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HomeMy WebLinkAbout11/13/1940 Meeting "'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 .... ~ 384 lower brackets and those in the lower brackets should be raised. Those receiving ~ &~XJlPlRX $225 were receiving the maximum and probably could get along with less. &~ IV[r . Stanley Stevenson expressed the opinion that all those in the lower I &~ $ bracke ts sho~~,~-t ,.1:>8 ~r:ai~$.e:9. but he also felt that some should be given a cut and further consideration of the individual should be made in order to reach a full and equitable conclusion. Mr. R. S. Shelley addressed the group as a taxpayer pointing out that you get just exactly vvha t you pay for. If . one man presented himself for $3.50 per day and another presented himself for ~p4.00 and you hired the ~3.50 man you would get just ;;';3.50 vvorth of work and if you hired a ~;p4. 00 man you got $4.00 worth I of labor. '1'l1e1'e1'ore he very definitely favored the continuation of the scale proGram and pleaded with the council as a levying boal-d to amend the advertised budget and grant the proposed increase. 1',111' . Matt \'Jilhelm again addressed the council stating he had' made a check of the salaries paid to city employees and salaries paid to private employees and that the salaries paid to city employees were above tIle salaries paid in private employment to vvllich from one s ide of the room came a very definite denial. It vias pointed: out that if salaries were less, he must have investigat~d the chain stures and not individual home owned and operated businesses. Shy ( C. A. ) Huntington again addressed the group continuing his previous , request for consideration of the employees and aSked that the salaries be increased. If the salaries were in any instances above those being paid for like positions in other cities than heas an individual states that salaries in other cities are too low and it was no reason for holding salaries down here. Stanley Stevenson again talked about the loss and withdrawal of property by foreclosure and asked that the City Recorder stete th~ approximate amount that J had been withdrawn and the Recorder reported that about #4000 had been foreclosed for liens and not taxes. Mr. Huntington answered N~. Stevenson in this matter but stated that we should not hold employees of today responsible for actions of the council ten or t-vvelve years a50 for improvements in the city. I - Mr. Matt Wilhelm again addressed the council expressing his objections to any salary raises. George Wilhelm raised a possible mistake in the budget pointing out he had been informed that the City was paying XHR ~l400 and the School Board was paying ) ~1000 of the Playground Director's' salary and asked the Recorder to Clarify the same. The recorder reported that the city budgets the total salary a~d issues a warrant each rnonth for the full amount of '200, but there is included in the estima ed '. ~": I lrevenue account, ~lOOO from the School Board. Therefore, as far as the city is concerned, the directorts salary is budgeted at $200, and he could not state how " the school board kept books in this nmtter. ~ Dr. Peters stated he had made an investig,ation concerning the purchase I of new cars and that the percentaGe of new cars purchased by city employees exceede i tremendously the new cars purchased by other people. I Question was called for on Councilman Carlsonts motion. Councilman , i Carlson asked that his motion be placed on roll call. The ayes and nays were \ I calle d, councilmen voting aye: Carlson and Brownson; nay: Reid, Bond, Farrington, Kop p e , Barette and Stewart. The motion was declared lost. Councilman Barette stated that the salary question was becoming very alarming and something simply had to be done about it. He gave quite a discussion on the basis that there were certain elements within the group that were always 'I after raises. He extended great praise to the councilmen of the old days and their fine management of the city pointing out they had been able to payoff tremendous accumulations on warrant debt and that debt retirement was rapidly paying off - bonded debt. Whatever they felt in this matter certainly was satisfactory witp. him. Councilman Barette further pointed out that any employee of the city who was not satisfied with the salary being paid could leave and there were other people willi_ng to take the job. Mr. Carl Wagner addressed the group stating he was in favor of general I raises in connection with employees being able to quit if unsatisfied with their salaries. He stated it was very un-American to say they could quit if they werentt satisfied because in America we pride ourselves in paying a good American wage which should be sufficient for employees and laborers to become sound established citizens. This id~a of quitting if they wanted to was easy to say but with obligations incurred and. the purchasing of homes v:as s?mething that couldn't. be done. You get just what you pay for and certalnly If an employer.had.promlsed - an employee a raise after a year of good seryice and the ~mployer sald hlS hel~ could work for what he was getting or quit you could readlly assume ~ou wouldn t get the services in return for the salary paid if he didn't get a ralse that he had been promised. Mr. Wagner further stated that the city owed its employees ~ '""llIIIIl 385 _ __~u_~ .~ __ .__ ~+ ~_~... _._ ~~ ~._ . _ .._ - -.- - -~ - - the raise by reason of moral obligation. w~ I At this time Mayor Large stated that the comments and recorr~endations GQ had been heard and calle d the member's of the council to order. ~! c. M. Bryan City Recorder * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * I The council met in special meeting pursuant to the call of ~hyor Large with all councilmen present. Councilman Barette made a motion to adopt the advertised budget. The motion was seconded by Farrington. Councilman Stewart moved to amend the motion to include the Police and Fire Departments and the scale salary be paid. Councilman Carlson stated that if the Fire and Police Departments were to eet raises then the Street Department was certainly entitled to its scale program as well as any other department. Further, the City of Eugene received good benefits on the services being rendered by the employees because they were keeping a happy group of employees. Councilman Stewart attempted to justify his ffinendment by pointing out that the Firemen and Policemen had to furnish their own uniforms and other equipment. Counc ilman Carlson replied tffi t if one department should receive an increase others should receive the same. The motion he had made was ( for the purpose of treating them all alike without exceptions. At this time Mr. J. G. Weinstein, fuanager of the Army and Navy Store addressed the council , stating that is was impossible for the boys to purchase uniforms for less than ' ~50.00 and recommended that salaries in general should be raised. Councilman Stewart's motion was lost because it lacked a second. Councilman Barette made a motion seconded by Councilman Farrington that the budget as advertised be adopted. I / An ordinance levyinG the annual tax levy for the City of Eugene for the fiscal year of 1941 had its first reading and passed to its second and I . third readings by title under suspension of the rule by unaninlous consent of the council and vIas placed for final reading. The ayes and nays were called, councilmen voting aye: Reid, Bond, Carlson, Farrington, Koppe, Barette, Stewart, and Brownson; nay: none; absent: none. The ordinance was declared passed and numbered 8662. The meeting was herewith adjourned. C. M. Bryan City Recorder I I ~ ~