january16 2020
free
VERNONIA’S
volume14 issue2
reflecting the spirit of our community
County Fiscal Sustainability
Report Deserves a Closer Look
Document assesses county-
wide needs and offers plan for
increasing revenues
By Scott Laird
When the Columbia County
Board of Commissioners announced the
adoption of a newly completed Fiscal
Sustainability Report in late November,
the details revealed in the report may
have slipped by some county residents
in all the holiday rush. It would be a
mistake to pass over this important doc-
ument and the information it contains,
which paints a fairly bleak picture of the
County’s current financial situation, and
addresses the need for serious reform in
how the County collects revenues.
When County Commissioner
Alex Tardiff was elected in 2016 to a four
year term, he ran on the idea of providing
fiscal responsibility, transparency, and
accountability to county residents. Once
elected he served on the Board as budget
officer and as chair of the County’s rev-
enue committee, using his experience as
a former tax accountant to make changes
to county spending and to how county
funding is allocated. He was instrumen-
tal in the creation of the Fiscal Sustain-
ability Report, serving as the Board’s li-
aison to the study that guided the report.
The purpose of the study and
the concluding report was to evaluate
the current financial status of the Coun-
ty and then create a funding strategy to
guide the county’s financial decision-
making processes in the coming years,
something that has been missing from
County operations. The report itemizes
county-wide needs while identifying
funding challenges and detailing poten-
tial sustainable solutions. The full report
is available on the County’s website at
www.ColumbiaCountyOR.gov.
“The Board of Commissioners
recognizes that any new revenue sources
inside
10
wildlife refuges
suffer budget cuts
11
vhs winter sports
15
good ol’ days
could impact county businesses and resi-
dents, therefore, they should be fair and
equitable,” Tardif said in a press release
announcing the report. “But our resi-
dents are the ultimate decision-makers;
what we have done is to create a frame-
work for them to understand the needs,
trade-offs, and ways to improve their
county’s fiscal situation.”
What the report found should be
alarming to county residents – a $30 mil-
lion funding gap over the next five years,
just to maintain current levels of service.
If the County were to fund all identified
high priority needs to improve services
and accomplish all operational tasks and
projects, about $42 million in additional
revenue would be needed over the next
five years.
The report was authored by
ECONorthwest, using economic, plan-
ning, and financial analysis. It involved
Columbia County staff, and an advisory
committee made up of local citizens, and
community and business leaders.
Vernonia City Councilor and
School Board member Susan Wag-
ner, who works for Community Action
Team, was part of the advisory commit-
tee. “Commissioner Tardif asked me
to participate in the Columbia County
Revenue Advisory Committee as a pri-
vate citizen,” said Wagner when she was
asked about the process. “He felt that
as I live in and represent a rural portion
of the county, as well as working for a
non-profit which serves the county, that I
could bring the perspective of what I’ve
experienced as a Vernonia resident, and
share concerns and opinions in an objec-
tive manner.”
The fiscal situation and lack of
necessary revenues should be a con-
cern for all county residents, as should
the continuing decline in services, the
continued growth of the County’s popu-
lation, inadequate staff to maintain in-
frastructure, and the previous lack of a
strategic plan to fund mandated County
services.
As the report’s introduction
notes, “As Columbia County’s funding
gap becomes harder to reconcile each
year, the County must make increasing-
ly tough choices. Does the County cut
more services? Defer more maintenance
on key infrastructure? Invest more effort
in pursuing limited one-time only grant
funds and state allocations? Reduce hu-
man resources, even at the risk of strain-
ing the team? This chronic underfunding
of services affects everyone in the Coun-
ty: cities must step up their own resourc-
es to cover gaps, residents of unincor-
porated communities drive to and from
work on poorly maintained roads, and
the County’s citizens have limited access
to fundamental transit, public safety, and
other services that counties provide. To
reconcile Columbia County’s funding
gap, the County has made layoffs, initi-
ated furloughs, conducted programmatic
restructuring, and deferred capital main-
tenance. The result of these necessary
decisions is reduced quality of life for
many County residents.”
A number of factors play into
the causes of Columbia County’s fund-
ing gap that include the state restric-
tion on funding mechanisms. The needs
of the County and its citizens continue
to evolve and grow while services the
County can afford to provide continue to
decrease. While the report does attempt
to offer a path forward and some poten-
tial solutions, those solutions will come
at a cost, a cost county residents have
been reluctant to approve in the past.
“The process was collabora-
tive, with a diverse group of people from
throughout the County, representing the
County’s small and large communities
alike, said Vernonia’s Wagner. “Those
of us from small communities were
well received, and our observations and
comments were held equally with those
from the larger cities like St. Helens and
Scappoose. That said, there were times
when I felt that there was a disconnect
of understanding the situations and chal-
lenges of the smaller towns around the
County.”
continued on page 3
WOEC Rate Increase Effective January 1
West Oregon Electric Coop-
erative (WOEC) members will see a
slight increase on their next bill due to
a cost of power rate increase Bonnev-
ille Power Administration (BPA) has
implemented, which WOEC is passing
on to its members.
The rate increase to all classes
and blocks will be $0.004 per kWh
used, which translates to $0.40 (40
cent) increase for each 100 kWh; con-
sumers using 1,000 kWh per month
would see a $4.00 increase. Members
will see this increase in the bill they re-
ceive in February for power consumed
during January.
Only a handful of members
attended a Rate Information Meeting
on January 9 at the Vernonia Rural
Fire Protection District, at which all
seven members of the Board of Direc-
tors were present to answer questions
from members. The co-op is required
to hold a public meeting for members
whenever rates are impacted.
General Manager Bob Perry
told the members that, while BPA
generally raises their rates every two
years in October, WOEC usually waits
to raise its rates until July in order to
not impact members during the winter
months. Perry said this year’s mild
winter temperatures have reduced the
co-op’s expected revenues, so it was
necessary to implement the rate in-
crease in January.
When asked by a member in
the audience why WOEC rates are
so high compared to other electrical
utilities, Board Chair Brett Costley
explained that WOEC has 700 miles
of line, spread over a large service
area with a lot of trees, without large
industrial customers to help subsidize
rates for residential and small busi-
ness members. Costley said outside
of Vernonia the co-op averages three
members per mile of line. “We have
all the worst conditions for an electric
utility,” said Costley. “We don’t like it
any more than you do - we’re all mem-
bers and pay the same rates you do.”
He said the Board monitors the budget
and believes the co-op is not spending
money frivolously, and tries to provide
power at the lowest rate possible.
Costley said the co-op has
been working to reduce outages
through a tree trimming program and,
when possible, to underground lines
to protect them from trees, although
he noted the cost to underground lines
is about $1 million per mile. Costley
also pointed out that the $43 monthly
service charge to keep members con-
nected to the utility does not cover the
fixed costs to operate the co-op.