County wants to spend more to inform you.

Byline: Matt Cooper The Register-Guard

CORRECTION (ran 4/28/2006): Lane County Commissioner Bill Dwyer said Wednesday that his question is whether the county's public information effort will lead to support for a public safety measure. His remarks were mischaracterized in a story on Page A1 Thursday.

Lane County is spending an unprecedented amount of money to publicize services and their cost, while county leaders move toward asking voters to pay more taxes for public safety.

The twin objectives have placed the county in a sensitive spot. Although state officials say the county is well within laws regarding elections and the use of public money, the county leadership must still answer those who question whether the county should spend big on publicity and then ask voters for more money.

"I've had that question - I've had it from employees and from people in the community," said District Attorney Doug Harcleroad, a strong believer in both the public information effort and increased funding for public safety.

Nevertheless, Harcleroad favors doubling the county spending for the information effort, from a current budget of $250,000, to $500,000.

"We have a $25 million budget problem in Lane County, and we need to solve that," he said. "If the public doesn't know what we do, and they don't trust us, we're never going to be able to solve that."

Citing a critical need to improve the public's understanding of county services and what they call a meager amount of tax money available to pay for them, the commissioners have approved spending $250,000 through December on the special publicity effort. That's about eight times what the county has earmarked annually for such work since the county created its public information post in 1996.

County officials also plan to ask the commissioners for more money to continue the effort in 2007 - as much as $250,000 more, if Harcleroad has his way.

The spending is large compared to similar counties, but Lane County officials say there is a lot of catch-up work to be done. Washington County earmarked $236,000 for public information in 2005-06; Clackamas County spends $162,000 a year on quarterly newsletters and brochures to keep the public up to speed; Jackson County, $125,000 for public information work; Deschutes County, $75,000-plus; and Marion County budgets nothing for that department.

The request for more money will be scrutinized by the county's citizen budget committee in the coming weeks, where it must compete with other important needs, board chairman Bill Dwyer said.

"When you start throwing money around, people think you got money to waste," Dwyer said. "I want to see what value we've gotten" from the public information effort.

The publicity effort, now under way, has the theme, "Lane County: Working For You." The county is publicizing services - everything from locking up criminals to collecting property taxes, inspecting restaurants and licensing marriages - and is paying three local public relations companies - Cawood, The Ulum Group and J.D. Welsh - to help with the work.

The effort includes surveys, media announcements, printed materials, videos, community meetings, ads on the sides of Lane Transit District buses and more.

Meanwhile, the commissioners are moving closer to seeking what would be only the second county income tax in the state, behind Multnomah. They've voted unanimously to consider asking residents to approve the tax for more public safety services. They plan to place the issue on the November ballot.

Some of the commissioners - if not all of them - clearly connect the effort to educate the public about the county's plight and the intent to ask them to approve a money measure later this year.

During a review of the publicity effort Wednesday, for example, Dwyer was skeptical of whether educating the public about the county's fiscal dilemmas will lead to "a willingness to support a measure that will allow us to fix it?"

"That's the bottom line," he said.

Still, state officials say the county's information effort is well within laws that prohibit the use of public money for campaigning. Harcleroad, too, said the connection between the information project and the income tax effort is entirely appropriate.

"It's perfectly proper for a government to spend dollars communicating with the citizens they work for, and letting them know what they do," Harcleroad said. Building that understanding and trust "undoubtedly would be helpful" if the county pursues a ballot measure for public safety or any other services, he added.

State law prohibits public employees from politicking for candidates, measures and other ballot issues while on the job, said Norma Buckno, a compliance specialist with the Secretary of State's Elections Division.

But the absence of any such measure in Lane County, to date, means there is probably no violation in using public money for the information effort, she added.

Legal experts, citing a state law that prohibits the unlawful expenditure of public funds, also refer to a 1985 case that went to the Oregon Supreme Court, "Burt vs. Blumenauer."

In the case, Multnomah County officials were sued for spending public funds to provide information about fluoridation at a time when an anti-fluoridation measure was on Portland's ballot. The court ruled that if it could be proven the officials had established the information project to fight the measure, they could be held personally liable for wrongly using public money.

The absence of a ballot measure in Lane County may render the decision irrelevant. In fact, even if the commissioners put a measure on the ballot, the county can help the public by spending on materials that explain the measure in an impartial way, said Anne Martens, a spokeswoman for the secretary of state.

And even if a measure is put on the ballot, Martens said, the county can continue to provide facts about the cost of county services, although some may construe the latter as subtle arm-twisting in favor of the former.

"That's not a legal violation," Martens said.

CAPTION(S):

Lane County's publicity blitz includes advertisements on Lane Transit District buses as well as surveys, announcements, printed materials, videos and meetings.