2002-139-Minutes for Meeting February 13,2002 Recorded 2/27/2002DESCHUTES COUNTY OFFICIAL RECORDS CJ 2002.139
JTES MARY SUE PENHOLLOW, C COMMISSIONERS' JOURNAL CLERK
0212712002 04:47:39 PM
2-A Board of Commissioners
AtA A
1130 N.W. Harriman St., Bend, Oregon 97 701-1947
(541) 388-6570 • Fax (541) 388-4752
www.deschutes.org
Tom De Wolf
Dennis R. Luke
MINUTES OF MEETING Mike Daly
DESCHUTES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 139 2002
The Homestead Building, 57085 Meadow Road, Sunriver
Present were Commissioners Tom DeWolf, Dennis R. Luke and Michael M. Daly.
Also present were Mike Maier, County Administrator; Rick Isham and Laurie
Craghead, Legal Counsel; Tom Blust, Road Department; and George Read,
Catherine Morrow and Doreen Blome , Community Development. Also attending
were Les Stiles, Sheriff, Media Representatives Barney Lerten of bendnet.com,
Brooke Snavely of the Sunriver Scene; Libby Beaubien of Z-21 TV, and Jeff
Mullens of KBND Radio; and approximately 100 citizens.
Chair Tom DeWolf opened the meeting at 10:03 a.m., and asked that those persons
wishing to testify to speak clearly, speak one person at a time, spell their names,
and be respectful of the others.
1. Before the Board was Citizen Input.
None was offered.
2. Before the Board was the Reading of a Proclamation, Declaring March 1,
2002 "Read to Kids Day" in Deschutes County.
Chair DeWolf read the Proclamation; and Mark Molner of the Bend Education
Association thanked the Board for recognizing the importance of encouraging
children to read.
LUKE: I move approval of this Proclamation.
DALY: Second.
Minutes of Board of Commissioners' Meeting Page 1 of 13 Pages
Wednesday, February 13,uality Services Performed with Pride
VOTE: LUKE: Yes.
DALY: Yes.
DEWOLF: Chair votes yes.
Before the Board was Consideration of Approval of the Consent Agenda.
LUKE: I move approval of the Consent Agenda.
DALY: Second.
VOTE: LUKE: Yes.
DALY: Yes.
DEWOLF: Chair votes yes.
Consent Agenda Items:
3. Signature of Order No. 2002-028, Setting a Speed Zone Designation of 35
MPH on Bozeman Trail (Conestoga Hills Subdivision).
4. Signature of Order No. 2002-029, Setting a Speed Zone Designation of 35
MPH on Butterfield Trail (Conestoga Hills Subdivision).
5. Signature of Order No. 2002-030, Setting a Speed Zone Designation of 35
MPH on Chisholm Trail (Conestoga Hills Subdivision).
6. Signature of Order No. 2002-031, Setting a Speed Zone Designation of 35
MPH on Pine Vista Drive (Woodside Ranch Subdivision).
7. Signature of Order No. 2002-032, Setting a Speed Zone Designation of 35
MPH on Tall Pine Avenue (Woodside Ranch Subdivision).
8. Signature of Order No. 2002-035, Setting a Speed Zone Designation of 30
MPH on Lazy River Drive (Lazy River South Subdivision).
9. Signature of Order No. 2002-034, Transferring Cash among Various Funds as
Budgeted in the Fiscal Year 2001-2002 Deschutes County Budget, and
Directing Entries.
10. Signature of Deschutes County Policy No. P-2002-093, Regarding County -
Issued Credit Cards (Sheriff's Office).
11. Approval of One New Track -type Tractor for Use in Landfill Operations
(Budgeted).
Minutes of Board of Commissioners' Meeting Page 2 of 13 Pages
Wednesday, February 13, 2002
CONVENED AS THE GOVERNING BODY OF THE 9-1-1 COUNTY
SERVICE DISTRICT
12. Before the Board was Consideration of Approval of Weekly Accounts
Payable Vouchers for the 9-1-1 County Service District in the Amount of
$710.35.
LUKE: Move approval, subject to review.
DALY: Second.
VOTE: LUKE: Yes.
DALY: Yes.
DEWOLF: Chair votes yes.
CONVENED AS THE GOVERNING BODY OF THE EXTENSION/4-11
COUNTY SERVICE DISTRICT
13. Before the Board was Consideration of Approval of Weekly Accounts
Payable Vouchers for the Extension/4-11 County Service District in the
Amount of $904.17.
LUKE: Move approval, subject to review.
DALY: Second.
VOTE: LUKE: Yes.
DALY: Yes.
DEWOLF: Chair votes yes.
RECONVENED AS THE DESCHUTES COUNTY BOARD OF
COMMISSIONERS
14. Before the Board was Consideration of Approval of Weekly Accounts
Payable Vouchers for Deschutes County in the Amount of $384,392.26.
LUKE: Move approval, subject to review.
DALY: Second.
VOTE: LUKE: Yes.
DALY: Yes.
DEWOLF: Chair votes yes.
Minutes of Board of Commissioners' Meeting Page 3 of 13 Pages
Wednesday, February 13, 2002
15. Before the Board was a Public Hearing on Title 15.04 of the Deschutes
County Code, Building and Construction Codes and Regulations
(regarding Water Districts).
Catherine Morrow gave a brief overview of the purpose of the hearing and the
changes to the Code.
MORROW:
It does two things. First, it would require that properties within water districts
that are new construction would have to be connected to the water district
facilities unless the water district gives approval for the use of an alternate
water source. Commissioner Luke raised some issues at the Monday work
session, and we decided to redraft some of the language that exempts new
construction in water districts if they have an existing domestic water source.
So, they would not be required to get this approval from the district to hook up,
if they have an existing well. I think that addresses part of your concerns.
The second part of this amendment is to prohibit the use of irrigation water for
domestic purposes. I know that we have representatives here today from some
of the irrigation districts and also from Terrebonne Water District; they will
likely want to testify.
I also wanted to point out that at the work session we discussed Chapter 13.04
of the County Code that deals with water supply systems, and I wanted to
clarify that the provisions of that section of our Code only applies to water
systems that serve four or more connections. That exempts a lot of the
individual hookup issues. We reviewed the language and the references that
were made to Oregon statutes, and the definition from there defines water
supply systems as only for four or more connections.
DEWOLF:
Can we approve one of these provisions without approving the other?
MORROW:
They don't have to be hand-in-hand.
DEWOLF:
One of the things that came up on Monday was that the state has sort of put the
regulatory oversight onto the water districts for the domestic use of ditch water.
What this would do is move that code enforcement, if you will, over to the
County.
Minutes of Board of Commissioners' Meeting Page 4 of 13 Pages
Wednesday, February 13, 2002
MORROW:
Actually, the language that we have proposed would require us, for existing
connections, to notify the districts if we discover that there are existing
connections to the ditch water. Then the districts would be responsible for
enforcement at that point. We would only be regulating new construction that
is using cisterns to make sure that those cisterns are not filled with ditch water.
DEWOLF:
So we would not become the water police.
MORROW:
Under the way we are proposing it. The irrigation districts might testify that
they want different language.
LUKE:
So if you are out there on a separate code enforcement issue and happen to
notice that the ditch water is running into the cistern, it would be our obligation
at that point to notify the district.
MORROW:
That's the way it is drafted.
DEWOLF:
So that is the only code enforcement issue for the County.
MORROW:
That's correct.
LUKE:
I have one more question. One of the issues I raised is that you need a letter
from the water district before a person can apply for a building permit. What if
they take a long time to generate that letter?
MORROW:
We haven't actually drafted anything in the language before you to deal with
that issue. But we are proposing that we develop a form for the district to
complete. I understand the issue about them not returning it. We may have to
include a sentence at your direction that if the form isn't forthcoming from the
district, the presumption is that the district will serve. Then the building official
would not be able to issue the final building permit unless they're hooked up to
the district.
Minutes of Board of Commissioners' Meeting Page 5 of 13 Pages
Wednesday, February 13, 2002
DEWOLF:
So we hold the public hearing today, and staff can work on language in that
regard.
LAURIE CRAGHEAD:
If the language were substantially changed at the time of the second reading, it
would be a good idea to be open to public comment. Otherwise, you will have
to read the whole thing.
DEWOLF:
Are we considering a first reading today, or will this follow?
CRAGHEAD:
It's at your discretion. I would suggest we do the first and second readings
later, with no emergency clause.
Chair Tom De Wolf then opened the public hearing.
DOUG MCLAUGHLIN:
I'm with the Terrebonne Water District. We kind of precipitated this
amendment. What we've run into is that in order to improve our water system,
we had to incur a substantial amount of bonded debt. We're kind of in a
position where if people don't hook up to our water district after we've
improved it, it puts us in a bad financial position. As far as the issue that you
raised with the paperwork, I would say probably what we should do is put a
time limit on it, such as if the paperwork is not returned within a certain number
of days, then that's it. Whichever way you want it to go. I would assume that if
we aren't timely in returning the paperwork, that would show a lack of
disinterest on our part to serve water.
LUKE:
That's opposite of what Catherine says. We can't force you to hook someone
up. You're your own district. I think if someone is going to live in a water
district, they should hook up to that water district.
MCLAUGHLIN:
I do, too; and it's in our best interest to take care of this in a timely manner.
LUKE:
The way the ordinance is written, a person cannot even apply for a building
permit until they have a letter. It's not just you guys; there are other districts,
too.
Minutes of Board of Commissioners' Meeting Page 6 of 13 Pages
Wednesday, February 13, 2002
MCLAUGHLIN:
That's why I think a time limit of some kind might be necessary. Catherine and
I spoke earlier about a standard form that everyone would use so you wouldn't
have different types of letters coming in. Obviously there isn't a lot of
information that is going to be required. Basically, yes, we will; or no, we
won't. It shouldn't be too complicated.
e
We can certainly draft the language that's needed. What it comes down to is the
building inspector issuing the final inspection of the house, and what the water
supply is. They could go quite a ways down the line and then end up with the
building inspector not granting the final approval if they won't hook up to the
district.
LUKE:
If a bank is involved, the bank isn't going to issue a loan until they know what
the water situation is. We can work through this.
RON NELSON:
I'm Secretary and Manager of the Central Oregon Irrigation District. I'm here to
ask the Commissioners to at least consider being the water police. What we are
trying to do is avoid anybody relying on irrigation water for domestic uses.
DEWOLF:
You want them to be mad at us instead of the district.
NELSON:
Precisely. We would like you to at least think about this.
LUKE:
How would you suggest that we do this?
NELSON:
Well, I don't know, but I certainly would like to open some dialogue on this.
LUKE:
This didn't come from the districts or the County; this came from the Federal
government.
NELSON:
The Safe Drinking Water Act was passed decades ago, and we - the irrigation
districts - were not included in these regulations under that federal act.
Minutes of Board of Commissioners' Meeting Page 7 of 13 Pages
Wednesday, February 13, 2002
NELSON:
About fifteen years ago there was a lawsuit in California that ended with a
decision that irrigation districts did not fall under this Act. Subsequent changes
in legislation and rules occurred, and we were then collected under the federal
Act. The feds delegated the regulation of this to Oregon, and the state health
department notified us that we could fall under their jurisdiction, and would be
subject to significant fines if we have a certain number of people relying on
irrigation water for domestic use. Domestic use is not just drinking water; it's
also oral hygiene, laundry, food preparation and so on. So it is a pretty broad
description. We want to be just an irrigation district.
We would like to continue the dialogue with the County about this. We've
found ourselves in a hole, and the first thing we want to do is to make sure the
hole doesn't get any bigger. By having an ordinance that would prevent future
hookups to irrigation districts helps. We have about 150 hookups right now
that are likely taking water directly from the ditch, although they won't confess
to drinking it. Out of about 10,000 patrons, that's not a terribly big number,
but it's big enough that we are subject to the state's rules.
ELMER MCDANIELS:
I'm Manager of the Tumalo Irrigation District. It looks like the buck has been
passed on down from the federal to the state, to the county, and on down to us.
We agree with the concerns of the domestic water problem. Our concern is
regarding you notifying the irrigation districts when there is a violation. We
aren't sure that we have the authority to get off of our easement.
M1iJ"
Don't you have the authority and ability to shut off the water?
MCDANIELS:
Would you shut a 100 -acre farm off because of the drinking water situation?
LUKE:
If you have the kind of liability you're looking at, I would.
MCDANIELS:
Yes, we can. But we're concerned whether we can go off the easements to
notify them.
DEWOLF:
That's part of what we'll deal with in this ordinance. One way or another, you
end up being responsible and should have the authority to do so.
Minutes of Board of Commissioners' Meeting Page 8 of 13 Pages
Wednesday, February 13, 2002
LUKE:
How many customers do you think you have that fall into this category?
MCDANIELS:
We have about 83 out of 600 or so. And the old water rights say "domestic
use
A brief discussion then occurred regarding discussions about the issue and how
the ordinance should be structured. Chair De Wolf continued the hearing to
Wednesday, February 27, 2002, 10 a.m.
16. Before the Board was Consideration of the First Reading of an Ordinance
Regarding a Text Amendment to Title 9 of the Deschutes County Code,
Reflecting the Addition of Federal Land to the Deschutes River Corridor
Restricted Area ("No Shoot Zone").
Commissioner Luke explained that Deschutes County is currently the only
Oregon county to adopt these no shoot zones, which are parcels of land over
which the County has jurisdiction, or are private lands whose owners have
requested the zoning. The County is working with the U.S. Forest Service to
close gaps in the affected areas.
Doreen Blome' explained that this ordinance serves to update County text to
reflect changes, per Federal law. She then pointed out the affected areas on an
oversized map. She stated that the land across from Sunriver is not yet a no
shoot zone; however, Cross Water has begun the process in that area.
LUKE: I move first reading of Ordinance No. 2002-014.
DALY: Second.
VOTE: LUKE: Yes.
DALY: Yes.
DEWOLF: Chair votes yes.
Chair DeWolf then conducted the first reading of the Ordinance. The second
reading and adoption will be considered at the February 27, 2002 Board
meeting.
Minutes of Board of Commissioners' Meeting Page 9 of 13 Pages
Wednesday, February 13, 2002
17. Before the Board was Consideration of Signature of Order No. 2002-036,
Approving the Notice of District Measure Election and Explanatory
Statement for the Spring River Special Road District for the May 21, 2002
Primarily Election Ballot, and Ordering Publication Notice.
Laurie Craghead stated that the Order and Notice must be approved and then
delivered to the Clerk; and that the explanatory statement is still in the works.
DEWOLF: Move approval, subject to legal review of the explanatory
statement and publication notice.
DALY: Second.
VOTE: LUKE: Yes.
DALY: Yes.
DEWOLF: Chair votes yes.
18. Before the Board was the Final Public Hearing on the Formation of the
Sunriver Service District.
Laurie Craghead provided an overview of this issue to date.
The minutes of this public hearing were taken by a court recorder, and are
attached as Exhibit A. The original set of minutes of testimony given at the
public forum on Wednesday, February 6, is attached as Exhibit B.
The "Sunriver Service District for Fire and Police Budget Forecast, New Tax
Assessments and New SROA Assessments" is attached as Exhibit C. (Reference
was made to this document through testimony given)
The sign -in sheet for this public hearing is attached as Exhibit D. (Note: Many
of the citizens who testified this day did not complete this sheet.)
Also attached are hand-written notes regarding Sunriver property values,
submitted by S & HLeasing (Exhibit E); a sheet showing Sunriver assessed
values by type, submitted by Pat Fulisom (sic) (Exhibit F); a letter dated
February 6, 2002 from Leland Smith (Exhibit G); and a document dated
February 11, 2002 titled "Sunriver Service District Budget Proposal for Year
2002-2003" (Exhibit H).
Minutes of Board of Commissioners' Meeting Page 10 of 13 Pages
Wednesday, February 13, 2002
19. Before the Board was Consideration of Chair Signature of Amendment #18
of the 2001-2003 County Financial Assistance Agreement between the State
of Oregon and Deschutes County, Authorizing Additional Funding for
Mental Health Services (Document No. 2002-052).
Chair DeWolf indicated that this item has been withdrawn from the agenda.
LUKE: I move approval of Agenda Items No. 20 through 27; explanations of
these items as provided by the departments are to be included with the
file copies.
DALY: Second.
VOTE: LUKE: Yes.
DALY: Yes.
DEWOLF: Chair votes yes.
Items No. 20 through 27:
20. Signature of a CDO Sub -Contract with BestCare Treatment Services for Mental
Health Services (Document No. 2002-053).
21. Signature of a CDO Sub -Contract with Central Oregon Extended Unit for
Recovery, Inc. (Rimrock Trails Adolescent Treatment Services) for Mental
Health Services (Document No. 2002-054).
22. Signature of a CDO Sub -Contract with Pfeifer & Associates, Inc. for Mental
Health Services (Document No. 2002-055).
23. Chair Signature of an Intergovernmental Agreement (Document No. 2001-187)
between Deschutes County and Central Oregon Regional Housing Authority, to
Encourage the Development of Safe, Decent and Affording Housing.
24. Chair Signature of an Intergovernmental Agreement with Oregon Department
of Human Services (Document No. 2002-057), Amending Various Provisions
relating to Family Treatment Services.
25. Chair Signature of Oregon Health Division Grant Revision No. 6 (Document
No. 2002-056), Providing Additional Funds for HIV Prevention and
Intervention Efforts.
26. Signature of Resolution No. 2002-009, Appropriating New Federal Grant Funds
for the Commission on Children & Family's Drug-free Communities Programs.
Minutes of Board of Commissioners' Meeting Page 11 of 13 Pages
Wednesday, February 13, 2002
27. Signature of Resolution No. 2002-007, Appropriating New State Grant Funds
for Mental Health - Community Corrections Programs.
28. ADDITIONS TO THE AGENDA:
A. Before the Board was Consideration of Signature of an
Intergovernmental Agreement between Deschutes County and Lake
County, to Provide Building Inspection Services to Lake County.
LUKE: I move approval.
DALY: Second.
VOTE: LUKE: Yes.
DALY: Yes.
DEWOLF: Chair votes yes.
B. Before the Board was Consideration of Signature of a Personal Services
Contract between Deschutes County and Bord na Mona for the
Installation of Advanced Treatment Systems as a Part of the La Pine
Demonstration Project.
LUKE: Move approval.
DALY: Second.
VOTE: LUKE: Yes.
DALY: Yes.
DEWOLF: Chair votes yes.
C. Before the Board was Consideration of Signature of Letters Appointing
Mary Meloy of the City of Redmond and Bill Friedman of the City of
Bend to the Upper Deschutes Watershed Council Board.
LUKE: I move approval.
DALY: Second.
VOTE: LUKE: Yes.
DALY: Yes.
DEWOLF: Chair votes yes.
Minutes of Board of Commissioners' Meeting Page 12 of 13 Pages
Wednesday, February 13, 2002
Being no further items brought before the Board, Chair Tom DeWolf adjourned the
meeting at 12:16 p. m.
DATED this 13th Day of February 2002 for the Deschutes CTuntyloard of
Commissioners.
Tom DeWolf,
ennis R. Luke, Commissioner
ATTEST:ln�w
&"04
� Michael M. Daly, C missioner
Recording Secretary
Minutes of Board of Commissioners' Meeting Page 13 of 13 Pages
Wednesday, February 13, 2002
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
DESCHUTES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
10:00 A.M.
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 13,_2002
THE HOMESTEAD BUILDING, 50785 MEADOW ROAD
SUNRIVER, OREGON
DESCHUTES COUNTY OFFICIAL RECORDS Q 2002013
MARY SUE PENHOLLOW, COUNTY CLERK ORIGINAL
COMMISSIONERS' JOURNAL 01/27/2002 04;47;39 PM A
CASCADE COURT REPORTERS
(541) 385-5664 �� f4i� 1-r A
1
.7
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
2
COMMISSIONER DeWOLF: This is now No. 18, a
final public hearing on the formation of the Sunriver
Service District. Laurie.
MS. CRAGHEAD: To go over again what probably
several people have heard several times, but just for
the record in case anyone wasn't here, this is the
proposed county service district to be established
covering the Sunriver Resort area. The name of the
district would be the Sunriver Service District and
would be to provide the services that are set forth in
the statute for fire prevention and protection,
security services by contract, law enforcement
services, and emergency medical services, including
ambulance services, and to construct and maintain and
operate the related facilities.
The original proposed permit rate limit for
this was 3.95 per thousand, and that would be something
for the board to decide today, whether to stay with
that. I understand that we have a proposal for a
lowering of that.
I also want to enter into the record the
transcript that was prepared by the court reporter at
last hearing for that hearing, and I have it here and
it will be in the record for that so if there was
anyone who testified last week it is now in the record
CASCADE COURT REPORTERS
(541) 385-5664
U
•
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
3
and will be included as part of this hearing.
COMMISSIONER LUKE: Laurie, would a copy of
that be made available to the Sunriver committee who is
working on this?
MS. CRAGHEAD: It can be.
COMMISSIONER DeWOLF: They can have mine.
I've read it, if anybody wants it, having trouble
sleeping at night, that sort of thing.
MS. CRAGHEAD: It is 70 some pages long.
COMMISSIONER DeWOLF: Can we make the Sunriver
Service District the water police?
MS. CRAGHEAD: I would have to look into that
and see if the regulations allow that delegation.
COMMISSIONER DeWOLF: What do the irrigation
folks think about that? They have all left. Oh, well.
Anything else?
MS. CRAGHEAD: Yes. I would also like to put
in the record again the Notice of District Election as
approved by the Department of Revenue, the state
Department of Revenue. We are still working on the
explanatory statement and the publication notice.
I want to emphasize that the criteria for the
board to decide on this district, which you have
already approved in the initial hearing but this is a
statutory formation -- formality that we need, is that
CASCADE COURT REPORTERS
(541) 385-5664
•
0
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
4
you need to approve the district, you will need to
order the ballot title, you will need to order the
explanatory statement and the publication notice, you
will -- the criteria on which you base your decision is
what was in the original initial order, which was
related to the land use criteria, and also whether or
not the area would be benefited by the district, not
whether the -- and that's your criteria, whether it
would be benefited by, not necessarily if this is the
best idea, but if it will be benefited by the district.
COMMISSIONER DeWOLF: When it comes time for
motion making, assuming that we get there, you will be
able to help us with whatever will keep us out of
court?
MS. CRAGHEAD: Right. And that's another
thing you'll need to order, as well as setting the
election date for this.
COMMISSIONER DeWOLF: Great.
MS. CRAGHEAD: So I want to enter into the
record also the map of the district, the legal
description, and the ballot title, and we will take
care of the order for the explanatory statement and
publication notice later.
COMMISSIONER DeWOLF: And I should probably
enter into the record an e-mail that I received from
CASCADE COURT REPORTERS
(541) 385-5664
•
•
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
5
Gary Fiebick yesterday that I had a series of questions
that I got answers for, and so I'll give that to you
when I'm done.
MS. CRAGHEAD: I'll also mention that I
did -- the e-mail from Gary Fiebick I also entered in,
the documents that were enclosed that there were copies
on the back table for that included the revised budget
totals and explanations for that.
COMMISSIONER DeWOLF: Which is -- these are
two separate e-mails we are talking about.
COMMISSIONER LUKE: We had a couple.
COMMISSIONER DeWOLF: Right.
MS. CRAGHEAD: Okay.
COMMISSIONER DeWOLF: Okay. With that, the
one thing I would request is that anything that was
stated last week is already in the record and does not
need to be repeated, and anybody that does is buying
lunch for us today, and other than that I would just
remind everyone to -- I mean I don't really think it's
necessary here, but to remain civil and keep your
comments brief and to the point and we will get through
all this just fine.
First up on our list, and we won't restrict
this to the people here but these are the folks that
signed up, and when they are through we will ask if
CASCADE COURT REPORTERS
(541) 385-5664
•
0
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
a
anyone else would like to testify.
Mike Brennan, you are first up.
MR. BRENNAN: I would like to defer to Mr.
Fiebick, who can explain better what the board has put
together.
COMMISSIONER DeWOLF: Okay. He is on this
list but way, way down. Jim Harnish. Good morning.
MR. HARNISH: Good morning. My name is Jim
Harnish. I'm a Sunriver full-time resident, and I'm
looking at a huge tax increase if this proposal goes
through and I have a couple of concerns.
One concern is the district's FTE will remain
constant over the next three years. Considering that
rental activity is down last year, considering the
village mall is half empty, give or take, and I'm
wondering if -- and also considering that it's easier
to add staff than it is to take away staff, that
perhaps my tax burden could be substantially less if
the FTE were reviewed and fewer staff were here to
provide security and safety for the Sunriver residents.
I'm not 100 percent convinced that the police
force is the best group to enforce the special little
Sunriver Owners Association regulations, rules and
regulations that we have. Some of the big ones, they
do -- we do need their clout. Some of the smaller
CASCADE COURT REPORTERS
(541) 385-5664
•
i
C
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
7
ones, which they tend to overlook, perhaps could be
done by some other agency, and therefore I think we
need to look at the staff issue. I think we do need a
public service district but do we need such a large
one?
Thank you.
COMMISSIONER DeWOLF: Thank you. Hary Abrams.
MR. ABRAMS: I have copies of the county
assessor's office evaluations at Sunriver Properties
with means and medians and so forth.
COMMISSIONER DeWOLF: We'll need you to get up
to the microphone so we can pick this all up on tape,
please.
MR. ABRAMS: First of all, let me say that I
have to admire the people who serve on the Sunriver
board in a voluntary capacity. I would never go near
that with a ten -foot pole. You need your head examined
to suffer through that kind of indignation. You can't
make anybody happy.
COMMISSIONER LUKE: We have a lady out here
who needs your name.
COMMISSIONER DeWOLF: We need your name for
the record.
MR. ABRAMS: I'm sorry, Harvey Abrams, M.D.
I have a number of copies of the assessor's
CASCADE COURT REPORTERS
(541) 385-5664
•
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
office evaluations of Sunriver that were faxed to me,
and also to Tom DeWolf, who asked me to get this
information. They are confusing and he was confused by
them as was I, and I tried to extract as much as I
could, and because numbers are always confusing I'm
going to get right down to the meat of the discussion.
First of all, the proposed reduction in
assessments by SROA will amount to a savings of
slightly over 1.8 million dollars. Now, that's a
significant sum if you add up the figures that Gary
Fiebick's submitted in his handout today. We have
about 2.3 million dollars worth of operational costs
projected for both the fire and police department.
