Some light housekeeping before we get started – at press time, the meeting agenda for next Tuesday’s Benton County Board of Commissioners meeting hadn’t been posted yet, which seems weird, given it would usually be available on a Thursday night.
Maybe, it’s because County Public Information Officer Cory Grogan has taken a temporary leave of absence – he’s a military reservist, and at the beginning of the month he started a nine-month overseas deployment.
Rumor has it an interim Public Information Officer will be starting Monday, September 16. The current plan is that Grogan will return after his nine-month stint.
Monday’s City Council Meeting to Talk Trash and Taxes – See Houseless Challenges
The Corvallis Daytime Drop-in Center, or CDDC, points unhoused folks towards help and services as its regular undertaking – but recently, it also asked those folks what their experiences have been with the City’s public sleeping guidelines, or in government speak, time-place-manner guidelines.
Now they’ve compiled that information, and their own observations, and submitted it as a written public comment for the City Council’s review.
According to CDDC executive director Allison Hobgood, who submitted the study to the City, “The larger message I would also like to convey is the inadequacy of the sleeping guidelines as a viable community solution. If the reality of our current City government support for unhoused people is indeed limited to the guide, then I especially hope you all will take into account the findings and observations we offer here, including concerns we have about whether neighborhoods near the “legal” parks have been notified of peoples’ right to rest therein.”
The report’s major takeaways included that park signage about sleeping is hard to see, follow and understand, that the sleeping guide, which is like a brochure, has similar issues, and isn’t in practice followed by City staff and police, and that toilet and sanitation availability is an issue at several locations.
The report also identifies a host of other general and specific problems. Here’s a link to the meeting packet that has all that info, and it starts on page six, if you’d like to check it out – and we think you really-really should.
And now, we’ll editorialize for a moment: One could conflate the Corvallis Daytime Drop-in Center report on the City’s time, place and manner sleeping guidelines with the current Stop the Sweeps rhetoric that’s become popular of late. However, that would be a mistake, the CDDC report identifies substantive issues our unhoused neighbors encounter that go quite a bit beyond how they’re impacted by the sweeps – and this is why we’re really hoping you’ll take the time to read the report.
On the other hand, what neither the report or Stop the Sweeps sentiments seem to address is this: How, for the love of all that is holy, can we as a community offer our unhoused neighbors, as individuals, a space of their own, and alongside that, opportunities for growth until they may no longer need our help, or at least are living in some dignity.
Whatever one thinks about these ad hoc camps for the houseless, and the fairness or unfairness of sweeping them away – only to have them reappear – we doubt anyone would defend the camps as a community expression of care and uplift for folks that are in need.
We think Corvallis has the resources and compassion to do better than this – we believe the discussion around these camps should have higher aspirations, and that the goal should always be to unlock the potential for individual growth when we can. We know these hopes are costlier and harder, but in our view, they are the kinder and more caring path forward. We should have a place for every Corvallisite. And now, back to our usual news coverage…
School taxes in enterprise zones: When a municipality grants tax exemptions for an enterprise zone, what happens to the school funding? Well, last year the legislature dealt with that question.
Now, in a memo from Community Development Director Paul Bilotta to the City Council, he talks about the new law, and what the City Council needs to do to be compliant.
“It is required that Enterprise Zone sponsors must adopt similar resolutions with the school districts that are affected by these tax exemptions in the coming weeks and months to meet the legislative mandate. In fact, zone sponsors may not sign new agreements for abatement under the enterprise zone program after September 23rd, until a fee has been established with the affected school district. After this date, without an established fee rate to include in the agreement, companies will only be eligible for a three-year tax exemption as opposed to the five years currently allowed. School districts are required to invoice the companies directly for any required fees and those collecting the fee must refund overpayment and notify local assessors of delinquent payment. According to OEDA and the League of Oregon Cities, it is possible that school support fees will not increase local district budgets, as fees must be included as local revenue in school funding formula calculations, and in most cases, will be offset by reduced State School Fund distributions.”
Bilotta also reported to the Council that the Corvallis School District has requested the rate be set at the minimum 15 percent and that City staff recommends approving a resolution to establish that fee rate.
He also wrote, “There are two active or recently approved Enterprise Zone tax abatements that will not be impacted by the School Support Fee Rate. Future tax abatements under the local enterprise zone program will be required to pay 15 percent of the tax exemption in years 4 and 5 if this resolution is approved.”
Once the new school support fees are upward calculated for a district, a like downward calculation can then happen on the state’s school funding side of the equation. The legislature’s goal was to ameliorate the impact of local enterprise zone decisions on statewide education funding across the state’s school districts.
Republic Services: As a condition of their franchise agreement with the City, our community’s trash hauling and landfill operation franchisee is supposed to file an annual report with the City – which they’ve now done.
The City’s finance department reviewed the Republic document, and reports that:
Republic Services reported revenue of $11,688,424 for 2023; an increase of 3.8% from the prior fiscal year. According to Republic Services, the increase in revenue was primarily due to a strong recovering economy.
Cost of operations was $8,437,641 for 2023; an increase of only 2.1% from the prior fiscal year. This resulted in operating income of $2,007,370 and net income of $1,433,262, representing an increase of 37.3% for both over the prior fiscal year. Net income as a percentage of sales was 12.3%. The balance sheet lists total assets at $7,149,015 with total liabilities and stockholder equity at ($27,508,203) and $34,657,218 respectively.
The annual report shows franchise fees paid to the City of Corvallis of $583,832 for collection, recycling and medical receipts. This amount is not consistent with City record receipts which totaled $583,800. The discrepancy appears to be in Medical Waste Invoices.
Back to the Corvallis Daytime Drop-in Center: Beyond making news with its report to the City Council this week, the CDDC has received news of its own.
They will need to find a new location because the property they currently lease has been purchased, and the new owner apparently has plans to develop the property. Currently, they’re located at 530 SW 4th Street. Like most nonprofits that serve houseless folks, they’ve had to move in the past, so once they’ve secured new digs, we’ll update you with the new location.
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