Parks fee renewal, Asante payout and the cost of the city’s community wildfire plan top council’s agendas for coming week’s meetings
By Damian Mann for Ashland.news
In the coming week, the Ashland City Council will revisit whether to renew a parks fee that makes up 10% of the city’s Parks & Recreation Department budget, consider how to allocate a $4 million payout from Asante, and will receive an update on efforts to implement the city’s wildfire protection plan.
Parks fee public forum and debate
The Ashland City Council will hold a public forum and then debate whether to continue a $5 monthly parks fee beyond its 2027 sunset, during its Monday, Sept. 14, study session.
The city is conducting a public survey on its website to gauge the community’s reaction to continuing the parks fee at surveymonkey.com/r/ParksFee.
“This survey will help inform us if we should keep the parks fee going, or if we should change the structure of the park fee,” said Jordan Rooklyn, deputy city manager.
The City Council, which will discuss the public survey results on Monday, is expected to vote on the parks fee Oct. 6.
The $5.15-a-month fee established in 2025 pays for about 10%, or $750,000, of the Ashland Parks & Recreation operating budget and helped avoid additional cuts to that department.
Rooklyn said the city began discussions about the parks fee earlier to help the Parks Commission better plan for the upcoming budget.
Without the fee increase, city staff estimates that an additional $400,000 to $500,000 in ongoing annual expenses would need to be cut from the Parks Department, or back filled from cuts in other departments as part of the 2027-2029 biennium budget.
The city anticipates a $2 million annual budget gap in the next budget cycle, or $2.75 million a year if the council doesn’t approve continuing the parks fee.
Rooklyn said the parks fee is the only recent fee that is set to sunset. A wildfire reduction fee, which pays the full cost of the Wildfire Division and sets aside money for wildfire projects, was set at $3 a month in 2016 and was increased to $7 a month in 2025. A public safety fee set at $1.50 a month in 2017 was increased to $5 a month in 2025 and pays 3% of the Fire & Rescue operating budget and 4% of the police operating budget.
In addition to fee increases, the city has reduced seven positions and cut other expenses.
“While this has reduced structural deficits, more cuts are needed in the future,” Rooklyn said.
In fiscal year 2024-2025, the city had a structural deficit of $6.6 million.
In the current biennial budget, Ashland’s structural deficit is projected at $3.9 million. A structural deficit occurs when an organization’s expenses outpace revenues, requiring it to dip into reserves.
To address this fiscal imbalance, the City Council will decide where to cut across city departments, including how much to cut in the parks department.
Rooklyn said the city will look at other ways to cut expenses, including using technology to streamline tasks.
“We are looking at program changes where can we adapt programs to still maintain a service at a low cost,” she said.
The Parks Commission will determine the specific cuts needed within the parks department.
Rooklyn, who presented to the Ashland Parks & Recreation Commission Wednesday, described how the city found itself in the current budget predicament.
A change in property tax revenue that capped rate increases at 3% per year in the 1990s, along with relatively flat Ashland population growth over the past 15 years, has affected city revenues.
At the same time, the city has seen cost increases from inflation as well as hikes in the state’s retirement system, health care benefits and insurance.
To offset these financial hits, the city has used other revenue tools such as utility bill fees, franchise fees and the food and beverage tax.
Recent fee increases have become a hot-button issue, spurring backlash among some in the community.
Ashland voters will decide in November whether the city should require voter approval for most utility fee increases, the City Council decided on Aug. 11.
The vote came after months of debate, including a petition drive that was first blocked from the May ballot due to because of paperwork errors.
The proposed amendment would require voter approval before the city could increase fees added to utility bills.
The ballot language permits inflation-based increases without requiring a citywide vote. It also exempts franchise fees and other charges from outside jurisdictions from the voter-approval mandate.
A movement to place the initiative on the ballot dates back to November 2025, when chief petitioner George Kramer requested the council put the measure on the May ballot after collecting hundreds of signatures.
Business meeting Tuesday
Asante $4 million payout
During the city’s Tuesday, Sept. 15, business meeting, councilors will again consider how to use the $4 million payment the city received from Asante following the closure of inpatient services at Asante Ashland Community Hospital in May, under the terms of the city’s 2013 agreement, according to the item report in the business meeting packet.
The city has moved $3.2 million into its reserve fund and $800,000 into its capital fund, under the city’s financial management policies for unbudgeted revenues, according to the staff report in the city’s business meeting packet.
The city can reallocate or appropriate the Asante funds through the 2027-2029 budgeting process, the report notes.
