The Indy Herald & Globe

OP/ED By David Clyne

In November, we will be asked to cast a vote on whether or not to support the City’s proposed fee in support of our parks, library and museum. As someone who supported the right to vote on this matter by signing the petition, Peggy and I are nonetheless currently planning on supporting the fee because the choice the City gave us is pretty stark. This opinion piece is about why that didn’t need to be the choice and how it is not too late to back away from the precipice the City placed us all at. 

As one of two former City Managers (there have been two others after us and before Kenna’s arrival) that have been criticized for choosing to speak out now, I would like to talk about the state of the City in my opinion. I am not speaking for Greg Ellis, who has his own opinion formed from ten years of managing Independence during a different time with different issues and is running for office. Rather, I want to take this time to reflect on where we are going as a City and not as a perceived supporter of his campaign. 

The political messaging from the City in response to my involvement has been that I am doing this because I want to protect the legacy created during my tenure serving under Mayor John McArdle. Folks are confused by the allegations since I supported both Kenna West as the City Manager candidate and Kate Schwarzler for Mayor. Well folks, I am here to confess to all these charges.

I am indeed proud of all that we accomplished together during my time as City Manager under Mayor McArdle from 2010 to the end of 2018. While the most obvious of those successes were the Hotel and Apartment complex, aka Independence Landing, plus the ball fields, apartments and boat landing complex at the north end  of our beautiful river park; there are three achievements that I take the most pride in.  None of which cost the City more than token investments. 

They are the reimagined Riverview Park Summer Series of movies and music, the creation of the magical Inspiration Gardens and the All America City Award. What all of these had in common was the celebration of community in one way or another. 

The Summer Series built community by providing our most beloved public space as a stage for joyful music to be celebrated not only by our residents but our visitors as well. It created a recognition of Independence that Mayor  McArdle used to refer to as the “Can Do” City. This grew to an event with thousands of attendees and a great summer happening.

The Inspiration Gardens grew out of an opportunity to partner with the OSU Master Gardeners who were searching for a site for a show-case demonstration garden. Ultimately, we all agreed that the current seven-acre site would be perfect. 

The Gardeners, through OSU Extension Services, furnished volunteers and fundraising for years. The City provided the land, water and the occasional small financial support. The result is what the Master Gardeners themselves identify as unquestionably the most beautiful of their demonstration gardens in the State of Oregon.  

Finally in 2014, the City helped assemble the group of volunteers that applied for and received the distinct honor of being the first city in Oregon to be named an All America City in the previous ten years! The application was a celebration of diversity, accomplishment and volunteerism in our community which had created so much of what our residents value. It was an amazing and frankly very moving occasion when we were called up first to the podium where volunteer extraordinaire Dori Showell made the opening remarks followed by our team of mostly community members and volunteers. 

Yes, I am afraid the legacy of these efforts will be forgotten in today’s divisive climate. And yes, I am saddened by the failure of those managing our City today of truly not understanding the value of these and so many other contributions; and not knowing how to build on them instead of burying them. 

Yes, I did support Kate Schwarzler’s run for Mayor by urging her to run beforehand and by signing her initial petition. I don’t regret that choice because she has the vision to be a good leader. I only wish she would understand the importance of keeping her critics as close and as involved as she keeps her supporters. It is only through understanding the fullness of a measure that we can make well-reasoned decisions. 

We all see the ultimate misdirection and destruction that is possible when a leader fails to include critical voices amongst their advisors. We see this at a national level and we are seeing it today, in my opinion, at the City level. Good leaders know the value of including all voices at the table. 

And finally, I did indeed support Kenna West’s application for City Manager. As one of her mentors while serving as Senior Advisor to City Managers in this part of the State, I saw a great deal of potential in Kenna. Her service in Willamina demonstrated her love for the work, but had not yet demonstrated her ability to step up and manage a larger, more complex organization. 

What I unfortunately am seeing now is perhaps a high-quality workers compensation attorney, but not yet a city manager with the seasoning to manage a City the size and complexity of Independence. The role of City Manager is to provide true options to City Councils, options that meet the challenges of a full-service community and are not just weighted to some services at the expense of others. 

What do I mean by this? Early in Kenna’s tenure, the Council was informed of the text book definition of “essential” services implicitly saying that the budget needed to favor those services above all else. The immediate result; the closing and destruction of the summer swimming pool facility and the elimination of the Latino engagement program; all of this soon to be followed by the current planned closures and abolition of the library, museum and parks. 

I disagree totally and regret my role in enabling this destruction of our City’s assets. What I learned managing Independence is that the community wants all of its services funded to be that great City it has been for decades that welcomes quality economic and community growth. 

When we dial 911, do we expect a librarian to respond? No. When we go to the Police Department, do we go there so that our children can check out books, have access to computers, learn about the Independence story, get a trail map, play on playgrounds. Of course, no to all of these responses. 

The point is that we live in Independence and have chosen to be here for our families, jobs, recreation and dining/shopping options because of all these services and more provided by or made possible by the City’s presence, willingness to listen and engage, and leadership. 

Let’s talk about the roads that could have been followed by the Council and a different approach to City management. I have called this approach “Net Zero” and will explain it further in the following paragraphs in addition to talking about where the opportunities lie in the current budget to make this happen.

Imagine that the City Council had decided to impose the $29.95 Police and Community Service fees for Police, Parks, Library and Museum, but at the same time chose to reduce the Water, Sewer and Stormwater utility fees by the same amount. The result would be no change to the monthly utility bills and very few people would even notice that their payments had gone through an accounting change.

But how can the City reduce its utility fees without harming the ongoing operations of those services and the plans to build proposed water and sewer plants? Most of the rest of this is dedicated to talking about the how and may be in the weeds a bit. Apologies in advance.

