For several years now, the City of Ashland has run a budget deficit of approximately $2 million per year. This has been covered with small adjustments and federal COVID stimulus, but these have all been short-term solutions. The City of Ashland cannot afford the high level of services it has historically enjoyed. While there will be cuts implemented immediately for 2022-23, longer term changes are necessary. Seeking public opinion on those longer term budget issues, the Ashland City Council has hired the Southern Oregon University Research Center (SOURCE) to conduct a survey of citizens’ preferences. The survey seeks to answer two broad questions.
- Are Ashland residents willing to pay higher fees to retain (or even expand) the current level of services?
- If the answer to Question #1 is no, what areas of the City budget are citizens most comfortable reducing?
In order to help you fill out the survey, we have included the following information on this webpage:
Frequently asked questions about the survey
Directions for filling out the survey
Specific information on the policies listed in the survey
Links for more specific information on the City of Ashland budget
Information on the City’s major departments
A pie chart overview of the current City of Ashland budget
A bar graph of past City of Ashland spending and revenue
We hope you find this website helpful and will fill out the survey when it arrives. Citizen participation is the backbone of a healthy democracy and at this moment in time, the City of Ashland is in need of your voice.
Frequently Asked Questions
Personnel costs make up more than half of Ashland’s General Fund spending. Why aren’t they included in the survey?
Many of the options listed in the survey boxes involve reductions in specific activities or programs of the City. Reducing or eliminating those programs would lead to corresponding reductions in City personnel in those areas.
Why doesn’t the survey ask about across-the-board cuts in Materials and Services spending?
The survey is designed to provide information to the City Council and City Manager about your priorities for City activities. Questions about broad or across-the-board reductions don’t provide information about residents’ values and priorities.
Why doesn’t the survey ask about City employee compensation and benefits?
As with across-the-board cuts, questions about reductions in employee compensation don’t provide information about the priorities residents attach to various City programs and activities. In addition, employee compensation and benefits are, for many City employees, governed by collective bargaining agreements.
What about other City spending that is not included in the survey?
It is not possible to include every City program or activity in the survey. It is important to keep in mind that, even though the survey only considers a few areas of the City budget, all areas of the budget can be considered by the Council and City Manager in their decision making.
Filling out the survey
The survey contains 14 boxes, each of which represents a different possible solution to the $2 million deficit in the City’s budget. Review each box carefully and note how it would affect city services and fees.
Indicate your preferences for these possible solutions by checking YES or NO in each box. You can vote YES for as many boxes as you feel would be acceptable ways to balance the budget. Vote NO for any you consider unacceptable or are uncertain about. You may add comments in each box or at the end of the survey.
Look elsewhere on this page for links to additional details about the Ashland budget, or look at the tabs under “Specific information on the policies listed in the survey” below on this page for an in-depth description of each policy included in the survey.
Please send completed surveys to:
SOU Research Center
1250 Siskiyou Blvd
Ashland OR 97520-9933
Specific Information on the Policies Listed
This is a survey – NOT a ballot. The results of this survey will be used to inform the City Council and the City Manager. The actual budget decisions will be made by the City Council and City Manager.
Each policy box on the survey asks you to answer YES or NO to indicate whether you would willing to see these changes happen. These boxes include lists of cuts and possible changes in costs to each Ashland household. Note that each cut is repeated twice in the survey, in different combinations with other cuts.
For all boxes that say “My household would pay about $_ more per month”, the increased amount paid by each household would appear as fees on monthly utility bills. These figures are NOT precise statements of what the proposed changes would cost. They are estimates, developed in collaboration between City staff and the SOURCE team, of what the proposed changes could cost each household.
The proposed changes that appear on the survey are listed below in the order they first appear on the survey. Click on them to learn more.
Maintain current city spending levels
- This means that the City services would continue to operate at their current spending levels. Increased fees would balance the budget.
- The distribution of funding across City services would stay approximately the same.
- Quality and timeliness of services provided by the City would stay the same.
Eliminate all city funding to the golf course
- The golf course & recreation programs are all currently operated by the Parks & Recreation department.
- Eliminating city funding for the golf course does not mean getting rid of the golf course, but either golf course service fees would have to rise to be self-sustaining, or the course would have to be privatized.
Minor or major reductions city funding for recreation programs
- This could result in substantially increased recreation fees and/or reduced availability for recreation programs.
- Reduced availability for recreation programs could mean a decrease in the hours of operation due to an inability to staff them at current levels. Larger parks would be given greater priority over neighborhood parks. The full list of recreation programs the city pays for the operation & maintenance of are:
- 18 public parks (including Lithia, Garfield, North Mountain, the Community Skate, the Dog Park, Calle Guanajuato & more)
- Various sports programs across the city’s parks (basketball at Garfield & Briscoe, tennis at Hunter & Lithia, pickleball at Lithia, bike polo at Hunter, volleyball at Lithia & Garfield, bocce ball at Sherwood, horseshoes in Lithia, ping pong at Hunter & Grove)
- Daniel Meyer Memorial Pool, the Hunter Park Community Pool
- Centennial Ice Rink
- North Mountain Park Nature Center
- The Senior Center
- Four community garden plots (Scenic, Clay, Ashland Creek, & Garden Way)
- Cuts in funding to recreation programs could also mean a decrease in availability and/or increased fees for community recreation programs (including art classes, movement classes, discussion groups, language classes, etc.) and events (such as the World Music Festival).
- Minor reductions would mean that these changes would be less extreme than major cuts, but there could be impacts on availability, upkeep, or fees in either case.
- More on programs and services offered by the Parks and Recreation department can be found here.
