By JOSHUA BERK/for The Herald — The recent city council meeting on March 6 was the shortest of the year to date. Lasting just under an hour, the meeting saw the city council decide on the future of the administrative council as well as the application for FEMA grants.
The first addressed item of business was the reinstatement of a previously frozen grant. The $3.7 million grant for the Willamette Activities Center was un-frozen, putting the city back on track with their plans regarding the WAC.
A resolution was passed to sign a letter to the Federal Emergency Management Agency for a grant. The city is eligible for FEMA grants for the windstorm Oakridge endured last year, which hardly damaged the city but did damage to the outlying county areas. The city submitted a request for funding to research alternative energy.
City Administrator James Cleavenger was permitted authority to approve or deny all small contracts under $10,000 relating to the WAC. Cleavenger was technically already permitted to approve of contracts single handedly as long as they were included in the budget and under $50,000.
Four RVs throughout Oakridge are being disposed of beginning on Monday, March 10. The city has partnered with Friends of Fall River Creek Watershed. Because the organization is a non-profit, it should only cost the city $2,000 per RV.
The Administrative Advisory Committee was officially disbanded in this week’s council meeting. This was previously discussed in the week before, with potential for the committee to be called upon on an ad-hoc basis. However, this resolution passing means the committee would be disbanded, and not keeping the ad-hoc basis as an option.
Students from the University of Oregon made a presentation as part of the Sustainable City Year Program. The students are in the Real World Lane County class at the U of O. They have developed a proposed plan to help Oakridge residents that are going through the court system but may be unable to pay their fines. The program is aiming to establish a community service option for defendants, rather than forcing them to pay fines.
Several local organizations were given the opportunity to sign a “partner interest” form showing their interest in allowing defendants to work with their respective programs. Defendants in the municipal court will only be allowed to serve up to 48 hours for these programs. Most defendants are estimated to serve between 20 and 40 hours depending on the severity of the crime committed. The program is targeted toward organizations within Oakridge to make access to defendants without cars more accessible.
Two days before the council meeting, the city council work session on March 3rd was devoted to the revision of the city employee handbook. Accrual of paid time off was a specific focus of session.
The police policy has been mimicked for comp, or “flex” time, meaning employees are eligible to accrue 70 hours of comp time usable until the end of the year.
A change was made in the policy specifying that new employees are able to accrue vacation time but not be able to use it until six months after their date of employment.
The requirement that employees must use their vacation hours was taken out of the new handbook. Originally this was intended to encourage employees to use rather than sell their vacation hours, but this has been an issue with staffing availability for the city.
Joshua Berk
"Josh Berk is a student journalist with the Catalyst Journalism Project at the University of Oregon. He is a writer and reporter with a passion for storytelling and bylines as an arts reporter at the Daily Emerald."
