Appointment of municipal court judge deferred due to absence of two council members

By Morgan Rothborne, Ashland.news 

A review of resources to fund the city of Ashland’s water treatment plant project was presented by Public Works Director Scott Fleury during the Ashland City Council business meeting Tuesday. 

The city has numerous funding options for the proposed infrastructure project, estimated to cost between $55 and 75 million, but some combination of loans and grant funding will be required to cover the entire mammoth cost. 

The city could seek a revenue bond, which would rely on water fund revenue from ratepayers, Fleury said. This option would have a 30-year repayment term and a 4.2% interest rate. The bonds would be sold, funds acquired up front, and the city would then pay interest on the full amount even if the project had not yet incurred costs. 

A general obligation bond is also possible, but would require the “full faith and credit” of the city’s property tax basis as a repayment pledge even if it is known the water revenue fund would be the true source of repayment. This would likely involve a larger policy discussion, Fleury said. 

The Safe Water Drinking Fund has previously been successfully used by the city for smaller projects. The loan would come with some principal forgiveness possible because Ashland is designated as a disadvantaged ratepayer community, he said. But with a limit of $60 million, this loan may not finance the entirety of the water treatment plant project. 

Fleury stated he has asked for a $6 million loan and was granted a $3 million loan with $3 million principal forgiveness and potential to access that funding by spring of 2025. 

The federal bi-partisan infrastructure law could award the city just under $10 million in grant funds to mitigate “emerging contaminants.” The city of Ashland is designated by the Oregon Health Authority as vulnerable to toxic algal blooms in its reservoir. If the funding is awarded, it would cover the installation of an ozone treatment step for the new plant. 

The Federal Emergency Management Agency has a new progressive approach to award grant funding to potentially mitigate hazards rather than only react to the effects of disaster. The cities of Medford and Grants Pass received funding from this source for their own water-related infrastructure projects, leading Fleury to “cautious optimism” in the city’s bid for a maximum award of $50 million in grant funding with a required 20% match that cannot be sourced from federal dollars. But this program is new, its timelines are long and its intricacies are still being studied by city staff. 

At the base of this monetary patchwork is the loan from the Environmental Protection Agency to be presented to voters in November. A yes vote approves the city’s use of this funding source for the water treatment project while a no vote upends the resolution passed by Ashland City Council to approve the loan funding, Fleury said. 

The city received approval in 2021 to seek funding through the Environmental Protection Agency’s Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act. The WIFIA loan was attractive for city staff due to favorable terms such as a 35-year term and the ability to use the loan akin to a line of credit, he said. 

Once construction starts, the city would pay its contractors then begin to seek reimbursement from the WIFIA loan. After and not until the “drawdown” of that allotted loan amount begins, the loan is locked into the Federal Reserve’s current interest rate, and then “the clock starts ticking, interest starts accruing,” Fleury said. 

While the city was approved for a $75 million loan for the treatment plant project, it will only draw as needed according to project costs and only accrue interest in relation to its requested reimbursement, he said. 

To seek the funding, the city had to pledge its mechanism for repayment, which it specified as the water revenue enterprise fund in the city’s 2024-05 resolution approving seeking the loan funding. 

The expected impact for ratepayers for the project is unknown because project costs are somewhat opaque before its completion and the city is due to adjust its rates. The last water rate adjustment was in 2019, Fleury said. In the intervening period the city has seen jumps in cost of personnel, inflation in construction costs and an increase in the cost of chemicals used at the treatment plant. 

A cost of service study on the city’s water system is now underway and is expected to be presented to council by the end of the year, Fleury said. 

Judge appointment tabled

In other council business Tuesday, council deferred a consideration for the vacant position of municipal judge due to the absence of Councilors Dylan Bloom and Paula Hyatt. 

Mayor Tonya Graham stated the conversation was too important to be conducted without a full dais, but asked the councilors present to individually share their thoughts on the candidates and “those other intangibles in terms of philosophy of the court and the role municipal court has with the community.” 

Councilor Jeff Dahle said he sat down with all three candidates in the previous week and in those conversations was struck with “how fortunate we are to have” a municipal court in Ashland because it is this court that allows the city to safeguard its own unique ordinances. 

The candidates in question were surprised to learn the city did not require periodic presentations from the municipal judge during council business meetings, said Councilor Bob Kaplan. He proposed that once or twice a year the judge should be asked to report to council on the function and condition of the municipal court. 

Since he had never hired a judge before, Councilor Eric Hansen said he did some research and learned a judge can help Ashlanders with ordinances and local problems, help receive property back that might be stolen and more items will be processed rather than dropped at the circuit court level. 

“I am reminded that a municipal court is really about quality of life for a community. The rules a community has set for itself.  How do we respond when a community member has stepped outside of those lines and has violated those norms?” Graham said.  

There may be candidates with equal qualifications but different ideas about how to respond to a transgression of accepted rules and norms and how that person is then redeemed to the rest of the community. Some innovation in these ideas is happening nationally, Graham said, but with a new judge the city of Ashland could better assess its own process. 

A special meeting will be called to ensure the appointment of a judge within the 60 day time frame allotted by the city’s charter, Graham said. The position has been vacant since the previous elected judge announced her retirement effective Aug. 30, 2024. 

Council also unanimously passed the updated Natural Hazard Mitigation Plan as part of the consent agenda and an ordinance amending a discrepancy in the city’s urban growth boundary to allow for the forward movement of application for a housing development at 375 and 475 East Nevada St. 

Council also unanimously approved a trial period to allow A-frame “sandwich” signs in commercial areas in Ashland at the request of the city’s small businesses community.

Email Ashland.news reporter Morgan Rothborne at [email protected].

Oct. 17: Erroneous reference to “new” funding options removed from headline and lead. The staff presentation was a review of existing options, not on a new option or options.