11/13/1940 Meeting - Laserfiche WebLink

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"'llllIl 383 ~- -' - - ~~.:--....::.=~- - ~ ----------- ~ --=:-....:=~~~-=--::....=.;.....:.....:::.;":-~--~~ ---- --=-~~--~-----~ ~-_.- -~.,..__.----- -~-_._---------~--~--------~_....-.~-- ----- ---- Council Chambers, Eugene, Oregon I November 13, 1940 ~ ~ The adjourned meeting of the taxpayers' meeting was called to ;?i{ order by Mayor Large who presented the work sheets which he had requested the ..." City Recorder to prepare. A recess was taken by the council and citizen members of the budget committee to study the same. An attempt was made to go through the budget, department by department, and "vhen they reached the Fire Department, ttorney Frank Reid made a plea to raise the salaries not only in the Fire Depart- ment but all employees on the regular scale. I Councilman Barette informed Mr. Reid that as far as he was concerned there vas no scale program in effect. Dr. H. H. Peters addressed the council stating that he was in favor of high salaries but taxpayers couldn't stand the burden. He stated that the continued tax foreclosures was a continued increase of comraiss~on. . Ivlr . C. A. Huntington addressed the group stating that he favor ed a full scale program. He had been a member of the corami ttee which put the original program ~nto effect and it should be continued, even at the additional expense of ~7000. Mr. Huntington stated he felt that the future increase of assessed valuation of the city would more than offset the proposed increase in salaries and further that the excess increase in valuation would go a long way in taking care of the urchase of the airport and the construction of th~ swimming pool. Then he appealed ersonally to the members of the council to amend the advertised budget and pay roper wages and pointed out that good wages meant better business because all wages rere put iill@ediately into circulation and business would receive the benefits. He tated in closing that he wanted it a matter of public record to show that he was On favor of the proper scale salaries for 1941. Stanley Stevenson raised the question as to the amount of property hat had been foreclosed because of the inability of people to pay the taxes. ouncilman Carlson replied that in the city's foreclosure there had not been one ~ingle tax foreclosure to take the property but the many improvements in- the past " I nd the people have not been able to pay the excesmive interest on those assessments. rherefore the city was obliged as the people's agent for the bond houses to liquidate nd meet those obligations. , I Attorney Frank Reid asked the recorder to state just what the millage ~ituation would be if the proposed scale program was placed into effect a1m if the [Ull program was put into effect. In comparison to the scale for 1940 the proposed 'ncrease would result in approximately 1/3 of 1 mill and the full scale would be ~pproXina~elY 1/2 of 1 mill~ ~n other words in dollars.and cents it w?uld be ~n the roposed lncrease of about ~4500 and on the full scale lncrease approxlmately $6000 ~n comparison of the budget for 1940. I Attorney Reid pointed out that this small increase in millace VlOuld amount to such a small amount of taxes and he again made a plea that the increase e granted. I ! :Mr. G. H. Good addressed the group pointing out that after all, the ity of Eugene was a growing city and value was on an increase, residence and I roperty maintenance, care and polic ing of the city VlaS increasing and living xpendi tUI'es were goin[, up and the I'eLilUneration should be incr-"eased. There were some ladies present at the meeting pointing out that as home udgeteers they believed a raise was in order because of inc'reased living cost and ~he council owed its employees a moral oblif.;ation to, take care of the same. At ithis time there was a recess and a general discussion among the members. I The meeting was called to order. Councilman Carlson made a motion that the ropo sed salary scale be adopted vvi th the exception of the City Engineer and City ecorder; also the traffic painter who \vould receige special consideration later. 'he increase to be subject to statutory and constitutional limitations. The motion , ointing out that the scale program had been approved years ago and the city had stoo I or the same. The salary requests were not in excess of ref1.sonableness and if you 6xpect to have a happy \vholesome city family you had to keep your word with them I b.nd recommended to the council as the levying board to amend the budget to include ~aises for the city employees in general. I Harold Openshaw addressed the group making a plea for a g~n~ra~ salary ~aise po~nting out that wages were going up in order to keep pace wltn hlgh cost of ~iving and the employees were entitled to high salaries as per the scale program. I Harry Holt asked for the scale program to.be continued stating it was not In excess th t it was not unreasonable to extend thls scale. 1Vlr. Matt Wilhelm addressed the group sta~ing he was. not o:pRosed to. . . rayment of good salaries. He felt that good salarles were belng palQ exceptlng In ....