SOU budget, tribal dispute and Bandon schools

You're listening to the Jefferson Exchange. Thanks for joining us. The JX starts today with the debrief, where JPR reporters discuss the stories they've been covering this week, including updates on Southern Oregon University, recovering sunken boats and proposed fee hikes and talent. I'm Roma Battaglia, science, environment, and politics reporter. I'm Theo Greenlee, Oregon South Coast reporter. I'm Peyton Gass, JPM Snowden intern for the summer. And I'm Jane Vaughn, Housing, Homelessness, and Education Reporter. So, Jane, you covered an update at Southern Oregon University this week. What happened there? So about a month ago, SOU had approved this plan. They're calling the Vitality Plan, which is going to cut $20 million from the university's budget. That's about a fifth of the budget. And then this week, they've released an updated version, supposedly the final version, which has some edits in it. So, for example, there are two majors that were previously slated to be cut that are no longer being cut. Those are financial mathematics and human service. actually is cost neutral as a program. All of its courses and professors also are in other departments, so it didn't save the university any money to cut it. And so now music industry and production is the only academic program that's going to be eliminated. And then they've also reduced the number of full-time equivalent employees who will be cut. They were going to cut about 66, and now that's down to about 61. And then the edits also add in some performance benchmarks for some academic programs. They have to hit certain enrollment and other targets by certain deadlines. There's a whole chart, a whole list of these edits that we have on our website if our listeners are interested. And I should note that JPR is licensed to SOU and we cover the university just like any other institution. Got it. So some programs are not going to be cut anymore. Some positions won't be cut. A couple of changes. So give us some more background on this plan. Yeah, this plan was really sort of a rush. The university realized in February that it was facing a huge budget shortfall. It wouldn't be able to cover payroll about a year from then. So really serious. The alternative. was theoretically closure of the institution. So Rick Bailey, the president, has said that the crisis is existential. And so they had to figure out how to fix it. They had sort of an advisory plan from Deloitte Consulting and then the university created its own plan to address the problem, which was approved, as I said, about a month ago. And this major cut, this vitality plan all comes after two other major cuts at SOU in recent years. Just last fall, the university approved a plan to cut $10 million over $4. years. And there was another big plan in 2023 before that. So a lot has happened recently. Yeah. Yeah. The third resiliency plan, cutting plan. Why, why does SAU need to cut so much money? There are a few reasons. One of them is declining enrollment, which SOU is not alone in facing that problem. Some of it also has to do with state funding. Oregon ranks 46th in the country in state funding per four-year students. So there's been a lot of complaints about that. SOU's leaders have also said that the university's budget and finance offices have been understaffed. Their financial reporting has been inadequate. Their financial policies need to be strengthened. And one particular big challenge has been the university. transition to the workday software system, which they said led to a lack of awareness of the problem. Some of the reports weren't being generated correctly or couldn't be viewed, and so that was another big issue. Yeah, that system kind of covers everything, all the HR and all the administration stuff. So what happens next then? So SOU President Rick Bailey said at a press conference on Wednesday that employees who were being laid off would start receiving those layoff notices sometime this week. And then next Wednesday, this upcoming Wednesday, the board of trustees is going to meet to a...

