Jefferson County Sheriff Dave Marshak can state the importance of Proposition P, a 35-cent property tax for the Sheriff’s Office that will appear on the April 3 ballot, in a single word.
“Critical,” he said.
If Proposition P is approved by a simple majority, it would generate about $7 million per year to add to the current approximately $18 million budget. The new funding would be used to raise salaries of current officers, improve starting salaries and hire about 40 more deputies.
Only those living in unincorporated areas – the part served by the Sheriff’s Office rather than municipal police departments – would pay the new tax.
The owner of a home valued at $100,000 by the Jefferson County Assessor’s Office would pay $66.50 more per year in real estate taxes; for a $150,000 home, the additional tax would be $99.75 a year.
Residential property taxes are paid at 19 percent of a home’s valuation. Personal property taxes, which would also be charged, are paid on a third of the property’s valuation.
Marshak noted that the unincorporated area makes up 93 percent of the county’s land area and 73 percent of its population.
Members of the Friends of Law Enforcement, which started a petition drive to place the issue on the ballot and have promoted it, have characterized the cost of the tax as being less than a cup of coffee a day.
Darlene Herrell of Imperial, one of the leaders of the group, said her eyes were opened when she attended a CitizensPoliceAcademy held by the Sheriff’s Office.
“Hearing all the stats and the stories, it became very clear that there were things that most people out there aren’t aware of,” she said. “Crimes and calls for service are going up as the county is growing, but our Sheriff’s Office is being diminished. Something had to be done, and some of us have decided that enough is enough. If we want our Sheriff’s Office to take care of us, we have to stand up and take care of our Sheriff’s Office.”
She said the group has about 35 active members.
Deputy treasurer Heather Missey said the group has raised about $64,000 to date to promote the issue.
Marshak makes the case
“The reality is, that Proposition P will have a lot to do with the kind of policing that the people of JeffersonCounty want,” Marshak said. “If you want quality policing, you’ll have to pay more than you’ve been paying.”
The Sheriff’s Office is funded primarily through a 1/2-cent sales tax charged throughout the county, but it also receives about $1.9 million each year from the county’s general fund, as well as additional support such as not having to pay for the purchase and maintenance of its vehicle fleet and building maintenance.
The Jefferson County Council, which voted to place the measure on the ballot, also passed a resolution pledging that the county’s contribution from general revenue will not be cut if Proposition P is approved.
Marshak said he has been making the rounds of subdivision meetings, civic groups and church groups to explain the reasons behind the request.
“The thing of it is,” he said, “is that most people don’t know about budgets, or case clearance or scheduling problems or want to hear a bunch of statistics. All they want to know about is when they call 911, is someone going to come out?
“Well, right now, depending on what you’re calling about, that might not happen. It might take an hour and half or longer for us to get there, or we might not be able to come at all.”
Marshak said he’s been told that perhaps the most revealing statistic is that on any given 12-hour shift, there are typically only 11 deputies and supervisors on duty to protect the 620 square miles of unincorporated area.
“It’s an eye-opener,” he said. “If everything’s perfect, we might have nine cars with (one deputy each) on the road and two supervisors and a couple of other cars roaming.
“But because of some deputies out for military duty, for sick or injury leave, vacations or compensatory time (the office does not regularly pay overtime), it might be only nine with only one supervisor.
“That supervisor is constantly having to prioritize the calls that are coming in,” Marshak said. “Some types of calls, we’re not going to get to you. It’s our reality. It’s a sad reality, but that’s how we have to work.”
He said if Proposition P passes, each shift could be bolstered by five to seven more road deputies.
Office needs better
pay to keep deputies
If not, he said, it will be increasingly difficult to retain veteran officers and attract qualified graduates of police academies because the pay gap between Jefferson County and surrounding counties and cities will grow even wider.
“A lot of our people are waiting to see what’s going to happen with this,” he said.
Currently, he said, his budget includes salaries for 106 deputies, but there are nine vacancies.
“It’s getting more difficult to find qualified candidates who want to enter this profession,” he said, “and we’re losing officers to other professions, as well as to other law enforcement agencies. Not that many candidates are coming out of police academies, and most of them are hired before they even graduate. It’s not sustainable. We don’t have enough people coming into the profession to replace those who are leaving. It’s become a free market for police, and we don’t have the resources to compete in that market.”
Reassigning some higher-rank officers to road duty has helped, Marshak said, but not enough.
“We’re trying to work smarter, but there are only so many resources,” he said.
If Proposition P fails, Marshak said, a toll also will be taken in the detective bureau.
“That’s where some of our experienced, specialized people are,” he said. “When we lose experienced people, it’s not just the time and money that we have spent training those people over the years that walks out the door – victims don’t get the justice they deserve because we have to retrain their replacements, and that takes years.”
He said many low-priority cases are dismissed without being solved because there is no time to investigate them.
That will only worsen, he said, if voters turn thumbs-down on Proposition P.
“If it fails, many of our more experienced officers will leave, and we’ll have to continue to prioritize calls. We won’t be able to hire quality new officers.
“And people don’t want to hear this – they perceive this as a threat but it’s just a reality – is that we have six school resource officers who are (now) paid by the schools but we might have to use them to fill some of those nine vacancies. We have to have someone to answer the 911 calls, to go to disturbances and fights. That’s not something I want to do, but my hand may be forced.”
Poor response time
has ripple effect
Marshak said the delay in getting deputies to a call has other effects.
“Fire and EMS frequently stage in an area waiting for the arrival of a deputy before they respond to an address,” he said. “Because they (fire and EMS personnel) are not equipped to handle disturbances or non-compliant subjects, they will not respond to a situation to treat someone if there is any possibility of confrontation. It is common for them to ask multiple times for our estimated time of arrival for calls. Victims of assault may wait for treatment because law enforcement hasn’t arrived to make sure the scene is secured. Critical first aid treatment is offered faster with quicker response times.”
Marshak said some have said he shouldn’t go public with such grim statistics.
“My position is that people need to know,” he said. “If you don’t know what we’re up against, what’s the motivation to change it? The reality is, we can’t give you great law enforcement for the money we have. If I could, I would, but that’s not how it works. If you want to have quality law enforcement, you have to pay for it.
“We have an unacceptable response time. We have an unacceptable (rate of inactive cases) in the detective bureau. We have an unacceptable level of service and our people know it. But we can’t do it alone. We need your help. This is the way you can help.”
Marshak said over the last few weeks, he’s been able to convince many people who object to paying more taxes to reconsider Proposition P.
“I’ve enjoyed being able to tell our story to people who didn’t understand what we’ve been faced with,” he said. “But one of my biggest fears is that the people who didn’t want to be educated as to what our issues are will at some point call us for service and be waiting desperately because they didn’t understand with this is about.”
Marshak said he did not know of organized opposition to the tax, although he said he has heard comments for and against in his talks with the community.