The Dalles City Council heard an upbeat report from the Little League about working with the county to repair and renovate the Kramer Field complex. Patrick Urain, who serves as umpire-in-chief and field facilities coordinator, noted the field will be 75 years old next summer, and, and said it started small with a single field, but has grown over the years. He spoke passionately about the progress the program has made and its plans for the future:
“It got diversified beyond just a baseball field. Softball’s been played down there, both youth and adult, there’s been youth camps, there’s been soccer… We want to rebuild baseball in The Dalles and make sure that The Dalles is known across the state as the baseball community it once was 20 years ago. That’s our ultimate goal.”
To that end, he asked the city to set aside some of the transient room tax revenue to finish rebuilding the fields. He noted that with the improvements, it would be possible to land a number of tournaments, including the district tournament that brings all the teams to town for two whole weeks.
In the other major development, councilors returned to the open meeting after an executive session on union negotiations. Councilors passed four decisions. Three of them were to add a retention and recruitment adjustment to the pay of exempt employees and members of the SEIU and police unions. Starting in September, each of those fulltime employees will get another $127.42 in each paycheck. This is not a result of union negotiations, it is a no-strings pay bump. Mayor Rich Mays said the union didn’t know about this in advance, and any members that are listening are learning that right now.
Why this unusual move? Councilor Darcy Long explained:
“The reasoning for what we’re dong here is we had such a huge increase in the insurance premiums for people, after we’d gone through the regular budgeting process, and we want to make sure to be able to retain and be able to recruit excellent city employees.”
The fourth unanimous vote was to authorize a pilot project instituting a 36-hour work week for sworn police officers – either as four nine-hour shifts or 3 twelve-hour shifts. The pilot project will run from the first of the year for six months, ending in June. Depending on how that works out, the program might be modified, dropped or continue as is. The officers will be paid as if they were working 40 hours, but have more flexibility for off time with family.
This is not a new idea; it’s already in place and by all accounts working well. One city in Oregon has had success even dropping it down to a 32-hour work week.