Advocates awaiting fiscal analysis to determine potential tax
base that would pay for public safety
San Martin – Sheriff’s deputies are OK with San Martin becoming a town, but they hope there’s money in it for them.
“It’s a potential for us to grow,” said Lt. Dale Unger, a Gilroy resident who’s worked in the South County Sheriff’s Department for 21 years. “If San Martin incorporates and we don’t get a contract (for police services), that would be a lot of area taken away from us.”
Unger gave an upbeat presentation Thursday night to cityhood proponents that sounded a bit like a sales pitch. He pointed out the manpower of the sheriff’s department and its existing contracts with Cupertino, Los Altos Hills and Saratoga, which lack police departments. He said it’s much cheaper to hire the county’s top law-enforcement agency for protection than to start a local department.
“We are the second largest patrol division in the county, other than San Jose,” Unger told the 20-person crowd at the San Martin Neighborhood Alliance meeting. “We utilize our resources very effectively.”
South County’s sheriff’s division is staffed by about 30 people, including detectives, S.W.A.T. team members and an underwater dive unit. There’s already a sheriff’s substation on Monterey Road, Unger noted, so building a police station wouldn’t be necessary if San Martin can become a town. Municipalities must provide public safety for its citizens.
Right now, cityhood proponents are awaiting further instructions from the county after handing a petition in January to form a town. The next steps include a fiscal analysis to determine San Martin’s tax base and how its possible incorporation would affect the county’s finances. The final step in the process would be a vote of the community in 2008.
When San Martin Neighborhood Alliance member Rick van’t Rood asked Unger what it would cost to maintain sheriff’s services after incorporation, Unger replied it depends on the what the prospective town wants.
“You’re probably going to get better service (than what we provide now) because we’re going to be handling traffic accidents and traffic reports,” he said.
The California Highway Patrol has that responsibility now.
The sheriff’s department would have to do an analysis to see how many calls it responds to in the proposed incorporation area before a contract could be drawn up, said Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Department Cmdr. John Hirokawa.
“If there’s an average of 20 calls, we’d also want to know when they occur,” Hirokawa said in a phone interview Friday.
Cities that contract with the sheriff’s office sign up for a certain number of service hours after the department sets a baseline minimum.
General patrol officers cost about $127 per hour. Traffic officers and detectives cost less because they require less supervision, Hirokawa said.
Cupertino, which has a population of 52,000, currently pays about $3.5 million per year for its contract with the sheriff’s office.
Unger said losing patrol territory in San Martin wouldn’t necessarily mean losing jobs.
“No matter if they incorporate or not … we have 600 square miles to police,” Unger said.
But starting a police department takes time and money and the San Martin Neighborhood Alliance knows the roughly 7,000-person community might not be able to support the effort.
