Addressing misinformation about Measure 22-202
Rebutting Misleading Information
Welcome to the official website providing accurate and reliable information about Measure 22-2022. We are here to counter the misleading and incorrect information provided by the Citizen's Investigational Support Cooperative (CISC) in Lebanon, Linn County, Oregon.
Join us in our efforts to ensure that the public receives the truth about Measure 22-2022.
MY STORY
I've had much interest in local politics in my life. This interest has led me to attend multiple Lebanon Fire District board meetings, both in person and over Zoom. I often review minutes form the meetings I couldn't attend.
I received a postcard in the mail on Wednesday that suggested I vote "no" for the LFD levy, Measure 22-202. It seemed like whomever sent the card, did not do their due diligence in reporting the facts. This postcard covered topics that were misrepresented and seemed to be ill informed.
I've created this website to provide factual information and to refute CISC's misinformation on Measure 22-202. The CISC is the Citizen's Investigational Support Cooperative, a subsidiary organization of the Linn County Conservative Alliance, located at 2562 S. Santiam Highway in Lebanon. You can email them at Contact@cisclinn.com and share with them what you feel about them trying to trick you after you learn the facts.
To kick this off, I recommend reading "The Strain of Healthcare on EMS in Oregon: A Comprehensive Review of the State of EMS in Oregon" by Western University of Health Sciences and Lebanon Fire District. This paper outlines many of the struggles of EMS and fire departments/districts across the state.
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Where did this information come from? I see a reference number on the first point but no
reference on the entire form. If I am claiming taxes are high, of course, I’m going to say the area is #1 in everything.
A big one? The levy will cost me $17 a month based on my home's assessed value. I live in a 2 story 3 bed 2 bath house that is 2500 square feet. My property is about ¼ acre. Measure 22-202 isn’t taxed against your real market value, it’s assessed value. For my house my assessed value is less than half of its real market value. Find your assessed value here:
​If every tax hike forces hundreds of residents out of their homes, all homes would be empty. Tax increases every year along with assessed values.
One of the main reasons why people are trapped in high-rent apartments is because
property values (real market values) have skyrocketed. Rental owners see the opportunity to increase rent because demand is high. This isn’t because of taxes.
This does not prevent single-family home building in Lebanon. “Any city in Oregon with a
population of 10,000 people or more to allow the construction of duplexes in areas that
formerly allowed single-family detached houses only”, meaning the large apartments are
permitted, they do not prevent single-family homes from being built. In fact, there are
multiple housing projects in development in Lebanon.
Lebanon Fire District received a bond for the maximum of $16.1 million to build a new station November of 2019. The final cost of the new station project was $13.8 million dollars
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Lebanon Fire District’s 2024/2025 proposed budget revenue is $14.7 million.
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Lebanon Fire District’s 2023/2024 budget revenue is $41.3 million, but here’s the reason why:
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Since the station build project was delayed due to inflated costs of building materials, this money had to sit in a bank account, remaining earmarked for use of the building project. If you look at the fire districts annual budgets, you’ll see this money on the budget sheet.
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The accounting rules the Fire District needs to follow require them to report the $13 million they paid for the station as an asset, and the $13 million dollars of bond funds used to purchase the station. This extra $26 million subtracted from the $41 million on the 2023/2024 budget is a net of $15 million dollars, similar to the 2024/2025 revenue numbers. This number is what the district has to work with each year to keep things running. It’s very difficult to explain, but you can see an example of what I’m talking about by reviewing page 5 LFD’s 2023-2024 budget found at the link below and looking at the “Consolidated Debt Fund” bond proceeds and the “Consolidated Debt Fund” beginning balance. They’re the same number. The “The Consolidated Proposed 2024” column is the total off all other columns.
No. Seismic work, updates, and modernization needed to be done, which would have cost an estimated $2.1 million dollars. Other issues that needed fixed, not included in the $2.1 million dollars, would have included replacing old and outdated building equipment, expanding and remodeling again (the old station was expanded on and received significant remodels dozens of times), repairing concrete floors and asphalt, and so on. The district went out for a bond for a new station rather than wasting taxpayer money to make these required repairs.
Station 31 was built in 1975 and included administrative offices. Remodeling the old station to update it to facilitate the needs of our administrators and responders would have been expensive and time consuming.
​Remodeling probably would have initially saved millions. When complete, the old station would have been more than 50 years old. Fire stations are expected to last 50 years, and are often asked to be used until the 60 or 70 year mark. Why spend so much money on a station that would have been replaced in the next decade?
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The old station was build up to 1975 construction code. It was not efficient when talking about heating, electrical, and so on. The new station is efficient and will save taxpayers money over time.