In other words, we are a half million dollars
short of financing the police and fire departments on
the savings of reduction in annual assessments to
Sunriver owners, and if you take the number of homes in
Sunriver, which the county -- homes, condominiums, non-
commercial and vacant land, that would result in an
assessment, initial assessment, if we did not have an
SD of $12 a month to every land owner, homeowner, and
condo owner in Sunriver, excluding any contributions
from the commercial properties or from Sunriver Limited
Properties, $144 a year more, equitably distributed
among all property owners without having to change a
CASCADE COURT REPORTERS
(541) 385-5664
•
C7
�J
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
I
thing in Sunriver.
Now, the argument that we can't provide PERS
to our employees and therefore we lose our employees
may be a valid one or it may not. We certainly are
able to provide maximum funds through 401 -Ks, other
retirement plans, and special programs like 529 to
provide incentives to keep -- to get and keep good
personnel in both the police and fire department, but
one of the problems that lies therein in personnel
coming here is that there is not an opportunity for
significant promotion. There is not a lona line for
promotion, a continuum.
And this is a great place for young people to
get the experience to move on to someplace that has, in
quotes, PERS. We can match PERS just on our private or
401-K programs. We can match salaries of the other
districts in the area, but that still will not
guarantee the retention of our personnel, and to assume
that because we are covered by PERS leaves a lot open
for argument.
Now, there are four options that we have. We
can remain unchanged, which is what I just offered you.
We can have a contract with the sheriff's department.
In discussion with Sheriff Stiles, he projected a
contract cost to Sunriver to maintain a substation here
CASCADE COURT REPORTERS
(541) 385-5664
•
•
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
10
in Sunriver and provide exactly the same services at
somewhere between 1.2 and 1.3 million dollars annually.
Deschutes County under Sheriff Stiles would
assume our liability, which is woefully inadequate. As
a practicing anesthesiologist I had 10 million dollars
of malpractice insurance and 40 million dollars of
total coverage, and we only have one million, ten
million? That scares the hell out of me.
So, the savings at $35 a month reduction that
Sunriver Owners Association board has proposed would
amount to a $1,800,000 reduction. 1.3 million of that
going to the sheriff's office would result in a net
saving of somewhere between 500 and $600,000.
From Mr. Fiebick's figures we would need
another half a million dollars to support our own fire
service, and that half a million dollars would amount
to $150 a year per lot, $12 a month. Okay.
If we form a district we know what it's going
to cost. The tax rate for Sunriver is 10.1849 percent.
At 3.95 the tax rate raise would be 38.78 percent, less
than the 50 percent that I offered the last time, but
that's the accurate figure from the assessor's office.
That's a substantial raise in taxes.
Commercial properties and Sunriver Limited
Properties will contribute a significant number of
CASCADE COURT REPORTERS
(541) 385-5664
a
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
11
dollars to this project. As a consequence, we may not
even see a $12 -a -month rise in our annual costs, our
assessments.
The third -- the third choice we have is the
district. The fourth choice we have is a district with
a contract with the sheriff's office so we have no
operational expenses and no operational functions
except to oversee the execution of the contract by the
sheriff's office.
So, we can form a district but if we do form a
district and we decide to abandon the district we are
still liable for the PERS for three years, even if we
don't levy any money for that -- for that district, and
you can't abandon that liability or obligation.
A contract, a district, a marriage, a
partnership are all tough to get out of and easy to get
into. Thank you.
COMMISSIONER DeWOLF: Thank you. The one
thing that I wanted to make clear is that in reading
the fax that I got, I wasn't confused by the fax, I was
confused by what your point was, and so I just wanted
to be clear. I understand these assessed values and I
understand your point better now. Thanks.
MR. ABRAMS: Incidentally, according to the
county assessor's office, the mean taxed value in
CASCADE COURT REPORTERS
(541) 385-5664
•
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
12
Sunriver is $227,000. Now, there are a couple other
points to be made.
COMMISSIONER DeWOLF: According to the fax
that I received, the mean total of all properties
combined is 190,450. That's the grand total at the
bottom of the page.
MR. ABRAMS: That's correct, but that includes
commercial properties.
COMMISSIONER DeWOLF: Yes, it does.
MR. ABRAMS: And I'm excluding that. I'm just
talking to the residents.
COMMISSIONER DeWOLF: Just the residential at
227,148?
MR. ABRAMS: Right, 227,148. If we went ahead
with the district, there would be lots and condos that
would have a -- actually have a decrease in their
annual costs.
COMMISSIONER DeWOLF: So they might be more
inclined to vote for this.
MR. ABRAMS: That's right. They might be more
inclined to vote for that.
COMMISSIONER DeWOLF: Thanks very much.
Gary, you are next up.
MR. FIEBICK: For the record, Gary Fiebick,
general manager, Sunriver Owners Association.
CASCADE COURT REPORTERS
(541) 385-5664
•
•
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
13
F -I -E -B -I -C -K. If we can get this power point
projector to work --
COMMISSIONER DeWOLF: It's starting.
MR. FIEBICK: -- we will have some summary
information to share, which may help clarify some
things.
What we will do is this power point is going
to just hit the highlights of the material that was a
handout when you came in today, and I don't want to
bore you with every line and every detail.
COMMISSIONER DeWOLF: Thank you.
MR. FIEBICK: But we felt that it would be
good to explain some of the changes that have been made
since the last meeting and how we, the board, arrived
at a recommended maximum tax rate.
So we will start out with the Sunriver Service
District for fire and police. The budget forecasts in
this case are primarily to support what the new tax
assessments would need to be and the maximum tax rate
would need to be. We also have done an outline of what
the new SROA assessments might look like should the
district be approved by the voters.
The first review is the authority for the two
operations. The Sunriver Service District would
obviously be a public agency and its authority is
CASCADE COURT REPORTERS
(541) 385-5664
•
0
•
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
14
through the Oregon statutes, and the governing board is
the Board of Commissioners.
SROA is currently and will continue to be as
far as I know a private non-profit corporation under
the laws of the State of Oregon, so therein you have
some complications about transferring things between
two entities.
Next, budget year, in terms of trying to
reconcile costs in some of these budget forecasts we
have done you have to realize that Sunriver Service
District as a public agency would have a budget year of
July 1 through June 30. SROA's budget year is January
21 through December 31, calendar year. Therefore,
there are some differences because of overlapping
operations.
Basic funding sources, Sunriver Service
District has a primary budget resources from a property
tax levy and permanent tax base maximum, which the
commissioners are considering today.
Sunriver has a budget funding primarily from
assessments to property owners. Those assessments fund
approximately two-thirds of the Sunriver budget at this
time.
Funding growth. On the Sunriver Service
District, the permanent tax rate can be applied to a
CASCADE COURT REPORTERS
(541) 385-5664
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
15
tax -assessed value that could normally increase about
three percent per annum, by state law, except for new
construction, annexation, et cetera. It might go up
slightly higher than that.
SROA's board of directors through the
documents may increase its assessments up to six
percent annually without a vote of the owners.
COMMISSIONER LUKE: Let me make a point, the
permanent tax rate cannot change.
THE WITNESS: Right.
COMMISSIONER LUKE: The evaluation of the
property and the new construction added to the
valuation, but the permanent tax rate cannot change.
MR. FIEBICK: Right, the permanent tax rate
cannot change but the property that it's applied to
could have higher values.
COMMISSIONER LUKE: Right.
MR. FIEBICK: Therein you can raise more money
through that change.
Budget forecasts, Sunriver Service District
budget is based on historical experience and costs from
SROA's operations, and is -- also includes some other
things because as a new entity it will have some
expenses other than the current department operations,
and we will cover that later.
CASCADE COURT REPORTERS
(541) 385-5664
•
•
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
16
Sunriver Service District will be a stand
alone operation with those additional requirements.
Asset assumptions, at this point Sunriver
Service District is -- it's proposed to acquire the
personal property assets for $1.00 from SROA for those
two departments. Because those two departments will
serve essentially the same properties, the same
constituency, there is really no damage done to anyone
by that transfer is the reasoning behind that.
SROA plans to retain ownership of the real
property assets and to lease those to the Sunriver
Service District on a net basis. One reason basically
for that is that according to legal counsel's advice it
would take a vote of the owners to sell or transfer the
property or the reserves to a district, and that could
sometime -- happen sometime I suppose in the future
with that kind of a vote.
District tax rate, the county commissioners
in the beginning of this process had to determine and
establish what might be a maximum tax rate for the
district, and they chose out of their experience to set
that at 3.95, because I understand through this hearing
process we could not increase it from that number but
it can be decreased, so let's talk about the first year
levy based on the budget forecasts that we have done.
CASCADE COURT REPORTERS
(541) 385-5664
s
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
17
First year levy is projected to be at about
$2.98 to fund the district's first year requirements.
Now, based -- based on a number of changes and
assumptions, the board of directors is recommending to
the county commissioners today that a maximum rate of
$3.45 be recommended for this new district.
Employees, the budget projection is developed
with assumptions that the district's FTE will remain
constant over the next three years. You have to make
some assumption to have valid budget forecasts, and so
certainly we are not -- what the intent is there is we
are not proposing that it would increase and there
still would be room for a decrease in the future if
deemed to be appropriate.
We will take a look at the next page, which is
a forecast, I don't know how well you can see that, of
the district budgets and how we came to the tax rate
levy. The first section up there is -- relates to the
department budgets as they are currently organized.
The one adjustment we made on the fire department
budget since the last time we talked about this is we
took out the hydrant standby fee.
The hydrant standby fee is the water rate fee
that's charged by the utility company to maintain
charges and maintenance for all the fire hydrants in
CASCADE COURT REPORTERS
(541) 385-5664
•
•
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
the community, so the board determined that it would be
better for that fee to be paid directly by SROA and not
the district.
Cities,in other communities own their water
and sewer so they don't have that separate charge or
So, going down, the reserve contributions for
fire -- furniture, fixtures and equipment, the total
for the two departments about 150,000, that represents
a fair percentage of what we put away now for those
department assets.
Other costs that are not allocated currently,
the vehicle services, the administrative costs and the
accounting costs are prorated and allocated now.
Vehicle costs or vehicle services are certainly actual,
but that's carried under Public Works currently.
Rent estimates, we adjusted those from the
input that was given knowing that SROA would remain as
landlord, particularly for the fire department
especially. We reduced the rents here in this
iteration so that the rents are about five percent of
the development costs, improvements costs that created
those facilities, and you could look at that as
economic opportunity costs if we had that cash in the
bank, and as landlord and through a lease the
CASCADE COURT REPORTERS
(541) 385-5664
•
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
19
association would still be required to replace or
repair some of the major elements in those facilities.
So you get to the subtotals or the grand
totals, operating expenses then for both departments
2,363,377. As we said last time, because we are
starting or we are taking one organization and
splitting it up, there are going to be some additional
costs for the second organization, legal costs. Well,
there is 20,000 here for the district, we reduced the
SROA costs slightly. Insurance for casualty, fire,
vehicle and liability is an estimate based on what we
know it costs now. Computer system, even though SROA
will in this example serve the accounting function, we
will have to have separate systems and so forth to
account for their budgets and expenditures, et cetera.
Interest expense, TANS, tax anticipation notes
or whatever it might be, most districts and public
agencies in the state have to borrow to fund their
first four or five months of operations, particularly
for a start-up organization, so that's what that
interest expense is all about.
Board functions, that would be for meetings,
training, seminars, conferences for board people.
Operating contingency, this is based on five percent of
the operating requirements, not including the
CASCADE COURT REPORTERS
(541) 385-5664
•
•
•
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
20
contingency. We did reduce the SROA contingency in
So, total requirements to fund the district is
2,596,709 by this example, this forecast.
Now, the district will have some revenues,
ambulance revenue, fire med program, and the proposal
is that SROA will contract with the district for
pathway ranger, so the pathway ranger contract income
to the district from SROA will be a revenue there. So
the property taxes to balance requirements after the
revenue considerations, 2,420,523.
Now, there is a little quirk that happens that
the countywide experience for tax levies is that you
have to levy -- you only receive about 92 percent of
the dollars that you levy. The reason is that you have
some delinquencies and then you also have the
prepayment discounts that are available.
So, you use this formula and divide that
requirement by .92, because you know you have to levy
the 2,631,000 in order to have the dollars collected to
operate. So based on that, and you divide that levy
number by the tax -assessed value that was provided by
the county assessor, and we did assume that the current
tax -assessed value would go up three and a half percent
next year, or in the first year of the district, so
CASCADE COURT REPORTERS
(541) 385-5664
0
•
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
21
when you divide those numbers you get $2.97.669 per
thousand, or rounded off for example purposes here,
2.98 rounded off. So that's how we got to that.
Won't spend a lot of time here but this is the
background for -- the top section here is the true cash
values for all Sunriver, and the true cash values for
all of Sunriver is 1,232,108,802. The next section is
the final tax -assessed value calculation as presented
by the county assessor, and that's 853,977,211.
We have broken those out as we know from our
specific list of which items are resort, golf,
commercial and residential, and the lower two
calculations we were just using assumptions. If the
tax -assessed value only grows at three percent what
that would be, or if it, in fact, increases about three
and a half percent over the next six years, what that
would look like.
This slide shows -- this page three of five in
the financials that you have, this shows the recast
budget for the association. The top section shows what
the total current SROA budget is. Second section is
the -- are the reductions. The fire and police
department budgets for '02 are reduced except we took
the fire hydrant out of there. Second is the reserve
contribution reductions, so if SROA's current reserve
CASCADE COURT REPORTERS
(541) 385-5664
•
n
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
22
contributions are 320,000 and change, we are taking
150,000 out of that for the fire and police so we have
reduced SROA's by that amount.
Legal expenses, we reduced SROA's by 5,000.
Insurance, casualty, property, vehicle, liability, we
know that from some of the insurances, about 24,000 of
the SROA insurance could be reduced so we did that.
Because SROA's operating contingency is based
on four percent of assessments, we reduced what SROA's
operating contingency number would be, so we would take
those subtotal of expenses away from the current
operating and it looks like Sunriver's revised
operating expense budget based on the current year
budget would be 3,579,666.
The lower half shows some of the revenues we
have. Based on the assumption we made with the
district there is some new revenues there, so we have
revenue from other sources which will continue,
1,529,135. We have new revenue, which is district
facility rent for fire, district facility rent police,
new revenue, the district contract services for the
vehicle, accounting and administrative services;
commercial assessments, that's based on a formula by
the Sunriver Consolidated Plan. Resort assessments,
same plan formula, or it's a different formula but
CASCADE COURT REPORTERS
(541) 385-5664
•
•
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
23
provided for in the plan. Then the golf assessment is
based on a separate formula, and that is also in the
consolidated plan.
We take away those revenues, assuming they
will all stay there, and so the residential assessment
to balance the SROA budget is 1,620,114. If you divide
that by 4,124 residential units, you come up with a
monthly assessment revised of about just under 33 or
$34, so that estimated revision of the SROA monthly
maintenance fee is a forecast and may vary by a dollar
per month in either direction when the final budget is
set after knowing that the district is created by the
ballot measure.
The examples we have done for this work are
based on a $34 -a -month revised SROA monthly maintenance
fee.
The examples about what properties will pay
more or in total, the commercial properties in
aggregate because there are several owners of
commercial properties, if you take the revised SROA
assessment by their formula and add the public district
tax assessment for the first year of 2.98, their
combined total over the current assessment they pay
would be 31,000 a year, 31,047. That's an estimate.
Resort properties, and that includes more than
CASCADE COURT REPORTERS
(541) 385-5664
•
•
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
24
just the resort. As I mentioned last time it includes
like the Trout House and also the hangars, because they
are on property that were classified as resort in the
consolidated plan, again those resort properties when
they do revised formulas for assessments for SROA and
the public safety district tax assessment, their
combined total is 91,863, and you take away the current
assessment total, the increase for all the resort
properties will be roughly 35,173 annually.
Residential properties, the first example here
is. showing $34 -a -month residential fee, the new tax,
and compare that with the current assessment total, so
a property that has a current tax -assessed value of
200,000 will have a $141 -a -year increase, or monthly
increase of $11.75.
Property with a $300,000 tax -assessed value
would end up with a $439 -a -year increase in the
combined new fees, and the monthly increase would be
36.58 on this example.
A property that has a tax -assessed value of
500,000 would have an annual increase of 1,035, and a
monthly increase of 86.25.
Now, using a formula to find the break even
point, that is the tax -assessed values below or above
this, if your tax assessed value is below 152,685,
CASCADE COURT REPORTERS
(541) 385-5664
•
�J
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
25
then you will probably pay less in the combined fees
and taxes. If your property tax -assessed value is
higher than that, you are going to pay proportionately
higher rates for the combined totals.
The last page is looking at the numbers that
we have, there are 4,124 residential properties. We
divided the tax -assessed value that we had remaining
when we took out commercial and resort, and that,
average or mean value of residential is 198,814 based
on tax -assessed values. The mean value or average
of -- based on true cash value is 289,107. So I did an
example with the mean value property of 198,814, and so
the average value property with the revised SROA
assessment and the new tax assessment for the first
year would have a $138 a year increase or $11.50 per
month increase.
COMMISSIONER LUKE: Are the owners association
dues that are paid for these services now deductible on
their taxes?
MR. FIEBICK: Generally no, except that we
believe that approximately 50 percent of the homes that
are out here are on a rental management program of some
kind, and some of those owners may, in fact, include
those as expenses with their tax returns. I don't
know, but some of them may.
CASCADE COURT REPORTERS
(541) 385-5664
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
COMMISSIONER LUKE: But the owner -occupied
ones, the property taxes would be deductible where the
dues are not.
MR. FIEBICK: Correct.
COMMISSIONER DeWOLF: How is fire protection
paid for now and would any of those costs go down
by -- because of the inclusion of fire in this
proposal?
MR. FIEBICK: Fire protection costs?
COMMISSIONER DeWOLF: Yes. How do you pay
for -- how do you get your fire protection now?
MR. FIEBICK: We pay for it through the
Sunriver Owners Association fees and dues.
COMMISSIONER DeWOLF: So that's part of the
reduction in those dues is that fire protection?
MR. FIEBICK: Correct.
COMMISSIONER DeWOLF: Okay. Is that it?
MR. FIEBICK: That's it.
COMMISSIONER DeWOLF: One request that I just
received from legal counsel is that you make one of
these copies available for -- formally entered into the
record; otherwise, she is going to confiscate your
laptop.
MR. FIEBICK: Okay. Not a problem.
COMMISSIONER DeWOLF: Anything else, Gary?
CASCADE COURT REPORTERS
(541) 385-5664
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
27
MR. FIEBICK: That's it, unless there are any
questions.
COMMISSIONER DeWOLF: Could we get the lights
back up, please? Whoever's phone that is is buying
everybody lunch today.
That's the last person I have on my list who
wanted to -- who signed up to testify. Are there
others who would like to testify before the board this
morning? Yes.
COMMISSIONER LUKE: I thought he passed.
COMMISSIONER DeWOLF: He did. He gave up his
time to Gary. Gary took three times as much.
MR. BRANNAN: Thank you. Mike Brannan,
B -,R -A -N -N -A -N, vice-president of the Sunriver Board of
Directors.
I'm not going to repeat what Gary said, but I
just wanted to emphasize we have heard from a lot of
homeowners on this issue and some people are at least
very emotional about it. We have tried to look and
consider all of the different options and look at what
would be best for Sunriver in the long run, and our
conclusion is that the service district will maintain
Sunriver as we want it better than any other option
that we can look at.
There certainly are other options, and if this
CASCADE COURT REPORTERS
(541) 385-5664
•
•
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
district does not pass we obviously will have to look
at other options, but this keeps our police department
as it is, it keeps our fire department as it is; yes,
it does raise the cost to individual owners and the
higher the value of their property the higher that cost
will be, but on the other hand if they lived in Bend or
they lived in Redmond or any other city, their costs
for police and fire would obviously be proportional to
their value of their property.
It's interesting to note that our current tax
rate is some $10.18, 19 cents per thousand. With this
proposed district, the first year, adding the 2.98 to
it, still puts it right at about $13.00 per thousand.
By comparison the city of Bend is $14.67 per
thousand, and if you live in a community such as Mt.
High or Awbrey Butte you will pay an owner's fee there
as well.
The city of Redmond is nearly $19.00 per
thousand. Even LaPine out here, which has the sheriff
as their only police department, has a rural fire
district, pays over -- excuse me, some $12.00 and
change per thousand. Black Butte Ranch, which has a
similar setup to what we are proposing, that is a
service district for police and a rural fire district
for fire, pays over $14.00 per thousand.
CASCADE COURT REPORTERS
(541) 385-5664
•
s
•
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
29
And so I mean we are still a very economical
community to live in tax -wise under this new scenario
as opposed to other communities, but the primary
emphasis is it's the best option in our mind for
Sunriver to keep our community as it has been for over
25 years.
One of the arguments about -- that has come up
about the allocation of assets and why do we give them
away instead of charging for them, the answer to that
is quite simple, the new proposed district is identical
to Sunriver. It's the same property, the same people.
Those people have already paid for those assets. It
would be very unfair to ask them to pay through a -- an
ad valorem tax what they already own, so by putting it
into the district it's the same people, the same
constituency, and therefore that same equipment stays
there. It's also a depreciating asset. Some of it has
almost reached the end of its economic life.
On the other hand, the real property some
owners would say well, why don't you just give that
property as well. There is still debt service required
on the fire station and the police department as part
of the administration building. Therefore, it's fair
that whoever is using that should pay something to help
continue to pay off that debt service. So that's why
CASCADE COURT REPORTERS
(541) 385-5664
•
0 1.
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
11
we arrived at a very reasonable rate.
COMMISSIONER DeWOLF: One of the questions
that came up last week was what if the boundaries of
the district change, expand, then new people would be
brought in who would benefit from those assets
that did not pay into it, would you have a reversionary
clause that if the district boundaries increased that
they would be -- that the assets would revert to SROA?
MR. BRANNAN: We haven't looked at that
specifically, but that contingency was one of the
things we had to consider on the real property, of
course, because if they did then that real property
would obviously be serving a much larger contingency,
but as building the budget for the district we built in
reserves for replacement of those vehicles and assets
anyway, and since that -- over time they are going to
be replaced, a fire truck lasts 25 years, a police car
lasts about five, so we believe that that would be a
minor effect because of the new taxes that would be
received from an expanded district if this should
happen would lower everybody's taxes under the present
budget.
COMMISSIONER DeWOLF: Okay. Thank you.
MR. BRANNAN: Thank you.
COMMISSIONER DeWOLF: Anyone else? Sheriff.
CASCADE COURT REPORTERS
(541) 385-5664
•
r
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
31
COMMISSIONER LUKE: He's starting to dress
like the Governor. Look at that, Levis.
COMMISSIONER DeWOLF: How big's your buckle?
SHERIFF STILES: It's all I had in the closet
this morning. Les Stiles, S -T -I -L -E -S, Deschutes
County Sheriff, and the only thing I wanted to comment
on this morning was Hary was correct when he talked
earlier that the number that had been given for
contracting for services was between 1.2 and 1.3
million.
What I didn't want to leave without clarifying
for the record is that that number is hard and fast.
In fact, that number was very rough numbers. We didn't
do fine line number crunching, and it was with a caveat
of plus or minus 10 percent when that number was
presented to the SROA board.
So, I just wanted that caveat in the record.
That's it.
COMMISSIONER DeWOLF: Thank you. Anyone else?
Yes, sir.
MR. FEE: Tom Fee. I live at 38 Yellow Pine
here in Sunriver.
What I have observed is affirmation that
private enterprise does a better job than the
bureaucracy. The numbers you presented this morning
CASCADE COURT REPORTERS
(541) 385-5664
•
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
32
if I'm reading them correct indicate that we did the
job with the Sunriver owners for a million nine, and
your projections show two million six to do the same
job. We have to give up the autonomy and the control
of our own destiny, and I dare say that when I heard
about what was going on I thought the sheriff wants to
take this thing over, and I'm generalizing so -- and he
is going to send a sheriff's car around here once every
two or three weeks to take a look around and that's not
what we need. We need a private police force that we
have had in Sunriver for 32 years doing the job and
doing an excellent job.
Now, I recognize that there are some
legalities that we have come up with that make the
assessment of the new district an imperative that we
examine it, but is this something that does any benefit
for Sunriver?
I look at the numbers and I ask myself again,
we're paying $74.00 a month for our homeowners, police,
fire, all of the benefits that we have, and if we look
at the new schedule and the expense here it looks like
most of us would be going to 1,000 to $1,500 a year for
the same thing that we got previously for about 800.
The Sunriver Owners Association has done on
extraordinary job and a marvelous job, and now we are
CASCADE COURT REPORTERS
(541) 385-5664
•
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
33
faced with the bureaucracy taking over and they have a
built-in escalation of three percent a year in our tax
assessments. Is that going to be real?
What happens if the economy collapses totally
and Sunriver is a destination resort, it no longer has
the attractiveness because there is no money around?
All the projections I see out of any
bureaucracy indicates an accelerating, an advance, an
increase in the taxes, an increase in the base, and
they always assume the best. Are we faced with that
kind of a future here? I don't know. This economy is
still very tenuous and I think we all recognize that.
But assuming that we have to go along with
this, what it indicates to me is once the bureaucracy
takes over, the assessed values, and they can raise --
the assessed values go up and the tax rate still has a
balloon part in there that they can raise the rate, we
are at the mercy of the bureaucracy. That's not why we
moved here. That's not why Sunriver was formed.
That's not what we have had.
I'm trying to look at the benefits. The
Sheriff talks about liabilities and litigation and all
the potential problems, which we have discussed
ourselves many times. It hasn't happened. Thomas
Jefferson said "The price of liberty is eternal
CASCADE COURT REPORTERS
(541) 385-5664
C
�J
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
34
vigilance," and that means in our own community that we
need to be vigilant ourself with our own police and
fire department.
I've always felt that we could pay police,
fire and airline pilots all the money they want. When
we need them, we need them, and there is no excuse.
The rest of the bureaucracy I have no use for. We
don't need that part, and they keep expanding on the
bureaucracy as the mentality grows from an independent,
self-reliant community, which our founding fathers had
in their minds, to a dependency on the state.
Now, what we need in Sunriver is a police
force that is here. The presence of the police force
inhibits and prevents problems. We have no problems
because our police do a great job and they are always'
here.
