. Larouche said that they had the technology
to do that at this time.
Mr. Larouche explained that the more graphics and features included in a website, the longer it
took that web page to come up, which was a consideration for citizens who had slower modems
than a T-1 pipeline. He referenced the fancy website at the City of Gresham; it took each page
25 seconds to come up on his computer, which was on a fast T-1 pipeline; access by a slower
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modem would take considerably longer. He compared this to the pages at the Lake Oswego
website (which he kept relatively plain) that took under 10 seconds to come up on his computer.
Mr. Larouche said that he thought it was more important that the citizens be able to access
quickly the information they wanted than to have a fancy website. He indicated that the time for
a fancy website was after they had DSL access available to their citizens.
Councilor Rohde gave some information to Mr. Larouche on the IBM's Institute for Electronic
Government, which he obtained at the National League of Cities conference. He said that IBM
has been working worldwide to assist governments with the development of e-government
procedures, and was looking for example cities. He indicated that he told the League of Oregon
Cities director that Lake Oswego would be interested, as e-government was a key goal for the
Council.
Mayor Hammerstad asked if the Council could simply read the information on the public
records law later. David Powell,City Attorney, said yes. He explained that if the Council used
the suggested method of forwarding their City e-mail from the City's e-mail address to their
home accounts, then staff could deal with what needed to be archived. He spoke to the Council
having a good discussion at some point on the public records law because it applied to non-
electronic communication as well.
Mayor Hammerstad announced an additional information session scheduled for April 2 at 4
p.m., which was necessary because they were falling behind on some of the things that the
Council was interested in. She indicated that they would discuss the public records law at that
meeting, along with rail biking, reappointment of the Youth Council, and the semi-monthly
`Councilor Corner' in the Review. She invited the Councilors to let her know of other general
topics they wished to discuss that did not have to come forward at a regular meeting.
Councilor Rohde mentioned that the rail bike representative would make a brief presentation to
the Council at the regular meeting tomorrow night. He indicated that the Council did not need to
make a decision at that time, although the representative would like to get a sense of whether the
Council was interested in pursuing the opportunity, as there were some legal procedures involved
and he would like to start the operation in July. Mayor Hammerstad commented that if the
Council supported the project, the study session would be a good time to get additional
information.
Councilor Rohde asked if he should include Ms. Christie and Mr. Powell, in addition to Mr.
Schmitz, when he sent e-mail messages. Mr. Powell said that he should include Ms. Christie for
record keeping purposes, but he need not include the City Attorney unless it dealt with a
potential legal issue. He explained that technically even the simple stuff or the scheduling
memos were all in the public record. Ms. Christie confirmed that she would decide what needed
to be archived.
3.2 Comprehensive Plan
Jane Heisler, Long Range Planning Manager, gave a PowerPoint presentation on the
Comprehensive Plan. She distributed a pamphlet published by DLCD, which summarized the
statewide planning goals.
Ms. Heisler described the Comprehensive Plan as a set of generalized goals and policies,
including the background information on which the policies were based, and accompanied by a
land use map. She said that the purpose was to help the city develop in a logical and coordinated
manner; essentially it provided a roadmap on how to get the City to where it wanted to go.
Ms. Heisler mentioned the enabling legislation enacted in Oregon in 1919 that required cities to
have subdivision regulations and a Planning Commission. She observed that the state did not
give that same authority to the counties until the growth spurt following World War II. She
indicated that the rapid population increase between 1950 and 1970 of 40%, with 80% of that
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growth occurring in the Willamette Valley, created such water, air and visual pollution that
people realized that the pollution was related to the growth.
Ms. Heisler noted the lack of coordination in planning caused by decades of local options, in
which cities did things independently of each other and of state agencies. She said that Senate
Bill (SB) 10, the first bill passed requiring cities and counties to develop a Comprehensive Plan,
had some problems, such as no money attached and insufficient enforcement measures.
Ms. Heisler described the elements of the Land Use Act of 1973 or SB 100, which established
the Department of Land Conservation and Development, the Land Conservation and
Development Commission, and statewide planning goals. She mentioned the requirement that
cities and counties adopt Comprehensive Plans and ways to implement the Plan, such as zoning
legislation and development codes. She indicated that state agencies had to conform to statewide
planning goals. She noted the requirement to involve citizens in all aspects of the plan.
