Commissioners Trieger, Buch protest as Farr hits the brakes on 3 MRF contracts

Presenter: Seventeen hundred county residents signed a petition against it last year. And this week, more controversy for the Lane County methane recovery facility, as staff confirms: We may need to find a different site for the MRF. On Jan. 28, Commissioner Pat Farr:

[00:00:16] Commissioner Pat Farr: A lot has happened since we first agreed on the importance of the preservation of Short Mountain landfill, the importance of diverting waste into recycling facilities and the importance of capturing more methane gas, a lot has changed, including the land that we’d like to build it on… Can we build it? Are we going to be able to build it? And ultimately, that could be a dead end. I mean, that’s a true statement, right? Ultimately, we could find out that we cannot build on that land.

[00:00:44] Presenter: Public Works Director Dan Hurley:

[00:00:46] Dan Hurley (Lane County Public Works, director): It’s possible that we may have the hearings official disapprove this special use permit. It could also happen that the hearing official approves it, and it could then be appealed to LUBA, and we may be waiting for several months to get an answer from LUBA.

[00:01:04] If ultimately we can’t build on that property, we would need to go back to the drawing board and consider options that we’d ruled out previously. There’s the potential to try to squeeze it in at Short Mountain landfill.

[00:01:14] Presenter: Commissioner Pat Farr:

[00:01:15] Commissioner Pat Farr: So there are questions surrounding the viability of the project in general. And that’s not a question, that’s a statement.

[00:01:22] You know, I’m going to say this: My job is analysis, research, and finding out as much as I can about the decisions that I personally have to make. We have a board of five commissioners here. Sometimes it’s 5-0, sometimes it’s 3-2, but the decisions are very, very important that we make them.

[00:01:37] And also that we analyze the decisions as we go along, particularly in a dynamic environment. And nobody can say that this has not been dynamic as we move forward, that it changes on a regular basis.

[00:01:50] Since that initial vote, I’m not going to ask you for a count on how many more votes we’ve had to take, but we’ve had to take a number of votes, including you’re asking for three today, continuing to ask for us to step further down the path toward building a facility that we don’t really know with great, with absolute certainty that we’re going to be able to build that facility. Because we don’t know if we can build on the land that is in it, we don’t know if there’s land inside—I think that we’ve used a 10-mile radius—of the urban growth boundaries of Eugene Springfield, is that correct? We don’t know if there’s land inside of there. We don’t know if we can build it at Short Mountain. We don’t know where we can build it. There are a lot of questions.

[00:02:29] I’ve always been the third vote on this. I’ve been on the 3-2 vote of moving forward down the path, and I am beginning to have questions raised more and more all the time that cause me to reflect and do deeper analysis…

[00:02:43] You know, things are changing on a regular basis. It’s causing me to reanalyze the situation completely, and I’m not prepared to vote on these three contracts today because I don’t want to take another step down the road down toward close to what is a path of no return at a time where I don’t know the risk involved to the county.

[00:03:04] It’s not been articulated to me in a consistent fashion that I trust to be a full accounting of the risk to the county and I am not going to be a ‘Yes’ vote on any of these three contracts today.

[00:03:18] And I want to really emphasize that throughout this process, I have trusted every word that’s been brought forward before the Board of County Commissioners. I just need to hear more words, you know, and I need to have greater confidence that I’m getting the absolute full spectrum of the facts.

[00:03:34] And not a few things hidden, and not just being given information that I need to say ‘Yes’ this next time and then say ‘Yes’ the time after that, and ‘Yes’ the time after that. I want to be certain that for posterity the ‘Yes’es that I say today are the ones that will not be looked at as incorrect decisions in the future.

[00:03:54] Presenter: Commissioner Laurie Trieger:

[00:03:55] Commissioner Laurie Trieger: There have been numerous votes and board direction given to staff to advance the work. And in fact, my understanding of these orders is these are really the staff doing their work to deliver on the direction the board has given.

[00:04:09] Presenter: Commissioner Heather Buch:

[00:04:11] Commissioner Heather Buch: This is challenging to hear because we as a board have made a commitment to this project and through the execution of the contract, which we had board majority approval to do so. We will be entering into a serious liability situation if we don’t continue to proceed. And that $12,000 a day is a lot and doesn’t take time to rack that up. And we’re going into budget season and if we have to pay penalties, that means we have to likely cut services or cut employees in order to fulfill our obligation to this contract. So I just want to make sure my fellow commissioners are very aware of that.

