Chamber does the math: Smaller 2-year fee would preserve most popular services

Presenter: The Eugene Area Chamber of Commerce offered a compromise Monday night on the so-called fire fee. Its president and CEO says it’s possible, with a modest two-year stabilization fee, to preserve many popular city services.

During public comment at the City Council meeting May 12, Brittany Quick-Warner:

Brittany Quick-Warner (Chamber of Commerce, CEO): Good evening Mayor and City Council. Thank you so much for your tireless work navigating this complex and high-stakes budget process. We know how heavy this moment is and how important it is to get it right.

[00:00:30] We also know that finding the balance between meeting immediate financial demands and planning for long-term stability is no small task. Your commitment to listening and adapting has not gone unnoticed. We really do appreciate you for that.

[00:00:44] Over the past several weeks, the Chamber has pored over not only the current proposed and amended budgets but more than a decade’s worth of previous city budgets, watching hours and hours and hours of city Budget Committee meetings. (Thank God my husband reminded me after several meetings you could watch it in two times speed. That helped a little bit.)

[00:01:03] We really wanted to try to understand the scope and the structure of the challenge in front of us. We’ve also been listening very closely, as I know you have, to business owners, to residents, to the public testimony that you guys are hearing tonight and over the last several weeks.

[00:01:16] And what we’ve heard is clear: Eugene residents care deeply about the services that make this community feel like home.

[00:01:22] We believe there is a path to preserving those services and it’s within reach. By looking closely at the numbers and, frankly, just doing the math, we believe that to preserve many of the most valued services and achieve meaningful long-term savings, we can do both.

[00:01:37] Specifically, we think it’s possible to maintain funding for the downtown library, the Amazon Pool, the Sheldon Community Center, the downtown cleanup and beautification program, to allow funding to help explore future alternative response contracts, the animal welfare unit, the animal services sheltering contract, develop park maintenance, the homeless service program, and maintain some of the budget for neighborhood services.

[00:02:01] With thoughtful prioritization, deeper cuts in many of the other areas that staff have already proposed, many of them frankly involving vacant positions or programs that can be restructured, which they’ve put forward, without gutting the heart of our community and the services they count on.

[00:02:16] That would leave a much smaller budget gap, one that could be reasonably filled with a temporary two-year service stabilization fee that’s modest in scope, clearly defined, sunset by design, and accountable to the public.

[00:02:31] This approach doesn’t just buy time, it creates space—space for Council and community members to come together to have deeper conversations about the long-term solution.

[00:02:39] Presenter: After the end of the public comment period, Eugene Mayor Kaarin Knudson:

[00:02:44] Kaarin Knudson (Eugene, mayor): Thank you so much for your participation and for spending the time to share your thoughts with us. I also want to echo the appreciations for the advocacy for essential supporting services within our community, and also the advocacy for seeking solutions where we are in agreement and there’s collaboration and we’re working together to solve some very challenging problems.

[00:03:07] I will not say too much more about some of the specifics, but I will highlight that we will have a Budget Committee meeting also coming up this Wednesday and another conversation at City Council related to this work also on this Wednesday the 14th of May. So, options midday and evening to follow along in this conversation. If you are interested to continue with this conversation, please join us.

[00:03:30] Presenter: The Chamber does the math, and says the city doesn’t need to cut its most popular services. Budget deliberations continue Wednesday with a City Council work session at noon and the Budget Committee at 5:30 p.m.