8A | SATURDAY, JUNE 13, 2020 | SIUSLAW NEWS
BUDGET from page 1A
of former SVFR Opera-
tions Chief Jim Dickerson,
who left the district a few
months ago for a position
in a larger fire department.
Current Chief of Opera-
tions Matt House has been
filling both his position as
well as Dickerson’s for the
past few months.
“That is still working
great, Matt is doing a fan-
tastic job. I have no doubt
that he will continue doing
a great job,” Schick said,
proposing that WLFEA
drop Dickerson’s former
position all together from
the budget.
Schick also proposed
cuts to healthcare benefits
for some WLFEA employ-
ees, requiring the majority
of employees to pay more
out-of-pocket expenses for
health insurance. Howev-
er, the cuts don’t apply to
some administrative staff,
including Schick and WL-
FEA Office Manager Dina
McClure, whose contracts
lock them in at 100 per-
cent of health insurance
costs.
“My concern from a
strategic standpoint is,
when you publish a bud-
get like this, it’s very hard
to get the working staff to
accept a cut that the ad-
ministration isn’t taking
equally,” said Farnsworth.
“It’s really hard to get your
rank-and-file people to
accept a cut that’s not the
same for the administra-
tive staff.”
In a Western Lane bud-
get meeting last month,
more severe cuts were pro-
posed for WLAD employ-
ees, including decreases in
PERS payments and health
benefits for spouses. How-
ever, those cuts weren’t
represented in the WLFEA
budget.
“We’re moving com-
pletely in the opposite di-
rection of where we started
as two boards,” Farnsworth
said, arguing that if the
true goal of WLFEA was to
more closely align WLAD
and SVFR, then benefit
cuts should also match —
particularly in WLFEA.
He also feared that lock-
ing WLFEA into a bud-
get that is less than what
WLAD is offering would
hurt both districts in the
union negotiation process-
es, which is still ongoing.
“It’s costing us less, but
it’s going to cost us more
because it will erode the
negotiating positions our
attorney is asking for,”
Farnsworth said.
“Well, we have a one-
year contract,” said WLAD
and WLFEA board mem-
ber Rick Yecny. “We’re go-
ing to be negotiating again
within six months. And I
think it’s quite a sacrifice.
… So I would think this is
a really good offer. I think
it’s going to be really dif-
ficult to get to the place
that Director Farnsworth
is talking about. If this is
a line item on a budget,
maybe how we get there
isn’t as important as get-
ting to that number. And
this gets to that number,
which I’m very pleased to
see.”
Farnsworth stated that,
while he respected Yecny’s
view, he disagreed.
“We can be penny wise
and pound foolish here,”
he said. “We have spent
hundreds of hours work-
ing as a labor committee
trying to come up with a
package of cuts that kept
our revenue above our ex-
penses. We came up with
a range and we came up
with items that we wanted
to see changed in the con-
tract for two reasons. One,
there were possible areas
we could save money, and
two, they improve the op-
tics of the excesses in the
contract. Now, if we back
down from all of the things
we agreed to in those ses-
sions, we’re just looking at
saying, ‘Everything’s fine.’
How’s it going to be any
different next year? Why
do we waste our time?”
While
Farnsworth
agreed that the proposed
budget does save money, it
may cost more at the nego-
tiating table.
He also pointed out
inequity in benefits pay-
ments, bringing up the
example of Voluntary
Employees
Beneficiary
Association Plan (VEBA),
which is a tax-exempt plan
that helps pay for medical
expenses and deductibles.
“Where else does this
happen in Florence? Is
there a VEBA at the bank?
Is there a VEBA at the city?
The casino? How about
the hospital?” he asked.
Green agreed with what
Farnsworth was saying in
principle, but the pandem-
ic and resulting shutdowns
have made the future un-
certain.
“We’re going into a like-
ly prolonged recession, or
not,” Green said. “There’s
so much that’s yet to be de-
termined and discovered.”
Because of the uncer-
tainty, WLFEA and SVFR
director Ned Hickson sug-
gested that now is not the
time for drastic cuts.
“We really don’t know
where we’re going to be a
year from now,” he said. “If
we could revisit this in a
year, make some manage-
able cuts now that isn’t to
the bone, then we can get
through that year, have a
better idea of where we’re
going to be financially in
both districts and then de-
cide what we really need to
do.”
That’s not to say that
Hickson disagreed with
Farnsworth’s call to make
more cuts.
“We’ve got to do some-
thing about the ballooning
budget,” he said. “But at
the same time, everything
I’ve seen is that people are
not behind that. They love
their EMTs, they love their
firefighters. This is not the
time to go on a public cru-
sade about making cuts
to people who are saving
their lives. I’m not try-
ing to say this is all about
public optics, but I think
it’s something we need to
consider.”
Farnsworth agreed that
the public was not behind
cuts at the moment, but
stated they were largely
uninformed about the true
economics.
