Audio Excerpt 1: “If you get to that point and you start looking at the cost of, you know, we’re still allocating 78,000 again for public works manager. “ “So we’re still doing exactly what we’re anticipating, doing the same thing.” “We’re just going to cover ourselves is what I’m saying.” “So, this should all go to more of a realistic amount and then freeze that general fund where its at. Because $75,000 for your city admin assistant when we’ve only paid 30,000 over 9 months. That should be changed to $40K and then frozen. That should not be 78,000. That 40000 or 45,000” “ that’s whats been paying the sheriff. If you go down there, you’ve got 78,000 for public works manager, but we’ve paid $38100 in 9 months.”
Audio Excerpt 2:
“So, when I look at 14 under payroll and benefits. I know we’re looking at a deficit. I’m not the HR person here, but when I look at what’s being budgeted does your budget include a cola or cost of living for employees?
“I always try to move them at 5%, but those all need to be re-done because the actual amounts are different than what I was going off of, which was the budgeted amounts. So I increased that 5% per the union contract.”
“Oh, so that’s the union contract we currently have stipulates– no matter how poor the City is stipulates you still have to pay it out, huh?”
“That’s correct”
Audio Excerpt 3: Again, the point I was trying to make when I brought these up. It is – that buffer right in there has been what the city has lived on for years. Is budgeting really high numbers for positions that weren’t making half of that money. Umm now should the position really require the individual that deserves $70K or whatever that figure is? Probably. So I read between the lines on that, and I think you mentioned something earlier about a little bit of inferior positioning. But, now they are protected by a union – which makes it very hard – I have no problem leaving those numbers at $75,000 but if we’re gonna say we’re gonna spend $75,000 for that position we should damn well say spend it and we should get a quality individual.”
“Right. Oh, I agree absolutely”
“So that’s my problem. Either we need to do it rationally, where it’s like hey --we’re like locked into this person for $20 bucks an hour or whatever it is and that’s what we pay and that’s what our budget should reflect”
“And I think we need to do that because a lot of our accounting woes are huge. Consultancies and audit things are because we have had… inferior … skills and staffing .”
“Right”
“And then you pay for it , other areas in cleaning it up which costs more in the long run.”
“I’m not gonna disagree. You know my feelings, I am not gonna disagree with that at all, but I do realize we’re under the constraints of a union contract. “
“Not if that position is eliminated.” “I am not against that at all. But then we do need to leave these” [padded numbers] “as our budgeted amounts and reorganize that position and then hire into that position correctly”
“Correct.”
“Which will cost us $70 or $75 (thousand) plus benefits”
“Correct”
“And you’re not going to, and thats even – honestly for a really good financial person that’s gonna come in and knock this stuff out of the woods without taking up all of her time and weekends is gonna cost you seventy-five or eighty thousand and that’s if you can find somebody semi-retired that wants to enjoy their four-day weekends. You’ll be very fortunate to find them but then they’ll come in and clean the shit up in about six months and put you back on track.”
“And I agree I think if we had really good people in certain positions they don’t need to be full-time ”
“So, that was my point here. And I think in reality the City has got to grow up on some of these other areas, because if you’re asking people to pay more out of their monthly budget, which is more than justified,we better clean up our act over here.”
“Mm-hmm”
“And when people come into city hall they need to see that kind of skill demonstrated. “
“Yes, exactly”
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ADDITIONAL CONTEXT FOR THE AUDIO TRANSCRIPT. It appears that in most recent FY25-26 budget (for Shady Cove’s current fiscal year), the employee wages were not padded. In other areas of the audio recording City Administrator Parry discusses the need for her to research the employee contracts to get the actual numbers. While one City Leader seemed to indicate that the City was “too poor” to pay contractually agreed upon yearly raises, the FY23 audit ultimated showed the City still has a large surplus. It is concerning to us that one leader appears to be shifting blame for audit and financial problems to existing City employees, when Council leaders also have oversight duties to protect public funds. The discussion of eliminating positions is concerning, as it is the SCA’s opinion that any reorganization of City Hall must be done transparently, respectfully and in accordance with the City Charter.
