To get an updated shot of Albany City Hall, I stopped the bike in front of it on Thursday afternoon, June 12, 2025.
Every year, Albany will charge people more for “city services” based on inflation, the city council has decided.
The council voted 4-1 on Wednesday to raise the monthly charge for single-family homes from $9 to $14.82 starting Oct. 1 this year, and to raise it again every July thereafter by the percentage of inflation during the previous year.
For apartments, the new fee is $11.86 per unit. For commercial and industrial water customers, the monthly rate is based on the size of their water meters. The maximum new rate is $3,112 a month.
The increase was delayed until October to give the city staff and council time to work out changes in a program that gives a rate break to people below a certain income level.
Councilman Mike Thomson voted against the resolution to raise the fee.
Newly appointed Councilman Chris Van Drimmelen made the motion to pass the resolution. Steph Newton-Azorr, Carolyn McLeod, and Marilyn Smith voted with him to pass it. Councilwoman Ramycia McGhee was absent.
The fee is added to the monthly bills of Albany water customers with meters inside the city limits, along with water and sewer charges and a stormwater fee.
The fee has been unchanged since a previous council imposed it in 2021. The city staff said the increase now is needed to help cover what otherwise would be a $3.4 million “shortfall” in the budget for 2025-27.
The two-year budget totals almost $487 million, with a general fund of more than $122 million.
Adoption of the budget failed Wednesday because of the issue of low-income assistance on the services fee. The council will meet again June 18. It must pass a budget before the end of the month. (hh)
If we had a competent City Manager, we wouldn’t have a $3.4 million “shortfall”.
Well our city manager needs to get in his car and drive around on our terrible streets and look how there has been NO city maintenance done as far as our businesses property overgrown grass/weeds. Our one and only overpass is terrible, dead trees/weeds and trash no pride in maintenance is being done.
Please educate yourselves on who you are voting for. Vote for supportive councilors and mayor. Good results will never happen from the same ol’ same ol’ “we know what’s best for you” dragging us down the same dead end road.
I’ve been paying these fees, and “Storm water “ fees and I don’t even get city services. Don’t have a water meter.
That’s why I’m moving out of state. The taxation in this state and city has gotten crazy
How brazen! Now they’re not even trying to hide their pilfering.
60.72% increase just for this year and then forever into perpetuity.
They must think they’re Mr. Wonderful (Shark Tank).
I do wish to thank Mike Thomson. He told me when he was campaigning on our porch that he was against and would not vote for the “fee” (unapproved taxes) being added to our water bills. Thank you Mike Thomson for keeping your word and being worthy of our trust.
If you recall, just before the last election, the Mayor voted FOR some fee’s so 2 of the councilors could vote NO and fool the people. They have since changed as I pointed out they would back then.
Until their vote is an actual DECIDING VOTE, it’s easy pretend you are in opposition and lose 5-1, 4-1 etc.
From the Linn County Democrat’s website…. “• Linn Benton Lincoln ESD Zone 3: Michael Thomson, unopposed, cruised to victory.”
Mr. Kapaun, there’s a lot of complexity here—retirement liabilities that are now due, high skill requirements for positions, a scarcity of job applicants, collective bargaining agreements, and growth without the infrastructure or resources to support it. Someone asked if rents are going up. Yes, they will, because the majority of our funding is tied to housing and property in some way. That’s where you’ll see the costs.
Councilor Thomson has not wavered from his campaign. I don’t care if he’s a Democrat or Republican; I would prefer if he were Independent. Not looking for party followers, but for solution-oriented individuals, he’s analyzing. Councilor Stephanie Newton is finally starting to understand. She’s asking the right questions about how the system works. She had an epiphany the other night—you could see it in her eyes: “Now I get it.”
