Opinion: Clackamas Commissioners Robbing Peter To Pay Paul For A New Courthouse

In a recent letter from Clackamas County Sheriff Brandenburg to the voters, it noted:

“When I asked you to support the Sheriff’s Public Safety Levy in 2021, I promised I would not allow the County to use the Levy as a slush fund.

• County Commissioners are excluding me from presenting my own budget to the County Budget Committee.
• They are doing this because I refused to agree with the County’s plan to charge the Sheriff’s Levy and the Enhanced Law Enforcement District (ELED) twice for the same materials and services.
• They have also created a new administrative overhead cost that I have refused to charge to the Sheriff’s Levy and the ELED. This is a misuse of tax dollars.”

Clackamas County voters have a high priority for public safety and because of that they have consistently passed all Sheriff’s Office levies.   https://www.clackamas.us/sheriff/levy

The Sheriff indicated that her office will face an unprecedented nearly $5 million general fund reduction beginning in July. This is happening because the County has to find $15 million in the General Fund to pay the annual payments on the new courthouse.

Polls have shown that Clackamas voters would not support a bond levy to build a new courthouse, not because they don’t agree one is needed, but because they can’t afford new taxes.

Commissioners have circumvented the voters without public hearings regarding the costs and plans to fund this project and have instead approved a 30-year public-private partnership with a multinational Canadian investment firm, even though its inflating costs will require “drastic” cuts to all departments.

Commissioner Tootie Smith notes that “We will right-size our government while still providing core-services to pay for the increased costs.” The Board is committed to not raising taxes to pay for the new courthouse.

Construction of the courthouse is expected to be completed in 2025 and cost $313 million – a significant increase in price caused by inflation. The Oregon State Legislature committed $94.5 million for the project in 2021 as part of a program to fund half the project, previously estimated at $189 million.

Commissioner Ben West notes, “As commissioners, we are asking every single county department and office to look for efficiencies in service delivery and a reduction in duplicative and redundant services. Including the Sheriff’s Office. It is unfortunate the Sheriff is using our dedicated public safety employees as pawns in the budget process.”

What is unfortunate is that Commissioner West would view the concerns of an elected County Sheriff with the notion that the Sheriff is using dedicated safety employees as pawns, because she disagrees with the steps the Commissioners are taking.

This is really a case of robbing Peter to pay Paul, therefore reducing the budgets for all departments to help fund the courthouse. It means you take something away from one department to pay another, leaving the former at a disadvantage; discharge one debt only to incur another.

While Commissioners suggest the rising costs of the new Courthouse project due to inflation is the reason for the urgency to start the project now, they ignored the possible option of waiting for the inflation to slow down. They instead turn their urgency onto all County departments asking them to eliminate redundant services.

Commissioners seemed to do this with an assumptive blindfold on, as if to suggest that all Departments were operating with abundance. All one has to do is drive around Clackamas County to see that the road department has been struggling for years to keep roads in good repair, that the Sheriff’s office has had to seek additional levies to help standardize an approach to crime and keep specialized deputies on the road, and the jail is old and has limited space. All other departments no doubt have found themselves having to balance their budgets differently due to inflation costs and are attempting to project what the future costs might be just to operate their departments effectively.

Though the new Courthouse is a lofty public-private partnership designed to help leverage costs, there are critical concerns: This project:

• has circumvented voter’s approval
• has lacked transparency in defining costs to build, operate, and staff
• is robbing Peter to pay Paul, therefore holding captive the budgets of every department. I am not sure this is reasonable, ethical, or lawful and do not support this process.

As a rural voter, Public Safety is top priority and the special Sheriff’s office levy has designated uses that are clearly defined, that is why I voted yes for it.

Shirley Morgan in a resident of unincorporated Clackamas County

BA Communications Marylhurst University in West Linn, OR (1999), MA in Whole System Design/Organizational System Renewal from Antioch University in Seattle, WA (2003). MS Community and Economic development from Southern New Hampshire University-Manchester, NH (2008) and an associate’s degree of church leadership from Portland Bible College, OR (2015)

Write:

Commissioners: Tootie Smith, Martha Schrader, Ben West, Paul Savas, Mark Shull.

bcc@clackamas.us; tsmith@clackamas.us; mschrader@clackamas.us; PSavas@co.clackamas.or.us; mshull@clackamas.us

REFERENCE INFORMATION

1. https://www.clackamas.us/news/2022-06-30/board-of-county-commissioners-to-approve-contract-to-build-new-courthouse
2. https://www.kptv.com/2023/05/20/clackamas-co-sheriff-says-county-cut-her-office-out-budgeting-process/
   

https://www.clackamas.us/news/2023-05-19/budget-hearings-scheduled

The schedule is as follows, with all sessions starting at 8:30 a.m.:

• Monday, May 22: Service Districts/Authorities. Committee meetings, with public hearings, kick off with budget presentations and expected approvals of the eight service districts/authorities that Clackamas County oversees, including: Clackamas Water Environment Services (WES), Development Agency, Enhanced Law Enforcement District, Housing Authority of Clackamas County, Library Services District, North Clackamas Parks & Recreation District, Extension and 4-H Service District, and Street Lighting District #5.
• Tuesday, May 23: County Operating Budget. The County Administrator starts these proceedings by delivering the proposed budget to the Clackamas County Budget Committee. The committee is made up of the five members of the Board of County Commissioners and five members of the public. The County Administrator’s budget message, budget overview and proposed budget, as well as the schedule for the departmental budgets being discussed, can be found online.
• Tuesday evening, May 23: Public Testimony. At 6 p.m. on Tuesday night, the public is invited to provide comment to the Budget Committee about the proposed budget. Participation options are outlined below.
• Wednesday, May 24 – Thursday, May 25: Deliberation. Once the proposed budget is reviewed and the public has commented at the public testimony, the members of the county’s Budget Committee begin their deliberation. Committee members may accept, reject or modify the proposed budget. State law dictates that the county’s budget must be balanced. This process goes on until at least six of ten committee members approve a budget.

Each service district, and the county overall, have unique budget committees made up of the five county commissioners and five members of the public. The Housing Authority of Clackamas County’s budget is reviewed by its Board, which is comprised of the five commissioners and one member of the public.

Once the county’s overall approved budget is completed at the end of these proceedings, that budget then goes to the Board of County Commissioners weeks later. The board may accept, reject or modify the approved budget. The county’s finalized budget goes into effect on July 1, 2023.