City OKs paying Civic project debt

The vote came after Mayor Steve Lawrence explained that the Civic was paying off a $50,000 line of credit from 2010 that cost about $900 per month in interest payments. He said the cost to pay off the debt was minimal, roughly $3,640, and proposed that the city use Google funds to pay it off.

Lawrence said the county and city recently received an Enterprise Zone payment of $78,737 from Google, part of the balance due on a negotiated fee for the company’s massive building project currently under way in The Dalles.

The “enterprise zone” designation is designed to provide property tax abatements to promote economic development.

Lawrence noted that the Enterprise Zone Committee also had $2,500 remaining from last year’s funds that were available to tax districts or projects that could provide an immediate benefit to the community. He said the committee had discussed using that money to pay off the Civic’s debt.

“We have a request from the Civic Auditorium to retire that line of credit, and split the remaining balance so Wasco County and The Dalles each get approximately $38,797,” said Lawrence, who has a been champion of Civic restorations and sits on the Enterprise Zone Committee.

Councilor Darcy Long-Curtiss questioned the lack of information and shortage of time to consider the matter.

“I didn’t have a chance to see this ahead of time,” she said before the vote. “I think for the public, people want to know what’s on our agenda.”

She added that the council needed more time to consider the ramifications of financial issues such as this.

In response, Lawrence pointed out that he had emailed the packet of information about the recommendations earlier that afternoon, and had provided a hard copy at each council member’s desk.

“You’re making an issue of this,” Lawrence added. “If you don’t want to approve it, then say you don’t want to approve it. A request was made, not by me, but by the representative for the Civic Auditorium. It took a long time for the negotiating team to get back together and make a recommendation. It costs the Civic $900 a month to pay on this, and that’s a significant cash impact, so the earlier the better for this.”

“Mr. Mayor, I’m sorry if I’ve irritated you, but we didn’t have a chance to read about this ahead of time,” Long-Curtiss replied.

At that point, Councilor Russ Brown said he did not like the process either.

“I personally don’t have any problem with (the proposal), but it just got dropped on our desk tonight,” Brown said.

“It’s the process. We keep hearing about the importance of process, but we’ve really condensed the process on this.”

Brown added that he did not receive any advance information about the proposal.“I didn’t get an email,” he said.

Lawrence pointed out that the county also must agree to the payment, because the local Enterprise Zone is jointly sponsored by Wasco County and the city of The Dalles.

Councilor Taner Elliott said he had reservations about the process as well, but made a motion to pay off the Civic’s debt.

“I’ll agree with you guys as far as having to do the due process, but I’m going to go ahead and recommended that the amount of $3,641.45 be paid to the Civic Auditorium to retire the debt, pending approval by the county,” he said.

Councilor Linda Miller seconded the motion, which was then approved 5-0.

After the meeting, Lawrence said there was a simple reason why the topic did not get added to the council’s July 10 agenda.

“This was not a matter of process as much as it was of timing,” Lawrence explained. “Since the latest meeting of the Enterprise Zone Committee had only occurred the preceding Thursday, there was not much chance to get the information out before Monday.

“I asked the city clerk to email the information to all council members. Yes, it was short notice, but sometimes that happens. And the council has the option of deciding or not.”

Long-Curtiss said she remained concerned about the way the decision was made.

“During the last election, there was significant discussion about the fact that many citizens of The Dalles feel decisions are being made behind the scenes, and that they object to this practice,” Long-Curtiss said, adding that items not on the agenda should be addressed “only when absolutely necessary.”

She said bringing up an important issue to be voted on without it appearing on the agenda was unfair to local citizens.

“People use the published agendas to determine whether or not they want to spend several hours of their Monday evening with us or their family, and we owe it to them to be transparent about what will be discussed,” she said. “No action items should occur during the reports section of the agenda. No action should occur until the next meeting, so councilors and the public have adequate notice.”Long-Curtiss added that an email on the afternoon before a council meeting was not sufficient time to process an issue, especially a financial matter.

“I’m busy running a business, and I do not always have time to check for emails sent during the day of the meeting. Sometimes I’m seeing clients right up until I dash over to the meeting,” she explained.

Lawrence said the council members could have decided to bring the topic back in two weeks if they had wanted to.

“We always do present money decisions well in advance, and the council can always ask for more time,” he said. “This was a rare exception. It should not be blown out of proportion.”