November 30, 2023 – Chris Chenoweth, McMinnville City Councilor: Facebook Post
Last night was a mixed night for me. I want to thank everyone that sent words of encouragement. I am very appreciative.
First was the budget committee: There were three members of the budget committee that initially agreed that we should not impose any of the $1.50 on our citizens this next budget year. At the end of the budget committee meeting a motion was made and then passed to instruct staff to prepare a budget assessing .50 cents of the $1.50. That will mean that next year the city of McMinnville will be increasing their assessment from $3.52 per thousand to $4.02 per thousand.
Last year we did not assess any of the $1.50, however residents were assessed $2 per thousand for the new fire district making a net increase of $0.50 per thousand last year. As a result of the decision last night, we are on the path to add $0.50 per thousand in the next budget year.
I want to be clear that every member of the budget committee except me expressed, at one level or another, that they don’t believe they need to go to you, the voters, before assessing any of that $1.50.
I was the lone voice in opposition.
I continue to believe that the vast majority of the citizens of McMinnville do not want the city to spend any of that $1.50. Arguments were made that the citizens knew that upon approving the fire district the City would eventually assess the $1.50, I do not believe that to be true. I believe this budget committee made two commitments. The first was that they would not use any of it in the first year. The second was that we would get direction from the citizens before spending any of it. I don’t believe they’ve done the second. Some might argue that the dollars and cents web page was doing exactly that. I would argue that getting responses from just over 600 out of 35,000 people does not represent bringing it before the citizens. Let alone the one consistent feedback we got on that web page was that it was difficult to navigate and use.
The News Register’s survey which had just under 1,000 respondents, indicates the majority opposed spending it. I think it a logical conclusion that if they didn’t think we should spend in the survey, that they did not understand the City’s intent was to spend it. My conversations on the street have been even more in opposition to spending this money. One Councilor expressed that they had spoken to 13 or 14 people in their ward and all of them were in favor of spending some, or all. I have yet to speak to anybody outside of the budget committee who has the same perspective. Disclaimer, I tend to hang out with fiscal conservatives that are still truly fiscal conservatives.
Over the next few months I intend to use this Facebook page to put out some facts regarding our budget to help the citizens understand what is actually happening.
I have heard rumblings of a petition being started to codify in the charter a maximum assessment of $3.52. I told the Budget committee last night that I would be in favor of, and support, such a petition. The only thing that would stop that support is a full repeal of the city services fee added to residents water bill a year and a half ago. I meant that.
Later in the meeting the Council faced a decision on the land needs analysis. This document is part of the process of doing the next UGB expansion that our city will need. There is always tension between those who do not want to see change and those who believe change is inevitable. There is also understandable tension between those that want to maintain the current size of the city and those that believe we must grow.
The decision facing the the Council was whether we were going to accept all of the findings put together by our public advisory committee, planning commission and staff or were we going to remove two of those findings. To be clear the issue was not whether all the findings were true but rather are they defensible on appeal. I continue to believe that we are well short of commercial land in this community and the results are obvious to those who try to do any shopping in McMinnville. We will have to vote on this twice and the first one was a 4-2 decision to accept all the findings. In more practical terms we were deciding between stating that we have a 161 or 99 acre shortage of commercial land. We decided 161.
I believe the Council made the right choice. The land needs analysis should reflect the actual current circumstances in our community in order for us to plan accurately for the needs of our residents.
Anyone that has questions feel free to ask away or call me.
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