Friday Letters
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City of Eagle Point Friday Letter – February 5, 2021 ADMINISTRATION – AARON PRUNTY, CITY ADMINISTRATOR City Recorder, Cindy Hughes, CMC The February 23rd City Council meeting will be held at 6:00 p.m. via teleconference as a precaution against the spread of COVID-19. The following items will be presented, discussed, or deliberated: Resolution No. 2021-09. A Resolution authorizing the temporary closure of City Hall and cancelling or postponing nonessential public meetings; and rescinding Resolution No. 2020-15. Resolution No. 2021-10. A Resolution proclaiming Arbor Week as April 5-9, 2021 in the City of Eagle Point, Arbor Day Celebration on April 9, 2021, and authorizing the Mayor to sign the Arbor Day Proclamation. Resolution No. 2021-11. A Resolution authorizing a Job Description and Compensation Wage Scale for a Community Development Director position. Discussion regarding the South Shasta Avenue and Alta Vista Road Intersection. UPCOMING MEETINGS City Council – February 23rd – 6:00 p.m. – Teleconference from City Hall - Public Access by texting CALL ME to receive a call back to join the meeting or dialing (617) 691-8419. Do not dial “1” first unless calling from a landline. City Council – Special Study Session on Goal Setting – March 2nd – 6:00 p.m. – Zoom webinar from City Hall. Link will be available on the website prior to the meeting. Community Development Commission – Next meeting date to be announced – 5:00 p.m. Planning Commission – Next meeting date to be announced – 6:00 p.m. UPCOMING EVENTS Arbor Day Celebration – April 9th at 3:00 p.m. in Lucas Park. 1 FINANCE – MELISSA OWENS, FINANCE DIRECTOR Finance, Budget and Projections The 2020/2021 budget year is well underway. Updated 10-year projections are underway as well. We have closed the 2019/2020 fiscal year. The updated projections will be monitored closely as we proceed through these uncertain times. Staff is working on the budget for 2021/2022. Staff anticipates presenting a balanced budget to the Budget Committee in May 2021. CARES ACT Funds The City of Eagle Point allocated $90,000 of our CARES ACT funds to 3 agencies that will help our citizens, ACCESS, St. Vincent de Paul and Mercy’s Gate Rouge Valley. $60,000 was designated to assist City of Eagle Point utility customers. The other $30,000 is available to help citizens with other utility bills, rent, mortgage payment or other utility bills that have fallen behind due to the COVID-19 pandemic. All three agencies have funds remaining to assist our citizens. Staff continues to work with customers to ensure customers are not falling behind on their utility accounts. On 2/11/2021 we mailed out another 24 disconnect notices for customers who owed 3+ months (not included in previous mailing). We will be hanging approximately 20 door tags soon. At the February 23, 2021 City Council meeting, staff will be requesting that the resolution that temporarily halted utility shut offs be rescinded. Funds have been donated to agencies to assist with financial hardships. Staff will continue to work customers who are suffering due to the pandemic. Municipal Court Municipal Court has had a large increase in the volume of people not paying their fines. The Court has been lenient. However, there were more than 300 citations that have gone unpaid and there was no correspondence with the court. More than 300 letters were sent last week. If they fail to pay, the fines will be turned over to collections. Municipal Courts used to have the option of suspending driver licenses for nonpayment of fines. That is no longer an option. Collection agencies are the only option for collecting past due fines. Court sessions have been on hold due to Governor’s orders and other regulations. We hope to start court sessions again soon. We have been working with people via email and phone to help them with resolution of their citations. Human Resources The Police Department has been recruiting for Police Officers. We had hoped to hire experienced (lateral) Police Officers. We had no success with finding lateral Officers. We had one new officer start on February 1, 2021. We issued a conditional offer to another candidate as well. The background is in process. 2 With the transfer of Sergeant LaFord to the Public Works Department, we will be working to fill the position as well. COVID-19 There has been much discussion related to the requirements and regulations regarding COVID- 19 in previous reports. Staff has been diligent about following all rules and regulations. Jackson County continues to be listed in the extreme category, which is the most restrictive category. We have had two cases reported that are City of Eagle Point employees. They are currently isolating. We were required to identify any employees that they were within 6’ of for a period of 15 minutes or longer. The employees were identified and now in quarantine. If an employee exhibits symptoms, 10 days of isolation is required. If an employee quarantines and does not develop symptoms the quarantine is 14 days. We have been in contact with any outside vendors and either changed or postponed any contact. Here are a few statistics for January 31, 2021 Business Licenses o 477 licenses issued . 