approve the next year's budget. Technically, it's the current fiscal year. This budget is supposed to already be approved, but they couldn't approve it yet because the final plan wasn't done. So they're having a special board meeting on Wednesday to approve the budget for the next basically 11 months of the fiscal year. And this is obviously really important. It will actually lay out the specific numbers and what we can expect over the coming year as this plan is implemented. SOU really has to have all of this done in now less than a year because it's otherwise forecasted to run out of cash next year. June. So it's a really quick timeline to implement this plan. The university is also going to have a full-time project manager to oversee the implementation and make sure the SOU is sticking to the plan to the timeline. President Rick Bailey says that will be a project management team and he hopes to announce who that is on Wednesday at the meeting because again they really got to start getting to work. And he also said there might be some evolution over the coming year and the plan might change again. So we'll keep following it. Yeah, certainly. Yeah, we'll definitely be following that over the year. Thanks, Jane. So Theo, let's turn over to you. You reported on a boat that sank in Coos Bay. Why don't you catch us up? Right. So a wooden fishing boat called the Commando was moored at the city marina in Coos Bay. When earlier this month, July 2nd, it took on water and it sank. Officials say that, you know, the loose cables tangled around the float switch, this kind of automatic switch that activates the bilge pump, which pumps water out of the bottom of the boat and keeps it afloat. The pump never turned on, and so the boat filled with water, and it sank. It was moored at the south dock. And what happened is the stern of the boat, kind of the rear of the boat, lodged beneath a floating dock. So at low tide, the dock kind of came down and rested on the boat. It began lifting out of the water, and that was threatening serious damage. The city spent about a week track to get the boat's owner to respond, but officials say he took no meaningful action. And so the Port of Cousbay tried to step in. They didn't have the equipment to move it. The city went and hired a salvage company, a billeter Marine. So I went down there to the docks on Wednesday morning, and the crew was... setting up to pump the bilge. They had underwater divers, and on Wednesday they ultimately were able to raise it, and they towed it away from the marina. So now it's just kind of sitting to clear inspections before it can be moved farther away for disposal. Oh, interesting. So you reported that, you know, just the first phase of this is going to cost the city a lot of money. Tell us about the finances of all of this.

Right. So the boat was the boat was uninsured. And so the owner, he bought it from the city through an auction. And he agreed to remove it within 10 days, but he didn't. And so. This first phase is expected to cost between roughly $250,000 and $300,000. And that covers extracting the boat and moving it away from the dock. There's storage, disposal, all of these things could even get in upwards of that amount. But this first phase is going to cost roughly $300,000. And because the boat is uninsured, the city is paying those bills up front. They are paying out of the city's capital fund. The city's insurer, CIS, Oregon, is expected to reimburse at least half the cost of moving the vessel, but it may cover more. Officials don't quite know yet. The city's also looking for help from the Coast Guard, Oregon Department of State lands, and CIS, the insurance company may try to recover more money from the owner. And the city manager, Couss de Nicole Rutherford, said the expense. will keep the city from funding other planned work, but she didn't quite name what that might be. Yeah, I mean, that's a lot of money for a small city. And you had report that this was a really quick job, and they moved to, you know, do this contracted work before the city council actually approved the contract. Why did they move so quickly? Well, they funded it in, it was an emergency funding operation of measure. There was a series of very low tides, and the public works director said that that was putting increasing pressure on the dock. Officials were also concerned about the environmental impact. There's fuel and other pollutants aboard the boat, and they didn't want that leaking or leaching out into the bay. So city rules allow emergency contracts without competitive bidding when immediate action is needed to protect public property. And that's what they went ahead and did. Got it. Okay. So they approved it because it was an emergency yet and you needed to prevent that pollution from escaping out to the bay. So, you know, this was one uninsured boat that the city had to pay for and cost a lot of money. Does the city have any other uninsured boats at the marina? Well, they didn't give an exact number, but the city manager did tell counselors that it is more than zero. And the city is...

