THE DALLES — Oregon House District 52 Rep. Jeff Helfrich, who was recently appointed Republican leader, attended the regular The Dalles city council meeting on Oct. 9, where he gave a legislative report.
In his report, Helfrich started by talking about projects in Wasco County that were able to be funded in the last legislative session, which concluded in late June. These projects included $49,000 for lighting and sound systems at The Dalles Civic Auditorium, as well as $5.5 million for the Columbia Gorge Community College Aviation Maintenance Program.
The city councilors also had questions for Helfrich, with Councilor Dan Richardson asking if there were steps being taken to revise or review Measure 110, which decriminalized hard drugs in the state of Oregon.
Helfrich explained that a task force has been put together to look at fixes for problems caused by the bill, including the re-criminalization of drugs.
“We’ve seen the effects of [Measure 110],” Helfrich said. “It’s not just a Portland problem. You see it here in The Dalles, you see it everywhere. And so I want to make sure that funding source continues for recovery and those efforts, but also we have to have a deterrent at some point in time.”
Helfrich also said he didn’t believe anything would change until next November, but they were working to find a solution.
Richardson also brought up concerns about homelessness in The Dalles and throughout the state, which Helfrich agreed with, but said he didn’t expect to make much progress during the short legislative session.
“I’m not going to hold my breath because it can’t be a partisan issue,” he said. “It’s a bipartisan issue. It’s not about party, it’s about helping people that need the help, but it’s also holding the accountability portion of that. It’s a tightrope to walk.”
In other news, city councilors voted to create an organized informational technology department. IT is currently a division overseen by the city clerk, City Manager Matthew Klebes said, but under this change IT will be a separate department and report directly to the city manager. Additionally, the current IT manager position will become a department head position, and a systems administrator position will be added.
“Our organization is over 100 staffers and we have two IT staff right now,” Klebes said. “It’s in line with what I anticipated, frankly, that we would need additional IT resources to continue to support us going forward.”
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