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City
News
$50 Limit: New changes
to the Oregon Government Ethic Law
(Senate Bill 10) limit the amount of
money anyone, either administratively
for legislatively, may spend on meals
for an elected official to $50 per year.
If you, as a business are serving on an
area Board of Directors, and like having
lunch with the Mayor to discuss issues
important to your business or to the
organization in which you’re a Director,
be aware the Mayor cannot have you spend
more than $50 annually to take him to
lunch. Given the price of a typical
lunch in Bend, that would mean you’re
limited to three to four lunch meetings
annually. Additionally, elected
officials are required to file reports
with the Oregon Government Ethics
Commission quarterly, versus annually,
under previous rules. To receive more
information about the SB 10 go to:
www.ogec.state.or.us.
Budgetary Adjustment Amending the
2007-2009 Biennial Budget:
At last night’s Council meeting, the
city voted to draw down the city General
Fund reserves to $5 million, or below a
two-month operating reserve. In the
beginning of the 2007-2009 budget, the
City had General Fund reserves of $8.5
million and as of November 30, 2007 the
General Fund was down to around $6.5
million. A member of the Bend Planning
Commission expressed concerns that cuts
in the Community Development Department
could pose problems for the commission
in their work on the UGB expansion. The
budget adjustments are designed to make
up for $1.7 million in losses in
planning and engineering. Note:
To learn more about the City Budget,
sign up for the first Community Affairs
Council Town Hall. See Coming Events
below for more details.
Committee for the Future of Transit:
On the recommendation of Interim
City Manager, Eric King, the Council
established a new committee charged with
looking at the current BAT system,
including funding, level of service and
service areas. Their work must be
completed by mid-March and include
recommendations on the future of the BAT
system, addressing any changes to the
BAT service area, level of service and
funding options. Councilmember Chris
Telfer will represent the council on
this new committee, which will include a
number of area business people, like
Bill Smith from the Old Mill District
and Mike Schmidt, President and CEO of
the Bend Chamber. I’ll keep you informed
as the committee work progresses. At the
Work Session, the council discussed how
they might use funds freed up if a new
funding source was developed to support
BAT. The Chamber supported Councilmember
Bill Freedman’s suggestion that city
staff prioritize road and street
maintenance projects and any savings
would then go to fund the top priority
projects. This savings could amount to
around $1.5 million and could help move
forward road improvement projects and
support badly needed funds for street
maintenance. The Council agreed in
concept to this idea, which was also
supported by Eric King.
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Employment
Situation as of November 30,
2007
WorkSource Oregon released the latest
stats for Deschutes County and the Bend
MSA on December 20, 2007. According to
their report, the county unemployment
rate jumped .7 to 5.5 percent in
November, up from 4.8 percent in
October. The county had the 11th
lowest unemployment rate among Oregon’s
36 counties. The largest employment
gains in November were seen in local
government (+220 jobs), which saw
continued hiring in local education
(+170). Overall, from Nov. 2006 to Nov.
2007, the civilian labor force grew from
80,079 in ‘06 to 84,444 in ‘07, a net
gain of 3,460 new jobs. By comparison,
the U.S. unemployment rate for Nov. 2007
was 4.7% and Oregon was 5.5 percent.
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Chamber
Emcee’s City Club Luncheon
Mike Schmidt, Bend Chamber’s President
and CEO will emcee the January 17th
City Club luncheon. The focus for the
first City Club luncheon for 2008 is
entitled: “Central Oregon – Who’s Roads
Are They Anyway?” Bob Bryant, Region 4
ODOT Director and County Commissioner
Dennis Luke, representing the Bend
Metropolitan Planning Organization and
Deschutes County, will serve on the
panel making comments and answering
questions. They will discuss public
process in transportation planning and
the traffic impacts of road decisions.
For more information go to the City Club
Web site:
www.cityclubofcentraloregon.com.
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Chamber Member Helping
Others
It is the middle of winter and this is
the time when most people need help with
food, clothing, and other essentials.
For the past few years, Jake’s Diner and
the Salvation Army have been collecting
coats, blankets, sleeping bags and food
in an attempt to help out in this
situation. Please bring your articles to
Jake’s and place them in the boxes
provided. All proceeds and items
collected will go directly to the people
who need it through the Salvation Army.
Lyle welcomes any businesses that wish
to participate and encourages them to
contact him at 419-6021.
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Correction
In the December 20, 2007
under “Mid-Term Solution, I
incorrectly stated that 18
accidents in 2006 on the north
Bend Parkway represented 5
percent of the 36,000 daily
trips. That percentage should
have read: .001. 36,000 trips
translate into 13,140,000 annual
trips and 18 accidents represent
.001 of all those trips.
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Coming
events
Jan. 9, 2008: Opportunity Knocks
- REINVENTING YOUR BUSINESS
How four different businesses recreated themselves to
better serve market needs
Presenters: Teague Hatfield, Owner, FootZone, Scott
Greenstone, President,
Greenstone Financial Reporting,
Dennis Marshall, Managing
Member, Smith Brothers Pushrods
LLC and Roberta Johnson, Owner,
Sports Vision Bend. Moderated by
Moe Carrick, Principal,
Moementum.
Cost: $30. for OK Members; $40. for non-members
$200. Season Pass (Attendance to all eight OK Best
Practices)
8:00-10:00 a.m.
Central Oregon Association of Realtors, 2112 NE 4th St.
Bend.
For more information contact
Cathy at the OK office at
cathy@opp-knocks.org
or go to OK’s website at
www.opp-knocks.org
Jan. 15, 2008:
Bend Golf & Country Club, 61045 Country
Club Dr.
Sales guru Dennis Hungerford with the
Sandler Sales Institute will be hosting
a special one-time-only presentation
where he will field your goals &
objectives. He'll provide immediate
solutions, ideas and answers about "Why
Salespeople Fail ………and what to do about
it.
Learn how to:
-
Overcome your toughest sales
challenges
-
Differentiate yourself from the
competition
-
Sell on value instead of price
-
Shorten your sales cycle
-
Become a trusted advisor
Dennis’ presentation will also feature
local sales success stories to give you
real world results that you will have
seen or been able to relate to.
Jan. 18, 2008:
Community Affairs Council (CAC) –
Town Hall Luncheons
The first Town Hall Lunch topic has been
selected; entitled “The City Budget
and the Business License Fee.” City
CFO Sonia Andrews will provide us with
an overview of the city budget system,
what has been collected from the new
Business License Fee, and how it’s being
spent. Rockland Dunn, a private citizen
member of the Budget Oversight Committee
will join Sonia in the Q & A discussion
portion of the Town Hall. Want to know
more about the city budget? Are we going
broke due to all the law suites? Did
public safety receive more funding since
the creation of the Business License
Fee? What questions do you have for
Sonia and Rockland? This should be a
great discussion. Please plan to join us
for this first CAC Town Hall for 2008.
The new CAC Town Hall luncheons will be
held at Touchmark at Mount Bachelor
Village in the Forum Theater. The
luncheons will be held on the third
Friday of the month from noon to 1:30
p.m. If you sign up now, for the full
year, you will save $55. To join the CAC
Town Hall lunch series, call Lindi at
the Bend Chamber to reserve your spot:
382-3221.
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