Meetings Steering Committee(Folders 1-2)

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appreciate. While cost savings in 2010 may approximate $450,000/year, greater emphasis needs to be placed on the pracdcal considerations of the joint use facility. The City of Salem needs to figure out a way to make City residents from West Salem to contribute to the amortization of the indebtedness, however, or the credibility of both the City and the County can be adversely affected. 4. Cou : I concur with the Committee's conclusion that the Courts should stay at the renovated Courthouse. Again, the Tri-Agency facility is necessary to make the Courthouse work for the Courts. 5. Downtown office snace; Based upon the limited discussions I heard, I think the Equitable tower should be carefully analyzed to determine whether or not it is a practical solution to razing and reconstruction of the Senator block. This is more a political than a practical consideration, for if the Senator block could be "saved", it could play well for further joint efforts with the City of Salem (e.g. the transit mall or a parking structure). Although not given to the "vision thing", the Senator block could become the next Riverfront if we used the area wisely. Picture a mini Pioneer Courthouse Square or something. I believe the Equitable would be an easier sell to the public, since it would be so much cheaper. It would be even better if the capitalization could occur through a COP, since it would save the expense of taking it to the voters. Sale of collateral buildings such as the Franklin Building, can also lessen the financial impact over the tax base. Still, selling the public on a bond deal for more office space will be much harder than if it were grouped with a more popular anti-crime component. Again, the Senator block vision could help sell an office space component, if the public could see the big picture including more efficiency, better parking, and a"Dr. Feelgood" aspect for those intent on building morale. 6. Corrections: I'm relatively benign on this topic. The recommendations of the committee make sense to me, though it is pretty clear that the recent murmurings of Governor Kitzhaber bode ill for the long term operating picture at the Marion County facility. I believe that jail space will remain politically popular for the foreseeable future, and thus any bond issue for jails stands a decent chance for passage. ~ 7. DOgS: I don't know squat about the dog issue. Go with the flow. 8. Summarv: Although late in arriving and admittedly ignorant about many of the finer points of discussion (do in part to my paltry allocation of reading up on the subject matter), I have been very impressed with the overall work ethic and intellect of the committee. I have been impressed with Ken's command of the subject matter and the direction he as given the ~ group. My only parting shot would be that, in the final analysis, it dcesn't matter what the Commissioners come up with in the way of a plan if the overall vision does not stimulate the fickle favor of the electorate. To this end, I encourage a full scale plan to keep the City and any other affected jurisdiction fully informed, and months in advance. It may be worth some general fund dollars to look at hiring some marketing consultants to advise on the best avenue for grouping and explaining the overall plan to the electorate. If we could somehow weave the solution to the Transit Mall and some other feelgood visionary stuff into the nuts and bolts, we stand a chance of building a coalition of community blowhards who would endorse the Big Picture.