[00:04:57] I am very concerned about our liability for not proceeding. I just want to make, I just want to make sure those thoughts are very clear to everybody on the board.

[00:05:13] We made a commitment. I honor my commitments. I honor the county’s commitments. And if we rescind our commitment, not only will we have financial penalties, but if we try to do big projects in the future, I’m not sure who’s going to want to work with us.

[00:05:32] Presenter: Commissioner Pat Farr:

[00:05:33] Commissioner Pat Farr: Clearly, I’ve not made myself clear, based upon the last two comments. I’m not talking about abandoning the project. You imply that I somehow don’t have honor. And I really take exception to that, Commissioner.

[00:05:48] My analysis has been in the military. It’s been in private industry. It’s been in nonprofit. It’s been in financial. And it’s been in elective government through 19 elections. I’m good at analysis and I’m filled with honor, Commissioner Buch and I bristle, bristle that you use that word.

[00:06:05] So that being said, I’m not talking about abandoning what I believe is the right direction to find a way to extend the life of Short Mountain, to find a way to capture more methane, to find a way to divert stuff that shouldn’t go into the landfill into places where it can be recycled and reused.

[00:06:20] I have questions about the risk to the county that far exceeds $12,000 a day. Far exceeds $12,000 a day. Risk to the county, regarding the potential of using land inside of this 10-mile radius that somehow has been established as a halo that we need to work inside of, and that’s nothing to do with my honor, and if people question my honor at this podium or elsewhere, I’ll debate you in public on the street corner.

[00:06:48] Presenter: [Commissioner] Laurie Trieger:

[00:06:49] Commissioner Laurie Trieger: I guess I’m also just asking my colleague. I’m wondering what the source of the concerns are that haven’t been addressed as we’ve been wrestling with this. And if he has been privy to some information or asked some questions by other parties, if that might be shared so that we’re all on the same footing with what we understand to be the concerns so that we are doing what we commit to, which is doing our work publicly and transparently on a public project.

[00:07:16] Because I’m very unclear as to why the very thing you asked for clarification in order to bring back is now coming back and there’s still concern that hasn’t been addressed. So it would be helpful to me.

[00:07:28] Presenter: [Commissioner Pat Farr:]

[00:07:28] Commissioner Pat Farr: I feel like I’m being attacked a little bit by you. And quite frankly, everything is clear, everything is public, and my concerns are not concerns that have already been, that have not already been raised in the public eye, and concerns regarding the property that we’re building on.

[00:07:44] Has anybody said anything about the property that we’re building on? Has anybody mentioned to you that, ‘Hey, you may not be able to build there?’ I think so, yeah. And it’s been loud and clear to all of us. And it’s becoming louder and clearer to me at this point in time that we do have an impediment there that potentially could impact the nature of this contract, the nature of the public-private partnership that we’re involved in.

[00:08:07] The risk to the county is becoming more and more evident to me, that is becoming more and more evident to me, that I’ve not been given the full measure of what the risk—not just to this Board of Commissioners today—but to the future of Lane County. And I have questions surrounding that. And if you think there’s a lack of clarity on that, hmmph. Do a little bit more research.

[00:08:29] Presenter: The commissioners will meet in executive session and then again in open session next week. Commissioner Pat Farr:

[00:08:35] Commissioner Pat Farr: There are questions that are being raised in our community by people who really have deep concerns that I need to have those questions answered to me because I’ve not had them thoroughly answered to me. I hope that’s clear to everybody that the questions have not been thoroughly answered to me regarding what happens if, fill in the blank, if we cannot build on this site and Short Mountain is not viable. What do we do?

[00:08:57] At which point, who is defaulting? How do we default? And I think these are questions for the executive session. What happens if default does happen? What happens if we’re left? ‘Here’s the bag,’ and we’re holding it—completely—with no other financial resource behind us to cover the trail that we’ve left as we marched down the trail.

[00:09:17] Presenter: With confirmation that Lane County may not be allowed to build its methane recovery facility at the original site, one commissioner slams on the brakes. Before proceeding any further, he wants to know: What if the backup site fails too?