NewCity at a glance flyer

The New City at a Glance flyer

A flyer distributed by the 'convenors' who advocate incorporating the area of the Oak Grove Water District into a new city. (Ed. note: No list of all the convenors, identifying them, their backgrounds and interests, has yet been published by the 'convenors'.)


BENEFITS OF BECOMING A NEW CITY

New City will give our community a strong voice with direct, local representation to county, state and federal agencies.

New City will form a community of 30,000 citizens that is run and represented by friends and neighbors, rather than the Board of County Commissioners. *

New City will collect about $1,225,000 from ODOT as our share of state highway/road funds. **

New City will have available three times more money for road maintenance than the County provides to the area today.

New City will provide dedicated law enforcement with a 55% increase in police protection for the community. ***

New City will have the tools to attract, promote and nurture new business and better serve existing businesses. (Ed. note: How?)

New City will provide a local place where residents can call, e-mail or visit to get solutions to government issues.

New City will give our community local control with ZERO additional cost! (Ed. note: See A4 below for a likely contradiction to that unenforceable promise.)

FOR MORE INFORMATION:
E-mail: newcityor@gmail.com

Rev. 05-14-09

(Editor's notes:

* Does that mean there will be a requirement that the city employees who would run a new city, be residents of the city?


** It was represented at the 6/01 meeting these roads funds can only be spent for road maintenance; state and county roads are maintained at the expense of the state and county, so these funds would be used to pay for maintenance of roads other than McLaughlin and other than other state or county roads.


*** ELED meetings have heard the Sheriff's intent to increase the rate charged to cities for law enforcement provided on contract, which would effectively decrease the number of patrol officers available to a New City. Therefore, the 55% increase is questionable.

In addition, convenors are quoting a different number of patrol officers assigned to the ELED than I have heard in ELED meetings, and the assumed baseline number of patrol officers does not include the baseline number of patrol officers available to all the area of the county. Further investigation may be warranted to validate the assumption of a 55% increase of patrol officers to a newly incorporated city.)



PROPOSED NEW CITY BUDGET (APRIL 2009) (with editorial comment)

A Taxation Analyst at the Clackamas County Department of Assessment and Taxation has reviewed the "Frequently Asked Financial Questions" for New City. "I don't see anything glaring that would be incorrect." - J. Mayo.

REVENUE
$2,166,094 Property Taxes at rate of $1.2922, per $1,000 of assessed value (abbreviated PTDAV)
$1,928,449 Franchise fees, state allocated funds, revenue from Municipal Court, other sources

EXPENSES
$1,058,000 Administration
$ 260,000 Operating the Municipal Court
$ 150,000 Enforcing Code Compliance
$2,100,000 Police Service


Frequently Asked Financial Questions

Q: How will the new city affect my taxes now?

A1: Property owners in the area are currently charged a rate of $0.7198 PTDAV, for the Sheriff's Enhanced Law Enforcement District. Since cities cannot be in the Enhanced Law Enforcement District, the New City could charge $0.7198 PTDAV in taxes, and that rate could be charged by the New City with no net difference to the public.

A2: Clackamas County bills property taxes in unincorporated areas at a rate of $0.5724 PTDAV more than it bills for properties inside cities, and that rate could also be charged by the New City with no net difference to the public.

A3: Add (A1) and (A2) to get $1.2922 PTDAV which the New City could levy at no net cost to its citizens. That would yield $2,166,094 nowadays; assessments can increase at up to 3% per annum under current law, so a slow increase in city budgets is likely.


Q: How will the new city affect my taxes in the future?

A4: State law requires cities to establish a base tax rate at the time of incorporation. Once set, the city can increase taxes, but never exceed the established base. To provide for future needs, the convenors proposed the base rate be set higher than the aforementioned $1.2922 PTDAV.

(Ed. note: That's an open door to new taxes; hence the sobriquet, New Tax City, earned by the convenors' desire to enable new taxes beyond the 'zero-base' budget which has been a lure to this discussion, as well as prior failed attempts to incorporate.)