This budget doesn’t work without landlords taking from poor people and funneling those resources to the local government, that’s just how the system works. The big issue is that the council is being strong-armed into pushing this through before July 1st, or the city government will shut down. They’re between a rock and a hard place. Again Councilor Newton has questions as she works through understanding this, but now she has to trust that her concerns will be addressed after she votes “yes”. It’s not like they had months to review and understand this; they only had a few hours before voting. As they vote “yes,” they’re discovering what they’re actually agreeing to, along with the unintended consequences and how everything is interconnected.
It’s not about someone being bad or good; it’s about balancing complexity. I do believe part of the issue during these meetings is that only one side is being presented. That’s part of what’s getting us into trouble—there’s not enough vetting happening. Staff is doing a lot of “these are our problems, make our problems go away” without taking into consideration the totality of the community who want their problems to go away also.
Which City Dept. do you work for? I forgot.
How much of that “shortfall” is because of the software fiasco for the Utility Dept? Who was responsible for the purchase?
Just WHERE has the Stormwater Fee been deposited and WHAT has it been spent on.
Lol, I don’t work for the city. I’m a long term investor in Albany, whatever is left after people leave, I have to deal with along with others, some of us can’t just jump around to different municipalities. I’m sure staff is not happy on their side that I’m pointing this out and they may say it’s unfair, when everyone is unhappy that’s usually getting close to the solution. Just trying to work through the complexity.
Mayor Konopa warned that this would happen if we went down a road of growth without infrastructure, it was not going to be good for the community, and people treated her like crap. Now we’re going to find out how expensive this really is. We need a bond for schools, revenue for storm water, roads, interceptors, bridges, need a a lot more FTE staff hours just to tread water. Software was a glitch but that’s nothing compared to the costs coming up.
I calculate the increase at 65%…ain’t no way that is inflation adjusted since 2021. Looks to be nearly 3x the amount if limited to inflation. Albany, and Oregon in general, seem to want to make this place unaffordable to live. Look at the proposed gas tax increase which equates to a ~38% increase over the current $0.40, putting it around the 4th highest in the country
Where do all these increases go? They’ve been finding every opportunity to nickel and dime for water costs, not to mention the issue with the utilities website making it hard to pay, so then you get paid monthly, and then some for being late. I don’t see any improvements made in town– so where is that money going? What are all of these increases going towards? Why am I dumping my wallet out every month for sewage than what my family’s actually using? Ridiculous.
Note the giveaway to commercial interests while workers, as always, bear a greater proportional fee.
Corruption at its worst.
This is nuts!
Is this the SAME Steph Newton-Azorr who voted opposite just before last years election?
Is this the same Ramycia McGhee who squirmed out of this vote?
See all the comments from Hasso’s post from last December-
https://hh-today.com/pothole-is-history-but-the-issue-is-not/
Why Albany unilaterally imposes fees instead of referring a tax to its residents:
1. A fee avoids the legal limitations on property taxes approved by voters (Measure 5 & 50, passed in the 1990’s).
2. A fee is easier, and can be imposed and increased, without voter approval for any use. Imposing a fee is easier than asking voters to approve a debt measure for a specific purpose (see Albany Municipal Code, Section 44). It’s anti-democratic.
3. Imposing fees allows city councilors to constantly increase the city budget. There is no incentive, no motivation, no limits to any expense – anything four votes can buy is deemed essential. Every city service, no matter how stupid or unneeded, is a priority.
Welcome to Budgeting 101 from the progressive text book.
Somebody please explain to me how we can have a 3.4 million shortfall when all this new construction is going around?! What in the heck is going on with the city of Albany? It’s ridiculous do you want people to move away?
Moving away is happening in Oregon.
Dutch Bros recently decided to move its HQ to Arizona.
They were Oregon’s second most valuable company (market cap over $11 Billion).
Why? Oregon’s high taxes, high crime, and oppressive government regulations.
If the city knew how to manage money In the first place there would not be a “shortfall”. Typical government…bleed the public dry to fund bogus projects that never actually get finished or things that are a literal waste of money. What a joke.