An occasional driveby of the sheriff's
department is something that we don't need. We do need
the police, and it looks like the only answer is to
accept the fact that we are going to have to vote on
the district, but my only purpose here is to call
attention to the fact that once we give up our own --
control of our own destiny, you leave it in the hands
of the bureaucrats and their objective is to expand the
bureaucracy, as witnessed when Sheriff Stiles took over
CASCADE COURT REPORTERS
(541) 385-5664
•
•
•
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
35
and all of a sudden we need to take over Sisters, we've
got to take over Sunriver, and I'm generalizing,
Sheriff. Don't take offense at it.
But, you know, private enterprise works best
when left alone. We have been left alone and have done
a marvelous job in Sunriver for 32 years. I fail to
see the urgency of what we are facing, except for the
fact that the sheriff has refused to commission our
police. Why? How is he liable? I would like that
explained to me, because I don't see or understand it
as a private community and private control we should
retain this, what we have here. It's a wonderful way,
a wonderful life, a wonderful existence, and I'm
looking at numbers that I know and you all know, taxes
go up, they never come down.
The bureaucracy is an unfeeling group intended
to expand itself, and I would like to retain control of
Sunriver but for the life of me I don't know how we can
do it.
I go back to the last -- to the election also
when there was a big human cry during the service
elections, Sunriver voted 555 for Brown, 603 for
Sheriff Stiles. I voted for Sheriff Stiles. I found
that the same thing happened immediately after the
election of Sheriff Brown that all of a sudden the
CASCADE COURT REPORTERS
(541) 385-5664
•
•
r�
LJ
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
36
votes didn't count if the power -- see, bureaucracy,
and I listen to this and I'm not convinced that anybody
has our best interests at heart.
This would not have come up if Sheriff Stiles
didn't feel that there was some liability and
commission our police. Hasn't been for 32 years. How
come this is an urgency in 32 weeks or 32 days or
whatever it all came up?
In the operating levy where they are all
trying to get the 50 percent vote, Sunriver voted 629
yes to 105 no. We have supported our community with
the county, our police, our fire, and the bulk of the
taxes that come out of Sunriver go to the county where
it's dispersed amongst all kinds of nice goodies. What
do we get out of those county taxes? Damned little.
The operating levy for the sheriff was an
attempt to circumvent the restrictions of Measure 5.
It happened. We are stuck with it, and that we have to
assume -- life goes on. Expenses are always there.
But my problem with the whole thing is for 32
years we have lived in and grown and prospered. The
Sunriver Owners Association did a marvelous job. The
sheriff gets elected, and he decides that as of now
there is a big liability and a big risk and we better
do something about it, and all of a sudden we are faced
CASCADE COURT REPORTERS
(541) 385-5664
•
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
37
with giving up this control and I resent it.
I think the arrogance is there and present,
and for all the support that we have given,
financially, votes and otherwise, I think we are
getting it stuck to us.
COMMISSIONER DeWOLF: Your unfeeling county
bureaucracy thanks you for your comments.
Is there anybody else who would like to speak
to us today? Come on up.
COMMISSIONER LUKE: He is not done.
COMMISSIONER DeWOLF: Yes, sir.
MR. FEE: Tom, don't take it personally. A
bureaucracy is an unfeeling organization, has to be to
be objective on what they do.
Personally, here in Sunriver I can go to
any -- to Gary, to anybody and talk to them about the
problems and they are immediately there to take care of
it.
If I have a problem in my property and the
county takes over, and we voted against incorporating
the city, I did anyway, it takes weeks to get anything
done. We don't have potholes in Sunriver because they
are out there immediately the next day fixing them.
They are on the road and taking care of them. They are
responsive to us.
CASCADE COURT REPORTERS
(541) 385-5664
•
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
COMMISSIONER DeWOLF: I appreciate your
position.
MR. FEE: This is not an indictment of you or
Dennis or anybody. I respect you. You do a great job.
I wouldn't want to have to do your job for anything.
COMMISSIONER LUKE: Tom, the county is not
taking over. You will have a board out here that runs
the district. The county --
MR. FEE: I understand.
COMMISSIONER LUKE: -- goes through the budget
process, but we are not taking over.
MR. FEE: Dennis, my problem is we are losing
our autonomy and the bureaucracy is taking over.
COMMISSIONER DeWOLF: I would suggest, then,
that you create a pact to oppose this proposal and then
let democracy work. Isn't that what we are here for??
MR. FEE: That's why I'm up here on the
podium.
COMMISSIONER DeWOLF: Great. Thank you.
Next. Yes.
COMMISSIONER LUKE: You need to be on the
mike.
COMMISSIONER DeWOLF: It's his turn to be on
but if you would like to be next come on up.
MR. PENCE: For the record, my name is Scott
CASCADE COURT REPORTERS
(541) 385-5664
•
�J
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
M
Pence, P -E -N -C -E. I own Sunset Realty. My company
manages about 267 homes and condominiums, about 250 of
which are here in Sunriver.
I haven't taken a position on the matter, just
because I don't know that there is enough information
for me to clearly define what is best for the
community.
I would like to point out, and this is kind of
following the gentleman before me, some concerns about
bureaucracy. I would like to point out some things for
consideration that perhaps have been overlooked.
Last week Sheriff Stiles made it clear that
what was right and fair was important. He stated that
by having officers down here in Sunriver overseeing
processes and procedures was unfairly burdening the
rest of the taxpayers in Deschutes County.
If you do not look at the whole picture that
may seem true. The part that was left out was that
from a historical perspective Sunriver contributes
about 68 to 70 percent of the total room tax
collections in Deschutes County. The sheriff's budget
receives 80 percent of those funds.
COMMISSIONER DeWOLF: Receives what percent?
MR. PENCE: Approximately -- isn't it 80
percent?
CASCADE COURT REPORTERS
( 5 4 1 ) 385-5664
•
�i
•
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
COMMISSIONER DeWOLF: 80? No, not even close.
MR. PENCE: Aren't we on an 80/20 split with
COVA?
COMMISSIONER LUKE: No. COVA, Central Oregon
Visitors Association, gets $850,000 a year from the
county.
MR. PENCE: What is the split? What is the
percentage?
COMMISSIONER DeWOLF: You know, I don't know
what that percentage is.
COMMISSIONER LUKE: Mike Maier, county --
MR. PENCE: My understanding of the split is
80 percent and 20 percent.
COMMISSIONER LUKE: Mike Maier, County
Administrator.
MR. MAIER: Mike Maier, County Administrator.
There is two different funds. One of it is a one
percent charge and one is six percent. The sheriff's
fund receives 80 percent of the six percent and 100
percent of the one percent, with the exception of
$14,500 going to the fair goes to COVA. So if you
combine the two it's a little under 65 percent.
MR. PENCE: Okay. So it's going to skew my
numbers a little bit but I think I make a pretty good
point here with regards to bureaucracy.
CASCADE COURT REPORTERS
(541) 385-5664
•
•
E
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
41
I'll give my numbers, obviously you are going
to have to pare them back a little bit due to the fact
that 65 percent seems to be the number.
For the fiscal year 2001-2002 the total room
tax collections in Deschutes County were $2,967,401.
Sunriver's contribution was likely to be I'll say 68
percent because again from a historical perspective
68 to 70 percent does come from Sunriver.
The -- if -- my scenario was that 80 percent
was the number, so obviously these numbers will have to
be pared down. If the sheriff received 80 percent that
would be $1,614,266, obviously a little bit high.
My point being even if it's -- even if it's 15
percent less than that, we are still talking about 1.2
million dollars that's coming out of room tax
collections from Sunriver, which are going into the
sheriff's budget.
Now, my question is pretty clear, is this --
are we unfairly burdening the rest of the Deschutes
County taxpayers? I can't -- I can't help but think
no, that just can't be, based on those numbers.
And, you know, also remembering the fact that
we have our own police department here in Sunriver. We
don't have those services coming in here.
The other point I would like to bring up,
CASCADE COURT REPORTERS
(541) 385-5664
•
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
42
which is a different concern, was that my question
would be have we thoroughly researched all of the
issues or potential problems this is going to create,
one of which being what is the economic impact on the
commercial interests here in Sunriver?
We know that it was pretty clear last week
that the commercial interests are going to be hit the
hardest on this. You know, it's my understanding that
we cannot give a break to, you know, like Sunriver, you
know, Sunriver Resort, you know, Westin over at the
mall, perhaps the Audias, basically some of the bigger
commercial interests here, and it seems to me a bit odd
because all across the country there are, you know,
areas which offer breaks to commercial interests for
the purpose of stimulus of the, you know, local
economy.
So, it just seems to me if it happens
everywhere else in the country, have we done our, you
know -- have we really researched just to see if that
is potential here, because if you take, for example,
the Village Mall, you have got a bad situation, I think
everybody in this room would agree that we have --
whatever -- the occupancy over there is ridiculously
low and it continues to get lower.
What is the economic impact going to do?
CASCADE COURT REPORTERS
(541) 385-5664
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
43
Well, basically Westin's, you know, cost is going to go
up significantly because of the tax so therefore he is
going to pass it to the tenants. I'm a tenant over
there. Therefore, what's going to happen is it's going
to make it harder for businesses to stay there, in
addition to that, you know, attracting new business,
which we all know is difficult at this point in time,
is. even going to become more difficult. Again,
basically the point being we are going to make a bad
situation worse.
Not that I -- again, I don't have a position
on this matter, but my question is have we thoroughly
researched all of the potential impacts that this thing
is going to have and perhaps answered some of those
questions. So, those are my comments.
COMMISSIONER DeWOLF: Thank you, Scott.
Anyone else? Yes, sir.
MR. ABRAMS: Harvey Abrams, M.D. A point of
clarification, Tom Fee's concern about the sheriff's
coverage, and I'm not here to defend the sheriff. I
don't care who you voted for.
In fact, Sheriff Stiles said that this
contract would provide one supervising officer and two
officers for patrol 24 hours a day, so -- in a
substation here in Sunriver, not an occasional pass by
CASCADE COURT REPORTERS
(541) 385-5664
1
2
• 3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
. 25
44
through the village.
There are three concerns with regard to the
alternatives here. One is liability for Sunriver,
which I spoke to. The other is PERS for the service
district, which is totally uncontrollable and
unpredictable, and the county situation is an example
of that, and the third is breach of contract by the
sheriff's department.
We have alternatives with breach of contract.
We have alternatives with liability. We can raise our
own liability limits, but we can't do a thing about
PERS.
COMMISSIONER LUKE: Thank you.
COMMISSIONER DeWOLF: Thank you. Anyone else?
Yes, sir.
MR. FOSTER: I have one simple question.
My name is Bob Foster, F -O -S -T -E -R. My
question would be -- again, last time we met my
question was how do we make this go away if it was
voted in and at a later time wanted to make it go away.
My question today would be if this comes to a
vote, and my understanding of the vote issue would be
registered voters in the district of Sunriver would
vote on a decision that would affect the entire
district, if it's voted and it fails what is the next
CASCADE COURT REPORTERS
(541) 385-5664
0
•
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
45
step?
COMMISSIONER DeWOLF: Excellent question. Who
would like to answer that?
MR. FOSTER: I mean it kind of fundamentally
comes to the point of why, why are we doing this? I
mean I've been trying to pay as much attention as I can
and I have yet to come to a realization on why this is
even happening.
COMMISSIONER LUKE: Use this mike. That way
if he has additional questions you can answer it.
MS. MILDES: We have researched all options --
oh, my name is Shirley Mildes, M -I -L -D -E -S, President
SROA board.
If the issue fails, and this is a May vote so
we need 50 percent of 50 percent voting, if the issue
fails we will go back to the drawing board. We have so
many -- we have researched the issues for about the
last two or three years, so we feel that we will be
able to go back to the drawing board very quickly and
come to a decision. Immediately, the only option would
be to contract with the sheriff.
MR. FOSTER: So if -- with that statement,
then, immediately meaning when?
MS. MILDES: After the vote or when -- if the
sheriff decommissions our officers.
CASCADE COURT REPORTERS
( 5 4 1 ) 385-5664
•
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
46
MR. FOSTER: So immediately after the vote we
would have to enter into a next -day contract with the
sheriff, or we would have this research period of time?
MS. MILDES: Well, as long as our
commission -- our officers are commissioned we can
continue but yeah, we would have to immediately go into
discussions with the sheriff.
MR. FOSTER: And the commissioning of the
officers, is this -- is this some kind of a legal
contract that exists now?
COMMISSIONER DeWOLF: Sheriff, do you want to
come to a mike and explain?
MS. MILDES: Be my guest.
SHERIFF STILES: Les Stiles, Deschutes County
Sheriff again. The answer to your question is very
simple. If this measure fails, the commissions for the
Sunriver Police Department would be withdrawn.
COMMISSIONER LUKE: Not the next day, though.
SHERIFF STILES: Not necessarily the next day.
I think Scott asked me this question earlier. There
are a number of other things that would be taken into
account.
I think last week, and I tried not to repeat
myself today -- legal counsel has advised me six months
ago to take the commissions away. The authority for
CASCADE COURT REPORTERS
(541) 385-5664
•
•
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
47
the Sunriver .Police Officers comes exclusively -- for
their police powers comes exclusively from the sheriff.
If Sunriver were a municipality or a governmental
entity or a public safety district, they would have the
statutory authority to empower their own police.
Because they do not, the short answer to your
question is very shortly after this vote if it does not
pass I will be moving to withdraw their commissions.
Frankly, I've been advised to do that months and months
ago.
COMMISSIONER LUKE: Aren't there other
options, Sheriff? I mean they could contract with you.
SHERIFF STILES: Yeah. I was going to wait to
see if Bob wanted to follow up on that and then move
into the other option portion.
MR. FOSTER: I guess my question would be in
the overall binding, I don't know the gentleman's
name but the gentleman in the back there that mentioned
bureaucracy, autonomy, time, all these things, what
still seems very unclear to me is it appears now that
the ball is in your court. You have the option of
making something happen and forcing the change to come
to pass, which is why this is all happening now.
What I can't seem to figure out is where the
why comes in and where the time line hits us. In other
CASCADE COURT REPORTERS
(541) 385-5664
•
•
1�1
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
words, if you are not going to pull it now but you are
willing to absorb the time and the space and the
liability issues as apparently has been done for 32
years, and you don't want to yank it now, why do you
want to yank it immediately after the election or
why -- why can there.not be a period of time -- this
just does not seem to make sense to me what's happening
here.
Is -- Shirley has a point of view and a
connection. Let me say it this way. The two issues
that seem to come up seem to be fair and safe. My
personal opinion is neither one exists and it never
will. Nothing is safe, nothing is fair. It just
doesn't happen.
We are trying to provide safety and we are
trying to provide it in a fair way, but we are trying
to put ourselves in a position where we have to make an
emotional decision right now. Every discussion I hear,
everything I read seems to be based more on emotion
than facts and structure and time.
To make this kind of a big decision
emotionally just doesn't seem sound. Every --
every -- your side, your side, your side, my side, we
all have a question of what does this really mean and
why are we doing it.
CASCADE COURT REPORTERS
(541) 385-5664
lJ
•
r
�J
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
I guess my statement would be if you control
the leverage of time and that if we fail on an election
and we are going to provide a leverage of time, why
for do we have the election now, why do we not just
have the time.
We keep hearing there is different options,
there is this option, there is that option. None of
the options, through printed material, through the
meeting processes I've been in, none of the options
seem to be clearly spelled out. It's almost like the
option is do this or you are damned. And that's my
position is what is the time line, why now?
SHERIFF STILES: Can I respond to that?
MR. FOSTER: Yes.
SHERIFF STILES: This discussion started
almost a year ago, Bob. Frankly this discussion was
held with the board that preceded Shirley.
MR. FOSTER: Yes, but the situation started 32
years ago.
COMMISSIONER LUKE: I was here in 1973
building houses and later we did the mall, ice skating
rink, grocery store. This place has evolved over 32
years bit.
MR. FOSTER: I was born in Bend, Oregon.
I've been in Sunriver since I was 18.
CASCADE COURT REPORTERS
(541) 385-5664
•
•
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
50
COMMISSIONER LUKE: Right, but this has not
been the same set up for 32 years. It has evolved over
that time.
MR. FOSTER: I understand, which lends back to
the argument of lack of clarification.
COMMISSIONER DeWOLF: I want to keep this so
that nobody interrupts each other in deference to our
court reporter, so if we just continue one at a time.
MR. FOSTER: She was jamming.
COMMISSIONER DeWOLF: She was jamming but I
could see the stress lines going on her forehead there.
Sheriff.
SHERIFF STILES: Thank you. This discussion
started a year ago with the board that preceded Shirley
and it started for the same reason that I stated last
week, that the advisory vote that was to be held last
year and was, in fact, held last year was predicated
on two assumptions: Form the public safety district or
nothing changes. The response was when I was queried
about that, no, that's not -- that's not so.
Everything is subject to change in the future. There
are other issues.
Like Commissioner Luke said just a minute ago,
this is an evolutionary process. So this is not a last
minute -- in my opinion, respectfully, Bob, this is
CASCADE COURT REPORTERS
(541) 385-5664
•
•
•
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
51
not a last-minute emotional issue. This has been
evolving now for almost 12 months. I have not nor
should I get involved in terms of trying to influence a
vote for what I believe is essentially a home rule
issue for Sunriver.
I will answer questions and provide
information with which people can help make a decision,
but there is no -- there is no underlying motive here
other than civil liability, period.
MR. FOSTER: Okay. A specific question then
would be the issue seems to be decommissioning of the
officers, control seems to be with you. What is the
last date that you could foresee we could have
commissioned officers, irregardless of a vote? I'll
leave it at that.
SHERIFF STILES: When I was approached or when
we started talking about the potential for contract
and the public safety district, Bob, I told this SROA
board that I would work with them as closely as I could
to not take away those commissions, and last week I
believe I talked about some band-aids that we put into
place, and those band-aids are essentially that almost
any arrests or any kind of situation or pursuit the
Deschutes County Sheriff's Watch Commander will become
involved in the oversight of that. That's a band-aid.
CASCADE COURT REPORTERS
(541) 385-5664
•
•
� •
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
52
It's not a fix. It's just a temporary -- I think
somebody used the term last week about arterial
bleeding or something.
COMMISSIONER DeWOLF: Must have been after I
left.
SHERIFF STILES: We have some band-aids in
place. I'm not terribly comfortable with them but I'm
comfortable enough that we are going to continue, and I
will honor the commitment that I made that we will
carry this forward until the election, because there
are a number of other potential options out there.
For example, Gary brought up the possibility
of they could form a district where you get the
advantage of writing it off on your taxes and then the
district charges a lesser rate to contract with the
sheriff. If you don't like the contract, the sheriff
isn't providing the service or meeting your needs, and
I'm fairly confident that that might be the case for 12
to 18 months, at least perceptually, there might be
some issues, you can always back out and form your own
agency. You have got that in your hip pocket.
Until those things are clearly delineated and
discussed, until the concept of whether or not they
want to look at a contract is clearly delineated and
discussed -- and frankly Sunriver can't. I mean I gave
CASCADE COURT REPORTERS
(541) 385-5664
•
•
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
53
them plus or minus 10 percent numbers. They would need
hard numbers. I'm not going to invest the time and the
staff time in developing those kinds of numbers until I
know that that's a reasonable option and the
probability is greater than 50 percent that we might be
going that direction.
So, Bob, to answer your question, it's going
to happen very soon after the vote if the vote is no.
How soon, I don't know. It's going to depend on all
these other variables, but very soon.
COMMISSIONER DeWOLF: Thank you. Anyone else?
Mike.
MR. MAIER: There was a second part --
COMMISSIONER DeWOLF: Mike.
MR. MAIER: Mike Maier, Deschutes County. I
think the sheriff addressed the law enforcement part.
We don't have anything to do, the county per se, but
the fire part. So I would assume, and Gary can
comment, that the fire department current situation
would probably stay the same, but the county doesn't
commission firefighters or medical technicians. I just
wanted --
COMMISSIONER LUKE: Tell the lady how you
spell your name because Maier is spelled --
MR. MAIER: M -A -I -E -R.
CASCADE COURT REPORTERS
(541) 385-5664
•
C�
J
L
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
54
COMMISSIONER DeWOLF: Yes, sir.
MR. HEDEEN: A couple questions. First of
COMMISSIONER DeWOLF: Name, please.
MR. HEDEEN: Excuse me. My name is Keith
Hedeen, spelled H -E -D -E -E -N. I live at 8
Rhododendron here in Sunriver. I'm a resident.
One more -- one question of the sheriff. Is
there still a negotiation open to a contract?
Yes or no. I was expecting yes or no.
COMMISSIONER LUKE: We have to be on the
record.
SHERIFF STILES: I have to be on the record.
The answer to that is very definitely yes.
MR. HEDEEN: Second question. We know that
Black Butte has had an experience with this, and I
don't know how many years, but have we learned anything
from their experience? I don't know who could answer
that. It's kind of a question of here is a place that
has a service district that is operating and what has
been their experience?
COMMISSIONER DeWOLF: I think to be fair that
you would need to contact them yourselves. Any of us
here would have our opinions, but we don't live there.
Are there any residents from Black Butte that are
CASCADE COURT REPORTERS
(541) 385-5664
•
•
•
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
55
familiar with the --
MR. HEDEEN: Has Sunriver looked into it?
That's the question.
One more question. You mentioned an overlap
between districts where we would -- the fiscal year is
different. How would the -- how would the transition
be done? Would you start the district the year before,
January 1 -- the July before or the July after?
COMMISSIONER DeWOLF: There are actually two
separate issues. The private organization that is SROA
can have whatever fiscal year they want to. By
becoming a district it becomes the county's fiscal
year, which begins July 1st. So you would begin -- we
would be going through a budget process and adopting
this particular budget to begin July 1st, 2002, this
coming July.
MR. HEDEEN: Then there is six months of
Sunriver and then the county would -- if it were
passed?
COMMISSIONER LUKE: You have to have your
budget done by July 1 so they can certify the tax rate.
The taxes are not collected until November so they have
talked about that you have -- you can borrow money in
anticipation of the tax revenue coming in to operate
from July 1 until the taxes come in as part of their
CASCADE COURT REPORTERS
(541) 385-5664
r�
0
•
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
W
process.
MR. HEDEEN: Sunriver would operate until July
1, half of the year.
COMMISSIONER LUKE: The district starts
operation July 1.
MR. HEDEEN: July 1, so Sunriver would operate
from January to the beginning of that, so there would
be a six-month period.
COMMISSIONER DeWOLF: Is that accurate, legal
counsel? Once the district is formed, my assumption is
the district is in charge, and that's as soon as the
clerk certifies the vote.
MR. ISHAM: Rick Isham, county legal counsel.
They are independent questions.
The district is formed when the Board of
County Commissioners declares the result of the
election. Because it's a May election, the Board of
County Commissioners is exempt from the budget laws
that apply on an annual basis, and you can adopt a
budget and declare the tax for the next fiscal year.
Now, you have a wide range of discretion, and
there are circumstances where -- intervening
circumstances where you may do something different than
levy a tax because different decisions were made, but
the district will be formed and effective July 1.
CASCADE COURT REPORTERS
(541) 385-5664
C7
L]
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
57
If it does not levy a tax for three years it
automatically dissolves. If it levies a tax, then it
basically is a fully-fledged municipal corporation that
operates pursuant to the budget that's adopted for that
year. You cannot levy a tax in excess the amount
necessary to balance the budget.
But as to issues like employee transfer, the
SROA employees are not public employees, they don't
come under the Public Employee Transfer Act, so you are
not assuming a duty of another municipality.
So, basically decisions regarding contracts,
employees, and all of those things are made
independently pursuant to the adopted budget and the
agreement -- the operating agreement which will be
proposed between the operating board, essentially
through SROA, and the Board of County Commissioners as
the district authority, but nothing with respect to the
vote binds the board to a particular decision.
COMMISSIONER DeWOLF: Thank you.
MR. HEDEEN: Then what I'm hearing you say,
then, is we have -- if this were to pass, this budget
would then take over July 1 of 2002.
COMMISSIONER DeWOLF: Correct.
MR. HEDEEN: So there would be a six-month
period of which we would not be assessed or we
CASCADE COURT REPORTERS
(541) 385-5664
•
•
•
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
M
would -- Sunriver would benefit by six months of our
dues; is that correct?
COMMISSIONER DeWOLF: Gary. Has anybody
ordered sandwiches?
MR. FIEBICK: Gary Fiebick, General Manager of
Sunriver Association.
The plan at this point, we have reviewed that
with legal counsel, I think the question is from July
1st to the end of the year this year what will SROA do.
MR. HEDEEN: That's my question.
MR. FIEBICK: The plan at this point is as
many of you know about 40 to 45 percent of the owners
pay for the year in advance and the others pay monthly.
Commercial and retail typically pay monthly. The plan
is that whatever the revised budget would be without
the district, and let's assume it would be $34, then
the difference of what the people who paid annually
have contributed would be credited to their accounts,
and then in July we would send out new coupons for
monthly payments, which would be adjusted to the new
rate.
MR. HEDEEN: Thank you.
COMMISSIONER DeWOLF: Thanks.
MR. FEE: Tom Fee. I live at 38 Yellow Pine.
In the elections for the school district and the
CASCADE COURT REPORTERS
(541) 385-5664
•
J
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
59
sheriff's levy, bonds don't always pass. The sheriff's
levy didn't pass. The excuse given by the bureaucrats
is always the public didn't understand.
Therefore, we had another election for the
sheriff's levy and it passed, and to Sunriver's credit
it passed here by an overwhelming majority.
My question to you, to the sheriff and to all
of us is if this district does not pass, and there is
some emotionalism involved in all of this, and I deeply
resent being pushed around or forced to a decision that
I don't really want; therefore, if it does not pass is
it possible that the public and Sunriver didn't
understand that we would have another election to
clarify the issue or present us options that are not
coercive but reasonable.
As the gentleman before me asked and the
sheriff answered it in the affirmative, would this open
up discussions to a contract?
I think there is just a lot of questions out
there that are not answered, and I think it's
imperative that we all understand what happens if it
fails to pass and not the arbitrary well, if it fails
to pass three months later we are going to have the
sheriff in here and our officers will be
decommissioned.
CASCADE COURT REPORTERS
(541) 385-5664
•
•
•
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
And these guys worked hard. I remember when
you were on the legislature, Dennis, and you went over
there to get some legislation passed for our police and
it was overwhelmingly approved and we have worked
carefully. These are our people. These are our
police, our firemen, our community. I don't want to
see it pass away without finding out all of the other
alternatives to what we have, and I don't think we know
that.
So should it fail, is it possible that we
could have a clarification and another election, or is
this going to be an arbitrary decision again?
