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Salem, Oregon

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Budget Y
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Meetings Y
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Elected Officials Y
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Administrative Officials Y
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Permits, zoning Y
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Audits Y
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Contracts Y
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Lobbying N
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Public records Y
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Local taxes Y
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Transparency grading process

Salem is the capital city in Oregon. It was founded in 1840 and, as of 2010, has a population of 154,637 people.[1] [2]

Website evaluation

Main article: Evaluation of Oregon city websites

In 2011 Salem earned a Sunny Award for having a perfect website transparency score.

This website was most recently evaluated on Feb. 11, 2013.

The good

  • Elected Officials
    • The Mayor and city council contact information are posted online.[3]
  • Meetings
    • Agendas [4] and some meeting minutes are available for City Council Meetings.
    • Video Archive of Council Meetings & Budget Meetings [5]
  • Budget
    • Current budget is posted. [6]
    • Budgets are archived to 2003. [7]
    • Detailed Information on Capital Improvement Projects [8]
    • Current List of Significant City Projects & Status [9]
  • Audits
    • Annual financial audits are posted. [10]
    • Audits are archived to 2002.
  • Zoning and Permits
    • Building permits[11]and zoning information available.[12]
  • Taxes
    • Provides detailed structure of local taxes.[13]
    • Tax information is available for Parking District [14], Businesses [15], and Transient Tax [16]
    • City Lien Search & Payoff information available. [17]
  • Contracts
    • RFP’s and bids are posted. [18]
  • Public Records and Ethics
    • The City of Salem provides citizens with access to public records.[19]
    • The City of Salem provides citizens access to Ethics Topics [20] and the ability to request an Ethics Opinion [21]
    • Detailed Non-Discrimination [22] and Title VI information Available [23]

The bad

  • Lobbying
    • Information on taxpayer-funded lobbying is not posted.
  • Checkbook register
    • There is no checkbook register available

Budget

The Fiscal Year 2012-2013 proposed budget is $426,619,530, a 3.4 percent increase from the FY 2011-2012 adopted budget of $412,531,720.[24]

Category Expenses
General $107,918,440
Public Works $25,256,530
Airport $1,291,140
Community Renewal $4,045,130
Downtown Parking $2,485,200
Economic Improvement District $236,000
Cultural and Tourism $2,435,060
Public Art $2,310
Leasehold $1,034,540
Building and Safety $3,169,390
General Debt Service $14,165,810
Capital Improvements $96,582,570
Extra Capacity Facilities $21,263,910
Development District $3,285,510
Water and Sewer $80,085,250
Emergency Services $1,516,680
Willamette Valley Community Center $7,445,420
Police Regional Records System $343,830
City Services $20,506,160
Self Insurance $31,291,760
Trust (Special Revenue) $2,258,890
TOTAL $426,619,530

Stimulus

Marion County received $2.8 billion from stimulus spending, according to a ProPublica report.[25] It's difficult to parse out how much of the spending went exclusively to Salem, but the five largest spending projects (by individual grants) are listed below.

Recipient Amount Description
Salem-Keizer School District 24J $23,585,041 "For the support of public elementary, secondary, and postsecondary education and, as applicable, early childhood education programs and services."
Salem-Keizer School District 24J $9,386,552 "Improve teaching and learning for students most at risk of failing to meet State academic achievement standards."
Salem-Keizer School District 24J $8,042,206 "Provide support to eligible schools that demonstrate the greatest need for the funds and the strongest commitment to use the funds to raise substantially the achievement of their students to enable those schools to make adequate yearly progress."
Salem-Keizer School District 24J $7,763,581 "Assist States in providing special education and related services to children with disabilities in accordance with Part B of the IDEA."
Salem Area Mass Transit District $5,164,353 "Salem Area Mass Transit District is making an investment in public transportation through the following projects: purchase of three (3) 35-foot fixed route buses."

Public Employees

Salem has eight city councilors and a mayor.[26][27]


Elected Officials

Salem operates a council-manager government where the Mayor and City Council set the policy and the City Manager is in charge of implementing policy and day to day operations of the city.[28] The current mayor is Anna Peterson.[29]

First Last Position Term Expiration Ward
Chuck Bennett Councilor 2012 1
Laura Tesler Councilor 2014 2
Brad Nanke Councilor 2012 3
Rich Clausen Councilor 2014 4
Diana Dickey Councilor 2012 5
Sheryl Thomas Councilor 2014 6
Sheronne Blasi Councilor 2012 7
Dan Clem Councilor 2014 8

Administrative Officials

The current City Manager is Linda Norris.[30]

Salaries

Main article: Oregon public employee salaries

The table below outlines the top 10 employee salaries in Salem. The highest salary is for Police Captain Brian Gilligan at $151,962 a year.[31]

Employee Job title Total Salary Overtime Detail
Brian Gilligan Police captain 151962 116099 7790 28071
Andrew Dacy Police sergeant 149240 93159 15407 40673
Paul Tucker Police chief 145419 145419 0 0
William Cameron Superintendent 145292 145292 0 0
Rodney Comeau Police captain 139120 119916 3403 15800
Dennis King Police sergeant 137946 95404 18123 24418
Matthew Desmond Police lieutenant 137764 97303 12056 28404
Gary Lebrun Police patrolman 136985 84802 9236 42945
James Walker Police lieutenant 128318 97900 8643 21774
John Gaudet Police patrolman 127265 78974 14358 33933

The city website lists compensation plans for all positions.

Pensions

Main article: Oregon public pensions

The employee benefits for city employees can be found here.

Emergency personnel

The base salary for police officers is between $4062 or $5700 a month.[32]

The compensation plan for fire department employees is here.

Lobbying

Main article: Oregon government sector lobbying

According to Open Secrets, the City of Salem has not paid for lobbying since 2008 when it paid $10,000 to Van Ness Feldman. Salem also spent $60,000 in 2007 and $20,000 in 2006 on lobbying.[33]

Transparency & public records

Taxes

The property tax rate is $5.83 per $1000 of assessed value. Complete revenue information is available in the yearly budget documents.[34]

External links

References

  1. ↑ Founding
  2. ↑ Population
  3. ↑ Mayor and city council information
  4. ↑ Agenda
  5. ↑ Video Archive of Council Meetings & Budget Meetings
  6. ↑ Budget
  7. ↑ Budget Archives
  8. ↑ Capital Improvements Program
  9. ↑ Significant City Projects
  10. ↑ Audits
  11. ↑ Permits
  12. ↑ Zoning Information
  13. ↑ Taxes
  14. ↑ Parking Tax Information
  15. ↑ Business Tax
  16. ↑ Transient Occupancy Tax
  17. ↑ Lien Payoff Information
  18. ↑ RFP and Bids
  19. ↑ Public Records
  20. ↑ List of Ethics Topics
  21. ↑ Request Ethics Opinion
  22. ↑ Non-Discrimination
  23. ↑ Title VI
  24. ↑ Proposed budget, p. FS2
  25. ↑ Marion County Stimulus Spending
  26. ↑ City Council
  27. ↑ Mayor
  28. ↑ City Council
  29. ↑ Mayor
  30. ↑ City Manager
  31. ↑ Salem News, Police dominate top Salem salaries, April 12, 2011
  32. ↑ Police Salaries
  33. ↑ Open Secrets, City of Salem, OR
  34. ↑ 2012-2013 Budget
Retrieved from "http://sunshinereview.org/index.php?title=Salem,_Oregon&oldid=85783"
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