A5: Part of the city charter for incorporation will include the requirement that, to raise taxes, the city must hold a general election vote, requiring 60% of votes cast to enable an increase, for it to pass. (Ed. note: Has the constitutionality of a supermajority vote for a tax hike been validated? If not, such a requirement could be overturned without a supermajority vote, for these has been agitation to overturn supermajority requirements for tax increases.)


Q: How will the new city affect businesses?

A6: There would be nominal fees for business licenses. Local utility districts (sewer and water) would not be charged franchise fees.

(Ed. note: Convenors have noted franchise fees can be charged to Qwest, Comcast, Portland General Electric and other non-local utilities. Would not that justify rate increases by those utilities, resulting in an indirect tax through rate increase? Who ultimately would pay those increases? )

(Ed. note: The 'nominal' fees to businesses for occupational and business licenses are an added cost which would be passed on to you, the customers. Would the fees always be 'nominal'? Will that be specified in the city charter?)



Inquiring minds want to know more.

NewCity convenors next discussion

Next Monday night (June 8th) at 7PM, the 'Convenors' (Dick Jones, William Wild, et al.) will meet with interested parties at Clackamas County Fire District No. 3, 2930 SE Oak Grove Blvd., one short block west of McLaughlin.

New City files

Here's a link to a new Group I created to hold any documentation provided by the 'New City' convenors.

Those convenors may be e-mailed at newcityor@gmail.com which is a clickable link if you have an e-mail client installed.

NewCity and their first public meeting

Joe Crumb convened a meeting of over four dozen people in a dimly lit meeting room at Rose Villa at 07:02 PM tonight (5/18/2009), noting he lived nearby and was asked to moderate by the convenors (the people exploring the idea of whether to create a new city).

ED. NOTE: For historical background, please consider visiting these posts:

The Story of a Neighborhood that Fought Metro

Portland Suburb Successfully Staves Off Densification

http://clackablog.blogspot.com/2004/11/uncity-declines-honor-of-assimilation.html

http://clackablog.blogspot.com/2004/11/complete-communities-talk-talk.html

http://clackablog.blogspot.com/2004/12/tonight-monday-conclusion-of-complete.html

http://clackablog.blogspot.com/2004/12/complete-communities-completes-process.html

The agenda of the self-appointed convenors is to talk about a governance model, outline issues, explain some assumptions, demonstrate how the finance works, and then listen.

Convenors: Dick Jones, Henry Schmidt, Lynn Fisher, Carol M**, William Wild, Leonard Voldemar, Bob ***, George Payne and Joe Crumb. ** = could not hear clearly.

(ed. note: Convenors did not wear name badges or labels, so unless I knew who it was answering a question, I just will specify 'proponent' or 'convenor'.)

Joe started with two salient questions:

Will it raise my taxes?

Who's behind this?

Issues

Change is coming, one way or another
Increased density through infill
Local representation
Light rail: A greater role in its future
McLoughlin redevelopment

Redevelopment - a resident spoke out to ask, "What are you talking about, and why?" A convenor replied, county has started process to discuss McLoughlin Development. Another noted McLoughlin become a transport corridor, that high-rises be built along McLoughlin. Dick Jones then said he represents special districts on Metro's Public Advisory Committee, and Metro is pushing building up, not out, pushing for mixed use with apartments above stores and offices. An audience member asked if becoming a city will slow such development; Joe Crumb said it is not stoppable.

A member of the Portland-Milwaukie Light Rail Advisory Committee spoke up to say TriMet has identified McLoughlin has identified as a Transportation Corridor, and the Park Ave terminus will be altered for money (i.e., if they run short of funding).

I noted the only reason Park Ave became the terminus was because Milwaukie found their first choice could not be used, for the land at their original first choice location was legally obligated by the terms of its donation not to use it for light rail.

Why not become a hamlet or village? Dick: Hamlets and vllages are only recognized by the county, and not state-entitled to funding, e.g., 20% of ODOT road taxes. Planning requires becoming a city, and cities would object strongly if there was a hamlet or village within the Urban Growth Boundary. The intent of the new city is to provide more services than now with no new taxes, and get funds available only to cities.

What would population be? Dick Jones said the advocates used the Oak Lodge Water District boundaries because that was cheap to determine the property tax area. It would be about 30,000 pop., making it about the 14th city in the state by population rank.