COMMISSIONER DeWOLF: I would answer that in a
couple of ways. First of all, I don't recall ever
saying that if a vote went one way or the other that
the voters didn't understand. It's not a phrase that I
personally used.
MR. FEE: No. No.
COMMISSIONER DeWOLF: I don't know about --
let me finish, please.
In this situation, I'm going to be very clear
that this is not something that's coming because of any
decisions made by the Board of County Commissioners.
The sheriff as a separately -elected public
official answers directly to the voters in matters of
CASCADE COURT REPORTERS
(541) 385-5664
•
•
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
61
operations and in matters of interpreting what the law
is and what his responsibilities and liabilities are,
so.this is purely between the sheriff's office and the
Sunriver Owners Association or the people who live in
Sunriver.
So, whatever happens after this is a
negotiation that does not include the Board of County
Commissioners, other than if it passes in our role as
part of the county budget committee, which includes
three additional members.
So any negotiations contractually between
Sunriver and the Sheriff are strictly between Sunriver
and the Sheriff and do not include us.
So in that regard we have no answer for you.
Whatever Sunriver chooses to do is Sunriver's choice.
What the Sheriff chooses to do is the Sheriff's choice.
If that were to be that Sunriver would have come back
and immediately put that on another election or up to
another vote, that's up to Sunriver, not up to this
board.
MR. FEE: Well, I think this is important that
we all understand that. What I have the impression of
is it's either his way or the highway, and I don't
think that's intended, yet that's what comes across,
and I know the people and the mentality, I've lived in
CASCADE COURT REPORTERS
(541) 385-5664
•
•
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
62
Sunriver 14 years and I know their thoughts. We are an
independent group of people that have formed a
community that takes care of one another, and we have
taken care of it for 32 years.
I fail to see the problem that cannot be
discussed further instead of a three-month arbitrary
implementation in July just because the darned thing
fails, and there is a good possibility that it could.
I know the mentality here.
COMMISSIONER DeWOLF: Thank you.
MR. FEE: Thank you, Tom.
COMMISSIONER DeWOLF: Anyone else like to
testify? Tom, hobble on up. You should fire whoever
it is that put the step over on this side because
nobody's used it yet.
MR. LARSON: It's hard to fire yourself.
Thank you, though, Commissioner. I'm Tom Larson. I
don't live here. I represent Sunriver Limited
Partnership.
Last week I spoke and I promise not to
reiterate what I said. I'm sitting in the back and
starting to twiddle my thumbs and twist my feet in the
sense that information is incumbent upon us. I said
last week, I think it was, that I didn't feel very
informed to make a public position statement, if you
CASCADE COURT REPORTERS
(541) 385-5664
•
r:
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
63
will, for our business. In the last seven days I feel
I do compliment the board. I was in the
meeting a year ago when you shared your vision and you
shared your numbers. I don't know if I agree with
everything. I don't know if I understand everything,
but in fairness to Tom, my friend, who we both are
Catholic with our ashes on our faces today, we look
like a cult, I think it is incumbent upon us to do the
rest of the work ourselves. I think the commissioners
have spent a lot of time and presenting themselves and
making themselves available. I appreciate the sheriff
coming here. This is not my political pitch, by any
means, but I'm one of those guys that sometimes sit at
a cocktail party and like to find the negativity
of something that's being presented as a change, and
shame on me for doing that.
So I encourage maybe the board to find
additional communication vehicles between now and the
ballot measure that perhaps is more informational
exchanges so myself, Bob Foster, Tom, others that came
forward today can participate in openly. I'm not
suggesting we take up more of your time. I'm not
suggesting we take more of the Sheriff's time.
But it behooves the board, because you are
CASCADE COURT REPORTERS
(541) 385-5664
•
.j
•
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
64
passionate about this, and it's my view that you are
passionate in favor of the district, to spend more time
in making the numbers and the concepts available for
those that are just getting into the learning curve
now. We can accelerate that by more opportunities.
I recognize it is more time on your part but
it may be appropriate because it seems at each meeting
we advance the ball, the numbers become more acute.
However, the information starts to bring in a
new series of residents who are just catching up on the
window and you are having to repeat yourself time and
time again.
My fear is that a vote would be so close it
could win or it could lose, and the last thing I want
to do is go to the ballot box and check the box, come
back and feel very convicted about what my decision is,
yet listen to my neighbor who says "I just learned
about it so I didn't vote." That would be a travesty.
So, I encourage maybe the board to think about
a few other communication vehicles that might enhance
the learning curve for the rest of us. Thanks.
COMMISSIONER DeWOLF: Thanks, Tom. Yes, sir.
MR. PRICE: My name is Jim Price, 10 Grouse
Lane in Sunriver. I thank the County Commissioners for
being here and I want to thank everybody who has spoken
CASCADE COURT REPORTERS
(541) 385-5664
•
•
U
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
65
for or opposed or with new ideas on the proposed county
Sunriver Service District.
It is -- has been a lengthy study. We have
looked at every alternative we could possibly think of.
We looked at consolidation with the fire department.
We have looked at contracting with the county Sheriff's
department. We have looked at contracting for fire
services with the Deschutes County Fire District No.
2on the southern edge of Bend. We have looked at
incorporation, although considering the '94 vote we
quickly rejected that. We have tried to look at every
possible alternative that we could consider in both the
ad hoc committee and with the board of directors.
People want to keep the police department and
the fire departments of Sunriver close to home and
under local control. We feel that the only way to
effectively do that at this time is to create the
service district.
I have a couple of other comments. The good
doctor has spoken against PERS but yet he has spoken
for a contract with the Sheriff. I think the Sheriff
does a wonderful job. I think a contract with the
Sheriff is an alternative if we cannot create a
district, but just remember if you contract with the
Sheriff then do you have PERS, and not only PERS tier
CASCADE COURT REPORTERS
(541) 385-5664
•
•
•
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
two that we would have if we created our district, but
PERS tier one and the obligations that go with it. So
we need to be careful how we see the alternatives and
how they affect us, but I do encourage you to look at
all of the issues before you and then in the end
support the service district. Thank you.
COMMISSIONER DeWOLF: My understanding is that
tier one is not the option here but it's the difference
between regular folks on PERS and emergency service
personnel like police and fire on PERS, but tier one
would not -- I believe went out I believe in '95.
MR. MAIER: Mike Maier, County Administrator.
New employees who have not been on PERS before would be
tier two when they start, but they may hire someone who
was an employee from the city of Klamath Falls and they
transfer up and if they were tier one you would have
tier one.
COMMISSIONER DeWOLF: It would continue, sure.
MR. MAIER: Their rates would be measurably
higher than the county's rate, not because of tier one
or tier two, is because the majority, the vast majority
are police and fire, and police and fire rates are a
lot more expensive than general service rates.
COMMISSIONER DeWOLF: Thank you. Anyone else?
Okay. I will close the public hearing.
CASCADE COURT REPORTERS
(541) 385-5664
•
� 0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
67
Laurie, can you help us through with what
needs to happen next?
I would like to really thank everybody on all
sides of this for your diligence and your patience
through this process. The one thing for myself in
getting through this is talking with our Finance
Director and Treasurer of Deschutes County, Marty Wynn,
who is not here today, and I just asked him a simple
question, can a district operate on this rate, and his
simple answer was yes, and that was the answer that I
was looking for to give me the comfort to accept the
information that's been presented, because the last
thing I want to do personally is to approve a ballot
measure with a different rate than what is being
proposed, and so I have got that comfort level for
myself. Dennis.
COMMISSIONER LUKE: Deschutes County is very
fortunate that we have places like Sunriver, Black
Butte, Eagle Crest and we will have the new Huntington
Ranch. You bring a lot of -- you bring a lot of money
to this county through your property taxes, through
your room taxes, and you allow this county to provide
services for our residents that a lot of counties our
same size cannot do, and we are very fortunate.
The thing that was brought up about room
CASCADE COURT REPORTERS
(541) 385-5664
•
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
taxes, before we became commissioners decisions were
made to put a certain amount of money into the
Sheriff's office from the room taxes. The
justification as I've been told is that the Sheriff's
patrol responsibilities increase because of the number
of tourists who come here.
If a tourist just fell out of the sky and
landed at Sunriver Airport there would be no additional
services for the sheriff, but they come -- most of them
come by car or they come from other types of
transportation so they are on our roads. That was the
justification as I understand it for that money being
transferred to the Sheriff.
How room tax money is spent is through the
budget committee, and the budget is always presented by
the Central Oregon Visitors Association, they bring
their budget in, Sunriver is a very big player in that,
and they come to us and discuss how the room tax money
is spent.
The person who was testifying is also on the
board of Central Oregon Visitors Association, has an
opportunity to speak to us on how that money is spent.
The county commissioners have committed one
million dollars to repair the roads and the feds are
kicking in a goodly share of the money.
CASCADE COURT REPORTERS
(541) 385-5664
•
•
•
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
.•
COMMISSIONER DeWOLF: On Road 45.
COMMISSIONER LUKE: Road 45, to improve the
transportation from Sunriver to the mountain. It was a
little over $100,000 to put the signal light in at the
business park.
This is a partnership. This isn't -- this
isn't one pot of money in one part of the county and
one pot of money in another part of the county. This
is a partnership and we are very, very fortunate that
we have places like this that are able to provide funds
so that we can provide a lot of services to our county
residents, including the ones that live down here, and
we appreciate you very much.
COMMISSIONER DeWOLF: Vote for Dennis Luke for
Deschutes County Commissioner.
COMMISSIONER LUKE: That was inappropriate.
COMMISSIONER DeWOLF: I apologize. Okay, vote
for Tom DeWolf for Deschutes County Commissioner.
COMMISSIONER LUKE: Laurie.
COMMISSIONER DeWOLF: Mike, did you have
anything you wanted to add?
MR. MAIER: No.
MS. CRAGHEAD: Laurie Craghead, Assistant
Legal Counsel.
One item of housekeeping here, you asked Gary
CASCADE COURT REPORTERS
(541) 385-5664
•
U
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
70
Fiebick when he was testifying if he would enter into
the record the photocopies of the power point
presentation and he said "no problem." I will take that
for the record as having entered that -- those copies
into the record.
COMMISSIONER DeWOLF: So "no problem" is taken
as an affirmative?
MS. CRAGHEAD As an affirmative, actually as
having entered it.
Again, I want to point out for the board, at
the initial hearing the board already made the
finding -- the statutory finding for this district,
which is that this proposal is in accordance with the
comprehensive plan -- the county's comprehensive plan,
applicable land conservation development goals, and
that after consideration of economic, demographic and
sociological trends and projections pertinent to the
proposal, past and prospective physical developments of
the land that would directly or indirectly be affected
by the proposal, and all other matters considered
relevant to this proposal, that you determined that the
area would be benefited by the formation of the
district, which at this time that the order then would
reaffirm that.
COMMISSIONER LUKE: I was glad I wasn't
CASCADE COURT REPORTERS
(541) 385-5664
•
� 0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
71
typing, trying to keep up with you reading that.
Did we do the official name change yet?
MS. CRAGHEAD: Yes, you did.
COMMISSIONER LUKE: We did that already.
MS. CRAGHEAD: The official name change
originally had started out as Sunriver County Service
District, you changed it with the last order to
Sunriver Service District.
So your motion today would be to make a
determination of forming the district, approval of
forming the district, and then you would be setting the
permanent tax rate, permanent rate limit.
COMMISSIONER DeWOLF: Which is in the order at
3.45.
MS. CRAGHEAD: At 3.45.
COMMISSIONER DeWOLF: Okay.
MS. CRAGHEAD: You need to set the election
for this measure, for this -- this district, order the
notice of the election be given to the county clerk,
order the explanatory statement be given to the county
clerk by the statutory deadline and order a map of the
district be included with that, with the voters
pamphlet, and then order the publication notice of the
election.
COMMISSIONER DeWOLF: All that can be one
CASCADE COURT REPORTERS
(541) 385-5664
•
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
motion?
MS. CRAGHEAD: One motion, and subject to
72
legal review.
COMMISSIONER LUKE: I like that.
COMMISSIONER DeWOLF: So somebody can say so
moved subject to legal review.
MS. CRAGHEAD: I would think so.
COMMISSIONER LUKE: Except we have to set the
date.
MS. CRAGHEAD: You do set the date of
the election. At this time it's May 21st, 2002, and the
deadline for these documents is May -- is March 21st,
20.02, and you also need to set the tax rate.
COMMISSIONER LUKE: How hard would it be to go
through -- there aren't that many, and just take one at
a time? Would that be that big a thing?
COMMISSIONER DeWOLF: Could we --
MS. CRAGHEAD: No. Well, it would be a
separate order number, then, for each one of those.
COMMISSIONER DeWOLF: I would move all of that
subject to legal review.
COMMISSIONER LUKE: The rate of 3.45, the
primary election, and we did our findings.
MS. CRAGHEAD: All the documentation.
COMMISSIONER DeWOLF: Whatever she said.
CASCADE COURT REPORTERS
(541) 385-5664
•
•
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
73
COMMISSIONER LUKE: I can go with that. I'll
second that.
COMMISSIONER DeWOLF: Okay. Any further
discussion? Commissioner Luke?
COMMISSIONER LUKE: Yes.
COMMISSIONER DeWOLF: Commissioner Daly?
COMMISSIONER DALY: Yes.
COMMISSIONER DeWOLF: And the chair votes yes.
Anything else?
COMMISSIONER LUKE: Good luck. I know --
COMMISSIONER DeWOLF: Can I interrupt? I do
want to apologize. That was inappropriate of me
because I know you are very sincere in your comments.
COMMISSIONER LUKE: I think you guys have a
lot of education to do and I know you will do that.
Good luck.
COMMISSIONER DeWOLF: Thank you.
(Hearing concluded at 12:10 p.m.)
CASCADE COURT REPORTERS
(541) 385-5664
•
W]
10
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
74
C E R T I F I C A T E
STATE OF OREGON )
SS.
COUNTY OF DESCHUTES )
I, GENIE L. KELLEY, Certified Shorthand
Reporter, do hereby certify:
That on February 13, 2002 the proceeding
transcribed herein was taken down by me in machine
shorthand and was thereafter reduced to writing
through computer-aided transcription, that the
foregoing represents to the best of my ability, a true
and correct transcript of the proceedings had in the
foregoing matter.
I further certify that I am not an attorney
for any of the parties hereto, nor in any way concerned
with the cause.
DATED this 23rd day of February, 2002,
in Bend, Oregon. <.
GENIE L. KELLEY, CM, CSR��
Registered Professional'R'orter
CASCADE COURT REPORTERS
(541) 385-5664
1
b,rL6t�t,o
DESCHUTESCOUNTY OFFICIAL
MARYSUE PENHOLLOW, COUNTYCLERK�d �00�•139
COMMISSIONERS' JOURNAL 0212112002 04;41;39 PM
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
DESCHUTES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
8
10:00 A.M.
9
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 2002
10
THE HOMESTEAD BUILDING, 57085 MEADOW ROAD
11
SUNRIVER, OREGON
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
ORIGINAL
25
Cascade Court Reporters 541-385-5664
1
b,rL6t�t,o
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
2
SUNRIVER, BEND; WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 2002;
MS. CRAGHEAD: For the record I am Laurie Craghead,
Assistant Legal Counsel. Just some background on this. As
the Chair said, this is the final hearing for this Spring
River Special Road District. The petition was filed in
November, and the initial hearing was on January 3 for this
hearing for this district. At that time under the statute
the Board needs to either approve or disapprove of the
petition based on land use criteria, and we had a letter
that was submitted in the record from the CDE department
regarding whether or not this application complied with the
county's comp plan and the statewide planning goals. And
the Board adopted that document as well and they voted to
approve the petition.
The state statutes requires then a final
hearing on the matter, and then that's what this is. And
there are maps if anyone hasn't gotten one that's here for
this. There are maps in the back on the back table. The
maps have been submitted to the Department of Revenue, and
we have got a preliminary approval of these maps in the
legal description. They are slightly different than the
maps in the legal description that were approved at the
initial hearing because the Department of Revenue wanted a
little bit different map and wording and so we have gotten
those.
Cascade Court Reporters 541-385-5664
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
3
COMMISSIONER LUKE: And this is the Spring
River Road District which is out Spring River Road out on
the right-hand side after you cross the Deschutes, and they
are going to go to a public election to see if they want to
tax themselves to maintain the roads
MS. CRAGHEAD: Right. And the assessment would
be $0.94 per thousand assessed value and with an estimate
of the first year possibly raising $13,270.
COMMISSIONER DE WOLF: What I would like to
explain is sort of the way that we operate in public
hearings, and this will apply to both this and the public
hearing that will follow immediately after this one.
Anyone who wishes to testify needs to come up to the
microphone. This is being taped as well as a court
reporter recording this information as well. You need to
state your name clearly at the beginning of your testimony,
and you need to spell your name. Unless it's Smith or
Jones, you need to spell your name for the record.
We require that everyone remain civil to
towards each other even when we disagree with each other on
these issues. And anyone in my opinion who is not
remaining civil I will stop your testimony. We would ask
that you stick to the point, keep it as brief as you can
while making your point, and that there is no need to
repeat what other people have said so that we can all get
Cascade Court Reporters 541-385-5664
•
•
•
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
4
through this.
There are a lot of people here today. I don't
know how many will end up testifying between these two
hearings. But if we all stick to that and stay to the
point and remain civil to each other which I know everyone
will in this room, we are going to be in great shape.
Dennis.
COMMISSIONER LUKE: Questions are appropriate
too. If you come up and you just have a question you want
to ask, you still need to get on the record and we will do
our best to get an answer for you.
COMMISSIONER DE WOLF: It's real important that
we get everyone on the tape so we have an accurate record
of what was said here today. And so I will now open the
public hearing regarding Order 2002-025 regarding the
formation of the Spring River Special Road District. And I
have got three people's names who want to testify. And if
there are others at the end of that, we will certainly give
you the opportunity. Carl Jansen, you are first.
MR. JANSEN: Good morning. My name is Carl
Jansen, C -a -r-1 J -a -n -s -e -n. I'm a resident on Bessen
Road, I am part of the Spring River Road Association which
is a voluntary group at the present time. I am basically
the road coordinator for the road maintenance activities,
and I thought I would at least provide some input to you as
Cascade Court Reporters 541-385-5664
•
0
•
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
5
to one of the reasons for the urgency of having this
special road district adopted by the voters.
We have 87 owners, lot owners, in the Spring
River Road Association area which is Cooper and Bessen and
the adjoining roads. We sent out invoices to everyone to
contribute towards the road maintenance activities in
October of last year. We have 87 owners. 19 of these
owners at the present time have not paid. We sent out two
invoices over the last two months, and basically we're
looking at nonpayment of about $2,500 which is rather
critical to maintain these roads.
So what we are doing as far as the special road
district and having a levy against the properties is to
increase our income. We have had this problem on an
ongoing basis for years. This is strictly a voluntary
group, and right now a lot of these people that haven't
paid are basically nonresidents in the area. They own
property here, use our roads, but they are not paying for
the maintenance of the roads. So it kind of gives you an
idea that we need this road district adopted on the May
election.
COMMISSIONER DE WOLF: Thank you, Carl. Bob
Anderson.
MR. ANDERSON: Good morning. I'm Bob Anderson.
That's with an o -n, please. I am opposed to the road
Cascade Court Reporters 541-385-5664
•
•
•
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
district that you are trying to form. Mainly because in
the last 25 years we have gotten along with plowing the
road on the dirt road, and now all of a sudden we want to
pave the road.
Now, the reason they want to form the district
is to borrow the money, $50,000 or more, from the bank
which we don't have that kind of money in our district. We
have only got about 30 full-time residents that live at the
area. Now, some of the people that don't pay only come up
in the summer or whatever, and we have gotten along paying
$60 a year. Now this is going to jump all our taxes. It's
going to jump mine about 500 percent. I'm going to go from
$50 to $60 a month to over $300 a month just so --
COMMISSIONER LUKE: Is that a month or a
year?
MR. ANDERSON: A year. Excuse me. And I think
it's just -- it's way out of line for the amount of people
that are there, for the 30 people. The few people that
want the road paved are trying to influence the other 60
people who don't get to vote and they don't get a say in
it. I don't think it's right. Thank you.
COMMISSIONER DE WOLF: Thank you.
MR. WILKINS: Good morning. For the record I
am Dave Wilkins, last name spelled W -i -1 -k -i -n -s. I am a
full-time resident at 17061 Cooper Drive and my house just
Cascade Court Reporters 541-385-5664
U
•
•
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
7
happens to be in the Spring River Association area. As
Carl eloquently pointed out, we are experiencing some
difficulty trying to collect the fair share of the other
people who own property in the Spring River area. That was
our primary purpose of establishing this association.
It's also gotten to the point now,
Commissioners, that there is a safety issue if the roads
aren't plowed properly that there could be some problems
getting some vehicles down to the end of these areas that
we are trying to plow adequately, but it's difficult to do
so with the current money that we have available. So I
look at it as a good thing for the community and a good
safe responsible thing to do as well so I support it.
COMMISSIONER DE WOLF: Great. That's all I
have on my list. Are there any others that would like to
testify on this matter? Yes. Come on up.
MR. HAMMITT: I am Ray Hammitt. That is
spelled H -a -m -m -i -t -t. I am a resident of the Spring River
Road District and I'd like to dispute Bob Anderson's
testimony. He stated that he pays $50 a year or assessment
is $150 a year this last year. And right now we are
running out of money because some people have not paid.
And because of the high volume of snow we have had this
year, we are running out of money to plow the roads there,
and it's mainly because of people that don't pay there.
Cascade Court Reporters 541-385-5664
•
•
•
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
I
And I know a large part of those people come in during the
wintertime and use those roads during the wintertime there,
and they should be responsible for paying their share. And
that's all I have to say. I am in favor of the formation
of the road district. Thank you.
COMMISSIONER DE WOLF: Thank you. Anyone else?
MR. JORGENSEN: I put my name on the list back
there.
COMMISSIONER DE WOLF: This is the Spring
River.
COMMISSIONER LUKE: You may have put your name
on the other one. You are welcome to testify.
COMMISSIONER DE WOLF: Come on up.
MR. JORGENSEN: My name is Jens Jorgensen. The
first name is spelled J -e -n -s, J -o -r -g -e -n -s -e -n.
I live on 17090 Cooper Drive. We have had a residence
there for the last 15 years. And the road maintenance have
been sort of spotty, and the previous speaker I think
pointed out that not everybody is paying. And my neighbor
James Vadheim, they are also in favor of setting up a
special road district so that we can in fact have a
continual income and that we can do some serious planning
about how to upgrade the roads and how to take care of them
and how to plow them. So I hope that the Commissioners
will act very favorably upon this request. Thank you.
Cascade Court Reporters 541-385-5664
•
•
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
9
COMMISSIONER DE WOLF: Thank you. Anyone else?
Okay. I will close the public hearing.
COMMISSIONER LUKE: Again this motion will be
to approve Order No. 2002-025. This is not an endorsement
of the road district or a nonendorsement of the road
district. It just allows us to go to a vote and let the
district people decide.
COMMISSIONER DE WOLF: And I agree with Dennis
that what we are doing is allowing the folks on both sides
of this issue to discuss this over the next -- when is the
election? May 21. Over the next three months or so and
determine for yourselves what's the best way to proceed and
do that in an election which is what we do in this country.
COMMISSIONER DALY: I second.
COMMISSIONER LUKE: I made a motion.
COMMISSIONER DALY: I second.
COMMISSIONER DE WOLF: Commissioner Luke?
COMMISSIONER LUKE: Yes.
COMMISSIONER DE WOLF: Commissioner Daly?
COMMISSIONER DALY: Yes.
COMMISSIONER DE WOLF: Chair vote is yes. The
next item on our agenda is a public forum rather than a
public hearing on the formation of the Sunriver Service
District. Laurie.
MS. GRAGHEAD: Again for the record, Laurie
Cascade Court Reporters 541-385-5664
n
U
•
•
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
10
Craghead, Assistant Legal Counsel. This would be a
proposed formation of county service district --
COMMISSIONER DE WOLF: Could we ask that you
take the conversations outside, Gentlemen. Thanks.
MS. CRAGHEAD: -- that would be established
covering the Sunriver resort area. The name of the
district would be the Sunriver Service District, and the
purpose would be provide services of fire prevention and
protection, security services by contract, law enforcement
services, and emergency medical services, and there are all
statutory references to that.
If approved, this measure would authorize
this district would also have a permanent tax limit of --
right now it's proposed at 3.95 per thousand assessed
value. And so that would be starting with the tax year of
2002, 2003. The governing board of this service district
will be the Board of County Commissioners which is the
county service district.
Some history behind this. This was a district
that the homeowners association board brought to the County
Board of Commissioners asking them to initiate this and
they did so. And we had an initial hearing on January 9,
and then we originally had a hearing scheduled for today.
But there was some paperwork things that needed to be done
so we had to postpone it to the 13th. But the Chair said
Cascade Court Reporters 541-385-5664
•
•
•
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
11
because of the court reporter we will be entering the
transcript into the record at the hearing next week for
anybody who testifies today so that it will be a part of
the official record and so that you will be considered to
be participating in that hearing.
And one thing I did mention at the last hearing
is the criteria for the Board's considerations are will the
area be benefited by a district, and then also did it
comply with the land use regulations. And we again had at
the initial hearing the submittal into the record of the
SSD assessment and facts regarding the compliance with
both the county and state land use regulations, and you
adopted that at the initial hearing and again at the
initial hearing approved the formation of the district
which is under statute -- it's odd. You approve the
formation at the initial hearing and then have a final
hearing in case there's any changes.
COMMISSIONER LUKE: I have a question of staff.
We received a letter that will be put into the record from
Philip Rastle. One of the things he mentioned with some
other things I think will be answered in today's hearing --
but one of them says residents in adjacent communities of
Sunriver would have a vote. And the people who vote are
just within the Sunriver community. Is that not true?
MS. CRAGHEAD: Yes.
Cascade Court Reporters 541-385-5664
�J
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
COMMISSIONER DE WOLF: Within the district
boundaries?
12
COMMISSIONER LUKE: Within the district
boundaries which will be Sunriver.
COMMISSIONER DE WOLF: Prior to that this same
gentleman said that we ought to poll the nonresident owners
as to their feelings on the proposed SSD, and I just wanted
to respond to that. That's something that we would not do.
