Oregon Public Broadcasting

Bend has hired its fifth city manager since the year 2000.

The job pays about $150,000 a year, but it won't be an easy one -- at least not this year.

Interim city manager Eric King was hired the same day the city council decided to spend about one-half-of-one percent of the city's budget on its bus service.

The problem is that the city doesn't know where the $140,000 in bus funding will come from.

The city council says the funding won't be an issue, if Bend voters approve the creation of a regional transit tax district in November.

At the city council meeting, Mayor Bruce Abernathy said he's been hearing from bus riders.

Bruce Abernathy: “They've been making the case that if you want people to support the levy in the fall, you can't make any cuts right now. I come at it from a different perspective: if we don't ask the transit service to share in some of the cuts that we are asking of our basic services, I actually think there will be more of a backlash.”

The transit money has been a contentious issue ever since the city set up the bus system two years ago without a steady way to pay for it.

Bus funding is just one of the shortfalls for which the new city manager is now responsible.

The city has faced a series of major cutbacks, including 30 layoffs, ever since the housing bubble burst.