North Wasco County School District 21 officials The Dalles Mayor Steve Lawrence they want to have a public meeting with all involved taxing entities to discuss fund distribution from the latest Google agreement. Carol Roderick, chair of the D21 board, conveyed that message to Lawrence two weeks ago, and told directors Thursday, Sept. 24, that she had not heard back yet, but presumes she will.
Roderick told the Chronicle Monday, “Our board felt that our community deserved and expected these meetings to be open to the public and for the other taxing entities to be in on the discussion.”
Lawrence told the Chronicle via email Monday that, “We have decided to talk with each tax district, other than the school district, individually. After that process, we will approach the school district again to discuss the next step and if a public meeting is on the table, it would be discussed.”
He said he hadn’t had a chance to get back to Roderick yet because he’d been at a city government conference.
Lawrence said in the email that he met with Roderick to present his idea of using Google money to hire a consultant to prepare a “third party, objective review of the school system.”
He added, “I have said on more than one occasion that I would have trouble giving the school district more money — we gave them 30 percent of the $800,000 a year that will come from [the second Google building project] Steelhead II) — to do capital projects without an analysis of the school system.
“This is because the community continues to debate the state of the school system and that gets in the way of everyone moving forward together.
“If we all know what needs to be done, we can all help accomplish improvements.”
He said when he recruits business, the low state rating of the school district is “hurting economic development in The Dalles.”
He said he proposed to Roderick meeting first with the superintendent, finance officer and two board members “to discuss preliminarily a broader discussion later with the full board.”
He also said he wanted to have the other members of the Google agreement negotiating team present.
The team included Wasco County Commissioner Scott Hege and Wasco County Administrative Officer Tyler Stone.
Three Google agreements have been made, the latest for a building not yet constructed.
Each agreement provides that Google will produce a certain amount of well-paying jobs, build at least $200 million in infrastructure, and also provide an initial payment and then annual payments, in lieu of property taxes.
The negotiated financial deals each run for 15 years.
Hege told the Chronicle he imagines that “eventually” such public meetings as the school board requested will be held.
“At this point in time I think we’re trying to kind of figure out a path of where to head,” he said.
He said one path is to simply distribute the Google funds proportionately to each taxing district as if they were regular taxes.
“Or, and this is kind of what our thinking has been, to see if there’s some need in the community or project that we can’t otherwise complete that these kinds of funds would potentially make that possible,” Hege said.
He said he’d like to at least have a discussion about using the funds that way.
Hege said, “Obviously, everybody has needs, that’s clear and that’s understandable. But the question, can somehow people come together and agree that one or some needs have a higher priority and we haven’t been able to address them and this is one way we can do it.”
The first agreement with Google for its first building complex netted annual payments of $250,000 for the 15-year term of the agreement.
The second 15-year deal, which is still new enough that payments have not begun yet, guarantees annual payments of $800,000. The latest agreement will yield a yearly minimum of $1 million, Hege said.
The city and county have determined which taxing entities get the money, and what the money will be spent on.
From the second agreement, providing $800,000 per year, the city and county gave 30 percent, or $240,000 per year, to the school district.
It required that the first five years of payments be spent on curb appeal projects for schools and its costly mascot change, spurred by a state law banning Native American-themed mascots.
The way money will be spent after the first five years will be negotiated, said Randy Anderson, chief financial officer of the school district.
The $240,000 annual payments were expected to start with the last fiscal year, but because of the timing of when the building was finished, will not begin until this fiscal year.
That means work already done by the school district will need to be reimbursed by the city and county.
Board member Lori McCanna voiced concern that the city and county could choose not to reimburse, but Roderick said she didn’t see that happening.
Board member Eric Nerdin said, “I understand the city and county have all the authority in this and they’re being kind to let us have this money.”
But he asked whether the school board could, in the future, create more bargaining power in the process.
The school district has spent around $180,000 to $190,000 so far, including repainting Chenowith Elementary School, redoing the high school gym with the new mascot and making parking lot repairs.
The schedule is that the school district will present a plan to the city and county each April 1, listing their plans for expenditures.
The city and county then have 45 days to respond. Approved expenditures would be funded in December or January of each fiscal year.
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