Mayor suggests preparing for federal funding shocks

Presenter: The city is scrambling to assess the impact of federal funding cuts, even while testifying in Salem and preparing to lobby in Washington D.C. At the Intergovernmental Relations Committee April 2, reporting on her visit with state legislators, Eugene Mayor Kaarin Knudson:

Kaarin Knudson (Eugene, mayor): I think it was a very productive day, great for me to be able to talk with people about our shelter priorities, economic development, and Clear Lake. That conversation was a centerpiece in most of our discussions, which was, is wonderful because I think folks are also well aware that that’s been a long-term effort to be able to think about investing in that part of Northwest Eugene in that way.

[00:00:41] And then some great conversations about housing as well.

[00:00:44] Presenter: The city also met with the Speaker of the House Julie Fahey. Intergovernmental Relations Manager Ethan Nelson:

[00:00:51] Ethan Nelson (Eugene, Intergovernmental Relations, manager): When we spoke with the speaker, state budget writers are very concerned that the impacts from federal reductions will have a really big impact.

[00:01:01] And so they’re looking at what are all of the areas that could be impacted from a reduction in federal dollars and then how to reallocate general fund dollars to support those core pieces. And so a lot of it has to do related to Oregon Health Plan.

[00:01:18] And so if there’s a reduction there, then they will likely move some general fund dollars.

[00:01:25] Presenter: Councilor Greg Evans:

[00:01:26] Councilor Greg Evans: On Monday, 20,000 employees in (the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services) HHS being laid off, there hasn’t been any thumbnail analysis of how that ultimately affects us down the line here in the state (Yeah), so we have no clue yet as to how that’s going to affect the flow of funds. I know that in education, they peeled back $2.5 million in funding to ODE (Oregon Department of Education).

[00:01:56] Presenter: IGR Manager Ethan Nelson:

[00:01:59] Ethan Nelson (Eugene, Intergovernmental Relations, manager): We’re conducting some internal work to get a sense of where we are vulnerable as a city related to federal funds. There’s also then this trickle-down related to federal funds that either support state-run programs that operate in our community, or fund the county, which are programs that operate in our community.

[00:02:22] And then on top of that, Attorney General (Dan) Rayfield is doing a series of town halls. The legislature appropriated, I think, between $4 million and $6 million out of the Emergency Board fund, with the recognition that there was likely going to be litigation.

[00:02:37] And so what’s happening is that there will be a shutdown of funds from an executive order and then there’s a lawsuit. And until that lawsuit is settled and enforced, then those funds may just not flow.

[00:02:53] Presenter: The city has been lobbying for money to prepare Northwest Eugene for new businesses. Ethan Nelson:

[00:03:00] Ethan Nelson (Eugene, Intergovernmental Relations, manager): We keep moving forward on the Clear Lake Road infrastructure as Mayor Knudson and chair have had a lot of conversations about that. I submitted to the Legislative Fiscal Office (LFO) our capital construction request last week. They haven’t scheduled when the lottery bonds will be up for public hearing.

[00:03:22] Presenter: One of the bills involves a pilot project at Everyone Village. It’s for SRO’s, single resident occupancy homes, at a reported cost of $50,000 to $60,000 each. Ethan Nelson:

[00:03:33] Ethan Nelson (Eugene, Intergovernmental Relations, manager): There is an item on SROs and I’ve been asked by the speaker’s local staff, John Prince, to come and spend some time to discuss the issue related to Pastor Gabe, Everyone Village and the pilot (project) there.

[00:03:49] So I’ve reached out internally to Planning and BPS (Building and Permit Services) and Community Development staff to identify where we are on that, get an update and then spend time with John.

[00:04:01] Presenter: Councilor Randy Groves:

[00:04:03] Councilor Randy Groves: That’s one I’m very interested in tracking. I just see the SRO model, architecturally designed and engineered structures, it’s a way of producing housing, good housing quickly to get people into housing.

[00:04:17] Presenter: As local governments make their annual trek to lobby for federal funding, they’ll face a whirlwind schedule. Ethan Nelson:

[00:04:26] Ethan Nelson (Eugene, Intergovernmental Relations, manager): On Tuesday, off to the races, and we’re going to be meeting with Forest Service, we’ll talk about fire prevention activities in the WUI, the Wildland Urban Interface.

[00:04:41] When we go to Economic Development Administration, we’ll talk about Clear Lake Road, but we’ll also talk about we received an EDA grant under the Biden administration, Biden administration’s Build Back Better is pandemic funds, and that’s building mountain bike trails, so we’ll give updates on that.

[00:05:05] The next one that we’ll be jumping into: Department of Transportation. We’ll talk about Eugene Airport and also Franklin Boulevard updates.

[00:05:15] Presenter: Councilor Evans:

[00:05:16] Councilor Greg Evans: I’m still hearing from a number of the business folks over there on Franklin Boulevard about, you know, the whole idea of putting roundabouts in front of highly trafficked areas there, particularly in the commercial and retail sections of Franklin.

[00:05:42] Ethan Nelson (Eugene, Intergovernmental Relations, manager): I think that that’s still where the city’s going.