This would not change our property tax, he said, which are now $2.97 per thousand dollars assessed value (the unincorporated county rate; FYI $2.40 is county tax rate for property in cities) plus 71.89 cents per thousand for the Sheriff's Enhanced Law Enforcement District. They followed a Gladstone-like model for sizing of city government, which has 3 staffers; he projected six city staffers based on relative population sizes. He noted this would not affect parks, schools, water, sewer and fire. Police service could be contracted, as Damascus, Happy Valley and Wilsonville now pay the Clackamas County Sheriff's Department for dedicated law enforcement*; fire service would remain with Clackamas Co. Fire District #1, unlike Gladstone, which has its own fire department.

Emphasized code compliance; would have one person working code issues.

$650,000 goes to Gladstone for their library; maybe we could have a branch library at a more centralized location? (I will ask a librarian friend on the next block over what we could get for $650,000/year, and report back later this week.)

Susan, a resident, noted ORS 221.760 requires cities to provide 4 of 7 services; Dick replied that services provided by existing providers, but contracted to the city through Inter-Governmental Agreements, meet that state requirement.

The second largest revenue item in the model is franchise fees; Comcast, PGE and Qwest charge franchise fees now to unincorporated areas, at the same rate as incorporated areas, but only pay fees back to cities. (Since utilities have a guaranteed rate of return, paying fess to Yet Another City will justify their rate increases, so there's a likely hidden tac on us all.)

Dick Jones said 8 officers from the 32 assigned to the Enhanced Law Enforcement District cover the 99E corridor (i.e, the heart of Yet Another City) and that number is not fixed in law by the ELED; they could be withdrawn if the sheriff has problems, whereas the Yet Another City budget objective is 14.

It was also Dick's idea that pothole fixing could be delegated to the water or sewer districts, but street maintenance, for which the county spends $450,000/yr, would use the 20% fraction of ODOT receipts which only cities get. Another proponent noted 99E is state-maintained and therefore would not be an expense to a new municipality.

I addressed the virtue necessity of having a city traffic court to maximize revenue (as city courts handling traffic tickets and her minor violation get more of the fines than if that's handled by other courts). I added more rigorous speed enforcement could be applied along McLoughlin, for the Sheriff is state-prohibited from radar speed control along McLoughlin, as the Oregon State Police claims that for its own.

Another lady was concerned about law enforcement costs; representation was made that labratories, training facilities, insurance and all costs would be rolled up in the suggested estimates.

What impact on business was another question. Helping business grow in the committee was the reply from a proponent.

What are state mandates which becoming a city would activate? That question was logged for later resolution.

A lady asked how would we have only one planner for 30,000 people, where Milwaukie has five? Dick replied that permiting and inspection would still be handled by the county; contingency fund was suggested as a solution. That was rejected by another member of the public who said only one planner makes no sense and dipping into a contingency fund if more were needed would only work for one year.

Lady says Gladstone has a senior center and other senior services; will we need to pay for those? Dick said a city could work with the parks district for such.

A gentleman mentioned the incorporation of Damascus resulted in underestimates of many, many costs, partly due to lack of a lawyer on their team, and advocated legal advice in planning.

Another gentleman said the contingency fund might not be enough; Dick Jones says a new city could incorporate with a higher speicifed tax rate yet not use the higher rate unless required, because Measures 5-37-48 requires a city to set a rate which could not grow more than 3% per year thereafter.

Dick noted Damascus also has signigicant revenue from development fees and has a chartered tax rate of $3.88/thousand dollars assessed. We could have a higher ceiling rate but require a supermajority to approve using the full rate, and start on an economy basis, raising it later.

Lady; No finance person in budget, admininstration costs not addressed, and contracting is expensive.

Lady: What is the best estimate for a base rate now? Ans: Don't know.

Proponent: Our first question is, are our neighbors interested in forming a city? If so, then we will study further.

A gentleman thinks 14 police not enough in a recession.

