QuickTake:

Eugene councilors face an array of choices on timing and alternatives now that fire service fee needs voter approval to pass

Eugene councilors are leaving their options on the table as they go about the task of planning a budget with an annual $11.5 million gap.

At a Monday work session, the Eugene City Council discussed timelines and scenarios for the budget. The outlook is complicated as councilors decide how to respond to the Eugene Area Chamber of Commerce’s successful petition to put the city’s proposed fire service fee on the ballot.

The council voted 5-3 in February to pass the fire service fee to raise $10 million annually through a monthly fee based on the square footage of buildings. The chamber’s petition followed. If the fire service fee remains intact, the funding would provide an extra $2 million for the fire department and free up $8 million in general funding that could go to other services. 

At stake are city services that could otherwise get trimmed, like library hours, swimming pool access and downtown cleanup and beautification work. The city’s budget proposal has potential cuts that include closing the Amazon Pool in October after this season and closing the downtown library on Sundays and Mondays. Under that scenario, the Sheldon and Bethel library branches would add Sunday hours.

If city officials were to rescind the fire service fee, there would be no need for an election. Without rescinding it, city officials must decide if they want to put the fire service fee to voters at a special election on Aug. 26, or do nothing, in which case the issue would go to voters on Nov. 4.

Both elections would come after the city’s next two-year budget starts on July 1. City councilors didn’t make any firm decisions Monday, but most spoke broadly in favor of waiting until November for the fire service fee to go to voters. 

“This is a crisis, and we need to approach this carefully, thoughtfully and do the hard work,” Councilor Randy Groves said. 

A November election also would give the city more time to make its case to voters.

But Councilor Eliza Kashinsky said the city benefits more from knowing sooner rather than later and should have the election in August rather than November. 

A delay would result in the need to make additional cuts, Kashinsky said. 

It’s unknown yet whether city councilors whether decide to tap into its reserve funds to bridge help close the shortfall if the fire service fee were to go onto the November ballot.

Councilors still have other options. For example, they could pass a different fee, or put a sunset clause on the fire service fee.

Eugene Save Our Services, a local group, formed in response to the chamber’s petition. The group supports the fire service fee as a tool to keep vital city services intact. 

Dan Bryant, chair of the organization, said in an email that the group will ask its 3,000-plus supporters to ask city councilors to support the fire service fee and call for an August vote.

“While we welcome a compromise to avoid a vote, we will not support any compromise that does not restore these cuts to the budget, and we believe that can only be done with additional revenue,” he said in an email to Lookout Eugene-Springfield.

City councilors will talk about their next steps when the city’s Budget Committee meets at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday to hear an overview of the proposed budget.

Ben Botkin covers politics and policy in Lane County. He has worked as a journalist since 2003, most recently at the Oregon Capital Chronicle, where he covered justice, health and human services and documented regional efforts to combat fentanyl addiction. Botkin has worked in statehouses in Idaho, Nevada, Oklahoma and, of course, Oregon. When he's not working, you'll find him road tripping across the West, hiking or surfing along the Oregon Coast.