Funding outlook brightens despite less city spending.

Byline: Edward Russo The Register-Guard

BUDGETS

Don't tell Dennis Taylor that the city budget is boring. That will get him riled up.

Eugene's city manager prefers to think of the budget as a dynamic response to city needs or priorities, within financial constraints, of course. Instead of a dry collection of financial figures, Taylor insists, the budget is about action.

"To me, the city operating budget is the primary policy document of the mayor and City Council," he said. "It is an action-forcing document."

The council earlier this month approved the $495 million spending plan, 4.6 percent less than last year.

For homeowners, city property taxes on a home with an assessed value of $142,100, the municipal median, will rise $15, to $1,296.

The budget is smaller than last year, partly because the city didn't have to spend as much on the Oregon Public Employees Retirement System.

That means there was more money to spend on new things, which gave budget makers some freedom to address city priorities that had been put on the back burner, Taylor said.

"This is the first budget in over a decade where we were able to maintain current service levels in every department and every fund. And we were able to add (money) to targeted, focused areas, including City Council priorities," he said.

The council approved a budget with new money to hire police officers, fix streets, establish a new police auditor position, improve safety in a northwest park, install audible pedestrian signals, bolster the role of neighborhood associations, and make the Planning and Development Department more customer-friendly, among other things.

Putting together the budget takes three steps: The city manager proposes the budget; the budget committee - composed of eight residents and the eight city councilors - recommends changes; and the council has final say.

Last year, the budget committee and council agreed to add money to pay for bike patrol officers in downtown area neighborhoods, and to return firefighters to the Valley River Fire Station earlier than expected.

This year, the budget committee endorsed Taylor's $1.1 million proposal to hire 11 police department employees, including five patrol officers, two detectives and a manager for the Bethel police substation. Federal funds had paid the latter's salary, but that will come to an end.

Still, the police department will remain understaffed, particularly among patrol officers, city officials say. It's hard for the city to catch up because the city's population growth, while modest, is still greater than the city's rate of hiring officers.

For example, Eugene has 1.26 officers per 1,000 residents, which is lower than Oregon's overall ratio of 1.58 officers per 1,000 residents. And Oregon's ratio is the lowest among the 50 states, according to FBI rankings.

Police planner Linda Phelps said the new hires won't make a big dent in the officer gap. "But it's a start," she said.

The budget panel endorsed funding a study to improve safety improvements at Golden Gardens Park, where two teenage boys drowned last summer.

The committee and council were lobbied by area residents and relatives of the drowning victims, Nick Davis, 13, and Britton Shephard-Davis, 15.

The study will cost $50,000. At the request of northwest Councilor Jennifer Solomon, the council later agreed to spend an additional $600,000 to actually make whatever improvements are proposed.

The budget also contains $770,000 for a variety of social services, recreation and cultural efforts, such as $230,000 for Safe and Sound homeless youth programs; $145,000 for the Boys and Girls Club of Eugene; and $150,000 in support of the 2008 U.S. Olympic Trials.

More than $2 million will go to the Planning and Development Department. About half the total will go to increased building activity, such as re-establishing morning hours for the building permit information center. Other funds will go for planning "mixed-use centers," where homes, employers and stores are close together. Planners will work on issues tied to development in existing neighborhoods, often called "infill," plus a south hills habitat study.

One council priority is to increase public involvement in neighborhood associations.

The city plans to spend $230,000 in the next fiscal year on neighborhood programs, including $50,000 in matching grants if the associations can raise an equal amount. Another $60,000 will support the River Road and Santa Clara neighborhood groups as they plan for Eugene's growing role in their areas, which have more county than city residents. Also, $20,000 will be spent on mailing neighborhood newsletters to county residents.

Eugene's intractable street repair backlog won't go away because of the budget. But the budget panel did add $1.5 million to the $4.2 million that public works officials already planned to spend on fixing streets next year.

The new money will repair 10 miles of streets that are in danger of having to be completely rebuilt in the near future, said public works spokesman Eric Jones.

"They are deteriorating rapidly," he said.

Without repairs, the streets would have to be rebuilt at nearly four times the cost, he said.

The streets most likely to be resurfaced because of the budget committee's move are: 27th Avenue, from Amazon Parkway to Lincoln Street; Bailey Hill Road, between West 11th and 18th avenues; and Norkenzie Road, from Green Acres to Belt Line roads.