Divided Oakridge City Council settles on $22 fee to protect current police, fire and ambulance services

By DOUG BATES/Editor/The Herald — After five and a half months of contentious budget deliberations, the Oakridge City Council has agreed to impose a $22 monthly public safety fee to maintain current levels of police, fire and ambulance service.

The 4 to 2 vote Thursday night, Sept. 16, reflected all of the conflicting points of view that have kept the council divided — sometimes bitterly — since last March.

Designed to expire in three years, the fee will take effect in 30 days and begin appearing as a separate charge in all Oakridge water/utility bills that go out in early December. By plugging a half-million-dollar shortfall in the city’s Emergency Services Fund, the fee will prevent deep cuts in the services provided by Oakridge police officers, firefighters and emergency medical technicians.

Passage of the fee required some compromises:

— Councilors Michelle Coker and Melissa Bjarnson initially voted against any fee at all, instead supporting austerity cuts all across the board — to the parks, the library, the Willamette Activity Center and the municipal court as well as to the public safety departments. But in the end they agreed to vote in favor of a $22 fee.

— Mayor Kathy Holston and Councilor Bobbie Whitney initially supported a $30 fee, as recommended by City Administrator Bryan Cutchen, which would have provided more protection of public safety while mitigating cuts to such city services as park maintenance and the library’s summer reading program. But in the end they agreed to support the $22 fee.

Councilors Dawn Kinyon and Audy Spliethof refused to compromise, calling instead for deep austerity cuts. Councilor Christina Hollett was not present Thursday night.

Both the ordinance creating the fee and the resolution setting its amount at $22 passed 4 to 2, with the “nay” votes coming from Kinyon and Spliethof.

The fee ordinance rescinds a $2.73 public safety charge that was added to the municipal water fee base rate two years ago. That means, in effect, the actual additional charge to utility customers will be closer  to $19.

The ordinance includes provisions for very low-income households to receive 100 percent waivers of the fee. And the ordinance no longer includes loss of water service as a penalty for default of payment. Instead, the penalty would involve the filing of liens against delinquent properties.

After the meeting, Cutchen said passage of the fee will enable him to start reversing some of the cuts he has had to make in response to the council majority’s initial rejection of a public safety fee in late June. He said he will begin by restoring public safety spending that he’d had to cut in the police, fire and ambulance services. Once those needs are met, he said, he will be able to look at reversing other cutbacks, such as the hours of service at City Hall.

For years the high cost of providing ambulance service has become a growing, crippling crisis in rural communities across the nation. The Oakridge public safety fee is aimed at giving City Administrator Bryan Cutchen time to work with Lane County, Eugene, Springfield and state officials to reform the system to make it equitable and affordable for the cash-strapped town.