That's one of the deals about the way that elections
work in this area and across this nation is that registered
voters within the prescribed area in which a decision is
being made are the ones making the choice. And people who
chose to own a home here and not live here, that's one of
the disadvantages that they accept in so doing is that they
don't get to vote on elections within this district unless
they have registered to vote in this district. So I wanted
to clear that up.
And one additional question, Laurie, is that
this is proposed at $3.95 for a tax rate. Does this board
have the authority to change that tax rate?
MS. CRAGHEAD: Yes.
COMMISSIONER DE WOLF: Before putting this out
for a vote?
MS. CRAGHEAD: You would change that at the
final hearing on the final order. This is just the
Cascade Court Reporters 541-385-5664
•
•
C
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
13
proposal at the initial hearing, and that's one of the
reasons I think we're having a final hearing and things
change between the initial. For example, like on the last
one we had to change the maps and legal, change the tax
rate on this.
COMMISSIONER DE WOLF: And I will just tell you
what I am really interested in hearing about personally --
I have not talked with my colleagues about this -- is this
represents in my opinion quite a large increase in the
annual amount of money that people pay for these services.
And so what I am going to want to hear that if somebody is
going to be paying -- I don't know what it ends up being,
150, $200 more in an annual basis. What are people getting
for that extra money? And if not, would it make sense for
their rate to be different?
So as people testify, those that have knowledge
of this particular aspect of it, that's something that I am
interested in. That hasn't become clear to me how all that
extra money, the justification for that. Anyone have
anything else to add?
COMMISSIONER LUKE: No.
COMMISSIONER DE WOLF: We will now open the
public hearing on order -- excuse me -- the public forum on
this formation of the Sunriver Service District.
COMMISSIONER LUKE: I think I speak for all
Cascade Court Reporters 541-385-5664
•
•
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
14
the Commissioners. We want to thank Sunriver for providing
this room. This is a beautiful room and for the sound
system and everything else that's here. This makes a very
nice place to have a public hearing.
COMMISSIONER DE WOLF: In fact, Rick Isham,
our county counsel, and I were talking at the beginning of
the meeting and we have decided to remodel our board room
to match this. And when The Bulletin complains that we are
being too fancy, we expect real strong support from
Sunriver following your lead on this.
COMMISSIONER LUKE: I believe this is private
funds that did this and not public.
COMMISSIONER DE WOLF: So now I know what we
can do with the extra money from this road district. The
first person that I have on the list is Mike Brannan.
MR. BRANNAN: Thank you. Good morning. My
name is Mike Brannan, B -r -a -n -n -a -n, and I am a permanent
resident of Sunriver. I am speaking on behalf of the
Sunriver board of directors. I am vice president of the
board, and this board spent a lot of time since last summer
when we had an advisory vote with regard to the setting up
of a district. That advisory vote was for different
reasons than why we are now asking the Board of County
Commissioners to consider this district.
At the time we had -- in the years past we had
Cascade Court Reporters 541-385-5664
1
• 2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
• 14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
•
15
an ad hoc committee developing our long range plan to look
at the future of Sunriver, where we were going, where did
we want to be, and the consensus of that study was that the
vast majority of Sunriver residents and property owners
wanted to stay the same as we are and maintain property
values and try to maintain the atmosphere, the ambiance,
that exists in Sunriver.
So it was logical for owners at that time when
the option was should we form a district which the reason
for that was to enhance the retention of our fire and
police personnel through their ability to be eligible for
PERS membership, et cetera, or should we stay the same, and
that's exactly the way it was written on that ballot. Only
1,800 of the 4,100 property owners in Sunriver -- and those
are not all residents of Deschutes County obviously --
voted on that and that particular election failed at
54 percent of those who did send in their ballots.
Since that time or about the same time that
those ballots were out, our board took some position on
that issue. We learned from Sheriff Stiles that he was
concerned about the commissioning of our police department,
and ensuing meetings with the Sheriff's office we learned
0
the reasons for his discomfort with that and could
understand.
And after a lot of soul searching on our part,
Cascade Court Reporters 541-385-5664
•
•
•
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
16
as a board of directors we basically came to the conclusion
that the only way we could stay the same was to form a
district because that way our police department could
remain as it is now, that is, a fully functioning
authorized police department. Because if the Sheriff chose
to pull the commissions of our police, they would have no
authority as police. And since our homeowners did want to
maintain our police as we were, that was our way of doing
it. And since then the Sheriff has stated that, yes, this
is a logical and viable way to accomplish that. Thus we
unanimously as a board came to your commission to ask that
this be put on the May ballot.
Now, as far as the tax rates are concerned --
and I would say this only for the benefit of our
homeowners here. And if I am stating it wrong, I hope
someone will correct me. But the currently stated tax rate
of 3.95 is the upper limit. You can not exceed that once
you are there. It's not what's going to be taxed on a
first year basis.
Our board and our finance committee have been
looking at those expenses, and frankly we see the first
year's rates probably in the neighborhood of $3.00 and
probably a little bit over that. And we want to go over
these numbers with the Board of County Commissioners and
with your treasurer and make sure we are on the right
Cascade Court Reporters 541-385-5664
.7
n
U
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
17
track. But we see the rate being no where near 3.95, and
we projected our numbers out for quite a long ways.
COMMISSIONER DE WOLF: I guess that's what
troubles me is all districts operate with a maximum tax
rate. To my knowledge this board is the only municipality
or district of any kind in the State of Oregon that for a
couple of years levied less than the full amount of it's
tax rate. And once you have a tax rate, there is nothing
that prevents the governing board from levying that full
tax rate. And that's -- I mean my sense is if I am a voter
down here, that would be my biggest concern. Okay. We are
going to only levy $3.00, but we have the authority to levy
3.95. So if you only need 75 percent of that, then why not
establish the $3.00 as your permanent tax rate?
MR. BRANNAN: Thank you very much. That is
exactly what our thinking is.
COMMISSIONER LUKE: There is a problem. From
a government standpoint is that if you go out for a
permanent rate and that permanent rate is only going to
last you for three, four, five years or even 10 years, it's
extremely difficult to get around that. You are going to
have to go out for a levy, and you are going to have to do
exactly what the Sheriff is doing now. Every three or four
years you are going to have to go out there and not know
whether you are going to have the funds to operate.
Cascade Court Reporters 541-385-5664
0
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
E-:3
And I take a little different position than
Tom. I think you need to set a rate you can live with for
a lot of years, that you may not levy the whole amount
which we didn't. We didn't levy the full amount, and even
this last time when we did that money went into a reserve
account so hopefully we don't have to go out for levy.
So from my standpoint this is your call down
here. This is not our call. You guys have to set your
rate. But I would surely look at a rate that's going to
last you 10, 15 or 20 years and be able to live within
that. Because new growth is the only thing that increases
your income. And without -- one of these days Sunriver is
going to build out and you are not going to have the new
growth to help offset your costs. And costs keep going up.
And I think personally you need that flexibility. But
that's your call down here.
MR. BRANNAN: That's exactly what the board is
currently wrestling with and will be in contact with your
offices as well.
COMMISSIONER DE WOLF: Next is Gary Fiebick.
Before you start, Gary, one thing that Mike Meyers pointed
out to me the governing body that would set the amount
that's levied is actually the county budget committee made
up of the three County Commissioners and three citizen
members one of whom is Lee Smith who lives down here in
Cascade Court Reporters 541-385-5664
•
•
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
19
Sunriver. So thank you for that clarification. So each
year if this was approved at 3.95, whatever the amount was
levied has to be approved by the budget committee of
Deschutes County. Gary.
MR. FIEBICK: Thank you. Gary Fiebick,
F -i -e -b -i -c -k, general manager for the owners association
at Sunriver working on this project. Just wanted to
address we will have some final numbers and proposals to
the Commissioners before the final hearing next week. It's
good that you ask the questions about looking at the cost,
total cost, of the district and operation of Sunriver
association being a little higher than they are combined
today.
I might just review for everybody. You
remember most of what's going on today in the corporate
world or even in cities and sometimes in districts is there
are mergers and acquisitions, and what they are doing is
consolidating the operating costs of two organizations into
one, and that's where they save a lot of money. In this
case what we're proposing is a vote whereby there would be
splitting of one organization into two, and therefore there
are some increased costs just basically because each
organization has certain fixed costs they have to cover in
order to operate as a separate entity. And so that is part
of the difference there.
Cascade Court Reporters 541-385-5664
to
•
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
20
Secondly another benefit for the district, for
the community, would be some reduction of the tort
liability particularly in terms of having these public
safety operations in the district.
Third we think that the benefits to employees
are improved particularly with regard to disabilities and
other insurance through PERS. But what we expect there
then is a reduction of turnover from the two departments
from what we have had in the past.
COMMISSIONER DE WOLF: You are losing some of
your staff to other local agencies?
MR. FIEBICK: Particularly the police
department becomes a great training agency. We have people
that are hired by Deschutes County Sheriff, recently by
Crook County Sheriff, and by other cities. We have a
gentleman going to Corvallis in a couple of weeks.
COMMISSIONER DE WOLF: We all appreciate the
fine training that you are giving.
COMMISSIONER LUKE: By the same token the
Sheriff losses people to the City of Bend and other
agencies too.
COMMISSIONER DE WOLF: So we need you.
MR. FIEBICK: We hope to slow that down. The
fourth point is that we are in the process of doing a
reconciliation of the changes in the total costs and that's
Cascade Court Reporters 541-385-5664
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
• 25
21
under development. We will be able to share that with
owners and with the board next week. I would think we
could get there by then.
And then finally the board of directors at a
work session last week does recommend that a new tax rate,
maximum tax rate, be set so that the district can operate
at least eight years without having to look for a special
levy. And we all can do forecasts and estimates of budgets
for the first year and first couple years, but beyond that
unless somebody has a better forecasting ball than I do,
all bets are off a little bit. So there has to hP _qnma
ability to operate and have some contingency money and
surplus moneys available for the unknowns that can happen a
few years out. So that's all I have to state this mnrninrr_
.And we will respond to any questions appropriate.
COMMISSIONER LUKE: Tom mentioned that there is
a six -person budget committee, three County Commissioners
and three citizens members. When we do Black Butte's
budget, their people come and do a presentation to us as a
public hearing, and you are welcome to come in and testify
on that budget. And the rate that they set for that year
if it's -- most of the time it's not the maximum rate.
Sometimes it is. So those are all public hearings. But
the board members from Black Butte also have their own
public hearing in the community and talk about it with
Cascade Court Reporters 541-385-5664
•
•
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
22
their homeowners and those kind of things before they come
to the budget committee. It's a very public process when
you do set the rate each year, not the permanent rate each
year.
MR. FIEBICK: Right. And that's my
understanding that maybe some of the people in the audience
don't understand that we are working with your legal
counsel to set up a district managing board who would be
responsible for that. And if that's a five member board,
then two of those members would be from the current or then
sitting SROA board so they would go through development of
the budget and present it to the budget committee.
COMMISSIONER LUKE: When we met with the Black
Butte board just recently, they served us a very nice
dinner in their lodge.
MR. FIEBICK: We were going to invite you to
lunch today, but since Tom is leaving early we didn't think
it would be fair.
COMMISSIONER DE WOLF: Third is Shirley -- and
I am sorry. I can't read the handwriting. M -i -1 -d -e -s.
MS. MILDES: I am Shirley Mildes, M -i -1 -d -e -s,
and I am president of the board of directors here in
Sunriver. Mike and Gary have presented the facts very well
and I just wanted to add a note about nonresidents. That
is a big concern here in Sunriver. We only have about
Cascade Court Reporters 541-385-5664
•
•
•
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
23
1,500 full-time residents. We are trying to set -- this is
going to be a managing board which is made up of -- we are
proposing five people, and of those five people two will be
SROA board members, three will be residents or owners is
what I want to say. They can be either resident or
nonresident.
So in that way we are hoping that the
nonresident will have representation through that board and
also by the election of the SROA board -- the SROA board
will be looking at the managing board and the managing
board will be under the Commissioners. But in those ways
we hope to involve the nonresidents and give them an
opportunity to participate. Thank you
COMMISSIONER DE WOLF: Thank you, Shirley.
Next is Jim Henshaw.
COMMISSIONER LUKE: While Jim is coming up, I
would like to point out when we did have our yearly meeting
with the Black Butte board they did have one nonresident
that was on their board.
MR. HENSHAW: I am Jim Henshaw, H -e -n -s -h -a -w.
I am a permanent 12 -year resident of Sunriver, and I have
been on the citizen patrol. That's the group I am speaking
for. The Sunriver citizen patrol is a volunteer public
service group and actually we have a federal tax exempt
status. We provide essentially backup to the police
Cascade Court Reporters 541-385-5664
•
•
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
24
department. We do traffic control, we do parking control,
take animals to the pound and act as the eyes and ears for
the police department.
We are also actively involved in the planning
for any emergency evacuation. We go through drills, and we
are prepared to go out and direct traffic to get you out of
here if we have a fire or a problem on the railroad. We
also put new maps in the boxes.
Quite frankly we would hate to lose any more of
our highly qualified police officers, and we wanted to take
this opportunity to announce that last night at our monthly
meeting we passed a resolution that reads as follows:
Should the Sunriver Service District not be formed, the
citizen patrol will disband. Thank you.
COMMISSIONER DE WOLF: Can I ask a question
because I'm not sure I understand that. If the district
does not form --
MR. HENSHAW: If a district is not formed, the
citizen patrol will disband. We are very uneasy about
being out there without radio contact with immediate police
backup.
COMMISSIONER DE WOLF: So in other words, and
if the district does pass --
MR. HENSHAW: We will remain just as we are.
We will continue to provide the services.
Cascade Court Reporters 541-385-5664
•
11
•
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
25
COMMISSIONER DE WOLF: So is that then -- I
just want to be clear. That's an indication of your
support for the formation?
MR. HENSHAW: 100 percent support.
COMMISSIONER DE WOLF: Thank you. Randy
Egertson.
MR. EGERTSON: My name is Randy Egertson and
that's spelled E -g -e -r -t -s -o -n. I am a resident of
Sunriver and immediate past present of the board of
directors. And I find myself under the circumstances that
we face today to be in support of forming a district, and
I would like to speak just specifically to the maximum tax
rate issue. I think that there are two reasons why the
3.95 which was initially set kind of like a strongman is
way too high and we must lower that maximum tax rate
substantially. I think the board is talking about down
to 350, and I am suggesting even as low as between 330 or
335 for two reasons.
Number one, we probably have 100 or 150 owners
here which is about 10 percent, and unfortunately many,
many people don't pay a lot of attention to these things
until they have to vote. And the 3.95 is going to scare
the daylights out of a lot of them and I think will be a
real negative to getting the district passed. A lot of
people will see that as what they are going to be taxed
Cascade Court Reporters 541-385-5664
• 1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
• 25
26
tomorrow the first year and not really understand -- in
spite of all the education we try to do, there still will
be a lot of people that won't understand that.
Secondly, I think Sunriver is a very stable
community, we have fixed borders, we are built out to about
90 percent. Our permanent residency rate has stayed
stable. Our police and fire departments are staffed and
equiped now to meet all the needs that we have. Thus the
opportunity for unexpected or unknown things to arise in
the future that would cause the governing board to have to
ask for more taxes is very, very small.
And I don't think that we should go into this
with a tax rate -- the maximum tax rate that would allow
the board to continue to raise the levy for a long period
of time without coming back to the owners and explaining
why the tax levy needs to be increased dramatically. I am
also currently on the finance committee, and I know the
board will be coming to you with detailed information
between now and next week.
But I think that the projections that we are
looking at now for what the levies will need to be over the
next eight to 10 years don't even approach $3.30. So I
would encourage you to get that maximum tax rate as low as
you possibly feel is appropriate.
COMMISSIONER LUKE: I would like to point out I
Cascade Court Reporters 541-385-5664
• 1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
• 14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
• 25
27
am not here to say 3.95 is the number. That has to be a
determination by the residents down here and what you guys
want to submit. But as you look at this over the next
week, understand that police and fire are under
mandatory -- what's the word? -- binding arbitration, and
the wages that are set for them are not determined by you.
They are determined by somebody from outside the area.
And they will look at the City of Bend, they
will look at the Sheriff's office and the City of Redmond
and they will make a determination. And you don't have a
some people off to stay within your budget.
My only suggestion is as you take that into
account if you set a rate that you are not going to have to
change for maybe 10 years hopefully and you never get
there, but I am not here to tell you what rate that is.
That is a determination for your budget committee.
MR. EGERTSON: I think that the budget planning
projections try to take that into consideration. And
frankly I don't have a problem with the thought that the
district might have to come back to the voters in four
years to ask for a levy because I think the increase --
because I think if we do, that just keeps them honest and
keeps them having to provide the right justification for
what they are doing and what the costs are going up. To me
Cascade Court Reporters 541-385-5664
C:
•
J
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
W-1
a 10 -year span is not that big a deal. I will be more than
happy to vote in four years, if necessary.
COMMISSIONER DE WOLF: I want to be clear.
The people who are proposing this, the tax rate that they
settle on, by the time of the public hearing I am not going
to set a different rate, have this fail and then it's my
fault or have it pass and the other half of the people say
it's my fault or our fault. When these things come
before me just speaking for myself, I will either approve
or disapprove based on the proposal that's brought next
week. And if that's 3.95, so be it. If it's 3.30, so be
it.
What I am trying to explain is that from what I
have been hearing, these are the kinds of questions that
need to be answered. And if 3.95 is the rate, those
questions get answered on election day in May. And so I am
not here saying that if 3.95 is the number that people
settle on, that I am going to say we are going to go 3.30
or nothing. And I just wanted to clarify that.
MR. EGERTSON: And it sounds to me like you as
the Commissioners will be within reason willing to accept
whatever our board comes to you with and suggest as what
they want the tax rate to be.
COMMISSIONER LUKE: The district is the one
that has to live with it. You have to provide the
Cascade Court Reporters 541-385-5664
•
•
•
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
29
services with the rate that you choose. And we will
provide as much information as possible from our county
administrator and our finance people to help you get to
that decision, but that decision is yours.
COMMISSIONER DE WOLF: And Dennis is exactly
right. We do want to be as helpful as we can be, but I
think that all of three us would agree clearly that this is
a local decision when these things come to an election.
And the questions I am raising are questions I would raise
if I lived here, and they are questions that have been
raised to me by people who do live here.
And if in fact you come to the conclusion that
at 3.95 this is going to fail, then it wouldn't be very
wise to move forward with this election. If you can find a
different number that works and you feel more confident,
great. If 3.95 feels right -- but those are the kind of
questions that I need answered that will help voters to
make a decision over the next three months, and then people
on both sides will have their own sales job to do with the
voters.
MR. EGERTSON: Then I would say that the
remarks I made generally for you I would redirect then to
our current board and tell them to sharpen their pencil
before they come back to you.
COMMISSIONER DE WOLF: Thank you.
Cascade Court Reporters 541-385-5664
C J
•
•
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
0
MR. MEYERS: This is in regards to some
comments on PERS and making some projection in the future.
But some of the speakers have been commenting that they are
making the projections in their budgets that they see some
stability over the long haul here on this budget. Three
weeks ago the county thought that we had a two and a half
million dollar surplus in our PERS account, and two weeks
ago we found out we had a $6 million deficit. And next
year we even projected to have a $12 million deficit.
The state agencies went from a $39 million
surplus to $1.1 billion deficit. And so you can't make
these budget projections thinking that there is going to be
some certainty in these figures. These are real expensive
costs that we don't know how we are going to handle these.
I don't think the state has even come to grips on how they
are going to handle it. The entire PERS account is
$3.3 billion in the hole right now.
COMMISSIONER LUKE: For one year.
MR. MEYERS: For one year.
COMMISSIONER DE WOLF: I can't believe nobody
is talking about this when we have got 700 million at the
state legislature and PERS alone is --
MR. MEYERS: $3.3 billion. I want to get those
on the record that everything isn't predictable. You can
be hit by some of these things, and you should take that
Cascade Court Reporters 541-385-5664
•
•
•
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
31
into account with your rate so you can be prepared to deal
with it.
COMMISSIONER DE WOLF: Okay. York Richardson.
MR. RICHARDSON: There has been plenty of
spellings of the word York in the last few months, but it
is Y -o -r -k. Richardson, R -i -c -h -a -r -d -s -o -n. Some of my
questions have been answered. However, the numbers that
are presented to the homeowners have every effect on the
passing or failure of this issue. And I think that as we
are coming up with and everybody is considering what the
costs are, I want to be sure that whoever is coming up with
a number is taking all of the figures into consideration
including the effect of our own police department on our
county taxes.
We are currently enjoying a relief with respect
to rural areas because we do have a police department.
That, of course, is going to be maintained, that
differential will be maintained if we maintain our own
police department. If we rely on the county sheriff for
all of our police protection, our rate will go up on our
county taxes eliminating that relief that we have for
having our own police department.
And so that figure needs to come into
consideration when people are comparing what the difference
is in what they are paying now and what they will be paying
Cascade Court Reporters 541-385-5664
• 1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
i
32
after the establishment of a public service district.
Also of course -- and I think that this has
been taken into consideration -- the annual assessment by
ourselves through our Sunriver Owners Association board
will be decreased by the amount that the board is not going
to have to budget and pay from our maintenance dues.
And lastly, I have great questions in my mind
as to what is going to happen to our fire station which is
not yet paid off. If the county decides not to have a fire
station here in Sunriver, then what are we going to do with
that building, number one? If they do decide to have the
station as it is now, there will be some moneys, I presume,
paid by the county to the Sunriver Owners Association for
the utilization of that building.
The same thing has to do with our police
department location and the new administration building.
And also consideration points of what is going to happen
not only to our very capable police and fire personnel,
what's going to happen to your police cars? What is going
to happen to our police uniforms that we own? What is
going to happen to our existing moneys which reside in our
retirement fund for those personnel?
All of these are factors which must be taken
into consideration and all of which have great latitude in
how they are handled. And until those facts are known, our
Cascade Court Reporters 541-385-5664
•
•
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
33
board and our general manager have an additional very much
more difficult program in setting up what the tax rate will
be. Thank you.
COMMISSIONER LUKE: I would just like to point
out Deschutes County does not do fire. You have rural fire
protection districts that do that outside your urban areas.
You have your own fire department here. This district if
formed will have the ability to do fire, ambulance and
police services, but we don't do fire.
MR. RICHARDSON: Well, someone does. Excuse me
for --
COMMISSIONER LUKE: I just wanted to point out
rural fire protection districts are the ones that have the
stations just down the road. Those are taxing districts on
their own.
COMMISSIONER DE WOLF: And if this doesn't
pass, it would remain the way it is now. It wouldn't be
anything that the county would step into. The other thing
is if I remember correctly, Sheriff, there's a difference
of about $3.35 roughly?
SHERIFF STILES: They are paying 78 right now.
Unincorporated is $1.12.
COMMISSIONER DE WOLF: And so that's the
difference that you are looking at is $0.34 difference
between --
Cascade Court Reporters 541-385-5664
•
•
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
34
MR. RICHARDSON: That's true as far the tax is
concerned. But we have also paid for all of the
appurtenances that go with creating a police department.
COMMISSIONER DE WOLF: I understand that. What
I am trying to point out -- if I could finish, please. The
thing I am trying to point out is you are talking about
$0.34 difference and that does have an impact. But when we
are talking $3.95, $0.34 isn't a huge amount there. That
is taken into account in the information that I have
received. The difference, though, so far on what I have
seen is that the homeowners dues being lowered would not be
lowered to a point where people are not paying more money.
Homeowners would actually be paying, from I have seen,
somewhere in the $125 a year average more than they are
paying currently, and that's where my concern was raised
here.
You are absolutely right. All these things
need to be taken into account and need to be answered, and
I would assume that most of these questions will have some
form of answer by next week's hearing. And beyond that if
this is finalized and approved, we will go to a May ballot,
and you will all be hearing the arguments on both sides for
the next 90 days.
MR. RICHARDSON: Yes. And one factor which
also comes greatly into play is that we have a fixed rate
Cascade Court Reporters 541-385-5664
• 1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
01 25
35
per property assessment across the board the same
regardless of whether you are living in $100,000 house or
$1 million house. What's going to happen when this occurs
is that it's going to be taxed on the basis of the assessed
valuation of the house, and that's going to make a great
deal more difference than any other single factor.
And as long as I brought up this factor of
assessed valuation, I think that the county assessor is way
off base assessing my house at what my neighbor sold his
house for. I can take any of you and the assessor too into
different houses and the difference in cost of construction
between a minimal figure which has been expressed on TV
and advertising for some homes of about 35, 38 dollars a
square foot and the cost of building that same house with
the most deluxe features of tiles and wall hangings and
coverings and window area and tile and bathroom fixtures
and all of those other factors that go in it. It can be a
difference of between this 35, 38 dollar level and $150
a square foot at the minimum difference.
COMMISSIONER DE WOLF: What I would point out
to you is that the assessor is a separately elected
official and we have virtually no authority. And you do
have an
appeal
process
that is
free in
terms of
the
appeal
itself.
And we
tried
to get --
some of
us tried
to
get a
charter passed over a year ago in which the assessor would
Cascade Court Reporters 541-385-5664
•
•
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
36
be an appointed position and would report to the Board of
County Commissioners. That was trounced about 75 percent
to 25 percent. And so that the people living in this
county apparently like this system as it exists regarding
the --
COMMISSIONER LUKE: Some people are bitter.
I need to ask you a question. Does the current -- does the
commercial property in Sunriver pay into the homeowners
dues or anything? How do they pay into --
MR. RICHARDSON: That would really be a better
question addressed to Mr. Fiebick. But my understanding is
that, yes, that there is a formula --
COMMISSIONER DE WOLF: We have an affirmative
nod that they do.
MR. RICHARDSON: -- for addressing that and
they do pay more than a single property assessment
naturally. And if they have a bunch of condominiums or
houses that they rent out and lodging and the building you
are in and so forth, there are factors that go into that,
but I am not privy to the total formula.
COMMISSIONER DE WOLF: Thank you.
COMMISSIONER LUKE: I notice Tom is in the back
of the room. Earlier we thanked Sunriver for their
hospitality. You guys, this is very nice.
COMMISSIONER DE WOLF: Next I believe is Harvey
Cascade Court Reporters 541-385-5664
•
I]
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
ONJ
Abrams.
MR. ABRAMS: I am Harvey Abrams, M.D. I have
lived in Sunriver for 10 years hidden behind the screens.