GOVERNANCE ASSUMPTIONS (another PowerPoint slide)

Mayor (Ed. note: elected volunteer)
Council or commission (Ed. note: elected volunteer)
City Manager (Ed. note: paid) and staff (Ed. note: paid)
Code enforcement and staff
Contracted services - sewer, fire, water, police, parks

I noted a judiciary and staff of appropriate type and size is required to capture enforcement revenue from citations, traffic violations, code violatons and other minor transgressions. It was suggested that also might be contracted out.

OTHER ASSUMPTIONS (another PowerPoint slide)

Bounded by the river, Gladstone, Milwaukie and (Ed. note: the Alder Creek gully beyond) Oatfield Ridge.
Nov. 2010 to bring to a vote
We're already like a city, but without a goverment to rule us
No sole leader can achieve this; if tied to one person, chance is less
Change will be challenging.

A lady was concerned with street crossing, security and safety. That question was logged for later resolution.

Another lady was concerned with preserving what's uniquely Oak Grove, why we live here. That question was logged for later resolution.

Another lady asked where discussions are, Oak Grove Coffee House? Joe said at Oak Grove firehouse, most Monday nights, 6:30 PM.

The proposed map was discussed; the NE boundary is beyond Oatfield Ridge, and more closely follows Alder Creek in that area.

A gentleman asked if we need more laws to observe; a proponent said No Name City would replace the county laws in specific areas; Dick Jones said city laws would address our local needs and concerns, not what the County wants.

More folks needed to advocate this, says Joe; he will not moderate the next such meeting.

Susan talked to a Metro counselor who advocated a larger property tax base, and annexation of property all the way over to 205.

The next PowerPoint slide specified:

Need agreement from seven nearby cities
Establish boundaries
Extensive legal research and work
Political and informational campaigns
Approval of the electorate

A gentleman said the costs will be greater than what's outlined, and suggested very strongly the governance should be much larger with much greater costs, to plan realistically.

WHAT ARE YOU THINKING (the last PowerPoint slide)

Rules: Want to hear from as many people as possible
Be concise, serve the issue
Don't assume, ask the question on your mind
We want to hear your thinking
WHy create a city? Is this a good idea? Is this the best answer?
Why not? Is there a better idea?
Why have we not incorporated before?
What do you still need to know? What's unclear?
Wat is important to you about this community?
What will people in the community want to know?
What are your questions, concerns, ideas, fears?

Proponent: County has separately engaged a consultant firm, again, to study what we want.

Why live here; Proponent says our suburban nature is under threat for infill, density. We are called the 'last urban frontier'. I replied that putting that in the charter, that incorporation is intended to preserve the character of Oak Grove, makes it very difficult to justify embracing Webster Road and the east-to-205 area. A county employee, Oak Grove 28 yr resident and Gladstone landlord, countered, as he is concerned about generalities as folks beyond Alder Creek have needs, too.

Thelma, a 45-yr resident, who notes the seven (!) previous attempts to incorporate failed because the effort came from 'up here'; but these people are all residents, and there are many other things in this community working from the bottom up. The county's study is for outreach and communication, not to tell us what to do.

Joe again asked us to make sure to help us with the WHAT ARE YOU THINKING talking points. "This is the ultimate DON'T TREAD ON ME community" 80% of voters decide from the Voter's Guide; how can we reach them first? What is the value to us of making this move?

Another gentleman was concerned when this became big news that negatives not outweigh the positives.

A lady said if she is going to sell this to her neighbors, she needs to be able to explain what we have that's unique, and what we have to lose without creating yet another city.

Next meeting June 1st at 7PM, also at Rose Villa.

Another lady wanted a copy of the ideas delivered to her; she was promised, as were all present, a copy would be emailed to her.

Another woman suggested neighbor contact, inviting two or three neighbors to the next meeting.

Another lady said it was important not to directly oppose light rail, she's a light rail proponent. A committee member on the TriMet CAC replied that security, parking, and other issues are being addressed by the county.

The meeting adjourned at about 9PM.

(Ed. note: The handout provided at the meeting will be scanned and added to this post later this week, but since it was printed on colored paper, it needs some adjustment before a legible copy can be placed in this blog.)

Also, a higher resolution map may be had by going to http://groups.google.com/group/new-city-group/files and right-clicking on OLWD.PDF

Questions may be addressed to the proponents at newcityor@gmail.com