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Council identifies ‘big rocks’ — housing, public safety and infrastructure — to guide budget choices
Summary
Councilors agreed staff should use the workshop’s proposed strategic buckets (financial sustainability; public safety; housing/homelessness; transportation/infrastructure; livability/quality‑of‑life; organizational excellence) to develop two‑year priorities and metrics for the budget.
Councilors used the workshop’s latter session to surface the high‑level priorities they want the coming budget cycle to address: closing the budget gap, housing and homelessness, public safety and emergency preparedness, transportation and infrastructure, and livability investments such as libraries and cultural services.
Facilitators framed these as “big rocks” to guide staff and council when applying the service framework. Councilor Leech emphasized the importance of preventive investments, saying “the value really is in that preventative work” when describing long‑term savings from upstream interventions. Members debated whether environmental stewardship and renter protections should be explicit buckets or nested under larger categories.
Councilors also stressed intergovernmental partnerships: several speakers noted that many health‑and‑human‑services responsibilities lie with Lane County and the state, and they asked staff to clarify which activities are city responsibilities and which require partner engagement.
Ending: Council asked staff to prepare focused two‑year success statements and implementation options for each 'big rock' to be discussed on Day 2 and in subsequent budget sessions. No formal actions were taken at the June 30 meeting.