[00:05:45] Presenter: Ethan said the group will also visit the Environmental Protection Agency.

[00:05:49] Ethan Nelson (Eugene, Intergovernmental Relations, manager): EPA. We’ll talk about Brownfields and the regional Brownfields Coalition.

[00:05:54] Presenter: Councilor Groves:

[00:05:56] Councilor Randy Groves: Can you ask them, with reductions that we’re seeing, what kind of an impact is that going to have on the J.H. Baxter process? Because we’re in the queue right now with trying to get Superfund status and get that fully cleaned up.

[00:06:11] And it’d be nice to know what they know about funding reductions and elimination of staff and what’s that going to do to that contaminated area.

[00:06:24] There’s a definite line between what DEQ is doing and what EPA is doing and quite frankly, I’ve been government a lot of years. I’ve never seen two separate entities work as well together as they are right now. I mean, DEQ is going after cleaning up people’s yards and getting that taken care of and EPA, Randy Nattis (EPA project lead) has been like clockwork, sometimes more than one report a week, that he’s cranking out on their progress. But their progress is only going to go so far.

[00:06:54] What they’re doing is they’re taking down the built infrastructure, but they aren’t excavating and cleaning out the contaminated soil that’s still leaching into the groundwater. So that’s going to be something that we need addressed and nobody has the money for that except the feds.

[00:07:15] Presenter: With another stop on the federal agency visits, Ethan Nelson:

[00:07:19] Ethan Nelson (Eugene, Intergovernmental Relations, manager): National Endowment for the Arts. We’ve got some updates on programs that fund here in Eugene, and so we’ll probably have the staffer that joined that group.

[00:07:31] And then there’s meeting with Congresswoman Hoyle and then we will focus in on our congressionally-directed spending asks, specifically, the one that we’ll put in front of her, which is going to be funding for Clear Lake Road.

[00:07:43] Councilor Randy Groves: Can I flag something for Sen. (Jeff) Merkley? His office has been working closely with Everyone Village on the whole SRO piece and trying to get the definition of housing in HUD to include the SRO. So that might be an interesting question of where they are on that. I know they’ve been meeting regularly with Gabe.

[00:08:07] Presenter: Ethan Nelson:

[00:08:08] Ethan Nelson (Eugene, Intergovernmental Relations, manager): NRPA, we’ll go to that one, focusing on (Suzanne) Arlie Park and WUI fire fuels reductions.

[00:08:17] HUD, we’ve got some of our HIP materials, the Housing Implementation Pipeline, and this SRO piece might be in there as well. (Great.)

[00:08:26] We’re going to then go to the White House complex and meet with White House Intergovernmental Affairs and that, and so more than likely be in the Eisenhower building. And I think our focus there will be Eugene Airport, taser, or congressional direct spending projects: Clear Lake (Road infrastructure), Eugene Airport, and funding for tasers and body cams.

[00:08:57] Presenter: Councilor Randy Groves:

[00:08:58] Councilor Randy Groves: Have you heard anything from Lane County Health or state health about a federal funding tap getting turned off already for them? I’m curious about the county. The reason I’m asking, my daughter works from Baltimore County Health, and she said they’ve just been gutted. So it is going to have an effect on, you know, when the next disease pops up and spreads.

[00:09:21] And I’m just wondering what they’re thinking and how we support our county health, because you can manage an epidemic or a pandemic or just throw caution to the wind and have it ravage your community.

[00:09:36] Councilor Greg Evans: Well, I know they’re pulling money out of FEMA, so (if) we have an emergency situation, they’re not going to have staff on the ground to address it. FEMA’s supposed to be the first on the ground other than the first responders to go in and deal with this.

[00:09:53] Councilor Randy Groves: Well, fire, LA Fire for example, they’re not getting their reimbursements. You’ve got a $9.5 million overtime liability.

[00:10:02] Presenter: Mayor Kaarin Knudson:

[00:10:04] Kaarin Knudson (Eugene, mayor): We do have a session at Council, an update from the city manager looking at this bigger picture of impacts.

[00:10:10] As Ethan alluded to, many of them are not direct challenges to the city of Eugene, but they’re direct challenges to our constituents and community members and partners in a lot of services delivered within Lane County, probably three-quarters of them are delivered here (in terms of just numbers and points of interaction with people).

[00:10:28] So that update is coming. And I think it’ll be hard to get our arms around in terms of action items at council, because of the lack of direct engagement.

[00:10:39] But I do also think that some of our work next week with the United Front trip, talking with our partners about how we want to stand up communication structure and relational organizations so that we’re prepared for how it is that we do collectively respond.

[00:10:53] I’ve mentioned that at the Poverty and Homelessness Board meeting most recently and it was very well received by all the folks around that table because one of the challenges is going to be how to even talk about evolving circumstances that are so enormous: Social Security, Oregon Health Plan, basic systems and services that people expect continued uninterrupted access to.

[00:11:15] Presenter: Local governments join in a United Front. They head to Washington D.C. to share funding needs with federal agencies and officials, without a clear picture of how Trump administration cuts will affect Lane County.