Fact check: Former mayor decided to delay budget
6 min read
Presenter: In one of her final acts, the former mayor of Eugene late last year delayed a vote on the budget. On Nov. 20, 2024, former Mayor Lucy Vinis:
Lucy Vinis (Nov. 20, 2024): I certainly personally would love to sort of bring this home in this year while I’m in office. But my larger goal is that this comes home in a way in which Council feels strong and confident that they can support it and they can represent it out in the community. And it is more important to me that you have a stronger Council vote in support of this because you feel grounded in the implications of it and the budget and you’ve had a chance to talk to your constituents.
[00:00:38] So my own preference is sometimes, it’s—Take a little more time just to make sure that that foundation is solid, that communication with the public is strong. And the new mayor is eminently capable of presiding over that conversation. I’m not worried about her ability to do that at all. And if, and if Council is in a good place on their decision, then that will be a straightforward process.
[00:01:01] Presenter: That strategy did not pay off. The Council vote did not grow stronger, and valuable time was lost. The delay worried the city manager. On Jan. 22, Sarah Medary:
[00:01:12] Sarah Medary (Eugene city manager, Jan. 22, 2025): We need to build the budget, which is more nuts and bolts, but it’s a legal responsibility I have. It’s my prime, one of my prime responsibilities to you. And in my reflection, recognizing that I’ve probably let this go farther than I should have and so that’s where we’re heading with this conversation…
[00:01:35] Typically, you know, we’re getting our forecast information pretty dialed in by November/early December and that’s when our team is starting to pull together strategies for—could be potentially surplus strategies, but it’s mostly been reduction strategies based on our history of consistently needing to do that.
[00:01:55] And then we have this time between, you know, I would say—and these things fudge a little bit—but February and mid-April where we’re dialing all that in, we’re building the, putting everything into our systems, our financial systems, balancing it all, publishing it all, advertising it, doing all that work so we can be prepared at the end of April, typically, to start with the Budget Committee process.
[00:02:22] And then we have, you know, a month and a half of that before Council adopts the budget. So there are really very specific deadlines. And here we are, we’re kind of at the end of January, we’re really at that deadline, and I have some concern about that.
[00:02:40] Presenter: The fee would finally be approved by a vote of 5-3 on Feb. 10, 2025.
Three councilors warned that if the city did not set priorities, residents would act to overturn their decision. On Nov. 20, 2024, Councilor Mike Clark:
[00:02:58] Councilor Mike Clark (Nov. 20, 2024): The community has the option to reverse the things we do if they don’t agree with the call. I think we haven’t had the conversation about priorities and we need to before we move forward to institute a new tax. Otherwise we risk the option that the community may petition to reverse our decision.
[00:03:22] The Chamber has already made it clear they’re not in support and I think the further conversation about priorities is the one that’s warranted first and we really need to have it… We need that conversation first.
[00:03:36] Presenter: On Jan. 22, Councilor Greg Evans:
[00:03:39] Councilor Greg Evans (Jan. 22, 2025): Councilor Clark is right. We are going to get major pushback and the last thing we need is to have somebody take this to the ballot and say ‘Okay, City Council, you passed the fire fee, we don’t like it, we can’t afford it, and you’re going to have to go back to the drawing board and figure out something else.’ I’d rather not be put in that position.
[00:04:03] Presenter: On Dec. 11, Councilor Randy Groves.
[00:04:06] Councilor Randy Groves (Dec. 11, 2024): I still am very eager to have the prioritization discussion because we’re going to need it, whether we implement the fire service fee or not. This is going to be an ongoing problem as long as Oregon taxation stays the way it currently is. You know, our revenue stream continues to be constrained and not keeping pace with inflation and costs.
[00:04:30] Presenter: As predicted, without a Council discussion of priorities, the Chamber of Commerce continued to oppose the fee and according to Oregon election laws, now has 30 days to collect enough signatures for a vote of the people. Their March 13 deadline is too late to put the referendum on the May ballot, so the election is expected to be held in August.
[00:04:52] And although former Mayor Vinis explained why she chose to delay the budget last November, fee supporters are now blaming others for the delay.
[00:05:01] In a press release dated Feb. 26, the organization ‘Save Our Services’ said: ‘Despite a more than year-long public process preceding the fire fee’s adoption, the Eugene Chamber of Commerce announced plans Friday to refer the fire fee to the ballot, which would delay its implementation and lead to cuts in services as early as this summer.’
[00:05:25] At the Neighborhood Leaders Council Feb. 25, chair of the Budget Committee, speaking as an individual, Tai Pruce-Zimmerman:
[00:05:34] Tai Pruce-Zimmerman (NLC, Feb. 25, 2025): If the fire fee is able to go into effect, then in this upcoming budget cycle we will have to cut approximately $3.5 million, and if the fire fee is unable to go into effect, then in this upcoming budget cycle we will have to cut about $11.5 million.
[00:05:51] And last week on Thursday, the Chamber of Commerce filed a referendum to potentially send it to the ballot. They have to collect 5,817 signatures by March 13. And if they collect that many and submit them and have that many validated, it would go, presumably, to the August election.
[00:06:14] There was a press conference from a group that is actively preemptively working to preserve the fire fee. They’re launching a ‘Decline To Sign’ campaign. So depending on what side of the fee you personally are on, if you’re interested in signing it, I’m sure the Chamber can arrange that.
[00:06:34] And if you are interested in preserving the fee, there’s the Save Our Services coalition. Their website is EugeneSOS.com. And they’re circulating a ‘Decline to Sign’ pledge and asking people to actively commit to not signing their petitions.
[00:06:54] So, those are the two courses that are in play right now.
[00:06:59] And then the other piece that I think is useful to know, ’cause there’s a lot of questions about if it’s referred to the ballot, what the implications are in the budget cycle.
[00:07:08] If it’s referred to the ballot, then we will move ahead in the budget cycle with the $11.5 million gap. The budget will be created and approved under the essentially assumption the fee is not passing. All the cuts will be built into the budget that the Budget Committee works on, and that then the City Council ultimately approves.
[00:07:34] However, with an August vote coming, any potential layoffs around those cuts would not go into effect until after the vote. They will make sure even though those positions aren’t budgeted for, they’ll find the various accounting tricks it takes to avoid doing any of those layoffs for a month and a half…
[00:07:56] Presenter: Former Mayor Lucy Vinis:
[00:07:58] Former Mayor Lucy Vinis (Nov. 20, 2024): …It is more important to me that you have a stronger Council vote …Take a little more time just to make sure that that foundation is solid, that communication with the public is strong.
[00:08:07] Presenter: That’s Lucy Vinis, explaining why she delayed a final decision on the city budget. City staff could now face months of stress and uncertainty, the budget team must use ‘accounting tricks,’ and despite moving to a priority-based budget in 2022, the City Council has still not been given an opportunity to set program priorities.
See also: Eugene nonprofit, union, elected officials rally for $10M annual fee