Ms. Heisler said that Lake Oswego had adopted a two page Comprehensive Plan in the 1960s,
presumably in response to SB 10. She reviewed the history of the City's first official
Comprehensive Plan, developed in 1978 and reviewed by DLCD in 1983, with adoption in 1984
after they ironed out the wrinkles of what DLCD did not like. She noted the first periodic review
in 1989 and a major plan update in 1992/93.
Ms. Heisler described the goals as falling into three categories: process, development and
conservation. She said that the two process goals were Goal 1, Citizen Involvement, and Goal 2,
Land Use Planning. Goals 9 to 14 were the inter-related development goals. She noted that of
the 11 conservation goals, Lake Oswego did not have to address Goals 3 and 4, agriculture and
forest, nor the last four goals dealing with coastal issues. She indicated that they did have to
deal with Goal 5, Scenic, Historic and Natural Resources, including the detailed administrative
goals telling the cities how to implement the goal.
Ms. Heisler mentioned the other goals that Lake Oswego had to address: Goal 6 (Air, Water and
Land Resources Quality), Goal 7 (Natural Disasters or Hazards), Goal 8 (Recreational Needs),
and Goal 9 (Willamette River Greenway).
Ms. Heisler discussed the elements implementing the plan. She explained that the Zoning Code
described the permitted uses, provided standards and criteria for compliance and dealt with
unusual situations while the Zoning Map broke the community up into the different zones of the
different kinds of activities. She mentioned the Development Code, which outlined process and
criteria, the Utility Code, subdivision planning requirements, public improvement bonding
requirements, and the non-regulatory programs, such as neighborhood enhancement grants.
Ms. Heisler mentioned the intergovernmental agreements in the Plan, such as the mutual aid
agreements with different fire districts, and the planning/development agreement with the County
on how to handle the unincorporated area within Lake Oswego's urban services boundary.
Ms. Heisler reviewed the two methods for changing the Comprehensive Plan: the local
amendment process and the state-required periodic review. She noted that Lake Oswego's next
periodic review was scheduled for 2002. She mentioned considerations of changes in local
circumstances and financial challenges as things to look at during the review.
Mayor Hammerstad asked how this related to compliance with the Metro Functional Plan. Ms.
Heisler said that she envisioned stating during the periodic review process how they changed the
plan to comply with Metro's regulations. She indicated that staff would be working on Metro
compliance when it revisited the 20-year goals in September/October. She mentioned the need
to coordinate with adjacent jurisdictions with respect to land use and transportation.
Ms. Heisler commented that it would have been a lot more challenging to achieve some of the
things they have been able to achieve, if they had not had the Comprehensive Plan. She
described the Plan as focusing commercial and higher density on transit lines and major streets,
developing an interconnected parks and pathway system,protecting natural resources, using a
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multi-modal transportation system plan and providing a good citizen involvement program. She
observed that the process of achieving the plan was more important than achieving the plan as an
end, because they were always amending it; it was not a static document.
Mayor Hammerstad asked how many of the conservation goals have they concluded. Ms.
Heisler said that they have met all the conservation goals, although there might be a few changes
to the Willamette Greenway in response to Metro's Title 3 but staff would address that in
October.
Councilor Rohde asked what plan of attack staff has formulated for conducting the periodic
review update. Ms. Heisler said that staff has not developed a procedure yet. She indicated that
staff had an idea what has changed, as they have responded to most of the changes as they came
up. She mentioned meeting with the Council and the Planning Commission to discuss changes
in circumstances or other changes the Council might want to make.
Councilor Rohde spoke to taking advantage of the opportunity that periodic review provided to
determine the course of the community. He recalled the staff process used during the last
periodic review. He argued that this time they should start with the Council, instead of the
Planning Commission, so that the Council could set the direction and make recommendations to
the Planning Commission and Planning staff on how to implement the goals. He held that last
time the Council felt that it was too late in the process to make more than minor modifications
when it received the Planning Commission's recommendations.
Ms. Heisler commented that periodic review could simply address the minimum required or it
could encompass a much fuller discussion of changes in circumstances.
Mayor Hammerstad concurred with Councilor Rohde that they should take advantage of this
opportunity to take the first look at the Comprehensive Plan. She commented that, with the
changes in circumstance that arose as a community neared build-out, the issues became livability
and how to sustain it. She said that staff could draw up the changes in state and regional
transportation and the things that they had to do while the Council could look at the things it
wanted to do.
Mayor Hammerstad characterized stepping forward to do something new and unrequired, but
which would make the community more livable, as revolutionary and fun. She held that the
Planning Commission and the citizens would respond to such an effort.