​This is a money issue. Measure 5 and 50 set limits on the amount of taxes that may be levied and puts restrictions on how much they can increase. Property tax rates in Lebanon increase 3% each year. This, unfortunately, does not keep up with inflation or the cost of equipment and building costs. A fire engine that cost $500,000 in 2018 cost almost $1,000,000 today. This is why the district is looking at refurbishing vehicles to save a ton of money.
Fire personnel have never once threatened citizens. No official statements have been released with any threats. All information about increased response time is factual. Time stamps when units respond are recorded by Linn County Dispatch. Increased response times are already happening because of the current staffing.
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A grant that specifically provided recruitment funding paid for the design and the wrap on the recruitment and retention pick-up truck. No District dollars were spent on this.
The trucks do look great. They are well taken care of. Ambulances get replaced and rebuilt every couple years because they get tons of miles from going on calls all the time. Lebanon Fire District tries to get 20-25 years of service out of it’s apparatus. The large trucks have pumps, ladders, and water tanks on them. They are complex machines. Old trucks get sold once maintenance cost exceed their worth. Of the last two fire engines Lebanon got rid of, one had a catastrophic failure and was purchased in 1999. The other had a transmission failure and was loaned to LFD.
The costs of new and used apparatus have skyrocketed over the past five years. How much these fire engine and ambulance builders charge for these vehicles is ridiculous. This is a nationwide issue.
I don’t think you're stupid. That's a good point. The District may have to go for another levy in five years, however, with the Urban Renewal District coming to an end. The plan is to work these new firefighters into the future budget, eliminating the need for another Levy.
Gordon Sletmoe was Fire Chief until December of 2019. The bond was passed in November of 2019. Joe Rodondi is not responsible for any new tax hikes. The levy hasn’t passed yet.
Many people who benefit from its services do not reside in the Lebanon Fire District. Employees, commuters, tourists, customers, etc.
So...first, all firefighters in Lebanon Fire District also work on the ambulance. LFD hires firefighters with EMS certification, such as EMT, Intermediate, or Paramedic. This is incorrect.
I don’t know what they meant by the second line; it makes no sense to me. I guess
they were trying to be sarcastic??
Lebanon Fire District definitely has more medical calls than fires. But again, firefighters are also on those medic units. It seems like they don’t understand how LFD operates. Medical calls may need anywhere from 2 firefighters to 6 firefighters, depending on the severity of the call. More firefighters usually mean critical incidents. Units are dispatched to calls based on caller information.
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Since LFD ran about 7,000 calls last year, 6% of calls is 420 fires....more than 1 a day! So you're saying 55 days out of the year, two fires happen on the same day. It'd sure be nice to have two extra firefighters respond to the second fire!
Lebanon Fire District understands the hardships medical calls place on the availability of fire response. Lebanon Community Hospital or private ambulance services have no interest in taking over the responsibility.
Correct. Ethically, firefighters/paramedics can’t decide not to go to a call because they think its not a true emergency or that it’s another frequent caller. Some frequent callers actually have critical emergencies every time they call 911.
No, this does not waste millions in taxpayer money. It mainly ties up units from responding to other calls. It does burn up fuel and puts additional wear and tear on vehicles.
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Again, units are dispatched based on caller information. If someone calls and says their
husband is dying, or their house is on fire, they’re going to get that response. Once first
arriving units see no emergency, they immediately get canceled and go available.
Well, kinda. Joe Rodondi told the local hospital that LFD will not be transporting to Klamath Falls anymore. LFD has barriers on which hospital firefighters will transport patients to get them available for other emergencies sooner. LFD has no choice in where patients go when they are transported. This is determined by the local hospital finding a receiving hospital available to take on the patient.
Glad we all agree. Unfortunately, it loses a lot of money. Medicaid and Medicare do not fully reimburse LFD for its services. Long transports lose money overall. People don’t pay bills. Millions of dollars of ambulance bills are “written off” annually. This is why no private ambulance wants to take over LFD’s ambulance response area, nor does the local hospital want to take over interfacility transports.
Again, private ambulances are not interested in Lebanon’s ambulance response area. There are private providers who offer certain low acuity transports that do help out quite a bit, however the patients Lebanon transports are well out of the scope of these transportation services.
False, and it would reduce the amount of firefighters on each shift, and increase response times because you have less firefighters.
Most private ambulances are backing out, and Fire is taking over the ambulance response areas because the private ambulances cannot provide appropriate services. This is seen most recently in Salem, where the Fire Department has announced they plan to take over city ambulance services.
Portland fire has ridiculously long response times. There's a case of a patient being transported in a city bus due to the lack of ambulances. Another case talks about a man who died, even after firefighters arrived, because no ambulance was available to transport the patient to the hospital. Portland has private ambulances. Lebanon firefighters also staff ambulances.
Well yea….er….I’m confused about your point. What are you talking about?
Lebanon Fire District has tried to do this, but the calls keep increasing. Two more firefighters each shift will address this problem.
Samaritan Health has no interest in taking over their own transport program.
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