These “FEES” should not be voted in by Council members…it should be voted by their constituents (we the people) who put them in office!
Steven Reynolds, I do not understand your statement and blame of landlords taking from the poor… I am a landlord, who by no means is taking from the poor… I am providing a living space for tenants at a fair rate (often way cheaper than all these new construction apartments being plastered all over the city).
As Hasso stated the CITY is putting all these ridiculous fees to each tenant of all these high rise apartments…and homeowners… that will be compounded annually… that’s going to be quite the pile of money the city will gain from, and geez, I wonder how all these fees will be distributed??
They (the Council members) need to attend a few budgeting classes and learn about restricting their pie in the sky spending.
The city of Albany is becoming a community for only the elite!
It’s not blaming landlords, the point is you can’t cover the city budget if you exclude low income residents from the fees and taxes, just because of the mass numbers of low income and how much of the demographic they make up. That was the most uneasy part of the meeting, Councilor Newton continually asked about the low income program and it took a long time for her to have staff admit how things worked. Reality is landlords are the bill collectors for the city in a lot of instances, city doesn’t care how you collect they want their money, just how things work.
All these people protesting in front of the court house need to start focusing on problems a little closer to home. How about wasteful spending by our own city government? Raising taxes by adding fees. No improvements to our crumbling streets and infrastructure. Adding all of this expansion without providing infrastructure to support it. These people would get a LOT more support and understanding if they exerted their energy on local problems.
“Thank you!” to all of you respondents who took the time to post your eloquent comments. And thanks also to Hasso for providing a platform where Albany’s citizens might have some hope that the City Council and the Mayor will read and consider them. After living in Albany for more than a few decades, we wish we could move somewhere else.
When i was on the City Council and PP&L wanted to raise the fees. The city talked about buying the water system. I said the the citizens should vote on buying the system not the council making that decision. Now that I am rusty with the legal system I would have to ask can the citizens circulate a petition to consider the question of increasing the fees get enough signatures to require a vote on those fees. If not the present fees but future fees too. It seems like a very large increase and fees are pretty high already. Maybe cut back some on projects and remember the bonds to build the new water treatment plant and expand wastewater plant will be paid off sometime in future. I don’t off hand remember how much of the fees we are paying right now go toward those bonds.I appreciate Steve Reynolds comments.
Yes, petitions to put the question of fees (I call them taxes) on the ballot can be done. The City Charter, section 2.88 describes the requirements. https://albanyoregon.gov/council/municipal-code
You would follow the state procedures for collecting signatures.
https://www.oregonlegislature.gov/lpro/Publications/2010InitiativeReferendumProcess.pdf
I know that there have been discussions for putting the question of service fees on the ballot. This would happen, most likely, during the May 2026 election assuming that about 6,000 signatures can be obtained.
Article: Why “The “big nonprofit” move to Albany, various factors, including cost-effectiveness, location, community support, and the presence of social needs, make Albany an attractive place for nonprofit organizations to operate and establish their presence. Is this what we want Albany to be known for? Creating livability problems then paying nonprofits to fix them is not reasonable.
Non profits can be extremely profitable to the “executives”. The head of OPB, a PRIVATE NON PROFIT, earns nearly $1/2 million/year.
Steve Bass, President & CEO: $489,845.
Morgan Holm, SVP, Chief Content Officer: $242,330.
Cheryl Ikemiya, VP, Chief Development Officer: $239,472.
Jan Heskiss, CFO, Asst Secretary-treasurer: $231,559.
Duane Smith, VP, Chief Technology Officer: $220,841.
How about do what everyone else has to do when they run short of money, make cuts! Ridiculous. Needs to be a lawsuit brought against these criminals.
Maybe its time for an organized movement to get everyone to refuse to pay their water bill until this is corrected. What are they going to do, turn off everyone’s water? Remember, they work for you. Time for their big heads to be shrunk.