I don't get active in anything. So standing up here is
unusual for me. I am a founding partner, senior partner
and managing partner of Roseburg Anesthesiologists. We
have owned property in Central Oregon around Sunriver since
1976. I do not object to the district as such. I am in
full support of our police and fire departments and I think
they need more help.
Past presidents of the board of Sunriver have
spoken to me at length with regard to the problems of
employee turnover, and their positions have flip-flopped
back and forth between a taxing district and remaining as
we are. In addition their positions flip-flop between
forming a city government and remaining as we are over the
years. In addition their positions have flip-flopped
between buying the old school and converting it to a
meeting place for permanent residents of Sunriver and
abandoning that concept. So you see, as the winds of time
blow, the whims and directions of the board also blow.
Fortunately as I like to say in spite of and
because of Sunriver's governments and the way it's put
together like the Deschutes, it just keeps rolling along.
I think progress is a good thing. It's unfortunate when
Cascade Court Reporters 541-385-5664
•
•
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
38
people want to obstruct progress. But I do not think that
progress comes from arbitrary position that the voters are
placed in. Future of raising the levy because -- future
possibility of raising a levy because of increased costs
that can be not predicted at that time would mean holding a
shotgun to the head of the voter. Either you vote for
increasing your own levy or you lose your police and you
lose your fire. That's a no-win situation. That's not a
choice.
Now, as far as the cost of the present levy, if
it does not provide us with more services, it's insane.
Because the present levy will raise the average taxes in
Sunriver by 50 percent, and the spread of taxation in
Sunriver will go from somewhere around $1,800 a year for
the lowest to $15,000 for the highest appraisal of property
in Sunriver.
Now, right now we pay between eight and nine
dollars a thousand, and for that we get schools, we get
roads, we get other county maintenance services. The only
thing we don't get is police and fire which according to
the figures and the very few figures that have been
promulgated by the board state that that essentially costs
us about 50 bucks a month because that's about what this
fire district and police district will save us.
Now, if the median cost of taxes in Sunriver
Cascade Court Reporters 541-385-5664
•
•
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
39
goes to somewhere around $6,000 as a result of this levy,
we have to ask what are we getting for $6,000 when the
median cost right now of taxes in Sunriver is only about
$3,500 plus our $800 a year annual assessment. I am not
against increased taxes for better government, and I am not
against the police and fire department getting the benefits
of PERS. I think they need it. But I am against our
voting on something that we do not have all the figures,
and in spite of what the board has said, there has been a
lack of communication from the board and a real rush and a
push. We have not gotten the dollar data information, what
kind of services we are going to get and how far in the
future these costs are going to take us. Thank you.
COMMISSIONER DE WOLF: I have a question for
YOU. You tossed out a number of figures here that conflict
with some of what I have heard. You said that taxes will
go up 50 percent and that the highest rated person will pay
an additional $15,000 a year, that the median cost --
MR. ABRAMS: No, will pay 15,000 total.
COMMISSIONER DE WOLF: Including -- so not
15,000 additional, 15,000 total?
MR. ABRAMS: If you can $100,000 at $4.00 a
thousand, that's $400. If you take a million dollar house
at $4.00 a thousand, that's $4,000. If you take the median
home at 450 to $500,000 valuation in Sunriver, figure it
Cascade Court Reporters 541-385-5664
•
•
•
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
40
out. It's 2,500, $3,000 more. And that same median home
is only paying $3,500 in taxes right now.
COMMISSIONER DE WOLF: What my request of you
is that by the time we meet next week, if you could provide
some documentation of what you have stated here today
because what I have --
MR. ABRAMS: With all due respect --
COMMISSIONER DE WOLF: May I finish, please?
MR. ABRAMS: You can finish.
COMMISSIONER DE WOLF: The most recent
information I received is that the increase on the average
value would go up a little over 20 percent. And if in fact
it's 50 percent, that's information I nded to know.
MR. ABRAMS: Well, your own -- of course, it's
not your own but the county board of assessors can give you
the average valuations for Sunriver. I am not privy to
walk into the county board of assessors and say spend a
half hour getting me this information.
COMMISSIONER DE WOLF: Actually you are, and
what I want to point out to you is what I base my decision
on is information in the record. I don't create the
information for the record.
MR. ABRAMS: I will seek out the average
valuation or median valuation for Sunriver.
COMMISSIONER LUKE: The total rate for Sunriver
Cascade Court Reporters 541-385-5664
•
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
41
including schools and the county levies and then the bonds
for the schools and the county are $10.18 a thousand.
That's the total rate right now. Which is compared to
almost any place else -- of course, you have the homeowners
dues. You have homeowners dues and you pay for a lot of
these things outside your taxes.
MR. ABRAMS: You just made my argument.
Because $4.00 a thousand plus $10.00 a thousand you are at
40 percent increase right there.
COMMISSIONER DE WOLF: What I want you to
understand I am not disagreeing with your position. I just
want to know that the position that you have is clear to
me. If you can put that down on a page so that I have
something to compare to, it would help me to understand
your position.
MR. ABRAMS: I understand. I will do my best
to prepare whatever you need. But the argument is made.
And once again government for government sake is not the
direction we should be taking. It's for better services.
And until our board can demonstrate that we are going to
get $4.00 worth of extra benefit from better services -- I
have one more point to make.
And the police departments are not going to be
happy with what I have to say here. But the police
departments have done a fine job in Sunriver over the
Cascade Court Reporters 541-385-5664
•
1-1
•
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
42
years, and I don't know that any of them has ever withdrawn
a side arm. It's possible they have. Nonetheless, I
wonder do we need armed police guards in Sunriver?
Certainly we need reporting personnel. But do we need
police guards in Sunriver anymore than we need armed police
guards in the major malls? Thank you.
COMMISSIONER DE WOLF: Thank you very much.
And the last name I have on here is Jens Jorgensen who
testified earlier, and I am assuming that Jens either left
or -- and that's the last name I have on the list. Are
there any others who would like to testify? Yes, sir.
COMMISSIONER LUKE: We have two hands. Anyone
else? There's quite a few.
MR. EDWARDS: My name is Don Edwards. I am a
13 -year permanent resident here in Sunriver. And I am not
speaking on either for or against it, but I think we ought
to bring the figures to mind a little more. I have been
told that our monthly dues to the SROA will be reduced by
about $39 a month if we go ahead with this service
district. $39 a month times 12 months is $468 we don't
spend. On the other hand if we spend 3.95 per thousand
assessed, for a $200,000 times 35 that's $790. $790 less
468 you are paying $332 for a $200,000 assessed house. For
a $300,000 assessed house you will be paying $1,185 less
468 you will be paying 717 more. And for a $400,000 house
Cascade Court Reporters 541-385-5664
1
• 2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
• 14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
•
43
you would be paying $1,580 less 468 for 1,112 more. My
question is where does this money go? Why are we paying
extra? What are we getting for our money?
COMMISSIONER DE WOLF: Thank you.
MR. KREISS: My name is Jim Kreiss,
studying the services delivered by police and fire. First
I want to thank the County Commissioners for coming here.
I know you enjoy the building, but we are happy that you
came here so we didn't have to come into town again to meet
with you. We appreciate that.
And second I want to thank Sheriff Stiles
for being here today and for being clear about the kind of
services not only that we have in Sunriver but that we
could expect under a contract with the Sheriff. He's been
very up front about that. And he wants to also make us
understand what happens to our police department if we
don't have local control under our board of directors with
an assistant board working with the County Commissioners in
the formation of this service district.
I think after studying this thing since 1998
with the public safety committee, coming to the board,
going through the processes, looking at the possible
inclusion of the fire department with the La Pine district,
Cascade Court Reporters 541-385-5664
r�
U
C:
C
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
looking at what we want to do with our police department,
it's imperative that at this time that we form the district
regardless of the impact that it's going to have on some of
US.
I am a homeowner. I have a house that's worth
more than the average amount. I expect to pay about $300
more per year, maybe 400, for the formation of the services
district. If I want to keep my police department under my
local control giving me the services in Sunriver that I
expect, then I think that somewhere down the line I am
going to have to pay more money. That means the guy next
door who has the empty lot is going to pay less for once.
Sunriver's taxing policy has been out of whack.
We know that. The million dollar house pays the same
amount as the empty lot. Somewhere along the line if we
are going to keep the services and provide the kind of
effect that we need to have, we are going to have to
balance that out. I think we need the service district
now. Thank you very much.
COMMISSIONER DE WOLF: Thank you. What was your
name again?
MR. KREISS: Jim Kreiss.
COMMISSIONER DE WOLF: Yes, sir.
MR. GHORMLEY: Good morning. My name is Dave
Ghormley, G -h -o -r -m -l -e -y. I am not here to say yes or no.
Cascade Court Reporters 541-385-5664
1
• 2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
• 14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
45
I personally don't know exactly where I want to come down
on this vote, and we have got 90 days to make that decision
once we set the tax rate. I am interested in seeing that
all the facts that we need to make an intelligent vote are
spread out in front of us, and my own feeling is that there
is some that aren't yet dealt with properly.
And incidentally I don't mind -- if we settle
on a tax rate, I don't mind going back to the voters down
here for more. We do this all the time. And this is a
good responsive intelligent community and it isn't
something that takes a lot of hoopla. We just need the
facts and we will go ahead and vote. If the need is
justified, we will vote for it. And if the need isn't
justified, we won't vote for it. So I don't think the
issue of going back for a levy four years from now, five
years, six years is really pertinent because this community
will turn out and give you a fast answer if you need more
money, and I think everybody who has served on the board
would understand that.
I want to talk about two issues. One is equity
and the other is the costs that are being presented.
There's a difference of opinion that could amount to about
in very rough figures up to around $0.30 on the tax rate of
whether we should give certain assets and certain services
to the new district or whether we should charge --
Cascade Court Reporters 541-385-5664
0
•
•
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
COMMISSIONER DE WOLF: We meaning the owners
association?
M
MR. GHORMLEY: SROA. Right. For instance, the
fire house. I think I am right, Gary. I think we got
200,000 bucks left still to pay on the fire house. Is that
about right? $300,000 Pete is saying. That's three more
payments and then we own it or something like that. Maybe
four more payments. Why are we going to charge the new
district rent and buy it back all over again? It sounds to
me like what we are doing is we are shifting the cost of
the fire house to those who have more expensive properties.
So we are going to go out here now and pay a million
dollars over a period of time in rent to buy something that
the community already owns. And this isn't the district
versus SROA. This is us because the district is us and
SROA is us.
COMMISSIONER DE WOLF: Is it the same
boundaries?
MR. GHORMLEY: Same boundaries. Exactly. So
why are we shifting a million dollars worth of cost in the
form of a rent from the district to the homeowners
association?
And secondly, the same thing with the fire
trucks and the police cars and the uniforms and all this
other stuff that York was talking about. Why are we
Cascade Court Reporters 541-385-5664
C�
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
47
selling that to the district? What are we going to do with
this cash? Why do we need it?
Same
thing with
the administrative
services we
are proposing to
provide.
We have one general
manager, we
have one accounting department, and now we are proposing to
sell part of that to the district. If it will help bring
the tax rate down, to me it would be greater equality
by donating those services to the district. What happens
if we do? If we donate those services, if we donate the
facilities, if we donate the reserve funds, if we donate
nature the equipment, then what have you done? You have
reduced tax rate and increased slightly the homeowners'
13 1 rate.
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
Now think about equality. Isn't that a fairer
deal? Does the guy who has a $100,000 house or a pole
house over here with a $50,000 house, does he have any less
need of fire and police than somebody in an $800,000 house?
I don't think so. Does the fellow who lives in Corvallis
or Salem who wants to be sure that somebody doesn't come in
and break into his house, does he have any less need of
police protection than the person who is living here all
the time? I don't think he does.
So I think if you want to talk your way through
this, I think what the board has not done yet is said what
is fair, and I see no reason to shift these costs to those
Cascade Court Reporters 541-385-5664
•
•
•
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
people and those facilities that have higher values.
I am going to bring the resort into this too
even though they haven't asked me to do this. The resort
is going to take a big time hit on this deal. If there is
one thing I want to have around this community is a healthy
resort. I want to be sure it's profitable and first class.
And here we're talking about something that will load them
up with a bunch of costs which is in violation of what we
originally agreed to do in our consolidated plan.
COMMISSIONER DE WOLF: Can you explain why that
is.
MR. GHORMLEY: Because there's a sweetheart
deal that the resort wrote when it turned all these assets
over to the homeowners association. They get a
preferential break on homeowner fees.
COMMISSIONER DE WOLF: So then they would be
responsible for --
MR. GHORMLEY: Now all of a sudden they are
going to get taxed on the basis of their assessed
valuation and they are going to take a load. And before we
go loading them up with this, I think we better think about
the impact on the homeowners' values.
The other point I want to talk about is cost.
To me the figures that are being presented are hopeful
costs. I think Marty brought it out exactly right over
Cascade Court Reporters 541-385-5664
•
•
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
49
here, and that is if you take this same budget and say
let's pretend we're in Bend, what would these costs look
like, I think you are going to get a far different picture
of what it's going to cost to pay for the labor to perform
these functions. And when you hear horror stories on PERS
like we just heard, I get very, very nervous.
Now, the homeowners association and all the
people on the public safety committee and you heard a
little bit about the pressure they are putting on down here
for the citizens patrol now threatening to go out of
business if this doesn't pass, this is the kind of hoopla
that we are getting. But on the other hand what we are
really talking about is what I need as an old fogey is I
need a good ambulance service. And the biggest risk we got
around here is fire, and I need a fire protection service
and all we are focusing on is the police.
And frankly I haven't seen too many murders
down here in the last 15 years. So Sheriff Stiles has a
legitimate point I think in saying I want to have control
over people that are commissioned by me. I don't have any
problem with that speech. As to the details of how that
works, I'm not so sure.
But I do know that when we start talking about
having two full-time policemen patrolling the streets down
here 24 hours a day, then if we want that kind of service,
Cascade Court Reporters 541-385-5664
0
•
•
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
ON
we are going to pay for it. And if that's what we decide
to do is go ahead and pay for it, then I am perfectly
satisfied with that. But I think we better start thinking
just a little bit about do we in fact need that level of
police protection? And let's concentrate instead on how
we are going to be sure that we have good fire protection
and how are we going to be sure we have got good ambulance
services.
I think these are issues that the board in it's
effort to try to get this problem off the agenda and get on
with something else has not spent enough time clearly
telling us exactly what the reality is, and as a result
there's a lot of rumors going around saying there's no way
this thing is going to fly for $3.00 or there is no way
it's going to fly for 3.30. And we are saying as somebody
previously said what do we get for our extra money?
In my case it's probably $150 a month. And
what do I get for the $150 a month? I am not saying I am
not going to vote for it. I would love to have this issue
go away. But I'm not going to vote for it unless I am
convinced that I am going to get value received. Thank
you.
the red.
COMMISSIONER DE WOLF: Anyone else? Back in
MR. MARTIN: I am Peter Martin, M -a -r -t -i -n.
Cascade Court Reporters 541-385-5664
•
•
•
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
51
I am a nonresident owner 14 years, and I want you to know
that I support the formation of the district. I think
there have been a number of questions that have been
raised at the 11th hour. It's too bad they didn't come in
earlier. I think the board has made every effort they can
to inform us all as clearly and through as many meetings
and they could come up with to let us know what's going on.
I want to see this happen. We have only two
choices here. We have the Sheriff's services which will be
less than what we have now, and we have what we enjoy
today. I want two officers patrolling 24 hours a day.
It's not so bad this time of the year, but what about July
and August? We need them. There is a lot of vandalism
that can go on here without police presence. We take it
away, the word gets out, the burglars come in.
We have got a wonderful police department and a
wonderful fire department, and I think the reason we're
looking at the formation of a district and talking about
3.95 a thousand is because we haven't paid the people
enough to start with. We have been getting the free ride
on our public services. So it's time to pay the piper and
bring our folks up to par with the industry. I can't vote
so all I can do is encourage you to review this and please
look upon this favorably because we need to have the level
of services that have been provided. Thank you.
Cascade Court Reporters 541-385-5664
9
•
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
52
COMMISSIONER DE WOLF: Thank you. Next.
MR. QUINN: Tom Quinn, Q -u -i -n -n. I just want
to raise a question. Mike Meyers raised the issue of the
PERS cost and that sudden increase in liability. I wanted
to ask is that not mostly or maybe all due to your exposure
to Tier 1 PERS?
MR. MEYERS: It's part of that and it's also
part of the stock market.
MR. QUINN: Isn't that to Tier 1 PERS --
MR. MEYERS: It guarantees an eight percent.
MR. QUINN: I think everybody here doesn't
understand PERS has Tier 1 and Tier 2, and employees that
were in the program prior to what year?
MR. MEYERS: 195.
MR. QUINN: The main point is Tier 1 PERS
does have major financial problems. Everybody has read
about those in the paper, and this is what I believe you
are talking about. And I believe almost all if not all of
your current liability surprise isn't due to Tier 1.
MR. MEYERS: We have -- 60 percent of our
people are Tier 1 which is one of the lower percentages.
MR. QUINN: But our employees if we form a
district are only eligible for the Tier 2 program which
does not include --
MR. MEYERS: They would be in the state pool,
Cascade Court Reporters 541-385-5664
•
•
U
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
53
and so I don't know how you can predict what the state pool
rate will be when this district is formed.
MR. QUINN: But the state pool again will not
include in Tier 1 or any of the Tier 1 liabilities.
MR. MEYERS: It does now.
COMMISSIONER LUKE: State pool is all Tier 1
and Tier 2.
MR. QUINN: Is that correct?
COMMISSIONER LUKE: Yes.
MR. QUINN: That's what I wanted to clarify
because I really don't understand.
MR. MEYERS: The county is part of the state
pool effective January 1 of this year. These liabilities
we are having now are not -- these are past liabilities. I
can't tell you what the future ones will be, and I can't
tell you what the pool rate will be next year or the year
after. The point I was trying to make is you cannot
predict some of these costs on a long term basis.
MR. QUINN: I understand and I agree with that.
But I mean I am trying to clarify that Tier 1 and Tier 2 --
frankly it's very confusing to everyone and I am sure even
to you who works with it.
MR. MEYERS: I think solving this problem you
are probably going to end up with Tier 3 and Tier 4.
COMMISSIONER LUKE: If the legislature ever
Cascade Court Reporters 541-385-5664
•
0
•
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
acts.
MR. QUINN: They didn't the last time. Thank
you.
54
COMMISSIONER DE WOLF: Mike is going to take
over as Vice Chair of the Commission. I need to run and
sorry that I have to leave. Thanks of all your input. And
I will read the rest of it when we get the printed copy and
we will see you next week.
COMMISSIONER LUKE: Those of you who want to
testify, why don't you come up here in the front so we know
how many we got.
MS. BENNINGTON: I am Penny Bennington. I
just happen to be the treasurer of the -- Penny
Bennington, B -e -n -n -i -n -g -t -o -n. I do happen to be the
treasurer of the owners association board right now, and I
do know the numbers. But I do want to talk as a homeowner.
I own three homes in Sunriver and I think the important
point you keep saying -- Dave Ghormley asked what am I
getting for my money. I calculated -- based on $3.25 I
calculated that I would be paying $27 more a month for all
three houses. And one of the things we --
COMMISSIONER DE WOLF: Is that each month
accumulative?
MS. BENNINGTON: Accumulative. And one needs
to remember I think right now I just quickly calculated
Cascade Court Reporters 541-385-5664
•
•
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
55
where we're projected I think the mean level is about
156,000 assessed value. We will have that for you next
week. But again I own -- two of those properties are taxes
assessed less than that mean. So I am going to be paying
less. There are a whole number of homeowners that will be
paying less for these services.
We just need to remember that unfortunately
what Dave -- what you will be getting for your money is to
be able to keep the services that we currently have. There
is a tax shift, there is a cost shift, that's what the
reality is with tax assessed over the owners association
which is an even across the board. And unfortunately we
are not going to be able to justify what that higher cost
is. But again as a homeowner with three houses, two of
them are below the mean, and there is a whole number of
homeowners that haven't stepped up to the plate,
condominium owners, the vacant lots and everything else
that will be paying less for those services. Thank you.
COMMISSIONER DALY: Thank you. Anyone else?
MR. FOSTER: I have a very quick question.
COMMISSIONER DALY: Come on up and state your
name, please.
MR. FOSTER: My name is Bob Foster, F -o -s -t -e -r.
I am not a homeowner in Sunriver. I have been here many,
many years. I have a business and operate in Sunriver.
Cascade Court Reporters 541-385-5664
• 1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
56
Certainly trying to pay attention to this there is a lot of
mathematics that I certainly can't follow. There seems to
be various groups, various positions, that I'm not real
certain how it all plays together. My only purpose in
trying to find out is I do deal with a large number of
homeowners in Sunriver that ask my opinion from time to
time.
My only question is this: If this were to be
voted on and it's done, I believe Mr. Abrams stated very
soundly that things change a lot in Sunriver. Things will
continue to change. I personally believe that over years
the government if you would of Sunriver is going to change
from one group of people to a decidedly different group of
people. If this were to come to pass and that group of
people decided that perhaps the level of services was not
what they thought they needed anymore or they thought they
needed more, they thought the taxing was improper,
inappropriate or whatever, if this thing -- if we wanted it
to go away, how would that come to be done?
COMMISSIONER LUKE: You don't have to levy any
taxes, and Laurie or Rick can answer this, I think. But if
you do not levy taxes for three or four years, something
like that, three years, if you do not levy taxes for three
years the county could shut the district down.
MR. FOSTER: And that would be a County
Cascade Court Reporters 541-385-5664
•
•
.7
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
57
Commission decision?
COMMISSIONER LUKE: The question is is that a
County Commissioner decision? Rich Isham, Chief Counsel
for Deschutes County.
MR. ISHAM: Rick Isham, County Legal Counsel.
There are two ways that the district can be dissolved. One
is through failure over a three-year period to levy a tax
and that's a board initiated dissolution. That's the Board
of County Commissioners. The other is a decision by the
district board which because it's a county service
district, there is also the Board of County Commissioners.
They can initiate this dissolution. Dissolution in either
case takes into consideration any outstanding obligations,
basically acts as a trustee and winds down the affairs of
the district.
COMMISSIONER LUKE: And the service district
could choose to levy, say, a dollar a thousand and contract
with somebody too. There's all kinds of options. Nobody
says because you formed a district you have to provide all
the services for that matter.
MR. ISHAM: Well, that's correct on an annual
basis. The decision on what services to provide and what
tax rate to impose would be determined through the budget
committee as was pointed out and then ultimately by the
district governing bodies. And then the proposed operating
Cascade Court Reporters 541-385-5664
•
•
LJ
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
W.
model is the same model that is being used in Black Butte
Ranch which there's basically an operating board that
operates on site, makes the day-to-day decisions regarding
the operation of the district.
COMMISSIONER LUKE: Does that answer your
question?
MR. FOSTER: If I could just so that I can
clarify it. So what we are saying is we would form a
district by a vote of a group of people that is currently
in place in Sunriver due to their permanent residency. We
would create an entity then that is of some financial
benefit to the county I must assume for administrative
whatever --
COMMISSIONER LUKE: No.
MR. FOSTER: None whatsoever?
COMMISSIONER LUKE: No.
MR. FOSTER: No money flows to the county in
any way?
COMMISSIONER LUKE: No.
MR. FOSTER: We definitely would create a
situation from what I am gathering where money would be
able to go up in two directions on the people that are
impacted by this, one through SROA fees which can continue
to go up if need be, one by increasing the tax rate that we
have been speaking of. It can go up.
Cascade Court Reporters 541-385-5664
•
•
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
59
COMMISSIONER LUKE: It can't go past the
maximum tax rate, though.
MR. FOSTER: I understand. Unless we go back
to the voters and the voters voted against it. So what I
am gathering is voters can vote to have it and to increase
it, but the voters would not be the people that would be
allowed to vote to eliminate it?
COMMISSIONER LUKE: If I was a County
Commissioner, I would probably put it to a vote to see if
they wanted to dissolve it. Rick just told you a lot of
times what he was talking about sometimes you get road
districts that don't levy taxes and they just choose not to
maintain the roads anymore. And so you have something in
place so that you shut these down so they can do something
else if they want to. But I have never seen it done -- it
hasn't been since I have been a Commissioner. How long
have you been here? 20 years? Rick, have you ever seen
one shut down?
COMMISSIONER DALY: Inn of the Seventh Mountain.
MR. ISHAM: Actually Mike is correct. The
county service district provided the sewer services for the
Inn of the Seventh Mountain and condominium units and the
hotel functions that were performed there. Ultimately for
a number of reasons, some of them environmental, the
contract was negotiated to hook to the City of Bend. And
Cascade Court Reporters 541-385-5664
• 1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
• 14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
• 25
so the purpose of the district -- the district was no
longer needed and so the Board of County Commissioners as
that was a county service district also initiated the
dissolution, paid off the debts and liabilities, and
developed a closure plan for the sewer plan and closed it.
So it does happen. But I think in a situation
like that, you had a substitute service provider which was
the City of Bend which it extended the services to the
district and then entered into an independent contract to
provide service to the owners.
MR. FOSTER: Thank you.
COMMISSIONER LUKE: Thank you. Anybody else
besides Gary?
MR. LUERSEN: I am Tom Luersen, L -u -e -r -s -e -n.
I am an ex -property owner. I was kicked out by my
neighbors last week so I am no longer living in Sunriver.
However, I do represent Sunriver Limited Partnership and
that's the largest property owner within Sunriver. I have
been asked several times over the last four or five months
my position which really represents not my position but our
company's position on the service district. And I have
surprisingly stayed below the radar which is where I wanted
to go on this particular issue. It's complicated, the math
is a little bit confusing at times because we have not
landed on a specific yet.
Cascade Court Reporters 541-385-5664
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
• 14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
0
61
I think the board has done a wonderful job in
attempting to communicate and to make information
available. But like anything else, you only get those that
are interested to hear the information. And as you know,
we're at the lowest occupancy if you will right now, the
last three or four months, than we are in the entire
season. People are beginning to come into town as the
skiing picked up, they will begin to arrive more often as
spring comes into fruition.
As those people come in, so do the questions
get re -raised all over again. And to me the.most
fundamental question that I don't understand and yet have
heard a whole lot of answers to is, Sheriff Stiles, if you
would, your position and how we got here. I have heard,
met with Gary and representatives of the board. I have not
missed a public hearing meeting where I usually sat in the
back and taken notes. If it would hp Annrnnri ai-n T ,.Yr , , 1 A
love to ask Les to come up forward and just summarize -- I
am not looking for a debate, I'm not looking for Q and A
even from the Sheriff, but for a simple position on how we
got here if it's appropriate.
