Oakridge City Council meeting 6/1: City looks to close some loopholes in revenue collection

By PAUL SCOTT/for The Herald  —  While expecting a more contentious meeting over the looming budget deficit, the meeting was calm and businesslike with some very good community input.

 

Nancy Kelly clearly did a lot of homework on the risk of using portable toilets of a certain type within the city.  It was interesting because she went beyond her own health issue and did some serious research.  The city council and city administrator have asked to have time to research further and find a portable toilet that may have less risk.

Municipal court costs vs revenue collected

Citizen Dan Barclay was prepared to take up the battle to balance the budget and gave several figures on both the cost of maintaining a municipal court versus the fines collected that might balance the cost.   While we can not verify the numbers at this time, Mr. Barclay noted that the court made money the first 3 years, it has, in his estimate been in the hole by over $188,000 in the last 7 years. These are not audited numbers and should be taken with caution until the full audit is completed.

The council then went into executive session for approximately 26 minutes to discuss:

• Designate persons to carry on labor negotiation with city employees. Councilors Tarman and Coker we chosen.
• Designate two councilors to work with negotiators for the sale of excess city property. Mayor Cutchen, Councilor Coker and the City Administrator James Cleavenger will all participate in these sales.

Business of the City Council

Back to the public portion of the meeting, the following were discussed:

• The Cherry Street Construction Project contract was approved.
• A request to use the city logo by Bigfoot Real Estate to use on post cards and t-shirts was approved.
• A staff report on the danger of portable restrooms was given (encouraged by the last two presentations by Ms. Kelly). *A passionate citizen CAN make a difference.
• The council discussed the use of a collection agency for the Municipal court. This item is going to be decided based on the balance of the amount being owed the city and the collection agencies fees, (some bid received for that service were over $200,000).
• FireMed fees increased from 75-80 dollars.

Updates by the CA

City Administrator Cleavenger gave updates on:

WAC remodel- electrical work done.

Greenwaters Park volunteer cleanup will be on Sat. June 3 from 10am-3pm.

The Hartsfield Lawsuit has been dismissed (with prejudice) and therefore the lawsuit cannot be refiled.

A fire ordinance were approved to ban all fireworks, effective immediately when the Forest Service declares extreme risk levels of forest fire.

An ordinance that places limits on camping in public spaces within the city limits was approved.  (Could face legal challenge, per the discussion)

There is no date set yet for the professional auditors to make a presentation to the council and the public that show errors made since the previous audit, which obscured the city’s balance (unintentionally).