September 5 Oakridge City Council Meeting discusses consolidating local fire departments, appointing a new Finance Director and more

By ANDREW GRIFFIN/for The Herald  —  During the Oakridge City Council meeting held on September 5, 2024, the Council discussed upcoming planning for a potential consolidation of the Oakridge and Hazeldell fire departments, the upcoming appointment of a new Finance Director and more.

One key decision made during the meeting was for the Council to pass a motion to start planning on consolidating the Oakridge and Hazeldell fire departments into what is known as a Fire Authority. If that planning were to eventually come to fruition, this would mean that the two departments would expand their current partnership, banding together into one unified group that is more able to make decisions for itself beyond city government jurisdiction.

If they were to become a Fire Authority, the two departments would enter an agreement that would give them equal representation, combining their funding in order to serve the entirety of the combined Hazeldell and Oakridge areas. According to Councilor Chrissy Hollett, who authored the Agenda Bill for the issue, additional benefits of becoming a Fire Authority would include “removing politics from emergency services” and “future opportunities to work towards becoming a special district to levy taxes or bonds to fund emergency services.”

Though the motion to move forward with planning was passed 4-1, the proposal found opposition from Mayor Bryan Cutchen. “My issue is we provide the same funding yet give up some oversight of the new organization,” said Cutchen. “The city would still be paying the salaries of the fire department personnel, but they would fall under the direction of the Fire Authority Board of Directors. I suspect an underlying motivation is to create an organization which is more autonomous and harder to implement reform upon.”

Another major announcement made during the meeting was that an appointment for a new Finance Director position will be announced on September 9. The candidates for the position are Melody Cornelius, Noah Zepeda and Sabrina Ratkowski, all of whom were interviewed on September 5 by a committee organized by City Administrator James Cleavenger. Once filled, the position will be permanent.

Additionally, Cleavenger announced the official slate of candidates for Oakridge’s upcoming City Council election in November, with a candidates’ forum being set for October 9 at Oakridge High School at 6 p.m. Candidates for the three open seats for four-year positions include Marty Scott, Bee Havior, Aaron Davis and incumbent councilors Kelly Brewer and Chrissy Hollett, while candidates for an open seat for a two-year position include Thaddeus Carter and Dan Barclay.

Lastly, Cutchen announced that a new Incident Management Team would be stepping in to continue fighting all of the fires that are active in the local area. According to Cutchen, these teams “are managed regionally and nationally and typically rotate out every two weeks. This team, Northwest IMT 2, was last here for the Cedar Creek Fire, so they are familiar with the area.”