Add police officers and/or firefighters
- Current police staffing includes 28 police officers
- Current fire staffing includes 30 firefighters
- May decrease response times for Fire and Rescue and Police services
Add other fire positions: fire marshal, fire inspector, CERT/weed abatement/admin assistant
- The City currently employs one fire marshal to ensure compliance with fire standards and educate about fire safety.
- CERT stands for Community Emergency Response Team. Ashland’s CERT responds to and trains volunteers to respond to emergencies such as the Almeda Fire.
- Weed abatement refers to removal of vegetation that poses a risk. This is usually done to prevent risk of fire.
- This change could mean reduced response times for Fire and Rescue services and improvements in ability to prevent or respond to fires in the area.
Outsource or increase associated fees to cover all costs of Planning and Building Review
The City of Ashland Building Division provides full plan review and inspection services for new and remodel construction within the City of Ashland. The possible increased fees would fall on contractors and developers and may deter some projects.
Reduce street maintenance by 15%
This would mean that city streets will receive less maintenance overall and delayed maintenance. Street maintenance includes street cleaning, paving, sign repair, and snow/ice removal.
Regionalize Police, Fire and Ambulance to save on administrative overhead costs
Regionalizing Police & Fire & Ambulance services would involve a cooperative arrangement with nearby police or fire and rescue departments. Ashland would still have a local police department and fire station; savings would come from reduced administrative overhead. This should not directly impact police or fire and rescue response times or level of service.
Reduce Parks and Rec community outreach (including advisory groups and marketing) and administrative expenses to lower costs)
Maintain neighborhood or dog-friendly parks by volunteers or contributions. (Parks Dept. still maintains Lithia, Garfield, N Mtn)
This change would require community participation to maintain smaller parks. Maintenance includes watering, grounds care, trash removal, etc. This may result in lower levels of maintenance if there are not enough volunteers or contributions to keep smaller parks maintained at current levels.
Delay or reduce future Capital Improvement projects (examples include streets, parks improvements, drainage, sidewalks, and right of way)
Capital improvement projects include a broad range of infrastructure construction. Delayed or reduced funding for these projects would mean delay and reductions on infrastructure improvement and maintenance, with lower-priority projects taking longer to complete or being dropped.
Reduce/eliminate citizen committees and commissions
This would create savings on overhead costs, but it would reduce opportunities for citizen involvement in city government. Citizen committees and commissions are intended to allow for greater citizen input.
The current committees & commissions are the Budget Committee, the Water Advisory Ad-Hoc Committee, the Community Center & Pioneer Hall Ad-Hoc Committee, the System Development Charge Review Committee, the Airport Commission, the Parks & Recreation Commission, the Climate Policy Commission, the Conservation & Climate Outreach Commission, the Forest Lands Commission, the Historic Commission, the Housing & Human Services Commission, the Municipal Audit Commission, the Planning Commission, the Public Arts Commission, the Social Equity & Racial Justice Commission, the Transportation Commission, the Tree Commission, & the Wildfire Safety Commission
For more information on Ashland’s committees & commissions, click here.
Delay replacement of City vehicles (except public safety)
This would mean that city vehicles used for various departments would not be replaced on their usual schedule. This may lead to increased maintenance costs in the future for these vehicles.
Major reductions in Parks maintenance budgets (reduce watering, grounds maintenance, trash removal) except Garfield Park, Lithia Park, North Mountain Park
This would result in lower maintenance levels for included parks. Park greenery upkeep would be a lower priority and trash removal would be less frequent.
Transfer state-law misdemeanor cases from the Ashland Municipal Court to Jackson County
In addition to traffic & City Code violations, the Municipal Court currently handles all misdemeanors, while most municipal courts in Oregon do not. This proposal means that misdemeanor trials would be redirected to the circuit court in Medford.The majority of misdemeanors that are prosecuted in the Municipal Court are based in state law, such as Theft III, Criminal Trespass I and II, Failure to Perform the Duties of a Driver, Harassment, Disorderly Conduct II, etc. There are only a few misdemeanors based in the Ashland Municipal Code, such as Persistent Violation, and Discharging Weapons.
A change to the Municipal Court’s duties requires a charter amendment, meaning that a referendum would be required to make this change.
Keep the marijuana tax revenue in the city general fund instead of transferring to the housing trust fund
Revenue from the marijuana tax totals approximately $100,000 per year.
The housing trust fund goes to help low and middle income families afford housing, aiming to have eligible households pay less than 30% of their gross income on housing expenses. Sperling’s estimated the median cost of a home in Ashland to be $528,400 & median rent for an apartment to be $1,279. For more information on the housing trust, click here.
This would mean that there would be less funding available to support low and middle income families afford housing in Ashland, and there would be more funding in the General Fund to be distributed in various departments.
Reduce overall general fund spending by 5%
This option would not specify where budget changes are made and would instead leave those decisions to the City Council and the City Manager. Depending on where the spending cuts are made this could lead to reductions in City services.
Links For Further Background And Details
Major Departments
Click on one of the tabs below for more information on major city departments.
Fire & Rescue
Under the currently adopted budget for 2021-2023, Fire & Rescue has been allocated $20.5 million, or approximately 26% of the General Fund budget. Fire & Rescue is further subdivided into the Fire Administration Division, the Operations Division, the Wildfire Division, and the Fire & Life Safety Division. The Operations Division runs day-to-day fire response, as well as the ambulance service, and is by far the largest division. More information is available here.
Police
Parks & Recreation
The Current Budget
The City of Ashland provides an interactive website with information on city revenue and spending that is available here (also linked above). Additional links to background information, and charts showing past trends in City revenue and spending, are provided elsewhere on this page.
Past Ashland Spending And Revenue Information
Below is a graph of how city spending has been allocated over the last several years:
TBD
Below is another graph showing how sources of city revenue have changed over the past several years:
TBD