Lastly the resort will take a position on it.
As Dave pointed out, whatever happens here to property
owners here, it effects us. We are running a business. We
are for profit obviously. There is a -- at the 3.95 tax
Cascade Court Reporters 541-385-5664
U
0
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
62
rate, it's a six digit figure that impacts our company on
the gross side. That's without the reduction of monthly
dues. So at the 3.95 level it's up over $110,000. It's a
pretty substantial hit for us. Yet we are also a pretty
large company.
I don't want to sound political in my comments,
but this is really a homeowner's position. It's why we
have stayed below the radar. We clearly will take a
position, and I will let that position be known when it's
appropriate. My role in all of this and we have John
Fettig, Dale Garnick, some of the people from our company,
here to learn. I know that you are doing the same and that
you haven't taken a position yet that's not well-informed
and well-educated.
That's what these forums are for. This isn't
to come and listen to ourselves talk or get it in the
record or to stand in front of the County Commissioners.
It's an opportunity to learn. I can speak for myself only.
I am not very well-educated. I'm not educated to the point
that I am comfortable in making decisions. I ultimately
will be. Sheriff, if you would take the time to summarize
or, Commissioners, if it's appropriate, but it would
certainly be helpful to me. Thank you.
SHERIFF STILES: I want to thank you very
much. I was kind of hoping to stay below the radar screen
Cascade Court Reporters 541-385-5664
•
C.
U
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
63
also. Tom, I can answer part of your question, and for
those who are here today, I will be happy to go into as
much detail as you would like either now or after the
meeting.
I don't know how we got here. I know that a
year ago approximately in March of 2001 about two or three
months after I was sworn in as Sheriff I was contacted by
some people in Sunriver who asked me the following
question. It appears as though there's going to be an
advisory vote relating to the formation of a public safety
service district, and what we have been told -- we meaning
residents that were asking the question -- have been told
is this: There are two options. Form a public safety
district or everything remains as it is. Is that true?
My response to more than one person was no.
That may not be true. There are a number of other issues
out there that need to be explored. I have been in office
90 days. I need to explore those issues, but I would not
guarantee that the options for voters to go on was a public
safety district or everything remains as it is. Some
change may be coming down the road. I think, Tom, that
that's a partial answer to your question of how did we get
here.
In the intervening nine months from that time
to now, there have been a number of other questions
Cascade Court Reporters 541-385-5664
•
•
•
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
64
relating to the issue of why does the Sheriff stand where
he does. And Dave, I really appreciated your comment about
what is fair because on my desk I have got a little plaque
that has what's fair and what's right. Those are the two
guiding principles that I try to live by daily in making
decisions as Sheriff of Deschutes County for all of the
people of Deschutes County.
In the course of looking into what the options
were for us with respect to Sunriver and the public safety
district -- I am going to get back to this fair and right
here in a minute. But I think it's important to
understand, Dave, do you remember the exact date -- I was a
candidate. There was a forum of public safety people at
your house. At that time I was asked the question if you
are elected Sheriff, where would you stand on a public
safety district or what do you think is in the best
interest for Sunriver police officers because we have a
high turnover rate. As a candidate I made it clear that I
thought the formation of a public safety district would
solve a whole host of those problems and address them in a
much better manner.
The last time I was in this beautiful room I
was sitting next to Larry Kimmel. Mike, you were here. It
was a candidate debate for the campaign, and some of you
who are here today I recognize were here then. Even though
Cascade Court Reporters 541-385-5664
•
•
•
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
65
I was running a fever and Larry Kimmel was also that night,
I think I remained pretty consistent in why the public
safety district would answer your needs better.
In the end the question that I have to ask
myself is this: What's fair and what's right for all of
the people that I represent in Deschutes County which
roughly numbers 118,000 right now. And the issue is the
civil liability by commissioning others. Dave Ghormley hit
on it, a couple of other people have hit on it this
morning. Every time somebody raises their hand and I swear
them in as a deputy sheriff, I as the Sheriff am
representing all of you because you are my boss and I
become liable for the actions of that individual. In the
end that's what this issue really boils down to.
But there is another very critical, critical
issue in my opinion because it's not just about civil
liability. I wrote an article, an In My View piece, for
The Bulletin that was published last Sunday. I would urge
if you haven't read it take a look at it because it's more
succinct than I have been so far. But there is another
issue. You need to have local control. You need to have
the local control over your law enforcement and your fire
services.
There is going to be inherent conflict between
the Sheriff and the Sheriff's office providing the
Cascade Court Reporters 541-385-5664
•
•
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
66
necessary and needed oversight that must be done to protect
all of the residents of Deschutes County from potential
civil liability and what you via the Sunriver Owners
Association and management may want to see your police
officers doing.
And I am here to tell you right now that you
can't put your police chief in that kind of a vice. There
will be inevitable conflict, some of them small, some of
them potentially small in the beginning but by the time
they are magnified through misconception and
misunderstanding they might become large. But you can't do
that. And this option is one way to resolve that issue as
well as me maintaining the stance that I have had for over
two years which is the Sunriver police department should be
it's own entity and should answer to you. Not to me. Tom,
does that answer your question?
MR. LUERSEN: Yes, sir. My question is about
the insurability of the liability imposed on you, Sheriff,
if in fact we are a deputizing people and our officers
here. We have as an owners association insurance to cover
some of that is my understanding. Can we -- is there the
other alternative that says you are willing to protect the
liability of the residents of Deschutes County if in fact
we can increase our insurance if you will for that service?
That's a question I have yet to really understand the
Cascade Court Reporters 541-385-5664
•
C
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
67
answer to.
SHERIFF STILES: I will be happy to address
that. Gary, am I correct two million right now per
incident, 10 million cap?
MR. FIEBICK: I think it's one to ten --
SHERIFF STILES: It's one to 10. One million
per incident, 10 is the cap. 10 is the aggregate
cap.
MR. FIEBICK: That's the umbrella.
SHERIFF STILES: Tom, to answer your question,
one million isn't enough. I can't go into it, but I think
Gary would be happy to share some information with you. I
know of at least one incident in the last 12 months that
one million wouldn't even start to go there. How high is
enough? And would that also provide the due diligence
that comes from the Sheriff because it's not just a matter
of simply dollars and cents.
The real issues that are being tested right now
in the federal court system if you move outside of the
state system where you have got your tort liability or at
least we do and you move in to the federal venue, you have
now moved into an area where concepts of negligent
retention, negligent training, negligent supervision,
negligent hiring, all of those negligence issues are pretty
big dollar issues. And I think our legal counsel will
Cascade Court Reporters 541-385-5664
•
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
support that.
I don't know if that's enough. But even if you
had one hundred million, the incident itself that occurs I
still must be able to show that I have provided all of that
oversight for hiring, training, supervising. And the
minute I am doing that which I am doing right now. Quite
frankly in the last six months I have given Chief Kennedy
a number of very specific directives, I have sent my under
sheriff down, I have sent my patrol captain, my detective
captain and my training sergeant to evaluate your files.
I have every bit of confidence in Sunriver
officers. I cannot continue on the backs of all the other
taxpayers in Deschutes County to support that kind of
oversight because they didn't pay for that quite frankly.
They didn't. And so every time I am sending staff down to
do that to make sure that we are providing that kind of
oversight, it's costing other taxpayers their money. Does
this answer your question?
MR. LUERSEN: I understand.
COMMISSIONER DALY: Anyone else want to ask a
question of the Sheriff?
SHERIFF STILES: Before I leave can I make one
comment, Commissioner?
COMMISSIONER DALY: Yes.
SHERIFF STILES: The last comment I want to
Cascade Court Reporters 541-385-5664
•
•
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
69
make is this: In the last nine months I have heard a
number of allegations relating to what I have said or
haven't said. Could I please make this invitation. If you
have any questions, Tom, or anyone else regarding where I
stand or why I stand there, please call me at my office. I
will leave some business cards here today.
And the other one of the areas that I am most
concerned about is the fact that the Sheriff is not and
will not contract. That's not true. There are a host of
other options. This is not the only option. That said,
this is the best option. This being the public safety
district is absolutely clearly the best option for your
control. And if that is important, I would certainly take
that into account.
I will not get involved and I cannot make
recommendations as to staffing levels or any of those
things. The level of service you want is your decision.
But there are other options that are open and I have not
shut any doors. Thank you.
COMMISSIONER LUKE: What phone number do they
call?
SHERIFF STILES: 383-4393.
COMMISSIONER LUKE: Thank you.
COMMISSIONER DALY: Does anybody else want to
ask a question of the Sheriff or come up and testify?
Cascade Court Reporters 541-385-5664
•
•
•
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
70
COMMISSIONER LUKE: Gary wanted to finish off
if there is no one else.
MR. FIEBICK: Gary Fiebick, general manager of
Sunriver. Just on behalf of the board I would like just
to respond to some of the comments and questions that have
come up during this time. Some of the facts. First of all
I think the Sunriver tax rate is above $10 per thousand
currently. Secondly, the numbers and things that we are
working on have nothing to do with Arthur Anderson or Enron
or any other subsidiary.
But actually as far as the police service
level, Sheriff Stiles is correct and Dave Ghormley who was
president when I came on as general manager in 1996. The
policy has been since before 1996 that Sunriver would
endeavor to have two police patrol officers on duty 24
hours seven days a week. Now, one of the things that we
don't do if somebody is at court or ill or on vacation, we
don't always back fill. But you can always be assured that
we will have at least one person on when required when it's
necessary.
Secondly, the board had a work session and they
revised some of their thoughts on the few issues so I
would like to share that with you now. As regards personal
property, that is the furniture, fixtures, equipment
including vehicles, et cetera, the board is proposing that
Cascade Court Reporters 541-385-5664
•
•
•
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
71
all of that equipment and furniture and fixtures be sold to
the district for one dollar. Essentially giving it.
Therefore that will reduce the district's budget and we
have a new iteration with that in consideration.
Secondly, real property. That's been discussed
off and on by the board for some time and debated. At last
meeting it was decided that at least for now we would leave
the rents there for a couple reasons. We had debt service
both on the fire department and we have debt service both
as well as on the administrative area. But I think
underlying all of that they want to be careful that if in
the future this district might merge or annex property or
area to it, that the owners of Sunriver would be able to
obtain a fair value for that property if it were
transferred to a larger district.
Next I would like to turn to tax values. We
receive from the assessor specific values regarding
Sunriver itself, the area that will be within this
district. According to the true cash value, that means
your local realtor when he comes to look at your property
he is going to tell you what the value of your property is
based on all kinds of comparable sales, but true cash
values for all of Sunriver is $1,232,108.802 according to
the county assessor. A portion of that is resort, a
portion is golf, a portion is commercial, and the major
Cascade Court Reporters 541-385-5664
•
17J
C7
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
72
share is residential.
Now, if you look at what we're dealing with in
this calculation set of numbers, we're talking about the
tax assessed values. Was it '95 when the law changed that
said the tax assessed values of properties in the state
could only go up a maximum three percent a year unless you
made an addition or something like that. The tax assessed
value for the same area is $853,977,211. If you do the
math, the tax assessed value on average is only 69 percent
of the true cash value of the properties here. So all the
calculations that we work with in trying to estimate what
it would cost you as an owner whether it's commercial,
resort, golf or residential is based on the tax assessed
values, not the true cash value.
COMMISSIONER LUKE: That number is pretty
consistent across the county. Most property is 30 percent
under true cash value.
MR. FIEBICK: Thank you. Next item there is
discussion or question about resort and commercial
assessments. Yes, the resort and commercial properties and
golf properties are assessed on a formula that is set out
in the consolidated plan for Sunriver, and that assessment
can be calculated by anyone really if you have the right
set of numbers.
For the purposes of taxes, the resort value is
Cascade Court Reporters 541-385-5664
•
0
is
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
73
$13,589,660. Now, that includes more than just what the
Sunriver resort has in terms of assets. That includes the
hangars because they are developed on what was resort
property, and it includes the trout house because it was on
resort property when it was developed. So it it's just the
SLRP property.. There's a couple of differences there.
The golf courses are assessed separately, and
by agreement with the assessor I think all the golf courses
in Central Oregon are assessed more on a business basis
rather than a value of land basis.
Commercial properties and that's the
accumulation of all the commercial properties, that's the
mall, it's mall two, it's Dr. Skotte, it's the old service
station, it's the marketplace store out north and it's
probably a couple of other properties. Those commercial
properties are $15,347,701. And the balance is the
residential.
Now, as concerns the resort, SLRP -- John or
Tom you can correct me -- the resort owns I believe 65
lodge condominiums and 30, 35 river lodges. So that's
about 100 residential units that they own. The resort will
pay on those residential units just like any other
condominium owner or homeowner in Sunriver. So they have
those changes. In addition they have this resort value to
the remainer of their assets as well as the commercial
Cascade Court Reporters 541-385-5664
•
•
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
74
value. And so they pay on that on an adjusted basis also.
Now, the last iteration of budgets that we did
we assumed that the first year tax rate might be $3.15
per thousand and that the SROA assessment would be revised
downward to I believe $35. It may go a little lower. But
that's what the board is comfortable with at this point in
number. Based on that, the increase in combined annual tax
on assessments for the commercial properties is about
$33,500 increase annually. The resort properties in
aggregate, the total increase with the new tax district and
revised SROA assessments based on their formulas for those,
their increase for all those resort properties would be
approximately $23,600 a year.
Residential properties. I did some
calculations. There are 4,124 residential properties.
Some are vacant lots, some are condominiums and some are
homes. The mean value, that is the average based on tax
assessed values is $198,814. That's pretty straightforward
math. The true cash values based on true cash assessment,
the average or mean value is $289,107. So it's almost
$100,000 more true cash value on average for the average
property.
We looked at what the break even value might be
on tax assessed values, and with a $3.15 per thousand
assessment for the first year and assumption that the SROA
Cascade Court Reporters 541-385-5664
:7
•
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
75
assessment would drop from $71.91 a month to $35 a month,
then the break even value where if you have a higher value
you will pay more in total or lower value you will pay less
than total is about $140,600. Now, if you take the example
with the mean value of property, that is the average
property on tax assessed values that is $198,814, the new
assessment, the new district tax, the combined increase for
that property would be about $183 a year or monthly
increase of about $15.25.
Now, again there are a couple other choices and
decisions that the board is reviewing with counsel of the
financial advisors from the county and others and so these
can change and will change a lit bit before we get to the
final hearing a week from today. Hopefully we will have
those decisions by the board and be able to incorporate
those recommendations by next Monday so we can get the
information to the Commissioners' office and make it
available to owners.
COMMISSIONER LUKE: Are you done?
MR. FIEBICK: Yes.
COMMISSIONER LUKE: The county and a lot of
different governments and I imagine individuals, there's --
you can put a right of reversion into a deed. If the
homeowners so chose to make the fire hall or different
things available or give them to the district, you could
Cascade Court Reporters 541-385-5664
•
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
have a right of reversion there. If something changes,
they would get it back. So there are some options that
would protect the homeowners association.
MR. FIEBICK: Right. And we have discussed
that in our group.
COMMISSIONER LUKE: Thank you.
COMMISSIONER DALY: Are there any questions?
COMMISSIONER LUKE: Do we know where we are
meeting a week from today? We are meeting in this same
room a week from today at 10:00.
COMMISSIONER DALY: If there are no other
questions, I guess we are adjourned. Thank you.
(Time noted 12:05 P.M.)
Cascade Court Reporters 541-385-5664
76
•
•
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
STATE OF OREGON }
ss
COUNTY OF DESCHUTES )
I, DEBORAH FLEISCHER, Court Reporter and
Notary Public, do hereby certify;
That the foregoing transcript is a true
record of the proceedings.
I hereby certify that I am not interested
in the event of the action.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have subscribed my
name this 11th day of February, 2002.
DEBORAH FLEISCHER
Court Reporter & Notary Public
Cascade Court Reporters 541-385-5664
77
COUNTY OFFICIAL
MARYHSUE SPENHOLLOW, COUNTYRCLERKS 1�d Z001•l39
COMMISSIONERS' JOURNAL
01/11/100104;41;39 PM
Sunri*ver Service District
for
Fire and Police
Budget Forecast
New Tax Assessments
New SROA Assessments
1
E�" L C-
! SRSD has primary budget
� resources from a property tax
# levy and permanent tax base
� maximum;
SROA has budget funding
� primarily from assessments to
� property owners.
11
E,
� SRSD permanent tax rate can be
# applied to a "tax assessed
� value" that could normally
� increase 3% per annum, except
� for new construction,
� annexation, etc.
n
� SROA's Board of Directors
may increase its assessments up
# to 6% annually without a vote
* of the owners.
11
# SRSD budget based on
� historical experience and costs
S from SROA's operations.
11
'I %f SRSD will be a stand alone
� operation with additional
• requirements.
0
11'j
11
12
a
11
C
� SRSD to acquire personal
� property assets for One Dollar
# ($1.00).
v
SROA retain ownership of real
� property assets and lease to
� SRSD, on net basis.
c:
11
11
11
� Proposed maximum tax rate
� $3.95
0
� Levy $2.98 would fund
� district's first year
� requirements.
•
%f A maximum of $3.45 is
# recommended by SROA.
11
February 11, 2002 (Revised & Updated)
RE: Sunriver Service District for Fire & Police
Forecasts of Operating Costs, new Tax Assessment and new SROA Assessment.
I. Estimate of First Year Requirements for District: (Based on 2002/03 Forecast)
FIRE POLICE
Department Budgets:
$1,027,700 Fire Department — District Budget (w/o Hydrant Standby)
$ 756,329 Police Department — District Budget
$ 64,686 Pathway Rangers— District Budget (SROA contract)
$1,027,700 $ 821,015 Sub -Totals Department Operating Budgets
$ 100,000 $ 50,000 Reserve Contributions for FF&E
Services Currently in Other Cost
53,000 50,000 Vehicle Services — Operating Cost
64,488 64,488 Administrative Cost (40% allocatio
38,843 38,843 Accounting Cost (40% allocation o
Rent Estimates: (N/C)
45,000 Fire Department Rent — Facility (re
10,000 Police Department Rent — Facility
$ 301,331 $ 213,331 Sub -Totals of Currently Unallocate
$1,329,031 $1,034,346 Sub -Totals Department Allocated
Combined Total Department Direct & Allocated
Plus: District General Expenses:
Legal
Insurance (Casualty, Fire, Vehicle, Liability)
Computer System
Interest Expense (TAN's, etc.)
Board Functions
Operating Contingency
Total District General Expenses
$2,363,377
$ 20,000
40,000
10,000
28,010
5,000
4$ 233,332
$2,596,709
( 176,186)
$2,420,523
$2,631,003
0
130,322
Requirements to Fund for 02/03
LESS OPERATING REVENUES:
$100,000 Ambulance Revenue
11,500 Fire/Med Program
64,686 Pathway Ranger Contract Income
Sub -total Operating Revenues Transferred
PROPERTY TAXES To Balance Requirements
Tax Levy ($2,420,523 /.92) Required (to allow for Tax
Discounts & Delinquent Taxes)
Estimated TAV for 02/03 = $883,866,413 (up 3.5%)
or ($2.97669/k) and $2.98 Rounded
Centers: (N/C)
Est. (Public Works)
n of cc #11) Est.
f cc #91) Est.
duced)
(reduced)
d Expenses
$2,363,377
$ 20,000
40,000
10,000
28,010
5,000
4$ 233,332
$2,596,709
( 176,186)
$2,420,523
$2,631,003
0
130,322
Requirements to Fund for 02/03
LESS OPERATING REVENUES:
$100,000 Ambulance Revenue
11,500 Fire/Med Program
64,686 Pathway Ranger Contract Income
Sub -total Operating Revenues Transferred
PROPERTY TAXES To Balance Requirements
Tax Levy ($2,420,523 /.92) Required (to allow for Tax
Discounts & Delinquent Taxes)
Estimated TAV for 02/03 = $883,866,413 (up 3.5%)
or ($2.97669/k) and $2.98 Rounded
Page 2 of 5, SR District/SROA Budget Changes, 2/11/02
H. ASSESSED VALUES FOR SUNRIVER: 2001-2002
$1,232,108,802 TOTAL "True Cash Value" FOR ALL OF SUNRIVER
Estimate by Property Type: (2001/02 Numbers)
$ 15,508,845 RESORT (1.2587 % X SROA Exp. X.8)
$ 5,128,400 Golf (0.4162 % X CC 22,28 Exp. X.5)
$ 19,193,500 COMAffiRCIAL (1.5577 % X SROA Exp. X .5)
$1,192,278,057 RESIDENTIAL __- - ---_- _ - _ _-- - _ -
True cash value formulas are utilized for calculating the SROA assessments for Resort,
Golf and Commercial properties, by The Consolidated Plan of Sunriver.
0 NOTES FROM 12/27/01 MEETING WITH MARTY WYNNE, Deschutes Coun
$ 853,977,211 Final "Tag Assessed Values" calculation for 2001-02 Tax Year
$ 13,589,660 Resort
$ 5,128,400 Golf
$ 15,347,701 Commercial
$819,911,450 Residential
ISM it increases 3% annually over the next 6 years then these estimates:
$ 879,596,527
2002
it
905,984,523
2003
2003
933,163,955
2004
if
961,158,875
989,993,641
2005
2006
1,019,693,450
2007
161f it increases 3.5% annually over the next 6 years then these estimates:
2
$ 883,866,413
2002
914,801,738
2003
946,819,799
2004
979,958,492
1,014,257,039
2005
2006
1,049,756,035
2007
2
Page 4 of 5, SR District/SROA Budget Changes, 2/11/02
V. Assessment Chances by Property Tvne: Based on Tax Assessed Values
A. Commercial Properties: (aggregate)
$ 27,921 Revised SROA Assessment (by formula)
45,736 Public Safety District Tax Assessment ($2.98 per thousand)
$ 73,657 Combined Total of New Assessments
(jA;,610) 610) Current Assessment Total
$ 31,047 Increase in Combined Annual Tax & Assessment (72.9%)
B. Resort Properties: (aggregate)
$ 36,083 Revised SROA Assessment (by 2 formulas)
55,780 Public Safety District Tax Assessment ($2.98 per thousand)
$ 91,863 Combined Total of New Assessments
$ 56 690 Current Assessment Total
$ 35,173 Increase in Combined Annual Tax & Assessment (62.0%)
C. Residential Properties:
(Examples are based on current year Tax Assessed Values and without tax benefit.
1. $200,000 Assessed Value Residential Property (Home or Lot)
$ 408 Revised SROA Assessment ($34/month for balance of 2002)
596 Public Safety District Tax Assessment ($2.98 per thousand)
$1,004 Combined Total of New Assessments
($ 863 Current Assessment Total
$ 141 Increase in Combined Annual Tax and Assessment (16.3 %).
Monthly Increase of $ 11.75
2. $300,000 Assessed Value Residential Property (Home or Lot)
$ 408 Revised SROA Assessment ($34/month for balance of 2002)
894 Public Safety District Tax Assessment ($2.98 per thousand)
$1,302 Combined Total of New Assessments
($ 863 Current Assessment Total
$ 439 Increase in Combined Annual Tax and Assessment (50.9%).
Monthly Increase of $ 36.58.
3. $500,000 Assessed Value Residential Property (Home or Lot)
$ 408 Revised SROA Assessment ($34/month for balance of 2002)
1,490 Public Safety District Tax Assessment ($2.98 per thousand)
$1,898 Combined Total of New Assessments
($ 863 Current Assessment Total
$1,035 Increase in Combined Annual Tax and Assessment (119.9%).
Monthly Increase of $ 86.25
The breakeven point is $ 152,685 of tax assessed value for a residential property.
(Current rate $863 less new rate of $408, then divide the result = $455 by 2.98 to find the
$value.)
0
Page 5 of 5, SR District/SROA Budget Changes, 2/11/02
- ----- - ----- --- -- - - -- - ------------------
Based on tax roll records (not current market values) for Sunriver as provided by
Deschutes County, the following information is related to residential properties.
4,124 Total Residential Properties
$198,814 Mean Value (Average) of total Tax Assessed Values.
0$289,107 Mean Value (Average) of total True Cash Values.
4 $152,685 Breakeven Value for higher or lower cost, based on new tax rate
($2.98/k, plus new SROA assessment ($34).
16
Example with Mean Value Property of $198,814 :
V $ 408 Revised SROA Assessment (annualized)
593 Public Safety District Tax Assessment ($2.98 per thousand)
$1,001 Combined Total of New Assessments
863 Current Assessment Total
($ 138) Increase in Combined Annual Tax and Assessment (16.0 %)
Monthly increase of $11.50
(1 /22/02 Adj u stm ents)
(1/30/02 Revised, GAF)
(2/7/02 Revised, GAF)
11
11
11
L:j
v
v
0
11
n
11
eW
COUNTY OFFICIALMARYHSUE SPENHOLLOW, COUNTYRCLERKS U 2002-139
COMMISSIONERS' JOURNAL 0411711001 04;47;39 PM
i
i
I
I
a
O i
COUNTY OFFICIALMARYHSUE SPENHOLLOW, COUNTYRCLERKS U 2002-139
COMMISSIONERS' JOURNAL 0411711001 04;47;39 PM
i
i
I
I
• Sharon Abrams, C.O.B.
Sunriver, OR
• James Winkler, Rttornev
Chicago, It
• Darrel Johanson, C.P.R.
Son Jose, CR
t-
DESCHUTES COUNTY OFFICIAL RECORDS ^r
MARY SUE PENHOLLOW, COUNTY CLERK IBJ 2002.139
j, SG
CS & 314oeas-zzly COMMISSIONERS' JOURNAL 01/17/100104:47:39 PM
Jresfi e Le
y asen9lo .%ro�essronals
P. .Box 3830
Iver, OR 97707
03) 593-3165
ke s- �&-f-, -J .2 J -21
91
. (a!P
Vht-u P c C,/Vxs /0/ T =
aC7
�v d�
C
C) a11h�
So'Li
�� /L
D rv�Pl.�,-y-,e_s
y.