First off, how reliable is the budget that was adopted in the first place? At the summary level there are two errors that together total approximately $11,400,000! Page 17 of the adopted budget totals of Resources is off by nearly $10,000,000 and page 18 totals of Uses is off by more than $1,400,000. Truly unimaginable and incomprehensible sloppiness, frankly! 

After seeing that in less than ten minutes of reviewing the adopted Fiscal Year 2026/27 budget, I stopped checking for errors and started looking at the budget allocations to see where changes supporting Net Zero could occur. I was rewarded with a treasure chest so to speak. Greg and my YouTube video, https://youtu.be/BnOgdl8Vapw?si=5XhR21cJwJrkpjQm, provides a good overview for those already getting tired of reading 🙂

As I reviewed pages I noticed a pattern forming; the line item for “subscriptions” in each department was dramatically increasing without explanation. Specifically, over 12 General Fund departments alone, there was a $120,000 increase since FY2023/24 or 95% in just three years! It gets worse when you look at the entire budget and see that the three-year increase is over $205,000 or 126%! That amount of just the increase alone would solve about 25% of the problem being addressed by the new Community Service Fee. 

So, I thought I should take a good look at salaries and benefits as governmental budgets typically are mostly made up of these. After all, the City Manager is fond of saying she reduced 11 positions from the budget. Over the same three year period, the actual personnel costs increased by a whopping $2,278,000 or 32.5%! 

One also has to question the optics of providing four different employees promotional salary increases at the same time we are taking away the public’s beloved parks, library and museum. One employee will even receive a 28% bump plus the usual annual cost of living! 

Moving on to other budgeting practices of concern, why does the General Fund have a budgeted interfund transfer into the Facilities Reserve Fund of over $377,000; this at a time that every General Fund dollar is needed to support the threatened closure of our parks, library and museum?

As we proceed through the budget travels, we wander into the broad area of growth and growth proposed expenditures. In 2023 when the City ultimately “stopped” the interfund loans/transfers (current budget is actually loaded with such), the amount of money that the Utility Funds kept from the General was estimated at more than $2,000,000/year. 

The question then and my question today was why weren’t those funds returned to the rate payers then and now? Instead, they were kept without rate reduction in the name of deferred maintenance and the needs of growth. 

What has truly happened is that in addition to paying the previously described increases (and no doubt many others), they were used to prepay debt and to start on a very expensive public building campaign. We were told that we needed a major new water treatment plant and many millions of dollars worth of work to the sewage plant to support all of the growth coming. 

One big problem, there was no growth! In the last two years, only ONE new residential building permit was issued. In total, those plants will approximate $100,000,000 of construction cost! We are told not to worry as  grants and rates will cover that. 

Having spent over 40 years in this business in 14 different cities, I can confidently say that at best we might see 25% of that money from grants. The remainder is coming from you and I, the residents of Independence. It’s no wonder rates were never reduced. They were needed to build these facilities since new growth couldn’t be counted on to pay for any of it.

How did we get to this point of no growth, and inordinate and avoidable investment in unneeded facilities? Lots of answers to that question, but one stands out; leadership and management not up to the challenge of truly understanding how to meet existing service demands. 

Near the beginning of the City Manager’s tenure, system development charges (SDCs) were increased by more than double on the advice of the then Public Works Director. The result was one of the highest SDC rates in the State, an almost immediate end to new residential building permits, and near zero SDC funds to support and justify the expansion of treatment plants. 

In spite of that, the budget shows a 263% increase over three years or more than $2,500,000 in new SDC projected revenue to help justify the unjustifiable expenditures on unneeded projects. In defense of staff, they were so uncertain of the reality of these projected revenues that the entirety of the “new” SDCs were included as reserves not available to be spent. In other words, the only reason these imaginative revenues are apparently even projected is to support the notion of a need for building otherwise unwarranted treatment facilities and related plumbing! 

I am frankly doubtful that even the Budget Committee or City Council understands this little budget trick, which could, by the way, bring an admonishment from the auditors and State for budgeting such unreliable revenue in the first place. 

So what should the City do to get to Net Zero? Simple and as stated before reduce utility rates and eliminate some of the wasteful spending that supports them. STOP building water and wastewater plants until the growth really happens! 

Some further options include cutting back on personnel costs for such positions as an inhouse Attorney, a Building Inspector when there is no growth, a City Planner, both a City Manager and Assistant City Manager (choose one), a City Engineer for the same reason, and more. I have identified separately and can share with Council my full list if they wish. It adds up to well over the amount of savings needed. Much of these services could be provided by much less costly part-time contracted personnel that don’t have such large salary and benefit packages as is typical in government. 

Some good news. They need only wait three years before it has an additional $800,000/year available when two existing debts are paid off. One of those will be paid off this year saving nearly $300,000! 

Even better news. None of what is being recommended as options violates their principal rule that governs interfund transfers/loans. They have already committed to the Community Service and Police Fees, so all they  are being asked to do is reduce utility bills to offset the new fees they imposed. The result would be Net Zero! 

I would urge the Council to reconsider the stance they now hold of threatening the community they serve by closing our beloved services. It is not too late to back away from the precipice that has been created. The errors in the budget alone should give you the reason to say “time out” and hand the budget off to a different pair of eyes to look for further impactful problems and errors. 

What if we used the next year or two to explore a permanent solution like the creation of a parks and recreation district covering Independence and Monmouth that could take over responsibility for many of these services and others, while at the same time creating some fiscal capacity for both cities? It’s been tried before and came very close to happening. 

With the upcoming election and as I said before, I am supporting the Community Service fees but I will be looking for candidates for office that are willing to reduce the Utility fees by a like amount.