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Councilors also discussed increases in city fees based on inflation and rising labor costs.
After her first Springfield City Council meeting from behind the dais, Jill Cuadros said she had a lot of homework to do.
“I’m really excited to be doing this work,” Cuadros told Lookout Eugene-Springfield after the meeting on Monday, April 27.
Cuadros took the oath of office as interim Ward 4 city councilor before joining her fellow councilors on the dais.
Council members appointed Cuadros last week after more than an hour of deliberation about candidates and several failed votes. Cuadros, a support services director for Eugene School District 4J, will serve through the end of the year replacing Beth Blackwell who resigned in December. In the November general election, voters will elect a permanent councilor for Ward 4 to complete the term that ends in 2028.
Ward 4 is bounded by 21st Street on the west, 42nd Street on the east, Highway 126 on the north and the southern city limits.
City fees
Each year, city staff and councilors review existing fees and whether they’re recovering costs. City staff compile the fees into a master schedule for all departments, including fire and life safety, library, municipal court, police building safety, engineering, planning, utilities and system development costs.
During the Monday work session, the council discussed proposed fee increases for city services driven by inflation and rising labor costs.
Staff will integrate the council’s feedback into the final version of the master fee schedule. A public hearing and vote is scheduled for June 1.
“Council establishes the fee schedule,” Jeff Paschall, community development director said during the work session. “It’s a critical revenue source for core services that we provide across all departments.”
City staff used two metrics to determine fee increases: labor rate and consumer price index.
For fees driven by staffing costs, such as planning services, staff proposed a 4.5% increase based on the rate increase for wages from fiscal year 2025-26 to fiscal 2026-27.
For other fees — those driven by the prices for goods and/or services, such as animal license fees — staff proposed a 2.7% increase based on the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics regional consumer price index.
Paschall said “a limited number of fees” were adjusted above those standards, one being the ambulance transport fee, “to align with the actual cost of that service.”
The proposed emergency transport base rates for residents and nonresidents are 18% higher compared with the 2025 fee schedule. Another part of the user fee, the proposed rate per mile, is 87% higher than last year, going from $26.91 to $50.28.
Some proposed fees, such as library services, are unchanged.
He also said the city currently absorbs merchant fees for credit card transactions, averaging about $215,000 annually during the past five years.
“If somebody comes in, say to our development services counter, and they pay for a building permit, which some of them are tens of thousands of dollars, and they use a credit card, currently the city is absorbing that 3%, 3.5% fee on all of those credit card purchases,” Paschall said.
Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, the city capped credit card purchases at $10,000, requiring an alternative payment method for the remainder, he said. To facilitate online business during the pandemic, the city removed the cap and has not reinstated it.
“As we look around, a lot of other agencies are starting to pass that service fee on to that credit card user,” Paschall said. “It’s similar to a lot of businesses as well.”
Mayor Sean VanGordon said he is interested in reinstating a cap rather than applying the fee to all purchases, “because in those day-to-day transactions from either small businesses or citizens, maybe it doesn’t have to feel so abrasive.”
At an April 20 City Council work session, staff proposed a 5% increase in user fees for wastewater and stormwater services, adding $2.31 to the average monthly residential bill.
Staff for Sanipac, which provides trash and recycling services, said the week prior that they were not proposing a rate change this year. Aaron Donley with Sanipac said the agency usually requests a rate increase tied to the consumer price index, about 2.6% this year, and costs for labor, steel and fuel. However, Recycling Modernization Act funding is offsetting those costs.
Public hearings about rates for wastewater and stormwater along with Sanipac, are scheduled for May 18 and June 1, respectively.