Public Works presents $79.7M budget; fleet rate overhaul shifts costs to users and raises concerns among partners

Public Works Director Gary Stockall and fleet staff told the Budget Committee the department’s total proposed budget for 2025–27 is $79,700,000. The department’s presentation covered road maintenance, engineering, transit, facilities and fleet, and included a major discussion of recent fleet-rate changes intended to eliminate a long-standing internal deficit.

The county said it moved fuel costs out of the flat operation-and-maintenance (O&M) rate and separated fuel as a pass-through so departments budget fuel directly; the county also raised the external shop rate used for work billed to outside entities from roughly $153 per hour to about $192 per hour. “We went from like 153 an hour to 192 an hour,” Public Works Director Gary Stockall said when describing the external rate change.

Nut graf: County staff said the fleet changes reflect correcting an historical undercharging that had been masked by earlier surpluses and by pandemic-era mileage patterns; staff argued the changes are necessary to reach a break-even enterprise model while acknowledging the increased cost will have fiscal consequences for external customers and some partner districts.

Key points

- Budget and structure: Public Works presented a multi-fund budget driven heavily by materials and capital for road and bridge projects. The department has about 53.75 FTE; the presentation included proposed elimination of one mechanic position (a retirement) and several reclassifications for staffing alignment.

- Fleet accounting changes: Fleet managers said their historical model combined fuel and O&M in a flat rate and that pandemic-era lower mileage obscured true costs. The department now bills fuel separately and has increased the external shop rate to more closely reflect market and experience data from the FASTER vehicle-tracking system. County staff said internal rates also shifted because a higher share of work is now performed internally rather than externally.

- Impacts on partners: Committee members and Public Works staff noted that the new rates will raise billed costs for partners such as city fire departments and Corvallis and Lebanon fire, and some partners indicated they are exploring private-sector alternatives. County staff said they informed partners last fall that a substantial rate increase was likely and that they are open to continued discussion about service models.

- Transit and facilities: Public Works also discussed Benton Area Transit operations and a possible self-performance analysis; the department is pursuing federal or state grants for electric transit vehicles and has work planned for bridges, pavement preservation and a roundabout project.

Committee reaction and next steps

Commissioners and committee members pressed Public Works and fleet staff for more detail on whether rate increases will drive external customers away and whether fleet staffing levels will need to change. Stockall and staff said they expect to shift more work to internal customers and use replacement scheduling to reduce long-term costs; they said they will return with more analysis so the committee can consider service-level implications before decisions are finalized.