FAIR BOARD

REGULAR MEETING

Lane Events Center, Meeting Room #2

September 10, 2013

7:30AM

ROLL CALL
Kelley / Voorhees / Harris / Schwartz / Cosio
PRESENT / PRESENT / PRESENT / PRESENT / PRESENT

Others Present

Marsha Miller – Director Public Works

Corey Buller – Interim Manager LEC, Interim Fair Director

Laura Niles - Consultant

Elizabeth Henry – Events Coordinator LEC –note taker

  1. ITEMS FROM THE COMMUNITY

Kate Hammarback the 4-H Coordinator for Lane County – Thank you from 4-H and reading of a thank you note and photo thank you. Kate Hammarback can be contacted at: Phone 541-344-5043 E-mail: . The 4-H office might be moving from their Grant street office to Trude Kaufman Senior Center at 996 Jefferson Street. 4-H used to exhibit at Lane County Fair before they separated into their own Fair sometime around 1992.

  1. APPROVAL OF MINUTES – AUGUST 13, 2013

MOTION: Sid Voorhees / COMMENTS: Sid Voorhees motioned to approve the August 13, 2013 minutes as written. No discussion
SECOND: Mike Schwartz
VOTE
Name / Vote
Cliff Kelley / Yes
Sid Voorhees / Yes
Sascha Cosio / Yes
Jack Harris / Yes
Mike Schwartz / Yes
  1. GOVERNANCE-MOU/DISCUSSION OF UPCOMING BCC MEETING

DISCUSSION:

All Fair Board members, Corey Buller and Marsha Miller plan to attend the Board of County Commissioners meeting at 11:00a.m. at Harris Hall

Discussion of Laura Niles report which presents 4 options for the Board of County Commissioners:

  • Support Option 1, the current modelof governance, continuing with the Lane Events Center as a division of Public Works and the Fair Board having exclusive management of the Fair.
  • Support Option 1, with the expansion ofthe Fair Board’s responsibilities to include being advisory to staff on all other Lane Events Center activities.
  • Support Option 2, expanding the role of the Fair Board to the 1998 model where Lane Events Center and the Fair are removed from county operations except for capital improvements and funding through TRT.
  • Direct staff to pursue other options

The goal of presenting to the Board of County Commissioners today is for them to provide direction as to how to move forward. There is potential for theBoard of County Commissionersto challenge the lack of financial numbers in the report. Those numbers are hard to get and even harder to get accurate. There will be a fight for TRT money no matter what model is used. Commissioner Stewart will not be there today but that is unlikely to delay Board direction.Travel Lane County is on the agenda at the Board of County Commissioners before the Fair Board.

Mike Schwartz was in favor of “Option 1, with the expansion ofthe Fair Board’s responsibilities”with the Fair Board having the ability to advise and protect staff and the fair.

Jack Harris agreed with what was discussed at the previousFair Board meeting.

Sid Voorhees stated that this property is a loser financially without County help and that the Fair Board needs confirmation of their advisory role. An advisory role was given at a past workshop with the Board of County Commissioners but was not confirmed. Mr. Voorhees is comfortable with Laura Nile’s recommendation as he has been happy with accommodations made by Marsha Miller and Howard Schussler from Public Works with respect to the Fair.

Sascha Cosio’s opinion is that the fairgrounds financials haven’t drastically impacted the County or changed the County financial picture therefore the “Option 1, with the expansion ofthe Fair Board’s responsibilities” makes sense.

Cliff Kelley said the issues that prompted governance discussion are no longer with us. Transition into Lane County and then into Public Works brought about some things that management at the time was looking for a way out of. Mr. Kelley is supportive of going with the “Option 1, with the expansion ofthe Fair Board’s responsibilities”recommendation and following up by working on the M.O.U. to confirm and clarify the Fair Boards advisory role in Lane Events Center.

The level to which the Fair Board was working with the Board of County Commissioners may have been lacking the last few years. There were things happening at Lane Events Center that the Fair Board wasn’t attuned to.

The fairgrounds is not a priority for the Board of County Commissioners so anything that the Fair Board can do to take it off of the Commissioners while maintaining communication is likely to be a positive move. The Fair Boards advisory role was never really documented when that change was made previously in a workshop. The Fair Board needs affirmation and documentation of that role.

In the past Fair Board members were at meetings (like 4H follow-ups). Following direction from the Board of County Commissioners the Fair Board may need to rethink how to run the Fair Board. Considering when and how they advise, why other than state law do we have a Fair Board and how to be accountable to and communicate with the community.What are the responsibilities beyond coming to meetings? Some of these determinations shouldbe made in conjunction with Public Works.

If the Board of County Commissioners decide to move forward with the Option 1, with the expansion ofthe Fair Board’s responsibilities what is the chain of command? There is a need to clarify this order so that if something blows up it is already in place.

There was an article in the Register Guard on Saturday about the upcoming Board of County Commissioners to discussthe “future of fairgrounds”

  1. FAIR REPORT CONTENT

DISCUSSION:

Fair staff wants to make sure they understand what the Fair Board wants in the Fair Report.

Fair staff plans to have this year’s report be shorter and more to the point. This year’s report willcontain more numbers, goals, and objectives, than Fair Report’s over the past few years have.

There are not final numbers for the Fair yet but Fair Staff expect to have them by October’s Fair Board meeting. It takes time for the Fair to receive all the bills, review and process them to arrive at final financials.

Fair staff will have a draft of the Fair Report at the October Meeting for Fair Board input.

  1. OTHER

DISCUSSION:

There are SLEEPS protesters currently illegally camping on County property. Public Works did not furnish the Bucks and SLEEPS deliberately put the Bucks in city right of way so the County can’t do anything with them. The County has a system to respond to illegal camping thatinvolves posting signs, taking photos, and communication with the Eugene Police Department.The camping ordinances are all City ordinances not County ordinances.

Sid Voorhees motion to adjourn

Non-debatable motion

Adjourns at 8:17am

Next Meeting: October 8, 2013 at 7:30am