Wiggins

UNION — Despite a crippling low voter turnout, Union Mayor Sue Hawkins is encouraged by the Tuesday, Aug 22, election results for Measure 31-118 that would have merged the Union and the Union Rural fire departments.

Measure 31-118 passed 378-163 but the voter turnout in the mail election was just 33.3%, approximately 272 votes shy of what is needed for a 50% plus one majority. The Oregon Constitution requires double majorities for property-tax elections that take place outside of May or November.

Hawkins was encouraged by the support Measure 31-118 received from voters and said she believes that a similar merger measure may be put before voters again in the next election that doesn’t require a double majority, which would be in May 2024.

“Based on the landslide it looks like the public is interested in it,” she said.

All measures in Oregon that impose taxes need to be approved in elections where a majority of voters participate if they are conducted outside of May or November.

A remote chance of receiving the needed additional ballots to reach the double majority requirement still exists since mailed ballots postmarked on or before Aug. 22 can be counted if they are received by the Union County Clerk’s office by Aug. 29, said Union County Clerk Lisa Feik.

Union has 1,624 registered voters.

Hawkins said that she, speaking for herself and not the city council, supports the proposed merger because it would let the people living inside Union’s city limits determine whether what they pay for fire protection and emergency medical services is increased. Presently, residents pay a $10 per household fee each month, but under Measure 31-118 they would instead be assessed a tax for fire protection and EMS service that could only be increased with voter approval.

“It gives the people more control. Now it takes a vote of only four people to raise what they pay,” said Hawkins, who was referring to the four votes the city council needs to raise fire protection and EMS fees.

The Measure 31-118 election was conducted now because passage of it this month would have quickened the process of getting a merger in place, according to outgoing Union City

Administrator Doug Wiggins.

Wiggins, who will leave to become Toledo’s city administrator on Aug. 28, said the Union City Council wanted to have the merger in place by the start of the 2024-25 fiscal year, which begins July 1, 2024.

Wiggins said the best chance for this occurring was to have an election now.

Wiggins said he was impressed by the overwhelming show of voter support for Measure 31-118. Wiggins said he and the Union committee that wrote the measure did not anticipate the landslide outcome.

“We expected that it would be a lot closer,” he said.

Wiggins believes the measure will have a solid chance of passing if it is placed before voters again during a normal election cycle.

“I think they may get it,” he said. “It will just take longer than some people hoped.”