A group of financially-savvy executives from the public, private and nonprofit sectors gathered Wednesday to start looking through Salem’s budget in search of ways to save while city leaders prepare for millions in cuts for the next fiscal year.
The nine-person group, called the budget efficiencies committee, was suggested in December by the Salem Area Chamber of Commerce and the Home Builders Association of Marion & Polk Counties and was authorized by the Salem City Council in January.
The first meeting was largely concerned with administrative business and discussing the group’s goals and approach. Members appointed Brian Moore, CEO of Neighborly Ventures, as chair, and Ernesto Toskovic, the senior vice president at KeyBank in Salem as its vice chair.
Moore pushed the group to identify what success looks like for the committee, which is tasked with identifying efficiencies as the city council decides whether to put a property tax levy on the May 2025 ballot to pay for services including the city library, Center 50+ and parks.
“What I don’t want to be is a kind of a perfunctory rubber stamp for the levy…I just think it could be potentially, if we are not careful, what we become,” Moore said. “I think our goal is to really examine on behalf of the public what are the potential inefficiencies, if any.”
City Manager Keith Stahley, the city’s Chief Financial Officer Josh Eggleston, and Budget Manager Kali Leinenbach discussed the group’s purview. They are participating in committee meetings to provide information and help guide the discussion.
Eggleston said no matter what the committee finds as far as efficiencies or what the outcome is, the city will still have to make actual reductions to city services. Eggleston defined efficiencies as “maintaining the same service level but at a reduced cost.”
The group’s members were selected by Chamber CEO Tom Hoffert, Home Builders Association CEO Mike Erdmann and Stahley.
Hoffert told Salem Reporter he hopes the group will be able to present its analysis and provide some ideas and suggestions for council and the city’s budget committee to consider. He said the Chamber is invested in doing its part to ensure Salem remains a liveable city.
“It is ultimately going to be up to the residents to make a decision on a potential livability levy and we wanted to be a small part of making sure the city was in the best possible light to come forward to the citizens to ask for that request,” Hoffert said.
Hoffert said for the community to succeed, it is important to partner with the city to ensure it is thoughtful with its financial expenditures.
“Because we represent businesses does not mean that we do not care deeply about the livability of this city,” Hoffert said. “Because in the business community you want your community to be thriving.”
Authorizing the new committee is one way the council hopes to signal transparency with the public as it prepares to ask the community for a property tax increase.
If accepted by voters, the levy would help the city avoid painful cuts across city departments by relieving pressure on the city’s general fund, which pays for the majority of city services.
Councilors will decide in February whether to put the tax levy to voters, as well as how much to ask for.
The efficiency group’s findings will be presented to the city council after the group concludes its work on Feb. 7.
Stahley said during the group’s meeting that he is currently working on concepts of the upcoming budget and said balancing the budget by slashing services, while painful, is rather straightforward. He hopes the new committee will be able to spot waste or other ways to save without reducing services. Regardless, Stahley will submit a balanced budget to the budget committee in the spring.
“The reason why the council created this committee at the time that it did is because of the situation that we are in and the desire on the part of the council to bring in the private sector perspective into the city’s budget. And hopefully, in the end, to be able to come out and say we have been here, we have reviewed this process and this product that the city calls a budget and we’ve made some suggestions for efficiencies, enhancements and adjustments, and we are comfortable with where the city is from a financial perspective,” Stahley said. “We think that this gap that is evident in the financial forecast is real and that there are financial practices or such that are legitimate and that are professional and that you all can have some level of confidence that the work we are doing is correct and real.”
The budget efficiencies committee meetings are open to the public and the group is expected to meet three more times in person at the Salem Civic Center in room 325.
Stahley said during the meeting that if more time is needed to complete its work, staff will request more time from city council.
The next committee meeting is on Friday, Jan. 31, from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
The committee will then meet on Tuesday, Feb. 4, from 2 p.m. to 3:30 p.m., and on Friday, Feb. 7, from 9:30 a.m. to 11 a.m.
Contact reporter Joe Siess: [email protected] or 503-335-7790.
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Joe Siess is a reporter for Salem Reporter. Joe joined Salem Reporter in 2024 and primarily covers city and county government but loves surprises. Joe previously reported for the Redmond Spokesman, the Bulletin in Bend, Klamath Falls Herald and News and the Malheur Enterprise. He was born in Independence, MO, where the Oregon Trail officially starts, and grew up in the Kansas City area.