191 inside city limits . 286 outside city limits . 0 online payments . 110 registered online users Municipal Court o 24 new citations were issued and cited to appear in Eagle Point Municipal Court. o 22 paid their ticket online o $8,959.60 received from collection agencies o 339 violations sent to collections Utility Billing o 3,446 utility accounts were billed o 44 residents changed addresses (People moved in or out) o There are currently 10 meters that are shut off for nonpayment. These meters have been locked off for more than one month o 19 Lien Searches. Lien searches are conducted by a title company when there is the sale or refinance of a property. Electronic and Online billing and payment options o 673 Customers received their utility bills by email o 535 Customers paid their utility bill by automatic bank draft o 1073 Customers paid their utility account online Building Permits (Single Family Residential – Full Home Permits) o 8 Single Family Residential permits were issued 3 o 47 Single Family Residential permits issued year to date (Budgeted for 50) o 60 Single Family Residential permits issued last fiscal year o 0 paid for their building permit online o 84 registered online users 4 POLICE – DARIN MAY, POLICE CHIEF Eagle Point Police Department Crime Prevention – Scam Alert Our friends at Tekmanagement have alerted us to a new scam making the rounds. Here’s a popular phishing scenario: You receive an email with a link. The link takes you to a phony login page with the name and logo of a legitimate website. Once you submit your username and password, the information is sent straight to the bad guys. Cybercriminals love to use these phony look-alike login pages to steal your credentials and access sensitive information. Now cybercriminals have developed a way to make look-alike pages even more convincing. Scammers use a special tool to automatically display your organization’s name and logo on the phony login page. They can even use this tool to populate your email address in the corresponding login field. This creates a false sense of security because many legitimate websites remember your username if you have logged in previously. While this is an advanced attack, you can still stay safe by practicing the tips below: Never click a link in an email that you were not expecting. Remember that any site, brand, or service can be spoofed. When you’re asked to log in to an account or online service, navigate to the official website and log in. That way, you can ensure you’re logging in to the real site and not a phony look-a-like. Crime Prevention-Vehicle Theft We would like to remind our residents that it is never a good idea to leave vehicles running unattended. Unfortunately, we are not immune to vehicle thefts in our area and thieves actively prey on the sense of small-town safety where residents leave vehicles unsecured and/or running. Recently we have seen an uptick in thefts/attempted thefts of vehicles left running in driveways unattended to warm up in the early morning hours. As a rule, it is best to only have your vehicle running while you are in it. Community Outreach with Fire District #3 For many years we have enjoyed a great working relationship with our friends at Fire District #3. We greatly appreciate our partners- in-public safety, and this year we have big plans to work together to facilitate joint community outreach, distribute information and resources, and team-up for more outreach initiatives and events (as the pandemic allows). We hope this partnership provides a great benefit to our residents as our two agencies work together to meet the needs of our growing community. Below is some information on how to prepare your home for fire season, written by Deputy Fire Marshal Mark Northrop. In 2020 Jackson County residents experienced unprecedented fire loss. Many assumed that wildfire could not reach into urban and suburban communities. The Alameda and Central Point fires have taught us otherwise. Hundreds of homes in Central Point last year were directly in the path of fire carried by high winds, grass and brush. These natural contributors worked together to 5 create “Ember Storms” that spread the fire fast and over great distances. While we cannot control the wind, we can control and manage the fuels that create the embers.