City Council Considers Tax to Fund Additional Officers

Two public committees will explore ways to fund four additional
Morgan Hill police officers and one sergeant.
Morgan Hill – Two public committees will explore ways to fund four additional Morgan Hill police officers and one sergeant.

A report from the city’s Public Safety and Community Services Committee recommended a tax to pay for more officers.

If the council approves a tax to fund the staffing increase, a general tax could be put on the November 2008 ballot.

Funds raised through a general tax would not be restricted to police staffing, but if the council proposes a specific tax, it could only be used for that purpose. A general tax requires a 51 percent majority vote.

The department is funded for 38 sworn officers, one officer per 1,000 residents, the lowest officer-to-population ratio of any department in the area. Gilroy, San Jose, Santa Clara, Milpitas, Campbell, Palo Alto and Mountain View all have higher ratios.

Morgan Hill Police Chief Bruce Cumming prepared a report for the city’s Public Safety and Community Services Committee which recommended increasing the department’s staffing. As a result of his findings, the committee recommended the council consider increasing staff.

During a four-hour City Council workshop, council members heard about the city’s policing needs.

“It is encouraging that the council is looking at the issue of public safety staffing,” said Cmdr. David Swing. “Certainly our goal is that they examine it closely and put together a long-term solution.”

Tewes said the workshop’s objective of clarifying the public safety committee’s recommendation was accomplished.

Councilwoman Marby Lee said she “strongly supports” finding a different method besides a tax to fund the increase to the department. 

“What bothered me about the (staff) report was that the only thing on the table was a tax,” she said. “To me, that is the very last resort.”

Although she denied the suggestion that she wanted to cut recreational services, she said, she believes the city should explore another way to fund those services so that there is more money to fund public safety.

Tewes said 81 cents of every general fund dollar goes to public safety. 

Cumming said the council needs to carefully consider the impact of requesting more information about contracting out dispatch services specifically or police services in general.

“Before you launch into something like this, it is not a light-hearted decision,” he said. “This is not like getting a bid to paint your house.”

Cumming told the council that investigating the possibility of contracting out services would affect department morale.

Cumming said the general public may not understand the complexity of law enforcement, which may be why some in the community are calling for the city to contract for services with the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Department.

The public safety committee will attempt to bring back their next report to the Aug. 22 city council meeting, while the Finance and Administration committee would only say they would try to complete their work on this issue by September, Grzan said.