“I had a conversation
with a community mem-
ber, he had some questions,
so I sent him the collective
bargaining agreement. He
was appalled. If the com-
munity did know, they
would be concerned and
upset,” Farnsworth said.
However, that doesn’t
mean that he wanted “to
blow up” the district, as he
said.
“Do we want our em-
ployees to be well com-
pensated? Yes we do,” he
said. “Do we want them
to be ridiculously com-
pensated? No we don’t.
I’m not suggesting that we
get all the cuts in one year.
But what we have done is
a series of budget maneu-
vers with not much on the
table. So we’re really just
kicking the can down the
road.”
Farnsworth also stated
how difficult the discus-
sion can be.
“I don’t like to be the per-
son that’s waving the flag
saying, ‘By the way, if your
job was down the street, it
would pay $15,000 less,”
he said. “That’s a difficult
situation. There were mis-
takes by (former Fire and
EMS Chief Jim) Langborg
that ratcheted up pay in
a variety of positions and
benefits.”
All board members
agreed with the senti-
ments, with Yecny propos-
ing that both districts look
at pay scales and benefits
from other organizations.
“I think overall we
should maybe think about
moving to the market,”
Yecny said. “Some kind
of definition of market. If
we find that fire districts’
comps are below market,
and WLAD is above, the
solution to get to the same
place is not going to be the
same.”
Farnsworth agreed with
Yecny and thanked him
for the suggestion.
For Green, “I think a
lot of this needs to be di-
rected and worked on in
a strategy session. Besides
the pay, the district needs
to balance a compensa-
tion culture with also tax-
payer responsibility. … I
think these are all great
questions, and I think pay
equity is something that
needs to be addressed.”
When the time came
for a vote, Farnsworth
suggested changing the
budget to help preserve
negotiating range with the
union. But Green pointed
out that the meeting was
already public, so voting
based on strategy would
be moot.
Green, Yecny and Hick-
son voted in favor of the
budget, while Farnsworth
voted against.
“I appreciate us having a
dialogue and you listening
to my opinions, even if you
don’t agree with them,”
Farnsworth said. “Each
of us is doing our level
best and we are all volun-
teers here. We’re spending
hundreds of hours on this
work. The truth is, if there
are savings in our district,
they’re staying in the dis-
trict. This is money that
is going to be used for the
public good. It’s not going
to get refunded to taxpay-
ers. It’s money that can be
used in other ways to ben-
efit the public. It’s just a
question of priorities.”
Green pointed out that,
despite some of the recent
public
disagreements,
both districts have come a
long way in the past three
years.
“I think we need to
continue to leverage that
success for the benefit of
our taxpayers and the ser-
vices we provide,” he said.
“The strategy is going to
provide that. I think we’ll
continue on with good
momentum. And I hope
we’ll have the courage to
say what’s on our mind. I
appreciate Director Farn-
sworth and Yecny for
speaking their minds. We
have a lot of work, and
let’s continue the great
success we have.”
RAIN MAKER A CCELERATOR LAUNCHING IN J ULY
Prior to the beginning
of the pandemic in March,
Oregon RAIN’s Catalyze
Rural 2020 event had
more than 150 registered
attendees. The event was
set to include five venture
firms, a keynote speak-
er and dozens of rural
startups to showcase their
products and services at
the inaugural Catalyze
Rural event.
However, to support
social distancing and
comply with the State of
Oregon’s gathering-size
restrictions, the event has
been postponed.
While RAIN is consid-
ering shifting Catalyze
Rural 2020 to an online
event, feedback from en-
trepreneurs has shown
a preference to do live
pitches and have the op-
portunity to network
in-person with the com-
munity, other entrepre-
neurs and investors. As a
result, RAIN has decided
to postpone the event and
will announce a date for
2021 once there is a better
understanding of when
large groups will be able
to gather again.
RAIN
coordinators
gave a special thank you
to its Main Title Spon-
sor, Peak Internet, for fi-
nancially supporting the
event, along with Silver
Sponsors, which includes
Boson Hub Digital Devel-
opment, Amanda Loman
Photography, Bellwether
Legal, and Boulder Falls
Inn.
Though the Catalyze
event has been postponed,
a 10-Week Virtual Accel-
erator focused exclusively
on generating revenue for
business is set for July.
Every Wednesday from
9 to 10:30 a.m., beginning
July 8 and concluding
Sept. 15, Oregon RAIN
is launching a free virtu-
al “RAINmaker Acceler-
ator,” which is a 10-week
series focused on sales
and marketing.
This series is designed
to help Oregon entrepre-
neurs and business own-
ers who have seen signifi-
cant revenue losses due to
COVID-19 strategically
invest their resources in
the most critical part of
any business: generating
revenue.
Startups and businesses
interested in applying can
visit the RAIN website
for more information and
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