You know, looking for ways to get ahead of this and enforce insurance and registration requirements more aggressively, and they're working with their attorney on how to possibly impound or remove non-compliant votes before another neglected vote leaves taxpayers with that bill. Interesting. Well, great. Well, thanks, Theo, for the update. Peyton, let's turn to you. Talent held a special meeting on Wednesday. What were they discussing there? Yes, so the talent city manager Alex Campbell recently proposed a plan that would raise $350,000 to help the city balance its budget, because for three years now, the city's been in a half a million dollar deficit. So under his proposal, residential and commercial residents would pay a higher public safety fee each month. And residents would... Their fee would nearly double. They're paying around $5 right now, and that would go up to $10. And then commercial residents like grocery stores and gas stations, even the schools and the libraries, their fee would potentially be much steeper. So one example the city manager gave, he was talking about talent middle school. Right now they're paying around $20 for their public safety fee, and that number would go up to around $700. Wow. So on Wednesday, the council and the city manager, they hosted this special meeting where they heard comments and concerns. from majority business owners. And then using those comments, they plan on further deliberating this fee. Got it. And so that public safety fee is like, Something that people are paying for, I guess, police? Yes, yes. So why are the prices then so steep for businesses? Yes, so right now businesses are paying a flat public safety fee. But under this plan, the businesses would be charged based on the number of trips customers make. So larger, busier businesses like Ray's Food Palace, gas stations, like I mentioned, businesses that create a lot of customer trips would be charged more. And that's because according to data, those are the places where more crimes occur. and then the increased public service fee would help to go pay for those services, like police and other public services. Got it. So more crimes because of data, so that's going to increase that cost for businesses, whereas usually you don't have as much crime at your house. So what have been some of the reactions then from business owners? Yeah, you know what? No one is obviously thrilled about these prices going up so significantly. You know, right now businesses are paying for just 4% of the public safety surcharge. And if the fee passes, that number is going to go up to 20%. So that's a pretty big increase. And one restaurant owner made the comment that, you know, in the decade she's been running her business, she's only... or she only remembers calling the police three times to her building. And yet her public safety fee would go from $11 to $90. And she says like the, she feels like the data about the crime wasn't congruent with her actual experience. So going forward, some of the speakers and some of the council members proposed putting the fee up for vote on the November ballot. But as of right now, they're expected to vote on the fee in August. Got it. Great. Thanks, Peyton. Roman, we're going to turn to you. You had a story this week about a proposed truck stop in Phoenix. Tell us about...

what happened. Yeah, we're moving up the highway. So the A developer has been seeking to build a new truck stop in talent. It's going to be, it would be on the east side of town. In Phoenix? In Phoenix? Yes, in Phoenix. Now I'm mixing everything up. It's a cross-I-5. The developer has been kind of going through the process to get approval for the project because it needs this conditional use permit. The city's Planning Commission previously approved the project, but then a number of residents, especially people living in East Phoenix in this neighborhood, are very opposed to the project. And they appealed the Planning Commission's decision to the city. So that's what happened this week. The city council held a hearing for that. And after three hours of debates, they finally voted to deny the truck stop permit. It ended up being a tie vote and the mayor had to break the tie. So what would the truck stop look like and why are residents so opposed? Yeah. So it would be a 7-Eleven branded gas station and convenience store. So it would have an area for regular cars to fill up as well, plus a parking area for trucks. It wouldn't have a lot of other amenities that like a truck stop would typically have, like showers or wait. station or mechanic, but it would also be right across the street from Phoenix's other truck stop, which has been around for a very long time. So residents are opposed to This new one, partly because of that, they don't think the city needs to open a second truck stop right next to the current one. There are also concerns that there just hasn't been enough study on the impacts of the noise, light, pollution, traffic, and just general pollution on the nearby community. Right next to this proposed truck stop type is an affordable housing complex that's currently being built right now. And people are... really concerned about how this truck stop could affect people living there. I also read a lot of the comments that were concerned about increased crime, though the city's police department did say that truck stops don't really create a lot of crime and it would definitely be manageable by police. Sure. And tell us a bit more about what happened during that city council hearing. Yeah, there was a lot of debate and... fighting between city council members. I mean, the developers were arguing that, you know, they've met all of the city's development requirements, so they should be able to build. And that's what half of the city council agreed with. They basically said that they were probably opposed to the truck stop in general, but they didn't really have a choice. The city can't just deny a project because they don't like it. There has to be a legal reason for their decision. The other members looked for a reason, and their reason was there wasn't enough substantial data on some of those issues I talked about before. The developers are going to have one last chance, though. They can appeal this to a state land use appeals board, which are more experts and could override the city council's decision if they think that their reasons to deny it weren't good enough. Sounds good. Thanks, Roman.