County budget could be tight in 2025

“The budget that’s presented before you assumes a 1% property tax increase,” she said. “It assumes an 18% decrease in the landfill as it’s trending right now. It assumes a decrease in sales tax as well, and interest earnings.”

In discussion, she said she’d put in $2.4 million for the operation of the Sheriff’s Department, but hadn’t added in anything for improvements because those costs are not as yet known.

Commissioners did pass two ordinances, one to enact interim zoning controls regarding the bulk storage and warehousing of lithium batteries. The other is to enact interim controls in regard to the siting, installation, or development of battery energy storage systems known by the acronym BESS.

The vote was not unanimous. Commissioner Jake Anderson voted no on both resolutions, saying among other things that the resolution didn’t define battery energy storage systems.

But it was the presentation of a preliminary budget by O’Neil that could have more reaching impact. Here’s what she told commissioners:

“Before you in those binders is the statutorily-required presentation of our preliminary budget. Total expense, I get: $67,780,000. Total proposed revenue, $62,998,000, leaving a difference of $4.7 million dollars.”

Anderson said that commissioners face some tough choices in balancing the 2025 budget but tried to reassure voters.

“One thing I think everybody should know,” he said, “is that no matter what, we will be able to provide for this year. We’re not in a situation that other counties are in, because we do have cash reserves, because we’ve been doing that for a long time and building up out piggy bank one year at a time.”

And that brought this response from Commissioner Dan Christopher:

“Being a fiscal conservative,” he replied, “I believe you live and balance your budget out of your checking account, not digging into your savings account because you refuse to cut HBO from your cable bill. If you can’t afford your cable bill, you need to cut HBO from your cable bill before you get into your savings account to pay for it. The savings account is emergency reserve.”

Chair Lori Zoller said she wanted to start the budget process by focusing on what there is to work with.

“I can’t start anywhere till I’m standing on firm ground on all the revenues,” she said.

There will be much more when the commission gets into the nuts and bolts of the budget. “We’re in a different world today than we were for the last 20 years, and we need to recognize that,” said Anderson.

In other actions, commissioners took the final step to alleviate concerns about battery storage safety issues by enacting a pair of resolutions. One enacted interim zoning controls regarding the bulk storage and warehousing of lithium batteries.

The other also enacted interim controls in regard to the siting, installation, or development of the BESS battery energy storage systems.

The vote was not unanimous. Anderson voted no on both resolutions, saying among other things that the resolution didn’t define battery energy storage systems.

Human Resources Director Robb Van Cleave had little to report on the jail, other than he’d set up several interviews for the new jail director position, and shared some of the questions with commissioners. 

“We’re getting down to the some of the finer details of what we’re going to need when the transition is over. One is a new software for language translation,” he said, “So I’ve added that to the task list to give to the jail administrator.”

Sept. 10 meeting

“This is the shortest meeting on record.”

Those were the words of Commission Chair Zoller, wrapping up the Sept. 10 session in just 28 minutes and 30 seconds. Why would she do that? Because she lost her quorum.

At the start of the meeting, Zoller was the only member of the commission present in the meeting room. Anderson was joining by Zoom from Washington, D.C. He is representing Klickitat County on the multi-agency coalition seeking to build a replacement for the Hood River Bridge and was in D.C. to lobby for more funds for the project.

Christopher was not present and no reason was given for his absence.

As long as two of the three commissioners are attending the meeting, there is a quorum, though it means that the chair has to step down to second all the motions. As the meeting opened, Anderson and Zoller were able to get through all of the housekeeping measures, which included authorizing payments for bills and payrolls and passing the consent agenda. They were also able to get through a modest public comment period. But shortly thereafter, Anderson had to keep his appointment to meet with Oregon’s Second District Representative.

“I’m walking into Cliff Bentz’s office,” he announced, “so I’m going to have to leave the rest for next week.”

And that was it. With the meeting closing, there was no chance to hear planned updates from public works, emergency management or on the jail.

There was one item worthy of note. The consent agenda contained a resolution that creates a coroner department in the general fund for the 2025 year. The office of coroner will be appointed, rather than elected. That’s because the office will not be officially established until Jan. 1, and citizens couldn’t vote in November for an office that does not yet officially exist.

Ironically, during the public comment period, one of the callers said there had been too much absenteeism on the commission this year, and the county should take back the pay for the days they’re not at the meeting and put it in the general fund. 

All the issues that couldn’t be dealt with on Sept. 10 were pushed forward to the next regular meeting on Sept. 17 (after press deadline). Under the consent agenda, commissioners also approved appointing Adrian Bradford to the Water Conservancy Board, a maintenance agreement for the postage machine and a $20,000 grant to WAGAP for the Bingen/White Salmon Community Youth Center.