RL,�o
�& 3 �-,7�is� rzM
---------------------------------- - - - --- -------------------------------------------------------
FEB-11-2002 MON 10;01 AM ASSESSORS OFFICE FAX NO. 541 389 7947 P. 02/02
COUNTY OFFICIAL
MARYHSUE SPENHOLLOW, COUNTYRCLERKS
COMMISSIONERS' JOURNAL 02/27/2002 04;41;39 PM
Sunriver Assessed Values by type
does not Include properties with -0- assessed value, such as common areas or business personal property under the 410,000 threshold
Real Property # of Accts Mean Median
Sunriver ownership vacant land 2 1,637,591 1,637,591
Sunriver ownership Commercial Properties 10 1,212,968 864,201
Sunriver ownership Multifamily/Condo's 68 109,574 111,745
Sunrivor ownership Residential 5 _-_t t7 405 190,614 p (�
subtotal 85
Vacant land
340
78,149
CoMmercial Properties
11
1,297,329
-AMultifamily/Condo's
1,015
99 985
— Residential2,941
227,148
6(0-6-1 ,�(�� 4;0- subtotal._..
4,307
�
Total
4,392
r
60,776 ��g6
399,505
103,168 7
199,902
Business Personal Property # of Accts Mean Median
Sunriver ownership 6 1,051,872 233,870
Other ownership 78 60,827 20,903
Total 84
Stato Appraised Utility Properties # of Accts Mean Median
Sunriver ownership -r--_ - -
Other ownership 5 696,198 87,755
Total 5
Total of all Properties Combined # of Accts Mean Median
Grand Total 4,484 190,450 162,504
s A Aci* 16), �Nc)
Source: Deschutes County Assessor
fFroy�o�o �
2-11-02
Leland F. Smith
February 6, 2002
P.O. Sox 3539 Sunriver, OR 97707
Deschutes County Commissioners Tom DeWolf, Dennis Luke, Mike Daly
1130 NW Harriman
Bend, OR 97701
Dear Tom, Dennis, and Mike:
I debated whether to make comments at the public forum in Sunriver today but decided to hold
off until the SROA semi-annual meeting on Saturday. However, I would like to express to you
three concerns I have about the proposed budget and tax rate for the service district.
An SROA Board group has proposed transferring some of SROA's assets to the district at
less than fair market value. Specifically, they have proposed that about $101,500 of
furniture, fixtures and equipment (FF&E) be sold to the district for $1.00 and that $105,000
of projected revenue be removed from the SROA budget. As you heard at the forum, there
is also support for other transfers and/or leases for less than fair market value. These will
not change the start-up costs of the district, they will simply transfer part of them to the
SROA budget in order to reduce the tax rate that is offered to the voters.
I am concerned that hiding the true costs of the district in order to gain voter approval is
misleading. If the district is such a good idea, then it should be sold on its own merits and
not through some kind of "Enron" accounting system.
2. One of the arguments in support of the district is that property taxes are deductible in
calculating our income tax liabilities, while owner assessments are not. If that argument is
valid, then shifting part of the burden from the tax levy back to assessments costs us more in
the long run. Under that argument, we should be trying to maximize the tax portion of our
combined operating costs and minimize the assessment portion.
3. I am concerned about the equity issue. SROA assets were paid for by all the property
owners, not just the 25% who will be allowed to vote. Disenfranchising the non-resident
owners and then giving away the assets they have paid for is a sure way to create dissention
between the resident and non-resident owners and expose our community to lawsuits.
So when the voters make their decision, I believe they should vote on the full $3.95 tax rate
without factoring in subsidies whose purpose is to hide the true costs. That will also give us a
cushion to cover future unexpected expenses.
Sincerely,
Leland F. Smith
Cc: SROA Board of Directors
C-�J� (�;-
FB-8
z
COUNTY OFFICIAL
MARY HSUESPENNOLLOW, COUNTYRCLERKS Q 0002'139
COMMISSIONERS' JOURNAL 02/27/2002 04;47:39 PM
Sunriver Service District
Budget Proposal for Year 2002 — 2003
Summary of Assumptions & Rationale
February 11, 2002
I. Summary Statement:
Budgeting for the Sunriver SD differs from the Sunriver Owners Association budgeting
in a number of general respects.
1) SRSD will be a public or governmental agency as authorized by state statute;
SROA is a private, non-profit Oregon Corporation.
2) SRSD has a budget year of July 1 through June 30, while SROA has a budget
year from January 1 through December 31.
3) SRSD has primary budget resources from a property tax levy and a permanent
tax base maximum; SROA has budget funding primarily from assessments to
property owners.
4) SRSD has a permanent tax rate that can be applied to a "tax assessed value"
that could normally increase 3% per annum, except for new construction,
annexation, etc. SROA's Board of Directors may increase its assessments up
to 6% annually without a vote of the owners.
5) The proposed SRSD budget is based on historical experience and costs from
SROA's operations, except for a few adjustments required, since the SRSD
will be a stand alone operation requiring certain additional requirements.
6) SRSD will acquire the personal property assets represented within the SROA
fire and police departments, but SROA will retain the ownership of the real
property assets and lease the same to the SRSD, on a net lease basis. These
are the current assumptions for real and personal property dispositions.
7) The proposed maximum tax rate is $3.95. Initial year budget proposal
indicates that a levy of $ 2.98 would fund the district's first year requirements.
A maximum tax rate of $ 3.45 is recommended for consideration in the final
order to establish a district.
8) This budget projection is developed with assumptions that the District's FTE
will remain constant over the next three years.
II. Financial Assumptions & Rationale:
A. Resources:
1. Beginning Net Working Capital represents the unspent funds from the prior
year operations that may be utilized in the current year. There are no such
funds in the first year of a District. Following years will have estimates of
such a resource. It could be unspent contingency, revenues in excess of
budget or expenditures less than budget, in any given year.
2. Ambulance revenue is estimated based on the prior years of experience from
Sunriver operations.
3. Fire/Med revenue is estimated based the prior years of experience from
Sunriver operations.
Page 2 of 4, SRSD Proposed Budget, Assumptions & Rationale, 2/11/02
4. Grant revenues may be a future source of partial or special funding.
5. Contracted Services include Pathway Rangers and other services later.
6. Tax Revenue — Current Year is the net tax resource necessary to balance the
budget requirements with total resources. This is a net figure because
approximately 8% of each year's tax levy is offset by either a) discount for
early payment, b) delinquent, or unpaid, taxes for the current year levy, and c)
adjustments to the tax roll.
7. Tax Revenue — Prior Years is the collection in the current year from
delinquencies and foreclosures, etc. from prior tax year levies. There are no
such fund sources in the first year of a district. Following years will have
estimates of such a resource based on Deschutes County's experience.
B. Requirements:
The first year budget for operating items for the SRSD were developed by referencing the
2002 budget for SROA, and modifying the numbers with the following assumptions.
Hydrant Standby fees were removed from Fire budget and retained by SROA
Wage and benefit areas were increased by 7% (based on SROA schedules for 7/1/02) for
all three years. Other operating expenses were increased by 3% for year one as well as
years two and three. Most of these expenses were direct budget items in the SROA
budget. The average annual increase, with blended cost increases, in the budget may be
about 6%. With a potential of 3.5% increases in tax revenues, from increased assessed
values and new values, the initial tax rate needs room to grow by about 2.5% annually for
some period of years to avoid the need for a special levy.
Vehicle Maintenance was established by operating estimates from the SROA Public
Works Department — vehicle maintenance, fuel and related services. These services have
been provided by SROA, but were not allocated directly to the department budgets.
Accounting and Administrative service contract amounts, which are explained in
paragraph #3 below, have been estimated based on the budgets for those cost centers in
SROA. The contract amounts are established based on the percentage of fire and police
personnel to the total for SROA as well as by estimating accounting services and
management activity related to these departments.
A number of new requirements for the district were based on assumptions or the best
estimates available at this time — insurance, legal, interest expense, board functions,
transfer to a Capital Replacement Reserve and an Operating Contingency.
1. Fire Department Operations:
Staffing and expenses are the same as under SROA operations, except for
expense allocations, previously unallocated by SROA. Rent, net lease, is
based on 5% of $900,000 (original improvement costs for 12,000 (+/-)
square foot facility. SROA intends to retain ownership of the real property.
Page 3 of 4, SRSD Proposed Budget, Assumptions & Rationale, 2/11/02
Vehicle maintenance is based on past experience with our Public Works —
Fleet department, and it includes allocations for mechanics, parts & supplies,
utilities, administrative expenses. However, this proposed amount does not
include any cost allocation for the facility or replacement of capital equipment
items.
Furniture, Fixtures & Equipment Purchase includes a list of current
capitalized personal property items at net book value. The cost will be one
($1.) dollar paid by the District to SROA
2. Police Department Operations:
Staffing and expenses are the same as under SROA operations, except for
expense allocations, previously unallocated by SROA. Rent, net lease, is
based on 5% of $200,000 (original cost for the 2,000 (+/) square foot
facility. SROA intends to retain ownership of the real property. Vehicle
Maintenance is based on past experience with our Public Works — Fleet
department, and it includes allocations for mechanics, parts & supplies,
utilities, administrative expenses. However, this amount does not include any
cost allocation for the facility or replacement of capital equipment items.
Furniture, Fixtures & Equipment Lease/Purchase includes a list of current
capitalized personal property items at net book value. The cost will be one
($1.) dollar paid by the District to SROA
3. General Organization Requirements:
Accounting and Administrative service amounts are based on the prorate
(40%) of current SROA costs in those two areas, based on percentage of
personnel and budget. Interest Expense is an estimate of the cost to borrow
working capital for the first four months of each operating year, since tax
monies are not received until November each year. Operating Contingency
is based on 5% of the total requirements for the year, except that an additional
amount was considered for the first year, start up operation. Legal Expense is
estimated based on the SROA experience. Insurance (casualty, fire,
liability, directors/officers, etc.) is estimated based on the SROA experience
and the proportion of assets, operations and employees transferred.
Computer Expense are estimated for the additional hardware and software
necessary to establish a separate accounting system. Board Functions
include costs for meetings, training, conferences, etc. Transfer to
Replacement Fund is based on the need to replace the current FF&E that has
a replacement value of about $1,500,000.
4. Furniture, Fixtures & Equipment:
The basic assumption is that the District will acquire these items for one
dollar, rather than net book value, and be responsible for replacement in
the future.
Page 4 of 4, SRSD Proposed Budget, Assumptions & Rationale, 2/11/02
5. Real Property Leases:
The basic assumption is that SROA will retain ownership of real property, and
the District will pay SROA rent based on triple net lease. Rents are based on
5% of development costs related to each specific area occupied These
rents may be considered to represent an economic opportunity cost to
SROA as well as reserves to fund repair or replacement of major
elements of these facilities.
Notes Submitted By SROA Staff-
Gary
taffGary Fiebick, General Manager
Pete Nielsen, Controller
(12202Revised)
(SRCSDBudgetAssumptions&Rationale 13002)
(SRSD Budget Assumptions&Rationale2702)
(SRSD Budget Assumptions&Rationale21102)
5.
69 V> V> V> V> V>
"
V> V> 69
V>
"
a o v-
o
•-
O N M 0 0 0
0I'- 7 0 0 h
n
01
.'?
a
O
0
O
co O Cl) 0
G
C:)
O
10 0 0)
r
0��'>
n
L
V 000 LQ-
y
0 O 01
p0j
}
O (00N
0)v> (`u 0- E
n
0
d
C
o
C W
(D
V
C L c c
O
_(QO fO
O
1.
C
0
00
E
p `c
4
O T
w
O
O
g y o
CD
w
V (U
U f0
C 3
U Q
T
7 U v L
Q C N� •� a
W O
0 cu
(0
6
Qp
O_ U C O) a
n v
v)
w C U o
p C v a
N
3 v
N
o ID
n
,.�_
O y H m
Obi
0� (1)
c N U >m
;
cu
O
iii v X
a
�X���
O>
a
yo
p
M
�m>wa�
a @
T N C O p
(D V
,p
O C 0 On 0
O.E
r T <a N U
75 E
oai
h
E m
y
w
Q Y N Cc a y
''
i
a 6 O
M
T m
aNi
`
j 3� = a
Q
mILa`Qiiai
it O
Q
N N (n 'a y
Q Z Q a a
Q f\N
00 0 0 0 N
�(vC
N O N
Vj
co
C OS o >` v
y(0
O 00 O O (rD
N
^ 00 ^
00
N
M
� : a
O
O h (O O (O (
ON000Or(0p
n
e- O r
MNh
0
o
M O
co
V M r
OWj
O
((00 V o
LO
dO
> c
}
Cl)
lc�
M !}
(»
r'>
,p
N
O t0O O. E
0)v> ca
v
O r- r- 0 0 0
Oa0o00
M
4>
CO O M
(OOu>
O
^
.O. >, a1O
O
C)M0)oo�;}
^
co 0 c
v
op
M
o
M
Ca o
y 0�
!A a
69 V> V> V> V> V>
"
V> V> 69
V>
"
y
O N M 0 0 0
0I'- 7 0 0 h
n
01
O r
0 001
O
0
O
N
C:)
O
10 0 0)
r
n
n
L
V 000 LQ-
0)
0 O 01
p0j
}
n
C N
}
McN-00Or(p
.-
("1
co
MO(0')
V 'VCO
V
C
41
C
M
(1
M C6
0
00
N
0
y O
O
T
W O
(0
6
�
6r>6003,6R>v>69.
C
O (O ((O O O N
N
N O N
n
rz
�C
V
O
0
V
Or C)O(0O 000
a
V.
<t O �!
p
M
O
M 'V
a @
0C�O�0�C0p
NCV N7
cp
0)
oai
h
NMh
0
N 0>
O
N
M
M v
>. T
Q
O
= 0 (u
Q f\N
C OS o >` v
y(0
� : a
o
M O
dO
> c
V> V> V> v> 69 V>"
V> V> i9
(»
r'>
,p
O t0O O. E
0)v> ca
v
O r- r- 0 0 0
Oa0o00
M
4>
CO O M
(OOu>
O
^
.O. >, a1O
Q
C)M0)oo�;}
^
co 0 c
v
op
M
o
M
Ca o
y 0�
!A a
0 0 (D O ((') (D
co
coHO Op
N
E(0(, T
yam.
10
C4O(6O-(0p
(00
0NO
10
_� - c
U
N 00 r
M
O M (+'1
04
(n N U y
c
a
O
O C U O
C C,
~ a N y H a2i
pO
0) w
0) U x
O
C 0 > .9 c
. O C .� O p
N
Q Y N D N
i
O1m > = n
D a
ra
69 V> V> 60
V> V3 b>
69
`A
_3
H
ai m 'c a`) d
Q z Q a 0. w
orl- r-Ootn co 000co
ornrnOOtn a v0v
o6666t6 of rn6c;
O M(D OO(D t0 (D O10
0�OO(nM a V 0 *
OV ^O�(OD h ('M Ci Vi
N t() n N O U)
} M
ON
h -
E r -
OO
w
69 69 Ifs (A 69 69 69 Ifs V -s 69
a
OONOO'q- t0 (D C. (0
O(M-M O00 t0 (D O t0
O 00m OON 6 t�O�'i
O � N O O N t0 (D 0 t0
O O (D O to (D h r` O N
QON M'
O f0 V M 0) 0 0 (D gM0 (D oto
L N M 00 (f) Cl)
a } M ltl M
t0 �
0 O
a
i
a' 69 69 69 6o wi 69 6q Efs b9 69
1fl 69
69 "
M
(0
T
c
d
February 11, 2002 (Revised & Updated)
RE: Sunriver Service District for Fire & Police
Forecasts of Operating Costs, new Tax Assessment and new SROA Assessment.
I. Estimate of First Year Requirements for District: (Based on 2002/03 Forecast)
FIRE POLICE
Department Budgets:
$1,027,700 Fire Department — District Budget (w/o Hydrant Standby)
$ 756,329 Police Department — District Budget
$ 64,686 Pathway Rangers — District Budget (SROA contract)
$1,027,700 $ 821,015 Sub -Totals Department Operating Budgets
$ 100,000 $ 50,000
Reserve Contributions for FF&E
Services Currently in Other Cost Centers: (N/C)
53,000 50,000
Vehicle Services — Operating Cost Est. (Public Works)
64,488 64,488
Administrative Cost (40% allocation of cc #11) Est.
38,843 38,843
Accounting Cost (40% allocation of cc #91) Est.
Rent Estimates: (N/C)
45,000
Fire Department Rent — Facility (reduced)
10,000
Police Department Rent — Facility (reduced)
$ 301,331 $ 213,331
Sub -Totals of Currently Unallocated Expenses
$1,329,031 $1,034,346
Sub -Totals Department Allocated
$2,363,377
Combined Total Department Direct & Allocated
Plus: District General Expenses:
$ 20,000
Legal
40,000
Insurance (Casualty, Fire, Vehicle, Liability)
10,000
Computer System
28,010
Interest Expense (TAN's, etc.)
5,000
Board Functions
130,322
Operating Contingency
$ 233,332
Total District General Expenses
$2,596,709
Requirements to Fund for 02/03
LESS OPERATING REVENUES:
$100,000
Ambulance Revenue
11,500
Fire/Med Program
64,686
Pathway Ranger Contract Income
176,186)
Sub -total Operating Revenues Transferred
$2,420,523
PROPERTY TAXES To Balance Requirements
$2,631,003
Tax Levy ($2,420,523 /.92) Required (to allow for Tax
Discounts & Delinquent Taxes)
Estimated TAV for 02/03 = $883,866,413 (up 3.5%)
or ($2.97669/k) and $2.98 Rounded
Page 2 of 5, SR District/SROA Budget Changes, 2/11/02
II. ASSESSED VALUES FOR SUNRIVER: 2001-2002
$1,232,108,802 TOTAL "True Cash Value" FOR ALL OF SUNRIVER
Estimate by Property Type: (2001/02 Numbers)
$ 15,508,845 RESORT (1.2587 % X SROA Exp. X.8)
$ 5,128,400 Golf (0.4162 % X CC 22,28 Exp. X.5)
$ 19,193,500 COMMERCIAL (1.5577 % X SROA Exp. X.5)
$1,192,278,057 RESIDENTIAL
True cash value formulas are utilized for calculating the SROA assessments for Resort,
Golf and Commercial properties, by The Consolidated Plan of Sunriver.
NOTES FROM 12/27/01 MEETING WITH MARTY WYNNE Deschutes Coun
$ 853,977,211 Final "Tax Assessed Values" calculation for 2001-02 Tax Year
$ 13,589,660 Resort
$ 5,128,400 Golf
$ 15,347,701 Commercial
$819,911,450 Residential
If it increases 3% annually over the next 6 years then these estimates:
$ 879,596,527
2002
905,984,523
2003
933,163,955
2004
961,158,875
2005
989,993,641
2006
1,019,693,450
2007
If it increases 3.5% annually over the next 6 years then these estimates:
$ 883,866,413
2002
914,801,738
2003
946,819,799
2004
979,958,492
2005
1,014,257,039
2006
1,049,756,035
2007
Page 3 of 5, SR District/SROA Budget Changes, 2/11/02
III. SROA Budget Impacts• (Based on 2002 BudLyet
$ 5,166,461
Operating Expenses (2002 Budget)
320,544
Reserve Contributions
32.599
Unreserved Capital Acquisitions (UCA)
$ 5,519,604
Total SROA Budget (2002)
Expense Adjustments:
Reductions:
($1,675,573) Fire & Police Dept. Budgets 2002
( 150,000) Reserve Contribution Reductions
( 5,000) Legal Expenses
( 24,000) Insurance (Casualty, Property, Vehicle, Liability)
( 85,365) Operating Contingency (4% of assessments)
Additions:
None estimated at this time.
($1,939,938) Sub -Total of Expense Adjustments
$ 3,579,666 Revised SROA Operating Expense Budget (65.8 %)
(after District separated)
IV. SROA Annual Assessment —Recalculations:
$ 3,579,666 Revised SROA Operating Budget
LESS REVENUES:
($1,529,135)
Other Revenue Sources (continuing, non -assessment)
(w/Operating Interest Income adjusted for '03)
( 45,000)
New Revenue — District Facility Rent (fire)
( 10,000)
New Revenue — District Facility Rent (police)
( 309,662)
New Revenue — District Contract Services
( 27,921)
Commercial Assessment: (Exp. X 1.56% X.5)
( 36,093)
Resort Assessment: (Exp. X 1.26% X.8)
( 1,751)
Golf = Road Maint. X 0.42% X.5)
($1,959,552)
Sub -Total of Non -Residential Revenues
$ 1,620,114 Residential Assessment to balance Income & Expenses
$ 392.85 Annual Assessment based on 4,124 residential units.
32.74 Monthly Assessment — Revised Estimate
$ 34.00 Monthly Assessment Recommended for end of 2002.
This estimated revision of the SROA monthly Maintenance Fee is a forecast and
may vary by a dollar per month in either direction when a final budget is set, after a
knowing the District is created by the ballot measure.
Page 4 of 5, SR District/SROA Budget Changes, 2/11/02
V. Assessment Changes by Property Type: (Based on Tax Assessed Values)
A. Commercial Properties: (aggregate)
$ 27,921 Revised SROA Assessment (by formula)
45,736 Public Safety District Tax Assessment ($2.98 per thousand)
$ 73,657 Combined Total of New Assessments
( 42 610) Current Assessment Total
$ 31,047 Increase in Combined Annual Tax & Assessment (72.9%)
B. Resort Properties: (aggregate)
$ 36,083 Revised SROA Assessment (by 2 formulas)
55,780 Public Safety District Tax Assessment ($2.98 per thousand)
$ 91,863 Combined Total of New Assessments
($56,690) Current Assessment Total
$ 35,173 Increase in Combined Annual Tax & Assessment (62.0%)
C. Residential Properties:
(Examples are based on current year Tax Assessed Values and without tax benefit.
1. $200,000 Assessed Value Residential Property (Home or Lot)
$ 408 Revised SROA Assessment ($34/month for balance of 2002)
596 Public Safety District Tax Assessment ($2.98 per thousand)
$ 1,004 Combined Total of New Assessments
($ 863) Current Assessment Total
$ 141 Increase in Combined Annual Tax and Assessment (16.3
Monthly Increase of $ 11.75
2. $300,000 Assessed Value Residential Property (Home or Lot)
$ 408 Revised SROA Assessment ($34/month for balance of 2002)
894 Public Safety District Tax Assessment ($2.98 per thousand)
$1,302 Combined Total of New Assessments
(S-363) Current Assessment Total
$ 439 Increase in Combined Annual Tax and Assessment (50.9%).
Monthly Increase of $ 36.58.
3.$500,000 Assessed Value Residential Property (Home or Lot)
$ 408 Revised SROA Assessment ($34/month for balance of 2002)
1,490 Public Safety District Tax Assessment ($2.98 per thousand)
$1,898 Combined Total of New Assessments
(5—L63) Current Assessment Total
$ 1,035 Increase in Combined Annual Tax and Assessment (119.9%).
Monthly Increase of $ 86.25
The breakeven point is $ 152,685 of tax assessed value for a residential property.
(Current rate $863 less new rate of $408, then divide the result = $455 by 2.98 to find the
value.)
Page 5 of 5, SR District/SROA Budget Changes, 2/11/02
Based on tax roll records (not current market values) for Sunriver as provided by
Deschutes County, the following information is related to residential properties.
4,124 Total Residential Properties
$198,814 Mean Value (Average) of total Tax Assessed Values.
$ 289,107 Mean Value (Average) of total True Cash Values.
$ 152,685 Breakeven Value for higher or lower cost, based on new tax rate
($2.98/k, plus new SROA assessment ($34).
Example with Mean Value Property of $ 198,814
$ 408 Revised SROA Assessment (annualized)
593 Public Safety District Tax Assessment ($2.98 per thousand)
$1,001 Combined Total of New Assessments
863 Current Assessment Total
($ 138) Increase in Combined Annual Tax and Assessment (16.0 %)
Monthly increase of $11.50
(1 /22/02Adj ustments)
(1/30/02 Revised, GAF)
(2/7/02 Revised, GAF)
Public SafetyDist-CostsRev2702
T
O
w
G
O
d
�O
a
U
N
E
V
v
m
N �N
d
7
O
tL N L
CL r
lu
a
O
O a) m
7
O U C a) a n v
3 V j c V O
N x U T j N 3 c
it f' x U C O
C@ C O O y U
E rn
rnCL m EQ
m o E mo
mCLn.<It
O O MOO Or to O O O
0 0 to 0 0 C) M (`V') O m
N ((p an0 O r (gyp r M N m
aD N�
N V" CV cti
V> 613 V! V> W V) " V> V3 `9
0 0 0 0 0 0 O 0 0 0
0 0 0 0 0 0 O O O O
O Lo V O ON r
O VO' CN O M M co O M
M if O ((O N N N
O Q) r- N ON)
N N' N N
613 613 V) to V) V> 69 V) to "
0 0 0 0 0 0 O O O O
0 0 0 0 0 0 O O O O
O N O O O N 7 0 0
O R(, Oto C� )ry AOh
C) MNO r(Vp �N pO)(N N�f
V r. (n
N N N N
V) V) V) V3 V) V) " to V) 69
O O O O O O O O
M O O 0OD N O N N
N O to (p N V M h
N O r Im (O M m
V r tn V— h
N N CV N
V) V> to V) (9 V) V) 49
d w
7 Qa
W .� m aQ)
U N U
c 3 �
�.2 C L c O
Y p j d ti
pa c
a) x V T j N 3 c
CAS x U C N O
C •O O U
m a) U E
c a) a 5 E Q d s
aO7i°°E�'a d a
COn.aQEN K 0
V3 "
N
c - LO N c
M
O
aO J > c
CV
=3 N iB
rnV>m a
c > o
a) a) (L) vs a
aD
E N m
N N a) o 0
O
Q C m N
d o d m H Q
0)
M C U $
N
H
F- O, N o Z
m
M :3 (D T N
V
c
O
o o O
aDv
a Y a� m n
aa))
�_3 N '
N (p
N N co N c
Q I�
QZQI a ix
N �
01
V N
rn
O
Lo
a
CA
m
ti
CA
CO
V3 "
N
m
CV
m
aD
O
0)
V>
�
V
co
O
CV
�
T
co
c
V
m
rn
a
0
CO
CT
o
>
M
N
a
C
co
M U
O
W
N
(D a) O
� U
L m
a)Cc
U a)
ca
o
Vi
di
o (1)
toCD
O j
O () O m
a O T '> c
N m
OCOOL
m (» c`o a E
N y
vi a
E (U a)>, 0
o
Q m N S
N s O N m a
C U $ y
N
m
O
F m N o Z
H
fa
uj U= x
i
C - >a c
m
w
aY(m
D �
N
`
E v, 75
a)
c
3 m o a
vN� O N w c
Q
1(+
a Z Q d a w