The cost of running a city continues to rise and in Philomath’s fiscal year 2024-25 budget approved Monday night, the numbers add up to $40.8 million.
City Manager Chris Workman said in an interview following the June 10 City Council meeting that one of the biggest hits on the budget comes down to the cost of employees.
“The biggest expense that we’re seeing is just personnel costs in general,” Workman said. “We did have that salary survey two years ago, we made adjustments last year and then this year, we’re seeing the full impact.”
Workman said the salary survey illustrated how several city employees, especially those in management, were being underpaid compared to cities of a comparable size.
“Those adjustments that got made last year have carried into this year’s budget and so you’re seeing larger personnel increases,” Workman said. “Generally speaking, Human Resources is tough right now — it’s hard to find people … It’s just like in the private sector where costs for employment are going up; we’re seeing that in the public sector as well.”
Adoption of the budget came on a unanimous vote of 6-0 (Ruth Causey absent) with a related resolution to impose and categorize taxes at a rate of $5.3005 per $1,000 of assessed valuation also receiving approval. There were no comments during a public hearing.
Councilors followed with approval of the various types of state-shared revenues that come into the city. The estimated amounts that Philomath will receive includes $79,586 in general shared revenues, $123,681 from the liquor tax, $4,134 from the cigarette tax and $8,036 from the marijuana tax — all of those amounts going into the city’s general fund.
The city’s $467,685 share of highway gas tax revenue goes to street and capital projects. The public hearing on state shared revenues drew no comments.
As far as those personnel expenses, the city’s staff will be expanding, including the addition of a police officer.
“We’ve been looking for a number of years to add a police officer just to be able to have the staffing that we need there,” Workman said. “The numbers look right when you do the hourly but when you start adding in time for sick leave and vacation leave, people having babies and all of those kinds of things, we’re always a person short and that just makes it really tough to cover shifts.”
The situation, he added, goes largely unnoticed by the public but an officer who is the only one on shift is certainly aware.
“Being two deep is really, really important and we’ve not been too deep consistently for a long time,” Workman said, adding that between salary and benefits, the cost of adding an officer runs more than $100,000.
“We felt it was justified — the Police Committee reviewed it, the Budget Committee reviewed it, the City Council reviewed it — and everybody felt pretty strongly that we needed that new police position,” Workman said.
With the addition, the police department’s total employee count on July 1 will go up to 11 — seven officers, two patrol sergeants, an administrative assistant specialist and the chief.
The city added a part-time code compliance officer last year but that position has been eliminated in favor of using some of those dollars toward a full-time officer, Workman said.
The city will also add a Public Works employee.
“We actually lost a position at Public Works about eight years ago and we never hired anyone to fill it,” he said. “They’ve gone all this time without but they’re reaching a point, too, where they just aren’t keeping up with everything as much as they’d like to.”
Last year, the city added the planner position and that will continue.
“We’re increasing the staff but our services have grown with the demand for what we’re doing,” Workman said. “Every position has gotten more complex … the state is demanding more from our officers in reporting, demanding more from us on financial with all of the reporting and auditing that we do. So that’s more time whether it’s police or finance or planning. There’s just a lot more work, a lot more detail that’s required.”
In addition to labor, the city is also very active with a number of ongoing projects. The downtown streetscapes improvements, the construction of a water treatment plant and the building of a street that connects South 16th to Cedar are examples.
“There’s just a lot of big projects going on right now and so that’s pulling a lot of money as well,” Workman said. “It looks like a very, very big number — once those projects come out of this year’s budget as we’re completing them, there will be a little bit more of a normal level of spending going forward.”
Elsewhere in city finance news, the council unanimously approved a resolution to adopt a supplemental budget, which represented a 4.5% increase over the budget that had been previously approved. In dollars, the increase came to $161,000
In other news out of the June 10 meeting:
• Scott Ramsey of the College of Philomath Community Corporation talked to the council about its mission and hopes to ramp up plans for the future of its historic building at North 10th and Pioneer streets. The nonprofit organization wants to continue with renovations to preserve the building’s historic charm, create a community center that focuses on social and cultural programming for seniors, and provide space for a nonprofit preschool. Ramsey said the most recent assessed value of the property came in at $950,000 and the debt has been paid down to around $40,000. A current need is grant writing to try to secure funding for high-dollar projects, such as a seismic retrofit. Another need is a renewed interest in the project, including all seats on the nonprofit’s board being filled. Workman plans to talk with Ramsey about a possible grant opportunity.
• Oregon Cascades West Council of Governments provided the council with an annual update on its organization, including details on various community service programs.
• Philomath Chief of Police Dave Gurski received recognition for 20 years of service to the city. Mayor Chas Jones presented Gurski with a plaque.
• The council approved a resolution proclaiming inclusivity. The council reviews, updates and reaffirms an inclusivity resolution each year at the first meeting in June.
• During councilor comments, Teresa Nielson mentioned struggles seen at Philomath Food Bank because of state-level cuts that have primarily impacted the cost of making meat and vegetables available to low-income families. Philomath Community Services, the organization that operates the food bank, plans to meet as a board on June 29 to discuss changes on how to approach the issue.
• In a separate Urban Renewal Agency meeting, councilors unanimously approved a budget of $2.1 million.
