De Soto city voters will be asked April 2 to approve a 1-cent sales tax to improve public safety.
The measure, called Proposition Public Safety, requires a simple majority vote for approval.
The increase would raise the overall sales tax in the city from the current 8.85 cents to 9.85 cents per $1, with the city receiving 3 cents – 2 cents for general revenue, 1/2-cent for capital improvements and 1/2-cent for parks and stormwater projects. The parks and stormwater tax was approved last April by more than a 2-1 margin, with 571 votes in favor (67.1 percent) and 280 opposed (32.9 percent).
The ballot language states that the additional revenue would be allocated “solely for the operation of the police and fire departments.”
De Soto City manager Todd Melkus said the impetus for the sales tax hike came from city residents, hundreds of whom attended public meetings on police issues in July and October last year.
“The only reason we’re really going after (the tax hike) is because of the outcry of the public for the public safety of this town,” Melkus said after the City Council agreed in January to place the measure on the April ballot. “That’s what drove this. It didn’t just come out of the blue.”
Police
Police Chief Jeff McCreary, hired last July to help rehabilitate a department plagued with problems detailed in a Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office report, said the first priority for the additional tax revenue is to raise the pay of the 15-officer force and bring down the department’s chronic turnover levels (200 percent over the last three years). Close behind that will be the addition of three officers, which would provide three officers on each shift instead of the current two.
“We’re the lowest-paid full-time police department in the county,” Police Chief Jeff McCreary said last week. “And not by a little. It’s by a lot, thousands of dollars (in salary per officer). (Manpower) is a big issue. Attracting good people and keeping them is difficult.”
McCreary said that with the additional sales tax revenue, he will recommend an increase in an officer’s starting salary from the current $34,800 to $40,000, right at the average for other municipalities in the county with the exception of Arnold, which is higher.
His wish list also includes new equipment, building maintenance, technology upgrades and elevating a part-time school resource officer for the De Soto schools into a full-time position.
“We can improve management techniques,” McCreary said. “We can improve our recordkeeping. We can improve our efficiencies. But to really take this department to the next level, we have to start really investing in our staff, investing in equipment, investing in technology.”
Fire
De Soto Fire Chief James Maupin said the new funding from Prop PS would allow the department to keep on three full-time firefighters, who were hired last December through a Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response (SAFER) grant of nearly $304,000 from the Federal Emergency Management Agency. The grant runs out after three years.
The department now has a full-time staff of eight, counting Maupin and building inspector (and former fire chief) Craig Block, and relies in part on a volunteer force of 20 to 25.
The tax increase “will benefit us to keep those personnel and hopefully add some more, maybe later down the road depending on how the tax base goes in the next four or five years,” Maupin said. “It (also) would help us to improve some of our training ability.”
Mahn leading the charge
Todd Mahn, who owns and operates Mahn Funeral Home in De Soto, is spearheading the citizen’s committee backing Prop PS. He said the campaign has gone well.
“We’ve raised enough money (right at $10,000) to put together a respectable campaign and I’m very proud of what everyone’s doing,” Mahn said.
The committee’s one fundraising event, held Feb. 22 at the De Soto Amvets Hall, brought in “90 to 95 percent” of that $10,000, Mahn said.
“We had a great turnout. We didn’t have that much time to put this operation together and I was just amazed at the turnout; it was sold out,” he said. “It just turned out wonderfully and it raised a lot of money.”
The committee has bought signs, door-hangers and newspaper advertising and has reached out on social media. So far, Mahn said, he hasn’t encountered any organized opposition to Prop PS.
“I’m really happy with that,” he said. “All the support from the community has been very positive.”
Mahn added that the presence of three tax measures on the same ballot (including the De Soto School District and De Soto Library measures) hasn’t raised concerns among voters he’s talked to.
“I have not heard anyone bring that issue up,” he said. “We’ve certainly discussed it because we’ve reviewed everything that’s going on with this particular election. But I think De Soto knows that we (should) put our best foot forward to put the Police Department and Fire Department in the forefront and make (them) two of the best departments in the county.”
Mahn, who said he feels personally invested in the tax measure because of his role in hiring McCreary last summer, said he sees Prop PS as the continuation of progress the police and fire departments already have achieved.
“We’ve completed the new jail,” he said. “I want to see this (result in) extra funds for (the Police Department) so that they can keep good officers, and not have (such) big turnover (and) be competitive with other cities. And the same way with our fire department. We’ve got a great fire department and we want to (keep) it going in the right direction.”