City executives say budget uncertainty is harming morale, retention

Presenter: The city’s budget uncertainty is taking its toll on employee morale. With the City Council Jan. 22, City Manager Sarah Medary:

Sarah Medary (Eugene, city manager): There’s a lot at stake with these conversations. There’s a lot of people paying attention. Our staff are paying attention, our community partners are really starting to communicate with us, pay closer attention in the community. So as we walk through it, I’ll try to be as thoughtful as I can in the statements because we start talking about exercises and dollars and just remembering that there’s people behind all of those.

[00:00:33] Presenter: At the Human Rights Commission Jan. 21, Director Mia Cariaga said Central Services is planning to cut $4.5 million.

[00:00:42] Mia Cariaga (Eugene Central Services, director): So if we carve out core Police and Fire services from the $11.5 (million budget gap), the Central Services allocation is $4.5 million. So we’ll be working on that a little bit in a couple of weeks…

[00:00:55] We have long-term structural issues because based on our property tax system in Oregon, our costs are far outpacing our revenues. And so we’re working on that on a legislative and structural level.

[00:01:09] Presenter: Local boards and commissions don’t know if the final budget will support their work plan priorities. Human Rights Commissioner Blake Burrell:

[00:01:18] Blake Burrell (Human Rights Commission): Money that’s being proposed to be cut from each of these departments could impact some key positions for programming that interacts with our work plan.

[00:01:26] And I would say the biggest thing is, honestly, advocating for staffing support for the Office of Equity and Community Engagement and making sure that we’re not losing major roles in this department…

[00:01:37] You know, this department barely has the personnel capacity to supplement what we’re already putting on their table. So for this department to, you know, lose percentage of FTE for, you know, neighborhood liaisoning or equity or any of those roles, I think would be really devastating too.

[00:01:56] Presenter: After hearing public comment from firefighters Nov. 18 and Nov. 25, the so-called fire fee seemed to lose momentum. At the city council Jan. 22, City Manager Sarah Medary:

[00:02:09] Sarah Medary (Eugene city manager): I’ve probably let this go farther than I should have. We really needed the decision about whether we were going to move forward with the new revenue or not—We really needed that decision really in November. We weren’t able to get there. So we pushed it to December. We really needed it by December.

[00:02:26] And there was some discomfort with that and there was some pushback to that feedback about that. And you asked to move to January and I really trusted that we were going to be able to do that. And here, we’re now moving it to February.

[00:02:40] So we’ve definitely moved beyond my comfort zone of being able to hit the mark…

[00:02:48] I feel like I should have been more prepared to say, ‘Hey, we’re moving on with this budget, and we’re going to have to build it,’ because now I’ve put staff in a really difficult position of having to make all those timelines.

[00:03:02] The second reflection I have is really around this concept of value. And I’ve been thinking a lot about that, because in your conversations, the last conversation, there was a lot of discussion about what’s valuable, what’s not valuable.

And what I’m needing to do as your chief administrative officer is I’m spending some time with staff that heard those conversations and some feel very valued and some feel very not-valued.

And I’m working through that and trying to assure our team that all of the services we provide are valuable. And so I’ve been thinking about that.

[00:03:41] You know, what I was thinking, an example I gave is, you know, there’s some things that are just inherently more valuable, but I might not value as much. And the example I gave is silver and gold. Gold is clearly more valuable. If you take it and you’re going to sell it, it holds more value. But actually, I much prefer to have a silver necklace to a gold. Always. I just prefer silver jewelry. I prefer silver. It’s more valuable to me. And so every one of us has those things that are different for each of us.

[00:04:14] And actually a staff member reminded me that it isn’t even so binary, it’s actually more of a continuum and it’s really depending on the circumstances of the day. Situational, is there a certain time that I might actually value this thing more than another but it swaps and switches.

[00:04:32] And I think this is important as a reminder, as you have these conversations, because a great reflection for me is that with the exception of one person that’s not here today, that would normally be a panelist, none of us are in positions that fall under that valued category. None of us are doing that work. I’m not doing that work. I’m not that core public safety professional.

[00:05:02] But I think the work I do is valuable and I think the work that you do is valuable and I say this because I don’t think you understand the ramifications necessarily of these conversations on morale and recruitment and retention and just sort of what I’m hearing in the organization.

[00:05:19] Presenter: The City Council just can’t bring itself to pass the fire fee that one Raging Granny said is ‘not quite honest.’ With others questioning a fee on housing in a housing crisis, and a voter revolt in the works, city executives ask us to remember: When we talk about the budget, we’re talking about valuable city employees, and our neighbors who appreciate their service.