Thoughts About Ballot Measure 15-243
I wrote this piece for the Sneak Preview regarding ballot measure 15-243, which will be on our ballots this November.
First, there are some basic facts that we all need to be working with to have a productive community conversation about utility bill fees and city services.
The City Council increased the public safety and wildfire fees and created a new parks fee in 2025. It did so because the City was facing a perfect storm of budget shortfalls driven largely by inflation and supply chain disruptions over the previous two years and because the two fees that were raised in this process (public safety and wildfire) hadn’t been raised in years, so they hadn’t kept up with increasing costs.
Parks Fee Sunset Date
The parks fee was set to sunset in two years by the Council to create strong motivation for the City Council, Parks Commission, and staff to do serious work around two questions – how to streamline operations to save money? And what other revenue sources might help close that gap? Council didn’t want that motivation to slip, which might have happened had the parks fee been set up without a sunset fee.
With the sunset deadline in place, the council, commission, and staff worked hard to address these questions, in the process saving $300,000 and adjusting fees where it made sense to increase revenue. The point was always to revisit the parks fee ahead of the next budget season, which the Council is doing now.
The Process
There is no question that the process that created the parks fee and increased the other two fees was problematic, especially the process to create the new parks fee. Everyone – staff, Council, and the public - was unhappy with how fast the City Council had to make a decision about the parks fee during the budget season.
But that doesn’t mean the decision to put the fee in place was wrong.
We received a large number of messages about this issue during that budget process and the majority of them supported an additional $5 monthly fee. Survey responses in our strategic planning process confirmed the commitment Ashlanders have to their parks.
Council Opposition to the Initiative
In the meetings about this initiative, the majority of council members were clear that they didn’t support the initiative even though the Council eventually voted to put it before the voters because of interest from our residents. Two of the four councilors who voted to put this initiative before the voters stated publicly that they would work to defeat it.
So, why is having Ashlanders vote on new utility bill fees and major increases a bad idea? It seems reasonable at first blush. The opposition isn’t because it takes Council’s authority
away, it’s because it takes away the ability of Council to raise revenues in a timely way when needed. The world is changing rapidly, and we need to ensure that the City Council has the flexibility it needs to serve our residents.
If this charter change was in place when we were faced with the budget issues in 2025, we could not have protected parks and recreation services, no matter how badly our residents wanted us to.
The Council also knew that our Community Wildfire Protection Plan was nearing completion and would need additional revenue to implement it, so it increased the wildfire fee. But if this charter change was in place at the time, we would have had to wait for a year for a vote – or spend a significant amount of money paying for a special election. Good progress has been made over the past year with this funding in place, but we would have been stalled if we had to wait for an election.
Utility bill fees are not permanent. They do not create a debt that has to be paid like a bond does – and can, in fact, be reduced or eliminated at any time by the City Council. So, if the Council develops or increases a utility bill fee that doesn’t have community support, our residents will share their opposition with council members, and they will be able to immediately rescind any new fees or fee increases.
Fixing the Process
While this initiative isn’t the way to do it, the process for creating new fees or significantly increasing existing ones needs to be fixed - and the Council is fixing it. When I voted no to break the tie in the first council vote on this initiative petition, I did so because there was a better way to fix this process – one that handled the very real process issues without tying the hands of future councils as they work to provide the services our community wants and needs.
I drafted the structure of a new ordinance that will create a specific timeline and community engagement process that must be used any time the City Council considers a new utility bill fee or a significant increase in an existing one. It is designed to slow the process down and ensure that all Ashlanders interested in the issue have time to engage meaningfully with the Council. Council discussions have improved that proposed process, and the Council has approved first reading of the ordinance. Once second reading is approved, the new ordinance will direct future utility fee processes to ensure that we do not experience another rushed process.
Testing the Fix
Council isn’t waiting for the ordinance to be in place to start using this new process. It began using it in early August to take up the question about whether to extend the parks fee beyond the initial two years. That question needs to be answered so that staff can begin preparing the budget the Citizens Budget Committee will begin reviewing next March.
Council held a study session and a public hearing and staff posted information for residents (https://ashlandoregon.gov/parksfee). Ashlanders have answered an on-line survey and are able to share their opinion about this fee extension up to and at the discussion scheduled for the October 6 council business meeting.
The Council shares the concern about the impact of fees on our low-income residents, so it is considering ways to make all utility bill fees more equitable by waiving some or all of them for residents who participate in our utility bill assistance program or adjusting the fees based on the building type – single family housing, multi-family housing, commercial, etc.
If you have additional questions about the Council’s process to address the parks fee sunset date, feel free to ask them here: https://AshlandOregon.gov/707/Curious-about-something-Just-ask
Clearing up Misinformation:
The parks fee has only been used for parks and recreation expenses – it was not simply swallowed into the General Fund.
Our utility bills do not go up 3% a year. Bills for utility services are set by the City Council based on extensive utility rate studies designed to make sure we invest enough in our utilities to continue to offer excellent service.
The existing fees on our utility bills increase annually by the rate of inflation, not a flat 3%.
Utility bill fees are not appropriate for major capital projects, so the community will still vote to finance them through a general obligation bond.
The City does not replace all of its vehicles every three years. It follows a schedule based on the type of vehicle, its use, and what is known about when specific vehicles become more expensive to repair than they are worth. When vehicles reach that point, they are sold to recapture as much value as possible.
The community center is open for rentals by the public and has been since the ribbon cutting ceremony earlier this summer. Staff offices that remain in the community center do not interfere with the ability to rent the public areas.
The recommendation to consolidate city services in a new civic center to provide better customer service and cross-department coordination came from a facilities master plan study completed earlier this year. The Council has decided not to pursue a new civic center at this time and is investigating other ways to consolidate services so that it’s easier for our residents to handle their business with the City.