Ms. Heisler commented that the Comprehensive Plan was a good plan that seemed to work well
for the community. She said that the one criticism she had dealt with monitoring the Plan. She
questioned whether the City really knew how much open space or natural resource lands it was
saving or how it was meeting the goals.
Councilor Hoffman concurred with the concept that this Council develop a work plan over the
next six months to put together a new vision for Lake Oswego, which addressed the variety of
issues they faced as this community. He mentioned looking at the visioning process in
particular. He spoke to stepping back, now that the community was essentially built out, and
looking at what they wanted for the community over the next 20 years. He held that once they
had a good foundation of understanding the land use issues, then decisions on infill, island
annexations, etc.,became easier.
Councilor Rohde spoke to reviewing the numerous recommended action measures (RAMs) in
the Plan, and finding out how many they have accomplished and how many they have forgotten
about. Ms. Heisler commented that the Council has started a monitoring process with the
quality of life indicators.
3.3 House Bill 3400
Mayor Hammerstad said that this was the affordable housing bill granting jurisdictions the
authority to levy a real estate transfer tax for a regional affordable housing fund; it has been
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referred to committee at the state legislature and the Council needed to give Mr. Powell and
Councilor Rohde direction on whether the Council would lend its support to the bill.
Mayor Hammerstad noted that this bill was of importance to the region as a whole. She
indicated that it was not clear whether there was a proportional allocation back to a jurisdiction
with a wealthy community and a high real estate transfer tax. She said that it appeared that the
money was collected according to the price of the home and distributed according to need. She
commented that if a jurisdiction could use the same amount of money to house 10 families that it
would cost to house two families in Lake Oswego, no one would allocate the money to Lake
Oswego.
Mayor Hammerstad observed that, in the global scheme of things, this bill probably did not
make any difference to Lake Oswego, although it would make a difference to other jurisdictions.
She said that she did not want to move forward until the Council discussed the bill.
Councilor McPeak pointed out that, with the same percentage of sale price tax on all sales in the
metro area, it would not have a negative competitive impact on Lake Oswego.
Councilor Schoen mentioned that the bill had a sales level. Councilor Rohde explained that
the legislature did not want to put the real estate transfer tax for affordable housing on housing
that was already affordable. He said that they would exempt out at a yet-to-be-determined level.
Councilor McPeak said that she was tempted to look at this as a metro-wide problem because
Lake Oswego could not help with it. She indicated that, given that they could not help, she felt
an obligation to contribute something to solving this regional problem, if doing so did not
competitively hurt Lake Oswego.
Councilor Turchi questioned how this method provided an opportunity for everyone to
contribute, since it depended on someone selling his/her house; if one did not sell a house, one
did not contribute. He cited his situation as an example, as he just bought a house (which he did
not intend to sell for 30 years); the high tax did not impact him. Mr. Powell indicated that the
.75%tax translated to $750 per $1,000.
Councilor Turchi argued that this tax did not equitably distribute the responsibility for
affordable housing. He spoke to the legislature finding a funding mechanism that accomplished
its apparent goal of doing redistribution through the tax system yet spread the burden equitably.
Councilor Graham recalled that the last time someone raised the real estate transfer tax, many
people who lived in Lake Oswego shot it down quickly. She mentioned another factor of Lake
Oswego not ever realizing a benefit from the tax. She commented that the Council could say
altruistically that it wanted to do something for the region and the state but the Council also had a
responsibility to Lake Oswego. She argued that if they could not help with affordable housing in
the community, they should at least get some of the tax back.
Councilor McPeak questioned how to accomplish that within Lake Oswego. She conceded
Councilor Turchi's point that this was not a perfect mechanism for accomplishing the goal. She
argued that it would put the burden of helping the poor on those who bought expensive houses.
Mayor Hammerstad pointed out that Councilor Turchi's point was that many of those with
expensive homes would never contribute to the tax. Councilor McPeak reiterated that it was an
imperfect mechanism but questioned what alternatives were available.
Mayor Hammerstad noted that this was the third time this bill has come up at the legislature;
the development/real estate community has successfully shot it down every time.
Councilor Rohde observed that he came to this process late as a result of a conversation with
Portland Commissioner Erik Sten; he had not been on the Affordable Housing Task Force that
developed the bill or on the task force that wrote the legislation. He said that he would need to
bring in someone from the outside to defend and explain the bill, as he did not understand the
mechanics of how this would be a fair and equitable distribution method.