The topic of how to use the money comes on the heels of requests made during council’s Aug. 3 and Aug. 17 study sessions to preserve some or all of the payment for healthcare needs in Ashland.
The Council expressed interest in establishing a dedicated healthcare investment fund that would remain in place for at least two years to allow time to determine the best use of the money, according to the staff report.
The purpose of including the topic on Tuesday’s agenda is to allow the council to direct staff on whether to reserve money for future health care needs and, if so, how much. Once the staff has direction, they will incorporate the funds into the city’s 2027-29 budget.
Police contract
The council will also review a proposed three-year labor agreement with the Ashland Police Association, the city’s police union, through 2029, according to a staff report.
The city’s police union contract expired June 30 after several months of negotiations between city and union representatives, according to the report.
Under the proposed agreement, Ashland police officers would receive a 4.2% wage adjustment from July 1, 2026, followed by 2.5% cost-of-living increases in 2027 and 2028.
The new agreement also includes a one-time payment for lost step progression, increased health reimbursement contributions, a doubled city match for deferred compensation, additional health insurance options, three personal days a year, and a new Christmas Eve holiday, according to the staff report.
The contract would cost the city roughly $138,811 more than budgeted for fiscal year 2027. A staff note in the business item report says that money saved from police department vacancies of about $694,439 from 2026 would offset the difference, allowing the city to remain within its approved budgets.
City staff is asking the council to approve the agreement and authorize the city manager to sign it.
Wildfire plan update
City officials are slated to receive an update on how staff plans to implement the Ashland Community Wildfire Protection Plan, according to the staff report. The city approved and put the wildfire plan into motion in 2025.
The plan serves as a roadmap for reducing wildfire risk, protecting the city’s infrastructure, and helping people and businesses prepare for severe wildfires, the report notes.
The city has noted progress on several fronts, including electric utility hardening, wildfire risk analysis, home assessments, neighborhood mitigation, forest fuels management, public education, and research, according to the report.
Meantime, the city continues to wrestle with how to fund wildfire mitigation work on individual properties, the report notes.
According to the wildfire plan, Ashland has roughly 11,000 structures that require hardening, which typically costs between $3,000 and $10,000 per property, according to the report.
At $3,000 per property with just 50% participation, the community costs could hit $17 million, according to the wildfire protection plan. Broader wildfire plan implementation costs are estimated to peak at $150 million, the report notes.
During a recent city-led meeting attended by representatives from Columbia Bank, Evergreen Federal Bank, and Rogue Credit Union, bank officials discussed funding options that included 0% promotional credit cards, personal loans, home equity lines of credit and homeowners association financing, according to the report. City staff also plans to pursue outside funding, the report notes.
The staff report also noted that they also discussed developing a low-interest disaster-preparedness loan based on financing offered after the 2020 Almeda Fire.
The city is also considering expanding on-bill financing, offering guarantees for lower-income homeowners, forming partnerships with community development financial institutions, and using additional financing mechanisms, the report notes.
City officials are also concerned about the availability of contractors that can do the home hardening and mitigation work, and are considering putting together a vetted contractor list to make it easier for homeowners to find wildfire mitigation providers, according to the report.
The report notes that the city intends to hire an outside facilitator, which could cost up to $35,000, to implement the wildfire protection plan, paid from the city’s wildfire savings fund.
The study session on Monday starts at 5:30 p.m., Tuesday’s business meeting at 6 p.m. Meetings are held in the Ashland City Council chamber at 1175 E. Main St. Proceedings are cablecast live on Channel 9 (or 180), streamed online at rvtv.sou.edu (RVTV Prime), and posted online the day after the meeting.
Special meeting Wednesday
The council is also due to meet virtually from 1 to 5 p.m. Wednesday to review a draft strategic plan covering topics such as mission, vision, and values; goals, outcomes and actions; engagement summary; implementation; and monitoring progress, according to a meeting notice. While the meeting will be conducted virtually, the notice adds, the public is welcome to attend in person in the Siskiyou Room of the Community Development Building at 51 Winburn Way.
Reach freelance writer Damian Mann at [email protected]. Ashland.news Associate Editor Steve Mitchell contributed to this report.
Related stories
City Corner: Council may remove the sunset date on the Ashland parks fee (Sept. 11, 2026)
Ashland City Council to seek public input on parks fee (Aug. 27, 2026)
Ashland City Council and Parks & Recreation Council weigh parks fee amid broader budget concerns (Aug. 17, 2026)
