New Oakridge budget slashes City Hall service plus police, fire, ambulance, parks, library, WAC, court

By DOUG BATES/Editor/The Herald — In just a few days the people of Oakridge can expect to see a significant reduction in city services — especially in the public safety departments.

Police, fire and ambulance services take the biggest collective hit among more than a half-million dollars in cuts necessary to balance a supplemental 2021-22 budget that city councilors will vote on Thursday, July 1. The parks, planning and administrative departments all face steep cuts, along with the Willamette Activity Center.

Library and municipal court spending will also be cut under the revised budget. It became necessary last Monday night when the council majority passed an $8 million 2021-22 budget but rejected a temporary public safety fee that was necessary to balance it and preserve critical city services and keep a local EMS capability.

“This is not the Oakridge I envisioned two years ago when I arrived, but it is the Oakridge the citizens and city council have chosen to afford,” City Administrator Bryan Cutchen wrote in a statement accompanying the supplemental budget.

Cutchen noted that Oakridge has twice attempted to raise public safety revenue, “once at the ballot box, which was soundly defeated, and once with the city council, who chose to ignore the follow-through actions required to realize this anticipated revenue,” he said in his statement.

“The majority of the citizens and their elected officials have spoken.”

Fire and EMS services face a 19 percent cut in the budget proposal. Police services would be cut by 10 percent, parks by 29 percent, library by 11 percent and WAC spending by 45 percent.

Cutchen’s statement, emailed to councilors on Friday, contains the following summary of impacts the austerity measures will have on city services:

— Transition the employment of the Finance Director to a contractual basis to save on health and benefit expenses.

— Eliminate Administrative Department overtime, resulting in a reduction of customer service at city hall.

— Reduction in professional & non-professional legal expenses, putting the city at greater risk.

— Eliminate parks temporary help labor expenses, resulting in closing all park restrooms except Greenwaters and the rest area.

— Eliminate OFD volunteer stipend, likely resulting in reduced participation rates and staffing shortages.

— Reduce OFD temporary help expenses, eliminating a local second call out capability in most cases. This could place the city in risk of incurring fines or losing the ALS provider status of ASA 7 because of non-performance.

— If legal, the FireMed program will be terminated and premiums returned to reduce the demand on the ambulance.

— A reduction of force in the Police Department, resulting in less active patrol and code enforcement, increasing standby duty. Calls with no threat to life or safety will be prioritized and responded to during regular hours as able.

— Reduction of overtime at the Police Department.

— Reduction in professional expenses in the enterprise funds, delaying capital investment projects.

— The Junk Amnesty program will be terminated to preserve overtime for critical services.

Thursday evening, if the Oakridge City Council does not approve the supplemental budget or some version of it, “staff will be required to make reductions unilaterally to remain within the resources of the current adopted budget,” Cutchen said.

The virtual (Zoom) meeting is set for 7 p.m. Those who wish can view it at council chambers at the Willamette Activity Center.