Council delays budget deal

Tuesday wasn’t a dark and stormy night, but the Baker City Council meeting had plenty of  suspense as councilors and city staff acted out a mystery over what part of the budget to cut to offset $136,000 in lost economic development funding.

Baker County officials pulled the $136,000 from transient lodging taxes that had been allocated to the city to pay for economic development efforts carried out by city staff.

A majority of the Council prefers taking that money from the economic development department, even though that option could jeopardize Jennifer Watkins’s job as community and economic development manager.

However, the budget resolution on the agenda at Tuesday’s meeting didn’t identify where the $136,000 would be cut, leaving councilors with concerns that by default, the money could  wind up being taken out of the ending fund balance, counter to what a majority of the Council agreed on during a budget committee earlier this month.

Councilor Aletha Bonebrake presented an alternative to resolve that conflict by cutting the $136,000 from the city’s economic development budget, but taking $54,000 from reserve funds to maintain a code enforcement officer, along with 14 sworn police officers in the police department.

Police Chief Wyn Lohner said he would rather cut the code enforcement officer, which is not a sworn position, and have 14 sworn officers.

Bonebrake said she thinks the city needs to retain a dedicated code enforcement officer, as well as the 14 sworn officers needed to ensure at least two deputies are available around the clock.

City Manager Steve Bogart said that reducing police patrols so that at times only one officer is on duty at night is “not going to happen on my watch.”

To give Bonebrake and Bogart time to craft a revised resolution incorporating the changes that would ensure a minimum two-officer patrol at all times, Mayor Dennis Dorrah, with consensus of the Council, recessed Tuesday’s meeting and scheduled it to reconvene tonight at 7 o’clock at City Hall, 1655 First t.

County officials notified the city that they were pulling the $136,000 after the city budget committee voted June 1 to cut $105,000 that funded Gene Stackle’s position essentially as the city’s one-man economic development staff, with oversight by Watkins.

Fred Warner Jr., chairman of the Baker County Board of Commissioners, warned city officials prior to Tuesday’s meeting that by cutting funding for Stackle’s job, he believed the city lacked the staff to carry out an economic development program and therefore would no longer be eligible for the $136,000 in lodging taxes from the county.

That money, which is collected at most Baker County motels, RV parks and bed-and-breakfasts.

It became clear Tuesday that eliminating Stackle’s position could cause a domino effect, with the loss of $136,000 in lodging taxes combined with the city’s $105,000 cut leaving the city without enough money in the economic development budget to pay Watkins, who splits her time between oversight of economic and community development, and her role as assistant city manager.

The Council did not decide Tuesday how to deal with that potential situation.