City Council Information Session Minutes Page 9 of 11
March 19, 2001
Mayor Hammerstad recalled that when this issue came to the Clackamas County Board of
Commissioners two years ago, the presentation by the Multnomah County Affordable Housing
advocates made it clear that this would be a regional proposition for the benefit of Portland.
Councilor Rohde recounted Commissioner Sten's comments that he did not care if any of this
money came back to Portland, as Portland already spent millions of dollars a year on affordable
housing; the money could all go to Clackamas County but they needed a way to raise the funds.
The Affordable Housing Task Force, composed of people from around the region, found the need
for a distribution mechanism outside the Portland metro area.
Mr. Powell indicated that, based on a quick read of the bill, he did not find it weighted towards
Portland. He mentioned the exemption for a single-family residence sale if the sale price did not
exceed 80% of the median sale price of the single-family residences in that county.
Mayor Hammerstad observed that the question was did Lake Oswego have an interest in this
issue, other than philosophical. Councilor Rohde commented that he has heard in conversations
with Lake Oswego business owners that it was difficult to find workers who could afford to live
in Lake Oswego. He remarked that he did not know if this would solve the problem.
Councilor Schoen held that inevitably this would fall on Lake Oswego, as it had the highest
assessed values. Mayor Hammerstad mentioned that Lake Oswego also had a highly transient
population. Councilor Graham said that if they knew that some of the money would return to
Lake Oswego, she would support Lake Oswego joining the fight.
Councilor Hoffman observed that what happened in the region was important to Lake Oswego.
He concurred with Councilor Rohde that it would be nice to have more affordable housing in
Lake Oswego, mentioning previous discussions of affordable housing between City Hall and the
Willamette River. He indicated his concern that what happened in Portland did affect Lake
Oswego.
Councilor McPeak pointed out that the Council has contributed to the increased housing costs
because of its imposition of land use planning regulations. She spoke to them having
responsibility for the effects of those actions on the low-income people who could no longer
afford housing. She said that this bill might or might not be the method for doing so. She held
that affordable housing was a need that they must address, even though it did not affect Lake
Oswego.
Mayor Hammerstad asked how much energy the Council wanted to put into this issue.
Councilor Graham asked to see more detail before moving forward. Councilor Rohde asked if
bringing in an outside speaker would be helpful. Mayor Hammerstad commented that knowing
whether this legislation was going anywhere would be helpful, as she had strong feelings about
supporting legislation that did not go anywhere.
Mr. Powell mentioned that the League of Oregon Cities has taken no position on the bill, so any
work the City did would be an individual effort or by forming coalitions with other cities.
Mayor Hammerstad asked Mr. Powell to find out through his contacts which legislators
supported the bill and to get a sense of where it was going. She reiterated that in the past it has
gone nowhere because of the powerful lobbyists opposing it.
Mr. Powell indicated to Councilor Graham that the League might not have discussed the issue
yet, and therefore has taken no position. Councilor Rohde confirmed that the League Board has
not discussed the issue.
Councilor Schoen presented Mayor Hammerstad with the Outstanding Leadership Award he
accepted on her behalf from the Oregon Tobacco Coalition.
City Council Information Session Minutes Page 10 of 11
March 19, 2001
4. EXECUTIVE SESSION
Mayor Hammerstad recessed the meeting to Executive Session at 5:55 p.m. pursuant to ORS
192.660(1)(e), to deliberate with persons designated to negotiate real property transactions and
(h)to discuss potential litigation with legal counsel in the Human Resources Conference Room.
Mr. Powell reviewed the Executive Session parameters.
5. RETURN TO OPEN SESSION
Mayor Hammerstad reconvened the information session at 6:20 p.m.
Mayor Hammerstad reminded the Council of the open house rehearsal in the Council
Chambers at 2 p.m. tomorrow.
Councilor Rohde indicated to Councilor Graham that he was interested in the growth
conference in Eugene on April 7. Mayor Hammerstad mentioned the growth conference in
Corvallis on April 26 sponsored by the Willamette Valley Livability Forum. Councilor Rohde
mentioned May 15 as the date for the upcoming Sustainability Conference.
6. ADJOURNMENT
Mayor Hammerstad adjourned the meeting at 6:22 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Robyn hristie
City Recorder
APPROVED BY THE CITY COUNCIL:
ON ri 1 2 1
'Li
J ie Hammerstad, Mayor
City Council Information Session Minutes Page 11 of 11
March 19, 2001