Last night’s first meeting of The Dalles City Council in 49 days handled several complex items. As expected, they had questions for Scott Baker about Northern Wasco County Parks and Rec Department changing from a flat $6,853 dollar system development charge, or SDC for any new home, no matter the size. He said the department had realized that a sliding fee scale was more accurate. SDC’s are set up to compensate the department for more demand and higher usage on park property, and that smaller homes hold fewer people, and created less demand on the system. They’re also quicker and cheaper to build and can help reduce the housing shortage quicker.
In response to a question about the effect of purposefully declining revenue on the agency’s budget, Baker said that if the new system had been in place last year, the agency would have lost about $19,000. But he added,
“It does cut the amount of revenue that will generate the park district will receive from system development charges, but it seems more fair on its face. I think that these times I think that it’s saying something for a government agency, especially a small agency like ours to take it upon themselves to reduce their fees.”
When asked who was building these small homes in The Dalles, Baker replied that there was one for 520 square feet, and another for 860.
By contrast, the city of Hood River reported issuing 26 additional dwelling unit permits since 2019, representing 11 percent of all building permits in the city during that 7-year period. Last night, the Hood River City Council agenda included a proposal to eliminate water and sewer SDCs for ADUs that were hooked up to the water and sewer systems of the main house.
Councilors in The Dalles also approved transferring responsibility for collecting transient room tax revenues from hotels and short term rentals from the city to the Oregon Department of Revenue. The city tax of 8 percent of gross revenue would remain the same. And even though the state would take a 4 percent fee for administering, but as City Attorney Jonathan Kara pointed out, the city doesn’t have the staff or expertise to ferret out all the people who are not reporting.
“As a state, they’ve got taxes figured out. They have the state attorney general’s office, the Oregon Department of Justice, they have the entire business division and the taxing division of the State Department of Revenue with employees that their entire career is dedicated to collecting taxes.”
Councilors passed another 10 year franchise fee contract with Spectrum, parent company of Charter, which operates a cable system delivering TV and internet service to The Dalles. Unlike other franchise users who pay 7 percent of their gross income, cable companies, thanks to a Federal law, pay a maximum of 5 percent, and that’s the amount Charter will be paying until 2036.
And councilors discussed a list of five priorities for the Association of Oregon Counties to lobby for in the 2027 legislatures. Councilor Ben Wring suggested that The Dalles should replace one of the five listed priorities with a concern that shipping Portland harbor cleanup material to Wasco County could set a precedent that large cities could dump their toxic wastes on rural Oregon counties. The measure passed unanimously.
And there was a surprise for Mayor Rich Mays.
“I just got back in town and went over the agenda yesterday and I noticed 5B says mayor for award recognition. I wasn’t sure what that was about, so I called Amy and she said, and I quote, “Don’t worry. Sit there and be quiet and look pretty. My wife is here too, so I don’t know what -”
That was answered a moment late when Councilor Tim Mcglothlin stood up and said,
“In early August at the Oregon Mayors Association Conference, Mayor Rich Mays received the Oregon Mayor’s Association Mayor’s Leadership Award. Today, I have the honor of recognizing Mayor Rich Mays for his special achievement.”
The Councilor quoted Mayor Scott Keyser of Molalla, who presented the award as saying Mayor Mays always shows up prepared, asks thoughtful questions, listens first, speaks with purpose, and understands the best decisions are made when everyone has a seat at the table. The mayor received a standing ovation. You can see a picture of the presentation on our website, gorge news center dot com.