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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 6, 2015)
NORTH COAST THE DAILY ASTORIAN • TUESDAY, OCTOBER 6, 2015 3A $VWRULD$TXDWLF&HQWHUOLIHJXDUGVWRJHWSD\UDLVH City Council also approves salary increase for city manager By DERRICK DePLEDGE The Daily Astorian City lifeguards will get a pay raise. Lifeguards at the Astoria Aquatic Center now start at the state’s minimum wage of $9.25 an hour and can earn more if they work as swim instructors or lead lifeguards. The low pay has made it dif- ¿cult for the city to recruit and retain lifeguards, and a lifeguard shortage has forced the city to temporarily reduce pool hours in the afternoons. The City Council unani- mously agreed Monday night to boost lifeguard pay to be- tween $11.25 and $13 an hour. Swim instructors, who now earn $9.50 an hour, will re- ceive between $12.25 and $14 an hour. Lead lifeguards, who now make $10.25 an hour, will get between $13.25 and $15 an hour. Angela Cosby, the director of the city’s Parks and Rec- reation Department, told the City Council that the city’s lifeguards earn less than life- guards in other cities and pro- grams. She said lifeguards at the Sunset Empire Park and Recreation District, which competes with Astoria for life- guards, earn up to $13 an hour. The city announced when the Aquatic Center reopened in late September after a ren- ovation that pools would be closed from 1 to 3:30 p.m. weekdays because of the life- guard shortage. The city is hiring lifeguards and hopes to restore the hours. The pay raises will cost the city an estimated $57,000 a year, and city councilors au- thori]ed Parks and Recreation Department staff to explore fee increases at the Aquatic Center to sustain the higher pay over time. “We need to pay people an adequate wage,” City Council- or Drew Her]ig said. “That’s part of our discussion on how to live in Astoria. And we know this money will go right back into the community.” City Councilor Zetty Nem- lowill recommended that any fee increases be imposed in- crementally so as not to cause “too much of a shock” on Aquatic Center users. In other business Monday night, the City Council: • Approved a 2.5 percent pay raise for City Manager Brett Es- tes after a positive performance evaluation of his ¿rst year as the city’s top administrator. Estes, the city’s former community development di- rector, was hired last year to replace Paul Benoit, who left after more than eight years as city manager to become city administrator in Piedmont, Cal- ifornia. Estes also ¿lled in as ¿nance director and community devel- opment director until new di- rectors were hired. He has helped guide a City Council in leadership transi- tion with new Mayor Arline LaMear and new councilors in Nemlowill and Cindy Price. LaMear replaced Willis Van Dusen, the city’s mayor for 24 years, who chose not to seek another term. Estes currently makes $116,853 a year. The pay raise is retroactive to the one-year anniversary of his hire date in September. • Agreed to spend $943,440 in cash on a new ladder truck for the Astoria Fire Depart- ment. By paying cash, the city will receive more than $55,000 in discounts. • Adopted a herbicide poli- cy for city parks meant to en- courage mechanical and natu- ral methods where possible to combat weeds. • Rebuffed a request by Price to consider potential re- strictions on the number of mariMuana facilities in the city. Four medical mariMuana dis- pensaries are temporarily sell- ing recreational pot under a state law that allows the sales while rules are being drafted. City Attorney Blair Hen- ningsgaard said the city could likely limit the number through “clever time, place and manner” restrictions on operations. Price said that while city voters approved legali]ing rec- reational mariMuana, “I’m still not sure that Astorians really want to have a pot shop on ev- ery other corner.” But City Councilor Russ Warr said councilors should wait until city staff identi¿es problems with mariMuana busi- nesses before weighing action. Other councilors also chose not to support Price’s request. • Held a moment of silence at the start of the meeting to honor the victims of the mass shooting last Thursday at Umpqua Com- munity College in Roseburg. “Such a terrible, terrible tragedy,” LaMear said. “And our thoughts are with them all.” State lawmakers contemplate µclaw back’ on tax credit pro¿ts By HILLARY BORRUD Capital Bureau SALEM — Oregon law- makers might consider legis- lation next year to claw back some oI the Sro¿ts reali]ed by wealthy individuals and com- panies who purchased deeply discounted energy tax credits. Gov. Kate Brown last month asked the Legislature to review energy tax credits, after news reports that of¿cials at the Oregon Department of Energy allowed tax credit recipients to ignore state price regulations and sell the tax credits at nego- tiated prices. Oregon issues tax credits as an incentive to renewable energy and ef¿ciency proMects to help offset capital costs. Re- cipients can use them to reduce taxes, or sell them to raise cash. Many tax credit recipients are governments and companies that do not owe state taxes, and the Legislature has passed laws that required the Department of Energy to adopt a formula to set sales prices. The goal was to ensure most of the bene¿t CAPITAL THE BUREAU from the incentives went to the energy proMects. “I’m thinking about a poten- tial clawback,” state Rep. Phil Barnhart, D-Spring¿eld, said after a meeting on the issue last week. Barnhart is chairman of the House Interim Committee On Revenue. Barnhart said he had not ¿gured out the details, but the concept was based on questions asked by Rep. John Davis, R-Wilsonville, about “what our recourse is at this point.” Davis asked senior deputy legislative counsel Kate Toss- will whether the Legislature can make changes to tax cred- its which have already been issued to public and private organi]ations that pursued re- newable energy and ef¿ciency proMects. Tosswill said that tax credits are a matter of “leg- islative grace,” meaning that because lawmakers created the credits, they have some degree of discretion to make changes after-the-fact. Those changes would not breach a contract, and would not necessarily con- stitute a taking of someone’s property. “Certainly there are cases where a taxpayer ends up with more liability, and it is support- ed,” Tosswill said. 6LJQL¿FDQW XQGHUSD\PHQWV It was unclear how much money might be at stake during hearings on the issue last week. However, an analysis of Ore- gon Department of Energy data by the EO Media Group/Pam- plin Media Group Capital Bu- reau suggests that the agency’s decision to ignore price regula- tions for one type of energy tax credit resulted in as much as $1.2 million in underpayments. Tax credit recipients have sold roughly $6.4 million in tax credits issued through the state’s energy incentive pro- gram, which rewards alter- native fuel proMects, school retro¿ts and transit districts. Purchasers would have paid ap- proximately $6.1 million if the Department of Energy had re- quired them to follow price reg- ulations. Instead the purchasers paid around $4.9 million for the credits. The energy department has also issued tax credits that could still be sold in the future, and Chris Allanach, a senior economist in the Legislative Revenue Of¿ce, told lawmak- ers that future legislation could impact a total of approximately $44 million in energy incentive program tax credits. The extent to which tax credit purchasers underpaid for a controversial earlier credit, the business energy tax credit, was unclear. When state audi- tors asked the energy depart- ment to provide examples of negotiated price tax credit sales from 2012 to 2014, the agency provided only a handful of ex- amples and the most someone underpaid was approximately $2,00. However, of¿cials in- structed energy employees not to verify or question the pay- ments in the tax credit deals, and the agency’s former chief ¿nancial of¿cer Anthony Buck- ley told auditors that “there was suspicion by some” that buyers and sellers of tax credits were using a “kickbacks” scheme to make it appear they were com- plying with price regulations when they were actually nego- tiating lower prices, according to auditors’ notes. /DUJHUWD[EUHDNV The business energy tax credit involved much larg- er tax breaks than the scaled down energy incentive pro- gram that replaced it. From 2006 to 2014, wealthy indi- viduals and companies bought business energy tax credits worth $703.6 million for $494.2 million, according to the EO Media Group/Pamplin Media Group Capital Bureau’s analysis of nonrefundable en- ergy tax credits. That’s a cap- ital gain of $209.4 million, or 29.8 percent. “I want to consider the pos- sibility of clawing back some of the pro¿ts, as it were, by the guy that bought the credit,” Barnhart said, referring to a tax credit which the TriMet transit agency sold a portion of at a deep discount to Dan Wieden, co-founder of the Portland ad- vertising agency Wieden+Ken- nedy. Wieden and other pur- chasers bought shares of the $2 million tax credit for 75 cents on the dollar, instead of 98 cents on the dollar required by state price regulations. TriMet sold a second energy tax credit worth approximately $1 million for 75 cents on the dollar, instead of 95 cents on the dollar as mandated. One thing lawmakers don’t need to do is re-write existing law to clarify that tax credit re- cipients must follow state price regulations, Barnhart said. He pointed out that Tosswill told lawmakers “it’s doubtful” that existing state law allowed for the Department of Energy’s de- cision to allow negotiated price tax credit sales. “She said we got it right the ¿rst time,” Barnhart said of the statute. The Capital Bureau is a collaboration between EO Me- dia Group and Pamplin Media Group. REAL PEOPLE. STIHL PEOPLE. BG 56 C-E HANDHELD $ BLOWER 179 95 FREE CARRYING CASE KIT WITH PURCHASE OF SELECT CHAIN SAWS “The total ease of operating this equipment is far superior from any others I’ve owned in the past.” – user jack65 DOUBLE YOUR LIMITED WARRANTY MS 251 WOOD BOSS ® $ 339 95 18” bar † “It has ample power for a home owner saw; well balanced, well made, and easy to start and use.” Up to a $78.92 SNW-SRP value. 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